Saudi Blasts: More Than Meets the Eye/ATimes--New World Media Watch

[Gloria]

Full excerpts, links up NOW at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com

WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR NOVEMBER 12, 2003

1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--SAUDI BLASTS: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE (A more convincing explanation for the presence of the neutralized cell in the pilgrimage area is that it was there not to carry out a terrorist strike against the pilgrims, but to facilitate the transit of jihadi terrorists from and to their places of training or their areas of operation… It is unlikely that the objective of this cell was to target the pilgrims, which would have alienated them from al-Qaeda and the IIF. It is similarly difficult to accept at present that the car bomb which killed the foreign Sunni workers at the Riyadh housing complex was designed to deliberately kill them. A more convincing explanation is that the real targets were - either the members of the Saudi ruling families or foreign diplomats and their families - elsewhere. There is reason to believe that the car bomb fitted with the explosives was being taken to the housing complex to be kept there before being taken to the real target. The explosion seems to have been caused by accident or by the interception of the vehicle by the security guards at the complex.)



2//The Dawn, Pakistan--‘NO CONTROL OVER SEVEN DISTRICTS IN ZABUL’ (US forces have launched a fresh operation against anti-coalition forces in northeastern Afghanistan while the deputy governor of a southeastern province conceded that Afghan authorities have lost control of at least seven of the province's districts…Meanwhile, deputy governor of the southeastern Zabul province Mawlawi Mohammad Omar, said areas over which officials lost control, were being controlled by tribal chiefs and elders, rather than the resurgent Taliban forces.)



3//The Chosun Ilbo, South Korea--DISPATCH CALL SAID LEANING TO COMBAT TROOPS(Cha Young-goo, the Defense Ministry policy chief, said Tuesday considering the dispatch of additional troops to Iraq that the approach focusing on sending only medical and engineering personnel "had some limitations." A comprehensive approach to take charge of a certain area in Iraq was desirable, he said…Cha, who participated in the U.S.-Korea assistant deputy ministers meeting held in Washington last week, said that Washington, as it had done in September, was still asking Korea to send 3,000-5,000 mainly combat forces, or a contingent much like the one Poland has sent, and that it expected more for Korea…. Iraqis said that if Korea sends more troops they would prefer noncombatants supporting a reconstruction mission, and that its security duties should be openly and independently run, being differentiated from that of the United States.)



4//Mena Report Newsletter, Jordan--CHALABI PLAYS FAVORITES IN THE GAME OF IRAQI RECONSTRUCTION (Nepotism is gaining momentum in Iraq as businessmen with close ties to US-endorsed opposition leader Ahmad Chalabi win large contracts in support of the nation’s reconstruction effort. Associates of the prominent member of the Iraqi Governing Council have recently been awarded substantial telecom and security contracts…According to Iraqi and US businessmen, the influence of nepotism on Iraqi reconstruction ventures is discouraging foreign companies from pursuing deals in the Arab state. It is further tarnishing the image of an initiative already criticized for being dominated by politically connected US firms such as Halliburton and the Bechtel Group.)



5//The Moscow Times, Russia--KHODORKOVSKY DENIED BAIL BY COURT (Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man and the former head of Yukos, will remain in jail at least until Dec. 30, the Moscow City Court ruled Tuesday as it rejected an appeal to let him out on bail… Yury Korgunyuk, a political analyst with the Indem think tank, said Khodorkovsky would only have been released if Putin had intervened and personally instructed the Prosecutor General's Office not to "pressure" the court. But Khodorkovsky has become a much more daunting political animal since his incarceration and this kept Putin from stepping in, said Yevgeny Volk, the head of Heritage Foundation…James Fenkner, head of research at Troika Dialog, added: "If he is let out before the elections, could you imagine the political fight that might ensue? Releasing a wounded but enormously rich antagonist into the wilds of Russian politics could be destabilizing.")

[0007]

1. How long is this gonna go, 'eh?

"4//Mena Report Newsletter, Jordan--CHALABI PLAYS FAVORITES IN THE GAME OF IRAQI RECONSTRUCTION (Nepotism is gaining momentum in Iraq as businessmen with close ties to US-endorsed opposition leader Ahmad Chalabi win large contracts in support of the nation’s reconstruction effort. Associates of the prominent member of the Iraqi Governing Council have recently been awarded substantial telecom and security contracts…According to Iraqi and US businessmen, the influence of nepotism on Iraqi reconstruction ventures is discouraging foreign companies from pursuing deals in the Arab state. It is further tarnishing the image of an initiative already criticized for being dominated by politically connected US firms such as Halliburton and the Bechtel Group.)"



Ahmad Chalabi, an American-trained financier who has close ties to senior Pentagon officials and is a prominent member of the council, the U.S.-appointed interim government in Iraq.

U.S. authorities insist that ties between business and government officials have not tainted any contracts. "We're following all the standard federal rules" in awarding U.S. contracts, said a Pentagon official, who asked to remain unidentified.

[seemslikeadream]

2. Chalabi's PR firm is Burson Marsteller

Burson-Marsteller is working to enhance the credibility of the Iraqi National Congress as it seeks to establish itself as a legitimate force in postinvasion Iraq," writes the HolmesReport, a PR trade pubilcation . B-M has been working with the Congress, led by highprofile Iragi exile Ahmed Chalabi, since 1999, under a state department contract... "we've been the communications vehicle on the outside as the INC moved into northern Iraq, then into Nasiriya, and to Bagdad,'K. Riva Levinson, who heads the INC account for Burson out of Washington, told reporters, 'We were helping the INC get out statements and videos that made clear that the exiled opposition was consolidating and moving. It's been a tremdous ride for them and for us."

Corpwatch UK writes, "Burson Marsteller (B-M) is one of the largest public relations agencies in the world and also the most reviled due to its mercenary attitude in choosing clients and contracts, and its frequent run ins with its industry clients to escape envirnomental legislation or sprucing up the image of some of the most repressive governments on Earth, B-M brings to bear state of the art techniques in manipulating the mass media, legislators and public opinion."

The company has represented deposed Romanian despot Nicolae Ceaucescu, the repressive Indonesian and Nigerian governments, Union Carbide after the Bhopal disaster, Monsanto, Phillip Morris and GlaxoSmithKline.

B-M was hired by the Saudi government immediately following 9/11 to spin that country's complicity in the terrorist act.
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