Another Taliban Song & Dance/ATimes----New World Media Watch

[Gloria]

Links, etc. up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com


WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR SEPTEMBER 10, 2004

1//The Turkish Daily News, Turkey--GROUP THREATENS TURKEY FOR AIDING US IN IRAQ(An online statement purportedly from an Islamic militant group warned Turkey and Jordan of "painful" consequences for collaborating with U.S.-led forces in Iraq and demanded that both countries close their embassies and leave Iraq…The statement also condemned senior Shiite clerics in Iraq for not issuing a religious edict calling for holy war…The online threat came amid growing security threats facing Turkish drivers and workers operating in Iraq. Close to 30 Turks have been killed in Iraq in attacks, and one Turkish worker was executed by militants for aiding U.S. forces…On Tuesday, insurgents killed a Turkish driver when they opened fire on a convoy of trucks near the northern Iraqi city of Samarra. Iraqi police sources said the insurgents had fired anti-tank weapons and rifles and that the truck belonging to the Turkish driver was destroyed in the attack.)



2//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--TARGETED AS U.S. ALLY IN DEEPLY DESPISED WAR (This time, there is no doubt - Australia was the target of whoever carried out yesterday's bombings. It is the first time it has been so singled out in Indonesia…Yesterday was something very different - a calculated attack on a country widely identified in Indonesia as a major US ally in a war that is deeply despised. Australia's Jakarta embassy is one of scores of foreign missions on the street called Rasuna Said, but it was the one the bombers picked even though it is among the hardest to damage. It sits behind a blast mound and has been designed with an attack in mind. Along with the innocent lives, the bombing snuffed out any lingering view that Australia's relatively small role in world affairs makes it less of a target. The debate on the bombing now could go anywhere.)



3//The Moscow Times, Russia--POLICE EMERGE AS A BIG SECURITY THREAT (Corruption and the outright recruitment of police officer by militants in the North Caucasus have emerged as a major security threat, with crooked or ideologically driven officers being linked to almost every terrorist attack from the 1999 apartment bombings and Dubrovka to the Beslan school tragedy… Even more alarming is evidence that militants may have tried to recruit an insider at a nuclear power plant. In October 2002 the Federal Security Service detained a captain of a special unit guarding the Kalininskaya nuclear power plant in the Tver region. The captain was carrying a detailed map of the plant and a list of coded telephone numbers, the Regnum news agency reported.)



4//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--ANOTHER TALIBAN SONG AND DANCE (Exactly a year after the formation of the Jaishul Muslim in Peshawar, Pakistan, to accommodate "moderate" or "good" Taliban, and with just a month to go before presidential elections in Afghanistan, the role of the grouping has taken on added importance…The organization does not have a direct role in politics at this stage, but the idea is to win over sufficient Taliban commanders and supporters in the Afghan resistance eventually to call a truce with Hamid Karzai's Kabul government, which is backed by the United States…The Jaishul Muslim is now a year old and sits at a defining juncture. Either it will hijack the Taliban resistance movement, or it will itself be hijacked by Mullah Omar loyalists, just like the Jamiat-i-Khudamul Koran before it.)


5//The Daily Star, Lebanon--FORMER U.S. DIPLOMAT: ASSAD’S OVERTURES TO ISRAEL ARE GENUINE (Syrian President Bashar Assad is genuine in his stated desire to restart peace talks with Israel, and the United States needs to play a more active role in bringing both parties to the negotiating table, according to a former American diplomat who met with the Syrian leader last weekend. Edward Gabriel, vice chairman of the American Task Force for Lebanon and a former U.S. ambassador to Morocco, confirmed that during his meeting in Damascus Assad expressed willingness to resume unconditional peace negotiations with Israel…Also at the meeting was Martin Indyk, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, a former US ambassador to Israel and an assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs in the administration of Bill Clinton.)