Abu Ghraib Tactics Inspire Torture in Neighbour Egypt/IPS--New WMW

[Gloria]

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


WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR JUNE 23, 2004

1//Inter Press Service New Agency, Italy--ABU GHRAIB TACTICS INSPIRE TORTURE IN NEIGHBOUR EGYPT (In what may be the first concrete example of the effects of the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal in Iraq, lawyers and human rights groups in Egypt, a major U.S. ally in the Middle East, say that local police are increasingly resorting to new torture tactics similar to those used by U.S. soldiers in Iraq…But perhaps most disturbing to domestic human rights groups is the growing use of the name "Abu Ghraib" by officers to threaten further torture of detainees, and its significance as a code term for applying electricity to the genital area.
"It is clear that the U.S. has now spread the culture of barbaric torture," said Gamal Tajeldeen Hassan, a lawyer who heads the Sawasya Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Center in Cairo.)



2//The Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK--MUJAHEDIN SET THE RULES IN FALLUJA (Captain Mohammed al-Issawi, 35, an officer in the Fallujah Protection Army, stood at his checkpoint with a squad of his men and a handful of anti-Coalition "mujahedin" insurgents. "We work together with the mujahedin to provide security," he admitted. And even if they did not work together, he said, "we would cooperate to give them the news" – in other words information about United States troop movements, foreigners in town, or anything else of interest to the anti-Coalition guerrilla movement. Despite the creation of the Coalition-sponsored Fallujah Protection Army, FPA, de facto control of this predominantly Sunni town is exercised by the mujahedin, dressed in their trademark yishmagh headscarfs and armed with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.)



3//Arab News, Saudi Arabia--KURD ISSUE LIKELY TO FUEL CHAOS IN FUTURE IRAQ (With the end of the14 -month occupation, Iraq is likely to be faced, once again, with some of the problems it has had ever since it was put on the map as a nation-state in 1921. The most complex of these concerns the Kurds whose leaders are playing a game of bluff and counter bluff in the hope of exacting maximum advantage in a period of uncertainty…A closer look at the reality of the situation, however, would show that there is little chance for a breakaway Kurdish state in northern Iraq. There are several reasons for this. To start with Iraqi Kurds do not constitute a single ethnic entity let alone a “nation” in the accepted sense of the term.)


4//The Moscow Times, Russia--SHIPPERS RACE TO HIT TERROR DEADLINE (Hundreds of Russian ships could be denied entry to foreign ports if they do not meet new international anti-terrorism requirements by July 1, Transportation Ministry officials said…On Monday, the IMO reported that only a third of 21,374 ships surveyed worldwide had been certified. Moscow is even further ahead in approving port security plans. Only 16 percent of 6,117 port facilities globally had their plans approved, the IMO survey found…However, some maritime security specialists have warned that in the rush to comply with the new regulations, a black market in phony security certificates is emerging. There is also concern that not all IMO member states are policing the rules effectively.)



5//The Guardian, UK--GYPSIES WIN RIGHT TO SUE IBM OVER ROLE IN HOLOCAUST (A Swiss appeals court yesterday ruled that the US computer giant IBM may have helped Adolf Hitler pursue mass murder more quickly and more efficiently than would otherwise have been possible, opening up the prospect of a $12bn lawsuit against the company by Gypsy organisations…IBM's pioneering punch cards and prototype computer systems were used by the Nazis to systematise and collate information on the Jewish population and others under the Third Reich from the 1930s, an operation that oiled the wheels of the Holocaust. At least 600,000 Gypsies as well as six million Jews were ultimately murdered.

[LittleApple81]

1. Did you scramble your heading on purpose? n/t

[Gloria]

2. LOL! No, I was watching Mattie on Larry King and was typing and

realized just after I posted that I had messed up the first few words!!

So much for touch typing!!!! Luckily, I caught it and could correct it...

[aquart]

3. Oh, wait a minute here.

Egyptian jails?