Why Is Bush Avoiding The Australian Media? Don't Ask/SMH--New WMW

[Gloria]

Full excerpts, links up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com

WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR OCTOBER 22, 2003

1//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--WHY IS BUSH AVOIDING THE AUSTRALIAN MEDIA? DON’T ASK (George Bush's word is apparently beyond question. At least, by the Australian press. The US President has declined a customary joint press conference after his address to the Federal Parliament tomorrow…Australian journalists have also been denied any place in a so-called "close-up media pool" that will follow Mr Bush on all his official stops on the day. All positions in the four-member pool have been allocated to members of the White House press corps.)



2//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--CHENEY’S NEW ADVISER HAS SIGHTS ON SYRIA (A neo-conservative strategist who has long called for the United States and Israel to work together to "roll back" the Ba'ath-led government in Syria, has been quietly appointed as a Middle East adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney. David Wurmser, who had been working for the undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, John Bolton, joined Cheney's staff under its powerful national security director, I Lewis "Scooter" Libby, in mid-September, according to Cheney's office…Wurmser…was the main author of a 1996 report by a task force convened by the IASPS and headed by Perle, called the Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000…Among other steps, the report called for Israeli sponsorship of attacks on Syrian territory by "Israeli proxy forces" based in Lebanon and "striking Syrian military targets in Lebanon, and should that prove insufficient, striking at select targets in Syria proper".)


3//The Jordan Times, Jordan--ELITE FORCES LEAD RACE TO CATCH IRAQ’S OIL SMUGGLERS (Speeding on dinghies, elite US and British troops seek to curb oil smuggling, once a major moneymaking business for the Saddam Hussein regime in defiance of UN sanctions on oil-rich Iraq…Operation Sweeney, launched about two weeks ago, is under the command of British forces heading the multinational division controlling southern Iraq, but is mostly implemented by the 13th Marines…To show the extent of the problem, he explained that "until two weeks ago, there have been 2,000 tonnes of oil being smuggled every night by sea, and which amount to 65 road tankers. "And this does not include the oil smuggled by land," he added.



4//The Scotsman, UK--BLAIR SEES ULSTER PEACE INITIATIVE FALL APART (Tony Blair was humiliated yesterday when his attempt finally to seal a peace deal in Northern Ireland backfired, ruining his return to public duties after a heart scare…The breakthrough Mr Blair had expected was derailed by the reaction of David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist Party leader, to the IRA’s latest act of decommissioning. Mr Blair had believed he had in place a deal that the UUP would agree to elections to Stormont if the IRA destroyed a significant amount of weaponry.)



5//The Moscow Times, Russia--YUKOS PROBE GOES TO THE TOP (Dismissing speculation that the four-month legal assault on Mikhail Khodorkovsky's empire might quietly go away, Biryukov said the Yukos CEO would be called in for further questioning as part of an escalating probe into his company's affairs that has already resulted in two of six Yukos billionaires facing prison terms…Artyukhov also threatened American giant ExxonMobil, which is in talks to acquire a strategic stake in newly merged YukosSibneft. "We have serious issues with many major companies, including with ExxonMobil's work on its Sakhalin 1 and 3 projects.)

[proud patriot]

1. Acting like a king

:puke:

[PartyPooper]

9. Acting more like a dictator!

Even a sovereign monarch in today's modern world has more manners, respect, and decorum...than this common and putrid scumbag!

:evilfrown:

[izzie]

2. He does not speak to that class of people?

:boring:

[Wwagsthedog]

3. Guess the Ausies aren't sheriffs after all

They're just the posse

[neverforget]

4. The King answers to no one!

[madrchsod]

5. dam,i guess our government is really

controlled by the sharon government. maybe the stormfront troopers are not wrong and that is really frightening. now we have to fight the syrians,who have been working with our cia in dealing with the muslim brotherhood who funded and directed european operations of the plot destroy the twin towers. but what the hell, who gives a shit...

[Elidor]

6. Because the "deeply stupid little oil spiv" is an inchoate cretin

Don't ask, don't tell.

[JackSwift]

7. He knows that the Australian press won't give him the

same butt kissing as the American press. He'll give an exclusive note card reading to Fox.

[CatWoman]

8. Everyone ever stop to think that this is coming from the Aussies?

He embarrassed them big time when he was en route.

Calling them "the sheriff".

[jonoboy]

10. and how many are from Fox ?

surely they would get a front row seat in the press gallery..and owned by an ex-Aussie

[AntiCoup2K4]

12. Actually, the SMH is a Murdoch publication

Once in a while they are slightly more critical of the pResident than their FAUX cousins.

[havocmom]

11. Rove heard there were lots of sheep in Australia

but kept the press away when he found out sheep are also a wool producing animal. It was a cultural/linguistic misunderstanding.

[Polemonium]

13. This one is simple, the press here has already chewed him up

The shrub is afraid to open his mouth and for good reason. Why I believe it was just a week or two ago that the front pages throughout Australia were declaring how ignorant the shrub and team were, when one of the WH staff let it slip they were really looking forward to seeing John Major (not Howard), and quite a few other rather offensive slips. The press here also jumped all over the sheriff or deputy sheriff comment, and that little gem has followed him all around Asia, and the Oz press has been pointing that out. Unfortunately, Howard will do everything he can to protect the poor little shrub while he is so far from home. I'm still hoping Parliment will make some kind of a stand, give him some verbal abuse like they frequently do to other speakers they don't agree with. Unfortunately, Simon Creen will probably not let that happen, the spine-less leader of the oposition, but the green senator well there is some hope.