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TAGS: OPRC KPAO AU
 
SUBJECT: AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: September 18, 2007 
 
 
Gusenbauer Launches Open Dialogue on Religion 
 
¶1. Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer is to meet with religious leaders, 
including leaders from Austria's Islamic Community, today. Talks are 
aimed at defusing a debate over Islam's presence in the country in 
the wake of arrests of four suspected Islamist militants in Austria 
and Canada last week. Gusenbauer has said dialogue is the only way 
to address misunderstandings between faiths, and emphasized that it 
is vital to separate the issues of integration and fighting 
terrorism. 
While Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer is set t o meet with 
religious leaders today, the Islamic Community in Austria has called 
for better education for Muslim clerics, or imams, saying this would 
help them understand Islam in a "European context." The Community 
pointed out that Austria does not have an institute for training 
Muslim clerics, and suggested that such training could be carried 
out at the university level, says semi-official daily Wiener 
Zeitung.  Meanwhile, independent provincial daily Salzburger 
Nachrichten suggests that Austria is a "safe haven for radical 
Muslims." Political analyst and Islam expert Thomas Schmidinger told 
the daily that Austria had become a refuge for Muslim 
fundamentalists for whom circumstances in Germany had become too 
constrained. Like the Muslim Community, Schmidinger argues that the 
training of teachers of Islam in Austria is in the hands of 
"extremely conservative Sunni Muslims." Not even the Muslim 
Community, the expert continues, "has complete insight into what is 
being taught and what is being preached in the mosques." 
 
 
OeVP Calls for Flat Tax 
 
¶2. Prominent representatives from the People's Party have caused a 
stir with an "unexpected" proposal: OeVP floor leader and former 
Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel has suggested introducing a 25-percent 
flat tax for businesses. Simultaneously, the party's social issues 
spokesperson Werner Amon says the scheme should be extended to all 
employees. Thus, a proposal first put forward by Carinthian Governor 
Joerg Haider some years ago and dismissed by the OeVP as a "snatch 
tax" at the time, has now received "positive resonance" from 
Conservative heavyweights, Austrian media say. 
Mass-circulation tabloid Oesterreich also reports on what it 
describes as a "new OeVP offensive for a flat tax," and a "proposal 
for a complete overhaul of the tax system." OeVP social issues 
spokesperson Werner Amon argues this would be a "huge 
simplification" of Austria's tax system. In exchange for abolishing 
tax brackets, which burdened higher income earners in particular, 
the country needed a complete reform of the social system in order 
to maintain a social symmetry, Amon continued. He believes a first 
step could be the unification of wage and income taxes as part of 
the planned 2010 tax reform. The OeVP's coalition partner SPOe, as 
well as the Greens have dismissed the proposal as "unsocial," 
however. 
 
 
Clinton Wants Healthcare for All 
 
¶3. Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton said she 
will introduce a plan to provide affordable and accessible 
healthcare for all Americans if she is elected president. Speaking 
in Iowa yesterday, Clinton said that her proposal - a cornerstone of 
her domestic policy program - would aim at providing healthcare for 
the 47 million Americans who are currently uninsured. The Senator's 
plan includes providing government subsidized compulsory insurance 
with tax credits for working families to help them cover the costs. 
Reporting on Senator Hillary Clinton's statement that she will 
introduce a plan to provide affordable and accessible healthcare for 
all Americans if she is elected president, commentator Joerg Winter 
says on ORF radio early morning news Morgenjournal: "They are 
competitors in the race for nomination as the frontrunner, but 
there's one issue all Democratic presidential hopefuls agree on: 
Every American is to have healthcare insurance in the future, 
including the 47 million who are currently uninsured. If Hillary 
Clinton has her way, healthcare insurance will be obligatory. Tax 
credits are to facilitate purchasing insurance. The project's costs 
are estimated at about 110 billion dollars annually. Also, unlike 
now, health insurance providers will no longer be permitted to 
reject potential clients because of a previous illness or condition. 
When she was the First Lady in the mid-1990s, Hillary Clinton failed 
with a similar proposal because of Republican opposition, who 
continue to reject the idea of a general compulsory insurance." 
 
 
Iran Dismisses French Warning 
 
¶4. A warning by France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner that the 
world might have to prepare for war over Iran's nuclear program has 
drawn an angry response from Tehran. Iran's Foreign Ministry said 
the remark had "damaged the credibility" of France, and that Paris 
was "obviously in disregard of the EU's policy." In addition, 
Iranian news agency IRNA accused Paris of having "become the 
executors of the will of the White House." Meanwhile, the top UN 
nuclear official said force should be a last resort. At a conference 
of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Mohamed 
ElBaradei said he saw no clear and present danger, and that talk of 
force was counter-productive. 
Responding to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner's recent 
warning that developments surrounding the Iranian nuclear program 
could lead to war, Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik 
criticized her French colleagues "aggressive tone." According to 
liberal daily Der Standard, Plassnik emphasized that she "prefers 
persistent work on a solution through negotiations. I don't 
understand why [Kouchner] has resorted to such martial rhetoric at 
this point. The Standard also analyzes Austria's potential position 
in the event of tightened sanctions or even a military operation 
against Iran, and speculates whether such a development could 
re-open the debate of Austrian neutrality. "Not at this point," 
experts argue, because from a "strictly formal point of view, the 
question does not pose itself for as long as there is no actual war 
or armed conflict taking place." 
 
 
Rice Promoting Mideast Conference 
 
¶5. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is traveling to Israel and 
the West Bank today. In her meetings with Israeli and Palestinian 
political leaders, she will address the re-launching of the Middle 
East peace process, and pave the way for the international Mideast 
conference, scheduled to take place in Washington DC later this 
year. 
Reporting on US Secretary Rice's trip to the Middle East today, ORF 
Jerusalem correspondent Ben Segenreich says: "This is the fourth 
time this year Rice is visiting the region, although the Secretary 
of State only had little to show for after her last Mideast trips. 
Now, however, there is a certain degree of pressure of time and 
success. A Middle East conference is to take place in fall, the 
Americans announced months ago, and fall is almost here. Anyhow, the 
key players are showing their good will, with Palestinian President 
Mahmoud Abbas saying that 'we should work very hard for the 
international gathering in Washington in November to be a successful 
meeting.' It is worth noting, however, that Abbas used the bland 
expression 'gathering' rather than the more lofty 'conference;' this 
reflects the currently common trend to keep expectations as low as 
possible. There is neither set date nor schedule yet.  Moreover, it 
is unclear whether heads of state and government or just a number of 
ministers will attend, and no one knows which countries can be 
expected to participate. Some have argued a meeting would only make 
sense if new partners such as Saudi Arabia are included in the 
circle of peace-promoters, but the Saudis are hesitant. The 
Palestinians, too, are acting skeptical, and have indicated that it 
might be better to postpone the conference. After all, it would only 
be a farce, unless a result could be guaranteed in advance, but the 
negotiations between Abbas and Olmert were deadlocked. The 
Palestinians want a detailed skeleton agreement with regard to the 
borders of their future state, the partition of Jerusalem, the 
dismantling of settlements, and they also want an agreed timetable 
for the implementation of these issues. This is going a little too 
far for the Israelis, who would prefer concluding the conference 
with a vague joint communiqu. There could only be a genuine 
agreement, the Israelis argue, when Abbas has proved that he can 
sort things out, when the attacks on the Israel have stopped, the 
militias have been disarmed and reforms of the Palestinian 
authorities have been carried out. Olmert and Abbas are in agreement 
about one issue, though: Radical Islamic Hamas must not be brought 
into the process. On the one hand, the rift among Palestinians 
kicked off the current process of talks, but at the same time it 
remains a huge problem. Hamas, which has been completely isolated in 
the Gaza Strip, has recently announced it might be willing to call a 
cease-fire, but Israel's military intelligence believes that Hamas 
may be preparing for a major attack in order to disrupt the 
conference." 
 
 
Microsoft Loses Anti-Trust Appeal 
 
¶6. Microsoft has lost its appeal against a record 497-million-Euro 
fine imposed by the European Commission in a long-running 
competition dispute. The European Court of First Instance upheld the 
ruling that Microsoft had abused its dominant market position. A 
probe concluded in 2004 that Microsoft was guilty of freezing out 
rivals in server software and products such as media players. 
Meanwhile, Microsoft has two months to appeal to the European Court 
of Justice, according ORF TV's prime time news Zeit im Bild I on 
Monday. 
McCaw