-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Cuba Castro Warns Dissidents Ahead of Meeting Mario Varga Llosa is not happy. HAVANA - President Fidel Castro of Cuba, who will be host to a meeting here next week of 18 government leaders from Spain, Portugal and Latin America, has sent a tough warning to dissidents organizing protests around the event, including an opposition march that was foiled. ''Nobody has impunity at the moment, nor at any moment,'' he said, banging his fist on the table during a meeting with reporters that lasted into the early hours of Thursday. ''We cannot allow ourselves to be tolerant with them.'' Mr. Castro confirmed that two men were arrested and would be charged with provoking social disorder after a disturbance Wednesday in a Havana park. Students and government supporters angrily confronted the pair as they unfurled protest banners and spoke to reporters. Mr. Castro's comments were the latest in an offensive by Havana against local dissidents who for weeks have been organizing the activities such as news conferences, declarations and meetings ahead of the meeting next week. It is the most important event for Cuba since Pope John Paul II's historic visit in January 1998. ''One of the biggest waves of political oppression in recent years is taking place,'' Elizardo Sanchez, head of the nongovernment Cuban Commission for Human Rights, said in a statement. He condemned ''the disproportion between such actions and the absolutely peaceful nature of the opposition activities.'' The rights commission said 40 dissidents had been arrested since Nov. 1, with 20 still being held on Thursday and 18 others confined to their homes. The protest march that had been scheduled for Wednesday was probably the most provocative action planned by the dissidents. The four main organizers of the march were temporarily detained ahead of the event, and it did not take place. Dozens of opposition groups were reported to be planning a gathering Friday as an act of defiance. Mr. Castro produced for foreign correspondents banners unfurled both by the two park protesters and about a dozen students and teachers who were holding a patriotic meeting in the park at the same time. When the trouble started, ''The crowd shouted, 'Long live Fidel!' with such enthusiasm that I was nearly moved to tears,'' recounted a student and Communist Youth militant, Anlied Minaberriet, 17. Mr. Castro read out the criminal records of the two men arrested in what was clearly an attempt to prove that Cuba's small internal opposition consisted of petty criminals encouraged to agitate by U.S. officials and groups. ''They have created a sort of profession to be a 'dissident,''' Mr. Castro said, saying the U.S. diplomatic mission in Cuba - the Interests Section attached to the Swiss Embassy - was responsible. Cuban dissidents, who belong to many tiny and often divided groups, insist they represent peaceful opposition to Mr. Castro's one-party socialist system. They are urging Ibero-American leaders to back their cause or at least listen to them during the talks next week. Some of the leaders, including those from Spain and Portugal, have scheduled meetings with dissidents in Havana. The Castro government says that the United States is pressuring other countries not to take part in the summit meeting and is organizing and indoctrinating anti-government activists. But the choice of venue has drawn criticism from some quarters because of Cuba's lack of multiparty democracy and poor human rights record. Among critics of the meeting is the Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa. In a recent New York Times article, he said that Mr. Castro deserved the same treatment as the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who is under arrest in London facing Spanish charges related to torture in Chile. Instead, he said, the visiting leaders will ''embrace this repugnant character in a grotesque political show.'' Earlier Wednesday, Cuban authorities permitted a dissident leader, Martha Beatriz Roque, 54, to leave prison for six hours. The move was an apparent nod to participants in the meeting who had petitioned for her release. Sources said that brief prison leaves had also been authorized for Rene Gomez and Felix Bonne, who together with Miss Roque had led a dissident group until being arrested in 1997. International Herald Tribune, November 12, 1999 World Bank World Bank Assumed Police Powers in Pakistan Project Hired detectives from Maxima to abuse consultant. The World Bank co-operated closely with the former government of Pakistan in a corruption investigation aimed at the regime's political enemies. The investigation - into alleged abuses in Pakistan's independent power sector - was ordered by Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister unseated last month in a military coup, who is facing criminal charges. Among the targets of the probe were Benazir Bhutto, Mr Sharif's predecessor; her husband, Asif Ali Zardari; Ibrahim Elwan, a former World Bank manager; and several Pakistani power officials. The inquiry was of vital interest to the World Bank. It had sponsored the development of a private power sector in Pakistan and had at risk about $1.2bn in loans and guarantees. James Wolfensohn, president, had committed the bank to a battle against corruption. Some of the bank's assistance to its client is detailed in a Pakistani document, obtained by the Financial Times. Headed by a Pakistani government seal and dated August 8 last year, it is signed by Khalid Aziz of Pakistan's E htesab (accountability) bureau, the agency responsible for the Pakistani investigation. The document, "International Criminal Co-operation with the World Bank", describes an offer from Mr Wolfensohn, in a letter dated July 17 1998, to help Pakistan in dealings with the independent power producers (IPPs). "The World Bank was prepared to re-allocate available funds under existing loans to Pakistan to finance technical, financial and legal consultants for the purpose so that the IPP issue is resolved," the memo says. The bank, through the London-based detective agency, Maxima Group, contacted Ehtesab to facilitate "closer collaboration between the government of Pakistan and the World Bank". Maxima Group was hired with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the accountancy firm, to investigate the corruption allegations. The joint efforts of the bank and Ehtesab were made clear to Richard Ashby, a British project finance expert, who worked as a consultant on two separate private power projects in Pakistan. He was detained by Pakista ni federal police on arrival in the country on August 17 last year and for more than a month was threatened and physically abused. He was questioned by two Maxima investigators, who advised him to tell his Pakistani "hosts" what they wanted to hear. He signed several statements implicating Mrs Bhutto, her husband and Mr Elwan. Once freed and out of Pakistan, he disowned the statements and said they had been made under duress. Mr Ashby said that, during his imprisonment, he was shown internal World Bank documents. One was a secret report of a 1994 bank probe into alleged wrong-doing by bank officials in connection with a pipeline built for the Hub Power Plant. The Financial Times, November 12, 1999 New World Disorder Israel Rebuffs US; Sells Arms to China Like father like son. WASHINGTON � Israel has quietly rebuffed a request from the Clinton administration to halt some $2 billion in sales of sophisticated early warning military aircraft to China, Foxnews.com has learned. In discussions over the past few months, senior Pentagon officials asked their Israeli counterparts to reconsider the aircraft sales to China, which involve as many as eight planes outfitted with Israeli-made radar and avionics, to be delivered over the next few years. China is paying about $250 million per plane. "We have raised [U.S. concerns] with them ... we raise it whenever any of our friends sell sophisticated equipment that might be American in origin," and covered by rules barring sales to third countries, Clinton said in remarks to reporters in the Oval Office. The administration�s concerns center on the qualitative military edge that the planes would give China in its confrontation with Taiwan, whose air force uses American warplanes, and on Beijing�s enhanced ability to project its power in the Pacific, senior U.S. officials said. Despite U.S. concerns, Israel, one of America�s closest allies, informed the administration that its sales of early warning aircraft to China would move forward as planned. "They asked us to think about it, but we explained that we�re going ahead with this," a senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Foxnews.com. He said the Israeli decision was conveyed to the Americans within the past few weeks. The issue of Israeli arms sales to China has created tension between the Clinton administration and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who also holds the portfolio of defense minister, making him the central figure on the Israeli side in the dispute. "The facts are in dispute," Clinton said. "Before I can tell you what I'm going to do about it, we have to be absolutely sure what the facts are." The peace-minded Barak was elected to office in May, heralding a new era in U.S.-Israeli relations after a period of distrust and personal animosity between his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, and President Clinton. The issue of Israeli arms sales to China is particularly sensitive politically for the administration because of its troubles with Congress over the suspected transfer of missile technology to China and China�s alleged theft of nuclear secrets from a U.S. government laboratory. The rebuff, however, showed that despite better relations with the administration on the question of Middle East peace, Barak remains as fiercely protective of Israel�s arms trade as any of his predecessors. And its timing demonstrated Barak�s political skills. It came in the run-up to next year�s primary season, when politicians would be reluctant to criticize Israel too harshly for fear of alienating Jewish voters. It also came in the middle of a visit to Israeli by first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has all but declared her candidacy for the U.S. Senate from New York. Israeli officials also pointed to recent reports that the United States and China are close to agreement on resuming their own military contacts, which were suspended by Beijing after the May 7 U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia. "So this has to be put in context," an Israeli official said. The official said the first platform plane, a Boeing 707, arrived late last month in Israel, where the government-owned Israel Aircraft Industries is now busy fitting it with its ultra-sophisticated PHALCON early warning detection and targeting system. He said the plane would be delivered to China�s People�s Liberation Army Air Force this spring. China has expressed its intention to buy as many as eight early warning aircraft. Seizing upon the opportunity, Israel last year signed a deal with Russia to provide Ilyushin IL-76 cargo planes to serve as platforms for the Israeli early warning radar system. That relationship, plus several others in the works between Israel and Russia, also has raised concerns in Washington, where officials see the evolution of a new strategic relationship whose principle aim appears to be selling weapons around the world. "Working with the Russians is a mutually advantageous deal, and they can make a hell of a lot of money," said a senior U.S. official. Since the 1980s, China has been embarked on an ambitious program to modernize its armed forces. Russia has been Beijing�s largest arms supplier, selling it big-ticket weapons systems like warplanes, ships and tanks. But over the past two decades, Israel has quietly grown into its second largest arms supplier, upgrading these systems with sophisticated range-finders for tanks, communications equipment and missiles. The arms relationship was conducted in secret between the two countries, which established official relations only two years ago. The early warning aircraft deal with China represents a successful bid by Israel and Russia to take their particular strengths at different levels of the arms market and combine them to compete at another level � that of ready-made aircraft with ultra-sophisticated electronics. Israel also has signed a deal with Russia to upgrade its force of MiG-21 warplanes with modern avionics and weapons � yet another weapons system that could attract China. In the past, some American officials have accused Israel of folding U.S. technology into their arms exports to China, and several officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed similar suspicions about the aircraft deal with China. But an Israeli Embassy spokesman firmly denied any such allegations. No one in the administration is saying that U.S. technologies are involved in this project," said spokesman Mark Regev. "Israel strictly abides by its legal and contractual obligations to the U.S. in these matters. No U.S. military technology is involved in this project. These are home-grown Israeli technologies." Regev also noted that Israel�s weapons sales to China were no different than similar sales to Beijing by France, Italy and Britain during the Cold War. "Israel isn�t doing anything that other good allies � NATO allies � don�t do either," he said. The United States also sold some weapons to China during that time, but virtually all American and European arms sales ended with the sanctions that were imposed on Beijing after the Tiananmen killings of pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989. Lastly, Regev said, the Israeli deal to sell early warning aircraft to China was "old business." "Israel and the United States have an ongoing dialogue on these matters," he said. "The U.S. was aware of this particular project for a number of months." While acknowledging repeated American requests to halt the sale, he said the style with which these requests were made suggested that it was not an administration priority. "There was no demand made," he said. "They didn�t bang their fists on the table, and they didn�t send us any ultimatums." Fox News, November 11, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. 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