Insider notes from United Press International for Sept. 29.
After weeks of rumor that the Israeli army was planning a full-scale assault and reoccupation of Gaza, the real battle of Gaza has broken out -- and it looks more like a clash between Palestinians. The new Palestinian Cabinet of Prime Minister-designate Ahmed Qureia (Aba Ala), includes Mussa Zubut, officially listed as representative of the Islamic Bloc of Gaza, a euphemism for Hamas. This was a deliberate snub to the uncrowned king of Gaza, Yasser Arafat's former security chief Mohammed Dahlan, whose Ministry of Internal Security has been assigned to "General" Nasser Youseff, nominal commander of all Palestinian forces and a devoted Arafat loyalist. So Gaza erupted over the weekend, with mass protests, led by Dahlan's armed supporters firing their weapons into the air and burning effigies of Arafat aides. Already rubber-stamped by Fatah's central committee, Abu Ala will get formal approval from the Palestinian National Council later this week.
Now we know why the Bush administration backed Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as NATO's new secretary-general, replacing George Robertson. It seems that Scheffer's department very discreetly organized secret backing for the U.S.-led campaign in Iraq. Back in March, Scheffer publicly denied to parliament that his staff helped recruit Europe-based Iraqis to join the U.S. forces as translators and political advisers. But Iraqis holding Dutch passports have now asserted on Dutch TV that officials from Scheffer's ministry helped recruit and brief them. Dutch MPs are now preparing parliamentary questions alleging that Scheffer lied to parliament, and are also investigating allegations that Iraqi asylum-seekers in Holland were told their applications would be granted if they joined the paramilitary force of the Iraqi National Congress.
Pakistan and China have agreed on an initial production run of 500 versions of their new jointly developed FC-1 fighter jet, known in China as the Xiao Long, after Chinese military objections were overruled. China's air chiefs preferred to concentrate on getting the long-delayed and more sophisticated J-10 into service. But after heavy lobbying by Pakistan and by China's influential China Aero Technology Import and Export Co. and by the manufacturer, Chengdu Aircraft Industry Co., the deal is going ahead. Pakistan's Air Force is taking 150, China has now agreed to take 200, and the remainder are aimed at export markets. The new warplane, based on the Russian MiG-33 (declined by the Russian air force) and equipped with Russian RD-93 turbofan engines, has had its control surfaces redesigned to make it more of a match for the U.S.-built F-16 in maneuverability. The longer production run is supposed to bring the unit price down to $10 million. The joint development project has so far cost the two countries $500 million.
Hungary's government is running scared of Attila the Hun. Socialist Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy, a former chairman of the Inter-Europa bank, and his finance minister, Csaba Laszlo, a former director of K&H Bank, are embroiled in what the opposition Fidesz party calls "the biggest scandal that has ever rocked Hungarian politics since the fall of communism." Everything depends on a stockbroker, Attila Kulcsar, currently in Austria fighting extradition, who is supposedly the key to unraveling a complex $27 million fraud at the K&H bank's stock broking arm. Tibor Rejto, former chief executive officer of the bank, was arrested trying to get into Austria (on a Canadian passport), along with one of two shadowy Syrian businessmen accused of looting K&H. The Syrians managed to evade the usual controls to open accounts (through which the loot was supposedly channeled) at the Inter-Europa bank, which is why Medgyessy has so explaining to do. This "Brokergate" scandal is potentially a lot bigger than Hungary; K&H is jointly owned by Dutch and Belgian banks, and Hungary is poised to join the European Union on May 1 next year. In the Hungarian parliament, Fidesz is claiming the government is running a cover-up -- and also trying to establish why Karoly Szasz, head of the country's Financial Supervisory Authority, was brutally beaten by masked assailants just before his office published the report that blew the scandal open.
