Transcripts For WHUT Worldfocus 20100219 : vimarsana.com

tonight on worldfocus the battle for marjah. u.s. and afghan forces control key parts of the town, but the fight is far from over. we ll take you to the front lines. it s the photo china could have lived without. president obama welcomes the dalai lama, while trying not to damage chinese/american relations. in south america, a new conflict between britain and argentina over the falkland islands. this time the issue is oil offshore. out of this world. you ll want to stick around for this. the latest images of ufos. from the different perspectives of reporters and analysts from around the globe, this is worldfocus. major support has been provided by rosalind p. walter and the peter g. peterson foundation, dedicated to promoting fiscal responsibility and addressing key econom challenges facing america s future. and additional funding is provided by the following supporters good evening. welcome to worldfocus. i m daljit dhaliwal in new york. we begin tonight with afghanistan, the battle for the key town in the souther helmand province. the town of marjah that s been going on since last weekend. the top u.s. marine commander said that u.s. and afghan forces have taken control of the main roads, bridges and government centers. five nato service members and one afghan soldier have been kied since the assault began. at the same time, afghan officials say that two more senior taliban officials were arrested in pakistan at about the same time the taliban s second in command was taken into custody. yet more news of success in the battle against insurgents. but on the ground, it s far more complicated. the continuing challenges more apparent. and that is where we want to begin tonight s lead focus, the battle for marjah, from the perspective of james bays, a correspondent on the ground, from al jazeera english. reporter: a bonus for his soldiers, the governor of helmand in the town of marjah, ordering his staff to give out 1,000 afghani notes, about $20. even though these men s mission is far from complete. gifts too from the u.s. marine commander for his men involved in the battle to retake marjah. an operation where success is still not certain. the afghan flag may fly again, but much of the town and the countryside around it is still not under nato and afghan government control. we have to go slow and steady. if not, people get hurt. there s lots of ied s and civilians out there that we want to make sure we don t hurt. reporter: the immediate challenges to the military in this damaged town, the constant risk of shots fired by taliban snipers hidden in buildings nearby. and the extensive network of explosive devices, planted in marjah and the surrounding area. success or failure will depend on the reaction of the local population. these marjah residents were searched before they were allowed to meet the governor. they came with complaints, children and families trapped, terrified in their homes, sick people unable to get treatment, farmers unable to bring food in a wn which has now been closed for five days. but there is one issue which has angered local residents more than any other. military commanders know initial civilian casualties damaged this operation in the eyes of ordinary afghans. the bodies of 12 people killed by nato rockets have finally been handed over to their relatives. the 12, including four women and three children, all came from the same extended family. the deaths have just added to the mistrust among local people in marjah, that s the challenge ahead for the international forces. james bays, al jazeera, helmand, afghanistan. for more perspective on the gains and challenges we re seeing in afghanistan, we turn to marvin weinbaum, a scholar at the middle east institute and a former state department analyst on afghanistan. he joins us from washington, d.c., thank you very much for joining us. you re welcome. nato has staked a lot on this operation in marjah. how is it defining success, and how important do you think it is that success be achieved? it s absolutely critical in this first real test of the counter insurgency strategy that the president, general mcchrystal have outlined that we make the kinds of gains here that are going to demonstrate to the afghan people that we ve taken the initiative. this is a tough one. if we can succeed now, first in the military operation, and then with the important follow-up which changes the lives of the people in the area, then i think we re sending a message which will be more broadly received and will give us an opportunity to bring around other liban fighters elsewhere. do you think that it s a strategy that can work? i think it can work. i have no doubt that we will be able to clear the area. what i am less certain about is whether we ll be able to see the afghans step in behind us so we can transfer the security responsibilities, and that the central government will bring in the kind of administrators which they haven t had in this area before. the administrators that will bring about a more just governnt so that people will feel they have an investment in sticking with the government and cooperating with the international enforcers. there are reports that a similar operation is being planned for the north of afghanistan. talk briefly about why the north? any idea what kind of timetable we might be looking at for that operation? that operation has been under discussions for some time, and it s in an area that in general we thought was secure from the taliban. but the area of kunduz share an ethnic identity with the taliban. the taliban has been very successful quietly infiltrating that area over a long period of time. so there in the north, we want to demonstrate that we can pacify that part of the country. otherwise, we ve got the taliban in effect in behind us as we try to pursue this campaign in the south of afghanistan. now, the afghan government has advocated negotiating with the taliban. how realistic do you think that is? do you think it s perhaps more likely that ordinary taliban soldiers could be convinced to lay down their arms? that s what we are aiming for. we want to reintegrate the fighters, the people who are not ideologically committed. they re talking about deals with the leadership of the taliban. i think that s very unlikely. these people are likely to lead us down a garden path here. they want to see from this a certain degree of legitimacy in talking to us. i don t think they re serious, and the capture of abdul mulabar is going to be essential at the higher level. thank you for joining us. surely. one more note about the war, a nato air strike in the kunduz province missed its target and instead killed seven afghan police officers who had arrived on the scene 20 help track down the militants. there are new developments tonight on a story that we reported on extensively yesterday. the assassination last month of that commander of hamas, the militant palestinian group. a senior police official in dubai where mahmoud al mabhouh was killed. he s 99% sure that israel s spy agency was responsible. beyond the 11 alleged assassins named by the dubai police and recorded by closed circuit cameras, officials now say the number of suspects is 18. although the others have not been identified. members of the group travelled to dubai on apparently fraudulent passports with identities stolen from real people, including six from britain and three from ireland. irish officials, among others, are upset. they re very angry about this, and very concerned. it s a very, very serious issue. it puts the security of our citizens at risk. we do know that two of the three we ve contacted are regular travelers and indeed one would have been traveling this weekend. that person could have very well been arrested because of the information that has emerged from dubai. the international police agency, interpol, put those 11 members of the alleged hit squad who have been identified on its most wanted list today. the notices include photographs, and say the names used were aliases used to commit murder. it was described as a muted meeting as president obama welcomes the dalai lama to the white house today. there was no public greeting, no fanfare. this is how the exiled spiritual leader of tibet arrived. that s him waiving from the back of the car as his supporters gathered nearby. the administration s low-key approach was aimed at not offending the chinese government, which considers the dalai lama a separatist. the dalai lama arrived in washington yesterday and is no stranger to that city. our german partner deutsche welle focused on that and the dalai lama s reception in washington. reporter: the city s tibetan community are proud that their spiritual leader has been invited to the white house. many have played down concerns that the visit could harm u.s./chinese relations. he s not the first united states president to meet with the dalai lama. since 1990, all the u.s. presidts have met with him. so it s kind of a routine. reporter: obama made a state visit to beijing last november. since then, bilateral relations have steadily deteriorated. ties have been strained by a planned u.s. arms sale to taiwan, which beijing considers a renegade province. threats to 3u8 pull out of china due to alleged spying. and now the dalai lama s visit. we think we have a mature enough relationship with the chinese that we can agree on issues that are of mutual interest. but we also have a mature enough relationship that we know the two countries on this planet are not always going to agree on everything. reporter: mindful of chinese sensitivi sensitivities, the white house has scheduled the dalai lama s visit take place behind closed doors. that report from deutsche welle. we want to go beyond the headlines tonight and ta the director of the modern tibetan studies program at the columbia university in new york. thank you for joining us. my pleasure. why is china so upset about today s meeting? it s an important issue for china. not because it means the u.s. is giving in to pressures and demands, but because in the last few years, china has stepped up on the tibet issue. it s now a core interest for china. more important than the taiwan issue, internationally. they see the dalai lama as someone who s trying to split tibet from china and, therefore, they think the americans must be aiming to do the same thing when they meet him. although, thas no longer what the dalai lama wants, right? no, and he gave out that claim 30 years ago. this is why it s puzzling for the americans when they re being told by the chinese to stop the meeting. the chinese actually demanded frequently that americans should not allow the dalai lama to visit america. americans can t really get into that, because there s no evidence that the dalai lama supports independence. serious evidence any more. do you think this meeting will do anything for the long term lasting damage to u.s./china relations? no, i think now the chinese are going to want to get out of this issue and let everyone forget it as quickly as possible. the question of obama meeting the dalai lama. the chinese have had a huge run of success in the last two years, very significantly upgrading the issue, and using very strong pressure on other governments not to meet with the dalai lama. the dalai lama met two international leaders last year, that s much less than most years. most european governments caved in to chinese pressure and cancelled meetings with him, or avoided him. this ends a long run of success by china for the americans today. and it shows that china s bluff is being called. do you think they might retaliate in some way? they probably have to do something. it will be on a more ritualistic level. they may cancel a meeting. we ve already seen they ve allowed the nimitz to dock in hong kong. that seems very significant. that gives us the clue that for the chinese, the much more important issue for them is not to provoke the americans into selling f-16 aircraft to tain. that s really what the chinese are worried about. they were hoping this pressure would work on the americans. it hasn t really succeeded. they re going to have to rethink their strategy there. could there be some loss here for the united states? given the growing importance of the u.s./china relationship, do you think that the president s meeting with the dalai lama was worth having? it s quite interesting how the americans are handling it. it s much more skillfully than they handled these kind of issues last year with china. they re giving some concessions to china in things that china really worries about. they want this meeting to be private, not public like the last bush meeting with the dalai lama three years ago. they know it doesn t matter to the american public or the tibetans. so they re giving small things and still keeping the substantial issues of having the meeting. thank you very much for joining us. thank you. we d also like to hear what you think about all of this. our question tonight, is the white house being too sensitive to china s view of the dalai lama, and should president obama have embraced him more publicly. you can give us your opinion by going to the how you see it section of our website. and that s at worldfocus.org. from south america, there are new tensions between two old rivals, britain and argentina. the issue once again is the falkland iands, which are controlled by britain and which argentina tried and failed to take back almost three decades ago. back then the issue was sovereignty, now it is oil, as we hear in this report from neil connery of itn. reporter: could the rocks beneath these waters of the falkland island contain as much oil as t north sea? with exploration work about to begin, tensions between britain and argentina have now resurfaced. the ship carrying drilling equipment was detained last week. buenos aires says it s now imposing shipping restrictions. the country s cabinet chief warned that any ship wanting to travel between argentina and the islands must first ask permission from the government. the falkland islands lie 300 miles off the argentinian coast. a drilling rig from the scotland highlands, the ocean guardian is due to arrive this week. drilling could begin within months. it s a big gamble for the four small london companies involved. desired petroleum and rock hopper are exploring the north. falkland oil and gas and borders southern are searching in the east and south. geologists estimate there could be up to 60 billion barrels of oil in the sea bed. if oil is discovered in very significant quantities, while conflict the likely outcome, is much more tension, much more tension between britain and argentina. reporter: after argentina s invasion of the falklands in 1982, a british town seized back control in a war which took the lives of 250 britains, and 649 ar argentinians. neil connery, itv news. that brings us to our signature story. a closer look at the rush for oil in the waters of south america. the brazilian state oil company petrobras is staking its claim in an effort to establish itself as a major global player on par with such companies as bp and conocophillips. in fact, many consider petrobras as the world leader in deep oil exploration. worldfocus special correspondent edie magnus took a look at the company in a story we aired previously here on worldfocus. reporter: it looms over the small ship building town south of rio de janeiro, like something out of a sci-fi movie. this mass of metal is known as p-51. when it s finished, it will be one of the world s largest offshore oil platforms. many here are convinced p-51 represents not just the fure of oil exploration, but the future of brazil. translator: the importance in p-51 is that it not only allows brazil to maintain oil self-sufficiency, but it will allow brazil to export oil. reporter: we paid a visit to p-51, it s an impressive sight. the main deck is twice the size of a football field. it has taken nearly 5,000 people to build it. once at sea, this one rig alone will produce more than 180,000 barrels of oil a day. p-51 was built by brazil s state-controlled oil company petrobras. it is designed to drill for oil in deep ocean waters where smaller ones can t. translator: p-51 incorporates all of petrobras s experience and innovation from 30 years of offshore work. p-51 represents the evolution of petrobras. reporter: much of the world s remaining oil lies deep under the sea. petrobras is going after it with religious fervor. they re drilling in waters off africa, the mideast and even the united states. this is the company s map of the gulf of mexico. each one othose red squares is a petrobras site. over the next five years, the company plans to spend more than $100 billion on exploration. it says that s more than any other oil company in the world. in brazil, petrobras made what cod recently be the biggest oil discovery since the 1970s, it s an enormous underwater field called tupi. where is this new oil discovery? the southeast coast of brazil. almost 200 miles from the coast is the region we are talking about. reporter: david silverstein is the former head of the government agency that overseas brazil s petroleum industry. he says the to be discovered oil changed the world of petroleum overnight. how much oil do they think is there? well, the first numbers are about 12 to 15 billion barrels. reporter: the discovery could mean that brazil could become one of the world s leading oil exporters. getting to it will be a challenge, even for the experts at petrobras. it lies more than five miles under the surface of the ocean, under layers of rock and salt. no one has ever gone that far down before. but there s more to the petrobras story than its discovery of offshore oil in brazil. petrobras is a state controlled company, and like others around the globe, it s becoming more aggressive. hoping to become a dominant player in the industry, along site companies like exxon mobil. it s because of discoveries like tupi that petrobras has such a bright future. the ten largest holders of petroleum in the world are state-owned companies like petrobras. the day after our tour of p-51, a very confident petrobras president sergeo gabrielli spoke with reporters. there were times when they said it would be impossible to build the p-51 platform. now, petrobras is one of the largest companies in the world. not only in petroleum reserves, but in market value. reporter: soon, the green and yellow logo of petrobras, may become as familiar to the world as the exxon tiger. i m edie magnus reporting for worldfocus from rio de janeiro, brazil. since we first aired that story, the p-51 platform is now producing oil off the brazilian coast, and petrobras is building several more platforms. finally tonight, images from another world. or are they? spaceships or figments of the imagination? we re talking about unidentified flying objects, ufo s from britain tonight. newly released images of what people say they saw. jillian kelly of itn takes us out of this world. reporter: the latest batch of the u.k. x-files released from the ministry defense and the national archives. judging from the sketches, it appears ufos come in all shapes and sizes, including descriptions of a hovering toblerone bar seen in the skies by a man over scotland. his report is among 2,000 between 1944 and the year 2000. he was really, really concerned about it. he called the police. they had to tow his caraway in the end. it s qte a convincing story. but to me, the fact that there was a thunderstorm going on at the time tells me what he saw is probably some kind of lightning or natural phenomenon. reporter: the detail in these drawings proves one thing, the public is still enthusiastic about ufos. as far back as the war of the worlds film in 1953 beings from another world. reporter: the idea of contact with aliens have captured the imagination. among the stranger sightings, the ufo seen over the home of a former conservative. a police officer spotted one over a football ground. and a man in wales became ill after a sighting. most ufos turn out to be unusual weather, secret military technology or deliberate hoaxes. a few remain a mystery. in fact, 2% or 3% are very interesting, are genuinely unexplained. and eve those of us in the ministry of defense who worked on this, are puzzled saying, we don t know what it is. reporter: the sketches are as dramatic as previous iconic images of ufos. but there are enough conspiracy theorists to believe they re out there. that s it for us. you can find more news and perspective at worldfocus.org, where the conversation continues online. while you re there, be sure to drop us a line about the program. i m daljit dhaliwal in new york. we ll see you at the same time tomorrow. good-bye. captions by vitac www.vitac.com major support for worldfocus has been provided by rosalind p. walter and the peter g. peterson foundation, dedicated to promoting fiscal responsibility and addressing key economic challges facing america s future. and additional funding is provided by the following supporters