Foreign Press Review - March 25 2006 0325-2006f
FOREIGN PRESS REVIEW (FPR) - ‘Relevant news, views, comments and analysis from all around the world’ Compiled by Şanlı Bahadır Koç Subscribe to FPR
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H1Independent Battle for Baghdad 'has already started' The battle between Sunni and Shia Muslims for control of Baghdad has already started, say Iraqi leaders

Russia Had Sources in US Command in Iraq

Daily Star The horrendous costs of an American failure in Iraq By Judith S. Yaphe

US Defense Department release 'National Military Strategy for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction' Report full text [PDF] --- Press release

Morgan Stanley Global: From Beijing to Dubai

Currencies: Still Anticipating a Cyclical Downturn in the Dollar

Atlantic Council of the United States March 2006 Transatlantic Transformation: Building a NATO-EU Security Architecture

Israel & The Ayatollahs - Amir Taheri, New York Post

Christian Science Monitor Israeli media split over report on US-Israel ties Some say Harvard report 'riddled with factual errors,' others call it important 'wake-up call.'

NYT Worried About India and China's Booms? So Are They. By Thomas L. Friedman - Friedman writes that the world is undergoing a great convergence in education, with all the leading economies seeking to balance rigorous math and science education with a liberal arts and humanities education to inspire the next generation of innovators. He writes that as the technology platform becomes equal around the world, the free-flow of capital has created a huge struggle for countries to upgrade their human talent base Link to full text in primary source.

H2 Los Angeles Times Iran Could Make a Nuclear Bomb Within Three Years Iran, moving much faster than expected, is now just days from making the first steps toward enriching uranium, diplomatic sources say.
Washington Post Washington Post Russians Gave Iraq Information, Study Says Details on U.S. troop movements and attack plans were given to Saddam Hussein in the early days of the Iraq war, according to a U.S. military study.
Slate Today's Papers Wikipedia antiwar.com technorati

Report: US Missile Science Slumping

Washington Times Researchers peg Putin as a plagiarist over thesis

Weekly Standard Rumors of Civil War Iraq can be saved from civil war--if the United States keeps its nerve. by Frederick W. Kagan & William Kristol

CFR SANCTIONS BEDEVIL IRAN DIPLOMACY

U.S. Joint Forces Command, Center for Operational Analysis Command releases JCOA-produced Iraqi perspectives report -----+ Iraqi Perspectives Project: A View of Operation Iraqi Freedom from Saddam's Senior Leadership (PDF: 7.2 MB) ---- + Media Roundtable on the Iraqi Perspective Project -- Transcript

Regnum Expert: models of settlement of military issues without Karabakh are absurd

Armenian Foreign Minister to meet Steven Mann in Washington

Normalization of Armenia-Turkey Relations Favorable for Yerevan ...

Bulgaria to Seal Deal on Military Bases with US
H3 Turkey in Palestinian ploy Washington Times

Gündüz Aktan - Türk-Rus ilişkileri Karadeniz politikamızı etkileyecektir.

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

US Embassy sought talks with Iranian diplomats
JSF offers 3.5 billion dollars package to Turkey's defense ...

Kurdish quest for independence and prospects for statehood KurdishMedia

Halabja riot and PUK responseKurdishMedia

Divided Iraq could be torn apart by civil war People's Daily Online

An achievable Kurdish idealism! By Kamal H. ArtinContrary to the general perception and based on the experience of other liberated and independent nations, creation of one or four Kurdish states will bring freedom, justice, and stability to the troubled Middle East.

Asia Times The Kurdish defection The Kurdish town of Halabja achived notoriety when Saddam Hussein gassed 5,000 residents to death in 1988. Last week, it was the site of riots and bloodshed, but this time the culprit, say residents, was Shi'ite Iran. Such is the topsy-turvy nature of Iraq, where Kurds and Shi'ites - once natural allies against Saddam's dominant Sunnis - have fallen out as the Kurds pursue their goal of independence. - Iason Athanasiadis

EurasiaNet Georgia Diary Captures Craziness of the Early 1990s The Caucasus is rife with legendary figures, from Prometheus, to Jason and Medea, to…the one-and-only, high-octane, shaven-headed, exuberantly-mustachioed American writer and journalist Thomas Goltz, author of Azerbaijan Diary (1998) and Chechnya Diary (2003). This volume, on Georgia, completes what the author waggishly calls his career as a Caucasus "diarist."
H4 New York Times Espionage: U.S. Inquiry Finds Russians Passed Spy Data to Iraq in '03
Sharon's Spirit, and Absence, Pervade Election
In Basque Region's Capital, Fear Lingers Despite a Truce
French Dispute on Labor Law Remains Stalled
Defiant Belarus Opposition Shifts to a Jailhouse Wall
Europe Approves Energy Strategy and Belarus Restrictions, but Stumbles Over Borders

Iraq Qaeda Chief Seems to Pursue a Lower Profile al-Zarqawi has lowered his profile, and his group claims to have submitted itself to the leadership of an Iraqi.

U.S. and Europe Plan Sanctions Against Belarus The sanctions are likely to irritate Russia, which endorsed the presidential election and made light of the violence on Friday.

MAUREEN DOWD Happiness Is a Warm Gun In business, books and academia, there is a scavenger hunt under way to root out the scientific, economic and emotional reasons for joy.

H5 Washington Post Russians Gave Iraq Information, Study Says Details on U.S. troop movements and attack plans were given to Saddam Hussein in the early days of the Iraq war, according to a U.S. military study.

Russia Is Pressed On Iran Statement: Tehran's Nuclear Progress Ups Stakes

Foreigners Returning to U.S. Schools More foreigners applied to U.S. graduate schools for fall classes this year than last, reversing two years of declines caused by visa delays attributable to increased post-Sept. 11 security, a new report says.

Loving to Hate Hillary ( By Richard Cohen, In order to understand what's going on with Hillary Clinton, it helps to recall a woman who lost her head and therefore her life in 1793: Marie......


H6 Guardian Leader Protecting Europe's interests Mr Chirac is in trouble at home with mass protests over an unpopular employment law intended to tackle some of the rigidities of France's labour market; his sensitivities on the linguistic point are familiar.

US says Russia spied for SaddamRussia passed intelligence on US troops to Saddam Hussein, according to Pentagon report.

The Iraqi brain drain Hundreds of Iraqi doctors, professors and teachers are being murdered in what some see as a deliberate campaign
Jonathan Steele

UN 'ignoring Chernobyl deaths'Doctors estimate 500,000 deaths since nuclear disaster 20 years ago.

Belarus president banned from EUArrests of opposition activists protesting against last weekend's election results prompt European action.

Abbas tells Hamas it must cooperate with Israel or fail Palestinian president warns new Hamas-led government that it has no future unless it agrees to deal with Israel.

Wal-mart leads charge into ChinaUS giant launches big push for stake in burgeoning £140bn retail market.
H7 Israel & The Ayatollahs - Amir Taheri, New York Post

Are the Neocons Losing It? - Patrick Buchanan

NRO Victor Davis Hanson: Nothing in this war is much different from those of the past.

A look at why landlocked countries face multiple handicaps in belonging fully to the world.

Joseph Stiglitz on Bush’s bad-faith energy policy.

Democracy Arsenal Krauthammer, Defending the Spin Offensive

Kevin Drum Pace vs. Rumsfeld, Part 4

Washington Realist Eisenhower's Farewell Address

Iran's nuclear ambitions Harvard University Gazette

UPI Outside View: U.S. border weaknessBy WILLIAM S. LIND The Bush administration argues that by staying in Iraq, we keep "terrorists" attention and efforts focused there rather than on America's homeland.


New Republic, April 4 An article examines Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's attempts to make the Pentagon operate like a business in the new economy. Employing just-in-time inventory methods and "network-centric warfare," the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq have been marked—at least initially—by their shift away from conventional battlefield tactics. But some doubt this approach, finding it creates new vulnerabilities. "[S]uch networks are great for Wal-Mart, but only because it's illegal for Target and Kmart to attack those supply lines," the author writes.
H8 Daily Star The horrendous costs of an American failure in Iraq By Judith S. Yaphe

Iraqis in Tal Afar Question Bush's Optimism

In Fallujah, Iraqi Forces Riven by Sectarianism

Diplomat Rules Out Security Council Statement on Iran This Week

Syrian Vice President to Hold Iran Talks

Syria names first ever female vice president

'The Syrian opposition loses its unity' By Haytham Manaa An Nahar, The Syrian human rights activist and spokesperson for the Arab Committee for Human Rights criticizes the recent National Salvation Front manifesto issued in Brussels by former Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam and the leader of the exiled Muslim Brotherhood. He says the Front failed to attract any of the symbols of the opposition or any of its active political and civil powers. "God and history will only tell that bridging the gap between the Brotherhood and the Syrian democrats was not an easy task." He concludes by noting that the problem is "the Syrian opposition is losing today a symbolic unity that it had managed to achieve after the Damascus Declaration, and after a quarter of a century of pain. I don?t know how much time we will need to mend the bridges that were destabilized by Brussels."Link to full text in primary source.

UPI Interview: The Iranian nuclear crisis

Saudi Arabia's baby boomers, born after the 1973 oil embargo, are redefining the kingdom’s relationship with the modern world.

Asia Times A balance sheet for America's Iraq Those who have benefited from three years of war in Iraq are precisely those whom the United States intended to be losers: Iran and Arab regimes that neighbor Iraq.

Iran: Nuke treaty mess reaches critical mass Kaveh L Afrasiabi
H9 Ha’aretz – Israeli Military Chief: Hamas Will Try to Restrain Terror to Boost Image

Judge: Charges against AIPAC officials may be unconstitutional

USA Today US Nixes Israeli Firm's Purchase of US Rival Over 'National Security'

Washington Institute Israeli Parliamentary Elections Resources

BBC Abbas 'moots secret peace talks' Abbas has proposed secret peace talks with Israel, a paper quotes him as saying.

Slate Promises, Promises: Is Olmert's pledge of West Bank disengagement a bold move or just politics as usual?
Shmuel Rosner

Yedioth Ahronoth Rice to Israel: Open crossings

Jerusalem Post Middle Israel: The politicians' challenge Next week's election will herald a post-heroic, post-utopian and post-territorial political era.

'Phantom of Hamas will cast shadow on [Arab] summit'

Daily Star Breakthrough time in Israel's elections?By Rami G. Khouri

Analysis: The long shadow of Ariel Sharon

Common Ground: A two-state solution for Middle East peace

Daily Star Balancing fanfare and real change in the Arab reform universe While reform agendas, plans, priorities and debates in the Arab world continue to occupy people's time and minds, methodical and coherent strategies for change remain the conspicuously missing element in most Arab countries. One possible exception that might be worth monitoring - precisely because it is based on the principle of monitoring progress - is the National Reform Agenda recently officially approved and very quietly launched in Jordan.

Washington Institute Lebanese National Dialogue: Avoiding the Hard Questions?
H10 Christian Science Monitor Israeli media split over report on US-Israel ties Some say Harvard report 'riddled with factual errors,' others call it important 'wake-up call.'

AEI Armed Forces Journal (April 2006) Going Native - Great Powers, Indigenous Armies By Vance Serchuk

Understanding Strategy: A Delicate Dance America Must Learn to Comprehend China’s Culture and Tactics By Dan Blumenthal, Christopher Griffin

Assessing the Impact of Public Participation: Concepts, Evidence and Policy Implications Canadian Policy Research Networks This 52-page Canadian research report explores what is known about assessing the impact of citizen engagement on the policy process and on the subsequent behaviour of the citizen participants

H11 IHT tale of two elections DOUGLAS ALEXANDER / IHTWe must stand by the people of Belarus as we did the people of Ukraine, in their struggle for a democratic future.

Concerns over violence intensify in France As protests against a new youth employment law have gained momentum, violence at the end of marches has intensified, with a growing minority of a few hundred troublemakers stealing the spotlight from thousands of peaceful student demonstrators.

In English? Chirac won't hear of it How a European Union summit meeting turned into a linguistic battlefield.

BBC A new dawn? Diplomacy and sincerity in Spain's Basque region
Radical Milan The city said to be at the centre of Islamic militancy in Europe

Der Spiegel STUDENT RIOTS IN FRANCE De Villepin's Waterloo French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has abandoned his collision course with a restless population. He is now seeking a compromise with unions in an effort to quell weeks of violent protests. But initial talks have collapsed and the demonstrations could get worse next week.
H12 RFE/RL 'Subject: American Aggression Against Iraq' The U.S. military has released two unverified documents suggesting that in 2003, during the lead-up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Russia's ambassador to Iraq provided Iraqi officials with information about the U.S. military presence and plans in the Gulf. Read translations of the memos here.

Caucasus Ossetian Leaders Hint At Reunification Plans At a recent meeting between officials of Russia's southern Republic of North Ossetia and Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, remarks were made that have triggered speculation that the meeting may have gone as far as discussing redrawing the Russian-Georgian state border.

Analysis: Moscow's Silence In The Run-up To Ukraine's Elections


Washington Times Researchers peg Putin as a plagiarist over thesis Large chunks of Mr. Putin's mid-1990s economics dissertation on planning in the natural resources sector were lifted straight out of a management text published by two University of Pittsburgh academics nearly 20 years earlier, Washington researchers insisted yesterday.

BBC Russia 'gave Iraq intelligence' Russia gave Saddam Hussein intelligence on US military moves during the Iraq war, a Pentagon report says.

EDM BELARUS: END GAME
- RUSSIA-WEST STANDOFF IN TRANSNISTRIA: OVERALL POST-SOVIET ORDER AT STAKE

Ukraine FM: Kiev to join EU by 2015

OpenDemocracy Take your partner
Everyone is a democrat in Ukraine now. Next they must learn to make the compromises that allow the system to work. By Alexander Motyl
H13 The Times Regrettably, I have seen the future. It is dull, miserable and Brown Matthew ParrisThere is no generosity that engages with the strengths of his opponent’s case

Russian spy gave Saddam US secrets The Russian Government had a spy inside the US military command who passed information to Saddam Hussein on America’s war plan for Iraq

WSJ The Israel Conspiracy If Israel damages U.S. interests, why do Americans support it? By BRET STEPHENS

FT FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE - BOOKS ESSAY: After the watershed By Stefan Wagstyl Among the Orange Revolution's supporters there is widespread disappointment with president Viktor Yushchenko

COMMENT: Hypocrisy takes to the streets By Christopher Caldwell The marching French students are not radicals. Indeed, they have a pie-eyed naivety about the prospects of saving their rigid employment system.

Senators soften stance on proposed China trade sanctions

FT WEEKEND - LIVING: Whatever happened to the wise old men?

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Those who are bashing Bush forget his achievements
H14 Financial Times Leader Blair's flawed defence of foreign activism One of the most attractive features of the government led by Tony Blair after it came to power in 1997 was its liberal and interventionist internationalism: a...

Leader Risk of crossed wiresIt is ironic that just as France and the US - never the closest of allies - are experiencing particularly acute fits of official protectionism, two of their key...

Leader Parlez-vous anglais?

China and Russiabridle at paying UN more The US has sparked protests from Russia and China by proposing a fundamental change to the way contributions to the United Nations are calculated that would make them pay more

Ehud Olmert – COMMENT: An unloved vote winner By Charles Morris and Harvey Morris

Israeli election briefing: political parties

'Russians' desert Olmert to follow emerging dark horse

Avigdor Lieberman, a burly, bearded former Moldovan known by the unlikely sobriquet of ‘Yvette’, is emerging as the dark horse of next week’s Israeli election

COMMENT: A little democracy need not hinder a popular dictator Russia sent political experts to advise Lukashenko. Back in Moscow, they will confirm Putin has been absolutely right to consolidate power, writes Stefan Wagstyl, the FT’s east European editor.


H15 Los Angeles Times Iran Could Make a Nuclear Bomb Within Three Years Iran, moving much faster than expected, is now just days from making the first steps toward enriching uranium, diplomatic sources say.
Russia Leaked Invasion Plans To Iraq Report says Russia passed information to Hussein's regime before and during the U.S.-led 2003 invasion
Editorial China syndrome Congress' misguided and economically illiterate attempt to bully Chinese currency policy.

Terror loses its luster Basque separatists' welcome cease-fire symbolizes the near-death of European terrorist movements.

FBI Agent – 9/11 Plot Was Within Grasp

Dump the Middle East dictators
By Anwar Ibrahim The U.S. is expiating for past sins with its support of Middle East democracy.

Caveman in chief By Rosa Brooks
Why is Bush's defense policy so neolithic?

Albright: There's no axis of evil
By Madeleine Albright The former secretary of State on Bush's fictional world view.

H16 American Conservative Hillary the Hawk By Justin RaimondoA second President Clinton would lead the Democratic wing of the War Party
Blogometer realclearpolitics – ABC’s The Note - Early Bird thru GovExec -
H17 Daily Telegraph Protectionist Europe Twenty years after the signing of the Single European Act, British voters are entitled to ask the Prime Minister why the creation of a single market for services and capital is proving so elusive.
H18 Independent Battle for Baghdad 'has already started' The battle between Sunni and Shia Muslims for control of Baghdad has already started, say Iraqi leaders

Will Russia's 'stooge' become Ukraine's Comeback Kid?

EU summit fails to address protectionism fears

Robert Fisk: Lessons from the ghosts of Gallipoli

Ehud Olmert: The heir apparent

The pollution gap A shocking new report reveals how the world's poorer countries are forced to pay for the CO2 emissions of the developed nations
Britain set to drop emissions targets for business

H19 The U.S. military must be prepared to respond to a deliberate or inadvertent incident occurring abroad that involves chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosives (CBRNE). Department of Defense Instruction 2000.21 on "Foreign Consequence Management," (pdf) March 10, 2006, sets DoD policy on the subject.
In addition to the FAS archive of CRS reports, there are rich complementary collections at the State Department's Foreign Press Center and at CDT's OpenCRS.com, among others.
"National Emergency Powers," updated February 10, 2006.
"Jordan: U.S. Relations and Bilateral Issues," updated March 14, 2006.

H20 Slate The Good News From Iraq: We can't hear it—the bombs are too loud. John Dickerson


National Military Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction. The full text of the strategy document (PDF, 31 pages)


CRS "Global Climate Change: Federal Research on Possible Human Health Effects," updated February 10, 2006.
"'Bunker Busters': Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator Issues, FY2005-FY 2007," updated February 21, 2006.
"Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Iraq: Effects and Countermeasures," February 10, 2006.
H21 FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE - WEALTH MANAGEMENT SPECIAL: Ten great ways to get rich There are lots of boring ways to invest your money: stocks, bonds, managed funds. But why be dull when you can have fun getting rich? In some cases, incredibly rich. In the past 10 years, you could have doubled your money in Prague property, or tripled it with Ming porcelain. From jewellery to champagne, we look at 10 great ways to make money

LRB - Psychoanalysis: what might have happened to it if Freud had been forced to do the ironing, cook for the kids, shop, darn socks... more»

Is it just me, or is everything wonderful? Norman Johnson: Is it just me, or is there something deliberately obtuse about the way that a certain type of political commentator never wants to celebrate all the utterly amazing things that make this the best time and place ever in human history?


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 - political theory/
CounterterrorismBlog OutSide the Beltway - InstaPundit - Kausfiles - andrewsullivan.com - Becker Posner-- armscontrolwonk - Registan Arts & Letters Daily/  ¶ 12:09