Barak on Track
Breaking stories in the Middle East, Indonesia, and Washington push softer
Sunday stories to the margins. All three papers lead with the signing of the
Israeli-PLO accord at an Egyptian Red Sea resort. Officials hope the agreement
will develop into the framework for a peace treaty early next year. The
Washington
Post and the Los
Angeles Times front accounts of increased violence in East Timor by
anti-independence militias. Both the New York Times , which rewrote almost its entire front page
between editions, and the WP front Hillary Clinton's statement
encouraging the president to take back his offer of clemency to 16 Puerto Rican
terrorists.
Israel will transfer to Palestinians full or partial control of 40 percent
of the West Bank in three stages--Sept. 13, Nov. 15, and Jan. 20. Negotiators
will try to hammer out a plan for a permanent peace treaty by Feb. 15, although
officials on both sides (including Arafat in his speech) said that will be a
tough deadline to meet. The new agreement also addresses a water dispute and
calls for Israel to release 350 Palestinian refugees. Coverage of the ceremony
in the two Times eclipses Albright's stop in Damascus, where she could
not resuscitate talks between Israel and Syria. The latter wants the border
redrawn to its position on June 4, 1967, before Israel captured the Golan
Heights. The NYT notes Israel's insistence on the 1923 boundary, which
does not reach the Sea of Galilee. This point, bumped to an inside story for
the late edition, could have used further clarification, since Israel did not
exist until 1948. The 1923 border was acknowledged internationally after the
League of Nations 1922 Mandate for Palestine authorized Britain to set up a
Jewish homeland west of the Jordan River.
Anti-independence militias in East Timor terrorized rural towns yesterday
after voting showed that nearly 80 percent of East Timorese favor independence
from Indonesia. Thousands of people rushed to Dili's airport and dock hoping to
flee. The Indonesian army did little or nothing to stop the militias, and the
government has not made any guarantees to foreign authorities that it will act.
The LAT emphasizes that the campaign has "no logical political
objective," but the WP suggests militia leaders may be trying to sweep
out an anti-independence sector in the west. Foreign troops would most likely
come from Australia at first: "It's their Haiti," a U.S. diplomat told the
Post . A full-page spread in the NYT "Week in Review" summarizes
the Indonesian national dilemma: how to hold 13,000 islands together.
German police in Hamburg arrested Martin Frankel, the "nebbishy" (
WP ) financier accused of stealing about $350 million from at least half
a dozen insurance companies. Frankel had eluded international investigation
for four months, and it will be several months more before he is
extradited.
Hillary Clinton said the president should drop his Aug. 11 decision to offer
clemency to 16 Puerto Rican terrorists because they have not renounced further
violence. Her criticism, and that of legislators, prominent New York
office-holders, and top law-enforcement officials, has forced the White House
to reconsider its stance, the WP and NYT report. Consequently,
the administration gave the prisoners until 5 p.m. Friday to accept the
president's gesture, which includes restrictions on their travel and political
activity. The WP , more than the NYT , suggests that the story is
really about the developing fissure between White House business and the first
lady's need to maintain political independence for her Senate bid.
Russia's on-again, off-again prosecutor, Yuri Skuratov, told the LAT
that 780 current and former government officials are under investigation for
illegally trading government securities that were suspicious to begin with.
Skuratov said top officials, acting on inside information (not a directly
punishable offense), yanked cash out of treasury bills before the ruble's
collapse last August and then sent it abroad. A sure sign that something is
amiss: Government officials who made less than $10,000 a year had invested more
than $200,000 in the securities. The NYT "Money & Business" section
profiles Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose companies are being investigated in
relation to the Bank of New York money-laundering operation.
The NYT off-lead reports that some medical ethicists and consumer
watchdogs are faulting former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop with blending
public service and commercial interests on his company's Web site, DrKoop.com.
In recent weeks, this criticism has already led the company to drop the part of
Koop's contract that allowed him to receive a percentage of the money brought
in by products and services sold through the site. Critics also charge that the
site sometimes fails to distinguish between its advertising and the products
and services that it describes. Koop says he's not in it for the money.
Two columnists walk into a bar ...
Two NYT celebrity
columnists prove that the anecdotal is "in." Thomas Friedman, writing about
Taiwan's need to recognize its sometimes subtle commercial dependence on China,
starts out, "So I was having lunch the other day with a group of Taiwanese
news editors ..." Maureen Dowd, ostensibly reviewing the new $785 million
Paris-themed hotel and casino in Las Vegas, writes, "I'm strolling down a
cobblestone street, beneath a cloud-speckled Paris sky." One way or another,
each draws attention to the oddities (Dowd) or pitfalls (Friedman) of the
global economy.
