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Chris Gelken Reporter's Notebook

Chris Gelken Reporter's Notebook
Commentary on the day's top local and international news.

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Blackwater comes under closer scrutiny
2007-10-06 03:58:00
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has revealed that private security company, Blackwater USA, will be subject to close supervision of its activities in Iraq. This comes as investigations into multiple shooting deaths associated with the company continue. . Under the new rules, a State Department agent will accompany the company on all missions and convoys undertaken in Iraq, and each and every operation will be captured on video camera. Iraqi National Security Advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie says this is a welcome move and says he is happy the Secretary of State moved so quickly. Meanwhile, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill that will provide for prosecutions of any criminal activity committed by U.S. contractors in Iraq. However, the White House has already expressed its opposition to the bill and George Bush is expected to veto the bill before it gets legislated into law. This still leaves the question of where Blackwater employees would be pr...
More About: Closer , Lack , Scrutiny

FBI to investigate Blackwater
2007-10-05 19:23:00
The U.S. State Department says a team from the FBI will be sent to Iraq to investigate the shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians by the security contractor Blackwater USA. Read more in this Ohmynews International article by Angelique van Engelen:http://english.ohmynews.com/Artic leView/article_view.asp?menu=A11100&n o=380587&rel_no=1&back_url=Meanwh ile, Cody Lyon reveals that Blackwater security guards earn as much as $1,222 per day, far more than their U.S. military counterparts. Follow the money trail...http://english.ohmynews.com/artic leview/article_view.asp?no=380580&rel _no=1Chris Gelken Reporter's Notebook http://chrisgelken.blogspot.com
More About: Lack , Tiga

Blackwater denies "reckless behavior"
2007-10-04 06:37:00
The founder and CEO of U.S. security firm Blackwater USA has spent the past two days being grilled by a Congressional Panel over the performance of his company's 1,100 operatives in Iraq. His company is accused of killing 17 unarmed civilian Iraqis in a shootout on the streets of Baghdad on Sept. 16. At the same time, the U.S. House of Representatives is about to vote on a bill that would put U.S. contractors in Iraq under U.S. legal jurisdiction so they could be tried in American courts.This article first published by Ohmynews Internationalhttp://english.ohmynews.com/ ArticleView/article_view.asp?menu=A11100& amp;no=380577&rel_no=1&back_url= The White House has said the bill would put undue pressure on the U.S. military and the FBI which would have to investigate the cases. Officials have already gone on record as saying that if the bill makes it to President Bush's desk, he will veto it. This will effectively maintain the status quo where these armed secur...
More About: Behavior , Lack

Is Iraq a sovereign state?
2007-09-30 15:52:00
The recent scandal surrounding the Blackwater USA Security Company in Iraq once again highlighted a question that many observers say is the very essence of the problems ? and the ultimate solution ? to the instability and violence in the war torn country. It?s a simple enough question: Is Iraq a sovereign country? And the equally simple answer to that question is no, Iraq is essentially a vassal or client nation of the United State s. All the evidence suggests that every action of the Bush administration, from manufacturing an excuse to invade, to the distribution of the nation?s natural resources, was to create a satellite state with all the trimmings of democracy, sovereignty and independence ? but one where the United States basically controls everything. Brian Becker, co-founder of the Answer Coalition in Washington says there is no doubt that the U.S. government has absolute control over Iraq's sovereignty, making Baghdad?s sovereignty a mockery. ?You can't really have freedo...
More About: Reign , Sovereign

al-Maliki gives Washington the finger
2007-09-27 09:14:00
During his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned some of his country's neighbors to stop funding and otherwise aiding insurgents in Iraq.The U.S. delegation must have been rubbing their hands together in anticipation. But if they thought al-Maliki was going to toe the Washing ton line and point the finger of guilt at Syria and Iran, then they were in for a bitter disappointment. And no little measure of embarrassment.Instead, al-Maliki fingered Saudi Arabia and Jordan, two prominent U.S. "allies" in the White House inspired War on Terror.Perhaps it was al-Maliki's way of thumbing his nose at Washington after the fiasco of the Blackwater affair.Apparently the Baghdad government has made repeated appeals to Riyadh and Amman to clamp down on what he's described as al-Qaida supporters in both of those countries. Odd, that we don't hear much criticism from Washington on this subject.The prime minister has been the target of much cri...
More About: Finger , Al-Maliki

Intolerance
2007-09-26 05:33:00
Say what you like about the man, but it took courage to stand up in front of what was always going to be a hostile audience and allow himself to be assaulted by a barrage of searching questions. Perhaps President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expected some heckling from the audience, but its doubtful he anticipated the vitriolic attack that was launched by the president of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger. In a statement that was embarrassing to himself, his institution, and indeed the United States of America, Bollinger excoriated the Iranian president with insults and slanders, even before Ahmadinejad had been given the chance to speak. Interestingly, looking through the reader's comments on CNN.com and the BBC website, a majority of people seem to agree that Bollinger's outburst was arrogant, rude, uncivilized and belligerent. Or "typically American" if you prefer the short version that some posters offered. Doctor Philip Brenner, a professor of international relation...
More About: Intolerance

Talk of war
2007-09-18 01:55:00
That was a truly depressing newscast. I have just walked out of the studio after anchoring the 00.30 am. main news, and after so much talk of war the cheerful banter with my co-anchor had become rather more somber. There was a lot of shaking of heads and questions of "when will it all end?" or "when will people come to their senses?" Here we have the French Prime Minister Francois Fillon saying everything should be done to avoid war with Iran ? but he agreed with his hawkish Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner who said the world should prepare for the prospect of war with Iran over its nuclear program. All this talk of war comes despite the fact that the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammad ElBaradei has repeatedly insisted that the Iranian nuclear program is not a threat to the international community. ElBaradei urged the world to remember what happened in Iraq before considering similar actions against Iran. He was of course referring to the fact that ag...
More About: Talk

And scenes of peace...
2007-09-18 00:37:00
A stroll through the tranquil gardens of the Golestan Palace in downtown Tehran will quickly dispel the gloomy mood and thoughts of war and intolerance.Said to be the oldest of the historic monuments in Tehran, the Golestan Palace (Palace of Flowers) belongs to a group of royal buildings that were once enclosed in the mud thatched walls of Tehran's ancient citadel.Some of the buildings and mosaics here are more than 400 years old, and extensive restoration is currently underway.Unfortunately because of the lateness of our arrival and the renovation work many of the exhibits were closed.But a gentle stroll through the peaceful gardens - just a few hundred meters from the bustle of Tehran's famous bazaar, was reward enough to make the trip.
More About: Peace , Scenes

View from the couch
2007-08-20 16:18:00
?Wow, you?re brave,? or ?Is it safe?? were frequent responses when my wife and I told people we were heading to Iran. Considering the coverage that Iran receives in most media outlets, these comments were not exactly surprising. Almost always political and overwhelmingly negative, Iran is presented as a forbidding and rather anti-Western country that considers foreigners ? especially the American and British kind - to be the ?enemy.? In reality, that impression couldn?t be further from the truth. At least in our experience at street level. Everywhere we go in Tehran we are met with curious smiles and a friendly ?salam? ? hello! View of the Alborz Mountains from the living room of our apartment. While in recent years Iran might not be a ?path well trodden? by foreigners, it certainly isn?t as isolated or cut-off from the world as many people might think. Our first foray into a department store/supermarket to purchase essentials to stock the refrigerator was made so much mor...
More About: Couch

A new adventure
2007-08-11 12:27:00
At the end of July my wife and I finally bid farewell to Seoul. The departure had been a long time in the planning - and was certainly not some last minute decision in reaction to any events that were playing out at the time.Negotiations for the new job had been ongoing since the beginning of the year, and a final decision was made in June.It wasn't an easy decision on many levels. First there was fact that I'd be once again changing direction - returning to television news after 20 months editing and writing for a newspaper. There was the convenience of South Korea compared to the rather more restricted and less developed environment - at least from a Western perspective - of Iran. Many of the things people in Korea take for granted are virtually unknown here.On the other hand, Iran and the Iranians have a certain charm and openness that would be hard to find anywhere else.Certainly, the level of English among average Tehranis is rather higher than you would find among Seoulites ...
More About: Adventure , Article , Advent

Does report point finger of guilt?
2007-07-09 12:42:00
From The Korea Herald, Saturday July 7th, 2007By Chris Gelken and Robert NeffA press release just obtained by The Korea Herald has accused the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs of a cover up, and claims to have eyewitness accounts of an incident of shoplifting by the ambassador of the Philippines to Korea, Susan O. Castrence.The embassy here in Seoul has emphatically denied the accusations, describing them as hearsay.The report, released by Kasammako, an alliance of Filipino migrant workers and published on the Migrant Workers Television website, has accused the Foreign Ministry in Manila of "covering up" a November 2006 shoplifting incident involving the ambassador.The embassy has dismissed the charges of shoplifting, and while they admit the ambassador was in fact stopped and her handbag searched, say it was all "a horrible mistake."Kasammako claims to have received direct information from individuals concerned in the incident, including security officers who were on duty a...
More About: Report , Point , Guilt , Finger

When honesty is the best policy
2007-07-04 10:45:00
From The Korea Herald, Thursday 5th July, 2007By Chris Gelken and Robert NeffAfter initially insisting "the published allegations are unfounded" and demanding a retraction, the Philippine mission to Seoul has admitted Manila's top diplomat here was in fact stopped by store security personnel at the Post Exchange (PX) on the Yongsan U.S. military base and accused of shoplifting.Ambassador Susan Castrence was responding to an article published in The Korea Herald on June 18 that reported a high-ranking Philippine diplomat had allegedly shoplifted from the American military base in Seoul.The story was picked up by media in Manila, and on June 28 the Philippine Star reported, "A Filipino diplomat, who asked not to be named, said the report (in The Korea Herald) was 'fabricated' and was part of a campaign to put the Philippine Embassy and officials of the diplomatic mission in a bad light."However, on June 29, other media outlets printed extracts from a press release in which Ambassad...
More About: Policy , Honesty , Poli

The BDA devil is in the banking details
2007-06-13 05:43:00
The U.S. Treasury Department has confirmed that Washington is working with Moscow to resolve the long running North Korean banking dispute. The inability of North Korean based account holders to freely transfer their cash out of the beleaguered Banco Delta Asia in Macau prompted Pyongyang to put the brakes on the first stage implementation of the February denuclearization accord.Over the past several months there have been just as many optimistic claims that a resolution, or a pathway, had been discovered to overcome what was originally described as technical difficulties preventing the transfer of the $25 million that had been frozen since September 2005.On Monday a new deal emerged involving a Russian bank, and there is widespread optimism that the issue could see closure as early as the end of this week.Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said the United States was cooperating with Russian and Macanese officials to facilitate the transfer of the funds.The State Department, mean...
More About: Banking , Devil , Details , Tails

Daejeon - It's not just about the ESL teachers
2007-06-13 05:41:00
The recent Korea Herald article over those Daejeon banners offering rewards for information leading to the conviction of English teachers who conduct illegal private tutorials caused quite a stir. The letters are still arriving and contributors to internet message boards are still voicing their outrage.Having said that, some people have questioned why The Korea Herald should have given up its front page to the story, and why we have devoted so many column inches to an issue that essentially affects so few people.Well the simple answer to that is; we haven't. This isn't just about a few hundred foreign English teachers in Daejeon.It has also been suggested that the stories were too sympathetic to foreigners, some of whom may in fact be among those who are illegally tutoring students.Not true. The Korea Herald does not condone or encourage illegal behavior. But it is important that the law is even-handed and applied across the board, and not selectively where a particular group is f...
More About: Teachers

Have the Daejeon hagwon gone too far?
2007-06-07 01:53:00
From The Korea Herald June 7, 2007When the extracurricular education of children becomes a virtually unsupervised business worth $15 billion a year and rising, it is a safe bet that the actual educational element is possibly the last thing on the mind of at least some of the market participants.The largely ineffective enforcement of existing regulations by concerned government departments, and their inability (or unwillingness) to coordinate efforts to bring order to a chaotic sector, is helping to feed the greed of the unscrupulous. And this situation is costing millions of middle and lower class Korean parents a fortune in wasted tuition fees, and Korea its reputation as a country governed by the rule of law and fair play.Private education institutes, or hagwon, in the city of Daejeon recently launched what amounted to a vigilante campaign by offering cash rewards to informers who exposed foreign English-language instructors who illegally teach private classes. Many of those who w...
More About: The D

Are English teachers ready for a union?
2007-05-23 16:19:00
The establishment of an association or a union to represent foreign teachers here in Korea is likely to be one of the hot-topic agenda items at the Global EFL Conference from May 25-26 at Korea University in Seoul.Leading the discussion will be former lawyer Paul Robertson from the online legal advice forum, EFL-Law. About seven years ago Robertson organized a law information session for foreign teachers in Busan. "About 80 teachers turned up to listen to attorneys talk about teachers' rights. At that time the Ministry of Justice had indicated that they would strongly oppose any attempt by foreign teachers to form an association," Robertson told The Korea Herald."Over the years we have noticed an increase in the number of legal problems that foreign teachers are encountering in Korea," he said, "We had expected a drop in the number of problems by providing information online and via law forums on the internet. However, it may have been that as teachers became aware of their legal r...
More About: Union , English , Hers , Teachers , Teac

Axis Of Evil Tour
2007-05-23 16:15:00
"States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world," said U.S. President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address on Jan. 29, 2002.When Bush coined the phrase that was to echo around the world, American Scott Fisher was teaching English at Sungshin Women's University in Seoul. Little did the long time resident and fluent Korean speaker know at the time, but those three little words -- "Axis of Evil " -- were going to have a profound impact on his life, and lead to the publication of a book that most reasonable people would consider essential reading for the current occupant of the Oval Office."I never intended to write this book," says Fisher in the introduction to "Axis of Evil World Tour ." "When I visited my first axis country, North Korea, in 2002, it was simply out of curiosity to see the North after living for almost ten years in the South."Two years later, Fisher, then working as an Asia Analyst for the...

More Banco Delta Asia
2007-05-20 18:07:00
A reader brought my attention to the following article on the Banc o Delta Asia issue, and it is well worth five minutes to take a look. The writer is essentially reiterating much what I have been writing on the subject for months, but does it so much better!https://mail.heraldm.com/exchweb/b in/redir.asp?URL=http://english.ohmynews. com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_ class=%26no=362192%26rel_no=1For more insight on the BDA scandal visit http://chinamatters.blogspot.com/And just to show that I haven't ?dropped the ball? on the subject, here is the transcript of my Friday report on Arirang Radio.RH Transcript May 18 with Chris GelkenDJ: An American newspaper has reported that a U.S. bank is considering stepping in and helping with the transfer of frozen North Korean funds from the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia. Joining us with more details is Chris Gelken from the Korea Herald.Chris, this is obviously a welcome development ? but I am almost too afraid to ask ? is it a viable devel...

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