06-06-2022

MonDAY, june 6, 2022
7
American spy agencies
review their misses on
Ukraine, Russia
WASHINGTON : The
question was posed in a
private briefing to U.S.
intelligence officials weeks
before Russia launched its
invasion in late February:
Was Ukraine's leader,
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, made
in the mold of Britain's
Winston Churchill or
Afghanistan's Ashraf Ghani?
In other words, would
Zelenskyy lead a historic
resistance or flee while his
government collapsed?
Ultimately, U.S. intelligence
agencies underestimated
Zelenskyy and Ukraine while
overestimating Russia and its
president, even as they
accurately predicted Vladimir
Putin would order an
invasion.
But Kyiv, Ukraine's capital,
did not fall in a few days, as
the the United States had
expected. And while
American spy agencies have
been credited with supporting
Ukraine's resistance, they
now face bipartisan pressure
to review what they got wrong
beforehand - especially after
their mistakes in judging
Afghanistan last year.
Intelligence officials have
begun a review of how their
agencies judge the will and
ability of foreign governments
to fight. The review is taking
place while U.S. intelligence
continues to have a critical
role in Ukraine and as the
White House ramps up
weapons deliveries and
support to Ukraine, trying to
predict what Putin might see
as escalatory and seeking to
avoid a direct war with
Russia.
President Joe Biden's
administration announced it
would give Ukraine a small
number of high-tech,
medium-range rocket
systems, a weapon that
Ukraine has long wanted.
Since the war began on Feb.
24, the White House has
approved shipping drones,
anti-tank and anti-aircraft
systems, and millions of
rounds of ammunition. The
U.S. has lifted early
restrictions on intelligencesharing
to provide
information that Ukraine has
used to strike critical targets,
including the flagship of the
Russian navy.
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Cambodians vote Sunday in local elections that are their first chance to go to the polls since the ruling
party of long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen swept a 2018 general election that was widely criticized
as unfair.
Photo : Internet
Cambodians get new opposition
choice in local elections
PHNOM PENH : Cambodians vote
Sunday in local elections that are their
first chance to go to the polls since the
ruling party of long-serving Prime
Minister Hun Sen swept a 2018 general
election that was widely criticized as
unfair.
Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party
is certain to sail to easy victory again
following what the U.N. Human Rights
Office charged Thursday was a pattern of
"threats, intimidation and obstruction
targeting opposition candidates. "
"Candidates have faced numerous
restrictions and reprisals that have
hindered their activities, with
imprisonment of a number of
candidates that appears designed to curb
political campaigning," the agency said.
It added that at least six opposition
candidates and activists were in
detention four days before the polls,
awaiting trial, while others summonsed
on politically motivated charges had
gone into hiding.
Cambodia's delegation at the U.N.
Geneva offices said in a statement that
the criticism was "erroneous, politicized
and selective." It said "all political
parties, including opposition ones, have
fully exercised their rights in line with
the laws and registered schedules
without any threats and obstruction."
Hun Sen, an authoritarian ruler in a
nominally democratic state, has held
power for 37 years. He has said he
intends to stay in office until 2028 and
has endorsed one of his sons to succeed
him.
His party is the only one to field
candidates nationwide in all 1,652
communes. Its only serious rival, the
Candlelight Party, has candidates in
1,632 communes, and the royalist
FUNCINPEC Party has challengers in
688 communes. There are a total of
82,786 candidates from 17 political
parties with 9.2 million registered voters.
Heavy rain hits Florida, flooding
stands Miami vehicle
MIAMI : Parts of South
Florida were experiencing
road flooding from heavy
rain and wind Saturday as a
storm system that battered
Mexico moves across the
state.
Officials in Miami warned
drivers about road
conditions as many cars
were stuck on flooded
streets.
"This is a dangerous and
life-threatening situation.
Traveling during these
conditions is not
recommended. It's better to
wait. Turn around, don't
drown," the city of Miami
tweeted. The city was towing
stranded vehicles from
flooder roadways.
The National Hurricane
Center in Miami said the
storm once known as Agatha
in the Pacific Ocean will be
known as Alex in the
Atlantic Ocean basin, if it
reaches tropical storm
status.
At 11 a.m. EDT, a tropical
storm warning was in effect
for portions of the state's east
coast and the northwestern
Bahamas. Bermuda was
under a tropical storm watch.
The storm's center was
disorganized, but appeared to
be reforming near the Florida
east coast. The storm is
expected to reach tropical
storm strength off Florida's
eastern coast by Saturday
night and is expected to
strengthen through Monday
as it moves away from
Florida and into the Atlantic
Ocean.
The local elections are held a year
ahead of the general election, and are
regarded as a test of the parties' strength.
In the last communal elections in
2017, the main opposition Cambodia
National Rescue Party made an
unexpectedly strong showing, which led
Hun Sen's government to crack down on
it as well as independent media. The
party was dissolved by the Supreme
Court on a charge of treason, widely seen
as politically motivated, and the free
press was driven out of business or
cowed into submission. Without the
Cambodian National Rescue Party on
the ballot, Hun Sen's party was assured
of victory in the general election the
following year. Several Western nations
imposed sanctions on the government
after concluding the 2018 election was
neither free nor fair. The harshest
measure came from the European
Union, which withdrew some
preferential trading privileges.
India records 4,270
new COVID-19 cases,
15 more deaths
NEW DELHI : India's COVID-
19 tally rose to 43,176,817 on
Sunday, as 4,270 new cases
were registered during the past
24 hours across the country,
showed the federal health
ministry's latest data.
Besides, 15 deaths from the
pandemic registered across the
country since Saturday
morning took the total death
toll to 524,692.
There are still 24,052 active
COVID-19 cases in the country
with an increase of 1,636 active
cases during the past 24 hours.
Supreme Leader acknowledges
Iran took Greek oil tankers
TEHRAN : Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei acknowledged Saturday that
Iran took two Greek oil tankers last month in
helicopter-launched raids in the Persian Gulf.
The confiscations were retaliation for
Greece's role in the U.S. seizure of crude oil
from an Iranian-flagged tanker the same
week in the Mediterranean Sea over violating
Washington's harsh sanctions on the Islamic
Republic.
"They steal Iranian oil off the Greek coast,
then our brave men who don't fear death
respond and seized the enemy's oil tanker,"
Khamenei said during an 80-minute speech
on the anniversary of the death of the late
founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini. "But they use their
media empire and extensive propaganda to
accuse Iran of piracy."
"Who is the pirate? You stole our oil, we
took it back from you. Taking back a stolen
property is not called stealing," he added.
The seizures ratcheted up tensions between
Iran and the West already simmering over
Iran's tattered 2015 nuclear deal with world
powers. Tehran has been enriching more
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uranium, closer to weapons-grade levels than
ever before, causing concern that negotiators
won't find a way back to the accord and
raising the risk of a wider war.
Iran's seizure of the tankers was the latest
in a string of hijackings and explosions to
roil a region that includes the Strait of
Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian
Gulf through which a fifth of all traded oil
passes. The incidents began after then-
President Donald Trump unilaterally
withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear deal,
which saw Tehran drastically limit its
enrichment of uranium in exchange for the
lifting of economic sanctions.
The U.S. Navy blamed Iran for a series of
limpet mine attacks on vessels that
damaged tankers in 2019, as well as for a
fatal drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil
tanker that killed two European crew
members in 2021.
Iranian hijackers also stormed and briefly
captured a Panama-flagged asphalt tanker
off the United Arab Emirates last year and
briefly seized and held a Vietnamese tanker
in November.
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