APS Diplomat News Service articles from January 2005

APS Diplomat News Service archives from January 2005

Iran-EU3 Talks Resume; No Change On Nuclear Issue Before Presidential Elections.
January 1, 2005... *** Meanwhile, Iran Is Beginning To Look Like A Taliban State; Traditionalist Hardliners Are Getting Tougher With Those Who Fail To Show 'Enough Piety'; And The More Islamic Tehran Becomes The Less Popular The Jaafari Theocracy Is Tending To...

The Fate Of The US In Iraq, Or The Fate Of Iraq With US Forces Gone.
January 3, 2005... *** A Wahhabi Suicide Bomber On Dec. 21 Entered A Heavily Fortified US Base In Mosul And Got 100 Killed/Injured *** How Can The US, With The Help Of Poorly Trained Iraqi Securitymen, Assure Safety For Iraqis To Vote On Jan. 30, When It Cannot...

Why Sunni Rebels Wanted Bush Re-Elected.
January 3, 2005... In a four-page account of their ordeal, Georges Malbrunot one of the two French reporters held hostage for four months in Iraq, wrote in the Dec. 24 edition of Le Figaro (for which he worked) that one of their captors from the Sunni group...

Rumsfeld In Iraq.(Donald H. Rumsfeld)(Brief Article)
January 3, 2005... Rumsfeld on Dec. 23 made a surprise visit to Forward Operating Base Marez near Mosul, where the deadliest attack on a US base in Iraq took place on Dec. 21 - with 14 US service members among the 22 killed. The defence secretary visited wounded...

Friedman's Picture Of Iraq.(Thomas L. Friedman)(Excerpt)
January 3, 2005... The following are extracts from a column of Thomas L. Friedman in The New York Times of Dec. 24 - with underlining by APS: "[There] was a picture that ran on the front page of The New York Times on Monday [Dec. 20] that really got to me. It...

What Bush Thinks.(George W. Bush on Iraqi elections)
January 3, 2005... At an end-of-year White House news conference on Dec. 20 - shortly before he was to begin a vacation, celebrating Christmas at his Camp David retreat in Maryland then going on to his ranch in Crawford, Texas - Bush acknowledged serious problems...

US May Hit Iraqi Baathists In Syria.
January 3, 2005... The Jerusalem Post on Dec. 23 quoted a "senior" Bush official as saying the US was contemplating incursions into Syrian territory in an attempt to kill or capture "Iraqi Baathists who, it believes, are directing at least part of the attacks...

The Exit Option.(Iraq elections and United States counter insurgency policy)
January 3, 2005... The Christian Science Monitor (CSM) on Dec. 24 quoted Rob Malley, director of the Middle East programme at the International Crisis Group (ICG), as saying: "I'm sure the [Jan. 30] election...may not mean much, if the insurgency continues and...

Top 10 Distinctive Sounds From Baghdad.
January 3, 2005... The following piece by The Associated Press on Jan. 1 lists the Top 10 distinctive sounds that highlight a day in a Baghdadi's life: 10. The roar of power generators. "Oh! They are our best friends, those generators", said Mahasen Chalabi,...

A Year Of Elections In The Middle East; Expect Big Change In The Status Quo.
January 10, 2005... *** The Wahhabi Religious Order In Saudi Arabia Is Split Beyond Repair; Even Some Ulema' Of The Aal Al Shaikh Clan Are Now Challenging The Reformer Wing Of The Royal Family; To Them Elections Are A Thing That Does Not Belong To Sunni Islam...

How Saddam Prepared For War.(Saddam Hussein)
January 10, 2005... Internationally isolated and fearful of losing power, Saddam Hussein had since the mid-1990s invited into Iraq hardline Wahhabi religious men and other Salafis who preached their austere form of Islam. He let extremely religious Iraqis join his...

Four Areas Of Iraq Too Unsafe For Voting.
January 10, 2005... With three weeks to go before the Jan. 30 elections, four of Iraq's 18 provinces are still not secure enough to allow for voting. Speaking at a press conference in Baghdad, the US commander of ground forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, said...

The Palestinian Election.
January 10, 2005... Late on Jan. 9 Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) declared an overwhelming victory in a Palestinian presidential election. As exit polls showed the candidate of the mainstream Fatah movement winning up to 70%, Abbas told supporters: "Ahead of us is a...

Sudan Peace Accord Ends North-South War; Now The Focus Is On Darfur And Oil E&P.
January 17, 2005... *** Powell Gives A Bleak Assessment Of Iraq, Saying He'd Like To See US Troops Leave As Quickly As Possible; But The Strength Of The Insurgency Does Not Allow Washington To Set A Timeframe For Withdrawal This Year; When Bush Asked Him What He...

The Nairobi Event.(Sudan peace treaty)
January 17, 2005... To cries of "Allah-u-Akhbar" and "Hallelujah", Sudan's Islamic government on Jan. 9 and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed the peace agreement. Several thousand onlookers - most of them Sudanese refugees who had known nothing...

GCC States, After Post-Saddam Iraq, Face Salafi Terrorism Spreading South.(Gulf Co-operation Council)
January 24, 2005... *** In Sharjah The Salafi Movement Is Said To Get Much Financing From The Bani Jiluwis - A Branch Of The Saudi Royal Family - Who Have Imposed Strict Islamic Rules On The Emirate - In Return For Funding Many Commercial & Real-Estate Projects...

European Over-Dependence On Russian Energy Worries Planners As Putinism Turns Sour.
January 31, 2005... *** Zarqawi, At War With Iraq Polls, Says They Are Against God's Will And Calls Sistani A Satan And The Shiites Idolaters & Apostates Who Belong To A Lower Circle Of Hell Than Even The Jews And The Crusaders; Salafis May Turn Their Wrath To...

Trouble In Russia.
January 31, 2005... The benefits protests in Russia, the start of a more difficult period for Putin, have coincided with the time when, in the fifth or sixth year of a president's term, there is always a feeling of weariness with the leadership. Putin is in...

US Judge Deals Blow To Yukos.
January 31, 2005... The Houston Bankruptcy Judge Letitia Clark last week dealt a blow to Yukos' case, ruling that the company cannot seek information about whether Gazprom illegally took part in the Dec. 19 sale of YNG. In this, Clark backed Gazprom's former unit...