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China, India, and Nigeria. Washington would then be able to better influence their behavior so that it complements rather than hinders U.S. objectives.
Second, where the war on terrorism is concerned, U.S. strategy should be to target terrorists rather than to call for regime change. This would mean focusing military efforts on destroying terrorist cells and networks while using political and economic tools to address the long- term sources of instability in the Middle East. Recognizing that reform in the Arab world will be slow in coming, Washington should pursue policies that patiently support economic development, respect for human rights, and religious and political pluralism. It should also fashion working partnerships with countries prepared to fight extremism. Pursuing regime change and radical visions of transforming the Middle East will only backfire and continue to overextend U.S. military power and political will.
Third, the United States must rebuild its hard power. To do so, Congress must allocate the funds necessary to redress the devastating effect of the Iraq war on the readiness, equipment, and morale of the U.S. armed forces. The Pentagon should also husband its resources by consolidating its 750 overseas bases. Although the United States must maintain the ability to project power on a global basis, it can reduce the drain on manpower by downsizing its forward presence and relying more heavily on prepositioned assets and personnel based in the United States.
Fourth, the United States should restrain adversaries through engagement, as many great powers in the past have frequently done. In the nineteenth century, Otto von Bismarck adeptly adjusted Germany's relations with Europe's major states to ensure that his country would not face a countervailing coalition. At the turn of the twentieth century, the United Kingdom successfully engaged the United States and Japan, dramatically reducing the costs of its overseas empire and enabling it to focus on dangers closer to home. In the early 1970s, Richard Nixon's opening to China substantially lightened the burden of Cold War competition. Washington should pursue similar strategies today, using shrewd diplomacy to dampen strategic competition with China, Iran, and other potential rivals. Should U.S. efforts be reciprocated, they promise to yield the substantial benefits that accompany rapprochement. If Washington is rebuffed, it can be sure to remain on guard and thereby avoid the risk of strategic exposure.
The fifth component of this grand strategy should be greater energy independence. The United States' oil addiction is dramatically constricting its geopolitical flexibility; playing guardian of the Persian Gulf entails onerous strategic commitments and awkward political alignments. Furthermore, high oil prices are encouraging producers such as Iran, Russia, and Venezuela to challenge U.S. interests. The United States must reduce its dependence on oil by investing in the development of alternative fuels and adopting a federally mandated effort to make cars more efficient.
Finally, the United States should favor pragmatic partnerships over the formalized international institutions of the Cold War era. To be sure, international collaboration continues to be in the United States' national interest. In some areas -- fighting climate change, facilitating international development, liberalizing international trade -- institutionalized cooperation is likely to endure, if not deepen. It is already clear, however, that congressional support for the fixed alliances and robust institutions that were created after World War II is quickly waning. Grand visions of a global alliance of democracies need to be tempered by political reality. Informal groupings, such as the "contact group" for the Balkans, the Quartet, the participants in the six-party talks on North Korea, and the EU- 3/U.S. coalition working to rein in Iran's nuclear program, are rapidly becoming the most effective vehicles for diplomacy. In a polarized climate, less is more: pragmatic teamwork, flexible concerts, and task- specific coalitions must become the staples of a new brand of U.S. statecraft.
Far from being isolationist, this strategy of judicious retrenchment would guard against isolationist tendencies. In contrast, pursuing a foreign policy of excessive and unsustainable ambition would risk a political backlash that could produce precisely the turn inward that neither the United States nor the world can afford. The United States must find a stable middle ground between doing too much and doing too little.
BREAK ON THROUGH TO THE OTHER SIDE
Former Secretary of State Dean Acheson once claimed that 80 percent of the job of foreign policy was "management of your domestic ability to have a policy." He may have exaggerated, but he expressed an enduring truth: good policy requires good politics. Bringing ends and means back into balance would help restore the confidence of the American public in the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. But implementing a strategic adjustment will require dampening polarization and building a stable consensus behind it. As Roosevelt demonstrated during World War II, sound leadership and tireless public diplomacy are prerequisites for fashioning bipartisan cooperation on foreign policy.
The next president will have to take advantage of the discrete areas in which Democrats and Republicans can find common purpose. Logrolling may be necessary to circumvent gridlock and facilitate agreement. Evangelicals on the right and social progressives on the left can close ranks on climate change, human rights, and international development. Democrats might support free trade if Republicans are willing to invest in worker retraining programs. The desire of big business to preserve access to low-wage labor may be consistent with the interests of pro- immigration constituencies; building a bridge between the two groups would reconcile corporate interests in the North with immigrant interests in the Southwest. Democrats who support multilateralism on principle can team up with Republicans who support institutions as vehicles for sharing global burdens. Although these and other political bargains will not restore the bipartisan consensus of the Cold War era, they will certainly help build political support for a new, albeit more modest, grand strategy.
So will more efforts to reach across the congressional aisle. Roosevelt overcame the Republicans' opposition to liberal internationalism by reaching out to them, appointing prominent Republicans to key international commissions and working closely with Wendell Willkie, the candidate he defeated in the 1940 election, to combat isolationism. The next administration should follow suit, appointing pragmatic members of the opposition to important foreign policy posts and establishing a high-level, bipartisan panel to provide regular and timely input into policy deliberations. Form will be as important as substance as U.S. leaders search for a grand strategy that not only meets the country's geopolitical needs but also restores political solvency at home.
COPYRIGHT 2007 Council on Foreign Relations, Inc.
Document FRNA000020070630e3710000g

DIG in Trouble Over Ogbuawa's Release
by Chukwudi Achife

1,082 words

28 June 2007

01:45 PM

All Africa

AFNWS

English

(c) 2007 AllAfrica, All Rights Reserved
Enugu, Jun 28, 2007 (Daily Champion/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --
The last is far from being heard about the Nnewi kidnapping saga as the Deputy Inspector General of Police who ordered the release of multimillionaire businessman Chief Pius Ogbuawa after he had been detained over abduction of two Chinese and Nigerian staff of a business rival, is now said to be in trouble with his superiors over the reasons he gave for ordering Ogbuawa's release.
DIG Kerian Dudari in charge of 'D' department at the Force CID headquarters Abuja was reported as saying that he ordered Ogbuawa's release because after critically examining the case, he found that the Nnewi-based magnate "has no case to answer on the issue: and so, there was no point keeping him there".
His actions are however said to be raising dusts within the top echelon of the police force as his superiors are said to be asking questions as to why he would release Ogbuawa when at least one High Court had denied him bail on the ground that the case against him was strong enough prosecute over the kidnapping case.
Ogbuawa's troubles had started after Chief Innocent Chukwuma, the Managing Director of Motorcycle and Plastics manufacturing giant, Innoson Nig Ltd reported the kidnapping of two Chinese staff of his company and one Nigerian staff. Police looking into the affair later indicted Ogbuawa, himself was a kidnapping victim after it was established that he maintained close links with a militant group that abducted the victims as at the time of the allegedly incident.
The police in fact produced a print out from Mobile phone company showing a trend of telephone calls between him and the kidnappers shortly before and after the victims were abducted. The investigations also established that Ogbuawa who is also a motorcycle importer made a present of five brand new motorcycles to the kidnappers -a gesture however claimed was part of the conditions for his release by the kidnappers after his own abduction.
While in detention, he (Ogbuawa) sought and was granted leave by an Nnewi High Court to enforce his fundamental rights and consequently sought a declaration that his arrest and detention by the police at the instigation of Chief Chukwuma was an unwarranted infringement on his fundamental rights under Chapter 4 of the federal constitution. He also sought an injunction restraining the police from further detaining him and N20million as damages for his arrest and detention.
After hearing counsel on both sides of the case, the trial judge, Justice P.A.C Obidigwe rejected Ogbuawa's application for bail saying that from the facts before him, the applicant had not only failed to controvert any of the weighty charges against him but that the police had justified the arrest and detention of the applicant.
In the ruling delivered on the 11th of June 2007, Justice Obidigwe declared in part, "I had expected the applicant to positively deny or controvert the serious allegations of his association with the kidnappers made in the respondents' counter affidavits, especially his telephone communications with the kidnappers in Exh D. The telephone communications with the kidnappers in Exh. D. The applicant did not deny owning GSM phone number 08034071084 neither did he positively deny nor controvert the print out of the MTN call details in Exh. D of the counter affidavit of the 6th respondent. The said Exhibit D shows calls allegedly made with the applicants's said GSM phone number to or with 234035079402 between March 17, 2007 and April 7, 2007. The applicant filed a further affidavit of 8 paragraphs sworn to by Chinonye Ogbuawa, daughter of the applicant who also deposed to the verifying the affidavit. It is expected that the applicant would have reacted to the very serious allegations in the counter affidavits of the respondents. The only positive denial made by the applicant was in respect of donating two generating sets and welding machine. Of course, he admitted giving two motorcycles to the kidnappers. The legal implication of the averments not positively denied nor controverted is that they are deemed admitted and established and the court is bound to act on it".
Continuing, Justice Obidgwe said, " If it is admitted or if it is not denied that the hoodlums dressed in military uniforms visited the applicant with a Mitsubishi L 300 bus in his home at Nnewi on 08/04/2007; that applicant's GSM phone number 08034071084 had communications with phone number 2348035079402; that the applicant's in law, one Mr Ikechukwu was one of those who kidnapped the 6th respondent's workers; the reports and statements made to the police by the 6th respondent's company did not mention the applicant's name; that the applicant advised Sylvester Unigwe's (one of the kidnap victims) wife to tel the 6th respondent to give the kidnappers any amount they demanded; that the name of Ugochukwu Iloka (Ugonest) was given to the kidnappers by the applicant; that 3 members of the 6th respondent's company were kidnapped on 17th March, 2007,then the report to the police was neither baseless nor frivolous. It was a genuine complaint and the police was justified in arresting the applicant. The 3rd -5th respondent (police commissioners) averred that the investigation was almost concluded when the applicant petitioned the A.I.G Zone 9 Umahia to take over the investigation of the case. In the circumstances, I hold that the arrest was justified. The police have powers under section 24(1)( c) (i) to arrest any person whom any other person suspects of having committed a felony or misdemeanour. In the instant case the police have been able to justify the arrest and detention of the applicant. That being the case, the present application is lacking in merit and must fail".
The foregoing judgment, it was learnt formed the basis for the inquiry by police authorities into Ogbuawa's release from the police headquarters Abuja where the case was subsequently transferred. The authorities are said to be wondering how DIG could say that he has no case to answer despite clear contradiction of the court judgment.
"All I can say for now is that the release of Chief Ogbuawa is being looked into. I can give you any more details than that but I am sure the matter will continue to unfold" said a top police source when questioned on the development.
Document AFNWS00020070628e36s000uw

FT.com site : Risky countries: How to avoid an orange jumpsuit.
Roger Blitz

995 words

27 June 2007

Financial Times (FT.Com)

FTCOM

English

(c) 2007 The Financial Times Limited. All rights reserved
Information about the highest risk countries is best built up from a number of sources. The US State Department issues around five travel warnings a month, while the UK Foreign Office has a colour-coded warnings guide.
Somalia is a country with high levels of internal insecurity in which westerners are targeted. Two aid workers - a Kenyan and a Briton - were abducted in May and then released a week later. Last year a journalist and a nurse and her escort were shot dead. Suicide-bombers and car-bombs have also featured in the past year.
Iraq Terrorism, the targeting of foreign nationals and the threat of kidnappings prevail. The abduction of five British nationals in May by suspected Shia insurgents from the finance ministry showed even dedicated protection teams are at risk. Baghdad and its suburbs and several regions are highly dangerous, as are some Kurdish government-controlled regions.
Afghanistan Terrorism and the high threat of kidnapping make all but essential travel to Kabul inadvisable. Road travel is dangerous because unexploded mines are widespread. Remnants of Taleban and al-Qaeda forces are active. No part of the country is considered immune from violence. Suicide bombings have hit civilian and military targets.
Pakistan The suspension of the Pakistani chief of justice has led to demonstrations, clashes with police and a number of deaths. Terrorism and sectarian violence pose a high threat throughout the country.
Democratic Republic of Congo Insecurity and lawlessness dominate eastern and north-eastern Congo. The Congolese army and insurgents are engaged in sporadic but brutal fighting which in March causedheavy civilian and military casualties in Kinshasa, the capital. Clashes between government troops and political groupings led to 100 deaths in Bas Congo at the beginning of the year. Security forces at roadblocks are poorly disciplined, and passport confiscation, temporary detention and other difficulties occur at airports and ports of entry.
Burundi Attacks by rebel groups in Bujumbura, the capital, are frequent. Street crime is also common and muggings at gunpoint, pick-pocketing, burglary, car break-ins, and car hijackings are frequent.
Cote d'Ivoire Demonstrations and violence, civil unrest have occurred throughout the country but notably in Abidjan and the west. Ongoing political tension makes the situation volatile. A peace accord was signed in March, and a process of disarmament and demobilisation has begun, but political violence could break out at any time.
Sudan The security situation makes travel to Malakal and the Upper Nile area highly risky. Eritrean and Sudanese forces faces each other across the border. Aid organisations were attacked in 2005 near to the Ugandan border. Incidents involving NGO staff have taken place in Darfur, the scene of an ongoing genocide. Banditry is widespread and there is a high terrorism risk.
Papua New Guinea is in the midst of national elections. Law and order are described as "very problematic," typified by armed carjackings, assaults, robbery, shootings and serious sexual offences. Serious incidents have been on the increase since September 2006 in Lae, PNG's second city, and on the road between Nadzab airport and Lae.
Nigeria All travel to the Niger Delta, the centre of the oil industry, is inadvisable. There is a very high risk of kidnapping, armed robbery and other armed attacks. Since January 2006, 31 British nationals and over 180 foreign nationals have been kidnapped in 15 separate incidents in the Niger Delta. In addition two Chinese nationals were kidnapped in south-east Nigeria in March.
Contingency planning
A man, on business in Moscow, is walking down a street one evening when he passes someone who drops a number of transparent envelopes holding a lot of money.
The businessman picks up one of the envelopes and gives it to the passer-by. Suddenly, the businessman is surrounded by a gang who accuse him of taking some of the money.
Extricating this businessman from this perilous situation depends on how well his company has prepared him for business travel in volatile parts of the world.
This is driven by the company's sense of responsibility for its staff, the increasing amount of business travel and the litigious nature of the workplace. In the UK, the prospect of legislation on corporate manslaughter is making companies fret about their future liabilities.
So companies are contracting specialists in risk situations to help them handle the pressures of kidnappings, riots, terrorism, natural disasters and straight-up street muggings that might befall their staff.
According to one such consultant, Control Risks, there is a check-list of seven basic principles that clients should tick or have in place when sending an employee abroad: assessing the risk, briefing the employee, monitoring events, tracking staff, providing 24-hour support, having a contingency plan in place and being able to prove "a demonstrable duty of care".
Some companies help their travelling staff to monitor events through a series of SMS texts. Tracking where they are is about consolidating all the travel booking data in one place. "You could have one bank using 66 travel agents around the world," says Hannah Kitt, who runs Control Risk's travel tracker system. "If something goes wrong, you've got to have all that information at your fingertips."
Any serious incident should trigger a crisis management plan, which will involve a designated group holding a conference call to review the situation and decide on the next steps.
Companies, says Ms Kitt, must be able to prove they have a risk-assessment policy in place for business travel.
As for the businessman in Russia, he backed himself into a shop and stood in front of a CCTV camera. He managed to phone the company security hotline, who established where he was and got the company's Moscow office to pick him up and put him in a car. He was saved by his own quick thinking and the advice of a security centre hundreds of miles away.
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Document FTCOM00020070628e36r00013

SAAG well placed to take part in projects worth RM1b globally
By Zaidi Isham Ismail

502 words

26 June 2007

Business Times

BTMAL

40

English

(c) 2007
OIL and gas services provider SAAG Consolidated (M) Bhd said it is well positioned to participate in any business contracts that are being tendered globally worth at some RM1 billion.
SAAG executive director and group chief executive officer Anand Subramanian said the company is always on the lookout for growth opportunities locally and abroad.
"We have a decent strike rate and will make the necessary announcement once we are going for a bid," Anand told reporters after the company's annual general meeting in Selangor yesterday.
Anand said the global oil and gas industry is set to offer a lot of opportunites, especially in Asia, Australia, Nigeria and Russia.
SAAG which specialises in oil and gas pipe-laying and horizontal direct drilling services, has an order book of RM700 million, of which 70 per cent is derived from its overseas projects, enough to keep it busy for the next two years.
SAAG, short for Sistem Alat Alat Gas, which made its debut on the local stock exchange in 1995, supplies spare parts to oil firms and operates three oil rigs.
It also manufactures and supplies equipment and machinery in the oil, gas, petrochemical and hydrocarbon-related sectors such as generator sets, construct telecommunication towers, own housing development projects as well as delve in general trading.
SAAG has operations through subsidiaries and associate companies in countries such as Australia, Russia, India, Singapore, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Brunei, Thailand, South Korea, China (in Hong Kong) and Nigeria.
On another issue, Anand clarified that SAAG's actual trade receivables is RM69 million and not RM307 million as reported by an English financial daily.
"Out of the RM307 million, RM69 million is the actual trade receivables while the remaining RM238 million are advance payments made to our suppliers and contractors to kickstart a project."
Anand said the RM238 million is actually a sum the company has to fork out in advance and will be recovered once its projects are completed and its clients pay in full.
"Due to accounting standards and terminology, the amount is categorised as trade receivable when in fact they are actually revenue still due to us," said Anand.
He said the RM238 million consists of 10 projects and will be recovered once it has delivered its on-going projects and its customers pay in full by mid-2009. Anand said a three-month trade receivables of RM69 million against a turnover of RM270 million is a respectable figure and within industry limits for a small company like SAAG.
He said the company does not discount that it will have to pay additional advances in future projects to supply equipment because it will only get paid by its customer once a project is completed.
Anand also said US