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Date Posted: 12:58:21 11/20/07 Tue
Author: part 3
Subject: Re: November 18, 2007
In reply to: part 2 's message, "Re: November 18, 2007" on 12:55:59 11/20/07 Tue

UNITED STATES

Bloomberg Blasts Candidates' Pandering -- to Entitlements.

Nov. 17 (LPAC)--While LaRouche Youth Movement organizers
roused National League of Cities conference attendees to support
the government taking its sovereign powers back from the
financiers, billionaire financier Michael Bloomberg spoke to the
conference, denouncing all declared Presidential candidates as
cowards, untruthful, sycophants. The New York mayor, yet
unannounced Presidential candidate and playing peek-a-boo as the
intended "man on a white horse" latecomer, attacked Congress for
spending too much on farm subsidies, and gave populist rants
against "pandering" -- but to whom, except for members of the
public expecting entitlements from the government, he never made
clear. [ahc]

Did Howard Krongard Lie to the House Oversight Committee?

Nov. 17 (LPAC)--The scandal over the Brothers Krongard deepened,
yesterday, when House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman
(D-Calif.) revealed, yesterday, that A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard
contradicted the testimony of his brother, State Department
Inspector General Howard Krongard, to the committee on Nov. 14.
Howard Krongard had testified to the committee that his brother
had told him he had no relationship Blackwater, only to be forced
to retract that statement later in the hearing. Waxman reported
that Buzzy Krongard spoke to the committee staff by telephone and
Nov 15 and said that, in fact, he had told his brother about his
relationship to Blackwater, when Howard had specifically asked
him about any such relationship "in preparation for his
testimony" to the committee, and was surprised when Howard said
Buzzy had no relationship to Blackwater. Waxman announced that,
as a result of the contradiction, he will be scheduling another
hearing for the week of Dec. 3 "to provide members the
opportunity to assess" whether the Inspector General provided
truthful testimony to the Committee.
As a result of all of the publicity, Buzzy Krongard resigned
from Blackwater's advisory board, yesterday afternoon, the
acceptance of which was reported by Blackwater chief Erik Prince.
It remains to be seen whether Buzzy's British connections will be
taken up by the committee. [cjo]

Congress Rejects Immunity for Telecom Companies

Nov. 17 (LPAC)--On Nov. 15 the House of Representatives voted 227
to 189 to partially restore the provisions of the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act that had been summarily repealed by
a temporary so-called FISA "reform" bill last summer, at the
demand of the Bush Administration. Significantly, the bill does
not include a provision that would give telecommunications
companies retroactive immunity for participating in illegal
government surveillance of American citizens. House Judiciary
Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) told the House that
there was no way the Congress could grant such immunity, until
the White House complies with document requests on the
surveillance program that have been pending for ten months.
The Senate Judiciary Committee followed suit by reporting
out a companion bill, also without the immunity provision, on a
party-line vote. Senate Republicans are expected to try to add
the immunity provision when the bill comes to the Senate floor.
[cjo]

David Petraeus: General for the Roman Imperial Information Age

Nov. 17 (LPAC)--The Washington Post reports, in a front page
story, this morning, that Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of
U.S. forces in Iraq, has been brought back to Washington to
preside over an Army promotion board that will select about 40
colonels, out of a pool of 1,000, to be promoted to brigadier
general. The obvious implication is that Petraeus will favor
those who think like he does, especially if they share his
outlook regarding counterinsurgency warfare. According to the
Post's report, "current and former defense officials have
depicted Petraeus's involvement in the promotion board process
this month as a sign of [the Army's] commitment to encouraging
innovation and rewarding skills beyond the battlefield." As
pointed out by retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, former head of
the Army War College, those skills include "information
operations," as waged, not only on the battlefield but also on
Capitol Hill. Scales says that Petraeus "in many ways, is viewed
as the archetype of what this new generation of senior leader is
all about ... a guy who understands the value of original
thought, who has the ability through the power of his intellect
to lead people to change."
In this case, as Lyndon LaRouche pointed out earlier this
week, that change is to an imperial policy modeled on the Roman
Empire, which is a complete break from the U.S. Constitution and
history. [cjo]

IBERO-AMERICA

Mexico's Northwest Agreement: Let Us Build the PLHINO of the 21st
Century

Nov. 17 (LPAC)--The organizations of agricultural producers,
workers, intermediary organizations, businessmen, youth and state
legislators from the states of Sonora, Sinaloa and Nayarit who
participated in the Nov. 9, 2007 "Regional Forum: Let Us Build
the Bridge to the Future. Let Us Build the PLHINO of the 21st
Century," adopted the following agreements and resolutions, as
their "Agreement of the Northwest":

WHEREAS:
FIRST. The nation faces international financial instability,
whose apex is found in the United States mortgage crisis, and its
hyperinflationary manifestation is hitting the prices of raw
materials, primarily food products, whose prices in recent months
have been climbing, which affects the entire world, but
especially Mexico, which is one of the principal nations which
imports its basic grains.
SECOND. Said scenario is worsening as a result of a
significant reduction in world grain reserves, at the same time
that the main exporter of these, the United States, has decided
to allocate millions of tons of corn to the production of
ethanol, thereby turning it into a commodity in the speculative
energy market, and thus reducing the amount exported. Add to this
the fact that the emerging economies of China and India have
increased their demand for food, a combination of factors which
foretells a prolonged critical situation within which Mexico is
tremendously vulnerable.
THIRD. Together with the foregoing, the depressive effects
of the financial crisis on the United States economy are
provoking a process of unemployment whose major impact is on the
construction sector, where one finds nearly 20% of the 14 million
Mexicans who have emigrated to the U.S. since 1994, and who today
are being pushed to return to Mexico. This would explain why, at
the close of this year, Mexico will be showing a decline of more
than two percent in the dollar remittances sent back by Mexican
workers in the United States. Which means, a decline in foreign
exchange reserves for importing goods, along with the return of
our Mexicans who had found economic refuge in North America.

THEREFORE, WE RESOLVE AND AGREE:
1. That the most appropriate way to protect the nation from
the adversities that are piliing up in the present international
situation, is to undertake a vigorous policy of public investment
directed to great infrastructure projects which can increase the
productive powers of our population and assure a greater
availability of water, energy and food. In that sense, the
construction of works like the PLHINO should be carried out under
a renewed perspective of meeting the urgent national need to
strengthen region which produce basic grains, with great
development potential, to guarantee growth of the national
economy.
2. That the expansion of the agricultural frontier in
regions with great grain-producing potential, such as the
country's northwest, should be considered a matter of State
interest and national security. Thus, projects such as the PLHINO
can be delayed no longer, given that abandoning these
infrastructure projects with multipurpose economic potential, has
cost the nation too much. Securing the interconnection of the 16
rivers which flow from the Western Sierra Madre to the fertile
coasts of the states of Nayarit, Sinaloa and Sonora, would allow
28 billion cubic meters of water to be managed, which would give
the region efficient sustainability, generate productive jobs and
water for urban and industrial use, produce electricity, develop
fish-breeding and tourism, regularize cultivation patterns, and
expand moisture cycles that would increase the possibilities for
rain in the region, thereby improving the ecology and the growth
of life in general.
3. To actively support the resolution approved on April 24
of this year in the Mexican Senate, presented by Senators Alfonso
Elias Serrano of Sonora, Mario Lopez Valdez of Sinaloa and Raul
Jose Mejia Gonzales of Nayarit, which calls upon the Federal
Congress and Executive to allocate resources in fiscal year 2008,
and to define an annualized investment that would make it
feasible to complete the Water Plan of the Northwest (PLHINO), in
a timeframe in accordance with the nation's urgent needs for
water, energy and food. Likewise, we agree to support the Rural
Development and Water Resources Committees of the Federal
Congress, presided over by deputies Carlos Navarro Lopez and
Jesus Patron Montalvo, respectively, which made a formal
committment to request funding of 72 million pesos in next year's
budget, which would allow feasability studies related to the
execution of this important water infrastructure project to
begin.
4. To request the Agriculture Committee of the Federal
Congress back the Mexican Senate's resolution, and the efforts of
the Rural Development and Water Resources Committees, in order to
ensure that the 72 million in funding marks the beginning of a
decisive militancy during 2008, which, with solid arguments,
establishes the necessity of achieving an annualized budgetary
projection which can ensure the PLHINO is completed in a
timeframe in accordance with the nations's water, energy and food
constraints.
5. To request economic contributions from the governments of
the states of Nayarit, Sinaloa and Sonora, as well as from
municipalities of those three states, agricultural producer
organizations, and others, for the feasibility study of the
project, whose moral weight would represent a gesture of good
will and an element of pressure, so that the federal government
assumes the fundamental commitments which the general welfare
demands of it.
6. To expand the deployments of the 21st Century Pro-PLHINO
Committee into the states of Nayarit and Sinaloa, so that the
region as a whole recognizes the strategic importance of this
project. In particular, that it fully understands the mission
which the Mexican northwest has in the job of ensuring the nation
achieves adequate levels of food self-sufficiency.
7. To hold extensive discussion throughout 2008 with the
federal government, and in the legislative sphere, on the sources
of financing to which we will need to turn in order to complete
projects like the PLHINO. Especially, to open up a debate on the
use of a portion of the oil income surplus that should be used to
invest in infrastructure projects whose impact meets strategic
needs. And to assure that the oil once again becomes a lever in
the strengthening of the national economy and in the
industrialization of the country.
8. We express our solidarity with the people of Tabasco,
whose tragedy cannot properly be blamed on nature, but rather on
the fact that for more than 30 years, the policy of investment in
great water infrastructure projects was abandoned, which in the
case of the southeast demands the construction of these works on
the fastest-flowing rivers of the country. The painful drama of
Tabasco should be both a lesson, and an inspiration to take up
once again the basic criteria of economic functionality, in which
infrastructure becomes the backbone for guaranteeing the economic
growth and welfare of our people.
Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, November 9, 2007

Nuclear Bombmaking Not Ruled Out, Says Brazilian General

Nov. 17 (LPAC)--Gen. Jose Benedito de Barros Moreira, the Defense
Ministry's Secretary of Policy, Strategy and International
Relations, set off a ruckus on Nov. 13, when he declared during a
television panel discussion, that Brazil should develop the
technology necessary to build a nuclear bomb. Brazil's rich
water, food and energy make it a target of others' greed, he
said, and it is therefore necessary to place a strong lock on our
door.
"We have to have the possibility in the future of developing
a nuclear weapon, if this is the state's view. We cannot stay
outside the reality of this world." Pressed by his shocked fellow
panelists--no one in Brazilian officialdom has made such a
statement in years--he argued that Brazil could pull out of the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if a neighboring country built a
bomb, or "when the state feels threatened." The world is an ever
more dangerous and unpredictable place, he argued. "No nation can
feel secure if it does not develop the technology which empowers
it to defend itself when necessary."
Defense Minister Nelson Jobim told an international security
conference two days later that Brazil's plans ``aren't for a
nuclear bomb, that's just nonsense.'' Jobim did say, that
Brazil's giant new oil find--an estimated 5 to 8 billion barrels
of oil in the deep-sea Tupi field--demonstrated the necessity of
completing Brazil's project to build a nuclear submarine. [ggs]

Hugo Chavez Demands Apology from King of Spain;
Threatens Banco Santander and BBVA

Nov. 17, 2007 (LPAC)--On Friday, Nov. 16, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez demanded an apology from Spanish King Juan Carlos for
an incident which occurred earlier, on Nov. 10. The King had
expostulated at Chavez, "why don't you shut up!" at a summit in
Chile, when Chavez tried to interrupt Spanish Prime Minister Jose
Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Zapatero was urging Chavez to show
respect for other leaders, after the Venezuelan had called former
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar a "fascist."
It is well documented that Aznar, an ally in Cheney and
Bush's war policy, is a fascist. As a student, Aznar was a
member of the Frente de Estudiantes Sindicalistas, which was a
branch of the Falange Espanola Independiente, the fascist Spanish
Falange. His grandfather was also a member of the Falange, and
was Franco's ambassador to the UN, Morocco, Argentina, and the
Dominican Republic. Aznar's father was an officer in charge of
propaganda for Franco's army, and then worked in the Franco
Ministry of Information and Tourism.
Chavez accuses Aznar of backing the 2002 coup which briefly
ousted him from office. During that coup, the Spanish ambassador
recognized the interim leader, who briefly became President
before Chavez returned to power. Chavez said on Friday, "Could
it be that the King knew about the coup, too, and gave the green
light?"
Chavez has also charged, with good reason, that there is an
ongoing plot to assassinate him. Indeed, Fidel Castro, who has
an excellent intelligence service, has stepped up his warnings to
Chavez after these incidents.
In addition to demanding an apology from the King, Chavez
said that he may take actions against Spanish banking interests
in Venezuela, whose activities he has put under review. He
specifically named two of the biggest Spanish banks--Banco
Santander SA and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) SA. The
latter bank was involved in financing the Falange Espanola at its
inception in the early 1930s. Both banks have been in the
forefront of predatory operations against the national interests
of Ibero-American nations. (wfw)

WESTERN EUROPE

Cossiga Points to British Intelligence Behind Moro Murder

Nov. 17, 2007 (LPAC)--Francesco Cossiga, former President of
Italy, and Police Minister during the kidnapping and the
assassination of Aldo Moro in 1978, effectively admitted for the
first time in an interview this week, that the order to kill Moro
came from British intelligence. Aldo Moro, the leading Italian
politician of the 1970s, was kidnapped on March 16 and killed by
the terrorist Red Brigades May 9, 1978. This occurred in the
context of Moro's direction of the alliance between Moro's party,
the Christian Democracy, and the Italian Communist Party, for a
government of "national unity." Because of his policy, Moro had
been threatened personally by Henry Kissinger in 1976.
Cossiga reveals that the order to kill Moro came from
people associated with British intelligence circles, a
circumstance first exposed by the LaRouche organization in 1978,
and eventually, partially explored by a Parliament Investigating
Committee under Sen. Giovanni Pellegrino.
"Igor Markevic, the musician, probably hosted in his
Florence house, the meeting in which Moro's death was decided,"
Cossiga said in an interview with Corriere della Sera published
on Nov. 14.
Markevic was a leading member of the Congress for Cultural
Freedom, and was closely associated with British intelligence
officer Hubert Howard. Markevic and Howard married two Caetani
princesses and lived in Palazzo Caetani in Rome. "His [Caetani]
wife's house in via Caetani, represented only a reference point
for the Red Brigades, a known place where the red Renault [with
Moro's corpse] should be parked," added Cossiga. Moro's corpse
was discovered in a Renault parked in Via Caetani.
Markevic, the Caetani family, and Hubert Howard, all played
a central role in organizing the "cultural industry" in postwar
Italy. Howard, now deceased, was the son of the British
ambassador to the Versailles Conference, and member of a family
belonging to the inner circles of the British aristocracy.
Investigators for the Parliamentary Committee under Sen.
Pellegrino, believed that the Markevic faction was willing to
save Moro's life, since the Red Brigades' political aim had been
achieved, but at one point received a higher order: kill Moro.
[ccc]

Blair Always Wanted Iraq War, and Still Does

Nov. 17, 2007 (LPAC) -- "I wanted war -- it was the right thing
to do" former British Prime Minister Tony Blair states in a new
BBC documentary "The Blair Years," the Times of London reported
today. Blair told Times reported David Aaronovitch in an
interview for the documentary, speaking of that war: "It was what
I believed in, and I still do believe it." Blair admitted for
the first time, that he ignored efforts by his own advisers and
ministers, and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, to use
diplomatic rather than military means to resolve the Iraq
situation.
Blair did admit that he regrets publishing the infamous
September 2002 dossier, the "sexed up" "45 minutes" dossier of
falsified "intelligence" on Iraqi alleged weapons of mass
destruction.
Blair said he never used his relationship with the U.S.
government of George W. Bush, to try to prevent the military
attack on Iraq. Many in the Blair government, including Sir David
Manning, his foreign policy adviser, Jeremy Greenstock, Britain's
ambassador at the UN, and Jack Straw, then Foreign Secretary, had
many reservations about the rush to war. But Blair was committed
to war, he said: "In my view, if it wasn't clear that the whole
nature of the way Saddam was dealing with this issue had changed,
I was in favor of military action."
Blair gave Bush his full assurance of support for war, at
their meeting at Camp David in September 2002. Bush said he
would try for a second UN resolution, but Blair agreed that if
the UN process got "stuck," war was the only way. Bush even
called Blair just before the last House of Commons vote on Iraq,
offering that the U.S. would go it alone, but Blair wanted
Britain in the war.
Bush "was always very cognizant of the difficulty I had,"
Blair stated. "He was determined we should not end up with the
regime change being in Britain, and he was saying to me, 'Look I
understand this is very difficult, and America can do this
militarily on its own, and if you want to stick out of it, stick
out of it,' and I was equally emphatic we should not do that."
(mmc)

EASTERN EUROPE

Russian Diplomat Warns U.S. Not to Make the ``Same Mistake as
Truman,'' in Ballistic Missile Defense Push

WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 16 (LPAC)--Former Ambassador Anatoly
Adamashin, with 40 years of service in the Russian diplomatic
corps, warned a conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of
Sputnik, that the proposal to station components of a U.S.
ballistic missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic
has created ``the most difficult question in our relationship.''
Departing from his prepared remarks, Adamishin said that some
people in Washington ``say the Russian response is exaggerated or
paranoid.'' But Russians ``have a longer memory of what happened
during the Cold War.''
The Cold War, he stated, was produced by the ``breakthrough
in atomic energy, and the great temptation to use it.'' Then, the
Soviet leadership ``repeated the same error of Truman,'' by
provoking the Cuban missile crisis, believing nuclear missiles
were ``the ultimate arms.'' This ``historical memory urges us not
to make the blunders of the past,'' he counseled.
The Czech radar, he said, leads to suspicion in Russia that
the U.S. is preparing a first strike, which could lead ``our
people in Russia to prepare to make a first strike to prevent an
attack.'' The ambassador's remarks were echoed by Susan
Eisenhower, the late President's granddaughter, who said that
people do not understand how fragile the current U.S.-Russian
relationship is, and that if missile defense negotiations
``really go south,'' the U.S. and Russia ``stand to lose a lot of
the cooperation,'' most notably in civilian space exploration,
``and this is unacceptable; the Cold War is over.''
Asked by a member of the audience what can be done,
Adamashin said, ``make us an offer we can't refuse.'' He recalled
that after announcing his SDI proposal, President Reagan wrote to
three successive Soviet leaders, calling for a joint ban on space
weapons, but did not receive a reply. The previous evening, at a
reception at the Russian Embassy, celebrating 200 years of
Russia-U.S. relations, the ambassador was reminded by EIR's Bill
Jones that as late at 1987, as recorded in his memoirs, President
Reagan was still trying to engage the Soviet leadership in a
joint missile defense system. (see Saturday bfg) [mgf]

Russian Parliament Ratifies Withdrawal from CFE Treaty

Nov. 17 (LPAC)--On Nov. 16, the Federation Council, the upper
house of Russia's parliament, ratified President Vladimir Putin's
decree suspending Russia's participation in the Conventional
Forces in Europe Treaty, following similar action by the State
Duma, last week. Putin issued the decree on July 13, because an
amended version of the treaty, signed in 1999, has not been
ratified by NATO member-countries. The excuse given by the
U.S.-led NATO was that they could not ratify the treaty so long
as Russian troops remained in Georgia and Moldova. Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blasted such linkages on Nov. 16,
reported Interfax, calling them "politicization of legal
matters."
Predictably, NATO responded with criticism of the Federation
Council vote. "Any measure which takes forward the process by
which Russia would unilaterally withdraw from the treaty is
regrettable," said NATO spokesman James Appathurai, reported AFP.
The suspension takes effect on Dec. 12, 2007. [cjo]

SOUTHWEST ASIA

Bush Invites Himself to Annapolis Summit

Nov. 17 (EIRNS)--The White House took the unusual step of issuing
a statement that President Bush will attend the Annapolis peace
summit, which he himself had called and is the sponsor. But no
date has been given yet. Ha'aretz also reports that Israeli
Prime Mnister Ehud Olmert invited his Defense Minister Ehud
Barak. Perhaps he wants to make peace with him.
Meanwhile the reality of the farce is a report that
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in a meeting with Saudi King
Abdullah, voiced his "dissatisfaction with the Israelis over
their unwillingness to achieve the minimum level of what is
acceptable by Palestinians," according Jamal al-Shobaki,
Palestinian Ambassador to Riyadh.
King Abdullah and other leaders have also expressed
skepticism about the conference. The Palestinians and the Arabs
want to see the implementation of the first phase of the
so-called Road Map, including a halt in the construction and a
dismantling of settlements, in addition to the formation of a
clear agenda for the conference and a timetable for
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. "The three issues are
intertwined and give a clear indication of whether Israelis are
serious or not," al-Shobaki said. "But the indications we have
received so far from Israelis are not positive." [dea]

EAST ASIA

Korean Agreements for "Peace and Prosperity"

Nov. 17 (EIRNS) -- The Prime Ministers of North Korea and South
Korea agreed yesterday "to actively take measures to develop the
relations in the direction toward national unification," and to
"begin freight-rail services" between North and South from Dec.
11, Yonhap news reported yesterday. The potential for the "Iron
Silk Road" from South Korea to Europe, will also improve, because
both sides agreed to begin urgently needed repair work on the
Kaesong-Sinuiju railway, which connects to China, next year. The
agreements were signed at the end of three-day talks in Seoul,
the first since 1992, between South Korean Prime Minister Han
Duck-soo and North Korean Prime Minister Kim Yong-il. These talks
were held to implement the historic "Declaration on the
Advancement of South-North Korean Relations, Peace and
Prosperity," signed by South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il at their October summit in
Pyongyang. The Prime Ministers' talks will now occur regularly
every six months, the next to be held in Pyongyang.
The Nov. 16 agreement states that the October Declaration
"has a significant meaning in opening a new ground to realize
peace on the Korean peninsula as well as prosperity of the people
of Korea and unification of Korea."
The freight service will run on the 20 km of rail link
between South Korea and the two sides' joint industrial complex
in Kaesong, just north of the border. This same rail line
eventually links Kaesong to Pyongyang and then Shinuiju, on the
border with China. The Prime Ministers also agreed to begin
repair of the Pyongyang-Kaesong highway in 2008. South Korean
Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said that the "agreement is
the first step toward enhancing inter-Korean relations in quality
through the virtuous circle of peace and economy," Yonhap
reported. The two sides also reached agreements on setting up a
joint committee for economic cooperation, on the deputy prime
minister level, which will meet the first time in Seoul Dec. 4-6.
They also agreed to create a joint fishing zone in the disputed
West Sea (the Yellow Sea) by June 2008. At the October summit,
the two sides had agreed to create a special cooperation zone oin
the West Sea coast, as well as joint shipyards and an economic
center at North Korea's naval base of Haeju.
The two sides also agreed "to discuss adjusting their own
legal and institutional mechanisms" in order "to develop
inter-Korean relations in the direction toward national
unification." North and South Korea still are officially at war,
since only a truce was signed to end the fighting in the Korean
War in 1953. (mmc)

Russian Says Koreans "Really Mean It!"

Nov. 17, 2007 (LPAC)--The agreements reached by South Korean
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and North Korean Prime Minister Kim
Yong-il in Seoul Nov. 16, "have shown that the two Koreas really
mean it when they talk about stepping up economic contacts,"
wrote Russian Novosti political commentator Dmitry Kosyrev in an
editorial published today. These agreements open the way for
many investment projects for the Koreas' neighbors, especially
Russia and China. Best known of these projects is the
Trans-Korean Railroad, which has been seen as a "global rather
than just a local project," already 10 years ago, with the
potential to link to Russia's Trans-Siberian Railway, "thereby
forming a Pacific-Atlantic corridor. Alternative plans envisaged
a road across China," Kosyrev wrote. For these plans to be
realized now, "talks must start from scratch."
It has taken six nations to "disentangle the [North Korean]
nuclear knot," Kosyrev wrote, and it may even happen, that when
North Korea finally declassifies all its files on its nuclear
programs, "possibly, the sensational news will come out that
there is no uranium program at all and the crisis brewed out of
nothing."
The South Korean Presidential elections will be a second
"crucial event" in December. The victory in 2002 of President
Roh Moo-hyun, "prevented the Iraqi drama [from being] re-enacted
in the Korean Peninsula." Roh remained committed to the
"Sunshine Policy" toward the North, throughout the whole 2002
crisis between Washington and Pyongyang. Now, both "ruling party
candidate Chung Ju Yung and his opponent Lee Myung-bak approve
the current policy of rapprochement and economic integration,
irrespective of nuclear crisis settlement," Kosyrev wrote. Only
independent conservative candidate Lee Hae-chan, who has lost two
elections, wants to hold out for the nuclear settlement before
promoting economic relations. (mmc)

Cyclone Rips Through Bangladesh: Update

November 17 (LPAC)--The powerful cyclone which slammed into
Bangladesh on Friday, Nov. 16 with 155 mph winds, has caused
widespread flooding and damage to the power and transportation
grid. Deaths have been revised upward to over 1,100, and 150
fishing trawlers are still missing. Low-lying areas and offshore
islands have been left inundated after the storm surge, and over
100,000 people have been left homeless or displaced by the
devastation.
The damage could have been far worse. In 1970, in what was
then East Pakistan, and in West Bengal in India, a similar storm,
the Bhola cyclone, took the lives of perhaps 500,000 people, due
to lack of a functioning disaster warning system, slow response
to the disaster, and no in-place preparations for the yearly
occurrences. Since that time, the Bangladesh government has
attempted to address these issues, and the present, lower death
toll can in part be attributed to an early warning system that
evacuated over 650,000 coastal villagers to some 2000 disaster
shelters which were built over the years for this very purpose.
(clc)

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