NightWatch
For the Night of 10 December 2007
North-South Korea: On 11 December, a 12-car
train carrying construction materials crossed the Demilitarized Zone en route
the North Korean border city of
Most of the editorial is a summary of the themes of recent
US NIEs on
The final paragraph is the only place to repeat the refrain
of the title. The authors recognize that the judgment that
On the other hand, the authors also see in other key
judgments the justification for future attacks. The message is that the Chinese
military leadership is not sure what to think but is not confident that the
judgments of the NIE make
The announcement was made by representatives of the Mehsud tribe at a jirga. A
senior jirga member told Daily Times that the government
had released 25 local Taliban of the total 32, which they called a violation of
the cooperation pact between the government and Mehsud tribes. On 4 November,
the day after the emergency was declared, the Mehsuds released the 200 soldiers
they had been holding captive since 30 August.
The jirga announced a boycott of the election in the agency,
not just the national election, and banned attending the political
administration’s offices until the government accepts their demands. Militant
commander Baitullah Mehsud asked candidates to withdraw their nomination papers
for the National Assembly seat from
The government has provided no explanation for holding the seven fighters in custody. It will almost certainly capitulate rather than stoke a new round of tribal rebellion just as it is preparing to lift the emergency.
Dawn
reported, “Under a new ordinance enacted by Pervez Musharraf, television journalists face up to three years in jail for broadcasting
‘anything which defames or brings into ridicule the head of state.’ “The TV
news on all stations was subject to strict censorship prior to this limited
grant of press freedom. Curious that Dawn neglected to print any title
for the head of state.
Some restrictions on the content of printed newspapers have
been lifted, but the print papers are policing themselves to avoid being closed
down by the government. The Internet news posting continue to carry items
critical of the internal political situation and statements by opposition
politicians critical of musharraf, such as Nawaz Sharif’s call to government
bureaucrats to disobey the government.
The Internet news services in
This seems completely unrealistic.
Lebanon:
The presidential
election will be delayed for the 8th time until 17 December because
rival groups are still debating over ways to amend the constitution to allow
the army chief to be elected as the new president, according to Reuters
today. Al Hayat’s editorial on the delay
explained that pro-Syrian parties and Hezbollah deliberately are prolonging the
stalemate in order to make any new president indebted to them for his election
and any new government paralyzed unless it courts the support of the pro-Syrian
and Hezbollah interests.
Israel-US: US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff Admiral Mullen received briefings on
According to the Times report, Israeli intelligence
estimates say Iran stopped all its nuclear weapons activities for a time in
2003, nervous after the American invasion of Iraq, but then resumed those
activities in 2005, accelerating enrichment and ballistic missile development
and constructing a 40-megawatt heavy-water reactor in Arak that could produce
plutonium. The Israelis believe
Comment: This is the first mention of
Libya-France: Muammar Qadhafi arrived in
He and French President Sarkozy signed a number of business
agreements, making
Their total value was not made public but earlier President
Sarkozy said they would be worth 10bn euros (£7.2bn). (The BBC has taken to not
converting figures to US dollars of late.) The agreements are great for
The big loser would seem to be
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