New Twist in the Afghanistan Story/A Times--New World Media Watch

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


WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR JUNE 16, 2004

1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--NEW TWIST IN THE AFGHANISTAN STORY (And now the war is intensifying. One clue: there are 20,000 US soldiers in Afghanistan today. Two months ago there were 13,500. Another sign is that the US television networks have also returned. They left practically as soon as the B-52s had done their job, the Taliban government was overthrown, and Hamad Karzai was brought back from his exile in the US to serve as interim president…Why have the US media returned to Afghanistan? "I don't know why, but they think Osama bin Laden is about to be captured," says UN spokesman Manoel de Almeyda, a Brazilian national. That is another thing keeping Bush awake at night: he wants bin Laden captured before the November elections in the US.)



2//The Jordan Times, Jordan--US HELPING NORTH AFRICAN NATIONS TRACK DOWN EXTREMISTS (The United States is giving advice, training and information to north African states to help them track down extremists in the vast Sahara Desert, according to high-ranking officials and the press in Morocco and the United States… And according to articles in the US press, the desert, which stretches from Africa's eastern Horn region across the top of the continent to the Atlantic coast, has become a "new Afghanistan," where extremist groups move about freely…In late 2002, Washington launched the Pan Sahel initiative, aimed at helping "Mali, Niger, Chad, and Mauritania in detecting and responding to suspicious movement of people and goods across and within their borders through training, equipment and cooperation," according to the US State Department…There are also plans afoot to extend the initiative to take in Senegal and other African states.)



3//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy--KURD UNREST SPREADS TO SYRIA (Kurds within Syria are beginning to demand increasing recognition in the face of the autonomy enjoyed by Kurds within Iraq… Syrian officials fear the new demands could lead to a push for Kurd autonomy or even to Kurds breaking away to join an Iraqi Kurdistan…The Syrian government's concerns are reinforced by the fact that Kurds live in the area that is the source of most oil and gas resources. The area, a fertile plain between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, is known locally as Al Jazeera, or The Island.)



4//The Daily Yomiuri, Japan--SDF TO HAVE AUTONOMY IN IRAQI MISSION/WILL BE ALLOWED TO REJECT REQUESTS FROM INTL FORCE (Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Tuesday the Self-Defense Forces would participate in a multinational peacekeeping force in Iraq subject to four conditions, which include a stipulation that they maintain their own chain of command, government sources said…According to the sources, Koizumi said at an informal morning meeting with Cabinet ministers that the SDF would be allowed to join the multinational force subject to the four preconditions--the SDF would maintain its own chain of command; would operate only in noncombat zones; would operate within the scope of the special law supporting the reconstruction of Iraq; and would not be involved in the use of force.)



5//The Independent, UK--POWER STRUGGLE AS FRENCH UNIONS STAGE SERIES OF NATIONWIDE BLACKOUTS (Nicolas Sarkozy, the ambitious French Finance Minister, found himself embroiled in a power struggle yesterday that he would probably prefer to avoid. Unions in the power industry organised politically targeted blackouts and demonstrations across the country to protest against what they claim are stealthy plans to "privatise" the state-owned electricity and gas companies, EDF and GDF.)

It didn't seem to have much staying power, in terms of political lift, so Ossama might be in the cards. I don't know if it would matter much at this stage. Many people might say, "why didn't he just do that in the first place, instead of getting us embroiled in this Iraq quagmire?".

That way, the corporate crony networks have a super way to quash any coverage.

Good catch.

:kick: