International Periscope

/ Source: Newsweek International

IRAQ

Questions, Questions

Saddam Hussein was apparently convinced that U.S. forces would never invade Iraq and oust him from power, say U.S. officials familiar with the accounts of captured members of the former dictator’s regime. U.S. Defense and security sources say that high-ranking former Saddam aides have told U.S. interrogators that Saddam believed the only assault President George W. Bush would ever launch against Iraq was the kind of low-risk bombing campaign that the Clinton administration used in the former Yugoslavia. Saddam was also confident that France and Germany would pressure the United States to retreat from this course, leaving Iraq shaken but Saddam still in power. Even after U.S. divisions assembled on Iraq’s borders, Saddam thought U.S. ground forces would only go after suspected unconventional-weapons sites, Scud-missile launchers and military bases.

U.S. officials say that this account of Saddam’s misunderstanding of American intentions could well explain the haphazard way in which the regime defended itself and fell apart early in the American onslaught. U.S. analysts are also taking more seriously stories that detained Iraqi leaders are telling about what happened to Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. U.S. sources say that captured Iraqis insist Saddam’s top strategic objective was to persuade the United Nations to relax sanctions on his regime. So, after Saddam’s son-in-law Hussein Kamel, head of his unconventional-weapons programs, defected to Jordan in 1995, Saddam ordered intensified efforts to destroy blueprints and “dual use” technology. Not only were documents and equipment hidden or obliterated, but records showing what had been destroyed were also pulped. Some U.S. and British intel officials still say stockpiles of chemical or biological agents will turn up. But U.S. Defense analysts are paying more attention to a “working hypothesis,” based on stories told by Iraqi captives, that no live WMD may ever be found. Some U.S. officials even think Iraqi defectors who surfaced before the war saying Saddam was still making WMD were double agents dispatched by Saddam to spread disinformation to deter his enemies. Others say this would have undermined his effort to have U.N. sanctions lifted.

—Mark Hosenball

ECONOMICS

Currency Wars

The Bush administration blames runaway U.S. job loss on weak Asian currencies—in particular the Chinese yuan. Yet when U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow toured the region last week, he didn’t openly confront Beijing on the issue and “tacitly approved” Japanese intervention to prevent a sharp rise in the value of the yen, says former Japanese Finance official Eisuke Sakakibara. “To some extent this is not a real [currency] war but political posturing. The U.S. election is next year, and manufacturing is a very important constituency for Bush.”

Nicknamed “Mr. Yen” for his ability to move currency markets as Japan’s vice Finance minister in the mid-1990s, Sakakibara knows spin when he hears it. He’s convinced that the United States won’t push for an early floating yuan because most experts concur it’s too risky. China faces a huge bad-loan glut in its banks, failing state enterprises and a yawning rural-urban income gap, he argues, all of which make it “suicide for them to revalue” any time soon. Scars —from the Asian Financial Crisis, triggered by runs on convertible currencies, are still too fresh.

Mr. Yen’s spin on China: join what you can’t beat. “There are two strategies for countries like the U.S. and Japan: take advantage of China’s low costs by building factories and joint-ventures there or complain and gripe to try and force a currency revaluation. I think the former is the right one.” Economically, that logic is flawless. But try selling it to the 93,000 Americans who lost jobs in August—and his prognosis for the U.S. economy is that it will falter right around the election in 2004. Squaring that with a non-hostile China policy is impossible. Which explains last week’s Snow-job.

—George Wehrfritz

MACEDONIA

No Rest in Peace

Few could have been surprised that ethnic tensions would continue to simmer after Macedonia’s short but bloody conflict that officially ended in 2001. But even fewer could have guessed the latest source of animosity. This summer, ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians have been battling over rights to a statue in honor of the late Mother Teresa, which was originally meant to be erected near the Rome headquarters of her charity. Albanians claim she was one of their own and that she should be honored by ethnic Albanians, with all the statue’s inscriptions written in their language. Ethnic Macedonians, of course, are labeling her Macedonian. (After all, she was born in the capital, Skopje.) A war of words that began in Internet chat rooms has now spread everywhere from the streets of Skopje to the two countries’ diplomatic and intellectual circles.

The strife is unlikely to ease any time soon, at least not in time for Mother Teresa’s beatification on Oct. 19, the scheduled deadline for the statue’s completion. Even if Macedonians and Albanians come to some sort of agreement on Mother Teresa’s actual roots—a near-impossible dream, as almost all the facts are clouded by conflicting interpretations—the political tangle has left the preparations far behind schedule. Even Tome Serafimovski, the monument’s sculptor, remains skeptical about whether the huge monument will be ready in time. Perhaps the only hope for this tribute to go ahead is if both Macedonians and Albanians alike see the shame in their defamation of the nun’s good name and let the international community handle it. As Kapital, a Macedonian weekly recently put it: MOTHER TERESA SHOULD BE PROTECTED FROM THE BALKAN PEOPLES. Then perhaps she could rest in peace.

—Zoran Cirjakovic

TRADE

Seeing Shadows In the Soy?

With global trade talks in Cancun nearing, tensions are running so high that some of the sparring nations now seem to be falling into spy-vs.-spy games and paranoia reminiscent of the cold war. Last week the Brazilians announced that a U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) agent had made an unannounced visit to Brazilian soybean farms in August. Although his official mission was to participate in a conference on soybean farming and to gather info on crop diseases, the Brazilians suspected foul play. Local authorities feared the American might be a commercial spy or a bio-saboteur, bent on spreading a crippling Asiatic soy rust throughout Brazil’s prized soybean crop. Brazil is second only to the United States in soybean production, and its officials figured the American agent was out to increase that lead. U.S. officials withdrew the inspector shortly after the charges were made but deny any subterfuge. Who ever said world trade wasn’t the stuff of a good novel?

—Mac Margolis

TECHNOLOGY

Online Relief

In the world of inter-national relief agencies, it’s known as “the fog of disaster.” Brought on by wars, earthquakes and other calamities, it’s a condition that descends upon any organization trying to mobilize rapidly to help those in dire need. Getting the necessary donations to buy the right supplies and get them to rescuers on the scene can be a bureaucratic nightmare. But perhaps the Internet can save the day. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have instituted a new Web-based technology designed to cut through the confusion and paperwork of a crisis.

Developed by the Fritz Institute in San Francisco, the Humanitarian Logistics Software can track donations of money and supplies in real time, from the moment they are offered to the minute they arrive at disaster sites anywhere in the world. It is designed to avoid common snafus, such as a team in the field waiting for supplies that were never shipped. It also allows aid groups to make an instant and accurate accounting for every dollar a donor gives.

The software couldn’t come at a better time. According to the World Disaster Report, 226 million people were hit by disasters in 2002. A study conducted by the IFRC shows that the software will be able to speed up the relief process by 20 to 30 percent. “We will put it to practice the first disaster we encounter,” says Jean Ayoub, director of disaster management and coordination at the IFRC. With luck, that test will come later rather than sooner.

—Michael Hastings

TEENS

Galatians for Girls

In the beginning, there was Gutenberg. Now there’s Revolve, a $14.99 annotated New Testament Bible for American girls, made to look and read like a teen magazine. On 400 color glossy pages, Revolve jazzes up the old text by winding it through pieces that include bios of biblical women, advice Q&A’s (“If God made pot, why can’t I smoke it?”) and even Bible-inspired beauty tips (“You need a good, balanced foundation for the rest of your makeup, kinda like how Jesus is the strong foundation in our lives”). “This is a Bible, there’s no doubt about it,” says creator Laurie Whaley. “But it doesn’t pretend that things like how a girl grooms herself aren’t important. Our thinking is that teens who read teen Cosmo or Cosmo would pick this up.”

Creating themed editions of the Holy Scriptures isn’t new. But the early buzz around Revolve has been so positive—it’s been among the top five biggest-selling Bibles in the United States for the past four weeks—that the company is now planning a magazine Bible aimed at teen guys. But will the boobs-and-beer format that keeps most male mags flying off the shelves lend itself to a printing of the New Testament? Whaley says teen guys can expect their version of the holy book to be a bit more explicit on sex and relationships, but she says the company’s aim is still to create a Bible—not a laddie mag.

—Geoffrey Gagnon

HEALTH

Reserve the Resveratrol

Harvard pathologist David Sinclair can barely contain himself on the phone. “We’re making history,” he says. “What surprises me—well, a lot of things do—oh, I’ve gotten carried away. What was my point?” What’s got him so excited is none other than a small molecule, and if you happen to want a long and healthy life, it’ll have you in a tizzy, too. Sinclair and colleagues reported recently in Nature that a chemical called resveratrol can lengthen the life of a Saccharomyces yeast cell by 80 percent—and it might do similar wonders for human cells. Resveratrol activates enzymes that prevent cancer, stave off cell death and boost cellular-repair systems. A naturally occurring molecule, it builds up in undernourished animals and plants attacked by fungi. One of the latter is the grapevine—yup, resveratrol is found in red wine. Of course, if we had a nickel for every study touting wine as healthy, we’d own our own vineyard. But wine doesn’t contain much resveratrol, and the compound degrades in both the glass and the body. A pill might work better, and a provisional patent has already been filed. “I don’t think we’ll see any Methuselahs in our lifetime,” says Sinclair. “But we might each get another five years of life.” That, by the way, was his point. It’s a good one.

—Mary Carmichael

MOVIES

Deeper Into ‘Deep’

The 1972 film “Deep Throat” is not only the most famous porn flick to date, but the most profitable movie in history. (It cost about $25,000 and grossed $600 million.) More than that, it forever changed not only Hollywood but American culture. Which is why A-list producer Brian Grazer—the man behind “A Beautiful Mind” —is making “Inside Deep Throat,” a documentary about the film’s life and times. “It was an atomic explosion in pop culture,” says Grazer. “My grandmother and grandfather saw it!” The film launched hundreds of obscenity lawsuits as well as the modern porn industry. And aside from spicing up the bedroom practices of millions, it forced mainstream filmmakers to push the boundaries of sexual content in their work. “You couldn’t just have a coy kiss or an open blouse anymore,” Grazer says.” If a movie was designed to have any sexual impact, you suddenly had to go farther. “Grazer’s initial plan was to make a feature film about “Deep Throat” star Linda Lovelace, who died last year, but eventually decided the story was bigger than the woman herself. He hired documentary filmmakers Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey, who made the 2002 “Monica in Black and White,” about the infamous White House intern. Do we see a pattern here? “I never thought of that,” Grazer says, laughing. “I just liked their movie.”

—Sean Smith and Jennifer Ordonez

John Cleese

Kids know him as Harry Potter’s pal Nearly Headless Nick. But back in the day, John Cleese used to star in Monty Python, whose hilarious “Meaning of Life” will soon be released on DVD. NEWSWEEK’s Andrew Phillips quizzed Cleese about the old days and those to come:

How was it being strung up for “Harry Potter”?

Doing that kind of special-effects shooting is the most sterile experience known to an actor. Of course, it made me a hero to my grandchildren. But special-effects supervisors have not really spoken to human beings before.

Do you revisit those Monty Python one-liners?

I suppose once a day someone smiles at me in the street and says something that I know is a quote, but I don’t know what it’s a quote from.

I hope the new DVD has some wild outtakes.

I haven’t seen it myself. I have not reached that sad stage of sitting at home in the evenings and watching my own movies. I will say, in my final week, as I lie there at the age of 104, I shall no doubt be watching this DVD with my 18-year-old bride.

Speaking of that: in the film you play a headmaster who brings his wife in to a sex-ed class. Is this really how young people should learn about sex?

I don’t think anyone should be educated sexually. There’s far too many people on the planet. If we could hush it up for a few years, that would help.

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IMG: Perspectives

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“The price of this crisis will be a lot of blood.” Palestinian legislatorQadoura Fares, on the crisis within the Palestinian leadership triggered by the resignation of Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas

“We have the formula here for success.” U.S. Secretary of DefenseDonald Rumsfeld, referring to the establishment of order in Iraq, in an address last week to the Fourth Infantry Division in Tikrit

“I don’t give a damn about Rumsfeld. All I give a damn about is going home.” An unidentified U.S. soldier, reacting to Rumsfeld’s speech

“This paranoid nation and the United States now are facing what I believe to be the greatest threat in the world to regional and global peace.” Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, commenting on the current standoff between the United States and North Korea over the Asian country’s nuclear program

“What I was saying was that, compared to Europe, America is a very young country and we are still growing as a nation.” ActorJohnny Depp, clarifying comments attributed to him by the German magazine Stern, which quoted him saying the United States was like “a dumb puppy that has big teeth that can hurt.” Depp says he was misquoted.

“This is seriously something I thought about since I was a little girl. I cannot believe this just, like, freakin’ happened! I’m, like, on a very major high right now. I feel very cool!” Pop princessBritney Spears, on sharing an open-mouth kiss with Madonna at the MTV Video Music Awards

“I am tired of being poor. I want to be queen. I hope the king sees me.” Seventeen-year-old SwazilanderNomsa Gama, on why she joined some 50,000 young women who danced topless last week for King Mswati in the annual Reed Dance, with the hope of being tapped to join him—and his 11 other wives—in holy matrimony

“Bookies won’t mess with an illusionist. Otherwise, by magic, we will find ourselves shelling out thousands of pounds.” Warren Lush, spokesman for British bookmakers Ladbrokes, on why they won’t take bets on the success of U.S. magician David Blaine’s latest stunt. Blaine has suspended himself in a plastic box beside the River Thames for 44 days without food.

Quotation sources from top to bottom: New York Times, BBC, Reuters, New York Times, Reuters, Town Hall, Reuters, BBC