Foreign Policy Iraq braces for Ahmadinejad visit - Los Angeles Times
The Iranian leader's visit is welcomed, but it comes at a time when Iraqi Shiite allies are growing wary of Tehran's role in their war-torn country.
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Foreign Policy Archives
February 29, 2008
Concerns rise over Iran-backed militias in Iraq -- chicagotribune.com
U.S. military officials are voicing increasing concern that Iranian-backed Shiite militants are stepping up their activities in Iraq, as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prepares to make a historic visit to Baghdad that is expected to reinforce Iran's expanding influence.
The U.S. military refers to the shadowy, cell-like structures operated by Shiite extremists as Special Groups and says their precise relationship with Iran's government isn't clear. The U.S. military is certain, however, that they receive arms, training and funding from the Quds Force, the elite and secretive foreign-operations wing of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps.
"We don't assess necessarily that the central government of Iran is behind this but we are certain there are elements, including the Quds Force, who continue to train, finance and equip these people," said senior military spokesman Rear Adm. Gregory Smith.
Despite Problems, Iraqi Leader Boasts of Success - washingtonpost.com
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gazed out at a sea of chanting Shiite pilgrims Thursday and offered a brash appraisal of his administration's 21-month tenure.
"We promised we would bring national reconciliation to the sons of Iraq, and we have succeeded!" Maliki thundered to hundreds of thousands of Shiites gathered at the golden-domed Imam Hussein Shrine in Karbala. "Iraqis are once again loving brothers!"
Maliki is facing a drumbeat of criticism that his government has achieved little progress as well as constant calls for his ouster, but these days he hardly sounds like a man fighting for his political survival. He acts as if he has the upper hand over his political rivals, brusquely rejecting demands from key allies and making a bold grab for greater control of the federal bureaucracy.
Iraqi says Turkish military withdrawing - USATODAY.com
The Turkish military has begun withdrawing from northern Iraq, Iraq's foreign minister said Friday, a day after the U.S. pressured Turkey to end the offensive against separatist Kurdish rebels.
"We welcome this move," Hoshyar Zebari told the Associated Press in a telephone interview. "The timing is good. I think the military carried out its promises" to remove Turkish troops after finishing the operations.
Zebari said regional Iraqi authorities had informed him that the Turkish troops were leaving northern Iraq, and the Turkish military had targeted only the rebels, not civilians living in the remote region.
The foreign minister said he hoped Turkey "will respect the sovereignty of Iraq."
Gates and Turks discuss Iraq incursion - Los Angeles Times
Civilian and military leaders here assured U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Thursday that Turkey's incursion into northern Iraq would be limited to redoubts occupied by Kurdish separatists but offered no guarantees on how soon their troops would withdraw.
In meetings with the Turkish officials, Gates pushed, he said, for the operation to be wrapped up as quickly as possible and for the Turks to more clearly explain to the Iraqi government the size and scope of the offensive.
The Turkish military, which has long battled Kurdish separatists who strike at Turkey from bases in the mountains of northern Iraq, launched the large-scale ground operation last week backed by artillery and warplanes. The fighting has angered Washington's Iraqi allies and raised concern that the conflict could spread in a relatively stable area of Iraq.
Gates previously had urged that the operation end after a week or two. But he told reporters traveling with him back to Washington that the Turks had given no timetable for their withdrawal.
Execution of 'Chemical Ali' approved - Los Angeles Times
Iraq's three-member Presidency Council has approved the execution of Ali Hassan Majid, a cousin of Saddam Hussein known as "Chemical Ali," said a high-ranking Iraqi government official today who was not authorized to speak on the subject.
The official said there was no date set for the hanging, which must be carried out within 30 days. He also said the Presidency Council had agreed only to the execution of Majid, not two codefendants also convicted in June of genocide and other crimes.
'Phantom' police on payrolls in Iraq - USATODAY.com
Iraq's government has spent millions of dollars on "phantom" police officers who left the force or died, but whose names remained on department payrolls while others illegally pocketed their salaries.
An investigation by the Iraqi Interior Ministry in six provinces found that 15-20% of the names on police payrolls there no longer corresponded to active-duty officers. More than 11,000 names have since been purged nationwide as part of a broad effort to cut graft.
The excess money for salaries sent by the federal government in Baghdad often ended up in the hands of other police officers, said Army Brig. Gen. David Phillips, the top U.S. adviser for police training.
"A lot of those police officers disappeared — either ran away, didn't come to work, killed, any number of things," Phillips said. "There was still pay going out there … unless someone stopped it."
In recent months, the Interior Ministry has sent officials to provincial police stations, where they refused to pay anyone who couldn't walk in to collect their salary in cash.
Bhutto party woos Islamists to build front - USATODAY.com
Opponents of President Pervez Musharraf are wooing Islamist politicians to bolster their drive to curb the powers of the U.S.-allied leader following his party's loss in parliamentary elections.
The negotiations bring together opposition forces who have promised to tackle extremism and Islamists who sympathize with the Taliban — highlighting the extent of the former military strongman's political isolation.
"We believe that the problems are so big that as far as possible we should take along all the political forces," Farhatullah Babar, the spokesman of slain leader Benazir Bhutto's party, told The Associated Press on Friday.
Bhutto's widower and political successor, Asif Ali Zardari, warmly embraced Fazlur Rehman, the bearded leader of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, or MMA, when they met in the capital, Islamabad, late on Thursday.
US Support for Musharraf Causes Anger -- chicagotribune.com
The U.S. has a puzzle to crack in Pakistan.
The Bush administration wants to ensure military pressure is kept up on militants in the lawless tribal areas, but U.S. support for President Pervez Musharraf risks deepening anti-American sentiment among a public already fuming over Islamabad's role in the war on terror.
Despite Washington's denials of any meddling in Pakistani politics, influential commentators and average citizens are convinced it is propping up the unpopular former army chief to sustain the fight against al-Qaida, even as it calls for more democracy.
U.S. Embrace of Musharraf Irks Pakistanis - New York Times
The Bush administration’s continued backing of President Pervez Musharraf, despite the overwhelming rejection of his party by voters this month, is fueling a new level of frustration in Pakistan with the United States.
Missile Strike in Pakistan Kills 10 At Suspected Taliban Safe House - washingtonpost.com
A missile strike on a suspected Taliban safe house in a remote tribal area of northwest Pakistan killed at least 10 people early Thursday, according to residents and local officials.
The attack targeted a home in the village of Kaloosha in volatile South Waziristan, near the Afghan border. There were conflicting reports on the number of casualties and the identities of those killed, but local residents and officials said the home belonged to a farm owner who had recently offered it as a guesthouse to several foreign fighters.
Accounts of how the attack unfolded were also mixed. Several residents said they heard three explosions at about 2 a.m. One of the missiles apparently missed its target, while two others destroyed the house. A tribal leader in South Waziristan, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that women and children were among the dead, and that at least six others were injured.
Prince Harry to Return Home After Combat - washingtonpost.com
Prince Harry will be immediately brought home from Afghanistan, where he has spent the last 10 weeks quietly fighting on the front lines, the British defense ministry said Friday.
Harry, 23, third in line to the British throne, deployed to Afghanistan on Dec. 14 and has been fighting Taliban forces from a forward combat base in southern Helmand Province.
His presence there had been kept secret from the public in a remarkable deal between the British military and media. But the secret was revealed Thursday on the Drudge Report website. Harry's deployment immediately became sensational news here, rekindling an emotional debate about whether the red-haired second son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana should be risking his life in war.
The Ministry of Defense announced Harry's withdrawal early Friday afternoon, saying that publicity about his presence in Afghanistan had unduly jeopardized him and his fellow soldiers.
Prince Harry's Seeing Combat, And British Media Kept Quiet - washingtonpost.com
Prince Harry has been fighting on the front lines in Afghanistan for 10 weeks, his presence there kept secret until Thursday in a remarkable deal between the British military and news media.
U.S. warns Europe of Iran missiles - Los Angeles Times
With American officials working to close a deal on a missile defense system in Europe, the head of the U.S. program warned Thursday that Iran was within two or three years of producing a missile that could reach most European capitals.
"They're already flying missiles that exceed what they would need in a fight with Israel. Why? Why do they continue this progression in terms of range of missiles? It's something we need to think about," Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering III, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, told a conference here on missile defense.
The message was aimed at staving off skepticism in Europe and clinching a deal for radar and interceptor sites in the Czech Republic and Poland. It underscored increasing concern among defense experts that while attention has focused on nuclear proliferation, nations such as China, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan and India have made significant strides in developing missiles that can reach far beyond their immediate neighbors.
World Group Tells Banks to Beware Deals With Iran - New York Times
In a move that strengthens the American-backed effort to isolate Iran, a leading international organization responsible for combating financial crimes called Thursday for all countries to be wary of Iran’s banking system because of concerns over money-laundering and aid to terrorists.
The action, by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, was welcomed by the Bush administration as likely to help its drive to punish Iran economically for its nuclear activities and its support of Hezbollah and other militant groups.
A separate American effort to get the United Nations Security Council to impose mild sanctions on Iran is proceeding slowly, and European countries are planning to offer new incentives to Iran if it agrees to halt its uranium-enrichment program.
Hezbollah Rejects US Ships Off Lebanon -- chicagotribune.com
Hezbollah on Friday denounced the deployment of U.S. warships off the coast of Lebanon, calling it a threat to the country's sovereignty, but the Shiite militant group said it would not be intimidated by the move.
The U.S. military said Thursday the Navy was sending at least three ships, including an amphibious assault ship, to the eastern Mediterranean Sea in a show of strength amid tensions with Syria and political uncertainty in Lebanon.
"We are facing an American threat against Lebanon," Hezbollah legislator Hassan Fadlallah said on local television. "It is clear this threat and intimidation will not affect us."
Strikes in Gaza Kill 18 Palestinians; Hamas Rocket Barrage Injures 2 Israelis - washingtonpost.com
Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Thursday killed at least 18 Palestinians -- including five children -- as Palestinian gunmen fired 45 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel. Israel warned that Hamas's use of more sophisticated rockets could trigger a full-scale invasion.
Israel carried out 11 airstrikes in northern Gaza that officials said were aimed at rocket-launching sites and Hamas fighters. But four boys playing soccer, the youngest of whom was 8, were also killed in the strikes, according to Palestinian hospital officials. One other child was also killed, along with two adult civilians. At least nine of the others who died Thursday were fighters, the officials said.
The Israeli military said Palestinian rocket and mortar fire injured two Israelis.
Israel, Hamas continue aerial attacks - Los Angeles Times
Cross-border hostilities between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip continued for a second day Thursday as Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians, including five young boys, and a Gaza-launched rocket struck a home in the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon.
The airstrikes brought the total Palestinian death toll to 29 during the two-day burst of violence. In Israel, officials said that more than 60 Kassam and Grad rockets had been launched from Gaza over the two days. A college student in southern Israel died in an attack Wednesday; there were no Israeli deaths or significant injuries reported Thursday.
Kenyan Rivals Sign Power-Sharing Agreement - washingtonpost.com
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga signed a power-sharing agreement Thursday to halt ethnic violence that has killed at least 1,000 people and displaced 600,000 in a post-election crisis that has ushered this nation to anarchy's door.
With ethnic militias arming for all-out conflict, the economy crushed and talks near collapse, former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan, who has been mediating between the two sides, bypassed deadlocked negotiating teams and appealed directly to Kibaki and Odinga.
By Thursday afternoon, the feuding men were seated in matching red chairs in the warm Nairobi sun, signing a deal that promises an influential position as prime minister for Odinga and a balance of power in Kenya's government that has been lacking since the country won its independence from Britain in 1963.
Although the United Nations, the United States and others characterized the deal as a significant political breakthrough, it remained unclear whether Kenyans would accept it.
In N. Korea, Eccentricity Well Off the Scale - washingtonpost.com
In closed communist dictatorships, land-use planning often edges toward the far side of eccentricity.
In Albania under Enver Hoxha, the countryside was pimpled with more than 700,000 concrete bunkers. Built to ward off invaders, most became outhouses.
In Romania under Nicolae Ceausescu, a historic quarter of old Bucharest was bulldozed to build a Parisian-style boulevard, an artificial river and a 13-story neo-Stalinist palace that was used for, well, nothing. Before Ceausescu could move in, he was overthrown, lined up against a wall and shot.
Here in North Korea, with a father-and-son dictatorship ruling the roost, eccentricity in land planning has gone unchecked for 60 years. It has gone to the far side, and beyond.
Across a Nation, Olympic Fervor - washingtonpost.com
Chen Guangbing's horizon is largely confined to Zhong Jie, a crowded pedestrian street cutting through central Shenyang where he hawks peanuts, pistachios and cashews from a rickety wooden table.
But Chen, 28, feels something big and life-expanding is about to happen here, broadening the world of his little nut stand, running the length of Zhong Jie, embracing Shenyang and illuminating the whole of China. The Olympics are coming to Beijing in August, he knows, and for Chen and more than a billion other Chinese, the Games are a milestone in this country's often dolorous history.
China's Offer To Resume Rights Talks Is Discounted - washingtonpost.com
Human rights advocates have dismissed as a ploy China's offer this week to renew talks on the issue with the Bush administration before the Beijing Olympics in August.
In a visit to Beijing this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice welcomed Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi's offer to revive the long-stalled dialogue, saying that human rights were "near and dear" to the United States.
A day later, activists from some of the world's leading human rights organizations testified before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, a panel set up in 2000 to monitor that country's progress on human rights, the rule of law and press freedoms.
China had pledged in 2001, when it was awarded the right to host the Games, that it would improve its record on those issues.
In their testimony Wednesday, however, the human rights advocates said the Chinese government was continuing to crack down on political dissent by jailing activists and harassing the news media.
Observers Say Russians Pressured to Vote -- chicagotribune.com
Young voters will get discounts for night club passes. Cheap groceries will be sold at the polls. Schools and hospitals, meanwhile, are threatening to fire workers who don't cast ballots.
Voters across Russia say they are being urged, cajoled and pressured to vote in an effort to ensure that the Kremlin's candidate scores a big win in Sunday's presidential elections.
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's first deputy prime minister, is all but certain to win Sunday's presidential election by a broad margin. But authorities are still taking extraordinary steps to make sure he wins by a huge margin and with a high turnout, voters and rights groups say.
February 28, 2008
Widowed by terrorism, then caught in the middle -- chicagotribune.com
Though on paper a wealthy woman, Leslye Knox struggles to keep her six children fed and a roof over their heads. Last week, the electricity was turned off in her central Georgia home; she'd ignored the bill to buy groceries. But there is one extraordinary resource she has not yet been able to tap.
Knox just returned from Washington, where she urged State Department officials not to interfere with her collecting on a mega-million-dollar court award for the murder of her husband by a terrorist in Israel six years ago.
"They say my case has 'international ramifications,' " said Knox, 47. " But how could little old me, trying to nurture my kids, affect the Middle East peace process?"
A federal judge put that question to the U.S. government, setting a deadline of Friday for its answer.
Turkey continues raids in northern Iraq - Los Angeles Times
A sixth day of fighting continued Wednesday between Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels in Iraq as U.S., Turkish and Iraqi officials clashed over terms for ending the conflict.
Iraqi officials have demanded that Turkey halt the operation in the northeastern mountains of Iraq and withdraw immediately.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who arrived in Ankara, the Turkish capital, Wednesday night, told reporters he intended to advise Turkish leaders that their incursion into northern Iraq must last no more than a few weeks. He also planned to tell them that the military operation should be complemented by political efforts to resolve the grievances of the Kurdish minority in eastern Turkey.
But Turkey ruled out specifying a timetable for an end to the offensive.
Turkey says no timetable for Iraq pullout - washingtonpost.com
Turkey said on Wednesday it had "no timetable" to withdraw troops fighting Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq, resisting pressure from the United States and other allies to end the offensive quickly.
Thousands of Turkish troops crossed the border last Thursday to root out PKK fighters. The PKK has used remote mountainous northern Iraq as a base in their armed campaign for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
"Our objective is clear, our mission is clear and there is no timetable until ... those terrorist bases are eliminated," Turkish envoy Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference after talks in Baghdad with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari.
Some Turks Question Timing of Iraq Push - washingtonpost.com
Turkey's military offensive in northern Iraq has clear objectives: attack Kurdish separatist guerrillas in their mountain bases, destroy their camps and weapons caches, and show them they can be pursued anywhere, anytime.
But many Turkish observers say that the operation, launched last week, also paved the way for something else entirely: head scarves.
Did the Islamic-oriented government, some Turks ask, use the start of the largest offensive into northern Iraq in more than a decade to divert attention from its controversial decision to legalize head scarves in universities?
"There's an obvious connection," said retired Gen. Haldun Solmazturk, an administrator at Ahmet Yesevi University in Ankara, the capital.
In founding modern Turkey in the 1920s, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk encouraged Western attire and restricted religious dress in public as principles of the republic.
Gates Urges Limits on Turkish Raids - New York Times
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates urged Turkish leaders on Wednesday to abandon their invasion of guerrilla-controlled lands in the northernmost reaches of Iraq by mid-March.
American and Iraqi leaders seem increasingly worried that fighting along the Turkey-Iraq border could widen into a broader and bloodier conflict.
“It’s very important that the Turks make this operation as short as possible and then leave,” Mr. Gates told reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday as he prepared to leave for Turkey.
Sunni Forces Losing Patience With U.S. - washingtonpost.com
U.S.-backed Sunni volunteer forces, which have played a vital role in reducing violence in Iraq, are increasingly frustrated with the American military and the Iraqi government over what they see as a lack of recognition of their growing political clout and insufficient U.S. support.
Since Feb. 8, thousands of fighters in restive Diyala province have left their posts in order to pressure the government and its American backers to replace the province's Shiite police chief. On Wednesday, their leaders warned that they would disband completely if their demands were not met. In Babil province, south of Baghdad, fighters have refused to man their checkpoints after U.S. soldiers killed several comrades in mid-February in circumstances that remain in dispute.
Some force leaders and ground commanders also reject a U.S.-initiated plan that they say offers too few Sunni fighters the opportunity to join Iraq's army and police, and warn that low salaries and late payments are pushing experienced members to quit.
Iraqi Leaders Veto Law on Elections - washingtonpost.com
Iraqi government leaders on Wednesday rejected a law requiring nationwide elections by the fall, sidetracking a measure that U.S. officials consider a key benchmark for political reconciliation in Iraq.
Parliament passed the legislation two weeks ago. The veto by Iraq's presidency council was an unexpected setback.
Lawmakers will now have to reconsider the measure, which they agreed to only as part of a three-law package reached after weeks of political wrangling. The dispute became so divisive that some called for the dissolution of parliament. The two other laws -- Iraq's 2008 budget and an amnesty that could apply to thousands of detainees in Iraqi prisons -- were approved by the presidency council.
"This is a huge disappointment," said the Shiite deputy speaker of parliament, Khalid al-Attiyah, through an aide. "The political blocs all agreed on this law before. Now we will have to try to start all the deals and agreements from the beginning."
Iraq provincial law rejected - Los Angeles Times
Iraq's presidential council Wednesday rejected a law on the powers of local government that was approved by parliament and touted by the Bush administration as a sign of reconciliation between the country's ethnic and religious groups.
The three-man council asked that parliament reexamine the complicated and multifaceted law when it reconvenes March 18.
Some politicians said the move could jeopardize the package of political deals approved Feb. 13 to heal rifts between the country's main communities at a time of decreased sectarian violence.
Greenbacks in the Green Zone: War's risks don't stop job seekers - USATODAY.com
Help wanted: possibly life-threatening risks, little freedom outside work, long hours but competitive pay. Must be willing to relocate to Iraq.
For many around the world, that is the sound of opportunity knocking.
The war in Iraq — nearing the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion — has focused attention on some modern twists to life in the field, from soldier-bloggers to base coffee shops serving up lattes.
But few are as profound as the rise in military outsourcing.
While the spotlight shines brightest on the private security contractors and the fallout after the Blackwater Worldwide shootings last year, the true face of the war-as-work world is the legions of Iraqis and economic migrants from even poorer nations chasing a chance at a juicier payday.
Segregated Israeli buses driving critics to court -- chicagotribune.com
On six public bus lines in this city, the sexes are separated. Women board at the rear door and sit in the back. Men get on and sit in the front.
The segregated lines, operated by Egged, Israel's main bus company, link neighborhoods of ultra-Orthodox Jews and accommodate demands of the strictly religious for separate seating of men and women.
Twenty-three other intercity lines, similarly segregated, serve cities and towns that have substantial ultra-Orthodox populations. In many cases they are the only direct lines between those communities, running at reduced fares.
To many strictly religious commuters, the special lines are a welcome alternative to ordinary bus routes, where the rush-hour crush of male and female passengers is deemed in ultra-Orthodox circles to be a violation of prohibitions on public mingling of the sexes.
Strikes Destroy Ministry in Gaza, Kill 10 Palestinians - washingtonpost.com
An Israeli airstrike Wednesday evening destroyed the Interior Ministry building in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip just hours after fighters from the movement launched a barrage of rockets into southern Israel.
The Israeli strike on the ministry -- apparently unoccupied at the time -- capped a day of intensive operations from both sides of the Gaza boundary that killed at least 10 Palestinians as well as one Israeli in the southern town of Sderot.
Palestinian hospital officials in Gaza said the Israeli strike on the ministry killed a 6-month-old baby and injured more than 25 other people living in the densely populated neighborhood around it.
Earlier in the day, Israeli strikes killed at least nine Palestinians, including four civilians, officials in Gaza said.
Hamas answers Israeli airstrikes with rockets - Los Angeles Times
An Israeli warplane blew up a minivan carrying senior Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, prompting a rocket blitz from the Palestinian enclave that killed a middle-age student on a college campus in southern Israel.
Four Palestinian civilians and 10 militants were killed in the escalation of aerial attacks, and the student's death brought new pressure on the Israeli government to launch a full-scale ground offensive in the Hamas-ruled territory.
Rocket attacks by the Islamist group have been met with increasingly hawkish rhetoric from Israel in the six weeks since President Bush visited the region to promote peace talks between the Jewish state and the secular-led Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank.
U.S. and India to Strengthen Security Ties - New York Times
With a landmark nuclear energy pact between the United States and India stalled, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Wednesday that the nations would nonetheless strengthen their security ties as India looked to embark on a closer — and still contentious — level of military cooperation with the United States.
With its booming economy and a strong desire to upgrade Soviet-era weaponry, India has emerged as one of the world’s most prosperous arms markets.
During two days of meetings with Indian officials, Mr. Gates pressed the case of American defense companies competing for multibillion-dollar contracts with the Indian government, including a coveted $10 billion fighter jet deal.
Ousted PM Gets Mixed Welcome -- chicagotribune.com
Huddled around radios on Bangkok's busy streets, Thais listened anxiously for news Thursday that ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had returned home from self-imposed exile.
At the country's international airport, hundreds of Thaksin supporters with red roses or placards that read "We Love Thaksin" began gathering at 5 a.m. local time to catch a glimpse of the 58-year-old billionaire.
The crowd of taxi drivers, homemakers and elderly grandmothers chanted his name or joined in raucous songs penned in his honor that celebrated "an iron man who has great vision" and someone who "will bring Thailand out of crisis."
From North Korea, Discordant Messages - washingtonpost.com
It felt historic inside the concert hall. American musicians got goose bumps and wept when North Koreans leapt to their feet to cheer.
But will the first-of-its-kind performance of the New York Philharmonic here this week help unlock this hermit state? Signals are maddeningly mixed.
North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, did not attend the concert Tuesday evening, but he did allow it to be broadcast live on state television and radio.
Tuesday's evening news on state television did cover the visit of the U.S. orchestra, but only after six tedious reports on such events as an undated tour by Kim of a wire factory, children viewing Kim's drawings and fish swimming in an aquarium.
North Korea's main daily newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, covered the concert that made front pages around the world. But it did so on Wednesday, with a brief article on Page 4.
And so it goes, with North Korea taking a step or two toward engagement with the outside world and then taking a step or two toward inscrutability, fist-shaking at the West and repression of its own people.
Gates says U.S. isn't trying to outmaneuver China - Los Angeles Times
The Defense secretary insists Washington didn't have Beijing in mind when talking with three nations about building up their militaries.
Serbia Withdrew Police, Intelligence Chief Says - washingtonpost.com
The Serbian government decided to pull back its police in Belgrade last Thursday so that demonstrators could attack the U.S. and British embassies, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told a Senate committee yesterday.
"We have good information that when the U.S. embassy and the British embassy and others were attacked, a decision was taken by the government of Serbia actually to pull the police back and allow them to be attacked, burn the embassy and conduct the violence they conducted," McConnell told the Senate Armed Services Committee in answer to a question during his testimony on worldwide threats.
Putin’s Heir Shows Hints of Less Icy Style - New York Times
Eight years ago, as President Vladimir V. Putin introduced himself to the world, its platoons fought for the capital of Chechnya, helping to forge Mr. Putin’s persona as a leader of icy resolve.
Now, Mr. Medvedev, the presidential successor personally selected by Mr. Putin, is creating his own public identity according to a choreographed script. And here, in a mix of Soviet and Russian symbols, the man rising to Kremlin power avoided the stern themes that have often accompanied Mr. Putin’s appearances.
He wanted to talk about living conditions, for soldiers and civilians alike. “Let’s talk about the problems that exist,” he said to the soldiers beside him before a bank of television cameras. “Let’s have a normal conversation. Please.”
Bush, Czechs Fail to Seal Radar Deal - washingtonpost.com
The United States and the Czech Republic failed on Wednesday to complete an agreement on basing a U.S. anti-missile radar facility near Prague because of a Czech demand for strict environmental rules. Both sides predicted the dispute could be settled quickly.
"These aren't easy agreements to put in place," President Bush said after White House talks with Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek. "But we feel optimistic that we will get this done."
The U.S. missile-defense system calls for an early warning radar facility in the Czech Republic combined with 10 missile interceptors in silos in Poland. It has proved controversial in Europe and further strained U.S.-Russian relations.
Colombian hostages freed after six years - Los Angeles Times
After six years of captivity at the hands of leftist rebels, four Colombian hostages gained their freedom in a jungle clearing Wednesday after captors turned them over to representatives of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Dressed in T-shirts and jungle boots and appearing reasonably healthy, ex-legislators Gloria Polanco, Orlando Beltran, Luis Eladio Perez and Jorge Eduardo Gechem met a helicopter-borne delegation that included the Venezuelan interior minister and a Colombian senator.
Venezuelan state television showed them as they were escorted to the meeting point in the Colombian jungle by a dozen guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, who were wearing fatigues and carrying carbines. Planned for nearly a month, the release took place in the state of Guaviare, where on Jan. 10 the FARC released two female hostages, Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez.
February 27, 2008
Britain Told to Release Blair Cabinet's Minutes - washingtonpost.com
A British official on Tuesday ordered the government to release minutes from two meetings of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet in March 2003, saying they could shed light on "uncertainties and controversies" surrounding Britain's decision to join the United States in the invasion of Iraq.
"There is a widespread view that the justification for the decision on military action in Iraq is either not fully understood or that the public were not given the full or genuine reasons for that decision," Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said in his ruling on a request made under the Freedom of Information Act.
The case illustrates how sensitive the Iraq war remains five years after the invasion. The war is extremely unpopular in Britain and was a key factor in Blair's departure after a decade in office. Many people in Britain remain skeptical and suspicious about the government's motivations for becoming the Bush administration's chief ally in Iraq.
Kurdish Iraqi lawmakers authorize force - Los Angeles Times
Lawmakers in northern Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region authorized their military Tuesday to intervene if Turkish forces pursuing anti-government rebels bring their battle into civilian areas.
The move heightened fears that the conflict could draw in Iraqi Kurdish forces and destabilize the one region of Iraq that has been relatively peaceful since the U.S. invasion in March 2003.
Tensions also were growing between the governments of Iraq and Turkey, which sent thousands of ground troops over the northern border into Iraqi Kurdistan on Thursday.
Turkey says its aim is to pursue separatists of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, who took up arms against the Turkish government in 1984 demanding Kurdish independence in southern Turkey and who have bases in the mountains of northern Iraq.
But Iraq's Kurdish minority views the invasion as an infringement of Iraq's sovereignty.