Peace Like A River » Cables, dispatches and memoranda

Cables, dispatches and memoranda

October 10, 2008 (1:12 am) | Daily Roundup | By: Jeff Kouba

Cables, Dispatches and Memoranda
A brief world news roundup for 10 October 2008.

United States & the Americas

CBC – China is again demanding that the United States hand over 17 Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying they may be tried on terrorism charges in China but will not be tortured. On Wednesday, the administration persuaded an appeals court to block a federal judge’s order to release them immediately. Although the White House fears they would be tortured in China, the spokesman, Qin Gang, said Chinese law forbids torture, the news agency said.
Javno – Canada’s Afghanistan mission has cost much more than publicly stated, a government report estimated on Thursday, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged troops will stay until 2011 no matter who wins next week’s Canadian election. The mission, which has killed nearly 100 Canadian soldiers, has already cost up to C$10.5 billion ($9.1 billion) and the price could hit C$18 billion if troops stay in Afghanistan as long as now planned, the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated.
RFERL – Meetings between officials of Russia and Venezuela have become so frequent as to barely merit a headline. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov seemed to acknowledge as much this week, when he turned routine talks with his counterpart from Caracas into an opportunity to remind the world that a squadron of Russian warships is making steady progress in its historic journey toward the Caribbean for November military exercises with Venezuela.
La Plaza – After taking an initially optimistic attitude toward the economic crisis ravaging the rest of the world, President Felipe Calderon warned on Wednesday that Mexico faces a fall in exports, investment and remittances as a result of the U.S. economic slowdown and announced plans for $4.3 billion in emergency spending on infrastructure to help Mexico amid world financial woes.
MSNBC – Authorities say five state police officers were killed in the western Mexican state of Jalisco by gunmen who fired more than 800 bullets and threw grenades at them.
BBC – Peruvian cabinet ministers are poised to tender their resignation to the country’s president over an alleged scandal over oil concessions.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

RIA Novosti – Ukraine hopes to play a role in the completion of the Arab Gas Pipeline intended for natural gas deliveries from Egypt to Europe via Syria and Turkey, Ukraine’s UNIAN news agency reported Thursday.
EurasiaNet – Bishkek is transforming itself into summit central. In addition to a gathering of Commonwealth of Independent States leaders, members of Eurasian Economic Community will hold a conclave in the Kyrgyz capital on October 10. And on the same day, the heads of Central Asia’s five states will hold a sit-down.
Russia Today – The Kyrgyz government and Gazprom have agreed to draft the terms of the Russian gas giant’s participation in the privatisation of 75% plus one share in Kyrgyzgaz. The two parties signed a memorandum of understanding during a meeting in the capital Bishkek on Thursday.
The Financial – According to Civil Georgia, the CIS foreign ministerial meeting in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek has suspended Georgia’s membership of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on October 9. “A technical decision was made to suspend Georgia’s membership of the CIS in accordance with its request,” Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying. President Saakashvili announced on August 12 that Georgia would leave the CIS
CRN – In Makhachkala, former participants of warfare in Afghanistan have gone on hunger strike demanding that the authorities of the Republic pay attention to their housing problems.

Middle East

Al Jazeera – An Iraqi member of parliament has been killed in a roadside bomb attack in eastern Baghdad, officials say. At least two other people were also killed in the attack on the convoy of Saleh al-Auqaeili, a member of the Sadrist bloc, on Thursday.
AFP – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed on Thursday to capture the assassins of an anti-American Shiite MP, the first lawmaker to be killed in 18 months, and ordered a top-level investigation.
Press TV – An Iraqi Sahwa leader has been killed in a roadside blast along with two of his children and a nephew north of Baghdad, security officials say. Abbas Khudair – the head of Sahwa (Awakening) group – was targeted on Thursday as he drove with his family in the Al-Uthaim area in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province.
Reuters – U.S. forces in Iraq fear a wave of assassinations ahead of provincial elections, some carried out by militant cells trained in Iran, the U.S. general in command of the southern half of the country said on Thursday.
SANA – The U.S. on Thursday expressed relief over information that two US journalists, missed in Lebanon a week ago, were found safe in Syria. A source at the Syrian Foreign Ministry stated that the Syrian security authorities have detained two American nationals for entering Syria this morning through the northern Syrian-Lebanese borders illegally with the help of a smuggler. The source added that the Syrian specialized security authorities is interrogating them currently to know how they entered Syria without obtaining the required visas and they will be delivered to the US. embassy in Damascus after the conclusion of the necessary procedures.
NOW Lebanon – Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera said that Iran has sent and intelligence agency officer, Mohammad Rida Zahidi, to replace the Hezbollah chief Imad Mughniyah who was assassinated in Damascus in February. Lebanese sources told the paper that Zahidi was responsible for the committee in charge of protecting Tehran’s major figures and was the second secretary in the Iranian embassy in Lebanon between 1998 and 2000.
Al Arabiya – The Egyptian police arrested nine members of the banned-Muslim Brotherhood group Wednesday at a house in the northern Egyptian governorate of Daqahliya, a police official said. All of them work in the media. “They were arrested while having a meeting at the house of one of them,” the security source said.
Asharq Al Awsat - Informed Fatah sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that some of his [Salim Thabit, the senior official in Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Brigades and commander of the Imad Mughniyeh groups] men were trained by Hezbollah elements and that Thabit personally traveled several times to Lebanon and Iran. Thabit commented on this by saying “I was with them during the recent war.” When asked whether he took part in that war he answered: “No, I was just a tourist.” The support that Thabit and his men are receiving from Hezbollah is considerable and reaches hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Human Rights Watch – Jordan should end routine and widespread torture in its prisons, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Human Rights Watch called on the government to overhaul mechanisms for investigating, disciplining and prosecuting abusers, and in particular to transfer prosecutor’s investigations into prison abuse from police to civilian prosecutors.

A Marine assigned to the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit leaps from the starboard aircraft elevator of the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima into the Arabian Sea during a swim call. The 26th MEU and ships of the Iwo Jima expeditionary Strike Group are supporting maritime security operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (photo by Cpl. Aaron Rock)

Iran

Tehran Times – Russia’s arms-export giant has reportedly denied plans to equip Iran and Syria with the powerful S-300 surface-to-air defense system.
Newsweek – The White House has faced several setbacks in its attempts to extradite Iranians accused of illegally seeking arms and military equipment for Tehran.
Press TV – Deputy Commander of the IRGC’s Naval Force Ali Fadavi has said Iran’s unmanned vessels will play a significant role in the Persian Gulf.
AKI – Iran’s inflation rate reached 29.4 percent in September, a 4 percent rise from August, Iran’s central bank Markazi announced on Thursday. Surging food prices and high housing costs are believed to be some of the reasons for the country’s soaring inflation, Iranian media reports said.
AKI – Tehran’s City Council has voted unanimously for a proposal to dedicate a street in the Iranian capital to slain Lebanese militant Imad Mughniyeh. Imad Mughniyeh was the intelligence chief and commander of Hezbollah’s secretive military wing, the Islamic Resistance. He was killed in a bombing in Syrian capital Damascus on 13 February 2008.
Joshua Goodman – Iranian leadership, however, view the decline in the price of oil with great concern. Speaking at the Second International Gas Conference in Tehran, a gathering that includes leading oil and gas producers, Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari called on OPEC members to stabilize prices at over $100 a barrel. “A price of US$100 and below is not suitable for anybody, neither oil producers nor oil consumers… OPEC members need to respect their output quota to avoid a worsening of the oversupply.”

South Asia

UK MoD – At the same time as Prince Harry’s presence in Afghanistan earlier this year was gaining all the media attention a group of gunners were mounting the British Army’s longest recorded desert patrol since the Second World War.
AFPS – Afghan national security forces and coalition forces killed numerous militants and detained two others in operations yesterday, military officials reported. In the Shaheed Hasas district of Oruzgan province, a combined Afghan-coalition force killed 12 militants during a combat security patrol. Coalition forces conducted operations in Khowst and Ghazni provinces, killing one militant and detaining two suspected militants, while targeting the Haqqani and al-Qaida terrorist networks.
McClatchy – The highest-ranking U.S. military officer warned Thursday that the situation in Afghanistan will likely get worse next year and that it will take time to turn it around because it has been headed in “the wrong direction” for the last two years.
IRIN – Afghanistan faces a deficit of two million tonnes of staple food – primarily wheat flour and rice – to feed millions of vulnerable people in the coming six months, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) has said.
AP – Bombings killed 10 people and wounded at least four in Pakistan on Thursday, including an attack in a police complex in the capital the same day lawmakers huddled for a private briefing on the militant threat facing the country. The deaths happened in the nation’s volatile northwest.
NY Times – A suicide bomber’s blast targeting police headquarters in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, wounded eight people on Thursday, the police said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility and it was unclear if the bomber had died in the explosion.
Geo – A suspected US missile strike on a house in tribal area-bordering Afghanistan killed nine people including six foreign militants on Thursday, security officials said.
MEMRI – Maulana Fazlullah, the head of the Taliban in the Swat district of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, has said that political and non-political personalities in Pakistan will not be targeted by the Taliban if they do not support the military operation, according to a report in the Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Jang.
Times of India – In a major success, a top Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant was among two ultras killed by the Army on Thursday in a fierce gunbattle in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir. The JeM’s “operational chief” ‘Pasha’ and another unidentified militant was killed in a joint operation by 22 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and Special Operation group (SOG) in Warpora area of Sopore tehsil, a senior Army official said.
CNN – A Sri Lankan government minister narrowly escaped injury Thursday when a suicide bomber in a car detonated explosives, police said. Two of the minister’s bodyguards were hurt in the blast, which occurred in a southern suburb of the capital city, Colombo. The minister, Maithripala Sirisena, heads the agriculture department. He is also the secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, a partner in the ruling coalition.

Far East & Pacific

Khaleej Times – North Korea on Thursday barred access for U.N. nuclear monitors to any part of its Yongbyon atomic complex in another step towards reversing a 2007 deal to scrap its atomic bomb programme, diplomats said. ‘The monitors were told that as of today, they are out, no more access permitted to any facilities in Yongbyon. But as of now they are still in their guesthouse on the premises,’ said a senior diplomat close to the watchdog IAEA.
NPR – There has been hope and speculation that Asian countries, particularly China, might step in and buy stakes in failing U.S. financial institutions. China is the world’s fastest growing economy, and it has the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves. But for now, China is not expected to rush to the rescue.
AFP – A Thai court dropped charges of insurrection Thursday against the main leaders of a protest movement bidding to topple the government, two days after the worst street unrest in Bangkok for 16 years.
Bua News – The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Standing Committee has confirmed Japan and China as suitable importing countries for South Africa’s stockpiled ivory. The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism on Thursday confirmed that the international body, following careful review, has accredited Japan and China to import the precious commodity for the once-off sale.

Europe

Times Online – The only surviving terrorist from the Iranian embassy siege is to be freed within days amid Foreign Office fears that his release will trigger a diplomatic row with Iran. Fowzi Badavi Nejad will be freed from an open prison and allowed to stay in the UK despite Iran wanting his return to Tehran to face trial for the murder of two hostages killed during the siege.
ISN – Despite orders from the international Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg, Bosnian police arrest a local Wahhabi leader while they decide on the extradition of a man they consider a national security threat.
Washington Post – The government of Iceland on Thursday seized control of the country’s largest bank, the third bank takeover this week, and suspended trading on the stock market, as the North Atlantic island nation grapples with an unprecedented financial meltdown that has made it the first national casualty of the global economic crisis.

Africa

NATO – At the request of the United Nations, Ministers agreed that NATO will contribute to deter piracy in the waters off the coast of Somalia. In this context, NATO will provide a number of ships from the Alliance’s Standing Naval Maritime Group to patrol the waters off the coast of Somalia and escort ships carrying food supplies for the World Food Programme. In this mission, NATO will also coordinate with other organizations, including the European Union.
Reuters – An unidentified aircraft bombed an Islamist rebel stronghold in central Somalia on Thursday, witnesses said, but it was not immediately clear if there were any casualties. U.S. forces have launched several airstrikes inside Somalia in recent months against al Shabaab insurgents who have been fighting Somalia’s weak Western-backed interim government and its Ethiopian military allies since the start of last year.
Dr. Michael Weinstein – A closed source on the ground in Somalia,who is conversant with the country’s political dynamics, reports a marked shift in its power configuration, as sub-clan loyalties increasingly supplant broader alliances and coalitions in the face of an expected and imminent withdrawal of Ethiopian occupation forces
Stars and Stripes – The head of U.S. Africa Command isn’t concerned by recent funding cuts in his fiscal 2009 budget, insisting it won’t affect the set-up and operations of the new command. President Bush had requested $389 million to fund AFRICOM in fiscal 2009, but Congress approved only $266 million in its budget plans last month.
BBC – Forces loyal to rebel leader Laurent Nkunda have taken a major army base in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, UN peacekeepers have confirmed. The UN peacekeeping force Monuc said rebels seized weapons and supplies after overrunning the strategically important camp of Rumangabo overnight.
UN – The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has not been able to confirm persistent reports of incursions by Rwandan troops into the eastern part of the vast country where they are said to be fighting alongside rebels.

Pirates leave the merchant vessel MV Faina for the Somali shore on Oct. 8, while under observation by a U.S. Navy ship. The Belize-flagged cargo ship is owned and operated by Kaalbye Shipping, Ukraine, and is carrying a cargo of Ukrainian T-72 tanks and related military equipment. The ship was attacked seized by pirates on Sept. 25 and forced to proceed to anchorage off the Somali coast. (photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Jason R. Zalasky)

The Global War

WSJ – The U.S. pushed NATO allies Thursday to order their troops to target Afghanistan’s heroin trade to stem the flow of drug money to the widening insurgency against the international military mission. Surging violence has cast doubt on whether Western forces can win the war against the Taliban. NATO’s top commander believes one way to hit back is cutting the estimated $100 million-a-year the Taliban and their al Qaeda allies receive from Afghanistan’s heroin industry.
Heritage Foundation – For more than a decade, the U.S. Navy has invested significant time and resources in designing a multipurpose destroyer, the DDG-1000 Zumwalt, to provide superior naval surface fire support, area anti-air warfare, and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) in the littorals. However, during testimony on July 31, 2008, Navy leaders rescinded their support for the President’s fiscal year (FY) 2009 budget request for a third DDG-1000 and advocated “truncating” the program.

Sights & Sounds

ANU – This lecture starts by briefly defining the middle power and its role in the regional system. The security environment that the Korean peninsula is facing is later introduced including the North Korean nuclear weapons problem, the rise of China, and human security issues. Korea’s foreign policy postures both at bilateral and multilateral levels is also provided. The lecture concludes with a brief introduction of Korea’s alliance strategy, policy toward North Korea, policy toward neighbouring countries, and it’s leadership role in the Asia-Pacific multilateralism