Eeyore's important news and view

Military report: Terms 'jihad,' 'Islamist' needed
Team sees no reason to soften words
Bill Gertz (Contact)
A U.S. military "Red Team" charged with challenging conventional thinking says that words like "jihad" and "Islamist" are needed in discussing 21st-century terrorism and that federal agencies that avoid the words soft-pedaled the link between religious extremism and violent acts.
"We must reject the notion that Islam and Arabic stand apart as bodies of knowledge that cannot be critiqued or discussed as elements of understanding our enemies in this conflict," said the internal report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times.
The report, "Freedom of Speech in Jihad Analysis: Debunking the Myth of Offensive Words," was written by unnamed civilian analysts and contractors for the U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for the Middle East and South Asia. It is thought to be the first official document to challenge those in the government who seek to downplay the role of Islam in inspiring some terrorist violence.
"The fact is our enemies cite the source of Islam as the foundation for their global jihad," the report said. "We are left with the responsibility of portraying our enemies in an honest and accurate fashion."
The report contributes to an ongoing debate within the U.S. government and military over the roots of terrorism, its relationship to Islam and how best to counter extremist ideology.
• Read the internal report, "Freedom of Speech in Jihad Analysis." (download pdf)
It cites two Bush administration documents that appear to minimize anylink between radical Islam and terrorism.
A January 2008 memorandum from the Department of Homeland Security's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties stated that unidentified American Muslims recommended that the U.S. government avoid using the terms "jihadist," "Islamic terrorist," "Islamist" or "holy warrior," asserting that would create a "negative climate" and spawn acts of harassment and discrimination.
Dan Sutherland, Homeland Security officer for civil rights and civil liberties, said the document is not department policy.
"This was a compilation of recommendations and thoughts provided to us by some prominent American Muslim thinkers and never was intended to be Department of Homeland Security policy," he said in an interview.
"If a paper from another part of government says this doesn't make sense, that's a valid point. This memo is a thought piece meant to stir discussion."
Mr. Sutherland said he agrees that a debate on terrorist terminology is needed in describing "the very serious threat we face."
A second document mentioned by the report was developed for the State Department by the National Counterterrorism Center's Extremist Messaging Branch.
It urges officials to use the term "violent extremist" and never to use "jihadist" because that will "legitimize" terrorists.
Michael E. Leiter, director of the counterterrorism center, questioned some of the memo's conclusions during a July 10 Senate hearing, said spokesman Carl Kropf.
"I do think you cannot separate out the fact that the terror fight we are fighting today involves Islam as a religion," Mr. Leiter said under questioning from Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent. He added, however, "the ideology which motivates these terrorists has very little to do in reality with the religion of Islam."
Oneof the most sensitive issues in the new report involves the word jihad.
An Arabic word derived from the verb meaning "to strive," it appears about 30 times in the Koran, but "the preponderance of references refer to internal striving to prove one's piety," said William Graham, a professor of Middle East Studies at Harvard University.
About 10 references are clearly to fighting, said Mr. Graham, who is also dean of the university's divinity school.
The word, often translated as "holy war," has been used in a military context throughout Muslim history, said Princeton University Professor Emeritus Bernard Lewis, a leading authority on Islam.
Several terrorist groups, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, include the word in their titles.
The Red Team report said jihad is an obligation of all Muslims under Islamic law and must be performed "until the whole world is under the rule of Islam."
However, the Koran states that the embrace of Islam must be voluntary, Mr. Graham said.
Jim Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, said he had no problem using words such as jihad, provided it was made clear that militant groups were misusing the terms to justify their violent actions.
"They're not talking about jihad in a theological sense," Mr. Zogby said. "Jihad means to struggle or strive for the good and against evil. These people are talking about violent revolution."
Stephen Suleyman Schwartz, executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington, cautioned against interpreting the debate as a dispute between those who think Islam as a whole is bad and those who think Islam as a whole is good.
"Islam is manifestly in crisis, with bad people who are Muslims fighting against good people who are Muslims. That should be the point - how to mobilize the good people against the bad people," Mr. Schwartz said.
The Red Team report said the government documents in question reflect "the views and opinions of a very small [number] of Americans whose contributions may have escaped critical review. ... While there is concern that we not label all Muslims as Islamist terrorists, it is proper to address certain aspects of violence as uniquely Islamic," the report says.
The report notes that some terms for terrorists, such as "Islamo-fascist," are "conspicuously offensive."
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a prominent U.S. Muslim group, has argued that government terminology should minimize any connection between Islam and terrorism to avoid fanning religious hatred.
A council spokesman said Corey Saylor, CAIR's legislative director, recently stated the group's views on the issue in a Detroit News Op-Ed article.
Mr. Saylor said CAIR opposes the use of "jihadist" and other Islamic terms because the use of non-Islamic terms "serves the strategic purpose of isolating extremists and removing the false cloak of religiosity that they use to justify their barbarism."
Marine Corps Maj. Joseph D. Kloppel, a Central Command spokesman, said Red Team reports "are often controversial."
"But the resulting debate sharpens reasoning, forces intellectual integrity, and improves decisionmaking and subsequent action," he said in an e-mail, noting that its products are "designed for internal use" and not meant to represent the personal views of the Centcom commander.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/20/report-says-terms-jihad-islamist-needed

ECB's Nowotny Sees Global `Tri-Polar' Currency System Evolving
By Jonathan Tirone
Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank council member Ewald Nowotny said a ``tri-polar'' global currency system is developing between Asia, Europe and the U.S. and that he's skeptical the U.S. dollar's centrality can be revived.
``What I see is a system where we have more centers of gravity'' Nowotny said today in an interview with Austrian state broadcaster ORF-TV. ``I see for the future a tri-polar development, and I don't think that there will be fixed exchange rates between these poles.''
The leaders of the U.S., France and the European Commission will ask other world leaders to join in a series of summits on the global financial crisis beginning in the U.S. soon after the Nov. 4 presidential election, President George W. Bush, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Barroso said in a joint statement yesterday.
Nowotny said he was ``skeptical'' when asked whether the Bretton Woods System of monetary policy, set up after World War II and revised in 1971, could be revived to aid global currency stability. The U.S. meeting should aim to strengthen financial regulation, define bank capital ratios and review the role of debt-rating agencies.
European leaders have pressed to convene an emergency meeting of the world's richest nations, known as the Group of Eight, joined by others such as India and China, to overhaul the world's financial regulatory systems. The meetings are to include developed economies as well as developing nations.
`Real Economy'
Bush, 62, has cautioned that any revamping must not restrict the flow of trade and investment or set a path toward protectionism. The G8 nations are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. The U.S. hasn't committed itself to the sweeping terms of Europe's agenda, White House press secretary Dana Perino said yesterday.
Sarkozy wants the G8 to consider re-anchoring their currencies, the hallmark of the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement that also gave birth to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
The current financial crisis, in which European governments have pledged at least 1.3 trillion euros ($1.7 trillion) to guarantee loans and take stakes in lenders, should be ``under control'' by mid-2009, Nowotny said. The economy will suffer longer.
``What comes then, unfortunately in parallel, will be the problems for the real economy,'' Nowotny said. ``The growth rate in 2009 will be significantly below what we have in 2008.''
He predicted gross domestic product growth around 1 percent in Austria next year.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Tirone in Vienna at jtirone@bloomberg.net Last Updated: October 19, 2008 11:52 EDT
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=apjqJKKQvfDc

Russian Expansionism is still continuing, with our eyes on the economy
Police in South Ossetia ordered to return fire October 19, 2008 - 1:24pm
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried, left, listens to U.S. Ambassador to Georgia John Tefft as they visit a church, near the ethnic Georgian rural town of Mtskheta-Mtianeti on the edge of the Russian-backed separatist region of South Ossetia which broke away from Georgia, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2008. The visit came amid persistent tension along the edges of the breakaway region at the heart of the August war between Georgia and Russia. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov, Pool)
By STEVE GUTTERMAN Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) - Police in South Ossetia have been ordered to shoot back if they come under fire _ a directive that increases the threat of new violence between Georgia and the Russian-backed separatist region.
South Ossetia's top police official issued the order after a police post came under automatic weapons fire Saturday from the ethnic Georgian village of Nikozi, the separatist government said.
Acting Interior Minister Mikhail Mindzayev said no one was hurt by the gunfire, which he called a provocation by Georgian forces.
"We will not allow our people and our officers to be killed," Mindzayev said in a statement.
Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili denied that Georgian forces fired at a South Ossetian post and said Nikozi came under fire early Saturday from South Ossetian-controlled territory.
A visiting U.S. diplomat toured Nikozi and other villages Sunday in Georgian territory outside South Ossetia, where residents have been returning after Russian troops withdrew earlier this month. Many homes in the area have been looted or burned, damage that Georgians blame on South Ossetians.
The visit by Daniel Fried, the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, was the latest show of U.S. support for Georgia.
The shoot-back order came amid persistent tension along the breakaway region at the heart of the August war between Georgia and Russia.
South Ossetia's government also criticized European Union monitors who are patrolling Georgian territory outside South Ossetia after Russian forces withdrew earlier this month under an EU-brokered cease-fire.
The separatist government accused the monitors of bias and claimed they are ignoring alleged Georgian cease-fire violations.
Georgia, in turn, has accused Russia and separatist forces of cease-fire violations, including the fatal shootings of at least two Georgian police officers.
The five-day war in August followed years of growing tension between Russia and Georgia, whose pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili has wooed Washington and pushed for NATO membership. Russia, meanwhile, gave increasing support to South Ossetia and another Georgian separatist province, Abkhazia.
Russia says will keep 7,600 troops in the breakaway regions, which it recognized as independent nations after the war.
http://wtop.com/?nid=105&sid=1469029

South Korea’s $130bn guarantee may not be enough to stave off a crisis called Kiko
With its currency ravaged, its stocks mauled in a flight of foreign money and red flags raised over the stability of its largest banks, South Korea has unveiled a $130 billion (£75 billion) effort to win back the confidence of markets.
Yet Korean banking sources gave warning of a potentially devastating crisis for hundreds of the country's exporters sitting on billions of dollars of so-called “knock-in knock-out [Kiko]” currency hedging contracts. Signed last year before the value of the Korean won fell by 40 per cent, and essentially betting that the local currency would rise against the dollar, the accumulated Kiko losses are expected to drive some companies to bankruptcy, forcing the already troubled Korean banks to assume the cost of those collapses.
Yesterday's confidence-boosting gambit by the Government, which analysts believe will be received positively by investors and is likely to be followed by further economic stimulus measures for the construction sector this week, comes in the form of a $100 billion state guarantee on the foreign borrowings of Korea's banks.
As an additional part of the package, the Bank of Korea said that it would draw down $30 billion from its hefty foreign reserves to help to alleviate the “dollar drought” that has battered the won.
There will also be tax breaks to entice long-term investors back to Seoul's devastated stock market and a $750 million cash injection for the state-run Industrial Bank of Korea to provide loans for cash-starved small businesses.
The package was announced after weeks of mostly fruitless “verbal intervention” to calm market nerves and strenuous denial by the Korean authorities that the country's banking system was especially vulnerable to the global credit crunch.
Throughout that time, analysts have said that the high leveraging of Korea's private sector and the banks' heavy reliance on short-term foreign borrowings made it significantly more fragile than other Asian financial systems. The Korean authorities have pointed consistently to their $240billion in foreign exchange reserves as cause for the markets not to panic. Many billions have already been ploughed into efforts to shore up the won amid rising inflation this summer.
Because about 12 per cent of the Korean banking sector is funded by the wholesale debt market, the near-total dysfunction of those markets since September has raised concerns that the Korean banks will encounter problems rolling over those loans. Such fears were stoked last week when Standard & Poor's said that it might downgrade its credit ratings on seven of the country's largest financial groups.
In a statement that accompanied yesterday's market-calming package, the South Korean Strategy and Finance Ministry said that the measures were part of international efforts to combat the financial meltdown, but again insisted that “despite the recent credit crisis, Korea's real economy and its financial sector are sound”.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article4974400.ece

More fuel for the fire, i guess if your aim is to burn a Nation down, Congress and the President are going about it with gusto
Momentum building for new economy-boosting package
WASHINGTON – Momentum is building for a fresh dose of economic stimulants to boost the country out of the doldrums — perhaps by putting more money in Americans' pockets. The White House said Monday that President Bush was open to some sort of action after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned the slump could drag on without the extra bracing tonic.
On Wall Street, stocks bolted higher, with the Dow Jones industrials rising 413 points. There also were some new signs that credit conditions were thawing a bit.
The national economy, already wobbling, has been rocked by a trio of hard punches from the housing, credit and financial crises. With a recession widely seen as inevitable, if not already under way, the focus in Washington has shifted to the questions of how bad, how long and how to limit the pain.
There is increasing talk of a post-election special session calling Congress back to the Capitol. But urgency varies greatly according to whom you talk to — and when.
"We're continuing to have conversations with members of Congress, and we're open to ideas that they would put forward ... that would stimulate the economy and help us pull out of this downturn faster," White House press secretary Dana Perino said around noon Monday, shortly after Bernanke endorsed the need for a fresh and "significant" round of government action.
A couple of hours later, Bush seconded Perino's remarks, but he also said in a more optimistic tone: "I have heard that people's attitudes are beginning to change from a period of intense concerns — I would call it near panic — to being more relaxed." He commented after a closed meeting with business leaders in Alexandria, La.
If congressional leaders and Bush — who has been cool to more federal stimulus spending given already exploding budget deficits — were to hash out an acceptable package, it would require a special session after the Nov. 4 elections.
If an agreement can't be worked out, the effort probably would be taken up by the next Congress and the next president. Democrat Barack Obama has strongly advocated more government stimulus, while Republican John McCain is keeping his options open.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and fellow congressional Democrats are pushing a package that could cost as much as $150 billion. Some economists, however, have advised them in recent days that to have a real impact, the total would have to be far larger, as much as $300 billion.
As part of that package, Democrats want to resurrect a $61 billion House-passed measure that included about $37 billion in public works spending, $6 billion to extend jobless benefits, $15 billion to help states to pay their Medicaid bills and $3 billion in food stamp assistance for the poor.
The Democrats also are considering a second round of tax rebates to follow the $600 to $1,200 checks most individuals and couples got earlier this year. That money, going directly to consumers in hopes they would spend it, could push the price tag much higher.
Unemployment — now at 6.1 percent — is expected to hit 7.5 percent or higher next year. And millions of Americans have been watching their retirement nest eggs and home values shrivel.
One-third of Americans are worried about losing their jobs, half fret they will be unable to keep up with mortgage and credit card payments, and seven in 10 are anxious that their stocks and retirement investments are losing value, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll of likely voters released Monday.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a member of the Democratic leadership, predicted Congress would return in November. "We couldn't have gotten a better supporter for a stimulus package than Ben Bernanke," Schumer said. "His support will change the stimulus from a possibility to a reality."
Pelosi said, "I call on President Bush and congressional Republicans to once again heed Chairman Bernanke's advice and as they did in January, work with Democrats in Congress to enact a targeted, timely and fiscally responsible economic recovery and job creation package."
However, in an interview with The Associated Press last Friday, Pelosi had said Congress is unlikely to approve a tax rebate before Bush leaves office, and she signaled that prospects were dim that Democrats would be able to strike a deal with the president on an economic aid package during a post-election session.
In February, Congress enacted a $168 billion stimulus package that included tax rebates for people and tax breaks for businesses. The rebate checks did help to lift economic growth in the spring. After that, though, consumers cut back sharply and businesses have retrenched in turn.
"With the economy likely to be weak for several quarters, and with some risk of a protracted slowdown, consideration of a fiscal package by the Congress at this juncture seems appropriate," Bernanke told the House Budget Committee. It marked the first time Bernanke endorsed the need for another round of economic stimulus.
The Fed chief suggested that Congress design the package to limit the longer-term affects on the government's budget deficit, which hit a record in the recently ended budget year and is undoubtedly headed higher.
Bernanke said the package also should include provisions "to help improve access to credit by consumers, home buyers, businesses and other borrowers."
He also left the door open to further interest rate reductions by the Federal Reserve itself.
Fed policymakers meet next on Oct. 28-29, and many economists believe they will again lower their key rate — now at 1.50 percent — to bolster the economy. Just a few weeks ago, the Fed and the world's other major central banks joined forces to ratchet down rates, the first coordinated action of that kind in the Fed's history.
There were some signs that credit problems were improving a bit. Bank-to-bank lending rates fell for a sixth straight day on Monday. Demand for Treasury bills, regarded as the world's safest investment, lessened somewhat but remained relatively high in a sign that there was still much fear in the markets.
Last week, the Treasury Department announced it would inject up to $250 billion in U.S. banks in return for partial ownership. So far this year, 15 banks have failed, including the largest U.S. bank failure in history, compared with three last year. And major Wall Street investment firms have been swallowed by other companies, have filed bankruptcy or have converted themselves into commercial banks to weather the financial storm.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081020/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown