Month: February 2011

Jerusalem, February 04: Cyberwarfare of the kind waged against Iran last year offers advanced nations an alternative to “ugly” military force with its moral costs, a senior Israeli official said on Thursday.

“War is ugly, awfully ugly,” Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor told diplomats and journalists at a think tank called the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

“In modern times, because war is all the time on television … people see this and can’t take it. There are limits. There is a price you pay.”

Oslo, February 04: A secret U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks indicates that in 2009 the U.S. ambassador to Jordan had little faith in King Abdullah II’s promises to initiate reforms in his country.

The Norwegian daily Aftenposten on Thursday published a cable by U.S. Ambassador R. Stephen Beecroft, who wrote that Abdullah “as a progressive reformer often fails to match up with his actions on the ground.”

Moscow, February 04: Russia called on all parties in the Egyptian impasse to show restraint Thursday, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov calling the current situation ‘extremely worrying.’

Russia urges all sides to ‘resolve a diplomatic framework by civilised means and without resort to violence,’ he said, in remarks quoted by Interfax news agency.

Lavrov added that Moscow had no desire to interfere with events in Cairo, but feared an eruption of violence.

The minister previously stressed that Egyptian society must find its own independent way out of the current stalemate.

Paris, February 04: The United States alleged Thursday there were ‘concerted’ efforts to intimidate foreign journalists in Egypt, while the group Reporters Without Borders alleged an’all-out witch- hunt’ against the media.

US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said ‘there is a concerted campaign to intimidate international journalists in Cairo and interfere with their reporting.

‘We condemn such actions.’

Paris, February 04: France’s foreign minister on Friday condemned attacks on foreign journalists in Egypt as “unacceptable,” while Sweden’s prime minister urged Egyptian authorities to respect reporters covering pro-democracy demonstrations there.

Speaking at an EU summit in Brussels on Friday — a day after a crackdown by Egyptian authorities that allegedly saw more than 20 reporters detained and as many assaulted — Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said reporters are “the eyes and the ears of the world at the moment.”

Cairo, February 04: Swedish public broadcaster SVT said Thursday evening one of its reporters covering unrest in Cairo, who it had lost contact with for several hours, had received serious “knife injuries.”

The reporter, “Bert Sundström is seriously injured. He is now at a hospital in Cairo and is being operated on for knife injuries,” SVT said on its website.

“It remains unclear what happened when he was hurt,” it added.

Earlier Thursday, the broadcaster had said it had lost contact with Sundström and feared he was being held by the Egyptian military.

Cairo, February 04: Journalists covering the revolt against President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt have found themselves the targets of widespread anger and suspicion in an apparently coordinated campaign that is intended to stifle the flow of news that could further undermine the government.

Washington, February 04: U.S. intelligence officials warned President Barack Obama’s administration of instability in Egypt at the end of 2010 but did not foresee what would trigger the unrest at that time, a top U.S. CIA official said on Thursday.

Stephanie O’Sullivan, nominated to be the principal deputy director of national intelligence, asked at her Senate confirmation hearing when the U.S. intelligence community warned Obama and policymakers that protesters might threaten Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s grip on power.

Washington, February 04: Hundreds of defense companies that defrauded the U.S. military between 2007 and 2009 still received $285 billion in contracts from the Pentagon during the same period, a U.S. senator said Wednesday.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called the figures “shocking” and urged the Defense Department to take more aggressive steps to ensure taxpayer dollars aren’t wasted at a time when the U.S. is running a $14 trillion national debt.

Tel Aviv, February 04: In a move that calls back to the attempt by Texas cattlemen to sue Oprah Winfrey for “defamation of beef.” an Israeli lawyer has filed a class-action lawsuit against former President Jimmy Carter, seeking $5 million in damages because his book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” allegedly defamed Israel.