Tag Archives: Europe and the world

Dirty Deeds, Not Dirt Cheap (Reprise)

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For 19 American intelligence operatives assigned to apprehend a radical Islamic preacher in Milan two years ago, the mission was equal parts James Bond and taxpayer-financed Italian holiday, according to an Italian investigation of the man’s disappearance. …

During January 2003, they were regular patrons at the Hotel Principe di Savoia in Milan, which bills itself as “one of the world’s most luxuriously appointed hotels” and features a marble-lined spa and minibar Cokes that cost about $10. Seven of the Americans stayed at the 80-year-old hotel for periods ranging from three days to three weeks at nightly rates of about $450, racking up total expenses of more than $42,000 there. …

Hotel records show that all but one of the Americans allegedly involved in the abduction stayed in Italy for a few days afterward. Four of them checked into luxury hotels in Venice. Two others spent a couple of days in the Italian Alps before leaving the country.

On Negotiations

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A few days back I had a post, Iraq’s Legacy, which dealt with the issue of whether or not the continuing Iraq war was in fact serving to increase the level of international terrorism, and whether at the end of the day we might not be left with a bigger headache than the one we started out with. During the ensuing debate in comments we had a kind of guided tour round a lot of the associated issues, including the one of when you might, and might not, negotiate with terrorists. Well today we have this news, which also helps us put the heroic efforts of Spain’s current government to bring Eta to the negotiating table and away from guns into some sort of perspective. (Zapatero struggles on regardless, despite intense criiticism from the opposition Partido Popular, and despite the ongoing efforts of Eta itself to make life as difficult as it can for him).

CNOOC Bids for Unocal

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All those ‘O’s and ‘C’s, I just couldn’t resist it. So what the hell is this one about. Well, something quite important really. They are oil companies, and one of them is in China. Brad Setser has a great post on it. The issue is what China is starting to do with all those surplus dollars and euros she is accumulating:

“One of China’s largest state-controlled oil companies made a $18.5 billion unsolicited bid Thursday for Unocal, signaling the first big takeover battle by a Chinese company for an American corporation. The bold bid, by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation ( CNOOC), may be a watershed in Chinese corporate behavior, and it demonstrates the increasing influence on Asia of Wall Street’s bare-knuckled takeover tactics.

The offer is also the latest symbol of China’s growing economic power and of the soaring ambitions of its corporate giants, particularly when it comes to the energy resources it needs desperately to continue feeding its rapid growth.”

Have We Got It Wrong On China?

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Politically incorrect as ever, Samuel Brittan asks an interesting question in today’s FT: have we got it wrong on China. Have Western leaders so obsessed themselves with the need to lecture China on what they should be doing with the Renminbi that we are missing a historic opportunity to put pressure on them about human rights and democracy issues?

“Western statesmen have every duty to remind Chinese leaders of their still appalling human rights record ? from the Tiananmen Square massacre to the occupation of Tibet and the continued veneration of Chairman Mao, who has been exposed as a killer on the level of Hitler and Stalin.

Unfortunately, they have gone quiet on these issues and have instead lectured the Chinese on the need to revalue the renminbi. It is not as if China were making a mess of its economy. On the contrary, it has a higher growth rate than any country in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. And, far from appealing for handouts from the west, it is one of the main sources of the financial inflows sustaining the US economy“.

Iraq’s Legacy

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This issue has, I think, been obvious for some time now.

“A new classified assessment by the Central Intelligence Agency says Iraq may prove to be an even more effective training ground for Islamic extremists than Afghanistan was in Al Qaeda’s early days, because it is serving as a real-world laboratory for urban combat.

The assessment, completed last month and circulated among government agencies, was described in recent days by several Congressional and intelligence officials. The officials said it made clear that the war was likely to produce a dangerous legacy by dispersing to other countries Iraqi and foreign combatants more adept and better organized than they were before the conflict.”

Which makes the problems raised in this post all the more preoccupying.

The Kurdish Factor

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Evidence has been mounting for some time now of ‘ethnic cleansing’ type activities in Iraq’s Kurdish zone. The latest addition to the list is a piece by Washington Post reporters Steve Fainaru and Anthony Shadid. They claim to have gotten hold of a US State Department memo which states that “extra-judicial detentions” form part of a “concerted and widespread initiative” by Kurdish political parties “to exercise authority in Kirkuk in an increasingly provocative manner.”

As Juan Cole argues:

Kirkuk is a powderkeg. AFter the fall of Saddam, the city of about 1 million was estimated to be about 1/3 each Turkmen, Arab and Kurdish. But many Arabs have been chased out, and many Kurds have come into the city (in many cases returning to a place from which Saddam had expelled them). Fainaru and Shadid now seem to suggest that the Kurds are about 48 percent of the population, with Turkmen and Arabs a quarter each.

The kidnapping tactics extend to Mosul and perhaps to Tel Afar.

Arab on Kurdish violence could provoke a civil war. Kurdish on Turkmen violence could bring Turkey into northern Iraq, since Ankara sees itself as a protector of Iraq’s 750,000 Turkmen.

I am finding it increasingly difficult to see how this story is going to come to an end without the disintegration of Iraq.

The Country Where I Quite Want to Be

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The Washington Post has sent a correspondent and a photographer to Finland for three weeks to “figure the place out.”

“Finland just might be the world’s most interesting country that Americans know least about. It has the best school system in the world, some of the most liberated women (the president is female), more cell phones per capita than anyone else, one of the world’s best high-tech companies (Nokia), remarkable information technology of many kinds, …”

Their report is bloglike and relatively interesting. The photos are great. The whole enterprise is a little odd, but hey, why not Finland?

All together Finnophiles!

Chavez On Aznar

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I recently posted on Afoe about the frivolous ways in which people tend to throw around the N*Z* word these days. Latest on the list is Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called former Spanish Premier Jose Maria Aznar a “fascist,” saying Aznar once told him to forget about the poor nations of the world. Chavez recalled late Thursday that Aznar had urged him to get on “the train of the future” and distance himself from Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

Chavez, who met Thursday with Spanish Labour and Social Affairs Minister Jesus Caldera, said he once asked Aznar what he thought of the situation of poor African countries and Haiti. “He told me, ‘Forget about them, those nations missed the train of history. They are condemned to disappear.'” recalled Chavez, saying such ideas remind one of Adolf Hitler. “He is a true fascist. That is the thinking of this gentleman who continues attacking us over there,” said Chavez, who also called Aznar an “imbecile.”

Obviously I am not privy to what Aznar may or may not have said, once upon a time to Chavez. What I do know – despite the fact I have very little respect for Aznar – is that he is no fascist. Neither for that matter is Chavez. Indeed the clip Spanish TV showed of Aznar criticising Chavez publicly was a model of reasonableness.

What is far less clear is what Caldera is doing in Venezuela, and why Zapatero has occupied his time selling arms to Chavez.

Kapitalismus

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In Germany the debate continues. What ever happened to the ‘reform agenda’ I wonder?

German chancellor Gerhard Schröder will next month call for a European initiative to promote public spending on research, set minimum social standards in companies and tighten controls on international financial flows, senior members of his Social Democratic party said on Tuesday.

The plan, discussed at a meeting with leftwing SPD members of parliament at the chancellery last Thursday, is the clearest indication yet that Mr Schr?der is reaching out to critics of capitalism within his party.

Meantime Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Josef Ackermann told a shareholders meeting today that the bank will press ahead with acquisitions and job cuts as it seeks to strengthen its global competitiveness,

With protesters picketing the meeting, Ackermann said the bank was going to stick with plans to cut around 5 percent of its work force ? roughly 1,920 jobs in Germany and 3,280 abroad. Deutsche Bank said in April its net profit rose by 17 percent in the first quarter to 1.1 billion euros ($1.42 billion).

In a clear reference to criticism from SPD chairman Franz M?ntefering, he said: “Niemand – zumindest niemand, den ich kenne – will einen “Kapitalismus pur? und schon gar keinen “Raubtier-Kapitalismus?” – No-one – at least no-one I know wants a ‘pure’ capitalism, and certainly no “robbery-animal capitalism”. Well there you have it, we’re all good men and true. Round II to follow.