The Gulf News
India pakistan gas pipe line
Editorial: At Odds
9 December 2007
There is much that does not make sense about the destruction of the CIA videotapes of the interrogation of at least two Al-Qaeda suspects in the year after the 9/11 attacks. For a start, the agency originally insisted the tapes did not exist. Now it has admitted that this was a lie but has gone on to say the recordings have been destroyed. The record was made, says the CIA, to ensure that the new harsher interrogation methods authorized by the Bush White House were within “legal limits.” Why then was crucial evidence that this was the case subsequently destroyed? Unless of course the pictures showed that the techniques used to extract information from the suspects were indeed beyond the “legal limits.”
The other excuse advanced by the CIA that the videotapes were destroyed in 2005 to protect the identities of CIA operatives is clearly also odd. If the spy agency had been faced with a demand for the release of these recordings, it would have been the work of only a few hours to disguise the features of the interrogators by electronically doctoring their faces while still showing what actually went on during the examinations. What appears far more likely is that the tapes were destroyed since they represented damning evidence of abuse and torture against identifiable CIA agents. In particular it is reported that the pictures showed at least one suspect being subjected to “waterboarding,” a torture in which a prisoner is almost drowned.
During the 2006 trial of Zacarias Moussaoui who was picked up a month before 9/11 and convicted of being one of the plotters, his defense team sought access to any videotapes of terror suspect interrogations. It was then that the CIA denied that such tapes existed. This would seem to have been an obstruction of justice. If the agency then destroyed the tapes in case they were forced by the courts to hand them over, the crime is compounded. In 2005 Moussaoui’s lawyers were trying to build their client’s defense. That this seems to be the moment when the tapes were trashed may be no coincidence. The tapes themselves are not, however, the real issue which is that President Bush in moving to protect the American people from terror assault was prepared to authorize behavior that flies in the face of all the freedoms and values that Americans supposedly hold dear. Time and again in this administration’s baleful seven years of blunder, the White House has been prepared to order illegal and immoral treatment of prisoners.
There will of course always be a few individual sadists in any country who will mistreat suspects. Nonetheless, the depravities of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and the extraordinary CIA rendition campaign and the torture of those it believed to be terrorists, could not have occurred so extensively without active encouragement from the highest levels in Washington. Angry Democrats are focusing wrongly on the cover up of the videotapes. But perhaps they cannot bring themselves to accept the horrific truth that men have been brutalized and tortured in the name of America.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=104446&d=9&m=12&y=2007
Israeli Minister Slams US Report on Iran
Mohammed Mar’i, Arab News
RAMALLAH, West Bank, 16 December 2007 — Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter yesterday criticized the United States over its recent National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear program saying that “American misconception concerning Iran’s nuclear weapons, which is liable to lead to a regional Yom Kippur (the October 1973 War) where Israel will be among the countries that are threatened.”
Dichter bemoaned what he views as Israel’s inability to impress upon Washington just how imminent the threat of Iranian nuclear weapons is. “The softened intelligence report proves that Israel failed to provide the Americans with the whole picture concerning the Iranian nuclear threat,” the Israeli Radio cited him saying.
He said the report does not reflect the severity of the Iranian threat and urged Israel and other countries to supply the US with new information and intelligence assessments. “We have to hope that the US will know to correct this. Israel and other states must help in any way including providing intelligence material so as to fix this miscalculation.”
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=104701&d=16&m=12&y=2007
Palestinians Must Get Out of Mental Imprisonment
Ray Hanania, Arab News
JERUSALEM, 9 December 2007 — Palestinians I meet always point to the Israeli occupation as the main stumbling block preventing them from achieving independence and driving their oppressive lives. But I think far more obstacles exist that Palestinians are afraid to acknowledge, most that begin right in their own back yards.
Maybe because I was raised in America where tyranny is far more subtle and less violent than the real threats and physical dangers facing people in the Arab and Muslim Worlds. Or, maybe it is also because I am a realist, a state of mind that apparently continues to elude Palestinian society. Palestinians live in the past. Even when they emigrate to the Western countries, they may live physically in their adopted homelands, but they remain mentally imprisoned in “the balad. “The heaviest chains of this self-oppression may in fact be something Palestinians call “normalization.”
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=104445&d=9&m=12&y=2007
Western Families Face Eviction
Roger Harrison, Arab News
JEDDAH, 9 December 2007 — Western families are being told to leave their compound accommodation in Jeddah at very short notice. Some families have been given no notice period whatever; others have as little as two weeks to arrange new accommodation and there is no recourse to appeal.
The landlords usually refuse to give any reason to the tenant for the move. However, one informed source said that the reason for the evictions is that the law requires compounds housing Western families to be guarded by personnel of the armed forces, often the elite National Guard.
Compound owners are then required to finance the guards — either directly or indirectly — and they do not wish to bear this expense for only a few families.
One of the subjects of an eviction notice said that on Nov. 28 he was handed a notice to quit immediately and asked to sign it. “I refused,” he said.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=104431&d=9&m=12&y=2007&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom
Father Declines to Receive Son’s Body
Arab News
JIZAN, 9 December 2007 — A father has refused to take custody of the body of his son, who died in a prison mosque last Tuesday while serving time for a Qat-related offense, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported yesterday.
Ahmed Al-Sufiani said he would only take custody of the body of his son, Ali Ahmed Ali, once the cause of his death was independently ascertained. Ali’s body currently lies unclaimed at Jizan General Hospital.
“My son left home seven months ago searching for a job. I lost contact with him and looked for him everywhere but couldn’t find him. I thought he had found a job and settled down somewhere. Last week we were notified that he had died at Jizan Jail,” said Al-Sufiani.
“I went to the morgue and formally identified the body. However, I refused to take it. My son looked like he went through a lot of suffering. He became thin. I want to know how he died and the circumstances surrounding his arrest, conviction and sentencing,” he said, adding that Ali was of good character and never used drugs.
Maj. Maadi Al-Bugmi, head of Jizan Jail, said, “Last Tuesday, the prisoner went to the mosque along with other prisoners to pray and read the Qur’an. He fell unconscious and was taken to the prison’s hospital. Doctors say he died of a heart attack.”
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=104440&d=9&m=12&y=2007&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom
Saudi OFW, Two Seafarers Win 2007 Model OFW Family Awards
Gloria Esguerra Melencio, Arab News
MANILA, 8 December 2007 — A widow from the southern Philippines, who had worked for a sheikh in Saudi Arabia, and two seafarers won the prestigious Model OFW Family of the Year Award (MOFYA) for 2007.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=10§ion=0&article=104413&d=9&m=12&y=2007
Engineers’ Role in Development Highlighted
Arab News
JEDDAH, 7 December 2007 — The Engineers Welfare Forum Jeddah (EWFJ), formed in August this year, held its first meeting here on Wednesday night.
President of the Institution of Engineers Pakistan (IEP) Aftab Islam Agha, who was the chief guest, spoke about the contribution of engineers in the promotion of education and development of railways, roads, highways and telecom.
He said the Iran-Pakistan pipeline project would boost Pakistan’s industrial production and reduce the country’s reliance on oil import.
Agha designated EWFJ as the Jeddah chapter of IEP with Abdul Aleem Khan as its in charge. He urged engineers to register with the EWJF and praised the role of Pakistani engineers in mega construction projects in Saudi Arabia.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=10§ion=0&article=104381&d=9&m=12&y=2007
Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline: the Baloch wildcard
For both energy hungry India and its swiftly growing neighbor, Pakistan, the need for natural gas is more pressing than ever. Pakistan has one of the world’s fastest growing populations and its demand for gas will expand significantly over the next two decades. India’s gas demand will almost double by 2015 and due to the decline of its reserves it will be forced to import increasing amounts of gas. As the world’s second largest gas reserve, Iran is the most geographically convenient supplier of gas to both countries.
India considered three transport routes for gas from Iran: shipping it through the Arabian Sea on board tankers in the form of LNG, sending it through a deep sea pipeline, or alternatively transporting it on land via a 1700-mile pipeline from Iran’s South Pars field to India. The latter option means 475 miles of the pipeline will pass through Balochistan in southern Pakistan.
http://www.iags.org/n0115042.htm
Securing India's Future in the New Millennium
By Brahma Chellaney
http://books.google.com/books?id=2OqMPdJd-lUC&pg=PA71&lpg=PA71&dq=%22iran+pakistan%22+pipeline+project&source=web&ots=eKK4av8s5i&sig=JrLaTeKnj7BrKWZ1XSbov3rA5NM
Iran, Pakistan dump India on pipeline
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - Even as New Delhi grapples with domestic leftwing opposition to the India-United States civilian nuclear deal, Iran and Pakistan have finalized their section of a US$7.5 billion gas pipeline that Washington opposes.
India, Pakistan and Iran are the original partners of the 2,700-kilometer IPI "peace" pipeline that they wanted to complete by 2012 to transfer Iranian natural gas from its South Pars field to India via Pakistan. But, it is apparent now that New Delhi has
been dumped, for the time being at least.
Last week, Iran's deputy minister in charge of the pipeline, Hojatollah Ganimifard, was quoted by the Iranian Oil Ministry's news service Shana as saying, "The content of the peace pipeline contract has been finalized and all the points prepared by the two sides' legal experts have been re-read and agreed by the two sides [Iran and Pakistan]." He said the two sides would ink the contract in December "without a third partner".
And this week, Mokhtar Ahmad, advisor to Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, was quoted as saying, "As we expected, the text of the peace pipeline has been made ready for the signing by the two states' heads." Pakistan said that any excess gas that would have been destined for India could be transferred to China.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IK15Df02.html
Iran, Pakistan close to finalise gas pipeline project: India’s stand unclear
By NI Wire
Oct 30: Pakistan and Iran have reflected their commitment to the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project as they move forward today to give the deal a final touch. On Sunday, Iranian Oil Minister's Special Envoy for the pipeline talks Hojjatollah Ghanimifard said final touches to the contract would be given this week.
Irrespective of the fact whether India remains in or out of the project, Pakistan is of the opinion that the deal is the need of Pakistan and it stands committed to it.
This is to be mentioned that the project was negotiated by all the three countries but subsequent to the Indo-US civil nuclear deal India has not shown any interest in the project and did not participate in the rounds of talks going on between Pakistan and Iran on the project despite invitation from Tehran and Pakistan for holding talks on the same.
http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/1296
Iran Is No Threat and That’s Official
Linda Heard, sierra12th@yahoo.co.uk
“They stole our threat” goes a headline in the Israeli daily Haaretz. The author is, of course, referring to the recently published US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) composed by 16 American intelligence agencies. It counters US and Israeli assertions that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. There’s been no such program since 2003, it states.
For those of us in the neighborhood, this is good news but the powers that be in Washington and Tel Aviv are seething. With plans to squeeze the Iranian leadership with further UN sanctions and a military option on the table, this was not what either country wanted to hear.
George W. Bush says the report doesn’t change anything. On the contrary, he says, it shows that Tehran was working toward the manufacture of nuclear weapons in the past and could reconstitute the program again.
When challenged by reporters over his “World War III” speech, he said nobody told him that Iran didn’t have a current weapons program. This assertion has gone down like a lead brick with skeptical administration’s critics.
Investigate reporter Seymour Hersh says it has been an open secret in Washington since last year. In any event, whatever remnants of credibility Bush still possessed after the Iraq fiasco have been shot.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he is determined to work with the nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, to prove that Iran is developing nukes. If that’s so, he’s got a difficult task ahead because head of the IAE Mohammed El-Baradei has consistently discounted such claims and been vilified by the US State Department for his stance.
The hawkish US Vice President Dick Cheney is accused of trying to bury the intelligence estimate but he encountered opposition from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who either wanted to put a brake on the warmongers or feared inopportune leaks. Moreover, US law mandates that intelligence estimates must be put before Congress. Whatever the real reason it’s been published there is no doubt it has undercut the Bush administration’s military option rationale as well as its efforts to persuade Russia and China to sign up to further anti-Iranian sanctions.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=104500&d=11&m=12&y=2007
US Wrong About Iran’s Strategic Priorities
Gwynne Dyer, Arab News
For four years the Bush administration told us that Iran must be subject to sanctions, and maybe to military attack, because it was secretly working on nuclear weapons. Suddenly, last week, the US intelligence agencies tell President Bush that for the past four years Iran has not been working on nuclear weapons. So he announces that unless Iran abandons its civil nuclear power program it must be subject to sanctions and maybe to military attack anyway, because “what’s to say they couldn’t start another covert nuclear weapons program?”
Even the 16 US intelligence agencies (16!) that produce the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) didn’t expect to shake Bush’s determination to go after Iran. That’s why they insisted that the new NIE be declassified and published so quickly. It was a pre-emptive strike against the White House, to make it more difficult politically for Bush to press ahead despite the evidence.
Like the US armed forces, the intelligence services are in a state of near-mutiny as they watch President Bush drag the country toward another unnecessary and unwinnable war. But how come the same intelligence agencies were telling us two years ago with “high confidence” that Iran was developing nuclear weapons?
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=104501&d=11&m=12&y=2007&pix=opinion.jpg&category=Opinion
Rise in Nonoil Exports a Positive Step
Dr. John Sfakianakis
RIYADH, 11 December 2007 — Robust oil prices gave a record boost in oil revenues for Saudi Arabia in 2007. Oil revenues stood at a historical high of SR754.4 billion ($201.1 billion). In regional terms the size of the Kingdom’s oil revenues are staggering. The Kingdom’s oil revenues for 2007 were more than 118 percent of the UAE’s GDP in 2006 and four times bigger than the size of Qatar’s GDP. However, nonoil exports rose close to 25 percent, which is a positive step and indicative of the efforts to diversify away from simply producing oil.
In fact, nonoil exports in 2007 represented a 12.4 percent out of total exports whereas in 2006 in was a bit more than 10 percent. This is a slow but important advancement.
Although the budget surplus fell by 62.8 percent over 2006 it is still at a comfortable rate. Simply, the surplus fell because spending increased, in line with our expectations. Spending in 2006 increased above the projected level by 16.5 percent, which was above 13 percent increase in spending in 2006.
The state is spending more money in the various projects in the holy places, subsidies, higher university admissions and scholarship and these account for more budgetary spending. We estimate that the recently announced rice subsidy is estimated to cost around SR1.2 billion and the milk powder is another SR1.3 billion.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=6§ion=0&article=104521&d=11&m=12&y=2007
Education Gets the Major Slice
P.K. Abdul Ghafour & Khalil Hanware, Arab News
JEDDAH, 11 December 2007 — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah yesterday unveiled Saudi Arabia’s largest budget in history, earmarking expenditures at SR410 billion ($109.33 billion) and revenues at SR450 billion ($120 billion). It has allocated a record SR105 billion for education and training.
“This is the largest budget for the Kingdom and larger than last year’s budget by SR30 billion,” the king told a budget session of the Council of Ministers. “We have given instructions that the country’s revenues must be utilized to achieve sustained development in all sectors,” he added.
King Abdullah said more than a quarter of the new budget has been set aside for human resource development including higher education, and technical and vocational training.
“The budget will also boost scientific research and technological development,” the king said referring to financial allocations made for new research centers at universities.
Special allocations have also been made to train teachers, develop academic curricula and improve education atmosphere, with SR39 billion set aside for building schools, universities and training centers and institutes.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=104518&d=11&m=12&y=2007
Archbishop’s Views on US Policy Merit Attention
Sir Cyril Townsend, Arab News
At the end of November, the Most Reverend and Right Honorable Dr. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury for the last five years, delivered a scathing attack on the Bush administration’s foreign policy.
In an interview with Emel, a Muslim magazine, he said:
“It is one thing to take over a territory and then pour energy and resources into administering it and normalizing it. Rightly or wrongly, that’s what the British Empire did — in India for example. It is another thing to go in on the assumption that a quick burst of violent action will somehow clear the decks and that you can move on and other people will put it back together — Iraq, for example.”
Adding to his controversial remarks he went on to condemn Israel’s Wall. He described Western modernity as “eating away at the soul”. He wanted the Muslim world to acknowledge that its “present political solutions aren’t always very impressive”; I suspect many millions of Muslims would agree.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=104698&d=16&m=12&y=2007
Editorial: Bali Road Map
16 December 2007
The world now has another Road Map. It must be hoped that the “Bali Road Map” to agreement on limiting climate change fares better than the Middle East Road Map on bringing peace and justice to the Palestinians.
The common destructive denominator to both road maps is Washington, which has successfully blocked real progress on both issues. But Friday night in Bali, when it was faced with the anger of virtually every other UN Climate Change Conference delegation in a full plenary session, Washington finally backed down. The Americans had been insisting on firm commitments on carbon emission control from the developing countries before they themselves would enter into a process that would at last bind the United States to similar undertakings. Until the very last minute, it looked as if Washington was going to stay out of any final Bali agreement, which would have produced another Kyoto-type half-deal that achieved little except more rhetoric and hot air. And hot air is what the climate deal campaigners are seeking to control.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=104697&d=16&m=12&y=2007
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