Two U.S. Journalists Detained by North Korea and otherside of the World

Two U.S. Journalists Detained by North Korea
Seoul - --
The two reporters, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, and their Chinese guide were taken into custody by North Korean soldiers after ignoring warnings to stop filming in the reclusive country. Both were working for former Vice President Al Gore’s online media outlet Current TV and were arrested near the Tumen River dividing North Korea and China, the Associated Press reports from Seoul, South Korea.
The journalists were trying to interview North Korean defectors hiding in China, according to an activist who claims he helped them plan their trip. A separate AP story says they were drawn to the border to tell stories about refugees fleeing North Korea.
Their capture adds a new dimension to tension on the Korean peninsula, Hong Kong’s Asia Times Online reports. “Now negotiators must work furiously to extricate the pair from North Korean custody while worrying about North Korea's plan to launch a missile-cum-satellite some time between April 4 and April 8,” Donald Kirk reports from Seoul.
Gore has asked U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for help in securing the pair's release, and Washington has sought China’s assistance, Seoul’s English-language JoongAng Daily reports. “The journalists were reportedly standing on a frozen Tumen River, which blurred the border mark,” the paper says. The Committee to Protect Journalists also pushed for their safe release.
Two American journalists were missing Thursday after they were reportedly detained by North Korea for ignoring warnings to stop shooting footage of the reclusive country.
Journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's online media outlet Current TV, were seized Tuesday along the China-North Korea border, according to news reports and an activist who had worked with them. Their Chinese guide also was detained, although a third journalist with the group, Mitch Koss, apparently eluded capture.
U.S. officials expressed concern to North Korean officials about the reported detentions and said they were working with the Chinese government to ascertain the whereabouts of the Americans.
In San Francisco, an employee of Current TV told reporters: "There will be no comment on the situation anytime today."
The arrests come at a time of heightened tension on the Korean Peninsula, with North Korea declaring its intention to shoot a satellite into space next month. Fearing the launch will be a cover for the test-fire of a long-range missile, regional powers are urging the North to refrain from firing any rockets.
In Washington, the top U.S. commander in the Pacific, Adm. Timothy Keating, called the launch a threat to U.S. security.
"We'll be prepared to respond," he told lawmakers, adding that "the United States has the capability" to shoot down any missile.
Reporters Without Borders urged Chinese authorities to intercede on Lee and Ling's behalf "as they were probably on Chinese soil when they were arrested."
The group ranks North Korea lower than any other Asian country on its press freedom index.
This article appeared on page A - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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U.S. missile strikes take heavy toll on Al Qaeda, officials say
Predator drone attacks in northwest Pakistan have increased sharply since Bush last year stopped seeking Pakistan's permission. Obama may keep pace as officials speak of confusion in Al Qaeda ranks.
By Greg Miller
March 22, 2009
Reporting from Washington -- An intense, six-month campaign of Predator strikes in Pakistan has taken such a toll on Al Qaeda that militants have begun turning violently on one another out of confusion and distrust, U.S. intelligence and counter-terrorism officials say.

The pace of the Predator attacks has accelerated dramatically since August, when the Bush administration made a previously undisclosed decision to abandon the practice of obtaining permission from the Pakistani government before launching missiles from the unmanned aircraft.

U.S. shot down Iranian drone aircraft over Iraq in February
Pakistan says missile strike kills 8 near Afghan border
Pakistan's Asif Ali Zardari may become a figurehead
Since Aug. 31, the CIA has carried out at least 38 Predator strikes in northwest Pakistan, compared with 10 reported attacks in 2006 and 2007 combined, in what has become the CIA's most expansive targeted killing program since the Vietnam War.

Because of its success, the Obama administration is set to continue the accelerated campaign despite civilian casualties that have fueled anti-U.S. sentiment and prompted protests from the Pakistani government.

"This last year has been a very hard year for them," a senior U.S. counter-terrorism official said of Al Qaeda militants, whose operations he tracks in northwest Pakistan. "They're losing a bunch of their better leaders. But more importantly, at this point they're wondering who's next."

U.S. intelligence officials said they see clear signs that the Predator strikes are sowing distrust within Al Qaeda. "They have started hunting down people who they think are responsible" for security breaches, the senior U.S. counter-terrorism official said, discussing intelligence assessments on condition of anonymity. "People are showing up dead or disappearing."

The counter-terrorism official and others, who also spoke anonymously, said the U.S. assessments were based in part on reports from the region provided by the Pakistani intelligence service.

The stepped-up Predator campaign has killed at least nine senior Al Qaeda leaders and dozens of lower-ranking operatives, in what U.S. officials described as the most serious disruption of the terrorist network since 2001.

Among those killed since August are Rashid Rauf, the suspected mastermind of an alleged 2006 transatlantic airliner plot; Abu Khabab Masri, who was described as the leader of Al Qaeda's chemical and biological weapons efforts; Khalid Habib, an operations chief allegedly involved in plots against the West; and Usama al-Kini, who allegedly helped orchestrate the September bombing of the Marriott Hotel in the capital, Islamabad.

Al Qaeda's founders remain elusive. U.S. spy agencies have not had reliable intelligence on the location of Osama bin Laden since he slipped across the Pakistan border seven years ago, officials said. His deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, remains at large after escaping a missile strike in 2006.

But the Predator campaign has depleted the organization's operational tier. Many of the dead are longtime loyalists who had worked alongside Bin Laden and were part of the network's hasty migration into Pakistan in 2001 after U.S.-led forces invaded neighboring Afghanistan. They are being replaced by less experienced recruits who have had little, if any, history with Bin Laden and Zawahiri.

The offensive has been aided by technological advances and an expansion of the CIA's Predator fleet. The drones take off and land at military airstrips in Pakistan, but are operated by CIA pilots in the United States. Some of the pilots -- who also pull the triggers on missiles -- are contractors hired by the agency, former officials said.

Predators were originally designed as video surveillance aircraft that could hover over a target from high altitudes. But new models are outfitted with additional intelligence gear that has enabled the CIA to confirm the identities of targets even when they are inside buildings and can't be seen through the Predator's lens.

The agency is also working more closely with U.S. special operations teams and military intelligence aircraft that hug the Pakistan border, collecting pictures and intercepting radio or cellphone signals.

Even so, officials said that the surge in strikes has less to do with expanded capabilities than with the decision to skip Pakistani approval. "We had the data all along," said a former CIA official who oversaw Predator operations in Pakistan. "Finally we took off the gloves."

The Bush administration's decision to expand the Predator program was driven by growing alarm over Al Qaeda's resurgence in Pakistan's tribal belt.

A 2006 peace agreement between Islamabad and border tribes had allowed the network to shore up its finances, resume training operatives and reestablish connections with satellite groups.

The Bush administration had been constrained by its close ties with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who argued against aggressive U.S. action. But by last summer, after a series of disrupted terrorist plots in Europe had been traced to Pakistan, there were calls for a new approach.

"At a certain point there was common recognition of the untenable nature of what was happening in the FATA," said a former senior U.S. counter-terrorism official, referring to Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas where Al Qaeda is based.

The breaking point came when Musharraf was forced to resign mid-August, officials said. Within days, President Bush had approved the new rules: Rather than requiring Pakistan's permission to order a Predator strike, the agency was allowed to shoot first.


Related:
Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, center, waves to supporters at his residence in Islamabad, the capital. Some ruling-party stalwarts portrayed his reinstatement as fulfillment of a pledge by the late Benazir Bhutto.
After the uproar over Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, many question whether the president will be able to maintain full power.
By Laura King
March 17, 2009
Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan -- On a day of delirious public celebrations over Pakistan's popular chief justice getting his job back, President Asif Ali Zardari stayed conspicuously out of sight.

The 52-year-old president, whose popularity had been flagging even before Pakistan's latest political crisis, was like an unwelcome guest Monday at a raucous nationwide party, pilloried for his heavy-handed treatment of activists who championed the cause of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry.

Now diplomats, analysts and ordinary Pakistanis are questioning whether Zardari, who seemed to have badly misread public opinion, will be able to hang on to his dual roles as head of state and leader of the Pakistan People's Party.

Many senior People's Party members were horrified by authoritarian measures Zardari ordered to try to suppress a march by backers of opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and members of a lawyers movement that fought for two years for Chaudhry's reinstatement.

The crackdown included hundreds of arrests and tight restrictions on political gatherings. Information Minister Sherry Rehman quit over the weekend to protest threatened restrictions on a major TV channel, Geo. Amid the backlash against him, commentators suggested that Zardari might be reduced to a figurehead president, with Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gillani, who was relatively untainted by the controversy, taking on more authority.

"The party is in a difficult situation after this development, and the feeling of being upstaged by a rival is definitely going to leave a bitter taste," said Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, executive director of the nonprofit Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency.

Mehboob said he expected that sentiment to translate into a curtailment of Zardari's "unbridled authority" as president -- a legacy of Zardari's predecessor, Pervez Musharraf, a general who granted himself extraordinary powers.

Some analysts said a split was possible between pro- and anti-Zardari camps within the People's Party, which was the largest vote-getter in parliamentary elections 13 months ago. According to polls, it has since lost ground to Sharif.

Zardari is regarded in the West as an important ally in the battle against a powerful Islamic insurgency; Sharif has close ties to Islamist parties and is viewed with some wariness by the Obama administration.

At celebratory gatherings across the country Monday, People's Party stalwarts pointedly avoided mention of Zardari, instead seeking to portray Chaudhry's reinstatement as fulfillment of a pledge by Benazir Bhutto, Zardari's assassinated wife. "This outcome is in accordance with her wishes," said Aitzaz Ahsan, the most prominent and respected leader of the lawyers movement.

The danger that the Chaudhry affair could have spiraled out of control also carried an explicit reminder that Pakistan's powerful military still considers itself a guardian of public order.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kayani has signaled his intention to stay out of politics as much as possible. But Kayani met with Zardari shortly before the government's decision to reinstate the jurist was announced at daybreak Monday, and Pakistani media reports said the discussion was pivotal in resolving the crisis.

Zardari's isolation both within his party and from the public at large was a recurring theme as the crisis escalated. His spokesman was obliged to deny repeatedly that Zardari planned to resign. In a front-page commentary on Monday in the influential English-language newspaper Dawn, Editor Zaffar Abbas spoke of a "besieged leader" holed up in his presidential palace, gazing out at the maze of fortifications that had been erected to keep protesters from the capital.

Although the U.S. Embassy issued a statement praising the "statesmanlike" decision to reinstate Chaudhry, Western envoys took note of Zardari's fast-eroding stature inside and outside his party.

"Face it -- this isn't a guy with a lot of friends," said one diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to express his country's views.

"It's hard to see what his long-term future could be now," said a second Western envoy, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

Before her death in December 2007, Bhutto, a former prime minister, anointed Zardari, together with their college-age son Bilawal, as her successors. Some of her closest associates harbored doubts about her husband's moral and intellectual fitness but acquiesced out of respect for her memory.

The president had pledged more than a year ago to reinstate the chief justice, who was fired by Musharraf and gained prominence as a symbol of resistance to military rule. But once in office, Zardari repeatedly delayed giving Chaudhry back his job.

Many in Pakistan suspect the president was motivated by fears that the Supreme Court under Chaudhry might revive old corruption cases against him. That in turn brought back memories of Zardari's past. As a minister in his wife's Cabinet in the 1990s, he was derisively known as "Mr. 10%" for allegedly demanding kickbacks.

Within the ruling party, frustration had built over the last month as the lawyers' campaign to reinstate Chaudhry was successfully appropriated by Sharif. The opposition chief forced Zardari's hand by leading throngs of followers toward the federal capital for what was to have been a massive protest rally Monday.

That planned sit-in was called off after the government, in an eleventh-hour reversal, agreed early Monday that Chaudhry and the other judges would be returned to the bench this week.

"By acting sooner, Zardari could have avoided a great deal of trouble for both himself and the People's Party," said Khurram Khan, who joined the rejoicing crowds outside Chau- dhry's residence. "Everyone will remember that."

The celebrations began before dawn and continued late into the night. The stock market surged 5%. Lawyers and their supporters handed out sweets in the traditional gesture of celebration. Amplified music blared from an impromptu open-air party in the yard of Chaudhry's villa. "Justice restored," read one of many banner headlines.

Chaudhry himself spent the day greeting well-wishers behind closed doors, emerging only briefly to wave to the crowd and the cameras. Although his fate became a highly charged political issue, associates said he wanted to avoid the appearance of partisanship by making any victory speech.

Celebrations aside, Monday brought new reminders of the threat posed by Islamic insurgents. An apparent suicide bombing in the city of Rawalpindi, adjacent to Islamabad, killed at least five people. And for the second day in a row, militants attacked truck stops outside the northwestern city of Peshawar, torching vehicles and supplies bound for Western troops in Afghanistan.

"So maybe this is one day when we can feel good again," said Anjum Baqir, swaying in time to the music wafting from Chaudhry's yard. "And tomorrow we will return again to all our worries."

laura.king@latimes.com

Special correspondent Zulfiqar Ali in Peshawar contributed to this report.


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EU Envoy to Cuba Urged to Seek Release of Jailed Journalists
On the sixth anniversary of the mass arrest of 75 dissidents on the island (including 29 independent journalists), 21 reporters and editors remain behind bars. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged the EU's envoy, Luis Michel, to push for their release and to urge Raúl Castro's government to grant freedom of expression to all Cubans.
CPJ also publishes an account by Óscar Espinosa Chepe, a journalist jailed in 2003 who was released in 2004 for health reasons. Espinosa recalls the conditions of his prison in Guantánamo, more than 560 miles (900 km.) from his Havana home. He shared a cell with 36 common prisoners, received contaminated drinking water, and endured intensive interrogations. Despite his freedom, Espinosa says he still receives threats and must keep guard against neighborhood informants who monitor his activities.


(Re:Edited:by THE EDITOR/PUBLISHER"THE MONTHLY MUKTIDOOTH",DACCA,BANGLADESH)