Peace Like A River » Cables, dispatches and memoranda

Cables, dispatches and memoranda

December 1, 2008 (12:52 am) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

Cables, Dispatches and Memoranda A brief world news roundup for 1 December 2008.

United States & the Americas

ABC – ABC News can report that on Monday morning in Chicago, President-elect Obama will officially announce some key members of his national security team, many of whom will be in attendance.
Khaleej Times – Peru said on Saturday it canceled a trip by its defense minister to neighboring Chile after Peru’s army chief was shown making anti-Chilean statements online.
Latin American Herald Tribune – Twenty people were killed in apparent drug-related violence – most of them in Mexico’s two most violent cities, Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana – on the same day authorities announced that the rate of kidnappings and homicides has fallen in recent months. The single bloodiest incident on Friday occurred in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, when a group of armed assailants entered a seafood restaurant and killed eight men, officials told Efe.
LA Times – The government of President Felipe Calderon is extraditing drug suspects and other fugitives to the United States at a record pace, reflecting a quiet but seismic shift in Mexican policy that many analysts say could help dismantle trafficking gangs.
Miami Herald – Georgia says it is cutting diplomatic relations with Nicaragua after the Central American nation recognized the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Washington Post – The Rev. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, a revolutionary Nicaraguan priest, sounded like the old-school, 1980s-style Latin American leftist he is when he began his presidency of the 192-member U.N. General Assembly in September. But as the world’s financial turmoil deepens and the pillars of modern capitalism appear increasingly shaky, his tirades against what he considers the evils of an American-led economic order are gaining a more sympathetic audience here with each passing day.
NY Times – With that repudiation of his boss, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the mild-mannered Mr. Cobos, a 53-year-old former governor of Mendoza Province, became an instant hero to many Argentines who had grown frustrated with the president’s intransigence during a bitter four-month conflict with this nation’s farmers. But inside the Pink House, the presidential palace, Mr. Cobos has been persona non grata since casting his vote. The continuing tensions between him and Mrs. Kirchner and her husband, former President Néstor Kirchner, have become a running political soap opera.
US Navy – USS Kearsarge (LHD 3), along with various embarked units, departed Georgetown, Guyana Nov. 22 to begin transit back to its homeport in Norfolk, Va., concluding four-months at sea in support of the Caribbean phase of Continuing Promise (CP) 2008.
SouthCom – A team of 48 U.S. military personnel and seven helicopters from the Honduras-based Joint Task Force-Bravo deployed to Panama and Costa Rica this week, where they are working alongside local officials to help communities impacted by heavy rains and flooding.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

Russia Today – President Dmitry Medvedev has completed a four-nation tour of Latin America aimed at boosting trade and Russian influence in the region. He ended his trip with the words: “we are back in South America” – a region the U.S. has traditionally considered its ‘back yard’.
RIA Novosti – Alfa-Bank, Russia’s largest privately-owned bank, announced on Sunday it had acquired a controlling stake in a major Urals-based bank experiencing problems amid the credit crunch. The bank Severnaya Kazna, one of the largest in the Urals region, started to experience problems in October when depositors rushed to withdraw their money from the banking institution.
Voice of Russia – King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain arrives in Moscow on Monday for two days of talks with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Channel News Asia – Russia successfully tested Friday a sea-based missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads, the military said, amid continued tension with Washington over missile defence. A Bulava missile fired from the Dmitry Donskoy submarine in the White Sea, along Russia’s northern coast, hit its target on the Kamchatka Peninsula near the Pacific Ocean, navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said in a statement.
Kommersant – Kiev hasn’t abandoned the intention to win from Moscow firm guarantees for the Black Sea Fleet’s withdrawal from Ukraine by May 28, 2017, when the agreement on the fleet’s deployment there finally expires. It looks like Ukraine is determined to proceed to the preparation for the long-awaited date already now, at least the diplomats from Ukrainian foreign ministry have elaborated and handed over to Russia’s counterparts a special memorandum specifying the procedures and stages to withdraw the RF Black Sea Fleet from the sites of its temporarily deployment in Ukraine.
Sergei Gligashvili – What is the point of such an analogy? To show the elementary nature of the conflict in the North Caucasus. There is more than enough evidence for it to be obvious that the Chechen (or, by now, pan-Caucasus) underground is winning against the official authorities. It does not take much effort to perceive that not only is the war which has continued for nearly ten years still ongoing – it has become part of the Great Caucasus War, great both in the volume of forces engaged on the federal side, and simply in length.
RIA Novosti – Another young woman has been found dead in Chechnya bringing the number of recently murdered women to seven, a spokesman for investigators said on Saturday. The incidents have so far been considered as separate cases. But human rights advocates said the murders in this largely Muslim republic could have been committed in retaliation for the women’s immoral behavior.
Kavkaz Center – One of the most infamous and bloodthirsty apostates, Supyan Girmekhanov, deputy head of Shatoysky district police department, was eliminated in Jokhar 23 Dhu al-Qi’dah 1429 (20.11.2008). Kavkaz Center’s source in Wilayah Nokhchicho told that the apostate, among others, was ambushed while attempting to capture Mujahideen in Yandarbiyev (ex-Oktyabrsky) district of Jokhar. Chechen apostates concealed the circumstances around Girmekhanov’s death and spread rumors that he fell victim to the blood revenge.

soccer game at an Iraqi base in a remote region

Lance Cpl. David Fuertes (right, center) and Lance Cpl. Jerry Hasbun (left) of Weapons Company, 2nd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 5, intercept an Iraqi team's scoring drive during a soccer game at an Iraqi base in a remote region of western al-Anbar province, Iraq, Nov. 23. Both teams played their hearts out, and in the end the Marines came out ahead by a score of 4-2 (photo by Capt. Paul Greenberg)

Middle East

Reuters – Iraq’s influential Shi’ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has reservations about a pact allowing U.S. troops to stay for three more years, but politicians must decide its value, a source said on Saturday.
CNN – Japan will pull its Air Self-Defense Force out of Iraq, part of an effort to withdraw its 210 military personnel from the country by the end of 2008, the prime minister said Friday. “The government of Japan will complete the mission by the end of the year, based on the judgment that the objectives of the ASDF mission have now been fulfilled,” the prime minister said in a statement.
Al Sumaria – At least 12 people were killed and seven others wounded when a suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt targeted worshipers in Al Mussayeb District Husayniyah in Babel. In Salah Din, three policemen were killed in a bomb explosion in central Duluiya.
Al Bawaba – Iraqi authorities have discovered several shallow graves north of Baghdad containing the bodies of 33 people believed to have been executed by Al-Qaeda earlier this year, officials said on Saturday. Residents said Al-Qaeda drove everyone out of the village in early 2008 and transformed it into a “courthouse” where they tried and executed people from surrounding areas according to a radical interpretation of Islamic law.
Voices of Iraq – A total of 18 wanted persons on Sunday were arrested in different parts of Mosul city, according to a source from the local operations command.
IRIB – Major General Babakir Zebari Chief of Staff of the Iraqi army met Sunday with Iraq’s Religious Authority, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani. Ayatollah Sistani warmly welcomed the senior army official and prayed for the success of the Iraqi army.
Asharq Al Awsat – Witnesses say Hamas police have prevented Muslim pilgrims from leaving the Gaza Strip for Saudi Arabia. The Islamic militant Hamas group that rules Gaza is miffed that the pilgrims coordinated their journey with the Palestinian Authority. The authority is run by Hamas’ bitter rival, the Fatah movement. The pilgrims had intended to cross into Egypt on Saturday and to travel from there to Saudi Arabia for the holy Muslim pilgrimage.
SANA – President Bashar al-Assad received on Sunday a verbal message from French President Nicolas Sarkozy on bilateral relations between the two countries and the latest developments in the Middle East.
NOW Lebanon – The war of words between Kataeb and Hezbollah continued on Sunday, with the Kataeb party issuing a press release in response to a Hezbollah statement that was issued earlier today. Hezbollah’s statement strongly condemned Kataeb party leader Amin Gemayel’s recent speech, which Hezbollah said revived civil war rhetoric, was divisive and raised tensions within universities. Gemayel’s comments were made last Sunday during a commemoration of the assassination of his son, Pierre, and the 75th anniversary of the Kataeb party.

Iran

IRNA – Head of the Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) Reza Aqazadeh said on Sunday that the international Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA) has declared the issue of Green Salt in Iran’s peaceful nuclear program as resolved. “We have received an official letter from IAEA in which it has declared that the issue of Green Salt is now over,” he said.
IRNA – Tehran-based foreign ambassadors on Sunday paid tribute to the Father of the Islamic Revolution, the late Imam Khomeini while visiting his house in Khomein, Markazi province. Hassan Babaei added the foreign envoys were from Egypt, Argentina, Sudan, Cuba, Belgium, Japan, South Korea, Syria, Lebanon, Senegal, Switzerland, Georgia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Vietnam and the United Nations.
MEMRI – As part of Basij Week in Iran, a Tehran parade yesterday featured the first display of heavy weapons in the Basij’s possession, among them Katyusha missiles, Fajr 3 and Fajr 5 missiles, air defense systems, fighting boats, aerial battle units, and self-propelled guns.
Mehr - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said certain powers can not accept powerful and developed Islamic countries and stressed the need to resist against their greed. In a meeting with his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir on the sidelines of the UN aid conference in Doha on Saturday, Ahmadinejad said that campaign against ‘cruelty requires patience’.
Mehr – Tehran wants to enhance its economic relations with Kuala Lumpur, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said here on Sunday. Iran has invested 940 million dollars in Malaysia’s industrial sector in 2007, ranking the third after Japan and Germany, the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA) has reported.
Fars – Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa confirmed that he will make an official visit to Iran this week, to strengthen ties between the two oil-producing nations and to bolster bilateral trade and cooperation.
Global Voices – Several human rights activists and bloggers warned that Farzad Kamangar, a teacher and trade unionist may be executed in the near future in Iran. Farzad Kamangar, who is from Kurdistan province in Iran, is accused of being affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party.
Azadeh Mirrazi – But this recent news announcement may be the first time that the role of Passdaran is expressly mentioned in relation to “counter intelligence” activities, which is supposed to include only its own personnel and which must report any counter security activities outside the force to the Ministry of Intelligence. The issue becomes even more prominent when the discovery of a nuclear espionage ring is attributed to the Passdaran and its Intelligence Protection wing.

South Asia

AP – Gunbattles and airstrikes by NATO and Afghan troops killed 53 militants in Afghanistan, including a wanted Taliban commander who tried to hide from soldiers under a woman’s burqa, officials said Saturday.
AFPS – Afghan and coalition forces killed 17 armed militants and detained 10 suspects yesterday during operations targeting the Haqqani and Hizb-e-Islami Gulbuddin terrorist networks in Paktia and Kabul provinces, military officials said.
AFP – A suicide attack on a convoy carrying the German military attache killed two civilians in the Afghan capital Sunday, Kabul police said. The military attache escaped unharmed, but two civilians died and three more were wounded, deputy Kabul police chief General Alishah Ahmadzai said.
The Australian – Australian troops in Afghanistan have created a massive intelligence database on almost every male in the host town of Tarin Kowt and every village in their zone of operations.
US News – The largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan was hit by a computer virus earlier this month that affected nearly three quarters of the computers on the base, U.S. News has learned. Officials familiar with the computer attack characterized it as extremely aggressive and said that it originated in China.
AFP – At least six policemen and three militants were killed in gunfights in northwest Pakistan where the military is hunting Al-Qaeda linked Taliban, police said Sunday. Three policemen were killed and five others injured on Sunday when local Taliban fired rockets at a police pickup near the northwestern town of Lakki Marwat, senior police official Mohammad Alim Shinwari told AFP. Separately, three policemen and three Taliban were killed and 12 others injured after insurgents attacked a checkpoint in the northwestern town of Bannu late Sunday, Shinwari said.
UPI – A missile believed fired from a drone U.S. aircraft has killed three people in Pakistan’s tribal areas, an official said Saturday. The missile struck a village in the North Waziristan district.
Dawn – Taliban militants hanged and shot dead an Afghan man in a restive Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, accusing him of spying for the US, an official said on Sunday.
The Hindu – At least 18 people were killed and over 80 injured in ethnic clashes between two groups in this southern Pakistani port city, prompting authorities to arm the security forces with “shoot-to-kill” orders to quell the violence. The violence erupted after members of one group resorted to indiscriminate firing in several parts of Karachi on Saturday night. Sporadic incidents of firing were reported throughout Saturday evening. The rioters also torched 17 vehicles, police said adding cops and paramilitary troops are patrolling the city to prevent further violence.
Geo – President Asif Ali Zardari chaired an important meeting at the President House late Saturday. Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and some federal ministers participated in the meeting. The prevailing situation due to the recent incidents of terrorism in Mumbai came under discussion. President Zardari assured India of Pakistan’s full cooperation in investigating the Mumbai Terror attacks. “But let the evidence come to light and investigation take its course”, he said.
India Today – Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rebuffed Home Minister Shivraj Patil and National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan on Saturday by not inviting them to an emergency meeting on the Mumbai terror attack. During the two-and-a-half-hour meeting, a livid Prime Minister asked for a detailed report on how the terrorists could hoodwink them all to enter Mumbai through the sea route on Wednesday night.
MWC – Shivraj Patil, the Indian home minister, has resigned over the terror attacks in Mumbai. Shortly afterwards, India’s national security adviser, M K Narayanan, also submitted his resignation – which was accepted by the prime minister.
Independent – Mumbai’s 60 hours of terror were the work of a small team of professionally trained “commando killers”, who spent weeks planning their atrocities, according to initial evidence emerging here yesterday. Officials said they believe the terrorists who carried out attacks that left almost 200 people dead, and who held off the security forces for three days, may have numbered as few as 10.
Straits Times – The management of the Taj Hotel in Mumbai was warned it was a possible target, but increased security measures were eased shortly before the devastating militant attack, its owner said on Sunday. Mr Ratan Tata said the extra protection, which kept cars away from the hotel’s front entrance, would not have prevented the assault.
Intellibriefs – This seaborne incursion makes sense in the light of an Intelligence Bureau input received by the Mumbai Police in December 2006. The contents, gleaned from interrogation of militants in Kashmir, were shocking because they alluded to a new form of seaborne terror which has ominous portents for India’s unguarded coastal cities. The input, a copy of which is with India Today, said that the ISI and Pakistan Navy is training terrorists for seaborne infiltration.
Times of India – In what is turning out to be an elaborate chess game in the region, Islamabad on Saturday made its “Afghan move” to counter the US-India pincer, telling Washington that it will have to withdraw some 100,000 Pakistani troops posted on its western borders to fight the al-Qaida-Taliban and move them east to the Indian front if New Delhi makes any aggressive moves.
The News – Indian troops shot dead seven militants, including Pakistanis, in held Kashmir ahead of another round of voting in state elections, police said on Saturday.
Colombo Page – Sri Lankan ground troops supported by air assaults on LTTE targets continued their advances ahead of the northern fronts amid heavy resistance from the Tigers, the military said.

Far East & Pacific

Bangkok Post – “Thailand is tipping out of control,” warned Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University and regular contributor to the Bangkok Post Oped page. “The UDD could go on its own rampage, and then who will stop them? Only Thaksin.” An estimated 4,000 men and women in red rallied at the traditional parade and political grounds on the Chao Phraya River banks in support of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat and a government that has been chased out of Bangkok to Chiang Mai. The PAD, clad in yellow, have vowed to keep Thailand cut off from the world until Mr Somchai, the brother-in-law of the hated ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, steps down.
Press Association – At least 51 anti-government protesters were wounded in several explosions, raising fears of widening confrontations in a stand-off that has strangled Thailand’s economy and shut down its airports. The first blast went off inside prime minister Somchai Wongsawat’s office compound, which protesters seized in August and have held ever since.
Manila Times – A high official of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) here on Sunday urged the United States government to fulfill its unfinished obligations towards the Moro people when despite the vehement protest of the latter they were forced to join the Filipinos as citizens of the Philippines in 1946. This must be rectified, he said, referring to the Moros’ refusal to become part of the Philippines. “This historical error must be corrected immediately or the fighting in Mindanao escalates,” said Ameen.
Irrawaddy – Fifteen detainees, including two journalists, were given harsh prison sentences on Friday, according to sources in Rangoon. At a special court in Rangoon’s notorious Insein Prison, thirteen members of the 88 Generation Students group, including six women, were each sentenced to six years in prison on Friday, according to sources. They were all sentenced under charges of threatening creating instability under Section 505 (b) of the Burmese penal code. Some of them had previously received prison terms ranging from three to five years.

Europe

Guardian – An army corporal who was the personal interpreter to Britain’s top general in Afghanistan was jailed for 10 years Friday for spying for Iran. Daniel James, who had access to the highest echelons of the Nato mission in Kabul, was caught red-handed betraying his country in a series of coded emails.
Barents Observer – The Muslim community in Tromsø. Norway, wants to build the world’s northernmost mosque. With the help of funding from Saudi Arabia, the mosque is planned as a local landmark building.
RFERL – Romanians voted in parliamentary elections on November 30 that will decide both their country’s response to the global financial crisis and the fate of government efforts to fight corruption, stalled since it joined the European Union last year.
France24 – Political observers expected a low turnout, with the 18 million eligible voters growing disillusioned about politics. Moreover, the election also comes on the eve of a national holiday and in the middle of a long weekend. Romania’s sixth general election since the collapse of communism in December 1989 comes at a time of economic crisis, with labour disputes looming and the prospect of recession. Opinion polls ahead of the vote gave the two leading parties between 32 and 35 percent support, with the Liberals at 20 percent and the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), which has been in every government since 1996, the necessary five percent to return to parliament.
Nosemonkey – Journalists seem to be contacting me almost daily at the moment. Below the fold are my full answers to the following questions from the UK Correspondent of Brazil’s biggest newspaper O Global about the EU’s response to the current financial woes. All largely off the top of my head.
IslamOnline – A senior Vatican cardinal has thanked Muslims for bringing religion back into the public life in Europe, stressing the need for dialogue between followers of different faiths.
ISN – As the ICJ moves forward with Croatia’s genocide case against Serbia, observers fear that the long and involved process will harm over a decade of reconciliation efforts, Anes Alic writes for ISN Security Watch

Africa

AP – Somali pirates hijacked a chemical tanker with dozens of Indian crew members Friday and a helicopter rescued three British security guards who had jumped into the sea, officials said.
Al Jazeera – Somali pirates have reportedly made plans to release a Ukrainian cargo ship within days, after reaching a ransom agreements. The MV Faina, a Belize-flagged vessel, was seized on September 24. Reports remain unclear as to how much Ukrainian officials will pay for its release.
AP - Ethiopia announced Friday that is pulling its forces from Somalia by year’s end, leaving the ravaged capital vulnerable to the Islamic militants who have seized nearly all of the country. The decision ends the unpopular two-year presence of the key U.S. ally much as it began — with the militants in near-total control of a failed state with a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Garowe – The spokesman for Somalia’ s Islamic Courts Union (ICU) has rejected a power-sharing deal signed between the country’ s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the opposition faction, Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia.
UN – The past week has seen some of the heaviest fighting in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, in recent months, with at least 55 civilians estimated to have been killed and more than 80 others wounded, according to local hospital records cited by United Nations humanitarian officials.
Press TV – Burundi’s defense minister says his country will not pull troops from an AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia before consulting with Uganda.
Al Jazeera – General Laurent Nkunda, the Congolese rebel leader, has threatened war on the Congolese government unless direct talks are held. “If there is no negotiation, let us say then there is war,” Nkunda told reporters after meeting Olusegun Obasanjo, the UN special envoy, in the rebel commander’s native village, Jomba on Saturday.
Sky News – Hundreds of people have been killed in two days of clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs in Nigeria. Residents in the central city of Jos have taken nearly 400 bodies to the main mosque, and clerics say more corpses are continuing to arrive. Police have imposed a round-the-clock curfew after homes, mosques and churches were torched as political and religious opponents clashed following a local election.
IRIN – Uniformed Zimbabwean soldiers raided one of the capital’s money-changing haunts after becoming frustrated with queuing to withdraw cash at a Harare bank, according to an IRIN correspondent who witnessed the event.
VOA – Zimbabwe’s health minister says a cholera outbreak has killed at least 425 people in his country since August. David Parirenyatwa told Zimbabwe’s state-run Sunday Mail newspaper the outbreak is likely to worsen as the rainy season begins.
Guardian – As the rain begins to fall on Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park, thousands of zebra, wildebeest and giraffe will begin one of the world’s greatest migrations. But many of the herds trampling across the grass at the foot of the Rift Valley highlands are falling in number – and scientists do not know why.

Victory Base Complex with contingent of military forces from Bosnia-Herzegovina

Leadership salutes each nation’s flag during a ceremony Nov. 29 on Victory Base Complex where a contingent of military forces from Bosnia-Herzegovina was honored by their coalition partners for their service in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (photo from Multi-National Division Baghdad)

The Global War

Stars and Stripes – Afghan and NATO soldiers trained at the Joint Multinational Training Command this month as part of efforts to boost the size of the Afghan National Army by almost 70 percent. Eighty Afghan soldiers spent 2½ weeks at Hohenfels training alongside troops from the United States, Germany, France, Hungary, Canada, Slovenia, Slovakia, Australia and Italy, according to Maj. Sean Coulter, Operations chief for JMTC’s Grizzly Observer Controller Team.
Melanie Phillips – They are floundering because they still just don’t get it. The atrocities demonstrated with crystal clarity what the Islamist war is all about – and the western commentariat didn’t understand because it simply refuses to acknowledge, even now, what that war actually is. It does not arise from particular grievances. It is not rooted in ‘despair’ over Palestine. It is not a reaction to the war in Iraq. It is a war waged in the name of Islam against America, Britain, Hindus, Jews and all who refuse to submit to Islamic conquest.
Information Dissemination – Every once in awhile I come across some very interesting analysis on the Russian website shipbuilding.ru, and this weeks article by Gennady Nechaev is no exception. The article basically states that Russia and India have reached the moment of decision with the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, and the last chance for Russia to sell the aircraft carrier to India is approaching in the form of President Medvedev’s visit to India scheduled in a few weeks.
MEMRI – On November 28, the Al-Qaeda media company Al-Sahab posted a video interview it conducted recently with Al-Qaeda deputy leader Al-Zawahiri, in which Al-Zawhahiri called on the Egyptian people, officials, students and ‘ulama to pressure their government to lift the siege on Gaza by declaring a general strike.
Matt McKinney, Star Tribune – Part I of a series called “Our Hungry Planet”; In this article, Palm oil has become the new vegetable oil. Papua New Guinea is trying to cash in on it, lured by Cargill.

Sights & Sounds

CSM – Reporter Mark Sappenfield discusses why cooperation between India and Pakistan could help discourage future terrorist attacks.