ARAB MEDIA NEWS

By Dr. Aaron Lerner  

OCTOBER 2005

SAUDI ARABIA: "KAREN HUGHES MISSION UNNECESSARY"

ARAB NEWS (Saudi) "Arab Anti-Americanism a Myth". Amir Taheri - QUOTES FROM TEXT:  "Bush's 'image queen', Karen Hughes is back in the US after embarking on a tour of Arab countries where conventional wisdom  claims that anti-Americanism is second nature. No Arab anti-American has produced anything like the conspiracy theories that American intellectuals such as Noam Chomsy, Michael Moore, Scott Ritter, Seymour Hirsh, and Edward Said to name a few, have put on the markets everywhere, including the Arab world. This month a group of 30 American professors turned up in Tehran and Damascus to describe the US as 'a rogue state on the rampage. The best thing Ms Hughes could do is to make available to the Arabs the  other side of the American debate; to show that not al Americans share  Chomsky's belief that the US planned to kill six million Afghans solely to  build a pipeline from Central Asia".

EXCERPTS: Dubbed ...  Bush's "image queen", Karen Hughes is back in the US after embarking on a tour of Arab countries where conventional wisdom claims that  anti-Americanism is second nature. The fact that Ms. Hughes, now in charge of something called public diplomacy at the State Department, chose the Arab region for her maiden voyage shows that she shares that analysis. But how true is that claim?  ... .Let us start with the tangibles. The United States is by far the largest pole of attraction for Arab foreign investment at all levels, from public sector funds to small private savings accounts. The most conservative estimates put the value of Arab assets in the US at over $4.5 trillion, which means that the Arab countries are just behind Britain, Japan and Holland as the biggest investors in the US economy. The US is also one of the top three trading partners of virtually all Arab states. In fact, many US-made goods, cars for example, that do not sell anywhere else, still enjoy robust markets in Arab countries...The US has been the No. 1 foreign tourist destination for Arabs since the 1980s and, has remained so despite restrictions imposed on Arab visitors after 9/11. Arabs ...love to send their children to study in the US. And when it comes to seeking medical treatment, no country competes with the US . If she took time to stroll in Arab capitals, Ms. Hughes would have been struck by the ubiquitous presence of things American.  ... .  80 per cent of films shown in Arab countries are made in Hollywood.  ...more than 70 percent of what Arab TV, including those regarded as "obsessively anti-American", broadcast is US-made footage. There are more than two dozen English dailies in the Arab world, all using the American version of the language.  ... much of the material comes from American agencies and syndication services.... More than half of all major articles in the two main pan-Arab daily newspapers come from the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek and Time magazines, among other American publications.  ...A visitor is also bound to be struck by the number of Arab decision-makers with American educational or business backgrounds and/or connections...Sixteen of the 21 member states of the Arab League host some American military presence.

The FBI maintains offices in at least 12 Arab capitals. So, where did the impression that the Arabs are seething with anti-Americanism come from? Isn't it possible that the Arabs may be sharing the anti-American craze produced in the West, including the United States? Aren't the Arabs, as is the case with other products, importing anti-Americanism? Go through Arab newspapers and you will see that the bulk of the material that could be classified as anti-Bush and/or anti-American is translated from American sources. Stroll in the streets where books and video and audio tapes are on sale at the curbsides and you will see that 90 percent of the items vilifying America come from American, French, and British authors. No Arab anti-American has produced anything like the conspiracy theories that American intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, Scott Ritter, Seymour Hersh, and Edward Said, to name a few, have put on the markets everywhere, including the Arab world. At any given time one can find a horde of American activists visiting the region to urge the natives to hate America. Before the liberation of Iraq scores of Americans came to Baghdad to offer themselves as "human shields" for Saddam Hussein. No Arab was foolish enough to do that. This month a group of 30 American professors turned up in Tehran and Damascus to describe the US as "a rogue state on the rampage. A lady named Bianca Jagger, presented as ambassador for UNICEF and "a leading thinker", has been in the region telling astonished audiences that the US was the source of all evil in the world. (Incidentally, I thought the UNICEF was not supposed to be political.).  One American professor recently published an op-ed in the New York Times relating his trip to Iran where he was "disappointed" to see that students not only did not hate George W. Bush but, horror of horrors, also craved for an American-style democracy instead of an Islamist utopia. The anti-Bush demonstrations the Arabs watch on TV take place in Washington DC, San Francisco, and Seattle, not in any Arab city. A friend, who happens to be a minister in an Arab state, was saddened this summer when, spending holidays with his family in the US as he had always done since student days, he had to quarrel with an old American schoolmate. The point of the dispute was that the American insisted that the US was an "evil empire" while the Arab believed that it could be a force for reform in the Middle East.  A Kuwaiti friend withdrew his son from an American university to "protect him from (being) brainwashed into hating the United States." (... the US is the only country where the late Khomeini who could hardly write a paragraph without making some grammatical error, is treated as a philosopher with a whole university course devoted to his "philosophy"? Not even in Iran where Khomeinism is in power anyone would dare make such a ridiculous offer to students.) Many polls have been conducted to show that the Arabs are anti-American. A more interesting poll would aim at finding out how many Americans are so afflicted by self-loathing as to devote their energies to a systematic vilification of their nation. The best that Ms. Hughes could do is to help make available to the Arabs the other side of the American debate; to show that not all Americans share Chomsky's belief that the US planned to kill six million Afghans solely to build a pipeline from Central Asia. Her aim should be to help Arabs understand America in all its contradictions, not necessarily to adore it. There are many issues on which the Arabs disagree with the United States. But most Arabs don't see that as a sign of anti-Arabism on the part of the US. Ms. Hughes should not regard it as a sign of anti-Americanism on the part of Arabs. By Dr. Aaron Lerner
 

 SEPTEMBER 2005                                       

An Al-Arabiya TV interview with the commander of an Al-Qaeda cell in Jordan, 'Azmi Al-Juyusi, who explains how he received orders from Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi to carry out attacks in Iraq. It is followed by another recent clip about Zarqawi.

The following clip is an Al-Arabiya TV interview with the commander of an Al-Qaeda cell in Jordan, 'Azmi Al-Juyusi, who explains how he received orders from Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi to carry out attacks in Iraq. It is followed by another recent clip about Zarqawi.  Commander of Al-Qaeda Cell in Jordan: Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi Sent Me to Carry Out Attacks. Al-Juyusi: In Iraq I began training for Abu Mus'ab (Al-Zarqawi) - I had advanced training in the use of explosives and poisons. After that I took an oath of allegiance to Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi, and swore to obey him. Then, Afghanistan fell and I met with Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi once again in Iraq. After returning from Afghanistan to Iraq I met with Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi. He was with Muwafaq 'Adwan, a Jordanian whom I knew in the past in Afghanistan. Abu Mus'ab instructed me to go to Jordan with Muwafaq 'Adwan, to establish the military operations in Jordan. He arranged for me to be smuggled into Jordan. When I arrived in Jordan, I met with one of Abu Mus'ab's people - a Syrian national called Haytham 'Omar Ibrahim, who arranged safe houses for me. TO VIEW THIS CLIP: http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=701. ANOTHER RECENT CLIP ON ZARQAWI *Clip #681: Al-Zarqawi Footage Shown in an Al-Jazeera TV Profile. Reporter: Perhaps no man has experienced the paradox of living in the dark  while all the world's spotlights are focused on him as much as the mysterious Jordanian, Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi. This makes him somewhat similar to Osama Bin Laden and the rest of the Al-Qaeda leaders. He differs from them in that he has refrained from sending televised messages, especially in the past two years, in which he his star shone as the most brutal leader of the armed militants fighting the Americans in Iraq. Before that, only few people had heard the name Al-Zarqawi or knew what he looked like. But when he began to be pursued as America's most wanted man in Iraq, this myth gave rise to attempts to describe him as a symbol of the struggle by some, and a horrifying nightmare by others, while questions  regarding his personality and goals still arouse much controversy. Voice of Al-Zarqawi: "With Allah's help, we raid them as they raid us, and  attack them as they attack us."

 

Jordan denounces Jewish extremists storm into Al Aqsa Mosque
www.petra.gov.jo/nepras/2005/Jun/06/25611400.htm

[IMRA: A small group of Jews touring the compound accompanied by police were stoned by Palestinians.] Amman/ Jun. 6/ (Petra-Jordan News Agency)-- Jordan Monday denounced entry of Jewish extremists to Al Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem describing it as provocative act that could stir up confrontation and evoke outrage of Muslims around the world. " Upon hearing the news about this event, the Foreign Ministry immediately instructed Jordan's ambassador to Tel Aviv to go and meet Israeli Foreign Ministry officials immediately and ask them to prevent any further consequences or recurrence of this event and to put an end to (Jewish) extremists provocative attempts that harm the sanctity of Al Haram Al Sharif," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Rajab Suqeiri said Monday."The Foreign Ministry is closely following developments of this event and is doing its utmost to prevent recurrence of similar event that endanger safety of the mosque and Moslem worshippers," Suqeiri told Petra. Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Abdel Salam Al Abbadi strongly denounced the act by Jewish extremists who were accompanied a group of Israeli police. "These practices form an unacceptable and flagrant challenge," he said in a statement to Petra. " They are part of repeated attempts by Zionist settlers to break into and sabotage Al Aqsa Mosque in implementation of their vicious and criminal plans," Abbadi said. He added his ministry has instructed its cadres, about 500 employees at Al Aqsa, to remain alert and to take the highest degree of vigilance to thwart the Jewish extremists' challenges and prevent them from carrying on with their plans. The Jordanian government urges all Arab and Islamic countries and organizations as well as friendly countries and world community to interfere  and put an end to attacks against Al Aqsa, the third holiest shrine to Moslems, Abbadi said. Injadat/ Petra

Minister of Information: " Shalom's Accusations Reflect Israel's Aggressive Intentions"
(SANA-Syrian News Agency)-
www.sana.org/english/headlines/4-6/minister_of_information1.htm

Accusations against Syria by Silvan Shalom of having a defensive power just reflect Israel's continuous aggressive intentions towards Syria, Minister of Information said Saturday answering a question to SANA reporter. Minister Mahdi Dakhlalah clarified that the whole current pressures on Syria come to serve Israel's aggressive stances and policies in the region, referring to the Israeli participation in most of those pressures that Syria has been exposed to. "It is natural for every country to posses defensive factors particularly if  it exists in a region dominated by tension, aggression and the continued  Israeli occupation," Dakhlalah said, noting that Israel has an unruly will  of widening the cycle of tension and occupation. The minister pointed out that the Syrian Golan has been occupied since 1967,  stressing that the international law and the logic identify peace by removing the occupation and aggression, "Golan is a dear part of our home land", added Dakhlalah. The Information Minister renewed Syria's constant demand for freeing the Middle East from Weapons of Mass Destruction. "Syria introduced a draft resolution to the UN Security Council on ridding  the region from WMDs , but unfortunately it is still in the council's drawers waiting for a real will of those who have influence on the international community," The Syrian minister said. He pointed out at dangers of the Israeli nuclear arsenal and mass destruction weapons on security of the region and the world as a whole. In response to a question regarding Shalom's allegations of Syria's involvement in assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik al-Hariri, Dakhlalah indicated that Israel's  motives behind such accusations are obvious and match accusations by some Lebanese personalities who call them-selves "opposition", adding " This proves that both have the same terms of reference". A.Zeitoun / Ghossoun 12, 50 local time . Special to the WORLD JEWISH NEWS AGENCY by IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: www.imra.org.il
 

From the BAHRAIN TRIBUNE

Israel to demolish 88 Arab homes in Jerusalem

TEL AVIV: The Israeli municipality of Jerusalem is preparing to bulldoze an entire Palestinian neighbourhood in the city’s occupied Arab sector, igniting fury from local residents and the Palestinian prime minister. Jerusalem’s municipal architect, Uri Shetrit, said the council was readying to destroy 88 homes, but the date had yet to be decided. Home destruction orders hang over 1,000 Palestinians living in Silwan, just outside the walls of the Old City. If the bulldozers are called in, the operation will be one of the largest collective destruction operations of Palestinian houses in the Arab East Jerusalem since it was occupied by Israel in 1967. “The municipal architect’s decision to destroy these homes is purely political, because he is letting (Jewish) settlers build homes in the same sector,” said lawyer Muhannad Jbara, working to overturn the demolition orders. The housing complex – known to the Palestinians as Al Bustan (the garden) – lies on ground known to Israelis as King’s Valley. Councillors say the homes were built without permission and want to build a park in their place. Shetrit said flattening the homes would “restore the area to its bygone landscape” and the “beginnings of Jerusalem 5,000 years ago”. Residents of Silwan have erected a tent in the middle of the doomed homes as a beacon for protest where hundreds of Palestinians have flocked to express their solidarity. Sanabel Shalodi, a 22-year-old young mother, panics at the prospect of eviction. “I’m terrified because there’s nowhere else we can go in Jerusalem,” she says, sitting in her only too recently built house. Back in the tent of protest, a map of the doomed homes — numbered one to 88 – has been hung up. Numbers 19 to 21 belong to the Abu Shamekh family. “This house was built in 1972. My father was arrested and he paid a heavy fine for building without a permit,” said Khalil Abu Shamekh, prodding at one of the blobs on the map. “I also paid a 73,000-shekel ($16,700) fine for building without a permit. I’m paying municipal tax all the time and now they want to destroy it. Destroying these homes just promotes settlements. They want to shove 50,000 Palestinians from Silwan into exile.”  Palestinian cartographer and settlement expert, Khalil Tufakji, said settlers have moved into 17 Silwan homes, supported by settler organisations and the Israeli government. Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei has slammed plans that he says will see 200 families forced out of Silvan. The decision “demonstrates the Israeli government’s determination to undermine (peace efforts), to Judaise Jerusalem and alter its religious, cultural and political identity”, he said. Israeli human rights association B’Tselem says 343 Palestinian homes were destroyed between 1999 and 2004 in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want for the capital of their future state. 

AUGUST 2005       

More pullouts needed after Gaza, Israeli army head warns Palestinian minister appeals for international aid

Photo: Israeli mounted border police chase Palestinian demonstrators during a protest against the Israeli separation wall in the West Bank town of Beit Surik yesterday

TEL AVIV: Israel’s upcoming pullout from the Gaza Strip needs to be followed by more withdrawals or else there will be another outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence, outgoing Israel Defence Force (IDF) Chief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon said yesterday. Without an additional withdrawal, he said in an interview published in the Ha’aretz daily, “there is a high probability of a second war of terror,” which would begin in the West Bank. “If there is an Israeli commitment to another move, we will gain another period of quiet,” Lieutenant-General Ya’alon said. “If not, there will be an eruption ... Terrorist attacks of all types: shootings, bombs, suicide bombers, mortars, Qassam rockets.” According to Ya’alon, who ended his tenure as chief of staff yesterday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has not given up on the key Palestinian demand that refugees from the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli war, and their descendents, return to their homes in what is now Israel. This, he said, meant that the establishment of a Palestinian state would “at some stage” lead to war. A Palestinian state would try and undermine Israel, he said, and slammed as “divorced from reality” and “dangerous” the idea that such a state could be established by 2008 and provide stability. The idea of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said, was “simply not relevant”. “It is a story that the Western world tells with Western eyes. And that story does not comprehend the scale of the gap and the scale of the problem. We, too, are sweeping it under the carpet.” “A combination of terrorism and demography, with question marks among us about the rightness of our way, are a recipe for a situation in which there will not be a Jewish state here in the end,” he said. Ya’alon ended 38 years of army service yesterday afternoon at a gala ceremony in the prime minister’s office, when former Israeli Air Force head Dan Halutz became the IDF’s 18th chief of Staff, with promotion to the rank of lieutenant-general. Halutz, the first flier to be appointed head of the predominantly land-based military and the oldest man to assume the post, will face his first major test in summer when the army implements the Gaza withdrawal plan – the biggest IDF operation since the pullout from southern Lebanon in 2000. The pullout would be implemented with the “deserved sensitivity and necessary determination” while preserving the human rights of all settlers and soldiers, Halutz said. At the time his appointment was announced earlier this year, it was widely assumed that Premier Ariel Sharon and Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz chose him because he was more supportive of the withdrawal plan than Ya’alon had been. However, analysts said the appointment of an air force man to head a military whose doctrine had always emphasised the superiority of ground forces, indicated that Israel was looking beyond the Gaza pullout, to the perceived threat from Iranian missiles and the air force’s role in countering it. Halutz’s day began with controversy when graffiti against the new chief of staff was discovered in the Tel Aviv neighbourhood in which he lives. “Halutz, you have blood on your wings” and “Do you sleep well at night?” were two of the comments quoted on Israel Radio. Both were references to an air force action in July 2002, when a plane dropped a one-tonne bomb on a downtown Gaza City apartment building, killing Hamas leader Salah Shehadeh and 15 others. Halutz, head of the air force at the time, was reported to have said that he “slept well” after the operation. An Israeli civil rights group later demanded –  unsuccessfully – that Halutz not be appointed deputy chief of staff in Madrid: The Palestinian Authority’s Finance Minister Salam Fayed said yesterday that the Palestinian Territories will need $1.5 billion in annual international aid up to 2007. Fayed was speaking at a press conference in Madrid after meeting Spanish Industry and Commerce Minister Jose Montilla.  Fayed said the Palestinian Territories had been suffering a recession for four years, with the real unemployment rate at 40 per cent and half the population living below the poverty line. The minister added Spain had granted Palestine about $300 million mainly in credits and scholarships until now. He stressed the need to end Israeli occupation and said the Palestinian Authority was undertaking reforms to guarantee financial transparency.

Saudi investment in Egypt reaches $1 billion mark

Cairo, SPA [Saudi Press Agency]- Egypt said that its relationship with Saudi Arabia has entered a new realm after the recent economic negotiations between the two countries, Arab News reported today. "Egypt and Saudi Arabia have started a new stage of mature ties to promote their economic and investment cooperation," Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry Rasheed Muhammad Rasheed said. "The two countries will focus now on promoting their trade and strategic infrastructure as well as encouraging the private sector to undertake its responsibility in increasing the volume of trade exchange between the two sides," he explained adding that Saudi investment in Egypt is estimated at $1 billion. The volume of bilateral trade between Saudi Arabia and Egypt came to $718.5 million, in 2004, comprising of Egyptian exports to Saudi Arabia amounting to $221.1 million and imports amounting to about $497.4 million from the Kingdom. According to a report released on Saturday by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Trade, Saudi Arabia is the seventh biggest importing country from Egypt in 2004. The report said that number of Egyptian exports to Saudi Arabia increased by at least 20 percent last year. Saudi Arabia currently heads the list of Arab countries that have large investments in Egypt and the two countries are regarded as the two Arab states with the "largest bilateral trade, estimated at about SR1.5 billion. Joint investment projects involving the two countries number 112 costing SR9.22 billion." Rasheed and his Saudi counterpart Hashem Yamani agreed on forming a Saudi-Egyptian mining company with Saudi Arabian investments amounting to $140 million. The company will handle the production of raw iron in Egypt and plan to open new markets in the Arab world and North Africa. During the negotiations, the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) stressed its keen interest on buying 88 percent of the Egyptian Company for Fertilizers in northwest Suez Gulf region. The Saudi giant group also proposed a project of treatment and removal of sodium sulfate salts from Qaron lake in Al Feum area of Egypt. Rasheed told reporters that the Saudi Television Factory Saudisat agreed on supplying the Egyptsat Company with 15,000 computers in 2005. Gamal Al-Nazer, chairman of the Egyptian Businessmen Association and member  of the Saudi-Egyptian Business Committee said the recent negotiations between the two countries witnessed a turning point as it emphasized the importance of the involvement of the private sector. The two countries will agree on a plan to set up a factory for medicines in the Kingdom and to carry out a project for fertilizers in Egypt with Egyptian-Saudi investments up to $700 million. "We will also announce new tax incentives and custom reduction on Saudi exports entering the country," Al-Nazer told Arab News.--SPA 1035 Local Time 0735 GMT

 

ARAB MEDIA WATCH By Dr. Joseph Lerner, Co-Director IMRA

JORDAN TIMES: "Editorial: Trial and error"

QUOTES FROM TEXT: "expedition of legal proceedings is being upheald by the lack of security in the country"... "delay of the trial withholds what will hopefully be a psychological blow to that component of the insurgency that is allied with the former regime"..."need to accelerate procedures for a trial, not to slow them down"

FULL TEXT: Iraq has been saying for a long time that it is preparing to try former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and charge him with some 12 counts of criminal responsibility where evidence is apparently abundant. Yet the actual beginning of the trial of the former Iraqi leader still does not appear to be imminent. It seems that the expedition of legal proceedings is being upheld by the lack of security in the country. Without a modicum of normalcy and stability in the war-torn country, no fair
trial can be held. This means that the trial of Saddam will remain on the horizon for some time to come. Unfortunately, delay will bear a high price, both for the Iraqi people and for the US and its principal allies. First, the question of the trial of Saddam presents a catch-22. To try the former president, Iraq needs normalcy; at the same time, steps towards "normalcy" require closure. Without it, those Iraqis aggrieved by the regime may never quite feel that the era of Saddam has come to an end, but continue to feel that the circumstances in which they today persist are simply his long shadow. Additionally, the continued delay of the trial withholds what will hopefully be a psychological blow to that component of the insurgency that is allied with the former regime. [IMRA: Also permits more information to be found and evaluated.] Second, as ever with trials of war criminals and those who commit crimes against humanity, time is of the essence. Witnesses and physical evidence disappear or are compromised by forces of nature, the malintentioned and minds too traumatised or damaged to recall events in detail. When this happens, legal cases can erode. Finally, from a political perspective, the delay of a trial undermines the final legitimating argument for the war advanced by the US and its principal allies. Their initial justifications having rapidly evaporated, they contended that the war was necessary to rid Iraqis of an evil dictatorship, whose commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity - particularly the genocide of the Kurds in the north and the Shiites in the south - could no longer go unpunished. The lack of a trial deprives them of a last fig leaf, especially in the eyes of Iraqis who believe the war was solely motivated by their interest in dominating Iraq's vast oil resources. [IMRA: The trial and even conviction won't change their minds.] These factors point to the need to accelerate procedures for a trial, not to slow them down.  [IMRA: But government isn't slowing the process.] The Iraqi people were promised that national elections and the formation of the new government would herald the trial of the symbols of the former regime. As these objectives have been realised, for the sake of the Iraqi people, it is time that the new Iraqi leadership and the international community make good on their word. [IMRA: But the Arab part of the international community isn't doing its part.  It steadily pounds on the occupation.]

JUNE-JULY 2005       


JORDAN TIMES 14 June.
"(Iran) Gov't makes arrests, vows trouble-free election:"
EXCERPTS:  Iran on Monday made its first arrests over a string of deadly pre-election bombings blamed on Iraq-based extremists, vowing the presidential poll would go ahead without disruption. Up to 10 people were killed in separate attacks in the Arab-dominated city of Ahvaz and the capital Tehran on Sunday ... ."Some of the perpetrators ... have been arrested, others are on the verge of being caught," Information Minister Ali Yusseini told reporters. "They have foreign links," he added, without giving further details. Ahvaz Governor Mohammad Jafar-Sarrahmi pointed the finger at the Iraq-based People's Mujahedeen, which is Iran's main armed opposition group, and Baathist supporters of ... Saddam Hussein. "They want a low turnout [in the election] to show people were not present. They tried satellite TV and leaflets, but this did not work. They want to create fear,"... ."The elections will go ahead, with total security and confidence," he said. Between six and eight people were killed and 75 others wounded in a series of four blasts outside public buildings in Ahvaz, which lies close to the Iraqi border ... . Hours later, another blast hit a busy square in Tehran, killing two people and seriously wounding at least two others, official media said. Two smaller homemade bombs were reported to have exploded in other parts of the capital. The attacks came just days before Iran chooses a new president on Friday, with the authorities at pains to ensure a strong turnout after relatively weak participation marred last year's parliamentary ballot. Iran's interior ministry said the attacks were carried out by "enemies" trying to "prevent people from turning out en masse in the elections." The ultra-hardline prosecutor in Tehran, Said Mortazavi, also added that "those who planted the bombs are the enemies of God and they will be executed when they are captured." The campaign has been heating up with regular reports of politicians suffering violent attacks amid indications that frontrunner and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani may not have an easy ride. Informal opinion polls suggest that none of the eight candidates will be able to secure the more than 50 per cent of the vote needed to win, forcing what would be the first run-off in the 26-year history of the Islamic republic. Qalibaf and the three other hardliners in the eight-man race were expected to go into last-minute talks late Monday to try to agree on a single candidate or else face certain defeat. Meanwhile, Rafsanjani again denounced the use of dirty tricks against him in what has become an increasingly tough campaign, saying those involved in a smear campaign appeared to be well-funded.


ARAB NEWS (Saudi) 11 June '05:"Back to American Universities" Dr. Abdul Wahid Al-Humaid . Al-Riyadh -
QUOTES FROM TEXT: "the Ministry of Higher Education has been running advertisements in local papers asking Saudis to apply for scholarships for college and post-graduate studies in American universities. "The period we spent away from American universities was a great loss."

FULL TEXT: Recently the Ministry of Higher Education has been running advertisements in local papers asking Saudis to apply for scholarships for college and post-graduate studies in American universities. This reminds me of the golden age of the 1970s when large numbers of Saudi students, at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels, had the opportunity to study in the United States. The ministry is now offering Saudi students the opportunity to study medicine and applied health sciences including pharmaceutical studies, engineering, computer, mathematics, physics, chemistry, law, accounting and e-commerce. These are the kinds of specializations desperately needed in our job market. In the 1970s, the Kingdom was in need of almost every specialty and at that time, the state apparatus was suffering from a shortage of national cadres which meant the government was eager to employ any new graduates, regardless of what they had studied. The Saudis educated in the United States and Europe during the 1960s and 1970s are the ones, with others, who have been leading the Kingdom's development and modernization drive. This has, however, been on the decline and was subjected to a series of setbacks, the worst of which followed the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. That was when Saudi-American relations hit their lowest level. It seems the recent visit by Crown Prince Abdullah to the US has helped correct the situation which caused us in the Kingdom a lot of damage. No doubt, American universities lead the way in education and are at the top  when it comes to international institutions of higher education. The period we spent away from American universities was a great loss. The impact was really felt when Saudi universities began losing members of the Saudi teaching staff without that staff being replaced. This step taken by the ministry is an excellent investment in developing human resources. Let us hope the ministry will continue this policy to compensate for the losses we suffered over the past few years.