Iran in the World Press 24 Jan 2010 #Iranelection

Hezbollah rearms away from border Hezbollah has dispersed its long-range-rocket sites deep into northern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, a move that analysts say threatens to broaden any future conflict between the Islamist movement and Israel into a war between the two countries. More than 10,000 U.N. troops now patrol traditional Hezbollah territory in southern Lebanon along the Israeli border, and several thousand Lebanese armed forces personnel also have moved into the area.  The Washington Post | 2010-01-23 | USA | Page: 6 U.S. accused of imposing ‘information imperialism’ BEIJING >> Beijing issued a stinging response yesterday to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s criticism that it is jamming the free flow of words and ideas on the Internet, accusing the United States of damaging relations between the two countries by imposing its “information imperialism” on China. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu defended China’s policies regarding the Web, saying the nation’s Internet regulations were in line with Chinese law and did not hamper the cyber-activities of the world’s largest online population. Honolulu Star-Bulletin | 2010-01-23 | USA | Page: 22 Zwakke broeders Talibaanstrijders vallen doelen aan in het hart van de Afghaanse hoofdstad Kabul, waar de NAVO en de Verenigde Naties kantoor houden. Voor de kust van Somalië maken piraten de internationale scheepvaart onveilig. En Haïti verliest in één klap zijn hoofdstad en zijn hoofd. Drie zwakke broeders in de gemeenschap van staten, waarover het Westen zich het hoofd breekt. De Amerikaanse politieke analist en consultant Seth D. Kaplan heeft van zwakke staten zijn thema gemaakt. Hij woonde in Somalië, Bolivia, Pakistan, Syrië en West-Afrika.  NRC Handelsblad | 2010-01-23 | Netherlands | Page: 4 China lashes out at Clinton’s criticism of Internet controls WASHINGTON — Tensions between China and the United States over Internet policy deepened Friday, with Beijing accusing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of jeopardizing relations between the two countries with her criticism of Chinese censorship. The Obama administration said it stood by Clinton’s words and repeated its demand that Beijing provide a more detailed response to Google’s allegations that its computer network had been infiltrated by hackers based in China. But the United States held off lodging a formal diplomatic protest, suggesting that administration officials were still uncertain about how hard to push China on the matter.  Austin American-Statesman | 2010-01-23 | USA | Page: 4 Massachusetts to Obama: No, you can’t Usually arid southern California is being hit by torrential rains, flash floods and mudslides. Here in the hills, roads have turned to rivers. But that’s nothing next to the thunderclap greeting President Barack Obama’s first anniversary in office. Conservative Republican Scott Brown’s dramatic upset win in the race for the late Teddy Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat has horrified Democrats. Massachusetts is the most Democratic of all states. Republicans are cock-a-hoop, claiming an anti-Obama revolution has begun.  The London Free Press | 2010-01-23 | Canada | Page: 45 China denies censorship charge BEIJING — Beijing issued a stinging response Friday to U.S. criticism that it is jamming the free flow of words and ideas on the Internet, accusing the United States of damaging relations between the two countries by hoisting its “information imperialism” on China. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ma Zhaoxu defended China’s policies regarding the web, saying the nation’s Internet regulations were in line with Chinese law and did not hamper the cyber activities of the world’s largest online population.  The London Free Press | 2010-01-23 | Canada | Page: 20 We’re too small to know all of God Jesus said his prayers. His longest prayer was the night he was betrayed, knowing his execution would come with the sunrise. He prayed for unity. He prayed for his followers that “they may be one.” One shepherd and one flock. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God in whom all those made new would no longer be male or female, slave or free, Jew or gentile, but one united church. So much for answered prayer. This week, as they do annually, Christians continue the plea for unity.  The London Free Press | 2010-01-23 | Canada | Page: 47 What happened THE SETTING Cold War-era Iran, almost a year after the revolution that brought Ayatollah Khomaini to power. Anger at what’s seen as U.S. meddling seethes. The Globe and Mail Metro (Ontario Edition) | 2010-01-23 | Canada | Page: 18 Newspaper Page Our Man in Tehran, Ken Taylor and the Iran Hostage Crisis by Robert Wright is being published today. At right, a portrait of Mr. Taylor, 30 years after the crisis. The Globe and Mail Metro (Ontario Edition) | 2010-01-23 | Canada | Page: 18 ’You’re in big trouble’: A brush with the Revolutionary Guard The Canadians’ mission in Tehran had three components: monitoring the activities of the U.S. embassy compound, where the Americans were being held hostage; finding a suitable “hide site” for the Delta Force commandos planning to storm in and rescue the captives; and helping to plan the logistics of the escape – dubbed Operation Eagle Claw by the Pentagon. Working closely with Mr. Taylor were Sgt. Jim Edward, head of security at the Canadian embassy, and “Bob,” a Cold War spy who was called out of retirement to become the CIA’s only undercover officer in Tehran. The Globe and Mail Metro (Ontario Edition) | 2010-01-23 | Canada | Page: 46 Canada’s man in Tehran was a CIA spy Taylor never expected the story to come out Ken Taylor, the Canadian diplomat celebrated 30 years ago for hiding U.S. embassy personnel during the Iranian revolution, actively spied for the Americans and helped them plan an armed incursion into the country. Mr. Taylor, ambassador in Iran from 1977 to 1980, became “the de facto CIA station chief” in Tehran after the U.S. embassy was seized by students on Nov. 4, 1979, and 63 Americans, including the fourmember Central Intelligence Agency contingent, were taken hostage. The Globe and Mail Metro (Ontario Edition) | 2010-01-23 | Canada | Page: 1 Hezbollah redeployment threatens a wider war BEIRUT – Hezbollah has dispersed its long-range rockets deep into northern Lebanon, a move that analysts say threatens to broaden any future conflict between the Islamist movement and Israel into a war between the countries. More than 10,000 U.N. troops now patrol traditional Hezbollah territory in southern Lebanon, and several thousand Lebanese troops also have moved into the area. A cross-border raid by Hezbollah guerrillas in the summer of 2006 triggered a monthlong war that prompted the United Nations to deploy its force as part of a cease-fire.  Star Tribune | 2010-01-23 | USA | Page: 8 Newspaper Page Our Man in Tehran, Ken Taylor and the Iran Hostage Crisis by Robert Wright is being published today. At right, a portrait of Mr. Taylor, 30 years after the crisis. The Globe and Mail (BC Edition) | 2010-01-23 | Canada | Page: 14 ’You’re in big trouble’: A brush with the Revolutionary Guard The Canadians’ mission in Tehran had three components: monitoring the activities of the U.S. embassy compound, where the Americans were being held hostage; finding a suitable “hide site” for the Delta Force commandos planning to storm in and rescue the captives; and helping to plan the logistics of the escape – dubbed Operation Eagle Claw by the Pentagon. Working closely with Mr. Taylor were Sgt. Jim Edward, head of security at the Canadian embassy, and “Bob,” a Cold War spy who was called out of retirement to become the CIA’s only undercover officer in Tehran. The Globe and Mail (BC Edition) | 2010-01-23 | Canada | Page: 42 Key events NOV. 4, 1979: Militant students storm U.S. Embassy in Tehran, seizing American hostages. NOV. 8, 1979: Six Americans who had evaded capture are given sanctuary at the private residence of Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor and a second Canadian diplomat. JAN. 28, 1980: The Americans in hiding are smuggled out of Iran on Canadian passports. APRIL 24, 1980: Operation Eagle Claw, a U.S. rescue mission, lands in Iran but is aborted after helicopter problems. JAN. 20, 1981: Hostages are freed in negotiated release after 444 days in captivity. The Globe and Mail (BC Edition) | 2010-01-23 | Canada | Page: 42 What happened THE SETTING Cold War-era Iran, almost a year after the revolution that brought Ayatollah Khomaini to power. Anger at what’s seen as U.S. meddling seethes. THE HOSTAGE-TAKING Hundreds of students, radical supporters of Ayatollah Khomaini, storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979. They take 70 people hostage. THE STALEMATE For 444 days, 52 hostages are held captive. President Jimmy Carter imposes immediate sanctions on Iran, ending oil imports, expelling Iranians from the U.S. and freezing billions of dollars in assets.  The Globe and Mail (BC Edition) | 2010-01-23 | Canada | Page: 14 Canada’s man in Tehran was a CIA spy Taylor never expected the story to come out Ken Taylor, the Canadian diplomat celebrated 30 years ago for hiding U.S. embassy personnel during the Iranian revolution, actively spied for the Americans and helped them plan an armed incursion into the country. Mr. Taylor, ambassador in Iran from 1977 to 1980, became “the de facto CIA station chief ” in Tehran after the U.S. embassy was seized by students on Nov. 4, 1979, and 63 Americans, including the fourmember Central Intelligence Agency contingent, were taken hostage.  The Globe and Mail (BC Edition) | 2010-01-23 | Canada | Page: 1 U.S., China clash over censorship laws Beijing – China warned the United States Friday that its criticism of Internet censorship amounted to “information imperialism” and threatened to “harm” relations between the two countries. The condemnation by the foreign ministry and state media was issued hours after Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State, attacked the censorship policies of countries such as China and Iran, warning darkly that a new “information curtain” was descending across much of the world.  The Vancouver Sun | 2010-01-23 | Canada | Page: 33 Spring will be far from silent It’s only January, but the first books of 2010 are already proving to be an impressive mix. Patti Smith has written Just Kids, a memoir that captures a moment when, as Janet Maslin wrote in the New York Times, Smith and her friend Robert Mapplethorpe were “young, inseparable, perfectly bohemian and completely unknown.” John Lanchester has published I.O.U., a dissection of the world’s financial woes.  The Vancouver Sun | 2010-01-23 | Canada | Page: 40 Islam’s war against others In 2001, the monumental sixth century Buddhas of Bamiyan were dynamited on orders from Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. The United States and other Western governments issued protests. Afghanistan’s Islamist rulers shrugged them off. In 2010, Al-Kifl, the tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel, near Baghdad, is being desecrated. On the tomb are inscriptions in Hebrew and an ark in which a Torah was displayed centuries ago. Iraq’s Antiquities and Heritage Authority, under pressure from Islamists, is erasing the Hebrew words, removing the Hebrew ornaments and planning to build a mosque on top of the grave.  The Signal | 2010-01-23 | USA | Page: 4 China slams U.S. criticism of internet controls BEIJING (AP) — Beijing issued a stinging response Friday to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s criticism that it is jamming the free flow of words and ideas on the Internet, accusing the United States of damaging relations between the two countries by imposing its “information imperialism” on China. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu defended China’s policies regarding the Web, saying the nation’s Internet regulations were in line with Chinese law and did not hamper the cyber activities of the world’s largest online population. The Signal | 2010-01-23 | USA | Page: 10 Nessuno in gara ma per Cinecittà non è un problema Consoliamoci così. Roberto Cicutto, presidente di Cinecittà Luce, chiude il comunicato sulla presenza italiana a Berlino (11-21 febbraio) con queste parole: «L’assenza di un titolo italiano nel concorso non deve venire interpretata come un atto di indifferenza verso il nostro cinema. Una cinematografia è un insieme di tessere, un puzzle complesso che corrisponde a un disegno artistico e industriale. Crediamo che alla Berlinale 2010 il disegno del cinema italiano sia fortemente visibile». Vabbè.  Il Riformista | 2010-01-23 | Italy | Page: 18 «Rapporti a rischio» La Cyber-Clinton fa infuriare la Cina L’intervento di Hillary Clinton contro la censura su internet è «imperialismo dell’informazione». La Cina non ha gradito il discorso tenuto mercoledì dal segretario di Stato americano nel quale ha apertamente criticato Pechino per le limitazioni imposte all’utilizzo della rete. Le prime reazioni cinesi arrivano proprio dalla rete. A parlare sono gli «esperti», interpellati dal quotidiano filo governativo Global Times che, nella sua versione in inglese, attacca a testa basta il governo statunitense, reo di estendere la propria influenza «sui server di tutto il mondo». Il Riformista | 2010-01-23 | Italy | Page: 13 Antidote to radical Islam? A middle class man and Islamic traditions. They aren’t the decadent animals of Qutb’s feverish imagination, nor are they bent on the subjugation of women and the destruction of Israel. The region’s middle classes are rather small outside Turkey, yet once freed from dependence on the state for their economic well-being, they tend, Mr. Nasr says, to make similar political demands as their counterparts in the West. There is an enormous gulf, after all, between practicing Muslims with a stake in society and violent reactionaries at war with the world.  International Herald Tribune | 2010-01-23 | Austria | Page: 18 Rough science of counting the death toll Alix Lassegue, the doctor who runs Port-auPrince’s largest hospital, including its morgue, has been trying to figure out how many people died after the earth buckled so violently last week. Unlike most of the figures bandied about, Dr Lassegue’s are based on calculations. Standing amid the frenzy of patients being treated, he jotted down a few numbers. The grounds in front of the morgue are roughly 914 square metres, with each body occupying about one square metre. Trucks have carted away the dead 10 times, which means about 10,000 bodies removed for burial. ‘‘This, too, is not a perfect count,’’ Dr Lassegue said. ‘‘But it is the best that I can arrive at given our current limitations. We must not attach ourselves to wild estimates, but try to get at the best figures possible.’’ Wild estimates are not hard to find. One morgue employee said 75,000 bodies had passed through; a second said 50,000; a third, 25,000. No accurate figure exists. In disasters such as the 2004 Asian tsunami and the 2003 earthquake The Sydney Morning Herald | 2010-01-23 | Australia | Page: 16 Crosby, Liberal mastermind, talks strategy in Iraq LYNTON CROSBY, the former Liberal Party campaign guru, has shifted his sights to Iraq before crucial general elections scheduled for March 7. Mr Crosby, who masterminded John Howard’s 1998 and 2001 election wins, has joined forces with the seasoned US Democratic Party consultant Joe Trippi to provide advice to the minor Shiite-led secularist party Ahrar, whose name means ‘‘liberal’’. Since leaving his post as the federal director of the Liberal Party in 2002, Mr Crosby has established an international political consultancy in partnership with the pollster Mark Textor. In 2005 Mr Crosby managed the British Conservative Party’s general election campaign, and in 2008 he handled Boris Johnson’s successful campaign to become the Mayor of London. Last year Mr Crosby worked with Mr Trippi as a consultant to Libertas Ireland, which opposed further integration with the European Union. Mr Crosby has confirmed that he is providing ‘‘strategic advice’’ to Ahrar but declined to comment further. Ahrar is fielding 290 The Sydney Morning Herald | 2010-01-23 | Australia | Page: 3 Indifferent land keeps desperate people waiting ‘No matter how much I shook her she did not wake up.” Eight years ago this weekend Ali Reza Irfani returned to his room in the makeshift detention centre on Christmas Island to find his wife had slipped into a coma. Complaining about headaches for days, Fatima had been fed painkillers and given dark glasses. No one picked the problem: a blood vessel had ruptured in her brain and she was bleeding to death.  The Sydney Morning Herald | 2010-01-23 | Australia | Page: 33 Testing time for Twitter FIVE journalists will lock themselves away in a French farmhouse with access only to Facebook and Twitter to test the quality of news from the social networking and microblogging sites. Twitter and Facebook’s use as news-breaking tools has been highlighted in the past year, particularly during protests in Iran that many media described as a ‘‘twitterised revolution’’. This month, Twitter played a key communications role in quake-hit Haiti, with users sending harrowing personal accounts, heart-rending pictures and cries for help. Herald Sun | 2010-01-23 | Australia | Page: 15 CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER IN FOUR CORNERS OF GLOBE GOVERNMENTS have learnt since ‘‘the end of history’’ and ‘‘the new world order’’ that global trouble just keeps on coming, regardless. Sometimes from neighbours, more often from further afield. Where should Canberra be looking especially closely, to be ready for tripwires that lie waiting in the next two or three years? Today, more than 3000 Australian military personnel are serving in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Gulf, Sudan, East Timor and the Solomon Islands. Our defence force says it is fully stretched maintaining this commitment. The Weekend Australian | 2010-01-23 | Australia | Page: 23 Clinton warns China on cyber attacks ‘‘We firmly oppose such words and deeds which go against the facts and are harmful to China-US relations,’’ Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said. ‘‘We urge the United States to respect facts and stop using the socalled internet freedom issue to criticise China unreasonably.’’ Mrs Clinton’s criticism coming so soon after Google said it would withdraw from the world’s most populous nation in protest at curbs imposed on its users — is a serious escalation of the dispute. The Weekend Australian | 2010-01-23 | Australia | Page: 19 Rebuilding to improve, not merely replace NEARLY 10 million people squeezed into a mountainous country half the size of Tasmania, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, and one of the most corrupt and lawless in the world: Haiti was a disaster before last week’s terrible earthquake. Now as many as 100,000 Haitians have been killed by the quake; 250,000 are injured; much of Haiti’s infrastructure is in ruins and the world’s international aid community is bracing itself for a recovery that will take years and cost billions of dollars. The Weekend Australian | 2010-01-23 | Australia | Page: 13

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