27 July 2010
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Contents
As Safir: “Israel violates Lebanon’s airspace … and 1701 … No plan for a Qatari-Saudi meeting in Beirut … Assad’s schedule still undecided … Egypt anticipates Abdullah’s visit with open contacts: Prevent another May 7!”
The Washington Post: “Pentagon can’t account for how it spent $2.6 billion in Iraqi funds, audit finds”
The Guardian: “Afghanistan war logs: tensions increase after revelation of more leaked files … Coalition commanders hid civilian deaths, war logs reveal … US, Afghanistan and Pakistan trade angry accusations … Leak poses ‘very real threat’ to US forces – White House”
Arab News: “EU adopts new sanctions against Iran”
The Lebanese As Safir daily led its front page with the following news report today: “Israel violates Lebanon’s airspace … and 1701 … No plan for a Qatari-Saudi meeting in Beirut … Assad’s schedule still undecided … Egypt anticipates Abdullah’s visit with open contacts: Prevent another May 7!”
“In parallel to the renewed threatening rhetoric by the Israeli government, observers stopped at the Israeli blatant violation of Lebanese sovereignty and Resolution 1701 after 16 Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese airspace starting 9:10 am yesterday. The planes flew over several Lebanese regions before returning to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, according to an army statement…
This Israeli violation came as the Lebanese army command deployed additional military forces in UNIFIL’s work zone south of the Litani. French Ambassador to Lebanon Doni Pieton said that Prime Minister Saad Hariri informed him yesterday that additional forces will be deployed in the south as of yesterday, and he considered the move a “positive development that will be appreciated by Lebanon’s partners in UNIFIL”.
The army refused to comment on Pieton’s statement as observers stopped at the French ambassador’s hastiness to announce a step that is supposed to be “top secret” and is linked to the redeployment of Lebanese military units based on a decision by the Council of Ministers. They pointed that Pieton’s position indicated that he is trying to present a picture showing that the deployment could not have taken place had it not been for what UNIFIL, and specifically the French unit, had done lately…
In the meantime, Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz will arrive in Beirut on Friday from Damascus after meeting President Bashar Assad, who is reported to visit Beirut soon but the timing “is still undecided”, according to widely informed sources.
The Saudi king is expected to spend five hours in Beirut … while an informed source told As Safir that the king will meet with each of President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri and Hariri in addition to heads of parliamentary blocs…
Ministerial sources … told As Safir that there was no plan for a meeting between the Saudi king and the Qatari emir in Beirut…
… Meanwhile the Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abul Gheit said that the Lebanese situation will be at the top of issues to be discussed between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah in Sharm el-Sheikh tomorrow. He pointed, in a statement by the Foreign Ministry, to the ongoing Egyptian-Saudi coordination regarding this issue. He said that Egypt is developments in the situation in Lebanon great importance stemming from its interest in Lebanon’s stability…”
http://www.assafir.com/Article.aspx?EditionId=1604&articleId=2925&ChannelId=37475
The Washington Post carried the following news report on its front page today: “Pentagon can’t account for how it spent $2.6 billion in Iraqi funds, audit finds”
“Because of poor record-keeping and lax oversight, the Department of Defense cannot account for how it spent $2.6 billion that belonged to the Iraqi government, according to the inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.
An audit of a $9.1 billion fund of Iraqi oil proceeds showed that most American military agencies entrusted with spending the money on reconstruction projects failed to adhere to U.S. rules on how such money must be tracked and spent, the inspector general found.
U.S. officials failed to create bank accounts for $8.7 billion in the Development Fund for Iraq, as mandated by the Department of Treasury, creating “breakdowns in controls [that] left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss,” according to the report, which is scheduled to be released Tuesday.
The audit is the latest probe to fault the U.S. government for mismanagement of Iraqi funds in the years following the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, which led to an insurgency and a years-long occupation.
“Weak oversight is directly correlated to increased numbers of cases of theft and abuse, with the majority of convictions to date being traceable to the 2003-2004 time-frame where accounting practices were weakest,” Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said in an e-mail.
The report also said the U.S. military continues to hold at least $34.3 million of the fund, even though it was required to return it to the Iraqi government in December 2007.
In a written response to a draft of the audit, the Pentagon vowed to act on the inspector general’s three recommendations to strengthen accounting mechanisms and dispose of the Iraqi money not yet relinquished.
… The alleged mismanagement of the fund has angered Iraqi officials, who have raised the possibility of taking legal action against the United States, Bowen said.
American officials with the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led occupation administration, took control in 2003 of $20 billion of Iraqi government funds and obtained permission through a U.N. Security Council resolution to use the money for humanitarian assistance and reconstruction.
After the June 2004 dissolution of the CPA, the Iraqi government agreed to let the U.S. military control the remaining funds. It revoked the authority on Dec. 31, 2007…”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/26/AR2010072605535.html?hpid=topnews
The British Guardian newspaper led its front page with the following news report today: “Afghanistan war logs: tensions increase after revelation of more leaked files … Coalition commanders hid civilian deaths, war logs reveal … US, Afghanistan and Pakistan trade angry accusations … Leak poses ‘very real threat’ to US forces – White House”
“Tensions between the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan were further strained today after the leak of thousands of military documents about the Afghan war.
As members of the US Congress raised questions about Pakistan’s alleged support for the Taliban, officials in Islamabad and Kabul also traded angry accusations on the same issue.
Further disclosures reveal more evidence of attempts by coalition commanders to cover up civilian casualties in the conflict.
The details emerge from more than 90,000 secret US military files, covering six years of the war, which caused a worldwide uproar when they were leaked yesterday.
The war logs show how a group of US marines who went on a shooting rampage after coming under attack near Jalalabad in 2007 recorded false information about the incident, in which they killed 19 unarmed civilians and wounded a further 50.
In another case that year, the logs detail how US special forces dropped six 2,000lb bombs on a compound where they believed a “high-value individual” was hiding, after “ensuring there were no innocent Afghans in the surrounding area”. A senior US commander reported that 150 Taliban had been killed. Locals, however, reported that up to 300 civilians had died.
… Speaking at a press conference at the Frontline Club in central London yesterday, Julian Assange, of Wikileaks, the website which initially published the war logs, said: “It is up to a court to decide clearly whether something is in the end a crime. That said, on the face of it, there does appear to be evidence of war crimes in this material.”
Four days after it was first approached by the Guardian, the British Ministry of Defence said it was still unable to give an account of two questionable clusters of civilian shootings by British troops detailed in the American logs.
They were alleged to have taken place in Kabul in a month in 2007 when a detachment of the Coldstream Guards was patrolling, and in the southern province of Helmand during a six-month tour of duty by Royal Marine commandos at the end of 2008. The MoD said: “We are currently examining our records to establish the facts in the alleged civilian casualty incidents raised.”
The UK foreign secretary, William Hague, told the BBC that the leaked documents could “poison the atmosphere in Afghanistan” but at the same time insisted they would not affect British troops:
Writing in the Guardian, Eric Joyce, a former soldier and parliamentary aide to the former Labour defence secretary Bob Ainsworth, described the leaked documents as a “game changer”, adding that some of the questions raised were “stunning in their enormity”.
The former Liberal Democrat leader and spokesman on defence and foreign affairs, Sir Menzies Campbell, said the documents showed how difficult it would be for UK troops to leave Afghanistan in 2015, the date set by David Cameron.
“The leaked documents show just how awesome the task will be to bring the Afghan police and army to a condition where they can be responsible for security,” said Campbell.
Amnesty International called for reforms to the recording of civilian casualties after a row broke out over an incident in which the Afghan government says 45 villagers were killed in a rocket attack. The coalition disputes that it was responsible. Amnesty called on Nato “to provide a clear, unified system of accounting for civilian casualties in Afghanistan”.
Daniel Ellsberg compared the publication of the war logs to the Pentagon Papers, which he leaked to the New York Times in 1971. “The Pentagon Papers did not stop or even affect the war but affected public opinion a great deal. Are we really going to do better with another $300bn [spent on the war in Afghanistan] on more bombs, more special forces, more drones? The Taliban are not going to quit.”
The director of the military thinktank the Royal United Services Institute, Professor Michael Clarke, said in London: “There is no doubt that the leaks are politically pretty damaging. The papers give an impression of a lack of military discrimination in how operations were conducted.”
The Pentagon said it was conducting an investigation into whether information in the logs placed coalition forces or their informants in danger…”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/27/afghanistan-war-logs-tensions-strained
The pan-Arab daily Arab News carried the following news report on its website’s front page: “EU adopts new sanctions against Iran”
“The European Union on Monday formally adopted a package of new sanctions against Iran, targeting the country’s foreign trade, banking and energy sectors.
… EU foreign ministers adopted a decision “on a package of restrictive measures” in the areas of trade, financial services, energy and transport, said a diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity understanding rules.
The new measures will come into force in the next few weeks, after they are published in the bloc’s official gazette, officials said.
“We have a comprehensive set of sanctions. This is something where we have all 27 countries working together,” EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said ahead of the meeting.
According to the decision reached in June, the sanctions will target dual-use items that could be used as part of a nuclear program, and Iran’s oil and gas industry – including the “prohibition of new investment, technical assistance and transfers of technologies.” Iran’s shipping and air cargo companies will be blacklisted and banned from operating in EU territory, and new visa bans and asset freezes will be imposed on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The sanctions also encompass trade insurance and financial transactions.
… The new restrictions are similar to measures adopted by the Obama administration, which has imposed penalties against additional individuals and institutions it says are helping Iran develop its nuclear and missile programs, and evade international sanctions.
Iran denies that it is working on a nuclear weapon, saying its program is intended solely for peaceful purposes such as energy-generation, and that it has the right to enrich uranium under the international nonproliferation treaty.
EU foreign ministers also are expected reaffirm the bloc’s invitation to Tehran to hold talks on the issue.
“Our aim is to bring Iran back to the negotiating table,” said German State Secretary Werner Hoyer. “We’re offering our hand, and all they have to do is to take it.”
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article90833.ece
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