Western European News Digest
Former Minister Short: Brits Spied on UN's Kofi Annan
Former British Labour Party Cabinet Minister Clare Short said Feb. 26 that British agents had spied on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in the run-up to the Iraq war, according to British press reports. The comments by Short, who resigned from the Cabinet last year to protest the Iraq war, were given in an BBC interview; they threw Prime Minister Tony Blair for a loop. His entire monthly press briefing was dominated by the issue of Short's interview and the dropping of the case against Government Communications "whistleblower" Katharine Gun.
In her interview on BBC Radio 4's Today program, Short described the "enormous" pressure being brought to bear on many nations to support the U.S.-U.K. Iraq war policy. "[I]t's clear now there was a date for war, so they didn't mean Blix to do his job and then come to a second resolution if need be, but they were going to war anyway and they were going to bully and pressure countries to vote for it. I mean enormous pressure was brought to bear.... [T]he U.K. in this time was also spying on Kofi Annan's office and getting reports from him about what was going on."
Short said the charges against Katherine Gun were dropped recently due to disputes over Attorney General Lord Goldsmith's "advice" that the war against Iraq was "legal." "We know already that the Foreign Office legal advisers had disagreed and one of them had said there was no authority for war," Short said on BBC. "So my own suspicion is that the attorney has stopped the prosecution because part of her [Gun's] defense would be to question legality and put his advice in the public domain again and there was something fishy about the way in which he said the war was legal."
Asked about "spying in the United Nations," Short said: "[T]hese things are done. And in the case of Kofi's office it's been done for some time.... I have seen transcripts of Kofi Annan's conversations. Indeed, I have had conversations with Kofi in the run-up to war, thinking, 'Oh dear, there will be a transcript of this and people will see what he and I are saying.'"
Asked if "British spies have been instructed to carry out operations inside the United Nations on people like Kofi Annan," Short responded: "Yes, absolutely."
Asked about efforts to "put the problems behind us," Short answered: "The tragedy is Iraq is a disastrous mess. Ten thousand Iraqis have died, American troops are dying, some of our troops have died, the Middle East is more angry than ever. I'm afraid that the sort of deceit on the route to war was linked to the lack of preparation for afterwards and the chaos and suffering that continues, so it won't go away, will it?"
Blair Reacts to Short Revelations on Spying
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, looking tired and unwell, called former Cabinet Minister Clare Short "totally irresponsible," following her revelations that Britain spied on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Blair was speaking during his monthly press briefing Feb. 26.
Blair refused to "confirm or deny the allegation." Blair said of Short: "I really do regard what Clare Short has said this morning as totally irresponsible ... and entirely consistent. I am sorry that she has said the things that she's said, but she must know ... you can't have a situation where people start making allegations like this about our security services."
"It is completely irresponsible.... This is a dangerous time for this country and the world.... I really regret the way [the intelligence services] have been dragged through the mud over the past few months."
Sweden Backs IMF vs. Argentina
Argentina must stick to IMF conditionalities, or Brazil will be next, warned Swedish Economy Minister Gunnar Lund, following meetings with U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow and senior IMF officials in Washington Feb. 23. Lund stated at a Washington press conference that, as an IMF shareholder, Sweden believes it has to play a role to protect the "credibility" of institutions like the IMF and World Bank: "We feel we should be guardians of the Fund and Bank, and make sure they have solid reputations." Lund then took a softer line on Argentina's defaulted debt, saying the country has shown good faith in its dealings with the international creditors: "My guess is that Argentina realizes how difficult and sensitive the situation is and has an interest in coming to an agreement."
Fearing that the whole IMF system might formally go under, Lund said: "[Brazil's] President Lula is working very hard with an economic team in place that are doing, in my view, an excellent job. Suppose you see Argentina slip by with a program that is not entirely credible; that is dangerous because there will be people in Brazil saying, why are we making this effort?"
Did Schroeder Raise Euro-Dollar Crisis with White House?
In an interview with the Financial Times Feb. 24, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, in Chicago Feb. 24 for a two-day visit, said: "The dollar-euro exchange rate, at least for the Europeans, is not satisfactory. Only the central banks are in a position to change that, and I do not want to interfere in the policies of the U.S. Federal Reserve. That is a matter for the Americans.
"I would just say that I believe the European Central Bank has recognized that this relationship between the euro and the dollar is not helping the [European] export sector, to put it very mildly. I can imagine that as a result, with all due respect for the independence of the ECB, there will be some consideration about whether euro interest rates are at the right level."
Schroeder's very unusual recommendation to the ECB also received explicit support from French Prime Minister Jean Pierre Raffarin, in remarks to the press in Paris the same day. The German Chancellor was expected to raise the euro-dollar issue in an address before the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, as well as with President Bush, in their Feb. 27 White House meeting.
Schroeder Government: Kasyanov Dismissal No Problem for Germany
In an interview with Germany's state-run Deutschlandfunk radio Feb. 25, Gernot Erler, Chancellor Schroeder's chief coordinator for relations with Russia, said that the abrupt dismissal by Russian President Vladimir Putin of Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov adds some spice to the otherwise-lame Russian Presidential election campaign. It may encourage more Russians to vote on March 14, providing the minimum 50% voter participation. Moreover, the dismissal of Kasyanov, who came out in defense of oligarch Khodorkovsky, represents the removal of the last remnant of the Yeltsin era in the government.
The real question, Erler said, is whether Putin is assembling all this power to "promote the development of the country," along the "model known in Russian history from the time of Peter the Great on," which would be the "optimistic variant."
As far as Putin's reliability as a foreign policy partner for Europe and for Germany is concerned, Erler said he has no worries about the shuffle in Moscow, nor has he noticed any negative repercussions for German economic interests in Russia, resulting from Khodorkovsky's arrest.
Chirac: Europe Must Show More Respect for Russia
Concluding a two-day visit to Hungary Feb. 24, French President Jacques Chirac called on the European Union to pay more positive attention to the concerns and interests of Russia. "Brotherly relations with Europe are in the interest of the Russians; we Europeans must therefore approach Russia with more respect."
Chirac criticized the EU Commission for disrespect towards the genuine and justified concerns of Russia about the status of its Baltic Sea exclave Kaliningrad (where the Commission opposes a generous visa regime) after the EU's expansion to Poland and the three Baltic republics in May; Russian concerns about financial and trade losses related to changes in the import-export rules of Eastern European countries after those countries become EU members in May; the EU's stubbornness concerning trade liberalization and price deregulation in Russia, as a precondition for Europe's giving its approval to Russian WTO membership; and lastly, the open disregard of the EU Commission for Russian worries about the status of its ethnic minorities in the Baltic republics. (EU Commission President Romano Prodi has not even answered a letter from Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on that subject.)
Before the Budapest press conference at which Chirac made these points, he addressed a plenary session of the national Parliament of Hungary, saying that "new relations with Russia are a logical consequence, if we want a Europe of peace." Chirac said that Europe "must help Russia to set free its immense energies, must help it to become a rule-of-law state and carry through energetic reforms. And, we must do everything to fill with content areas of cooperation that were defined in St. Petersburg [at the EU-Russia Summit in May 2003]."
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