Full exerpts, links up now at
http://www.zianet.com/insightanalyticalTomorrow at Buzzflash.com
WORLD MEDIA WATCH For September 8, 2003
1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--UN GAINS THE UPPER HAND (…the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who normally report only through the secretary of defense, have established an independent line to Powell in recent weeks to circumvent the Pentagon's civilian leadership. Long skeptical of the hawks' optimism about the plans for postwar Iraq, the uniformed military appears to have moved toward open revolt against Rumsfeld and chief deputies Paul Wolfowitz and Under Secretary for Defense for Policy Douglas Feith…Worse, the military has long known what the Congressional Budget Office reported this week: the current troop presence in and around Iraq - about 180,000 soldiers - will be unsustainable in two months' time unless Washington recruits a bigger army or reduces its commitments elsewhere.)
2//The Jordan Times, Jordan-- TURKEY REPORTS PROGRESS IN TALKS ON IRAQ TROOPS, BUT WORRIED OVER KURDS (Turkish and US military officials, who met here Thursday, agreed that the Turkish army would be given a separate sector under its own command if Ankara decided to contribute peacekeepers to war-torn Iraq, Anatolia news agency quoted Gul as saying… Eager to mend fences over its failure to back the war in Iraq, the Turkish government is willing to send up to 10,000 troops to Iraq, but it has yet to take a formal decision. Such a move will also require the approval of parliament, where many legislators have expressed vocal opposition to the plan amid an equally hostile sentiment in the public opinion. To allay the misgivings of its sole Muslim NATO ally, Washington faces two uphill tasks — to take action against an estimated 5,000 Turkish Kurd rebels in hiding in northern Iraq and convince the Iraqi leadership — particularly the Iraqi Kurds — that neighbouring Turkey could help stabilise their country.)
3//The Toronto Star, Canada--AFGHAN MOUNTAIN PATROLS TO GO ON (Canadian troops will continue mountain reconnaissance missions because resistance will likely escalate around the Afghan capital even though there have been no attacks since June 7, says Canada's top soldier here…However, Leslie acknowledged leadership at the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, anticipates incidents will resume as the weather moderates…Yet he said allies have confirmed smaller groups of threes and fours are poised on the Afghanistan border with the intent to conduct suicide attacks on U.S. and ISAF forces in the country…Leslie said some incursions in Paktika and Paktia provinces just south of Kabul have numbered up to 300 at a time. Attacks and other incidents have been steadily creeping closer to Kabul in recent weeks.)
4//The Australian, Australia--N KOREANS’ ‘MASS DEFECTIONS’ PLANS (North Koreans will attempt to defect en masse to Australia's embassy and two consulates in China this week as Australia becomes the focus of a campaign to bring down the Pyongyang Government with a flood of high-level asylum-seekers, a human rights activist warned yesterday. Joint naval exercises between Australia and the US set for next weekend to practise intercepting North Korean and other ships, plus tomorrow's 55th anniversary of North Korea's founding, create a "live opportunity" for defections targeting Australia, said Norbert Vollertsen, a German doctor leading a campaign for mass North Korean defections to the West.)
5//The Moscow Times, Russia--YOUNGER VOTERS ARE SEEING RED (Despite a common perception that the Communist Party is a party of pensioners and that it will one day die out along with its members, thousands of young people like Melnik are filling its ranks, and the average age of party members is actually declining. If in 1993 the average age of party members was 60, in 2003 it was down to 55, according to the Communists' data. Of the 18,000 people who joined the party in 2002, 50 percent were aged 30 to 40, and 30 percent were under 30. Thus 80 percent of new members last year were under 40…The new members do not necessarily share the Communist ideology, Pribylovsky and other analysts and sociologists said. For most of them, joining the party is a way of expressing their opposition to the current social and political system, and a desire for a normal life.)
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