Peace Like A River » Cables, dispatches and memoranda

Cables, dispatches and memoranda

April 17, 2008 (12:33 am) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

Cables, Dispatches and Memoranda
A brief world news roundup for 17 April 2008.

United States & the Americas

CNN – Earlier Wednesday, President Bush, first lady Laura Bush and more than 13,500 spectators welcomed Pope Benedict in an elaborate ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House. Event planners faced an enormous demand for tickets for what White House press secretary Dana Perino called “one of the largest arrival ceremonies ever held at the White House.”
McClatchy – After 12 difficult days of deliberations, a federal jury on Wednesday deadlocked on whether a Miami group plotted with al Qaida to overthrow the United States. U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard declared a mistrial in the case, a major setback in the government’s legal assault on what it claims was a domestic terrorism ring.
CSM – Suggesting a dramatic shift in Washington’s counterterrorism strategy, the State Department and the Pentagon want to beef up training of foreign militaries and paramilitary troops. The proposal comes as US military trainers are preparing to train Pakistan’s paramilitary forces this summer. In a proposal to Congress this week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice requested $750 million to train troops around the world who are engaged in counterterrorism operations.
FrontPageMag – A little over three years ago, a report appeared in the Associated Press (AP) linking the mosque founded by former NBA star and recent inductee into the basketball Hall of Fame, Hakeem Olajuwon, with the financing of Islamic terrorist charities. At the time, Olajuwon said he didn’t know. Now, he will need to find a new excuse, as he continues to associate himself with terror-related entities and individuals.
Radio Australia – The peak body for managing fishing in United States waters in the Western Pacific has voted to restrict fishing with giant nets in federal waters off Guam, the Northern Marianas and American Samoa.
Globe and Mail – A B.C. father suspected in the triple slaying of his children has been arrested after he was found by a local hunter in Merritt, in the B.C. Interior. Asked about the fugitive’s condition, Mr. Robinson, a trapper and wilderness guide, would only say: “He’s a hurting unit.” Mr. Schoenborn, 40, has been the subject of a police manhunt since the bodies of his three children were found in their home on April 6.
NPR – The U.S. State Department is warning travelers about violence in Juarez, Mexico. Madeleine Brand talks with John Burnett about who is involved and what this means for tourists.
COHA – Hundreds of people have lined up outside phone shops in Cuba’s capital Havana for their first chance to legally own a mobile. It is one of the bans being lifted under the new government of Raul Castro, who replaced his older brother Fidel in February.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

Russian FM – Russian President Vladimir Putin has given instructions to the Government of the Russian Federation in regard to resolving Russia’s relations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia… The implementation of the President’s instructions will help create mechanisms of comprehensive defense of the rights, freedoms and lawful interests of the Russian citizens living in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
UPI – In a move to maintain the current cease-fire and ensure future security, the U.N. Security Council Tuesday extended its mission in Georgia.
France24 – The Russian President arrived in Tripoli on Wednesday to meet with Muammar Gaddafi for a “historic summit,” during which they hope to sign deals on gas projects, nuclear energy and armament sales.
Washington Institute – The visit of Soviet special envoy Yevgeny Primakov to Baghdad in search of a diplomatic resolution of the Gulf crisis is another sign of Moscow’s growing interest in the crisis as a catalyst for a new Soviet role in the Middle East.
Carnegie Endowment – This is a first for Russia: We have a president-elect even while his predecessor continues to discharge his duties. Also new: President Vladimir Putin, unlike predecessor Boris Yeltsin, has no plans to fade into political obscurity. It will be especially interesting to watch how two somewhat opposite processes unfold: How will Putin pass the reigns to President-elect Dmitry Medvedev while simultaneously transferring some presidential authority to the prime minister’s post?
RIA Novosti – During his visit to Slovenia, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller discussed with President Danilo Turk and Prime Minister Janez Jansa the prospects of the two countries’ cooperation in the natural gas sphere. In addition to the Russian gas supplies which Slovenia has been receiving since 1978, the officials discussed Slovenia’s possible participation in the South Stream pipeline project.
Moscow Times – Greece has agreed to join the Kremlin-backed South Stream gas pipeline project, further boosting energy ties with Russia, Greek Development Minister Christos Folias said Tuesday.
Moscow Times – A photograph of Rustam Makhmudov, the man identified in media reports as the prime suspect in the 2006 killing of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, was published Tuesday on a Russian web site. Life.ru reported that Makhmudov, 34, a resident of the Achkhoi-Martan district of Chechnya, is the main suspect in the crime and is believed to be hiding in Britain.
NY Sun – The U.S. State Department is denouncing Belarus’s KGB for secretly transferring an imprisoned American lawyer to a psychiatric hospital. Emanuel Zeltser was arrested March 12 by Belarus’s Committee of State Security for allegedly dealing in forged documents.
Asia Times – With United States and United Nations sanctions escalating the pressures on Iran, particularly in the Middle East and Persian Gulf, Tehran is seeking an outlet for trade and investment in the Caspian region, luring potential partners with lucrative production-sharing agreements. If only the littoral states could agree among themselves.
RIA Novosti – The Russian Defense Ministry officially refuted on Wednesday reports of an alleged shootout in Chechnya April 14 involving security convoys of the Chechen president and a commander of the ministry’s special battalion.
Russia Today – A French court has postponed until June a decision on whether to extradite Georgia’s former Defence Minister. Irakly Okruashvili, who’s currently living in France, is wanted at home on numerous charges.
CRN – Seiran Oganyan, the new Minister of Defence of Armenia, is searched by Azerbaijan as especially dangerous criminal and was declared into search by the Interpol in connection with the genocide of Azerbaijanis in Khodzhaly.
EurasiaNet – Tensions have subsided between Azerbaijan and the mediation group charged with overseeing talks with Armenia over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Even so, any progress that had been made toward a lasting peace settlement appears to have been lost.

Middle East

Asharq Alawsat – Clashes between security forces and Shiite militiamen in the capital’s war-torn Sadr City district killed two people and injured 18, police said Wednesday. Meanwhile, the British military said warplanes attacked gunmen in the southern port city of Basra early Wednesday.
AKI – The leader of an al-Qaeda cell in Iraq has called on Sunni tribal leaders to abandon US-backed militias battling al-Qaeda and to rejoin the insurgency. In an audio recording released on Islamic forums on the Internet on Tuesday, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who leads the Islamic State of Iraq, called on Sunnis in the Iraqi army, police and the so-called Awakening Councils to return to al-Qaeda and fight against US forces in the country.
AFIS – A letter discovered on the body of a terrorist killed in fighting with coalition forces provides a chilling glimpse into the inner workings of al-Qaida in Iraq, military officials said.
Military.com – An unmanned U.S. drone fired two Hellfire missiles at militants attacking Iraqi soldiers in a Shiite militia stronghold in the southern city of Basra on Wednesday, killing four of the gunmen, the military said.
Long War Journal – US and Iraqi security forces have killed or captured 53 senior members of al Qaeda in Iraq’s network over the past month, Major General Kevin Bergner, the spokesman for Multinational Forces Iraq said during an operations briefing on April 15 in Baghdad.
CNN – An Iraqi photographer for The Associated Press has been freed after two years in US military custody, an American military official said Wednesday.
LA Times – The Iraqi army and police commanders in the southern city of Basra were reassigned in what the government described as routine staff movements but which came amid controversy over troops’ performance during a recent offensive.
Turkish Daily News – The anti-U.S. movement of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is now Iraq’s main humanitarian organization helping needy Iraqis, a relief group said in a report that is certain to cause concern in Washington. In the report published yesterday, Refugees International said Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia as well as other Shiite and Sunni Arab militias were expanding their influence by providing food, shelter and other essentials to Iraqis left destitute by war.
IWPR – Syria’s ambassador to the United States, Imad Moustapha, has dismissed reports that military intelligence chief Assef Shawkat has been placed under house arrest, and that he was negotiating talks with Israel. [Moustapha has a blog, too -jk]
Al Arabiya – Syria is supplying the Shiite Hezbollah militia in Lebanon with rockets in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak charged on Tuesday.
Al Arabiya – Three Israeli soldiers and 14 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday as troops backed by assault helicopters stormed into the Gaza Strip and battled heavily armed Palestinians. At least nine Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on Al-Bureij refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip.
AP – An Israeli military strike in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday killed a Palestinian cameraman who worked for the Reuters news agency, Palestinian officials said. Fadal Shana, 23, was killed while filming Israeli tanks in central Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said.
ynet – At least 19 rockets fired towards Israel since Wednesday morning, several buildings sustain damages in afternoon barrage.
Haaretz – Hezbollah chief Sheikh Nassan Nasrallah is the most admired leader in the Arab world, according to a poll released recently by the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland.
Daily Star – Hizbullah on Wednesday questioned the disappearance of a Syrian witness in the 2005 assassination of former Primer Minister Rafik Hariri, indicating it was linked to the continued detention of four former security chiefs for alleged involvement in the crime.
Al Jazeera – Three Yemeni policemen have been killed and another four wounded after a bomb exploded inside a police vehicle, witnesses and hospital sources have said.
Hurriyet – Turkish warplanes attacked a group of outlawed PKK separatists in northern Iraq as they attempted to enter Turkish territory, the General Staff said on Wednesday. It added that one PKK separatist was killed in clashes inside Turkey.
BBC – A Yemeni court has annulled an eight-year-old girl’s marriage to a man in his 20s, after she filed for divorce. The girl, Nojoud Mohammed Ali, took a taxi to a judge’s office on her own, after running away from her husband.
AP – A bombing at a military checkpoint Wednesday in central Yemen killed three soldiers and wounded four, a Yemeni security official said.

Iran

Al Jazeera – Delegates from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany are set to discuss in Shanghai on Wednesday whether to offer Tehran more incentives to curb its nuclear work. The talks come a week after Iran defied international sanctions, saying it plans to expand its nuclear work by installing another 6,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges at its Natanz plant in addition to the 3,000 already there.
Jerusalem Post – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cast doubt Wednesday over the US version of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, calling it a pretext used to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. Though Iran has condemned the al-Qaida attacks on New York and Washington in the past, this was the third time in a week Ahmadinejad questioned the death toll, who was behind the attacks and how it happened.
Rooz Online – An Iranian court upheld the prison sentences of three Amir Kabir University students who have been spending more than a year behind bars for allegedly publishing material insulting to Islam in a student publication, convicting them to prison sentences ranging from 22 to 30 months. The three students, named Majid Tavakkoli, Ahmad Ghassaban, and Ehsan Mansouri, ?editors of student news bulletins at Amir Kabir University, were arrested last spring after fabricated copies of their bulletins containing insulting material to the supreme leader were published and distributed among university students.
Turkish Daily News – Turkish and Iranian security officers met yesterday to discuss ways to improve security cooperation between the two neighboring countries at a time when Iranian troops reportedly hit hideouts of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.

Southeast Asia

NATO ISAF – Two ISAF soldiers were killed and two were wounded during an explosion in southern Afghanistan early Wednesday.
CJTFA – A village elder and his sons saved a school and clinic after insurgents attempted to burn the infrastructure in the village of Pircuti, Paktika province, April 1.
UK MoD – British Forces operate 17 main sites in Helmand, as well as numerous smaller patrol bases from which British troops maintain their presence in the province. Acting as a kind of MOD landlord for these sites, as well as all MOD sites outside Europe, is Defence Estates’ Land Agent Mike Birchall.
AP – An opposition group says its leaders, including a former president, have been meeting with the Taliban and other anti-government groups in hopes of negotiating an end to rising violence in Afghanistan.
MERLN – Strategic Vision of the International Security Assistance Force.
World Bank – Afghanistan; Additional Financing for Emergency Irrigation Rehabilitation Project.
MEMRI – China has offered to give Pakistan at least four atomic power plants. The Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Khabrain reported that the Chinese offer came during the ongoing visit of President Pervez Musharraf to China.
The News – At least one person was killed and two others injured when clashes broke out between Lashkar-e-Islam activists and Kokikhel tribesmen in Shahkas area of Jamrud tehsil of Khyber Agency Wednesday. Sources said the fighting flared up in the evening when men of the two rival groups came face-to-face near Takhta Baig checkpost. Both sides were freely using heavy weapons against each other till the filing of this report.
Colombo Page – Assisting the ground troops Sri Lanka Air Force struck LTTE targets ahead of battlefronts in northern Sri Lanka Wednesday while fighting on the ground killed 18 Tigers and 2 soldiers, the military said.
USAID – The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded a five-year, $12 million contract to support regional government in Sri Lanka’s eastern and north central provinces.
UPI – India said it discussed issues relating to security, intelligence-sharing and arms-smuggling with neighboring Myanmar… “At this meeting, various issues relating to security, intelligence sharing, arms smuggling, drug trafficking, border management, border trade, cross border projects, release of Myanmar fishermen arrested in India and Indian fishermen lodged in Myanmar jails and other issues were discussed,” she said in response to a question in Indian Parliament.
NDTV – In India, at least 44 students, including 32 girls, were killed when a bus carrying them fell into the 60-foot deep Narmada canal in Bodeli in Vadodara district on Wednesday morning.
Times of India – Death on the railway tracks seems to have become a way of life for Mumbai. A query, under the Right to Information Act, has revealed that Mumbai’s lifeline has ended up claiming more than 20,700 lives in the last five years.
BBC – At least 17 people have been killed and about 20 injured in a train crash in central Bangladesh, officials say.
TIME – When the Maoists Take Over Nepal; The U.S. still labels the party a terrorist group, but the election is likely to make its leader the ex-monarchy’s new President.

Far East & Pacific

Pacific Magazine – A Guam soldier was wounded while on a security patrol in Afghanistan, the Pacific Daily News reports. Guam Army National Guard Pvt. Joseph Miner is recovering in a military hospital, the Guam Army National Guard said.
AKI – Two alleged Indonesian members of Jemaah Islamiyah were on their way to Syria to build contacts with an international terrorist network when arrested in Malaysia, according to the Indonesian police. The suspects were holding fake passports under the names of Oktariadi Anis and Deddy Achmadi Machdan, the police said on Tuesday.
BBC – Food prices have risen 21% in China so far this year, fuelling concerns about inflation in the economy and the affordability of basic staple goods.
National Post – The University of California study, citing previously unavailable evidence, said China probably passed the U.S. to become the world’s top emitter in 2006.
AP – President Jose Ramos-Horta has returned to East Timor after recovering from an attempt on his life two months ago.
BBC – North Korea is facing a humanitarian crisis caused by acute food shortages, a UN agency has warned. The situation there was “clearly bad and getting worse”, a senior World Food Programme official said.
IPS – “Peaceful,” is how Antonio Rivera, chief inspector of Davao’s Philippine National Police (PNP) describes the city–at least relative to two decades ago. Throughout the 1980s, communist New People’s Army (NPA) “Sparrows” conducted “agaw-armas” (arms grabbing) operations, killing policemen and soldiers for their guns, which in turn released a wave of authority-backed vigilante activity. Residents now fear that City Hall is conducting another ‘’experiment’’ to solve these problems using what is called the Davao Death Squad (DDS).
Radio Australia – French Polynesia has a new president, Gaston Tong Sang – the fourth to take office in the last 18 months.
Reuters – A Japanese radio station will broadcast a 1955 tape of an execution in a special program next month, a rare move to raise public awareness as the government increases the frequency at which it hangs death row inmates.

Europe

AFP – Six suspected pirates detained by French troops after the release of a yacht crew held hostage off the Somali coast arrived in Paris early Wednesday on a military plane, an official source said.
BalkanInsight – Russia’s energy giant, Gazprom has warned Serbia over delays in adopting an oil and gas deal between the two countries.
Scotsman – An article rejoicing in the actions of “The Nineteen Lions” who carried out the 9/11 terrorist attacks was found on the computer of a man accused of helping the 7 July bombers, a court heard yesterday. The rambling text which hails the suicide attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC as “the single most courageous and momentous act of modern history” were discovered on a PC belonging to Mohammed Shakil.
Spiegel – In Germany, Islam is often equated with fundamentalism and fanaticism, a perception that imposes a heavy burden on the country’s 3 million Muslims. Their relationship to Western society is divided between integration and sometimes self-imposed exclusion.
Tiraspol Times – For the first time in more than two years, all participants in the “5+2″ Moldova/Transdniestria status talks sat down at the same table. Negotiations center on Transdniestria’s future, and whether or not its people will have a say in their own destiny. The initial meeting took place in Odessa.
WSI Brussels Blog – French military involvement in Afghanistan: c’est magnifique, mais est-ce bien la guerre?

Africa

AFP – Police in Zimbabwe cracked down on opposition supporters as a general strike fizzled out on Wednesday, while doctors said they had treated more than 150 victims of post-election political beatings.
BBC – Zimbabwe’s soaring inflation hit an annual rate of almost 165,000% in February, official figures show.
Newsweek – As Zimbabwe’s tense wait for its election results continues, one question is whether the military will stay loyal to Mugabe.
Telegraph – More than half of Zimbabwe’s remaining white farmers have seen their land invaded by mobs loyal to President Robert Mugabe since the bitterly disputed election, it emerged yesterday.
AKI – A mediator involved in negotiations to free two Austrian tourists kidnapped by an al-Qaeda affiliate in Tunisia is believed to have been killed. According to an Algerian source quoted in the Arab daily, al-Sharq al-Awsat, the Tuareg mediator was murdered in a region on the border of Mali and Algeria.
Press TV – Algerian security forces have killed 10 al-Qaeda militants who had been planning suicide attacks in Algiers, a security source says. The group planned to carry attacks to mark the anniversary of a triple suicide bombing in Algiers on April 11, 2007 that claimed 33 lives including two policemen.
The Monitor – In Uganda, heavy gun fire rocked Kathire trading centre in Kaabong District on Tuesday morning as Jie warriors clashed with the army, killing at least 13 warriors and one soldier.
United Nations – A United Nations-backed campaign to stamp out rape in Liberia, the highest reported crime in the West African country as it recovers from a devastating civil war, has been extended to the north with a senior UN official calling for full implementation of the law.
AllAfrica – The government blamed rebels backed by arch-foe Eritrea on Tuesday for the two bombs that killed three people and wounded more than a dozen in the capita Addis Ababa.
IPS – The United Nations, which is battling a rash of political and logistical problems in its troubled peace missions in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea, is rejoicing over the relative success of its peacekeeping operations in the once war-ravaged Liberia.
Magharebia – Seven teachers were arrested on Tuesday when police stopped them from demonstrating in front of the government’s headquarters, local press reported. For three days, many of Algeria’s autonomous trade unions have been on strike to protest the new salary scale and demand greater retirement benefits to correspond with the increasing cost of living.
IRIN – The full extent of the threat posed by landmines and other unexploded ordnance in the Democratic Republic of Congo is unknown but the deadly weapons are a daily concern for tens of thousands of displaced people in the east.
Watson Institute – While Sudan is almost uniformly associated with the genocide in Darfur in the Western consciousness, the developments, problems, and successes of the rest of the country are not as widely disseminated. Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, an anthropology professor at Rhode Island College, recently gave a talk on the country as a whole.

The Global War

Asia Times – This is the beginning of the final stage – and age – of petro power, geopolitically speaking. A new world order is emerging that will be characterized by fierce international competition for dwindling stocks of oil, natural gas, coal and uranium, as well as by a tidal shift in power and wealth from energy-deficit states like China, Japan and the United States to energy-surplus states like Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
Jakarta Post – Pirate attacks rose worldwide in the first quarter of the year, with Nigeria overtaking Indonesia as the country worst plagued by sea bandits, a global maritime watchdog said Wednesday.
NY Times – The collapse of Australia’s rice production is one of several factors contributing to a doubling of rice prices in the last three months — increases that have led the world’s largest exporters to restrict exports severely, spurred panicked hoarding in Hong Kong and the Philippines, and set off violent protests in countries including Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Italy, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, the Philippines, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
Reuters – Israel has three Dolphins, with two more on order from Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft, a German shipyard custom-building them at a steep discount as part of Berlin’s bid to shore up a Jewish state founded in the wake of the Nazi Holocaust.
Marshall Center – Officials from 26 countries met at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen April 7-11 to share current information and best practices on border security issues, including challenges to border security, border guard training, border security modernization, and interagency and cross-border cooperation.
The Economist – South Korean workers toil for over 45 hours every week on average, nearly seven hours longer than workers in any other OECD country. Americans put in 15% more hours on average than workers in the western (richer) bit of the European Union. Poorer Eastern Europeans work considerably longer. Flexible arrangements for part-time workers, generous welfare systems and a limit on the working week all contribute to western Europe’s seeming indolence.
ISN – The British government is circling the wagons as it moves to stymie calls for the resumption of a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) probe into controversial arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which the High Court found last week had been improperly scuppered under official pressure.
Steve A. Yetiv, MESH – (new book) I have always been interested in the interplay between theory and empirics and have been curious about the extent to which our prominent theories offer useful guides to understanding reality. Given my empirical work in American foreign policy and international security, I’ve become especially interested in theory as it relates to great powers. To what extent do great powers pursue grand strategies, chief among them balance of power policy and hegemonic design?
State Dept – Near East: Middle East Digest: April 16, 2008.
Moscow Times – A German man charged with selling sensitive technology information to Russia is a key figure in a mysterious spy case involving a former Federal Space Agency official that jarred Russian-Austrian relations last year.

Sights & Sounds

The Pentagon Channel: Life aboard a carrier becomes a TV series… Documents captured from foreign fighters in Iraq…