Badara

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BIER QASSEM COURIER BEACON


Foreign Minister el-Yamani

FOREIGN MINISTER SUGGESTS CHANGES TO DIPLOMACY COMING

At a briefing at the Foreign Ministry for intelligence personnel being assigned to embassy staffs, Foreign Minister Nessim el-Yamani indicated some changes in the approach to interaction with the rest of Terra were in order.

Jumhuriat al-Badara is not returning to the isolation that prevailed under People's Democracy Party rule. What we are doing is reinstituting our policy with respect to international organizations of observe and learn. Our diplomats are quite capable of understanding the overt issues coming to these bodies but not particularly adept at comprehending when they are subterfuges for longstanding undercurrents positive or negative. The Cabinet believes that evaluation of intelligence, an important corner of our national security, should be given greater emphasis, and accordingly your work might well be called the first line of defense. Diplomacy will still remain our first line of defense in case of attack; but intelligence must anticipate the attack.

Well you might very well say, what has that got to with voting on the Security Council seats? The Security Council can have some actual power. The only member with veto power we knew well enough to confidently trust is no longer a "permanent" member. Jumhuriat al-Badara will abide by its existing commitments but will make few new ones. Quite frankly, we do not need to decide for whom to vote so much as to know what these Security Council members are up to.

The ones we know we will ask. The first candidate for a Security Council seat a Free Radical government ever encountered asked for our vote because its continent was not represented. The second was another candidate from that continent seeking that same seat. That sort of discourse is not how we will learn what is going on. We hope you can help fill in the blanks.

The good news is we know of no threat and do not expect our desire to trade with the rest of Terra to attract a threat. But our intelligence services must tell us if we are right. Peace be unto you all.

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BIER QASSEM COURIER BEACON


The Hibat Akim Mosque in Bab al-Mira

TOURISM IS THRIVING INDUSTRY

The Minister of Environment and Tourism, Phasael Mattar, has released this statement on the tourist industry in Jumhuriat al-Badara:

Tourism generally is dong well; there are two items of particular note. First, both Mu'Tasim Air and Nnashwa Air Lines are reporting a huge demand for flights to Cobura, and those available are selling like cold qat tea. It seems that travelers from Jumhuriat al-Badara have become enamored of Tokundi music and Coburan cuisine as well as mountain climbing expeditions to Mount Gateia and Mount Augustanii; many feel they have been climbing foothills on our islands.

Second, the Royal Oasis hotel chain has had a prosperous quarter but particularly at their new site, The Sultan, in Al'Buqiyaa. Royal Oasis has four types of tours from The Sultan, arrangements for serious religious scholars, arrangements for serious historians, sightseeing tours and tours for people wishing for religion to be treated respectfully. The sight seeing tours feature abundant historic and religious site photo opportunities and plenty of time at the beach with eventually most settling in at the casinos and buffets.

The religious tours on the other hand have been overwhelmed with visitors, primarily from the Abadi populations of Jumhuriat al-Badara and Kafuristan as well as elsewhere. The two biggest attractions of this tour are the visit to the childhood home of the Ayatollah Narouz bin Rhuhollah in the Holy City of Abu Yacub and the visit to the mosque in the Holy City of Bab al-Mira where the holy meteorite known as Hibat Akim is on display.

[Aquinas]

Bashira Rafsanjani amongst 42 remaining hostages as hijacked plane flies to Deltarian military base in Malivia

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BIER QASSEM COURIER BEACON


Chancellor Aziz

CHANCELLOR ISSUES STATEMENT ON HIJACKING END

The Office of Chancellor Abdul Aziz has issued this statement:

The government wishes to express its happiness that the remaining Badaran citizen, Bashira Rafsanjani, was freed at the conclusion of the hijacking incident in Malivia by Deltarian forces.

The government further thanks the government of Malivia for its efforts leading to the release of Badaran citizen Shaafia el-Mohiuddin.

We have learned from the husband of Shaafia el-Mohiuddin that she is safe and on the way home and will be returning to the National Institute of Technology for which she was working on a school project as a reporter for its radio station when the hijacking occurred. He also has informed us that Bashira Rafsanjani, the aunt of Shaafia el-Mohiuddin, is safe and being transported by her employers to its home office.

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BIER QASSEM COURIER BEACON


Interior Minister al-Sadr

NEW POLICE UNIT CONSIDERED

At a meeting in the Bactrian Hotel Conference Center in Ras el-Haram for senior National Police officials in the province of Marakesh, Minister of Internal Affairs Jamal IX al-Sadr discussed the implications of the recent hijacking on Jumhuriat al-Badara:

The Cabinet has drawn several tentative conclusions from the recent hijacking. First, one can not assume that our citizens are safe because they go about their own business bothering no one or because the government is not offending any particular interest group.

Second, negotiations may be highly effective. Third, they may not be so force may be in order. Fourth, the National Police rather than Defense Command will at least for now be the body expected to coordinate a response to terrorist activity.

Accordingly, a terrorist response unit will be formed in each province. Negotiators will be trained by the Foreign Ministry. Response teams will prepare for sniper fire, bomb detection and deactivation, assaulting a position, other levels of forceful intervention up to destroying an airplane or building with vehicle based missiles. The Police can use existing training programs for most of this but the missile training will be done by the Army. Decisions will need to be coordinated with the Interior Ministry and so the most trustworthy communications devices must be used. Not necessarily the most sophisticated; we can not be interrupted so my aunt can talk to her hairdresser or a device program implacably updates itself. Time is of the essence.

Finally, both Defense Intelligence and National Intelligence will report any hints of terrorist activity to the Interior Ministry.

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BIER QASSEM COURIER BEACON


Infrastructure and Transport Minister ben Bella

LOANS FOR TRUCK MAKER ANNOUNCED

Infrastructure and Transport Minister Ibrahim ben Bella announced that loans from the Ministries of Trade and Industry and Infrastructure and Transport had been approved for a joint venture by Ben Faisal Brothers Auto and Al'Fostat Specialty Steel to produce small trucks. Ben Faisal Brothers have a huge truck and auto maintenance and repair business in Al-Ameed City. Al'Fostat Specialty Steel is a major supplier of steel operating parts to Utility Structures Unlimited on the island of Mu'tasim and will produce many of the component parts of the trucks. The joint venture project will be overseen by the Reverse Engineering Department at the National Institute of Technology.

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BIER QASSEM COURIER BEACON


Finance Minister Soqman

SOME TAXES BEING REDUCED

At a seminar during the Annual Big Island Economics Conference of Business Professors at the Al'Kamelah School for Business, Finance Minister Sabriiqa Soqman announced that corporate taxes would be going down again as well as some income taxes in the bill recently introduced in the People's Assembly. When asked why not just reduce the rates to where we need to be, she responded:

There are two fundamental reasons. First, the Cabinet does not want to simply bankrupt the government. Income tax is the single largest revenue component and luxury tax is the second. We do not want to suddenly disrupt the revenue flow to where we can not continue paying for the safety net or for making loans for business expansion.

Second our gradual reduction of the corporate tax rate has actually led to small increases in corporate tax revenue. Why change a pattern of success?

This response led to a question about why the government allowed Al'Akim, Aziz, Wallenstein, Bourguiba and Vasilevskii to effectively keep corporate tax collections low. The finance Minister responded:

There are again two reasons. The first is the most obvious; the occasional ventures by prosecutors from the Ministry of Justice into examining the documents the firm produces are very daunting, a lot of Luthorian and Canrillaise passages, small print, elaborate language, odd word usage and long passages of totally extraneous material as well as adroit use of incorporation by reference. Really difficult to examine. With that said no falsification of numbers has ever been found to be the work of the firm.

Second, the government really believes corporate rates are too high. We have been reducing them over time. If the government says we want all your income except what you spent on something particular, why would we mind if the firm says this is spent on that something particular.

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BIER QASSEM COURIER BEACON



ARMY CONDUCTS INVASION DRILL

Nashwa Army Command conducted an exercise as a response to a simulated invasion of the island of Nashwas slightly to the northeast of Ras al-Ulima. Defense Command had signaled Nashwa Army Command when a scouting force of A-1 aircraft would have detected an invasion force headed for Nashwa. The Army units arrived at the sites designated in the response plan in an appropriate and adequate amount of time; however, Defense Command considered the confusion and mixing of units would have diluted the response somewhat but not fatally. The Chief of Defense Command, General Karim al-Khodr, was particularly happy with the success of coordination between Army communications and the National Police who quickly and completely cleared the roads of civilian traffic.

The Army Chief of Staff, General Kemal ibn Khalid, noted however that the Army may wish to rethink adding to its purchase of more motorized anti aircraft vehicles since it was pretty clear the roads were bearing about as much traffic in the first wave response as they could handle. He accordingly thought the choice might be putting any additional forces in a second wave or relying even more heavily on the Air Force for dealing with air cover for the invasion.

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BIER QASSEM COURIER BEACON


Defense Minister el-Radwan

DEFENSE BUDGET RECOMMENDATIONS ANNOUNCED

At the monthly luncheon of Capital City Plaintiffs' Lawyers, Defense Minister Hamad el-Radwan indicated that the Defense Ministry and Defense Command had tentatively approved the plan for handling the current reductions in the budget as follows:

First, the plans by each service branch were to be based on a long term preparedness plan which could assume increases later, but the annual expenditures in the short term must be within the Cabinet approved annual budget and the defense Ministry allocation to each branch.

Second, The Navy will defer new ship purchases for the time being and concentrate on training and refitting, upgrading and repairing existing vessels and equipment and upgrading its shipyard at Ras el-Raram and the Majatran Fishing of Al'Baharia shipyard at Al'Buqiyaa. Existing contracts for patrol boats will be however honored.

Third, existing plans to upgrade the Army to the desired level will proceed entirely as planned including replacing vehicles with more modern versions. The Army will fully fund training for the National Police Terrorist Response initiative in the area of operating self propelled surface to surface and surface to air missiles and their vehicles.

Fourth, there is no immediate plan to build military aircraft in Jumhuriat al-Badra. The feasibility of this is being studied by a task force from the Ministries of Finance and Defense and a faculty group from the National Institute of Technology. Purchases that are planned will be spread over the next 12 years. repairs and refittings and upgrades may continue as planned.

Fifth, Defense Intelligence will be fully funded and in fact increased.

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BIER QASSEM COURIER BEACON


Hamad al-Nazir, incoming Finance Minister

POSTAL RATES LIKELY WILL CHANGE

At a seminar for economics majors and faculty at the Al'Kamelah School of Business, Science and Technology Minister Hamad al-Nazir, slated to be the next Finance Minister, responded to a question on postal rates as follows:

The Cabinet is, as has been reported, very much inclined to change the postal rates. This not a revenue problem but rather a response to the extremely widespread view that the endless flow of business advertising is clogging the mails so that the National Post Office does little but deliver it.

The approach of the Cabinet looks to be minimalist. The mails exist to allow citizens and the government to talk to one another. Regular or Class A mail will continue at its current rate. Actual government mail including the courts and the People's Assembly will continue free or Class B postage.

Class C including bulk rate and business advertising will be abolished. The current flimsy leaflets may be mailed but at Class A rates. This includes advertising by people seeking public office whether holding the office or not.

Two problems with this approach are still unresolved. Will the businesses be able to deduct the mailings at the full Class A rate as ordinary business expense from corporate taxes due? For now, yes.

Second what of charities? We are not sure but are inclined to treat the usual fundraising which largely goes to pay boards, officers and fundraisers as any other business which will pay Class A postage. In the event of a disaster or other special need arising, a charitable group may apply for free mailing privileges for a set time to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. We will try this for a while and see if abuses or undue hardships occur.