In this issue:

Hoon Faces Censure for Failing To Equip Soldiers

French Defense Minister in U.S. To Thaw Relations

New Witness Comes Foward in Diana, Dodi Deaths

German Construction Forecasts Further Job Losses

Polish Government Faces Budget Crisis, Early Elections

Polish Privatizations Minister Resigns

French Prefect's Car Bombed

From Volume 3, Issue Number 4 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Jan. 27, 2004

Western European News Digest

Hoon Faces Censure for Failing To Equip Soldiers

The British House of Commons Defense Committee is expected to accuse Defense Minister Geoff Hoon of failing to procure proper military equipment for British soldiers fighting in Iraq, the Independent reported Jan. 18. The censure will coincide with the growing pressure on Prime Minister Tony Blair, related to the soon-to-be-released Lord Hutton report on the death of weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly.

When Hoon testified before the Defense Committee last year, he said there were no logistical difficulties in getting proper equipment to British soldiers in Iraq, and contemptuously remarked that any grousing arose because there "may have been the odd soldier who did not like his ready-to-eat meals."

Very high-level military officials have contradicted him, providing reports that gunners and armored-vehicle drivers on the front lines had been stripped of their flak jackets. Adding to the controversy is news of the death of Sgt. Steve Roberts, who was killed in Iraq three days after he was ordered to return his body armor.

One MP told the Independent that the Defense Committee's report, titled, "Lessons of Iraq," is "going to give [Hoon] a kicking. He tried to tell us the system worked very well, when his own officials and people on the ground contradicted that."

Nor is Prime Minister Blair unscathed by this case. Military sources who spoke to the Independent said "political prevarication" by Blair had caused delays in sending needed equipment to Iraq. Blair wouldn't give the okay for these supplies, because he didn't want to alarm Labor Party backbenchers just prior to the November 2002 vote on the war.

Shadow Defense Secretary Nicholas Soames said that "the government was doing all they could to prevent their own party getting a hint that it was planning for a war. Orders were not placed on time and that caused huge difficulties."

French Defense Minister in U.S. To Thaw Relations

Michelle Alliot-Marie addressed the Washington, D.C. think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on Jan. 16, and urged the United States to "turn the page on tensions with France."

Officially, her speech was titled "Renewing Transatlantic Relations," but France's Le Figaro headlined the address: "Transatlantic Detente."

The Minister pointed out the divergences between the U.S. and Europe, comparing U.S. willingness to rely on the use of force vs. international crisis management; the role of the United Nations; improving relations with the Arab/Muslim World; and Europe's opposition to the death penalty in the United States.

That said, she reviewed the historically close relationship between France and the U.S., calling for a strong "renewed trans-Atlantic partnership."

"Europe and America have shared responsibilities in the building of a peaceful world. Yes, the world is becoming multipolar. The world should not be considered politically incorrect or hostile to the United States. Who can fail to see the emergence of China, India, and Brazil? Who can ignore European integration or the place of Russia...? The multipolar world must be one of partnership. And we must make sure that the privileged link between the European and American poles of influences be maintained.... The sole alternative to the multipolar world would be chaos," the Minister said.

New Witness Comes Foward in Diana, Dodi Deaths

A British tabloid, The People, carried a story Jan. 19, claiming to have interviewed a new eyewitness to the Aug. 31, 1997 Paris car crash that claimed the lives of Princess Diana, her friend Dodi Fayed, and driver Henri Paul. The witness, Souad Mouffakir, told The People that "she kept silent for six years about what she saw, because she feared she would be killed."

What promopted her decision to speak out after all this time, she says, was an interview her ex-husband, Mohamed Medjahdi, gave to British papers the week before, denying that there had been a white Fiat Uno at the scene of the crash. Souad Mouffakir told The People that she was driving with her husband in front of Diana's Mercedes and saw, through the back window, the crash of the white Fiat and the Mercedes. She said that just seconds before the crash, the white Fiat had sped up next to her car, and then slowed down, so that she could see the driver, whom she described as a short, dark-skinned Mediterranean man.

"I became very scared," she told the paper. "I thought he was a madman and I told Mohamed to speed away. We did that, and a moment later, we heard the screech of tires." The woman said that when she and her husband were interviewed by the police the next day, they did not mention the white Fiat, out of fear. "I was convinced what I saw would lead me to being killed." What made the story potentially credible is the fact that two of the woman's friends came forward to report that she told them, at the time of the crash, what she had actually seen.

The whole matter will likely be taken up by Scotland Yard, which has been mandated by the Royal Coroner to conduct a thorough investigation into the circumstances of the Paris crash.

German Construction Forecasts Further Job Losses

The German construction sector expects an additional loss of jobs because of low corporate and public-sector investments, according to a Jan. 20 release by the national association of German constrcution-sector firms (HDB). In its review of 2003, and preview of 2004, the HDB tried to convey some artificial optimism, voicing hopes that the low point of the conjuncture will soon be overcome.

But the HDB also said that 40% of the firms in the sector expect no improvement in 2004; that another 36,000 jobs in the construction sector, and an equal number in industrial-supply sectors, will be axed this year, because of low corporate investments (25% of German firms would rather invest abroad than in Germany); and the lack of public-sector projects, especially in transport and urban infrastructure.

Polish Government Faces Budget Crisis, Early Elections

The minority government of Prime Minister Leszek Miller goes into a parliamentary vote on the FY 2004 budget plan of Finance Minister Jerzy Hausner Jan. 27, without certainty of getting a majority in favor.

Among the opposition parties, there may be many who would vote for the cuts, under other circumstances, but the two anti-European Union parties, Samoobrona and Citizens Platform, have recently surged in popularity ratings, and see a realistic chance for blocking the government over the budget issue, and even replacing it in early elections. However, the government's rapid loss of popularity has mainly to do with the economic situation and the announced budget cuts, which are "justified" with the "need" to cut 7 billion euros to make Poland acceptable for EU membership. This naturally provides Poles who are skeptical of the EU with additional arguments against it.

Also, Miller's pro-Bush policy on Iraq is increasingly unpopular in Poland. Latest opinion polls have given Miller's SLD party only 17% of the vote, but 18% to Andrzej Lepper's Samoobrona, and 26% to the Citizens Platform of Jan Maria Rokita.

In what appears to be a move driven by despair, Miller fired Interior Minister Krzysztof Janik Jan. 21, in order to make him chairman of the SLD parliamentary group, and appoint his main inner-SLD rival Jozef Oleksy as Interior Minister and Vice Prime Minister. But Miller's attempt to coopt Oleksy and his greater popularity (he is less "reformist" in economics, and keeps more distance from Bush in foreign affairs) into the Cabinet, may have come too late.

Polish Privatizations Minister Resigns

Several hours after the resignation of Polish Interior Minister Krzysztof Janik Jan. 21, Minister for Privatizations Piotr Czyzewski resigned as well, after only nine months in office. The development is taken as another hint that the present minority government will hardly be able to last until after the mid-June European Parliament elections, even if it survives the final budget vote for FY 2004 in the national Parliament (Sejm) on Jan. 27.

Since a successor has not yet been named, the vacated post will be administered by Budget Minister Hausner for the time being. But, regardless of who's in charge, plans for additional privatizations have been so unpopular among the Polish population, and have caused such repeated massive social unrest, that all previous governments have lost support in the Sejm, in the 14 years since the fall of the communist regime. Unless the present government changes policy, this will be its fate, as well.

French Prefect's Car Bombed

A car belonging to a recently appointed French prefect was bombed on Jan. 18 in the city of Nantes. Aissa Dermouche, the first Algerian-born French citizen to be named prefect, was, fortunately, not in the car when the explosion occurred. Dermouche was just recently named prefect of the department of Jura by President Jacques Chirac. No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing, and no previous threats had been made. However, authorities said the bomb was expertly planted.

Nantes state prosecutor Jean-Marie Huet told Agence France Presse, "We have no trails to follow because there were no previous threats, but it was a well-planned attack because the car was not in front of Dermouche's house, so the bomber had to know it was his. We have to ask what was the message they wanted to leave? Was it the far right or Muslim fundamentalists or jealousies of a private nature?"

Dermouche, 57, the director of the elite Audencia School of Management in Nantes, immigrated to France when he was 18. He has been honored by the French government by being made a Knight of the Legion of Honor and given the National Order of Merit.

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