Foreign Press Review - December 30 2005 1230-2005f
FOREIGN PRESS REVIEW (FPR) - ‘Relevant news, views, comments and analysis from all around the world’ Compiled by Şanlı Bahadır Koç / e-mail : sbahadir@bilkent.edu.tr - Subscribe to FPR
Ext. links Britain/ Turkey/ Magazines/ US / Think-tanks / Blogs / Misc /Books / Quickread / Numbers / Reports
H1 Financial Times COMMENT: America begins to leave Iraq, shares go on up and Germany's economy revives - The future is nuclear, Blair will hang on, shares head up but football is a long shot FT writers predict the events and issues that will shape the year ahead in UK and world affairs, economics, business and sport.

Los Angeles Times Iraq's History Still Divides Children of Mesopotamia The myth of a unified Iraqi identity may have finally been laid to rest this month

Thomas C. Schelling – Nobel Prize Lecture -------- Robert J. Aumann – Nobel Prize Lecture

IHT Europa: Predictions for 2006, dire and not so dire

New York Review of Books
The Mirage of Empire By John Gray Robert Kaplan was one of the few who did not share the complacent sense of triumph that accompanied the end of the cold war.

NYT The Office Pool, 2006 By WILLIAM SAFIRE Here is your 32nd annual chance to Beat the Pundit.

Washington Post Covert CIA Program Withstands New Furor Anti-terror program authorized by Bush after 9/11 has expanded in size and ambition, despite a growing outcry over its clandestine tactics.

The Year in Bad News By David Ignatius,At year-end, I usually like to offer readers a lighthearted collection of imaginary headlines, but 2005 somehow didn't seem very funny.
Independent Review of the year: The European Union
RFE/RL 2005 in Review The Geopolitical Game In Central Asia
Can Yushchenko Survive Moscow's Gas Attack?
Azerbaijan To Issue Revalued Currency
Rand Corporation China's Defense Industry Emerging from Its Troubled Past Despite 25 years of weakness, China's defense industry is showing signs of improvement. Advances in the missile, shipbuilding, aviation, and information technology sectors could enhance China's military position, with short-term implications for Taiwan and long-term implications throughout Asia. Full Document -- Summary Only

Carnegie Endowment Transforming U.S.-India Relations: Forging a Strategic Partnership
Rand Corporation - Doing Business with the Euro - Risks and Opportunities Full Document
Blogs asked to print UK memos illegally Uzbek torture memos posted in defiance of gag order
NRO's 2006 Crystal Ball





H2 FT EU accession hopes may force Turkey to change law

Turkey stocks hit five-year high

Economist Intelligence Unit Turkey: Country outlook

New York Review of Books Kurds in Turkey: The Big Change By Stephen Kinzer

SlateToday's Papers / Blogometer realclearpolitics – ABC’s The Note - Early Bird thru GovExec - antiwar.com / Wikipedia / technorati

Norway's Oil Industry and the Partitioning of Iraq

KR Iraqi defense officials deny influence of Kurdish militia leaders

Christian Science Monitor Shiites and Kurds forge ahead in Iraq The two groups met without Sunnis Thursday to plan a ruling coalition.

Azerbaijan oil: a mixed blessing
Corruption-prone nation expects oil revenues to total $160 billion by 2025.

Washington Institute Iran’s Air Forces: Struggling to Maintain Readiness By Fariborz Haghshenass Despite institutional bifurcation and limited access to foreign materials and expertise, in a crisis Iranian air forces can count on the advantages of strategic depth and an indigenous military industrial capacity.

Gıardian The story so far They were the years of 9/11, war in Iraq, the Asian tsunami, bloggers and iPods. Not to mention shrinking newspapers. But how will the noughties be remembered by historians? At its halfway mark, Simon Schama delivers an interim report on the first decade of the millennium

US intelligence service bugged website visitors National Security Agency admits placing software files on public computers to track US citizens' use of the web. ---

White House website also tracked visitors

The Times What kind of foreign policy is this? Dean GodsonWashington’s confusion over Iraq is now reflected in its incoherent attitude to Syria

EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook (PDF).

Ha’aretz – Chief of Staff Halutz: No IDF action soon against Iran's nukes Mossad chief: Iran seeks more than 1 nuclear bomb; Steinitz: Iran to have nuclear capability within 2 years.

Yedioth Ahronoth The science of war Like cancer, war must be studied scientifically to be beaten Yisrael Aumann - Robert J. Aumann – Nobel Prize Lecture ---- Thomas C. Schelling – Nobel Prize Lecture

UPI Ballistic Missile Defense: Israel-Iran nuclear balance



H3 Turkey and Europe

Turkey and the U.S.

Greek press on Cyprus and Turkey

Turkey and the Middle East

Turkey, Russia, Caucasus, C. Asia

Ext links-Google News Turkey –Turquie- Türkei - Dış Basında Türkiye - İç Basında Türk Dış Politikası - Kurdish Media - FPR Archive - Quickread - Google News - Iraq -Iran - Syria – Kurdish - Greece - Cyprus – Azerbaijan - Israel - BBC Turkish 0700 -TurcoPundit - Mideastwire.com -
Iraqi&Regional MediaMonitoring

Rizgari Kuzey Kürdistan Kürdleri ve Milli Zemin

Michelle Pilecki: Kurds Prepare for Splitsville

Kurdish official: If government failed, Kurds unilaterally decide on Kirkuk

Demand of 62 Kurdistan MP’s rejected for the unification of administrations

Al-Hakim pushes the responsibility of de-Arabisation of Kirkuk to Talabani

UPI Kurds laying claim to oil-rich Kirkuk Kurdish migration creating ethnic 'time bomb'

Iran and Syria Still in the CrosshairsDissident Voice

'KDP Officials in Contact with Turkish Intelligence'

'PKK is a Terrorist Organization; it must not be Harbored in N. ...

What should it take to free Dr Kamal Sayid Qadir?By Khasraw Saleh Koyi

Turning Turkey: The Kurdish GambitPEJ News, Canada

BBC Monitoring Party leader criticizes "weak" Kurdish leadership, Iraqi elections [Leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Socialist Party] Muhammad Haji Mahmud says "I believe the Kurdish leadership is weak...

Independence of Iraqi Kurdish media "an illusion" during election

Turkey Will Soon Allow Limited TV Broadcasts in Kurdish

Turkish Novelist Won't Face New Charges
H4 New York Times G.I.'s to Increase U.S. Supervision of Iraqi Police The increase in Army advisers aims in part to curtail abuse that Iraqi units are suspected of inflicting on Sunni Arabs.

The Office Pool, 2006 By WILLIAM SAFIRE Here is your 32nd annual chance to Beat the Pundit.

Monitor Group Says Team Will Review Voting Results

Iraqis' Claim of Attack from Lebanon Leaves Confusion

Beirut Journal: Hold the Champagne: Lebanon Is in No Mood to Party

Military Service Chiefs Demoted in Line of Pentagon Succession

Paul Krugman Heck of a Job, Bushie How things have changed in a year.

While You Were Sleeping
By WILLIAM FALK A guide to the stories you missed in 2005.



Editorial
H5 Washington Post Covert CIA Program Withstands New Furor Anti-terror program authorized by Bush after 9/11 has expanded in size and ambition, despite a growing outcry over its clandestine tactics.

The Year in Bad News By David Ignatius,At year-end, I usually like to offer readers a lighthearted collection of imaginary headlines, but 2005 somehow didn't seem very funny.

I'm a Soldier, Not a Spy By Grant Doty, Now that we've learned that the military may be collecting "raw, unverified information" in the form of "Talon reports," my fear is that when friends and neighbors see me, in or out of uniform, their speech could be chilled.

U.S. Troops to Mentor Iraqi Police Program, Modeled After Army Training, Aims to Halt Abuses

Attacks Halt Fuel Production in Iraq International Team to Probe Complaints of Election Fraud

Policymakers Rise on Rumsfeld's Ladder
In New Order of Succession, Service Secretaries With Limited Roles Move Down
The Pentagon Power Structure

Palestinians Lose Status in Iraq
After enjoying favored status under Saddam Hussein, Palestinians now fear repercussions.

Russia-Ukraine Dispute Deepens Over Gas Prices

Editorial Fiscal Discipline, 2005
H6 Gıardian US intelligence service bugged website visitors National Security Agency admits placing software files on public computers to track US citizens' use of the web.

Sunnis shun government talks in protest at election results · Claims of electoral fraud threaten political stability · UN backing of poll angers Iraqi minority groups

Austria 'fed up' with EU as it takes on presidency Austria's president yesterday admitted that many of his citizens are "fed up" with the European Union, as the country prepares to take over the EU presidency from Britain on Sunday.

She has revived the art of talking - can Rice make a change? The secretary of state's style is giving rise to hopes of a new era of US foreign policy, reports Julian Borger in Washington.

The story so far They were the years of 9/11, war in Iraq, the Asian tsunami, bloggers and iPods. Not to mention shrinking newspapers. But how will the noughties be remembered by historians? At its halfway mark, Simon Schama delivers an interim report on the first decade of the millennium

Victory in name only Sidney Blumenthal: Empty talk of turning points has failed to stop Bush's election triumph being reduced to ashes.

Leader Speak truth to powerEgypt is an excellent winter holiday break choice - desert sunshine and the Red Sea a relief from northern European gloom.

Population gloom Moscow dispatch: Russia's demographic 'devastation' has left it facing increasing crisis

Fight to save army's reputationSenior army officers have been warned about the serious damage being done to the service's reputation in an era of unprecedented media and judicial scrutiny.
H7 New York Review of Books
The Mirage of Empire By John Gray Robert Kaplan was one of the few who did not share the complacent sense of triumph that accompanied the end of the cold war. In an article entitled "The Coming Anarchy," which he published in The Atlantic Monthly in February 1994, Kaplan outlined a very different prospect from that anticipated by most other observers. He saw a world in which some states collapsed or rusted away, leaving their populations to scramble for survival, while powerful states acted ruthlessly to ensure their control of the world's dwindling resources. In many countries, he wrote, the struggle for resources would be intensified by ethnic and religious conflicts, and nationalist demagogues and fundamentalist prophets would come to power, imperiling what remained of order and security in the international system.

The Coming Meltdown By Bill McKibben The year 2005 has been the hottest year on record for the planet, hotter than 1998, 2002, 2004, and 2003. More importantly, perhaps, this has been the autumn when the planet has shown more clearly than before just what that extra heat means.

NRO Victor Davis Hanson: Do we know what success we’ve seen?

Mark Steyn: If only the CIA were as good as George Clooney’s dreams.

Middle East Forum - Mohamed Eljahmi, Qadhafi UnrepentantThe Libyan regime has not changed. U.S. rapprochement will backfire

UPI Analysis: Difficult year for Middle East democracy By Claude Salhani

Is Outsourcing the Next Terror Target? - Aravind Adiga, Time

Christopher Meyer: Confidence Man - Michael Young, Reason
H8 Knight-Ridder Muqtada al-Sadr emerging as a highly influential political leader He has successfully transformed his ragtag followers into a political force that could dramatically reshape the next parliament.

Gen. Pace: US to Launch Phased Pullout

Iraqi Police Say Torture Is 'How Things Get Done'

US Partners in Iraq Dwindling in Number, Size

Al Hayat Iran and the Story of the "Stupid Tree" Mustafa al-Ani - The moral of the story of the "Stupid Tree" is that Iran, whether through an agreement or a stroke of luck, has become the biggest beneficiary of American and Arab policy in the Middle East.

UPI Analysis: Iran's dangerous gamble The really momentous question facing the world in 2006 is not whether any U.S. troops will still remain in Iraq by the end of the year, but whether Iran will become a nuclear power.

BBC Death threats cut Iraq oil flow Iraq's largest oil refinery is shut down at a cost of $20m a day after death threats to tanker drivers.

Monitors to study Iraq poll claim A team of international monitors says it is to ready to review complaints that recent Iraq elections were not fair.

Guantanamo hunger strike rise The number of detainees joining a Guantanamo Bay hunger strike has increased sharply, the US says.


H9 Ha’aretz – Chief of Staff Halutz: No IDF action soon against Iran's nukes Mossad chief: Iran seeks more than 1 nuclear bomb; Steinitz: Iran to have nuclear capability within 2 years.

Arab MK: Israel, U.S. are spiders creating Syrian-Lebanese crisis

Quartet: Hamas should not be part of new Palestinian Cabinet

Yedioth Ahronoth Arab MK: Strong Syria vital Mohammad Barakeh says, 'strong Syria will bring closer the day in which J'lem will become Palestine's capital.' Right wing movement Israel Our Home in response: Transfer these Arab MKs, even as a gift, to the PA
The science of war Like cancer, war must be studied scientifically to be beaten Yisrael Aumann
Middle East Forum - Patrick Devenny, Hezbollah's Strategic Threat to IsraelUnder what circumstances might Hezbollah use its growing arsenal?
Daily Star The 'Quartet' was created for ominous moments like this
What is the cost of leaving the Israeli-Palestinian issue to fester while potential external interlocutors watch it all on television?

Is Iran's Ahmadinejad a messianic medium?

Egypt: deadlock and a whiff of sedition By Maria Golia

In France, the riots were really not about political Islam By Alain Dieckhoff

MEMRI Dec 30 SD# 1061 - Conversations Between Human Rights Activists and Islamists in a Syrian Prison

PBS Syria Rallies Public Support in Response to Harsh Criticism Syrian authorities launched a public relations campaign to improve the country's tainted image following international allegations linking top Syrian officials to recent assassinations.

H10 Christian Science Monitor Shiites and Kurds forge ahead in Iraq The two groups met without Sunnis Thursday to plan a ruling coalition.

Azerbaijan oil: a mixed blessing
Corruption-prone nation expects oil revenues to total $160 billion by 2025.

American goals abroad hampered by image problems Perceived US missteps in domestic and foreign policy set diplomacy back for '06.


H11 IHT Europa: Predictions for 2006, dire and not so dire

Northeast Asia: Defusing a dangerous region IAN BREMMER, CHOI SUNG-HONG AND YORIKO KAWAGUCHI A Northeast Asian Regional Forum could provide an urgently needed multilateral framework for the region.

Der SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH ECB PRESIDENT TRICHET "You Can't Stop History" Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, discusses the risk of inflation in the euro zone and the challenges of globalization. He also takes a swipe at Germans' economic pessimism and says Europeans should be more confident.
H12 RFE/RL 2005 in Review The Geopolitical Game In Central Asia
Can Yushchenko Survive Moscow's Gas Attack?
Azerbaijan To Issue Revalued Currency
Weak Controls On Oil Revenues Concern Monitors
U.S. Cautious On Announcement By Iran's Nuclear Negotiator

Washington Realist Gas, Geopolitics and Ukraine

UPI Eye on Eurasia: Russia for the Russians By Paul Goble

Outside View: Putin's New Year's resolution?
H13 The Times What kind of foreign policy is this? Dean GodsonWashington’s confusion over Iraq is now reflected in its incoherent attitude to Syria

Fears of new cold war as Russia threatens to switch off the gas


WSJ Rodney Dangerfield Revisited Will the economy finally get some respect in 2006?

Right Islam vs. Wrong Islam - Abdurrahman Wahid, Wall Street Journal
Fighting the Good Fight - Edwin Feulner, Heritage Foundation
H14 Financial Times COMMENT: America begins to leave Iraq, shares go on up and Germany's economy revives FT writers predict the events and issues that will shape the year ahead in UK and world affairs, economics, business and sport.

COMMENT: The future is nuclear, Blair will hang on, shares head up but football is a long shot

Iraq government talks resume in Kurdish mountains

Editorial France is not herself The 75m tourists who visit France each year find the country to be a pretty decent place. Tell that to the 60m people who live there.

Ukraine rejects Moscow gas loan offer

EUROPE: Russian liberals fear the rising threat of nationalism

Numbers that tell a story Retirement beckons for a generation that once believed it had found the secret of eternal youth. As of 2006, 7,918 people a day will turn 60 in the US: 330 new sexagenarians every hour of every day.

SOS: save oil stupid There is another reason at this season to say hurrah for reindeer. Just before Christmas the US Senate rejected the Bush administration's proposal to allow oil...

The hard job in Africa is to build growth So that was the Year of Africa. It was billed as a breakthrough year, the best opportunity for a long time for the world to dwell on what needs doing to improve the...

Poland ready to march on to world stage
H15 Los Angeles Times Iraq's History Still Divides Children of Mesopotamia The myth of a unified Iraqi identity may have finally been laid to rest this month

U.S. Plans to Rein In Iraqi Police Military oversight will be bolstered in response to reports of prisoner abuse by Iraqi forces.

Pentagon Calls Its Pro-U.S. Websites Legal

What's wrong with partisan politics? By Jonah Goldberg
THE GREAT cliche among the chin-stroking, eat-your-spinach types these days is that they've never seen Washington so partisan. What's funny is that there probably hasn't been a time in the last 20 years when the forces of David Broderdom haven't waxed dyspeptic about the "tone in Washington."

H16
H17 Daily Telegraph Blairs, boom, badgers and bird flu The Daily Telegraph's specialist writers offer their opinions on what lies ahead in their fields in 2006. Review of the year

Bush seeks inspiration President George W Bush and his advisers are reported to be planning a 2006 relaunch, emphasising a newly cautious White House.The president's annus horribilis

Leader Democracy in PalestineThe deepening of Palestinian democracy and the pressure of external events could offset Mahmoud Abbas's political impotence.

Detainees double in Iraq American forces in Iraq have launched a £30 million programme to expand military prisons after the number of suspected insurgents in custody reached 15,000.

Troops pull out of AcehIndonesian soldiers have been withdrawn from Aceh province to complete the last phase of an agreed troop reduction, a key step in an accord with separatist rebels to end a bitter 29-year war.
H18 Independent Review of the year: The European Union
Review of the year: The Bush Administration
Review of the year: Iraq
Review of the year: The Middle East
Review of the year: France
Aid agencies predicted winter disaster - now it is reality for people of Kashmir
Almost three months after the earthquake that killed 73,000 people in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, half of them children, a second tragedy is unfolding in the mountains. The winter disaster that the relief agencies had feared is now a reality

Review of the year: Robert Fisk on war without end Only justice, not bombs, can make our dangerous world a safer place

Envoy's suicide raises tension between China and Japan

Review of the year: Books
H19 Blogs asked to print UK memos illegally Uzbek torture memos posted in defiance of gag order, now 'not found.'
U.S.-China Nuclear Cooperation Agreement Congressional Research Service This 25-page U.S. report discusses the agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation with the People's Republic of China

H20 Slate The Peace Epidemic: The world isn't so dangerous after all.

PBS Video-on-demand Changing Habits Recent advancements in television technology that give viewers control over watching television programs on their own schedule and on portable devices is revolutionizing the way networks distribute their programs.
H21 Weekly Standard Misinformation Age More computers, less learning by David Gelernter

INTERNET'S $30 BILLION SEASON

Are novels really superior to movies as an art form? It is hard to generalize, but for many, one thing is certain: in read fiction, the pictures are better... more»
Ext links Blogs - memeorandum - Slate's Today's Blogs - Blogometer - Juan Cole - Kevin Drum - Belgravia Dispatch - Thomas P.M. Barnett
Joshua Marshall - Daniel Drezner - Laura Rozen - the washington note - Syria Comment - David Corn - William Arkin - Phil Carter - Helena Cobban - Matt Yglesias - Oxblog - Brad DeLong
winds of change - - CounterterrorismBlog OutSide the Beltway - InstaPundit - Kausfiles - andrewsullivan.com - Becker Posner-- armscontrolwonk - Registan   ¶ 11:31