Foreign Press Review - February 27 2006 0227-2006f
FOREIGN PRESS REVIEW (FPR) - ‘Relevant news, views, comments and analysis from all around the world’ Compiled by Şanlı Bahadır Koç Subscribe to FPR
Ext. links Britain/ Turkey/ Magazines/ US / Think-tanks / Blogs / Misc /Books / Quickread / Numbers / Reports
H1 Sunday Telegraph The civilisations of the modern world are more likely to collapse than collide The future looks more likely to bring multiple local wars - most of them ethnic conflicts in Africa, South Asia and the Middle East - than a global collision of value-systems, writes Niall Ferguson.

Los Angeles Times A Weak and Fractious Iraq May Be Best-Case Scenario ANALYSIS: As sectarian violence wracks the nation, it seems likely power will be divided between various groups for an uneasy truce.
Analysts See Lebanon-ization of Iraq in Crystal Ball
The wrong way to fix Iran By Charles A. Kupchan and Ray Takeyh

American gulag By Thomas Wilner Torture, force-feeding and darkness at noon -- this is Guantanamo, a lawyer for prisoners says.

Newsweek India: Asia's Other Superpower Breaks Out Messy, raucous, democratic India is growing fast, and now may partner up with the world's richest democracy—America. By Fareed Zakaria

WSJ Democracy Angst What's the alternative to promoting freedom in the Middle East?

NYT Chaos in Iraq Sends Shock Waves Across Middle East and Elevates Iran's Influence

German Intelligence Gave U.S. Iraqi Defense Plan, Report Says

UPI Outside View: Russia may cooperate on Iran By IGOR ZEVELEV AND KIRILL GLEBOV - Can the United States and Russia cooperate on Iran? As with practically any complex political problem, the answer is not going to be monosyllabic

H2 New York Times What Civil War Could Look Like

We Can Live With a Nuclear Iran By BARRY R. POSEN While it's seldom a positive thing when a new nuclear power emerges, there is reason to believe that we could readily manage a nuclear Iran.

Washington Post What's Needed From Hamas - Henry Kissinger

A Conversation with Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh - Lally Weymouth

U.S.-Russia Relations Revisited White House reevaluates its policy toward Russia in face of concerns over the Kremlin's tactics.

Iran, Russia Reach Tentative Nuclear Deal Details of Venture to Enrich Uranium Not Yet Set; Agreement Could Prevent Showdown at U.N.

An Explosive Gas Deal Putin's Hard Bargain Could Undermine Democracy in Europe - Putin's gas-fired imperialism may have given the Kremlin a stranglehold on Ukraine's government, reversing one of the signal democratic breakthroughs of the Bush years.

FT - Moscow disputes Tehran claim of nuclear deal

Slate Today's Papers Wikipedia antiwar.com technorati

Sunday Times Fears over a 'new Saddam' as Iraq battles to avert civil war

Boston Globe Oil Futures”

AL-QAEDA WANTS TO DIVIDE ISLAM Abdel Bari Atwan, who has had unique access to Bin Laden, explains why
Time Time - An Eye For An Eye As the violence in Iraq grows more shocking and brutal, TIME explores the roots of the murderous rage--and why the U.S. may be powerless to stop it
Power Struggle, Tribal Conflict Or Religious War? Four experts shed light on what is really going on in Iraq
H3 FT Turkey upset by EU deal on N Cyprus

Comment: Isn't Kurdistan always ignored? KurdishMedia

The Race to Tap The Next GusherKurdishMedia

Turkey's Special Envoy To Iraq Celikkol In Baghdad

First Tour Of Iraqi Kurdistan And Kurdish Regions Mathaba.Net

Kurdistan Region Seal on Passports Ratified

Iraqi PM set for Turkey visit

US president thanks Kurdish leader for efforts to control Iraq security BBC Monitoring Service

Armenian Campaign in New York Times

Ext links- Dis Basinda Turkiye - Google News Turkey –Turquie- Türkei - 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

Yediothh Ahronoth 'Israeli enemy not a partner' Hamas lawmakers dismiss future peace talks with Israel, calling past negotiations 'a failed experiment'; Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa says 'it's necessary to support Hamas because they are Palestinian people's choice'

PINR - "Syrian and Iranian Interests Converge in Lebanon" Full text of report
H4 New York Times What Civil War Could Look Like

We Can Live With a Nuclear Iran By BARRY R. POSEN
While it's seldom a positive thing when a new nuclear power emerges, there is reason to believe that we could readily manage a nuclear Iran.

History Lessons: When a Country Cracks

Iraqi Sunni Bloc to Rejoin Talks on Government The threat of civil war appears to have helped drive Sunnis back to moderation, after they angrily withdrew from talks.
Chaos in Iraq Sends Shock Waves Across Middle East and Elevates Iran's Influence

German Intelligence Gave U.S. Iraqi Defense Plan, Report Says In providing the document, German officials offered more significant help to the U.S. than their government has publicly admitted

Coming in May: A Possible Balkan Divorce

Younger Clerics Showing Power in Iraq's Unrest Rival hard-line Shiite clerical factions have pushed each other toward more militant and anti-American stances.

DAVID BROOKS Keeping the Faith in Democracy The moderates of the Arab world face a choice: live with the corrupt regimes of the status quo or embrace the rising Islamist parties like Hamas. Brooks writes about a conference in Doha, Qatar, that brought Americans together with leading moderates of the Arab world. Yet there is no mass support in the Arab world for secular liberal democracies. So they have chosen to bet their lives and embrace the rising Islamist parties like Hamas rather than the corrupt regimes of the status quo. Brooks says the Arabs assume that in the Middle East there is always a gap between what people say and what they believe, yet they are still optimistic.

BOB HERBERT Ike Saw It Coming Dwight Eisenhower warned us at the end of his second term as president about the profound danger inherent in the rise of the military-industrial complex.
Israeli Minister Says Palestinian Leader Is Irrelevant
PAUL KRUGMAN Graduates Versus Oligarchs What we're seeing in American society is the rise of a narrow oligarchy: income and wealth are becoming concentrated in the hands of a small, privileged elite.

From the Silk Road to the Superhighway, All Coin Leads to China History offers parallels to the yawning United States trade deficit and the resulting accumulation of dollars in China.

A Growing Afghan Prison Rivals Bleak Guantánamo The legal void at the prison is similar to the one that led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling on Guantánamo, officials concede

Editorial The Shame of the United Nations A once-promising reform proposal for the United Nations Human Rights Commission has been so watered down that it has become an ugly sham.

NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF The Arabs Are Coming! Do Democrats really want to join the scaremongering on the Dubai ports deal?

Editorial Danger Signs in Nigeria The world needs a stable Nigeria for reasons that go beyond oil.

Editorial A Judicial Green Light for Torture If the courts collapse when confronted with spurious government claims about the needs of national security, so will basic American liberties.

U.S. Security: Failures, Near-Failures and an A-Minus A report card by leaders of the 9/11 Commission asserts that the government’s progress in securing American ports is spotty at best.

How the Liberal Arts Got That Way By MATTHEW PEARL
Lawrence Summers's fall as president of Harvard started 140 years ago.

H5 Washington Post What's Needed From Hamas Steps in the Peace Process Must Match Conditions on the Ground - By Henry A. Kissinger - For there to be progress toward peace, Hamas must undergo an evolution comparable to Ariel Sharon's and accept that a Palestinian and an Israeli state can co-exist.

U.S.-Russia Relations Revisited White House reevaluates its policy toward Russia in face of concerns over the Kremlin's tactics.

An Explosive Gas Deal Putin's Hard Bargain Could Undermine Democracy in Europe - Vladimir Putin's gas-fired imperialism may have given the Kremlin a stranglehold on Ukraine's government, reversing one of the signal democratic breakthroughs of the Bush years.

Iran, Russia Reach Tentative Nuclear Deal Details of Venture to Enrich Uranium Not Yet Set; Agreement Could Prevent Showdown at U.N.

In Changed War, Battle Shifts to Insurgents U.S. soldiers say they are now primarily engaged in a political fight over the Iraqi government's future and whether it can prevent a civil war.

Outlawed Private Militias Still Pervasive in Iraq

Curfew Takes Its Toll on Iraqis Attacks Kill Dozens As Stores, Hospitals Run Out of Supplies

The Facts Behind the 'Confessions'
By Sebastian Mallaby, Contrary to what conspiracy theorist John Perkins writer, corporations do not rule the world, and intensifying global competition has rendered them more vulnerable.

WaPo Book Review The Blair Doctrine The Iraq War has driven America's trustiest ally to rethink the special relationship. Reviewed by Glenn Frankel, COUSINS AND STRANGERS America, Britain, and Europe in a New Century

A CONVERSATION with Ismail Haniyeh 'We Do Not Wish to Throw Them Into the Sea' Since Hamas won control of parliament in the recent Palestinian elections, policymakers in Washington and Jerusalem have been faced with a dilemma: how to deal with a democratically elected government that is also on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Abbas Not 'Relevant,' Israeli Official Says
View at Odds With U.S., E.U. Stance

He's Welcome In Pakistan By Ahmed Rashid, After years of avoiding capture or death, every day Osama bin Laden stays alive is a day that inspires the extremists who protect him and join his ranks.

A Guide To the Hunt By Peter Bergen

We've Lost Sight Of His Vision By John Brennan, Osama bin Laden's plan to use terrorism to trigger an Islamic reawakening that will challenge Western dominance of world events and assure the ascendancy of Sunni extremists is moving forward -- at an alarming rate.

Musharraf v. Musharraf Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden

Bin Laden By the Book By Paul R. Pillar, As long as Osama bin Laden and al-Zawahiri, remain at large somewhere along the frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the hunt for them will be a major part of the al Qaeda story. Their mocking of the hunters, in their repeated audio- and videotapes, will keep them in the news...

Some U.S. Aid to Palestinians Will Continue Humanitarian Funds Won't Stop Despite Role of Hamas

Some U.S. Aid to Palestinians Will Continue Humanitarian Funds Won't Stop Despite Role of Hamas

Shiite Militias Roam Free Despite Curfew, Occupy Sunni Mosques

Analysis: Iraq Crisis Propels al-Sadr

Stumbling Past The Good News By Jim Hoagland, Laugh or cry? Hard to choose when it comes to the descent of the Bush White House into total incoherence over the Dubai Ports World contract. Once again we turn from weighty matters to ask: What did this president not know and when did he not know it?

Inmates Revolt at Afghan Prison; Many Hurt

Less Freedom, Less Speech By George F. Will, In some recess of David Irving's reptile brain, he knows that his indefensible imprisonment is helping his side. His side consists of all the enemies of open societies.

The Dropout Challenge By David S. Broder, They number in the millions -- 3.5 million Americans between the ages of 16 and 25 who have dropped out of high school and were not enrolled in school in 2003, the most recent year for which an estimate is available. Of every three young men and women entering high school, only two will emerge with...

H6 Guardian Sunni-Shia split may 'tear Iraq apart', says conflict group · Samarra bombing exposes widening religious gaps· Bush calls on party leaders to unite against violence

It takes more than tea and biscuits to overcome indifference and fear Madeleine Bunting: For many Muslims, the events of this month have exposed the inadequacies of Britain's smug multiculturalism.

Court starts hearing Bosnia's genocide claim The World Court is today due to start hearing Bosnia's claim for billions of pounds in reparations from Serbia.

Montenegro bids to change rules for independence vote· EU says referendum needs 55% majority to be valid · Serbian nationalists warn of war if split approved

Iran and Russia reach tenuous nuclear deal Agreement signalled on a joint uranium enrichment project aimed at reducing suspicions that Iran is building a bomb.

Abbas 'will quit' if Hamas make job impossible Palestinian leader warns Hamas that he will resign if the group makes it impossible for him to carry out his duties.
We have renewed Britain; now we must champion it Gordon Brown: Our civic society is more active than ever; individuals and communities are ready to be given more power.
Chirac bids to rekindle love for EUEuropean disaster relief force among proposals to restore France's faith.

The march of the MormonsIs America ready for a polygamous president? Julian Borger reports on the rise of the Latter-day Saints.

The Observer I don't destoy liberties, I protect them The Observer has published a series of articles on our disappearing freedoms. Here, the prime minister Tony Blair defends his government's record.

Sunni call to avert civil war Iraq's leading Sunni political bloc says it will rejoin talks to form a government of national unity if the prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, follows through on measures designed to banish the prospect of religious war between Shia and Sunni communities.

Booming India finds that America wants to be its new best friend Bush visits the next Asian superpower, a honeypot for US firms, a democracy - and a rival to China.

China paves way for £14bn BP oil stake Breakthrough deal with Sinopec would make UK energy major Beijing's biggest overseas partner.
H7 Newsweek Iraq on the Brink: How Likely Is Civil War?

Hamas Leader: ‘We Are Not Lovers of Blood’

Samuelson: Will America Pass the Baton? The world is addicted to America's shopping spree. But some experts see emerging markets increasingly driving the world economy.

Iraq Is Lost - William F. Buckley, National Review

Myths of the Current War - Frederick Kagan, AEI Online

Boston Globe Oil Futures”

NYT Book Review MY YEAR IN IRAQ,' BY L. PAUL BREMER III Desert Sturm Review by DEXTER FILKINS Americans in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III writes in his memoir, reminded him of "an understrength fire crew." First Chapter

Boston Globe India rising
H8 Time - An Eye For An Eye As the violence in Iraq grows more shocking and brutal, TIME explores the roots of the murderous rage--and why the U.S. may be powerless to stop it
Power Struggle, Tribal Conflict Or Religious War? Four experts shed light on what is really going on in Iraq
Has Iran Crossed the Rubicon? - Amir Taheri, Arab News

Iraq violence clouds exit strategy...

Iraq Govt Warns of 'Endless Civil War'
Pentagon: Insurgent Attacks Hit Postwar High
Commanders Hint at More US Troops for Iraq

Pentagon Mulls Base to Protect W. Africa Oil Trade

American Conservative - Don’t Democratize By John LaughlandDeterrence worked with the Soviets. Why not Iran?

BBC Divided history What lies behind Iraq's spiralling sectarian violence?

Saudi forces 'in militant clash'
Reports say security forces in the Saudi capital Riyadh have clashed with suspected Islamic militants.

What's So Wrong With a Little Islamophobia? - Kathleen Parker, Orlando Sentinel
H9 Ha’aretz – Haniyeh denies quotes that Hamas would recognize Israel

As EU debates PA aid, Kadima split over Abbas

U.S. demands Israel reorganize defense export arrangements

Amir Oren - Facing backward, they march forward The army's top brass was always political, but in recent weeks, in the service of Kadima, it has gone backward, to the 1950s of Mapai.
UPI Palestinian demographics challenged A new study, 'Population Forecast for Israel and the West Bank 2025' challenges the notion that Israeli Jews are facing an Arab demographic time bomb.
Jerusalem Post - The Region: Exposing Hamas

Former Mossad head urges ceasefire with PA
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Leader of UN Hariri probe formally requests interviews with Assad and a-Shar’a



H10 Christian Science Monitor Iraqi leaders sidestep all-out civil war After a violent week in Iraq, possibility of large-scale Sunni-Shiite conflict looms

Hamas leader roils Israel debate
Ismail Haniyeh appeared to suggest that peace could be made with Israel under certain conditions.

What aid cutoff to Hamas would mean The US provides about one-third of nearly $1.1 billion to aid Palestinians.

Finding a passage to India this time

At ports, security vs. trade
Rules on ports have existed since 1789, but debate sharpens as globalization rubs up against the threat of terror.

H11 IHT Unless we act now, bird flu may win LAURIE GARRETT Rather than waiting for a tide of H5N1 to wash over us, we should create lines of defense.

BBC Double concerns for EU ministers Issues in the Middle East and the Balkans will confront EU foreign ministers meeting on Monday in Brussels.

Serbia in the dock A landmark genocide case brought by Bosnia picks up pace
America's New Ally.....Jacques Chirac - Denis MacShane, Newsweek International

Needing to Wake Up, West Just Closes Its Eyes - Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times

UPI Analysis: Pope's appointments reflect new priorities
H12 RFE/RL Russian, Chinese Officials In Tehran

Governments Increase Measures To Stop Spread Of Virus In Georgia, the government ordered the slaughtering of domestic poultry in villages in the Adjara region on the Black Sea, as strict measures are being imposed in the European Union and Asia

Serbia - EU Future At Risk Over War Crimes Fugitives


NYT Magazine Bringing Down Europe' s Last Ex-Soviet Dictator By STEVEN LEE MYERS Democratic activists in Belarus expect to lose next month’s election. Then they’ll get on with their revolution. Go to Article
H13 The Times Bush strides out to change the world with his new best friend By Gerard Baker, US Editor The President arrives in Delhi hoping to cement an increasingly close relationship between the United States and India

Serbia tried for genocide but EU pulls its punches

Sunday Times Fears over a 'new Saddam' as Iraq battles to avert civil war

AL-QAEDA WANTS TO DIVIDE ISLAM Abdel Bari Atwan, who has had unique access to Bin Laden, explains why

PROBE: Princess Diana driver was secret informer...

7/7 cover-up exposed MI5 is facing an internal revolt by officers alarmed about intelligence failures

WSJ Democracy Angst What's the alternative to promoting freedom in the Middle East?
H14 Financial Times COMMENT & ANALYSIS: Uncertain alliance: Bush goes to India with his nuclear agenda incomplete The fate of nuclear talks threatens to overshadow George W. Bush’s trip to India this week. Although American trade with India remains small at $25bn a year, it is growing fast. The success of the visit will help determine the ability of US companies such as Wal-Mart Stores to open up one of the last great emerging markets

Disunity on Iraq could hit Democrat poll hopes

COMMENT: Europe must decide on beggars and bubbles By Wolfgang Munchau European central bankers face two key monetary policy questions: what to make of the German economic recovery, and whether to prick the housing bubble that has built up in some parts of the eurozone

Leader The soft shoe shuffle of profitless protection A faint glimmer of common sense penetrates the murky mercantilist depths of the European Union's trade policy. With its proposal to levy duties on shoe imports from...

Arab businessmen blame racism for backlash over takeover

Leader Containing Chávez without a megaphoneAfter a spate of name-calling, spying accusations and tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsion, US relations with Venezuela are now at their lowest ebb since President Hugo...

Acquisition and merger activity in the European energy market has inflamed nationalistic instincts. What a shame people are not more worked up about the economics of takeover-driven consolidation.

COMMENT: The stark choice facing Anglo-Saxon economies By Andrew Smithers It seems that we are faced with a choice between lower growth or higher investment
H15 Los Angeles Times A Weak and Fractious Iraq May Be Best-Case Scenario ANALYSIS: As sectarian violence wracks the nation, it seems likely power will be divided between various groups for an uneasy truce.
Analysts See Lebanon-ization of Iraq in Crystal Ball
The wrong way to fix Iran By Charles A. Kupchan and Ray Takeyh

American gulag By Thomas Wilner
Torture, force-feeding and darkness at noon -- this is Guantanamo, a lawyer for prisoners says.


Editorial Boxer's rebellion
EVEN AS THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION promotes free trade and economic growth as a counter to extremism in the Middle East and elsewhere, some members of Congress appear determined to send a different message: America is happy to use your nation as a staging ground or refueling station for its military adventures, but we don't trust you enough to trade with you.

H16 BUSH, ROVE SAY HILLARY WILL WIN DEM PRIMARY -- BUT LOSE GENERAL ELECTION

Bush's Grand Strategy - Michael Barone, US News & World Report

Bush's Broken Political Antenna - Joe Klein, Time

Greenspan’s Great Depression - Patrick Buchanan, The American Conservative

Why Bush Is Standing Up For Dubai - John Judis, The New Republic

Blogometer realclearpolitics – ABC’s The Note - Early Bird thru GovExec -
H17 Daily Telegraph Push for Palestinian aid France and the European Commission are leading a diplomatic drive to unblock £23 million in EU funding for the Palestinian Authority, without waiting for Hamas to renounce violence or recognise Israel.

'Worse than Guantanamo'An American-run prison for terrorist suspects in Afghanistan has grown to rival and even eclipse Guantanamo Bay, it has been disclosed.

Sunday Telegraph The civilisations of the modern world are more likely to collapse than collide The future looks more likely to bring multiple local wars - most of them ethnic conflicts in Africa, South Asia and the Middle East - than a global collision of value-systems, writes Niall Ferguson.
H18 Independent Blueprint to give power to the people A plan to revive Britain's dying democracy is launched today by an inquiry which warns that the parties are "killing" politics. The Power commission calls for the end of the first past the post system, the shift of power to local government and a lowering of the voting age to 16.
Serbia to be first nation charged with genocide
Iran agrees uranium deal with Russia
The World Finds It's Too Hard to Do Business With the US
Independent on Sunday Iraqis tortured by government death squads Hundreds of Iraqis are being tortured to death or summarily executed each month by death squads attached to the Interior Ministry in Baghdad, the UN's former human rights chief in Iraq has told The Independent on Sunday.
Iraq's death squads: On the brink of civil war
Hamish McRae: Nationalists, take note: there's no end in sight to the cross-border merger boom
H19 WP Book Review - Gray Anatomies Can neuroscience really explain our deepest thoughts and emotions? Reviewed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi THE THREE-POUND ENIGMA The Human Brain and the Quest to Unlock Its Mysteries

So what's the secret of 'The Economist'?

Messi, mesmeric, messianic
H20 NYT Cyberthieves Silently Copy as You Type Software that copies users' keystrokes and sends the information to crooks may be the next big trend in cybercrime.

NYT Magazine – The Freshman - By CHIP BROWN Rahmatullah Hashemi was the Taliban’s chief spokesman abroad. So how did he end up at Yale? Go to Article

Is Freedom Just Another Word for Many Things to Buy? That depends on your class status.

What Does Islam Look Like?
H21 NYT A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Measure By ADAM PHILLIPS Psychoanalysts have no business acting like scientists. Psychotherapy has manifested itself in two professional trends: making therapy into a "hard science" by emphasizing measurable factors, and the growing belief that the standard practice of using talk therapy to discover traumas in a patient's past is unnecessary and potentially injurious. Phillips says the attempt to present psychotherapy as a hard science is an attempt to make it a market competitor. Psychotherapy has to occupy the difficult middle ground between religion and science, without taking sides.


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   ¶ 20:42