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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

US cables claim Turkish PM Erdoğan has eight Swiss bank accounts

Monday, November 29, 2010
ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

If Turkish-U.S. relations manage to remain unscathed by American officials’ descriptions of senior figures in Ankara as “dangerous,” the damage might still be done by their claims about the Turkish prime minister’s personal assets.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s financial assets and the way he made “his fortune” were the subjects of two of the cables sent by the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, documents leaked as part of a release late Sunday by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.

“We have heard from two contacts that Erdoğan has eight accounts in Swiss banks; his explanations that his wealth comes from the wedding presents guests gave his son and that a Turkish businessman is paying the educational expenses of all four Erdoğan children in the U.S. purely altruistically are lame,” Eric Edelman, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey, wrote in a cable sent to Washington on Dec. 30, 2004.

Edelman, who has been outspoken in his criticism of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, argued that the widespread corruption would be an important factor that could degrade Erdoğan’s ability to run the country.

In a separate cable sent in July 2004, Edelman claimed that “an anonymous source told [him] that Erdoğan and [the source] benefited directly from the award of the Tüpraş privatization to a consortium including a Russian partner.”

The Turkish Petroleum Refineries Corporation, or Tüpraş, is the state petroleum refinery. A Russian-Turkish consortium paid nearly $1.3 billion for the privatization of the country’s largest-capacity refinery in 2004.

“[The] AKP rode to power on the common citizens’ revulsion against corruption. Charges that Erdoğan amassed his fortune through kickbacks as mayor of Istanbul have never been proven, but we now hear more and more from insiders that close advisors such as private secretary Hikmet Bulduk, Mücahit Arslan and Cüneyd Zapsu are engaging in wholesale influence peddling,” Edelman said in the cable.

Another claim by the ambassador put prominent AKP officials in the spotlight; Edelman listed former ministers Abdülkadir Aksu, Kürşat Tüzmen and Istanbul provincial chairman Mehmet Müezzinoğlu as the most corrupt politicians in Turkey.

Source: Hürriyet.
Link: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=us-cables-argue-erdogan-has-eight-accounts-in-swiss-banks-2010-11-29.

WikiLeaks reveals reality of Abbas & Egypt

29-11-2010,14:17

Al Qassam website- Famous WikiLeaks website revealed on Sunday November 28th a shameful documents exposing the dirty role of Abbas, the senior leader of Fatah movement and the Egyptian government in the Zionist war on Gaza 2008-2009.

WikiLeaks revealed that Zionist occupation forces (ZOF) has cooperated with Abbas and Egypt before the Zionist war against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Most of the documents simply confirm reports previously published in media by Hamas and Palestinian media sources, but the significance of the leaked cables is that they offer hard evidence.

It is generally assumed that Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, would be happy with any Israeli action that would weaken Hamas.

Documents of WikiLeaks explained why Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas was silent during the Zionist war on Gaza in 2008-2009.

In telegrams to U.S. deputy ambassador Luis Moreni, Occupation Minister Ehud Barak “explained that the GOI [government of Israel] had consulted with Egypt and Fatah prior to Operation Cast Lead(war on Gaza) , asking if they were willing to assume control of Gaza once "Israel" defeated Hamas.”

Barak added that the answers were “not surprisingly” in the negative. The crowded and poor Gaza region has been considered an unwanted area even before the Six-Day War in 1967 when it was part of Egypt, which happily refused offers to take it back, WikiLeaks revealed.

All previous evidences provided by the Hamas movement relating to Zionist war on Gaza confirm that Abbas authority and Egypt were aware of the Zionist war that what so-called "Israel" intending to wage against the innocent people in Gaza at that time.

No doubt that Egypt and Abbas played an essential role in consulting the Zionist occupation who committed bloody massacres against the civilians in Gaza, and now their hands are stained with the blood of the Palestinians in Gaza.

Source: Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades - Information Office.
Link: http://www.qassam.ps/news-3844-WikiLeaks_reveals_reality_of_Abbas__Egypt.html.

Somali parents panic over missing children

Monday 29 November 2010
Muhyadin Ahmed Roble, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya

Dozens of Somali children were lured away from the safety town of Nairobi to fight back in Somalia in August this year, AfricaNews has uncovered. Parents said in different interviews that 13 Somali children disappeared between 11 and 23 August, triggering the worst panic among Somali parents in Nairobi.

Some of them vanished from their homes in South C and South B in Nairobi, where most of Somalis from abroad and rich families live.

Sources indicated that some of the children were recruited from their Islamic Schools in Nairobi. They were all aged between 13 and 20 years who were born in Mogadishu originally and recently came to Kenya.

AfricaNews indentified some of the disappeared children as two brothers Ali and Osman Jama. The others are Abdul karim Nur, Ayanle Ahmed, Abdirahman Ali, Ahmed Elmi, Fuad Omar, Hassan Ahmed and Abdullahi Mohamed.

A widowed mother Anab Osman is one of the parents brave enough to share full details about her elder son Abdullahi Mohamed. He was aged 10 years old when his family fled from their house in Mogadishu in 2007.

Her husband who was a teacher at a private school in Mogadishu died after a mortar hit him four years ago. Then she decided to leave the country with her son and three other children.

Sleepless nights

Mohamed aged 13 did not arrive home early on August 14, 2010. When He came home late he told his mother that he was playing a video game with his neighboring friends.

“In the next night (15 August), he did not come home again and his phone was switched off. We called some of his friends and told us that they have not seen him. I didn’t sleep all night, waiting for him,” the mother told AfricaNews.

She said the next morning, she searched for her son in the village and made a report to the police at the Pangani Police station near Eastliegh.

“Five days after, the phone rang. It was my son, calling from Somalia. He said he is in Dhobley – a town near Kenya and Somali border. I felt a bit of joy for hearing his voice but when I asked what he is doing there, he answered ‘I am home to defend my religion and my country. I am going to pull out Allah’s enemy and will be back when we finish all infidels and enemies,’” Anab noted.

She said the line dropped when she probed further to know her son’s intentions.

Other parents have taken it upon themselves to go to troubled Mogadishu in search of their children but to no avail.

Amina is one of such who just returned to her Nairobi base some few days back. She declined to speak to us but one of her relatives Sheikh Ibrahim Moalim Noor, a moderate cleric said Amina was allowed by Al-Shabaab to meet her son but he refused to return with the mum.

Source: AfricaNews.
Link: Unavailable (Interesting)...

SA to use drone against rhino poachers

Monday 29 November 2010
Mtheto Lungu, AfricaNews reporter in Lilongwe, Malawi

South Africa is considering using its national defense force unmanned drone helicopter to "target" rhino poachers, Defense Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said.

The South Africa National Defense Force (SANDF) will get a state weapons company Denel manufactured unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to be used to help SA National Parks (SANParks) catch rhino poachers.

"The issue of rhinos is one we recognize as particularly brutal, and we have committed ourselves to SANParks in dealing with this matter. We also want to take advantage of the fact that Denel has a particular UAV that is able to assist us," she told SAPA.

Sisulu described the UAV as "like a (model) helicopter that your 8-year-old sons use". It is unmanned and able to take photos.

"They say it is so good it is able to detect the color of the poacher's shirt. In the long term we can build on it. We want to develop it to the point where we can target the poacher.

"Initially we might just paint him red and arrest him, but as time goes on we will take more drastic measures," she said, but did not elaborate on what these measures might be.

Source: AfricaNews.
Link: http://www.africanews.com/site/SA_to_use_drone_against_rhino_poachers/list_messages/36305.

Algeria to intensify oil exploration

28 November, 2010

ALGIERS - Algeria will intensify exploration of oil and gas to increase its hydrocarbon reserves, the basis of its economy, and "guarantee the country's energy security in the very long term," said Sunday the Algerian Minister of Energy Youcef Yousfi.

"The Permanent Mission of our industry is to ensure the country's energy security in the very long term and ensure sufficient revenue for its development," said Mr. Yousfi in an interview with APS.

According to the minister, Algeria, which derives 98% of its revenue from oil, plans to increase "its national capacity of oil and oilfield services."

It also intends to emphasize partnership "based on a long-term by multiplying the tender, while being attentive, said the minister, to the evolution of conditions to meet and be able to attract potential investors."

Mr. Yousfi said that despite the current slump in oil and gas markets, state-owned Sonatrach maintained its long-term investments.

Sonatrach group plans to invest up to 2014 some 63 billion dollars to expand its capabilities of gas export.

Mr. Yousfi said that the current gas market in Europe, with an abundant supply of Russia and the arrival of other suppliers on this very buoyant market, where demand is constant, was not likely to endanger the Algerian gas exports.

Algeria is currently providing the European Union about 12% of its natural gas through two pipelines with Italy and Spain, and supplies more important liquefied natural gas (LNG).

A third pipeline, Medgaz, should be commissioned shortly and will deliver to Europe about 8 billion m3 of gas, according to Mr. Yousfi.

Algeria gas exports are expected to reach 100 billion cubic meters by 2015 against 62 billion today, according to official forecasts.

Source: Ennahar.
Link: http://www.ennaharonline.com/en/economy/5277.html.

Sudan boycotts EU-Africa summit in Libya

Monday 29 November 2010
Muhyadin Ahmed Roble, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya

Sudan is boycotting African-European summit that begins in Libya on Monday in protest at EU pressure on President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir not to attend, foreign ministry said. "Mr Bashir will not attend the summit and Sudan pulling out of at any level," said Sudanese foreign Minister Ali Ahmad Kari.

The minister who walked out of the closed door meeting after declaring Khartoum’s decision told reporters that Bashir’s no-show was to avoid embarrassment to Libya that hosting the summit gathering 80 nations.

The minister said the decision was taken "under pressure from Europe" and that he had received instructions to pull out of the pre-summit ministerial talks.

African Union commission president Jean Ping said at the close of the discussions that the Sudanese minister had been "absolutely limpid and clear.

He deplored certain attitudes and notified us that President Bashir will not come," Ping said.

Sudan president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and genocide in Sudan's Darfur province.

The move has isolated Sudan and restricted the movements of the president to friendly nations in the region.

The Sudanese leader denies the charges and denigrates them as part of a Western ploy to topple his regime.

The European Union which strongly backs The Hague-based ICC had asked Libya for assurances that Bashir would not attend.

It seems that Sudan has disappointed that Libya, a considered ally, did not insist that Bashir be invited to the Nov. 29 summit.

The two countries relations have been in a shadow since Tripoli agreed to host Darfur rebel leader Khalil Ibrahim despite Sudan's request that Tripoli expel him.

Speaking in Khartoum after meeting the Sudanese leader, South Africa's former president Thabo Mbeki said Saturday that Bashir has to go there for that summit which will be followed immediately by the summit meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union.

Last year, a Franco-African summit was postponed and moved from Egypt to France after Cairo insisted to invite Al-Bashir that French refused.

Source: AfricaNews.
Link: http://www.africanews.com/site/Sudan_boycotts_EUAfrica_summit_in_Libya/list_messages/36338.

Uganda president visits Somalia

Monday 29 November 2010
Muhyadin Ahmed Roble, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya

Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni was on a brief visit to Somalia on Sunday where thousands of his forces are participating in African Union peacekeeping mission in the capital Mogadishu.

Museveni met his counterpart Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, prime minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed with his cabinet and parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden at the Mogadishu international airport.

He later toured camps of Amisom soldiers and held discussion with mission commanders in Halane, Amisom’s largest base in Mogadishu near the airport.

"I came to check on our troops and also to consult his Excellency President Ahmed. I am very pleased they formed a new government, have a new Prime Minister and are united. Our troops' morale is very high," said the president accompanied by his wife Janet Museveni.

He accused the international community for not taking Somali problem seriously and not providing enough support.

"We want more troops, from Uganda or from anywhere in Africa. Uganda is a country of 33 million people so we could mobilize three million people. But who will pay for it?" the president queried.

His visit was unannounced although the surroundings of the airport - where Al-Shabaab bombers had previously hit a number of times – were under tight security.

It was his first visit to Somalia where six AU peacekeepers were arrested last week for allegedly shooting civilians in Mogadishu.

Uganda and Burundi provide all the 7,200 African Union soldiers in Mogadishu helping a Western-backed government that has failed to expand its authority in the capital.

The two Islamist insurgent groups are controlling most of southern Somalia and much of the capital. The African Union troops are defending only key sites in Mogadishu including the presidency and the airport.

Source: AfricaNews.
Link: http://www.africanews.com/site/Uganda_president_visits_Somalia/list_messages/36337.

Islamic Jihad 'shells' Israeli tanks in Gaza

29/11/2010

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- The armed wing of Islamic Jihad said Monday that it fired several mortar shells at Israeli tanks that entered the Gaza Strip east of the town of Beit Hanoun.

In a statement the group, Al-Quds Brigades, reaffirmed its right to "resist any Israeli aggressions against the Palestinian people."

An Israeli military spokeswoman said, "We're not familiar with the incident."

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=337021.

Israel consulted Egypt, Fatah on Gaza war: WikiLeaks

JERUSALEM — Israel discussed its planned war on Gaza with the Palestinian leadership and Egypt ahead of time, offering to hand them control of the strip if it defeated Hamas, US documents released by WikiLeaks showed.

The attempt to coordinate its devastating offensive against Gaza's Islamist rulers was revealed by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak whose remarks were included in a telegram sent in June 2009 by then deputy US ambassador Luis Moreno.

"He explained that the GOI (government of Israel) had consulted with Egypt and Fatah prior to Operation Cast Lead, asking if they were willing to assume control of Gaza once Israel defeated Hamas," he said, referring to the Fatah party of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

"Not surprisingly, Barak said, the GOI received negative answers from both," it said.

Israel launched its massive offensive, dubbed "Operation Cast Lead," on December 27, 2008 with the stated aim of halting rocket attacks from Gaza.

During the 22-day war, some 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in the fighting. Thirteen Israelis were also killed, 10 of them soldiers.

Barak also "stressed the importance of continued consultations with both Egypt and Fatah," over reconstruction of the tiny coastal enclave which was devastated by the operation.

The Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas have long been bitter rivals, but their divisions came to a head in June 2007 when Hamas drove its Fatah rivals out of the Gaza Strip and seized control of the impoverished territory.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.

Hamas: PA detains 8 supporters

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Hamas movement accused the Palestinian Authority security forces of detaining eight of its members in the West Bank Monday.

In a statement, Hamas said the detentions took place in Nablus and Jenin.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=336936.

Leaked cable: Israel could strike Iran without US help

29/11/2010

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The United States has told France that Israel could strike Iran without US military support but the operation might not be successful, according to a leaked document published Sunday.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates gave his assessment at a meeting on February 8 in Paris with former French defense minister Herve Morin, according to a secret summary of the session that was posted on the WikiLeaks website, part of a massive document dump of classified cables.

Asked by Morin if Israel had the capability to strike Iran without US assistance, Gates "responded that he didn't know if they would be successful, but that Israel could carry out the operation," it said.

But Gates downplayed the value of any military operation against Iran, according to the document.

The American defense secretary told Morin that he "believed a conventional strike by any nation would only delay Iranian plans by one to three years, while unifying the Iranian people to be forever embittered against the attacker," it said.

Gates has made the same point in public remarks, underlining the potential risks of any military action against Iran over its nuclear program and arguing in favor of economic sanctions and diplomacy.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=336949.

'WikiLeaks revelations reflect consistency of Jordan's policies'

By Hani Hazaimeh

AMMAN - Documents pertaining to Jordan released by WikiLeaks on Sunday do not contradict the Kingdom's stated positions on regional issues and reflect only the opinions of US officials, a statement issued by the government on Monday said.

"Jordan's policy on regional issues, which the documents referred to, is clear and has been reiterated publicly by His Majesty King Abdullah in his meetings with US and international officials. This declared policy has been restated by several government officials who alone represent the official positions of Jordan," the statement quoted a government official as saying.

The unnamed official said Jordan has always called for a peaceful diplomatic resolution to the dispute over Iran's nuclear program, and the need to have a Middle East zone free of all weapons of mass destruction, provided that all countries in the region abide by the relevant international laws and conventions in that regard.

The official highlighted "Jordan's consistent position, which has been stressed by the King on multiple occasions, stating the Kingdom's rejection of any military action against Iran, and warning of the disastrous results of such an act on regional security and stability".

"Jordan has always stressed the importance of having relations among nations based on mutual respect and non-interference in the internal affairs of the other, which will ensure good neighborly relations prevail in accordance with these principles," the official said.

With regards to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the official said Jordan's position has and will always remain that the conflict should be resolved on the basis of a two-state solution that ensures the establishment of a viable and independent Palestinian state as part of a comprehensive regional peace.

"These stances and positions are reiterated and made clear in all meetings between Jordanian officials and Americans or any other international officials. Everything indicated or interpreted by the American officials and mentioned in the documents reflect their personal readings and analysis," the statement concluded.

The whistle-blowing organization Wiki-Leaks on Sunday began publishing more than 250,000 US State Department documents on its website and through reports in selected newspapers in the US and Europe.

The documents, which contain confidential correspondence between Washington and US missions around the world, shed unusually bright light on US foreign policy strategy and its communications with the governments of other countries.

Included among the leaked material is alleged correspondence between US Ambassador to Jordan Robert. Beecroft and the State Department in Washington regarding meetings with senior Jordanian officials, as well as those of other US officials visiting the Kingdom.

In a cable sent in April 2009, the leaked document says, Beecroft confirmed the Kingdom’s opposition to US military action against Iran.

“Jordan’s leaders believe such engagement would reward regional hardliners while undermining Arab moderates - without convincing Iran to cease its support for terrorism, end its nuclear program or drop its hegemonic aspirations,” Beecroft was quoted as saying.

“Jordanian officials argue that the best way to counter Iran’s ambitions is to weaken the salience of its radicalism on the Arab street by fulfilling the promise of a ‘two-state solution’, resolving other Arab-Israeli disputes, and making sure that Iraq’s political and security institutions are not overwhelmed by Iranian influence when the US drawdown is complete,” the document continued.

The US government has strongly condemned the publication of the documents by WikiLeaks, and the US embassy in Amman declined to comment on their content.

“As a matter of policy, the Department of State does not comment on allegedly leaked documents,” embassy spokesman Karl Duckworth told The Jordan Times yesterday.

“The disclosure by WikiLeaks of classified information is an irresponsible attempt to wreak havoc and destabilize global security. It potentially jeopardizes lives and we condemn it,” he added.

Shortly before the documents were published on Sunday, the White House press secretary said in a statement made available to The Jordan Times that the release of the documents was “reckless” and put US diplomatic and intelligence staff at risk.

The UK Foreign Office also condemned the unauthorized leak.

Leaks of classified material “can damage national security, are not in the national interest and, as the US has said, may put lives at risk. We have a very strong relationship with the US government. That will continue”, said the statement, a copy of which was sent to The Jordan Times by the UK embassy in Jordan.

30 November 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=32211.

King attends Oman festivities

MUSCAT (Petra) - His Majesty King Abdullah and Sultan Qaboos of Oman on Monday attended part of the official festivities held by Oman on the occasion of its 40th national day.

The festivities included military parades, music and dance performances which were held at Al Fath Square in Muscat.

King Abdullah, who arrived in Oman earlier in the day, is scheduled to hold talks with Sultan Qaboos on bilateral cooperation, regional developments and issues of mutual concern.

During his trip, His Majesty will also visit Bahrain, where he will deliver the keynote address at the “Manama Dialogue” conference on regional security.

In his address, the King will focus on the most important challenges facing the Middle East region.

King Abdullah is accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses Prince Feisal and Prince Ghazi, the King’s special adviser and personal envoy, Royal Court Chief Nasser Lozi and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff Lt. General Mishal Zaben.

Yesterday, HRH Prince Hashem was sworn in as Regent.

30 November 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=32209.

Discovery of 271 undiscovered Picasso works has art world astir

Mon, 29 Nov 2010

Paris - A retired electrician in France has come forth with 271 previously unknown works by Spanish artist Picasso - a claim which, if true, would set the art world astir.

The newspaper Liberation reported Monday that the man, PIerre Le Guennec, 71, claims he purchased the works personally from Picasso. Picasso died in 1973, but his influence looms large in modern art. If the find is authenticated, the pieces could be worth 60 million euros (78.5 million dollars).

The works include nine rare Cubist collages, which would be worth 40 million euros alone, and a portrait of Picasso's first wife, Olga.

Charges that the works are stolen were already filed by Picasso's family in September, reported Liberation. Family members claim Picasso did not like to part from his works and would have never let them leave his workshop without a signature and date.

"It would be unusual for him to just give away that amount of works," Picasso's son Claude told the newspaper. "Many of the pieces are not dated, which means they never should have left my father's workshop."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/355760,works-art-world-astir.html.

Egypt's opposition reports losing seats in election - Summary

Mon, 29 Nov 2010

Cairo - Egypt's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, said Monday that it appears to have lost most of its seats in the lower house of parliament in the previous day's election.

The group, which had 88 seats, was unable to confirm victory in even one constituency.

"This cannot be called an election, this is a farce directed by the regime," Brotherhood spokesman Gamal Nassar told the German Press Agency dpa.

The group, in a claim echoed by human rights groups, alleged that fraud took place, saying many of its supporters were refused entry at polling stations to cast their ballots.

President Hosny Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) appears to have ensured its continued grip over the People's Assembly following the election, which was seen as a key indicator ahead of next year's vote for the presidency.

The Muslim Brotherhood, whose candidates run as independents because the group is outlawed, won nearly a fifth of the total in the People's Assembly in 2005, making it the largest opposition bloc in the 518-member lower house.

A representative of the liberal party al-Wafd said it appeared to have retained its six seats and possibly picked up another.

Sunday's vote was marred by violence which spread into Monday. At least seven people died and dozens were arrested for rioting.

Two people were killed and three injured when a car plowed into a crowd which gathered near a polling station in the eastern Sharqiya province while votes were being counted on Monday.

Passengers inside then took out guns and opened fire on supporters of an independent candidate. The driver was arrested by police, security officials said.

In another incident, the son of a candidate was stabbed to death on Sunday during clashes between supporters of several candidates.

The Interior Ministry said some of the violence was not related to the election itself.

Officials say the two people who attacked the candidate's son have confessed that they came after him for harassing their sister.

Another woman died of diabetes inside a polling station in Alexandria, officials said.

Rights groups meanwhile charged that fraud was rampant.

"The repeated exclusion of opposition representatives and independent monitors from polling stations, along with reports of violence and fraud suggest that citizens were not able to partake in free elections," Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East division, said in Cairo.

"We did not find a single indication across the constituencies that the election process took place in a transparent and fair environment," said Magdy Abdel-Hamid, chairman of the Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement.

The official High Elections Commission said that there were "a limited number of instances of violence" but that the breaches did not undermine the electoral process as a whole.

A group of human rights advocates rejected an official turnout rate of 25 per cent, and said that it was perhaps half that figure showed up to the polls out of Egypt's 42 million eligible voters.

Official results are to be announced on Tuesday, the election commission said. A run-off vote where needed will be held on Sunday.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/355762,seats-election-summary.html.

Palestinians say WikiLeaks documents are proof of transparency

Mon, 29 Nov 2010

Ramallah - A senior Palestinian official said Monday that the latest US documents released on WikiLeaks are proof of the transparency of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

The the confidential papers said Israel tried to coordinate with the PA regarding its December 2008 war on the Gaza Strip, telling the Palestinians to be ready to take over Gaza after Israel defeats Hamas. The Palestinians rejected the Israeli offer, said the documents.

"We are a transparent authority with nothing to hide," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said in statements to the media in Ramallah.

President Mahmoud Abbas, he said, urged Hamas to sign a paper put forward by Egypt in order to avert the Israeli war, which, he said, Abbas was strongly against.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/355766,wikileaks-documents-proof-transparency.html.

Turkey's Erdogan questions WikiLeaks legitimacy - Summary

Mon, 29 Nov 2010

Istanbul - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday downplayed the publication of secret US diplomatic cables that described him as ill-informed and sympathetic to Islamists.

Speaking in Istanbul before traveling to Libya for an Africa- European Union summit, Erdogan said the credibility of the WikiLeaks website that leaked the documents was "questionable", Turkey's news agency reported.

"That's why we are waiting to see what comes from Wikileaks. Then we can evaluate it and give an opinion," he said.

Three international news outlets - the New York Times, Britain's Guardian daily and Germany's Der Spiegel news magazine - began leaking the messages at the same time as Wikileaks.

They show US diplomats as being skeptical about Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development (AKP) party, believing it to be pushing an Islamist agenda, to be ill-informed and advised by a foreign minister with little appreciation of politics outside Ankara, the leaked cables said.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was in Washington Monday to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and said the documents were among the topics. He pledged that no damage had been done in the relationship and that his country would continue to work with the United States on "the same principled foreign policy to achieve regional and global peace."

Davutoglu also was grateful that the United States briefed Turkey days in advance of the release of the documents. Turkey was one of many countries the United States reached out to before the release.

The dispatches were particularly harsh on Davutoglu. He was characterized as "neo-Ottoman" with little awareness of what went on outside Ankara, according to Der Spiegel. A cable quoted a senior Turkish official who told the embassy that Davutoglu exercised Islamist influence on Erdogan and that "he's dangerous."

Clinton did not mention the cables but said the United States and its NATO ally Turkey are committing to strengthening relations.

"Turkey and the United States have one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world," Clinton said. "We are very committed to continuing to strengthen and deepen that relationship."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/355770,wikileaks-legitimacy-summary.html.

Barcelona slaughter Real Madrid in one-sided Clasico and go tops

Mon, 29 Nov 2010

Madrid - Barcelona cruised to the top of the Spanish Liga on Monday by thrashing historic rivals 5-0 in a delighted Camp Nou.

David Villa scored twice for the Catalans, who are now two points above Real. Barca's other goals were put away by Xavi, Pedro and supersub Jeffren. Real had Spain defender Sergio Ramos sent off at the end.

It was the biggest thrashing suffered by Real in Barcelona since 1994 and is their first defeat under new coach Jose Mourinho. Barca have beaten the whites in all five Clasicos since Pep Guardiola was appointed coach in 2008.

Mourinho's tactic of playing with an advanced defense dramatically back-fired on him, as time and again Xavi and Andres Iniesta played through-balls for Villa, Pedro and Lionel Messi to run onto.

Indeed, the result would have been even more embarrassing for the Portuguese coach had it not been for Messi's uncharacteristically wasting several clear chances.

Barca dominated from start to finish, enjoying almost 70 per cent possession. After just six minutes, Messi hit Iker Casillas' far post with a clever curling shot.

The capacity crowd did not have to wait long for the first goal. In the 10th minute Iniesta exquisitely played Xavi through. The veteran playmaker scuffed his first shot but then calmly chipped Casillas to make it 1-0.

Eight minutes later, with the Camp Nou on fire, Villa took a pass from Xavi down the left and skipped past Sergio Ramos. His center was fumbled by Casillas, allowing Pedro to make it 2-0 from close range.

It was men against boys from then on, with Mourinho's young team looking hopelessly out of its depth. The white cause was not helped by Gonzalo Higuain's missing out due to a back injury. This left Cristiano Ronaldo alone in attack and the Portuguese striker looked nervous and overawed by the occasion.

Barca started the second half as they had started the first - with speed, precision and penetration. Villa scored two similar goals within the space of three minutes by finishing calmly after after being played through by Messi on both occasions.

The elegant hosts then eased up, as if not wanted to humiliate Real. But in injury time Jeffren made it 5-0 by turning in a center from fellow substitute Bojan.

The fifth goal caused Ramos to lose his discipline and he was sent off for an awful, needless foul on Messi.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/355794,one-sided-clasico-go-tops.html.

Ahmadinejad urges Lebanese government, Hezbollah to unite - Summary

Mon, 29 Nov 2010

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged the Lebanese government to unite with the militant anti-Israeli group Hezbollah for the common good, the state television network IRIB reported on its website Monday.

"If the Lebanese government and the resistance (Hezbollah) were in one front, then the country could pursue the path of dignity and development and there would be nothing the Zionist regime (Israel) and its allies could do anymore," Ahmadinejad was quoted as having told Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Sunday.

He said all countries should support national unity in Lebanon to ensure security.

Tehran supports the militant Shiite Hezbollah, which leads the opposition in Lebanon. Hariri's government is backed by the West, which regards Hezbollah as a terrorist group.

Divisions have widened after reports that the United Nations- backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Hariri's father, former premier Rafik Hariri, is ready to indict Hezbollah members.

Other Iranian officials also made it clear to Hariri that Tehran would not drop its support for Hezbollah or the group's campaign against Israel.

"The theory of peace in the region has failed and resistance is the only way to confront [Israel]," Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said.

"Resistance and unity are the two main factors for realizing progress in Lebanon and whatever would harm the Lebanese resistance would target the interests of the Lebanese people," Supreme National Security Council Secretary Saeid Jalili told Hariri.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki meanwhile said the "Iran- Lebanon connection would create the optimal cooperation potential."

Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said that Tehran was ready to cover Lebanon's defense needs and also that of Hezbollah.

Hariri on Monday also met with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who also reiterated Iran's support for Hezbollah.

"As long as the criminal Zionist regime (Israel) exists, Lebanon will need the resistance (Hezbollah)," said Khamenei who has the final say on all state affairs in Iran.

"The resistance is the only force the enemies cannot confront and (the government of) Lebanon should therefore appreciate the resistance and further strengthen relations (with Hezbollah)," the ayatollah added.

The Iranian leader further said that Tehran would not hesitate to help Lebanon in any possible way to move towards progress and development.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/355674,hezbollah-unite-summary.html.

Monday, November 29, 2010

WikiLeaks: These documents relate all major subjects of modern world

28 November 2010

The documents have been put online by organization WikiLeaks relate to "all major subjects" in all countries of the world, the founder of the Internet project, Australian Julian Assange, announced on Sunday.

He added his organization has made public secret and confidential documents from more than 100 countries over the past four years. According to WikiLeaks founder, these documents cover a wide range of issues, "from assassinations in East Timor to the behavior of some of the biggest United States private banks".

WikiLeaks Founder told this speaking by a video link to participants of the conference held in the Jordanian capital Amman, organized by the Arab Organization for reporters dealing with investigative journalism.

It was unclear in which country was Assange at the time of the teleconference. He said his visit to Amman was impossible as "Jordan's not the best place to be with the CIA on your tail".

"Over this last month much of my energy and activities have been spent preparing for the upcoming release of a diplomatic history of the United States", Assange said. - Over 250,000 classified cables from US embassies all around the world, and we can see already in the past week or so that the United States has made movements to try to disarm the effect that this could have".

Washington had "contacted the governments of almost every nation on earth to brief them about what some of these embarrassing revelations will do", said WikiLeaks founder.

"They're in a rather unusual difficult position where it is not sure precisely what is going to be revealed. So it has been treading this rather thin line on briefing its allies on what it thinks we are going to reveal", Assange believed.

Julian Assange rejected US State Department's accusations that WikiLeaks actions would endanger the lives of "countless innocent individuals". "This is an organization with a four-year publication history. As far as we are aware, and as far as anyone has ever alleged in any credible manner whatsoever, no single individual has even come to harm as a result of anything that we have ever published", said the project founder.

Late on Sunday site WikiLeaks posted 250 thousand secret diplomatic cables of the United States.

However, the site has undergone a massive DOS attacks and is not accessible.

Meanwhile, five leading publications - The New York Times (USA), Le Monde (France), El Pais (Spain), Spiegel (Germany) and The Guardian (UK) - posted on their web sites materials provided to them by the organization Wikileaks.

Western newspapers have published more than 250 thousand documents. It is clear from them that the US had spied on UN leaders, including Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Classified directives to this were issued in the name of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In particular, as the Guardian wrote, Wikileaks' documents tell about the Russian government's links to organized crime, inappropriate remarks by a member of the British royal family, Pakistan's growing instability, US covert operations against al-Qaeda in Yemen, as well as the efforts of Saudi Arabia to persuade the US to attack Iran in order to destroy its nuclear weapons program.

According to documents, other Arab countries also secretly urged the US to intervene militarily in Iran's affairs.

The materials of Wikileaks also, according to Guardian, contain very unflattering comments by US embassy staff of their host governments around the world, from Caribbean to Russia.

For example, according to British newspaper, Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin in these cables is called "alpha-dog", the Afghan president Hamad Karzai - "driven by paranoia", and German Chancellor Angela Merkel - " risk avoiding and rarely creative".

In one of the cables is a direct comparison between Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Adolf Hitler, and a Russian president Medvedev as "afraid, hesitant".

Here are some excerpts from published classified materials of American diplomacy.

U.S. interests in movements of Kadyrov

U.S. diplomats are interested in movements of Ramzan Kadyrov. This conclusion can be drawn from an analysis of internal documents of the U.S. government.

American diplomats had witnessed the visits of Kadyrov of a wedding of representatives of influential clans in Dagestan. "After the dancing, Ramzan and his army drove off back to Chechnya", says one of these documents.

Diplomats are also interested for what reason Kadyrov did not stay in Makhachkala, a document relating to 2006 says.

Weddings in Dagestan struck U.S. diplomats

U.S. diplomats were surprised by a scale of Dagestani weddings, which is reflected in the internal documents of the U.S. government. The New York Times presents them.

The diplomat tells of drunken guests throwing $100 bills at child dancers, and nighttime water-scooter jaunts on the Caspian Sea.

"The dancers probably picked upwards of USD 5000 off the cobblestones," Americans noted.

"The dancers may have collected up to $5 thousand" - note the Americans.

U.S. believes Russia's bureaucracy ignores Putin

Russian bureaucrats often ignore Putin's edicts, such an opinion has U.S. diplomats.

In their conception of the Russian reality, Putin is the most powerful man in Russia. Thus specifically in this document, Putin is not compared with president Dmitry Medvedev. Nevertheless, according to U.S. diplomats, Putin's power is undermined by an unmanageable Russian bureaucracy that often ignores his edicts.

***

Meanwhile, the administration of U.S. president issued a statement on Sunday in which it attempted to justify the content of internal government documents that were published by website Wikileaks.

The world media, which have access to this leak before the others, noted that the document referred to possible links of the Russian government to the organized crime.

According to the Associated Press, the White House emphasized that the estimates, which were publicized in a leak from Wikileaks, are "often incomplete, and it is not an expression of policy, nor does it always shape final foreign policy decisions of the US".

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2010/11/28/13000.shtml.

Over 250 000 secret U.S. diplomatic documents released by Wikileaks

28 November 2010

Major publications release excerpts from thousands of secret US diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks.

Several major media organizations, including The Guardian and The New York Times, have published detailed reports on a massive trove of leaked US diplomatic cables.

The files address negative perceptions of various world leaders, repeated calls for US attack on Iran, and requests for US diplomats to spy on other countries' officials.

The White House has described the leaks as "reckless and dangerous".

There are several explosive revelations contained within the documents including diplomatic notes detailing how Arab leaders in the Gulf have been urging an attack on "evil" Iran.

The documents reveal serious fears in Washington over the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program.

They also detail advice given to US diplomats on how to gather intelligence and pass information of interest over to the country's spy agencies. According to media reports, senior UN figures were the target of intelligence gathering by US diplomats.

The cache of documents contain allegations of corruption against foreign leaders, who are subjected to stinging criticism in the cables, with Vladimir Putin referred to as an "alpha-dog."

Angela Merkel "avoids risk and is rarely creative", and Hamid Karzai is described as being "driven by paranoia."

World leaders have scrambled to contain the diplomatic fallout in advance of the expected full release by Wikileaks of the full set of cables later on Sunday.

The limited release comes one day after the US state department's lawyer threatened legal action over publication of the confidential material, obtained by an unknown source.

Meanwhile, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has said the release of the classified documents by the whistle-blower website will amount to a "diplomatic history" of global affairs.

"The material that we are about to release covers essentially every major issue in every country," Assange told reporters in Jordan by video link from an undisclosed location on Sunday.

US officials took the unusual step on Saturday of sending a letter to WikiLeaks to warn against the release of the secret government documents, which it says will put "countless" lives at risk.

The letter, from Harold Hongju Koh, the US state department's top lawyer, argued that publishing the classified files would threaten counterterrorism operations and jeopardize US relations with its allies.

"No single individual has even come to harm as a result of anything that we have ever published," Assange said on Sunday.

The classified documents reportedly cover correspondence between US diplomatic missions abroad and the state department in Washington and could reveal "unflattering" views that American officials held about close EU allies and countries like Russia and Turkey.

US diplomats have been visiting foreign ministries hoping to stave off anger over the cables, which are internal messages that often lack the niceties diplomats voice in public.

WikiLeaks has said the newest release will be seven times the size of the October publication of 400,000 Iraq war documents, the biggest leak to date in US intelligence history.

The site also published 77,000 classified US files on the Afghan conflict in July.

'Violation of US law'

In his letter, Koh said the release will "place at risk the lives of countless innocent individuals,'' "place at risk on-going military operations,'' and "place at risk on-going cooperation between countries".

"You have undermined your stated objective by disseminating this matieral widely, without redaction, and without regard to the security and sanctity of the lives your actions endanger," he wrote.

Koh said WikiLeaks should return them to the US government and destroy any copies in its possession or in computer databases.

"They were provided in violation of US law and without regard for the grave consequences of this action,'' he said.

The letter also said the US government would not cooperate with WikiLeaks in trying to scrub the cables of information that might put sources and methods of intelligence gathering and diplomatic reporting at risk.

Steve Clemons, a political strategist and director of the American Strategy Program at New America Foundation, told Al Jazeera that the US reaction to this latest round of leaks has been stronger than in the past because of mainly diplomatic concerns.

"Certainly I wouldn't take it to the level of lives lost on the battlefield. This is essentially diplomatic brouhaha," he said.

"I think also that the content of these documents is a lot about the gossip and innuendo and the nuance ... and there are going to be a lot of embarrassing things that come out of these documents.

"There are be political repercussions of the way foreign leaders are going to read these documents. And in that sense, you're going to see people, ranging from have everyone from [Asif Ali] Zardari In Pakistan, to, I understand, Nelson Mandela of South Africa has had some bad swipes taken at him in these cables."

Whatever the consequences for the US, Clemons said the leaks are highlighting the extent to which governments' reliance on secrecy has become so pervasive.

"Governments have been trying to hide themselves from embarrassment. And I think that's what WikiLeaks is trying to create a market reaction to and trying to change."

'Diplomatic catastrophe'

The document release will contain more than 250,000 cables and 8,000 diplomatic directives - mostly from the last five years.

According to White House sources cited by a correspondent of the US website Politico, none of the documents are classified as 'Top Secret'. But reportedly six per cent are listed as "secret" and 40 per cent as "confidential".

Less than five per cent of the files are about EU nations, according to OWNI, a French news site with a live blog covering the "StateLogs".

Speculation has swirled on the inclusion of cables about US ties to separatist groups in Turkey, perceptions of the UK coalition government, and allegedly corrupt politicians in several countries.

The documents could include reports from officials in Washington and diplomatic posts around the world about issues on which Britain and the US have collaborated closely, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Members of the former Labor administrations of Gordon Brown and Tony Blair were bracing for the flood of millions of documents.

Franco Frattini, Italy's foreign minister, said he did not know the content of the files to be released but warned they would "blow up the relationship of trust between states", according to Italian news agencies.

"It will be the September 11th of world diplomacy," he said, adding that the release would be the product of "a criminal activity that has already been prosecuted in 10 countries, including the United States".

"I hope Italian magistrates will also look into the matter."

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2010/11/28/13001.shtml.

WikiLeaks not afraid of FSB/KGB terrorist threats

28 November 2010

According to a Russian newspaper "Marker", members of terrorist group "FSB Center for Data Security" in an interview with a KGB website, Life News, expressed their willingness to close permanently the world-famous website WikiLeaks.

As for now the Russian ruling "party" KGB/FSB can only effectively close Russian servers, said the KGB website. Fighting foreign websites that threaten the security of KGBist Russia is conducted with varying success.

The spokesman for WikiLeaks Kristinn Hrafnsson in an interview with the "Marker" said the threat by Putinist-Medvedevist terrorist group KGB-FSB does not frighten him.

"KGB/FSB can block access to our site, but materials of our resource are distributed by many other websites, so it is almost impossible to block completely access to our information", said Hrafnsson.

A few days ago, WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said they are going to place on the Internet classified materials related to the political situation in Russia.

In his talk with the "Marker", Kristinn Hrafnsson refused to disclose details on the discrediting evidence about Putinist-Medvedevist Russia collected by the WikiLeaks.

The "Marker" notes that the international terrorist network KGB/FSB have already had experience in dealing with politincorrect Internet sites.

In 1998, a newly created terrorist group "Russian interior ministry's department for fighting crimes in the area of high technologies" managed, literally within two hours, to close down a Russian dissident website "Kogot", accusing its administration of the use of "illegal methods of obtaining information".

However, after the "Kogot" disappeared in Russia, a "Kogot 2" came into being. This time, it was registered in the U.S. It remained on the Internet a bit longer. Nevertheless, a few weeks later, the KGB solved the problem too: "colleagues" from the FBI helped these terrorists.

Some anti-terrorism resources, including the Kavkaz Center, which are hostile to international terrorist network KGB-FSB and "Russian interior Ministry", are still invincible for Russian state terrorism, the newspaper says.

"Thus, a Chechen independent Internet news agency Kavkaz Center demonstrates wonders of survival". The portal had to repeatedly change its country of location: for example, in 2003, the site's server was confiscated by Estonian secret police, acting on the orders of the international terrorist network KGB-FSB.

A year later, the KC server was closed again, because of posting of a Shamil Basayev's statement, this time by the Lithuanian secret police on the order of the same Moscow gang. But then it resumed its operation in Sweden - the servers of WikiLeaks are also located here, the Moscow agency reminds.

"Some Russian Internet providers, acting on the orders of the KGB-FSB, blocked access to the Kavkaz Center, but it can be easily accessed by means of anonymous proxies" (as well as through anonymizers and the "Google Translate" - KC).

A website "Lubyanka's Truth" has been closed by Lubyanka (headquarters of the KGB) this summer, because it published some declassified documents of Russian state terrorists from the KGB-FSB gang. Two weeks after the KGB reported on its closure, Russian state terrorists found out that Egyptian servers of the resource are still available, the "Marker" writes.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2010/11/28/12986.shtml.

Indian idol-worshipers claim two courageous Chechen Mujahideen are fighting in Jihad in Kashmir

28 November 2010

Indian authorities said that Kashmir Mujahideen have drastically intensified their activities in the occupied part of Kashmir, in winter capital Srinagar. The most dangerous, the idol-worshipers say, is a detachment of 90 Mujahideen, against whom the occupiers launched a major military operation.

Indian press reported that two of the Mujahideen were identified as courageous Chechen fighters, according to photographs, stolen from a Kashmiri Mujahid who martyred in recent fightings in northern Kashmir.

Their names are Umar and Usman.

However, occupation authorities and the command of Indian troops refuse to confirm officially a statement about Chechen Mujahideen fighting in Kashmir.

A local occupation ringleader Shiv Murari Sahai, who is the chief of terrorist "police units", told reporters that the information requires further verification.

The Indian press writes that "militants" with Caucasian features fight in the units of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.

Hindustan Times claims that Chechen and Sudanese Mujahideen joined the ranks of Kashmiri fighters in early 1990s. Now, Indian newspaper said, the fighting is conducted mainly by local Mujahideen from Hizbul Mujahideen, while Lashkar-e-Taiba and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen have been "sidelined".

Idol-worshiping authorities and military command of the occupation Indian troops refused to give details on the fightings erupted in Sopore, 55 km from Srinagar.

Idol-worshipers only recognize that new recruits of the Kashmiri Mujahideen are highly motivated and better organized.

It is to be recalled thereupon that with the start of US-NATO military aggression against Afghanistan in 2001 within the framework of the Global War by infidels against Islam, reports regularly appear in mainstream Western, Pakistani and Indian press saying that units of brave Chechen Mujahideen are fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and now in Kashmir.

There were also reports on captures of Chechen fighters. However, no evidence has been ever presented supporting these allegations over the years. Neither martyred nor alive Chechens have been so far seen by anybody there.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2010/11/28/12988.shtml.

Pakistan - China - Iran

Pakistan - China - Iran
Wikileaks Cables: Key Issues

The controversial whistle-blowing site Wilileaks has released a cache of 250,000 secret messages sent by US diplomatic staff. Here are some of the key issues the documents reveal, as reported by the New York Times and Guardian newspapers.

By BBC

November 28, 2010

Pakistan stand-off

The cables show US concern over radioactive material in nuclear power stations in Pakistan, with fears it could be used in terror attacks. They reveal the US has been attempting to remove highly enriched uranium from a research reactor in Pakistan since 2007.

In a May 2009 cable, US ambassador Anne W Patterson says Pakistan had refused a visit from US experts. She quotes a Pakistani officials as saying removing the fuel would be seen in Pakistan "as the United States taking Pakistan's nuclear weapons".
China hacking

There is concern over the alleged growing use of large scale computer hacking by the Chinese government. Cables reports claims that a network of hackers and private security experts has been employed by China since 2002and that it has hacked into US government and business computers, those of Western allies and the Dalai Lama.

The cables quote a Chinese contact telling the US embassy in Beijing that the Chinese government had been behind the hacking of Google's computer systems in the country in January.

Iran attack

Several Arab leaders and their representatives are quoted as urging the US to carry out an attack on Iran to bring an end to its suspected nuclear weapons program.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is reported to have "frequently exhorted" the US to attack Iran in order to bring an end to its nuclear program.

In a report of a 2008 meeting with US General David Petraeus, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, said King Abdullah wanted the US to "to cut the head off the snake".

King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain is reported to have told the US to stop Iran "by whatever means necessary", while the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed, told the US he believed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was "going to take us to war".

Biometric spying on UN

A cable to US diplomats issued under US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's name tells them to collect "biographic and biometric" information - including iris scans, DNA samples and fingerprints - on key officials at the UN. They are also ordered to find credit card details, email addresses and passwords and encryption keys used for computer networks and in official communications.

The officials covered include "undersecretaries, heads of specialized agencies and their chief advisers, top SYG [secretary general] aides, heads of peace operations and political field missions, including force commanders".

At least nine similar directives covering various countries are included in the Wikileaks release, both under the name of Mrs Clinton and her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice.

Korea plans

US and South Korean officials have discussed plans for a united Korea, should North Korea collapse.

The US ambassador to Seoul said South Korea would consider offering commercial incentives to China to "help salve" Beijing "concerns about living with a reunified Korea".

Guantanamo

The cables appear to reveal discussions between various countries on whether they would take prisoners released from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

Slovenia is offered the chance to meet President Barack Obama if it takes a prisoner, while Kiribati, in the South Pacific, is offered millions of dollars of incentives. Brussels is told taking prisoners could be "a low-cost way for Belgium to attain prominence in Europe".

World leaders

Various world leaders are covered by the documents - showing the diplomats' less than flattering views of them.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is referred to as "feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader" by a US diplomat in Rome.

In 2008, the Moscow embassy describes Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as playing "Robin to (Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's) Batman.

The cables also comment on the extremely close relationship between Mr Berlusconi and Mr Putin.

North Korea's Kim Jong-il is a "flabby old chap" suffering from trauma from a stroke, while Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is referred to as "Hitler".

South Africa's international relations and cooperation minister refers to President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe as "the crazy old man".

Source: Information Clearing House (ICH).
Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26929.htm.

Wikileaks: Yemeni President Agreed To Cover Up US Attack In Yemen

Wikileaks: Yemeni President Agreed To Cover Up US Attack In Yemen
Cables Shine Light Into Secret Diplomatic Channels

By SCOTT SHANE and ANDREW W. LEHREN

November 28, 2010 "New York Times" -- Some of the cables, made available to The New York Times and several other news organizations, were written as recently as late February, revealing the Obama administration’s exchanges over crises and conflicts. The material was originally obtained by WikiLeaks, an organization devoted to revealing secret documents. WikiLeaks intends to make the archive public on its Web site in batches, beginning Sunday.

The anticipated disclosure of the cables is already sending shudders through the diplomatic establishment, and could conceivably strain relations with some countries, influencing international affairs in ways that are impossible to predict.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and American ambassadors around the world have been contacting foreign officials in recent days to alert them to the expected disclosures. On Saturday, the State Department’s legal adviser, Harold Hongju Koh, wrote to a lawyer for WikiLeaks informing the organization that the distribution of the cables was illegal and could endanger lives, disrupt military and counterterrorism operations and undermine international cooperation against nuclear proliferation and other threats.

The cables, a huge sampling of the daily traffic between the State Department and some 270 embassies and consulates, amount to a secret chronicle of the United States’ relations with the world in an age of war and terrorism. Among their revelations, to be detailed in The Times in coming days:

¶ A dangerous standoff with Pakistan over nuclear fuel: Since 2007, the United States has mounted a highly secret effort, so far unsuccessful, to remove from a Pakistani research reactor highly enriched uranium that American officials fear could be diverted for use in an illicit nuclear device. In May 2009, Ambassador Anne W. Patterson reported that Pakistan was refusing to schedule a visit by American technical experts because, as a Pakistani official said, “if the local media got word of the fuel removal, ‘they certainly would portray it as the United States taking Pakistan’s nuclear weapons,’ he argued.”

¶ Gaming out an eventual collapse of North Korea: American and South Korean officials have discussed the prospects for a unified Korea, should the North’s economic troubles and political transition lead the state to implode. The South Koreans even considered commercial inducements to China, according to the American ambassador to Seoul. She told Washington in February that South Korean officials believe that the right business deals would “help salve” China’s “concerns about living with a reunified Korea” that is in a “benign alliance” with the United States.

¶ Bargaining to empty the Guantánamo Bay prison: When American diplomats pressed other countries to resettle detainees, they became reluctant players in a State Department version of “Let’s Make a Deal.” Slovenia was told to take a prisoner if it wanted to meet with President Obama, while the island nation of Kiribati was offered incentives worth millions of dollars to take in a group of detainees, cables from diplomats recounted. The Americans, meanwhile, suggested that accepting more prisoners would be “a low-cost way for Belgium to attain prominence in Europe.”

¶ Suspicions of corruption in the Afghan government: When Afghanistan’s vice president visited the United Arab Emirates last year, local authorities working with the Drug Enforcement Administration discovered that he was carrying $52 million in cash. With wry understatement, a cable from the American Embassy in Kabul called the money “a significant amount” that the official, Ahmed Zia Massoud, “was ultimately allowed to keep without revealing the money’s origin or destination.” (Mr. Massoud denies taking any money out of Afghanistan.)

¶ A global computer hacking effort: China’s Politburo directed the intrusion into Google’s computer systems in that country, a Chinese contact told the American Embassy in Beijing in January, one cable reported. The Google hacking was part of a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by government operatives, private security experts and Internet outlaws recruited by the Chinese government. They have broken into American government computers and those of Western allies, the Dalai Lama and American businesses since 2002, cables said.

¶ Mixed records against terrorism: Saudi donors remain the chief financiers of Sunni militant groups like Al Qaeda, and the tiny Persian Gulf state of Qatar, a generous host to the American military for years, was the “worst in the region” in counterterrorism efforts, according to a State Department cable last December. Qatar’s security service was “hesitant to act against known terrorists out of concern for appearing to be aligned with the U.S. and provoking reprisals,” the cable said.

¶ An intriguing alliance: American diplomats in Rome reported in 2009 on what their Italian contacts described as an extraordinarily close relationship between Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian prime minister, and Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister and business magnate, including “lavish gifts,” lucrative energy contracts and a “shadowy” Russian-speaking Italian go-between. They wrote that Mr. Berlusconi “appears increasingly to be the mouthpiece of Putin” in Europe. The diplomats also noted that while Mr. Putin enjoys supremacy over all other public figures in Russia, he is undermined by an unmanageable bureaucracy that often ignores his edicts.

¶ Arms deliveries to militants: Cables describe the United States’ failing struggle to prevent Syria from supplying arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has amassed a huge stockpile since its 2006 war with Israel. One week after President Bashar al-Assad promised a top State Department official that he would not send “new” arms to Hezbollah, the United States complained that it had information that Syria was providing increasingly sophisticated weapons to the group.

¶ Clashes with Europe over human rights: American officials sharply warned Germany in 2007 not to enforce arrest warrants for Central Intelligence Agency officers involved in a bungled operation in which an innocent German citizen with the same name as a suspected militant was mistakenly kidnapped and held for months in Afghanistan. A senior American diplomat told a German official “that our intention was not to threaten Germany, but rather to urge that the German government weigh carefully at every step of the way the implications for relations with the U.S.”

The 251,287 cables, first acquired by WikiLeaks, were provided to The Times by an intermediary on the condition of anonymity. Many are unclassified, and none are marked “top secret,” the government’s most secure communications status. But some 11,000 are classified “secret,” 9,000 are labeled “noforn,” shorthand for material considered too delicate to be shared with any foreign government, and 4,000 are designated both secret and noforn.

Many more cables name diplomats’ confidential sources, from foreign legislators and military officers to human rights activists and journalists, often with a warning to Washington: “Please protect” or “Strictly protect.”

The Times has withheld from articles and removed from documents it is posting online the names of some people who spoke privately to diplomats and might be at risk if they were publicly identified. The Times is also withholding some passages or entire cables whose disclosure could compromise American intelligence efforts.

Terrorism’s Shadow

The cables show that nearly a decade after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the dark shadow of terrorism still dominates the United States’ relations with the world. They depict the Obama administration struggling to sort out which Pakistanis are trustworthy partners against Al Qaeda, adding Australians who have disappeared in the Middle East to terrorist watch lists, and assessing whether a lurking rickshaw driver in Lahore, Pakistan, was awaiting fares or conducting surveillance of the road to the American Consulate.

They show American officials managing relations with a China on the rise and a Russia retreating from democracy. They document years of painstaking effort to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon — and of worry about a possible Israeli strike on Iran with the same goal.

Even when they recount events that are already known, the cables offer remarkable details.

For instance, it has been previously reported that the Yemeni government has sought to cover up the American role in missile strikes against the local branch of Al Qaeda. But a cable’s fly-on-the-wall account of a January meeting between the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and Gen. David H. Petraeus, then the American commander in the Middle East, is nonetheless breathtaking.

“We’ll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours,” Mr. Saleh said, according to the cable sent by the American ambassador, prompting Yemen’s deputy prime minister to “joke that he had just ‘lied’ by telling Parliament” that Yemeni forces had carried out the strikes.

Mr. Saleh, who at other times resisted American counterterrorism requests, was in a lighthearted mood. The authoritarian ruler of a conservative Muslim country, Mr. Saleh complains of smuggling from nearby Djibouti, but tells General Petraeus that his concerns are drugs and weapons, not whiskey, “provided it’s good whiskey.”

Likewise, press reports detailed the unhappiness of the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, when he was not permitted to set up his tent in Manhattan or to visit ground zero during a United Nations session last year.

But the cables add to the tale a touch of scandal and alarm. They describe the volatile Libyan leader as rarely without the companionship of “his senior Ukrainian nurse,” described as “a voluptuous blonde.” They reveal that Colonel Qaddafi was so upset by his reception in New York that he balked at carrying out a promise to return dangerous enriched uranium to Russia. The American ambassador to Libya told Colonel Qaddafi’s son “that the Libyan government had chosen a very dangerous venue to express its pique,” a cable reported to Washington.

The cables also disclose frank comments behind closed doors. Dispatches from early this year, for instance, quote the aging monarch of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah, as speaking scathingly about the leaders of Iraq and Pakistan.

Speaking to another Iraqi official about Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, King Abdullah said, “You and Iraq are in my heart, but that man is not.” The king called President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan the greatest obstacle to that country’s progress. “When the head is rotten,” he said, “it affects the whole body.”

The American ambassador to Eritrea reported last year that “Eritrean officials are ignorant or lying” in denying that they were supporting the Shabab, a militant Islamist group in Somalia. The cable then mused about which seemed more likely.

As he left Zimbabwe in 2007 after three years as ambassador, Christopher W. Dell wrote a sardonic account of Robert Mugabe, that country’s aging and erratic leader. The cable called Mr. Mugabe “a brilliant tactician” but mocked “his deep ignorance on economic issues (coupled with the belief that his 18 doctorates give him the authority to suspend the laws of economics).”

The possibility that a large number of diplomatic cables might become public has been discussed in government and media circles since May. That was when, in an online chat, an Army intelligence analyst, Pfc. Bradley Manning, described having downloaded from a military computer system many classified documents, including “260,000 State Department cables from embassies and consulates all over the world.” In an online discussion with Adrian Lamo, a computer hacker, Private Manning said he had delivered the cables and other documents to WikiLeaks.

Mr. Lamo reported Private Manning’s disclosures to federal authorities, and Private Manning was arrested. He has been charged with illegally leaking classified information and faces a possible court-martial and, if convicted, a lengthy prison term.

In July and October, The Times, the British newspaper The Guardian and the German magazine Der Spiegel published articles based on documents about Afghanistan and Iraq. Those collections of dispatches were placed online by WikiLeaks, with selective redactions of the Afghan documents and much heavier redactions of the Iraq reports. The group has said it intends to post the documents in the current trove as well, after editing to remove the names of confidential sources and other details.

Fodder for Historians

Traditionally, most diplomatic cables remain secret for decades, providing fodder for historians only when the participants are long retired or dead. The State Department’s unclassified history series, entitled “Foreign Relations of the United States,” has reached only the year 1972.

While an overwhelming majority of the quarter-million cables provided to The Times are from the post-9/11 era, several hundred date from 1966 to the 1990s. Some show diplomats struggling to make sense of major events whose future course they could not guess.

In a 1979 cable to Washington, Bruce Laingen, an American diplomat in Teheran, mused with a knowing tone about the Iranian revolution that had just occurred: “Perhaps the single dominant aspect of the Persian psyche is an overriding egoism,” Mr. Laingen wrote, offering tips on exploiting this psyche in negotiations with the new government. Less than three months later, Mr. Laingen and his colleagues would be taken hostage by radical Iranian students, hurling the Carter administration into crisis and, perhaps, demonstrating the hazards of diplomatic hubris.

In 1989, an American diplomat in Panama City mulled over the options open to Gen. Manuel Noriega, the Panamanian leader, who was facing narcotics charges in the United States and intense domestic and international political pressure to step down. The cable called General Noriega “a master of survival”; its author appeared to have no inkling that one week later, the United States would invade Panama to unseat General Noriega and arrest him.

In 1990, an American diplomat sent an excited dispatch from Cape Town: he had just learned from a lawyer for Nelson Mandela that Mr. Mandela’s 27-year imprisonment was to end. The cable conveys the momentous changes about to begin for South Africa, even as it discusses preparations for an impending visit from the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson.

The voluminous traffic of more recent years — well over half of the quarter-million cables date from 2007 or later — show American officials struggling with events whose outcomes are far from sure. To read through them is to become a global voyeur, immersed in the jawboning, inducements and penalties the United States wields in trying to have its way with a recalcitrant world.

In an era of satellites and fiber-optic links, the diplomatic cable retains the archaic name of an earlier technological era. It has long been the tool for the secretary of state to dispatch orders to the field and for ambassadors and political officers to send their analyses back to Washington.

The cables come with their own lexicon: “codel,” for a visiting Congressional delegation; “visas viper,” for a report on a person considered dangerous; “démarche,” an official message to a foreign government, often a protest or warning.

Diplomatic Drama

But the drama in the cables often comes from diplomats’ narratives of meetings with foreign figures, games of diplomatic poker in which each side is sizing up the other and neither is showing all its cards.

Among the most fascinating examples recount American officials’ meetings in September 2009 and February 2010 with Ahmed Wali Karzai, the half brother of the Afghan president and a power broker in the Taliban’s home turf of Kandahar.

They describe Mr. Karzai, “dressed in a crisp white shalwar kameez,” the traditional dress of loose tunic and trousers, appearing “nervous, though eager to express his views on the international presence in Kandahar,” and trying to win over the Americans with nostalgic tales about his years running a Chicago restaurant near Wrigley Field.

But in midnarrative there is a stark alert for anyone reading the cable in Washington: “Note: While we must deal with AWK as the head of the Provincial Council, he is widely understood to be corrupt and a narcotics trafficker.” (Mr. Karzai has repeatedly denied such charges.) And the cables note statements by Mr. Karzai that the Americans, informed by a steady flow of eavesdropping and agents’ reports, believe to be false.

A cable written after the February meeting coolly took note of the deceit on both sides.

Mr. Karzai “demonstrated that he will dissemble when it suits his needs,” the cable said. “He appears not to understand the level of our knowledge of his activities. We will need to monitor his activity closely, and deliver a recurring, transparent message to him” about the limits of American tolerance.

Not all Business

Even in places far from war zones and international crises, where the stakes for the United States are not as high, curious diplomats can turn out to be accomplished reporters, sending vivid dispatches to deepen the government’s understanding of exotic places.

In a 2006 account, a wide-eyed American diplomat describes the lavish wedding of a well-connected couple in Dagestan, in Russia’s Caucasus, where one guest is the strongman who runs the war-ravaged Russian republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.

The diplomat tells of drunken guests throwing $100 bills at child dancers, and nighttime water-scooter jaunts on the Caspian Sea.

“The dancers probably picked upwards of USD 5000 off the cobblestones,” the diplomat wrote. The host later tells him that Ramzan Kadyrov “had brought the happy couple ‘a five-kilo lump of gold’ as his wedding present.”

“After the dancing and a quick tour of the premises, Ramzan and his army drove off back to Chechnya,” the diplomat reported to Washington. “We asked why Ramzan did not spend the night in Makhachkala, and were told, ‘Ramzan never spends the night anywhere.’ ”

Source: Information Clearing House (ICH).
Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26927.htm.

Africa ICT week opens in Algeria

2010-11-28

The Africa Week on Information and Communication Technologies (AICTW) opens in all Algeria's provinces on Sunday (November 28th), APS reported. A statement of the communication ministry read that the event "will mark the will of the authorities to translate its Africa ICT approach" and "is also intended to be an opportunity for African countries to promote new technologies in the field of information and communication." A "zero paper" day will be held on December 1st across the whole country, and all citizens will be invited to use only electronic communications and online services.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/11/28/newsbrief-05.

Turkey's Erdogan to receive Libya's human rights prize

2010-11-28

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will receive the Kadhafi International Prize for Human Rights on Wednesday (December 1st), AFP and Today's Zaman reported. The award ceremony will take place after the Africa-EU summit, to be held this week in Tripoli, and which Erdogan will attend as a guest.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/11/28/newsbrief-04.

Netanyahu appoints Mossad veteran to head spy agency

29/11/2010

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday appointed Tamir Pardo, a veteran of the Mossad, to head the spy agency when its current chief steps down next month.

"Pardo served for many years in senior positions in the Mossad. In his last position he served as deputy Mossad chief," said a statement from Netanyahu's office.

Meir Dagan, the current head of the espionage agency, retires in December after eight years on the job.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu noted that Pardo has rich experience of dozens of years in the Mossad and he is sure that he is the right man to lead the organization in the next few years given the complicated challenges that face the state of Israel," the statement said.

The statement did not release any further details about Pardo, who was previously unknown to the Israeli public due to the secretive nature of his post.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, himself a former commando and army chief, praised Pardo as a partner in many missions.

"I have known Tamir for dozens of years and we took part in many operations together," Barak said in a statement.

"He is a professional with a rich operational experience, common sense and responsibility. He is worthy and very suitable to serve as Mossad head."

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=337181.

Abdullah Hourani, former PLO leader, dies in Jordan

29/11/2010

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- Former member of the PLO’s Executive Committee and the Palestinian National Council Abdullah Al-Hourani died Monday in Jordan.

The Executive Committee announced his death in a statement reminding of his traits as a loyal leader of the Palestinian struggle and co-founder of the contemporary Palestinian revolution. “His extensive national and patriotic activities contributed to protect the Palestinian identity.”

The deceased was born in the village of Al-Masmiyya and he was displaced in 1948 along with his family. He attended school in the Gaza Strip, then he obtained a Bachelor of Arts. He worked as a teacher in Khan Younis and later became school headmaster of a Khan Younis refugee camp school which was later named after him. In 1963, Israeli authorities deported him from the Gaza Strip for his political activities.

He worked in Dubai from 1963-65 before he was deported again for his political activities. Dubai was then under British Mandate. Then he moved to Syria where he worked in media. He became director of the Palestine radio station in Damascus, then director of the Syrian Broadcasting Corporation.

Hourani opposed the Oslo Accords and as a result he resigned from the Executive Committee.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=337114.

'Strong Parliament vital to move forward'

AMMAN (JT) - His Majesty King Abdullah on Sunday inaugurated the first ordinary session of the 16th Parliament with a Speech from the Throne.

In the speech, the King underscored that "the existence of a strong Parliament that exercises its constitutional responsibilities in legislation and monitoring is essential for the realisation of our vision for our people”.

The Monarch underscored that a genuine and institutional partnership between Parliament and government is essential for moving forward and for consolidating people's trust in their public institutions.

"I have directed the government to reassess the mechanisms through which it conducts its relations with the House of Representatives," the King said, stressing that the assessment must lead to improving the relationship between the two authorities, so that it becomes a relationship of cooperation and complementarity.

The Monarch highlighted the importance of avoiding past mistakes, noting that in order to do so, it is imperative that the two authorities agree on a binding set of principles, consistent with the Constitution and laws, that defines the basis on which the government will conduct its interaction with members of the House.

“Such clear guidelines for this interaction will assure our dear people that the government-Parliament relationship is a true partnership intended to serve public interests,” the King said.

The King highlighted the importance of political reform in the Kingdom, noting that economic reform should be accompanied with democratic reforms that increase public participation in the decision-making process.

In this regard, the government will refer the temporary Elections Law to the Lower House to study it and amend it as necessary to render this legislation more conducive to advancing democratic reforms, and to adopt it as a permanent law, the King said.

The government will also refer to the Parliament the draft Decentralisation Law, which is intended to ensure a larger role for the people in building their future and determining the development priorities for their governorates.

In the speech, the King stressed that the relationship between the government and the media should be based on the right of media institutions to work freely and independently, and to have access to information.

In terms of improving the performance of public institutions, the King said the government “has set a unit to monitor the implementation of executive plans and adopted a code of ethics by which all Cabinet members will abide”.

His Majesty noted that the government will provide the judicial authority with everything it needs to improve its performance and to ensure justice is served.

Referring to the state of the country’s economy, the King said overcoming economic challenges requires the adoption of viable economic policies that can provide citizens with better lives.

He added that the government has achieved positive results and that major economic indicators have shown improvement.

“There has been positive growth in the gross domestic product and the budget deficit has been reduced. The fiscal policies will continue to be geared towards curbing the budget deficit and consolidating financial stability,” the King said.

As for the educational sector, His Majesty emphasised the need to improve the living standards of teachers and protect their social standing.

Pointing to the seven priorities listed in the new government’s Letter of Designation, the King said: “The government’s work in the seven areas of priorities, that it has identified, represents a comprehensive development programme to improve performance in all sectors.”

Regarding the Jordan Armed Forces, the Monarch directed the government to provide the required support to ensure the military’s preparedness and development, whether in terms of training or armaments.

The King also renewed Jordan’s support for the Palestinians in their efforts to end the Israeli occupation, achieve justice and establish their independent state on their national soil.

The King also highlighted the Kingdom’s support for the Iraqi people in preserving the stability and security of their country.

29 November 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=32174.

'We must learn from the lessons of the past'

Following is the official translation of His Majesty King Abdullah’s Speech from the Throne at the opening of the 16th Parliament’s first ordinary session on Sunday:

Honourable Senators,

Honourable Deputies,

Peace, God’s mercy and blessings be upon you.

In the name of God, and with His blessings, we inaugurate the first ordinary session of the 16th Parliament. With the inauguration of this session, we reaffirm our commitment to fulfilling the constitutional requirements of our democratic process. We also emphasise our utmost care for the participation of our people in decision making, and in building the future that befits their tremendous sacrifices and their right to live freely and with dignity, in a homeland whose strength, progress and prosperity are?exemplary.

On this occasion, I wish to congratulate the respectable deputies who have won the confidence of our people in the recent parliamentary elections, which we did our utmost to hold in a transparent and impartial manner. We hope these elections and this assembly, will further strengthen our democratic process.

Honourable Senators,

Honourable Deputies,

Over the last few years, we have been working within a transparent vision of reform and modernisation, to rectify deficiencies and to achieve comprehensive development. We have made many achievements. But it is imperative to assess our efforts and evaluate their outcome, with a view to maximising achievements, correcting mistakes and ending shortcomings.

This appraisal process is not the sole responsibility of only one authority. Neither is the responsibility of advancing reforms. These are a collective responsibility. And only through institutional cooperation among all branches of government, cooperation guided by the Constitution and the recognition of the central roles of all of them, will we be able to shoulder these responsibilities and build the bright future that our people deserve.

We must learn from the lessons of the past. We must rectify mistakes made. And we must admit that relations between the executive and legislative authorities suffered from numerous shortcomings that hindered our reform efforts, to the detriment of the interests of our people.

The legislative authority has a pivotal constitutional role. We do not accept any situation in which the role of the House of Representatives is undermined. And we do not accept any distortion of its image among the people. We face tremendous challenges, and we have great aspirations for our people. A strong Parliament that exercises its constitutional responsibilities in legislation and monitoring is essential for the realisation of our vision for our people. A real and institutional partnership between P?rliament and government is also essential for moving forward and for consolidating people’s trust in their public institutions.

I have directed the government to reassess the mechanisms through which it conducts its relations with the House of Representatives. This assessment must lead to improving the relationship between the two authorities, so that it becomes a relationship of cooperation and complementarity, whereby the government and Parliament perform their duties and exercise their authorities fully. Neither authority should encroach on the role of the other. And the relationship between government and Parliament must not be?hostage to vested interests. Its stability should not be conditional on realising private gains.

In order to avoid past mistakes, it is imperative that the two authorities agree on a binding set of principles, consistent with the Constitution and laws, that defines the basis on which the government will conduct its interaction with members of the House. Such clear guidelines for this interaction will assure our dear people that the government-Parliament relationship is a true partnership intended to serve public interests.

Honourable Senators,

Honourable Deputies,

Our directives to the government have stressed the need to conduct its work through a well-defined institutional mechanism that sets clear objectives and timelines. We have further emphasised the need for assertiveness and transparency, and for the need to make decisions without reluctance or fear. And there should be no room for policies of appeasement that had strongly hindered the achievement of necessary and positive change. The government is committed to these guidelines as it works to advance our dev?lopment process through seven areas of priorities.

Political, economic, social and administrative reforms are interconnected. We have emphasised, therefore, that economic reform should be accompanied with political reform that increases public participation in the decision-making process. Accordingly, the government will work to ensure conditions necessary for the development of all aspects of political life. In this regard, the government will refer the temporary Elections Law to the House of Representatives. Parliament will then study and amend it as ne?essary to render this central legislation more conducive to advancing our democratic reforms, and adopt it as a permanent law. The government will also refer to you the draft Decentralisation Law, which seeks to build capacity in the various governorates, and to ensure a larger role for the people in building their future and determining the development priorities for their governorates.

The government will work in partnership with your respectable assembly to modify and update legislation governing political work and relating to the rights and liberties of our citizens, in order to create an environment that can move comprehensive political development forward.

Political development cannot, however, be fully attained without the participation of civil society organisations and national political parties that build credibility through convincing the people of the viability of their programmes and their ability to contribute to the development of the country. In this regard, my government will continue to work to encourage the emergence of political parties that adhere to the Constitution and the law. It will work to remove all obstacles facing them.

My government will continue to invest in developing a professional relationship with the media. It will respect the right of media institutions to work freely and independently, and to have access to information. Law, as well as the Code of Conduct that was adopted by the previous government, will govern this relationship. But it is necessary to consider any legislative amendments that can lead to the development of an independent professional media industry, and protect citizens and their rights from unpr?fessional practices that falsify facts and harm our country.

In view of the significance of the role of our youth, on whose shoulders lies the responsibility of building our future, the government is working towards implementing a comprehensive plan to develop the role of the youth sector and to equip our youth with necessary skills and knowledge. Likewise, the government will continue to strengthen and reinforce the role of women in society, and will take all necessary measures to protect women’s rights.

Honourable Senators,

Honourable Deputies,

Improving the performance of our public institutions is a requisite for confronting challenges. Hence the government has adopted key performance indicators, and has empowered institutions mandated with monitoring performance, ensuring transparency and fighting all aspects of corruption and redundancy. It has also set a unit to monitor the implementation of executive plans and adopted a code of ethics by which all Cabinet members will abide. It has prepared a special programme to develop the efficiency of p?blic administration. Furthermore, the government has improved the quality of services extended to our citizens, particularly in the fields of health, education and housing, to help make suitable accommodation available to citizens. It has increased the number of healthcare centres and built more schools. The government also worked on enhancing municipality services and providing more support to cultural activities.

And since justice is the pillar of governance, we are committed to strengthen the independence of the judiciary. The government will make available all the requirements the judicial authority needs to improve its performance and to ensure justice among people. It is imperative to develop and modernise legislation, recruit the best trained professionals and invest in their training so that the judicial authority maintains its record of efficiency and impartiality.

Honourable Senators,

Honourable Deputies,

Jordan faces enormous economic challenges. Overcoming these challenges dictates the adoption of viable economic policies that can fulfil our aspirations to provide a better life for our citizens. Therefore, improving the performance of the economy will continue to top our priorities due to the direct impact such an improvement will have on the quality of life of our people.

The global economic conditions have been extremely difficult and our economy has been affected by this global crisis. But despite these difficult conditions, the government has achieved positive results; and the major economic indicators have shown improvement. There has been positive growth in the gross domestic product and the budget deficit has been reduced. The fiscal policies will continue to be geared towards curbing the budget deficit and consolidating financial stability. The government will also f?cus on improving the investment environment, stimulating economic growth and developing self-sufficiency.

We have directed the government to give due attention and care to all vital sectors, specially the educational sector. We have emphasised the necessity of improving the living standards of teachers and protecting their social standing. We have further directed the government to pay due attention to the agricultural sector and workers, and to increase investment in the tourism sector. And as we want Jordan to remain a pioneer in the communication and information technology, we have directed the government t? support this sector, which plays a major role in enhancing the performance of various public institutions.

Honourable Senators,

Honourable Deputies,

Our citizens are our primary asset. They are the engine of development; and their well-being is its objective. It is the government’s duty, therefore, to be committed to maintaining economic and social justice and equality. The government’s policies will seek to expand the middle class, and to protect and support the poor. Poverty and unemployment are two evils that we should fight by all possible means. In this regard, the government will improve the current mechanism for helping the poor, and will seek t? enhance the role of civil society organisations and the private sector in providing parallel support programmes.

Honourable Senators,

Honourable Deputies,

The government’s work in the seven areas of priorities, that it has identified, represents a comprehensive development programme to improve performance in all sectors. This programme entails specific projects and practical procedures. And the government will present this programme to you for detailed discussion and consultation on how to improve it. Cooperating on implementing this comprehensive programme and its objectives of improving our performance and preserving and developing our achievements is esse?tial for success.

Honourable Senators,

Honourable Deputies,

Our country would not have realised all its achievements without the blessings of stability and security, which have been safeguarded by our brave comrades-in-arms in the armed forces and our security agencies. These men and women are a source of pride for all Jordanians. We will continue to extend all support to our brave Arab Army and our security agencies, providing them with the training, equipment and weapon systems they need to carry out their responsibilities. We will also work to improve standards ?f living for all members of the army and security agencies, who put their lives on the line in defence of our country and its achievements.

Jordan, which will remain strong, stable and secure, will continue to support our Arab brethren in defending Arab and Islamic just causes. First among these is the Palestinian cause. Jordan has always been and will continue to be the strongest supporter of our Palestinian brethren, and we will do all we can to help them put an end to occupation, to lift the injustice, and to establish their independent state on their national soil, with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with the Arab Peace Initi?tive and international law, and within a regional context that ensures comprehensive peace.

Jordan will also spare no effort in supporting our Iraqi brethren to preserve the stability and security of their country, and to regain Iraq’s pivotal role in the region and the world at large.

Honourable Senators,

Honourable Deputies,

Many are the challenges we face. But the opportunities are greater. We have always overcome challenges, and our history is a record of victoriesة A record that was achieved through the will, unity and knowledge of Jordanians. And so, God willing, will the future be: New achievements that we will make through hard work and belief in our abilities. There is no time to waste. Let everybody work as a team that places the common good above all other considerations; that abides by the law; that nurtures the cult?re of democracy; that builds viable institutions, and that is armed with knowledge, education and wisdom. Let everybody work as a team that protects national unity; that stands firmly against all voices of division and negativism; that carries our reform process forward towards new horizons of achievement; that builds on the accomplishments of our forefathers, and protects Jordan as a beloved and proud homeland.

May God guide us to what is best to our country and the people, and to our Arab and Islamic nation.

Peace, God’s mercy and blessings be upon you.

29 November 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=32154.