Periscope Atlantic Edition Edition

• Published in: Newsweek (International, Atlantic edition) p. 2
• Main Authors: Christopher Dickey, John Barry, Mark Hosenball, Dan Ephron, B. J. Lee, Jonathan Adams, Mark Hosenball, Richard Wolffe, Ginanne Brownell, Elise Soukup, Nick Summers, Emily Flynn, Benjamin Sutherland
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Newsweek Publishing LLC 26.12.2005
• Edition: International ed.
• Subjects: Berlusconi, Silvio; Hodgman, John; Kanaan, Ghazi; Kim Jong Il; Mehlis, Detlev; Mumford, Steve; Shui, Chen
• ISSN: 0163-7053

For more than 20 years, [Ghazi Kanaan] was the man who ran Lebanon. According to both Syrian and Lebanese sources, Kanaan had a profitable relationship with the then Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, at least until Kanaan gave up the Lebanon file in 2002. When Hariri was blown up in Beirut on Feb. 14, protesters accused the Lebanese intelligence chiefs--appointed by Kanaan--of plotting the murder or, at a minimum, covering it up. But a source familiar with the U.N. investigation into the assassination, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the case, says that Kanaan will likely not be directly implicated by the report of prosecutor Detlev Mehlis. (The investigation's conclusions are supposed to be submitted to the Security Council on Oct. 25, but several sources say Mehlis is likely to ask for an extension to December.) What Mehlis will do is point an accusing finger straight at Damascus. "There's no question about the link back," says the same source familiar with the investigation. The question, he says, is how high Mehlis will be able to point. One key witness, we know, is no longer available. There was something missing from Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian's speech last Monday-- the grand vision of years past. In fact, Chen seemed far more preoccupied with proposing banking reforms than with saying anything that might please or provoke China. The reason: faced with autocrats in Beijing who refuse to talk to him and an opposition-led legislature intent on blocking his agenda at every turn, Chen has "been tamed by reality," says Shelley Rigger, a Taiwan expert at Davidson College in North Carolina. The shift to an economic agenda is easier said than done, of course, considering his determined opposition. And voters have little sympathy with his predicament. "People here are really turned off by all the confrontation," says Emile Sheng, a political analyst at Taipei's Soochow University. "[The parties] have to find a way out of this political deadlock, because it's really hurting both sides." As a result, Beijing could be the ultimate winner. With Chen in a political straitjacket, the mainland might now be able to extract concessions on issues like cross-strait transportation. "They've got him in a box," says Rigger. "And now that he's tamed, they may want to see if they can get him to do some tricks." Although a few soldiers now wield camera-equipped helmets or heavy-duty laptops, the goal of wiring every foot soldier is still far off. The British Ministry of Defense's Future Integrated Soldier Technology (FIST) program, which would outfit a third of British units with Internet-enabled helmets that deliver real-time intel, isn't expected to deliver technology to the field until 2010. The U.S. military won't be able to meet its goal of equipping a third of its forces by 2020, according to a recent report from Congress's Government Accountability Office. The U.S. Army's $108 billion Future Combat Systems (FCS) and the British Army's $25 billion Future Rapid Effect System (FRES), which aim to tie together ground forces with wireless broadband connections, are expected to exceed their budgets. Money earmarked for the modernization effort is being eaten up by current forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, says Mark Daily, editor of Jane's International Defence Review: "There's a school of thought that says we're mortgaging our future for today's operational needs." The U.K.'s MoD spends more than half of its annual budget (GBP 8 billion out of GBP 14 billion) on current "support."