US Exit May Lead To Iraqi Civil War--Sydney MH/ New WMW

[Gloria]

Excerpts, links up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflashc.om


WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR NOVEMBER 19, 2003

1//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--US EXIT MAY LEAD TO IRAQI CIVIL WAR (As the insurgency ran amok, Bremer last week realised he had crashed into the brick wall of Iraqi politicking. Try as he might, he could not get the Iraqi Governing Council, hand-picked by Washington, to complete the simple task of appointing a panel to draft a national constitution.The Shiites, a 60-plus per cent majority in Iraq, had dug in their heels, insisting that membership of the panel should be by election. Needless to say, they knew they had the numbers… The American collapse was a staggering win for the Shiites…It seems that many of us who rated the exile-dominated council as ineffectual misjudged it - what was seen as an inability to transact any business now seems to have been a stubborn refusal, which has forced Bush and Bremer deeper into the dangerous "don't know" territory that has bedevilled their Iraq adventure.)



2//The Independent, UK--UN ORDERS AFGHAN RETREAT TO PROTECT AID STAFF (The United Nations refugee agency began pulling foreign staff out of southern and eastern Afghanistan yesterday - a decision that could hit tens of thousands of Afghans - after a French aid worker was killed. Thirty foreign workers were being withdrawn, and refugee centres in the provinces of Nangarhar, Paktia, Khost and Kandahar were being closed…)



3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--SAUDI RULERS DRAW THE WRONG LINE (Prince Nayif has used the terrorist attacks of May and November to give urgency and priority to the issue of security rather than political reform. He has interpreted the meaning of security to mean stability. In the process of cracking down on terrorist cells, he has ordered the arrest of scores of political activists who are demanding political reform and challenging the grip of the monarchy. He has unleashed the powers he has as chief of intelligence and police to undermine the reformist movement. It is therefore likely that the current "threat from terrorism" and the aggressive security campaign that is under way in Saudi Arabia will further slow down the already glacial pace at which the royals were addressing the reform issue. This will only strengthen the hand of extremists like al-Qaeda.)



4//The Moscow Times, Russia--YUKOS, MARKET SUFFER NEW HITS (The Duma, meanwhile, passed new measures that swept aside limits on duties on oil product exports that Yukos had lobbied for in its more powerful days. Instead, in a move that will allow the government to tighten control over exports and that comes just one day after President Vladimir Putin slammed the limits, the government was granted free rein to impose stiffer duties on these products… Despite repeated assurances from the Kremlin that the five-month legal assault against Yukos is a one-off affair, investors just are not buying it anymore, analysts said. "Investors are not prepared to trust anyone in this market, including Putin," said Roland Nash, chief equity strategist at Renaissance Capital. "Putin looks like he's giving different signals to different people.)



5//The Daily Star, Lebanon--BLOODY BATTLE FOR OIL AT HEART OF SUDAN PEACE TALKS(After almost two years of difficult negotiations, peace talks to end Sudan’s 20-year-old civil war have finally reached the heart of the matter: the sharing of wealth, ­ most critically, revenue from the largely untapped oil reserves that are the main objective of the war and the greatest remaining obstacle to peace. The talks in the Kenyan rift valley town of Naivasha adjourned last month until Nov. 30. With the United States pushing hard for an agreement in Sudan, desperate for a foreign policy success to offset its growing problems in Iraq, some government sources have suggested that the timetable could be brought forward… The issue of wealth-sharing will be discussed against the backdrop of publication, on Nov. 25, of a 754-page critique of international involvement in oil exploration and production. The report by the US-based human rights organization Human Rights Watch, Sudan, Oil, and Human Rights, is expected to recommend that foreign companies suspend their operations until steps are taken, by the companies and the government of Sudan, to end the abuses that surround the exploration and production of oil.)

[Jacobin]

1. Gee. Who could have imagined? Its only what EVERYBODY

who opposed this idiotic adventure said would happen, including The Chimpanzee's own FATHER, in his BOOK

[burrowowl]

2. Well

War against U$ or Civil War? That is the question!

[Gloria]

3. What was interesting to me was the comment about the Council...

the politics of it, the Shiites....not ineffectual, but "stubborn refusal"...in other words, they got the US to cave....