Transcripts For WETA Worldfocus 20091019 : vimarsana.com

toght on worldfocus iran under the gun on two fronts. a major terror attack on its own soil, and wl it make good on reducing the perceived thrt from its nuclear program? our signature story, we will go inside iran for a story largely untd. iran s problem with illal immiation. millions see a better life in that oil-rich nation. whilein pakistan tonight, hundredsf thousandsrying to escape the fighting as the army carries out a large new offense against the taliban. and he is somhing that we didn t know. the mel population is out of control in australia. just wt is to be done? from the world s leading repoers and analysts, here s what s happening from arou the world. this is worldcus. major support has en provided rosalind p. walter and e peter g. peterson foundation, dedicad to proting fiscal responsibility and addressingey economic challees facing america s future. and addional funding is provided by the llowing supporters hello and od evening. i m daljit dhaliwal. for mo than six years now, ever since the u.s. invasion of iraq, you have heard a geat deal about theconflict between shii and sunni uslims. but th differences between the two groups is hardly limited t iraq. we g a remier of that this weekend after two bomb attacks killed five senior commanders of th powerful revolutionary guard an37 others in ran, an ovwhelmingly shiite contry. a sui insurgent group said i carried out the attk. one suicide bombing, the other a roadside car attack. the attacks took ple in an s remote and motainous southeast across the boaer from the pakistani province of baluistan. the head of the revolutionary guard accus pakistan, the uned states and britain of having links with the litants, charges dend by all three countries. in tonight s lead focus, we begiwith the view of t attacks from iran, how this test violence was reported nazanine moshiri of al jazeera english. rorter: the afterth of a suicide bombing. th is where a thering was supposed to take place between revolutionary guards and local tribal ders. th dead and injured were taken to a local hostal. this ione of the most dangerousarts of iran. notorious forits drug traffickers anits ndits, attacks here a common. wh happened on sunday morning isn t. this man general nouri ali shootari is amo the dead. deputy commander of the revolutionary guards ground forces, he was a key figure in thregion. understand that he had attained a reputation as a peacekeeper, holding tse kinds of meetingsor the past six months, tryingo help persuade locals t help iran agnst drug traffickers. jundullah, which translates to soldiers of god was alsoehind this suicide bombinat a shia mosque in zahedan in may 25 people died this isn t first time jundullah has killed membersf the revolutionary guard. 11 died in a car bombing i february, 2007. the ws of the aack came as shock to many. ali larijani told what has happened. translator: the intse of these terrorists was definitely to disrupt baluchistan pronce. because thes people were workg around the clock to bring curity to t regi. reporter: iran s revolutionary guardswent further in their accusations. in a statement they id,urely foreign elements, rticularly those linked to t globa arrogance were involved in this attack. they were referring to th americans. is isn t the first time the iranians have accused outside forces of causing insecurity in the coury. the genera beliefs that americans and the saudis and the british have somewhat common interests in tryinto destabilize iran. reporter: jundullah says it s fighting for the freedom of sunnis in the reon, and t elite revolutionary guards ar their number one targ. theienemy is oneof the most powerful institution in iran. economically and politicly, they have a hand in eery asct of life here. they willnot be taken is lightly. nazanine moshiri, al jazeera, tehran. another big issue involving iran today. its nuclear proam and whether itill follow through on a tentativplan to move most of its enrichard anium outf the country. thus delayi its ability to make aar bomb. today in enna, delegates from iran, the united states, russia and fnce met to flesh out a deal under which iran wod send s enriched uranium to france and russia to be processed for medical uses. before the eting, iran struck a defiant tone saying it would still t hitate to enrich the uranium itselff the talks that began toy are not ccessful. for s part the head of the international atomic energy agency said th the talks got ofto a goodstart. for a closer look at tay s nuclear talks, we re joined by joseph cirincione, from ploughares fund. he is als author of bomb scare: the histo and future of nuclear weapons. welcome to the progm. thank u. it s been suggested that iran may end up backing away from a deal toend someof its enriched uranium overseas to russiar to france. is that signifint blow to efforts to rein in iran s nuclr bitions? i iran were to back away at this point, you ow, to tea usith this offer of shipping the uranium outof the country and then to raise a series of conditions inorder thathey can back away, itould be a vastating blow to thr credible, nojust with the united states and europe, which, of course, h grave concerns about iran, but also with russia whis involved in these lks. so i don t tink it s likely that you re gog to see iran ck away. hear that the talks are off to good start. let s hope theycontinue. what about the idea of a miliry strike against ir s nuclr falities? a milita strike is not rely an option. you hear a lot of bluster abou this. some people think it s a silver bullet that can end the program. but as the u.s secrery of defense,obert gates, points out, at best a u.s. military stke would delay t program not e it. an iseli military strike, which is much ls capable, probably would cause s but no destroy iran s capability. militarytrike wouldn t end the problem, would be the beginning of a thi u.s. war in the region. that s something theoint chiefs don t want t see. that s sething that most serious national security experts caution gainst. you ve also saidthat the notion that iran is on the verge of developg a nuclear weapon is, quote, unquot a my. if that is true, does this - es that affect t urgey of the talk that are being held in vienna? well, we have a ptty good idea of whe ran s program is right now. we can lay it out sort of ep by stp. they n have the technical capability to make a nuclear weapon. if the were t kickhe u.n. inspecrs out, break out of the treaty andtake the stockle of uranium ey have and tu it into weapon, it would tak them onyear at best and more likely to three years if they had technical prlems. that wld give them a crude nuclr device they would need an addional five yearso turn tha into a bomb they cld fit on a missile. so we do have some time. and this would be an obse process. we would see it happening. what the talks inienna are about and later talks th month are all about extding that timeline, containg the progm. the key element is the lightly richedranium that they curreny have, if youcan remove that fr an, it adds at least two yes to teir tiline, the time it wou take to make more. if you could open u all the cilities to inspeions, this wie subject ofalks on october 25h, youould then diminish th prospt that they might ve covert capabilities. thisombination of removing the uranium and extending the inspectioncan make iran sath to a bomb longer and more difficult. that s why these tal are so importt. all right joseph cirinone in washington, d.c., thank you very much. my pleasu. thanks for havg me. we wou also like to know at you think about this subject. and tonight s queson is do you think thatran can be trusted to make od on its pledge to take concre steps aimed at reducing tensions over its nuclear program? you can tells what yo think by going to the how youee it section of our website and, as always, you can fi that at worldfus.org. this was the third day of a major new offense by pa military against inrgents in an area csidered thheartland ofhe liban. and toive you a sense of how important this or the unite stes, two promine americans re in pakistan today. neral david petraeus, the m overseeing the warsn both afghanistan diraq,et with pakian s prime minister, as did senar john kerry, the chaian of the senate foreign relations committee. e offensive against the taliban is going on in south waziristan, alg the aghan border and as you will see in this report from deutch vel la, the civilian population is cght in the mdle once again. reporter: it s too dangerous to stay, sohey ve decide to pack up their pssessions and leave south wiristan. many morare expecte to follow as t pistani military intensifies its mpaign to flush t the taliban. translator: the situations very bad. ourfamily,our children we in danger we were facing bombardme and mortar fire inhe area althe main roes arclosed, and peop are fleeing by the mountain roads instead. reporter:ut the mountens are extrely dangerous. so 10,000 battle-hardened taliban militants are hidingut there, support by 1,000 foreign fighters from central asia believed to ha links wit al qda. there is presence of foreig militants in the area. primary uzbeks. they ve been there for quite some time. and tha is a i would say a very great influencg factor within that area. anthey are likely to give stiffesistance to the military reporter: the pakistani air force and artillery have been boarding the area for wes. checkpoints have been t up on roadseading to the provinc d almost all communication lines are down. the army wants to chokeff the rebels. t the blockade is making life impoible for th civilian population. many are deciding to leave. the ited nations estimates more than 100,000people fl south waziristanhead of the fensive. it expects some 200,000ore to be displaced fighti continues. in afghanist, one of the issues complicating dcisions on american policy in that country incling sending more troops is still uncertain ocome of the esidentialection. toy a united nations-bked coission threw out almos one-third of the votes saying they were fraudulent. presidt had karzai share ofhe vote is now put at only 48%. that sets the stage for a runoff. the obama administration announced a shift i policy toy towards sudan, whose presidenhas been charged with crimes against humanity. by the international crinal court. the admistration said it wi offer incenves to sudan if it workso advance peace in the darfur region, where cil war s claimed the lives of at least 300,000 people and displaced several llion more. tresident obama also said if sun fails toact, the will be what he called increased pressu by the ited states anthe internional communit for mo on today s policy shift on suan, we are joined by mahmoud mamdani, a professorof governnt and anthropology at columbianiversity here in new york. professor mamdani islso author of the ok saviors an survivors: daur pitics and the war onteror. lcome to the program. thanks for inviting me so let s just talk a little abouthe situation on the ground. are we sll seeing the kin of wispread killing and abuses that were once taking placen sudan? we re not. the first report thatthe tuation on the ground s beginning tohange started coming out in late 04. u.n. sourcesn the ground began suggesting that theevel of rtality was less than 200 a month. the u.n. command, inis speech last month, said that ere was no war in darfur. that actually what w going on in darfu was basically now banditry. let s ta about the obama administration. it s announced a new policy shift wards sudan, and it s been described as a mix incentives and presse or incentives and discentives. talk aittle bit about wat you understand that toean. i think t obama administration understan that there is aind a conflict and a tensioand a struggle side the sudan aministration itself, between doves d hawks. the is also a tenon inside the obama administratn itself between those who think that the stick should be more preponderent andhose who think this is time to engage withthe govement of suda is ther any mention of carrots and sticks iks miss etly within this poly as you read it? no, the s no mention of stic explicitly. there is aention of carro, which is a litt mo explicit. theres a mention that it is possible that sanctions could co to an end. there s a mention that i is possible that sudan could be off theist of terrost states. these e possibilities,and these arefinitely the carrots that the gernment in sudan has very much in mind as it evoes its own poli in darfur. but i think that there is a larger issue withhe obama adnistration, which is that just a the situationin darfur is improving,the situation in the south is worsening, and tat therefore, there is need to have ingrated sud policy, and there is need to be aware that the prence of stron activist moment in darfur may actually keep the u.s. fro attendingo the real issue insudan, i is the south. so the policy changes that we re seeing right now, are they likely to work? do you see them as having the basis of a lasting litical solutiono dan sproblems in the south and also in darfur? i think it s a very pitive ift, because it will make it possle for a political resolution of this question to happen on the ound. profess mamdani, thank you very much. hank you. d now tour signature story which we believe is ything but the sameold, same old om iran. it has nothg to with that cotry s nuclear programnd lile to d with international politics. what it s abouts how iran actually shares a common problem th the united ates. thfact that is a haven for many immigrants, legal and illegal, from poorer couries nearby. worldfocus s bigg n saan salnd rich o regan visitedthere this year. while iran has been hit b the downll in oil price, it remains an attractive destinion for poor workers who e seeking aetter life. our repo tonight is byichard o regan. reporter: while the world is still reeling from theongoing ecomic meltdown, iran s econy is push by the stream of money that comes here to pa for its oil. things have swed with the doturn in oil rice, but being the wor s second largest oil producer does ill mean money in the bank an having cash mean z ere s no much you can t b here. om high end autos to the latestcomputers, it s a r sale in tehran s market and s famous bazaar. while irans considered a clear outlaw and supporter of terrorism b europe and the u.s., to neighrs like afghanisn andiraq, iran looks like a model of stabily. so t odds are pretty good that someone workingnhe low wage jobs her is a refe free one of iran s troubled or impoverish neighbors. nearly million o them e from afghanistan, two-thirds of them are here illegally. translator: i have en here for year and a half. family is back in afghanistan. i send them money i came here to find wor rorter: gorn, his four brothers and a few others, will spend threst of the next ar buding a luxury condo in tehran s fancy nth side. they make their own home three flights below ground. in the condo s unfinhed basements an invisible afghan village. there is waterrom a hose, b no oer plumbing. they tap ino the building s electrical lines. in every ilding aroundhere, there is a similar scene. transtor: my brother found ob. we have a team and we all move from job to job together. reporter: the conruction company lets the afgha stay re in part to hide th from the authorities. 32-year-old gorban is head of this team. translator: i have been arrest three times. the first two times they made m sign a lette proming to leave. third time, i had to pay $6. reporter: $600 is about tree months pay. bu evenat that pri, gorba in and his men ar doing far better here thanhey would at home. tnslator: the payaround $10 day for alaborer. but youan make $25 t $30 a day if y have a ski. of that 0, we spend $3 on food and send the rest back home. their best to stay out sight. when outside, they try to end in. western afghanistan, where ese men co from, was onceart of persia, so they speak the sameanguage. like most iranis, they re shia muslims. but at home and her life le about cultural connections and more about family and villages. translar: this is not a goodife because we a not home with our families. but we make good money. and have better opportunities here than at me. i pe i cano home in a year and save enough t go backor good in five years. eporter: iran would like to see their backs sooner tn that. bu taking ahard line would create an economic crisisacross e bord. this man is the ministry of interior s official inharge of refuge and immigrants. translator: right now afghanistan is not stable. there is no rk for these refugees. we believe when theres vibrant economy with helth, education, homes and security, they will go ba to their couny. reporter: the $2.5 bilon that flows each year fm workers in ian toheir afghan milies is about as much as afghanisn s entire national budget. tnslator: it is not as hard in iran as w thought it would be. li here is pretty good. i send money to my famil reporter: lif underground haits comforts. there is enough to eat, boom boxought from a upgrading contractor and even a tv. night s feature is aorean historical soap opera dued in persian. theubbing is crucial. few of the workers on this team can read. workg as laborers isheir only option. the iranian government actlly es their lack of education a a reason tolet themay. they come from afan communities that oppose iran s enemy, the taiban, so keeping those communitie healthy is this iran interests. translato if they ever go back to afghanistan and try to run their couny, they need to literate and be able to decide for themselves the ki of society thewant. 3,000fghan refugees are goi to iranian universits. more than 95% of talan forces are iiterate. so we can see this ecation as a way t fight theterrorists. reporter: at let two of the meers of this crew ought to be in schl. gorban s youngt brother is 13 as ihis friend,ut school isn t anoption. they re here to support their family. but the rcent drop in oil prices hasutir s income. jobs, epecially foryoung people, are harder to find,nd young ople are the majory in iran. the prsure to send illegals home is growing. so a across tehran at thsands of constrtion site the worke try to stay out of sight. iran s hope is that they will soon leave and the money ty take with th will bethe foundati of political stility in afghanistan. the refugees hve more simple dreams. transtor: i have two boys and a girl. i m not happy to be away from th. my hope to make enough money too back and le with my wife ankids. reporte for worldfocus, i m richard regan in tehran. fally tonight,here has been a god deal attention in this country about the exploding er population. th are the ne of many farmers as they eat their way across the landscape. well, inaustralia, the is similaproblem, only the issue not de but camels. just what, might you ask, are camels doing in australia? ll, you have to go back a long way, says paul lockyer, of australia s abc. eporter: they usually are found in small mobs, scattered wide across the interior fm western austria to queensland. but researchers have found that the total population has reached stgering mbers. wel there s in excess of a million camels in auralia wandering around utback locations and th re doing significant enviroental and inf infrastructure damage. whever they go, th leave a trail of destruction. fences knocked d waterholes foulednd vetation stripped bare. they requite sophticated animals. rorter: the federal government has alloced $19 million for a camelontrol program, which is w in the planning stages across three states and the northern rritory. in the meantime, frustrated land holds are taking matters into thr own hands aerialhoot just concted in dert country the far northeast corn of south australi accounted for hundreds of camels but many still roam free. camels wer introduced more tha 0 years o to help explore and develop the land. now they furish there. in south australia alone w have 200,000 ferrell camels. that nber is expected to double in the next ten years. the damage thecause tohe environmenis traordinary. eporter: it seems that whever form a new conol programtakes, nothing short of a huge cullan bring the numbers do. paul ckyer, abc news, central australia. that is worldfocu for this mondaevening. you can share your opinions with us by visiting our website you can finthat at worldfoc.org. i daljit dhaliwal. for me and t rest of the team, have a eat eveni. we ll see u back here at the same time tomorrow. we ll see u back here at the same time tomorrow. good night. captions by vic www.tac.com major pport for worldfocus h been provided by rosalind p. wter and the ter g. peterson foundation, dedicated to promong fiscal responsibility and addssing key econom challenges facing america s future. anadditional funding is providedy the following supporters