Peace Like A River » Cables, dispatches and memoranda

Cables, dispatches and memoranda

April 23, 2008 (12:09 am) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

Cables, Dispatches and Memoranda
A brief world news roundup for 23 April 2008.

United States & the Americas

VOA – U.S. Democratic Party presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has won the primary in the eastern state of Pennsylvania, keeping her campaign for the White House alive.
NY Times – Canada and Mexico lent their weight to President Bush’s campaign to expand free trade within the framework of NAFTA.
Treasury Dept – The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today designated two entities and four individuals for acting on behalf of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC, a narco-terrorist group.
AP – A close political ally of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe wanted for allegedly backing illegal militias surrendered to police Tuesday night after Costa Rica denied him political asylum.
Reuters – Bolivia’s President Evo Morales accused opposition leaders on Tuesday of pushing for regional autonomy to undermine his policies of helping the poor indigenous majority.
Reuters – Argentine President Cristina Fernandez on Tuesday called for calm as talks with farm leaders grew more tense, raising expectations in financial markets that farmers might go back on strike.
McClatchy – Kidnappings soar in Mexico as drug gangs seek new income.
National Post – Individual Canadians remain the third-highest per capita polluters in the world, according to new figures released by Statistics Canada.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

Press TV – Russia’s state-run Atomstroyexport corporation says Azerbaijan has deliberately halted a shipment of nuclear equipment to Iran. In a Tuesday statement, Atomstroyexport spokeswoman Irina Yesipova said the company is confused and infuriated over the unexpected hold-up, which occurred at the town of Astara, on the Iran-Azerbaijan border.
RIA Novosti – Azerbaijani border guards shot dead early on Tuesday two Iranians who illegally entered the country with the aim of smuggling alcohol back into Iran, Azerbaijan’s Interior Ministry said.
Moscow Times – Kadyrov Is the Better of Two Chechen Evils; Modern Chechnya, like France under Louis XIV, is going through the final stage of its centralization. The latest victim in that process is the Vostok battalion commanded by Sulim Yamadayev.
Kavkaz Center – According to occupation sources, a checkpoint of murtadin was attacked by using grenade launchers, machine guns and rifles in the city of Nazran.
Kavkaz Center – According to sources in Wilayah Nokhchicho (Ichkeria) of the Caucasus Emirate, 15 Rabi’ Al-Akhar 1429 (21 April 2008) evening on Petropavlovsk highway, outskirts of capital Jokhar, a sabotage team of Mujahideen blew up military convoy of Russian kuffar. Invaders claimed that only one kafir was injured by explosion.
Robert Amsterdam – Gazprom, Libya, and the Gas OPEC.

Middle East

Press TV – The Iraqi military command in Basra has issued a one-day ultimatum for Moqtada al-Sadr’s senior Mahdi Army leaders to surrender.
Maclean’s – A bomb-rigged truck exploded at a checkpoint Tuesday near the western city of Ramadi, killing two U.S. marines and wounding three others in an apparent strike by “al-Qaida in Iraq” in one of its former strongholds. At least one civilian also died and two dozen were injured in the blast, the latest in a string of recent strikes in areas where local Sunnis have joined U.S. forces to battle al-Qaida.
Belmont Club – This is a campaign for the mastery of the Shi’ite communities in Iraq. And there are two aspects to it. The first is to destroy the power of Iran over the militias and extend the power of the Government of Iraq over them; and second, to reflect both the results of the Surge against the Sunnis and the campaign against the Shi’ite militias in the coming elections.
Kings of War – Peter Feaver writes an intriguing exposé on his time within the NSC and his part in crafting the American strategy on Iraq in this month’s issue of Commentary magazine. In it he raises several points worthy of further discussion.
This Could Get Interesting – I wanted to get away from Iraq in this week’s column, but someone sent me a great link (thanks Alan) that’s worth sharing. It’s a short video clip, showing a Marine corporal at a nameless checkpoint, most likely in Anbar province. It’s had me laughing for days.
Haaretz – Armed Hezbollah militants warded off members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) last month when the peacekeepers discovered a truck carrying weapons and ammunition belonging to the Lebanon-based guerilla group.
Ya Libnan – The call by Al-Qaida’s deputy chief for Sunni militants in Lebanon to attack U.N. peacekeepers is a bad omen for the country and a dangerous threat to its future, a Lebanese Cabinet minister said Tuesday.
UPI – The United Nations says despite a peace agreement between the Yemen government and rebel forces, the security situation remains volatile in the country’s north.

Iran

Fred Kaplan, Slate – Which is it: Are the Iranians extraordinarily clever, or are we extraordinarily dim? Certainly, when it comes to pursuing our respective interests in Iraq, they seem to be thinking and acting strategically, while we seem not to be.
EurasiaNet – Iran and Turkmenistan engaged in one of the nastiest natural gas pricing disputes in recent memory over this past winter. It seems that the spring has brought resolution, with Tehran appearing to grudgingly bow to Ashgabat’s efforts to jack up export prices.
Times of India editorial – A clear message has been sent out by India to the world with the seizure of 1,150 kg of nuclear grade graphite in Mumbai on the eve of its export by air to Iran. The material originated from a third country and India was being used as a transit station. India has demonstrated beyond all doubt where it stands in respect of Iran’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapon capability. However, India is unable to go along with the US, UK, France and Germany in applying coercion on Iran, without demonstrating that they have done all that is possible to stop proliferation of materials and technologies from their own countries to Iran.
AKI – Seventy-five young people accused of ‘immoral acts’ have been arrested by police at a birthday party in the city of Shiraz in southwestern Iran. The young men and women were accused of “immoral acts” and of holding a “non-authorised promiscuous gathering” said the chief commander of the police forces, Ali Moayyedi.
MEMRI – The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) weekly Sobh-e Sadeq has reported that classified intelligence information is being posted by Israeli soldiers on Facebook.
Washington Institute – On April 25, a second round of voting will determine the remaining eighty-eight seats of the Iranian Majlis. The first round, held on March 14, decided 202 seats and was considered a defeat for both the reformists and President Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad.

Southeast Asia

Press TV – Germany has rejected calls for sending more troops to Afghanistan, saying Berlin should not dispatch its soldiers into a hopeless battle.
LA Times - Taliban fighters are blowing up telecom towers, hoping to foil NATO-led forces who from hunt them down via cellphone signals.
Independent – Faltering British efforts to tackle Afghanistan’s poppy crop have found an unlikely ally – in the weather.
Times of India – An Indian national, Sarang Mohammed Naeem, has been abducted by a group of armed men in western Afghanistan.
AKI – A NATO soldier was killed and three others injured a series of attacks in southern Afghanistan, while six Afghan policemen were killed when Taliban militants attacked a checkpoint the southern province of Kandahar late on Tuesday.
AKI – Gunmen aboard a motorbike on Tuesday shot dead the pro-vice Chancellor of Baluchistan University, Safdar Hussain Kiyani, in southwestern Pakistan.
The News – Two persons including a union council Nazim were killed and two others injured when unidentified assailants ambushed two vehicles here on Tuesday.
Dawn – The government is close to an agreement with warring Mehsuds that seeks an end to militant activity, exchange of prisoners and gradual withdrawal of the military to restore peace to the volatile South Waziristan tribal region.
Kavkaz Center – A relative of a Pakistani Taliban leader just released from custody, has vowed to continue armed struggle for Islamic law in the country’s northwest, despite the signing of a peace accord. Maulana Fazlullah, son-in-law of Sufi Muhammad, said on Tuesday that his group will not lay down their arms until the government enforces the Sharia. The Pakistani government released Muhammad on Monday after a deal reached with the government of the NWFP.
Telegraph – The mountainous region of Pakistan where al-Qa’eda’s core leaders are believed to have regrouped is so riven by tribal conflict that it cannot be an effective base for waging global terrorism, according to a new study.
IPS – Sri Lanka’s government, under pressure over human rights violations, is abandoning support from traditional but rights-sensitive partners like the United States and Europe and turning to countries like China and Iran to finance its infrastructure projects.
Colombo Page – At least seventeen LTTE Tigers were killed in the latest encounters in the northern battle front, while a soldier was killed and nine others were injured, Sri Lanka military said.
AFP – Tamil separatists destroyed an army tank after Sri Lankan war planes bombed a Roman Catholic church compound killing a man and wounding two children, the rebels said Tuesday.

Far East & Pacific

Press TV – Japan’s Foreign Ministry says it has frozen the assets of Iranian individuals and bodies allegedly involved in Iran’s nuclear program.
Japan Times – Ayman al-Zawahri, second in command of al-Qaida, vowed Tuesday to punish Western countries that participated in the Iraq war, hinting that Japan could be a target and advising it to end its alliance with “Americans who had occupied, looted, humiliated and bombed them with nukes.”
Moscow Times – China said Tuesday that a shipment of weapons bound for Zimbabwe may return home after the vessel was unable to unload in South Africa, but it defended the cargo as “perfectly normal trade.”
Janes – China is constructing a major underground nuclear submarine base near Sanya, on Hainan Island off its southern coast, Jane’s can confirm. Although Asian military sources have disclosed this fact to Jane’s since 2002, high-resolution commercially available satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe allows independent verification of the previous suggestions.
Radio Australia – A number of Tongan’s have expressed doubts about moving towards a more democratic style of government.

Europe

Islam in Europe – The government report picked out terrorism and certain forms of organised crime as the main threat to Switzerland’s internal security. Islamic extremist groups that are based in Switzerland are focused on building up propaganda, logistics and financing of activities from their countries of origin, but are a growing potential for violence, it said.
Daily Mail – In Britain, police have foiled 15 terror plots since the turn of the century, with suspects continuing to emerge from unexpected quarters, senior officers said yesterday.
ISN – In the days after Italy’s right-of-center voters emerged victorious from the latest round of national voting it became clear that the next battle for control of Italy will not be between the country’s left and right, but rather its north and south.
IPS – An internationally condemned Chinese cargo ship attempting to transport arms to Zimbabwe is partially insured by a Norwegian company. This may be illegal, according to Norwegian law.
Spiegel – Leading Muslim scholars are laying the theological foundations for a “Euro-Islam” which would reconcile their religion with the challenges of modernity. But just how compatible is Islam with secular Western values?
IHT – Turkey is playing hardball in the geopolitical struggle over an $8 billion pipeline at the center of Europe’s efforts to cut dependence on Russian natural gas. Turkey is trying to profit from its strategic location bridging Europe and Central Asia and to become a key part of Europe’s energy plan.

Africa

Javno – Militias allied to the Somali government recaptured a southern port from Islamists on Tuesday, as the death toll from an upsurge of fighting in recent days rose to nearly 100, witnesses said. The militias recaptured Guda, which had been taken by the Islamists’ militant al Shabaab wing on Monday, after overnight fighting that brought fatalities on both sides.
AllAfrica – The U.S. Government says it had cancelled all of Liberia’s US$430 million in debt.
SudanTribune – Sudan on Tuesday began its first counting in 15 years, a milestone step towards the first free elections since 1989 and the distribution of power and wealth in the country after a peace deal signed in 2005.
Enough Project – It’s bad enough that the international community has failed, five years in, to end the genocide in Darfur, and worse still that it reacted with no urgency when the Darfur crisis bled into neighboring Chad. With the root causes of conflict in each country still untended, this regional crisis is poised to deepen.
Reuters – Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men’s penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.
Magharebia – Three Algerians jailed in France for links with Djamel Baghal, the main defendant in a thwarted 2001 attack targeting the US Embassy in Paris, were extradited to Algeria on Sunday.
NY Sun – Secretary-General Ban’s envoy to the Western Sahara region is attempting to introduce “political reality” to one of the most intractable disputes on the United Nations’ agenda by suggesting that the territory’s breakaway rebels drop their dream of becoming independent from Morocco

The Global War

AP – Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader issued a new audiotape Tuesday accusing Shiite Iran of spreading a conspiracy theory about who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks to discredit the power of the Sunni terrorist network.
WSJ – North Korea was helping Syria build a nuclear reactor before Israel bombed the site in September, the White House is set to tell Congress.
United Nations – The head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today called for urgent action to tackle the “silent tsunami” of rising food prices which threatens to push more than 100 million people worldwide into hunger.
Belfer Center – How much are the Arabs responsible for their own political dysfunction, national fragmentation and rampant violence, and how much of their troubles can be blamed on foreign interference and military interventions in the region? Two recent articles in quality American journals highlight how low-class Arab politics that are widely dissatisfying to their own citizens can reflect both indigenous autocracy and foreign mischief-making.
UNS – A 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) Soldier will be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross during a valorous award presentation ceremony April 30 at Fort Bragg, N.C. The recipient, Master Sgt. Brendan O’Connor, is being awarded the DSC for valorous actions during an engagement with a numerically superior enemy force in Afghanistan in 2006.
Javno – Oil surged more than $2 to record highs near $120 a barrel on Tuesday on supply concerns from Nigeria and the North Sea. Oil’s fresh highs have extended a rally that has seen prices climb more than five-fold since 2002, driven by booming demand from emerging markets, such as China, that has coincided with long-term supply constraints.
Nosint - Two highly sophisticated U.S. Navy warships with guns and missiles that can’t be fired have been rated unfit for combat, a U.S. newspaper reported Monday. The Navy Times, owned by the Gannett newspaper chain, said it obtained Board of Inspection and Survey reports showing the warships’ Aegis radar systems didn’t work property, flight decks were inoperable, and most of their missiles or big guns couldn’t be fired.
Anne Applebaum, Slate – Radio Free Europe still exists—and it’s more important than ever.
SWJ Blog – 23 April SWJ News, Op-Ed & Blog Roundup.

Sights & Sounds

BBC Documentaries: Forty years ago in the village of My Lai in South Vietnam, a massacre took place. The victims were innocent Vietnamese civilians – 504 mainly women, old men, children and babies. They were murdered, and in many cases, raped by US soldiers. This episode of the Vietnam War became known as ‘The My Lai Massacre’ and proved to be a turning point in the war. In the My Lai Tapes Robert Hodierne tells the story of what happened that day in interviews with the victims and the perpetrators.