AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: August 22, 2007

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SUBJECT: AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: August 22, 2007

No Rapprochement with BZOe


1. Speaking on ORF television on Tuesday, Freedom Party boss
Heinz-Christian Strache ruled out a rapprochement or teaming-up of
his party with the FPOe spin-off BZOe. Strache also announced that
he and the Freedom Party would "certainly run" in the Carinthian
provincial elections. The province needed a "genuine down-to-earth
party," Strache underscored.
All Austrian media report on Freedom Party boss Heinz-Christian
Strache's appearance yesterday on ORF television's traditional
political summer interview Sommergespraeche. According to
semi-official daily Wiener Zeitung, Strache presented an affidavit
stating that his party and the FPOe's spin-off BZOe would "not form
a political platform with the FPOe." He also reiterated the Freedom
Party's restrictive course on immigration, saying that migrants or
asylum seekers in Austria "who have committed a criminal offense
should be deported." Mass-circulation daily Kurier, analyzing the
two Carinthian governor Joerg "Haider imitators" Peter Westenthaler
from the BZOe (who appeared on Sommergespraeche earlier this month)
and FPOe boss Strache, suggests that the latter is "better at
playing the populist policy game." Strache, the Kurier explains,
keeps claiming that he is the one who Austria's "political movers
and shakers want out of the way;" he is the "politician who dares
put his finger on the real problems."


Number of New Citizens Declines


2. According to Austrian media, a sharp drop in the number of
naturalized Austrian citizens was caused by the country's stricter
immigration laws. Only 7,800 persons acquired citizenship in the
first half of this year. According to figures released on Tuesday by
Statistics Austria this is a decline of over 53 percent from the
same period in 2006 when the figure was almost 16,800.
Reporting on the sharp drop in the number of naturalized Austrian
citizens this year because of the country's stricter immigration
laws, semi-official daily Wiener Zeitung says that the figure for
the first half of 2007 show a decline of more than 53 percent
compared to the same period last year. The province experiencing the
largest drop in the number of new citizens was Lower Austria with
64.2 percent fewer than the previous year. At the other end of the
scale, Vorarlberg registered 30.6 percent fewer naturalized citizens
in the first half of 2007. In absolute terms, Vienna welcomed 2,871
new Austrians followed by Upper Austria. The lowest number of new
Austrians was registered in the province of Burgenland, where there
were only 137. The previous OeVP-FPOe/BZOe coalition government had
imposed restrictions on immigration and made it more difficult for
people to receive Austrian citizenship.


Judiciary Closes in on Westenthaler


3. The Vienna Public Prosecutor is urging the Austrian Parliament to
lift BZOe boss Peter Westenthaler's parliamentary immunity.
Westenthaler has come under suspicion of having given false
testimony in connection with the so-called "brawl process," in which
one of the BZOe boss's former bodyguards was convicted of having
beaten up the press spokesperson of former Justice Minister Karin
Gastinger (BZOe).
Following a first investigation of the fact connected with the
so-called "brawl case," in which BZOe boss Peter WEstenthaler has
come under suspicion of having given false testimony, the Vienna
Public Prosecutor has now urged for Westenthaler's immunity to be
lifted. This is a request, which, according to ORF online news, the
Austrian Parliament usually meets provided that the allegations are
not connected to the suspect's political activities. Parliamentary
approval of the Prosecutor's request is necessary in order to
actually bring charges against Westenthaler, ORF online news
explains. Should this happen, and the BZOe boss be found guilty of
false testimony, he may be facing a prison term of up to three
years.


EU to Resume Gaza Fuel Payments


4. The European Union has said it will resume fuel aid payments to
the only power plant in the Gaza Strip today on a provisional basis.
Payments had been cut off last week because of concerns that the
Islamist group Hamas was planning to tax electricity bills. The
dispute had left hundreds of thousands of Palestinians without
electricity, says ORF radio early morning news Morgenjournal.
Critical CIA Report Published


5. An internal CIA report has been made public that accuses the
agency of failing to tackle Al Qaeda before the September 11 attacks
six years ago. The release of the document, which was completed in
2005, was ordered by Congress. The CIA's Inspector General's report
is highly critical of former agency chief George Tenet, saying he
had no anti-terrorist strategy. Analysts meanwhile say there were
enough warnings of the threat posed at the time by Al Qaeda.
Following the publication of an internal CIA report, centrist daily
Die Presse writes that former agency chief George Tenet, while
recognizing the threat posed by Al Qaeda even before September 11,
2001, failed to act and prepare the intelligence services of the
challenges they were facing in connection with the terrorist group.

Similarly, independent provincial daily Salzburger Nachrichten in
its online edition quotes from the report, which argues the CIA had
failed to cooperate effectively with other intelligence services.
This had led to the "systematic breakdown" of early warning
mechanisms that might have protected the US from the infiltration of
terrorist suspects. ORF online news says that according to the
report, the competition and the consequent lack of cooperation
between the CIA and the NSA in particular had led to a series of
omissions and failures, without which it might have been possible to
prevent the September 11 attacks.


Iran, IAEA Report Progress on Nuclear Issue


6. Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) say they
have reached agreement on a plan to help deal with Western
suspicions that Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons. The agreement
involves a timetable to resolve outstanding questions about Iran's
nuclear program. IAEA Deputy Director Ollie Heinonen emphasized the
agreement is a "milestone," reports liberal daily Der Standard.
McCaw