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P 230714Z AUG 07
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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KPAO AU
 
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