Maravot world news

The hotel's night watchman was in a "state of shock," the radio said, as he was at his post when a powerful explosion rocked the building, blowing out the windows. The blasts could be heard in a radius of several hundred metres, residents told AFP by telephone. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The radio did not say whether the blasts were the work of suicide bombers. The attacks came only a day after a suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into the entrance of a police school killing 43 people and injuring 45 in Issers, 60 kilometers east of Algiers. [More>>news.com.au]

8.20.08 Abkhazia parliament approves call to Russia for recognition

SUKHUMI (RIA Novosti) August 20 - Abkhazia's parliament has approved an appeal by the president of the separatist republic for Russia to recognize its independence from Georgia. The proclamation was backed by all 26 MPs attending the extraordinary session. The MPs also adopted an appeal to the parliaments and governments of other countries. The recognition request was prepared shortly after Georgia launched an offensive on South Ossetia, another secessionist republic in Georgia, on August 8. [en.rian.ru; See related stories

khaleejtimes.com, August 20, "G7 says stands ready to support Georgian economy"

On the other breakaway province, S. Ossetia:

kommersant.com, August 20, "We'd better burn it down so that they would never return" : Kommersant special correspondent Olga Allenova, who was at the war, believes that the South Ossetia of these days resembles the Chechnya of 1999. I thought we wouldn’t even need guns here” It was Russia’s wounded soldiers that first reminded me of Chechnya. They told us about the way military operations are carried out today and I realized that nothing had changed since 1999...

nytimes.com, August 20, Survivors in Georgia tell of ethnic killings" : TKVIAVI, Georgia — The men who came to Gulnara Militaura's house seemed to know what they were looking for. They entered her kitchen and shot her husband and his brother in the head. For the next five days, as attacks and looting raged outside, she cowered at home, sprinkling vinegar on the bodies to try to keep them from rotting. Now that the fighting between Georgia and Russia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia has subsided, killings like those will be grist for competing claims of ethnic cleansing.

...Georgia's military campaign ripped through a city just north of here last week, prompting Russia to strike back and opening a way for South Ossetians to sweep into Georgian villages for revenge. Still, the victims seemed marked by their ethnicity in a vicious, if short, war — itself fought over competing claims to the same patches of ground by different groups...

aljazeera.net, August 20, "Russia builds Ossetia 'buffer zone" : Russian troops are fortifying a "buffer zone" around the disputed South Ossetia region with eight military posts and a ban on Georgian aircraft, a senior Russian commander has said. Russia will also maintain a military presence around Abkhazia, another separatist region in the west of Georgia, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy head of Russia's general staff said in a televised news conference in Moscow on Wednesday. He said: "We are establishing two lines of posts for the peacekeeping contingent" in South Ossetia...

alarabiya.net, August 20, "West is distorting facts in Georgia: Syria's Assad" : Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday backed Russia's pursuit of its "legal interests" in its conflict with Georgia and accused the West of using "total disinformation" to isolate Moscow. "On this issue we fully support Russia... Georgia started this crisis, but the West is blaming Russia," Assad said in an interview with the Kommersant daily ahead of his scheduled arrival Wednesday in Russia for two days of talks...

independent.co.uk, August 20, "Miliband visit puts pressure on Georgian leader" : The first British government minister to visit Georgia since the Russian invasion made a point of meeting opposition leaders as public discontent over Mikheil Saakashvili's role in the disaster that has befallen the country began to grow. Foreign Secretary David Miliband held breakfast with the main opposition leaders lasting more than an hour during a flying visit to Tbilisi over the crisis in a move which is bound to add pressure on the beleaguered Georgian leader.

..Although the governments in the US and Western Europe have made a public showing of backing Mr. Saakashvili, there has been increasing questioning of his tactics which had allowed the Russians to score a major strategic victory over NATO. There is also unease at the Georgian leader's increasingly erratic behavior in public at press conferences alongside, among others, Condoleezza Rice and Angela Merkel."

...Saakashvili bears part of the responsibility for this war. Russia was trying to provoke us but we should have avoided direct military confrontation." He says he explained to Mr. Miliband the issues the opposition had with the Saakashvili government prior to the conflict - lack of media freedom, independent courts, and a reality that does not fit with the Georgian president's democratic rhetoric. "Mr. Miliband didn't seem surprised to hear these things," said Mr. Usupashvili...

washingtonpost.com, August 20, "Bush pledges support for Georgia's territorial integrity" : President Bush today affirmed support for the territorial integrity of Georgia, declaring that the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia "are part of" the Eastern European country and again condemning Russia's two-week-old invasion in support of separatists there. In a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Orlando, Bush pledged that the United States and its allies "will support young democracies" of the former Soviet Union. He praised Georgia for holding free elections after its 2003 Rose Revolution and for sending its troops to Afghanistan and Iraq. "Georgia stood for freedom around the world," Bush said. "And now the world must stand for freedom in Georgia."...

cbsnews.com, August 20, "Bush: Breakaway regions belong to Georgia.." : President Bush, pushing back against claims by Russia, said Wednesday the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia are part of pro-Western Georgia and that Washington will work with allies to insure Georgia's independence and territorial integrity.

metimes.com, August 20 (Editorial) "How far can power stretch?" The United States is the world's hyper-power — since the collapse of communism, there has been no debate about that: Serbia, Iraq— twice, and Afghanistan have all proven no match for the awesome high tech power of the US armed forces: But as President George W. Bush concentrates US naval forces ominously close to the shores of Iran, we feel we have to ask: How far can that power stretch?

...Britain's position as the world's hyper-power in the 1920s and 1930s could not be sustained, because she took on far too many security burdens scattered around the world when she no longer had the financial, industrial and military resources to carry all of them...in Georgia, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dimitry Medvedev called the bluff of US global power...

Editorial note: The blunders that the Bush administration have made in US domestic and international affairs are too many to list and certainly put him in the record books as the leader of the Western World that left his nation and the world in the greatest economic and political mess of all time. Only the Roman emperor Domitian could compete for this ignominious record, for his misdirected persecutions and policies encouraged the breaking away of Roman territories.

The messy story involving Georgia connects with the messy story of Bush's pulling out of the ABM treaty with Russia, then his move to install a missile shield in Europe, (the first place for the shield he looked into was Georgia), then his move to place the shield in Poland and Czechoslovakia. At the same time he launched a war of aggression against Saddam Hussein (Iraq) under false pretenses — which world records say was really for oil — and having redirected US forces from Afghanistan to Iraq Bush facilitated the growth of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan which, in turn, relocated its "home offices" on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, bringing Pakistan into the new front on the war on terrorism. At the same time, parallel to this Europe sought new and more direct sources of oil (Most of the messy story of the Bush administration is about oil), and as the Caspian Sea opened up as a resource for oil Europe was there negotiating for contracts and pipelines. In the early meetings in Kazakhstan US companies engaged in oil development were not even present! (They were apparently not invited.)

As things developed Russia became a new source for oil and gas to Europe and produced pipelines to Europe, the first being through Ukraine. Then Russia began hiking up the price on the oil through the pipeline and even cut off the oil over a disagreement with Ukraine over transit fees, etc. Europe realized that Russia could not be trusted so they encouraged the development of the oil pipeline from Baku, Azerbaijan (on the Caspian Sea) through Georgia (including S. Ossetia) and to Turkey's Mediterranean port. A matching pipeline was being planned at the time of the conflict in Ossetia that since has been tabled, according to the Moscow Times (See Maravot News for the report). Europe is in a dilemma. It needs the oil, can't trust Russia, and now the Georgian pipeline has been threatened. If Russia gains possession of a piece of the land through which the pipeline runs, then Europe is left with the problem of finding another way to pipe oil into its borders without going through Russia.

The EU (represented by its president, Sarkozy) concluded what it believed would be a 6-point agreement that would solve the dilemma. The agreement addressed Russia's appeal "that South Ossetians should make the choice, whether to remain as part of Georgia." (The breakaway regions have a majority population that has a Russian identity, so Russia's appeal that the breakaway territories ought to choose their own destiny is a mute point.) Russia also opined the argument that the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and S. Ossetia were in the same situation as the breakaway region of Bosnia from Serbia. If Bosnia could be recognized by the UN as a nation separate from Serbia, so too should the UN recognize the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and S. Ossetia.

If the Bush administration had addressed the Russian argument for a democratic solution, the crisis might have been contained and not flowed into the Middle East conflict. Looking back we can ask how it came to be that President George Bush I and President William Jefferson Clinton left President George Bush II an Iraq under control, with no fly zones and UN sanctions constraining Saddam Hussein, with the supply of Middle Eastern oil somewhat stable and the US / world economy — under Clinton's leadership — flourishing. George Bush II inherited a relatively stable and prosperous world and look at what he did to it!

We always like to ask who is to blame for this sorry state of affairs. As we ask the question we will need to ask House Speaker Nancy Pelosi why she allowed this incompetent leader of the Western World to continue in his incompetence when there were calls for his impeachment. The impeachment of Bush and Cheney could have prevented the conflict involving Bush's missile shield and chess game with Russia, and subsequent order of a Cold War renewed. Of, course, had Bush and Cheney been removed from office Nancy Pelosi would have become our new president pro tempore, according to the Constitution of the United States. Her judgment not to allow impeachment proceedings "because it would distract Congress from doing its scheduled business" seems to have led us all to a greater distraction and calamity.

Mel Copeland

8.20.08 Syria to expand military ties with Russia

MOSCOW (Reuters) August 20 - Syrian President Bashar Al Assad said on Wednesday he would use this week's visit to Russia to expand military ties with Moscow whose arms sales to the Middle Eastern state have angered the West. Israel and the United States have long urged Russia not to sell weapons to Syria -- a key Moscow ally during the Cold War now at the centre of Kremlin ambitions of reviving Russia's Soviet-era role in the Middle East.

Assad told Kommersant newspaper that Russia's conflict with Georgia, in which Moscow says Georgia used Israeli-supplied equipment, underlined the need for Russia and Syria to tighten their defence cooperation. "Of course military and technical cooperation is the main issue. Weapons purchases are very important," he said. "I think we should speed it up. Moreover, the West and Israel continue to put pressure on Russia." Assad is expected to met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday. [More>>khaleejtimes.com; See also: jpost.com, August 20, "Syria may host Russian missiles."

timesonline.co.uk, August 20, "Fear of new Mid East 'Cold War' as Syria strengthens military alliance with Russia." : Syria sought to revive its security alliance with Russia today, when President Bashar al-Assad arrived in Moscow to clinch a series of military agreements, raising fears that the new Cold War that has erupted in the Caucasus will spill over into the Middle East...

8.20.08 Rice signs missile deal with Poland

WARSAW, Poland, August 20 - Despite fierce opposition from Moscow, the United States and Poland signed a long-stalled agreement on Wednesday to place an American missile defense base on Polish territory. The Kremlin has leveled sustained criticism against the American plan, characterizing it as a hostile act near the Russian border. But American officials insist that the system will defend against threats from countries like Iran and would not target Russia. "Missile defense, of course, is aimed at no one," said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who signed the agreement in Warsaw with her Polish counterpart, Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski. "It is in our defense that we do this." [More>>nytimes.com]

8.20.08 Grenade blast wounds four in southern Philippines

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines, August 20 - Attackers on a motorcycle hurled a grenade that wounded four people outside a hotel in the revolt-hit southern Philippines late Wednesday, a military official said. The blast hit a small group of people at the front of the Marcian Business Hotel in Zamboanga City on Mindanao island, said Colonel Santiago Baluyot, head of a military anti-terror task force. "We do not know the motive of the attack," he said. Asked whether the blast was thought to be part of a spate of deadly attacks by Muslim rebels, he said "we are not discounting that possibility."

Security had been tightened in Zamboanga City in the wake of worsening clashes in recent weeks with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) elsewhere in the southern Philippines. Two bombs wounded four people Sunday in hotels in Iligan city. Local officials have blamed the MILF, which has stepped up its attacks in the south, leaving 38 dead in their latest offensive Monday. The attacks have threatened the stalled peace talks between the government of the mainly Christian nation and the Muslim rebels. [>thenews.com.pk; See related stories:

newsinfo.inquirer.net, August 20 (Update), "6 hurt in Zamboanga City grenade blast."

newsinfo.inquirer.net, August 20, "31 MLF rebels surrender.." : MANILA, Philippines—(Update) Thirty-one Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels who admitted being involved in the Lanao del Norte murderous rampage surrendered to the military Wednesday, saying they could not stand the killing of civilians, an Army official said. The rebels, who served as the "blocking force," claimed to have seen how MILF Commander Abdullah Macapar, alias Bravo, and his men shoot dead civilians and burn houses in Lapayan village, Kauswagan town, said Brigadier General Mark Antonio Supnet, chief of the 104th Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army. "They could no longer stomach how the civilians were killed so they surrendered," Supnet said in a phone interview.

"They made it appear that the MILF's programs are good, but they're not, because they kill people," said the group's leader, Alvin Conto, in footage aired in QTV-11 television. "This is not peace, they mercilessly kill civilians." ...

8.20.08 28 countries meet for turtle conservation in Bali

JAKARTA, Indonesia, August 20 - Representatives from 28 countries held a meeting in Denpasar, Bali, to discuss action plans to save marine turtle habitats. The countries previously signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the conservation and management of marine turtles and their habitats in the Indian Ocean and South-East Asia (IOSEA) region. Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi said Indonesia was committed to obeying the MOU. "The turtles' existence relates strongly to the quality of marine resources," he said, as quoted by Tempointeraktif.com.

Freddy said Indonesia could realistically protect beaches where turtles laid their eggs and could supervise fisherman, demanding they free turtles caught in their nets. The two major threats to the marine turtle was over-exploitation and environmental damage to beaches, the minister said. "Approximately two baby turtles, out of a thousand eggs, survive," said Freddy, adding that egg stealing by humans and other predators decreased the ratio. [>thejakartapost.com]

8.20.08 New population of rare leopards found in Indonesian national park

JAKARTA, August 20 - British and Indonesian researchers said Tuesday they have discovered a new population of Bornean clouded leopard in a national park on the Indonesian part of Borneo. The Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, which is a part of Oxford University’s Zoology Department, said the leopards were found in Sebangau National Park in Central Kalimantan Province. [>japantoday.com; for the real story see wildlifeextra.com]

8.19.08 Chain wrapped around 'old man's body' found in mosque

BAGHDAD, August 19 - "There are the bloodstains on the wall, and here it is dried on the floor," Abu Muhanad said as he walked through a torture chamber in a Baghdad mosque where more than two dozen bodies have been found. "And here, a woman's shoes. She was a victim of the militia. We found her corpse in the grave."

Chunks of hair waft lazily across the floor in the hot Baghdad breeze. "This was the torture room," said Muhanad, the leader of a US-backed armed group that now controls the mosque. "This is what they used for hanging," he said, pointing to a cord dangling from the ceiling. "Here is a chain we found tied to an old man's body." The horrific scene at this southwestern Baghdad mosque is what officials say was the work of a Shiite militia known as the Mehdi Army. Residents who live near the mosque say they could hear the victims' screams.

The militia had been in control of the mosque, called Adib al-Jumaili, from at least January 2007 until May of this year. Residents say coalition forces weren't in the region and the torture and killings went unchecked. [More>>cnn.com]

8.19.08 Russia seizes US vehicles

POTI, Georgia, August 19 - Russian soldiers today held blindfolded Georgian servicemen at gunpoint and commandeered US Humvees in a dramatic sequence of events in Poti, a key Black Sea port. Elsewhere, they exchanged POWs with Georgia and pulled back some troops from the strategic city of Gori. It was a day of deeply mixed messages that left the small, war-battered country full of anxiety about whether Russia was aiming for a long-term military presence in Georgia or whether it was just trying to inflict maximum damage before adhering to a EU-brokered cease-fire and troop pullout.

In Poti, on the Black Sea, Russian forces blocked access to the naval and commercial ports this morning and towed the missile boat Dioskuria, one of the navy's most sophisticated vessels, out of sight of observers. A loud explosion was heard minutes later. Several hours later, an Associated Press photographer saw Russian trucks and armored personnel carriers leaving the port with about 20 blindfolded and handcuffed men riding on them. Port spokesman Eduard Mashevoriani said the men were Georgian soldiers. The Russians also took with them four Humvees that were at the port awaiting shipment back to the United States after taking part in earlier US-Georgian military exercises. [More>>independent.co.uk; See also nytimes.com, August 19, "Russian forces detain Georgian soldiers at port."]

8.19.08 Was Bush involved in US attorney scandal? Depends on whom you ask

August 19 - Was he or wasn't he? It may be the Bush-era version of "What did he know, and when did he know it?", the famous question that dogged Nixon through the Watergate break-in scandal. Before the court of public opinion, White House spokespeople have long maintained President Bush had no involvement in the firing of nine US Attorneys, the central decision that mushroomed into one of the biggest scandals in eight years of the Bush administration.

"[T]here is no indication that the President knew about any of the ongoing discussions [about firing U.S. attorneys] over the two years, nor did he see a list or a plan before it was carried out," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters in March 2007. In federal court, however, the administration's lawyers have been more ambiguous. "The record does reflect at this stage that the president was not involved in decisions about who would be asked to resign from the department," Justice Department lawyer Carl Nichols carefully argued before a federal judge in June. But "the record does not reflect that the President had no future involvement" in the scandal, he noted. [More>>abcnews.go.com]

8.19.08 Bomb attack on police school leaves 43 dead

ALGIERS (AFP) August 19 - A suicide attack on an Algerian police school at Issers, 60km east of Algiers, killed 43 people and injured 38, the interior ministry said today. The attacker drove a car packed with explosives at the main entrance to the school as candidates for an entry exam were waiting outside, witnesses said. Civilians as well as police officers were among the victims and a major security operation was under way there, they added. The casualty figures were still provisional, the ministry said in a statement.

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