Peace Like A River » Cables, dispatches and memoranda

Cables, dispatches and memoranda

November 5, 2009 (1:01 am) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

Cables, Dispatches and Memoranda A brief world news roundup for 5 November 2009.

United States & the Americas

Yonhap – The United States said Wednesday it is ready to talk to North Korea bilaterally but has not decided whether to send its point man on North Korea to Pyongyang to press for a resumption of the stalled multilateral nuclear negotiations.
Miami Herald – Prosecutors say a gang of gunmen has killed six men in a bar in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez. Prosecutors in northern Chihuahua state say another man was wounded in the attack. There was no immediate information on the motive for the attack, but the methods are similar to those used by drug cartels.
Telegraph – The foreign ministry in Caracas condemned what it called “aggression against its people” after comments by Danny Ayalon, the Israeli deputy foreign minister, about Tehran’s influence in the region. He described Venezuela as Iran’s leading ally in South America. The remarks were a “sign of the vile, meddling and aggressive attitude” of Israel, the Venezuelan statement said.
Columbai Reports – The Venezuelan Civil Guard is not allowing Colombians to cross the border at Cucutá. The Guard is only people allowing people with Venezuelan identification to cross between the two countries. As the situation stands at the moment, Colombians wanting to cross the border must do so via unoffical crossings, according to Vanguarida.com.
Prensa Latina – Brazilian Senate President Jose Sarney informed today the postponement of a decision on Venezuel joining MERCOSUR (Southern Common Market).

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

RIA Novosti – Russia is ready to provide NATO with helicopters for its war in Afghanistan – on commercial terms. Dmitry Shugayev, general director of the state-owned corporation Russian Technology, made this announcement last week at a meeting in Brussels with officials in charge of logistics for NATO forces.
RFERL – A recent exchange of barbs between Russia and Ukraine is raising worries in Kyiv over a possible new natural-gas crisis this winter. Moscow’s shutoff last winter left millions of Europeans without heat in the bitter cold, but observers say they doubt there will be a repeat this year
NY Times – Two people have been arrested in the killings of a human rights lawyer and a reporter who were shot and killed in central Moscow in January, Interfax and other Russian news services reported late on Wednesday, citing unidentified law enforcement officials.
Georgian Times – Grigol Vashadze, Georgia’s foreign minister, who holds double Georgia-Russian citizenship, said he had appealed to President Medvedev to renounce his Russian citizenship.
Itar Tass – Naftogaz Ukrainy admitted problems with payment for Russian natural gas supplies in October. “A dire economic situation in Ukraine and the growing indebtedness of domestic consumers exacerbate the accumulation of Naftogaz Ukrainy of funds for timely and full payments for the natural gas imported form Russia in October,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Caucasian Knot – The Coordination Centre of Moslems of Northern Caucasus has called to scale up the struggle against crime in Dagestan in the context of the murder of Tinamagomed Ramazanov, Imam of the mosque of Bavtugai village.
Upstream Online – Tethys Petroleum hopes to establish an ‘energy Silk Road’ to deliver oil and gas from central Asian fields to energy-hungry China in the next few years, company Chairman David Robson said. In an interview with Dow Jones, Robson said the first phase of the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline is expected to be operational early next year while an additional pipeline from Kazakhstan to China–next to Tethys’ Kyzyloi field–is being planned.
APA – The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) plans to take a “substantial” stake in an Italian oil refinery next year and aims to raise the proportion of term exports of Azeri Light crude to Asia, its chief executive said on Wednesday

Middle East

MNF Iraq – Iraqi Security Forces arrested 21 individuals during two joint security operations today targeting vehicle-borne improvised explosive device network members in Baghdad and Bayji.
Al Sumaria – Police and US Army sources said that 5 mortars fell on the biggest US base near Baghdad International Airport. However, no further details were delivered. A police source said that the 5 mortars were launched from Al Jihad neighborhood towards the US base at 7:30 Tuesday night
IRIB – IRI parliament speaker Ali Larijani left Tehran for Baghdad on Wednesday. Before his departure, he said his visit to Iraq is aimed at holding talks with Iraqi officials over important regional and international issues as well as expansion of bilateral parliamentary cooperation
IDF – A special Navy force intercepted and boarded a ship 100 miles off the coast of Israel. The ship, carrying the flag of Antigua, was carrying 500 tons of weapons in civilian disguise. On Tuesday (Nov. 3) an exceptionally large quantity of weapons, rockets, and missiles was uncovered onboard a cargo vessel intercepted by the Israel Navy Special Forces and brought to the Ashdod port.
ynet – The ship left Damietta Port in Egypt for Limassol, Cyprus. The ship was slated to anchor Thursday in Beirut Port and continue on to Latakia Port in Syria, where it would dock over the weekend. UFS, the owners of the ship, is a Cypriot freight delivery company that operates in dozens of ports in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Speaking on behalf of UFS, Paniatois Emirs said to Ynet: “We rented the chip, but it is not under our ownership. We are only carriers. We did not know there were weapons on the ship. We knew that we were delivering containers, but we are not legally permitted to check what is inside them.”
MEMRI – Hamas political bureau member Mahmoud Al-Zahhar told the Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai that the alliance between Hamas and Iran is aimed only at uniting the enemies of the U.S.
NOW Lebanon – The Lebanese Army Command-Directorate of Orientation issued a statement on Wednesday reporting that an Israeli surveillance plane violated Lebanese airspace at 7:10 a.m. on Wednesday over the town of Naqoura, circled over various southern regions and the Beirut suburbs, and then returned to Israel at 3:15 p.m
Al Manar – Syrian lawyer Houssameddine al-Habash told AFP on Wednesday that the Interpol office in Damascus received on Tuesday an arrest warrant against Mohammad Zuheir as-Siddiq, a former Syrian intelligence officer and a key witness in the investigation of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination, issued by Syrian Military Investigative Judge Abdel Razzaq al-Homsi.
SANA – President Bashar al-Assad sent a verbal message to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran on the bilateral relations and the developments in the region. The message was conveyed by Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem during a meeting with President Ahmadinejad on Wednesday
QNA – H.H. the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani will head to Tehran, tomorrow, Thursday, for a one – day working visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Tactical Report – Chief of Staff of the Qatari Armed Forces Major-General Hamad Bin Ali Al-Atiyya visited Belarus (late October) for talks on cooperation issues between both countries
Saba – The Director of Defence and Strategic Threats at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Simon Manley left Sana’a on Wednesday after a few-day official visit to the country.
NEFA Foundation – The NEFA Foundation has obtained an English transcript of a recent audio recording by Shaykh Ibrahim al-Rubeish titled, “Why Mohammed Bin Nayif?”. During the audio, produced by Al-Qaida’s network in the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen), al-Rubeish lays out the justification for Al-Qaida’s attempted August 2009 assassination of Saudi Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayif via a suicide bomber dispatched from neighboring Yemen.
UPI – Saudi authorities on Wednesday said al-Houthi rebels from Yemen ambushed and killed several security officers during gun battles along the border. Conflict erupted between al-Houthi fighters and Saudi security forces as Yemeni insurgents stormed the border from their strongholds in the northern provinces of Yemen, the Yemeni Post reports.

Iran

Al Arabiya – Iranian police fired teargas and made several arrests during clashes with opposition supporters who staged demonstrations in central Tehran on Wednesday, witnesses said. The clashes took place in central Tehran’s Haft-e-Tir square where groups of opposition supporters had gathered for a protest, even as thousands of Iranians were staging an anti-American rally outside the closed U.S. embassy to mark the 30th anniversary of the storming of the compound by Islamist students.
Payvand – During today’s November 4th ceremonies in Tehran, Mehdi Karroubi, disputing candidate of Iran’s presidential elections was target of a direct attack by government forces which injured two of his bodyguards.
Michael Ledeen – Big demonstrations still going on all over the country: Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Zahedan, Arak, Mazandaran, Tabriz, Rasht confirmed so far, and no doubt we will hear of others in the next hours and days. Lots of videos available online, showing an unprecedented level of violence, which is saying a lot. Have a look
Press TV – Tehran has dismissed claims that a container intercepted by Israel was carrying ‘hundreds of kilograms of Iranian-made arms’ to Lebanon. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, in a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem on Wednesday, dismissed the allegations out of hand.
IDF – During recent years, the Iranian smuggling network has grown. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards have been running the operations through air, sea and land with the use of civilian flights, ships and trains.
Haaretz – Relations have been tense between Iran and Syria in recent weeks, according to the German weekly Der Spiegel, which quotes Western intelligence sources. Iran has demanded that Syria return the uranium delivered to it prior to the Israeli bombing of the Syrian reactor two years ago, says the weekly
Rooz – Two weeks after Ayatollah Khamenei approved sweeping changes to the structure of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and remarks by Mohammad Ali Jafari about the necessity of the IRGC’s engagement in intelligence and security affairs, the website “Basirat,” run by the IRGC’s political affairs division, announced the imminent appointment of Gholamhossein Ramezani as the IRGC’s counter-intelligence and security director.
MESH – The real linkage: Afghanistan and Iran
MEMRI – Saudi Daily: Iran is Expanding its Activity in the Red Sea
CSM – Iran’s steady production of low-enriched uranium is a clock that is ticking away as Tehran develops its nuclear program. Every day, the whirling centrifuges at the Natanz Fuel Enrichment plant produce about 2.75 kilograms of the stuff, according to International Atomic Energy Agency data.
ITIC – A report published by the Majles Research Center last week warns that within the next eight years Iran could go from being an oil exporter to being an oil importer. The authors of the report note the continuing decrease in Iran’s oil production (an average of about 8 percent a year) coupled with the increase in Iran’s consumption of oil and petroleum products (an average of 5 percent a year), saying that if current trends continue and no foreign investments flow into Iran’s oil fields, Iran, which is now the fourth largest oil exporter in the world, will become an oil importer in as little as eight years.
Fars – Tehran is due to establish its second bank in Belarus in a bid to facilitate financial and banking services and help development of Tehran-Minsk trade ties, an Iranian commerce ministry spokesman announced on Wednesday.

A boy living at the Jalalabad Women's Prison salutes while Soldiers and Airmen from the Nangarhar Provincial Reconstruction Team visit, Afghanistan, Nov. 1. There are 18 children currently living at the prison with their mothers. (photo by Sgt. Jennifer Cohen)

South Asia

AFPS – Combined Afghan and international security forces killed or detained several militants and recovered multiple weapons and explosives in operations in Afghanistan yesterday, military officials reported.
UK MoD – It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the deaths of five soldiers in southern Afghanistan. Three of the soldiers were from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military Police
Ghosts of Alexander – According to sources, Mullah Omar and the Taliban leadership directed “a large sum of money” to Jalaluddin Haqqani to recruit 3,000 fighters for the Kabul front. However, within two months the combined affect of death and desertion left Haqqani with only 300 men.
McClatchy – Between pilfering, mountain passes closed by snow, overturned trucks and attacks by hostile tribes, getting equipment and supplies to troops in Afghanistan is a challenge. For a year, Army Lt. Col. Greg Younger, command transportation integration officer for the Surface Deployment and Distribution Command at Scott Air Force Base, lived in Pakistan and helped orchestrate and simplify the movement of military goods from Port Karachi in southern Pakistan through that country into Afghanistan through a mountain pass in the northwestern part of the country.
Dawn – Troops were Wednesday locked in deadly street battles with Taliban fighters, pushing a ground offensive deeper into militant-held territory, the military said. A senior military official told AFP the army had ‘taken’ the strategic town of Sararogha in the third week of fighting, while 30 insurgents were reported killed in the last 24 hours.
Geo – The security forces have apprehended commander Saifullah, a close aide of Fazlullah during search operation in Koza Bandia area of Tehsil Kabal, Swat. Saifullah, who had been involved in several militant attacks on the security men, is said to be a close aide of Fazlullah, the chief of banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, sources said
Views from the Occident – The New Face of Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan, Hakimullah Mehsud
Xinhua – After details of Pakistan-based banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) plot to target India’s National Defense College emerged, India Wednesday said that it has taken adequate precautions to protect the prestigious military institution in the national capital.
Colombo Page – A six-member Iranian parliamentary delegation is visiting Sri Lanka on an invitation extended by the Speaker to further strengthen the bilateral relations, the government announced

Far East & Pacific

Washington Post – North Korea’s military, whose nuclear program vexes the Obama administration, has grabbed nearly complete command of the nation’s state-run economy and staked out a lucrative new trade in mineral sales to China to make money for its supreme commander, Kim Jong Il.
Japan Times – The civilian aid package that Japan is crafting to replace the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s antiterrorism refueling mission in the Indian Ocean could see Afghanistan receive roughly $4 billion over five years. According to an outline of the program obtained Tuesday, much of the aid would fund vocational training for former Taliban fighters, development of farmland in the war-ravaged country and a project to construct a new city north of Kabul.
Graeme Dobell – At the East Asia Summit, Japan’s leader expressed support for Australia’s Asia Pacific community approach — then hit it with a substantial backhander. Yukio Hatoyama said the broad principles of the Rudd community could be supported. Then he immediately kicked away one of the central Rudd principles by saying that Asia did not have to make an immediate decision about letting in the US.
Xinhua – The design and first-phase construction of three inland nuclear power stations in China has begun, Wang Binghua, chairman of State Nuclear Power Technology Corp., said Wednesday at 2009 China Power Forum. China’s existing nuclear power stations are sited along the eastern coast.
CBS – The Malaysian government has refused to release 10,000 Bibles confiscated for using the word “Allah” to refer to God, a banned translation in Christian texts in this Muslim-majority country, an official said Wednesday.
Phnom Penh Post – Ousted former Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra won’t accept an offer of sanctuary in Cambodia because he does not want to spark problems between the neighbouring countries, according to a media report published even as another protest reportedly flared outside the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok this week.
Manila Times – The military has activated a special unit trained in counter-terrorism operation to curb the surge of bomb attacks in the Mindanao region using improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Authorities said the lawless armed groups in the area have resorted to using improvised explosive devices because they are running out of firepower

Europe

VOA – An Italian judge has sentenced 23 former U.S. intelligence operatives to up to eight years in prison for the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric from Milan. Citing diplomatic immunity, Milan Judge Oscar Magi on Wednesday acquitted three other former CIA agents and the former head of Italy’s military intelligence service.
AKI – A former Bosnian Muslim army deputy commander, Nihad Bojadzic, was arrested in Sarajevo on Wednesday on suspicion of having killed over 20 Croat civilians and prisoners of war during the 1993 Muslim-Croat war, the state prosecutor’s office said. Bojadzic was due to be handed over to Bosnia’s state war crimes court.
Balkan Insight – The prime ministers of Croatia and Slovenia on Wednesday signed a long awaited arbitration agreement, unblocking Zagreb’s bid to join the European Union. Jadranka Kosor and her Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahor signed the agreement in Stockholm. The deal must now be ratified by parliamentarians in both countries.
Copenhagen Post – National Police have arrested and sent 12 failed Iraqi asylum seekers back to Iraq as part of the forcible repatriation agreement the nation’s government signed with Denmark.
Russia Today – A scandal is gathering steam in Poland after it was revealed security services illegally wiretap journalists and politicians. Critics say the extent of bugging in the country is an attack on human rights
Press TV – Iran’s Foreign Ministry has summoned the Belgian Ambassador to Tehran over the mysterious death of an Iranian national in a Belgian prison.
Hurriyet – Turkish police detained around 20 students on Wednesday after they pelted Israel’s ambassador with eggs to protest the Jewish state’s treatment of Palestinians, forcing him to cancel a university visit

Africa

Garowe – At least seven people have been killed while eleven others sustained injuries on Wednesday in a fresh fighting between Somali government forces and Hizbul Islam rebel fighters in Beledweyn town, the capital of Hiiran Region
Daily Star – Rival pirates and militia groups have fought for control of a British couple held hostage for more than a week, an Islamic militia commander and a local elder said. The couple were not injured in the fighting.
Sudan Tribune – Qatar has urged the Chadian government to convince Darfur rebels to participate in the upcoming of peace talks that the mediation plans to hold this month in Doha.
Ennahar – According to concurring local sources in Bejaia, the terrorist eliminated in night from Monday to Tuesday in an ambush in “Sidi Aïch,” in the province of Bejaia, has been identified. It would be the named “Toufik Ghazi,” aka “Tahar,” Emir of “Katibet Tarik Ibn Ziad,” which activates directly under the command of Abdelmalek Droukdal, alias Abu Mosaab Abdelouadoud, the national emir of the terrorist organisation. The terrorist in question, who is also the chief bodyguard of the national emir, was killed in his own fiefdom.
Magharebia – Touareg leaders from the Mali regions that border Algeria, Mauritania and Niger gathered in Kidal on Tuesday (November 3rd) to discuss the threat from al-Qaeda-linked armed groups, El Khabar reported. The meeting, reportedly arranged by the Mali government a fortnight ago, seeks to involve tribal notables from Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu in the fight against arms trafficking.
New Vision – A senior commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has surrendered to the joint military forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the Ugandan army. UPDF spokesman Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye said the LRA’s director of operations ‘Lt. Col.’ Charles Arop had reported to UPDF intelligence operatives who are operating alongside the Congolese army in eastern Congo.
Vanguard – The Federal Government, yesterday, commenced the post-amnesty programme in the Niger Delta region as it directed 3,000 former militants who had accepted the amnesty offer to report to camp between now and November 11 towards rehabilitating them just as the government approved N2 billion for immediate construction of physical development projects in the region

The Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS San Juan pulled into Simon's Town, South Africa, Nov. 4, setting the stage for a series of first-ever, at-sea engagements with the South African Navy submarine force. (photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class David Holmes)

The Global War

Australia DoD – The Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, congratulated General David Petraeus after he was appointed as an Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia in an investiture ceremony in Washington DC today.
Asia Times – Despite its best efforts, Russia failed at a recent trilateral summit to get India and China to agree to a common regional initiative regarding Afghanistan. This failure ensures that the United States can now press ahead with its own strategy of striking grand bargains individually with these key players.

Sights & Sounds

BBC – What keeps a billion people trapped in the most persistent poverty? Mike Wooldridge travels to Nicaragua to meet Justa who hoped for a better life after the Sandinista revolution