Monday, April 30, 2007

Rice will talk to Iran if seen as useful

WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is ready to talk with Iran on the sidelines of meetings on Iraq this week but only if such contact is deemed useful, senior U.S. officials said on Monday.

A formal meeting has not been set up between Rice and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki when they are in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to discuss Iraq, but the top U.S. diplomat has made clear she would not avoid it.

"We are obviously prepared for whatever may emerge in terms of useful dialogue on Iraq," the State Department's Iraq coordinator, David Satterfield, told reporters.

The United States has accused Iran of fomenting violence in Iraq and if Rice meets Mottaki she will call for an end to the flow of arms and foreign fighters into Iraq as well as training of insurgents. Tehran rejects claims of interference in Iraq.

"We would certainly hope to see from Iran, generally speaking, the kind of supportive steps which would match Iran's rhetorical position on Iraq. Iran declares it wants to see a stable, peaceful Iraq, sovereign within its borders," said Satterfield.

Another senior U.S. official, who asked not to be named because the issue is sensitive, said if the Iranians challenged Rice in a multilateral meeting about Iraqi border security, for example, she could at that point request private talks.

But he stressed the United States was not pushing Iran for bilateral talks and would not discuss Iran's nuclear dossier, which is being handled by the European Union's Javier Solana.

"We'll stop (the meeting) ... there is no doubt about it," said the official. "We would be undercutting our own position which is that we are willing to discuss all these things but only in the context of a suspension of uranium enrichment."

FIRM BUT POLITE

The United States accuses Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is to generate electricity and it has so far refused a Western offer of incentives and broad negotiations if it suspends its sensitive enrichment work.

President George W. Bush said if Rice bumped into her Iranian counterpart she would be polite but firm.

"She'll also be firm in reminding the representative of the Iranian government that there's a better way forward for the Iranian people than isolation," Bush said.

There will be two Iraq meetings in Sharm el-Sheikh -- one on Thursday to endorse the International Compact with Iraq, a five-year plan offering Iraq financial and political support in return for reforms.

Satterfield urged Iraq to agree on an oil-revenue sharing law that has been held up for months, saying this would help encourage foreign investment.

On Friday, Iraq's neighbors -- including Iran and Syria -- as well as ministers from the Group of Eight nations and the European Union will discuss how to stabilize Iraq, where sectarian violence has plunged the country into chaos.

The United States hopes Arab nations will be more supportive of Iraq's government, particularly Saudi Arabia which has been most resistant, said the senior U.S. official.

Saudi King Abdullah refused to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki before the Iraq meetings, but U.S. officials sought to play this down, pointing to Saudi plans to offer debt relief to Iraq.

"These are all tangible demonstrations of Saudi support for Iraq," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

Egypt, as host of the meetings, has sought not to play up expectations about their outcome. "This is not a conference that will end up resolving all the problems of Iraq or provide a magic formula," said Egypt's ambassador to the United States, Nabil Fahmy.

War in Lebanon was 'severe failure' for Israel

telegraph
Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, defied calls for his resignation last night after a government report accused him of committing a series of errors in his handling of the war in Lebanon last summer.

The Israeli premier was left clinging on to power after being accused of "severe failure" in his prosecution of the conflict with Hizbollah. During the conflict, which saw intense bombing of the Shia group's infrastructure in Lebanon, thousands of missiles rained down on northern and central Israel as Hizbollah responded.

The long-awaited official investigation into the conflict - which broke out after Hizbollah guerrillas killed three soldiers and captured two others in a cross-border raid - dealt a harsh blow that further weakened the embattled prime minister.

The report said Mr Olmert acted hastily in leading the country to war on July 12 without having a comprehensive plan. He was criticised for not asking for a detailed plan from his generals, and failing to consult experts outside the military despite his relative inexperience in defence issues.

Mr Olmert was also faulted for setting unrealistic goals - the return of the hostages and the elimination of the Hizbollah missile threat - and failing to revise the targets once it became clear the war was not going as planned.

"The prime minister bears supreme and comprehensive responsibility for the decisions of 'his' government and the operations of the army," the report said.

"The prime minister made up his mind hastily, despite the fact that no detailed military plan was submitted to him and without asking for one. Also, his decision was made without close study of the complex features of the Lebanon front and of the military, political and diplomatic options available to Israel."

The report said that Mr Olmert's response to the crisis exhibited a "lack of judgment, responsibility and caution".

After receiving a copy of the findings of the investigative panel, Mr Olmert said that the "failures will be remedied".

Israel Maimon, Mr Olmert's cabinet secretary, said the prime minister "is not considering resignation".

He added: "It is right to state as clearly as possible: the report lists difficulties, failures and mistakes by all the leaders, including the prime minister. The question is what do we do now."

The commission, appointed immediately after the end of the war in response to public uproar at the army's inability to stop Hizbollah, also had scathing criticism for two other wartime leaders, Amir Peretz, the defence minister, and Gen Dan Halutz, the former chief of staff.

The panel criticised Mr Peretz for lacking the basic knowledge to make decisions on the war effort and failing to develop a strategic approach to battle.

But it was Mr Olmert, who faced calls for his resignation before the publication of the report, who took the brunt of the criticism from the panel led by Eliyahu Winograd, a retired judge.

Amnon Abramovitch, a political commentator, told Israeli television that the report had stopped short of what would have been its most crushing verdict.

"Only one sentence is missing: 'This being the case, he cannot continue in his post'," he said.

McCain Favors a 'League of Democracies'

WASHINGTON POST -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain envisions a "League of Democracies" as part of a more cooperative foreign policy with U.S. allies.

The Arizona senator will call for such an organization to be "the core of an international order of peace based on freedom" in a speech Tuesday at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.

We Americans must be willing to listen to the views and respect the collective will of our democratic allies," McCain says, according to excerpts his campaign provided. "Our great power does not mean we can do whatever we want whenever we want, nor should we assume we have all the wisdom, knowledge and resources necessary to succeed."

"To be a good leader, America must be a good ally," he adds in the speech, another in a series of policy addresses as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination.

Such comments offer a contrast to President Bush, who critics contend has employed a stubborn, go-it-alone foreign policy that has dramatically damaged the U.S. image abroad.

McCain is careful to note that his proposed multinational organization would not be like Woodrow Wilson's failed "League of Nations." Rather, McCain says the organization would be far more similar to what Theodore Roosevelt favored _ a group of "like-minded nations working together in the cause of peace."

"It could act where the U.N. fails to act," McCain says.

Such a new body, he says, could help relieve suffering in Darfur, fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa, develop better environmental policies, and provide "unimpeded market access" to countries sharing "the values of economic and political freedom."

And, McCain adds, an organization of democracies could pressure tyrants "with or without Moscow's and Beijing's approval" and could "impose sanctions on Iran and thwart its nuclear ambitions" while helping struggling democracies succeed.

Recalling Harry S. Truman's actions during the Cold War, McCain also urges a similar "massive overhaul of the nation's foreign policy, defense and intelligence agencies" to meet the world's current challenges. He says details will come later.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects in graf 2 that Hoover Institution is at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.)

Chief WTO farm mediator says US, EU must move

GENEVA (Reuters) - The chief mediator in troubled World Trade Organisation (WTO) farm talks on Monday said the United States would have to offer at least another 14 percent cut in subsidies to get a deal.

The European Union, also under pressure to make concessions in the WTO negotiations, would have to improve its offer on lowering import tariffs on farm goods, another politically highly sensitive part of the agenda, New Zealand's ambassador Crawford Falconer said.

Falconer, chairman of the WTO's agricultural negotiations, issued a 28-page report highlighting where the main divisions were in the farm talks and suggesting some possible solutions for closing the gaps.

Major WTO states have set themselves an end-year deadline for wrapping up the long-stalled Doha free trade round, but such a timetable requires an accord on a blueprint before the WTO begins its summer break at the end of July.

"Now is the time for honest talk, for telling it how one sees it in the hope ... (to) facilitate the decision-making we so desperately need now," Falconer said in his introduction.

The ambassador said that the current U.S. offer to cut farm subsidies to some $22 billion a year was not enough, but that it was unlikely that Washington would be willing to go to the "low teens" demanded by some of its trading partners, who say subsidies distort world trade.

"The centre of gravity for what is in play here for the U.S. is certainly below 19 and somewhere above the low teens," he said.

The EU, the world's largest users of farm subsidies, would also have to cut its farm supports by between 75-80 percent from the very high numbers that it was permitted under the last world trade deal, the Uruguay Round, which concluded in 1994.

Cuts on the currently highest farm tariffs would have to be somewhere between the 60 percent offered by the EU and the 85 percent sought by the United States, he added.

The number of so-called "sensitive products" -- farm goods that the EU and other major importers want to shield from the deepest tariff cuts -- would have to be limited to between 1 and 5 percent of tariff lines, below the 8 officially sought by Brussels, Falconer said.

Developing countries would have to contribute by doing some "two-thirds" of what the richer states were willing to do, he said.

Falconer rejected an argument put forward by some developing countries that farm products they are allowed to designate as "special" because of their importance to subsistence farmers could be excluded from tariff cuts altogether.

Dollar in free fall, and this time it is different from ’04

Reuters
NEW YORK, APRIL 29: The last time the US dollar slid to a record low against the euro it quickly recovered, but this time may be different. The dollar slid to a new record low against the euro on Friday, with the euro quoted above $1.3680, the highest since the currency’s launch in 1999.

When the euro climbed above $1.36 in 2004, it satyed at that level for five days, and then embarked on a year-long decline. But unlike late 2004, when the Federal Reserve was in the early stages of a two-year rate rising cycle which provided some support for the dollar against the euro, US economic growth is now slowing and the Fed may even cut interest rates later this year.

At the same time, economies in the Europe and Asia seem to be weathering the US slowdown well, suggesting that interest rates in those regions may continue to move higher, drawing yield-hungry investors away from the dollar.

“I think we’re going to see $1.38 (euro/dollar) without too much trouble here,” said Joseph Trevisani, chief market analyst at FX Solutions, an online currency dealing platform based New Jersey.

The immediate trigger for the dollar’s fall on Friday was a report showing that the US economy grew at its most sluggish pace in four years during the first quarter.

By contrast back in late 2004, differentials were actually widening in the dollar’s favour as yields on euro-zone debt were falling on worries that the strong euro would strangle the European economy.

This week the dollar fell to its lowest level ever against a basket of major currencies tracked by the Fed since 1973.

Afghan protestors accuse US soldiers of killing civilians

forbes

SHINDAND, Afghanistan (Thomson Financial) - Hundreds of Afghans have taken to the streets in western Afghanistan, accusing US soldiers of killing scores of civilians in fighting the coalition said killed 136 Taliban fighters.

The protest started in Zerkoh Valley in Herat province, where US Special Forces and Afghan police said they killed the fighters, and moved to the town of Shindand about 13 miles away, police said.

Locals stoned and torched the offices of the Shindand district governor and police chief in an angry demonstration that lasted several hours.

'More than 1,000 people (took part) in the demonstration,' Herat police chief Mohammad Shafiq Fazli said. 'Now the situation is under the control of the national army and police.'

A member of a tribal council in the area, Lal Mohammad, said there were no Taliban insurgents among the dead whom he said included children, women and old men.

Many were killed in bombing raids, he said, adding people were also angry that American troops had searched their houses at night.

'The people they have killed are not Taliban, they are civilians. They have killed civilians, including children,' another demonstrator said, without giving his name. 'We don't want the Americans in our area.'

Chants of 'Death to America' could be heard in the background.

Fazli said police had not yet established how many people were killed and who they were.

The US-led coalition said its special forces, accompanied by police and other coalition members, attacked Taliban fighting positions in the valley on Sunday with mortars, small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.

Coalition aircraft dropped 'multiple munitions on several identified enemy locations'. An AC-130 gunship killed 26 fighters on both sides of the valley, it said in a statement.

'A total of seven enemy positions were destroyed, and 87 Taliban fighters were killed during the 14-hour engagement,' it added.

Two days earlier, more than 70 fighters had attacked a US Special Forces and Afghan police unit on a night-time patrol in the area.

The security forces retaliated with ground and air fire, killing 49 Taliban, it said. A US soldier was also killed.

'Every precaution was taken to prevent injury to innocent Afghan civilians during the two battles, and there were no civilian injuries reported,' the statement said.

There have been several cases of civilians being killed in military action targeted at insurgents trying to bring down Afghanistan's Western-backed government, and of communities making claims -- sometimes rejected by authorities -- of civilian casualties.

In eastern Afghanistan, the coalition said on Sunday it killed four militants in a raid on a suspected suicide bombing cell, with two civilians killed in the crossfire. Locals said all the dead were civilians.

The raid took place in an area of Nangarhar province where US Marines were accused of opening fire on civilians after a March 4 ambush, killing about a dozen.

The Taliban-led insurgency was at its deadliest last year with more than 4,000 people killed, about a quarter of whom were civilians.

Muslim Men Convicted in London of U.K. Terrorism Plot

April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Five British Muslims were convicted today of plotting to carry out a deadly bombing spree across the U.K., ending the country's longest terrorism trial.

Omar Khyam, the ringleader of the group, and four other men were found guilty on the London jury's 27th day of deliberations. The men were all given life sentences by Justice Michael Astill.

``You have betrayed the country that has given you every advantage in life,'' Judge Astill said during sentencing.

The defendants, who have been on trial since March 2006, were charged with planning to use homemade fertilizer bombs on targets including London nightclubs, trains, and the gas and power network. Some of the suspects had close links with two of the four suicide bombers that killed 52 people in London on July 7, 2005, a fact that news organizations were barred by court order from reporting until today's verdicts.

Khyam, 25, Waheed Mahmood, 35, Jawad Akbar, 23, Anthony Garcia, 25, and Salahuddin Amin, 32, were convicted at London's Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey, of conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life. None of the men will be considered for parole before they have served at least 17 1/2 years in jail and may never be released, Justice Astill said.

Khyam's brother Shujah Mahmood, 20, and Nabeel Hussain, 21, were acquitted.

`Relieved'

Hussain's lawyer, Imran Khan, said his client was ``relieved'' by the verdict. Hussain has ``never been an extremist or believed in extremism,'' Khan said.

``He's lost three years of his life and he'll never get them back,'' Khan said in an interview televised on Sky News.

The trial was the first involving what prosecutors and police described as a ``homegrown'' Muslim terror cell plotting to carry out mass murder in the U.K. Several of the men were linked with al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks. All of them denied the charges against them.

Even with the convictions, the case may prompt an inquiry into Britain's counter-terrorism efforts. Under rules designed to ensure a fair trial, news organizations were barred from reporting the links between the Khyam terror cell and Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, who took part in the July 7 attacks.

Inquiry

Police were monitoring meetings between Khyam, Khan and Tanweer as early as February 2004, 16 months before the July 7 bombings. Police have said they believed Khan and Tanweer were focused on financial crime, to raise money for jihadi causes, and didn't pose an immediate threat. The jury was never told of the connections between the two terrorist cells to prevent prejudicing their deliberations.

``Deliberately or not, the government have not told the British public the whole truth about the circumstances and mistakes leading up to the July 7 attacks,'' David Davis, the home affairs spokesman for the main opposition Conservative party, said in an e-mailed statement. ``As a result, after nearly two years and five government reports, we still don't know the truth.''

U.K. Home Secretary John Reid declined to answer questions on the connection between the defendants in today's trial and the July 7 bombers during a televised news conference. He said the government will respond later.

No Guarantee

``The government has invested heavily in counter-terrorism over the last five years,'' Reid said in a statement. ``It is important to remember that 100 percent commitment can never guarantee 100 percent success.''

Most of the seven men on trial admitted supporting jihad ``holy war'' in places like Afghanistan, Chechnya and Kashmir. Radicalized by extremist Islamic preachers, several had traveled repeatedly to Pakistan for military-style training in weapons and explosives. One of the men, Salahuddin Amin, had links to senior al-Qaeda figures and at one stage made inquiries about buying a radioactive ``dirty bomb'' from the Russian mafia, prosecutors claimed.

While police say the group hadn't settled on a definite target, sites discussed included London nightclub the Ministry of Sound and Bluewater, a 330-store shopping complex southeast of London.

The men were arrested during overnight raids in March 2004, following one of British anti-terrorist forces' biggest investigations, known as ``Operation Crevice.''

Biggest Investigation

U.K. intelligence officials have said they are monitoring 1,600 other individuals and as many as 30 possible terror plots aimed at causing death and damage to the British economy. Six men are on trial for allegedly plotting to carry out a series of deadly explosions on London's public transit network, two weeks to the day after the July 7 attacks.

``This case marked a new stage in our understanding of the threat posed by al-Qaeda in this country,'' Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police Service's counter-terrorism group, said in a statement.

``This was not a group of youthful idealists. They were trained, dedicated, ruthless terrorists who were obviously probably planning to carry out an attack against the British public,'' Clarke said.

Much of the case against the seven Crevice defendants centered on the testimony of Mohammed Babar, a U.S. citizen who has already pleaded guilty in New York to terrorism-related offences, including conspiring to provide material support to the U.K. bomb plot.

Babar Testimony

During 17 days on the witness stand, Babar provided a detailed account of the group's activities, from their military training in Pakistan to efforts to obtain fertilizer and detonators for explosives. Aluminum powder for the bombs' ignition was eventually found in a cookie tin, stashed away in a disused gardening shed in the back of one of the group's homes.

Khyam, a cricket enthusiast from Crawley, south of London, organized military exercises around the Afghan border to teach the group what he'd learned, the jury was told. Another suspect, Waheed Mahmood, obtained detailed plans of the U.K.'s gas and electricity network while working for a contractor for utility National Grid Transco.

At one point during the trial, prosecutors played a taped conversation between Jaward Akbar and Khyam, where they discussed targeting a popular London nightspot.

``No one can turn around and say they were innocent, those slags dancing around,'' Akbar says on the recording.