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Voice of America, 02-03-29Voice of America: Selected Articles Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Voice of America <gopher://gopher.voa.gov>SLUG: 2-288143 Turkey/Afghanistan (L-O) DATE: NOTE NUMBER:CONTENTS
[01] Turkey - Afghanistan (L-only) BY Amberin Zaman (Ankara)DATE=03-29-02TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT NUMBER=2-288143 CONTENT= INTRO: Turkey on Friday announced that it had agreed in principle to take over command of the international peace keeping force in Afghanistan. As Amberin Zaman reports from Ankara the decision follows weeks of intense talks between Turkish, U-S and British officials over the future of the Afghan peace keeping mission. TEXT: The announcement was made by the country's National Security
Counil, where Turkey's political and military leaders shape national
policy. In a carefully worded statement the council affirmed that
Turkey had in principle decided to take over command of the force from
Britain
when its term expires next month. But the statement emphasized the
importance of fully meeting Turkey's conditions before it takes
charge.
Turkey had in recent weeks been dragging its feet on taking charge
saying it wants watertight guarantees of financial and logistical
support for its troops as well the participation of other NATO member
nations in the peace keeping contingent.
These and another key condition, that Turkey not be responsible for
finding a successor once its own six-month term expires, have
apparently been met now by the US as well as Britain, which is eager
to hand over command to the Turks.
Western diplomats say Turkey's strategic value as a long time and
loyal Western ally will be re-inforced by its military presence in
Afghanistan.
Turkey has long been tipped as the most likely successor to Britain in
commanding the 45 hundred member international peace keeping force
known as ISAF. Afghan interim leader,
Hamid Karzai who is due in Turkey on an official visit next week has
welcomed Turkey's role.
Turkey already has some 260 troops in Afghanistan and has actively
supported the US led campaign against Taleban forces and the Al Qaeda
terrorist network in Afghanistan.(Signed)
[02] EDITORIAL: IRAQ AND TERRORISMDATE=04/01/2002TYPE=EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09796 INTERNET=Yes CONTENT=THIS EDITORIAL IS BEING RELEASED FOR USE BY ALL SERVICES. IT IS REPEATED FROM 03/26/2002. Anncr: Next, an editorial expressing the policies of the United States Government: Voice: The regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has a long history of supporting terrorism. "It also had contacts with al-Qaida," said George Tenet, U.S. director of Central Intelligence. Iraq's sponsorship of terrorism is especially dangerous because Iraq's ruler is determined to thwart U-N sanctions, press ahead with weapons of mass destruction, and resurrect the military force he had before the Persian Gulf War. Al-Qaida terrorists are also seeking weapons of mass destruction. Documents recovered from al-Qaida facilities in Afghanistan show that Osama bin Laden was pursuing a sophisticated biological weapons research program. The U.S. has evidence indicating that al-Qaida was attempting to develop a nuclear weapon, and a so-called "dirty bomb" a conventional explosive laced with radioactive materials. Iraq and al-Qaida have much in common. "Their ties may be limited by divergent ideologies," said Mr. Tenet, but their "antipathies toward the United States and the Saudi royal family suggest that tactical cooperation between them is possible." Iraq continues to provide safe haven to a variety Palestinian terrorist groups, including the Abu Nidal organization, the Arab Liberation Front, and the former head of the now-defunct 15 May Organization, Abu Ibrahim. Iraq's dictator not only supports terrorism, his regime has practiced it on a massive scale. Last month marked the fourteenth anniversary of the murder of some five-thousand men, women, and children, mostly ethnic Kurds, in the Iraqi city of Halabja. They were killed with mustard gas and other deadly chemical weapons dropped by Iraqi forces on Saddam Hussein's order. Some ten-thousand other civilians were wounded in this horrific attack. Nor was this the only such atrocity. Halabja was one of some two-hundred- fifty villages targeted by the Iraqi regime between April 1987 and August 1988. Little wonder that Iraq's controlled press praised al-Qaida's savage attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in September. President George W. Bush said Iraq "is a nation run by a man who is willing to kill his own people by using chemical weapons; a man who won't let inspectors into the country; a man who's obviously got something to hide. And he is a problem. And we're going to deal with him." Anncr: That was an editorial expressing the policies of the United States Government. If you have a comment, please write to Editorials, V-O-A, Washington, D-C 20237, U-S-A. You may also comment at www-dot-ibb-dot-gov-slash-editorials, or fax us at (202) 619-1043. SLUG: 0-09794 Editorial - Hezbollah's Long Record of Terror DATE: NOTE NUMBER: [03] EDITORIAL: HEZBOLLAH'S LONG RECORD OF TERRORDATE=03/31/2002TYPE=EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09794 INTERNET=YES CONTENT=THIS EDITORIAL IS BEING RELEASED FOR USE BY ALL SERVICES. Anncr: Next, an editorial expressing the policies of the United States Government: Voice: This month marks the tenth anniversary of a barbarous massacre perpetrated by the Islamic terrorist group Hezbollah. On March 17th, 1992, Hezbollah terrorists set off a car-bomb at the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina. Twenty-nine people were killed and more than two-hundred were wounded. This was not the first terrorist attack carried out by the Lebanon-based Hezbollah. Nor was it the worst. In October 1983, Hezbollah suicide terrorists attacked a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut. Two-hundred forty-one Americans and fifty-eight French military personnel were killed. Hezbollah is also thought to have been involved in an attack on the U.S. embassy in Beirut in 1983 and on the embassy annex there in 1984. These attacks killed about eighty people. In addition, Hezbollah is suspected in the 1994 attack on the Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires that killed nearly one-hundred people. One of Hezbollah's leaders is Imad Fayez Mugniyah [im-AHD FAH-yez MOOG-nee-yah]. He is wanted by U.S. authorities for terrorist acts that include the 1985 hijacking of a Trans World Airlines jet, in which an American was murdered. He is believed to be hiding in Lebanon or Iran. The U.S. has offered a reward of up to twenty-five million dollars for information leading to his arrest. Hezbollah is an extremist Shia Muslim group dedicated to increasing its political power in Lebanon and to destroying Israel and the United States. At a rally in Lebanon on March 24th, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah [HAH-sahn nahs-RAH-lah] called for the destruction of Israel. Amid chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel," he criticized Arab leaders who have made proposals for a peaceful settlement between Palestinians and Israelis. Hezbollah is closely allied with Iran, one of the world's leading sponsors of international terrorism and one of three countries singled out by President George W. Bush as part of an axis of evil. Hezbollah receives substantial financial and military aid from Iran and Syria. As President Bush said at the United Nations in November, two months after al-Qaida's attacks on America, "We must unite in opposing all terrorists, not just some of them. In this world there are good causes and bad causes, and we may disagree on where the line is drawn. Yet, there is no such thing as a good terrorist. No national aspiration, no remembered wrong," said President Bush, "can ever justify the deliberate murder of the innocent. Any government that rejects this principle, trying to pick and choose its terrorist friends, will know the consequences." Anncr: That was an editorial expressing the policies of the United States Government. If you have a comment, please write to Editorials, V-O-A, Washington, D-C, 20237, U-S-A. You may also comment at www-dot-ibb-dot-gov-slash-editorials, or fax us at (202) 619-1043. SLUG: 0-09792 Editorial El Salvador DATE: NOTE NUMBER: [04] EDITORIAL: EL SALVADORDATE=03/30/2002TYPE=EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09792 INTERNET=Yes CONTENT=THIS EDITORIAL IS BEING RELEASED FOR USE BY ALL SERVICES. Anncr: Next, an editorial expressing the policies of the United States Government: Voice: One of the great stories of economic and political transformation has been taking place in El Salvador -- a nation recently visited by President George W. Bush. From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, the people of El Salvador were mired in civil war. For millions of Salvadorans, violence was a daily occurrence. Prosperity was a distant dream. More recently, El Salvador had to endure natural disasters -- Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and earthquakes in early 2001. The U.S. contributed millions of dollars to help El Salvador rebuild. Today, El Salvador is at peace. It is a constitutional democracy with an executive branch headed by a democratically elected president and an independent multi-party legislature. As President Bush said, El Salvador "has renewed its commitment to democracy and economic trade. It is one of the freest and strongest and most stable countries in our hemisphere." The U.S. and El Salvador are economic partners - trade between the two countries is now over four billion dollars annually. As President Bush put it, "Trade means jobs. Trade means that people who want to work are more likely to find jobs." Mr. Bush said that he supports the proposed Free Trade of the Americas agreement, which will include El Salvador and other Central American nations. The U.S. will expand its commercial ties with El Salvador and others. President Bush said, "Many countries in [Latin America] have changed old ways and have found new wealth and new freedom. In this coming decade, El Salvador and the United States, and nations throughout this hemisphere," said Mr. Bush, "are committed to maintaining and extending this process." The U.S. and El Salvador also have a strong law enforcement relationship. Both countries are committed to combating drug trafficking. By the end of January, El Salvador's national police had already seized more cocaine than in all of 2001. The country is also seeking to upgrade border security. As President Bush said, "The United States considers El Salvador a close friend and a strong ally. . . . Since September 11th, El Salvador has been unwavering in its support for the international coalition against terrorism." Anncr: That was an editorial expressing the policies of the United States Government. If you have a comment, please write to Editorials, V-O-A, Washington, D-C, 20237, U-S-A. You may also comment at www-dot-ibb-dot-gov-slash-editorials, or fax us at (202) 619-1043. SLUG: 0-09791 Editorial - After Anaconda DATE: NOTE NUMBER: [05] EDITORIAL: AFTER ANACONDADATE=03/29/2002TYPE=EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09791 INTERNET=Yes CONTENT=THIS EDITORIAL IS BEING RELEASED FOR USE BY ALL SERVICES. Anncr: Next, an editorial expressing the policies of the United States Government: Voice: Operation Anaconda in eastern Afghanistan is over. General Tommy Franks, head of the U.S. Central Command, said that the campaign was "very successful." Similar operations may be undertaken in the days and weeks ahead. Meanwhile, the U.S.-led coalition continues to search cave complexes throughout Afghanistan. They have already found many of the al-Qaida terrorists' weapons, computers, manuals, and bomb-making notes. Even more chilling has been the discovery of equipment that could possibly be used to make chemical weapons. U.S. General Richard Myers said "There was a lab in Kandahar where we did find equipment that was indicative of perhaps manufacturing anthrax." Not all the equipment was there -- just part of it. What has been recovered is being studied. The U.S.-led coalition will stay in Afghanistan until the job of ridding the country of terrorists is complete. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said he is "very reluctant to put a deadline on it." There's no question, said Mr. Rumsfeld, "that the remaining al-Qaida and Taleban would like very much to reconstitute and conduct terrorist operations in the country." The U.S. is committed to seeing that that doesn't happen. The interim Afghan government and the U.S. have the same goal. They do not want al-Qaida or Taleban in Afghanistan. Other countries share that view. Mr. Rumsfeld said that Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, has been "enormously cooperative." He has put forces along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to stop the remaining terrorists from escaping. The U.S. hope, as Mr. Rumsfeld put it, is "that there will be a sufficient police force, a sufficient border patrol, and a sufficient Afghan national army." The Afghans must create an environment that permits humanitarian assistance to continue and that allows refugees to return to their homes. That is the goal. And the U.S.-led coalition intends to help them achieve it. "But," said Mr. Rumsfeld, "it is not knowable how long that will take." Anncr: That was an editorial expressing the policies of the United States Government. If you have a comment, please write to Editorials, V-O-A, Washington, D-C, 20237, U-S-A. You may also comment at www-dot-ibb-dot-gov-slash-editorials, or fax us at (202) 619-1043. SLUG: 6-125625 Editorial Digest DATE: NOTE NUMBER: NUMBER=6-125625-for 3/30 TEXT: I'm_________ with a look at editorial opinion in Friday's American newspapers -- many of which are commenting on the situation in the Middle EAst. Florida's Sun-Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale says: VOICE: It is not easy to make peace when you don't really want it. Despite statements to the contrary all around, and despite the actions of the Arab League Thursday, many Middle Eastern leaders continue to act as if they don't. TEXT: In California, The Fresno Bee says of the suicide bombing at a Passover dinner in Israel Wednesday: VOICE: its timing seemed to be aimed not only at Israel but at Arab leaders gathered in Beirut to discuss a new peace proposed by Saudi Arabia. TEXT: The New York Times comments on the Arab acceptance of the Saudi peace plan. VOICE: The Arab League took an admirable, if long overdue, step when it offered to establish normal relations with Israel in exchange for a Palestinian state's being built on the land captured in the 1967 war. The assertion that Israelis have a right to peace and security rings hollow, however, when juxtaposed with the league's indifference toward one of the most horrific Palestinian suicide bombings to date. TEXT: Boston's Christian Science Monitor says: VOICE: This week's events offer up a stark choice for the United States. How much should it push a political settlement on the players while the violence rages on? TEXT: In California, The Los Angeles Times comments: VOICE: The despicable attack of a Palestinian suicide bomber may well kill a Mideast peace process that was showing faint signs of life. But a display of restraint now by Israel could be a powerful signal of strength. TEXT: The Salt Lake City [Utah] Tribune comments on President George W. Bush recent promise to double foreign aid as long as recipients strive to reduce corruption. VOICE: [the] proposal that foreign aid be tied to political and economic reform is a straight forward call for some sanity in the way the United States doles out money to poor and developing countries ..that will encourage recipient countries to effect improvement[s] that can get them off the dole TEXT: Several papers have commented on Senator Jesse Helms' dramatic turnabout on help in fighting AIDS. The San Antonio [Texas] Express-News is one. VOICE: During his nearly 30 years in the Senate, Jesse Helms has made a name for himself, mainly for attacking foreign aid and harshly criticizing liberals, gays, feminists, civil rights activists and anyone else he considered a troublemaker. But life is full of surprises. The North Carolina Republican has had a change of heart - - partially [reversing] himself on the AIDS issue and now plans to co-sponsor legislation that would add 500-million dollars to fight mother-to-child transmission of the deadly disease in Africa. The sooner that happens, the better." TEXT: That concludes this editorial sampling of Friday's U-S press.
I'm___________.
[06] FRIDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)DATE=03/29/02TYPE=U-S EDITORIAL DIGEST NUMBER=6-125625 INTERNET=YES EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS TELEPHONE=619-3335 CONTENT= INTRO: The American press is reacting with uniform condemnation for the Passover bombing in Israel, and is expressing heightened concern over what promises to be escalated fighting in its aftermath. The Arab Summit also draws comment, mostly in relation to the bombing. Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic laws continue to be criticized in the recent girls' school fire that killed several students. President Bush draws more comment for his foreign aid and free trade policies; and Senator Jesse Helm's turnabout on AIDS funding is again covered in the commentaries. Now, here is ___________ with a closer look and some quotes in today's U-S Editorial Digest. TEXT: Both major dailies and regional newspapers are editorializing revulsion at the Seder bombing attack at an Israeli seaside resort on the first night of Passover. In Florida's Sun-Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, there is the question: "Does Anyone Want Peace?" followed by this axiom: VOICE: It is not easy to make peace when you don't really want it. Despite statements to the contrary all around, and despite the actions of the Arab League Thursday, many Middle Eastern leaders continue to act as if they don't. TEXT: In California, The Fresno Bee says of the bombing: " its timing seemed to be aimed not only at Israel but at Arab leaders gathered in Beirut to discuss a new peace proposed by Saudi Arabia." The New York Times, while not looking past the brutal attack, is heartened by what was said in Lebanon. VOICE: The Arab League took an admirable, if long overdue, step when it offered to establish normal relations with Israel in exchange for a Palestinian state's being built on the land captured in the 1967 war. The assertion that Israelis have a right to peace and security rings hollow, however, when juxtaposed with the league's indifference toward one of the most horrific Palestinian suicide bombings to date. Yet talk of peace plans seems disconnected from reality right now. TEXT: Under the editorial headline "Outrage and hope," today's Philadelphia Inquirer sounds emotionally drained. VOICE: Wednesday, it felt as though sorrow had damned the last stream of hope, as though blood and bluster had choked off the last opportunity. Even for the conflict-wracked Middle East, Wednesday was a horrible day. Yesterday's [3-28] events at the Arab League summit can't erase what went before. TEXT: Boston's Christian Science Monitor says, "this week's events offer up a stark choice for the United States. How much should it push a political settlement on the players while the violence rages on?" In California, The Los Angeles Times, hoping for a moderate counterattack, says: "the despicable attack of a Palestinian suicide bomber may well kill a Mideast peace process that was showing faint signs of life. But a display of restraint now by Israel could be a powerful signal of strength. Kentucky's Louisville Courier-Journal calls the Seder bombing in Netanya "an incomprehensible horror," while Rhode Island's Providence Journal says the "massacre by Hamas is a remainder of why Israel must tread very carefully in responding to what might or might not be a genuine peace offer from its Arab neighbors" "Nothing justifies the suicide bombings" says The Houston [Texas] Chronicle, adding "no political cause, no matter how just, justifies this approach." And on New York's Long Island, this sad observation from Newsday about timing: "if only the Arab League had made its declaration when it might have done some good." Portland's Oregonian, calling the bombing "barbaric" describes the group claiming responsibility, Hamas, as " the enemy of the Arab leaders who gathered in Beirut to approve the Saudi peace proposal" In one other commentary related to the region, Saudi Arabia's strict religious police, who prevented firemen and rescue workers from aiding girls trapped in a recent school fire, draws this excoriation from Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette: VOICE: Saudi newspapers reported that firefighters battling the March 11th blaze in Mecca were not allowed inside the school immediately by religious police because the girls were not wearing the required garments. Fifteen girls died and 50 others were injured. those who enforce its religious law suffer from a profound poverty of human decency. TEXT: President George W. Bush draws praise for his recent promise to double foreign aid as long as recipients strive to reduce corruption and use it wisely. Today's Salt Lake City [Utah] Tribune says the: VOICE: proposal that foreign aid be tied to political and economic reform is a straight forward call for some sanity in the way the United States doles out money to poor and developing countries a common-sense proposal that will encourage recipient countries to effect improvement[s] that can get them off the dole TEXT: However in the Midwest, the Chicago Tribune is furious at Mr. Bush for saying he supports free trade but, the Tribune adds: VOICE: he sure has an odd way of showing it. Just a day before the president [said "trade produces liberty and freedom" his administration decided that the only way to protect the U-S lumber industry from those nasty Canadians was to slap 29 percent tariffs on softwood lumber - - used in building homes This is the second time in a month the Bush team has moved to protect a domestic industry from the world marketplace. TEXT: The Tribune then cites the tariffs placed on various kinds of imported steel. Turning to medical aid, several papers have been commenting this week on a dramatic turnabout - - some are calling it an Epiphany - - on AIDS relief. The San Antonio [Texas] Express-News is one. VOICE: During his nearly 30 years in the Senate, Jesse Helms has made a name for himself, mainly for attacking foreign aid and harshly criticizing liberals, gays, feminists, civil rights activists and anyone else he considered a troublemaker. But life is full of surprises. The North Carolina Republican has had a change of heart - - partially [reversing] himself on the AIDS issue and now plans to co-sponsor legislation that would add 500-million dollars to fight mother-to-child transmission of the deadly disease in Africa. The sooner that happens, the better." TEXT: In Latin American issues, today's New York Post is glad that President Bush on his recent visit to Peru did not ask for clemency for convicted U-S terrorist Lori Berenson, in penitentiary there for aiding Communist guerrillas. Far to the south, in Antarctica, a huge ice shelf dissolved recently within a month, reportedly as a result of global warming. This development draws the attention of Connecticut's Waterbury Republican-American. Writes the New England daily: VOICE: Warmists seized upon this isolated development in billions of years of climate change as the proof-positive du jour that autos and industry are combining to put the planet in a carbon-dioxide pressure cooker. It helps to know sensationalism and the ability to extrapolate unmitigated disaster from one climatological anomaly are prerequisites for admission into the global-warming fraternity. A 35-year-study of Antarctica by University of Illinois scientists found [most of it] is cooling faster than almost any place on earth TEXT: Lastly yet another tribute to the famed "Iron Lady" of British politics, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who recently withdrew from public life due to a series of strokes. Says The Deseret News in Salt Lake City Utah: VOICE: Her impressive legacy will live on. Not only Britain but the entire world has benefited from her leadership a contemporary of President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union Premier Mikhail Gorbachev she took an economically decaying Britain and turned it into a confident country with a new sense of free enterprise and private property. Her presence will be missed by all. TEXT: On that heroic note, we conclude this editorial sampling of
Friday's U-S press.
[07] EDITORIAL: THE U.S. AND MEXICODATE=03/29/2002TYPE=EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09790 INTERNET=Yes CONTENT=THIS EDITORIAL IS BEING RELEASED FOR USE BY ALL SERVICES. Anncr: Next, an editorial expressing the policies of the United States Government: Voice: Some of the strongest allies of the United States are located in the Western Hemisphere. President George W. Bush recently visited three of them -- Mexico, Peru, and El Salvador. The U.S. is committed to working with its neighbors to build a hemisphere that "lives in liberty and trades in freedom." The North American Free Trade Agreement is a model for the world. The agreement was signed by the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, and has been in effect for eight years. The agreement has removed most barriers to trade and investment among the three countries and created thousands of new jobs. Since the agreement went into effect, two-way trade between the U.S. and Mexico has tripled, reaching more than two-hundred twenty-one billion dollars in 2001. That makes the border between the U.S. and Mexico one of the busiest in the world. As President Bush said in Monterrey, Mexico, on March 22nd, "President [Vicente] Fox and I are determined to make our shared border modern, efficient, and secure. Our common border," continued Mr. Bush, "must be closed to drugs and terrorists, and open to trade and legitimate travel." The U.S. and Mexico will work to improve the secure flow of goods and people, and to build a modern and efficient infrastructure that keeps pace with commerce. The U.S. border with Mexico is a region of tremendous economic vitality. And it will continue to be. Both the U.S. and Mexico benefit from close ties of culture and kinship. The strengthening of border security will filter out threats to safety and prosperity. As President Bush said, we "will defend ourselves against new threats, at the same time that we build closer relationships with our neighbors." Anncr: That was an editorial expressing the policies of the United States Government. If you have a comment, please write to Editorials, V-O-A, Washington, D-C, 20237, U-S-A. You may also comment at www-dot-ibb-dot-gov-slash-editorials, or fax us at (202) 619-1043. Voice of America: Selected Articles Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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