OCTOBER 1 - 22

10-22- 2007

dozens die as turkey battles kurdish rebels

         TUNCELLI, ANKARA  -- Turkey's political and military leaders are considering their response after Kurdish rebels killed at least 12 Turkish soldiers and wounded 17 more near Turkey's border with Iraq and Iran, a Turkish government source told CNN. Turkish forces immediately responded to the early morning attack by killing 32 rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, in southern Turkey, according to a statement on an official government Web site. An emergency cabinet meeting was scheduled for Sunday, the government source said.

    There are fears that the escalation in fighting could spill into northern Iraq's Kurdish region, where Turkey insists the PKK leadership is based. But Iraq denies that, saying PKK leaders are hiding out in rugged mountain areas along the Turkish border that are not controlled by Iraq. Cross-border shelling between Turkish forces and PKK rebels in northern Iraq continued Sunday. Iraqi leaders fear that Turkish ground forces could make a major push into northern Iraq after Turkey's parliament approved such an incursion in an overwhelming vote last week.

    Iraq's President Jalal Talabani, who is Kurdish, addressed the rising tensions with Turkey during a meeting with Kurdish regional leader Massoud Barzani in Irbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan region. Talabani reiterated Iraq's demand that PKK rebels lay down their arms, and restated calls for a diplomatic solution. He also said Sunday that Iraqi forces are unable to find the rebel leaders because of the difficult landscape. "The Turkish military, with its mightiness, could not annihilate them or arrest them, so how could we arrest them and hand them to Turkey?" Talabani said at a news conference following his meeting with Barzani.

US FORCES KILLED 49 TERRORISTS IN BAGHDAD SHIITE STRONGHOLD

        BAGHDAD, IRAQ --  US forces killed 49 terrorists in fierce fighting with militants in Baghdad's Shiite stronghold of Sadr City on Sunday during a raid targeting an Iranian-linked insurgent, the military said. Medics at four hospitals confirmed 17 dead, including a boy and a girl, but US military spokesman Major Winfield Danielson told AFP there were no civilian casualties and no reports of American losses. The US military said troops were drawn into fighting after they launched a raid to seize their high-value target in Sadr City, a poor part of the capital dominated by militia loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

     "The operation's objective was an individual reported to be a long-time Special Groups member specialising in kidnapping operations," a statement from the military said. "Special Groups" is a US military term for what it says are secret Shiite cells which wage acts of "terrorism" in Iraq with the financial and military backing of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards units."Intelligence indicates he is a well-known cell leader and has previously sought funding from Iran to carry out high profile kidnappings," the statement said.

     Danielson said the targeted individual had not been killed or captured during the clashes, which the military said erupted when troops were attacked by gunfire and rocket propelled grenades. "Responding in self-defence, coalition forces engaged, killing an estimated 33 criminals," the statement said, adding that air support was then called in and killed another six. Ten more were killed as US forces withdrew, it said. "I can say that we don't have any evidence of any civilians killed or wounded. Coalition forces only engage hostile threats and make every effort to protect innocent civilians," said Danielson.

PLOT TO KILL ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER EHUD OLMERT WAS FOILED 

        JERUSALEN. ISRAEL -- A Palestinian militant cell planned to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during a recent visit to the West Bank city of Jericho, Israeli media reported Sunday. The plot -- described at an Israeli cabinet meeting Sunday morning -- was foiled after Israeli security services passed on the identities of the militants to the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz reported. However, the alleged plotters -- all from Fatah, the Party loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas -- have been released, despite admitting to the plot, the newspaper said, citing an Israeli official.

     But a spokesman for Tawfiq Tirawi, the head of Palestinian security services in the West Bank, told CNN the men were still in custody and being interrogated. The suspected plot was set to coincide with a trip by Olmert to meet with Abbas in Jericho on August 6, Haaretz reported. Word of the foiled plot came to light Sunday morning when Yuval Diskin, head of Israel's domestic Shin Bet security service, gave details during a weekly meeting of the Israeli cabinet.

     According to the newspaper, Diskin told the meeting that the militants were planning to intercept Olmert's convoy as it approached the entrance to Jericho. There were no specific details of how they planned to attack the Israeli leader. Diskin said several suspects were arrested by the Palestinians after a tip-off from the intelligence services, and other members of the cell were arrested by Israeli security forces. A senior political source in Jerusalem told Haaretz that Israel was incensed by reports that the suspects had been freed last week. The source said Olmert had lodged a complaint with President Abbas.

10-21- 2007

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE EXPANDS MIGRANT TENT CITY PLAN

         GUANTANAMO NAVAL BASE, CUBA --  The U.S. military has expanded plans for a tent encampment to shelter migrants in the event of a Caribbean boat crisis -- now planning on paper a safe haven for up to 45,000 people. Since Fidel Castro became ill last year and ceded power in Cuba to his brother Raúl, the Bush administration has been preparing for a theoretical humanitarian relief mission that would accommodate 10,000 people. It could be used for people fleeing a political crisis as well as a natural disaster.

     In May, the Navy hired a Jacksonville contractor to build concrete buildings with 525 toilets and 248 showers on an empty corner of the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, base. The military could quickly put up tents, if needed, around the site. The buildings should be completed by next summer at a cost of $16.5 million. Now, under the expansion outlined on Wednesday, the military is planning on paper for a second phase that would shelter another 35,000 migrants.

     No boat crisis is on the horizon: Experts tracking Cuban migration say the majority of those fleeing the island have avoided the heavily patrolled Florida Straits in favor of the western passage to Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. But the planning is for a scenario on the scale of the 1994-95 crisis, when first Haitians and then Cubans, fleeing instability in their homelands, set out to sea in rafts trying to reach South Florida. That migration crisis so overwhelmed the naval base that intercepted Cubans were sheltered in tents on an abandoned airfield and overflow rafters were housed in tents on a scrubby nine-hole golf course. In waves, more than 60,000 refugees lived in tents on the base then.

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN BELIEVES US CAMPAIGN IN IRAQ IS TO CONTROL THE COUNTRY'S OIL RESERVES

        MOSCOW, RUSSIA --President Vladimir Putin, in his latest jab at Washington, suggested Thursday that the U.S. military campaign in Iraq was a "pointless" battle against the Iraqi people, aimed in part at seizing the country's oil reserves.  Putin has increasingly confronted U.S. foreign policy in recent months, deepening the chill between Washington and Moscow. Among other things, he has questioned U.S. plans for a missile defense system in Europe and the U.S. push for sanctions against Iran for its nuclear programs.

     "One can wipe off a political map some tyrannical regime ... but it's absolutely pointless to fight with a people," he said. "Russia, thank God, isn't Iraq. It has enough strength and power to defend itself and its interests, both on its territory and in other parts of the world." Putin suggested the U.S. campaign was aimed at seizing control of Iraq's vast oil wealth, and said a concrete date must be set for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. "I believe one of the goals is to establish control of the country's oil reserves," he said. Unless a date for pulling out is set, Putin said, "the Iraqi leadership, feeling (safe) under the reliable American umbrella, will not hurry to develop its own armed and law enforcement forces."

     Putin also reiterated his warning against U.S. efforts to put elements of a missile defense system in eastern Europe. During the phone-in session, Putin also discussed his recent trip to Iran, which is under increasing Western pressure and scrutiny over its nuclear program. "Russia is taking steps together with other members of the international negotiations to solve the problem through peaceful means in the interests of the international community and the Iranian people," Putin said. Threats against Iran, he said, are "harmful for international relations because dialogue with states ... is always more promising. It is a shorter route toward success than a policy of threats, sanctions and, even less so, armed pressure."

HUGO CHAVEZ AND RAUL CASTRO INITIAL 14 INTEGRATION AGREEMENTS

        HAVANA, CUBA -- Hugo Chávez and Cuban First Vice-President of the State and Ministers' Council Raúl Castro entered into 14 new agreements on economic integration, including a memo of understanding to build on the Cuban coast a petrochemical compound for about USD 1.3 billion.

    "Upon signing of these agreements we make a significant contribution to closer union and integration between Cuba and Venezuela," said Raúl Castro during the ceremony.

     Under the memo of understanding, a petrochemical compound will be built in the city of Cienfuegos, 250 kilometers to the southeast of Havana, Reuters reported. During his visit last Sunday to the old refinery built during the Soviet era and refitted with Venezuelan help, Chávez commented that the investment in the facilities amounts to approximately USD 1.3 billion.

10-20- 2007

VENEZUELA CATHOLIC BISHOPS SAID SOCIALISM MEANS END OF PLURALISM 

         CARACAS, VENEZUELA -- Pluralism is a "value enshrined" in the current Constitution and "the implementation of a socialist state (…) entails the end of pluralism, political freedom and freedom of conscience." This statement collects the opinion of most Venezuelan bishops and archbishops on the revised constitutional reform proposal discussed at the National Assembly (AN).

     Monsignor Diego Padrón, the archbishop of eastern Cumaná town, read out the paper authored by the Venezuelan Bishops' Conference (CEV). They reviewed both the initial draft submitted by President Hugo Chávez to AN last August 15th, and the text advanced by AN joint committee.

     The prelates reviewed the content, compared it to "the human being's demands," and discussed the most relevant changes and their potential ethical and legal effects. "The Constitution should mirror the agreement of all sectors, currents and ideologies. It should not be the implementation of ideas or political goals of a selected group. Any amendment to the Constitution should be based on the biggest possible agreement," said the bishops, and emphasized that plurality should be top priority in any system.

HUGO CHAVEZ SHOULD GUARANTEE DEMOCRACY TO MERCOSUR, SAYS BRAZILIAN SENATOR

        BRAZILIA, BRAZIL --Hugo Chávez must give "solid guarantees" that he will not impose in his country a totalitarian regime if he wants the Brazilian Congress to endorse Venezuela's entry into regional trade bloc Common Market of the South (Mercosur), Thursday said Brazilian Senator José Sarney.

     Former Brazilian President (1985-1990) and close ally of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Sarney warned in an interview with Reuters that those guarantees would be "essential" if the Brazilian Congress is going to give its approval for Venezuela's inclusion into the bloc made up of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

     Sarney also referred to Chávez's proposal to change the Constitution, which includes indefinite reelection for the head of State, as an "issue." "Now we have the problem of the (proposed) reform of the Constitution, so there is the risk of not having alternation of the president, after the problem with the intervention of one TV station," said Sarney, who was referring to TV channel Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV). The Venezuelan government refused to renew the broadcasting license of RCTV, which had to shut down its open signal broadcasting.

COLOMBIA MINISTER OF DEFENSE JUAN MANUEL SANTOS OFFERS TO STEP DOWN

        BOGOTA, COLOMBIA --Juan Manuel Santos, the Colombian Minister of Defense, announced Friday that he placed his position at the disposal of President Álvaro Uribe after the uproar unleashed by his controversial remarks on Venezuela made on Thursday in Washington, AFP reported.

     "My position as Minister of Defense is, as usual, at the entire disposal of the President of the Republic, who is my only boss," Santos told the press at the Colombian embassy in Washington.

     On the eve of the Inter American Dialogue in Washington, Santos said that based on his deal for the humanitarian exchange in Colombia, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez garnered a "tremendous momentum that has helped him to take a breath of air" in areas where he had no possibility. Afterwards, Uribe reasserted his support to Chávez's mediation before the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) and disavowed the minister.

10-19- 2007

COLOMBIA ASKS HUGO CHAVEZ LESS PERSONAL PROMOTION IN FARC CASE 

         WASHINGTON, D.C.  - The Colombian government requested Hugo Chávez to reduce the use for personal promotion of his role as mediator in the efforts at humanitarian swap, said on Thursday Colombian Defense Minister José Manuel Santos.

     Santos said also that Colombia would rather have a "steadier trade relation" with Venezuela. Since Venezuela pulled out of the Andean Pact to join the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) such relation has been governed "up to the Venezuelan president's mood," AP quoted. His comments were made during a conversation held at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think-tank, and are the first ones of their kind made publicly by an envoy of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe in the US capital city.

     "We have asked President Chávez to reduce his advertising strategy with regard to his role as mediator and he has accepted it," Santos declared. "Over the last three or four days we have seen nothing of it (any advertising). I hope he will keep his promise. Let us see what will happen." Chávez became a mediator early September for a potential humanitarian swap of prisoners to be agreed by the Colombian government and the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC).

TURKEY PARLIAMENT APPROVES IRAQ INCURSION

        ISLAMAB, TURKEY --The Turkish parliament has voted to allow its military to make an incursion into Iraq and chase down Kurdish rebels staging cross-border attacks. A Turkish army commando patrols in the southeastern Turkish province of Sirnak. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government had asked parliament in Ankara on Monday to authorize a military incursion, and the lawmakers responded with overwhelming approval, 507 to 19.

     Parliamentary approval, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said before the debate, would not necessarily trigger immediate military action and many analysts doubt a full-scale invasion will be launched. Turkey has already massed 60,000 troops in the region and over the weekend it shelled farms across the border. An incursion across the border would be "violating the sovereignty of another country and is against international laws and treaties," he said.  But the chances of such military action raises great concerns in the United States, which fears it would undermine the stability of the American-backed government in Baghdad and jeopardize the supply lines that support U.S. troops in Iraq.

     And it heightens anxiety in Iraq, where officials have been taking all-out diplomatic efforts to keep Turkey from carrying out cross-border assaults against Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, rebels in northern Iraq. Speaking as news of the vote was announced, U.S. President George W. Bush -- who said there already are Turkish troops stationed in Iraq -- said "we are making it very clear to Turkey that we don't think it is in their interests to send troops into Iraq." He noted that Iraq considers the issue sensitive. Saying Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi traveled to Ankara to discuss the issue with Turkish officials, he said the diplomatic discussions on the issue are positive.

10-18- 2007

IAPA: FREEDOM OF SPEECH JEOPARDIZED IN LATIN AMERICA FOR VENEZUELA INFLUENCE

        WASHINGTON, D.C.  -- The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) last weekend said freedom of the press in Latin America is at stake because of the alleged influence on the government of Venezuela, which is trying to export a model "similar to that of the Cuban dictatorship." The 63rd General Assembly, held in Miami, discussed the situation of press freedom in the Americas, particularly in Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, and Argentina. The organization concluded that the situation "is deteriorating significantly."

     The report on the threats against freedom of speech in Venezuela, which is still susceptible of changes before approval next October 16, was at the center of almost the entire debate. Another issue in the spotlight during the meeting was the alleged spreading of President Hugo Chávez's government model to other countries such as Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Bolivia. David Natera, director of Venezuelan newspaper Correo del Caroní, said in the report that respect for freedom of expression and information are constitutional rights and democratic values Chávez's regime "is trying to suppress forever."

     "Chávez's dictatorial regime is determined to consolidate its project with systematic actions aimed at a tighter grip over the society, emphasizing hegemony over the news media," the report asserted. During the debate, Miguel Otero, director of Venezuelan daily newspaper El Nacional, stressed that one of the most worrisome effects of the likely changes to the Constitution is the fact that "free press will be terminated." Marcel Granier, CEO of private television channel RCTV, underscored that the "language of hatred" of the Venezuelan government is spreading to other Latin American countries.

HUGO CHAVEZ SAID TO HAVE FUNDED REVOLT THAT OVERTHREW BOLIVIAN RULER IN 2003

        LA PAZ, BOLIVIA --Mauricio Balcázar, a member of opposition Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR) party and a son-in-law of former Bolivian President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, Wednesday claimed that Venezuelan ruler Hugo Chávez provided USD 200,000 to endorse a social uprising that unseated Sánchez de Lozada four years ago, AFP reported.

     "'October' was a plan that Evo (Morales), together with (Hugo) Chávez started to unfold since 2002. During a visit some deputies of MAS party paid to Caracas served to take over USD 200,000 to Bolivia," Balcázar told La Paz-based TV network ATB.

     Balcázar lives in Washington and is the right hand of former President Sánchez de Lozada, who on October 17, 2003 resigned from his position amidst a social revolt that lasted 10 days in El Alto, a town near La Paz. The uprising left over 60 people killed and other 400 injured.

10-17- 2007

US: VENEZUELA "MAY HAVE CROSSED THE LINE" WITH ARMS PURCHASES

        WASHINGTON, D.C.  -- Venezuela "may have crossed the line" in arms purchases over the last few years and the United States has to prevent its neighbors from joining an arms race, Tuesday said Stephen Johnson, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Western Hemisphere Affairs, AFP quoted. "We have to acknowledge that all countries have the right to defend themselves and should be prepared to do so," the US official said when presenting in Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue the results of the US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' recent tour of Latin America.

    "The issue is what is too much?" he added. "In the Venezuelan case, there is concern it may have crossed the line," Johnson stated, in a reference to the latest purchases of Russian weapons by the government of President Hugo -a major rival of the United States in the region. "As Venezuela buys fighter-bomber warplanes, assault choppers, submarines and rifles, we must remind our neighbors that, no matter how threatening such purchases may look like, they should not be lured into an arms race," he warned.

     In Johnson's view, an arms race "could distract the successful democracies (in the region) from investing to promote their people's wealth. This is our top work." Ten days ago, Gates made his first Latin American tour since he took office in December. He visited El Salvador, Colombia, Chile, Peru, and Suriname.

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VALDIMIR PUTIN WARNS US AGAINST ATTACKING IRAN

         THERAN, IRAN --  Russian leader Vladimir Putin met his Iranian counterpart Tuesday and implicitly warned the U.S. not to use a former Soviet republic to stage an attack on Iran. Putin said none of the nations' territory should be used by any outside countries for use of military force against any nation in the region. It was a clear reference to long-standing rumors that the U.S. was planning to use Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic, as a staging ground for any possible military action against Iran.

     "We are saying that no Caspian nation should offer its territory to third powers for use of force or military aggression against any Caspian state," Putin said. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also underlined the need to keep outsiders away from the Caspian. "The Caspian Sea is an inland sea and it only belongs to the Caspian states, therefore only they are entitled to have their ships and military forces here," he said.

     Putin's visit took place despite warnings of a possible assassination plot and amid hopes that personal diplomacy could help offer a solution to an international standoff on Iran's nuclear program. Putin has warned the U.S. and other nations against trying to coerce Iran into reining in its nuclear program and insists peaceful dialogue is the only way to deal with Tehran's defiance of a U.N. Security Council demand that it suspend uranium enrichment. "Threatening someone, in this case the Iranian leadership and Iranian people, will lead nowhere," Putin said Monday during his trip to Germany. "They are not afraid, believe me." Putin's visit to Tehran is being closely watched for any possible shifts in Russia's carefully hedged stance in the nuclear standoff.

americas director of human rights watch jose MIGUEL VIVANCO  said hugo chavez is preparing tools of a  "brutal" exercise of power 

        NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK --The constitutional reform advanced by Hugo Chávez "provides for the suspension of the right to due process during the states of emergency, a measure that has historically been made in Latin America for brutal exercise of power," Tuesday denounced Human Rights Watch (HRW), as quoted by AFP. Human Rights Watch issued a communiqué in New York stressing that the reform the Venezuelan government is preparing "may allow suspension of due process protections in that country."

     Under the Venezuelan Constitution in force, such protections include the right to the presumption of innocence and to a fair trial; the right to an attorney; the right against self-incrimination; the right of a defendant to know the charges and evidence against him; and the right against double jeopardy. "This amendment, if approved, would allow Hugo Chávez to invoke a state of emergency to justify suspending certain rights that are untouchable under international law," said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. 

     The proposed amendments would also eliminate previous constitutional time limits on states of emergency. In addition, the amendments eliminate the requirement that the Constitutional Tribunal review the decree regulating the suspension of rights during times of emergency, as well as language establishing that such a decree "meet the requirements, principles, and guarantees established in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the American Convention on Human Rights." "Recent Latin American history shows that it is precisely during states of emergency that countries need strong judicial protections to prevent abuse," said Vivanco. "Otherwise, what has historically prevailed is the brutal exercise of power." 

10-16- 2007

HUGO CHAVEZ SaID THAT VENEZUELA AND CUBA HAVE SAME GOVERNMENT

        CARACAS, VENEZUELA  --  "Until victory, forever. We are overcoming," said Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez Sunday after they talked over the phone for one hour and 22 minutes, during Chávez' weekly radio and TV show Aló, Presidente (Hello, President). It was the first live contact with the Cuban leader since he got ill almost 15 months ago. Before their phone talk, a 17-minute video footage was broadcast showing a meeting the two leaders held last October 13 in Havana, which according to Chávez took more than four hours. During their encounter, the Venezuelan ruler gave Castro a painting he made while in Yare jail. Castro asked Chávez to sign the painting.

     Chávez' weekly show Sunday was broadcast from Santa Clara town in Cuba and was dedicated to honor Argentinean guerrillas leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara, on the 40th anniversary of his death. Such commemoration and the presentation of Castro occupied most of Chávez' show. After the transmission, Chávez was scheduled to attend the so-called "pre-opening ceremony" of Cienfuegos refinery in the island. Chávez was visibly excited when he talked to Castro, who certified that he was talking live by describing every move Chávez was making on TV. "I watch you waving your left hand, yes, I know you are left-handed," said Fidel from Havana. During the talk, Chávez highlighted the work his government has been making with the Cuban administration and said:

     "We are one single government." Earlier, Chávez reminded the words of Cuban Vice-President Carlos Lage, who once said that the island had "two presidents: Castro and Chávez." "This causes urticaria to the Venezuelan oligarchy, and we do not want them to get sick. Yet Lage said so, that Cuba had two presidents, and then I just said in Cuba that Venezuela has two presidents too, but we are one single government. We are headed for the (José) Martí-style, Caribbean, South American Confederation of Bolivarian Republics." "Fidel, let's tell everybody, we are going to turn this aggregation of countries -the Bolivarian Alternatives for the Peoples of the Americas (ALBA) and beyond that- into a confederation of republics. We are going to turn the union of our peoples into a region-power."

SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE SAID "IT'S TIME FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PALESTINIAN STATE"

         RAMALLAH, WEST BANK -- Secretary of State Condoleezza said Monday it was "time for the establishment of a Palestinian state," and described Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts as the most serious in years. An international peace conference expected to take place in Annapolis, Md., in November has to be substantive, Rice said at a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

     "We frankly have better things to do than invite people to Annapolis for a photo op," she said. Israelis and Palestinians, Rice added, are making their "most serious effort" in years to resolve the conflict. "Frankly, it's time for the establishment of a Palestinian state," she added. Rice is on a four-day shuttle mission, trying to create some common ground ahead of the meeting. A State Department official hinted on Sunday that the conference might be postponed because of the gaps between the two sides.

    The Israelis and Palestinians are trying to work out an outline for a final peace deal ahead of the Annapolis conference, but tensions arose on Sunday when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet that he did not regard that outline as a prerequisite for the meeting to take place. The Palestinians said that without such a document, they would not attend. Israel has been pushing for a vaguely worded document while the Palestinians want a detailed outline, complete with a timetable for establishing a Palestinian state.

FORMER BOLIVIAN RULER JORGE QUIROGA WARNS AGAINST HUGO CHAVEZ'S HEGEMONIC PLAN

        CARACAS, VENEZUELA -- Former Bolivian President Jorge Quiroga cautioned that the "hegemonic" project of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has spread to Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador, but added that apparently Ecuadorian ruler Rafael Correa seemed to have "self-esteem high enough to avoid following blindly the instructions he is given."

     "Obviously, this project is moving forward. In the countries where it lacks friendly or allied governments, it seeks ways to fund, support, and encourage social convulsions, mobilizations. It is a disturbing factor. This project aims at installing allied and friendly regimes by using simple, heavily funded slogans, backed by a great electioneering taskforce. The political power of the current President of Venezuela has been underestimated," said Quiroga, DPA quoted.

     Quiroga, speaking in Caracas, said he would visit other countries to reject Chávez's project. "We are faced with the worst threat against democracy and freedom in Latin American history."

10-15- 2007

KREMLIN TOLD OF PLOT TO ASSASSINATE RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN

        MOSCOW, RUSSIA  --  Russian President Vladimir Putin has been told about a plot to assassinate him during a visit to Iran this week, a Kremlin spokeswoman said Sunday. The spokeswoman, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, refused further comment. Interfax news agency, citing a source in Russia's special services, said suicide terrorists had been trained to carry out the assassination. Putin is to travel to Tehran on Monday night from Germany after meetings with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

     During his visit to Iran, Putin is to meet with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and attend Tuesday's summit of Caspian Sea nations. He will be the first Kremlin leader to travel to Iran since Josef Stalin attended a 1943 wartime summit with Britain's Winston Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt. Officials have reported uncovering at least two other plots to kill Putin on foreign trips since he became president in 2000.

     Ukrainian security officials said they foiled an attempt to kill Putin during a summit in Yalta in August 2000. And in 2001, Russian security officials said a plot to assassinate Putin earlier that year in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, had been uncovered by the Azeri special services. Russian officials linked both alleged plots to Chechen separatists. Putin had sent troops back into the southern Russian republic to crush resistance to Moscow's rule.

TURKISH GENERAL ON GENOCIDE RESOLUTION:  'U.S. SHOTS ITS OWN FOOT'

         ISTAMBUL, TURKEY  --  Turkey's top general warned that ties with the U.S., already strained by attacks from rebels hiding in Iraq, will be irreversibly damaged if Congress passes a resolution that labels the World War I-era killings of Armenians a genocide. Turkey, which is a major cargo hub for U.S. and allied military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, has recalled its ambassador to Washington for consultations and warned that there might be a cut in the logistical support to the U.S. over the issue.

     Gen. Yasar Buyukanit told the daily Milliyet newspaper that a congressional committee's approval of the measure had already harmed ties between the two countries. "If this resolution passed in the committee passes the House as well, our military ties with the U.S. will never be the same again," Buyukanit was quoted as saying. "I'm the military chief; I deal with security issues. I'm not a politician," Buyukanit was quoted as saying by Milliyet. "In this regard, the U.S. shot its own foot."

    About 70 percent of U.S. air cargo headed for Iraq goes through Turkey as does about one-third of the fuel used by the U.S. military there. U.S. bases also get water and other supplies carried in overland by Turkish truckers who cross into Iraq's northern Kurdish region. In addition, C-17 cargo planes fly military supplies to U.S. soldiers in remote areas of Iraq from Incirlik, avoiding the use of Iraqi roads vulnerable to bomb attacks. U.S. officials say the arrangement helps reduce American casualties. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Turkey to exercise restraint and sent two high-ranking officials to Ankara in an apparent attempt to ease fury over the measure which could be voted on by the House by the end of the year.

HUGO CHAVEZ MEETS FOR MORE THAN 4 HOURS WITH AILING CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO

        HAVANA, CUBA -- Hugo Chavez met for more than four hours Saturday with ailing leader Fidel Castro, Cuban state television reported.  Chavez arrived in Havana late Friday for a visit that will include the airing Sunday of the Venezuelan leader's weekly radio and television program from the provincial capital of Santa Clara, where the Cuban government on Monday marked the 40th anniversary of the death of revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

     No new official photographs or video clips of the convalescing leader accompanied the brief report on the evening news. The last official image of Castro was a photograph released late last month, showing him looking more robust than in some past pictures as he stood and greeted Angolan President Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos during an official visit to Havana. "The two revolutionary leaders discussed the history of our nations, the solid and growing bilateral relations, the situation in Latin America and the most grave problems faced by humanity," state television said of Chavez's meeting with Castro.

     Chavez, a close friend and political ally of the 81-year-old Castro, last met with the Cuban leader during a surprise visit to the capital in June. The Venezuelan president has traveled to Cuba several times to visit Castro since he underwent emergency intestinal surgery in late July 2006 and ceded authority to his younger brother Raul, who continues to head the collective leadership governing the communist-run country. Castro has not appeared in public in the 14 months since he fell ill and was not expected to make an appearance on the show. Castro called in live in February to one of Chavez's programs broadcast from Venezuela and the pair chatted for more than a half hour.

10-14- 2007

US-RUSSIA MISSILE DEFENSE TALKS FAIL

        MOSCOW, RUSSIA  --  Russian President Vladimir Putin warned President Bush's top two Cabinet officials on Friday to back off U.S. missile defense plans for eastern Europe as high-level talks yielded little more than a pledge to meet again.  Despite presenting new cooperation proposals intended to bring Moscow on board, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates failed in a series of tough meetings to turn around Moscow's opposition to the system and other strategic issues.

     Putin set the tone early on when he hosted Rice and Gates and their Russian counterparts at his country home outside Moscow and delivered a stern rebuff to U.S. plans to push ahead with establishing missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic. In combative comments that took the U.S. side aback during a photo session, Putin criticized Bush's pet project and threatened to pull out of a Cold War-era treaty that limits intermediate-range missiles.

     "We may decide someday to put missile defense systems on the moon, but before we get to that we may lose a chance for agreement because of you implementing your own plans," he told Rice and Gates in Russian, according to an Associated Press translation. "We hope that in the process of such complex and multifaceted talks you will not be forcing forward your previous agreements with eastern European countries," Putin said. The United States has repeatedly rejected Russian demands to freeze U.S. negotiations with Poland and the Czech Republic and Rice did so again Friday, said three senior U.S. officials present at the sessions with Rice, Gates, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

RETIRED GENERAL RICARDO SANCHEZ CALLED THE IRAQ WAR "A NIGHTMARE WITH NO END ON SIGHT"

         WASHINGTON, D.C.  -- Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, coalition commander in 2003 and 2004, called the Iraq war "a nightmare with no end in sight," for which he said the Bush administration, the State Department and Congress all share blame. Sanchez told a group of military reporters in Arlington, Virginia, on Friday that such dereliction of duty by a military officer would mean immediate dismissal or court martial, but the politicians have not been held accountable.

     He said the Iraq war plan from the start was "catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic," and the administration has not provided the resources necessary for victory, which he said the military could never achieve on its own. Still, he said, the U.S. cannot pull out of Iraq without causing chaos that would have global implications.

     "After more than four years of fighting, America continues its desperate struggle in Iraq without any concerted effort to devise a strategy that will achieve victory in that war torn country or in the greater conflict against extremism," Sanchez said. Sanchez pointed to what he said was "neglect and incompetence at the National Security Council level" which has put the U.S. military into "an intractable situation" in Iraq. Sanchez, who retired in 2006, said it was his duty to obey orders and not object publicly when he was on active duty, but now that he is retired he has an obligation to speak out. "While the politicians espouse a rhetoric designed to preserve their reputations and their political power, our soldiers die," he said.

PRESIDENT BUSH TALKS TRADE IN MIAMI APPEARANCE

         MIAMI, FLORIDA -- President Bush, giving a major trade speech in Miami Friday, urged Congress to pass free trade agreements with Peru, Panama and Colombia, and also Korea. ''Now is the time to move forward with these pro-growth, pro-democracy agreements,'' Bush said during a speech at the Radisson Hotel in Miami before about 550 members of the local business and trade community. The president has encountered congressional resistance to his free trade agenda but said, ``Congress should pass these agreements soon.''

     Speaking before a friendly, by-invitation-only audience, Bush said, ``I think the case for trade is unmistakable for Miami. We need to make that point all over the country.'' Bush pointed out the benefits of free trade: more exports and a helping hand for Latin America, which wants to have trade agreements with the United States. Free trade will give our hemispheric neighbors more access to products ''made in the U.S.A,'' the president said.

     In his speech, Bush noted the resistance to a pact with Colombia because of the killings and the violence in the South American nation, but said Colombian President Alvaro Uribe ''has acted decisively'' to confront this problem. ''Colombia's record is not perfect but the country is clearly headed in the right direction and has asked us for our support,'' the president said. Bush warned that rejecting free trade agreements would ``damage America's credibility in the region.'' ''The vision I have for our hemisphere includes a free and democratic Cuba,'' the president said, eliciting an ovation from most of the audience. One woman shouted, ``Viva Bush.''

10-13- 2007

PRESIDENT BUSH ASKED FOR CUBAN POLITICAL PRISONER FREEDOM 

         WASHINGTON, D.C.  --Yamilé Llánes once worked for the legal staff of a Cuban government bank. Her husband, José Luis García, was a respected plastic surgeon, specializing in burn victims, in the quiet western town of Las Tunas.  But their lives unraveled in the 2003 crackdown on dissidents. García, an activist for the Varela Project that gathers signatures for a pro-democracy campaign, was sentenced to 24 years in jail.

    Now the 38-year-old Llánes is campaigning for her husband and other jailed dissidents, visiting Washington this week to tell her story to President Bush, Congress members and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a part of the Organization of American States (OAS) that for the first time held a hearing on the 2003 crackdown. ''Don't forget the Cuban people and their suffering,'' she told the IACHR commissioners Wednesday. Llánes says she's still somewhat dazed at what she's been through. She says Bush was supportive of her husband, and the president spoke about him during a Rose Garden appearance with Llánes on Wednesday.

     ''He did nothing more than advocate for freedom,'' Bush said of García. ``And not only is he in prison, he's ill. And so one of the messages I have for the Cuban leader is, free this man, and free other political prisoners. He's not a threat to you.''  After her husband's arrest, Llánes spent four years as a member of the Ladies in White, a group of dissidents' relatives that stages weekly protests in Havana demanding their release. But after a pro-government mob attacked her home last summer, García told his wife she had to leave. ''I'm doing my part,'' she recalled him telling her. ``You must do yours -- take the family away from here.'' So in March, Llánes and their four children, ranging in age from 8 to 16, left to join relatives in Texas.

CORREA, CHAVEZ BOOST 21ST CENTURY SOCIALISM  

         CARACAS, VENEZUELA  -- Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa endorsed the 21st Century socialism, which he interpreted in a number of ways during a ceremony late Thursday, when he accepted the decoration Orden del Libertador that Hugo Chávez conferred on him. Correa arrived in Caracas late Thursday to pay an official visit that, according to analysts, is aimed at proposing Venezuela to rejoin the Andean Community of Nations (CAN). The Ecuadorian ruler claimed that "being a Bolivarian person is identifying oneself with the 21st century socialism, which is neither an entelechy nor a manual, but a doctrine that was born out of necessity and dreams."

    In his view, being a Bolivarian person means "fighting both against neocolonialism and the subterfuges it uses to plague the peoples of Latin America with hunger and misery." During a ceremony in the Military Academy, just before the premiere of a film called Miranda is back, Correa asserted, "We are one single fatherland, the great fatherland of Martí and Bolívar. This part of America was Bolivarian in the past and will be Bolivarian in the future. We are not flinching at the pressures of the oligarchy." Meanwhile, President Chávez stated that Ecuador is helping open "the wide paths the martyr president of the Americas Salvador Allende referred to in the last day of his life."

     Correa is joining Chávez Friday in a visit to La Goajira department in Colombia to inaugurate, together with Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, the Venezuela-Colombia gas pipeline. The USD 335 million, 225-kilometer pipeline stretches from Punta Ballena (Colombia) to the eastern coast of Lake Maracaibo (northwestern Venezuela).  Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs Fernando Araújo Thursday hailed Correa's attendance to the meeting between the presidents of Colombia and Venezuela. "We have invited Ecuador President Rafael Correa because there is interest in laying a gas pipeline from Venezuela across Colombia to Ecuador and, in the future, to Bolivia and Peru," said Araújo after taking part in a Congress session.

VENEZUELAN SMOKERS AND DRINKERS WILL HAVE TO PAY MORE 

         CARACAS, VENEZUELA --Hugo Chávez has announced sharp tax increases on tobacco and alcoholic beverages, amid a raft of other measures aimed at curbing luxury imports and instilling the new morality of his ``21st Century Socialism.'' Some analysts say the tax increases have less to do with morals or public health than with the government's realization that it faces a substantial shortfall in income as a result of recent measures intended to curb the highest inflation rate in the region.

     'We're one of the countries that consumes the most whiskey per capita in the world. We ought to be ashamed,'' Chávez said in berating his audience on his Hello President television and radio show. ``I'm not willing to keep offering dollars to import whiskey in these quantities. What kind of revolution is this? The whiskey revolution? The Hummer revolution? No! This is a real revolution!'' U.S.-made Hummer vehicles have been reported to be selling briskly in Venezuela in recent months.

     The announcement of the tax increases -- expected to take effect Nov. 1 -- coincided with ceremonies Monday to commemorate the death of guerrilla leader Ernesto ''Che'' Guevara 40 years ago in Bolivia. The government has adopted the Argentine-turned-Cuban revolutionary, who advocated the creation of a ''new man'' motivated by moral, not material incentives, as a symbol of its socialist crusade. ''Que sean como el Che! (Let them be like Che!),'' Vice President Jorge Rodríguez proclaimed at a ceremony Monday to unveil a plaque in the guerrilla's honor, echoing a famous speech by Fidel Castro.

10-12- 2007

TURKEY RECALLS AMBASSADOR OVER GENOCIDE RESOLUTION

         WASHINGTON, D.C. --Turkey has recalled its ambassador to the United States in response to a House resolution that would call the World War I massacre of Armenians by Turkish forces genocide, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Thursday.  The House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed the measure 27-21 Wednesday, even though President Bush and key administration figures lobbied hard against it. The full House is expected to vote on it, possibly Friday.

     A top Turkish official warned Thursday that consequences "won't be pleasant" if the full House approves the resolution. "Yesterday some in Congress wanted to play hardball," said Egemen Bagis, foreign policy adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "I can assure you Turkey knows how to play hardball."  Asked about Ambassador Nabi Sensoy's recall after the news broke, a State Department spokesman said he could not confirm it. "People are sometimes called back for consultation; sometimes they're called back for other reasons," said spokesman Tom Casey.

     "If they wanted to bring their ambassador back for consultations or do something else, that is their decision. I certainly think that it will not do anything to limit our efforts to continue to reach out to Turkish officials, to explain our views, to engage them on this issue and again to make clear that we intend to work on this with Congress."  Casey and White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said they both would like to see the resolution withdrawn without a vote by the full House. However, Casey said, "I don't think anyone is expecting that to happen at this point." Turkey, a NATO member, has been a key U.S. ally in the Middle East and a conduit for sending supplies into Iraq.

MARINE CORPS SEEKS IRAQ EXIT, REDEPLOYMENT TO AFGHANISTAN 

         WASHINGTON, D.C. --Top Marine Corps brass is lobbying the Pentagon to allow its forces to vacate Iraq for the purpose of leading the fight in Afghanistan, according to a New York Times report. Marine Corps Commandant James T. Conway proposed the idea during a session with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and several regional military commanders, said the article.

    The arrangement would leave ground combat in Iraq primarily to the U.S. Army. Currently, there are 25,000 Marines serving among 162,000 American troops in Iraq and no major units serving in Afghanistan, according to the Times article.

     Marine units serving in Afghanistan would be able to command ground and air assault capability while the current Army forces there rely on the U.S. Air Force for air support. The idea is intended to improve the balance of forces between the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and help reduce strain on troops. Gates and Mullen have not discussed the redeployment in public and senior military officials say no former proposal has been entered, said the Times story.

10-11- 2007

SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE ASKS CONGRESS TO PASS FREE-TRADE PACTS 

         WASHINGTON, D.C. --Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday made an impassioned appeal for Congress to pass trade agreements with Peru, Panama and Colombia, warning that failure would have dire strategic consequences for U.S. interests in Latin America.

     The Bush administration is stepping up its lobbying campaign in a difficult environment, with polls showing Americans are concerned that more trade pacts will cause job losses and many Latin Americans are skeptical over the ability of free-market reforms and more open trade to improve their lot. A referendum on a free-trade agreement with the United States in Costa Rica passed this weekend by a narrow 51-48 percent margin.

     Democrats have refused to move the Colombia deal forward until the human rights situation improves, something that Rice said was a mistake. ''It would send a signal loud and clear across the region that the United States cannot be trusted to keep its promises,'' she said at an event organized by the Council on Foreign Relations but held at the Organization of American States, the premiere political institution that deals with Pan-American issues. Rice raised a familiar theme often cited by pro-trade Republicans: free trade and increased economic ties are an antidote to what she called ''the enemies of democracy in our hemisphere'' -- an apparent reference to Hugo Chávez.

BOLIVIAN PRESIDENT EVO MORALES SAID THAT U.S. SOLDIERS SHOULD LEAVE HIS COUNTRY

         LA PAZ, BOLIVIA --President Evo Morales said he expects U.S. military aid to Bolivia to stop soon, as his government plans to bar U.S. troops from assisting in anti-drug operations.  ''Happily, it's ending,'' Morales told reporters at a news conference Tuesday night. ``No foreigner in uniform will be operating here.'' Bolivia is the world's No. 3 producer of cocaine, after Colombia and Peru. Washington last year provided $91 million to help fight cocaine production and encourage Bolivian coca farmers to switch crops.

      U.S. aid has paid for everything from Bolivian troops' uniforms to the gasoline in their trucks since the 1980s. But U.S. soldiers have not been directly involved in anti-narcotics efforts, leaving that task to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration personnel and State Department contractors instead. It's not clear whether Morales would ban their involvement in Bolivian anti-drug efforts, too. The U.S. Embassy had no immediate response to Morales' statement, and declined to say how many U.S. military personnel or contractors are now in Bolivia. The number is believed to be no more than a few dozen.

      Morales, who allied himself with Cuba and Venezuela following his December 2005 election as Bolivia's first indigenous president, has spurned his country's traditionally close ties with the U.S. military. Morales also suggested on Tuesday that Bolivia's new constitution, now being drafted by a popularly elected assembly, should include a clause banning foreign military bases on Bolivian soil. It's not clear how that rule would affect a handful of border military posts due to be built in Bolivia with Venezuelan aid, according to a military pact reached between Morales and President Hugo Chávez last year.

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN SEES NO PROOF OF IRAN NUCLEAR PROGRAM 

        MOSCOW, RUSSIA  --  President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Iran must be encouraged to make its nuclear program fully transparent, but also underscored there is no proof it is pursuing a nuclear weapons program. ''We are sharing our partners' concern about making all Iranian programs transparent,'' Putin said at a news conference after talks with visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy. ''We agreed yesterday, and the president confirmed it, that Iran is making certain steps toward the international community to achieve that.''

     Putin is to make his first visit to Iran early next week for a summit of Caspian Sea nations. Sarkozy said Putin's trip to Tehran could encourage Iran to be more cooperative. ''After the trip, there could be a will to cooperate -- that is essential,'' he said. Russia has opposed the U.S.-push for tougher sanctions against Iran and called for more checks and inspections of Iranian facilities by an international nuclear watchdog.

      ''We have worked cooperatively with our partners at the United Nations Security Council, and we intend to continue such cooperative work in the future,'' Putin said. But he said with no ''objective data'' showing Iran is developing nuclear weapons, ''we proceed from an assumption that Iran has no such plans.'' Sarkozy has hardened France's stance on Iran in recent months, shifting closer to the United States in his insistence on tough U.N. Security Council sanctions and even his mention of the possibility of war. While the U.S. and European nations are pressing for greater sanctions, Russia and China have resisted.

10-10- 2007

HUNDREDS OF Leaflets DISTRIBUTED IN venezuela military barracks against changes to the constitution 

         CARACAS, VENEZUELA --HUNDREDS of leaflets, rejecting the proposed changes to the Constitution, are reportedly distributed in the armed force barracks, and according to President Hugo Chávez -the proponent of the changes- such leaflets are part of a plan to create "uncertainty and discomfort" in the military.

    During his weekly radio and television show, the Venezuelan ruler showed a file holding a number of fliers that have been distributed in several military units. However, he would only disclose the contents of one leaflet: "Bid farewell to the professional military and their integral social security."

     "I want to report this permanent intention to disturb the country by sending false messages to workers, military officers and peasants," said Chávez in connection with the fliers and claims that the Ministry of Defense is pondering the possibility to cut the benefits to low and middle ranking officers.

VENEZUELAN GOVERNMENT SUES TV CHANNEL GLOBOVISION FOR BROADCASTING VIDEO

         CARACAS, VENEZUELA  --Police authorities, headed by Minister of the Interior Pedro Carreño, announced that a criminal investigation would be launched against local news TV channel Globovisión for broadcasting a video footage showing a number of young men snatching objects from motorists while in a traffic jam in Francisco Fajardo highway.

     Carreño on Monday told reporters that Globovisión was "perverse" to transmit the video footage, adding that the TV network failed "to cooperate with the security of all citizens." The head of the scientific police corps Cicpc Marcos Chávez announced that an enquiry would be launched against Globovisión. "We find it very interesting the fact that the person taping the video footage does it in a professional way and keeps a sequence of the perpetrators. We are going to analyze the videos carefully, and we have asked both the National Telecommunications Commission and Globovisión to deliver the tapes."

     Carreño said it was a plan to create "uncertainty and nervousness." Globovisión director Alberto Ravell rejected the government move and urged the authorities "to search for the criminals who appear in the video footage, rather than persecuting a media outlet that is trying to warn people against a problem hitting millions of people: crime.

FOUR PAKISTANI SOLDIERS KILLED IN CRASH OF HELICOPTER ESCORTING PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF   

        KASHMIR, PAKISTAN  --  Four soldiers have been killed after their helicopter, which was escorting President Pervez Musharraf, crashed in Pakistan. General Musharraf, who took the most votes in a presidential election on Saturday, had travelled ahead in another helicopter and was unhurt. He was visiting Kashmir to mark the second anniversary of an earthquake in the region. But his spokesman, retired Major General Rashid Qureshi, was injured in the crash.

     An army spokesman said the crash was due to a technical fault and he ruled out a militant attack. A villager in Ghori said he heard some kind of blast as the helicopter overflew the village, in a valley 18km south of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir. President Musharraf has survived at least three assassination attempts by al-Qaeda linked militants.

     The most recent was last July, when assassins tried to shoot down his plane after it took off from the military airfield at Rawalpindi, but the plane was well out of range. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court says Mr Musharraf cannot be confirmed as the winner of Saturday's election by the parliamentary and provincial assemblies until it rules whether he was eligible to stand while still army chief. He has vowed to quit the army and be sworn in as a civilian leader if he is elected.

10-09- 2007

GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS ACCUSES IRAN OF FUELING IRAQ VIOLENCE 

         BAGHDAD, IRAQ --Gen. David Petraeus laid further blame on Iran for violence in Iraq on Sunday, charging that Tehran's ambassador to Baghdad was once a member of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards force. Petraeus added that Iran has been aiding Iraqi rebels with training and gifts of high-powered weaponry. "They are responsible for providing the weapons, the training, the funding and in some cases the direction for operations that have indeed killed U.S. soldiers," Petraeus told reporters in Diyala Province. Without citing any specific intelligence, Petraeus labeled Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, Iran's envoy to Baghdad, as a former member of the Revolutionary Guards Quds force. But he did not suggest that action would be taken against the ambassador.

     "Now he has diplomatic immunity and therefore he is obviously not subject [to scrutiny]. He is acting as a diplomat," he said. The Iranian Foreign Ministry dismissed the charges agaisnt Kazemi-Qomi “baseless” accusations, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. "They repeatedly link those arrested or killed in the bombardments with the Quds force. If they can, they announce names of those people or hand over the names to the Islamic Republic of Iran," Mohammad-Ali Hosseini told IRNA.

     The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps has been under intense scrutiny by U.S. officials. In August, President Bush signed an executive order branding them as a “specially designated global terrorist.”Iran returned the “favor” last week with a parliamentary order that gave the U.S. Army and the CIA the same distinction. Separately on Sunday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tehran will not hold talks with Washington until the U.S. changes its attitude.

US TO BUILD MILITARY BASE IN SURINAM

         PARAMARIBO, SURINAME  --The government of Surinam okayed the construction of US military premises in its territory. Surinam is located east Guyana and Venezuela. The capital -Paramaribo- is 1,300 km from Caracas.

     Suriname President Ronald Venetiaan said the United States wants to build military premises in Surinamese soil to test the capabilities of military cars in the forest, AP reported.

     US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates talked about the proposed site during a meeting with Venetiaan, when wrapping up a five-day tour of five countries in the region, Venetiaan told reporters. "If the United States wants to test their military vehicles in the forest, we have a forest, and we welcome them," said Venetiaan following his meeting with Gates.

COLOMBIAN FOREIGN MINISTER REMAINS SILENT AT HUGO CHAVEZ'S REMARKS ON HIS HOPE TO SWAP HOSTAGES   

        BOGOTA, COLOMBIA  --  Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs Fernando Araújo Monday declined to make comments about Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez' concern regarding his efforts to achieve a humanitarian swap of hostages in Colombia.

    In an interview with Bogota Caracol Radio, Araújo said such agreement was a subject in the hands of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and the high commissioner for peace Luis Carlos Restrepo, Efe said.  "The best contribution I can make to this issue is to keep away from this issue, particularly regarding public comments about the topic," the diplomat said.

     This way, Araújo avoided making comments about the remarks made on Sunday by Chávez, who once again asked Uribe to facilitate Chávez' planned meeting in Venezuela with a leader of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). Chávez asked his Colombian counterpart to allow the rebel leader to travel to the Colombia-Venezuela border in airplane. According to Chávez, the meeting scheduled to take place on October 8 was adjourned because of safety concerns.

10-08- 2007

PRESIDENT BUSH SAYS U.S. STANDS WITH MUSLIMS

         WASHINGTON, D.C. --The United States has a proud history of standing with Muslims and "mainstream citizens across the broader Middle East," President Bush said Thursday during a dinner to mark the end of the daily fast during Ramadan.  Speaking to about 90 attendees during the White House's annual iftar dinner marking the occasion, Bush said the United States has supported Muslims seeking liberty in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon and has stood with Muslims across the world facing hardship. He said violent extremists do not represent Islam.

     "They believe that by spreading chaos and violence they can frustrate the desire of Muslims to live in freedom and peace. We say to them, you don't represent Muslims, you do not represent Islam - and you will not succeed," Bush told the attendees, who included Muslim leaders and ambassadors, as well as first lady Laura Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Vice President Dick Cheney and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. This is the seventh year Bush has hosted an itfar dinner, this year inviting American Muslim women who have made contributions in fields such as science, education, civil society and the arts and culture, according to the White House.

     Lt. Cmdr. Abuhena Saifulislam, the second Muslim chaplain commissioned in the Navy, gave the blessing for dinner, which included roasted kabocha squash soup, spiced rack of lamb and mamoul cookies. The guests dined in the White House's State Dining Room.  "Let us celebrate the millions of Muslims that we are proud to call American citizens," Bush told guests. "And let us honor the many Muslim nations that America is proud to call friends."

RIVAL SHIITE LEADERS BURY THE HATCHET IN PEACE DEAL IN IRAQ

         BAGHDAD, IRAQ  --Two rival Shiite leaders signed an agreement Saturday to end months of rancor and fighting between the two powerful movements they command, a representative of one of the men said. Muqtada al-Sadr, the populist Shiite cleric, and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq, forged the agreement in the spirit of the current Muslim holy month of Ramadan, said SICI spokesman Haytham al-Husseini. Gestures of forgiveness and mercy are often made during Ramadan.

    The deal has three main points: stopping the fighting between Iraqis, urging print and electronic media to engender a spirit of friendship and forgiveness, and establishing commissions in each of Iraq's 18 provinces to oversee the peace initiative. Al-Husseini said al-Sadr, who recently returned to Iraq from Iran, signed the agreement in Najaf, the Shiite holy city in the south, and al-Hakim signed it in Iran.

     The men head movements that are in the middle of a power struggle in Shiite regions across Iraq, particularly in the south. Al-Sadr's Mehdi Army and SICI's Badr Organization militia have squared off in recent months, with Mehdi gunmen many times fighting police who are aligned with the Badr group. Clashes between those groups during a recent pilgrimage in the Shiite holy city of Karbala sparked all-out fighting in that city, Baghdad and Babil province. That fighting, in August, left dozens dead and caused al-Sadr to suspend his militia for six months for restructuring.

CARDINAL TARCISIO BERTONE, VATICAN'S NO 2, WILL VISIT CUBA   

         VATICAN CITY, ITALY  --  The Holy See's No. 2 official, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, will go to Cuba, the highest level visit by a Vatican official to the Communist-run state during Pope Benedict XVI's tenure.  Vatican officials, confirming Italian news reports Friday evening about the visit, indicated that dates and other details for the trip by Bertone, an Italian prelate who is Holy See secretary of state, would be announced soon.

    It was not immediately known if Bertone would aim to pay a call on ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who welcomed Pope John Paul II to Havana. The Caribbean island is approaching the 10th anniversary of his historic pilgrimage there in January 1998. Many predicted that John Paul's pilgrimage would trigger changes. John Paul urged Castro to increase freedom on the island for both the Church and society, and denounced U.S. efforts to isolate Cuba.

     But in the decade that has passed, Cuba's Catholic Church has made only some gains. Catholic leaders can speak or write in state media at times, but religious schools remain closed as they have been since the early 1960s when hundreds of foreign priests were expelled.

10-07- 2007

A CAREER CIA OFFICER NAMED TO CUBA-VENEZUELA POST FOR THE OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

         WASHINGTON, D.C. --Timothy Langford, a career CIA officer, has been appointed as the new Cuba and Venezuela mission manager for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence -- a position that coordinates information gathering for areas considered top priorities.  Langford, 48, spent 25 years dealing with Latin American issues at the CIA. He holds a master's degree in Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin.

    Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for the national intelligence office, said Langford took his new position Oct. 1 but declined to elaborate on his previous assignments within the CIA. President Bush suggested the creation of the Cuba and Venezuela post after Fidel Castro became ill. The then-intelligence chief, John Negroponte, appointed Norman Bailey, a former Reagan administration official and Cold War expert to the post.

     But Bailey was dismissed by new director Mike McConnell in February, a move that raised concerns among Miami Republican Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart that the intelligence community was downgrading the importance of Cuba and Venezuela.    Patrick Maher, a 31-year CIA veteran and national intelligence officer for the Western Hemisphere, held the Cuba-Venezuela mission manager position on an interim basis. McConnell ''wanted to make certain he had the best person to fill this position,'' Feinstein said.

GENERAL AUGUSTO PINOCHET FAMILY GRANTED BAIL BY SANTIAGO'S COURT OF APPEALS 

         SANTIAGO DE CHILE, CHILE  --Gen. Augusto Pinochet's widow, five children and former associates were granted bail by a judge Friday, a day after they were arrested on corruption charges.  The surprise ruling by Judge Carlos Cerda must still be approved by Santiago's Court of Appeals, which would also set bail. The court was expected to meet Saturday and the 23 detainees will remain in custody until then.

     Cerda is the same judge who indicted the 23 on charges of misuse of funds stemming from the former dictator's multimillion dollar accounts in the United States and elsewhere. Pinochet died last December at age 91. Pinochet's wife, Lucía Hiriart, 84, remained under detention at the Santiago Military hospital after reportedly sustaining a rise in blood pressure. Her two grown sons were jailed at a regular Santiago prison and her three grown daughters at the city's only prison for women. The 17 indicted military men, including six retired generals, were being held in an army barracks.

     Cerda was scheduled to fly to the United States on Saturday to receive an award at Georgetown University for his human rights work handling several cases during Pinochet's 1973-90 dictatorship. The judge said he ordered the indictments and arrests because of ''solid indications'' that all 23 had participated in the misuse of state funds under Pinochet. Cerda heads the investigation into Pinochet's secret accounts abroad, including one at Riggs Bank in Washington.

BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT LULA DA SILVA  WANTS NO CLASHES WITH HUGO CHAVEZ   

         BRAZILIA, BRAZIL  --  Brazil does not want to antagonize with Venezuela, but it does not mean Brasilia has to share every Caracas' stance, Thursday said Brazilian chief of cabinet Dilma Rousseff.   "(Venezuelan President Hugo) Chávez' proposals will always be heard by the (Brazilian) government," Rousseff said. "We do not want an antagonist stance, but it does not mean we have to agree with everything," she told reporters and the audience attending a debate hosted by newspaper Folha de S. Paulo on its official website, AP quoted.

     Rousseff, who is one of the closest and most influential aides of Brazilian ruler Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, would not point to any specific topics where Brazil's stance is different from Venezuela's.

    She refused to comment on private television channel Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), which went off the air on free open signal since May, when Chávez would not renew its broadcast license.  "It does not pertain to us to talk about the merits" regarding the decision made in connection with RCTV, "but their situation is quite different from ours."

10-06- 2007

ACCORDING TO A U.S. GOVERNMENT REPORT PLANNING FOR LAND CLAIMS AFTER FIDEL CASTRO IS GONE

         WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A Nebraska university has prepared a two-year study for the U.S. government on how to deal with thousands of property claims in Cuba.  Released Thursday by Creighton University, the federally funded report recommended the United States help choose judges for a special Cuban court tasked with compensating Cuban families who lost their property to the Castro government. It also suggests a separate international tribunal to hear the claims of American companies and citizens who lost property and had their claims certified by the Washington-based Foreign Claims Settlement Commission during the 1960s and 1970s.

     Created in 1967, the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission worked for six years and certified nearly 6,000 claims totaling $1.8 billion by U.S. citizens who lost everything from old Chevrolets to rum distilleries. While the report recommends a mechanism for compensating Cubans who lost property, international law makes it clear that the United States has no say in the cases of Cuban families who were not U.S. citizens when they lost their property. Those thousands of families would have to settle their claims directly with Cuba -- and should not get their homes back if people are currently living in them, the report said. Researchers also cautioned that they anticipate resistance from Cuba's large black population, who may resent a mostly white exile community coming back to reclaim land or money.

    After two years of study and $375,000, the Creighton report underscored the difficulty the Cuban government will have settling old scores and making compromises that will satisfy not just nostalgic families like the Miyareses, but multinational corporations with millions at stake.  When the grant to study the property problem was first announced, Cuba experts were stunned to see the U.S. Agency for International Development USAID) offer it to academics with no background in Cuba policy or property issues. The university's only expertise, critics said, was being the alma mater of former AID administrator Adolfo Franco.

MOST VENEZUELANS WANT TO POSTPONE REFERENDUM, POLL SAYS 

         CARACAS, VENEZUELA  --Most Venezuelans allegedly support the idea of adjourning a referendum on the changes to the Constitution advanced by President Hugo Chávez, scheduled for next December, according to a recent survey. Polling firm Hinterlaces director Oscar Schemell disclosed the results in an interview with local Unión Radio station.

     He claimed that 70 percent of Venezuelans want the consultative vote to be postponed if disinformation on the draft changes continues to prevail. According to Schemell, "most Venezuelans would vote against the constitutional reform."

    He added that half the people rejecting the constitutional changes said they would not cast their ballot. "Abstention will be high. This favors the president's proposal somehow." Schemell argued that the most sensible issue is private property. "There is nothing more popular in Venezuela than private property. For the poor there is nothing more important than private property, as it is a tool to improve their social condition."

THE INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS WILL HEAR CASES OF VENEZUELA HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS  

         CARACAS, VENEZUELA  --  The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Organization of American States (OAS), reported Thursday on upcoming hearings to deal with the human rights situation in Venezuela and the conditions of illegal immigrant workers detained in the United States. Both hearings are part of a regular session, the third in the year, to be held on October 8-19, said IACHR Executive Secretary Santiago Cantón, AP quoted.

     He said that the Venezuelan government is not to attend the hearing of Friday 12, but requested a separate hearing to introduce the "law on protection of victims, witnesses and other trial subjects."

     The audience on human rights, requested by multiple civilian entities, including Andrés Bello Catholic University and Reporters without Borders, will address a number of issues, such as institutional status and provisions for rights, political discrimination, defenders' situation, citizen's security, impunity and prisoners' conditions. This is the second hearing on Venezuelan issues addressed by IACHR so far this year. The first hearing, held on July, dealt with freedom of expression.

10-05- 2007

GEN. AUGUSTO PINOCHET'S WIDOW, CHILDREN ARRESTED ON CHARGES OF CORRUPTION

         SANTIAGO DE CHILE, CHILE  --The widow and five children of Gen. Augusto Pinochet were among 23 people indicted Thursday on charges of corruption related to the dictator's U.S. bank accounts, a judge announced.  Most of the suspects, including widow Lucía Hiriart and Pinochet's grown children, have already been arrested, police director Arturo Herrera said.

    Those indicted also included at least four retired army generals -- Jorge Ballerino, Guillermo Garín, Juan Romero and Héctor Letelier -- as well as lower-ranking officers, Pinochet's longtime secretary, Mónica Ananias, and one of his lawyers, Ambrosio Rodríguez. Judge Carlos Cerda said he ordered the arrests because of ''solid indications that they had participated in the misuse of fiscal funds'' during Pinochet's 1973-90 dictatorship.

    Cerda was to decide whether to keep them in custody or free them to stand trial. Pinochet died last December at age 91 while under indictment on human rights and corruption charges. The judge's ruling is related to an investigation into the multimillion-dollar accounts the former ruler owned at the Riggs Bank in Washington and other foreign banks.

HUGO CHAVEZ POSTULATES IRAQ, VIETNAM AS ARMY MODELS for the armed forces

         CARACAS, VENEZUELA  --Hugo Chávez backed before military officers his proposed changes to the Constitution. In his opinion, the draft constitutional reform will reinforce the national armed forces at all levels and will "lift the troops' standards of living by means of social security, good wages and housing plans," in addition to provision of equipment and training, Efe reported.

     During a speech delivered for almost five hours at Fuerte Tiuna, Chávez delved into the changes intended to encourage military officers to discuss and make proposals to reinforce the new doctrine. He spoke also about the military organization included in the draft constitutional reform. "I have proposed in the reform the organization of military militias (…) We will overhaul everything (…) I ask you to take part, to speed up the revolution inside the army and adapt ourselves to the new reality," said the ruler.

     Chávez asked the military officers to investigate how the peoples of Vietnam and Iraq managed to organize themselves and resist the empire's invasion. He recommended battalion chiefs to partner with the people in order to set a strategy of ordinary war combined with guerrilla warfare. "In every battalion we could create an intelligence unit to deploy in a specific area during peacetime or in a state of preparedness for the resistance war. A battalion could have a civilian-military logistic chain in each barrio. We could also create people's artillery units with these small rockets we are manufacturing," he reasoned.

MEMBERS OF THE OPPOSITION CLAIM THAT VENEZUELAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS ARIAS CARDENAS ENGAGED IN ELECTIONEERING  

         CARACAS, VENEZUELA  --  Óscar Pérez, member of opposition Comando Nacional de la Resistencia (CNR), denounced Wednesday at the Attorney General Office that Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Francisco Arias Cárdenas fails to perform his incumbency and carries out political activities instead.

    "Rather than fulfilling accordingly the functions of missions of our country, despite he earns for this matter USD 23,000 monthly, is given a house and a vehicle, he has been promoting and fostering the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV)."

    However, Pérez does not think that any penalty will be imposed on Arias Cárdenas. In Pérez's opinion, such activities endanger the public patrimony and undermine people's confidence.

10-04- 2007

U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE AVOIDS RESPONDING TO HUGO CHAVEZ

         WASHINGTON, D.C.  -- US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice avoids responding to Hugo Chávez because that is exactly what he wants, she told reporters on Tuesday. "I spend very little time anymore -or ever, answering Hugo Chávez.  There is actually, frankly, nothing that he likes better than to have the United States responding to him," Rice said during an interview with daily newspaper New York Post, as quoted by AFP.

     According to Rice, during his last trip to Latin America, "President George W. Bush did not mention his (Chávez') name and he just would not mention his name." During that tour, "we were getting reports that Chávez was going around saying, 'Why will not President Bush mention my name?'" "That tells you how he wants this to play, so we have to keep on our positive agenda," the US diplomat added.

    When about the moves she intended to adopt to counter Chávez' anti-US policies in Latin America, Rice replied, "The first thing that we have to do is we have to have a positive agenda and it has to be an agenda that is not anti-Chávez."   "But we are contesting him in Venezuela as well and when he closed down (private TV station) RCTV, it really did mobilize Venezuelan society in ways that it had not been before. The main thing, though, is to have a positive agenda around which people can identify," she added.            

PRESIDENT BUSH OKs PACT ON NORTH KOREA NUKES 

         WASHINGTON, D.C.  -- President Bush yesterday approved a draft agreement with North Korea that would disable its main nuclear complex and produce a full list of Pyongyang's other atomic activities by year's end in exchange for political and economic incentives from the United States and its partners. Six countries negotiating the dismantling of the North's nuclear programs in Beijing tentatively agreed on the plan last weekend, but delegations returned to their countries to brief top decision-makers and secure their final approval.

    "We have conveyed to the Chinese government our approval for the draft statement," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. Chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill said that if the other five countries — North and South Korea, China, Japan and Russia — endorse the deal, the disabling of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor will "get under way in a matter of weeks." "I believe that other parties are prepared to sign on to this text," Mr. Hill said at the Foreign Press Center in New York. "I'm confident that others will come to the conclusion we came to." Under the plan, the United States will be "participating heavily in the actual disablement" and will have "people on the ground" in Yongbyon, a plutonium-producing facility that was shut down in July, Mr. Hill said.

    He refused to discuss details of the tentative agreement, which was reached in Beijing on Sunday, saying only that it "relates very directly to how we can move forward in the coming months on a certain timetable" for disablement.  "As the Chinese canvass the other members of the six-party process, I'm expecting that they will be in a position in the next day or two to announce and to release the joint statement," he said.

COLOMBIAN SENATOR PIEDAD CÓRDOVA CONFIRMS ADJOURNMENT OF FARC-CHAVEZ MEETING

        BOGOTA, COLOMBIA  --  Colombian Senador Piedad Córdoba reported Wednesday on the adjournment of a meeting between Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) to deal with a humanitarian swap and the subsequent release of some hostages.

    The meeting was scheduled for Saturday, but Córdoba said she had spoken with Chávez and Colombian President Álvaro Uribe on the need to postpone it "for some days" because the legal framework was not fully clear, AP quoted.

    She made particular reference to the "juridical release" of Simón Trinidad and Sonia, the FARC leaders who are imprisoned in the United States and that guerrillas may want to be included in the swap. During a press conference at the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, Córdoba explained that the meeting on Saturday would be one of the two "preliminary meetings" of the final talks between Chávez and FARC.

10-03- 2007

U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ROBERT GATES SAID CHAVEZ IS A THREAT FOR VENEZUELA'S PROSPERITY  

         SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR  --  Hugo Chávez endangers Venezuelans' freedom and economic prosperity, said Monday US Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Salvador, at the beginning of his first Latin American tour.

     "The principal threat represented by Hugo Chavez is to the freedom and economic prosperity of the people of Venezuela," Gates said during a joint press conference together with Salvadorian President Antonio Saca, when asked about Venezuela, reported AFP.

     Chávez "has been very generous in offering their resources to people around the world, when perhaps these resources could be better used to alleviate some of the economic problems facing the people of Venezuela," added the Defense Secretary. Gates, who succeeded Donald Rumsfeld in December, started in Salvador a tour of five Latin American nations. However, the Pentagon is still to announce officially the remaining four countries.

VENEZUELAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS NICOLAS MADURO AND ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE THOMAS SHANNON, IN A very "FRIENDLY" MEETING, REVIEWed VENEZUELA-US RELATIONS

         UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK  -- Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Nicolás Maduro late Monday in New York hosted a meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon, in the first formal meeting of the Venezuelan diplomat with any senior US government official.

     Sources claimed that Shannon showed interest in visiting Venezuela on a date to be agreed soon. The meeting -that took around one hour- was held at the resident of the Venezuelan diplomatic mission to United Nations. Venezuelan Ambassador to Washington Bernardo Álvarez also attended the meeting, which the attendants branded as "very friendly."

     The diplomats deeply assessed the status of bilateral relations and reviewed a number of international issues. One of the topics addressed was President Hugo Chávez' efforts to mediate to reach a humanitarian agreement between the government of Colombia and the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). Maduro is in New York to take the floor at the 62nd general assembly of the United Nations.

VENEZUELAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS NICOLAS MADURO, IN A very "UNFRIENDLY" SPEECH AT THE UNITED NATIONS, DENOUNCES "THE US ELITE OF CAUSING MORE DEATH, DESTRUCTION, DESTABILIZATION AND TERRORISM"

         UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK  --  During his presentation at the United Nations General Assembly, Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Nicolás Maduro accused "the US elite" of causing more death, destruction, destabilization and terrorism in the aftermath of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. He warned also the world against a campaign to stigmatize the Iranian people and government.

     "We have witnessed how threatening statements against the peace of Iran's people are dangerously made one after another. Have the governments represented in this assembly asked to themselves what could happen if this unleashed insanity of the elites that rule the United States were to take the maddening step of attacking Iran's peaceful people? Where such a situation could lead us?" he wondered.

     In this regard, Maduro said that the world is in time to stop the "stigmatizing campaign" and give the warnings and make the appeals and alliances needed to stop what he called "the belligerent madness of the elites that rule the United States."

10-02- 2007

U.S. MILITARY CASUALTIES IN IRAQ FALL TO LOWEST SINCE JULY, '06; IRAQ CIVILIAN DEATHS DROPS BY MORE THAN 50 PERCENT 

         BAGHDAD, IRAQ  --  The number of Iraqi civilian deaths last month fell by more than 50 percent, while 64 American forces died, the lowest monthly toll since July 2006, according to figures compiled by the U.S. military, the Iraqi government and The Associated Press. The sharp decline in death tolls signaled a U.S. success, if only temporary, in bringing down violence in Baghdad and surrounding regions since Washington completed its infusion of 30,000 more troops on June 15.

     The figures for Iraqi civilian deaths were dramatic, falling from 1,975 in August to 922 last month, a decline of 53.3 percent. The breakdown in September was 844 civilians and 78 police and Iraqi soldiers, according to Iraq's ministries of Health, Interior and Defense. In August, AP figures showed 1,809 civilians and 155 police and Iraqi soldiers were killed in sectarian violence.

     The civilian death toll has not been so low since June 2006, when 847 Iraqis died. "There is no silver bullet or one thing that equates as a reason to the drop in Iraqi and Coalition casualties and deaths," said Col. Steven Boylan, spokesman for U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus. But he credited increased U.S. troop strength, saying that has allowed American forces to step up operations against Al Qaeda in Iraq.

ISRAEL LIKELY TO RECONSIDER ITS diplomatic ties WITH HUGO CHAVEZ

         JERUSALEN, ISRAEL -- Israel is pondering the possibility to limit relations with Venezuela in view of the so-called President Hugo Chávez' anti-Israel stance and his close ties with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, daily newspaper Haaretz reported.

    Quoting an unidentified official Israeli source, Haaretz stressed it was an opinion, and no official decision in this direction has been adopted. "Israel is considering degrading its relations with Venezuela in the light of the extremist anti-Israel stance adopted by the government under Hugo Chávez," the source said.  "Israel is concerned about the growing alliance between Chávez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad." A spokesperson of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs questioned by Efe declined to comment on the report.

     Israeli Ambassador to Caracas Shlomo Cohen is completing his term next June. Thus far, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has disclosed no plans to replace him, the newspaper claimed. However, the source underscored that in a recent meeting the ministry pondered the possibility to designate an interim head for the diplomatic mission. According to the report, the Jewish community in Venezuela is concerned about the government plans to centralize education, which is likely to hit private schools in general, including Hebrew schools.

HUGO CHAVEZ TOLD THE SUPPORTERS OF HIS BOLIVARIAN REVOLUTION:  "GET OFF YOUR HUMMERS!

         CARACAS, VENEZUELA  --"Get off your Hummers!", Hugo Chávez told the supporters of his Bolivarian revolution who are still dreaming of capitalist whims. During his weekly radio and television show  Aló Presidente (Hello, President), broadcast from his home state of Barinas, southwest Venezuela, the ruler warned he is to put an iron fist on the Bolivarian revolutionary movement and strengthening controls to monitor the implementation of his proposed changes.

    Chávez said he would not authorize the allocation of US dollars to buy Hummer SUVs. He also suggested he would restrain the allocation of US dollars to import whisky to Venezuela.

     "Not one single US dollar to import Hummers. What is that? Forget it! We are the country with the highest per capita consumption of whisky in the world. We are going to put an iron fist on this! We have loosen controls," Chávez claimed. "What is this revolution? Is this the revolution of whisky? Is this the revolution of Hummer?"  "I am talking to the people who call themselves revolutionary people," Chávez added.

10-01- 2007

ADMIRAL MIKE MULLEN, NEW CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF, CONCERNED ABOUT IRAQ

         WASHINGTON, D.C. --  Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is troubled by the Iraq war. He thinks it has become such a consuming focus of U.S. attention that it may be overstretching the military and distracting the nation from other threats.

     When he steps into his new office in Room 2E676 at the Pentagon on Monday, replacing Marine Gen. Peter Pace as the senior military adviser to the president and the defense secretary, Mullen already will be on record expressing his war worries with an unusual degree of candor. "I understand the frustration over the war. I share it," he told his Senate confirmation hearing.

     As evidence of his focus on Iraq, Mullen has told Congress he intends to travel to Baghdad immediately after he takes over so he can see firsthand how the war effort is going. Mullen, 60, was Defense Secretary Robert Gates' choice to replace Pace, who had been vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs when the Iraq invasion was launched in 2003.

IRAN'S PARLIAMENT VOTES TO LABER CIA, U.S. ARMY TERRORIST GROUPS

         THERAN, IRAN --  The Iranian parliament on Saturday voted to designate the United States' Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Army as terrorist organizations, IRNA, the country's state-run news agency, reported. The CIA and the U.S. Army "trained terrorists and supported terrorism, and they themselves are terrorists," the parliament said, according to IRNA.

     The Iranian parliament said the condemnation was based on "known and accepted" standards of terrorism from international regulations, including the U.N. charter. The parliament said it condemns the "aggressions by the U.S. Army, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan" and calls on the United Nations to "intervene in the global problem of U.S. prisons in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and secret jails in other countries," IRNA reported, quoting a statement from Iranian lawmakers.

     The Iranian parliament also decried the CIA's and U.S. Army's involvement in the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, U.S. involvement in the Balkans, Vietnam and the U.S. support of Israel. Of the condemnation, Paul Gimigliano, a CIA spokesman, said, "There are some things that don't even deserve comment. This is one."

HUGO CHAVEZ CREATES "INVISIBLE BARRACKS" TO DEFEND SOVEREIGNTY

         CARACAS, VENEZUELA  -- With a view to "start building new military bases in strategic, carefully chosen sites -having in mind the strategies to face any conflict, the war of resistance," Hugo Chávez announced the construction of "invisible barracks (equipped with a Russian toy rifle and and an American Teddy Bear for each Venezuelan soldier)."

     "You know what I mean, invisible, camouflaged barracks, deep into the mountains, over here and there, which are more suitable for resistance, just in case that we have to defend the sovereignty of our country and the successful course of the revolution," said the Venezuelan ruler last Tuesday.

    Chávez anticipated to the likely opinions about his plans, and said: "Some people will say Chávez is crazy. Invisible barracks? Well, there are invisible barracks! Where? In Carúpano (eastern Venezuela).".