Le Figaro, France
04 février 2005

Dialogue sans concessions entre Debré et Erdogan;
TURQUIE Le président de l’Assemblée a rencontré le premier ministre
turc à Ankara

Sophie HUET

« Soyons comme deux amis, des gens qui se disent la vérité. » Cette
phrase de Jean-Louis Debré résume le climat sans concession, ni du
côté français, ni du côté turc, qui a régné tout au long de la
première journée de rencontres à huis clos de la délégation conduite
par le président de l’Assemblée nationale à Ankara. Accompagné par
les quatre présidents de groupes de l’Assemblée nationale, Bernard
Accoyer (UMP), Hervé Morin (UDF), Jean-Marc Ayrault (PS) et Alain
Bocquet (PCF), Jean-Louis Debré a rencontré à sa descente d’avion le
premier ministre turc, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, puis le président de
l’Assemblée nationale de Turquie, Bulent Aric. Avec les deux hommes,
Jean-Louis Debré a d’emblée abordé les questions les plus sensibles :
Chypre, la reconnaissance du génocide arménien, les réformes
législatives à effectuer en Turquie (concernant le code pénal, le
code de procédure pénale, les droits de l’homme…) tout au long du
processus d’adhésion, qui aboutira, ou non, à l’entrée de ce pays
dans l’Union européenne. Au premier ministre, Jean-Louis Debré a
expliqué que l’attitude de la Turquie à l’égard du génocide arménien
« était un vrai problème en France ». Ce à quoi Erdogan a répondu
très directement : « Je suis déçu de la France… Je ne savais pas
que 400 000 Arméniens pourraient faire échouer le référendum » sur la
Turquie, prévu dans dix à quinze ans.

Lors d’une conférence de presse commune, les présidents des deux
Assemblées nationales n’ont quasiment pas échangé un regard. Bulent
Aric a déclaré qu’il ne demandait « aucun traitement spécial » pour
son pays, qu’il jugeait « tout à fait normal » que des opinions
contre l’entrée de la Turquie s’expriment en France. Mais il a
aussitôt adressé un « message au peuple français » pour lui dire que
« la Turquie de l’opinion publique française est très différente de
la Turquie réelle », déplorant « les malentendus, les images et les
symboles qui ne sont absolument pas représentatifs de la véritable
Turquie ». Les affiches de Philippe de Villiers prônant le non à la
Turquie ont d’ailleurs été publiées, avec des commentaires acides,
dans les journaux du pays.

Bulent Aric n’a pas non plus caché que « nos relations avec l’Union
européenne ne sont pas sentimentales ». Et il a ajouté : « Nous ne
sommes pas deux jeunes qui se sont rencontrés à la discothèque et se
sont aimés. Nous nous basons sur un accord de plus de quarante ans. »
Allusion à la célèbre formule du général de Gaulle, en 1963 : « La
Turquie a vocation à être européenne. »

Devant un parterre fourni de journalistes turcs et de caméras,
Jean-Louis Debré n’a pas trop usé de la langue de bois diplomatique.
« Nous avons à vous écouter et vous avez à nous entendre. (…)
Est-ce que la société turque est capable, dans un laps de temps
précis, d’accepter des réformes qui vont la changer ? », s’est
interrogé le président de l’Assemblée. Lequel a expliqué à ses hôtes
qu’ils avaient « une référence idéologique commune, la révolution
française, qui a aussi influencé l’oeuvre de Kemal Atatürk ». C’est
donc avec « un esprit critique » mais « sans préjugé ni opposition de
principe » que Jean-Louis Debré, visiblement sur le qui-vive, aborde
ce voyage.

Mais les questions des journalistes turcs ont révélé un vrai fossé
entre les deux pays. Ceux-ci ne comprennent pas qu’un référendum soit
nécessaire pour l’entrée de la Turquie dans l’UE, mais pas pour la
Roumanie, la Croatie ou la Bulgarie. « Comme pour l’adhésion de la
Grande-Bretagne, il est légitime que le peuple de France se prononce
» a répondu Debré. Un confrère d’Ankara a jugé « très blessante pour
les Turcs » la reconnaissance du génocide arménien par la France. «
C’est une loi (du 18 janvier 2000) je l’applique », a rétorqué le
député de l’Eure.

La délégation française a été un peu surprise par ces rencontres «
sans sujet tabou », selon Alain Bocquet (PC). « Les Turcs sont
demandeurs de l’adhésion à l’Europe, c’est très clair », commentait
Jean-Marc Ayrault (PS). « Leur désir d’Europe est très fort. C’est un
consensus politique dans le pays », ajoutait Bernard Accoyer. « Ils
veulent l’adhésion pure et simple, et considèrent qu’ils ont déjà un
partenariat privilégié avec l’Europe », a aussi affirmé Hervé Morin
(UDF), pour lequel « il y a vraiment un besoin de dialogue, car ils
nous parlent sans cesse de nos préjugés, de nos arrière-pensées ».
From: Baghdasarian

The New York Times
X-Sender: Asbed Bedrossian <[email protected]>
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Inquiry on Food-for-Oil Plan Cites U.N. Diplomat for Conflict

By JUDITH MILLER and WARREN HOGE
Published: February 4, 2005

An interim report by a commission investigating the United Nations
oil-for-food program in Iraq said the former head of the program had
violated the United Nations Charter by helping a company owned by a friend
to obtain valuable contracts to sell Iraqi oil.

The conduct of Benon V. Sevan, a Cypriot official who ran the program from
1997 until its demise in 2003, was a “grave and continuing conflict of
interest” and had “seriously undermined the integrity of the United
Nations,” the report concludes.

The 219-page report, issued yesterday by the Independent Inquiry Committee,
the United Nations-appointed panel headed by Paul A. Volcker, the former
Federal Reserve chairman, depicts what was the United Nations’ largest
relief effort as riddled with political favoritism and mismanagement.

The $64 billion program, under which Iraqi oil revenues were used to buy
relief goods for Iraqis, is also being investigated by five Congressional
committees and a federal prosecutor in New York.

The report also says officials violated United Nations competitive bidding
rules in hiring contractors for the program. It says important parts of the
program were not audited, allowing evidence that Saddam Hussein was
demanding and receiving kickbacks from companies selling his oil to go
undetected.

A senior United Nations official announced yesterday that Secretary General
Kofi Annan would try to discipline Mr. Sevan, who retired last year, and
another senior official, Joseph Stephanides, who oversaw the selection of
the program’s major contractors.

The report does not say that Mr. Sevan, or other officials it criticizes,
benefited personally from their actions.

But it discloses that Mr. Sevan received $160,000 in cash between 1999 to
2003 from an aunt in Cyprus, a retired government photographer who has since
died. Mr. Volcker did not tie that money to his efforts on behalf of his
friend’s company, but the report says that the aunt’s way of life did not
suggest that she was wealthy and that the panel was continuing to
investigate “the full scope and extent of benefits received by Mr. Sevan.”

It also discloses that the Swiss-based company that Mr. Sevan helped, Africa
Middle East Petroleum, made a $1.5 million profit by selling the oil
allocations that Mr. Sevan had repeatedly solicited on its behalf from
senior Iraqi officials. The report accuses the company of paying an illegal
surcharge of $160,088 to Iraq in 2001.

In a statement yesterday, Eric L. Lewis, a lawyer for Mr. Sevan, denied his
client had acted improperly. He said Mr. Sevan had no interest in any oil
company and had never “accepted anything from anyone.” The statement said he
had always acted “in the best interests” of the oil-for-food program and the
United Nations.

Mr. Lewis accused the panel of trying to “scapegoat” Mr. Sevan for
“mentioning a company to the Iraqis as part of his role in advancing the
process of trading oil for food.”

“Mr. Sevan never took a penny,” Mr. Lewis said, accusing the commission of
succumbing to “massive political pressure.”

Describing Mr. Sevan as “proud” of his 40-year service to the United Nations
in some of the world’s most dangerous places, the statement said that Mr.
Sevan had fully disclosed the income he had received from his aunt.

The report accuses Mr. Sevan of not having been “forthcoming” with the
committee about his relationship with the oil company, AMEP, or its owner,
Fakhry Abdelnour, a distant relative of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former
United Nations secretary general, whom the report criticizes separately for
his role in selecting the program’s main banker.

Reached by telephone in Paris, Mr. Boutros-Ghali said he had done nothing
improper, calling Mr. Volcker’s investigators “ignorant” of the United
Nations system and their allegations about his conduct “silly.”

Mr. Volcker said yesterday that the panel was continuing to investigate Mr.
Sevan and his connections to Mr. Abdelnour, his company and other friends
and associates.

Efforts to locate Mr. Abdelnour for comment yesterday were not successful. A
call placed to his office in Geneva was not answered yesterday evening.

Mr. Stephanides, who oversaw contractor selection, did not return messages
left on his office phone Wednesday night and yesterday morning.

(Page 2 of 3)

Mark Malloch Brown, Mr. Annan’s new chief of staff, said Mr. Stephanides
could pay a high price as a result of disciplinary action up to and
including dismissal, but he acknowledged that there was little the United
Nations could do about Mr. Sevan, since he had retired. He said Mr. Annan
would immediately lift the diplomatic immunity of any United Nations
official charged with criminal conduct.

Mr. Volcker said, “This is a painful episode for everyone in the U.N.”

This interim report defers judgment on fundamental issues of responsibility
for corruption in the oil-for-food program, saying its investigations are
continuing. Mr. Volcker and the two other commissioners – Richard Goldstone,
a South African judge, and Mark Pieth, a Swiss financial expert –
specifically deferred comment, for example, on allegations that the
secretary general had a conflict of interest because his son Kojo had worked
for Cotecna Inspection, a Swiss-based company hired to inspect the aid
bought by Iraq.

Mr. Annan, who became secretary general in 1997, has previously said he had
no role in selecting contractors.

Mr. Volcker said he hoped to issue his final report this summer.

The interim report, however, criticizes the way in which United Nations
officials selected all three of the program’s major contractors: Banque
Nationale de Paris, a French bank that the panel said was not even on the
United Nations’ initial “long list” of the most technically qualified banks
for the program; Saybolt Eastern Hemisphere BV, a Dutch oil inspection
company that Mr. Stephanides was said to have promoted; and Lloyd’s Register
Inspection Ltd. of Britain, which the report said was chosen partly to
balance lucrative contracts geographically among member nations.

The panel’s investigators found “convincing and uncontested evidence” that
the selection process had been “tainted” by irregularities in the case of
all three contractors. The report does not accuse the contractors of acting
illegally.

Both the report and Mr. Volcker emphasized that the major source of Mr.
Hussein’s illicit money was not kickbacks from the oil-for-food program but
the estimated $8 billion in illegal oil sales to Jordan, Turkey and Syria
that occurred even before the program was created. Mr. Volcker said that
those sales were known to Security Council members, including the United
States, and that Washington had specifically waived American laws barring
such sales.

The report reserves its harshest criticism for Mr. Sevan, whose contacts
with Iraqi officials on behalf of Mr. Abdelnour and his company AMEP, it
details. The report states that Mr. Sevan first asked senior Iraqi officials
for an allocation of oil “to help a friend” who was from Egypt in mid-1998,
soon after the Security Council permitted Iraq to use up to $300 million of
oil revenues to purchase spare parts for renovations. It was “highly
unlikely,” the report notes, “that Iraq would sell oil to a company such as
AMEP unless sponsored by a beneficiary that Iraqi officials wished to
favor.”

Citing several Iraqi documents, the report concludes that Iraqi officials
gave the allocations to AMEP at Mr. Sevan’s requests hoping that this would
“ensure a good relationship with him” and would help them obtain Mr. Sevan’s
assistance in lifting holds on spare part sales that Security Council
members had placed on them.

The former Iraqi oil minister, Muhammad Rashid, specifically told the
panel’s investigators that the Iraqi government had allocated oil to Mr.
Sevan “because ‘he was a man of influence,’ ” the report states.

After Mr. Sevan turned out not to be “as helpful as hoped,” it continues,
the allocations for AMEP were reduced. “Neither Mr. Sevan nor Mr. Abdelnour
was pleased with the reduction in the oil allocation,” the report says. Mr.
Sevan spoke to Mr. Rashid about it at an OPEC conference in Vienna in March
1999.

In the next phase of the program, AMEP’s allocation was restored within five
days after Mr. Sevan traveled to Iraqi to meet with Mr. Rashid again in the
summer of 1999 to “discuss an expansion of the oil spare parts program.”

The report says Mr. Sevan “denies that he asked for oil allocations or
recommended any company to Iraqi officials for purchasing oil.”

(Page 3 of 3)

“But these claims are contradicted by the firsthand accounts of Iraqi
officials involved,” as well as by Iraqi oil company documents that list
both Mr. Sevan and AMEP as recipients, “often following occasions when Mr.
Sevan met with Oil Minister Rashid,” the report states.

The report says Mr. Abdelnour said Mr. Sevan did not assist him in obtaining
the allocations from Iraq.

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It says Mr. Sevan initially told investigators he had met Mr. Abdelnour only
briefly at the OPEC Vienna conference in 1999. But in later interviews he
“admitted that he had passed at least one inquiry from Mr. Abdelnour to the
Iraqi oil minister.”

The report says that after being confronted with United Nations telephone
records showing calls between himself and Mr. Abdelnour, Mr. Sevan
acknowledged that the two men had “developed an acquaintanceship” lasting
“over several years.” It quotes Mr. Sevan as telling investigators: “I came
to like the guy. He is an interesting character you know, he’s been around
the world.”

At the United Nations, Mr. Malloch Brown said the secretary general was
shocked at the report’s findings about Mr. Sevan in particular.

“The secretary general is shocked by what the report has to say about Mr.
Sevan, terribly dismayed that a colleague of so many years’ standing is
accused of breaching the U.N. code of conduct and staff rules in the ways he
did, and he very much doubts that there can be any extenuating circumstances
for the behavior which appears proven in the report,” Mr. Malloch Brown
said.

The mood toward Mr. Sevan, a longtime friend and confidant of Mr. Annan’s,
appeared unforgiving.

Mr. Malloch Brown said: “Let me be clear that while Benon Sevan is a very
dear friend of many of us – I’ve worked with him for years – when you put
together three international investigators, $34 million worth of
investigations, 65 investigators, you don’t then set yourselves up as a
court of appeal over the results of that investigation.” Any further
investigation, he said, would be in “a judicial process.”

Reaction to the report from Congressional investigators was mostly
supportive of Mr. Volcker’s work.

Representative Henry J. Hyde, the Illinois Republican who is the chairman of
the House International Relations Committee, said in a statement that the
report painted a picture of “mismanagement, neglect and political
manipulation that resulted in significant corruption of the oil-for-food
program.”

“I am reluctant to conclude that the U.N. is damaged beyond repair,” he
said, “but these revelations certainly point in this direction.”

A similar, but even harsher reaction came from Senator Norm Coleman, a
Minnesota Republican and chairman of the Senate Permanent Committee on
Investigations, who called on Mr. Annan to lift Mr. Sevan’s diplomatic
immunity immediately. “The report shows that he repeatedly lied to
investigators, has misled the inquiry about the source of $160,000 in cash
deposits and unethically steered oil-for-food contracts to close associates
and lied about those relationships to authorities,” he said.

U.N. Diplomat Reportedly Sought Iraqi Oil Deals for Egyptian

The New York Times
February 4, 2005

By SUSAN SACHS

Benon V. Sevan, a career United Nations diplomat who headed the
oil-for-food program for Iraq, solicited favors from Saddam Hussein’s
government on behalf of an Egyptian trader who made more than $1.5
million in profits from his privileged access to Iraqi oil contracts,
according to an investigative report released yesterday.

The trader, Fakhry Abdelnour, who is based in Geneva, also paid an
illegal surcharge of $160,000 to the Iraqis, in violation of the
United Nations sanctions against Iraq, while he and Mr. Sevan were
lobbying for more business, said the report, which was issued by a
United Nations-appointed panel headed by Paul A. Volcker.

In securing the oil contracts for Mr. Abdelnour, Mr. Sevan introduced
him into one of the byways of the giant program, one that enriched a
small group of traders while pouring money that was meant to buy food
and medicine into secret Iraqi slush funds, it said.

Through the intercession of Mr. Sevan, the report said, Mr. Abdelnour
was put on a list of individuals who received coupons, or allocations,
that gave him the right to buy millions of barrels of Iraqi crude oil,
starting in 1998.

The allocations were of little use to people who were not in the oil
business and did not have the means, or desire, to lease tankers to
ship the oil to refineries and other users. But they were valuable to
Mr. Abdelnour, as the profits on his dealings with Iraq demonstrated.

Oil companies were hungry for Iraqi crude oil, especially in the early
years of the oil-for-food program when prices for Iraqi oil were below
world market prices. But Iraq did not sell oil to just anyone.

Under the guidance of Taha Yassin Ramadan, an Iraqi vice president,
and the Revolutionary Command Council, headed by Mr. Hussein, a large
portion of the oil allocations were handed out to a select group that
included businessmen, politicians, journalists and diplomats who were
perceived to be sympathetic to Iraq. According to traders and Iraqi
officials, many people who received allocations sold them to an oil
company at a premium.

Mr. Abdelnour did the same, the report said, selling his first
allocation of 1.8 million barrels in the fall of 1998 to two oil
companies for a $300,000 profit and selling another 5.5 million
barrels for a $1.2 million profit over the next three years.

His company stopped buying oil in late 2000, the report added, after
Iraq started demanding that oil buyers pay under-the-table surcharges
on each barrel of oil they received. Many other traders in Mr.
Abdelnour’s situation have said they also pulled out around the same
time because paying the surcharges meant that they could not make as
much profit from selling their allocations as they previously had
done.

By telling senior Iraqi officials like Mr. Ramadan that he wanted to
“help a friend” get into the business of buying their oil, Mr. Sevan,
played an important role, the investigators said.

“At that time in the program, it was highly unlikely that Iraq would
sell oil to a company such as AMEP unless sponsored by a beneficiary
that Iraqi officials wished to favor,” the report said, referring to
Mr. Abdelnour’s oil-trading company, African Middle East Petroleum.

Senior Iraqi officials, the report added, were pleased with the chance
to do Mr. Sevan a favor.

“He was a man of influence,” the former Iraqi oil minister, Amir
Muhammed Rashid, told investigators, and the government hoped, in vain
as it turned out, that he had the power to speed up United Nations
approval for Iraq to acquire spare parts for its oil industry.

;adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1107588769-ce/wGo9FC9jfXgsQ6YomNw

Iraq food aid chief ‘sought oil quotas’

Financial Times
February 4 2005

By Mark Turner at the United Nations and Claudio Gatti in New York

Benon Sevan, head of the United Nations office that administered
Iraq’s multi-billion dollar oil-for-food programme, “repeatedly
solicited” oil allocations from Baghdad, a UN-appointed inquiry said
yesterday.

“Iraqi officials provided such allocations for the purpose of
obtaining Mr Sevan’s support on several issues, particularly their
desire for funds to repair and rebuild the Iraqi oil infrastructure,”
it found.

The conclusions, in an interim report from an independent committee
led by Paul Volcker, deal a severe blow to the United Nations and to
Kofi Annan, its secretary-general.

Critics of the international body in the US Congress and elsewhere
accuse it of allowing Saddam Hussein’s regime to develop illicit
sources of funding as a result of corruption in the programme.

The Volcker report identified failings in the way the programme, set
up in 1996 to alleviate shortages created by international sanctions,
was administered and audited.

Mr Volcker also noted that the most serious violations of the
sanctions occurred outside the programme, and involved oil smuggling.

But the “most disturbing” findings concerned Mr Sevan’s role, which
“created a grave and continuing conflict of interest”.

“His conduct was ethically improper and seriously undermined the
integrity of the United Nations.”

The Financial Times revealed on Tuesday that the UN investigation was
targetting Mr Sevan’s efforts to steer lucrative contracts for Iraqi
oil to African Middle East Petroleum, a Panama-registered company
owned by a Swiss-based oil trader.

The report says Mr Sevan “was not forthcoming to the committee when he
denied approaching Iraqi officials and requesting oil allocations on
behalf of AMEP”. He also “failed to disclose the full nature and
extent of his contacts” with Fakhri Abdelnour, AMEP’s boss.

The report also queries declarations made by Mr Sevan about the source
of additional cash income – disclosed in a UN disclosure form –
between 1999-2003. Mr Sevan said the $160,000 (123,000,
£85,000)received over that period came from an aunt in Cyprus.

The woman, the Volcker report says, was “a retired government
photographer living on a modest pension”. Mr Sevan’s explanation was
“not adequately supported” by the information reviewed by the
committee.

A separate line of inquiry, into investigations into the procurement
of a contractor that employed Mr Annan’s son, Kojo Annan, were “well
advanced” and would be the subject of a further interim report.

Writing in The Wall Street Journal yesterday, Mr Volcker said UN
procurement procedures were “tainted, failing to follow the
established rules of the organisation” and that “political
considerations intruded in a manner that was neither transparent nor
accountable”.

Baker Institute offers ‘street map’ for Mideast peace

U.S. leadership is essential for lasting stability in
turbulent area, institute contends

Houston Chronicle
February 4, 2005

By RON NISSIMOV ([email protected])

On the cusp of an Egyptian summit next week for Israeli and
Palestinian leaders, Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public
Policy released a policy paper Thursday urging the United States to
take a leading role in the “road map” peace plan.

“The timing is impeccable; that’s why I’m a little bleary-eyed today,”
Edward Djerejian, director of the Baker Institute, told the Houston
Chronicle’s editorial board. “I sent a copy to (Secretary of State)
Condoleezza Rice and (National Security Adviser) Steve Hadley; I sent
one to (Israeli Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon, to (Palestinian
Authority President) Abu Mazen, and also one to the Egyptians and
Jordanians. We did all that last night and today.”

Djerejian, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria and Israel, said the
policy paper, “Creating a Roadmap Implementation Process Under United
States Leadership,” is a “street map to the road map” because of its
detailed recommendations.

“The Israeli-Palestinian peace process is at an important crossroads,
with the election of Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) as the
president of the Palestinian Authority, and the expected
implementation of Israeli Prime Minister Sharon’s disengagement plan”
from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank, said the document.

“Although the obligations of the parties are unilateral in nature,” it
said, “neither side can successfully implement their commitments
without adequate support and coordination from the international
community, and in particular, the United States.”

Djerejian said the Baker Institute’s call for U.S. involvement would
not be in the same vein as President Clinton’s failed efforts to
promote the peace process.

According to the policy paper, this is because “we have moved from
‘agreement-first, peace later,’ to requiring fundamental changes on
the ground.”

The paper said the United States should be actively involved in:

– Providing technical and professional assistance in creating a viable
Palestinian Authority government and improving its internal security,
and helping Sharon carry out his disengagement plan from disputed
territories in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

– Developing requirements for an Israeli withdrawal from the
Gaza-Sinai border with Egypt, and transferring security authority for
the region to the Palestinian Authority.

– Lead an international effort to improve the Palestinian economy in
the wake of Israeli disengagement.

– Develop a trilateral structure with Palestinians and Israelis for
the orderly transfer of power of evacuated areas to the Palestinian
Authority.

– Provide a “safety net” to maintain negotiations in the event of a
crisis.

The “road map” peace plan was detailed by President Bush in May 2003.

The first phase calls for the Palestinian Authority to take strong
steps to stop violence against Israel and for Israel to dismantle
disputed settlements that were established after March 2001.

The second phase calls for the creation of a Palestinian state “with
provisional borders and attributes of sovereignty.”

The third phase calls for a resolution of all other disagreements.

Djerejian said Bush had made it clear that achieving peace in the
Middle East will be a top priority in his second term, especially with
the opportunity presented by the death of former Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat, whom Bush regarded as an obstacle to peace. Arafat
died Nov. 11, 2004, in Paris at age 75.

Since then, Abbas has been elected Palestinian president of the
Palestinian Authority, and senior Israeli and Palestinian officials
have resumed meetings. Egypt has invited Israeli, Palestinian and
Jordanian leaders to a peace summit at the resort of Sharm el-Sheik on
Tuesday. Rice will visit the Middle East this weekend.

Djerejian said the Baker Institute convened a working group eight
months ago and rushed to complete the project to take advantage of
recent events.

The policy paper did not address such final settlement issues as
borders, the status of Jerusalem or the so-called “right of return”
for millions of Palestinian exiles.

On the Internet: The full report can be found at

Poochigian Legislation Grants Permit for Burial of
Greek Orthodox Church’s Metropolitan Anthony
Gergiannakis at Fresno’s St. Nicholas Monastery

Hellenic News of America
February 4, 2005

SACRAMENTO – Urgency legislation by Senator Chuck Poochigian
(Republican – Fresno) permitting the burial of Metropolitan Anthony
Gergiannakis at St. Nicholas Monastery in Fresno County has been
signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Metropolitan Anthony was the
spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco,
with jurisdiction over seven western states.

On December 25, 2004, Metropolitan Anthony died, five weeks after he
was diagnosed with Burkitt’s Lymphoma. Metropolitan Anthony wished to
be buried at St. Nicholas Monastery, which he helped found in Fresno
County.

There is currently no cemetery designated on the church grounds. The
monastery will be seeking a county permit to designate the monastery
as a cemetery in the next few months, though this process typically
takes a minimum of 6 months.

In an effort to fulfill Metropolitan Anthony’s wish, Poochigian’s
Senate Bill 28 allows the County of Fresno to issue a permit allowing
for his burial.

`Metropolitan Anthony was a distinguished and beloved spiritual leader
of the Greek Orthodox Church, and his legacy will live on,’ said
Senator Poochigian. `I am honored to have been able to help
accommodate Metropolitan Anthony’s wish to be laid to rest at St.
Nicholas, one of many religious establishments that he helped to found
during his years of service.’

SB 28 is the first bill to be signed in the 2005-06 legislative
session.

Visit the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco for Background on
Metropolitan Anthony.

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Hovnanian Enterprises Announces 13% Increase in Dollar Value of Net
Contracts and 50% Increase in the Dollar Value of Contract Backlog for
the First Quarter

PRNewswire-FirstCall
Thursday February 3, 2005

RED BANK, N.J., Feb. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Hovnanian Enterprises,
Inc., a leading national homebuilder, announced today preliminary net
contracts and sales backlog for the first quarter and month ended
January 31, 2005. For the first quarter of fiscal 2005, the dollar value
of net contracts, including unconsolidated joint ventures, increased
13.0%, and the number of net contracts increased 0.5%, when compared to
the same period a year ago. The sales value of contract backlog at
January 31, 2005, including unconsolidated joint ventures, increased
50.3% on a year-over-year basis, and the number of homes in contract
backlog increased 19.1%, when compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2004.

For the month of January 2005, the dollar value of net contracts,
including unconsolidated joint ventures, increased 11.3%, while the
number of contracts increased 0.3%, when compared with January 2004. The
Company experienced a decline in the number of net contracts in the West
for the month and the quarter. This decline was primarily due to the
severe wet weather in California in January, which impacted traffic and
sales. The Company also experienced a decline in net contracts in the
Northeast for the month and the quarter, due entirely to a decline in
net contracts in the Company’s on-your- lot operations in Ohio.

The Company delivered 3,266 homes, excluding unconsolidated joint
ventures, an increase of 12.6%, during the 2005 first quarter, compared
with 2,901 homes delivered in last year’s first quarter. The number of
active selling communities company-wide on January 31, 2005 increased to
292 communities from 288 communities at the end of January 2004.

Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc. founded in 1959 by Kevork S. Hovnanian,
Chairman, is headquartered in Red Bank, New Jersey. The Company is one
of the nation’s largest homebuilders with operations in Arizona,
California, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Michigan,
Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas,
Virginia and West Virginia. The Company’s homes are marketed and sold
under the trade names K. Hovnanian(R)Homes, Goodman Homes, Matzel &
Mumford, Diamond Homes, Westminster Homes, Forecast Homes, Parkside
Homes, Brighton Homes, Parkwood Builders, Great Western Homes and
Windward Homes. As the developer of K. Hovnanian’s Four Seasons
communities, the Company is also one of the nation’s largest builders of
active adult homes.

Additional information on Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc., including a
summary investment profile and the Company’s 2003 annual report, can be
accessed through the Investor Relations page of the Hovnanian website at
To be added to Hovnanian’s investor e-mail or fax
lists, please send an e-mail to [email protected] or sign up at

Source: Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc.

Stock Focus

Ground-Floor Investing

Forbes.com
02.02.05

By Andy Stone

Back when tech stocks were all the rage, Samuel Lieber had a field day
snapping up real estate stocks that nobody wanted.

Lieber, 48, who runs the $380 million (assets) Alpine U.S. Real Estate
Equity Fund (EUEYX) , bought shares of Washington Homes, a sleepy
builder of single-family houses in the nation’s capital, for $6 per
share in 2000. Less than a year later, Hovnanian Enterprises offered $10
per share for Washington.

Lieber took stock in exchange for his Washington shares, and then went
out and bought more Hovnanian. Smart move: Hovnanian expanded its reach
by purchasing private builders as far away as Texas and California, and
generated annualized-earnings growth of 69% over the last three years.
The stock is now worth $54.

As the largest publicly-traded builders buy up smaller competitors,
Lieber expects Hovnanian to deliver a more modest earnings growth of 15%
over the next couple of years. But Lieber still hasn’t cashed out.

Picks like Hovnanian have helped Lieber’s fund post an annualized return
of 34% over the past five years. Over the same period, the S&P 500 shows
a -1.8% return.

Lieber insists there is no nationwide housing bubble. “In selective
markets, there certainly has been overheating,” he says. Case in point:
Southern California, where heady price appreciation for homes over $2
million has recently lost steam. He feels that wage and population
growth, particularly in coastal areas, in conjunction with
historically-low interest rates, accounts for the appreciation of home
prices over the past few years.

The heyday of skyrocketing valuations has passed, but there’s no need to
worry about a crash, Lieber says. He believes that weak job creation in
major coastal cities will allow housing prices to rise just 3% to 5%
over the next couple of years, down from 10% in 2004.

If there is a sharp downturn in housing, it wouldn’t be great news for
Lieber’s fund. He hopes to avoid some of the pain by selecting companies
that have consistent earnings growth and are poised to expand beyond
their home region.

One example is Gaylord Entertainment, which turned the hotel at the
Grand Old Opry in Nashville into a 2,800-guestroom hotel, with
conference facilities and restaurants. Now trading at $39, Lieber thinks
Gaylord, which has built additional complexes in Orlando and Dallas and
has another one on the way in Washington, D.C., has the potential to
rise as much as 50% in two-to-three years.

“Value” probably isn’t the best word to describe Lieber’s investing
style. He doesn’t look for stocks that are simply cheap, and doesn’t
automatically sell them once fair-market value is reached. Instead, he
holds on long after companies begin to grow again.

Lieber bought La Quinta for $2.50 in 2000, when the company was owned by
Meditrust, an overextended health care real estate investment trust
(REIT). La Quinta, which is stealing market share from older competitors
in the Southwestern U.S., is now worth $9 per share, but Lieber believes
the company’s earnings can increase 26% this year.

“We’re entering an extended period where supply versus demand will favor
hotel stock,” says Lieber. He points out that room occupancy is rising
by 3% per year industrywide, while the number of rooms available is only
growing at 0.4%.

Alpine also invests in REITs. Lieber likes Alexander’s, a New York-based
retailer that closed shop in 1993, leaving behind an entire city block
across the street from Bloomingdale’s department store in Manhattan.

Lieber wasn’t sure exactly what would become of the New York City
property, but he knew that parcels like that don’t come along very
often. He started buying shares in the $40-to-$60 range, purely on the
appeal of such prime real estate.

Alexander’s is now finishing the half-billion dollar, 73-story Beacon
Court building on the site that will house Bloomberg LLP’s new
headquarters as well as 35 floors of luxury condos. The REIT is trading
at $219 per share, giving it a value that is now close to that of its
underlying properties (it has additional retail properties in the New
York area), while other REITs typically trade at a 20% premium to
property value. Alexander’s plans to start paying dividends later this year.

The Alpine family consists of seven mutual funds, including Alpine
International Real Estate Fund with holdings such as Diamond City, a
Japanese developer of commercial real estate, Midland Realty, a property
brokerage in Hong Kong and French resort-outfit Club Mediterranee.
Alpine U.S. Real Estate is a no-load fund with annual expenses of $1.31
for every $100 invested. The average real estate fund surveyed by Forbes
charges $1.61. The accompanying table lists some of Lieber’s current picks.

Texas Court Denies Preliminary Injunction but Accelerates Jury Selection
Date in Patent Infringement Suit Against Seven Networks

Jury Selection Set for June 29, 2005 in Marshall, Texas

PRNewswire
Tuesday February 1, 2005

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., Feb. 1 /PRNewswire/ — Visto Corporation, the
leading global provider of secure push email, whose platform for mobile
operators supports the broadest set of mobile devices, today announced
that the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas,
has denied its motion for a preliminary injunction in Visto’s patent
infringement suit against Seven Networks but has accelerated the date of
jury selection for the trial of this matter. Visto is seeking both
damages and a permanent injunction prohibiting Seven from making, using
or selling its infringing products in the United States. Visto had filed
requests for preliminary and permanent injunctions on September 23, 2003
and on April 28, 2004, claiming that Seven had misappropriated Visto’s
intellectual property. Although Judge John Ward denied Visto’s request
for a preliminary injunction today, on his own motion at the January 25,
2005 hearing, he moved the jury selection date from July 5, 2005 to June
29, 2005.

“The Texas Court’s decision to accelerate the trial date underscores the
fact that there will be a resolution very soon. The arguments made in
court were reinforcing, and by July we will have closure. The noose
around Seven’s neck just got tighter,” said Brian Bogosian, chairman,
president and CEO of Visto Corporation. “With over 21 patents worldwide,
Visto is setting the industry standard with secure synchronization
technologies that deliver performance, reliability and security. By
protecting our intellectual property against unauthorized use by
companies like Seven, with no patents of its own, we hope to foster a
creative environment where true innovation is rewarded.”

Visto asserts that Seven Networks, Inc. is infringing on six of its
patents. These six patents included in the legal action are: US patent
nos. 6,085,192 and 6,023,708, which describe systems and methods for
securely synchronizing multiple copies of a workspace element in a
network, and the use of a global translator to synchronize workspace
elements across a network. U.S. Patent No. 6,131,116, entitled “System
and Method for Globally Accessing Computer Services,” U.S. Patent No.
5,961,590, entitled “System and Method for Synchronizing Electronic Mail
Between a Client Site and a Central Site,” U.S. Patent No. 5,968,131,
entitled “System and Method for Securely Synchronizing Multiple Copies
of a Workspace Element in a Network,” and U.S. Patent No. 6,708,221,
entitled “System and Method for Globally and Securely Accessing Unified
Information in a Computer Network.”

About Visto

Visto is the leading global platform for mobile operators to provide
wireless push email to the broadest set of mobile devices. Visto’s open
solution enables email for the mass market, targeting large enterprises,
small businesses, mobile professionals and consumers. The company’s
Visto Mobile(TM) platform with patented ConstantSync(TM) technology
works in real time with POP3, IMAP, Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino
email solutions for personal to enterprise use, providing maximum
control and flexibility for the operator and choice for the customer.
Visto’s customized, brandable solutions are available through mobile
operators worldwide including AT&T Wireless, Bell Mobility, KPN,
Manitoba Telecom Services, Nextel Communications, Inc., Rogers Wireless,
SaskTel Mobility, SmarTone and TELUS Mobility.

Established in 1996 and headquartered in Redwood Shores, California,
with offices in Seattle, London, Rome, Tokyo, Beijing and Tianjin,
China, Visto is backed by Oak Investment Partners, Draper Fisher
Jurvetson, VantagePoint Venture Partners, Meritech Capital Partners,
Rustic Canyon Ventures, Allegis Capital and Blueprint Ventures. For more
information, visit or email [email protected].

NOTE: Visto, the Visto logo, Visto Mobile, ConstantSync, WirelessInbox,
MessageXpress and Transcend Mail are either trademarks or registered
trademarks of Visto Corporation. All third-party trademarks, trade
names, or service marks are the property of their respective owners and
are used only to refer to the goods or services identified by those
third-party marks. Visto’s technology is protected by U.S. Patents
6,085,192; 5,968,131; 6,023,708; 5,961,590; 6,131,116; 6,151,606;
6,233,341; 6,131,096, 6,708,221 and 6,766,454. Other patents pending.

Source: Visto Corporation

From: Baghdasarian

Area Schools Earn High Marks In ‘Schools For A New
Society’ Initiative

TheChattanoogan.com (Chattanooga, Tennessee)
February 4, 2005

Academic improvement in Hamilton County public high schools was
recognized and celebrated Thursday during a day-long visit by Carnegie
Corp. of New York President Vartan Gregorian.

Dr. Gregorian was the featured speaker at a celebration at Red Bank
High School to document the improvement of Hamilton County high
schools following a mid-day speech to the downtown Rotary Club. The
event at Red Bank High, which featured participation from area high
schools, began at 3:30 p.m. As part of his visit on Thursday,
Dr. Gregorian presented a video on the “Schools for a New Society”
reform effort, which included a segment on Hamilton County.

“Three years into the Schools for a New Society initiative, we are
seeing solid results and improvements in student achievement,
attendance, and attitude,” said Dr. Jesse Register, Hamilton County
Schools superintendent. “Hamilton County students know they will
receive personalized instruction and attention from educators and
others who believe in their future. We are proud of the chance to
showcase our achievements for the agency that gave us the financial
opportunity to see these things happen.”

The Hamilton County school system is one of only seven public school
systems nationwide chosen to participate in Schools for a New Society,
a high school reform program funded with an $8 million grant from the
Carnegie Corp. of New York. Awarded in 2001 for a five-year period,
the Carnegie grant funds innovative programs in 16 Hamilton County
high schools with the goal of raising academic achievement. The grant
was awarded to the Public Education Foundation on behalf of the
Hamilton County school system. The Public Education Foundation is
contributing $6 million in matching local funds.

Dr. Gregorian is beginning a tour of the seven school systems funded
by Schools for a New Society grants. Chattanooga was chosen as the
starting point for the tour because of the results the Hamilton County
schools have achieved through the grant, said Dan Challener, president
of the Public Education Foundation.

“Three years ago, Hamilton County competed against more than 20 other
school systems nationwide for these prestigious grants,”
Mr. Challener said. “We were chosen because of the broad-based input
our reform plan received from educators, students, parents, and
business and community leaders. Now, our community has demonstrated to
the Carnegie Corp. why we were a good choice. It is an honor for
Chattanooga to be the site of the first stop on Dr. Gregorian’s tour.”

President of the Carnegie Corp. of New York since 1997, Dr. Gregorian
also served as president of Brown University for eight years. He is a
noted historian, educator, author and humanitarian and has received
numerous honors and awards for his academic and philanthropic
accomplishments.

Dr. Gregorian was joined at the Red Bank High School celebration by
Dr. Register, Mr. Challener and Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey.

Due to the wide diversity of Hamilton County’s high schools, each
school has developed its own unique blueprint for reform through the
Schools for a New Society program. Four basic goals have been
addressed:

Establishing a more challenging and engaging curriculum

Improving teaching through more professional development

Creating a more challenging and relevant curriculum

Allowing more flexibility to meet student needs more effectively

The special needs of ninth-graders adjusting to high school are also
addressed, with each high school developing its own transition plan
for freshmen.

Through the Carnegie grant, most Hamilton County high schools now
include career academies. Examples include a construction academy at
East Ridge High, a health academy at Red Bank High, and an academy of
industry, technology and business systems at Brainerd High. All
academies combine college preparatory courses with a career theme.