Saturday, May 31, 2003
WMD just a convenient excuse for war, admits Wolfowitz (30 May 03) in Radio Free USA
2 U.S. Soldiers Die in Iraq Road Accident: "Two U.S. soldiers were killed and seven injured Saturday in a traffic accident in northern Iraq, a military statement said. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Envoy: Iraq Mass Graves Must Be Preserved: "U.S.-led occupying forces in Iraq must make immediate arrangements to preserve mass-grave sites and other evidence of abuses by Saddam Hussein's regime, Britain's special representative on human rights said Saturday. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Top Iraqi Shiite group disarms in struggle to end US occupation: "The military wing of the main Shiite movement in Iraq has disarmed, as efforts focus on political struggle to end the US occupation, the leader of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) told AFP in an interview. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
COALITION AND IRAQI POLICE WORK TO MAKE IRAQ SECURE (MAY 31, 2003) in CENTCOM: News Release
A THIRD SOLDIER DIES AS A RESULT OF A VEHICLE ACCIDENT in CENTCOM: News Release
Iraqi oil revenues projected at 4.5 billion dollars until end-2003: MEES: "Revenues from Iraqi oil exports are expected to reach 4.5 billion dollars by year's end, the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) reports in its Monday edition. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
2 U.S. Soldiers Die in Iraq Road Accident: "Two U.S. soldiers were killed and seven injured Saturday in a traffic accident in northern Iraq, a military statement said. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Envoy: Iraq Mass Graves Must Be Preserved: "U.S.-led occupying forces in Iraq must make immediate arrangements to preserve mass-grave sites and other evidence of abuses by Saddam Hussein's regime, Britain's special representative on human rights said Saturday. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Top Iraqi Shiite group disarms in struggle to end US occupation: "The military wing of the main Shiite movement in Iraq has disarmed, as efforts focus on political struggle to end the US occupation, the leader of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) told AFP in an interview. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
COALITION AND IRAQI POLICE WORK TO MAKE IRAQ SECURE (MAY 31, 2003) in CENTCOM: News Release
A THIRD SOLDIER DIES AS A RESULT OF A VEHICLE ACCIDENT in CENTCOM: News Release
Iraqi oil revenues projected at 4.5 billion dollars until end-2003: MEES: "Revenues from Iraqi oil exports are expected to reach 4.5 billion dollars by year's end, the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) reports in its Monday edition. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
War Blog Updates
Iraqi oil revenues projected at 4.5 billion dollars until end-2003: MEES: "Revenues from Iraqi oil exports are expected to reach 4.5 billion dollars by year's end, the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) reports in its Monday edition. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Top Shiite group opts for political struggle to end US occupation of Iraq: "The main Shiite movement in Iraq is pursuing a political struggle to end the US occupation, and its military wing has already disarmed, the leader of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) told AFP. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
COALITION EFFORTS AID IRAQ'S RECOVERY (MAY 31, 2003) in CENTCOM: News Release
Iraqi oil revenues projected at 4.5 billion dollars until end-2003: MEES: "Revenues from Iraqi oil exports are expected to reach 4.5 billion dollars by year's end, the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) reports in its Monday edition. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Top Shiite group opts for political struggle to end US occupation of Iraq: "The main Shiite movement in Iraq is pursuing a political struggle to end the US occupation, and its military wing has already disarmed, the leader of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) told AFP. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
COALITION EFFORTS AID IRAQ'S RECOVERY (MAY 31, 2003) in CENTCOM: News Release
War Blog Iraq War Updates
Powell was under pressure to use shaky intelligence on Iraq: report: "US Secretary of State Colin Powell was under persistent pressure from the Pentagon and White House to include questionable intelligence in his report on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction he delivered at the United Nations last February, a US weekly reported. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Bush mission to heal Iraq splits in BBC: War in Iraq
Iraqi village fears nuclear contamination: "Ibtisam Hadi was sure the yellow substance she found in her backyard was dangerous, so she asked her neighbors to cover it with cement and fence off the yard."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
US claims Iranian interference in Iraq; Bush begins European tour: "A series of deadly attacks on US troops in Iraq may delay forces returning home until replacements arrive, a top general said here, as another leader of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party was captured in central Iraq. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Anti-Globalization movement's alternative summit opens ahead of G8 (30 May 03) in Radio Free USA
US lifts ban on air services to Iraq: "The ban on air services between the United States and Iraq has been lifted for the first time in nearly 13 years."
In Ananova: War In Iraq
Attacks in Iraq prompt review of US force requirements: "A series of deadly attacks on US troops has forced US commanders in Iraq to consider not sending troops home until reinforcements arrive, a top general said. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Iraqi Intifada?: "An intifada is brewing in Iraq, and American troops are about to stop being liberators and will be forced to embrace their inner occupiers. And many Americans don't give a damn. Twenty soldiers have died in fighting or accidents since May 1, the day Bush declared the major fighting over. Five have died this week alone.One was killed yesterday in an ambush on a military convoy about 25 miles north of Baghdad, according to CENTCOM "Two US soldiers died and nine others were wounded Tuesday in a second day of guerrilla attacks in the flashpoint town of Fallujah, west of..."
In Back to Iraq 2.0
SOLDIERS KILLED IN VEHICLE ACCIDENT in CENTCOM: News Release
IRAQI CHILD STRUCK BY MILITARY TRAILER in CENTCOM: News Release
Chalabi cited as secret source on Iraqi WMDs (27 May 03) in Radio Free USA
Powell was under pressure to use shaky intelligence on Iraq: report: "US Secretary of State Colin Powell was under persistent pressure from the Pentagon and White House to include questionable intelligence in his report on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction he delivered at the United Nations last February, a US weekly reported. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Bush mission to heal Iraq splits in BBC: War in Iraq
Iraqi village fears nuclear contamination: "Ibtisam Hadi was sure the yellow substance she found in her backyard was dangerous, so she asked her neighbors to cover it with cement and fence off the yard."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
US claims Iranian interference in Iraq; Bush begins European tour: "A series of deadly attacks on US troops in Iraq may delay forces returning home until replacements arrive, a top general said here, as another leader of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party was captured in central Iraq. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Anti-Globalization movement's alternative summit opens ahead of G8 (30 May 03) in Radio Free USA
US lifts ban on air services to Iraq: "The ban on air services between the United States and Iraq has been lifted for the first time in nearly 13 years."
In Ananova: War In Iraq
Attacks in Iraq prompt review of US force requirements: "A series of deadly attacks on US troops has forced US commanders in Iraq to consider not sending troops home until reinforcements arrive, a top general said. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Iraqi Intifada?: "An intifada is brewing in Iraq, and American troops are about to stop being liberators and will be forced to embrace their inner occupiers. And many Americans don't give a damn. Twenty soldiers have died in fighting or accidents since May 1, the day Bush declared the major fighting over. Five have died this week alone.One was killed yesterday in an ambush on a military convoy about 25 miles north of Baghdad, according to CENTCOM "Two US soldiers died and nine others were wounded Tuesday in a second day of guerrilla attacks in the flashpoint town of Fallujah, west of..."
In Back to Iraq 2.0
SOLDIERS KILLED IN VEHICLE ACCIDENT in CENTCOM: News Release
IRAQI CHILD STRUCK BY MILITARY TRAILER in CENTCOM: News Release
Chalabi cited as secret source on Iraqi WMDs (27 May 03) in Radio Free USA
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 1:30 a.m. EDT
From: spliffslips
War Updates
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AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 1:30 a.m. EDT
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By Associated Press
May 31, 2003, 1:32 AM EDT
U.S. Hunt for Iraqi Weapons to Shift Gears Amid Growing Questions About Lack of Progress
British Soldier Held, Investigated Over Allegations of Torturing Prisoners in Iraq
Iraq Weapons Issue Remains a Cloud Over Bush Efforts to Patch Up Relations With Europe
U.S. Troops' Possible Exposure to Destruction of Iraqi Nerve Gas After First Gulf War Probed
Marine Commander Says Pro-Iran Forces in Iraq Appear to Pose No Threat to Stability
President Bush Lauds Poland for Iraq War Support, Is Cooler Toward France and Germany
First Wave of Foreign Entrepreneurs in Iraq Plans for What's to Come
Hundreds of Entrepreneurs Line Up to Do Business in Iraq Now That Sanctions Have Been Lifted
United States Lifts Ban on Air Service to Iraq After Nearly 13 Years
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
War Updates
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AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 1:30 a.m. EDT
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 31, 2003, 1:32 AM EDT
U.S. Hunt for Iraqi Weapons to Shift Gears Amid Growing Questions About Lack of Progress
British Soldier Held, Investigated Over Allegations of Torturing Prisoners in Iraq
Iraq Weapons Issue Remains a Cloud Over Bush Efforts to Patch Up Relations With Europe
U.S. Troops' Possible Exposure to Destruction of Iraqi Nerve Gas After First Gulf War Probed
Marine Commander Says Pro-Iran Forces in Iraq Appear to Pose No Threat to Stability
President Bush Lauds Poland for Iraq War Support, Is Cooler Toward France and Germany
First Wave of Foreign Entrepreneurs in Iraq Plans for What's to Come
Hundreds of Entrepreneurs Line Up to Do Business in Iraq Now That Sanctions Have Been Lifted
United States Lifts Ban on Air Service to Iraq After Nearly 13 Years
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Former POW From Fort Bliss Re-Enlists
From: spliffslips
War Blog Bravery Medal
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Former POW From Fort Bliss Re-Enlists
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 30, 2003, 4:45 PM EDT
EL PASO, Texas -- Former prisoner of war Spc. Joseph Hudson has re-enlisted in the Army for another two years and said he hopes to teach other soldiers how to survive captivity.
Fort Bliss commander Maj. Gen. Stanley Green administered the oath Thursday while Hudson's wife, daughter, mother and sister-in-law stood beside him.
"I'd like to thank God for still being here, and my wife who supports me," Hudson said. "I know my previous experience will help me in the future to train other soldiers."
Hudson, 23, was among six soldiers captured March 23, when the 507th Maintenance Company became separated from its convoy and was ambushed by Iraqi forces near Nasiriyah. Nine members of the 507th died in the attack.
Hudson and four other POWs were held captive for three weeks until U.S. Marines rescued them and two helicopter pilots. The sixth POW, Pfc. Jessica Lynch, was rescued earlier.
"It's an additive when we get to re-enlist a veteran, and that much more additive when we're re-enlisting a prisoner of war," Green said. "Our focus is always quality, not quantity -- and this is a quality soldier."
Hudson's mother, Anecita, said she supports his decision to re-enlist.
"I'm just crossing my fingers that he doesn't go far away," she said. "He scared the hell out of me already. I'm hoping he doesn't do it again."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-pow-re-enlists,0,2018324.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
War Blog Bravery Medal
--------------------
Former POW From Fort Bliss Re-Enlists
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 30, 2003, 4:45 PM EDT
EL PASO, Texas -- Former prisoner of war Spc. Joseph Hudson has re-enlisted in the Army for another two years and said he hopes to teach other soldiers how to survive captivity.
Fort Bliss commander Maj. Gen. Stanley Green administered the oath Thursday while Hudson's wife, daughter, mother and sister-in-law stood beside him.
"I'd like to thank God for still being here, and my wife who supports me," Hudson said. "I know my previous experience will help me in the future to train other soldiers."
Hudson, 23, was among six soldiers captured March 23, when the 507th Maintenance Company became separated from its convoy and was ambushed by Iraqi forces near Nasiriyah. Nine members of the 507th died in the attack.
Hudson and four other POWs were held captive for three weeks until U.S. Marines rescued them and two helicopter pilots. The sixth POW, Pfc. Jessica Lynch, was rescued earlier.
"It's an additive when we get to re-enlist a veteran, and that much more additive when we're re-enlisting a prisoner of war," Green said. "Our focus is always quality, not quantity -- and this is a quality soldier."
Hudson's mother, Anecita, said she supports his decision to re-enlist.
"I'm just crossing my fingers that he doesn't go far away," she said. "He scared the hell out of me already. I'm hoping he doesn't do it again."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-pow-re-enlists,0,2018324.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Friday, May 30, 2003
War Blog Updates
Sharon to look at Palestinian state: "Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told his Palestinian counterpart he would negotiate the creation of Palestinian state if the Palestinians fight terrorism, setting a guarded but optimistic tone for next week's three-way summit with the U.S. president."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Making the world a more dangerous place: "The US "war on terror" has made the world a more dangerous place. So says the human rights organization Amnesty International in its annual report for 2003. Electronic Iraq's Ali Abunimah looks at the record around the globe, especially in Afghanistan, where the country suffers despite grand western promises that the world would not "walk away." The catastrophic situation there bodes ill for Iraq."
In Electronic Iraq
U.S., Brits Stick To Their Guns: "President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair insist their claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction were accurate, amid growing concerns that governments may have misjudged or overstated the threat."
In CBS News: Iraq Crisis
Iran bus accident kills 22, injures 25: "A bus collided with two trucks in eastern Iran on Friday, killing 22 people and injuring 25, state-run Tehran radio said."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Anti-War Polish mayor banned from Bush visit (29 May 03) in Radio Free USA
Blair fails to get BBC to remove Gulf bodies footage (29 May 03) in Radio Free USA
Pentagon eyes massive covert attack on Iran (29 May 03) in Radio Free USA
'Torture' snaps: man held (30 May 03) in Radio Free USA
Senator Rips Lack of Iraqi Weapons Finds: "If Iraq's weapons of mass destruction posed enough of a threat to justify war, they should have been found by now, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Thursday. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Former Attorney General Says Bush Should Be Impeached in IraqWar.ru (English)
N Korea warns US of nuclear retaliation in IraqWar.ru (English)
Sharon to look at Palestinian state: "Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told his Palestinian counterpart he would negotiate the creation of Palestinian state if the Palestinians fight terrorism, setting a guarded but optimistic tone for next week's three-way summit with the U.S. president."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Making the world a more dangerous place: "The US "war on terror" has made the world a more dangerous place. So says the human rights organization Amnesty International in its annual report for 2003. Electronic Iraq's Ali Abunimah looks at the record around the globe, especially in Afghanistan, where the country suffers despite grand western promises that the world would not "walk away." The catastrophic situation there bodes ill for Iraq."
In Electronic Iraq
U.S., Brits Stick To Their Guns: "President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair insist their claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction were accurate, amid growing concerns that governments may have misjudged or overstated the threat."
In CBS News: Iraq Crisis
Iran bus accident kills 22, injures 25: "A bus collided with two trucks in eastern Iran on Friday, killing 22 people and injuring 25, state-run Tehran radio said."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Anti-War Polish mayor banned from Bush visit (29 May 03) in Radio Free USA
Blair fails to get BBC to remove Gulf bodies footage (29 May 03) in Radio Free USA
Pentagon eyes massive covert attack on Iran (29 May 03) in Radio Free USA
'Torture' snaps: man held (30 May 03) in Radio Free USA
Senator Rips Lack of Iraqi Weapons Finds: "If Iraq's weapons of mass destruction posed enough of a threat to justify war, they should have been found by now, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Thursday. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Former Attorney General Says Bush Should Be Impeached in IraqWar.ru (English)
N Korea warns US of nuclear retaliation in IraqWar.ru (English)
War Blog Updates
In Searching Homes, U.S. Troops Crossed the Threshold of Unrest in IraqWar.ru (English)
Soldier quizzed over torture pictures in IraqWar.ru (English)
'Torture pictures' soldier arrested in IraqWar.ru (English)
Britain and US urged to show arms evidence in IraqWar.ru (English)
What they said in IraqWar.ru (English)
Basra troops used cluster bombs in IraqWar.ru (English)
Saddam loyalists prolong conflict in IraqWar.ru (English)
Inquiry on Iraq in IraqWar.ru (English)
MI6 led protest against war dossier in IraqWar.ru (English)
Ministers 'distorted' UN weapons report in IraqWar.ru (English)
Coalition casualties accounted for (updated 29th of May) in IraqWar.ru (English)
Soldier Dies in Attack; 2 Civilians Die in Separate Incident in IraqWar.ru (English)
Iran has 2 hidden nuclear labs, large opposition group says in IraqWar.ru (English)
In Searching Homes, U.S. Troops Crossed the Threshold of Unrest in IraqWar.ru (English)
Soldier quizzed over torture pictures in IraqWar.ru (English)
'Torture pictures' soldier arrested in IraqWar.ru (English)
Britain and US urged to show arms evidence in IraqWar.ru (English)
What they said in IraqWar.ru (English)
Basra troops used cluster bombs in IraqWar.ru (English)
Saddam loyalists prolong conflict in IraqWar.ru (English)
Inquiry on Iraq in IraqWar.ru (English)
MI6 led protest against war dossier in IraqWar.ru (English)
Ministers 'distorted' UN weapons report in IraqWar.ru (English)
Coalition casualties accounted for (updated 29th of May) in IraqWar.ru (English)
Soldier Dies in Attack; 2 Civilians Die in Separate Incident in IraqWar.ru (English)
Iran has 2 hidden nuclear labs, large opposition group says in IraqWar.ru (English)
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At Noon EDT
From: spliffslips
War Updates
--------------------
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At Noon EDT
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By Associated Press
May 30, 2003, 12:02 PM EDT
Wolfowitz Comments Revive Doubts Over Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction
Commander of U.S. Marines in Iraq Cites Surprise at Failure to Find Chemical Weapons
Australian Prime Minister John Howard Indicates He's Not Ready to Step Aside Yet
Tony Blair Thanks Poland for War Support, Says 'No Doubt' Evidence Will Emerge of Iraqi Weapons
USS Nassau's Homecoming Bittersweet for Crew of Ship Missing Two Sailors
Sen. Jay Rockefeller Says Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction Should Have Been Found by Now
Iraq's Interim Oil Chief to Welcome Foreign Investors, Keep OPEC at Arm's Length
In Poland to Thank Nation for War Support, Blair Says He Has 'No Doubt' About Iraq Weapons
British Soldier Arrested Over Allegations of Torture Involving Iraqi Prisoners
U.N. to Hold First Meeting on Iraqi Reconstruction, Wants to Participate 'Very Aggressively'
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
War Updates
--------------------
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At Noon EDT
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 30, 2003, 12:02 PM EDT
Wolfowitz Comments Revive Doubts Over Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction
Commander of U.S. Marines in Iraq Cites Surprise at Failure to Find Chemical Weapons
Australian Prime Minister John Howard Indicates He's Not Ready to Step Aside Yet
Tony Blair Thanks Poland for War Support, Says 'No Doubt' Evidence Will Emerge of Iraqi Weapons
USS Nassau's Homecoming Bittersweet for Crew of Ship Missing Two Sailors
Sen. Jay Rockefeller Says Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction Should Have Been Found by Now
Iraq's Interim Oil Chief to Welcome Foreign Investors, Keep OPEC at Arm's Length
In Poland to Thank Nation for War Support, Blair Says He Has 'No Doubt' About Iraq Weapons
British Soldier Arrested Over Allegations of Torture Involving Iraqi Prisoners
U.N. to Hold First Meeting on Iraqi Reconstruction, Wants to Participate 'Very Aggressively'
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
War Blog Updates
U.S.-Led Engineers Strive to Restore Iraq Power: "U.S.-led engineers, bombarded bycomplaints, have restored Iraq's power supply almost to ricketypre-war levels, but Baghdad's five million people get less thanin Saddam Hussein's era. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
British soldier grilled over Iraq 'torture photos': "Military police questioned a British soldier in custody after photographs emerged showing troops allegedly "torturing" Iraqi prisoners of war, the Ministry of Defence said. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Infiltrators entering Iraq, US says, as it struggles to restore calm: "US President George W. Bush acknowledged lawlessness was gripping Iraq but insisted US forces were making progress in the new battle to establish order, as the occupying US-led coalition claimed religious hardliners from abroad were trying to destabilize the country. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
US says suspect in murder of Iraq Shiites released in error: "US military forces last week mistakenly released an Iraqi suspected of being involved in the murder of thousands of Shiite Muslims after the 1991 Gulf War, US Central Command said. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Iraqi mass murderer freed in mix-up: "The US has admitted it accidentally released a former Iraqi official accused of being involved in the murder of thousands of Shiites."
In Ananova: War In Iraq
MoD investigates 'torture' pictures: "The Ministry of Defence is investigating whether British soldiers mistreated Iraqi PoWs after photographs showing scenes of alleged 'torture' were discovered."
In Ananova: War In Iraq
U.S.-Led Engineers Strive to Restore Iraq Power: "U.S.-led engineers, bombarded bycomplaints, have restored Iraq's power supply almost to ricketypre-war levels, but Baghdad's five million people get less thanin Saddam Hussein's era. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
British soldier grilled over Iraq 'torture photos': "Military police questioned a British soldier in custody after photographs emerged showing troops allegedly "torturing" Iraqi prisoners of war, the Ministry of Defence said. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Infiltrators entering Iraq, US says, as it struggles to restore calm: "US President George W. Bush acknowledged lawlessness was gripping Iraq but insisted US forces were making progress in the new battle to establish order, as the occupying US-led coalition claimed religious hardliners from abroad were trying to destabilize the country. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
US says suspect in murder of Iraq Shiites released in error: "US military forces last week mistakenly released an Iraqi suspected of being involved in the murder of thousands of Shiite Muslims after the 1991 Gulf War, US Central Command said. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Iraqi mass murderer freed in mix-up: "The US has admitted it accidentally released a former Iraqi official accused of being involved in the murder of thousands of Shiites."
In Ananova: War In Iraq
MoD investigates 'torture' pictures: "The Ministry of Defence is investigating whether British soldiers mistreated Iraqi PoWs after photographs showing scenes of alleged 'torture' were discovered."
In Ananova: War In Iraq
Iran unsure of al-Qaida members detained
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq: "Iran is unsure about the identity of the al-Qaida members it has in custody and doesn't know if Saif al-Adil, the terrorist network's security chief, is among them, the foreign ministry spokesman said Thursday."
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq: "Iran is unsure about the identity of the al-Qaida members it has in custody and doesn't know if Saif al-Adil, the terrorist network's security chief, is among them, the foreign ministry spokesman said Thursday."
Thursday, May 29, 2003
Keep Your Helmet On
IAEA officials prepare to return to Iraq: "The word spread through town, trumpeted on loudspeakers attached to American vehicles: Return the containers taken from Iraq's largest nuclear facility, and we'll pay you $3 a barrel. Refuse, and you might be arrested."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Bush entering shaky Mideast peace process: "The White House is warning that the road to peace between Israel and the Palestinians still is a long and bumpy one, but that's not stopping President Bush from attempting to speed up the process."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
IAEA officials prepare to return to Iraq: "The word spread through town, trumpeted on loudspeakers attached to American vehicles: Return the containers taken from Iraq's largest nuclear facility, and we'll pay you $3 a barrel. Refuse, and you might be arrested."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Bush entering shaky Mideast peace process: "The White House is warning that the road to peace between Israel and the Palestinians still is a long and bumpy one, but that's not stopping President Bush from attempting to speed up the process."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
War Blog Updates
Iraq to resume food rationing program: "A food-rationing program introduced by Saddam Hussein's government because of international sanctions against Iraq will resume next week - more than two months after it was disrupted by war."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Saddam organising resistance claims opposition: "Saddam Hussein is alive and co-ordinating terror attacks inside Iraq, a leading opposition figure has claimed."
In Ananova: War In Iraq
Comical Ali video on way: "Gulf War icon Comical Ali is to star in his own video featuring his greatest soundbites."
In Ananova: War In Iraq
VEHICLE ATTEMPTS TO RUN CHECKPOINT in CENTCOM: News Release
COALITION EFFORTS AID IRAQ'S RECOVERY in CENTCOM: News Release
Iraq to resume food rationing program: "A food-rationing program introduced by Saddam Hussein's government because of international sanctions against Iraq will resume next week - more than two months after it was disrupted by war."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Saddam organising resistance claims opposition: "Saddam Hussein is alive and co-ordinating terror attacks inside Iraq, a leading opposition figure has claimed."
In Ananova: War In Iraq
Comical Ali video on way: "Gulf War icon Comical Ali is to star in his own video featuring his greatest soundbites."
In Ananova: War In Iraq
VEHICLE ATTEMPTS TO RUN CHECKPOINT in CENTCOM: News Release
COALITION EFFORTS AID IRAQ'S RECOVERY in CENTCOM: News Release
War Blogs Updates
Blair in Iraq as row brews in London over 'embellished' weapons dossier: "British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Iraq as a row brewed back in London over claims his government had embellished a dossier on Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction to make a more convincing case for war. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
U.S. Accuses Saddam Loyalists of Attacks: "The commander of coalition ground forces in Iraq said Thursday that recent attacks on U.S. forces were orchestrated by Baath Party groups loyal to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
US commander mulls extra troops to tackle unrest in western Iraq: "The top coalition commander in Iraq said he was mulling sending extra troops to western Iraq to tackle what he described as a continuing "war" against "regime holdouts". (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
US troops seize arms cache, "terrorism" book in raid on Palestinian mission: "US troops seized weapons and a "book on terrorism" in a 24-hour search of the Palestinian mission in Baghdad, the top military commander in Iraq said after three Palestinian diplomats were arrested. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Blair in Iraq as row brews in London over 'embellished' weapons dossier: "British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Iraq as a row brewed back in London over claims his government had embellished a dossier on Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction to make a more convincing case for war. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
U.S. Accuses Saddam Loyalists of Attacks: "The commander of coalition ground forces in Iraq said Thursday that recent attacks on U.S. forces were orchestrated by Baath Party groups loyal to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
US commander mulls extra troops to tackle unrest in western Iraq: "The top coalition commander in Iraq said he was mulling sending extra troops to western Iraq to tackle what he described as a continuing "war" against "regime holdouts". (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
US troops seize arms cache, "terrorism" book in raid on Palestinian mission: "US troops seized weapons and a "book on terrorism" in a 24-hour search of the Palestinian mission in Baghdad, the top military commander in Iraq said after three Palestinian diplomats were arrested. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
U.S. Discourages Foreign Missions in Iraq
From: spliffslips
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U.S. Discourages Foreign Missions in Iraq
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 29, 2003, 4:31 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- The State Department said Thursday it is discouraging foreign governments from sending diplomats to Iraq because the absence of an Iraqi government means normal protections are not available.
Under international rules, diplomats are immune from prosecution by the host government.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States, as the controlling authority in Iraq, "reserves the right to exclude people who we don't think belong there."
Boucher spoke hours after Palestinian officials in Baghdad said U.S. troops raided the Palestinian mission in that city and arrested 11 people, including the mission's top representative. The official U.S. figure was eight arrests.
The Palestinian official said the U.S. troops ransacked the building, taking water bottles and food cans.
Boucher said there are diplomats in Iraq who were previously accredited to Saddam Hussein's government and who have remained at their posts.
"We do not regard those as diplomatic missions. They're accredited to a regime that is no longer existent and therefore their accreditation would have lapsed," Boucher said.
He added that the United States does welcome foreign diplomats who are in Iraq to help in reconstruction.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-iraq-palestinians,0,1955100.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
U.S. Discourages Foreign Missions in Iraq
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 29, 2003, 4:31 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- The State Department said Thursday it is discouraging foreign governments from sending diplomats to Iraq because the absence of an Iraqi government means normal protections are not available.
Under international rules, diplomats are immune from prosecution by the host government.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States, as the controlling authority in Iraq, "reserves the right to exclude people who we don't think belong there."
Boucher spoke hours after Palestinian officials in Baghdad said U.S. troops raided the Palestinian mission in that city and arrested 11 people, including the mission's top representative. The official U.S. figure was eight arrests.
The Palestinian official said the U.S. troops ransacked the building, taking water bottles and food cans.
Boucher said there are diplomats in Iraq who were previously accredited to Saddam Hussein's government and who have remained at their posts.
"We do not regard those as diplomatic missions. They're accredited to a regime that is no longer existent and therefore their accreditation would have lapsed," Boucher said.
He added that the United States does welcome foreign diplomats who are in Iraq to help in reconstruction.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-iraq-palestinians,0,1955100.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Iraqi Shi'ites Protest at Alleged U.S. Arrests
Yahoo! News: War with Iraq: "More than 500 Shi'ite Muslims marchedin Baghdad Thursday to protest against the alleged arrest ofseveral of their clerics by U.S. forces. (Reuters)"
Yahoo! News: War with Iraq: "More than 500 Shi'ite Muslims marchedin Baghdad Thursday to protest against the alleged arrest ofseveral of their clerics by U.S. forces. (Reuters)"
U.S. Troops Arrest 11 in Baghdad Raid
From: spliffslips
War Blog Uodats
--------------------
U.S. Troops Arrest 11 in Baghdad Raid
--------------------
By SLOBODAN LEKIC
Associated Press Writer
May 29, 2003, 1:42 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. troops raided the Palestinian Authority's mission in Baghdad and arrested 11 people after ransacking the building, a Palestinian official said Thursday. A top U.S. general said eight people were arrested.
The detained men included charge d'affairs Majah Abdul Rahman, who was running the mission in the ambassador's absence, mission official Mohamed Abdul Wahab said. They were taken to a U.S. base in the center of the city and have not been released, he said.
"They even took all of our water bottles and food cans," Wahab said. "They behaved like common thieves."
Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh and Cabinet Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Palestinian Authority would not comment on the arrest.
U.S. troops have conducted numerous sweeps against suspected criminals and loyalists of Saddam Hussein's regime. Wednesday's raid was believed to be the first such action against a foreign diplomatic mission.
Wahab said dozens of U.S. troops escorted by several armored vehicles arrived at the building in Baghdad's embassy district Wednesday morning. After the guards opened the gate, soldiers burst into the building and detained officials, drivers and gardeners.
The soldiers seized three AK-47 assault rifles that were used to guard against looting that laid waste to much of the capital after it fell to U.S. troops, Wahab said. The rifles and a handgun, which was also confiscated, were properly licensed by Iraq's former government, he said.
"Every embassy has guns, we used them to ward off looters," Wahab said. "To attack a foreign embassy is a criminal act and a breach of diplomatic immunity."
Gen. David McKiernan, commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, confirmed Thursday that troops entered the diplomatic compound.
"That happened in a part of Baghdad where we lost a soldier," he told reporters.
McKiernan said seven Palestinians and a Syrian were detained, adding that he did not know how many had diplomatic status. Troops seized four AK-47s, four hand grenades, and a .38 caliber pistol, he said.
Wahab said the soldiers used shotguns to blast open office doors, though he said all were unlocked or had keys in them.
Many of the doors in the building bore the marks of combat boots and several had their locks shot off. An embassy safe appeared to have been opened after the door hinges had been broken off, and file cabinets were standing open with all of their contents removed.
An official photo of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was smashed on the floor.
Wahab said the soldiers took away two embassy flags. He said the troops had told staff that the mission did not have permission for its automatic weapons.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-palestinian-raid,0,5989560.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
War Blog Uodats
--------------------
U.S. Troops Arrest 11 in Baghdad Raid
--------------------
By SLOBODAN LEKIC
Associated Press Writer
May 29, 2003, 1:42 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. troops raided the Palestinian Authority's mission in Baghdad and arrested 11 people after ransacking the building, a Palestinian official said Thursday. A top U.S. general said eight people were arrested.
The detained men included charge d'affairs Majah Abdul Rahman, who was running the mission in the ambassador's absence, mission official Mohamed Abdul Wahab said. They were taken to a U.S. base in the center of the city and have not been released, he said.
"They even took all of our water bottles and food cans," Wahab said. "They behaved like common thieves."
Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh and Cabinet Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Palestinian Authority would not comment on the arrest.
U.S. troops have conducted numerous sweeps against suspected criminals and loyalists of Saddam Hussein's regime. Wednesday's raid was believed to be the first such action against a foreign diplomatic mission.
Wahab said dozens of U.S. troops escorted by several armored vehicles arrived at the building in Baghdad's embassy district Wednesday morning. After the guards opened the gate, soldiers burst into the building and detained officials, drivers and gardeners.
The soldiers seized three AK-47 assault rifles that were used to guard against looting that laid waste to much of the capital after it fell to U.S. troops, Wahab said. The rifles and a handgun, which was also confiscated, were properly licensed by Iraq's former government, he said.
"Every embassy has guns, we used them to ward off looters," Wahab said. "To attack a foreign embassy is a criminal act and a breach of diplomatic immunity."
Gen. David McKiernan, commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, confirmed Thursday that troops entered the diplomatic compound.
"That happened in a part of Baghdad where we lost a soldier," he told reporters.
McKiernan said seven Palestinians and a Syrian were detained, adding that he did not know how many had diplomatic status. Troops seized four AK-47s, four hand grenades, and a .38 caliber pistol, he said.
Wahab said the soldiers used shotguns to blast open office doors, though he said all were unlocked or had keys in them.
Many of the doors in the building bore the marks of combat boots and several had their locks shot off. An embassy safe appeared to have been opened after the door hinges had been broken off, and file cabinets were standing open with all of their contents removed.
An official photo of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was smashed on the floor.
Wahab said the soldiers took away two embassy flags. He said the troops had told staff that the mission did not have permission for its automatic weapons.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-palestinian-raid,0,5989560.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
War Blog Updates
The Kirchner surprise and the Fidel impact in IraqWar.ru (English)
The Rape of Iraq - Saddam Hussein forecast in IraqWar.ru (English)
Muslims: Take up weapons and fight as the protests won?t work! in IraqWar.ru (English)
Iran accuses US of "double standards" in war against terror in IraqWar.ru (English)
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Morale Lags For Some U.S. Troops In Iraq in IraqWar.ru (English)
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U.S. Marines begin major exercise in Kuwait in IraqWar.ru (English)
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Moscow won't back out of Iran nuke plans in IraqWar.ru (English)
Influx of Iraqi officials reported in Cuba in IraqWar.ru (English)
Coalition casualties accounted for (updated 27th of May) in IraqWar.ru (English)
Blair faces revolt as US admits doubts (29 May 03) in Radio Free USA
Pentagon was warned over policing Iraq (28 May 03) in Radio Free USA
America's case against Iran is full of holes (29 May 03) in Radio Free USA
Classified: Censoring the report about 9-11? (29 May 03) in Radio Free USA
U.S. soldier killed in Iraq in CNN - War in Iraq
The Kirchner surprise and the Fidel impact in IraqWar.ru (English)
The Rape of Iraq - Saddam Hussein forecast in IraqWar.ru (English)
Muslims: Take up weapons and fight as the protests won?t work! in IraqWar.ru (English)
Iran accuses US of "double standards" in war against terror in IraqWar.ru (English)
American Woman Travels Door to Door to Count Iraqi Casualties in IraqWar.ru (English)
US slaps sanctions on Iranian, Moldovan firms for missile tech sales in IraqWar.ru (English)
Despite Thin Intelligence Reports, US Plans To Overthrow Iranian Regime in IraqWar.ru (English)
Morale Lags For Some U.S. Troops In Iraq in IraqWar.ru (English)
Russia and China Unite Against America in IraqWar.ru (English)
U.S. Marines begin major exercise in Kuwait in IraqWar.ru (English)
U.S. threatened sanctions if Israel blocked 'Roadmap' in IraqWar.ru (English)
Moscow won't back out of Iran nuke plans in IraqWar.ru (English)
Influx of Iraqi officials reported in Cuba in IraqWar.ru (English)
Coalition casualties accounted for (updated 27th of May) in IraqWar.ru (English)
Blair faces revolt as US admits doubts (29 May 03) in Radio Free USA
Pentagon was warned over policing Iraq (28 May 03) in Radio Free USA
America's case against Iran is full of holes (29 May 03) in Radio Free USA
Classified: Censoring the report about 9-11? (29 May 03) in Radio Free USA
U.S. soldier killed in Iraq in CNN - War in Iraq
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 9:30 a.m. EDT
From: spliffslips
--------------------
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 9:30 a.m. EDT
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 29, 2003, 9:32 AM EDT
Troops Find No Bodies, Bunker at Site Said to Be Visited by Deposed Iraqi Leader Saddam Hussein
Tony Blair's Office Defends Iraq Dossier After British Agents Expressed Skepticism About Weapons
British Prime Minister Tony Blair Visits Postwar Iraq, Praises Troops for 'Remarkable' Invasion
Colorado Springs Man Among Fort Carson Soldiers Killed in Iraq Attack
U.S. Soldier Killed in Iraq While Traveling on Main Supply Route, Military Says
Denied Freedom for Decades Under Saddam Hussein's Rule, Iraq Now Wonders What It Means
Iraqi Hospital Staff Say Forceful U.S. Rescue of American POW Jessica Lynch Was Not Necessary
Defense Sec. Rumsfeld's Comments on Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction Spur U.K. War Critics
Trucks Found With Lab Equipment in Iraq Are Strongest Evidence of Bioweapons Program, CIA Says
In Virginia, Several Hundred People Turn Out to Welcome Home Navy Pilots Who Served in Iraq
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 9:30 a.m. EDT
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 29, 2003, 9:32 AM EDT
Troops Find No Bodies, Bunker at Site Said to Be Visited by Deposed Iraqi Leader Saddam Hussein
Tony Blair's Office Defends Iraq Dossier After British Agents Expressed Skepticism About Weapons
British Prime Minister Tony Blair Visits Postwar Iraq, Praises Troops for 'Remarkable' Invasion
Colorado Springs Man Among Fort Carson Soldiers Killed in Iraq Attack
U.S. Soldier Killed in Iraq While Traveling on Main Supply Route, Military Says
Denied Freedom for Decades Under Saddam Hussein's Rule, Iraq Now Wonders What It Means
Iraqi Hospital Staff Say Forceful U.S. Rescue of American POW Jessica Lynch Was Not Necessary
Defense Sec. Rumsfeld's Comments on Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction Spur U.K. War Critics
Trucks Found With Lab Equipment in Iraq Are Strongest Evidence of Bioweapons Program, CIA Says
In Virginia, Several Hundred People Turn Out to Welcome Home Navy Pilots Who Served in Iraq
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Troops Find No Bodies at Saddam Site
From: spliffslips
--------------------
Troops Find No Bodies at Saddam Site
--------------------
By DAFNA LINZER
Associated Press Writer
May 29, 2003, 9:15 AM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. troops have found no sign of bodies or even a bunker at the site where intelligence had said Saddam Hussein was sleeping on the war's opening night, a senior officer said Thursday.
Acting on an intelligence tip, U.S. forces launched their campaign on March 20 by firing more than 40 Tomahawk missiles on Dora Farms, a neighborhood south of Baghdad where the Iraqi leader was said to be with his sons.
"We looked real hard," Col. Tim Madere, an unconventional weapons specialist with the Army's V Corp, told The Associated Press. "We didn't find any bodies or bunkers," he said a day after visiting the site.
CBS News first reported on his comments on Wednesday.
Madere is part of the U.S.-led search for Saddam-era weapons of mass destruction. Looking for underground bunkers is a large part of the job, and weapons teams are occasionally also sent to gather evidence on the former regime and crimes it may have committed.
The source of the CIA tip that launched the war's opening salvo is a closely guarded secret. Officials will only say the intelligence was regarded as extremely reliable.
Initially, a source told the CIA that Saddam's sons, Qusai and Odai, and possibly their father, would be spending the night at a residential compound in Dora Farms, located along the Tigris and shrouded among rows of trees.
The source's information was deemed so credible that CIA Director George J. Tenet personally took it to the Pentagon, where he described it to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld before the information was taken to the White House.
The mission was not believed to have been successful. A disheveled Saddam appeared a day later on Iraqi TV and made a second appearance a week later. He was last reported seen in Baghdad on April 9.
The United States doesn't know whether Saddam is alive or dead. Several messages released in his name have surfaced since major hostilities came to an end but there was no way to confirm their authenticity.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/sns-ap-iraq-targeting-saddam,0,2412677.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
Troops Find No Bodies at Saddam Site
--------------------
By DAFNA LINZER
Associated Press Writer
May 29, 2003, 9:15 AM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. troops have found no sign of bodies or even a bunker at the site where intelligence had said Saddam Hussein was sleeping on the war's opening night, a senior officer said Thursday.
Acting on an intelligence tip, U.S. forces launched their campaign on March 20 by firing more than 40 Tomahawk missiles on Dora Farms, a neighborhood south of Baghdad where the Iraqi leader was said to be with his sons.
"We looked real hard," Col. Tim Madere, an unconventional weapons specialist with the Army's V Corp, told The Associated Press. "We didn't find any bodies or bunkers," he said a day after visiting the site.
CBS News first reported on his comments on Wednesday.
Madere is part of the U.S.-led search for Saddam-era weapons of mass destruction. Looking for underground bunkers is a large part of the job, and weapons teams are occasionally also sent to gather evidence on the former regime and crimes it may have committed.
The source of the CIA tip that launched the war's opening salvo is a closely guarded secret. Officials will only say the intelligence was regarded as extremely reliable.
Initially, a source told the CIA that Saddam's sons, Qusai and Odai, and possibly their father, would be spending the night at a residential compound in Dora Farms, located along the Tigris and shrouded among rows of trees.
The source's information was deemed so credible that CIA Director George J. Tenet personally took it to the Pentagon, where he described it to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld before the information was taken to the White House.
The mission was not believed to have been successful. A disheveled Saddam appeared a day later on Iraqi TV and made a second appearance a week later. He was last reported seen in Baghdad on April 9.
The United States doesn't know whether Saddam is alive or dead. Several messages released in his name have surfaced since major hostilities came to an end but there was no way to confirm their authenticity.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/sns-ap-iraq-targeting-saddam,0,2412677.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
War Blogs Iraq War Updates
Blair arrives in Iraq: "The Prime Minister has arrived in Basra to thank the British troops still serving in Iraq."
In Ananova: War In Iraq
U.S. Soldier Killed in Iraq Clash: "A U.S. soldier was killed by hostile fire Thursday while traveling on a main supply route in Iraq, a military statement said. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Iraq Ponders Meaning of Newfound Freedom: "After more than three decades of being denied life's most basic freedoms under Saddam Hussein, Iraqis are trying to learn what it means to be free. And with more than 60 percent of Iraqis born after Saddam's party seized power, it is an alien concept to most. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Blair Becomes First Western Leader in Post-War Iraq: "British Prime Minister Tony Blair,who gambled his political career on the war on Iraq, onThursday became the first Western leader to visit the countrysince the conflict that toppled Saddam Hussein. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Bremer Worried About 'Iranian Activity' in Iraq: "U.S. administrator Paul BremerWednesday reported "troubling" Iranian activity in Iraq andsaid it could result in serious problems if it went too far. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Blair arrives in Iraq: "The Prime Minister has arrived in Basra to thank the British troops still serving in Iraq."
In Ananova: War In Iraq
U.S. Soldier Killed in Iraq Clash: "A U.S. soldier was killed by hostile fire Thursday while traveling on a main supply route in Iraq, a military statement said. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Iraq Ponders Meaning of Newfound Freedom: "After more than three decades of being denied life's most basic freedoms under Saddam Hussein, Iraqis are trying to learn what it means to be free. And with more than 60 percent of Iraqis born after Saddam's party seized power, it is an alien concept to most. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Blair Becomes First Western Leader in Post-War Iraq: "British Prime Minister Tony Blair,who gambled his political career on the war on Iraq, onThursday became the first Western leader to visit the countrysince the conflict that toppled Saddam Hussein. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Bremer Worried About 'Iranian Activity' in Iraq: "U.S. administrator Paul BremerWednesday reported "troubling" Iranian activity in Iraq andsaid it could result in serious problems if it went too far. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Wednesday, May 28, 2003
Military Crae Packages 25% off
US finds evidence of WMD at last -- in Maryland (28 May 03) in Radio Free USA
Another "Saddam Letter" Surfaces: "[Fox News]
Full story..."
In Command Post: Irak
US finds evidence of WMD at last -- in Maryland (28 May 03) in Radio Free USA
Another "Saddam Letter" Surfaces: "[Fox News]
LONDON ? An Arabic newspaper in London claims to have received another letter from Saddam Hussein -- this one saying the former Iraqi dictator is "hunting the cowardly American and British enemy." The Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper has published other letters purported to have come from the ex-Iraqi president. Many people have been skeptical of them because photos of them displayed in the paper contained handwriting different from Saddam's.
Full story..."
In Command Post: Irak
War Blog Updates
U.S. sticks to diplomacy with Iran: "In some ways, Iran may seems more of a menace in both terrorism and weapons than Iraq did. Still, administration officials are talking as though a military strike is the last thing on their minds."
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Man jailed for being Arab, lawyer says in IraqWar.ru (English)
Iraq Violence Hits Colo. Regiment Hard
From: Spliffslips
--------------------
Iraq Violence Hits Colo. Regiment Hard
--------------------
By CATHERINE TSAI
Associated Press Writer
May 28, 2003, 2:38 PM EDT
FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Saribelle Rodriguez gets nervous whenever the telephone rings.
In the past few days, three members of her husband's unit -- the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment -- have been killed in Iraq, and she is terrified he may be next.
"It's hard, the separation," Rodriguez, 30, said Tuesday. "Every time you think someone is calling you to tell you your husband has died."
On Tuesday, two of Sgt. Daniel Rodriguez' regiment comrades were gunned down at a traffic checkpoint in Fallujah, where support for Saddam Hussein runs deep.
Nine other American troops were injured and two Iraqis were killed in the gunfight.
On Monday, another Fort Carson soldier, Maj. Mathew E. Schram, 36, of Brookfield, Wis., was killed when gunmen ambushed a military convoy in northern Iraq. Another soldier from the post was injured.
"He made it his career and loved it. He rose in the ranks and worked hard to get there," Schram's sister Susan Kuske said of the soldier's devotion to the armed forces.
Schram, the fifth of six children of Earl and Sarah Schram, was not married and had no children, Kuske said.
Seven soldiers from Fort Carson have been killed in Iraq since May 1. Five other soldiers and Marines with Colorado ties have been killed.
Rodriguez said she talks to her husband, an aviation mechanic, about five minutes once a week to give him news about their 2-year-old and 2-month-old children. She has no idea when he's coming home.
Staff Sgt. LaVell Dishmon, a Fort Carson reservist for 19 years, said the deaths of fellow soldiers hit home.
"In the Army, I feel like it's a brotherhood and we're close," he said.
The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment is a highly mobile force that conducts reconnaissance, security, offensive and defensive operations. It has about 5,200 soldiers and 320 armored vehicles.
In news of other deaths, Military Police Sgt. Brett Petriken of Flint, Mich., was killed while leading a convoy in Iraq, his mother said Wednesday.
Deborah Petriken said her son, who was to turn 31 on Tuesday, died after a heavy equipment operator crossed the median and struck the front of Petriken's Humvee, which was leading the convoy.
She said she was told by the Army of the accident, which happened earlier this week.
"He was just a clean-cut, polite, nice young man," said Jeff Blanchard, a former substitute teacher at Flint Southwestern High School, where Petriken graduated in 1990.
Army Pvt. David Evans Jr. of Buffalo, N.Y., killed in a weekend accident in Iraq, lives on in the son he never got to meet. Family and friends say at 3 1/2-months, David Kevonta Evans is the spitting image of his father.
"He looks like his twin," said the baby's mother, Tamara Douglas. "He's even going to be pigeon-toed like David."
The child was born Feb. 8, a month after Evans, 18, made his last visit home on leave. Evans was killed Sunday in an explosion at a munitions site he was guarding in southern Iraq.
"I wish he could be here to see him, to hold him and to tell him how much he loved him," Douglas told The Buffalo News. "He wanted to see his son so bad."
Evans, a member of the 977th Military Police Company in Fort Riley, Kan., enlisted in the Army after graduating from Kensington High School last June.
* __
On the Net:
http://www.carson.army.mil
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-fort-carson-soldiers,0,6730032.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
Iraq Violence Hits Colo. Regiment Hard
--------------------
By CATHERINE TSAI
Associated Press Writer
May 28, 2003, 2:38 PM EDT
FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Saribelle Rodriguez gets nervous whenever the telephone rings.
In the past few days, three members of her husband's unit -- the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment -- have been killed in Iraq, and she is terrified he may be next.
"It's hard, the separation," Rodriguez, 30, said Tuesday. "Every time you think someone is calling you to tell you your husband has died."
On Tuesday, two of Sgt. Daniel Rodriguez' regiment comrades were gunned down at a traffic checkpoint in Fallujah, where support for Saddam Hussein runs deep.
Nine other American troops were injured and two Iraqis were killed in the gunfight.
On Monday, another Fort Carson soldier, Maj. Mathew E. Schram, 36, of Brookfield, Wis., was killed when gunmen ambushed a military convoy in northern Iraq. Another soldier from the post was injured.
"He made it his career and loved it. He rose in the ranks and worked hard to get there," Schram's sister Susan Kuske said of the soldier's devotion to the armed forces.
Schram, the fifth of six children of Earl and Sarah Schram, was not married and had no children, Kuske said.
Seven soldiers from Fort Carson have been killed in Iraq since May 1. Five other soldiers and Marines with Colorado ties have been killed.
Rodriguez said she talks to her husband, an aviation mechanic, about five minutes once a week to give him news about their 2-year-old and 2-month-old children. She has no idea when he's coming home.
Staff Sgt. LaVell Dishmon, a Fort Carson reservist for 19 years, said the deaths of fellow soldiers hit home.
"In the Army, I feel like it's a brotherhood and we're close," he said.
The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment is a highly mobile force that conducts reconnaissance, security, offensive and defensive operations. It has about 5,200 soldiers and 320 armored vehicles.
In news of other deaths, Military Police Sgt. Brett Petriken of Flint, Mich., was killed while leading a convoy in Iraq, his mother said Wednesday.
Deborah Petriken said her son, who was to turn 31 on Tuesday, died after a heavy equipment operator crossed the median and struck the front of Petriken's Humvee, which was leading the convoy.
She said she was told by the Army of the accident, which happened earlier this week.
"He was just a clean-cut, polite, nice young man," said Jeff Blanchard, a former substitute teacher at Flint Southwestern High School, where Petriken graduated in 1990.
Army Pvt. David Evans Jr. of Buffalo, N.Y., killed in a weekend accident in Iraq, lives on in the son he never got to meet. Family and friends say at 3 1/2-months, David Kevonta Evans is the spitting image of his father.
"He looks like his twin," said the baby's mother, Tamara Douglas. "He's even going to be pigeon-toed like David."
The child was born Feb. 8, a month after Evans, 18, made his last visit home on leave. Evans was killed Sunday in an explosion at a munitions site he was guarding in southern Iraq.
"I wish he could be here to see him, to hold him and to tell him how much he loved him," Douglas told The Buffalo News. "He wanted to see his son so bad."
Evans, a member of the 977th Military Police Company in Fort Riley, Kan., enlisted in the Army after graduating from Kensington High School last June.
* __
On the Net:
http://www.carson.army.mil
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-fort-carson-soldiers,0,6730032.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
War Blog Updates
Is it safe to eat Canadian beef? (27 May 03) in Radio Free USA
Iran denies secret nuclear sites, Al Qaeda links - says US not serious about fighting terror (28 May 03) in Radio Free USA
Report: Saudis nab alleged bomb planner: "The Saudi interior minister announced the arrests of more militants believed to have had a role in the Riyadh bombings, including a man identified by Saudi newspapers on Wednesday as an al-Qaida suspect who allegedly masterminded the attacks."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Is it safe to eat Canadian beef? (27 May 03) in Radio Free USA
Iran denies secret nuclear sites, Al Qaeda links - says US not serious about fighting terror (28 May 03) in Radio Free USA
Report: Saudis nab alleged bomb planner: "The Saudi interior minister announced the arrests of more militants believed to have had a role in the Riyadh bombings, including a man identified by Saudi newspapers on Wednesday as an al-Qaida suspect who allegedly masterminded the attacks."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
War Blog Iraq War Updates
Taliban regroups to harass U.S. forces in IraqWar.ru (English)
Ohio truck driver 'planned al-Qaida attacks' in IraqWar.ru (English)
UK SOLDIERS CLAIM: 'War vaccines poisoned us'... in IraqWar.ru (English)
Saddam Betrayed By His Republican Guard Chief in IraqWar.ru (English)
Russia Tests Yury Dolgoruky Submarine in IraqWar.ru (English)
Pentagon snubs French ahead of G8 summit in IraqWar.ru (English)
Red Cross denied access to PoWs in IraqWar.ru (English)
Taliban regroups to harass U.S. forces in IraqWar.ru (English)
Ohio truck driver 'planned al-Qaida attacks' in IraqWar.ru (English)
UK SOLDIERS CLAIM: 'War vaccines poisoned us'... in IraqWar.ru (English)
Saddam Betrayed By His Republican Guard Chief in IraqWar.ru (English)
Russia Tests Yury Dolgoruky Submarine in IraqWar.ru (English)
Pentagon snubs French ahead of G8 summit in IraqWar.ru (English)
Red Cross denied access to PoWs in IraqWar.ru (English)
War Blog Updates
Britain's Blair Heads for First Postwar Iraq Visit: "British Prime Minister Tony Blair setoff on Wednesday on a whistle-stop diplomatic tour that isexpected to take him briefly into Iraq and make him the firstWestern leader to visit the country since the war. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Morale reportedly flagging in Iraq: "Ask any soldier in Iraq with a 3rd Infantry Division patch on the shoulder how it's going, and the reply will be some version of the following four words: "Ready to go home.""
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Israelis puzzled by 'new' Sharon: "For decades Ariel Sharon was the hero of Israeli nationalists, pushing the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and blocking efforts to give the Palestinians land."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
U.S. hopes for peaceful solution on Iran: "In some ways, Iran seems more of a menace in both terrorism and weapons than Iraq did. Still, administration officials are talking as though a military strike is the last thing on their minds."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Britain's Blair Heads for First Postwar Iraq Visit: "British Prime Minister Tony Blair setoff on Wednesday on a whistle-stop diplomatic tour that isexpected to take him briefly into Iraq and make him the firstWestern leader to visit the country since the war. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Morale reportedly flagging in Iraq: "Ask any soldier in Iraq with a 3rd Infantry Division patch on the shoulder how it's going, and the reply will be some version of the following four words: "Ready to go home.""
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Israelis puzzled by 'new' Sharon: "For decades Ariel Sharon was the hero of Israeli nationalists, pushing the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and blocking efforts to give the Palestinians land."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
U.S. hopes for peaceful solution on Iran: "In some ways, Iran seems more of a menace in both terrorism and weapons than Iraq did. Still, administration officials are talking as though a military strike is the last thing on their minds."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 11 p.m. EDT
From: spliffslips
--------------------
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 11 p.m. EDT
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 27, 2003, 11:02 PM EDT
Iraqi Firefight That Killed Two Americans, Hurt Nine Highlights Postwar Danger for U.S. Troops
Britain Investigates Case of Two TV Crew Members Who Disappeared in Iraq Over Two Months Ago
U.S. Lifting Most Sanctions Against Iraq, Opening Newly Occupied Country to Foreign Investment
New U.N. Envoy to Iraq Says Top Priority Will Be to Ensure Interests of Iraqis Come First
Bush Calls Leaders of Spain and Canada, on Different Sides of Iraq Policy, Ahead of Summit
Battle in Fallujah, Iraq, Kills Four, Wounds Nine Americans; Town Is Hotbed for Saddam Backers
U.N. Judges Cancel Hearings in War Crimes Trial Against Ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
Consumer Confidence Rose Moderately to 83.8 in May, the Highest Level Since November
Chinese Leader Hu Jintao, Russian Leader Vladimir Putin Call for U.N. Role in Rebuilding Iraq
Gunmen Open Fire on U.S. Troops at Iraq Checkpoin, Killing Two Soldiers, Wounding Nine Others
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 11 p.m. EDT
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 27, 2003, 11:02 PM EDT
Iraqi Firefight That Killed Two Americans, Hurt Nine Highlights Postwar Danger for U.S. Troops
Britain Investigates Case of Two TV Crew Members Who Disappeared in Iraq Over Two Months Ago
U.S. Lifting Most Sanctions Against Iraq, Opening Newly Occupied Country to Foreign Investment
New U.N. Envoy to Iraq Says Top Priority Will Be to Ensure Interests of Iraqis Come First
Bush Calls Leaders of Spain and Canada, on Different Sides of Iraq Policy, Ahead of Summit
Battle in Fallujah, Iraq, Kills Four, Wounds Nine Americans; Town Is Hotbed for Saddam Backers
U.N. Judges Cancel Hearings in War Crimes Trial Against Ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
Consumer Confidence Rose Moderately to 83.8 in May, the Highest Level Since November
Chinese Leader Hu Jintao, Russian Leader Vladimir Putin Call for U.N. Role in Rebuilding Iraq
Gunmen Open Fire on U.S. Troops at Iraq Checkpoin, Killing Two Soldiers, Wounding Nine Others
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Al-Jazeera Replaces General Manager
From: spliffslips
About Freakin Time
--------------------
Al-Jazeera Replaces General Manager
--------------------
By SARAH EL DEEB
Associated Press Writer
May 27, 2003, 4:41 PM EDT
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- The Al-Jazeera all-news satellite television station said Tuesday it will replace its general manager.
The Arab broadcaster did not give a reason for the removal of Mohammed Jassim Al-Ali, who has managed the station since its inception seven years ago.
Jihad Ballout, communication and media relations manager, said Al-Ali would remain on Al-Jazeera's seven-member board of directors.
The board of directors, chaired by Sheik Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, a member of Qatar's royal family, is responsible for editorial policy.
Al-Ali was not available for comment.
He was an assistant for the director of Qatari television before being transferred to Al-Jazeera when it was launched in 1996 with a $150 million loan from the Qatar government.
Since then, the station has claimed full independence from Qatar's government. The station has gained a reputation as an independent voice in a region where many news media are government-controlled.
Al-Jazeera has broadcast messages by Osama bin Laden or other members of the al-Qaida terror network.
Last week, the station aired an audiotape attributed to bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahri, and was criticized by Secretary of State Colin Powell. Powell said after speaking with Qatar's foreign minister that he believed the Gulf state was taking "some action" about the airing of the tape.
The station also has angered Arab leaders for being critical of them and their policies.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-qatar-al-jazeera,0,5483587.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
About Freakin Time
--------------------
Al-Jazeera Replaces General Manager
--------------------
By SARAH EL DEEB
Associated Press Writer
May 27, 2003, 4:41 PM EDT
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- The Al-Jazeera all-news satellite television station said Tuesday it will replace its general manager.
The Arab broadcaster did not give a reason for the removal of Mohammed Jassim Al-Ali, who has managed the station since its inception seven years ago.
Jihad Ballout, communication and media relations manager, said Al-Ali would remain on Al-Jazeera's seven-member board of directors.
The board of directors, chaired by Sheik Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, a member of Qatar's royal family, is responsible for editorial policy.
Al-Ali was not available for comment.
He was an assistant for the director of Qatari television before being transferred to Al-Jazeera when it was launched in 1996 with a $150 million loan from the Qatar government.
Since then, the station has claimed full independence from Qatar's government. The station has gained a reputation as an independent voice in a region where many news media are government-controlled.
Al-Jazeera has broadcast messages by Osama bin Laden or other members of the al-Qaida terror network.
Last week, the station aired an audiotape attributed to bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahri, and was criticized by Secretary of State Colin Powell. Powell said after speaking with Qatar's foreign minister that he believed the Gulf state was taking "some action" about the airing of the tape.
The station also has angered Arab leaders for being critical of them and their policies.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-qatar-al-jazeera,0,5483587.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Iraq Attacks Shows U.S. Vulnerability: "Two Iraqis stepped from their car and opened fire early Tuesday, killing two Americans and wounding nine in a city whose people have made clear that U.S. troops are not welcome. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Guerrilla violence flares in Iraq, US forces catch Baath party leaders: "Two US soldiers were killed in a second day of guerrilla attacks in Iraq, while US forces announced the capture of two more "most-wanted" members of toppled leader Saddam Hussein's Baath party. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Group: Journalist Deaths in Hotel 'Avoidable': "The killing of two journalists,including a Reuters TV cameraman, by U.S. tank fire in Baghdadin April was not deliberate but was avoidable, a journalist'swatchdog group said on Tuesday. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Harness world's outrage to recover Iraq's stolen past: " (USA TODAY)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Guerrilla violence flares in Iraq, US forces catch Baath party leaders: "Two US soldiers were killed in a second day of guerrilla attacks in Iraq, while US forces announced the capture of two more "most-wanted" members of toppled leader Saddam Hussein's Baath party. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Group: Journalist Deaths in Hotel 'Avoidable': "The killing of two journalists,including a Reuters TV cameraman, by U.S. tank fire in Baghdadin April was not deliberate but was avoidable, a journalist'swatchdog group said on Tuesday. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Harness world's outrage to recover Iraq's stolen past: " (USA TODAY)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
U.S. Soldier Dies in Northern Iraq Ambush
From: spliffslips
--------------------
U.S. Soldier Dies in Northern Iraq Ambush
--------------------
By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press Writer
May 26, 2003, 12:53 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Gunmen ambushed a U.S. military convoy in northern Iraq on Monday, killing an American soldier and wounding four others. Also, four soldiers were wounded in what appeared to be a land-mine attack in a wealthy Baghdad neighborhood, military officials and witnesses said.
It was one of the most violent days for U.S. troops since the war ended last month.
In the north, unidentified attackers opened fire on an eight-vehicle convoy on a resupply mission to a base near the town of Hadithah, about 120 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
The command said the ambush happened at 6:15 a.m. and that the troops belonged to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.
The gunmen used machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in the attack, the latest of several on coalition forces this month. The statement said helicopters were immediately dispatched to the area to find the assailants.
The names of the two soldiers were withheld pending notification of their families.
In the well-off Baghdad neighborhood of Yarmouk, witnesses said they heard several explosions and a 15-minute burst of gunfire Monday afternoon along the road to the airport, west of the capital.
A U.S. soldier near the scene said it was an ambush and that at least one Humvee was destroyed.
Another soldier, who also refused to give his name, said it appeared the Humvee hit a land mine and four soldiers were wounded. Troops blocked the highway, keeping reporters from the scene and causing a traffic jam.
Three American occupants of the Humvee were injured, said a third soldier, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said one was burned all over his body, a second was burned on the face and hands and a third sustained minor burns to his hands.
A witness who lives near the scene said a fourth soldier was injured shortly afterward when ammunition in the Humvee exploded. The witness gave only his first name, Adel.
An Associated Press reporter saw the Humvee, still burning, more than 90 minutes after the attack. It was unclear whether the mine had been placed there to directly target Americans.
The road that connects Baghdad International Airport with the city is frequently used by U.S. troops, many of whom are based at the airport. At least one other reported attack has taken place on that road in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, in Baqubah, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad, U.S. soldiers shot and killed a woman who tried to approach them carrying two hand grenades. The incident took place immediately after unknown attackers threw handheld explosives at U.S. soldiers guarding a former base of the pro-Iranian Badr Corps in the town, Central Command said.
"Squad members verbally warned her several more times, but she continued to advance towards them. When she refused, the squad shot her several times. She fell to the ground, dropping one grenade, and continued to crawl towards them," the statement said. "The squad fired again, killing her."
Earlier Monday, military officials said a U.S. soldier was killed and another injured in southern Iraq when a munitions dump they were guarding exploded.
The blast, which happened Sunday morning near the town of Diwaniya, 95 miles south of Baghdad, was not thought to be a result of hostile action, U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
The injured soldier was transported to a field hospital, where he underwent surgery, the statement said. Their names were also withheld.
A number of U.S. servicemen have been killed since the end of the fighting last month, mostly in road accidents and ammunition explosions.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-american-deaths,0,6949581.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
U.S. Soldier Dies in Northern Iraq Ambush
--------------------
By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press Writer
May 26, 2003, 12:53 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Gunmen ambushed a U.S. military convoy in northern Iraq on Monday, killing an American soldier and wounding four others. Also, four soldiers were wounded in what appeared to be a land-mine attack in a wealthy Baghdad neighborhood, military officials and witnesses said.
It was one of the most violent days for U.S. troops since the war ended last month.
In the north, unidentified attackers opened fire on an eight-vehicle convoy on a resupply mission to a base near the town of Hadithah, about 120 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
The command said the ambush happened at 6:15 a.m. and that the troops belonged to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.
The gunmen used machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in the attack, the latest of several on coalition forces this month. The statement said helicopters were immediately dispatched to the area to find the assailants.
The names of the two soldiers were withheld pending notification of their families.
In the well-off Baghdad neighborhood of Yarmouk, witnesses said they heard several explosions and a 15-minute burst of gunfire Monday afternoon along the road to the airport, west of the capital.
A U.S. soldier near the scene said it was an ambush and that at least one Humvee was destroyed.
Another soldier, who also refused to give his name, said it appeared the Humvee hit a land mine and four soldiers were wounded. Troops blocked the highway, keeping reporters from the scene and causing a traffic jam.
Three American occupants of the Humvee were injured, said a third soldier, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said one was burned all over his body, a second was burned on the face and hands and a third sustained minor burns to his hands.
A witness who lives near the scene said a fourth soldier was injured shortly afterward when ammunition in the Humvee exploded. The witness gave only his first name, Adel.
An Associated Press reporter saw the Humvee, still burning, more than 90 minutes after the attack. It was unclear whether the mine had been placed there to directly target Americans.
The road that connects Baghdad International Airport with the city is frequently used by U.S. troops, many of whom are based at the airport. At least one other reported attack has taken place on that road in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, in Baqubah, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad, U.S. soldiers shot and killed a woman who tried to approach them carrying two hand grenades. The incident took place immediately after unknown attackers threw handheld explosives at U.S. soldiers guarding a former base of the pro-Iranian Badr Corps in the town, Central Command said.
"Squad members verbally warned her several more times, but she continued to advance towards them. When she refused, the squad shot her several times. She fell to the ground, dropping one grenade, and continued to crawl towards them," the statement said. "The squad fired again, killing her."
Earlier Monday, military officials said a U.S. soldier was killed and another injured in southern Iraq when a munitions dump they were guarding exploded.
The blast, which happened Sunday morning near the town of Diwaniya, 95 miles south of Baghdad, was not thought to be a result of hostile action, U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
The injured soldier was transported to a field hospital, where he underwent surgery, the statement said. Their names were also withheld.
A number of U.S. servicemen have been killed since the end of the fighting last month, mostly in road accidents and ammunition explosions.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-american-deaths,0,6949581.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
U.S. Hands Out $1 Million a Day in Iraq
From: spliffslips
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY
--------------------
U.S. Hands Out $1 Million a Day in Iraq
--------------------
By PAULINE JELINEK
Associated Press Writer
May 26, 2003, 1:20 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- U.S. dollars are flown to Iraq by the planeload. An Army clerk pays Baghdad electricians from a footlocker full of cash. Soldiers string barbed wire at the site where Iraqi retirees get their pensions.
"It doesn't instill a lot of confidence," the CATO Institute's Christopher Preble says of reconstruction finances so far in postwar Iraq.
American troops and officials are handing out $1 million a day in Iraq, according to the Pentagon-led Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.
That spending is in addition to multimillion contracts awarded by the State Department and the roughly $1 billion a week it takes to keep U.S. troops in Iraq.
Officials say they're developing an efficient and well-controlled system for getting money back into the country's economy again. But financing reconstruction in Iraq is a hugely complicated affair, with money coming in from at least a half dozen sources and going out in everything from tiny cash payments to contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Defense Department, infamous for its long-standing money management problems, will soon send a dozen auditors to oversee the spending.
Two months into the campaign in Iraq, the Bush administration has declined to say what reconstruction might cost or how long it thinks occupying forces might stay there.
"When is the president going to tell the American people that we're likely to be in ... Iraq for three, four, five, six, eight, 10 years, with thousands of forces and spending billions of dollars?" Sen. Joseph Biden asked Pentagon officials last week in a hearing.
"It is very difficult to predict" how long it will take, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz responded.
It is also unclear exactly how much they'll have to spend. But the finances will be "frightening difficult and legalistic," said one treasury official privately, partly because the pool of money to be spent is a mix of money that belongs to Iraqi and has been frozen by the United Nations, the United States and other countries; money that might be pledged by coalition members; money Congress appropriated in the defense budget, and huge caches of dollars, gold and other assets found hidden around the country by the former regime.
Money taken from each of those pots comes with its own rules on how it can be spent -- and all the rules aren't yet clear, officials said.
Cash used so far comes from $1.7 billion of Iraqi money frozen by the United States under sanctions since 1990, Pentagon and Treasury officials said. Transferred at the war's start into an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, it's shipped to Iraq as needed.
About $200 million has been drawn down so far.
That's singles, fives, tens and $20 bills, fluttered through an accounting machine, weighed, shrink-wrapped in stacks and flown on pallets to Iraq with two guards who stay awake and in line of sight at all times during the flight.
Some $31 million had been handed out as of Friday to pensioners, police, teachers, electricians and other civil servants. It's a huge and important effort since a large percentage of Iraq's jobs came from the socialist and repressive former central government.
In just two examples, 6,500 port workers were each given $20 -- for a total of $130,000 -- to help reopen the southern port of Umm Qasr; troops of the air assault 101st Airborne Division paid $142,000 to health ministry workers in the northern city of Mosul.
Money has also been spent for clearing away garbage accumulating on streets for two months since the war started; to repair decayed infrastructure and to replace office furniture and equipment in government ministries that were bombed during the war or looted afterward and have to get up and running again, officials said.
For instance, the 7th Marine Regiment recently wrote a contract for improvements at 180 schools in the central city of Najaf. At $500 for each school, that's $90,000.
Besides monitoring the river of cash flowing into Iraq, the new auditors will advise and help officials on contract issues.
So far, the State Department has awarded some $1 billion in contracts and grants, mostly to American companies, to rebuild infrastructure, improve health and education and manage the port and airports.
Several officials stressed the Pentagon is particularly concerned about avoiding criticism later, wanting the spending above board and true to the promise that all frozen and found Iraqi funds will be spent on the Iraqi people.
What accountants envision sitting behind desks in Washington isn't easy to pull off in Iraq, where the banking system is broken, so many transactions are in cash, corruption is ingrained and some of the troops don't think this is a job U.S. soldiers should be doing, defense and congressional officials said.
In the only publicly disclosed incident so far, several soldiers were being investigated for allegedly trying to steal some $900,000 from more than $650 million in bills found stashed in a palace compound.
Auditors are to leave sometime around June 1 and stay three to six months. They include representatives from the Pentagon's inspector general, comptroller and joint chiefs of staff; the congressional investigative General Accounting Office; and the White House Office of Management and Budget. The Treasury already has a team of 22 people working to verify Iraqi government payroll lists, rebuild and reform the banking system.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-the-money,0,4578804.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY
--------------------
U.S. Hands Out $1 Million a Day in Iraq
--------------------
By PAULINE JELINEK
Associated Press Writer
May 26, 2003, 1:20 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- U.S. dollars are flown to Iraq by the planeload. An Army clerk pays Baghdad electricians from a footlocker full of cash. Soldiers string barbed wire at the site where Iraqi retirees get their pensions.
"It doesn't instill a lot of confidence," the CATO Institute's Christopher Preble says of reconstruction finances so far in postwar Iraq.
American troops and officials are handing out $1 million a day in Iraq, according to the Pentagon-led Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.
That spending is in addition to multimillion contracts awarded by the State Department and the roughly $1 billion a week it takes to keep U.S. troops in Iraq.
Officials say they're developing an efficient and well-controlled system for getting money back into the country's economy again. But financing reconstruction in Iraq is a hugely complicated affair, with money coming in from at least a half dozen sources and going out in everything from tiny cash payments to contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Defense Department, infamous for its long-standing money management problems, will soon send a dozen auditors to oversee the spending.
Two months into the campaign in Iraq, the Bush administration has declined to say what reconstruction might cost or how long it thinks occupying forces might stay there.
"When is the president going to tell the American people that we're likely to be in ... Iraq for three, four, five, six, eight, 10 years, with thousands of forces and spending billions of dollars?" Sen. Joseph Biden asked Pentagon officials last week in a hearing.
"It is very difficult to predict" how long it will take, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz responded.
It is also unclear exactly how much they'll have to spend. But the finances will be "frightening difficult and legalistic," said one treasury official privately, partly because the pool of money to be spent is a mix of money that belongs to Iraqi and has been frozen by the United Nations, the United States and other countries; money that might be pledged by coalition members; money Congress appropriated in the defense budget, and huge caches of dollars, gold and other assets found hidden around the country by the former regime.
Money taken from each of those pots comes with its own rules on how it can be spent -- and all the rules aren't yet clear, officials said.
Cash used so far comes from $1.7 billion of Iraqi money frozen by the United States under sanctions since 1990, Pentagon and Treasury officials said. Transferred at the war's start into an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, it's shipped to Iraq as needed.
About $200 million has been drawn down so far.
That's singles, fives, tens and $20 bills, fluttered through an accounting machine, weighed, shrink-wrapped in stacks and flown on pallets to Iraq with two guards who stay awake and in line of sight at all times during the flight.
Some $31 million had been handed out as of Friday to pensioners, police, teachers, electricians and other civil servants. It's a huge and important effort since a large percentage of Iraq's jobs came from the socialist and repressive former central government.
In just two examples, 6,500 port workers were each given $20 -- for a total of $130,000 -- to help reopen the southern port of Umm Qasr; troops of the air assault 101st Airborne Division paid $142,000 to health ministry workers in the northern city of Mosul.
Money has also been spent for clearing away garbage accumulating on streets for two months since the war started; to repair decayed infrastructure and to replace office furniture and equipment in government ministries that were bombed during the war or looted afterward and have to get up and running again, officials said.
For instance, the 7th Marine Regiment recently wrote a contract for improvements at 180 schools in the central city of Najaf. At $500 for each school, that's $90,000.
Besides monitoring the river of cash flowing into Iraq, the new auditors will advise and help officials on contract issues.
So far, the State Department has awarded some $1 billion in contracts and grants, mostly to American companies, to rebuild infrastructure, improve health and education and manage the port and airports.
Several officials stressed the Pentagon is particularly concerned about avoiding criticism later, wanting the spending above board and true to the promise that all frozen and found Iraqi funds will be spent on the Iraqi people.
What accountants envision sitting behind desks in Washington isn't easy to pull off in Iraq, where the banking system is broken, so many transactions are in cash, corruption is ingrained and some of the troops don't think this is a job U.S. soldiers should be doing, defense and congressional officials said.
In the only publicly disclosed incident so far, several soldiers were being investigated for allegedly trying to steal some $900,000 from more than $650 million in bills found stashed in a palace compound.
Auditors are to leave sometime around June 1 and stay three to six months. They include representatives from the Pentagon's inspector general, comptroller and joint chiefs of staff; the congressional investigative General Accounting Office; and the White House Office of Management and Budget. The Treasury already has a team of 22 people working to verify Iraqi government payroll lists, rebuild and reform the banking system.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-the-money,0,4578804.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Deadly Days For Troops In Iraq: "Seven American soldiers have died in attacks and accidents since Sunday. In the latest incident, two U.S. soldiers were killed in a firefight in the troubled town of Fallujah."
In CBS News: Iraq Crisis
UPDATED REPORT ON ATTACK AT AL FALLUJAH in CENTCOM: News Release
TWO ?IRAQI TOP 55? CAPTURED in CENTCOM: News Release
Ethnic tension divides Kirkuk in BBC: War in Iraq
West Bank Violence Ahead of Peace Talks: "Israeli troops shot and killed a 16-year-old Palestinian boy and critically injured two children, ages 7 and 9, during conflicts in the West Bank that erupted Tuesday as Israeli and Palestinian leaders moved toward talks on a new Mideast peace plan."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
U.S. Said to Arrest Saddam Kin in Tikrit: "U.S. forces arrested a man they identified as Saddam Hussein's brother-in-law, a military spokeswoman said Tuesday. A newspaper reported the arrest but identified the same man as Saddam's son-in-law."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Officials Work to ID Plane Crash Remains: "Turkish and Spanish experts worked Tuesday to identify the charred remains of 75 people, mostly Spanish peacekeepers returning from Afghanistan, who were killed when their plane crashed into a remote Turkish mountain."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Iraq Firefight Leaves 4 Dead, 9 Injured: "Two U.S. soldiers and two unidentified attackers were killed and nine other American troops were wounded in a firefight Tuesday in the troubled town of Fallujah, a hotbed of support for Saddam Hussein's fallen Baath Party, the U.S. military said."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
In CBS News: Iraq Crisis
UPDATED REPORT ON ATTACK AT AL FALLUJAH in CENTCOM: News Release
TWO ?IRAQI TOP 55? CAPTURED in CENTCOM: News Release
Ethnic tension divides Kirkuk in BBC: War in Iraq
West Bank Violence Ahead of Peace Talks: "Israeli troops shot and killed a 16-year-old Palestinian boy and critically injured two children, ages 7 and 9, during conflicts in the West Bank that erupted Tuesday as Israeli and Palestinian leaders moved toward talks on a new Mideast peace plan."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
U.S. Said to Arrest Saddam Kin in Tikrit: "U.S. forces arrested a man they identified as Saddam Hussein's brother-in-law, a military spokeswoman said Tuesday. A newspaper reported the arrest but identified the same man as Saddam's son-in-law."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Officials Work to ID Plane Crash Remains: "Turkish and Spanish experts worked Tuesday to identify the charred remains of 75 people, mostly Spanish peacekeepers returning from Afghanistan, who were killed when their plane crashed into a remote Turkish mountain."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Iraq Firefight Leaves 4 Dead, 9 Injured: "Two U.S. soldiers and two unidentified attackers were killed and nine other American troops were wounded in a firefight Tuesday in the troubled town of Fallujah, a hotbed of support for Saddam Hussein's fallen Baath Party, the U.S. military said."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Yahoo! News Story - Cheers for Iraq's U.S. Governor Amid Fresh Problems
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3 Iraqis Killed in Missile Accident
From: spliffslips
--------------------
3 Iraqis Killed in Missile Accident
--------------------
By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI
Associated Press Writer
May 25, 2003, 1:10 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A surface-to-air missile left over from Saddam Hussein's regime fell off a trailer and exploded Sunday, killing three people and injuring at least two others, residents of a poor Baghdad neighborhood said.
They said the accident happened at about 10 a.m. in the al-Thawra slum as Iraqi contractors were removing four unexploded Iraqi missiles left over from the war.
Army Lt. Col. Joel Armstrong identified the rockets as SA2 surface-to-air-missiles. But he said he had no information on the explosion or the number of casualties. No U.S. soldier was involved in the destruction of the missiles, he said.
"We are really sorry for the victims," said Armstrong, 45, of Fort Polk, La.
Several cars, a car wash and two nearby car-repair shops were destroyed. Twisted metal and pieces of the missiles littered the area. U.S. soldiers brought fire engines and extinguished the fire, Armstrong said.
Unexploded ordnance from the war and ammunition caches are scattered throughout Iraq and are proving a major concern. Human rights groups have exhorted U.S. forces to clean up unexploded ordnance, particularly in populated areas. The Iraqi army hid much of its ammunition in schools.
Within minutes of hearing the explosions, an American patrol went to the area to investigate, Armstrong said.
Jasim al-Darraji, owner of a nearby car-repair shop, said workers had removed two missiles from the area and were moving another one. The missile was being placed on a trailer when it turned over, spewing yellow fluid.
Shortly afterward, it exploded. Fragments of it hit another missile that also exploded, causing deaths and destruction on the edge of al-Thawra City, a rough, predominantly Shiite area that was known until last month as Saddam City.
Seyed Abed-Mohammed al-Hamdani, who saw the explosion, said a teenage boy was killed in his car-repair shop as he waited for his father who was having his car fixed. Two of his employees were injured.
A young man riding in a bus was also was killed, as was a 13-year-old bystander, al-Hamdani said.
Armstrong said that, since Baghdad fell on April 9, his unit had destroyed 6,000 tons of ammunition caches in northeast Baghdad, where Thawra City is located.
In addition, it has blown up 203 pieces of unexploded ordnance in the same sector, including some unexploded American artillery.
"There are no more ammunitions in schools in northeast Baghdad," Armstrong said.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-missile-explodes,0,6841562.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
3 Iraqis Killed in Missile Accident
--------------------
By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI
Associated Press Writer
May 25, 2003, 1:10 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A surface-to-air missile left over from Saddam Hussein's regime fell off a trailer and exploded Sunday, killing three people and injuring at least two others, residents of a poor Baghdad neighborhood said.
They said the accident happened at about 10 a.m. in the al-Thawra slum as Iraqi contractors were removing four unexploded Iraqi missiles left over from the war.
Army Lt. Col. Joel Armstrong identified the rockets as SA2 surface-to-air-missiles. But he said he had no information on the explosion or the number of casualties. No U.S. soldier was involved in the destruction of the missiles, he said.
"We are really sorry for the victims," said Armstrong, 45, of Fort Polk, La.
Several cars, a car wash and two nearby car-repair shops were destroyed. Twisted metal and pieces of the missiles littered the area. U.S. soldiers brought fire engines and extinguished the fire, Armstrong said.
Unexploded ordnance from the war and ammunition caches are scattered throughout Iraq and are proving a major concern. Human rights groups have exhorted U.S. forces to clean up unexploded ordnance, particularly in populated areas. The Iraqi army hid much of its ammunition in schools.
Within minutes of hearing the explosions, an American patrol went to the area to investigate, Armstrong said.
Jasim al-Darraji, owner of a nearby car-repair shop, said workers had removed two missiles from the area and were moving another one. The missile was being placed on a trailer when it turned over, spewing yellow fluid.
Shortly afterward, it exploded. Fragments of it hit another missile that also exploded, causing deaths and destruction on the edge of al-Thawra City, a rough, predominantly Shiite area that was known until last month as Saddam City.
Seyed Abed-Mohammed al-Hamdani, who saw the explosion, said a teenage boy was killed in his car-repair shop as he waited for his father who was having his car fixed. Two of his employees were injured.
A young man riding in a bus was also was killed, as was a 13-year-old bystander, al-Hamdani said.
Armstrong said that, since Baghdad fell on April 9, his unit had destroyed 6,000 tons of ammunition caches in northeast Baghdad, where Thawra City is located.
In addition, it has blown up 203 pieces of unexploded ordnance in the same sector, including some unexploded American artillery.
"There are no more ammunitions in schools in northeast Baghdad," Armstrong said.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-missile-explodes,0,6841562.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Iraq's Oil Terminal Ready for Exports
From: spliffslips
--------------------
Iraq's Oil Terminal Ready for Exports
--------------------
By BRUCE STANLEY
AP Business Writer
May 25, 2003, 6:11 PM EDT
FAW, Iraq -- With Iraq preparing to ship out oil for the first time since the war, this languid fishing port will once again become a vital gathering point for Iraqi crude destined for tankers waiting offshore in the Gulf.
Until the war, more than half the country's oil exports flowed from its southernmost tip at Faw, coming mostly from oil fields and processing plants in southern Iraq. Two underground pipelines carried the crude here, then out to sea to Iraq's only functioning marine terminal.
British troops, appreciating Faw's strategic importance, captured the town, together with its oil storage tanks and the Mina al-Bakr terminal, during the first days of the U.S.-led invasion. The terminal is intact, and final repairs to a war-damaged section of pipeline were under way Sunday.
"Once the signal is given to begin exporting, we can do it any time," said Mohammed Al-Waely, operations manager of the state-run South Oil Co.
Iraq's acting oil minister, Thamer al-Ghadhban, said Saturday in Baghdad that Iraq would begin exporting crude again within three weeks. Oil revenues are essential to help pay for the country's postwar reconstruction, but the war has halted shipments.
Last week's U.N. Security Council decision to lift economic sanctions against Iraq was the first step in putting Iraq's crude back on the market. The oil ministry still must appoint an official seller of Iraqi crude, but repairs to its most important export facilities are nearing completion.
Iraq has the biggest proven crude reserves after Saudi Arabia. In the last years before the war, it exported most of the 3 million barrels it produced each day. Mina al-Bakr is one of Iraq's two main export outlets; the other is a pipeline to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, Turkey.
Not only is Iraq desperate for money from oil exports, but it has too little storage for the crude it pumps to extract natural gas, which Iraqis use for cooking. Iraqi oil executives worry they won't be able to process adequate volumes of crude to meet this politically important demand for domestic cooking gas.
These logjams are delaying production in at least one Iraqi oil field. Rumeila North, which produced more than 500,000 barrels a day before the war, is ready to come back two months after its wells stopped pumping.
"They could produce now, but where's it going to go?" said U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Steve Wright.
Iraq has several long-term export options. Besides using Mina al-Bakr and Ceyhan, it could try to refurbish an old pipeline to the Syrian port of Banyas. Iraq evaded sanctions by using this pipeline even during the recent war. It also could seek to reopen a pipeline, closed in 1986, that passes through Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea.
When exports resume, Iraq should be able to ship more than 1.2 million barrels a day from Mina al-Bakr, an offshore platform with berths for four large oil tankers lying 31 miles from Faw.
Mina al-Bakr was built in 1975 and suffered damage during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. The U.S. company KBR helped rebuild it soon afterward. The Iraqis repaired subsequent damage inflicted during the first Gulf War, but analysts say the facility requires further work to reach its full export capacity of 1.6 million barrels a day.
A second Gulf export terminal, Khor al-Amaya, was destroyed during the first Gulf War and has only been partially repaired. South Oil's Al-Waely described it as "a jungle of pipes and burnt buildings in miserable condition."
However, the ocean is often calmer at Khor al-Amaya, making it easier for tankers to load oil there. South Oil wants to refurbish and enlarge the facility to ease demands on Mina al-Bakr.
The two pipelines that eventually will carry first crude to Mina al-Bakr run south along the Faw Peninsula, scene of the climactic battle of the Iran-Iraq War. Tank treads, pillboxes, and gun emplacements still litter the arid flatlands where almost 200,000 men on both sides were killed.
The pipelines emerge above ground at a gathering point near a beach at the town of Faw, about 40 miles south of Basra, southern Iraq's largest city. Iraqi troops laid mines in the sand to try to protect this vulnerable installation, and five British soldiers with heavy machine guns have taken over guarding the site.
"Oil is such an important part of Iraq's exports that we don't want to let looters hamper the effort," explained British Army Capt. Jim Hurst, 29, of Kingsbridge England.
Faw once had a base camp and heliport for oil workers and one of the world's biggest tank farms for storing crude. Iranian bombardments destroyed all 54 storage tanks, and only two have been rebuilt.
The tank farm is now a vast junkyard of mangled steel and pools of leaked oil that has congealed into tar. A stray dog became hopelessly trapped in one of the tar pits on Saturday, and a British soldier shot the animal to stop its suffering.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-oil-exports,0,6719631.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
Iraq's Oil Terminal Ready for Exports
--------------------
By BRUCE STANLEY
AP Business Writer
May 25, 2003, 6:11 PM EDT
FAW, Iraq -- With Iraq preparing to ship out oil for the first time since the war, this languid fishing port will once again become a vital gathering point for Iraqi crude destined for tankers waiting offshore in the Gulf.
Until the war, more than half the country's oil exports flowed from its southernmost tip at Faw, coming mostly from oil fields and processing plants in southern Iraq. Two underground pipelines carried the crude here, then out to sea to Iraq's only functioning marine terminal.
British troops, appreciating Faw's strategic importance, captured the town, together with its oil storage tanks and the Mina al-Bakr terminal, during the first days of the U.S.-led invasion. The terminal is intact, and final repairs to a war-damaged section of pipeline were under way Sunday.
"Once the signal is given to begin exporting, we can do it any time," said Mohammed Al-Waely, operations manager of the state-run South Oil Co.
Iraq's acting oil minister, Thamer al-Ghadhban, said Saturday in Baghdad that Iraq would begin exporting crude again within three weeks. Oil revenues are essential to help pay for the country's postwar reconstruction, but the war has halted shipments.
Last week's U.N. Security Council decision to lift economic sanctions against Iraq was the first step in putting Iraq's crude back on the market. The oil ministry still must appoint an official seller of Iraqi crude, but repairs to its most important export facilities are nearing completion.
Iraq has the biggest proven crude reserves after Saudi Arabia. In the last years before the war, it exported most of the 3 million barrels it produced each day. Mina al-Bakr is one of Iraq's two main export outlets; the other is a pipeline to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, Turkey.
Not only is Iraq desperate for money from oil exports, but it has too little storage for the crude it pumps to extract natural gas, which Iraqis use for cooking. Iraqi oil executives worry they won't be able to process adequate volumes of crude to meet this politically important demand for domestic cooking gas.
These logjams are delaying production in at least one Iraqi oil field. Rumeila North, which produced more than 500,000 barrels a day before the war, is ready to come back two months after its wells stopped pumping.
"They could produce now, but where's it going to go?" said U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Steve Wright.
Iraq has several long-term export options. Besides using Mina al-Bakr and Ceyhan, it could try to refurbish an old pipeline to the Syrian port of Banyas. Iraq evaded sanctions by using this pipeline even during the recent war. It also could seek to reopen a pipeline, closed in 1986, that passes through Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea.
When exports resume, Iraq should be able to ship more than 1.2 million barrels a day from Mina al-Bakr, an offshore platform with berths for four large oil tankers lying 31 miles from Faw.
Mina al-Bakr was built in 1975 and suffered damage during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. The U.S. company KBR helped rebuild it soon afterward. The Iraqis repaired subsequent damage inflicted during the first Gulf War, but analysts say the facility requires further work to reach its full export capacity of 1.6 million barrels a day.
A second Gulf export terminal, Khor al-Amaya, was destroyed during the first Gulf War and has only been partially repaired. South Oil's Al-Waely described it as "a jungle of pipes and burnt buildings in miserable condition."
However, the ocean is often calmer at Khor al-Amaya, making it easier for tankers to load oil there. South Oil wants to refurbish and enlarge the facility to ease demands on Mina al-Bakr.
The two pipelines that eventually will carry first crude to Mina al-Bakr run south along the Faw Peninsula, scene of the climactic battle of the Iran-Iraq War. Tank treads, pillboxes, and gun emplacements still litter the arid flatlands where almost 200,000 men on both sides were killed.
The pipelines emerge above ground at a gathering point near a beach at the town of Faw, about 40 miles south of Basra, southern Iraq's largest city. Iraqi troops laid mines in the sand to try to protect this vulnerable installation, and five British soldiers with heavy machine guns have taken over guarding the site.
"Oil is such an important part of Iraq's exports that we don't want to let looters hamper the effort," explained British Army Capt. Jim Hurst, 29, of Kingsbridge England.
Faw once had a base camp and heliport for oil workers and one of the world's biggest tank farms for storing crude. Iranian bombardments destroyed all 54 storage tanks, and only two have been rebuilt.
The tank farm is now a vast junkyard of mangled steel and pools of leaked oil that has congealed into tar. A stray dog became hopelessly trapped in one of the tar pits on Saturday, and a British soldier shot the animal to stop its suffering.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-oil-exports,0,6719631.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
COALITION EFFORTS AID IRAQ'S RECOVERY in CENTCOM: News Release
Fallujah Firefight Kills 2 U.S. Soldiers: "Two U.S. soldiers and two unidentified attackers were killed and nine other American troops were wounded in a firefight Tuesday in the troubled town of Fallujah, a hotbed of support for Saddam Hussein's fallen Baath Party, the U.S. military said. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Rumsfeld: U.S. Won't Let Iraq Be Made Into New Iran: "The United States will not allow Iraq'sneighbors to create an Iran-style Islamic republic there afterthe toppling of Saddam Hussein by U.S. forces, DefenseSecretary Donald Rumsfeld said in comments published onTuesday. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
US soldier killed, seven wounded in Fallujah attack: Centcom: "One US soldier was killed and seven others injured in an attack in the flashpoint town of Fallujah that also left two attackers dead, US Central Command said. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Attackers Kill U.S. Soldier, Wound Seven in Iraq: "One U.S. soldier was killed and sevenwere wounded when a "hostile force" attacked an American armyunit with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms in the Iraqicity of Falluja on Tuesday, the U.S. military said. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Sharon Appears Serious About Peacemaking: "Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has signaled that he is serious about peacemaking, declaring that Israel's occupation in the West Bank must end, adopting the language of his dovish opponents and shocking his hardline allies."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Three killed in Iraq gun battle: "Two Iraqis and an American soldier have been killed in a firefight in the Iraqi town of Fallujah."
In Ananova: War In Iraq
US soldiers attacked in Iraq as OPEC frets over Baghdad's oil: "Four US soldiers were killed and six others wounded amid a flareup of guerrilla activity and street violence that highlighted the continuing dangers in Iraq as OPEC members fretted over Baghdad's return as a major player on the oil market. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Het International Criminal Court (ICC): kansen en obstakels in RISQ
False Leads Stall Weapons Search in Iraq: "The quarry was intriguing: secret bunkers filled with chemical weapons near a Baghdad runway - a sure bet, according to an airport worker. So an enthusiastic team of U.S. and British arms experts, lugging a shovel and ground-penetrating radar, went to work."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Fallujah Firefight Kills 2 U.S. Soldiers: "Two U.S. soldiers and two unidentified attackers were killed and nine other American troops were wounded in a firefight Tuesday in the troubled town of Fallujah, a hotbed of support for Saddam Hussein's fallen Baath Party, the U.S. military said. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Rumsfeld: U.S. Won't Let Iraq Be Made Into New Iran: "The United States will not allow Iraq'sneighbors to create an Iran-style Islamic republic there afterthe toppling of Saddam Hussein by U.S. forces, DefenseSecretary Donald Rumsfeld said in comments published onTuesday. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
US soldier killed, seven wounded in Fallujah attack: Centcom: "One US soldier was killed and seven others injured in an attack in the flashpoint town of Fallujah that also left two attackers dead, US Central Command said. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Attackers Kill U.S. Soldier, Wound Seven in Iraq: "One U.S. soldier was killed and sevenwere wounded when a "hostile force" attacked an American armyunit with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms in the Iraqicity of Falluja on Tuesday, the U.S. military said. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Sharon Appears Serious About Peacemaking: "Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has signaled that he is serious about peacemaking, declaring that Israel's occupation in the West Bank must end, adopting the language of his dovish opponents and shocking his hardline allies."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Three killed in Iraq gun battle: "Two Iraqis and an American soldier have been killed in a firefight in the Iraqi town of Fallujah."
In Ananova: War In Iraq
US soldiers attacked in Iraq as OPEC frets over Baghdad's oil: "Four US soldiers were killed and six others wounded amid a flareup of guerrilla activity and street violence that highlighted the continuing dangers in Iraq as OPEC members fretted over Baghdad's return as a major player on the oil market. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Het International Criminal Court (ICC): kansen en obstakels in RISQ
False Leads Stall Weapons Search in Iraq: "The quarry was intriguing: secret bunkers filled with chemical weapons near a Baghdad runway - a sure bet, according to an airport worker. So an enthusiastic team of U.S. and British arms experts, lugging a shovel and ground-penetrating radar, went to work."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Monday, May 26, 2003
War Blog Updates
U.S. Forces Arrest Saddam's Brother-In-Law: "U.S. forces have detained abrother-in-law of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in theIraqi town of Tikrit, a U.S. military spokesman said. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
U.S. Soldier Dies in Iraq Ambush: "Gunmen ambushed a U.S. military convoy in northern Iraq on Monday, killing an American soldier and wounding four others. Also, four soldiers were wounded in what appeared to be a land-mine attack in a wealthy Baghdad neighborhood, military officials and witnesses said. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
U.S. Troops Under Fire In Iraq: "Attacks in Iraq have killed at least one soldier and wounded five in one of the most violent days there since the war ended. Gunmen ambushed U.S. troops in northern Iraq; 4 solders were also wounded in a land-mine attack in Baghdad."
In CBS News: Iraq Crisis
Honoring American Heroes: "President Bush led the memorial services for the military men and women killed in combat, including the 161 who died in the Iraq war. "Americans stand with the families who grieve,'' said Mr. Bush."
In CBS News: Iraq Crisis
'Too few troops' in Iraq in BBC: War in Iraq
UN inspectors set for return in BBC: War in Iraq
Nations See Costly Iraq Peacekeeping Duty: "Waging war is expensive, but so is keeping the peace - and the cost has some coalition countries taking a hard look at plans to deploy troops for mop-up duty in Iraq."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Sharon Defends Endorsement of Peace Deal: "Defending himself against right-wing attack, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Monday he endorsed a peace plan recognizing the Palestinians' right to a state because continuing to rule them is "bad for us and them.""
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Wave of Attacks Claim U.S. Casualties in Iraq: "One U.S. soldier was killed and fourwere wounded in Iraqi ambushes on Monday and, in anotherincident, U.S. forces seized a brother-in-law of SaddamHussein, the U.S. military said. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
U.S. Administrator: Iraq Slowly Improving: "While acknowledging that the situation in Iraq remains far from ideal, the U.S. civilian administrator said Monday that occupying forces have done a great deal to re-establish stability and will be pushing to help the nation rebuild its economy."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Explosion Hurts Three U.S. Soldiers in Baghdad: "Three U.S. soldiers were wounded andtheir Humvee military car destroyed when a blast ripped througha U.S. convoy in Baghdad on Monday, U.S. soldiers and Iraqiwitnesses said. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
U.S. Soldier Killed in Iraq; Saddam In-Law Seized: "One U.S. soldier was killed and onewounded in an Iraqi ambush on Monday and, in a separateincident, U.S. forces seized a brother-in-law of SaddamHussein, the U.S. military said. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Blair Appoints Iraq Human Rights Envoy: "From the Beeb :
In Command Post: Irak
Blair and Straw 'not guilty of war crimes': "Downing Street has dismissed as groundless lawyers' claims that Tony Blair and Jack Straw are guilty of war crimes because of their roles in the Iraqi war."
In Ananova: War In Iraq
Iran counters US Allegations on al-Qaida: 'We've been fighting them longer than you have' (25 May 03) in Radio Free USA
U.S. Forces Arrest Saddam's Brother-In-Law: "U.S. forces have detained abrother-in-law of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in theIraqi town of Tikrit, a U.S. military spokesman said. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
U.S. Soldier Dies in Iraq Ambush: "Gunmen ambushed a U.S. military convoy in northern Iraq on Monday, killing an American soldier and wounding four others. Also, four soldiers were wounded in what appeared to be a land-mine attack in a wealthy Baghdad neighborhood, military officials and witnesses said. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
U.S. Troops Under Fire In Iraq: "Attacks in Iraq have killed at least one soldier and wounded five in one of the most violent days there since the war ended. Gunmen ambushed U.S. troops in northern Iraq; 4 solders were also wounded in a land-mine attack in Baghdad."
In CBS News: Iraq Crisis
Honoring American Heroes: "President Bush led the memorial services for the military men and women killed in combat, including the 161 who died in the Iraq war. "Americans stand with the families who grieve,'' said Mr. Bush."
In CBS News: Iraq Crisis
'Too few troops' in Iraq in BBC: War in Iraq
UN inspectors set for return in BBC: War in Iraq
Nations See Costly Iraq Peacekeeping Duty: "Waging war is expensive, but so is keeping the peace - and the cost has some coalition countries taking a hard look at plans to deploy troops for mop-up duty in Iraq."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Sharon Defends Endorsement of Peace Deal: "Defending himself against right-wing attack, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Monday he endorsed a peace plan recognizing the Palestinians' right to a state because continuing to rule them is "bad for us and them.""
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Wave of Attacks Claim U.S. Casualties in Iraq: "One U.S. soldier was killed and fourwere wounded in Iraqi ambushes on Monday and, in anotherincident, U.S. forces seized a brother-in-law of SaddamHussein, the U.S. military said. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
U.S. Administrator: Iraq Slowly Improving: "While acknowledging that the situation in Iraq remains far from ideal, the U.S. civilian administrator said Monday that occupying forces have done a great deal to re-establish stability and will be pushing to help the nation rebuild its economy."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Explosion Hurts Three U.S. Soldiers in Baghdad: "Three U.S. soldiers were wounded andtheir Humvee military car destroyed when a blast ripped througha U.S. convoy in Baghdad on Monday, U.S. soldiers and Iraqiwitnesses said. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
U.S. Soldier Killed in Iraq; Saddam In-Law Seized: "One U.S. soldier was killed and onewounded in an Iraqi ambush on Monday and, in a separateincident, U.S. forces seized a brother-in-law of SaddamHussein, the U.S. military said. (Reuters)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Blair Appoints Iraq Human Rights Envoy: "From the Beeb :
Tony Blair has appointed backbench MP Ann Clwyd as a special envoy to Iraq on human rights. Ms Clwyd plans to travel to Iraq on Tuesday and will visit sites where the victims of Saddam Hussein's regime were buried."
She will also have talks with Iraqis who hope to form part of the interim administration to lead the country towards democracy.
In Command Post: Irak
Blair and Straw 'not guilty of war crimes': "Downing Street has dismissed as groundless lawyers' claims that Tony Blair and Jack Straw are guilty of war crimes because of their roles in the Iraqi war."
In Ananova: War In Iraq
Iran counters US Allegations on al-Qaida: 'We've been fighting them longer than you have' (25 May 03) in Radio Free USA
U.S. Hands Out $1 Million a Day in Iraq
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq: "U.S. dollars are flown to Iraq by the planeload. An Army clerk pays Baghdad electricians from a footlocker full of cash. Soldiers string barbed wire at the site where Iraqi retirees get their pensions."
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq: "U.S. dollars are flown to Iraq by the planeload. An Army clerk pays Baghdad electricians from a footlocker full of cash. Soldiers string barbed wire at the site where Iraqi retirees get their pensions."
Sunday, May 25, 2003
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 10:30 a.m. EDT
From: spliffslips
--------------------
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 10:30 a.m. EDT
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 25, 2003, 10:32 AM EDT
More Troops Are Needed to Restore Order in Iraq, British Official Says; U.S. Plans More Patrols
Sailor Who Served in Iraq War Presumed Dead After Falling Overboard During Return to U.S.
U.S. Coalition Makes It Official: Iraqis Must Give Up Weapons by Mid-June
Key Developments Concerning Iraq
Iraq's Crude Output Will Double in a Month and Exports Will Resume in 3 Weeks, Official Says
British Broadcasting Corp. Plans to Show Graphic Footage of British Soldiers Killed in Iraq
Six Lion Cubs Born in Baghdad Zoo to Be Relocated to South Africa Sanctuary
Local Elections in Kirk, Iraq, End in Shouting Matches, Threats of Arab Walkout
Handing Over Control: As Fresh Troops Take Over Baghdad, Iraqis Get New Neighbors
Shiites in Baghdad Said to Be Tracking Down, Killing Baathists
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 10:30 a.m. EDT
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 25, 2003, 10:32 AM EDT
More Troops Are Needed to Restore Order in Iraq, British Official Says; U.S. Plans More Patrols
Sailor Who Served in Iraq War Presumed Dead After Falling Overboard During Return to U.S.
U.S. Coalition Makes It Official: Iraqis Must Give Up Weapons by Mid-June
Key Developments Concerning Iraq
Iraq's Crude Output Will Double in a Month and Exports Will Resume in 3 Weeks, Official Says
British Broadcasting Corp. Plans to Show Graphic Footage of British Soldiers Killed in Iraq
Six Lion Cubs Born in Baghdad Zoo to Be Relocated to South Africa Sanctuary
Local Elections in Kirk, Iraq, End in Shouting Matches, Threats of Arab Walkout
Handing Over Control: As Fresh Troops Take Over Baghdad, Iraqis Get New Neighbors
Shiites in Baghdad Said to Be Tracking Down, Killing Baathists
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Saturday, May 24, 2003
Shiites Reportedly Hunting Baathists
From: spliffslips
--------------------
Shiites Reportedly Hunting Baathists
--------------------
By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writer
May 24, 2003, 3:24 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Shiite Muslim cleric sat cross-legged on the floor. With chilling calm, he explained the criteria -- how to decide which of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party officials are permitted to live, and which of them will die.
Only officials attempting to return to positions they held under Saddam should be killed -- and only after a fair warning, said Sheik Ali al-Gharawi, one of several community leaders in a poverty-ridden Baghdad district known as al-Thawra, where an estimated 2 million Shiites live.
"People come to me and say they want to kill such and such Baathist. I tell them to threaten them first," al-Gharawi said, his voice flat. "If they don't heed the threat, then they must live with the consequences."
Encouraged by the security vacuum in the wake of Saddam's overthrow last month, some Iraqis -- particularly members of the long-oppressed Shiite majority -- are reported by residents of al-Thawra to be hunting down and killing former Baath officials.
In al-Thawra, which was officially called Saddam City until last month but renamed al-Sadr City in honor of a top Shiite cleric killed by the government in 1999, residents say between five and 10 Baathists have been killed so far.
"Tribal and clan leaders are trying to stop them," said Sha'a Jassim, a 42-year-old resident of al-Thawra. "It's not a trend. There are just a few isolated cases."
Information Radio, the voice of the U.S.-led coalition heard in Baghdad, also has repeatedly exhorted Iraqis not to take the law into their own hands. But the steady spread of menacing graffiti -- and, in one case, the public posting of "wanted" lists in a Baghdad neighborhood -- suggests more to come.
"We demand punishment for those who planted fear in the heart of the innocent," says a typed sign posted outside the al-Hikmah mosque.
"Baathists: There is nowhere to escape," says graffiti on a main thoroughfare.
"The cursed Saddam and his cowardly Baathist scum have fallen," declares another.
The Baath monopolized political power in Iraq from 1968 until Saddam's ouster. Under its rule, party membership became a prerequisite for advancement in government jobs, the armed forces, even academia.
Party activists doubled as informants, spying on fellow Iraqis and reporting suspicious activity or hints of dissent. Such reports were used by Saddam's security agencies as a basis for arrest, imprisoning and state-sponsored killing.
That angered a generation of Shiites, who make up 60 percent of Iraq's estimated 24 million people but were politically sidelined and persecuted under Saddam, a member of Iraq's Sunni minority.
On Saturday, several elderly Shiite men lounged together on cushions near a mosque and offered these conclusions: The killings do not appear to be the work of a systematic political movement. Instead, they are motivated by rage -- about the loss of a friend or family member at the hands of Saddam's thugs.
The men discussed the issue freely with a visiting reporter, but all except one refused to give their names.
In veiled terms, they tacitly condoned the killings.
"The people who are being killed, these are people who have been pinpointed as responsible for an execution or a disappearance," said an elderly man in a traditional Arab robe and head cover, raising his voice in emphasis.
The best-known Baathist killed since Saddam's ouster was Dawood al-Qais, a singer who became famous with songs praising Saddam that were aired repeatedly on state television. He was shot dead at point-blank range outside his Baghdad home earlier this month.
Al-Gharawi justifies the killing of Baathists with a verse from the Quran that encourages Muslims to punish killers. Those who take it upon themselves to murder Baathists, he explained, do so in secrecy to avoid vendettas.
His conditional endorsement of such killings runs counter to the refusal by Sheik Ali al-Sistani -- a Shiite religious leader known for his moderate views -- to condone them. A statement issued by al-Sistani's office in Najaf quotes him as saying that retaliation should be left to Islamic courts.
Saddam's army killed tens of thousands of Shiites when they rose up against his rule after the 1991 Gulf War. Politically sidelined since the birth of modern Iraq some 80 years ago, Shiites insist they now want representation proportionate to their numbers.
American occupying forces have made clear that they, too, want hard-core Baathists excluded from Iraq's future.
Gen. Tommy Franks, the top commander in the U.S.-led war on Iraq, dissolved the Baath Party this month, and an American ban on senior Baathists taking government jobs followed.
But since most bureaucrats were required to pledge allegiance to the party to be employed, the United States wants to make sure it does not wipe out the entire civil service.
On Saturday, Information Radio encouraged Iraqis who it said had been forced to join the party to return to work.
"There is no need to be frightened or confused by the coalition," it said. "Your skills are vital to the reconstruction of Iraq."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-killing-baathists,0,4340840.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
Shiites Reportedly Hunting Baathists
--------------------
By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writer
May 24, 2003, 3:24 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Shiite Muslim cleric sat cross-legged on the floor. With chilling calm, he explained the criteria -- how to decide which of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party officials are permitted to live, and which of them will die.
Only officials attempting to return to positions they held under Saddam should be killed -- and only after a fair warning, said Sheik Ali al-Gharawi, one of several community leaders in a poverty-ridden Baghdad district known as al-Thawra, where an estimated 2 million Shiites live.
"People come to me and say they want to kill such and such Baathist. I tell them to threaten them first," al-Gharawi said, his voice flat. "If they don't heed the threat, then they must live with the consequences."
Encouraged by the security vacuum in the wake of Saddam's overthrow last month, some Iraqis -- particularly members of the long-oppressed Shiite majority -- are reported by residents of al-Thawra to be hunting down and killing former Baath officials.
In al-Thawra, which was officially called Saddam City until last month but renamed al-Sadr City in honor of a top Shiite cleric killed by the government in 1999, residents say between five and 10 Baathists have been killed so far.
"Tribal and clan leaders are trying to stop them," said Sha'a Jassim, a 42-year-old resident of al-Thawra. "It's not a trend. There are just a few isolated cases."
Information Radio, the voice of the U.S.-led coalition heard in Baghdad, also has repeatedly exhorted Iraqis not to take the law into their own hands. But the steady spread of menacing graffiti -- and, in one case, the public posting of "wanted" lists in a Baghdad neighborhood -- suggests more to come.
"We demand punishment for those who planted fear in the heart of the innocent," says a typed sign posted outside the al-Hikmah mosque.
"Baathists: There is nowhere to escape," says graffiti on a main thoroughfare.
"The cursed Saddam and his cowardly Baathist scum have fallen," declares another.
The Baath monopolized political power in Iraq from 1968 until Saddam's ouster. Under its rule, party membership became a prerequisite for advancement in government jobs, the armed forces, even academia.
Party activists doubled as informants, spying on fellow Iraqis and reporting suspicious activity or hints of dissent. Such reports were used by Saddam's security agencies as a basis for arrest, imprisoning and state-sponsored killing.
That angered a generation of Shiites, who make up 60 percent of Iraq's estimated 24 million people but were politically sidelined and persecuted under Saddam, a member of Iraq's Sunni minority.
On Saturday, several elderly Shiite men lounged together on cushions near a mosque and offered these conclusions: The killings do not appear to be the work of a systematic political movement. Instead, they are motivated by rage -- about the loss of a friend or family member at the hands of Saddam's thugs.
The men discussed the issue freely with a visiting reporter, but all except one refused to give their names.
In veiled terms, they tacitly condoned the killings.
"The people who are being killed, these are people who have been pinpointed as responsible for an execution or a disappearance," said an elderly man in a traditional Arab robe and head cover, raising his voice in emphasis.
The best-known Baathist killed since Saddam's ouster was Dawood al-Qais, a singer who became famous with songs praising Saddam that were aired repeatedly on state television. He was shot dead at point-blank range outside his Baghdad home earlier this month.
Al-Gharawi justifies the killing of Baathists with a verse from the Quran that encourages Muslims to punish killers. Those who take it upon themselves to murder Baathists, he explained, do so in secrecy to avoid vendettas.
His conditional endorsement of such killings runs counter to the refusal by Sheik Ali al-Sistani -- a Shiite religious leader known for his moderate views -- to condone them. A statement issued by al-Sistani's office in Najaf quotes him as saying that retaliation should be left to Islamic courts.
Saddam's army killed tens of thousands of Shiites when they rose up against his rule after the 1991 Gulf War. Politically sidelined since the birth of modern Iraq some 80 years ago, Shiites insist they now want representation proportionate to their numbers.
American occupying forces have made clear that they, too, want hard-core Baathists excluded from Iraq's future.
Gen. Tommy Franks, the top commander in the U.S.-led war on Iraq, dissolved the Baath Party this month, and an American ban on senior Baathists taking government jobs followed.
But since most bureaucrats were required to pledge allegiance to the party to be employed, the United States wants to make sure it does not wipe out the entire civil service.
On Saturday, Information Radio encouraged Iraqis who it said had been forced to join the party to return to work.
"There is no need to be frightened or confused by the coalition," it said. "Your skills are vital to the reconstruction of Iraq."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-killing-baathists,0,4340840.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Fresh Troops Taking Control of Baghdad
From: spliffslips
--------------------
Fresh Troops Taking Control of Baghdad
--------------------
By CHRIS TOMLINSON
Associated Press Writer
May 24, 2003, 3:58 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Staff Sgt. Bryce Ivings spent Saturday giving the grand tour of his adopted neighborhood: Here were the Iraqi civilians he worked with so closely, here were the generators that power the place, here was the water main still so desperately in need of repair.
Fresh troops had arrived, and it was time to hand over control -- and to introduce the man replacing him. The soldiers who won the war were leaving, and the ones charged with maintaining the fragile peace were coming in.
Ivings' unit -- A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment -- arrived April 7 and captured two presidential palaces in the Tashri Quarter, the heart of Baghdad where the ruling elite once lived. When they moved into a former Baath Party building, the 50 houses around it were abandoned and looted.
Since then, the neighborhood has come back to life.
Most of the civil servants and retirees who lived around A Company's command post have moved home and started rebuilding their lives. And the infantrymen have become part of the community, providing security, restoring electricity and rehabilitating schools.
Now that Ivings and his company are scheduled to leave in coming days, he is helping the Iraqis get to know the new soldier responsible for the neighborhood -- Staff Sgt. Andrew Bishop of Piedmont, W.Va.
The first resident Bishop meets is Ali Jamal, head of the neighborhood's watch group. Ivings explains how the Army pays Jamal $3 a day to lead an unarmed group of men who each get $2 a day to make repairs and determine who belongs in the neighborhood.
"If they need wire for the neighborhood -- to connect houses to the generators -- we give them a pass to go to the warehouse," Ivings tells Bishop.
The soldiers control an agricultural warehouse where building materials were stored.
Then Ivings introduces Ali Radhi, a civil engineer who has helped the soldiers connect diesel generators from bombed-out government buildings to neighborhood houses. He operates a generator in his front yard that powers a dozen homes through wires strung across streets and over tree limbs.
The men immediately discuss the lack of water caused by a water main break in a private zoo owned by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's son, Odai.
As the men talk, teenagers in white-and-navy school uniforms walk by, one of them a girl escorted to school by her father. Iraqis drive up to the checkpoint at the main intersection and show their passes to soldiers, who wave them through.
Ivings, of Sarasota, Fla., takes Bishop and the new soldiers from C Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry through the neighborhood. He shows them where his men found Odai Hussein's private gun collection, where more than 6,000 pistols were discovered and where Saddam kept a safe house.
The soldiers, who are still required to wear full combat gear and carry their weapons, inspect the generators, electrical cables and garden hoses that carry water from another water main into homes.
At the zoo, almost a third of the ground is now covered with water, and the water main leak is much worse. While the soldiers inspect the expanding pond, the workers return with more people. Among them is an engineer named Mohammed Sawan, who says he has a contract with UNICEF to repair water line breaks.
"We need a pass to enter this area so we can make the repairs," Sawan tells Ivings, who assures him that will not be a problem. "We will pay these workers now. My company will take over responsibility now and make sure the water gets repaired."
Ivings tells Bishop, "That's a relief. That's one less thing you have to worry about."
Bishop says his experience in peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo will help him in this job.
"I know how to deal with the people, know when they have legitimate complaints and when they don't," Bishop says. "As long as we can do some good, I like it."
At first, Radhi says, residents were angry at the soldiers because they did not allow people to return to their homes immediately after the war ended. But, he says, everyone's lives have improved since then.
"Most of them are helpful," Radhi says of the soldiers. "They are good people."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-running-the-neighborhood,0,765003.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
Fresh Troops Taking Control of Baghdad
--------------------
By CHRIS TOMLINSON
Associated Press Writer
May 24, 2003, 3:58 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Staff Sgt. Bryce Ivings spent Saturday giving the grand tour of his adopted neighborhood: Here were the Iraqi civilians he worked with so closely, here were the generators that power the place, here was the water main still so desperately in need of repair.
Fresh troops had arrived, and it was time to hand over control -- and to introduce the man replacing him. The soldiers who won the war were leaving, and the ones charged with maintaining the fragile peace were coming in.
Ivings' unit -- A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment -- arrived April 7 and captured two presidential palaces in the Tashri Quarter, the heart of Baghdad where the ruling elite once lived. When they moved into a former Baath Party building, the 50 houses around it were abandoned and looted.
Since then, the neighborhood has come back to life.
Most of the civil servants and retirees who lived around A Company's command post have moved home and started rebuilding their lives. And the infantrymen have become part of the community, providing security, restoring electricity and rehabilitating schools.
Now that Ivings and his company are scheduled to leave in coming days, he is helping the Iraqis get to know the new soldier responsible for the neighborhood -- Staff Sgt. Andrew Bishop of Piedmont, W.Va.
The first resident Bishop meets is Ali Jamal, head of the neighborhood's watch group. Ivings explains how the Army pays Jamal $3 a day to lead an unarmed group of men who each get $2 a day to make repairs and determine who belongs in the neighborhood.
"If they need wire for the neighborhood -- to connect houses to the generators -- we give them a pass to go to the warehouse," Ivings tells Bishop.
The soldiers control an agricultural warehouse where building materials were stored.
Then Ivings introduces Ali Radhi, a civil engineer who has helped the soldiers connect diesel generators from bombed-out government buildings to neighborhood houses. He operates a generator in his front yard that powers a dozen homes through wires strung across streets and over tree limbs.
The men immediately discuss the lack of water caused by a water main break in a private zoo owned by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's son, Odai.
As the men talk, teenagers in white-and-navy school uniforms walk by, one of them a girl escorted to school by her father. Iraqis drive up to the checkpoint at the main intersection and show their passes to soldiers, who wave them through.
Ivings, of Sarasota, Fla., takes Bishop and the new soldiers from C Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry through the neighborhood. He shows them where his men found Odai Hussein's private gun collection, where more than 6,000 pistols were discovered and where Saddam kept a safe house.
The soldiers, who are still required to wear full combat gear and carry their weapons, inspect the generators, electrical cables and garden hoses that carry water from another water main into homes.
At the zoo, almost a third of the ground is now covered with water, and the water main leak is much worse. While the soldiers inspect the expanding pond, the workers return with more people. Among them is an engineer named Mohammed Sawan, who says he has a contract with UNICEF to repair water line breaks.
"We need a pass to enter this area so we can make the repairs," Sawan tells Ivings, who assures him that will not be a problem. "We will pay these workers now. My company will take over responsibility now and make sure the water gets repaired."
Ivings tells Bishop, "That's a relief. That's one less thing you have to worry about."
Bishop says his experience in peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo will help him in this job.
"I know how to deal with the people, know when they have legitimate complaints and when they don't," Bishop says. "As long as we can do some good, I like it."
At first, Radhi says, residents were angry at the soldiers because they did not allow people to return to their homes immediately after the war ended. But, he says, everyone's lives have improved since then.
"Most of them are helpful," Radhi says of the soldiers. "They are good people."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-running-the-neighborhood,0,765003.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Fresh Troops Taking Control of Baghdad
From: spliffslips
--------------------
Fresh Troops Taking Control of Baghdad
--------------------
By CHRIS TOMLINSON
Associated Press Writer
May 24, 2003, 3:58 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Staff Sgt. Bryce Ivings spent Saturday giving the grand tour of his adopted neighborhood: Here were the Iraqi civilians he worked with so closely, here were the generators that power the place, here was the water main still so desperately in need of repair.
Fresh troops had arrived, and it was time to hand over control -- and to introduce the man replacing him. The soldiers who won the war were leaving, and the ones charged with maintaining the fragile peace were coming in.
Ivings' unit -- A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment -- arrived April 7 and captured two presidential palaces in the Tashri Quarter, the heart of Baghdad where the ruling elite once lived. When they moved into a former Baath Party building, the 50 houses around it were abandoned and looted.
Since then, the neighborhood has come back to life.
Most of the civil servants and retirees who lived around A Company's command post have moved home and started rebuilding their lives. And the infantrymen have become part of the community, providing security, restoring electricity and rehabilitating schools.
Now that Ivings and his company are scheduled to leave in coming days, he is helping the Iraqis get to know the new soldier responsible for the neighborhood -- Staff Sgt. Andrew Bishop of Piedmont, W.Va.
The first resident Bishop meets is Ali Jamal, head of the neighborhood's watch group. Ivings explains how the Army pays Jamal $3 a day to lead an unarmed group of men who each get $2 a day to make repairs and determine who belongs in the neighborhood.
"If they need wire for the neighborhood -- to connect houses to the generators -- we give them a pass to go to the warehouse," Ivings tells Bishop.
The soldiers control an agricultural warehouse where building materials were stored.
Then Ivings introduces Ali Radhi, a civil engineer who has helped the soldiers connect diesel generators from bombed-out government buildings to neighborhood houses. He operates a generator in his front yard that powers a dozen homes through wires strung across streets and over tree limbs.
The men immediately discuss the lack of water caused by a water main break in a private zoo owned by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's son, Odai.
As the men talk, teenagers in white-and-navy school uniforms walk by, one of them a girl escorted to school by her father. Iraqis drive up to the checkpoint at the main intersection and show their passes to soldiers, who wave them through.
Ivings, of Sarasota, Fla., takes Bishop and the new soldiers from C Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry through the neighborhood. He shows them where his men found Odai Hussein's private gun collection, where more than 6,000 pistols were discovered and where Saddam kept a safe house.
The soldiers, who are still required to wear full combat gear and carry their weapons, inspect the generators, electrical cables and garden hoses that carry water from another water main into homes.
At the zoo, almost a third of the ground is now covered with water, and the water main leak is much worse. While the soldiers inspect the expanding pond, the workers return with more people. Among them is an engineer named Mohammed Sawan, who says he has a contract with UNICEF to repair water line breaks.
"We need a pass to enter this area so we can make the repairs," Sawan tells Ivings, who assures him that will not be a problem. "We will pay these workers now. My company will take over responsibility now and make sure the water gets repaired."
Ivings tells Bishop, "That's a relief. That's one less thing you have to worry about."
Bishop says his experience in peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo will help him in this job.
"I know how to deal with the people, know when they have legitimate complaints and when they don't," Bishop says. "As long as we can do some good, I like it."
At first, Radhi says, residents were angry at the soldiers because they did not allow people to return to their homes immediately after the war ended. But, he says, everyone's lives have improved since then.
"Most of them are helpful," Radhi says of the soldiers. "They are good people."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-running-the-neighborhood,0,765003.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
Fresh Troops Taking Control of Baghdad
--------------------
By CHRIS TOMLINSON
Associated Press Writer
May 24, 2003, 3:58 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Staff Sgt. Bryce Ivings spent Saturday giving the grand tour of his adopted neighborhood: Here were the Iraqi civilians he worked with so closely, here were the generators that power the place, here was the water main still so desperately in need of repair.
Fresh troops had arrived, and it was time to hand over control -- and to introduce the man replacing him. The soldiers who won the war were leaving, and the ones charged with maintaining the fragile peace were coming in.
Ivings' unit -- A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment -- arrived April 7 and captured two presidential palaces in the Tashri Quarter, the heart of Baghdad where the ruling elite once lived. When they moved into a former Baath Party building, the 50 houses around it were abandoned and looted.
Since then, the neighborhood has come back to life.
Most of the civil servants and retirees who lived around A Company's command post have moved home and started rebuilding their lives. And the infantrymen have become part of the community, providing security, restoring electricity and rehabilitating schools.
Now that Ivings and his company are scheduled to leave in coming days, he is helping the Iraqis get to know the new soldier responsible for the neighborhood -- Staff Sgt. Andrew Bishop of Piedmont, W.Va.
The first resident Bishop meets is Ali Jamal, head of the neighborhood's watch group. Ivings explains how the Army pays Jamal $3 a day to lead an unarmed group of men who each get $2 a day to make repairs and determine who belongs in the neighborhood.
"If they need wire for the neighborhood -- to connect houses to the generators -- we give them a pass to go to the warehouse," Ivings tells Bishop.
The soldiers control an agricultural warehouse where building materials were stored.
Then Ivings introduces Ali Radhi, a civil engineer who has helped the soldiers connect diesel generators from bombed-out government buildings to neighborhood houses. He operates a generator in his front yard that powers a dozen homes through wires strung across streets and over tree limbs.
The men immediately discuss the lack of water caused by a water main break in a private zoo owned by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's son, Odai.
As the men talk, teenagers in white-and-navy school uniforms walk by, one of them a girl escorted to school by her father. Iraqis drive up to the checkpoint at the main intersection and show their passes to soldiers, who wave them through.
Ivings, of Sarasota, Fla., takes Bishop and the new soldiers from C Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry through the neighborhood. He shows them where his men found Odai Hussein's private gun collection, where more than 6,000 pistols were discovered and where Saddam kept a safe house.
The soldiers, who are still required to wear full combat gear and carry their weapons, inspect the generators, electrical cables and garden hoses that carry water from another water main into homes.
At the zoo, almost a third of the ground is now covered with water, and the water main leak is much worse. While the soldiers inspect the expanding pond, the workers return with more people. Among them is an engineer named Mohammed Sawan, who says he has a contract with UNICEF to repair water line breaks.
"We need a pass to enter this area so we can make the repairs," Sawan tells Ivings, who assures him that will not be a problem. "We will pay these workers now. My company will take over responsibility now and make sure the water gets repaired."
Ivings tells Bishop, "That's a relief. That's one less thing you have to worry about."
Bishop says his experience in peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo will help him in this job.
"I know how to deal with the people, know when they have legitimate complaints and when they don't," Bishop says. "As long as we can do some good, I like it."
At first, Radhi says, residents were angry at the soldiers because they did not allow people to return to their homes immediately after the war ended. But, he says, everyone's lives have improved since then.
"Most of them are helpful," Radhi says of the soldiers. "They are good people."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-running-the-neighborhood,0,765003.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Baghdad Lions to Be Released in S. Africa
From: spliffslips
--------------------
Baghdad Lions to Be Released in S. Africa
--------------------
By SAHM VENTER
May 24, 2003, 5:33 PM EDT
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Six lion cubs born in the cramped zoo owned by Saddam Hussein's son Odai will find freedom in the African bush.
The nonprofit SanWild Wildlife Sanctuary has secured the release of the six cubs, their mother and two other lions.
"I am just sorry we could not get all the animals out," Louise Joubert, founder of the group based in the northern Limpopo Province, told The Associated Press.
American troops rescued the lions in April, along with two cheetahs and a blind bear from a private zoo set up by Odai in one of Baghdad's presidential palaces, and moved them to the Baghdad municipal zoo. There was so little food to feed the lions that they had to snack on military rations U.S. soldiers tossed inside their cages. Most other animals were set loose by the troops or looters.
The lions are scheduled to arrive in South Africa in July and will be taken to SanWild, about 280 miles north of Johannesburg.
The lioness and her six cubs will be in isolation for 10 months to a year before being taken as a group to the Ngome Community Reserve in the KwaZulu-Natal province, Joubert said.
The other two lions will remain at SanWild, where they will be placed with a brother and sister pair in the hope that they would be incorporated into the group, she said.
"On the trauma side there is not much that one can do. They will be in nature which will enable them to be lions again. There is nothing like nature to heal," Joubert said. "Lions never ever lose their natural instincts to hunt. They just have to be allowed to get used to hunting again."
The bear is expected to be sent to Greece, where it will be operated on by a Johannesburg veterinarian who has volunteered to help it see again free of charge, Joubert said.
Another South African veterinarian will travel to Baghdad with a SanWild employee to accompany the lions back to South Africa, she said.
The South Africans have joined forces with Care for the Wild International to raise funds to improve the conditions for the remaining animals at Baghdad Zoo, Joubert said.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-south-africa-iraq-lions,0,7982077.story
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Baghdad Lions to Be Released in S. Africa
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By SAHM VENTER
May 24, 2003, 5:33 PM EDT
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Six lion cubs born in the cramped zoo owned by Saddam Hussein's son Odai will find freedom in the African bush.
The nonprofit SanWild Wildlife Sanctuary has secured the release of the six cubs, their mother and two other lions.
"I am just sorry we could not get all the animals out," Louise Joubert, founder of the group based in the northern Limpopo Province, told The Associated Press.
American troops rescued the lions in April, along with two cheetahs and a blind bear from a private zoo set up by Odai in one of Baghdad's presidential palaces, and moved them to the Baghdad municipal zoo. There was so little food to feed the lions that they had to snack on military rations U.S. soldiers tossed inside their cages. Most other animals were set loose by the troops or looters.
The lions are scheduled to arrive in South Africa in July and will be taken to SanWild, about 280 miles north of Johannesburg.
The lioness and her six cubs will be in isolation for 10 months to a year before being taken as a group to the Ngome Community Reserve in the KwaZulu-Natal province, Joubert said.
The other two lions will remain at SanWild, where they will be placed with a brother and sister pair in the hope that they would be incorporated into the group, she said.
"On the trauma side there is not much that one can do. They will be in nature which will enable them to be lions again. There is nothing like nature to heal," Joubert said. "Lions never ever lose their natural instincts to hunt. They just have to be allowed to get used to hunting again."
The bear is expected to be sent to Greece, where it will be operated on by a Johannesburg veterinarian who has volunteered to help it see again free of charge, Joubert said.
Another South African veterinarian will travel to Baghdad with a SanWild employee to accompany the lions back to South Africa, she said.
The South Africans have joined forces with Care for the Wild International to raise funds to improve the conditions for the remaining animals at Baghdad Zoo, Joubert said.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
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'Ali Baba' Now Synonymous With Thievery
From: spliffslips
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'Ali Baba' Now Synonymous With Thievery
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By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press Writer
May 24, 2003, 5:24 AM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- In the chaos and lawlessness of postwar Baghdad, even the good name of Ali Baba, a much-loved character of Arab folklore, has become synonymous with thievery.
Hardly anyone in Iraq doesn't know who Ali Baba is, but the name is being tossed around the capital these days in a decidedly unliterary way -- to refer to looting that followed the fall of Baghdad to U.S. troops April 9.
"Ali Baba," reads a sign on a storefront, explaining why it's empty. "No Ali Baba!" says graffiti on a wall, exhorting American troops to keep looters away.
"After the looting of ministries and banks, Ali Baba became the symbol of theft," says Waddah Hassan, 43, who owns a carpenter shop.
But the reference is wrong: In the actual story, Ali Baba wasn't a thief. He was the honest guy -- the one the thieves tried to kill.
In the tale, Ali Baba is in the forest with his donkeys to collect wood when he sees a large group of men on horseback riding toward him. He watches them enter a cave and stash their gold and silver inside. Later, when the men -- the 40 thieves -- realize he knows their secret, they decide to kill him.
The thieves' leader then comes to town posing as an oil merchant. With his men hiding in huge oil jars, he makes his way into Ali Baba's house. But Ali Baba's slave girl spots their ruse and kills each thief by pouring boiling oil into the jars.
Ali Baba is a familiar character in Baghdad. The city's Kahramana Square -- informally called Ali Baba Square -- features a statue of a young woman pouring water into 40 huge jars, symbolizing the ancient tale. The square is also known as "40 Thieves Square."
The phrase was kicking around Baghdad before the war, though it was nowhere near as common.
Fadhel Jasem, 59, tells the story of how American soldiers chased looters from the Al-Hurriya printing house in Baghdad's Bab al-Muadham neighborhood.
"Of course the Americans don't speak Arabic. So they shouted to them, `Ali Baba! Ali Baba!'" Jasem said. "Ali Baba represents theft to foreigners."
Some blame it on Saddam, who proclaimed a general amnesty in October that left tens of thousands of hardened criminals on the streets -- and who left his people poor.
"This led to robbing and looting," said Ghaleb al-Zaidi, 27, a businessman. "And people started calling thieves Ali Baba."
Last month, London-based Amnesty International criticized the United States after seeing a Norwegian newspaper report about U.S. forces escorting three men naked through a Baghdad park. The story featured three photographs, including one showing a man with the words "Ali Baba -- thief" scrawled in Arabic on his chest. The United States said at the time that it was looking into the matter.
On Baghdad's Haifa Street, the looters aren't the only ones being blamed for thievery. But the old standard is still being pressed into service, as a sign on a wall this week illustrated.
"The real Ali Baba," it said, "is the USA."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-ali-baba,0,7861267.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
'Ali Baba' Now Synonymous With Thievery
--------------------
By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press Writer
May 24, 2003, 5:24 AM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- In the chaos and lawlessness of postwar Baghdad, even the good name of Ali Baba, a much-loved character of Arab folklore, has become synonymous with thievery.
Hardly anyone in Iraq doesn't know who Ali Baba is, but the name is being tossed around the capital these days in a decidedly unliterary way -- to refer to looting that followed the fall of Baghdad to U.S. troops April 9.
"Ali Baba," reads a sign on a storefront, explaining why it's empty. "No Ali Baba!" says graffiti on a wall, exhorting American troops to keep looters away.
"After the looting of ministries and banks, Ali Baba became the symbol of theft," says Waddah Hassan, 43, who owns a carpenter shop.
But the reference is wrong: In the actual story, Ali Baba wasn't a thief. He was the honest guy -- the one the thieves tried to kill.
In the tale, Ali Baba is in the forest with his donkeys to collect wood when he sees a large group of men on horseback riding toward him. He watches them enter a cave and stash their gold and silver inside. Later, when the men -- the 40 thieves -- realize he knows their secret, they decide to kill him.
The thieves' leader then comes to town posing as an oil merchant. With his men hiding in huge oil jars, he makes his way into Ali Baba's house. But Ali Baba's slave girl spots their ruse and kills each thief by pouring boiling oil into the jars.
Ali Baba is a familiar character in Baghdad. The city's Kahramana Square -- informally called Ali Baba Square -- features a statue of a young woman pouring water into 40 huge jars, symbolizing the ancient tale. The square is also known as "40 Thieves Square."
The phrase was kicking around Baghdad before the war, though it was nowhere near as common.
Fadhel Jasem, 59, tells the story of how American soldiers chased looters from the Al-Hurriya printing house in Baghdad's Bab al-Muadham neighborhood.
"Of course the Americans don't speak Arabic. So they shouted to them, `Ali Baba! Ali Baba!'" Jasem said. "Ali Baba represents theft to foreigners."
Some blame it on Saddam, who proclaimed a general amnesty in October that left tens of thousands of hardened criminals on the streets -- and who left his people poor.
"This led to robbing and looting," said Ghaleb al-Zaidi, 27, a businessman. "And people started calling thieves Ali Baba."
Last month, London-based Amnesty International criticized the United States after seeing a Norwegian newspaper report about U.S. forces escorting three men naked through a Baghdad park. The story featured three photographs, including one showing a man with the words "Ali Baba -- thief" scrawled in Arabic on his chest. The United States said at the time that it was looking into the matter.
On Baghdad's Haifa Street, the looters aren't the only ones being blamed for thievery. But the old standard is still being pressed into service, as a sign on a wall this week illustrated.
"The real Ali Baba," it said, "is the USA."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-ali-baba,0,7861267.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 9:30 a.m. EDT
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages Iraq War Updates
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AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 9:30 a.m. EDT
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By Associated Press
May 24, 2003, 9:32 AM EDT
Iraq Could Double Crude Output in a Month and Resume Exports in 3 Weeks, Acting Oil Chief Says
Good Name of 'Ali Baba' Now Synonymous With Thievery in Chaos and Looting of Postwar Baghdad
Iraqi Doctors Uneasy About Health Concerns After Wartime Use of Depleted Uranium
U.N. Special Representative Faces Challenge of Carving Out U.N. Role in Postwar Iraq
U.S. Military Official in Iraq Says No Surrender Talks Taking Place for Saddam's Son Odai
Key Developments Concerning Iraq
Iraqi Oil Bosses Welcome End of U.N. Sanctions but Warn of More Hurdles Ahead
U.S. Authorities to Clamp Down on Iraqi Arms Possession in Bid to Restore Peace
Vanquished Iraqi Military Disbanded; U.S. Occupying Force to Set Up New Army
Poland Says It Has Enough Participants to Make Up Peacekeeping Force
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages Iraq War Updates
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AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 9:30 a.m. EDT
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By Associated Press
May 24, 2003, 9:32 AM EDT
Iraq Could Double Crude Output in a Month and Resume Exports in 3 Weeks, Acting Oil Chief Says
Good Name of 'Ali Baba' Now Synonymous With Thievery in Chaos and Looting of Postwar Baghdad
Iraqi Doctors Uneasy About Health Concerns After Wartime Use of Depleted Uranium
U.N. Special Representative Faces Challenge of Carving Out U.N. Role in Postwar Iraq
U.S. Military Official in Iraq Says No Surrender Talks Taking Place for Saddam's Son Odai
Key Developments Concerning Iraq
Iraqi Oil Bosses Welcome End of U.N. Sanctions but Warn of More Hurdles Ahead
U.S. Authorities to Clamp Down on Iraqi Arms Possession in Bid to Restore Peace
Vanquished Iraqi Military Disbanded; U.S. Occupying Force to Set Up New Army
Poland Says It Has Enough Participants to Make Up Peacekeeping Force
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Friday, May 23, 2003
Glance at Vets Data
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages Updates
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Glance at Vets Data
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By The Associated Press
May 23, 2003, 5:01 PM EDT
Data on the nation's military veterans in 2000, according to the Census Bureau.
* _
Number of veterans 18 and over: 26,403,703
* Median age: 43.5
* Women: 6 percent
* Employed: 54.7 percent
* Living in poverty: 5.6 percent
* Disabled: 29.1 percent
* _
Veterans by period of service (includes veterans serving in more than one time period):
* Aug. 1990 or later (including Gulf War): 11.5 percent
* Sept. 1980 to July 1990: 14.4 percent
* May 1975 to Aug. 1980: 10.5 percent
* Vietnam era (Aug. 1964 to April 1975): 31.7 percent
* February 1955 to July 1964: 16.5 percent
* Korean War (June 1950 to Jan. 1955): 15.3 percent
* World War II (Sept. 1940 to July 1947): 21.7 percent
* Other: 1.2 percent
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-vets-glance,0,1779107.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages Updates
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Glance at Vets Data
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 23, 2003, 5:01 PM EDT
Data on the nation's military veterans in 2000, according to the Census Bureau.
* _
Number of veterans 18 and over: 26,403,703
* Median age: 43.5
* Women: 6 percent
* Employed: 54.7 percent
* Living in poverty: 5.6 percent
* Disabled: 29.1 percent
* _
Veterans by period of service (includes veterans serving in more than one time period):
* Aug. 1990 or later (including Gulf War): 11.5 percent
* Sept. 1980 to July 1990: 14.4 percent
* May 1975 to Aug. 1980: 10.5 percent
* Vietnam era (Aug. 1964 to April 1975): 31.7 percent
* February 1955 to July 1964: 16.5 percent
* Korean War (June 1950 to Jan. 1955): 15.3 percent
* World War II (Sept. 1940 to July 1947): 21.7 percent
* Other: 1.2 percent
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-vets-glance,0,1779107.story
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U.S.: No Negotiations on Saddam's Son
From: spliffslips
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U.S.: No Negotiations on Saddam's Son
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By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writer
May 23, 2003, 4:34 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- American military commanders are making it clear that the Bush administration will accept nothing less than unconditional surrender from Saddam Hussein's eldest son -- and, by implication, his top advisers and Baath Party members still hiding in Iraq.
The commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, responding to a report that Odai Hussein might be seeking to surrender, said Friday he knew of no negotiations being held with envoys of Saddam's eldest son, and he insisted the U.S. military isn't seeking to cut any deals.
"Nobody's brought an offer from Odai to me, and I would facilitate his coming on in. But it would be unconditional," Lt. Gen. David McKiernan said at a security briefing in Baghdad.
"There are no negotiations," he said. "There is a lot of intel, there's a lot of reports that we follow up on -- on locations -- but there are no negotiations going on. Nor would there be."
McKiernan's comments came in response to a report Friday in The Wall Street Journal, which said Odai was considering surrendering to American forces. The newspaper cited "a third party with knowledge of the discussions."
U.S. officials said they have no information that would verify the claim.
Apprehending Odai Saddam Hussein, the ace of hearts in the coalition's deck of cards and No. 3 on its most-wanted list, would be a major victory for U.S. forces in postwar Iraq. Odai, known for being cruel and something of a loose cannon, oversaw the Saddam's Fedayeen fighting force.
Saddam himself remains unaccounted for, and it is uncertain whether he is alive. The same goes for his second son, Qusai. The Journal quoted the source as saying Saddam was alive and also in suburban Baghdad.
"From day one, and it continues today, we're searching for everybody on the blacklist, including his family," McKiernan said.
The Journal's "third party" said Odai had been reluctant to surrender because the U.S. government had taken a hard line and because he wanted to know what the charges against him would be. Odai also fears that Iraqi citizens will kill him if they find him, the Journal reported, saying he "may instead choose the safety of a U.S. prison."
Officials at the Baghdad headquarters of the Iraqi National Congress, which has previously taken officials into custody and handed them over to the United States, were not in their offices Friday afternoon, the Muslim sabbath.
This week, the U.S. military captured the most senior Baath Party leader yet -- Aziz Saleh al-Numan -- after reported efforts by his family to negotiate a surrender and to throw U.S. forces off track by publishing a death notice. He was No. 8 on Central Command's list.
U.S. officials have said al-Numan is one of nine top Iraqi leaders whom the United States wants to see tried for war crimes or crimes against humanity.
He was prominent in the quelling of the Shiite Muslim uprising in the immediate aftermath of the 1991 U.S.-led attack that ousted the Iraqi army from Kuwait. A Shiite, he had a reputation for cruel treatment of the rebels, accused by opposition groups of killing and torture.
Before the uprising, when he was governor of Najaf, he was accused of arresting, torturing and killing Shiite clerics during the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war.
The capture of al-Numan brought to 25 the number of Iraqis from the top 55 list who are in coalition custody, by Pentagon count.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-odai,0,5288088.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
U.S.: No Negotiations on Saddam's Son
--------------------
By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writer
May 23, 2003, 4:34 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- American military commanders are making it clear that the Bush administration will accept nothing less than unconditional surrender from Saddam Hussein's eldest son -- and, by implication, his top advisers and Baath Party members still hiding in Iraq.
The commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, responding to a report that Odai Hussein might be seeking to surrender, said Friday he knew of no negotiations being held with envoys of Saddam's eldest son, and he insisted the U.S. military isn't seeking to cut any deals.
"Nobody's brought an offer from Odai to me, and I would facilitate his coming on in. But it would be unconditional," Lt. Gen. David McKiernan said at a security briefing in Baghdad.
"There are no negotiations," he said. "There is a lot of intel, there's a lot of reports that we follow up on -- on locations -- but there are no negotiations going on. Nor would there be."
McKiernan's comments came in response to a report Friday in The Wall Street Journal, which said Odai was considering surrendering to American forces. The newspaper cited "a third party with knowledge of the discussions."
U.S. officials said they have no information that would verify the claim.
Apprehending Odai Saddam Hussein, the ace of hearts in the coalition's deck of cards and No. 3 on its most-wanted list, would be a major victory for U.S. forces in postwar Iraq. Odai, known for being cruel and something of a loose cannon, oversaw the Saddam's Fedayeen fighting force.
Saddam himself remains unaccounted for, and it is uncertain whether he is alive. The same goes for his second son, Qusai. The Journal quoted the source as saying Saddam was alive and also in suburban Baghdad.
"From day one, and it continues today, we're searching for everybody on the blacklist, including his family," McKiernan said.
The Journal's "third party" said Odai had been reluctant to surrender because the U.S. government had taken a hard line and because he wanted to know what the charges against him would be. Odai also fears that Iraqi citizens will kill him if they find him, the Journal reported, saying he "may instead choose the safety of a U.S. prison."
Officials at the Baghdad headquarters of the Iraqi National Congress, which has previously taken officials into custody and handed them over to the United States, were not in their offices Friday afternoon, the Muslim sabbath.
This week, the U.S. military captured the most senior Baath Party leader yet -- Aziz Saleh al-Numan -- after reported efforts by his family to negotiate a surrender and to throw U.S. forces off track by publishing a death notice. He was No. 8 on Central Command's list.
U.S. officials have said al-Numan is one of nine top Iraqi leaders whom the United States wants to see tried for war crimes or crimes against humanity.
He was prominent in the quelling of the Shiite Muslim uprising in the immediate aftermath of the 1991 U.S.-led attack that ousted the Iraqi army from Kuwait. A Shiite, he had a reputation for cruel treatment of the rebels, accused by opposition groups of killing and torture.
Before the uprising, when he was governor of Najaf, he was accused of arresting, torturing and killing Shiite clerics during the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war.
The capture of al-Numan brought to 25 the number of Iraqis from the top 55 list who are in coalition custody, by Pentagon count.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-odai,0,5288088.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
U.S. to Clamp Down on Iraqi Weapons
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages Iraq War Updates
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U.S. to Clamp Down on Iraqi Weapons
--------------------
By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writer
May 23, 2003, 3:26 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A new U.S. policy aimed at drastically reducing the number of weapons in Iraq will allow people to keep guns for self defense at home but outlaw them almost everywhere else, the commander of American ground forces in Iraq said Friday.
Lt. Gen. David McKiernan said permits will be granted to keep guns at home. There will be limits on the type of weapon allowed and the bullet caliber, he said.
"The intent is not to completely disarm the Iraqi population of all weapons. That is neither practical nor necessary," McKiernan said at a news briefing.
Restricting gun ownership is likely to be extremely unpopular in Iraq, where -- as in many clan-based societies -- firearms have a special role in the national culture.
Owning a firearm is a matter of pride and a sign of manhood to many Iraqi men, especially in rural areas where tribalism and traditional values endure.
Saddam Hussein deepened the country's gun culture by appearing frequently in public with a firearm. An image of Saddam firing a rifle with one hand became an icon of his rule, depicted in thousands of posters and murals.
Disarming the population, even partially, would help fight crime in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq.
Thousands of Iraqis bought firearms in the run-up to the U.S.-led war. Guns stored in military armories, and looted after the collapse of Saddam's government, also found their way into the country's lucrative weapons market.
The new U.S. policy will outlaw celebratory fire, customary in Iraq during occasions like weddings and birth celebrations. There will also be restrictions on firearms carried by bodyguards.
"This country, over the last 30 years ... has become one large ammo and weapons cache," McKiernan said.
The policy is expected to take effect next month and would give Iraqis 14 days to give up their guns. McKiernan said penalties for offenders hadn't been decided, and no details were given on how the weapons would be collected.
McKiernan said security is improving in Baghdad, where U.S. forces have been criticized for failing to stem lawlessness and looting.
"Quiet is good, and every day here in Baghdad and across Iraq, (it) is quieter," McKiernan said. "Normalcy is good, and we have a lot more of both than we had a week ago."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-disarming-the-people,0,2677112.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages Iraq War Updates
--------------------
U.S. to Clamp Down on Iraqi Weapons
--------------------
By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writer
May 23, 2003, 3:26 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A new U.S. policy aimed at drastically reducing the number of weapons in Iraq will allow people to keep guns for self defense at home but outlaw them almost everywhere else, the commander of American ground forces in Iraq said Friday.
Lt. Gen. David McKiernan said permits will be granted to keep guns at home. There will be limits on the type of weapon allowed and the bullet caliber, he said.
"The intent is not to completely disarm the Iraqi population of all weapons. That is neither practical nor necessary," McKiernan said at a news briefing.
Restricting gun ownership is likely to be extremely unpopular in Iraq, where -- as in many clan-based societies -- firearms have a special role in the national culture.
Owning a firearm is a matter of pride and a sign of manhood to many Iraqi men, especially in rural areas where tribalism and traditional values endure.
Saddam Hussein deepened the country's gun culture by appearing frequently in public with a firearm. An image of Saddam firing a rifle with one hand became an icon of his rule, depicted in thousands of posters and murals.
Disarming the population, even partially, would help fight crime in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq.
Thousands of Iraqis bought firearms in the run-up to the U.S.-led war. Guns stored in military armories, and looted after the collapse of Saddam's government, also found their way into the country's lucrative weapons market.
The new U.S. policy will outlaw celebratory fire, customary in Iraq during occasions like weddings and birth celebrations. There will also be restrictions on firearms carried by bodyguards.
"This country, over the last 30 years ... has become one large ammo and weapons cache," McKiernan said.
The policy is expected to take effect next month and would give Iraqis 14 days to give up their guns. McKiernan said penalties for offenders hadn't been decided, and no details were given on how the weapons would be collected.
McKiernan said security is improving in Baghdad, where U.S. forces have been criticized for failing to stem lawlessness and looting.
"Quiet is good, and every day here in Baghdad and across Iraq, (it) is quieter," McKiernan said. "Normalcy is good, and we have a lot more of both than we had a week ago."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-disarming-the-people,0,2677112.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
AP Top News at 1:58 p.m. EDT
From: spliffslips
--------------------
AP Top News at 1:58 p.m. EDT
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 23, 2003, 1:59 PM EDT
Congress Approves $330B in Tax Cuts
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress gave its final approval Friday to $330 billion in new tax cuts for families, investors and businesses, handing President Bush a victory despite sharply curtailing his plan for lifting the economy from its knees. The Republican-led Senate approved the measure by 51-50, with Vice President Dick Cheney casting the decisive vote in the narrowly divided chamber. Two hours after midnight, the GOP-run House had used a 231-200 vote to approve the legislation, which also included $20 billion in aid for cash-hungry states. Bush was poised to sign the bill.
Sharon Accepts U.S.-Backed Peace Plan
JERUSALEM (AP) -- After weeks of hesitation, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the United States on Friday that he accepts a U.S.-backed peace plan that would create a Palestinian state within three years. Sharon said he will present the plan to his Cabinet for approval as early as Sunday. Sharon's statement came just hours after the Bush administration pledged to "fully and seriously" address Israel's concerns about the plan -- though Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington did not intend to change the road map.
Congress Passes Jobless Benefits Bill
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress sent President Bush legislation Friday extending a program that provides 13 weeks of emergency unemployment benefits to job-hunters who have used up their state aid. The Senate vote on the House-passed bill came quickly and without debate or a roll call, with senators facing adjournment later today for a weeklong holiday recess.
Bush May Meet With Mideast Leaders
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- President Bush said Friday he will consider meeting with the Palestinian and Israeli prime ministers if it will help them move toward creating a Palestinian state. "I understand it's going to be difficult to achieve peace. But I believe it can happen," Bush told reporters after meeting at his ranch with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Bush Warns North Korea on Nuke Weapons
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- President Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Friday that "tougher measures" will be warranted against North Korea if it escalates nuclear tensions while asserting confidence that diplomatic tactics will prevail. Bush said he and the Japanese leader view the nuclear crisis in "exactly the same way" -- an absolute unwillingness to let Pyongyang become a nuclear-armed power.
Algerian Earthquake Death Toll Tops 1,600
BOUMERDES, Algeria (AP) -- Bodies wrapped in blankets and plastic bags piled up in morgues Friday as the death toll from Algeria's earthquake topped 1,600, with more than 7,000 injured. Weary volunteers, their faces caked with cement dust and sweat, climbed huge mounds of smashed concrete looking for more victims, though rescuers saw little chance of finding survivors two days after the quake.
U.S. Says Iraqi Military Is Dissolved
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq's military and the security organizations that supported Saddam Hussein's regime have been officially dissolved, and a new defense force "representative of all Iraqis" will be set up to replace them, the U.S. civil administrator announced Friday. Also Friday, U.S. defense officials said American troops at a checkpoint near the Syrian border confiscated what they believe may be gold bars worth up to $500 million.
Dow Gains 11, Nasdaq Up 3 Before Holiday
NEW YORK (AP) -- Investors wary of making major commitments ahead of the long weekend traded cautiously Friday, nudging stocks moderately higher after a lower start. There was also a lack of economic or earnings news to otherwise guide investors. In early afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 11.28, or 0.1 percent, at 8,605.30, having gained 77.59 on Thursday. The market's broader gauges were also higher. The Nasdaq composite index rose 3.63, or 0.2 percent, to 1,511.18. The Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 1.45, or 0.2 percent, to 933.32.
Sorenstam to Try and Make Cut at Colonial
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- Annika Sorenstam has already made history. Now she's trying to make the cut. Still, no matter what happens Friday in the second round of the Colonial, the first woman to play in a PGA Tour event in 58 years has already accomplished most of what she set out to do. "Personally, I came here to test myself. I'm very proud of the way I was focusing and the way I made decisions and stuck to them," Sorenstam said after her opening 71 Thursday. "That's why I'm here. I wanted to see if I could do it. That's all that matters to me."
Senators, Devils Set for Game 7 Showdown
OTTAWA (AP) -- New Jersey Devils coach Pat Burns tried to put a little added pressure on the Ottawa Senators. "It's not us anymore," Burns said Thursday. "They're going back home and they have to win at home." Ottawa has rallied from a 3-1 deficit to force a deciding Game 7 Friday night in the Eastern Conference finals, with the winner to face the well-rested Anaheim Mighty Ducks in the Stanley Cup finals. New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur called it a toss-up.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-newsbrief,0,4876546.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
AP Top News at 1:58 p.m. EDT
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 23, 2003, 1:59 PM EDT
Congress Approves $330B in Tax Cuts
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress gave its final approval Friday to $330 billion in new tax cuts for families, investors and businesses, handing President Bush a victory despite sharply curtailing his plan for lifting the economy from its knees. The Republican-led Senate approved the measure by 51-50, with Vice President Dick Cheney casting the decisive vote in the narrowly divided chamber. Two hours after midnight, the GOP-run House had used a 231-200 vote to approve the legislation, which also included $20 billion in aid for cash-hungry states. Bush was poised to sign the bill.
Sharon Accepts U.S.-Backed Peace Plan
JERUSALEM (AP) -- After weeks of hesitation, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the United States on Friday that he accepts a U.S.-backed peace plan that would create a Palestinian state within three years. Sharon said he will present the plan to his Cabinet for approval as early as Sunday. Sharon's statement came just hours after the Bush administration pledged to "fully and seriously" address Israel's concerns about the plan -- though Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington did not intend to change the road map.
Congress Passes Jobless Benefits Bill
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress sent President Bush legislation Friday extending a program that provides 13 weeks of emergency unemployment benefits to job-hunters who have used up their state aid. The Senate vote on the House-passed bill came quickly and without debate or a roll call, with senators facing adjournment later today for a weeklong holiday recess.
Bush May Meet With Mideast Leaders
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- President Bush said Friday he will consider meeting with the Palestinian and Israeli prime ministers if it will help them move toward creating a Palestinian state. "I understand it's going to be difficult to achieve peace. But I believe it can happen," Bush told reporters after meeting at his ranch with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Bush Warns North Korea on Nuke Weapons
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- President Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Friday that "tougher measures" will be warranted against North Korea if it escalates nuclear tensions while asserting confidence that diplomatic tactics will prevail. Bush said he and the Japanese leader view the nuclear crisis in "exactly the same way" -- an absolute unwillingness to let Pyongyang become a nuclear-armed power.
Algerian Earthquake Death Toll Tops 1,600
BOUMERDES, Algeria (AP) -- Bodies wrapped in blankets and plastic bags piled up in morgues Friday as the death toll from Algeria's earthquake topped 1,600, with more than 7,000 injured. Weary volunteers, their faces caked with cement dust and sweat, climbed huge mounds of smashed concrete looking for more victims, though rescuers saw little chance of finding survivors two days after the quake.
U.S. Says Iraqi Military Is Dissolved
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq's military and the security organizations that supported Saddam Hussein's regime have been officially dissolved, and a new defense force "representative of all Iraqis" will be set up to replace them, the U.S. civil administrator announced Friday. Also Friday, U.S. defense officials said American troops at a checkpoint near the Syrian border confiscated what they believe may be gold bars worth up to $500 million.
Dow Gains 11, Nasdaq Up 3 Before Holiday
NEW YORK (AP) -- Investors wary of making major commitments ahead of the long weekend traded cautiously Friday, nudging stocks moderately higher after a lower start. There was also a lack of economic or earnings news to otherwise guide investors. In early afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 11.28, or 0.1 percent, at 8,605.30, having gained 77.59 on Thursday. The market's broader gauges were also higher. The Nasdaq composite index rose 3.63, or 0.2 percent, to 1,511.18. The Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 1.45, or 0.2 percent, to 933.32.
Sorenstam to Try and Make Cut at Colonial
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- Annika Sorenstam has already made history. Now she's trying to make the cut. Still, no matter what happens Friday in the second round of the Colonial, the first woman to play in a PGA Tour event in 58 years has already accomplished most of what she set out to do. "Personally, I came here to test myself. I'm very proud of the way I was focusing and the way I made decisions and stuck to them," Sorenstam said after her opening 71 Thursday. "That's why I'm here. I wanted to see if I could do it. That's all that matters to me."
Senators, Devils Set for Game 7 Showdown
OTTAWA (AP) -- New Jersey Devils coach Pat Burns tried to put a little added pressure on the Ottawa Senators. "It's not us anymore," Burns said Thursday. "They're going back home and they have to win at home." Ottawa has rallied from a 3-1 deficit to force a deciding Game 7 Friday night in the Eastern Conference finals, with the winner to face the well-rested Anaheim Mighty Ducks in the Stanley Cup finals. New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur called it a toss-up.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-newsbrief,0,4876546.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
U.S. Troops in Iraq Find $34M in Gold
From: spliffslips
--------------------
U.S. Troops in Iraq Find $34M in Gold
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 23, 2003, 10:06 AM EDT
WASHINGTON -- American troops confiscated gold bars valued at $34 million from a truck in northern Iraq, defense officials said Friday.
The truck carrying 1,600 gold bars was stopped at a military checkpoint near Qaim, a northwestern city near Iraq's border with Syria, Pentagon officials said.
Two men were taken into custody, but there were no details on who they were, their nationality, nor where they got the gold.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-us-military,0,6523017.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
U.S. Troops in Iraq Find $34M in Gold
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 23, 2003, 10:06 AM EDT
WASHINGTON -- American troops confiscated gold bars valued at $34 million from a truck in northern Iraq, defense officials said Friday.
The truck carrying 1,600 gold bars was stopped at a military checkpoint near Qaim, a northwestern city near Iraq's border with Syria, Pentagon officials said.
Two men were taken into custody, but there were no details on who they were, their nationality, nor where they got the gold.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-us-military,0,6523017.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Baghdad Police Join U.S. Military in Raid
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages
--------------------
Baghdad Police Join U.S. Military in Raid
--------------------
By JIM KRANE
Associated Press Writer
May 23, 2003, 3:25 AM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- It was not unlike other recent raids in this lawless capital, with U.S. troops in helmets and flak vests running crouched down along the perimeter of a building, then dashing into an open doorway.
Except two of the raiders had no helmets and were wearing the white shirts and green pants of Baghdad's reconstituted police force.
Although joint U.S.-Iraqi patrols of Baghdad's streets began almost two weeks ago, Thursday's raid on a three-building complex in western Baghdad brought Iraqi police deeper into the Army's crackdown on crime.
The Iraqi officers helped plan and carry out the raid, which forced 25 residents and workers from three buildings housing apartments and offices. MPs detained the group, sitting them against a wall and searching their quarters for what a tipster described as a large stockpile of AK-47 machine guns.
On May 16, Baghdad officers rode along and watched a U.S. raid for the first time. Typically, numbers of U.S. forces far outweigh those of the Iraqis. Thursday's ratio was about 50 Americans to four Iraqis.
"The real message is to the locals," said Lt. Col. Richard Vanderlinden, commander of the U.S. Army's 709th Military Police Battalion, who leaned over the hood of a Humvee and smoked a cigar as the raid kicked into action. "We're going to start taking down buildings and people who are spreading weapons."
Two hours later, there were just two seized AK-47s to show for the effort.
One was taken from a young man who told Iraqi police he was guarding two cases of Pepsi inside a storehouse -- a statement that brought guffaws from both Americans and Iraqis. The other turned up in an open-air bazaar across the street, where women in flowing black robes did a brisk trade in refilled propane tanks.
MPs held four of those captured, briefly pasting red duct tape over the mouths of two angry men who yelled at U.S. troops. Vanderlinden said the four would be interrogated and, perhaps, held for 21 days -- the maximum sentence for disturbance offenses in Baghdad. MPs released the rest when the raid was finished.
Despite the paltry seizure, the joint raid appeared to cater to the strong suits of both the U.S. and Iraqi forces.
The U.S. team clearly excelled in planning and coordination. It deftly sealed off streets. An Army psychological operations team set up a megaphone blaring an Arabic message to "Stay off the streets!" MPs with assault rifles and sledgehammers led the teams clearing and searching the buildings.
But Baghdad police also played a role.
They seemed comfortable in the familiar neighborhood of concrete homes with flower gardens and weren't scanning rooftops for snipers, as U.S. forces were.
Speaking in Arabic, Baghdad officers calmed neighbors and those captured -- most of whom were guilty of nothing beyond living near a building that held a weapon. They assured the detainees they would be released soon.
"We're not scared because we know Iraqi criminals can't shoot," said one Baghdad officer, Sgt. Mohammed Jassim Isa, 28, a wiry man with an upright brush of black hair.
Isa said he didn't envy the sweating MPs in their five-pound Kevlar helmets and heavy vests.
"Why do we need helmets? These are our people. We're here to help them," he said of the row of detainees -- men crouched against the wall, hands clasped behind them in plastic handcuffs. A group of women detainees struck a dignified pose nearby, calm faces framed in black robes undulating in the morning breeze.
Baghdad police learned from the Americans, though. On their own raids, Isa said three officers would handle such a raid with no planning, no temporary detainees, no blocking of the streets. Unless, of course, they were chasing an armed murderer: For that, Isa said, they'd send 10 officers.
"We're going to go with the same formation, the same order, the same methods," he said through a translator.
But with just 8,000 Iraqi police patrolling a city of 5 million, it remains to be seen whether the Baghdad police will have men to spare for American-style raids.
They will, however, soon be toting more than handguns.
As Americans seize weapons, they have begun using them to rearm the Baghdad police, with the intent of giving them enough firepower to combat well-armed criminals. U.S. forces have already handed over more than 1,000 AK-47s to the police, who are cleared to use them after attending a U.S. training course.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-police,0,2897817.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages
--------------------
Baghdad Police Join U.S. Military in Raid
--------------------
By JIM KRANE
Associated Press Writer
May 23, 2003, 3:25 AM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- It was not unlike other recent raids in this lawless capital, with U.S. troops in helmets and flak vests running crouched down along the perimeter of a building, then dashing into an open doorway.
Except two of the raiders had no helmets and were wearing the white shirts and green pants of Baghdad's reconstituted police force.
Although joint U.S.-Iraqi patrols of Baghdad's streets began almost two weeks ago, Thursday's raid on a three-building complex in western Baghdad brought Iraqi police deeper into the Army's crackdown on crime.
The Iraqi officers helped plan and carry out the raid, which forced 25 residents and workers from three buildings housing apartments and offices. MPs detained the group, sitting them against a wall and searching their quarters for what a tipster described as a large stockpile of AK-47 machine guns.
On May 16, Baghdad officers rode along and watched a U.S. raid for the first time. Typically, numbers of U.S. forces far outweigh those of the Iraqis. Thursday's ratio was about 50 Americans to four Iraqis.
"The real message is to the locals," said Lt. Col. Richard Vanderlinden, commander of the U.S. Army's 709th Military Police Battalion, who leaned over the hood of a Humvee and smoked a cigar as the raid kicked into action. "We're going to start taking down buildings and people who are spreading weapons."
Two hours later, there were just two seized AK-47s to show for the effort.
One was taken from a young man who told Iraqi police he was guarding two cases of Pepsi inside a storehouse -- a statement that brought guffaws from both Americans and Iraqis. The other turned up in an open-air bazaar across the street, where women in flowing black robes did a brisk trade in refilled propane tanks.
MPs held four of those captured, briefly pasting red duct tape over the mouths of two angry men who yelled at U.S. troops. Vanderlinden said the four would be interrogated and, perhaps, held for 21 days -- the maximum sentence for disturbance offenses in Baghdad. MPs released the rest when the raid was finished.
Despite the paltry seizure, the joint raid appeared to cater to the strong suits of both the U.S. and Iraqi forces.
The U.S. team clearly excelled in planning and coordination. It deftly sealed off streets. An Army psychological operations team set up a megaphone blaring an Arabic message to "Stay off the streets!" MPs with assault rifles and sledgehammers led the teams clearing and searching the buildings.
But Baghdad police also played a role.
They seemed comfortable in the familiar neighborhood of concrete homes with flower gardens and weren't scanning rooftops for snipers, as U.S. forces were.
Speaking in Arabic, Baghdad officers calmed neighbors and those captured -- most of whom were guilty of nothing beyond living near a building that held a weapon. They assured the detainees they would be released soon.
"We're not scared because we know Iraqi criminals can't shoot," said one Baghdad officer, Sgt. Mohammed Jassim Isa, 28, a wiry man with an upright brush of black hair.
Isa said he didn't envy the sweating MPs in their five-pound Kevlar helmets and heavy vests.
"Why do we need helmets? These are our people. We're here to help them," he said of the row of detainees -- men crouched against the wall, hands clasped behind them in plastic handcuffs. A group of women detainees struck a dignified pose nearby, calm faces framed in black robes undulating in the morning breeze.
Baghdad police learned from the Americans, though. On their own raids, Isa said three officers would handle such a raid with no planning, no temporary detainees, no blocking of the streets. Unless, of course, they were chasing an armed murderer: For that, Isa said, they'd send 10 officers.
"We're going to go with the same formation, the same order, the same methods," he said through a translator.
But with just 8,000 Iraqi police patrolling a city of 5 million, it remains to be seen whether the Baghdad police will have men to spare for American-style raids.
They will, however, soon be toting more than handguns.
As Americans seize weapons, they have begun using them to rearm the Baghdad police, with the intent of giving them enough firepower to combat well-armed criminals. U.S. forces have already handed over more than 1,000 AK-47s to the police, who are cleared to use them after attending a U.S. training course.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-police,0,2897817.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 9:30 a.m. EDT
From: spliffslips
--------------------
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 9:30 a.m. EDT
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 23, 2003, 9:32 AM EDT
Iraq's Armed Forces Dissolved, New Defense Force to Be Formed, U.S. Administrator Says
Oil Trade Free to Restart Now That U.N. Sanctions Against Iraq Have Been Lifted
Television Returns to Air in Baghdad, Without Controls Imposed During Saddam Hussein's Reign
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz Rejects Criticism of U.S. Efforts in Postwar Iraq
Powell Says U.S. Has Not Gotten Over Disappointment With French Actions Before Iraq War
Baghdad Police Join U.S. Military to Raid Suspected Stockpile of AK-47 Machine Guns
Pentagon Releases Names of Four Marines Killed in Helicopter Crash in Central Iraq
Top American Administrator in Iraq Visits Mass Grave Believed to Contain Remains of Thousands
Senior Baath Party Leader Aziz Saleh Al-Numan Now in U.S. Custody, Despite Family's Efforts
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 9:30 a.m. EDT
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 23, 2003, 9:32 AM EDT
Iraq's Armed Forces Dissolved, New Defense Force to Be Formed, U.S. Administrator Says
Oil Trade Free to Restart Now That U.N. Sanctions Against Iraq Have Been Lifted
Television Returns to Air in Baghdad, Without Controls Imposed During Saddam Hussein's Reign
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz Rejects Criticism of U.S. Efforts in Postwar Iraq
Powell Says U.S. Has Not Gotten Over Disappointment With French Actions Before Iraq War
Baghdad Police Join U.S. Military to Raid Suspected Stockpile of AK-47 Machine Guns
Pentagon Releases Names of Four Marines Killed in Helicopter Crash in Central Iraq
Top American Administrator in Iraq Visits Mass Grave Believed to Contain Remains of Thousands
Senior Baath Party Leader Aziz Saleh Al-Numan Now in U.S. Custody, Despite Family's Efforts
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Thursday, May 22, 2003
Md. Gov. Signs Medical Marijuana Bill
From: spliffslips
ONE FOR THE GOOD GUYS
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Md. Gov. Signs Medical Marijuana Bill
--------------------
By ANGELA POTTER
Associated Press Writer
May 22, 2003, 5:44 PM EDT
BALTIMORE -- Refusing to bend to pressure from the Bush administration, Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich signed a bill Thursday that reduces criminal penalties for seriously ill people who smoke marijuana.
Ehrlich is the first GOP governor to sign a bill protecting medical marijuana patients from jail, according to the Marijuana Policy Project. The Bush administration had pressed him to veto the measure.
Ehrlich had indicated his support for the bill early on as a way to help people with chronic illnesses ease their pain.
"This is a position I've had for many, many years," Ehrlich said Thursday. "It's not without controversy across parties, across chambers, across states, across the country."
The new law does not legalize marijuana, but reduces the penalty to a maximum $100 fine with no jail time if defendants convince a judge they need marijuana for medical reasons. Previously, possession or use of marijuana brought penalties of up to a year in prison or a $1,000 fine.
Supporters of the legislation say smoking marijuana can ease the symptoms of serious illnesses such as cancer or AIDS and help patients suffering from nausea hold down food and medications.
Opponents, including White House drug czar John P. Walters, have objected that marijuana is a false and illegal remedy.
"It would be truly unfortunate if today's actions led, however unintentionally, to greater use or availability of dangerous drugs in Maryland," Walters said.
Eight other states -- Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Nevada and Maine -- have medical marijuana laws.
In Washington, House Republicans want to move drug enforcement money from state and local police officers to federal agents in states that have legalized medical marijuana.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-medical-marijuana,0,4874270.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
ONE FOR THE GOOD GUYS
--------------------
Md. Gov. Signs Medical Marijuana Bill
--------------------
By ANGELA POTTER
Associated Press Writer
May 22, 2003, 5:44 PM EDT
BALTIMORE -- Refusing to bend to pressure from the Bush administration, Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich signed a bill Thursday that reduces criminal penalties for seriously ill people who smoke marijuana.
Ehrlich is the first GOP governor to sign a bill protecting medical marijuana patients from jail, according to the Marijuana Policy Project. The Bush administration had pressed him to veto the measure.
Ehrlich had indicated his support for the bill early on as a way to help people with chronic illnesses ease their pain.
"This is a position I've had for many, many years," Ehrlich said Thursday. "It's not without controversy across parties, across chambers, across states, across the country."
The new law does not legalize marijuana, but reduces the penalty to a maximum $100 fine with no jail time if defendants convince a judge they need marijuana for medical reasons. Previously, possession or use of marijuana brought penalties of up to a year in prison or a $1,000 fine.
Supporters of the legislation say smoking marijuana can ease the symptoms of serious illnesses such as cancer or AIDS and help patients suffering from nausea hold down food and medications.
Opponents, including White House drug czar John P. Walters, have objected that marijuana is a false and illegal remedy.
"It would be truly unfortunate if today's actions led, however unintentionally, to greater use or availability of dangerous drugs in Maryland," Walters said.
Eight other states -- Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Nevada and Maine -- have medical marijuana laws.
In Washington, House Republicans want to move drug enforcement money from state and local police officers to federal agents in states that have legalized medical marijuana.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-medical-marijuana,0,4874270.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Iraq's Post-Saddam Landscape Is Diverse
From: spliffslips
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Iraq's Post-Saddam Landscape Is Diverse
--------------------
By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writer
May 22, 2003, 4:14 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- For a generation they were forbidden, and any whiff of political activity could have meant punishment, even death. But now, in the maze of postwar Iraq, political parties are flourishing -- and facing a future they are determined to help shape.
More than 100 newly created parties have sprung up since Saddam Hussein was toppled last month, offering Iraqis accustomed to one-party rule everything from Islamic militancy to monarchy, from ethnic nationalism to Christian fundamentalism.
The explosion of political energy in today's Iraq is a response to decades of authoritarian rule and a celebration of newfound freedom. It also appears to be an expression of the anarchy that is prevailing in the absence of a government.
Gauging the extent of support enjoyed by any of the new parties is difficult until a general election is held -- something not expected to happen for more than a year at the earliest. Iraq has been without any national government since U.S. forces captured Baghdad on April 9.
What is evident, however, is that many of the parties barely exist.
One is based in a mosque. Another is using a mall where Saddam's wife Sajida shopped at expensive boutiques. Many squat in offices that once belonged to intelligence and security agencies. Others use homes of senior Baath officials who fled with their families.
Some amount to nothing more than a paper sign hung outside a building, and others enjoy the support of only a few dozen relatives and friends.
"I can show you photos and a video that prove that more than 1,000 people received me when I returned to Iraq," Aziz al-Yasseri, leader of the Iraqi Democratic Movement, a new party, tells a visitor hopefully.
Kurdish, Arab and Assyrian parties are adopting programs designed to exclusively serve the interests of their ethnicities -- including an Assyrian Christian fundamentalist party in this overwhelmingly Muslim country. The Iraqi Islamic Party wants its own pure religious state. The Constitutional Monarchy Movement wants to restore the royal system that was toppled in 1958.
The emergence of so many new groups comes as powerful Iraqi politicians return from years in exile -- or, in two cases, from the northern Kurdish enclave -- to take what they believe are their rightful places atop a new government.
Two powerful Kurdish organizations, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, are part of a core group talking with the U.S.-led occupation force about future governance. So is the Iraqi National Congress, the influential group long headed from London by Ahmad Chalabi.
Not everyone is happy about the returnees taking a front seat. Some of the new parties are vigorously promoting the notion that they pose a danger to the new Iraq.
"Members of my party are Iraqis who don't include anyone who had fled the country," boasts Nouri Jaber Ali, leader of the National Movement for the Liberation of Iraq.
Iraq, a mosaic of ethnic and religious groups, existed for nearly 400 years as three separate Ottoman provinces until Britain joined them together in 1920. The country is deeply divided along tribal fault lines that Saddam tried to deepen so he could consolidate his support.
When a British-backed monarchy was installed in 1921, a pluralistic political system was tried. Fifty-eight Cabinets came and went before the monarchy was toppled in a coup in 1958. Ten years later, Saddam's Baath Party took power for good.
In the years since, some parties worked covertly to undermine the Baathists. Some of those appearing on the streets today are old experts at that game -- like Ali Hussein Abu Seif of the Iraqi Communist Party.
He introduces himself as a comrade and a party leader, but he doesn't stand on ceremony, wearing trousers rolled up to just below the knees and a pair of plastic slippers to receive visitors.
Only weeks ago, he would have been a perfect candidate for Saddam's gallows. Now that Iraq's dictator is gone, he sits in a large, wood-paneled office in a riverside building that once belonged to Saddam's Baath party.
"My party runs in my blood," declares Abu Seif, who hid from Saddam's dreaded security agents for more than 20 years, making a living as a clothes retailer while he recruited members and organized underground cells.
Where political parties tread, demanding constituencies soon follow. And lawless, jumbled Baghdad is unlikely to be an exception. Just ask Abdul-Jabar al-Izzawi, 75, a retired businessman smoking a water pipe at Baghdad's al-Shahbandar cafe.
"What is the benefit of having freedom and so many parties," he asks, "if I cannot even feel safe coming to this cafe and returning home every day?"
* __
EDITOR'S NOTE -- Associated Press Correspondent Bassem Mroue contributed to this report.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-instant-politics,0,7426799.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
Iraq's Post-Saddam Landscape Is Diverse
--------------------
By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writer
May 22, 2003, 4:14 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- For a generation they were forbidden, and any whiff of political activity could have meant punishment, even death. But now, in the maze of postwar Iraq, political parties are flourishing -- and facing a future they are determined to help shape.
More than 100 newly created parties have sprung up since Saddam Hussein was toppled last month, offering Iraqis accustomed to one-party rule everything from Islamic militancy to monarchy, from ethnic nationalism to Christian fundamentalism.
The explosion of political energy in today's Iraq is a response to decades of authoritarian rule and a celebration of newfound freedom. It also appears to be an expression of the anarchy that is prevailing in the absence of a government.
Gauging the extent of support enjoyed by any of the new parties is difficult until a general election is held -- something not expected to happen for more than a year at the earliest. Iraq has been without any national government since U.S. forces captured Baghdad on April 9.
What is evident, however, is that many of the parties barely exist.
One is based in a mosque. Another is using a mall where Saddam's wife Sajida shopped at expensive boutiques. Many squat in offices that once belonged to intelligence and security agencies. Others use homes of senior Baath officials who fled with their families.
Some amount to nothing more than a paper sign hung outside a building, and others enjoy the support of only a few dozen relatives and friends.
"I can show you photos and a video that prove that more than 1,000 people received me when I returned to Iraq," Aziz al-Yasseri, leader of the Iraqi Democratic Movement, a new party, tells a visitor hopefully.
Kurdish, Arab and Assyrian parties are adopting programs designed to exclusively serve the interests of their ethnicities -- including an Assyrian Christian fundamentalist party in this overwhelmingly Muslim country. The Iraqi Islamic Party wants its own pure religious state. The Constitutional Monarchy Movement wants to restore the royal system that was toppled in 1958.
The emergence of so many new groups comes as powerful Iraqi politicians return from years in exile -- or, in two cases, from the northern Kurdish enclave -- to take what they believe are their rightful places atop a new government.
Two powerful Kurdish organizations, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, are part of a core group talking with the U.S.-led occupation force about future governance. So is the Iraqi National Congress, the influential group long headed from London by Ahmad Chalabi.
Not everyone is happy about the returnees taking a front seat. Some of the new parties are vigorously promoting the notion that they pose a danger to the new Iraq.
"Members of my party are Iraqis who don't include anyone who had fled the country," boasts Nouri Jaber Ali, leader of the National Movement for the Liberation of Iraq.
Iraq, a mosaic of ethnic and religious groups, existed for nearly 400 years as three separate Ottoman provinces until Britain joined them together in 1920. The country is deeply divided along tribal fault lines that Saddam tried to deepen so he could consolidate his support.
When a British-backed monarchy was installed in 1921, a pluralistic political system was tried. Fifty-eight Cabinets came and went before the monarchy was toppled in a coup in 1958. Ten years later, Saddam's Baath Party took power for good.
In the years since, some parties worked covertly to undermine the Baathists. Some of those appearing on the streets today are old experts at that game -- like Ali Hussein Abu Seif of the Iraqi Communist Party.
He introduces himself as a comrade and a party leader, but he doesn't stand on ceremony, wearing trousers rolled up to just below the knees and a pair of plastic slippers to receive visitors.
Only weeks ago, he would have been a perfect candidate for Saddam's gallows. Now that Iraq's dictator is gone, he sits in a large, wood-paneled office in a riverside building that once belonged to Saddam's Baath party.
"My party runs in my blood," declares Abu Seif, who hid from Saddam's dreaded security agents for more than 20 years, making a living as a clothes retailer while he recruited members and organized underground cells.
Where political parties tread, demanding constituencies soon follow. And lawless, jumbled Baghdad is unlikely to be an exception. Just ask Abdul-Jabar al-Izzawi, 75, a retired businessman smoking a water pipe at Baghdad's al-Shahbandar cafe.
"What is the benefit of having freedom and so many parties," he asks, "if I cannot even feel safe coming to this cafe and returning home every day?"
* __
EDITOR'S NOTE -- Associated Press Correspondent Bassem Mroue contributed to this report.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-instant-politics,0,7426799.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Yahoo! News Story - Mideast Photos - AFP
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AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 12:30 p.m. EDT
From: spliffslips
--------------------
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 12:30 p.m. EDT
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 22, 2003, 12:32 PM EDT
Members of Congress Press for Public Disclosure of Iraq Contract Information
Security Council Approves U.S.-Led Administration of Iraq and Lifts Economic Sanctions
Warsaw Seeks Participants for Polish-Led Stabilization Force in Iraq
U.S. Forces Capture Former Senior Baath Party Leader Who Is No. 8 on List of Most-Wanted Iraqis
All Members of Saddam's Toppled Baath Party Must Identify Themselves, Gen. Franks Orders
U.N. Passes Resolution to Lift Iraqi Sanctions; U.S. Troops Arrest Baath Party Leader
Key Developments Concerning Iraq
Iraq's Power Situation to Improve Soon, U.N. Agency Predicts
AP Corrects Iraq-Cholera-Outbreak Story
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 12:30 p.m. EDT
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 22, 2003, 12:32 PM EDT
Members of Congress Press for Public Disclosure of Iraq Contract Information
Security Council Approves U.S.-Led Administration of Iraq and Lifts Economic Sanctions
Warsaw Seeks Participants for Polish-Led Stabilization Force in Iraq
U.S. Forces Capture Former Senior Baath Party Leader Who Is No. 8 on List of Most-Wanted Iraqis
All Members of Saddam's Toppled Baath Party Must Identify Themselves, Gen. Franks Orders
U.N. Passes Resolution to Lift Iraqi Sanctions; U.S. Troops Arrest Baath Party Leader
Key Developments Concerning Iraq
Iraq's Power Situation to Improve Soon, U.N. Agency Predicts
AP Corrects Iraq-Cholera-Outbreak Story
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 10:30 a.m. EDT
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
--------------------
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 10:30 a.m. EDT
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 22, 2003, 10:32 AM EDT
Security Council Approves U.S.-Led Administration of Iraq and Lifts Economic Sanctions
Key Developments Concerning Iraq
U.S. Begins Deploying Peacekeeping Unit in Baghdad As U.N. Set to Lift Sanctions
Iraq's Power Situation to Improve Soon, U.N. Agency Predicts
AP Corrects Iraq-Cholera-Outbreak Story
All Members of Saddam's Toppled Baath Party Must Identify Themselves, Gen. Franks Orders
Host of Mideast Issues on Table at Secretary of State Colin Powell's Meetings in Europe
Host of Mideast Issues on Table at Secretary of State ColinPowell Meetings in Europe
Kurds Flock Back to Iraqi Oil City of Kirkuk As Tensions With Arabs Soar
U.S. Armored Vehicle Damaged in Ambush in Iraqi Town Where U.S. Troops Fired on Crowd
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
--------------------
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 10:30 a.m. EDT
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 22, 2003, 10:32 AM EDT
Security Council Approves U.S.-Led Administration of Iraq and Lifts Economic Sanctions
Key Developments Concerning Iraq
U.S. Begins Deploying Peacekeeping Unit in Baghdad As U.N. Set to Lift Sanctions
Iraq's Power Situation to Improve Soon, U.N. Agency Predicts
AP Corrects Iraq-Cholera-Outbreak Story
All Members of Saddam's Toppled Baath Party Must Identify Themselves, Gen. Franks Orders
Host of Mideast Issues on Table at Secretary of State Colin Powell's Meetings in Europe
Host of Mideast Issues on Table at Secretary of State ColinPowell Meetings in Europe
Kurds Flock Back to Iraqi Oil City of Kirkuk As Tensions With Arabs Soar
U.S. Armored Vehicle Damaged in Ambush in Iraqi Town Where U.S. Troops Fired on Crowd
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
Recommended: "US troops eye Iraq's future with realism, philosophy"
_________________________________________________________________________
spliffslips@aol.com has recommended this article from
The Christian Science Monitor's electronic edition.
_________________________________________________________________________
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Headline: US troops eye Iraq's future with realism, philosophy
Byline: Warren Richey Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Date: 05/21/2003
(BAGHDAD)American soldiers in Iraq are learning firsthand that sometimes the
hardest part of writing history is not knowing how it will end.
There are few places in this war-torn country where the final outcome
of Operation Iraqi Freedom is more uncertain than in the heavily Shiite
Muslim neighborhoods of eastern Baghdad.
In Thawra, also called Sadr City by many of its Shiite residents, US
commanders are maneuvering their way through an ever-changing political
landscape.
Various Shiite clerics are sending conflicting signals to US officials,
telling military officers one thing and then acting and saying
something completely different to others. US troops also face an
ever-present threat from remnants of the Saddam Fedayeen, Baath Party
stalwarts, and a large group of armed criminals.
On the other side, the US government's Office of Reconstruction and
Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) in Iraq seems to have adopted a go-slow
posture - perhaps, analysts say, to allow Iraqi infighting to sort
itself out before identifying appropriate local leaders.
Caught in the middle of this swirl of posturing and jockeying are US
soldiers - America's sons and daughters, mothers and fathers -
patrolling the front lines of the second phase of the war in Iraq.
Many are beginning to form opinions about what will likely be written
in the final chapter of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The soldiers quoted here from the US Army's 2nd Armored Cavalry
Regiment are not Middle East experts, learned political scientists, or
foreign-policy specialists. They are simply a cross section of the US,
ordinary Americans who have had the benefit of two months on the ground
in Iraq seeing the situation for themselves.
Many of them have had to dodge bullets. All of them face the prospect
of a dangerous and uncertain stay in what to them is a very foreign
land.
Most see much painstaking work ahead - work that will hardly be
completed in a few months' time.
"As long as we are here, everything will be stable, but as soon as we
leave, another Saddam will pop up, and it is this thing all over
again," says Sgt. Eric Fitzgerald of Baltimore. "It will turn out like
another Bosnia or Kosovo."
Pvt. John Hecht of Merrill, Iowa, wants to know where the next
generation of Iraqi leaders are - the Iraqi version of America's James
Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton. Men with courage and
vision and an honest conviction to place the goals of the nation above
those of any individual or faction.
"They need a strong leader who won't take sides," Private Hecht says.
The problem in Iraq, Hecht and others say, is that many of the most
talented potential leaders were discovered first by Saddam Hussein's
security service and executed.
Others see an important role for ordinary Iraqis. "The Iraqi people are
going to have to start taking care of themselves before this gets
better," says Pvt. William Craig of Neosho, Mo. "I don't know if the
new Iraqi government will be democratic," he says. "But if it doesn't
happen right away, I think five or 10 years down the road it will be
democratic."
Pvt. David Padilla of East Los Angeles, Calif., agrees on the task's
lengthy duration. "It's going to take 10 to 15 years," he says. "What
I'm hoping is we help the younger generation because ... the only way
we can help this country is through the kids."
He adds, "We're just helping them get their foot in the door. It is up
to them to save themselves."
Says Pvt. Joel Burden of Winter Park, Fla.: "We're here for 10 years of
occupation so the younger generation gets to understand what democracy
feels like and enjoy it," But he adds, "Then in 15 years, we will have
to come back and do the same thing all over again because war is
ingrained in these people."
If democracy comes to Iraq, Lt. Stephen Johnson of Lompoc, Calif., says
it will most likely be a "false democracy" with rigged elections. He
says there will be more freedom than under Mr. Hussein, "but a true
democracy is decades off."
The lieutenant adds, "I don't think we will be out of here until the
Palestinians and Israelis have peace."
"This place could be a paradise," observes Sgt. Herman Herrera of
Gunnison, Colo., but only as long as the US is willing to maintain a
military presence here.
"We are going to get the country above where Saddam had it," he says.
"But I believe it is going to go right down as soon as we leave."
(c) Copyright 2003 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
Click here to email this story to a friend:
http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/send-story?2003/0521/p02s01-woiq.txt
The Christian Science Monitor-- an independent daily newspaper providing context and clarity on national and international news, peoples and cultures, and social trends. Online at http://www.csmonitor.com
Click here to order a free sample copy of the print edition of the Monitor:
http://www.csmonitor.com/aboutus/sample_issue.html
_________________________________________________________________________
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spliffslips@aol.com has recommended this article from
The Christian Science Monitor's electronic edition.
_________________________________________________________________________
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_________________________________________________________________________
Click here to email this story to a friend:
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Click here to read this story online:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0521/p02s01-woiq.html
Headline: US troops eye Iraq's future with realism, philosophy
Byline: Warren Richey Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Date: 05/21/2003
(BAGHDAD)American soldiers in Iraq are learning firsthand that sometimes the
hardest part of writing history is not knowing how it will end.
There are few places in this war-torn country where the final outcome
of Operation Iraqi Freedom is more uncertain than in the heavily Shiite
Muslim neighborhoods of eastern Baghdad.
In Thawra, also called Sadr City by many of its Shiite residents, US
commanders are maneuvering their way through an ever-changing political
landscape.
Various Shiite clerics are sending conflicting signals to US officials,
telling military officers one thing and then acting and saying
something completely different to others. US troops also face an
ever-present threat from remnants of the Saddam Fedayeen, Baath Party
stalwarts, and a large group of armed criminals.
On the other side, the US government's Office of Reconstruction and
Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) in Iraq seems to have adopted a go-slow
posture - perhaps, analysts say, to allow Iraqi infighting to sort
itself out before identifying appropriate local leaders.
Caught in the middle of this swirl of posturing and jockeying are US
soldiers - America's sons and daughters, mothers and fathers -
patrolling the front lines of the second phase of the war in Iraq.
Many are beginning to form opinions about what will likely be written
in the final chapter of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The soldiers quoted here from the US Army's 2nd Armored Cavalry
Regiment are not Middle East experts, learned political scientists, or
foreign-policy specialists. They are simply a cross section of the US,
ordinary Americans who have had the benefit of two months on the ground
in Iraq seeing the situation for themselves.
Many of them have had to dodge bullets. All of them face the prospect
of a dangerous and uncertain stay in what to them is a very foreign
land.
Most see much painstaking work ahead - work that will hardly be
completed in a few months' time.
"As long as we are here, everything will be stable, but as soon as we
leave, another Saddam will pop up, and it is this thing all over
again," says Sgt. Eric Fitzgerald of Baltimore. "It will turn out like
another Bosnia or Kosovo."
Pvt. John Hecht of Merrill, Iowa, wants to know where the next
generation of Iraqi leaders are - the Iraqi version of America's James
Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton. Men with courage and
vision and an honest conviction to place the goals of the nation above
those of any individual or faction.
"They need a strong leader who won't take sides," Private Hecht says.
The problem in Iraq, Hecht and others say, is that many of the most
talented potential leaders were discovered first by Saddam Hussein's
security service and executed.
Others see an important role for ordinary Iraqis. "The Iraqi people are
going to have to start taking care of themselves before this gets
better," says Pvt. William Craig of Neosho, Mo. "I don't know if the
new Iraqi government will be democratic," he says. "But if it doesn't
happen right away, I think five or 10 years down the road it will be
democratic."
Pvt. David Padilla of East Los Angeles, Calif., agrees on the task's
lengthy duration. "It's going to take 10 to 15 years," he says. "What
I'm hoping is we help the younger generation because ... the only way
we can help this country is through the kids."
He adds, "We're just helping them get their foot in the door. It is up
to them to save themselves."
Says Pvt. Joel Burden of Winter Park, Fla.: "We're here for 10 years of
occupation so the younger generation gets to understand what democracy
feels like and enjoy it," But he adds, "Then in 15 years, we will have
to come back and do the same thing all over again because war is
ingrained in these people."
If democracy comes to Iraq, Lt. Stephen Johnson of Lompoc, Calif., says
it will most likely be a "false democracy" with rigged elections. He
says there will be more freedom than under Mr. Hussein, "but a true
democracy is decades off."
The lieutenant adds, "I don't think we will be out of here until the
Palestinians and Israelis have peace."
"This place could be a paradise," observes Sgt. Herman Herrera of
Gunnison, Colo., but only as long as the US is willing to maintain a
military presence here.
"We are going to get the country above where Saddam had it," he says.
"But I believe it is going to go right down as soon as we leave."
(c) Copyright 2003 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
Click here to email this story to a friend:
http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/send-story?2003/0521/p02s01-woiq.txt
The Christian Science Monitor-- an independent daily newspaper providing context and clarity on national and international news, peoples and cultures, and social trends. Online at http://www.csmonitor.com
Click here to order a free sample copy of the print edition of the Monitor:
http://www.csmonitor.com/aboutus/sample_issue.html
_________________________________________________________________________
-- ADVERTISEMENT --
Sign up for the Monitor News Alert to be notified of special war coverage.
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Germany Calls for Stronger Europe Defense
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages Updates
--------------------
Germany Calls for Stronger Europe Defense
--------------------
By TONY CZUCZKA
Associated Press Writer
May 21, 2003, 3:01 PM EDT
BERLIN -- Germany unveiled its first new military strategy in 11 years Wednesday, calling for stronger European defense capabilities while saying that the United States remains "indispensable" for Europe's security.
Defense Minister Peter Struck said Germany would shut nine bases and disband dozens of units over the next few years as the military shifts from a heavily armored bulwark at ground zero of the Cold War to a mobile, modern force for international peacekeeping missions and combating terrorism.
The strategy overhaul reflects events like the Balkan wars of the 1990s and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, which led Germany to send peacekeepers to Afghanistan, contribute troops for the U.S.-led war on terrorism and even saw German pilots help patrol U.S. skies.
"The result is that international conflict prevention and crisis management, including the fight against international terrorism, have moved up to No. 1 of our task spectrum," Struck said in a statement after Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Cabinet approved the new guidelines.
The new guidelines try to steer a middle course between recognition of U.S. power and Europe's quest for more military muscle of its own, which Struck said would allow European nations to intervene in trouble spots where the NATO alliance doesn't want to get involved.
But the document emphasized allegiance to Washington, strained in recent months by the German government's fierce anti-war stand on Iraq.
"Also in future, there can be no security in and for Europe without the United States," the paper said. "Germany will continue to make a substantial contribution to the trans-Atlantic partnership."
Despite a shrinking defense budget, the guidelines foresee Germany keeping a conscript army -- something opposed by the Greens party, the junior coalition partner of Schroeder's Social Democrats.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-germany-military,0,6827741.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages Updates
--------------------
Germany Calls for Stronger Europe Defense
--------------------
By TONY CZUCZKA
Associated Press Writer
May 21, 2003, 3:01 PM EDT
BERLIN -- Germany unveiled its first new military strategy in 11 years Wednesday, calling for stronger European defense capabilities while saying that the United States remains "indispensable" for Europe's security.
Defense Minister Peter Struck said Germany would shut nine bases and disband dozens of units over the next few years as the military shifts from a heavily armored bulwark at ground zero of the Cold War to a mobile, modern force for international peacekeeping missions and combating terrorism.
The strategy overhaul reflects events like the Balkan wars of the 1990s and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, which led Germany to send peacekeepers to Afghanistan, contribute troops for the U.S.-led war on terrorism and even saw German pilots help patrol U.S. skies.
"The result is that international conflict prevention and crisis management, including the fight against international terrorism, have moved up to No. 1 of our task spectrum," Struck said in a statement after Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Cabinet approved the new guidelines.
The new guidelines try to steer a middle course between recognition of U.S. power and Europe's quest for more military muscle of its own, which Struck said would allow European nations to intervene in trouble spots where the NATO alliance doesn't want to get involved.
But the document emphasized allegiance to Washington, strained in recent months by the German government's fierce anti-war stand on Iraq.
"Also in future, there can be no security in and for Europe without the United States," the paper said. "Germany will continue to make a substantial contribution to the trans-Atlantic partnership."
Despite a shrinking defense budget, the guidelines foresee Germany keeping a conscript army -- something opposed by the Greens party, the junior coalition partner of Schroeder's Social Democrats.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-germany-military,0,6827741.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Purported al-Qaida Threat Stuns Norway
From: spliffslips
No One Is Safe
--------------------
Purported al-Qaida Threat Stuns Norway
--------------------
By DOUG MELLGREN
Associated Press Writer
May 21, 2003, 4:40 PM EDT
OSLO, Norway -- Norwegians, proud of their role as a global peacemaker, were puzzled and concerned Wednesday that a leading al-Qaida member singled out their country in a terrorist threat.
The Arab television station Al-Jazeera aired an audio tape purportedly by Ayman al-Zawahri, the top lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, urging renewed attacks on the United States, Britain and Australia, which participated in the war against Iraq.
But the inclusion of the Scandinavian nation in his warning drew questions.
Norway didn't support the war in Iraq but sent troops and fighter planes to help oust al-Qaida and the Taliban forces from Afghanistan.
"We were surprised," Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokesman Karsten Klepsvik said, adding that experts were racing to try to figure out why al-Qaida would want to threaten Norway.
He said Norwegian interests, including embassies in the Middle East, were advised of the threat.
Brynjar Lia, a terrorism expert with the government's Norwegian Defense Research Establishment in the capital, Oslo, said there plenty of reasons for radical Muslims to hate Norway as an oil-rich, highly developed and overwhelmingly Lutheran kingdom in the north.
"But the (al-Qaida) list of enemy states is getting to be very long and I would think Norway would be very far down the list," he said.
Others said al-Zawahri may have confused Norway with neighboring Denmark, which supported the U.S.-led war on Iraq by sending a submarine and escort ship.
NATO-member Norway has played pivotal roles in helping settle world conflicts and is the home of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Lia said that Oslo, site of key Israel-Palestinian negotiations, also symbolized the Mideast peace process that some want to stop. Norway secretly brokered a 1993 accord and has been involved in trying to find a lasting peace there.
Norway also chaired the U.N. Security Council's Sanctions Committee on Iraq until last year, and is investigating Mullah Krekar, a refugee in Norway who led the Kurdish Islamic military group Ansar al-Islam suspected of having ties to al-Qaida.
Krekar's lawyer, Brynjar Meling, said his client has no ties to the terror group and has no idea why it would threaten Norway.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-norway-al-qaida-tape,0,7927986.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
No One Is Safe
--------------------
Purported al-Qaida Threat Stuns Norway
--------------------
By DOUG MELLGREN
Associated Press Writer
May 21, 2003, 4:40 PM EDT
OSLO, Norway -- Norwegians, proud of their role as a global peacemaker, were puzzled and concerned Wednesday that a leading al-Qaida member singled out their country in a terrorist threat.
The Arab television station Al-Jazeera aired an audio tape purportedly by Ayman al-Zawahri, the top lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, urging renewed attacks on the United States, Britain and Australia, which participated in the war against Iraq.
But the inclusion of the Scandinavian nation in his warning drew questions.
Norway didn't support the war in Iraq but sent troops and fighter planes to help oust al-Qaida and the Taliban forces from Afghanistan.
"We were surprised," Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokesman Karsten Klepsvik said, adding that experts were racing to try to figure out why al-Qaida would want to threaten Norway.
He said Norwegian interests, including embassies in the Middle East, were advised of the threat.
Brynjar Lia, a terrorism expert with the government's Norwegian Defense Research Establishment in the capital, Oslo, said there plenty of reasons for radical Muslims to hate Norway as an oil-rich, highly developed and overwhelmingly Lutheran kingdom in the north.
"But the (al-Qaida) list of enemy states is getting to be very long and I would think Norway would be very far down the list," he said.
Others said al-Zawahri may have confused Norway with neighboring Denmark, which supported the U.S.-led war on Iraq by sending a submarine and escort ship.
NATO-member Norway has played pivotal roles in helping settle world conflicts and is the home of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Lia said that Oslo, site of key Israel-Palestinian negotiations, also symbolized the Mideast peace process that some want to stop. Norway secretly brokered a 1993 accord and has been involved in trying to find a lasting peace there.
Norway also chaired the U.N. Security Council's Sanctions Committee on Iraq until last year, and is investigating Mullah Krekar, a refugee in Norway who led the Kurdish Islamic military group Ansar al-Islam suspected of having ties to al-Qaida.
Krekar's lawyer, Brynjar Meling, said his client has no ties to the terror group and has no idea why it would threaten Norway.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-norway-al-qaida-tape,0,7927986.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Excerpts of Purported al-Qaida Tape
From: spliffslips
--------------------
Excerpts of Purported al-Qaida Tape
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 21, 2003, 2:05 PM EDT
Excerpts from a tape aired Wednesday that the Arab satellite network al-Jazeera said was made by al-Qaida top lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahri. The excerpts were translated from the Arabic by The Associated Press.
* __
Here is Saudi Arabia, where planes are launched from their airports, from its lands. Here is Kuwait, where the heavy armies march from its lands. Here is Qatar, where the command of the campaign is based. Here is Bahrain, the command of the Fifth Fleet remains inside it. Here is Egypt, the marine ships pass through its canal. Here is Yemen, the crusader ships are provided with fuel. Here is Jordan, where the crusader troops are present and the batteries of the Patriot missiles are erected to protect Israel.
After all of that, they shout with all hypocrisy and trickery that they are against the war on Iraq.
* __
Protests, demonstrations, and conferences won't work. Nothing will help you except carrying weapons, harming your enemies -- American and Jews.
* __
Oh Muslims, take your decision against the embassies of America, England Australia, and Norway, their interests, their companies, and their employees. Turn the earth under their feet into fire.
* __
Don't allow Americans, Britons, Australians, Norwegians or any other crusaders, who are the killers of your brothers in Iraq, to live in your countries, enjoy your resources and corrupt the earth.
Consider your 19 brothers who attacked America in Washington and New York with their planes as an example. They inflicted upon them an unprecedented attack they never experienced before, and even now they are still suffering.
* __
The mujahedeen in Palestine, Afghanistan and Chechnya and also in the heart of America and the West are making those crusaders taste all sorts and colors of death and the coming days will bring news that will warm your heart, God willing.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-al-qaida-excerpts,0,6217166.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
Excerpts of Purported al-Qaida Tape
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 21, 2003, 2:05 PM EDT
Excerpts from a tape aired Wednesday that the Arab satellite network al-Jazeera said was made by al-Qaida top lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahri. The excerpts were translated from the Arabic by The Associated Press.
* __
Here is Saudi Arabia, where planes are launched from their airports, from its lands. Here is Kuwait, where the heavy armies march from its lands. Here is Qatar, where the command of the campaign is based. Here is Bahrain, the command of the Fifth Fleet remains inside it. Here is Egypt, the marine ships pass through its canal. Here is Yemen, the crusader ships are provided with fuel. Here is Jordan, where the crusader troops are present and the batteries of the Patriot missiles are erected to protect Israel.
After all of that, they shout with all hypocrisy and trickery that they are against the war on Iraq.
* __
Protests, demonstrations, and conferences won't work. Nothing will help you except carrying weapons, harming your enemies -- American and Jews.
* __
Oh Muslims, take your decision against the embassies of America, England Australia, and Norway, their interests, their companies, and their employees. Turn the earth under their feet into fire.
* __
Don't allow Americans, Britons, Australians, Norwegians or any other crusaders, who are the killers of your brothers in Iraq, to live in your countries, enjoy your resources and corrupt the earth.
Consider your 19 brothers who attacked America in Washington and New York with their planes as an example. They inflicted upon them an unprecedented attack they never experienced before, and even now they are still suffering.
* __
The mujahedeen in Palestine, Afghanistan and Chechnya and also in the heart of America and the West are making those crusaders taste all sorts and colors of death and the coming days will bring news that will warm your heart, God willing.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-al-qaida-excerpts,0,6217166.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Baghdad Struggles With Sweeping Changes
From: spliffslips
--------------------
Baghdad Struggles With Sweeping Changes
--------------------
By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writer
May 21, 2003, 2:12 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The artist couldn't sit still. He puffed nervously on his cigarette and wouldn't make eye contact with his foreign visitor. "How can I be sure that you are not a security agent?" he said. "I know that they use non-Iraqis sometimes."
It was February, and Abdel-Ameer Ilwan, one of Iraq's best-known painters, was scared -- as he had been for much of his life and well into Baghdad's strange spring.
Three months later, Saddam Hussein is gone. And suddenly, Ilwan finds himself in a different world.
"You must accept my apology, but I really thought you were a security agent," Ilwan, flashing a broad smile, now tells the same visiting journalist. "Blame Saddam, not me. He made us all paranoid."
Frightened and dangerous, chaotic and defeated, occupied and free, a new Baghdad has emerged in the wake of its dictator's departure.
Baghdad today is a place where 5 million people are making sense of newfound freedom, doing and saying things that mere weeks ago were unthinkable, even punishable by cruel death. "A free country and a happy people," one political party declares in banners and graffiti across the city.
This freedom, though, has thrown many off balance. In a country where fear and intimidation directed every aspect of public life for an entire generation, some find the change too sweeping to digest so quickly.
In Baghdad today, just about anything goes.
On April 9, hours after American forces took Iraq's capital, it fell into lawlessness and anarchy. Looters and arsonists tore through the city, their wanton destruction shocking and shaming most Baghdadis.
Even now, many of the city's landmark buildings lie in ruins. Basic services are not yet fully restored, and many say the sight of American occupation is heartbreaking.
Roads, ineffectively policed, have become a free-for-all. Menacing gangs of youths roam the streets, and bursts of automatic gunfire pierce the night, and even the afternoon.
Liquor, its sale restricted under Saddam, is sold from the backs of pickup trucks on main roads. Boys in their mid-teens sit defiantly at outdoor cafes, drinking beer.
Vendors have overrun sidewalks to hawk everything from cans of food to imported bananas and satellite dishes. A new generation of moneychangers wanders in and out of traffic, thrusting fistfuls of Iraqi dinars at motorists. Each bill features Saddam's face.
Looted cars, office chairs, TV sets and light fixtures are available on street markets said by residents to be crawling with hardened criminals robbing shoppers at gunpoint. Tales of rape, holdups in restaurants and rage shootouts in the long lines for gasoline are making the rounds.
A drama group recently announced a single showing of "They Passed From Here." Leaflets said the venue was "the ruins of al-Rasheed Theater."
Ilwan, chain-smoking cigarettes, said he wept when he returned from his war refuge in the countryside to a burning Baghdad. It was then that he made a decision -- to change his baby daughter's name from Wed to Amman.
In Arabic, Wed means compassion. Amman means safety.
"There is no safety," Ilwan said. So he created a little one of his own.
* __
"Was she injured in the face? Tell me, please, because I did not get a chance to look at her," Wafa'a Abdel-Fattah, 40, tells a visitor who saw the body of her youngest child, Rowand, lying on the floor of the emergency ward in Yarmouk Hospital.
"Are you sure that her face was not hurt?"
Rowand, the youngest of five, was barely 8 months old when she was killed April 11. A small cluster bomblet brought home by her eldest brother Seif, 17, went off. Seif was injured in the left foot and back; his sister, Reeman, 14, also was hurt, together with a nephew and a niece of their father, Mohammed Suleiman.
Abdel-Fattah, a Baghdad-born schoolteacher of Palestinian descent, suffered injuries in her left hand and leg. Recalling the events with tear-filled eyes, she said Rowand's body was taken from Yarmouk on the same day without the family's knowledge and buried in the courtyard of another hospital, al-Iskan.
After making frantic inquiries for days, the father exhumed the body and reburied it in the family's cemetery.
"Oh, she is gone. That's it -- she's gone," Abdel-Fattah says. "What crime did she commit to deserve that? Please tell me."
Her mother, Hassna Qassim, comforted her.
"There is nothing you can do," she said, weeping. "It's God's choice."
Abdel-Fattah's twin daughters, Reeman and Rym, have tried to ease their mother's pain by hiding their dead sister's pictures. But Seif produced one for a visitor.
It was taken in February at a Baghdad amusement park during Eid al-Adha, the Muslim feast of sacrifice. Rowand was being carried by her smiling twin sisters. She just gazed at the camera, the face of a baby with less than two months to live.
* __
It was April 6. U.S. troops were already in parts of Baghdad and the rest of the city was to fall three days later. But Nizar Faleh, in the Baath Party's olive uniform at his sandbagged position in al-Harthiya district, was unperturbed.
He had confidence that the epic "battle for Baghdad" promised by Saddam was finally at hand. And Faleh, a father of five, was ready to die defending his country.
"It's the war between the forces of the faithful and the forces of the infidels," he said then, speaking from his fighting position on al-Kindi street. His AK-47 assault rifle stood between his legs.
"This is a crusade -- a war against Islam," he said.
Now it is May, and Faleh's crusade has ended. His leader is gone, his disappointment evident. He sits in his home with his children, bags under his eyes, and speaks quietly, deliberately -- as if betrayed.
The Americans didn't defeat Baghdad, Faleh says; treason did. Leaders of the party he had joined as a young man, together with the commanders of elite army divisions, laid down their arms and went home. How, he wondered, could that have happened?
"I told my men not to fire at the Americans," he says, sitting in his living room in a robe. "What was the point? Instead, I ordered them to take off their uniforms and scatter throughout al-Harthiya to protect properties from looters."
He is not sure what to make of this peculiar new Baghdad. The past is dead, he says, and the future unborn.
"I am happy that Saddam has fallen, but that doesn't mean that the ideology of the Baath has fallen, too," Faleh says. "He did not turn out to be the man we all thought he would be. We lived a big lie."
* __
In the 14th century, the Arab traveler Ibn Battuta wrote this about Baghdad: "She is the abode of peace and the capital of Islam."
Today, to Muslims and Arabs, the city still stands as an enduring symbol of Arab glory: seat of a vast medieval empire, home to a plethora of saints and generals, pioneering men of science and composers of immortal poetry.
It is much more than what it first appears to be -- a city in ruins. And its people, shocked and shamed enough by what they see, insist that Baghdad today is not who they really are.
"We are a very civilized people," says Qassim Mohammed, an English lecturer with a master's degree in the works of Thornton Wilder, the American playwright who wrote about how and why communities and people change. "I challenge you to find me a people who can continue to live under these circumstances for as long we have."
These days, Ilwan, the artist, sits in his sweltering and unlit studio and sips a beer. He is still unsure what to make of his adopted city as it charts a new course under American military occupation.
In February he showed a watercolor of an orchard where the trees bear not fruit but hell-tormented human faces. At that time he said it represented Iraqis suffering under more than a decade of U.N. sanctions.
Today, asked whether his interpretation is the same, he laughs.
"I had to say that," he says, and offers a new interpretation: "The faces represent the suffering of Iraqis under Saddam's rule."
In Baghdad, as summer comes, the painting on the wall hasn't changed a bit. But Iraq is a different place, and Abdel-Ameer Ilwan is a different man.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-baghdad-blues,0,495967.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
Baghdad Struggles With Sweeping Changes
--------------------
By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writer
May 21, 2003, 2:12 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The artist couldn't sit still. He puffed nervously on his cigarette and wouldn't make eye contact with his foreign visitor. "How can I be sure that you are not a security agent?" he said. "I know that they use non-Iraqis sometimes."
It was February, and Abdel-Ameer Ilwan, one of Iraq's best-known painters, was scared -- as he had been for much of his life and well into Baghdad's strange spring.
Three months later, Saddam Hussein is gone. And suddenly, Ilwan finds himself in a different world.
"You must accept my apology, but I really thought you were a security agent," Ilwan, flashing a broad smile, now tells the same visiting journalist. "Blame Saddam, not me. He made us all paranoid."
Frightened and dangerous, chaotic and defeated, occupied and free, a new Baghdad has emerged in the wake of its dictator's departure.
Baghdad today is a place where 5 million people are making sense of newfound freedom, doing and saying things that mere weeks ago were unthinkable, even punishable by cruel death. "A free country and a happy people," one political party declares in banners and graffiti across the city.
This freedom, though, has thrown many off balance. In a country where fear and intimidation directed every aspect of public life for an entire generation, some find the change too sweeping to digest so quickly.
In Baghdad today, just about anything goes.
On April 9, hours after American forces took Iraq's capital, it fell into lawlessness and anarchy. Looters and arsonists tore through the city, their wanton destruction shocking and shaming most Baghdadis.
Even now, many of the city's landmark buildings lie in ruins. Basic services are not yet fully restored, and many say the sight of American occupation is heartbreaking.
Roads, ineffectively policed, have become a free-for-all. Menacing gangs of youths roam the streets, and bursts of automatic gunfire pierce the night, and even the afternoon.
Liquor, its sale restricted under Saddam, is sold from the backs of pickup trucks on main roads. Boys in their mid-teens sit defiantly at outdoor cafes, drinking beer.
Vendors have overrun sidewalks to hawk everything from cans of food to imported bananas and satellite dishes. A new generation of moneychangers wanders in and out of traffic, thrusting fistfuls of Iraqi dinars at motorists. Each bill features Saddam's face.
Looted cars, office chairs, TV sets and light fixtures are available on street markets said by residents to be crawling with hardened criminals robbing shoppers at gunpoint. Tales of rape, holdups in restaurants and rage shootouts in the long lines for gasoline are making the rounds.
A drama group recently announced a single showing of "They Passed From Here." Leaflets said the venue was "the ruins of al-Rasheed Theater."
Ilwan, chain-smoking cigarettes, said he wept when he returned from his war refuge in the countryside to a burning Baghdad. It was then that he made a decision -- to change his baby daughter's name from Wed to Amman.
In Arabic, Wed means compassion. Amman means safety.
"There is no safety," Ilwan said. So he created a little one of his own.
* __
"Was she injured in the face? Tell me, please, because I did not get a chance to look at her," Wafa'a Abdel-Fattah, 40, tells a visitor who saw the body of her youngest child, Rowand, lying on the floor of the emergency ward in Yarmouk Hospital.
"Are you sure that her face was not hurt?"
Rowand, the youngest of five, was barely 8 months old when she was killed April 11. A small cluster bomblet brought home by her eldest brother Seif, 17, went off. Seif was injured in the left foot and back; his sister, Reeman, 14, also was hurt, together with a nephew and a niece of their father, Mohammed Suleiman.
Abdel-Fattah, a Baghdad-born schoolteacher of Palestinian descent, suffered injuries in her left hand and leg. Recalling the events with tear-filled eyes, she said Rowand's body was taken from Yarmouk on the same day without the family's knowledge and buried in the courtyard of another hospital, al-Iskan.
After making frantic inquiries for days, the father exhumed the body and reburied it in the family's cemetery.
"Oh, she is gone. That's it -- she's gone," Abdel-Fattah says. "What crime did she commit to deserve that? Please tell me."
Her mother, Hassna Qassim, comforted her.
"There is nothing you can do," she said, weeping. "It's God's choice."
Abdel-Fattah's twin daughters, Reeman and Rym, have tried to ease their mother's pain by hiding their dead sister's pictures. But Seif produced one for a visitor.
It was taken in February at a Baghdad amusement park during Eid al-Adha, the Muslim feast of sacrifice. Rowand was being carried by her smiling twin sisters. She just gazed at the camera, the face of a baby with less than two months to live.
* __
It was April 6. U.S. troops were already in parts of Baghdad and the rest of the city was to fall three days later. But Nizar Faleh, in the Baath Party's olive uniform at his sandbagged position in al-Harthiya district, was unperturbed.
He had confidence that the epic "battle for Baghdad" promised by Saddam was finally at hand. And Faleh, a father of five, was ready to die defending his country.
"It's the war between the forces of the faithful and the forces of the infidels," he said then, speaking from his fighting position on al-Kindi street. His AK-47 assault rifle stood between his legs.
"This is a crusade -- a war against Islam," he said.
Now it is May, and Faleh's crusade has ended. His leader is gone, his disappointment evident. He sits in his home with his children, bags under his eyes, and speaks quietly, deliberately -- as if betrayed.
The Americans didn't defeat Baghdad, Faleh says; treason did. Leaders of the party he had joined as a young man, together with the commanders of elite army divisions, laid down their arms and went home. How, he wondered, could that have happened?
"I told my men not to fire at the Americans," he says, sitting in his living room in a robe. "What was the point? Instead, I ordered them to take off their uniforms and scatter throughout al-Harthiya to protect properties from looters."
He is not sure what to make of this peculiar new Baghdad. The past is dead, he says, and the future unborn.
"I am happy that Saddam has fallen, but that doesn't mean that the ideology of the Baath has fallen, too," Faleh says. "He did not turn out to be the man we all thought he would be. We lived a big lie."
* __
In the 14th century, the Arab traveler Ibn Battuta wrote this about Baghdad: "She is the abode of peace and the capital of Islam."
Today, to Muslims and Arabs, the city still stands as an enduring symbol of Arab glory: seat of a vast medieval empire, home to a plethora of saints and generals, pioneering men of science and composers of immortal poetry.
It is much more than what it first appears to be -- a city in ruins. And its people, shocked and shamed enough by what they see, insist that Baghdad today is not who they really are.
"We are a very civilized people," says Qassim Mohammed, an English lecturer with a master's degree in the works of Thornton Wilder, the American playwright who wrote about how and why communities and people change. "I challenge you to find me a people who can continue to live under these circumstances for as long we have."
These days, Ilwan, the artist, sits in his sweltering and unlit studio and sips a beer. He is still unsure what to make of his adopted city as it charts a new course under American military occupation.
In February he showed a watercolor of an orchard where the trees bear not fruit but hell-tormented human faces. At that time he said it represented Iraqis suffering under more than a decade of U.N. sanctions.
Today, asked whether his interpretation is the same, he laughs.
"I had to say that," he says, and offers a new interpretation: "The faces represent the suffering of Iraqis under Saddam's rule."
In Baghdad, as summer comes, the painting on the wall hasn't changed a bit. But Iraq is a different place, and Abdel-Ameer Ilwan is a different man.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-baghdad-blues,0,495967.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Iraq Gov't. Workers to Get April Salaries
From: spliffslips
--------------------
Iraq Gov't. Workers to Get April Salaries
--------------------
By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writer
May 21, 2003, 2:31 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Some 1.4 million Iraqi government employees will collect their first salaries in two months this week, the man who launched the American civilian administration in Iraq said Wednesday.
Retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner told reporters that $45 million in April salaries would be paid starting Saturday.
Members of Iraq's disbanded armed forces and intelligence services will not be paid. Nor will employees who haven't worked since the capture of Baghdad by U.S. forces on April 9.
Employees will also get an emergency payment of $30 along with the $20 they received earlier this month.
All workers will be paid in Iraqi dinars, except for those in autonomous Kurdish areas, who will be paid in U.S. dollars. The payments will be made in cash.
Garner said government employees will get their May and June salaries by the end of June. The money, he said, came from Iraqi assets frozen abroad after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
"Salaries in the new Iraq will be determined by rank and merit, not by party status," said a press release issued by the U.S.-led Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. "The old system of allowances and bribes has gone."
David Nummy, senior U.S. Treasury Department representative in Iraq, said new salary scales are based on qualifications, merit and years of service. Most government employees will be collecting higher salaries than they did under Saddam's rule, he said.
"There are a few losers," Nummy said, citing former presidential employees.
Salaries will now range between 100,000 dinars and 500,000 a month -- or about $80-$400 by Wednesday's exchange rate. Schoolteachers who were making an average of 20,000 dinars will now receive 100,000, or about $80. Policemen will make 120,000 dinars on average, or about $100 -- twice what they previously made.
The dinar has been fluctuating wildly against the dollar, but since peaking at nearly 4,000 to the dollar during the fighting, it has been steadily gaining strength, standing at about 1,200 to the dollar on Wednesday.
Garner said the salaries and the additional emergency payment would be "a good boost to the economy" and said payments in Iraqi dinars are meant to support the national currency in a country where the dollar currently reigns.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-paychecks-at-last,0,544293.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
Iraq Gov't. Workers to Get April Salaries
--------------------
By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writer
May 21, 2003, 2:31 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Some 1.4 million Iraqi government employees will collect their first salaries in two months this week, the man who launched the American civilian administration in Iraq said Wednesday.
Retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner told reporters that $45 million in April salaries would be paid starting Saturday.
Members of Iraq's disbanded armed forces and intelligence services will not be paid. Nor will employees who haven't worked since the capture of Baghdad by U.S. forces on April 9.
Employees will also get an emergency payment of $30 along with the $20 they received earlier this month.
All workers will be paid in Iraqi dinars, except for those in autonomous Kurdish areas, who will be paid in U.S. dollars. The payments will be made in cash.
Garner said government employees will get their May and June salaries by the end of June. The money, he said, came from Iraqi assets frozen abroad after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
"Salaries in the new Iraq will be determined by rank and merit, not by party status," said a press release issued by the U.S.-led Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. "The old system of allowances and bribes has gone."
David Nummy, senior U.S. Treasury Department representative in Iraq, said new salary scales are based on qualifications, merit and years of service. Most government employees will be collecting higher salaries than they did under Saddam's rule, he said.
"There are a few losers," Nummy said, citing former presidential employees.
Salaries will now range between 100,000 dinars and 500,000 a month -- or about $80-$400 by Wednesday's exchange rate. Schoolteachers who were making an average of 20,000 dinars will now receive 100,000, or about $80. Policemen will make 120,000 dinars on average, or about $100 -- twice what they previously made.
The dinar has been fluctuating wildly against the dollar, but since peaking at nearly 4,000 to the dollar during the fighting, it has been steadily gaining strength, standing at about 1,200 to the dollar on Wednesday.
Garner said the salaries and the additional emergency payment would be "a good boost to the economy" and said payments in Iraqi dinars are meant to support the national currency in a country where the dollar currently reigns.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-paychecks-at-last,0,544293.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 1 p.m. EDT
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages Iraq War Updates
--------------------
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 1 p.m. EDT
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 21, 2003, 1:02 PM EDT
French President Chirac Appeals to Leaders to Put Aside Differences to Kickstart Global Economy
NATO Agrees to Help Poland Lead Iraq Peacekeeping Force in Move That Could Heal Alliance's Rifts
Some Barrels Missing From Iraqi Nuclear Site, but Most Radioactive Material Safe, U.S. Says
Top Marine Says All of His Forces Should Be Out of Gulf Area by End of August
British Army Officer Under Investigation Over Allegations He Mistreated Iraq Prisoners
Conference to Select Iraq's Interim Government Likely Will Be Delayed Until July, Official Says
Key Developments Concerning Iraq
U.S. Calls for Thursday U.N. Vote on Allowing Coalition to Run Iraq Until Government Established
Belgian Government Sends War Crimes Complaint Against Gen. Franks to U.S.; Lawyer to Appeal
Vote on Iraq Interim Government Will Happen in Mid-July at the Earliest
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages Iraq War Updates
--------------------
AP-Latest-Iraq-War-Headlines At 1 p.m. EDT
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 21, 2003, 1:02 PM EDT
French President Chirac Appeals to Leaders to Put Aside Differences to Kickstart Global Economy
NATO Agrees to Help Poland Lead Iraq Peacekeeping Force in Move That Could Heal Alliance's Rifts
Some Barrels Missing From Iraqi Nuclear Site, but Most Radioactive Material Safe, U.S. Says
Top Marine Says All of His Forces Should Be Out of Gulf Area by End of August
British Army Officer Under Investigation Over Allegations He Mistreated Iraq Prisoners
Conference to Select Iraq's Interim Government Likely Will Be Delayed Until July, Official Says
Key Developments Concerning Iraq
U.S. Calls for Thursday U.N. Vote on Allowing Coalition to Run Iraq Until Government Established
Belgian Government Sends War Crimes Complaint Against Gen. Franks to U.S.; Lawyer to Appeal
Vote on Iraq Interim Government Will Happen in Mid-July at the Earliest
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-latest-iraq-war-headlines,0,6613873.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Tuesday, May 20, 2003
Ethnic Tensions Boil in Northern Iraq
From: spliffslips
--------------------
Ethnic Tensions Boil in Northern Iraq
--------------------
By LOUIS MEIXLER
Associated Press Writer
May 20, 2003, 4:48 PM EDT
HAWIJEH, Iraq -- Backed by armored vehicles, U.S. soldiers patrolled the streets of a northern town Tuesday after a weekend of Arab-Kurdish violence left at least 11 people dead and a U.S. soldier wounded in a key Iraqi oil-producing area.
At least two dozen Iraqis were injured in the fighting, which threatens to destabilize the region just days after top U.S. officers showcased it as an example of a district whose wealth and diversity could make it a model for a democratic Iraq.
Kurdish and Arab leaders were planning to meet Tuesday night in a mosque in Kirkuk, the city at the center of dispute, to mediate the tensions.
The area around the city is dotted with oil wells that produced slightly less than half of Iraq's oil before the war started on March 20. On Saturday, representatives of the city's ethnic groups are scheduled to meet with U.S. officers to elect a city council.
At the heart of the dispute appears to be the thousands of Kurds who have been returning to Kirkuk and the surrounding area since the fall of Saddam Hussein, who drove out Kurds and other non-Arabs and moved in Arabs to change the ethnic balance to one more likely to support his regime.
After Saddam's fall, Kurdish guerrillas moved into the town and Kurdish families began to return, in some cases displacing Arabs.
"Arabs feel that this is their city. Kurds also believe it is their city," said Rifaat Abdullah, the top Kurdish official in Kirkuk.
Shooting incidents have been common in the city, but the tensions exploded Saturday when Arabs and Kurds confronted each other near a marketplace. U.S. and Kurdish officials had only sketchy details of the fighting, and accounts from witnesses varied significantly.
Abdullah said 11 people were killed, including seven Kurds. U.S. soldiers say the number could be closer to 15.
Both seemed to agree that many of the attackers may have been Arabs from Hawijeh, a town of some 20,000 some 30 miles outside of Kirkuk.
Many Saddam loyalists fled to the town after the Kurds moved into Kirkuk. Officials from Saddam's Baath Party and members of his Saddam Fedayeen militia are believed to be active in the city.
On Sunday, a 400-man U.S. task force backed by tanks and attack helicopters headed out to Hawijeh, but was ambushed a few miles outside of the city by assailants with assault rifles and heavy machine guns.
"There was a lot of gunfire," said Maj. Rob Gowan of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. He said the shooting lasted about a half hour. One soldier manning a machine gun atop a jeep was shot in the side and injured, though not seriously, Gowan said.
On Tuesday, several hundred U.S. soldiers patrolled the town, some with their faces smeared with green camouflage paint.
"We've heard the Baath Party and Fedayeen Saddam are here, so we are here to show a presence," said Sgt. David Maurer of Curtis, Wis., as he led a 10-man patrol.
Nearby, armored personnel carriers rumbled through the dusty streets, cutting track marks into the soft asphalt. The town is in the middle of cotton and wheat fields, and cows wandered through the streets.
Soldiers said they were having little success in catching Saddam's loyalists.
"Everywhere we go, they just run away," said Capt. Jack Senneff of the 4th Infantry Division.
One soldier shouted to a group of men standing at the doorway of a cinderblock home, "Did you see any of the Fedayeen?"
"Yes, a man standing in a doorway shouted back, pointing left.
The soldiers ignored him and pressed forward.
"There are no Fedayeen here," said Kazim Ali Meri, a 31-year-old taxi driver. "The real problem is the Kurds." He said that Kurds came to the area last month killing four Arabs.
U.S. forces have been blocking Kurdish guerrillas from entering Arab areas, Gowan said. But the tensions remain, and Abdullah said the reconciliation meetings will not solve the core problems.
Abdullah, from a village outside of Kirkuk, was forced out in 1987. Like many Kurds, he wants the Arabs living in what was his home to give it back.
"I won't force them out with weapons," he said, "but they have to leave."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-ethnic-tensions,0,4773143.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
Ethnic Tensions Boil in Northern Iraq
--------------------
By LOUIS MEIXLER
Associated Press Writer
May 20, 2003, 4:48 PM EDT
HAWIJEH, Iraq -- Backed by armored vehicles, U.S. soldiers patrolled the streets of a northern town Tuesday after a weekend of Arab-Kurdish violence left at least 11 people dead and a U.S. soldier wounded in a key Iraqi oil-producing area.
At least two dozen Iraqis were injured in the fighting, which threatens to destabilize the region just days after top U.S. officers showcased it as an example of a district whose wealth and diversity could make it a model for a democratic Iraq.
Kurdish and Arab leaders were planning to meet Tuesday night in a mosque in Kirkuk, the city at the center of dispute, to mediate the tensions.
The area around the city is dotted with oil wells that produced slightly less than half of Iraq's oil before the war started on March 20. On Saturday, representatives of the city's ethnic groups are scheduled to meet with U.S. officers to elect a city council.
At the heart of the dispute appears to be the thousands of Kurds who have been returning to Kirkuk and the surrounding area since the fall of Saddam Hussein, who drove out Kurds and other non-Arabs and moved in Arabs to change the ethnic balance to one more likely to support his regime.
After Saddam's fall, Kurdish guerrillas moved into the town and Kurdish families began to return, in some cases displacing Arabs.
"Arabs feel that this is their city. Kurds also believe it is their city," said Rifaat Abdullah, the top Kurdish official in Kirkuk.
Shooting incidents have been common in the city, but the tensions exploded Saturday when Arabs and Kurds confronted each other near a marketplace. U.S. and Kurdish officials had only sketchy details of the fighting, and accounts from witnesses varied significantly.
Abdullah said 11 people were killed, including seven Kurds. U.S. soldiers say the number could be closer to 15.
Both seemed to agree that many of the attackers may have been Arabs from Hawijeh, a town of some 20,000 some 30 miles outside of Kirkuk.
Many Saddam loyalists fled to the town after the Kurds moved into Kirkuk. Officials from Saddam's Baath Party and members of his Saddam Fedayeen militia are believed to be active in the city.
On Sunday, a 400-man U.S. task force backed by tanks and attack helicopters headed out to Hawijeh, but was ambushed a few miles outside of the city by assailants with assault rifles and heavy machine guns.
"There was a lot of gunfire," said Maj. Rob Gowan of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. He said the shooting lasted about a half hour. One soldier manning a machine gun atop a jeep was shot in the side and injured, though not seriously, Gowan said.
On Tuesday, several hundred U.S. soldiers patrolled the town, some with their faces smeared with green camouflage paint.
"We've heard the Baath Party and Fedayeen Saddam are here, so we are here to show a presence," said Sgt. David Maurer of Curtis, Wis., as he led a 10-man patrol.
Nearby, armored personnel carriers rumbled through the dusty streets, cutting track marks into the soft asphalt. The town is in the middle of cotton and wheat fields, and cows wandered through the streets.
Soldiers said they were having little success in catching Saddam's loyalists.
"Everywhere we go, they just run away," said Capt. Jack Senneff of the 4th Infantry Division.
One soldier shouted to a group of men standing at the doorway of a cinderblock home, "Did you see any of the Fedayeen?"
"Yes, a man standing in a doorway shouted back, pointing left.
The soldiers ignored him and pressed forward.
"There are no Fedayeen here," said Kazim Ali Meri, a 31-year-old taxi driver. "The real problem is the Kurds." He said that Kurds came to the area last month killing four Arabs.
U.S. forces have been blocking Kurdish guerrillas from entering Arab areas, Gowan said. But the tensions remain, and Abdullah said the reconciliation meetings will not solve the core problems.
Abdullah, from a village outside of Kirkuk, was forced out in 1987. Like many Kurds, he wants the Arabs living in what was his home to give it back.
"I won't force them out with weapons," he said, "but they have to leave."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-ethnic-tensions,0,4773143.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Big Dig Official Oversees Iraq Contracts
From: spliffslips
--------------------
Big Dig Official Oversees Iraq Contracts
--------------------
By LARRY MARGASAK
Associated Press Writer
May 20, 2003, 3:12 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration official whose agency approves most of the Iraq rebuilding contracts previously tried to rein in costs for Massachusetts' "Big Dig," the expensive highway project that has become a symbol of government contracting run amok.
Under Andrew Natsios' leadership as administrator, the U.S. Agency for International Development has awarded the largest Iraq contract to Bechtel Corp., the company that helped manage the two-decade-old Boston project that has cost more than five times its original price tag.
While still a Massachusetts official, Natsios imposed severe financial controls on Bechtel after being asked by the governor to control the spiraling costs of the Big Dig project. Bechtel has co-managed the project with a New York firm, Parsons Brinckerhoff.
State and federal officials and taxpayers were stunned in early 2000 when the overseer of the project -- Natsios' predecessor as the head of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority -- announced it would cost $1.4 billion more than expected.
Natsios, then the state's finance chief, was sent to the Turnpike agency in April 2000 to take charge of the project, which is replacing an elevated section of Interstate 93 with an underground highway and connecting the Massachusetts Turnpike with Logan International Airport.
Natsios cut the fees of Bechtel/Parsons, increased the firms' liability for mismanagement and set standards for additional earnings so high the companies couldn't meet them. He also made everything about the project public, reversing the prior secrecy that enveloped the project and its costs.
Natsios declined to be interviewed for this story. But USAID said he played no part in choosing Bechtel for the Iraq contract, which could be worth $680 million. Under federal law, the USAID professional contract staff made the choice, the agency said.
USAID spokeswoman Ellen Yount said Bechtel's costs in Iraq will be closely monitored by at least seven government contracting experts in Iraq, and possibly nine additional staff members in the region who are available if needed.
Under Bechtel's contract, the company will need specific USAID approval to proceed with any work once it reaches 80 percent of the $680 million contract cap.
Bechtel, a San Francisco engineering giant, has strong Republican connections. Former Secretary of State George Shultz and ex-Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger are two of the prominent Republicans who worked there, and Shultz remains a board member.
The cost escalation in the Big Dig, originally a $2.6 billion project, remains the subject of a furious debate -- which probably will go on after the estimated 2005 completion. Bechtel blames state officials for changes and errors, while state officials contend they were following Bechtel's advice. The current estimated cost: $14.6 billion.
Bechtel's Big Dig project manager, Matthew Wiley, said the company objects to the word "overrun" to describe higher costs.
"We don't have decision authority with the contract," Wiley said. "Do we make decisions in the field? Sure, we're not perfect. The majority of major cost decisions rest with the client (the state). We make recommendations, they make the decisions."
He said the company would pay back money in cases where the company was at fault for higher costs.
Natsios only dealt with the Big Dig for a year starting in late 1999, just before the $1.4 billion cost increase was revealed. At the time, he was finance director for then-GOP Gov. Paul Cellucci.
The Democratic state treasurer at the time, Shannon O'Brien, questions whether Natsios did everything possible to learn of the massive overrun before the Turnpike Authority chairman revealed it to the media.
"I was extremely frustrated that the Cellucci administration, including Natsios, was not more aggressive" in pressing then-turnpike Chairman Jim Kerasiotes to tell the truth, said O'Brien, a political rival of Natsios and the losing Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 2002.
But Paul Ladd, a current federal official who then was a top aide to Natsios, said his boss couldn't have tried harder to learn the truth.
In November 1999, Natsios held up a state bond issue when Turnpike Authority officials were late in providing financial data for a disclosure statement to potential bondholders.
On Dec. 23, 1999, Natsios became alarmed when the state overseers suddenly announced a thorough financial review of a project they previously described as on time and on budget.
Natsios instructed Ladd to inform bond rating agencies of the review, and to offer Turnpike officials state surplus funds to cover overruns -- if they only would come clean with the real costs, Ladd said.
In January 2000, O'Brien vowed to hold up the next state bond issue until the independent Turnpike Authority released the true costs. She said Natsios didn't join in her threat at the time.
Three months later, in April 2000, Cellucci rushed from a tense, private briefing with federal transportation officials, and demanded Kerasiotes' resignation. Natsios was appointed to resolve the problems.
A stinging federal audit accused the state's former overseers of "repeatedly and deliberately" failing to disclose exorbitant overruns, causing "one of the most flagrant breaches of the integrity of the federal-state partnership in the history of the nearly 85-year-old federal-aid highway program."
"We had been beating them up for months," Ladd said of Natsios' efforts. "For her (O'Brien) to say Andrew wasn't doing anything shows she didn't know what he was doing. He was insistent the truth had to be fully disclosed."
* _
On the Net:
Bechtel: http://www.bechtel.com
U.S. Agency for International Development: http://www.usaid.gov/iraq
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-big-dig-iraq,0,775326.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
Big Dig Official Oversees Iraq Contracts
--------------------
By LARRY MARGASAK
Associated Press Writer
May 20, 2003, 3:12 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration official whose agency approves most of the Iraq rebuilding contracts previously tried to rein in costs for Massachusetts' "Big Dig," the expensive highway project that has become a symbol of government contracting run amok.
Under Andrew Natsios' leadership as administrator, the U.S. Agency for International Development has awarded the largest Iraq contract to Bechtel Corp., the company that helped manage the two-decade-old Boston project that has cost more than five times its original price tag.
While still a Massachusetts official, Natsios imposed severe financial controls on Bechtel after being asked by the governor to control the spiraling costs of the Big Dig project. Bechtel has co-managed the project with a New York firm, Parsons Brinckerhoff.
State and federal officials and taxpayers were stunned in early 2000 when the overseer of the project -- Natsios' predecessor as the head of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority -- announced it would cost $1.4 billion more than expected.
Natsios, then the state's finance chief, was sent to the Turnpike agency in April 2000 to take charge of the project, which is replacing an elevated section of Interstate 93 with an underground highway and connecting the Massachusetts Turnpike with Logan International Airport.
Natsios cut the fees of Bechtel/Parsons, increased the firms' liability for mismanagement and set standards for additional earnings so high the companies couldn't meet them. He also made everything about the project public, reversing the prior secrecy that enveloped the project and its costs.
Natsios declined to be interviewed for this story. But USAID said he played no part in choosing Bechtel for the Iraq contract, which could be worth $680 million. Under federal law, the USAID professional contract staff made the choice, the agency said.
USAID spokeswoman Ellen Yount said Bechtel's costs in Iraq will be closely monitored by at least seven government contracting experts in Iraq, and possibly nine additional staff members in the region who are available if needed.
Under Bechtel's contract, the company will need specific USAID approval to proceed with any work once it reaches 80 percent of the $680 million contract cap.
Bechtel, a San Francisco engineering giant, has strong Republican connections. Former Secretary of State George Shultz and ex-Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger are two of the prominent Republicans who worked there, and Shultz remains a board member.
The cost escalation in the Big Dig, originally a $2.6 billion project, remains the subject of a furious debate -- which probably will go on after the estimated 2005 completion. Bechtel blames state officials for changes and errors, while state officials contend they were following Bechtel's advice. The current estimated cost: $14.6 billion.
Bechtel's Big Dig project manager, Matthew Wiley, said the company objects to the word "overrun" to describe higher costs.
"We don't have decision authority with the contract," Wiley said. "Do we make decisions in the field? Sure, we're not perfect. The majority of major cost decisions rest with the client (the state). We make recommendations, they make the decisions."
He said the company would pay back money in cases where the company was at fault for higher costs.
Natsios only dealt with the Big Dig for a year starting in late 1999, just before the $1.4 billion cost increase was revealed. At the time, he was finance director for then-GOP Gov. Paul Cellucci.
The Democratic state treasurer at the time, Shannon O'Brien, questions whether Natsios did everything possible to learn of the massive overrun before the Turnpike Authority chairman revealed it to the media.
"I was extremely frustrated that the Cellucci administration, including Natsios, was not more aggressive" in pressing then-turnpike Chairman Jim Kerasiotes to tell the truth, said O'Brien, a political rival of Natsios and the losing Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 2002.
But Paul Ladd, a current federal official who then was a top aide to Natsios, said his boss couldn't have tried harder to learn the truth.
In November 1999, Natsios held up a state bond issue when Turnpike Authority officials were late in providing financial data for a disclosure statement to potential bondholders.
On Dec. 23, 1999, Natsios became alarmed when the state overseers suddenly announced a thorough financial review of a project they previously described as on time and on budget.
Natsios instructed Ladd to inform bond rating agencies of the review, and to offer Turnpike officials state surplus funds to cover overruns -- if they only would come clean with the real costs, Ladd said.
In January 2000, O'Brien vowed to hold up the next state bond issue until the independent Turnpike Authority released the true costs. She said Natsios didn't join in her threat at the time.
Three months later, in April 2000, Cellucci rushed from a tense, private briefing with federal transportation officials, and demanded Kerasiotes' resignation. Natsios was appointed to resolve the problems.
A stinging federal audit accused the state's former overseers of "repeatedly and deliberately" failing to disclose exorbitant overruns, causing "one of the most flagrant breaches of the integrity of the federal-state partnership in the history of the nearly 85-year-old federal-aid highway program."
"We had been beating them up for months," Ladd said of Natsios' efforts. "For her (O'Brien) to say Andrew wasn't doing anything shows she didn't know what he was doing. He was insistent the truth had to be fully disclosed."
* _
On the Net:
Bechtel: http://www.bechtel.com
U.S. Agency for International Development: http://www.usaid.gov/iraq
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-big-dig-iraq,0,775326.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
U.S. Asks Experts to Survey Iraqi Labs
From: spliffslips
--------------------
U.S. Asks Experts to Survey Iraqi Labs
--------------------
By DAFNA LINZER
Associated Press Writer
May 20, 2003, 4:02 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The United States is inviting a group of international experts to inspect two mobile labs suspected of being used by Iraq as biological weapons facilities, a senior military commander involved in the weapons hunt told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Although the laboratories do not represent proof that Iraq had biological weapons, American officials believe their only purpose was for making such weapons. Outside confirmation could help legitimize one of the Bush administration's main reasons for going to war.
"We're going to invite a special team, an international team of experts to take a look at the labs," said Col. Tim Madere, the chemical weapons specialist for the U.S. Army's V Corps, one of the main units occupying Baghdad.
Madere said the Pentagon would provide further details about the international team in coming days. The two labs already have been inspected by U.S. and British technical experts and a group of scientists from coalition countries, Madere said in an interview.
Earlier this month, Pentagon officials said the discovery of the first trailer -- seized at a checkpoint near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on April 19 -- could prove Iraq had active programs to produce weapons of mass destruction.
Troops from the Army's 101st Airborne Division found the second trailer on May 9 at al-Kindi, a former missile research facility in Iraq. The trailer is similar to another found last month in the same area that U.S. officials believe was a mobile germ-weapons workshop.
Some equipment from the latest trailer had been looted, and there were indications such as unfinished welding that the apparatus was incomplete.
Madere said soldiers needed to scrounge for tires to put on the trailer to drag it back to Baghdad's international airport -- headquarters for the U.S. military here -- for analysis.
Stephen Cambone, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, said in Washington earlier this month that he didn't know whether the discovery of the first lab represented a "smoking gun." But he said British and American technical experts had "concluded that the unit does not appear to perform any function beyond ... the production of biological agents."
Saddam Hussein's regime had insisted that Iraq had destroyed all its chemical and biological weapons in the early 1990s as required by U.N. resolutions imposing sanctions after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. U.N. weapons inspectors, who spent 3 1/2 months in Iraq just prior to the war, found no evidence to refute the Iraqi claims.
President Bush cited Saddam's failure to eliminate Iraq's biological and chemical weapons programs as one of his main reasons for launching the war, which ousted Saddam last month.
So far, U.S. weapons hunters also have not uncovered any chemical or biological weapons or conclusive evidence that such programs existed in recent years, despite visits to more than 100 suspected sites since the war began on March 20.
In a United Nations presentation before the war, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Iraq had built several mobile weapons laboratories to conceal production of biological and chemical weapons. Pentagon officials say both trailers found in northern Iraq appear to match the descriptions from Iraqi sources Powell quoted.
The Iraqis followed the presentation by presenting U.N. inspectors with about 40 photographs and four videos displaying mobile labs they said were used for food analysis for disease outbreaks, mobile field hospitals, a military field bakery, food and medicine refrigeration trucks, a mobile military morgue and mobile ice making trucks.
Inspectors visited a number of the labs at several sites but found no evidence of chemical or biological weapons activity, said Ewen Buchanan, spokesman for the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission.
"The outline and characteristics of these trucks that we inspected were all consistent with the declared purposes," Buchanan said. Extensive forensic sampling of the trucks' interiors and exteriors supported that conclusion, he said.
The United States chose to conduct its weapons hunt alone, without help from the U.N. inspection teams that had frustrated the Bush administration's attempts to prove Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the war.
France, Russia and other Security Council members who opposed the war have been pushing for UNMOVIC's, if only to verify any potential weapons finds. It wasn't clear whether those countries, currently embroiled in additional disputes with the United States over Iraq's future, would be satisfied with the findings of an international body picked by Washington.
Madere said he believed UNMOVIC would be invited back eventually. Buchanan said inspectors hadn't been approached about the idea by Washington, which hasn't been in contact with the U.N. group since the war began.
Madere has been working closely with the five different U.S. military Site Survey Teams that have taken part in the weapons search. A chemical specialist for the army for 26 years, Madere has been involved with target analysis, development and assignment for the teams. He also evaluates their findings.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-weapons-hunt,0,4738612.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
U.S. Asks Experts to Survey Iraqi Labs
--------------------
By DAFNA LINZER
Associated Press Writer
May 20, 2003, 4:02 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The United States is inviting a group of international experts to inspect two mobile labs suspected of being used by Iraq as biological weapons facilities, a senior military commander involved in the weapons hunt told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Although the laboratories do not represent proof that Iraq had biological weapons, American officials believe their only purpose was for making such weapons. Outside confirmation could help legitimize one of the Bush administration's main reasons for going to war.
"We're going to invite a special team, an international team of experts to take a look at the labs," said Col. Tim Madere, the chemical weapons specialist for the U.S. Army's V Corps, one of the main units occupying Baghdad.
Madere said the Pentagon would provide further details about the international team in coming days. The two labs already have been inspected by U.S. and British technical experts and a group of scientists from coalition countries, Madere said in an interview.
Earlier this month, Pentagon officials said the discovery of the first trailer -- seized at a checkpoint near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on April 19 -- could prove Iraq had active programs to produce weapons of mass destruction.
Troops from the Army's 101st Airborne Division found the second trailer on May 9 at al-Kindi, a former missile research facility in Iraq. The trailer is similar to another found last month in the same area that U.S. officials believe was a mobile germ-weapons workshop.
Some equipment from the latest trailer had been looted, and there were indications such as unfinished welding that the apparatus was incomplete.
Madere said soldiers needed to scrounge for tires to put on the trailer to drag it back to Baghdad's international airport -- headquarters for the U.S. military here -- for analysis.
Stephen Cambone, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, said in Washington earlier this month that he didn't know whether the discovery of the first lab represented a "smoking gun." But he said British and American technical experts had "concluded that the unit does not appear to perform any function beyond ... the production of biological agents."
Saddam Hussein's regime had insisted that Iraq had destroyed all its chemical and biological weapons in the early 1990s as required by U.N. resolutions imposing sanctions after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. U.N. weapons inspectors, who spent 3 1/2 months in Iraq just prior to the war, found no evidence to refute the Iraqi claims.
President Bush cited Saddam's failure to eliminate Iraq's biological and chemical weapons programs as one of his main reasons for launching the war, which ousted Saddam last month.
So far, U.S. weapons hunters also have not uncovered any chemical or biological weapons or conclusive evidence that such programs existed in recent years, despite visits to more than 100 suspected sites since the war began on March 20.
In a United Nations presentation before the war, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Iraq had built several mobile weapons laboratories to conceal production of biological and chemical weapons. Pentagon officials say both trailers found in northern Iraq appear to match the descriptions from Iraqi sources Powell quoted.
The Iraqis followed the presentation by presenting U.N. inspectors with about 40 photographs and four videos displaying mobile labs they said were used for food analysis for disease outbreaks, mobile field hospitals, a military field bakery, food and medicine refrigeration trucks, a mobile military morgue and mobile ice making trucks.
Inspectors visited a number of the labs at several sites but found no evidence of chemical or biological weapons activity, said Ewen Buchanan, spokesman for the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission.
"The outline and characteristics of these trucks that we inspected were all consistent with the declared purposes," Buchanan said. Extensive forensic sampling of the trucks' interiors and exteriors supported that conclusion, he said.
The United States chose to conduct its weapons hunt alone, without help from the U.N. inspection teams that had frustrated the Bush administration's attempts to prove Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the war.
France, Russia and other Security Council members who opposed the war have been pushing for UNMOVIC's, if only to verify any potential weapons finds. It wasn't clear whether those countries, currently embroiled in additional disputes with the United States over Iraq's future, would be satisfied with the findings of an international body picked by Washington.
Madere said he believed UNMOVIC would be invited back eventually. Buchanan said inspectors hadn't been approached about the idea by Washington, which hasn't been in contact with the U.N. group since the war began.
Madere has been working closely with the five different U.S. military Site Survey Teams that have taken part in the weapons search. A chemical specialist for the army for 26 years, Madere has been involved with target analysis, development and assignment for the teams. He also evaluates their findings.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-weapons-hunt,0,4738612.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Iraqi Families Move Into Gov't Buildings
From: spliffslips
--------------------
Iraqi Families Move Into Gov't Buildings
--------------------
By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS
Associated Press Writer
May 20, 2003, 2:00 AM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The walls are charred. The floors are strewn with debris. But for hundreds of Iraqi families, it's home now -- and they are hoping it's going to stay that way.
When U.S. forces seized the capital, the elite of Saddam Hussein's regime bolted. Now, with no legal system left to stop them, Iraqi families are flooding into the buildings left behind, carving new homes out of abandoned residences, looted offices and bombed-out military bases.
"This is where we will build a future," said Hadi Ubid Jumha, who moved his wife and six children into the bombed remains of Saddam's Baghdad Air Command -- or, more specifically, three soot-blackened rooms at the back of a theater that was once part of an officers' social club.
"We want to celebrate our sons' weddings here," Jumha said, glancing proudly toward his two lanky teens.
Before the war, Jumha moved his family from place to place in a futile attempt to stay ahead of rent payments. His last home -- a single 10- by24-foot room -- took up all but 5,000 dinars ($2.50) of the 40,000 dinars ($20) he earned each month as a driving instructor.
Now, picking his way through broken bricks, twisted metal and shards of glass, Jumha organizes his future -- noting which walls need a coat of paint, where he plans to put in a door, where the toilets will be.
While Iraq was spared the refugee crisis many feared the war would cause, it is in the throes of a major housing crisis.
At the end of 2002, the housing ministry estimated that 800,000 new homes were needed in Baghdad and other urban areas to accommodate the country's growing population.
But while Saddam built one ostentatious palace after another for himself, giving his people shelter was one of his government's lowest priorities.
By the regime's end, public housing made up about 1 percent of new construction, said Saad al-Zubaidi, a long-serving Housing Ministry official and now its director-general. This in a country where incomes are so low it would take many people 150 years to pay off a mortgage. Complicated restrictions on who could buy and sell real estate in the capital only made matters worse.
None of that sat well with al-Zubaidi.
"Having a roof over one's head is a basic part of belonging to any country," al-Zubaidi said. "He who has no house has no nation."
Desperate Iraqis are finding novel ways to solve their housing problems.
Some families lost their homes when they ran afoul of the regime -- or when Saddam decided he needed a new building. Now, they have started reclaiming the properties by painting the walls with large Arabic letters: "Returned to the original owner."
Others are looting bomb sites for materials to build on any piece of land they can find.
Hassan Ibrahim Abed moved his 11-member family from a dank basement room into a sun-dappled, marble-floored guesthouse in a deserted government compound.
"You can't even compare this place to the last one," he said, standing in the garden. "It's the difference between heaven and hell."
When two other families moved in with them, they put a notice on the gate. "Full house," it said.
Now a political party wants to take over the premises, Abed said. First its representatives came with money; turned down, now they're making threats.
Neither side has a deed, but Abed says he's not giving up his new home.
"If they want to take this place, they will have to kill us first," he said.
Such disputes have already turned violent.
Landlords, forced by Saddam's government to house Palestinians for as little as 2,000 dinars ($1) a month, are now evicting these tenants at gunpoint or extorting huge rent increases, human rights groups say. Hundreds of Palestinians have fled to neighboring Jordan.
The tangle of housing claims and counterclaims is sure to be a major challenges for any new Iraqi government, though more immediate concerns like security and restoring basic services are occupying American administrators.
At some point, the government will need its buildings back. But Daniel Hitchings, the housing ministry's senior U.S. adviser, acknowledges that American and Iraqi officials haven't even begun to consider how to do that.
The new occupants cling to the hope they will be allowed to stay.
Najdi Hassan Ali, an Egyptian moneychanger, lost his home in 1994 after he quarreled with one of Saddam's nephews over a business deal. He was arrested on what he calls trumped-up charges and sentenced to hang.
He remained on death row until last October, when Saddam emptied jails across the country. But with no money left to pay rent, he had to leave his wife and children with relatives while he stayed with friends.
He finally brought his family together again by taking over a two-room apartment in a military barracks overlooking the Air Command's empty swimming pool. A faded carpet is spread on the floor, and a portrait of his two sons and daughters hangs on the wall.
"If the new government takes this place from the people who are living here," he said, "then they are no better than Saddam."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-moving-in,0,4635136.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
Iraqi Families Move Into Gov't Buildings
--------------------
By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS
Associated Press Writer
May 20, 2003, 2:00 AM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The walls are charred. The floors are strewn with debris. But for hundreds of Iraqi families, it's home now -- and they are hoping it's going to stay that way.
When U.S. forces seized the capital, the elite of Saddam Hussein's regime bolted. Now, with no legal system left to stop them, Iraqi families are flooding into the buildings left behind, carving new homes out of abandoned residences, looted offices and bombed-out military bases.
"This is where we will build a future," said Hadi Ubid Jumha, who moved his wife and six children into the bombed remains of Saddam's Baghdad Air Command -- or, more specifically, three soot-blackened rooms at the back of a theater that was once part of an officers' social club.
"We want to celebrate our sons' weddings here," Jumha said, glancing proudly toward his two lanky teens.
Before the war, Jumha moved his family from place to place in a futile attempt to stay ahead of rent payments. His last home -- a single 10- by24-foot room -- took up all but 5,000 dinars ($2.50) of the 40,000 dinars ($20) he earned each month as a driving instructor.
Now, picking his way through broken bricks, twisted metal and shards of glass, Jumha organizes his future -- noting which walls need a coat of paint, where he plans to put in a door, where the toilets will be.
While Iraq was spared the refugee crisis many feared the war would cause, it is in the throes of a major housing crisis.
At the end of 2002, the housing ministry estimated that 800,000 new homes were needed in Baghdad and other urban areas to accommodate the country's growing population.
But while Saddam built one ostentatious palace after another for himself, giving his people shelter was one of his government's lowest priorities.
By the regime's end, public housing made up about 1 percent of new construction, said Saad al-Zubaidi, a long-serving Housing Ministry official and now its director-general. This in a country where incomes are so low it would take many people 150 years to pay off a mortgage. Complicated restrictions on who could buy and sell real estate in the capital only made matters worse.
None of that sat well with al-Zubaidi.
"Having a roof over one's head is a basic part of belonging to any country," al-Zubaidi said. "He who has no house has no nation."
Desperate Iraqis are finding novel ways to solve their housing problems.
Some families lost their homes when they ran afoul of the regime -- or when Saddam decided he needed a new building. Now, they have started reclaiming the properties by painting the walls with large Arabic letters: "Returned to the original owner."
Others are looting bomb sites for materials to build on any piece of land they can find.
Hassan Ibrahim Abed moved his 11-member family from a dank basement room into a sun-dappled, marble-floored guesthouse in a deserted government compound.
"You can't even compare this place to the last one," he said, standing in the garden. "It's the difference between heaven and hell."
When two other families moved in with them, they put a notice on the gate. "Full house," it said.
Now a political party wants to take over the premises, Abed said. First its representatives came with money; turned down, now they're making threats.
Neither side has a deed, but Abed says he's not giving up his new home.
"If they want to take this place, they will have to kill us first," he said.
Such disputes have already turned violent.
Landlords, forced by Saddam's government to house Palestinians for as little as 2,000 dinars ($1) a month, are now evicting these tenants at gunpoint or extorting huge rent increases, human rights groups say. Hundreds of Palestinians have fled to neighboring Jordan.
The tangle of housing claims and counterclaims is sure to be a major challenges for any new Iraqi government, though more immediate concerns like security and restoring basic services are occupying American administrators.
At some point, the government will need its buildings back. But Daniel Hitchings, the housing ministry's senior U.S. adviser, acknowledges that American and Iraqi officials haven't even begun to consider how to do that.
The new occupants cling to the hope they will be allowed to stay.
Najdi Hassan Ali, an Egyptian moneychanger, lost his home in 1994 after he quarreled with one of Saddam's nephews over a business deal. He was arrested on what he calls trumped-up charges and sentenced to hang.
He remained on death row until last October, when Saddam emptied jails across the country. But with no money left to pay rent, he had to leave his wife and children with relatives while he stayed with friends.
He finally brought his family together again by taking over a two-room apartment in a military barracks overlooking the Air Command's empty swimming pool. A faded carpet is spread on the floor, and a portrait of his two sons and daughters hangs on the wall.
"If the new government takes this place from the people who are living here," he said, "then they are no better than Saddam."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-moving-in,0,4635136.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Security Top Worry for Iraqi Oil Industry
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Updates
--------------------
Security Top Worry for Iraqi Oil Industry
--------------------
By BRUCE STANLEY
AP Business Writer
May 20, 2003, 2:07 AM EDT
BASRA, Iraq -- A revitalized oil industry is the only practical way Iraqis are going to be able to rebuild their country -- but those hopes are running smack into reality. A plague of looters is stripping Iraq's oil industry bare to the bone.
U.S. officials hope hundreds of freshly re-trained oil police will help Iraq gain the upper hand against the opportunists.
Before the war in Iraq, U.S. military planners had anticipated that Saddam Hussein's government would sabotage its own wells, and they were relieved when the threat proved a dud. American officials were surprised, however, by the scale and audacity of postwar looting.
Like marauding piranha, thieves have stripped vulnerable oil installations of sheet metal, computers, light fixtures and even copper wiring. In northern Iraq alone, they've stolen 300 oil company buses and 200 pieces of heavy equipment -- including cranes, which they've used to loot oil pumps and other unwieldy industrial prizes.
Some of the theft has cost lives. Four Iraqis died in an explosion near the southern city of Basra on May 8 when they used a welding torch to tap into a pipeline containing liquefied petroleum gas, a popular cooking fuel.
Until now, American and British troops have been the sole source of protection for Iraq's oil facilities.
"The military is stretched too thin. We've had facilities that we checked out one day, and we came back the next day and the place was just trashed," said Gary Loew, the senior civilian in charge of oil restoration in Iraq for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
So British instructors have been re-training about 240 former Iraqi oil police in southern Iraq. After completing their three-day course, the men will be issued with firearms and join the first contingent of 160 gun-toting police who last week began guarding oil installations in southern Iraq.
Hundreds of armed Iraqi police have also taken up duties near the northern oil center of Kirkuk.
Their first task is to stop the looting. As much as 80 percent of the damage to Iraq's oil infrastructure has occurred since the war, Loew said. In a few cases, saboteurs have even riddled oil pipelines with bursts from heavy, Russian-made machine guns.
"That has slowed us considerably," Loew said.
On Monday, Corps of Engineers commander Gen. Robert Flowers made his first inspection of Iraqi oil facilities since the war. After a briefing with British officers and Iraqi oil managers, he acknowledged that conditions were dire.
"Security is a very big issue," he said.
Although Iraq has the world's second-largest proven oil reserves, three wars and U.N. economic sanctions have gutted the economy.
With gradual improvements in security, Iraq's oil ministry should be better able to tackle the immediate challenges of ensuring reliable supplies of electricity and water to its refineries and other facilities. Easing bottlenecks in the production and internal distribution of refined products such as cooking gas is also a priority.
Iraq's second-largest refinery at Basra has suffered electricity outages of up to two hours during each of the last four days.
"It's in good condition except for the power problem," general manager Thaer Ebraheem said.
The facility escaped damage earlier thanks to loyal employees who used guns and a fire hose to fend off would-be looters. Although it's only operating at 50-percent capacity -- processing 70,000 barrels of crude a day -- Ebraheem hopes to bring it fully on line in a week.
At the refinery's entrance Monday, two Iraqi police guarded a checkpoint. One wore a green uniform, the other a pink shirt and dark slacks. Both clutched assault rifles.
"Last week there would have been Brits there," said Corps of Engineers spokesman Steve Wright.
For civilian contractors trying to repair damaged pipelines and well heads, each trip into the field is still dangerous. No crew sets out without an armed escort of coalition troops -- something Loew said planners did not anticipate before the war.
Some crews encounter the same thieves each time they visit a job site.
"We get on a first-name basis with the looters," said Doug Fletcher, the head of operations in Iraq for KBR, the Halliburton Co. subsidiary contracted to repair Iraq's damaged oil facilities.
He was only half-kidding.
"They wave at us," he said. "We do what we've got to do and leave, and they go back to work."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-oil-looters,0,3704962.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Updates
--------------------
Security Top Worry for Iraqi Oil Industry
--------------------
By BRUCE STANLEY
AP Business Writer
May 20, 2003, 2:07 AM EDT
BASRA, Iraq -- A revitalized oil industry is the only practical way Iraqis are going to be able to rebuild their country -- but those hopes are running smack into reality. A plague of looters is stripping Iraq's oil industry bare to the bone.
U.S. officials hope hundreds of freshly re-trained oil police will help Iraq gain the upper hand against the opportunists.
Before the war in Iraq, U.S. military planners had anticipated that Saddam Hussein's government would sabotage its own wells, and they were relieved when the threat proved a dud. American officials were surprised, however, by the scale and audacity of postwar looting.
Like marauding piranha, thieves have stripped vulnerable oil installations of sheet metal, computers, light fixtures and even copper wiring. In northern Iraq alone, they've stolen 300 oil company buses and 200 pieces of heavy equipment -- including cranes, which they've used to loot oil pumps and other unwieldy industrial prizes.
Some of the theft has cost lives. Four Iraqis died in an explosion near the southern city of Basra on May 8 when they used a welding torch to tap into a pipeline containing liquefied petroleum gas, a popular cooking fuel.
Until now, American and British troops have been the sole source of protection for Iraq's oil facilities.
"The military is stretched too thin. We've had facilities that we checked out one day, and we came back the next day and the place was just trashed," said Gary Loew, the senior civilian in charge of oil restoration in Iraq for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
So British instructors have been re-training about 240 former Iraqi oil police in southern Iraq. After completing their three-day course, the men will be issued with firearms and join the first contingent of 160 gun-toting police who last week began guarding oil installations in southern Iraq.
Hundreds of armed Iraqi police have also taken up duties near the northern oil center of Kirkuk.
Their first task is to stop the looting. As much as 80 percent of the damage to Iraq's oil infrastructure has occurred since the war, Loew said. In a few cases, saboteurs have even riddled oil pipelines with bursts from heavy, Russian-made machine guns.
"That has slowed us considerably," Loew said.
On Monday, Corps of Engineers commander Gen. Robert Flowers made his first inspection of Iraqi oil facilities since the war. After a briefing with British officers and Iraqi oil managers, he acknowledged that conditions were dire.
"Security is a very big issue," he said.
Although Iraq has the world's second-largest proven oil reserves, three wars and U.N. economic sanctions have gutted the economy.
With gradual improvements in security, Iraq's oil ministry should be better able to tackle the immediate challenges of ensuring reliable supplies of electricity and water to its refineries and other facilities. Easing bottlenecks in the production and internal distribution of refined products such as cooking gas is also a priority.
Iraq's second-largest refinery at Basra has suffered electricity outages of up to two hours during each of the last four days.
"It's in good condition except for the power problem," general manager Thaer Ebraheem said.
The facility escaped damage earlier thanks to loyal employees who used guns and a fire hose to fend off would-be looters. Although it's only operating at 50-percent capacity -- processing 70,000 barrels of crude a day -- Ebraheem hopes to bring it fully on line in a week.
At the refinery's entrance Monday, two Iraqi police guarded a checkpoint. One wore a green uniform, the other a pink shirt and dark slacks. Both clutched assault rifles.
"Last week there would have been Brits there," said Corps of Engineers spokesman Steve Wright.
For civilian contractors trying to repair damaged pipelines and well heads, each trip into the field is still dangerous. No crew sets out without an armed escort of coalition troops -- something Loew said planners did not anticipate before the war.
Some crews encounter the same thieves each time they visit a job site.
"We get on a first-name basis with the looters," said Doug Fletcher, the head of operations in Iraq for KBR, the Halliburton Co. subsidiary contracted to repair Iraq's damaged oil facilities.
He was only half-kidding.
"They wave at us," he said. "We do what we've got to do and leave, and they go back to work."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-oil-looters,0,3704962.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Key Developments Concerning Iraq
From: spliffslips
War Blog Updates
--------------------
Key Developments Concerning Iraq
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 20, 2003, 9:52 AM EDT
Key developments concerning Iraq:
* A U.S. military helicopter crashed into a canal in central Iraq, killing four Marines on a resupply mission. A fifth drowned trying to save them.
* The U.S.-led administration began hauling away trash that has been piling up across Baghdad, trying to defuse criticism that it is not doing enough to restore basic public services.
* The United States pressed for a vote on lifting U.N. sanctions against Iraq, a measure the Security Council seems virtually certain to approve.
* Looters were stripping Iraq's vulnerable oil installations of sheet metal, computers, light fixtures, even copper wiring, undermining efforts to revive the all-important industry.
* Iraqi families poured into the buildings left behind by Saddam Hussein's regime, carving new homes out of abandoned residences, looted offices and bombed-out military bases.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-developments,0,1256047.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
War Blog Updates
--------------------
Key Developments Concerning Iraq
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 20, 2003, 9:52 AM EDT
Key developments concerning Iraq:
* A U.S. military helicopter crashed into a canal in central Iraq, killing four Marines on a resupply mission. A fifth drowned trying to save them.
* The U.S.-led administration began hauling away trash that has been piling up across Baghdad, trying to defuse criticism that it is not doing enough to restore basic public services.
* The United States pressed for a vote on lifting U.N. sanctions against Iraq, a measure the Security Council seems virtually certain to approve.
* Looters were stripping Iraq's vulnerable oil installations of sheet metal, computers, light fixtures, even copper wiring, undermining efforts to revive the all-important industry.
* Iraqi families poured into the buildings left behind by Saddam Hussein's regime, carving new homes out of abandoned residences, looted offices and bombed-out military bases.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-developments,0,1256047.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Key Developments Concerning Iraq
From: spliffslips
War Blog Updates
--------------------
Key Developments Concerning Iraq
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 20, 2003, 9:52 AM EDT
Key developments concerning Iraq:
* A U.S. military helicopter crashed into a canal in central Iraq, killing four Marines on a resupply mission. A fifth drowned trying to save them.
* The U.S.-led administration began hauling away trash that has been piling up across Baghdad, trying to defuse criticism that it is not doing enough to restore basic public services.
* The United States pressed for a vote on lifting U.N. sanctions against Iraq, a measure the Security Council seems virtually certain to approve.
* Looters were stripping Iraq's vulnerable oil installations of sheet metal, computers, light fixtures, even copper wiring, undermining efforts to revive the all-important industry.
* Iraqi families poured into the buildings left behind by Saddam Hussein's regime, carving new homes out of abandoned residences, looted offices and bombed-out military bases.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-developments,0,1256047.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
War Blog Updates
--------------------
Key Developments Concerning Iraq
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 20, 2003, 9:52 AM EDT
Key developments concerning Iraq:
* A U.S. military helicopter crashed into a canal in central Iraq, killing four Marines on a resupply mission. A fifth drowned trying to save them.
* The U.S.-led administration began hauling away trash that has been piling up across Baghdad, trying to defuse criticism that it is not doing enough to restore basic public services.
* The United States pressed for a vote on lifting U.N. sanctions against Iraq, a measure the Security Council seems virtually certain to approve.
* Looters were stripping Iraq's vulnerable oil installations of sheet metal, computers, light fixtures, even copper wiring, undermining efforts to revive the all-important industry.
* Iraqi families poured into the buildings left behind by Saddam Hussein's regime, carving new homes out of abandoned residences, looted offices and bombed-out military bases.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-developments,0,1256047.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Monday, May 19, 2003
NYTimes.com Article: Slain Gay Soldier's Case Slows a General's Rise
This article from NYTimes.com
has been sent to you by spliffslips@aol.com.
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Slain Gay Soldier's Case Slows a General's Rise
May 18, 2003
BY THE NEW YORK TIMES
For the second time, a Senate committee has delayed a vote
on the promotion of an Army general who commanded a base
where a gay soldier was beaten to death.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/18/politics/18GENE.html?ex=1054259911&ei=1&en=80b5563c0b2338f6
---------------------------------
Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine
reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like!
Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy
now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here:
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New York Times on the Web, please contact
onlinesales@nytimes.com or visit our online media
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For general information about NYTimes.com, write to
help@nytimes.com.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
has been sent to you by spliffslips@aol.com.
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Slain Gay Soldier's Case Slows a General's Rise
May 18, 2003
BY THE NEW YORK TIMES
For the second time, a Senate committee has delayed a vote
on the promotion of an Army general who commanded a base
where a gay soldier was beaten to death.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/18/politics/18GENE.html?ex=1054259911&ei=1&en=80b5563c0b2338f6
---------------------------------
Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine
reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like!
Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy
now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here:
http://www.nytimes.com/ads/nytcirc/index.html
HOW TO ADVERTISE
---------------------------------
For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters
or other creative advertising opportunities with The
New York Times on the Web, please contact
onlinesales@nytimes.com or visit our online media
kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo
For general information about NYTimes.com, write to
help@nytimes.com.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
U.S. Officer Returns to Site of Battle
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages Updates
--------------------
U.S. Officer Returns to Site of Battle
--------------------
By CHRIS TOMLINSON
Associated Press Writer
May 17, 2003, 3:41 PM EDT
HINDIYAH, Iraq -- The last time Capt. Chris Carter was on the bridge, he rescued a woman from the crossfire between U.S. and Iraqi fighters.
When he returned Saturday, he took snapshots of playful teenage boys jumping off the bridge into the cool, emerald waters of the Euphrates River.
The roar of machine-gun fire and the blasts of grenades had been replaced by the cacophony of truck horns, street vendors' shouts and the laughter of curious children crowding around the soldiers who stopped at the foot of the bridge.
"It's weird," said Carter, of Watkinsville, Ga., who was back in Hindiyah, outside Baghdad, to tell a military video team about his role in the Iraq war. "It's interesting to see it populated. It was deserted when we were here."
On March 31, Carter and his rifle company were ordered to drive into Hindiyah to capture the western side of the bridge. The operation was a feint to convince Iraqi forces that the 3rd Infantry Division was going to use the bridge and thereby draw Iraqi Republican Guard soldiers out of Karbala, where U.S. forces eventually sent troops to cross the river.
The infantrymen were battling Iraqi troops when -- through the smoke -- they saw an elderly woman. She had tried to race across the bridge when the Americans arrived, but was caught in the crossfire. Later, she would say she was shot by Iraqi troops.
At first, peering through their rifle scopes, the Americans thought she was dead. But during breaks in the gunfire that whizzed over her head, she sat up and waved for help.
Carter, 31, an Army Ranger who commands A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, ordered his Bradley Fighting Vehicle to pull forward while he and two men ran behind it. He tossed a smoke grenade for more cover and approached the woman, who was crying and pointing toward her wounded hip.
When Carter gave the signal, medics raced forward, placed the woman on a stretcher and into an ambulance. Carter stood by, providing cover with his assault rifle. Then she was gone, and the battle for this town of 80,000, 50 miles south of Baghdad, raged on for several hours.
On Saturday, Carter and three of his men returned to the bridge to recount their experiences for a 3rd Infantry combat camera crew. The tapes will be used for training and archival purposes.
Iraqi civilians crowded the intersection at the bridgehead as Carter described the fighting. One man who approached the soldiers had been wounded in the crossfire and briefly detained by the American troops.
"I was shot by the Americans," said Mohammed Jasim, 24, pointing to wounds on his ankle. "The Baath Party people were shooting at the Americans and the Americans had to reply. I don't blame them. We are very happy the Americans came."
Jasim said most of the fighters on the bridge's western side were Baath Party militia loyal to overthrown Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The eastern side of the bridge was defended by Republican Guard troops -- despised, Jasim said, by Hindiyah's predominantly Shiite Muslim population.
Carter posed for a photograph with Jasim, who was found by Carter's troops hiding in a pool hall next to the bridge.
"It definitely made me feel that what we were doing was appreciated by the people," Carter said after talking to Jasim.
Looking around the intersection, Carter said it seemed much larger than he remembered. He smiled as the boys jumped off the bridge while he took photos.
One of Carter's platoon leaders, 1st Lt. Jeff McFarland of Cincinnati, also felt strange being back where he saw the first combat of his career.
"It's eerie. It was surreal the first time -- everything was in slow motion," McFarland said. "Seeing people live here, having normal lives, and seeing that it's not a battleground is interesting. It was only a battleground for a few hours."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-return-to-hindiyah,0,2669079.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages Updates
--------------------
U.S. Officer Returns to Site of Battle
--------------------
By CHRIS TOMLINSON
Associated Press Writer
May 17, 2003, 3:41 PM EDT
HINDIYAH, Iraq -- The last time Capt. Chris Carter was on the bridge, he rescued a woman from the crossfire between U.S. and Iraqi fighters.
When he returned Saturday, he took snapshots of playful teenage boys jumping off the bridge into the cool, emerald waters of the Euphrates River.
The roar of machine-gun fire and the blasts of grenades had been replaced by the cacophony of truck horns, street vendors' shouts and the laughter of curious children crowding around the soldiers who stopped at the foot of the bridge.
"It's weird," said Carter, of Watkinsville, Ga., who was back in Hindiyah, outside Baghdad, to tell a military video team about his role in the Iraq war. "It's interesting to see it populated. It was deserted when we were here."
On March 31, Carter and his rifle company were ordered to drive into Hindiyah to capture the western side of the bridge. The operation was a feint to convince Iraqi forces that the 3rd Infantry Division was going to use the bridge and thereby draw Iraqi Republican Guard soldiers out of Karbala, where U.S. forces eventually sent troops to cross the river.
The infantrymen were battling Iraqi troops when -- through the smoke -- they saw an elderly woman. She had tried to race across the bridge when the Americans arrived, but was caught in the crossfire. Later, she would say she was shot by Iraqi troops.
At first, peering through their rifle scopes, the Americans thought she was dead. But during breaks in the gunfire that whizzed over her head, she sat up and waved for help.
Carter, 31, an Army Ranger who commands A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, ordered his Bradley Fighting Vehicle to pull forward while he and two men ran behind it. He tossed a smoke grenade for more cover and approached the woman, who was crying and pointing toward her wounded hip.
When Carter gave the signal, medics raced forward, placed the woman on a stretcher and into an ambulance. Carter stood by, providing cover with his assault rifle. Then she was gone, and the battle for this town of 80,000, 50 miles south of Baghdad, raged on for several hours.
On Saturday, Carter and three of his men returned to the bridge to recount their experiences for a 3rd Infantry combat camera crew. The tapes will be used for training and archival purposes.
Iraqi civilians crowded the intersection at the bridgehead as Carter described the fighting. One man who approached the soldiers had been wounded in the crossfire and briefly detained by the American troops.
"I was shot by the Americans," said Mohammed Jasim, 24, pointing to wounds on his ankle. "The Baath Party people were shooting at the Americans and the Americans had to reply. I don't blame them. We are very happy the Americans came."
Jasim said most of the fighters on the bridge's western side were Baath Party militia loyal to overthrown Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The eastern side of the bridge was defended by Republican Guard troops -- despised, Jasim said, by Hindiyah's predominantly Shiite Muslim population.
Carter posed for a photograph with Jasim, who was found by Carter's troops hiding in a pool hall next to the bridge.
"It definitely made me feel that what we were doing was appreciated by the people," Carter said after talking to Jasim.
Looking around the intersection, Carter said it seemed much larger than he remembered. He smiled as the boys jumped off the bridge while he took photos.
One of Carter's platoon leaders, 1st Lt. Jeff McFarland of Cincinnati, also felt strange being back where he saw the first combat of his career.
"It's eerie. It was surreal the first time -- everything was in slow motion," McFarland said. "Seeing people live here, having normal lives, and seeing that it's not a battleground is interesting. It was only a battleground for a few hours."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-return-to-hindiyah,0,2669079.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
U.S.: Al-Qaida Out to Prove It's a Threat
From: spliffslips
Military Crae Packages War Updates
--------------------
U.S.: Al-Qaida Out to Prove It's a Threat
--------------------
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
Associated Press Writer
May 17, 2003, 1:59 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Al-Qaida is out to prove it is still a force, U.S. counterterrorism officials said, suggesting the bombings in Saudi Arabia and terrorist threats in Africa and Asia are part of a coordinated effort to strike lightly defended targets.
At this point, those targets do not appear to include places within the United States, officials said Friday. While acknowledging the network is capable of U.S. strikes, they said intelligence points toward attacks overseas, where al-Qaida operatives are more numerous and security measures less effective.
"We have no credible, specific intelligence information that indicates similar attacks are planned to take place in this country," said Department of Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse. "We will not raise the threat level at home at this time."
U.S. and British authorities have warned of threats in East Africa, particularly Kenya, and in southeast Asia, particularly Malaysia. And the group that conducted this week's attack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, remains at large and could strike again.
U.S. officials also have received an unconfirmed report that a possible terrorist attack may occur in the western Saudi city of Jiddah.
The State Department said it could not judge the credibility of the threat, but diplomatic families living in Jiddah's Alhamra district were moving out, according to the warning report.
After Monday's attacks, U.S. officials said some intelligence warned of a series of strikes.
While deadly and well-coordinated, the Riyadh strike lacked some of al-Qaida's trademarks -- particularly its usual attempt to hit a well-defended or highly visible target in an attempt to create massive casualties.
This may reflect directives from Osama bin Laden and other senior al-Qaida leaders -- thought to be hiding in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran -- to conduct a successful strike to let the world know the network still exists, American officials said.
This would counter a growing perception al-Qaida has been largely dismantled, officials said.
President Bush, meanwhile, called Monday's suicide bombings "a wake-up call to many that the war on terror continues."
"No one should be complacent in the 21st century, the early stages of the 21st century, so long as al-Qaida moves," he said. "I've told the country that we've brought to justice about half of the al-Qaida network -- operatives, key operatives. And so the other half still lives. And we'll find them, one at a time."
The increase in terrorism threats in several countries at once suggests a coordinated effort, directed by senior leadership, officials said.
Al-Qaida had suffered some serious blows in recent months, particularly the capture of alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Two alleged senior planners of the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen were also captured.
Adel al-Jubeir, foreign policy adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah, told reporters Friday the Saudi government will undertake its own unilateral efforts to bring down al-Qaida and will share information with U.S. investigators "almost in real time."
"We're both in the crosshairs of this organization," al-Jubeir said. "We have never had as close or as strong a cooperative effort between our two countries as we have now. Have we failed? Yes. On Monday, we failed. We will learn from this mistake, we will ensure it never happens again."
An FBI assessment team has visited the bombing sites and is satisfied with the Saudi efforts to secure the crime scenes and recover and preserve evidence, said a senior law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity.
The new warnings also extend to U.S. military personnel serving overseas. Pentagon officials say troops asking for leave to visit countries under a State Department travel warning are discouraged from doing so but are only banned if the military is under "threat condition Delta," its highest state of alert, in the area.
* __
On the Net:
State Department travel warnings: http://travel.state.gov/
Department of Homeland Security: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-saudi-attacks,0,2656370.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Crae Packages War Updates
--------------------
U.S.: Al-Qaida Out to Prove It's a Threat
--------------------
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
Associated Press Writer
May 17, 2003, 1:59 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Al-Qaida is out to prove it is still a force, U.S. counterterrorism officials said, suggesting the bombings in Saudi Arabia and terrorist threats in Africa and Asia are part of a coordinated effort to strike lightly defended targets.
At this point, those targets do not appear to include places within the United States, officials said Friday. While acknowledging the network is capable of U.S. strikes, they said intelligence points toward attacks overseas, where al-Qaida operatives are more numerous and security measures less effective.
"We have no credible, specific intelligence information that indicates similar attacks are planned to take place in this country," said Department of Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse. "We will not raise the threat level at home at this time."
U.S. and British authorities have warned of threats in East Africa, particularly Kenya, and in southeast Asia, particularly Malaysia. And the group that conducted this week's attack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, remains at large and could strike again.
U.S. officials also have received an unconfirmed report that a possible terrorist attack may occur in the western Saudi city of Jiddah.
The State Department said it could not judge the credibility of the threat, but diplomatic families living in Jiddah's Alhamra district were moving out, according to the warning report.
After Monday's attacks, U.S. officials said some intelligence warned of a series of strikes.
While deadly and well-coordinated, the Riyadh strike lacked some of al-Qaida's trademarks -- particularly its usual attempt to hit a well-defended or highly visible target in an attempt to create massive casualties.
This may reflect directives from Osama bin Laden and other senior al-Qaida leaders -- thought to be hiding in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran -- to conduct a successful strike to let the world know the network still exists, American officials said.
This would counter a growing perception al-Qaida has been largely dismantled, officials said.
President Bush, meanwhile, called Monday's suicide bombings "a wake-up call to many that the war on terror continues."
"No one should be complacent in the 21st century, the early stages of the 21st century, so long as al-Qaida moves," he said. "I've told the country that we've brought to justice about half of the al-Qaida network -- operatives, key operatives. And so the other half still lives. And we'll find them, one at a time."
The increase in terrorism threats in several countries at once suggests a coordinated effort, directed by senior leadership, officials said.
Al-Qaida had suffered some serious blows in recent months, particularly the capture of alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Two alleged senior planners of the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen were also captured.
Adel al-Jubeir, foreign policy adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah, told reporters Friday the Saudi government will undertake its own unilateral efforts to bring down al-Qaida and will share information with U.S. investigators "almost in real time."
"We're both in the crosshairs of this organization," al-Jubeir said. "We have never had as close or as strong a cooperative effort between our two countries as we have now. Have we failed? Yes. On Monday, we failed. We will learn from this mistake, we will ensure it never happens again."
An FBI assessment team has visited the bombing sites and is satisfied with the Saudi efforts to secure the crime scenes and recover and preserve evidence, said a senior law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity.
The new warnings also extend to U.S. military personnel serving overseas. Pentagon officials say troops asking for leave to visit countries under a State Department travel warning are discouraged from doing so but are only banned if the military is under "threat condition Delta," its highest state of alert, in the area.
* __
On the Net:
State Department travel warnings: http://travel.state.gov/
Department of Homeland Security: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-saudi-attacks,0,2656370.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Harvest in Middle of Kurdish-Arab Dispute
From: spliffslips
military care packages updates
--------------------
Harvest in Middle of Kurdish-Arab Dispute
--------------------
By LOUIS MEIXLER
Associated Press Writer
May 17, 2003, 2:40 PM EDT
MAKHMUR, Iraq -- It's harvest time in the rolling, golden hills of northern Iraq. And this year's expected bumper crop is aggravating a bitter dispute over who owns it -- Kurdish landowners expelled by Saddam Hussein, or the Arab farmers who replaced them.
Fields have been scorched, and farmers are reaping with assault rifles slung over their shoulders. The U.S. Army has brokered a profit-sharing agreement between the two sides, but even U.S. officers admit it is difficult to enforce and, in some cases, ignored.
"It's a complete mess," said Maj. Blain Reeves, an infantry officer with the Army's 101st Airborne Division. He spends much of his time in an office in a grain silo complex, mediating disputes.
The fields outside Makhmur are awash with barley to the horizon. Combines troll the land, slicing crops in half, then ejecting black barley kernels through a chute into a nearby dump truck. Bedouin shepherds follow the combine with their flocks, which eat the barley stalks left behind.
The dispute over the barley fields is one of the most explosive in northern Iraq, a zone of tension between Kurds and Arabs since the earliest days of Saddam's regime. Kurds estimate several hundred thousand of their brethren were expelled as part of Saddam's drive to break a Kurdish revolt. Arabs were shipped in to take their places.
With Saddam driven from power, Kurds are beginning to return home. Now, the Arabs are fleeing.
Saddam's campaign focused on areas like Kirkuk, a key oil-producing city in the north, and villages like Makhmur, 50 miles to the southwest in the heart of Iraq's breadbasket.
Jamil Arab Qadir, a Kurdish farmer, says Iraqi officials told him in 1995 that if he didn't give up his 87-acre barley farm in Makhmur to an Arab, his family would be trucked hundreds of miles south to an overwhelmingly Arab part of the country.
The 57-year-old farmer returned Tuesday with his wife and 13 children to harvest.
"I feel like I have been reborn," he said, walking through a field of dry stalks that crunched beneath his feet. He says he will not let the Arab farmers who planted the barley -- and fled during the fighting -- return.
"They were supported by Saddam Hussein. But since Saddam Hussein no longer exists, they can't stay," he said. "We won't let them."
U.S. officials worry about Arab-Kurdish clashes in the area. A week ago, they brokered an agreement between regional officials that would force both sides to split the harvest's profits. A separate agreement was reached Thursday for Kirkuk.
Both sides accepted it under U.S. pressure -- grudgingly.
"The Kurds have lost for so many years," said Khasro Goran, the deputy mayor of Mosul, who helped negotiate the deal. "Why can't an Arab lose for one year? "
As three Arab clan leaders wearing white robes with gold-trimmed black cloaks waited to discuss land complaints with Goran, he explained why he approved the agreement.
"What can we do, kill each other?" he asked. "The Americans wanted this. The Americans just don't want anyone to get mad."
Sheik Abdelaziz, the head of a leading Arab tribe in the area, was equally pessimistic. "Frankly, we didn't have any other choice," he said.
The agreement is so sensitive that Abdelaziz would only speak if his full name and the name of his tribe were not printed.
Under the U.S.-sponsored deal, Arabs and Kurds must split all profits from the grain sales, though the exact percentage depends on where the grain was harvested. The agreement can be enforced only if Arabs are there to claim their share.
Arabs made up two-thirds of Makhmur under Saddam, but many fled as the regime collapsed and Kurdish militiamen began moving south. Now that 101st Airborne troops control the area and guard the enormous grain silo that looms over the town, some Arabs are beginning to return.
"The Arabs see us here and they're saying 'Hey, the U.S. is here. Let's go back,'" Reeves said. "So the Arabs come back and they want a piece of the harvest."
That can be difficult, as Hamid Ali now knows. The 35-year-old farmer was at Reeves' office at the grain silo Wednesday, trying to get his share.
Ali said he returned last week to the farm where he once worked and found Kurds tilling the fields.
"We went to the land and told them about the agreement," he told Reeves. "They told us that we'd been using their land for the past 12 years and that we had no more rights."
Like some Arab farmers in the area, Ali is a sharecropper. He farmed land Saddam gave to other Arabs who have since rented out the property and moved to nearby cities.
Without ownership documents, Ali has little chance of recouping the time and money he invested in the crop. The dispute over nature's bounty continues, and the Americans stand in the middle, trying to figure out the complicated ethnic politics of Saddam's Iraq.
"I definitely feel for the farmers. They're the guys who did the work," Reeves said. "If these guys have any proof, I'll fight for them."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-troubled-harvest,0,3560165.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
military care packages updates
--------------------
Harvest in Middle of Kurdish-Arab Dispute
--------------------
By LOUIS MEIXLER
Associated Press Writer
May 17, 2003, 2:40 PM EDT
MAKHMUR, Iraq -- It's harvest time in the rolling, golden hills of northern Iraq. And this year's expected bumper crop is aggravating a bitter dispute over who owns it -- Kurdish landowners expelled by Saddam Hussein, or the Arab farmers who replaced them.
Fields have been scorched, and farmers are reaping with assault rifles slung over their shoulders. The U.S. Army has brokered a profit-sharing agreement between the two sides, but even U.S. officers admit it is difficult to enforce and, in some cases, ignored.
"It's a complete mess," said Maj. Blain Reeves, an infantry officer with the Army's 101st Airborne Division. He spends much of his time in an office in a grain silo complex, mediating disputes.
The fields outside Makhmur are awash with barley to the horizon. Combines troll the land, slicing crops in half, then ejecting black barley kernels through a chute into a nearby dump truck. Bedouin shepherds follow the combine with their flocks, which eat the barley stalks left behind.
The dispute over the barley fields is one of the most explosive in northern Iraq, a zone of tension between Kurds and Arabs since the earliest days of Saddam's regime. Kurds estimate several hundred thousand of their brethren were expelled as part of Saddam's drive to break a Kurdish revolt. Arabs were shipped in to take their places.
With Saddam driven from power, Kurds are beginning to return home. Now, the Arabs are fleeing.
Saddam's campaign focused on areas like Kirkuk, a key oil-producing city in the north, and villages like Makhmur, 50 miles to the southwest in the heart of Iraq's breadbasket.
Jamil Arab Qadir, a Kurdish farmer, says Iraqi officials told him in 1995 that if he didn't give up his 87-acre barley farm in Makhmur to an Arab, his family would be trucked hundreds of miles south to an overwhelmingly Arab part of the country.
The 57-year-old farmer returned Tuesday with his wife and 13 children to harvest.
"I feel like I have been reborn," he said, walking through a field of dry stalks that crunched beneath his feet. He says he will not let the Arab farmers who planted the barley -- and fled during the fighting -- return.
"They were supported by Saddam Hussein. But since Saddam Hussein no longer exists, they can't stay," he said. "We won't let them."
U.S. officials worry about Arab-Kurdish clashes in the area. A week ago, they brokered an agreement between regional officials that would force both sides to split the harvest's profits. A separate agreement was reached Thursday for Kirkuk.
Both sides accepted it under U.S. pressure -- grudgingly.
"The Kurds have lost for so many years," said Khasro Goran, the deputy mayor of Mosul, who helped negotiate the deal. "Why can't an Arab lose for one year? "
As three Arab clan leaders wearing white robes with gold-trimmed black cloaks waited to discuss land complaints with Goran, he explained why he approved the agreement.
"What can we do, kill each other?" he asked. "The Americans wanted this. The Americans just don't want anyone to get mad."
Sheik Abdelaziz, the head of a leading Arab tribe in the area, was equally pessimistic. "Frankly, we didn't have any other choice," he said.
The agreement is so sensitive that Abdelaziz would only speak if his full name and the name of his tribe were not printed.
Under the U.S.-sponsored deal, Arabs and Kurds must split all profits from the grain sales, though the exact percentage depends on where the grain was harvested. The agreement can be enforced only if Arabs are there to claim their share.
Arabs made up two-thirds of Makhmur under Saddam, but many fled as the regime collapsed and Kurdish militiamen began moving south. Now that 101st Airborne troops control the area and guard the enormous grain silo that looms over the town, some Arabs are beginning to return.
"The Arabs see us here and they're saying 'Hey, the U.S. is here. Let's go back,'" Reeves said. "So the Arabs come back and they want a piece of the harvest."
That can be difficult, as Hamid Ali now knows. The 35-year-old farmer was at Reeves' office at the grain silo Wednesday, trying to get his share.
Ali said he returned last week to the farm where he once worked and found Kurds tilling the fields.
"We went to the land and told them about the agreement," he told Reeves. "They told us that we'd been using their land for the past 12 years and that we had no more rights."
Like some Arab farmers in the area, Ali is a sharecropper. He farmed land Saddam gave to other Arabs who have since rented out the property and moved to nearby cities.
Without ownership documents, Ali has little chance of recouping the time and money he invested in the crop. The dispute over nature's bounty continues, and the Americans stand in the middle, trying to figure out the complicated ethnic politics of Saddam's Iraq.
"I definitely feel for the farmers. They're the guys who did the work," Reeves said. "If these guys have any proof, I'll fight for them."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-troubled-harvest,0,3560165.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Questions Linger About Hillah Battle
From: spliffslips
--------------------
Questions Linger About Hillah Battle
--------------------
By CHARLES J. HANLEY
AP Special Correspondent
May 17, 2003, 1:45 PM EDT
HILLAH, Iraq -- The telltale evidence is everywhere: in the pattern of blast marks gouged in a schoolyard's concrete, in the yellow metal casings that once held small bombs, in the bomblets themselves.
"They're all over. They're even in people's bedrooms," said one bomb disposal specialist.
A month after U.S. cluster munitions fell in a deadly shower on Hillah's teeming slums as U.S. forces drove toward victory in Baghdad, 55 miles to the north, the most telling evidence may lie in the crowded, fly-infested wards of the city hospital, where the toll of dead and wounded still mounts.
At least 250 Iraqis were killed and more than 500 wounded during 17 days of fighting in the area, most of them civilians and many the victims of cluster munitions, according to hospital medical staff. Leftover bomblets still kill or maim hapless civilians daily, they said.
As the pieces of the story of what happened in Hillah in late March and early April begin to fall together, gaps and uncertainties remain, including the question of whether Iraqi troops were still in Nadr, Amira and other Hillah-area districts when they were attacked.
On April 3, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks at U.S. Central Command indicated the matter was being investigated. The next day he added that U.S. targeting in such densely populated areas was "very precise."
A month later, the command's Lt. Herb Josey said, "It is correct to assume the investigation is still going on." The command has received no results yet, he said, without describing what the investigation consisted of.
While Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed last month that high-flying B-52s dropped cluster bombs during the push to Baghdad, the Pentagon has not acknowledged the use of cluster munitions around Hillah.
Such weapons -- delivered by rockets, howitzer shells and air-dropped bombs -- open up before impact to scatter many tiny bomblets over wide areas, sometimes the size of a football field. They're considered effective weapons for attacking massed soldiers and vehicles and for blocking troop movements.
They were first used in the Indochina War, when U.S. aircraft dropped them on enemy jungle camps and supply trails. Unexploded bomblets still pose a hazard to civilians there. Leftover duds also inflict casualties in Afghanistan, Angola, Chechnya, Bosnia and Kuwait.
The use of such weapons is not explicitly banned under international law, but human rights groups think it should be -- or at least prohibited in populated areas as too indiscriminate.
They also point to the weapons' high "dud rate" -- the percentage that don't explode on impact, leaving stray bomblets to kill the unsuspecting later. Military experts say artillery-fired cluster munitions have a dud rate of up to 5 percent, but New York-based Human Rights Watch claims the rates for some artillery types are three to four times higher.
Human Rights Watch on April 25 accused the Pentagon of a "whitewash," of minimizing in its public statements the deadly effect of cluster munitions on Iraqi civilians by discussing only aerial bombs and not artillery shells, which the group says caused most civilian casualties from cluster munitions in Iraq.
On March 31 and April 1, and apparently on later dates as well, cluster munitions fell among Iraqi peasants in and around their homes in Nadr, Amira, Kifl and other districts mostly on Hillah's southern edge.
Meeting with journalists in Washington recently, Lt. Gen. William Scott Wallace, who commanded the U.S. Army's V Corps during the war, specifically mentioned Hillah among several southern cities where the Iraqi military "was much more aggressive than what we expected him to be."
The U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division was pushing north through the green, irrigated countryside between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Its next objective was Hillah, a town said to have been built centuries ago with bricks from the nearby ruins of ancient Babylon.
First the paratroopers had to pass through the Nadr quarter, straddling Highway 8.
How the cluster munitions were delivered -- by air or by artillery -- is lost in confused Iraqi memories and in the U.S. military's silence on the subject. Wherever they came from, by April 1 hellish scenes were unfolding at Hillah Surgical Hospital. Foreign journalists, bused to Hillah by Saddam Hussein's Information Ministry, found dozens of dead and wounded civilians, many children, jammed into coffins and lying in hallways.
The besieged doctors reported 33 dead civilians and more than 300 wounded, many from Nadr.
Over 17 days, from all bombing and other fighting, the hospital's records indicate about 500 civilians were wounded, and the hospital's director, Dr. Adil al-Himiri, said about 250 people were killed, both military and civilian. The death records are not available, because they were taken to Baghdad subsequently by an Iraqi doctor, he said.
Weeks after the attacks, some victims were still hospitalized, including 13-year-old Faleh Hassan, who lost a hand and has needed several operations for severe foot wounds.
An uncle, Hadi Maraza, said five in Faleh's family were wounded. "I think it was artillery shells," Maraza said of the April 1 events. "Before landing they sent small bombs flying, like balls." He said no Iraqi soldiers were in the area. "It was random shelling."
With Saddam's regime toppled, the hospital staff felt freer to talk by late April. What they said tended to justify the U.S. attack.
"The old regime put military tanks in between the houses, and so they were bombed," said al-Himiri, the hospital director. "It's the truth. There were military targets."
Another doctor, surgeon Majid al-Khafaji, said he had heard similar stories from wounded people.
But the doctors acknowledged they hadn't gone to the bombed areas themselves. Civil defense workers who went to Nadr immediately said they saw no sign of the Iraqi military there.
That agrees with what Nadr residents consistently said: The Iraqi military had set up mortars or artillery in Nadr, apparently in a date-palm grove on the fringe of the slum, but had pulled out. Some believe they left days before the U.S. strike with cluster munitions; some think it was a day before.
Nadr is a place of tightly packed mud-brick homes, garbage-filled paths, herds of goats wandering along gullied tracks. A schoolyard -- a rare stretch of concrete -- is pocked with an almost regular pattern of blast marks that appear to have come from cluster bomblets. But there are none of the burned-out tanks, other military vehicles or destroyed weapons commonly seen in areas where U.S. forces struck Iraqi troops.
Salem Farhan, 33, a factory worker, said Iraqi artillery in Nadr fired at distant U.S. troops and then withdrew a day before the first cluster-bomb attacks. "They left a few soldiers behind, like neighborhood guards," he said. "Maybe the planes were attacking them."
Repeated U.S. shelling or bombing came as late as April 8, when Farhan's house was hit and a neighbor woman and child were killed as they took shelter in his yard. His two younger brothers were badly wounded. "There was no reason. There was no resistance here," Farhan said.
Deaths still come daily, as duds explode when picked up, kicked or otherwise disturbed. "I've dealt with 300 cluster bombs in one day," said Hillal Saadi, a civil defense explosives specialist, who destroys duds by piling them up and dynamiting them.
The Hillah area civil defense director, Hussein Jaber, said unexploded bomblets had been retrieved from schoolrooms and people's bedrooms.
A corner of his office's front lot is heaped with examples recovered from surrounding areas -- from dark gray, 3-inch-long bomblets to two bulbous, 6-foot-long, yellow-green shells that held hundreds of bomblets.
Saadi, whose ordnance-disposal experience stretches back to the 1991 Gulf War, said the Americans have adopted more advanced cluster munitions. For one thing, "there are more fragments," he said, and held up a shattered yellow metal shell stamped "Bomb, Frag, BLU-97A/B."
"Children were playing with this one when it exploded," he said. "Two were killed and six wounded. It happened three days before the fall of Baghdad" -- that is, on April 5.
The BLU-97 is one of the most sophisticated U.S. cluster weapons, capable of scattering 40 bomblets over a 4,800-square-yard area and deadly against tanks as well as soldiers in the open.
At the same time that Hillah residents were unearthing mass graves of victims of Saddam's bloody repression, hospital officials said they were recording as many as four deaths a day from exploding U.S. leftovers. Al-Himiri, the hospital director, was clearly troubled even though he believes U.S. forces had legitimate military targets to attack.
"From a military point of view, it's justified," he said. "But from a humanitarian point of view it's not justified."
* __
EDITOR'S NOTE -- Associated Press reporters Sameer N. Yacoub, who reported from Hillah after March 31-April 1 attacks, and Richard Pyle in New York contributed to this story.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-cluster-bombs,0,206280.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
--------------------
Questions Linger About Hillah Battle
--------------------
By CHARLES J. HANLEY
AP Special Correspondent
May 17, 2003, 1:45 PM EDT
HILLAH, Iraq -- The telltale evidence is everywhere: in the pattern of blast marks gouged in a schoolyard's concrete, in the yellow metal casings that once held small bombs, in the bomblets themselves.
"They're all over. They're even in people's bedrooms," said one bomb disposal specialist.
A month after U.S. cluster munitions fell in a deadly shower on Hillah's teeming slums as U.S. forces drove toward victory in Baghdad, 55 miles to the north, the most telling evidence may lie in the crowded, fly-infested wards of the city hospital, where the toll of dead and wounded still mounts.
At least 250 Iraqis were killed and more than 500 wounded during 17 days of fighting in the area, most of them civilians and many the victims of cluster munitions, according to hospital medical staff. Leftover bomblets still kill or maim hapless civilians daily, they said.
As the pieces of the story of what happened in Hillah in late March and early April begin to fall together, gaps and uncertainties remain, including the question of whether Iraqi troops were still in Nadr, Amira and other Hillah-area districts when they were attacked.
On April 3, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks at U.S. Central Command indicated the matter was being investigated. The next day he added that U.S. targeting in such densely populated areas was "very precise."
A month later, the command's Lt. Herb Josey said, "It is correct to assume the investigation is still going on." The command has received no results yet, he said, without describing what the investigation consisted of.
While Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed last month that high-flying B-52s dropped cluster bombs during the push to Baghdad, the Pentagon has not acknowledged the use of cluster munitions around Hillah.
Such weapons -- delivered by rockets, howitzer shells and air-dropped bombs -- open up before impact to scatter many tiny bomblets over wide areas, sometimes the size of a football field. They're considered effective weapons for attacking massed soldiers and vehicles and for blocking troop movements.
They were first used in the Indochina War, when U.S. aircraft dropped them on enemy jungle camps and supply trails. Unexploded bomblets still pose a hazard to civilians there. Leftover duds also inflict casualties in Afghanistan, Angola, Chechnya, Bosnia and Kuwait.
The use of such weapons is not explicitly banned under international law, but human rights groups think it should be -- or at least prohibited in populated areas as too indiscriminate.
They also point to the weapons' high "dud rate" -- the percentage that don't explode on impact, leaving stray bomblets to kill the unsuspecting later. Military experts say artillery-fired cluster munitions have a dud rate of up to 5 percent, but New York-based Human Rights Watch claims the rates for some artillery types are three to four times higher.
Human Rights Watch on April 25 accused the Pentagon of a "whitewash," of minimizing in its public statements the deadly effect of cluster munitions on Iraqi civilians by discussing only aerial bombs and not artillery shells, which the group says caused most civilian casualties from cluster munitions in Iraq.
On March 31 and April 1, and apparently on later dates as well, cluster munitions fell among Iraqi peasants in and around their homes in Nadr, Amira, Kifl and other districts mostly on Hillah's southern edge.
Meeting with journalists in Washington recently, Lt. Gen. William Scott Wallace, who commanded the U.S. Army's V Corps during the war, specifically mentioned Hillah among several southern cities where the Iraqi military "was much more aggressive than what we expected him to be."
The U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division was pushing north through the green, irrigated countryside between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Its next objective was Hillah, a town said to have been built centuries ago with bricks from the nearby ruins of ancient Babylon.
First the paratroopers had to pass through the Nadr quarter, straddling Highway 8.
How the cluster munitions were delivered -- by air or by artillery -- is lost in confused Iraqi memories and in the U.S. military's silence on the subject. Wherever they came from, by April 1 hellish scenes were unfolding at Hillah Surgical Hospital. Foreign journalists, bused to Hillah by Saddam Hussein's Information Ministry, found dozens of dead and wounded civilians, many children, jammed into coffins and lying in hallways.
The besieged doctors reported 33 dead civilians and more than 300 wounded, many from Nadr.
Over 17 days, from all bombing and other fighting, the hospital's records indicate about 500 civilians were wounded, and the hospital's director, Dr. Adil al-Himiri, said about 250 people were killed, both military and civilian. The death records are not available, because they were taken to Baghdad subsequently by an Iraqi doctor, he said.
Weeks after the attacks, some victims were still hospitalized, including 13-year-old Faleh Hassan, who lost a hand and has needed several operations for severe foot wounds.
An uncle, Hadi Maraza, said five in Faleh's family were wounded. "I think it was artillery shells," Maraza said of the April 1 events. "Before landing they sent small bombs flying, like balls." He said no Iraqi soldiers were in the area. "It was random shelling."
With Saddam's regime toppled, the hospital staff felt freer to talk by late April. What they said tended to justify the U.S. attack.
"The old regime put military tanks in between the houses, and so they were bombed," said al-Himiri, the hospital director. "It's the truth. There were military targets."
Another doctor, surgeon Majid al-Khafaji, said he had heard similar stories from wounded people.
But the doctors acknowledged they hadn't gone to the bombed areas themselves. Civil defense workers who went to Nadr immediately said they saw no sign of the Iraqi military there.
That agrees with what Nadr residents consistently said: The Iraqi military had set up mortars or artillery in Nadr, apparently in a date-palm grove on the fringe of the slum, but had pulled out. Some believe they left days before the U.S. strike with cluster munitions; some think it was a day before.
Nadr is a place of tightly packed mud-brick homes, garbage-filled paths, herds of goats wandering along gullied tracks. A schoolyard -- a rare stretch of concrete -- is pocked with an almost regular pattern of blast marks that appear to have come from cluster bomblets. But there are none of the burned-out tanks, other military vehicles or destroyed weapons commonly seen in areas where U.S. forces struck Iraqi troops.
Salem Farhan, 33, a factory worker, said Iraqi artillery in Nadr fired at distant U.S. troops and then withdrew a day before the first cluster-bomb attacks. "They left a few soldiers behind, like neighborhood guards," he said. "Maybe the planes were attacking them."
Repeated U.S. shelling or bombing came as late as April 8, when Farhan's house was hit and a neighbor woman and child were killed as they took shelter in his yard. His two younger brothers were badly wounded. "There was no reason. There was no resistance here," Farhan said.
Deaths still come daily, as duds explode when picked up, kicked or otherwise disturbed. "I've dealt with 300 cluster bombs in one day," said Hillal Saadi, a civil defense explosives specialist, who destroys duds by piling them up and dynamiting them.
The Hillah area civil defense director, Hussein Jaber, said unexploded bomblets had been retrieved from schoolrooms and people's bedrooms.
A corner of his office's front lot is heaped with examples recovered from surrounding areas -- from dark gray, 3-inch-long bomblets to two bulbous, 6-foot-long, yellow-green shells that held hundreds of bomblets.
Saadi, whose ordnance-disposal experience stretches back to the 1991 Gulf War, said the Americans have adopted more advanced cluster munitions. For one thing, "there are more fragments," he said, and held up a shattered yellow metal shell stamped "Bomb, Frag, BLU-97A/B."
"Children were playing with this one when it exploded," he said. "Two were killed and six wounded. It happened three days before the fall of Baghdad" -- that is, on April 5.
The BLU-97 is one of the most sophisticated U.S. cluster weapons, capable of scattering 40 bomblets over a 4,800-square-yard area and deadly against tanks as well as soldiers in the open.
At the same time that Hillah residents were unearthing mass graves of victims of Saddam's bloody repression, hospital officials said they were recording as many as four deaths a day from exploding U.S. leftovers. Al-Himiri, the hospital director, was clearly troubled even though he believes U.S. forces had legitimate military targets to attack.
"From a military point of view, it's justified," he said. "But from a humanitarian point of view it's not justified."
* __
EDITOR'S NOTE -- Associated Press reporters Sameer N. Yacoub, who reported from Hillah after March 31-April 1 attacks, and Richard Pyle in New York contributed to this story.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-cluster-bombs,0,206280.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Friday, May 16, 2003
Saddam's Amnesty Blamed for Iraq's Crime
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Updates
--------------------
Saddam's Amnesty Blamed for Iraq's Crime
--------------------
By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI
Associated Press Writer
May 16, 2003, 6:17 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A few months before the war, Saddam Hussein freed some 100,000 prisoners, most of them hardened criminals. Now, with security tenuous across Iraq and Baghdad plagued by crime and fear, U.S. officials are blaming that general amnesty for much of the chaos.
In interviews across the capital Friday with more than 30 Iraqis, many agreed.
"Security will not return to the country until all the prisoners return to jail," said Khalil al-Baaj, a police lieutenant who said he was stalked by a freed killer.
Even though Baghdad police have begun returning to work -- and the U.S. Army sent in 2,000 military policemen -- many of the 5 million residents of the capital are afraid to venture out at night. Reports stream in of kidnappings, rapes and carjackings.
"I've stopped looters, run political parties out of abandoned buildings, caught people with large amounts of cash and weapons," said U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Cody Williams. The work, he said, is aimed at "trying to keep the bad guys off the streets so the good guys can have normal lives."
Williams said many of the people he had arrested were former prisoners who "are making their way back to prison."
Yet he also said most of the ex-convicts were not looting but carrying out violent crimes -- armed robbery, murder, kidnapping.
In Baghdad, many people say they resent the Americans for not stopping the chaos. Others are asking different questions. How much of the unrest, they wonder, is related to that amnesty and the criminals it set free?
"Saddam probably felt he would gain popularity with the people and win their support in the war ... He probably hoped the armed gangs would confront the Americans," said Capt. Hadi al-Dilaymi, a Baghdad police officer.
"It was wrong to free the criminals," said Barakat al-Shumari, 40, who keeps her daughters inside because she fears kidnapping. Since Saddam's fall, police say, at least eight women have been reported raped in Baghdad, a city where rape reports are rare.
Recent comments by U.S. officials as high as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld suggest the American occupying force has decided to make the amnesty an issue -- in part to stanch criticism that American forces aren't doing enough to keep the peace.
On Wednesday, speaking to members of Congress, Rumsfeld explicitly blamed ex-prisoners for the lootings and other crimes. "They have to be rounded up and put back in," he said. "That takes a little time. You don't do that in five minutes."
L. Paul Bremer, the new top American in Iraq, is echoing that notion in his initial days of overseeing the country. He has promised to round up thousands of criminals and has said aggressive police patrols had made 300 arrests in two days.
Bremer didn't say whether the arrests were of ex-convicts, but he pointed out that occupation authorities had resumed jail operations, and two courts are hearing cases.
Still, figuring out which of last week's arrests were last year's inmates is not easy in a country with no government and no organized way to track down rap sheets.
Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group, said it is difficult to determine if crimes are being carried out by former prisoners.
Al-Dilaymi, director of criminal investigation with the newly reconstituted Baghdad police, blames what he says is an average of 10 reported murders each day on ex-convicts.
Only this week did the Americans give Iraqi police permission to carry sidearms, and they feel crippled. "We only investigate," al-Dilaymi said. "We do not arrest."
As criminals come off the streets, and as the United States struggles to restore order, the worry among Baghdad residents is this: A new government will be installed, but they will still feel scared in their own city.
For al-Dilaymi, armed with only a handgun, any solution remains part of a distant future.
"If I come face to face with a criminal with a Kalashnikov," he said, "all I can do is say "Good day,' and run."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-criminals-at-large,0,6025171.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Updates
--------------------
Saddam's Amnesty Blamed for Iraq's Crime
--------------------
By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI
Associated Press Writer
May 16, 2003, 6:17 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A few months before the war, Saddam Hussein freed some 100,000 prisoners, most of them hardened criminals. Now, with security tenuous across Iraq and Baghdad plagued by crime and fear, U.S. officials are blaming that general amnesty for much of the chaos.
In interviews across the capital Friday with more than 30 Iraqis, many agreed.
"Security will not return to the country until all the prisoners return to jail," said Khalil al-Baaj, a police lieutenant who said he was stalked by a freed killer.
Even though Baghdad police have begun returning to work -- and the U.S. Army sent in 2,000 military policemen -- many of the 5 million residents of the capital are afraid to venture out at night. Reports stream in of kidnappings, rapes and carjackings.
"I've stopped looters, run political parties out of abandoned buildings, caught people with large amounts of cash and weapons," said U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Cody Williams. The work, he said, is aimed at "trying to keep the bad guys off the streets so the good guys can have normal lives."
Williams said many of the people he had arrested were former prisoners who "are making their way back to prison."
Yet he also said most of the ex-convicts were not looting but carrying out violent crimes -- armed robbery, murder, kidnapping.
In Baghdad, many people say they resent the Americans for not stopping the chaos. Others are asking different questions. How much of the unrest, they wonder, is related to that amnesty and the criminals it set free?
"Saddam probably felt he would gain popularity with the people and win their support in the war ... He probably hoped the armed gangs would confront the Americans," said Capt. Hadi al-Dilaymi, a Baghdad police officer.
"It was wrong to free the criminals," said Barakat al-Shumari, 40, who keeps her daughters inside because she fears kidnapping. Since Saddam's fall, police say, at least eight women have been reported raped in Baghdad, a city where rape reports are rare.
Recent comments by U.S. officials as high as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld suggest the American occupying force has decided to make the amnesty an issue -- in part to stanch criticism that American forces aren't doing enough to keep the peace.
On Wednesday, speaking to members of Congress, Rumsfeld explicitly blamed ex-prisoners for the lootings and other crimes. "They have to be rounded up and put back in," he said. "That takes a little time. You don't do that in five minutes."
L. Paul Bremer, the new top American in Iraq, is echoing that notion in his initial days of overseeing the country. He has promised to round up thousands of criminals and has said aggressive police patrols had made 300 arrests in two days.
Bremer didn't say whether the arrests were of ex-convicts, but he pointed out that occupation authorities had resumed jail operations, and two courts are hearing cases.
Still, figuring out which of last week's arrests were last year's inmates is not easy in a country with no government and no organized way to track down rap sheets.
Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group, said it is difficult to determine if crimes are being carried out by former prisoners.
Al-Dilaymi, director of criminal investigation with the newly reconstituted Baghdad police, blames what he says is an average of 10 reported murders each day on ex-convicts.
Only this week did the Americans give Iraqi police permission to carry sidearms, and they feel crippled. "We only investigate," al-Dilaymi said. "We do not arrest."
As criminals come off the streets, and as the United States struggles to restore order, the worry among Baghdad residents is this: A new government will be installed, but they will still feel scared in their own city.
For al-Dilaymi, armed with only a handgun, any solution remains part of a distant future.
"If I come face to face with a criminal with a Kalashnikov," he said, "all I can do is say "Good day,' and run."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-criminals-at-large,0,6025171.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
1st Post-Saddam Soccer Match Draws Crowd
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
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1st Post-Saddam Soccer Match Draws Crowd
--------------------
By SLOBODAN LEKIC
Associated Press Writer
May 16, 2003, 3:59 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Saddam Hussein is gone. And Rad Hamoudi is back.
A near-capacity crowd turned out Friday to see the first soccer match since the downfall of Saddam and to cheer Hamoudi -- Iraq's greatest star and long considered one of the Arab world's best goalies, fresh from years in exile.
"This is a happy day, a new day for Iraq and Iraqi soccer," said Hamoudi, who captained the 1986 national World Cup squad before he was forced to flee to Jordan to escape Saddam's regime.
Now in his 40s, Hamoudi is helping reorganize Iraq's soccer federation and prepare it for international play -- including qualifying games for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
"That's why today's game is so important," he said. "It shows the world that we will be able to take part in that competition."
Still, Friday's exhibition game had as much to do with inspiring morale as warming up the teams. "Welcome back, Judge!" fans shouted at Hamoudi, using his nickname and clearly thrilled to see him.
The boisterous crowd beat drums and blew horns. Many waved the flags of their favorite team: blue and white for al-Zawra, and green for al-Shurta -- or Police -- the great goalie's former team.
At halftime, Iraqi athletes, including one woman, entertained the audience with a taekwondo demonstration, flipping one another on the playing field.
Iraq's U.S.- and British-led administration sent troops to guard the match, billed as a symbolic fresh start and a sign of the return to normality in Baghdad, ravaged by waves of looting and arson since Saddam's ouster last month.
A squad of U.S. infantrymen watched discreetly from the cool shade of a hallway at the edge of the field.
The world soccer community has welcomed the end of the war and said it wants to get soccer-mad Iraq reintegrated into international competitions as soon as possible. Most of the country's stadiums were looted and much of the equipment, including players' gear, was stolen.
Earlier this month, world soccer's ruling body, FIFA, decided to send experts to Iraq to review the condition of its stadiums. The international association also plans to help Iraq restart its 20-team domestic league and prepare the national team for international tournaments.
"My experience in the Arab world is that soccer is far more important than politics," said John Sawers, Britain's special representative for Iraq. "The fact that people are getting back out to play soccer -- it's another sign that people are re-establishing normal lives in this country."
Soccer is by far the most popular sport in this country of 24 million people, and the national team was considered a regional powerhouse in the 1980s. The game also is seen as one of the few unifying forces in a nation made up of rival religious and ethnic groups.
On Friday, al-Zawra's 10,000-seat stadium in downtown Baghdad was nearly full well before the start of the match -- a hero's welcome for Hamoudi.
The goalie left Iraq in 1988 when he quarreled with Saddam's son Odai, who headed the country's athletic bodies.
Many have said Odai, who also oversaw Iraq's Olympic Committee, punished and even tortured athletes who failed to perform to his standards. He disappeared along with many other top officials ahead of advancing coalition forces.
Given Baghdad's soaring temperatures Friday, the pitch was surprisingly green. Referees had to stop several times to push back the crowds on the sidelines.
Play was brisk until about midway through the match as the out-of-practice players wilted in the heat. Al-Shurta defeated al-Zawra 2-1 -- with all the scoring in the first half.
Mahmud Barakat, a defender who also plays on the national team, squandered al-Zawra's last chance just moments before the final whistle when his volley grazed the crossbar.
"What can you expect from professional players who are paid $100 a month and who cannot even eat normally to keep their strength up?" Barakat said after the game. "It will require much than happy words to get Iraqi soccer back to what it was in the 1980s."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-soccers-back,0,3764717.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
--------------------
1st Post-Saddam Soccer Match Draws Crowd
--------------------
By SLOBODAN LEKIC
Associated Press Writer
May 16, 2003, 3:59 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Saddam Hussein is gone. And Rad Hamoudi is back.
A near-capacity crowd turned out Friday to see the first soccer match since the downfall of Saddam and to cheer Hamoudi -- Iraq's greatest star and long considered one of the Arab world's best goalies, fresh from years in exile.
"This is a happy day, a new day for Iraq and Iraqi soccer," said Hamoudi, who captained the 1986 national World Cup squad before he was forced to flee to Jordan to escape Saddam's regime.
Now in his 40s, Hamoudi is helping reorganize Iraq's soccer federation and prepare it for international play -- including qualifying games for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
"That's why today's game is so important," he said. "It shows the world that we will be able to take part in that competition."
Still, Friday's exhibition game had as much to do with inspiring morale as warming up the teams. "Welcome back, Judge!" fans shouted at Hamoudi, using his nickname and clearly thrilled to see him.
The boisterous crowd beat drums and blew horns. Many waved the flags of their favorite team: blue and white for al-Zawra, and green for al-Shurta -- or Police -- the great goalie's former team.
At halftime, Iraqi athletes, including one woman, entertained the audience with a taekwondo demonstration, flipping one another on the playing field.
Iraq's U.S.- and British-led administration sent troops to guard the match, billed as a symbolic fresh start and a sign of the return to normality in Baghdad, ravaged by waves of looting and arson since Saddam's ouster last month.
A squad of U.S. infantrymen watched discreetly from the cool shade of a hallway at the edge of the field.
The world soccer community has welcomed the end of the war and said it wants to get soccer-mad Iraq reintegrated into international competitions as soon as possible. Most of the country's stadiums were looted and much of the equipment, including players' gear, was stolen.
Earlier this month, world soccer's ruling body, FIFA, decided to send experts to Iraq to review the condition of its stadiums. The international association also plans to help Iraq restart its 20-team domestic league and prepare the national team for international tournaments.
"My experience in the Arab world is that soccer is far more important than politics," said John Sawers, Britain's special representative for Iraq. "The fact that people are getting back out to play soccer -- it's another sign that people are re-establishing normal lives in this country."
Soccer is by far the most popular sport in this country of 24 million people, and the national team was considered a regional powerhouse in the 1980s. The game also is seen as one of the few unifying forces in a nation made up of rival religious and ethnic groups.
On Friday, al-Zawra's 10,000-seat stadium in downtown Baghdad was nearly full well before the start of the match -- a hero's welcome for Hamoudi.
The goalie left Iraq in 1988 when he quarreled with Saddam's son Odai, who headed the country's athletic bodies.
Many have said Odai, who also oversaw Iraq's Olympic Committee, punished and even tortured athletes who failed to perform to his standards. He disappeared along with many other top officials ahead of advancing coalition forces.
Given Baghdad's soaring temperatures Friday, the pitch was surprisingly green. Referees had to stop several times to push back the crowds on the sidelines.
Play was brisk until about midway through the match as the out-of-practice players wilted in the heat. Al-Shurta defeated al-Zawra 2-1 -- with all the scoring in the first half.
Mahmud Barakat, a defender who also plays on the national team, squandered al-Zawra's last chance just moments before the final whistle when his volley grazed the crossbar.
"What can you expect from professional players who are paid $100 a month and who cannot even eat normally to keep their strength up?" Barakat said after the game. "It will require much than happy words to get Iraqi soccer back to what it was in the 1980s."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-soccers-back,0,3764717.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
U.S. Plans Inspection of Iraq Nuke Site
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Updates
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U.S. Plans Inspection of Iraq Nuke Site
--------------------
By DAFNA LINZER
Associated Press Writer
May 16, 2003, 1:53 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A team of Americans is preparing to assess damage at Iraq's largest nuclear facility, the U.S. military announced Friday, weeks after the site was plundered by looters.
The U.S. handling of the dormant Tuwaitha plant, once considered the heart of Saddam Hussein's nuclear ambitions, has drawn criticism from international experts angered that scavengers and villagers have been able to enter the complex and tamper with radioactive materials stored there.
Military planners overseeing the U.S.-led weapons search in Iraq have said they didn't anticipate the looting and are unable to tell what is missing from Tuwaitha or many other suspected weapons sites.
The United States chose to conduct its weapons hunt alone, without help from U.N. inspectors who, in the run up to the war, did not find evidence that Iraq had the kind of unconventional weapons Washington says it went to war to destroy.
Saddam's regime maintained for years that it no longer had weapons of mass destruction. So far, U.S. weapons hunters also have not found any chemical or biological weapons or conclusive evidence that such programs existed in recent years.
Since the war began March 20, U.S. teams have been scouring Iraq for any sign of such weapons, visiting more than 70 suspected sites.
A survey team from the U.S. military has visited Tuwaitha, 30 miles outside Baghdad, but it didn't enter the site. A treaty signed by the United States gives the International Atomic Energy Agency exclusive legal authority to inspect the facility.
Tuwaitha hasn't been operational for years. The Iraqis used it to store declared nuclear materials that were sealed by the U.N. nuclear agency.
According to a statement issued Friday by U.S. Central Command, a nuclear team operating under the U.S. Army's V Corps "will soon begin a detailed assessment of the former Iraqi nuclear facility at Tuwaitha."
The statement did not specify when the assessment, which will review "the quantity and condition of the nuclear material stored there," would take place. But it said the Army's nuclear disablement team, which includes 11 soldiers trained in nuclear physics, engineering and radiation safety, "will not compromise any IAEA seals that remain in place."
Disturbing the silver-dollar-sized seals -- which carry a unique, fingerprint-like code that reveals tampering -- could be a violation of the atomic energy treaty the IAEA enforces.
David Albright, an U.S. nuclear expert who worked as a weapons inspector in Iraq during the 1990s, welcomed the assessment but said it should be conducted by the IAEA.
"Assessing the status of nuclear material at Tuwaitha is urgent to determining what nuclear material is missing and to ensure that remaining material is safely stored and adequately protected against theft or diversion," he said.
But he said the IAEA was the best choice for the job because its experts are "long familiar with Tuwaitha and the nuclear material at this site."
Mark Gwozdecky, a spokesman for the Vienna-based IAEA, said the agency was not consulted about the U.S. assessment.
IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei, whose teams had been monitoring 2 tons of enriched uranium and several tons of natural and depleted uranium stored there, has been sharply critical of the U.S. handling of Tuwaitha.
In the early days of the war, he urged the U.S. military to secure the area; earlier this month he asked to let him send a mission to the facility. He hasn't received a response, officials said.
Aside from posing a health risk, the missing materials could be valuable to terrorists or scientists willing to work for rogue states or militant groups targeting the United States and its allies.
By the time U.S. troops began guarding the entrance to the facility, villagers had already removed storage barrels and dumped out contents matching the description of uranium oxide. They filled the barrels with drinking water, and some have since reported health problems.
Iraq has about 1,000 sites where radioactive materials are used in industry or medicine, but Tuwaitha, where Iraqis worked on the final design of a nuclear bomb before the 1991 Gulf War, has drawn the most concern.
The Central Command statement said U.S. forces were continuing efforts "to improve security at the site and are working with former facility employees to communicate the hazard the site poses to unwary trespassers."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-nuclear-site,0,2973712.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Updates
--------------------
U.S. Plans Inspection of Iraq Nuke Site
--------------------
By DAFNA LINZER
Associated Press Writer
May 16, 2003, 1:53 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A team of Americans is preparing to assess damage at Iraq's largest nuclear facility, the U.S. military announced Friday, weeks after the site was plundered by looters.
The U.S. handling of the dormant Tuwaitha plant, once considered the heart of Saddam Hussein's nuclear ambitions, has drawn criticism from international experts angered that scavengers and villagers have been able to enter the complex and tamper with radioactive materials stored there.
Military planners overseeing the U.S.-led weapons search in Iraq have said they didn't anticipate the looting and are unable to tell what is missing from Tuwaitha or many other suspected weapons sites.
The United States chose to conduct its weapons hunt alone, without help from U.N. inspectors who, in the run up to the war, did not find evidence that Iraq had the kind of unconventional weapons Washington says it went to war to destroy.
Saddam's regime maintained for years that it no longer had weapons of mass destruction. So far, U.S. weapons hunters also have not found any chemical or biological weapons or conclusive evidence that such programs existed in recent years.
Since the war began March 20, U.S. teams have been scouring Iraq for any sign of such weapons, visiting more than 70 suspected sites.
A survey team from the U.S. military has visited Tuwaitha, 30 miles outside Baghdad, but it didn't enter the site. A treaty signed by the United States gives the International Atomic Energy Agency exclusive legal authority to inspect the facility.
Tuwaitha hasn't been operational for years. The Iraqis used it to store declared nuclear materials that were sealed by the U.N. nuclear agency.
According to a statement issued Friday by U.S. Central Command, a nuclear team operating under the U.S. Army's V Corps "will soon begin a detailed assessment of the former Iraqi nuclear facility at Tuwaitha."
The statement did not specify when the assessment, which will review "the quantity and condition of the nuclear material stored there," would take place. But it said the Army's nuclear disablement team, which includes 11 soldiers trained in nuclear physics, engineering and radiation safety, "will not compromise any IAEA seals that remain in place."
Disturbing the silver-dollar-sized seals -- which carry a unique, fingerprint-like code that reveals tampering -- could be a violation of the atomic energy treaty the IAEA enforces.
David Albright, an U.S. nuclear expert who worked as a weapons inspector in Iraq during the 1990s, welcomed the assessment but said it should be conducted by the IAEA.
"Assessing the status of nuclear material at Tuwaitha is urgent to determining what nuclear material is missing and to ensure that remaining material is safely stored and adequately protected against theft or diversion," he said.
But he said the IAEA was the best choice for the job because its experts are "long familiar with Tuwaitha and the nuclear material at this site."
Mark Gwozdecky, a spokesman for the Vienna-based IAEA, said the agency was not consulted about the U.S. assessment.
IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei, whose teams had been monitoring 2 tons of enriched uranium and several tons of natural and depleted uranium stored there, has been sharply critical of the U.S. handling of Tuwaitha.
In the early days of the war, he urged the U.S. military to secure the area; earlier this month he asked to let him send a mission to the facility. He hasn't received a response, officials said.
Aside from posing a health risk, the missing materials could be valuable to terrorists or scientists willing to work for rogue states or militant groups targeting the United States and its allies.
By the time U.S. troops began guarding the entrance to the facility, villagers had already removed storage barrels and dumped out contents matching the description of uranium oxide. They filled the barrels with drinking water, and some have since reported health problems.
Iraq has about 1,000 sites where radioactive materials are used in industry or medicine, but Tuwaitha, where Iraqis worked on the final design of a nuclear bomb before the 1991 Gulf War, has drawn the most concern.
The Central Command statement said U.S. forces were continuing efforts "to improve security at the site and are working with former facility employees to communicate the hazard the site poses to unwary trespassers."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-nuclear-site,0,2973712.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Yahoo! News Story - Shiite leader in Baghdad warns women, alcohol sellers, cinemas
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Shiite leader in Baghdad warns women, alcohol sellers, cinemas
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Most Looted Cash Is Recovered in Iraq
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
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Most Looted Cash Is Recovered in Iraq
--------------------
By SLOBODAN LEKIC
Associated Press Writer
May 16, 2003, 9:16 AM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. officials believe they have recovered most of the $1 billion taken from Iraq's central bank by one of Saddam Hussein's sons before the regime's collapse.
A total of $950 million -- $850 million in U.S. currency and another $100 million in euros -- were found by U.S.-led coalition troops in 191 boxes hidden in government palaces throughout Baghdad, U.S. Treasury officials said Thursday.
On March 18 -- before coalition aerial strikes began -- Saddam's youngest son Qusai ordered a central bank official to give him $1 billion in cash from Iraq's foreign exchange reserves. The 236 boxes were loaded onto three tractor-trailers. Identification certificates slipped into each box were still there when the money was found, Treasury officials said in Washington. They are still searching for 45 boxes.
"We are making good progress in finding funds," Treasury Undersecretary John Taylor said, adding that the money, along with other seized Iraqi government assets, will likely be devoted to the reconstruction effort.
Lebanon's Central Bank has frozen millions of dollars in other Iraqi assets but will return them only after a "legitimate" government is formed in Baghdad, bank Governor Riyadh Salameh said Friday. Salameh did not disclose the amount, but a U.S. Treasury official said $495 million was found in secret bank accounts in Lebanon.
Also Friday, a senior U.S. official said between 15,000 and 30,000 Baath Party officials would be banned from any future Iraqi government. The official from the U.S. Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the new policy would help Iraq move on from the legacy of Saddam's regime.
Reconstruction officials are trying to get Iraq's ministries and civil service working again, and are struggling to make sure they purge Saddam sympathizers without gutting the entire bureaucracy.
The order, signed by U.S. civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer, intends to bar Baathists from the party's top four echelons from any public position -- whether in universities, hospitals or minor government posts.
About 50 women rallied Friday in a central square in Baghdad to urge U.S. authorities to include women in the interim administration. Likely to be formed next month, the administration's first task will be to begin reconstructing a country ravaged by war and more than a decade of U.N. sanctions.
"We want to show the world that Saddam was a criminal and committed crimes against Iraqi women," said Rahbiya al-Gassab, a member of the Iraqi Women's League.
Iraq's reconstruction will top the agenda when U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow meets in Deauville, France, this weekend with his counterparts from the world's seven richest industrial countries and Russia.
Washington wants to use those talks to resolve differences with France, Germany and Russia -- three countries that opposed the U.S.-led war -- over how reconstruction will proceed.
The Bush administration also has been stepping up the pressure to obtain a U.N. Security Council resolution to immediately lift sanctions against Iraq.
Russia and France want sanctions suspended -- not lifted -- because Security Council resolutions call for U.N. inspectors to certify that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have been eliminated. Since the end of the war, the United States has barred U.N. inspectors.
The United States has revised its U.N. draft resolution -- but did not significantly change two key concerns of many council members: the limited U.N. role and powerful position of the United States and Britain as occupying powers. The resolution would also end U.N. control over the country's oil wealth and allow the United States to use the money for Iraq's reconstruction.
"There are some things that are positive," said Fayssal Mekdad, the deputy U.N. ambassador of Syria, also a Security Council member. "But the most sensitive issues are still here."
Bremer says U.S. authorities will improve security by rounding up thousands of criminals turned loose in March by the old regime. He reported 300 arrests in the previous 48 hours.
Bremer takes over from retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, whose administration was criticized for failing to stem the breakdown in law and order and to restore basic services in Baghdad and other cities.
Bremer's team now includes former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who said he has accepted a position as a senior policy adviser to Iraq's Interior Ministry. A former undercover narcotics detective, Kerik led the New York police force through the Sept. 11 attacks.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-rdp,0,6900030.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
--------------------
Most Looted Cash Is Recovered in Iraq
--------------------
By SLOBODAN LEKIC
Associated Press Writer
May 16, 2003, 9:16 AM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. officials believe they have recovered most of the $1 billion taken from Iraq's central bank by one of Saddam Hussein's sons before the regime's collapse.
A total of $950 million -- $850 million in U.S. currency and another $100 million in euros -- were found by U.S.-led coalition troops in 191 boxes hidden in government palaces throughout Baghdad, U.S. Treasury officials said Thursday.
On March 18 -- before coalition aerial strikes began -- Saddam's youngest son Qusai ordered a central bank official to give him $1 billion in cash from Iraq's foreign exchange reserves. The 236 boxes were loaded onto three tractor-trailers. Identification certificates slipped into each box were still there when the money was found, Treasury officials said in Washington. They are still searching for 45 boxes.
"We are making good progress in finding funds," Treasury Undersecretary John Taylor said, adding that the money, along with other seized Iraqi government assets, will likely be devoted to the reconstruction effort.
Lebanon's Central Bank has frozen millions of dollars in other Iraqi assets but will return them only after a "legitimate" government is formed in Baghdad, bank Governor Riyadh Salameh said Friday. Salameh did not disclose the amount, but a U.S. Treasury official said $495 million was found in secret bank accounts in Lebanon.
Also Friday, a senior U.S. official said between 15,000 and 30,000 Baath Party officials would be banned from any future Iraqi government. The official from the U.S. Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the new policy would help Iraq move on from the legacy of Saddam's regime.
Reconstruction officials are trying to get Iraq's ministries and civil service working again, and are struggling to make sure they purge Saddam sympathizers without gutting the entire bureaucracy.
The order, signed by U.S. civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer, intends to bar Baathists from the party's top four echelons from any public position -- whether in universities, hospitals or minor government posts.
About 50 women rallied Friday in a central square in Baghdad to urge U.S. authorities to include women in the interim administration. Likely to be formed next month, the administration's first task will be to begin reconstructing a country ravaged by war and more than a decade of U.N. sanctions.
"We want to show the world that Saddam was a criminal and committed crimes against Iraqi women," said Rahbiya al-Gassab, a member of the Iraqi Women's League.
Iraq's reconstruction will top the agenda when U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow meets in Deauville, France, this weekend with his counterparts from the world's seven richest industrial countries and Russia.
Washington wants to use those talks to resolve differences with France, Germany and Russia -- three countries that opposed the U.S.-led war -- over how reconstruction will proceed.
The Bush administration also has been stepping up the pressure to obtain a U.N. Security Council resolution to immediately lift sanctions against Iraq.
Russia and France want sanctions suspended -- not lifted -- because Security Council resolutions call for U.N. inspectors to certify that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have been eliminated. Since the end of the war, the United States has barred U.N. inspectors.
The United States has revised its U.N. draft resolution -- but did not significantly change two key concerns of many council members: the limited U.N. role and powerful position of the United States and Britain as occupying powers. The resolution would also end U.N. control over the country's oil wealth and allow the United States to use the money for Iraq's reconstruction.
"There are some things that are positive," said Fayssal Mekdad, the deputy U.N. ambassador of Syria, also a Security Council member. "But the most sensitive issues are still here."
Bremer says U.S. authorities will improve security by rounding up thousands of criminals turned loose in March by the old regime. He reported 300 arrests in the previous 48 hours.
Bremer takes over from retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, whose administration was criticized for failing to stem the breakdown in law and order and to restore basic services in Baghdad and other cities.
Bremer's team now includes former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who said he has accepted a position as a senior policy adviser to Iraq's Interior Ministry. A former undercover narcotics detective, Kerik led the New York police force through the Sept. 11 attacks.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-rdp,0,6900030.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Army Begins Soldiers' Adjustment Program
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
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Army Begins Soldiers' Adjustment Program
--------------------
By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press Writer
May 16, 2003, 9:52 AM EDT
FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- A series of slayings of soldiers' wives at Fort Bragg last summer shocked the nation, triggering fears that troops returning from Afghanistan were having difficulty readjusting to being home.
The Army, hoping to ensure soldiers who served in Iraq don't face similar stresses, has implemented a new mandatory program designed to ease the transition to spouses and stateside life. The fort sent 20,000 soldiers from its conventional forces to either Iraq or Afghanistan at the height of the buildup in southwest Asia.
Under the new Deployment Cycle Support program, soldiers who used to get two weeks' vacation upon returning home must now remain on duty for an additional four or five days, during which they must complete certain tasks.
Those include attending meetings to get tips on how to manage the transition and discussions on how to reconnect emotionally with spouses and children who may not remember the absent parent. Spouses are encouraged to attend some meetings.
"We want to get them back here, get them some time to recoup, get them to spend some time with their family and community, and restore them to what we call the normal Fort Bragg pace of life," said Maj. Mike Charles, a chaplain with Special Operations Support Command.
The pilot program was created after four Fort Bragg wives were allegedly killed at the hands of their soldier husbands. In three of the killings, the men involved were soldiers recently returned from duty in Afghanistan. The fourth soldier hadn't been deployed.
"It makes us just that much more safer. Nobody wants to have what happened last year," said Sgt. Troy Sullivan, among 1,200 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division who came home over the past week. "You never know what a soldier can do coming back from an environment like that."
The killings prompted a report last fall that stopped short of drawing a direct connection between the service in Afghanistan and the killings. But it acknowledged that, once the cheering and flag-waving of the return is over, it can be hard on a soldier to go from shooting machine guns to changing diapers and paying the bills.
"As America's sons and daughters return from worldwide deployments, we want to help soldiers reintegrate with their loved ones, families and communities," said the Army's Director of Human Resources, Brig. Gen. Steven P. Schook.
Charles and other chaplains spent 40 hours training for the new program. The Army also has a toll-free phone number that soldiers can call to talk about personal issues confidentially.
During the transition period, commanding officers are urged to talk frankly with and keep an eye on their soldiers to determine whether they're having problems.
The program has already begun in the Persian Gulf region, where troops are being questioned in their units to see if they have alcohol problems, depression, suicidal thoughts, financial issues or other factors that might hurt their ability to fit back into civilian society.
Back home, chaplains visit individually with soldiers very soon after they get off the plane to check for trouble. The signs may not always be clear.
"They look a little teary, they look out of sorts. They may be shifty," Charles said. In the days ahead, some soldiers may show more subtle signs -- skipping some required events, for example.
"That becomes a possible red flag," he said.
Army leaders are learning that, just as soldiers and their families prepare for deployments, they needed a structured way to re-enter the homefront, said Lt. Col. Spencer Campbell, a behavioral science officer with the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg.
"Deployment is a process, and we prepare people by giving them confidence in their equipment, confidence in themselves," he said. "Redeployment is a process. We want to help folks recognize that."
* __
On the Net:
Army Family Liaison Office: http://www.aflo.org/home.asp
Fort Bragg: http://www.bragg.army.mil
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-bragg-coming-home,0,2594264.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
--------------------
Army Begins Soldiers' Adjustment Program
--------------------
By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press Writer
May 16, 2003, 9:52 AM EDT
FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- A series of slayings of soldiers' wives at Fort Bragg last summer shocked the nation, triggering fears that troops returning from Afghanistan were having difficulty readjusting to being home.
The Army, hoping to ensure soldiers who served in Iraq don't face similar stresses, has implemented a new mandatory program designed to ease the transition to spouses and stateside life. The fort sent 20,000 soldiers from its conventional forces to either Iraq or Afghanistan at the height of the buildup in southwest Asia.
Under the new Deployment Cycle Support program, soldiers who used to get two weeks' vacation upon returning home must now remain on duty for an additional four or five days, during which they must complete certain tasks.
Those include attending meetings to get tips on how to manage the transition and discussions on how to reconnect emotionally with spouses and children who may not remember the absent parent. Spouses are encouraged to attend some meetings.
"We want to get them back here, get them some time to recoup, get them to spend some time with their family and community, and restore them to what we call the normal Fort Bragg pace of life," said Maj. Mike Charles, a chaplain with Special Operations Support Command.
The pilot program was created after four Fort Bragg wives were allegedly killed at the hands of their soldier husbands. In three of the killings, the men involved were soldiers recently returned from duty in Afghanistan. The fourth soldier hadn't been deployed.
"It makes us just that much more safer. Nobody wants to have what happened last year," said Sgt. Troy Sullivan, among 1,200 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division who came home over the past week. "You never know what a soldier can do coming back from an environment like that."
The killings prompted a report last fall that stopped short of drawing a direct connection between the service in Afghanistan and the killings. But it acknowledged that, once the cheering and flag-waving of the return is over, it can be hard on a soldier to go from shooting machine guns to changing diapers and paying the bills.
"As America's sons and daughters return from worldwide deployments, we want to help soldiers reintegrate with their loved ones, families and communities," said the Army's Director of Human Resources, Brig. Gen. Steven P. Schook.
Charles and other chaplains spent 40 hours training for the new program. The Army also has a toll-free phone number that soldiers can call to talk about personal issues confidentially.
During the transition period, commanding officers are urged to talk frankly with and keep an eye on their soldiers to determine whether they're having problems.
The program has already begun in the Persian Gulf region, where troops are being questioned in their units to see if they have alcohol problems, depression, suicidal thoughts, financial issues or other factors that might hurt their ability to fit back into civilian society.
Back home, chaplains visit individually with soldiers very soon after they get off the plane to check for trouble. The signs may not always be clear.
"They look a little teary, they look out of sorts. They may be shifty," Charles said. In the days ahead, some soldiers may show more subtle signs -- skipping some required events, for example.
"That becomes a possible red flag," he said.
Army leaders are learning that, just as soldiers and their families prepare for deployments, they needed a structured way to re-enter the homefront, said Lt. Col. Spencer Campbell, a behavioral science officer with the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg.
"Deployment is a process, and we prepare people by giving them confidence in their equipment, confidence in themselves," he said. "Redeployment is a process. We want to help folks recognize that."
* __
On the Net:
Army Family Liaison Office: http://www.aflo.org/home.asp
Fort Bragg: http://www.bragg.army.mil
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-bragg-coming-home,0,2594264.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Thursday, May 15, 2003
Yahoo! News Story - U.S. Forces Arrest 260 in Iraq Raid
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U.S. Soldier Buried at Arlington Cemetery
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Updates
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U.S. Soldier Buried at Arlington Cemetery
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 15, 2003, 3:17 PM EDT
ARLINGTON, Va. -- The oldest American casualty of the war in Iraq was buried Thursday with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
Sgt. 1st Class John Marshall, 50, was killed April 8 when he was hit by an Iraqi rocket-propelled grenade during an enemy ambush in Baghdad.
Marshall's wife, Denise, accepted a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart on her husband's behalf. His mother, Odessa Mitchell, 80, also attended the funeral.
Marshall grew up in Los Angeles and enlisted in the Army when he was 18. He was stationed in South Korea and Germany, and most recently was based at Fort Stewart in Hinesville, Ga. He was part of the 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division.
Memorial services for Marshall were held April 26 in Baghdad and April 30 at Fort Stewart.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-soldier-funeral,0,4244239.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Updates
--------------------
U.S. Soldier Buried at Arlington Cemetery
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 15, 2003, 3:17 PM EDT
ARLINGTON, Va. -- The oldest American casualty of the war in Iraq was buried Thursday with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
Sgt. 1st Class John Marshall, 50, was killed April 8 when he was hit by an Iraqi rocket-propelled grenade during an enemy ambush in Baghdad.
Marshall's wife, Denise, accepted a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart on her husband's behalf. His mother, Odessa Mitchell, 80, also attended the funeral.
Marshall grew up in Los Angeles and enlisted in the Army when he was 18. He was stationed in South Korea and Germany, and most recently was based at Fort Stewart in Hinesville, Ga. He was part of the 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division.
Memorial services for Marshall were held April 26 in Baghdad and April 30 at Fort Stewart.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-soldier-funeral,0,4244239.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Iranian Group Says Tehran Has Bioweapons
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Blog Iraq War Updates
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Iranian Group Says Tehran Has Bioweapons
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By Associated Press
May 15, 2003, 4:42 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- An Iranian opposition group claimed Thursday that Tehran has developed biological weapons, including some that could infect people with smallpox.
Representatives of the National Council of Resistance of Iran cited clandestine sources inside the Iranian government but provided no other evidence. They accused Iranian officials of also possessing weapons that could use anthrax, plague and several other poisons and diseases.
"They can use it in a very, very deadly manner that can inflict heavy and widespread human damage," said Alireza Jafarzadeh during a news conference.
Officials with the resistance movement specified labs, companies, military organizations and leaders they said were involved.
American intelligence officials have said Iran probably has a biological weapons program but have described it as probably much more limited in scope. A recent U.S. assessment on smallpox did not list Iran as one of the countries possessing samples of the disease.
U.S. officials have said some of the resistance group's earlier claims have been validated, particularly its allegations on Iranian nuclear programs, but other claims have been disputed.
Iran is part of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention prohibiting such weapons.
The U.S. government has labeled the National Council of Resistance of Iran as a terrorist organization, but allows it to operate freely in Washington. Officials with the group, who say the terrorist label is a U.S. attempt to appease elements within the Iranian government, are trying to have it removed.
A member group, the Mujahedeen Khalq, received support from the government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. It has begun turning in its weapons under a U.S. surrender agreement reached after American forces ordered it to lay down arms or face attack.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iran-opposition-group,0,4922650.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Blog Iraq War Updates
--------------------
Iranian Group Says Tehran Has Bioweapons
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 15, 2003, 4:42 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- An Iranian opposition group claimed Thursday that Tehran has developed biological weapons, including some that could infect people with smallpox.
Representatives of the National Council of Resistance of Iran cited clandestine sources inside the Iranian government but provided no other evidence. They accused Iranian officials of also possessing weapons that could use anthrax, plague and several other poisons and diseases.
"They can use it in a very, very deadly manner that can inflict heavy and widespread human damage," said Alireza Jafarzadeh during a news conference.
Officials with the resistance movement specified labs, companies, military organizations and leaders they said were involved.
American intelligence officials have said Iran probably has a biological weapons program but have described it as probably much more limited in scope. A recent U.S. assessment on smallpox did not list Iran as one of the countries possessing samples of the disease.
U.S. officials have said some of the resistance group's earlier claims have been validated, particularly its allegations on Iranian nuclear programs, but other claims have been disputed.
Iran is part of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention prohibiting such weapons.
The U.S. government has labeled the National Council of Resistance of Iran as a terrorist organization, but allows it to operate freely in Washington. Officials with the group, who say the terrorist label is a U.S. attempt to appease elements within the Iranian government, are trying to have it removed.
A member group, the Mujahedeen Khalq, received support from the government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. It has begun turning in its weapons under a U.S. surrender agreement reached after American forces ordered it to lay down arms or face attack.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iran-opposition-group,0,4922650.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Iraqi Town Still Tense After U.S. Row
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Updates
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Iraqi Town Still Tense After U.S. Row
--------------------
By NIKO PRICE
Associated Press Writer
May 15, 2003, 12:49 PM EDT
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Two weeks after the last confrontation here with U.S. troops, some residents still want the Americans out -- and the Americans say they have no plans to go.
Convoys of Humvees file slowly down the main boulevard, with gunners scanning the marketplaces. Iraqis scowl as they drive by, but do little else.
"The tension is really starting to ease up," said Staff Sgt. Steven Story, 40, of Clinton, Ark. "We still get some gestures that are not so polite, but for the most part people are happy to see us here."
Story is part of a U.S. military police contingent based in Fallujah, where protests against the Army's presence turned violent last month. U.S. soldiers fired on crowds on April 28 and April 30, killing 18 Iraqis and wounding at least 78.
The soldiers said they were defending themselves and that members of the crowd fired first, but Iraqis said no shots were fired at the Americans. No Americans were wounded by gunfire.
Hours after the second shooting, unidentified attackers lobbed two grenades into the U.S. compound, wounding seven soldiers.
At the time, many residents of Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, complained the Americans were not respecting Muslim religious customs, and many men said the troops were ogling local women. Those complaints persist.
"We are religious people," said Karim Kadhem, 42, a government worker. "We suspect the Americans are wearing glasses that let them see under women's clothes."
But Mayor Taha Bedaiwi al-Alwani said the Americans have become better at respecting local customs.
"Our relationship is getting better, because of the mutual understanding between the Americans and the people of Fallujah, and the Americans' acceptance of the city's conservative religious beliefs," he said.
He said people also appreciate the free gasoline distributed by the Americans, and have grown to understand that there will be no security in the streets without the military presence. He blamed last month's trouble on supporters of the former government of Saddam Hussein.
Some in Fallujah still bristle at the U.S. presence.
Graffiti on the wall of the 28th of April School -- named for Saddam's birthday -- urged residents to rise up.
"Defend yourselves. Defend your honor," it said. "Your pride was lost, and it will not be restored until you wage holy war. What are you waiting for? Until the Americans enter your houses and see your women?"
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-fallujah,0,498324.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Updates
--------------------
Iraqi Town Still Tense After U.S. Row
--------------------
By NIKO PRICE
Associated Press Writer
May 15, 2003, 12:49 PM EDT
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Two weeks after the last confrontation here with U.S. troops, some residents still want the Americans out -- and the Americans say they have no plans to go.
Convoys of Humvees file slowly down the main boulevard, with gunners scanning the marketplaces. Iraqis scowl as they drive by, but do little else.
"The tension is really starting to ease up," said Staff Sgt. Steven Story, 40, of Clinton, Ark. "We still get some gestures that are not so polite, but for the most part people are happy to see us here."
Story is part of a U.S. military police contingent based in Fallujah, where protests against the Army's presence turned violent last month. U.S. soldiers fired on crowds on April 28 and April 30, killing 18 Iraqis and wounding at least 78.
The soldiers said they were defending themselves and that members of the crowd fired first, but Iraqis said no shots were fired at the Americans. No Americans were wounded by gunfire.
Hours after the second shooting, unidentified attackers lobbed two grenades into the U.S. compound, wounding seven soldiers.
At the time, many residents of Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, complained the Americans were not respecting Muslim religious customs, and many men said the troops were ogling local women. Those complaints persist.
"We are religious people," said Karim Kadhem, 42, a government worker. "We suspect the Americans are wearing glasses that let them see under women's clothes."
But Mayor Taha Bedaiwi al-Alwani said the Americans have become better at respecting local customs.
"Our relationship is getting better, because of the mutual understanding between the Americans and the people of Fallujah, and the Americans' acceptance of the city's conservative religious beliefs," he said.
He said people also appreciate the free gasoline distributed by the Americans, and have grown to understand that there will be no security in the streets without the military presence. He blamed last month's trouble on supporters of the former government of Saddam Hussein.
Some in Fallujah still bristle at the U.S. presence.
Graffiti on the wall of the 28th of April School -- named for Saddam's birthday -- urged residents to rise up.
"Defend yourselves. Defend your honor," it said. "Your pride was lost, and it will not be restored until you wage holy war. What are you waiting for? Until the Americans enter your houses and see your women?"
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-fallujah,0,498324.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Yahoo! News Story - U.S. Takes 260 Prisoners in Iraq Raid
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Army Tries to Ease Soldiers' Return
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
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Army Tries to Ease Soldiers' Return
--------------------
By PAULINE JELINEK
Associated Press Writer
May 15, 2003, 7:21 AM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Soldiers coming home from Iraq will get counseling, marital advice and other help in a new Army program aimed at easing their transition from the bloodshed and stress of war back to life in America.
The military is trying to prevent tragedies such as occurred last summer when three men from Army commando units at a North Carolina base killed their wives after serving in the counterterror war in Afghanistan. A fourth wife also was killed at the base, Fort Bragg, all in the span of six weeks.
"We have people who have gone through some tough stuff," Brig. Gen. Steven P. Schook of the Army's human resources office said of the war in Iraq.
"Part of the message ... is that you've been through something extraordinary," Army psychologist Lt. Col. Charles S. Milliken said at a news conference Wednesday with Schook.
"Every person who has been through it and every family that has been through it ought to have some kind of reaction to it. And that's OK," he said. "And if you need some extra help, that's OK too."
Troops returning from the Persian Gulf will get mandatory training on how to fit back into marriages and families that may have changed during their absence. They and spouses will answer questionnaires to help assess their marriages. Those who feel they need it also can call a toll-free hot line to talk confidentially about marriage or other things troubling them -- and get up to six counseling sessions for their problems.
The program is expected to become ready at military bases as troops return. Already, it has begun in the Persian Gulf region, where troops are being questioned in their units to see if they have alcohol problems, depression, suicidal thoughts, financial issues or other factors that might hurt their ability to fit back into civilian society.
All services have had some types of readjustment assistance for some time. Army soldiers, who get "more up close and personal" on the battlefield, tend to be more at risk for problems, Schook said.
The Army has had programs through the chaplain's office, family advocacy services and home bases, but they have not always been used fully, he said.
"Folks hesitate to come forward and get help," Milliken said.
And, until now, programs have been neither required nor uniform across the entire Army. The hot line has been tried at Fort Bragg and a couple of other bases since the deaths last year. It is expected to be available service-wide around June 1.
Some soldiers may have a parent who died while they were away, or a spouse who started divorce proceedings in their absence.
"They may find if they've been gone six months to a year that their wife may have exerted a greater role in running the household," Schook said. "The kids have adjusted to the wife's new role in that household. So as they come back they are going to find a different set of conditions within that home."
While they are being trained on how to handle such developments, officials are working with families as well to give spouses the skills needed for the reunion or with information on how to spot problems.
Part of the reason for the expanded program is to make sure units that suffered a significant number of casualties in Iraq do not go home without proper help. But the program is not just for them, but for all Army active and reserve troops, as well as civilian defense employees and family members who want it.
The killings at Fort Bragg forced the Army to take a hard look at the culture of its elite soldiers and programs aimed at helping them.
On June 11, a Special Forces soldier shot his wife and then himself two days after he returned from Afghanistan. Later that month, police allege, another Special Forces soldier killed his wife; weeks later, he led authorities to her body.
On July 19, another, reportedly a member of the super-secret Delta Force, shot his wife and then himself. A fourth soldier, an 18th Airborne Corps member who had not been to Afghanistan, was charged with stabbing his wife.
A study later said the couples probably had pre-existing marital problems that were aggravated by the separation of deployments.
Schook said the killings were a factor in augmenting the programs, as were changing demographics. Reservists who must return to civilian jobs are relied on more than ever. More than 50 percent of troops are married. Also, they have an average of 2.1 children today compared with 1.5 in the 1980s.
* __
On the net
Army background: http://www.armyg1.army.mil/default.asp?pageid101f.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-coming-home,0,1935452.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
--------------------
Army Tries to Ease Soldiers' Return
--------------------
By PAULINE JELINEK
Associated Press Writer
May 15, 2003, 7:21 AM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Soldiers coming home from Iraq will get counseling, marital advice and other help in a new Army program aimed at easing their transition from the bloodshed and stress of war back to life in America.
The military is trying to prevent tragedies such as occurred last summer when three men from Army commando units at a North Carolina base killed their wives after serving in the counterterror war in Afghanistan. A fourth wife also was killed at the base, Fort Bragg, all in the span of six weeks.
"We have people who have gone through some tough stuff," Brig. Gen. Steven P. Schook of the Army's human resources office said of the war in Iraq.
"Part of the message ... is that you've been through something extraordinary," Army psychologist Lt. Col. Charles S. Milliken said at a news conference Wednesday with Schook.
"Every person who has been through it and every family that has been through it ought to have some kind of reaction to it. And that's OK," he said. "And if you need some extra help, that's OK too."
Troops returning from the Persian Gulf will get mandatory training on how to fit back into marriages and families that may have changed during their absence. They and spouses will answer questionnaires to help assess their marriages. Those who feel they need it also can call a toll-free hot line to talk confidentially about marriage or other things troubling them -- and get up to six counseling sessions for their problems.
The program is expected to become ready at military bases as troops return. Already, it has begun in the Persian Gulf region, where troops are being questioned in their units to see if they have alcohol problems, depression, suicidal thoughts, financial issues or other factors that might hurt their ability to fit back into civilian society.
All services have had some types of readjustment assistance for some time. Army soldiers, who get "more up close and personal" on the battlefield, tend to be more at risk for problems, Schook said.
The Army has had programs through the chaplain's office, family advocacy services and home bases, but they have not always been used fully, he said.
"Folks hesitate to come forward and get help," Milliken said.
And, until now, programs have been neither required nor uniform across the entire Army. The hot line has been tried at Fort Bragg and a couple of other bases since the deaths last year. It is expected to be available service-wide around June 1.
Some soldiers may have a parent who died while they were away, or a spouse who started divorce proceedings in their absence.
"They may find if they've been gone six months to a year that their wife may have exerted a greater role in running the household," Schook said. "The kids have adjusted to the wife's new role in that household. So as they come back they are going to find a different set of conditions within that home."
While they are being trained on how to handle such developments, officials are working with families as well to give spouses the skills needed for the reunion or with information on how to spot problems.
Part of the reason for the expanded program is to make sure units that suffered a significant number of casualties in Iraq do not go home without proper help. But the program is not just for them, but for all Army active and reserve troops, as well as civilian defense employees and family members who want it.
The killings at Fort Bragg forced the Army to take a hard look at the culture of its elite soldiers and programs aimed at helping them.
On June 11, a Special Forces soldier shot his wife and then himself two days after he returned from Afghanistan. Later that month, police allege, another Special Forces soldier killed his wife; weeks later, he led authorities to her body.
On July 19, another, reportedly a member of the super-secret Delta Force, shot his wife and then himself. A fourth soldier, an 18th Airborne Corps member who had not been to Afghanistan, was charged with stabbing his wife.
A study later said the couples probably had pre-existing marital problems that were aggravated by the separation of deployments.
Schook said the killings were a factor in augmenting the programs, as were changing demographics. Reservists who must return to civilian jobs are relied on more than ever. More than 50 percent of troops are married. Also, they have an average of 2.1 children today compared with 1.5 in the 1980s.
* __
On the net
Army background: http://www.armyg1.army.mil/default.asp?pageid101f.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-coming-home,0,1935452.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
U.S. Forces Shoot Looter in Iraq
From: spliffslips
War Blog Updates
--------------------
U.S. Forces Shoot Looter in Iraq
--------------------
By PAULINE JELINEK
Associated Press Writer
May 15, 2003, 9:21 AM EDT
WASHINGTON -- A day after denying a shoot-to-kill policy against Iraqi looters, U.S. forces wounded a looter from a group they said fired on Americans.
Looters fired on 101st Airborne Assault Division soldiers Thursday morning in Mosul, said the U.S. Central Command. Soldiers returned fire on the looters, wounding one, and four others escaped, it said.
"Coalition forces continue to actively patrol Iraq to make it safe to conduct humanitarian assistance operations," Central Command said in a statement issued from the occupying force's offices in nearby Kuwait.
No U.S. casualties were reported, but the incident "highlights the dangerous nature" of the security job in Iraq weeks after the major combat ended, the statement said.
Under pressure to impose order on a still-lawless capital, U.S. military commanders Wednesday defended their approach to keeping Baghdad safe and said they were aggressively targeting looters. But they said they would not authorize a shoot-to-kill policy.
Maj. Gen. Buford Blount III, commander of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, said that people arrested for looting in the Iraqi capital are being held for about three weeks. Previously they had been held two days.
He said a total of 600 were currently detained at a holding facility at Baghdad International Airport. Those who committed a crime with the aid of a weapon would be detained until Iraq's judicial authorities are fully operational again and are able to take charge of them, he said.
Blount also said U.S. forces reserved the right to protect themselves against attacks and looters.
"We're not going to go out and shoot children that are picking up a piece of wood out of a factory and carrying it away or a bag of cement," he said. "Our soldiers have the right to defend themselves, and have. And if a looter is carrying a weapon and the soldier feels threatened, of course he is going to engage."
Pentagon officials said Thursday's shooting was the result not of a changed policy on looting but of a consistent policy on that right to self-defense.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-us-military,0,6523017.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
War Blog Updates
--------------------
U.S. Forces Shoot Looter in Iraq
--------------------
By PAULINE JELINEK
Associated Press Writer
May 15, 2003, 9:21 AM EDT
WASHINGTON -- A day after denying a shoot-to-kill policy against Iraqi looters, U.S. forces wounded a looter from a group they said fired on Americans.
Looters fired on 101st Airborne Assault Division soldiers Thursday morning in Mosul, said the U.S. Central Command. Soldiers returned fire on the looters, wounding one, and four others escaped, it said.
"Coalition forces continue to actively patrol Iraq to make it safe to conduct humanitarian assistance operations," Central Command said in a statement issued from the occupying force's offices in nearby Kuwait.
No U.S. casualties were reported, but the incident "highlights the dangerous nature" of the security job in Iraq weeks after the major combat ended, the statement said.
Under pressure to impose order on a still-lawless capital, U.S. military commanders Wednesday defended their approach to keeping Baghdad safe and said they were aggressively targeting looters. But they said they would not authorize a shoot-to-kill policy.
Maj. Gen. Buford Blount III, commander of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, said that people arrested for looting in the Iraqi capital are being held for about three weeks. Previously they had been held two days.
He said a total of 600 were currently detained at a holding facility at Baghdad International Airport. Those who committed a crime with the aid of a weapon would be detained until Iraq's judicial authorities are fully operational again and are able to take charge of them, he said.
Blount also said U.S. forces reserved the right to protect themselves against attacks and looters.
"We're not going to go out and shoot children that are picking up a piece of wood out of a factory and carrying it away or a bag of cement," he said. "Our soldiers have the right to defend themselves, and have. And if a looter is carrying a weapon and the soldier feels threatened, of course he is going to engage."
Pentagon officials said Thursday's shooting was the result not of a changed policy on looting but of a consistent policy on that right to self-defense.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-us-military,0,6523017.story
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NYTimes.com Article: New Army Rules on Ways to Cope With Civilian Life
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New Army Rules on Ways to Cope With Civilian Life
May 15, 2003
By ERIC SCHMITT
The Army announced a sweeping overhaul of how it will help
soldiers returning from combat duty and other overseas
tours to readjust to civilian society.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/15/national/15ARMY.html?ex=1054007030&ei=1&en=3174c00361a2d8e1
has been sent to you by spliffslips@aol.com.
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New Army Rules on Ways to Cope With Civilian Life
May 15, 2003
By ERIC SCHMITT
The Army announced a sweeping overhaul of how it will help
soldiers returning from combat duty and other overseas
tours to readjust to civilian society.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/15/national/15ARMY.html?ex=1054007030&ei=1&en=3174c00361a2d8e1
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
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Reuters.com - Saudis Vow to Make Al Qaeda - Wed May 14, 2003 10:03 AM ET
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Key Developments in Iraq
From: Patti Patton-Bader
Blog Updates
--------------------
Key Developments in Iraq
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 14, 2003, 8:53 AM EDT
Key developments concerning Iraq:
* More than 3,000 bodies have been retrieved or located in a mass grave during the past nine days, a doctor leading a group of people excavating the site said Wednesday. The victims were believed to have been killed as Saddam Hussein and his security apparatus stamped out a Shiite uprising following the 1991 Gulf War, Dr. Rafed Husseini said.
* Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister who returned to his native Iraq this month after 32 years in exile, said he blamed the United States for Iraq's persistent lawlessness and the failure to restore basic services a month after major combat ended.
* The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research used coalition-run Voice of New Iraq radio to call on people to return equipment and furniture that was looted from colleges and universities in the wake of the U.S. invasion.
* A military vehicle overturned in northern Iraq, killing a U.S. soldier with the 101st Airborne Division and injuring another, officers and witnesses at the scene said.
* A CBS News-New York Times poll found that 49 percent said the Bush administration overestimated the amount of mass destruction weapons in Iraq and 56 percent said the war will have been worth it even if the weapons are never found. The poll's margin of error was 3 points.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-developments,0,1256047.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Blog Updates
--------------------
Key Developments in Iraq
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 14, 2003, 8:53 AM EDT
Key developments concerning Iraq:
* More than 3,000 bodies have been retrieved or located in a mass grave during the past nine days, a doctor leading a group of people excavating the site said Wednesday. The victims were believed to have been killed as Saddam Hussein and his security apparatus stamped out a Shiite uprising following the 1991 Gulf War, Dr. Rafed Husseini said.
* Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister who returned to his native Iraq this month after 32 years in exile, said he blamed the United States for Iraq's persistent lawlessness and the failure to restore basic services a month after major combat ended.
* The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research used coalition-run Voice of New Iraq radio to call on people to return equipment and furniture that was looted from colleges and universities in the wake of the U.S. invasion.
* A military vehicle overturned in northern Iraq, killing a U.S. soldier with the 101st Airborne Division and injuring another, officers and witnesses at the scene said.
* A CBS News-New York Times poll found that 49 percent said the Bush administration overestimated the amount of mass destruction weapons in Iraq and 56 percent said the war will have been worth it even if the weapons are never found. The poll's margin of error was 3 points.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-developments,0,1256047.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Yahoo! News Story - All of Baghdad keeps and bears arms
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Key Developments in Iraq
From: Patti Patton-Bader
Blog Updates
--------------------
Key Developments in Iraq
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 14, 2003, 8:53 AM EDT
Key developments concerning Iraq:
* More than 3,000 bodies have been retrieved or located in a mass grave during the past nine days, a doctor leading a group of people excavating the site said Wednesday. The victims were believed to have been killed as Saddam Hussein and his security apparatus stamped out a Shiite uprising following the 1991 Gulf War, Dr. Rafed Husseini said.
* Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister who returned to his native Iraq this month after 32 years in exile, said he blamed the United States for Iraq's persistent lawlessness and the failure to restore basic services a month after major combat ended.
* The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research used coalition-run Voice of New Iraq radio to call on people to return equipment and furniture that was looted from colleges and universities in the wake of the U.S. invasion.
* A military vehicle overturned in northern Iraq, killing a U.S. soldier with the 101st Airborne Division and injuring another, officers and witnesses at the scene said.
* A CBS News-New York Times poll found that 49 percent said the Bush administration overestimated the amount of mass destruction weapons in Iraq and 56 percent said the war will have been worth it even if the weapons are never found. The poll's margin of error was 3 points.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-developments,0,1256047.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Blog Updates
--------------------
Key Developments in Iraq
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 14, 2003, 8:53 AM EDT
Key developments concerning Iraq:
* More than 3,000 bodies have been retrieved or located in a mass grave during the past nine days, a doctor leading a group of people excavating the site said Wednesday. The victims were believed to have been killed as Saddam Hussein and his security apparatus stamped out a Shiite uprising following the 1991 Gulf War, Dr. Rafed Husseini said.
* Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister who returned to his native Iraq this month after 32 years in exile, said he blamed the United States for Iraq's persistent lawlessness and the failure to restore basic services a month after major combat ended.
* The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research used coalition-run Voice of New Iraq radio to call on people to return equipment and furniture that was looted from colleges and universities in the wake of the U.S. invasion.
* A military vehicle overturned in northern Iraq, killing a U.S. soldier with the 101st Airborne Division and injuring another, officers and witnesses at the scene said.
* A CBS News-New York Times poll found that 49 percent said the Bush administration overestimated the amount of mass destruction weapons in Iraq and 56 percent said the war will have been worth it even if the weapons are never found. The poll's margin of error was 3 points.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-developments,0,1256047.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Key Developments in Iraq
From: Patti Patton-Bader
Blog Updates
--------------------
Key Developments in Iraq
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 14, 2003, 8:53 AM EDT
Key developments concerning Iraq:
* More than 3,000 bodies have been retrieved or located in a mass grave during the past nine days, a doctor leading a group of people excavating the site said Wednesday. The victims were believed to have been killed as Saddam Hussein and his security apparatus stamped out a Shiite uprising following the 1991 Gulf War, Dr. Rafed Husseini said.
* Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister who returned to his native Iraq this month after 32 years in exile, said he blamed the United States for Iraq's persistent lawlessness and the failure to restore basic services a month after major combat ended.
* The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research used coalition-run Voice of New Iraq radio to call on people to return equipment and furniture that was looted from colleges and universities in the wake of the U.S. invasion.
* A military vehicle overturned in northern Iraq, killing a U.S. soldier with the 101st Airborne Division and injuring another, officers and witnesses at the scene said.
* A CBS News-New York Times poll found that 49 percent said the Bush administration overestimated the amount of mass destruction weapons in Iraq and 56 percent said the war will have been worth it even if the weapons are never found. The poll's margin of error was 3 points.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-developments,0,1256047.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Blog Updates
--------------------
Key Developments in Iraq
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 14, 2003, 8:53 AM EDT
Key developments concerning Iraq:
* More than 3,000 bodies have been retrieved or located in a mass grave during the past nine days, a doctor leading a group of people excavating the site said Wednesday. The victims were believed to have been killed as Saddam Hussein and his security apparatus stamped out a Shiite uprising following the 1991 Gulf War, Dr. Rafed Husseini said.
* Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister who returned to his native Iraq this month after 32 years in exile, said he blamed the United States for Iraq's persistent lawlessness and the failure to restore basic services a month after major combat ended.
* The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research used coalition-run Voice of New Iraq radio to call on people to return equipment and furniture that was looted from colleges and universities in the wake of the U.S. invasion.
* A military vehicle overturned in northern Iraq, killing a U.S. soldier with the 101st Airborne Division and injuring another, officers and witnesses at the scene said.
* A CBS News-New York Times poll found that 49 percent said the Bush administration overestimated the amount of mass destruction weapons in Iraq and 56 percent said the war will have been worth it even if the weapons are never found. The poll's margin of error was 3 points.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-developments,0,1256047.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Key Developments in Iraq
From: Patti Patton-Bader
Blog Updates
--------------------
Key Developments in Iraq
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 14, 2003, 8:53 AM EDT
Key developments concerning Iraq:
* More than 3,000 bodies have been retrieved or located in a mass grave during the past nine days, a doctor leading a group of people excavating the site said Wednesday. The victims were believed to have been killed as Saddam Hussein and his security apparatus stamped out a Shiite uprising following the 1991 Gulf War, Dr. Rafed Husseini said.
* Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister who returned to his native Iraq this month after 32 years in exile, said he blamed the United States for Iraq's persistent lawlessness and the failure to restore basic services a month after major combat ended.
* The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research used coalition-run Voice of New Iraq radio to call on people to return equipment and furniture that was looted from colleges and universities in the wake of the U.S. invasion.
* A military vehicle overturned in northern Iraq, killing a U.S. soldier with the 101st Airborne Division and injuring another, officers and witnesses at the scene said.
* A CBS News-New York Times poll found that 49 percent said the Bush administration overestimated the amount of mass destruction weapons in Iraq and 56 percent said the war will have been worth it even if the weapons are never found. The poll's margin of error was 3 points.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-developments,0,1256047.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Blog Updates
--------------------
Key Developments in Iraq
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 14, 2003, 8:53 AM EDT
Key developments concerning Iraq:
* More than 3,000 bodies have been retrieved or located in a mass grave during the past nine days, a doctor leading a group of people excavating the site said Wednesday. The victims were believed to have been killed as Saddam Hussein and his security apparatus stamped out a Shiite uprising following the 1991 Gulf War, Dr. Rafed Husseini said.
* Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister who returned to his native Iraq this month after 32 years in exile, said he blamed the United States for Iraq's persistent lawlessness and the failure to restore basic services a month after major combat ended.
* The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research used coalition-run Voice of New Iraq radio to call on people to return equipment and furniture that was looted from colleges and universities in the wake of the U.S. invasion.
* A military vehicle overturned in northern Iraq, killing a U.S. soldier with the 101st Airborne Division and injuring another, officers and witnesses at the scene said.
* A CBS News-New York Times poll found that 49 percent said the Bush administration overestimated the amount of mass destruction weapons in Iraq and 56 percent said the war will have been worth it even if the weapons are never found. The poll's margin of error was 3 points.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-developments,0,1256047.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Yahoo! News Story - U.S. Commander Faces War Crimes Complaint
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Key Developments in Iraq
From: Patti Patton-Bader
Blog Updates
--------------------
Key Developments in Iraq
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 14, 2003, 8:53 AM EDT
Key developments concerning Iraq:
* More than 3,000 bodies have been retrieved or located in a mass grave during the past nine days, a doctor leading a group of people excavating the site said Wednesday. The victims were believed to have been killed as Saddam Hussein and his security apparatus stamped out a Shiite uprising following the 1991 Gulf War, Dr. Rafed Husseini said.
* Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister who returned to his native Iraq this month after 32 years in exile, said he blamed the United States for Iraq's persistent lawlessness and the failure to restore basic services a month after major combat ended.
* The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research used coalition-run Voice of New Iraq radio to call on people to return equipment and furniture that was looted from colleges and universities in the wake of the U.S. invasion.
* A military vehicle overturned in northern Iraq, killing a U.S. soldier with the 101st Airborne Division and injuring another, officers and witnesses at the scene said.
* A CBS News-New York Times poll found that 49 percent said the Bush administration overestimated the amount of mass destruction weapons in Iraq and 56 percent said the war will have been worth it even if the weapons are never found. The poll's margin of error was 3 points.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-developments,0,1256047.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Blog Updates
--------------------
Key Developments in Iraq
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 14, 2003, 8:53 AM EDT
Key developments concerning Iraq:
* More than 3,000 bodies have been retrieved or located in a mass grave during the past nine days, a doctor leading a group of people excavating the site said Wednesday. The victims were believed to have been killed as Saddam Hussein and his security apparatus stamped out a Shiite uprising following the 1991 Gulf War, Dr. Rafed Husseini said.
* Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister who returned to his native Iraq this month after 32 years in exile, said he blamed the United States for Iraq's persistent lawlessness and the failure to restore basic services a month after major combat ended.
* The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research used coalition-run Voice of New Iraq radio to call on people to return equipment and furniture that was looted from colleges and universities in the wake of the U.S. invasion.
* A military vehicle overturned in northern Iraq, killing a U.S. soldier with the 101st Airborne Division and injuring another, officers and witnesses at the scene said.
* A CBS News-New York Times poll found that 49 percent said the Bush administration overestimated the amount of mass destruction weapons in Iraq and 56 percent said the war will have been worth it even if the weapons are never found. The poll's margin of error was 3 points.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-developments,0,1256047.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Key Developments in Iraq
From: Patti Patton-Bader
Blog Updates
--------------------
Key Developments in Iraq
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 14, 2003, 8:53 AM EDT
Key developments concerning Iraq:
* More than 3,000 bodies have been retrieved or located in a mass grave during the past nine days, a doctor leading a group of people excavating the site said Wednesday. The victims were believed to have been killed as Saddam Hussein and his security apparatus stamped out a Shiite uprising following the 1991 Gulf War, Dr. Rafed Husseini said.
* Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister who returned to his native Iraq this month after 32 years in exile, said he blamed the United States for Iraq's persistent lawlessness and the failure to restore basic services a month after major combat ended.
* The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research used coalition-run Voice of New Iraq radio to call on people to return equipment and furniture that was looted from colleges and universities in the wake of the U.S. invasion.
* A military vehicle overturned in northern Iraq, killing a U.S. soldier with the 101st Airborne Division and injuring another, officers and witnesses at the scene said.
* A CBS News-New York Times poll found that 49 percent said the Bush administration overestimated the amount of mass destruction weapons in Iraq and 56 percent said the war will have been worth it even if the weapons are never found. The poll's margin of error was 3 points.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-developments,0,1256047.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Blog Updates
--------------------
Key Developments in Iraq
--------------------
By The Associated Press
May 14, 2003, 8:53 AM EDT
Key developments concerning Iraq:
* More than 3,000 bodies have been retrieved or located in a mass grave during the past nine days, a doctor leading a group of people excavating the site said Wednesday. The victims were believed to have been killed as Saddam Hussein and his security apparatus stamped out a Shiite uprising following the 1991 Gulf War, Dr. Rafed Husseini said.
* Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister who returned to his native Iraq this month after 32 years in exile, said he blamed the United States for Iraq's persistent lawlessness and the failure to restore basic services a month after major combat ended.
* The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research used coalition-run Voice of New Iraq radio to call on people to return equipment and furniture that was looted from colleges and universities in the wake of the U.S. invasion.
* A military vehicle overturned in northern Iraq, killing a U.S. soldier with the 101st Airborne Division and injuring another, officers and witnesses at the scene said.
* A CBS News-New York Times poll found that 49 percent said the Bush administration overestimated the amount of mass destruction weapons in Iraq and 56 percent said the war will have been worth it even if the weapons are never found. The poll's margin of error was 3 points.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-developments,0,1256047.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Algeria Frees 17 Tourists, Officials Say
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
--------------------
Algeria Frees 17 Tourists, Officials Say
--------------------
By TONY CZUCZKA
Associated Press Writer
May 14, 2003, 9:07 AM EDT
BERLIN -- Algerian army commandos freed 17 European tourists kidnapped in the Sahara Desert by an al-Qaida-linked terror group, authorities said Wednesday, while German and Austrian officials expressed concern about the 15 tourists still captive.
The hostages were freed Tuesday in a gun battle that killed nine captors, Algerian newspapers reported. The clash lasted several hours, with army units trading gunfire with about 10 hostage-takers armed with assault rifles in the desert about 1,200 miles south of Algiers, the Arab-language daily El Watan reported, citing a security official it did not identify.
The report said the Army found the captives using reconnaissance planes equipped with thermal vision gear.
Officials in Germany, Austria and Sweden confirmed the release of 10 Austrians, six Germans and a Swede, who were expected to return home Wednesday. The official news agency APS quoted the military as saying the 17 freed hostages were "safe and sound."
However, officials refused to comment on the circumstances of their release, citing concerns about the safety of the remaining 15 hostages -- 10 Germans, four Swiss and one Dutch.
"We remain highly concerned about those still in the hands of the hostage-takers," German government spokesman Thomas Steg said. "We are concentrating our efforts on them."
German Interior Minister Otto Schily said "there is hope" the remaining hostages "will be free soon."
Austrian President Thomas Klestil sent a telegram of thanks to his Algerian counterpart, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, adding he was impressed by the "prudent way" in which Algerian authorities freed the hostages.
The tourists began disappearing 2 1/2 months ago after setting off in seven separate groups in four-wheel-drive vehicles or on motorcycles, and were last seen near Libya.
In the Algerian capital Wednesday, the Army said the Salafist Group for Call and Combat was responsible for taking the travelers hostage, the official news agency APS reported. The group is on the U.S. State Department's list of terror organizations.
Algerian news reports have said three Saudi envoys of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden met with a top leader of the Salafist Group in December.
The Algerian group, known by the French-language acronym GSPC, is one of two main insurgency movements still fighting to topple Algeria's military-backed government and install an Islamic state.
No group ever publicly claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, opening speculation that the seizures could be in retaliation for the conviction in a Frankfurt court of four Algerians for plotting a failed terror attack on a French Christmas market in 2000.
Other theories blamed Islamic rebels battling Algeria's military-backed government for more than a decade, or possibly smugglers active in the area.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who met Monday in Algiers with President Bouteflika, publicly acknowledged for the first time Tuesday that the 32 were kidnapped.
The six freed Germans were with German Ambassador Hans Peter Schiff in the Algerian capital of Algiers, the Foreign Ministry in Berlin said. Deputy Foreign Minister Juergen Chrobog was en route to Algeria to escort them back to Germany.
"They are good condition," ministry spokesman Walter Lindner said.
The 10 Austrians spent Tuesday night in an Algiers hospital, exhausted but safe, the Austrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"It's the most beautiful news of the day: The 10 Austrians are alive and safe," Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said Wednesday.
Schuessel said he hoped the relatives of the hostages who remain captive would get similar news soon.
"I wish them courage and confidence in these difficult hours," he said.
The son of 60-year-old Ingo Bleckmann, one of the missing Austrian tourists, told the press agency his father called home during the night.
"He said he was fine, and that he'd tell me everything when he gets home," Nikolaus Bleckmann said.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-germany-algeria,0,7624460.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
--------------------
Algeria Frees 17 Tourists, Officials Say
--------------------
By TONY CZUCZKA
Associated Press Writer
May 14, 2003, 9:07 AM EDT
BERLIN -- Algerian army commandos freed 17 European tourists kidnapped in the Sahara Desert by an al-Qaida-linked terror group, authorities said Wednesday, while German and Austrian officials expressed concern about the 15 tourists still captive.
The hostages were freed Tuesday in a gun battle that killed nine captors, Algerian newspapers reported. The clash lasted several hours, with army units trading gunfire with about 10 hostage-takers armed with assault rifles in the desert about 1,200 miles south of Algiers, the Arab-language daily El Watan reported, citing a security official it did not identify.
The report said the Army found the captives using reconnaissance planes equipped with thermal vision gear.
Officials in Germany, Austria and Sweden confirmed the release of 10 Austrians, six Germans and a Swede, who were expected to return home Wednesday. The official news agency APS quoted the military as saying the 17 freed hostages were "safe and sound."
However, officials refused to comment on the circumstances of their release, citing concerns about the safety of the remaining 15 hostages -- 10 Germans, four Swiss and one Dutch.
"We remain highly concerned about those still in the hands of the hostage-takers," German government spokesman Thomas Steg said. "We are concentrating our efforts on them."
German Interior Minister Otto Schily said "there is hope" the remaining hostages "will be free soon."
Austrian President Thomas Klestil sent a telegram of thanks to his Algerian counterpart, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, adding he was impressed by the "prudent way" in which Algerian authorities freed the hostages.
The tourists began disappearing 2 1/2 months ago after setting off in seven separate groups in four-wheel-drive vehicles or on motorcycles, and were last seen near Libya.
In the Algerian capital Wednesday, the Army said the Salafist Group for Call and Combat was responsible for taking the travelers hostage, the official news agency APS reported. The group is on the U.S. State Department's list of terror organizations.
Algerian news reports have said three Saudi envoys of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden met with a top leader of the Salafist Group in December.
The Algerian group, known by the French-language acronym GSPC, is one of two main insurgency movements still fighting to topple Algeria's military-backed government and install an Islamic state.
No group ever publicly claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, opening speculation that the seizures could be in retaliation for the conviction in a Frankfurt court of four Algerians for plotting a failed terror attack on a French Christmas market in 2000.
Other theories blamed Islamic rebels battling Algeria's military-backed government for more than a decade, or possibly smugglers active in the area.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who met Monday in Algiers with President Bouteflika, publicly acknowledged for the first time Tuesday that the 32 were kidnapped.
The six freed Germans were with German Ambassador Hans Peter Schiff in the Algerian capital of Algiers, the Foreign Ministry in Berlin said. Deputy Foreign Minister Juergen Chrobog was en route to Algeria to escort them back to Germany.
"They are good condition," ministry spokesman Walter Lindner said.
The 10 Austrians spent Tuesday night in an Algiers hospital, exhausted but safe, the Austrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"It's the most beautiful news of the day: The 10 Austrians are alive and safe," Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said Wednesday.
Schuessel said he hoped the relatives of the hostages who remain captive would get similar news soon.
"I wish them courage and confidence in these difficult hours," he said.
The son of 60-year-old Ingo Bleckmann, one of the missing Austrian tourists, told the press agency his father called home during the night.
"He said he was fine, and that he'd tell me everything when he gets home," Nikolaus Bleckmann said.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-germany-algeria,0,7624460.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Algeria Frees 17 Tourists, Officials Say
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
--------------------
Algeria Frees 17 Tourists, Officials Say
--------------------
By TONY CZUCZKA
Associated Press Writer
May 14, 2003, 9:07 AM EDT
BERLIN -- Algerian army commandos freed 17 European tourists kidnapped in the Sahara Desert by an al-Qaida-linked terror group, authorities said Wednesday, while German and Austrian officials expressed concern about the 15 tourists still captive.
The hostages were freed Tuesday in a gun battle that killed nine captors, Algerian newspapers reported. The clash lasted several hours, with army units trading gunfire with about 10 hostage-takers armed with assault rifles in the desert about 1,200 miles south of Algiers, the Arab-language daily El Watan reported, citing a security official it did not identify.
The report said the Army found the captives using reconnaissance planes equipped with thermal vision gear.
Officials in Germany, Austria and Sweden confirmed the release of 10 Austrians, six Germans and a Swede, who were expected to return home Wednesday. The official news agency APS quoted the military as saying the 17 freed hostages were "safe and sound."
However, officials refused to comment on the circumstances of their release, citing concerns about the safety of the remaining 15 hostages -- 10 Germans, four Swiss and one Dutch.
"We remain highly concerned about those still in the hands of the hostage-takers," German government spokesman Thomas Steg said. "We are concentrating our efforts on them."
German Interior Minister Otto Schily said "there is hope" the remaining hostages "will be free soon."
Austrian President Thomas Klestil sent a telegram of thanks to his Algerian counterpart, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, adding he was impressed by the "prudent way" in which Algerian authorities freed the hostages.
The tourists began disappearing 2 1/2 months ago after setting off in seven separate groups in four-wheel-drive vehicles or on motorcycles, and were last seen near Libya.
In the Algerian capital Wednesday, the Army said the Salafist Group for Call and Combat was responsible for taking the travelers hostage, the official news agency APS reported. The group is on the U.S. State Department's list of terror organizations.
Algerian news reports have said three Saudi envoys of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden met with a top leader of the Salafist Group in December.
The Algerian group, known by the French-language acronym GSPC, is one of two main insurgency movements still fighting to topple Algeria's military-backed government and install an Islamic state.
No group ever publicly claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, opening speculation that the seizures could be in retaliation for the conviction in a Frankfurt court of four Algerians for plotting a failed terror attack on a French Christmas market in 2000.
Other theories blamed Islamic rebels battling Algeria's military-backed government for more than a decade, or possibly smugglers active in the area.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who met Monday in Algiers with President Bouteflika, publicly acknowledged for the first time Tuesday that the 32 were kidnapped.
The six freed Germans were with German Ambassador Hans Peter Schiff in the Algerian capital of Algiers, the Foreign Ministry in Berlin said. Deputy Foreign Minister Juergen Chrobog was en route to Algeria to escort them back to Germany.
"They are good condition," ministry spokesman Walter Lindner said.
The 10 Austrians spent Tuesday night in an Algiers hospital, exhausted but safe, the Austrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"It's the most beautiful news of the day: The 10 Austrians are alive and safe," Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said Wednesday.
Schuessel said he hoped the relatives of the hostages who remain captive would get similar news soon.
"I wish them courage and confidence in these difficult hours," he said.
The son of 60-year-old Ingo Bleckmann, one of the missing Austrian tourists, told the press agency his father called home during the night.
"He said he was fine, and that he'd tell me everything when he gets home," Nikolaus Bleckmann said.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-germany-algeria,0,7624460.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
--------------------
Algeria Frees 17 Tourists, Officials Say
--------------------
By TONY CZUCZKA
Associated Press Writer
May 14, 2003, 9:07 AM EDT
BERLIN -- Algerian army commandos freed 17 European tourists kidnapped in the Sahara Desert by an al-Qaida-linked terror group, authorities said Wednesday, while German and Austrian officials expressed concern about the 15 tourists still captive.
The hostages were freed Tuesday in a gun battle that killed nine captors, Algerian newspapers reported. The clash lasted several hours, with army units trading gunfire with about 10 hostage-takers armed with assault rifles in the desert about 1,200 miles south of Algiers, the Arab-language daily El Watan reported, citing a security official it did not identify.
The report said the Army found the captives using reconnaissance planes equipped with thermal vision gear.
Officials in Germany, Austria and Sweden confirmed the release of 10 Austrians, six Germans and a Swede, who were expected to return home Wednesday. The official news agency APS quoted the military as saying the 17 freed hostages were "safe and sound."
However, officials refused to comment on the circumstances of their release, citing concerns about the safety of the remaining 15 hostages -- 10 Germans, four Swiss and one Dutch.
"We remain highly concerned about those still in the hands of the hostage-takers," German government spokesman Thomas Steg said. "We are concentrating our efforts on them."
German Interior Minister Otto Schily said "there is hope" the remaining hostages "will be free soon."
Austrian President Thomas Klestil sent a telegram of thanks to his Algerian counterpart, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, adding he was impressed by the "prudent way" in which Algerian authorities freed the hostages.
The tourists began disappearing 2 1/2 months ago after setting off in seven separate groups in four-wheel-drive vehicles or on motorcycles, and were last seen near Libya.
In the Algerian capital Wednesday, the Army said the Salafist Group for Call and Combat was responsible for taking the travelers hostage, the official news agency APS reported. The group is on the U.S. State Department's list of terror organizations.
Algerian news reports have said three Saudi envoys of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden met with a top leader of the Salafist Group in December.
The Algerian group, known by the French-language acronym GSPC, is one of two main insurgency movements still fighting to topple Algeria's military-backed government and install an Islamic state.
No group ever publicly claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, opening speculation that the seizures could be in retaliation for the conviction in a Frankfurt court of four Algerians for plotting a failed terror attack on a French Christmas market in 2000.
Other theories blamed Islamic rebels battling Algeria's military-backed government for more than a decade, or possibly smugglers active in the area.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who met Monday in Algiers with President Bouteflika, publicly acknowledged for the first time Tuesday that the 32 were kidnapped.
The six freed Germans were with German Ambassador Hans Peter Schiff in the Algerian capital of Algiers, the Foreign Ministry in Berlin said. Deputy Foreign Minister Juergen Chrobog was en route to Algeria to escort them back to Germany.
"They are good condition," ministry spokesman Walter Lindner said.
The 10 Austrians spent Tuesday night in an Algiers hospital, exhausted but safe, the Austrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"It's the most beautiful news of the day: The 10 Austrians are alive and safe," Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said Wednesday.
Schuessel said he hoped the relatives of the hostages who remain captive would get similar news soon.
"I wish them courage and confidence in these difficult hours," he said.
The son of 60-year-old Ingo Bleckmann, one of the missing Austrian tourists, told the press agency his father called home during the night.
"He said he was fine, and that he'd tell me everything when he gets home," Nikolaus Bleckmann said.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-germany-algeria,0,7624460.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
U.S. Soldier Killed in Iraq Accident
From: spliffslips
War Blog Updates
--------------------
U.S. Soldier Killed in Iraq Accident
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 14, 2003, 7:17 AM EDT
IRBIL, Iraq -- A U.S. soldier with the 101st Airborne Division died and another was injured Wednesday after their vehicle overturned in northern Iraq, officers and witnesses at the scene said.
The soldier, who was not immediately identified, was part of a convoy driving on the road from the northern city of Mosul to Irbil, a city 50 miles to the east.
A recovery vehicle that was towing an army truck rolled over and crushed the cabin, killing the driver and injuring another soldier inside, an officer said. No other vehicles were involved in the accident.
The officer would not give his name.
There have been repeated reports in the weeks since the war of U.S. soldiers dying in traffic accidents in Iraq.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-us-soldier-killed,0,4022313.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
War Blog Updates
--------------------
U.S. Soldier Killed in Iraq Accident
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 14, 2003, 7:17 AM EDT
IRBIL, Iraq -- A U.S. soldier with the 101st Airborne Division died and another was injured Wednesday after their vehicle overturned in northern Iraq, officers and witnesses at the scene said.
The soldier, who was not immediately identified, was part of a convoy driving on the road from the northern city of Mosul to Irbil, a city 50 miles to the east.
A recovery vehicle that was towing an army truck rolled over and crushed the cabin, killing the driver and injuring another soldier inside, an officer said. No other vehicles were involved in the accident.
The officer would not give his name.
There have been repeated reports in the weeks since the war of U.S. soldiers dying in traffic accidents in Iraq.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-us-soldier-killed,0,4022313.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Syrian Baath Party Watches Iraq Nervously
From: spliffslips
MILITARY CARE PACKAGES IRAQ WAR UPDATES
--------------------
Syrian Baath Party Watches Iraq Nervously
--------------------
By ZEINA KARAM
Associated Press Writer
May 14, 2003, 4:10 AM EDT
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Syria's ruling Baath party is watching with concern as U.S. forces break up the Iraqi Baathists, their long-estranged cousins in Arab politics and the power base of Saddam Hussein's government.
U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of coalition forces that led the Iraq war, issued a statement Sunday saying that Saddam's Baath party, which ruled Iraq for 35 years, "is dissolved."
His order came a month after U.S. troops took Baghdad and toppled Saddam's regime, which had extended the reach of the Sunni-dominated party, formally known as the Arab Baath Socialist Party.
The unseating of the party next door has been unnerving for the Syrians to watch, though the two rival wings have been bitter adversaries for years.
"This is illegal. In principle and according to international law, an occupation force does not have the right to dissolve a country's political organizations," said Mehdi Dakhlallah, editor in chief of the Syrian state-run Baath newspaper.
The Arab Socialist Baath Party was founded as a secular, nationalist party in Syria in the 1940s by a small group of French-educated intellectuals. The party spread quickly around the Middle East, promoting Arab superiority and unity in the face of Western imperialism.
Syria's branch of the party broke with the Iraqi Baath in 1966 amid political infighting. Still, the United States has been suspicious of collusion between the two.
During the Iraq war, U.S. officials accused Syria of harboring fleeing members of the Iraqi Baath party and sending military equipment to Iraq. Syria denied the charges and later sealed its border with Iraq. But the tone and seriousness of the accusations sparked fears that the country might be next on the U.S. administration's list countries where it would like to see the government toppled.
Perhaps feeling the winds of change, Syria -- which the United States also accuses of sponsoring terrorism -- has been trying to soften its image in recent months.
Parliamentary elections in March saw the election of many new faces and a record number of women. Despite Baath's continued dominance, the elections reflected a significant shift in Syria's rigid political landscape and took place in a climate where, for once, opposition supporters could voice criticism of the establishment.
Around 1.5 million of Syria's 18.5 million people are members of the Baath party.
Last month, Syria changed its military-style school uniforms, opting for light pink and blue instead of the khaki outfits children had worn for decades. The Syrian government also authorized private banking in the country and awarded licenses to three foreign banks to operate in Syria.
"The Baath party in Syria realizes the shifting strategic situation in the region," said Haitham Kilani, a retired Syrian general and former diplomat.
"There will have to be some adjustments, but the party will remain committed to its constants: (Arab) unity, freedom and socialism," he said.
Old talk of reforming the Baath party has recently gained some momentum.
In a daring editorial last month, Dakhlallah, the Baath daily editor-in-chief, called for reforms and criticism.
Fadel Ansari, a member of the Iraqi opposition who has been living in Syria since 1968, said it was "natural" for the U.S. to dissolve the Iraqi Baath party, "whose name had become tantamount to a curse" in Iraq. But he emphasized the three decade-old division between it and the Syrian party.
"The Syrian and Iraqi Baath parties may share the same slogans but they do not share the same practices," he said.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-syria-baath-worries,0,650107.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
MILITARY CARE PACKAGES IRAQ WAR UPDATES
--------------------
Syrian Baath Party Watches Iraq Nervously
--------------------
By ZEINA KARAM
Associated Press Writer
May 14, 2003, 4:10 AM EDT
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Syria's ruling Baath party is watching with concern as U.S. forces break up the Iraqi Baathists, their long-estranged cousins in Arab politics and the power base of Saddam Hussein's government.
U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of coalition forces that led the Iraq war, issued a statement Sunday saying that Saddam's Baath party, which ruled Iraq for 35 years, "is dissolved."
His order came a month after U.S. troops took Baghdad and toppled Saddam's regime, which had extended the reach of the Sunni-dominated party, formally known as the Arab Baath Socialist Party.
The unseating of the party next door has been unnerving for the Syrians to watch, though the two rival wings have been bitter adversaries for years.
"This is illegal. In principle and according to international law, an occupation force does not have the right to dissolve a country's political organizations," said Mehdi Dakhlallah, editor in chief of the Syrian state-run Baath newspaper.
The Arab Socialist Baath Party was founded as a secular, nationalist party in Syria in the 1940s by a small group of French-educated intellectuals. The party spread quickly around the Middle East, promoting Arab superiority and unity in the face of Western imperialism.
Syria's branch of the party broke with the Iraqi Baath in 1966 amid political infighting. Still, the United States has been suspicious of collusion between the two.
During the Iraq war, U.S. officials accused Syria of harboring fleeing members of the Iraqi Baath party and sending military equipment to Iraq. Syria denied the charges and later sealed its border with Iraq. But the tone and seriousness of the accusations sparked fears that the country might be next on the U.S. administration's list countries where it would like to see the government toppled.
Perhaps feeling the winds of change, Syria -- which the United States also accuses of sponsoring terrorism -- has been trying to soften its image in recent months.
Parliamentary elections in March saw the election of many new faces and a record number of women. Despite Baath's continued dominance, the elections reflected a significant shift in Syria's rigid political landscape and took place in a climate where, for once, opposition supporters could voice criticism of the establishment.
Around 1.5 million of Syria's 18.5 million people are members of the Baath party.
Last month, Syria changed its military-style school uniforms, opting for light pink and blue instead of the khaki outfits children had worn for decades. The Syrian government also authorized private banking in the country and awarded licenses to three foreign banks to operate in Syria.
"The Baath party in Syria realizes the shifting strategic situation in the region," said Haitham Kilani, a retired Syrian general and former diplomat.
"There will have to be some adjustments, but the party will remain committed to its constants: (Arab) unity, freedom and socialism," he said.
Old talk of reforming the Baath party has recently gained some momentum.
In a daring editorial last month, Dakhlallah, the Baath daily editor-in-chief, called for reforms and criticism.
Fadel Ansari, a member of the Iraqi opposition who has been living in Syria since 1968, said it was "natural" for the U.S. to dissolve the Iraqi Baath party, "whose name had become tantamount to a curse" in Iraq. But he emphasized the three decade-old division between it and the Syrian party.
"The Syrian and Iraqi Baath parties may share the same slogans but they do not share the same practices," he said.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-syria-baath-worries,0,650107.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
Yahoo! News Story - A Soldier's Story
jeff bader (spliffslips@aol.com) has sent you a news article. (Email address has not been verified.)
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A SOLDIERS STORY
A Soldier's Story
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Personal message:
A SOLDIERS STORY
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Yahoo! News Story - Moussaoui Alludes to Post-911 Attack Plan
jeff bader (spliffslips@aol.com) has sent you a news article. (Email address has not been verified.)
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Personal message:
War Blogs
Moussaoui Alludes to Post-911 Attack Plan
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030514/ap_on_re_us/moussaoui_3
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Yahoo! News http://dailynews.yahoo.com/
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Moussaoui Alludes to Post-911 Attack Plan
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Poll: Bush Overestimated Iraq Weapons
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
--------------------
Poll: Bush Overestimated Iraq Weapons
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 13, 2003, 9:49 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- About half the country believes the Bush administration overestimated the number of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, according to a poll released Tuesday, but most people feel the war was worth it anyway.
The CBS News-New York Times poll found 64 percent of Americans are aware that no weapons of mass destruction have yet been found in Iraq.
Some 49 percent said the administration overestimated the amount of mass destruction weapons in Iraq, while 29 percent said its estimates were accurate and 12 percent said they were low.
Two-thirds of those who believe the weapons count was overestimated also believe it was a deliberate exaggeration to build support for the war.
Still, 56 percent said the war will have been worth it if weapons of mass destruction are never found, while 38 percent said it would not have been worth it.
Similarly, 56 percent said the war would have been worth it even if Saddam Hussein is never captured or killed, while 37 percent say it would not have been worth it.
Asked who should take the lead in setting up a new Iraqi government, 45 percent preferred the United Nations; 34 percent say the United States should manage things entirely on its own for now; and 13 percent want the United States to lead but also want a U.N. role.
A question about the new round of tax cuts suggested good news for the Bush administration: 41 percent of respondents think the cuts would help rather than hurt the economy; 19 percent think they would be bad for the economy; and 33 percent think they would have no effect.
President Bush's job approval rating is 67 percent.
The poll also found that jobs and the economy continue to dominate Americans' list of priorities, named by 40 percent as the top issue they want addressed; war and terrorism are mentioned by 15 percent; education by 4 percent; family values by 3 percent; health care by 3 percent; and poverty by 3 percent.
The poll sampled 910 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone May 9-12. The error due to sampling could be plus or minus 3 percentage points for results based on the entire sample.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-poll,0,3055289.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
--------------------
Poll: Bush Overestimated Iraq Weapons
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 13, 2003, 9:49 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- About half the country believes the Bush administration overestimated the number of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, according to a poll released Tuesday, but most people feel the war was worth it anyway.
The CBS News-New York Times poll found 64 percent of Americans are aware that no weapons of mass destruction have yet been found in Iraq.
Some 49 percent said the administration overestimated the amount of mass destruction weapons in Iraq, while 29 percent said its estimates were accurate and 12 percent said they were low.
Two-thirds of those who believe the weapons count was overestimated also believe it was a deliberate exaggeration to build support for the war.
Still, 56 percent said the war will have been worth it if weapons of mass destruction are never found, while 38 percent said it would not have been worth it.
Similarly, 56 percent said the war would have been worth it even if Saddam Hussein is never captured or killed, while 37 percent say it would not have been worth it.
Asked who should take the lead in setting up a new Iraqi government, 45 percent preferred the United Nations; 34 percent say the United States should manage things entirely on its own for now; and 13 percent want the United States to lead but also want a U.N. role.
A question about the new round of tax cuts suggested good news for the Bush administration: 41 percent of respondents think the cuts would help rather than hurt the economy; 19 percent think they would be bad for the economy; and 33 percent think they would have no effect.
President Bush's job approval rating is 67 percent.
The poll also found that jobs and the economy continue to dominate Americans' list of priorities, named by 40 percent as the top issue they want addressed; war and terrorism are mentioned by 15 percent; education by 4 percent; family values by 3 percent; health care by 3 percent; and poverty by 3 percent.
The poll sampled 910 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone May 9-12. The error due to sampling could be plus or minus 3 percentage points for results based on the entire sample.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-poll,0,3055289.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages
U.S.: N. Korea May Have Fired Laser
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages
--------------------
U.S.: N. Korea May Have Fired Laser
--------------------
By SANG-HUN CHOE
Associated Press Writer
May 13, 2003, 1:04 PM EDT
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea's military may have aimed a laser at a U.S. helicopter in March, a U.S. official said Tuesday, shortly after the North reaffirmed its decision to nullify an agreement to remain free of nuclear weapons.
The aircraft's sensors detected the unknown type of laser while it was flying near the heavily fortified frontier that divides the two Koreas, the U.S. military official said on condition of anonymity. No one was injured and no equipment was damaged in the incident.
"Two USFK (United States Forces Korea) pilots during a routine training mission in March were alerted by onboard laser detecting equipment that laser systems may have illuminated their aircraft," he said. He did not elaborate on the kind of laser.
The Washington Times said in an article in Tuesday's edition that two U.S. Apache attack helicopters were fired on by a weapon that had the characteristics of a Chinese laser gun.
North Korea initially announced in Korean late Monday that a 1992 agreement with South Korea not to deploy nuclear arms on the Korean Peninsula was nullified, accusing the United States of derailing the deal. It repeated the declaration Tuesday in English.
"The inter-Korean declaration on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was thus reduced to a dead document due to the U.S. vicious hostile policy to stifle the DPRK with nukes," the North's official news agency, KCNA, said. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
The accord was the last remaining legal obligation under which North Korea was banned from developing atomic arms. In January, North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Russia's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday urged North Korea to reconsider its decision to nullify the agreement with the South.
"It's necessary to abstain from steps that could exacerbate the situation," ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement. "Russia stands for preserving the nuclear-free status of the Korean Peninsula and (is) against the deployment of mass destruction weapons there."
A different U.S. military official in Seoul, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that North Korea is believed to have exported $580 million worth of missiles to Iran, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates in 2001.
In December, a shipment of North Korean missiles bound for Yemen was briefly stopped in the Arabian Sea.
North Korea accuses the United States of planning to attack the communist country. Washington says it wants to use dialogue to resolve the nuclear crisis, although U.S. officials have not ruled out a military option.
North Korea "keenly felt that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula would only remain as a daydream unless the U.S. drops its hostile policy toward the DPRK," KCNA said Tuesday.
The comments came as President Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun were about to meet Wednesday in Washington to discuss North Korea's nuclear programs.
Roh said he will never condone North Korea's nuclear development, and that Seoul and Washington agree the nuclear standoff with the North must be solved peacefully "by all means."
"It is incumbent upon Pyongyang to give up its nuclear project and come forward as a responsible member of the international community," he said.
The nuclear crisis flared in October, when Washington said North Korea admitted having a secret nuclear program in violation of a 1994 treaty with Washington.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-koreas-nuclear,0,7640636.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
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--------------------
U.S.: N. Korea May Have Fired Laser
--------------------
By SANG-HUN CHOE
Associated Press Writer
May 13, 2003, 1:04 PM EDT
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea's military may have aimed a laser at a U.S. helicopter in March, a U.S. official said Tuesday, shortly after the North reaffirmed its decision to nullify an agreement to remain free of nuclear weapons.
The aircraft's sensors detected the unknown type of laser while it was flying near the heavily fortified frontier that divides the two Koreas, the U.S. military official said on condition of anonymity. No one was injured and no equipment was damaged in the incident.
"Two USFK (United States Forces Korea) pilots during a routine training mission in March were alerted by onboard laser detecting equipment that laser systems may have illuminated their aircraft," he said. He did not elaborate on the kind of laser.
The Washington Times said in an article in Tuesday's edition that two U.S. Apache attack helicopters were fired on by a weapon that had the characteristics of a Chinese laser gun.
North Korea initially announced in Korean late Monday that a 1992 agreement with South Korea not to deploy nuclear arms on the Korean Peninsula was nullified, accusing the United States of derailing the deal. It repeated the declaration Tuesday in English.
"The inter-Korean declaration on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was thus reduced to a dead document due to the U.S. vicious hostile policy to stifle the DPRK with nukes," the North's official news agency, KCNA, said. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
The accord was the last remaining legal obligation under which North Korea was banned from developing atomic arms. In January, North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Russia's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday urged North Korea to reconsider its decision to nullify the agreement with the South.
"It's necessary to abstain from steps that could exacerbate the situation," ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement. "Russia stands for preserving the nuclear-free status of the Korean Peninsula and (is) against the deployment of mass destruction weapons there."
A different U.S. military official in Seoul, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that North Korea is believed to have exported $580 million worth of missiles to Iran, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates in 2001.
In December, a shipment of North Korean missiles bound for Yemen was briefly stopped in the Arabian Sea.
North Korea accuses the United States of planning to attack the communist country. Washington says it wants to use dialogue to resolve the nuclear crisis, although U.S. officials have not ruled out a military option.
North Korea "keenly felt that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula would only remain as a daydream unless the U.S. drops its hostile policy toward the DPRK," KCNA said Tuesday.
The comments came as President Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun were about to meet Wednesday in Washington to discuss North Korea's nuclear programs.
Roh said he will never condone North Korea's nuclear development, and that Seoul and Washington agree the nuclear standoff with the North must be solved peacefully "by all means."
"It is incumbent upon Pyongyang to give up its nuclear project and come forward as a responsible member of the international community," he said.
The nuclear crisis flared in October, when Washington said North Korea admitted having a secret nuclear program in violation of a 1994 treaty with Washington.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-koreas-nuclear,0,7640636.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Al-Qaida Operative Warned of Attacks
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages
--------------------
Al-Qaida Operative Warned of Attacks
--------------------
By SARAH EL DEEB
Associated Press Writer
May 13, 2003, 1:46 PM EDT
DOHA, Qatar -- An al-Qaida commander warned that the terror network was about to carry out major attacks in Saudi Arabia in an e-mail just a day before the deadly assault in the Saudi capital, an Arab magazine reported.
The al-Qaida operative, who identified himself as Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj, wrote in an e-mail Sunday to the London-based Al-Majalla magazine that al-Qaida has stored arms and explosives and set up "martyrdom" squads in Saudi Arabia to launch what he described as a "guerrilla war" on its leaders and the United States.
A U.S. counterterrorism official in Washington said the e-mail is regarded as credible and implies al-Qaida responsibility for Monday night's attacks.
Al-Ablaj is believed to be a known al-Qaida operative named Abu Bakr, the official said. In correspondence with the Saudi-owned Al-Majalla, al-Ablaj has said he leads the training of al-Qaida fighters.
"Beside targeting the heart of America, among the strategic priorities now is to target and execute operations in the Gulf countries and allies of the United States, particularly Egypt and Jordan," Al-Ablaj wrote in the e-mail.
"The list of assassinations, the raid teams and the martyr operation squads are ready. The caches of weapons, ammunition, explosives and bombs are plentiful, and the authorities cannot uncover them," al-Ablaj wrote, according to the magazine. "We will start by creating tensions to confuse the security services, then carry out major operations and lethal strikes."
On Monday, attackers shot their way into three housing compounds in synchronized strikes in the Saudi capital and then set off multiple suicide car bombs, killing 20 people, including seven Americans. Saudi officials said nine attackers also died.
Al-Ablaj first contacted the magazine three months ago by e-mail. Issam Abdullah, Al-Majalla's senior political correspondent, said the magazine could not confirm al-Ablaj's identity and did not know his whereabouts.
Al-Majalla reporter Mahmoud Khalil told The Associated Press he exchanged e-mails with al-Ablaj on Saturday and Sunday, sending him questions. Al-Majalla planned to publish the full interview in its next edition, on Friday.
Abdullah and Khalil said the magazine sent e-mails asking specifically if al-Qaida was responsible for Monday night's attacks in the Saudi capital but had not yet received a response. Al-Majalla is owned by a Saudi media group thought to be close to the kingdom's royal family.
"Osama bin Laden has issued strong directives to launch a guerrilla war in all forms, on a long term, in the nations of the Gulf ... We are ready to carry out many, very large operations," al-Ablaj wrote in Sunday's message.
"Al-Qaida shall carry the battle with all the guerrilla war experience it gained in Afghanistan and Chechnya to the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula."
In his first e-mail, on April 7, al-Ablaj wrote that al-Qaida was setting up ammunition warehouses in the Persian Gulf and preparing for an attack. "The world will see how we make America pay the price for invading Iraq," he wrote.
Khalil, who received the e-mail, said Al-Majalla at first decided against publishing the claims, which appeared impossible to confirm. But a month later, when the Saudi government announced the seizure of arms in Riyadh, Khalil contacted Al-Ablaj to rework the story.
The Saudi government was seeking 19 suspects in connection with the weapons seizure. The government said the group was believed to be receiving orders directly from bin Laden and had been planning to use the seized weapons to attack the Saudi royal family as well as American and British interests.
In e-mails Saturday and Sunday, al-Ablaj said the group's plans were not affected by the seizure of the weapons, Khalil said. Al-Ablaj said only three of the 19 sought by Saudi authorities belong to al-Qaida.
On May 7, Khalil provided AP with an interview with a man identified as the new spokesman for al-Qaida, Thabet bin Qais, who said the group had reorganized and was planning attacks against the United States on the scale of Sept. 11.
Bin Qais was quoted as saying the arrests of key al-Qaida figures, including suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, would have little effect on the organization because of newcomers "who have a very good security cover."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-saudi-attacks-warning,0,287946.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages
--------------------
Al-Qaida Operative Warned of Attacks
--------------------
By SARAH EL DEEB
Associated Press Writer
May 13, 2003, 1:46 PM EDT
DOHA, Qatar -- An al-Qaida commander warned that the terror network was about to carry out major attacks in Saudi Arabia in an e-mail just a day before the deadly assault in the Saudi capital, an Arab magazine reported.
The al-Qaida operative, who identified himself as Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj, wrote in an e-mail Sunday to the London-based Al-Majalla magazine that al-Qaida has stored arms and explosives and set up "martyrdom" squads in Saudi Arabia to launch what he described as a "guerrilla war" on its leaders and the United States.
A U.S. counterterrorism official in Washington said the e-mail is regarded as credible and implies al-Qaida responsibility for Monday night's attacks.
Al-Ablaj is believed to be a known al-Qaida operative named Abu Bakr, the official said. In correspondence with the Saudi-owned Al-Majalla, al-Ablaj has said he leads the training of al-Qaida fighters.
"Beside targeting the heart of America, among the strategic priorities now is to target and execute operations in the Gulf countries and allies of the United States, particularly Egypt and Jordan," Al-Ablaj wrote in the e-mail.
"The list of assassinations, the raid teams and the martyr operation squads are ready. The caches of weapons, ammunition, explosives and bombs are plentiful, and the authorities cannot uncover them," al-Ablaj wrote, according to the magazine. "We will start by creating tensions to confuse the security services, then carry out major operations and lethal strikes."
On Monday, attackers shot their way into three housing compounds in synchronized strikes in the Saudi capital and then set off multiple suicide car bombs, killing 20 people, including seven Americans. Saudi officials said nine attackers also died.
Al-Ablaj first contacted the magazine three months ago by e-mail. Issam Abdullah, Al-Majalla's senior political correspondent, said the magazine could not confirm al-Ablaj's identity and did not know his whereabouts.
Al-Majalla reporter Mahmoud Khalil told The Associated Press he exchanged e-mails with al-Ablaj on Saturday and Sunday, sending him questions. Al-Majalla planned to publish the full interview in its next edition, on Friday.
Abdullah and Khalil said the magazine sent e-mails asking specifically if al-Qaida was responsible for Monday night's attacks in the Saudi capital but had not yet received a response. Al-Majalla is owned by a Saudi media group thought to be close to the kingdom's royal family.
"Osama bin Laden has issued strong directives to launch a guerrilla war in all forms, on a long term, in the nations of the Gulf ... We are ready to carry out many, very large operations," al-Ablaj wrote in Sunday's message.
"Al-Qaida shall carry the battle with all the guerrilla war experience it gained in Afghanistan and Chechnya to the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula."
In his first e-mail, on April 7, al-Ablaj wrote that al-Qaida was setting up ammunition warehouses in the Persian Gulf and preparing for an attack. "The world will see how we make America pay the price for invading Iraq," he wrote.
Khalil, who received the e-mail, said Al-Majalla at first decided against publishing the claims, which appeared impossible to confirm. But a month later, when the Saudi government announced the seizure of arms in Riyadh, Khalil contacted Al-Ablaj to rework the story.
The Saudi government was seeking 19 suspects in connection with the weapons seizure. The government said the group was believed to be receiving orders directly from bin Laden and had been planning to use the seized weapons to attack the Saudi royal family as well as American and British interests.
In e-mails Saturday and Sunday, al-Ablaj said the group's plans were not affected by the seizure of the weapons, Khalil said. Al-Ablaj said only three of the 19 sought by Saudi authorities belong to al-Qaida.
On May 7, Khalil provided AP with an interview with a man identified as the new spokesman for al-Qaida, Thabet bin Qais, who said the group had reorganized and was planning attacks against the United States on the scale of Sept. 11.
Bin Qais was quoted as saying the arrests of key al-Qaida figures, including suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, would have little effect on the organization because of newcomers "who have a very good security cover."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-saudi-attacks-warning,0,287946.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Two Norwegian Peacekeepers Shot, Wounded
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
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Two Norwegian Peacekeepers Shot, Wounded
--------------------
By TODD PITMAN
Associated Press Writer
May 13, 2003, 1:12 PM EDT
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Two Norwegian peacekeepers were shot and wounded north of the capital Tuesday by a renegade Afghan soldier, an Afghan commander in the area said.
The peacekeepers were traveling between Kabul and Bagram -- where U.S. and coalition forces have their main base -- when shots were fired at their vehicle shortly after noon, said Lt. Col. Thomas Lobbering, a spokesman for the 5,000-strong multinational force.
Afghan forces in the area -- about 12 miles north of Kabul -- said the gunman was identified by a fellow soldier who witnessed the shooting.
"It was an Afghan soldier. He was crying and he just opened fire and ran away," said Nanga Elai, an officer in the Afghan army's 591st Battalion.
Battalion commander Amanullah Gujar identified the suspect as Mohammed Ibrahim and said he had a head wound. He was arrested within hours of the shooting and taken to a garrison in Kabul for questioning, Gujar said.
The motive for the attack remains unknown.
Afghan forces had warned peacekeepers that area was dangerous after receiving information from the government that Taliban loyalists had infiltrated their ranks north of Kabul, Gujar said.
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry confirmed that both peacekeepers were Norwegian, but declined to release their names or ages.
"One is seriously injured and the other has minor injuries. Both are at a German field hospital. They are considering whether to send the seriously injured one to a hospital in Germany," Foreign Ministry spokesman Eirik Bergesen said.
The victims were part of a civilian-military team helping rebuild a school in the area, said Lt. Col. Dietmar Jeserich of the German military's Foreign Operations Command.
Germany and the Netherlands took charge of the 29-nation peacekeeping force in Kabul on Feb. 10, replacing Turkey.
In a separate incident in a suburb of northern Kabul, one person was injured when an unidentified man threw a grenade into a crowded street market, Police Chief Basir Salangi said. The motive was not immediately known.
There have been several attacks on international workers in Afghanistan in recent months. The attacks have been blamed on Taliban remnants and their allies, who have warned foreigners to leave Afghanistan.
On March 30, attackers fired a rocket at the Kabul headquarters of the multinational force, known as ISAF. The explosion caused no injuries and was blamed on supporters of renegade rebel leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is believed to have joined forces with Taliban remnants and al-Qaida fugitives.
On March 7, an explosive device set off by remote control in Kabul wounded one Dutch peacekeeper and killed an Afghan translator.
* __
Associated Press reporter Amir Shah contributed to this report.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-afghan-peacekeepers-shot,0,552389.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
--------------------
Two Norwegian Peacekeepers Shot, Wounded
--------------------
By TODD PITMAN
Associated Press Writer
May 13, 2003, 1:12 PM EDT
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Two Norwegian peacekeepers were shot and wounded north of the capital Tuesday by a renegade Afghan soldier, an Afghan commander in the area said.
The peacekeepers were traveling between Kabul and Bagram -- where U.S. and coalition forces have their main base -- when shots were fired at their vehicle shortly after noon, said Lt. Col. Thomas Lobbering, a spokesman for the 5,000-strong multinational force.
Afghan forces in the area -- about 12 miles north of Kabul -- said the gunman was identified by a fellow soldier who witnessed the shooting.
"It was an Afghan soldier. He was crying and he just opened fire and ran away," said Nanga Elai, an officer in the Afghan army's 591st Battalion.
Battalion commander Amanullah Gujar identified the suspect as Mohammed Ibrahim and said he had a head wound. He was arrested within hours of the shooting and taken to a garrison in Kabul for questioning, Gujar said.
The motive for the attack remains unknown.
Afghan forces had warned peacekeepers that area was dangerous after receiving information from the government that Taliban loyalists had infiltrated their ranks north of Kabul, Gujar said.
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry confirmed that both peacekeepers were Norwegian, but declined to release their names or ages.
"One is seriously injured and the other has minor injuries. Both are at a German field hospital. They are considering whether to send the seriously injured one to a hospital in Germany," Foreign Ministry spokesman Eirik Bergesen said.
The victims were part of a civilian-military team helping rebuild a school in the area, said Lt. Col. Dietmar Jeserich of the German military's Foreign Operations Command.
Germany and the Netherlands took charge of the 29-nation peacekeeping force in Kabul on Feb. 10, replacing Turkey.
In a separate incident in a suburb of northern Kabul, one person was injured when an unidentified man threw a grenade into a crowded street market, Police Chief Basir Salangi said. The motive was not immediately known.
There have been several attacks on international workers in Afghanistan in recent months. The attacks have been blamed on Taliban remnants and their allies, who have warned foreigners to leave Afghanistan.
On March 30, attackers fired a rocket at the Kabul headquarters of the multinational force, known as ISAF. The explosion caused no injuries and was blamed on supporters of renegade rebel leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is believed to have joined forces with Taliban remnants and al-Qaida fugitives.
On March 7, an explosive device set off by remote control in Kabul wounded one Dutch peacekeeper and killed an Afghan translator.
* __
Associated Press reporter Amir Shah contributed to this report.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-afghan-peacekeepers-shot,0,552389.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
U.S. Troops Reopen Iraqi Border Crossing
From: spliffslips
war blog updates
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U.S. Troops Reopen Iraqi Border Crossing
--------------------
By MATT KELLEY
Associated Press Writer
May 13, 2003, 11:49 AM EDT
WASHINGTON -- U.S. forces on Tuesday reopened a border crossing between Iraq and Syria, the commander of the Army's 101st Airborne Division said.
Maj. Gen. David Petraeus said his forces reopened a crossing near the northern city of Mosul "to trade in accordance with United Nations regulations." He was referring to remaining sanctions that ban shipments of weapons and other restricted material to Iraq.
During the war, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld accused Syria of allowing shipments of night-vision goggles and other military equipment to Iraq. He also accused Syria of allowing wanted members of Saddam Hussein's regime to travel through or hide in the country.
The Damascus government denied the accusations but made moves to cooperate, such as turning away or expelling some wanted Iraqis and closing border checkpoints. Reopening the checkpoint near Mosul is another move toward bringing northern Iraq back to normal.
Petraeus, who commands more than 18,000 U.S. troops in and around Mosul, spoke to Pentagon reporters Tuesday via a two-way video link from the northern Iraqi city. He said stability efforts in the area were going well and 90 percent of Mosul has power and water service.
With the help of American forces, local government workers have begun getting partial payments for their April salaries, Petraeus said. The money is from a stash protected by a local bank official and U.S. soldiers, he said.
American forces also brought about $5 million into Mosul this week to distribute as one-time payments for other Iraqi workers, Petraeus said.
Nearly 3,000 local police are on the job in the Mosul area, supplemented by American military police and infantry troops, Petraeus said. U.S. troops are helping to staff 14 police stations there, he said.
Petraeus said his forces are monitoring broadcasts by a local television station in Mosul to prevent transmissions that incite violence. He said his troops intervened with the station to persuade it not to broadcast a letter attributed to Saddam that called for attacks on Americans.
The American soldiers also persuaded the station to stop giving air time to local "political operators" voicing similarly incendiary messages, Petraeus said.
The general said his troops have the right to try to prevent violence, even if that means muzzling local media. He said he was drawing on his experience with U.S. peacekeeping forces in Bosnia, where Bosnian Serbs used television broadcasts to incite violence against Muslims.
"Lately, we've had no problems, but if there were, we'd be happy to occupy it (the TV station) and monitor what is being transmitted," Petraeus said.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-101st-airborne,0,1537574.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
war blog updates
--------------------
U.S. Troops Reopen Iraqi Border Crossing
--------------------
By MATT KELLEY
Associated Press Writer
May 13, 2003, 11:49 AM EDT
WASHINGTON -- U.S. forces on Tuesday reopened a border crossing between Iraq and Syria, the commander of the Army's 101st Airborne Division said.
Maj. Gen. David Petraeus said his forces reopened a crossing near the northern city of Mosul "to trade in accordance with United Nations regulations." He was referring to remaining sanctions that ban shipments of weapons and other restricted material to Iraq.
During the war, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld accused Syria of allowing shipments of night-vision goggles and other military equipment to Iraq. He also accused Syria of allowing wanted members of Saddam Hussein's regime to travel through or hide in the country.
The Damascus government denied the accusations but made moves to cooperate, such as turning away or expelling some wanted Iraqis and closing border checkpoints. Reopening the checkpoint near Mosul is another move toward bringing northern Iraq back to normal.
Petraeus, who commands more than 18,000 U.S. troops in and around Mosul, spoke to Pentagon reporters Tuesday via a two-way video link from the northern Iraqi city. He said stability efforts in the area were going well and 90 percent of Mosul has power and water service.
With the help of American forces, local government workers have begun getting partial payments for their April salaries, Petraeus said. The money is from a stash protected by a local bank official and U.S. soldiers, he said.
American forces also brought about $5 million into Mosul this week to distribute as one-time payments for other Iraqi workers, Petraeus said.
Nearly 3,000 local police are on the job in the Mosul area, supplemented by American military police and infantry troops, Petraeus said. U.S. troops are helping to staff 14 police stations there, he said.
Petraeus said his forces are monitoring broadcasts by a local television station in Mosul to prevent transmissions that incite violence. He said his troops intervened with the station to persuade it not to broadcast a letter attributed to Saddam that called for attacks on Americans.
The American soldiers also persuaded the station to stop giving air time to local "political operators" voicing similarly incendiary messages, Petraeus said.
The general said his troops have the right to try to prevent violence, even if that means muzzling local media. He said he was drawing on his experience with U.S. peacekeeping forces in Bosnia, where Bosnian Serbs used television broadcasts to incite violence against Muslims.
"Lately, we've had no problems, but if there were, we'd be happy to occupy it (the TV station) and monitor what is being transmitted," Petraeus said.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-101st-airborne,0,1537574.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Monday, May 12, 2003
Reuters.com - Bombs Shake Saudi Westerner Compounds, - Mon May 12, 2003 09:32 PM ET
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Yahoo! News Story - Car With Explosives Hits Saudi Compound
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Yahoo! News Story - New U.S. Official Arrives in Iraq to Try to Curb Violence
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Egyptian Returns From Iraq With $430,000
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
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Egyptian Returns From Iraq With $430,000
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 12, 2003, 1:17 PM EDT
CAIRO, Egypt -- An Egyptian who returned home after working in Iraq for 15 years with $430,000 he allegedly found in a Baghdad stairwell after Saddam Hussein's fall has a tough choice -- surrender the loot or face charges.
Rida Hamed, 39, said he found the money April 14, five days after the Iraqi capital fell to U.S.-led troops, in a sack in a building not far from where he lived.
"When I opened the sack in my room and counted the money, I did not believe it," Hamed told The Associated Press by telephone Monday from his home in Gharbiya province, 65 miles north of Cairo.
Hamed, a truck driver working in Iraq since 1988, said he hid the money in the lining of his clothes and avoided several U.S. checkpoints inside Iraq, along with Jordanian police and custom officials, before reaching Egypt.
Egyptian police discovered the cash after he entered the Sinai Peninsula port of Nuweiba on May 3 and arrested him. Hamed was freed Saturday without bail.
Hamed said looters raided banks in the Iraqi capital in the days after Saddam's ouster and stole millions of dollars.
"Thieves were trying to carry as many sacks as possible and it seemed the one I found was left there by someone who went again to the bank to get more," Hamed said.
"There was no Iraqi government or police to hand the money over to, and it was illogical to give it to the Americans," he said. "Therefore I decided to bring it to Egypt."
Officials said Hamed may face charges if he does not surrender the money, which is now in the hands of Egyptian authorities. It was not clear if officials would keep the money or return it to Iraq if Hamed surrendered it.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-money,0,4846644.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
--------------------
Egyptian Returns From Iraq With $430,000
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 12, 2003, 1:17 PM EDT
CAIRO, Egypt -- An Egyptian who returned home after working in Iraq for 15 years with $430,000 he allegedly found in a Baghdad stairwell after Saddam Hussein's fall has a tough choice -- surrender the loot or face charges.
Rida Hamed, 39, said he found the money April 14, five days after the Iraqi capital fell to U.S.-led troops, in a sack in a building not far from where he lived.
"When I opened the sack in my room and counted the money, I did not believe it," Hamed told The Associated Press by telephone Monday from his home in Gharbiya province, 65 miles north of Cairo.
Hamed, a truck driver working in Iraq since 1988, said he hid the money in the lining of his clothes and avoided several U.S. checkpoints inside Iraq, along with Jordanian police and custom officials, before reaching Egypt.
Egyptian police discovered the cash after he entered the Sinai Peninsula port of Nuweiba on May 3 and arrested him. Hamed was freed Saturday without bail.
Hamed said looters raided banks in the Iraqi capital in the days after Saddam's ouster and stole millions of dollars.
"Thieves were trying to carry as many sacks as possible and it seemed the one I found was left there by someone who went again to the bank to get more," Hamed said.
"There was no Iraqi government or police to hand the money over to, and it was illogical to give it to the Americans," he said. "Therefore I decided to bring it to Egypt."
Officials said Hamed may face charges if he does not surrender the money, which is now in the hands of Egyptian authorities. It was not clear if officials would keep the money or return it to Iraq if Hamed surrendered it.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-money,0,4846644.story
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England News
KEEP YOUR HELMET ON!Clare Short quits post over Iraq
Blair was dubbed "reckless" by Short
International Development Secretary Clare Short has quit her cabinet job, accusing Tony Blair of breaking promises over Iraq's future.
She will be replaced in the cabinet by Baroness Amos, the Foreign Office minister who has been the government's spokeswoman on international development in the House of Lords.
Blair was dubbed "reckless" by Short
International Development Secretary Clare Short has quit her cabinet job, accusing Tony Blair of breaking promises over Iraq's future.
She will be replaced in the cabinet by Baroness Amos, the Foreign Office minister who has been the government's spokeswoman on international development in the House of Lords.
Good Morning all
JFK Had Affair With Intern, Author Says
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages Updates
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JFK Had Affair With Intern, Author Says
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By Associated Press
May 12, 2003, 9:51 AM EDT
NEW YORK -- President John F. Kennedy had an affair with a 19-year-old intern who traveled with him on official trips, according to a new biography of Kennedy.
"She had no skills. She could answer the phone," Robert Dallek, author of "An Unfinished Life," told "Dateline NBC" in an interview that aired Sunday. "Apparently, her only skill was to provide sexual release for JFK on those trips and maybe in the White House."
Dallek learned of the affair from a White House aide, Barbara Gamarekian, whose oral history was recently unsealed.
Gamarekian told the Daily News that she remembers only the young intern's first name, which she refused to reveal.
"It amazes me there continues to be such fascination with all things Kennedy," Gamarekian, 77, told the newspaper.
Kennedy is known to have had numerous extramarital liaisons, but this is the first report of an affair with an intern.
"There were lots of women," Dallek, whose book comes out Tuesday, told the newspaper. "The real question is: Did it distract him from his job as president? I think it really didn't."
Gamarekian had asked that the 17 pages in her oral history dealing with the intern be kept secret for a decade, then later asked the Kennedy Library in Boston, where her account is archived, to keep it sealed.
Dallek discovered the blacked-out pages while researching his book and persuaded her to disclose the information.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-kennedy-intern,0,2196562.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages Updates
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JFK Had Affair With Intern, Author Says
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 12, 2003, 9:51 AM EDT
NEW YORK -- President John F. Kennedy had an affair with a 19-year-old intern who traveled with him on official trips, according to a new biography of Kennedy.
"She had no skills. She could answer the phone," Robert Dallek, author of "An Unfinished Life," told "Dateline NBC" in an interview that aired Sunday. "Apparently, her only skill was to provide sexual release for JFK on those trips and maybe in the White House."
Dallek learned of the affair from a White House aide, Barbara Gamarekian, whose oral history was recently unsealed.
Gamarekian told the Daily News that she remembers only the young intern's first name, which she refused to reveal.
"It amazes me there continues to be such fascination with all things Kennedy," Gamarekian, 77, told the newspaper.
Kennedy is known to have had numerous extramarital liaisons, but this is the first report of an affair with an intern.
"There were lots of women," Dallek, whose book comes out Tuesday, told the newspaper. "The real question is: Did it distract him from his job as president? I think it really didn't."
Gamarekian had asked that the 17 pages in her oral history dealing with the intern be kept secret for a decade, then later asked the Kennedy Library in Boston, where her account is archived, to keep it sealed.
Dallek discovered the blacked-out pages while researching his book and persuaded her to disclose the information.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-kennedy-intern,0,2196562.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Sunday, May 11, 2003
Klingon Interpreter Sought for Patients
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Updates
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Klingon Interpreter Sought for Patients
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By Associated Press
May 11, 2003, 12:40 PM EDT
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Position Available: Interpreter, must be fluent in Klingon.
The language created for the "Star Trek" TV series and movies is one of about 55 needed by the office that treats mental health patients in metropolitan Multnomah County.
"We have to provide information in all the languages our clients speak," said Jerry Jelusich, a procurement specialist for the county Department of Human Services, which serves about 60,000 mental health clients.
Although created for works of fiction, Klingon was designed to have a consistent grammar, syntax and vocabulary.
And now Multnomah County research has found that many people -- and not just fans -- consider it a complete language.
"There are some cases where we've had mental health patients where this was all they would speak," said the county's purchasing administrator, Franna Hathaway.
County officials said that obligates them to respond with a Klingon-English interpreter, putting the language of starship Enterprise officer Worf and other Klingon characters on a par with common languages such as Russian and Vietnamese, and less common tongues including Dari and Tongan.
* __
On the Net:
Klingon Language Institute: http://www.kli.org/
County Human Services: http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/dchs/dv/
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-klingon-interpreter,0,6001124.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Updates
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Klingon Interpreter Sought for Patients
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 11, 2003, 12:40 PM EDT
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Position Available: Interpreter, must be fluent in Klingon.
The language created for the "Star Trek" TV series and movies is one of about 55 needed by the office that treats mental health patients in metropolitan Multnomah County.
"We have to provide information in all the languages our clients speak," said Jerry Jelusich, a procurement specialist for the county Department of Human Services, which serves about 60,000 mental health clients.
Although created for works of fiction, Klingon was designed to have a consistent grammar, syntax and vocabulary.
And now Multnomah County research has found that many people -- and not just fans -- consider it a complete language.
"There are some cases where we've had mental health patients where this was all they would speak," said the county's purchasing administrator, Franna Hathaway.
County officials said that obligates them to respond with a Klingon-English interpreter, putting the language of starship Enterprise officer Worf and other Klingon characters on a par with common languages such as Russian and Vietnamese, and less common tongues including Dari and Tongan.
* __
On the Net:
Klingon Language Institute: http://www.kli.org/
County Human Services: http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/dchs/dv/
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-klingon-interpreter,0,6001124.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Self-Declared Baghdad Mayor Freed by U.S.
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Updates
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Self-Declared Baghdad Mayor Freed by U.S.
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By Associated Press
May 11, 2003, 7:30 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An Iraqi exile who was arrested by the U.S. military for declaring himself the mayor of Baghdad was freed Sunday and admitted the error of his ways, U.S. Central Command said.
U.S. troops arrested Mohammed Muhsin al-Zubaidi two weeks ago and accused him of subverting their efforts to set up an administration in the wake of Saddam Hussein's fall.
Before his release, al-Zubaidi acknowledged that he had overstepped his authority, Central Command said in a statement. It said al-Zubaidi issued his own statement, saying, "I am not the mayor of Baghdad, nor am I interested in working independently of the coalition to achieve what we all understand to be the same goal peace and prosperity for all Iraqis."
"I now realize that a number of my statements and actions have actually served to hinder progress in the very areas in which I was working to improve," al-Zubaidi was quoted as saying.
After Saddam's fall, Al-Zubaidi -- who was associated in the past with Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress, a London-based exile group close to the American military -- had cast himself as a volunteer to help Iraq get back on its feet. He declared himself mayor, set up shop at the Sheraton Hotel and opened offices in a country club next door.
Thousands of government workers turned up at the offices to re-register for their jobs, believing al-Zubaidi was in charge and assuming the Americans appointed him. Al-Zubaidi reportedly tried to fire employees at the government electricity company and replace them with his associates.
The U.S. military denied appointing al-Zubaidi, then ordered him to stop his actions, and in the end arrested him on April 27.
"It is important that self-appointed leaders do not spring from the void formed with the removal of the regime. There will be officials elected and appointed who will represent Iraqis," Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, commander for the Coalition Forces Land Component Command, was quoted as saying in Sunday's statement.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-would-be-mayor,0,3360025.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Updates
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Self-Declared Baghdad Mayor Freed by U.S.
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 11, 2003, 7:30 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An Iraqi exile who was arrested by the U.S. military for declaring himself the mayor of Baghdad was freed Sunday and admitted the error of his ways, U.S. Central Command said.
U.S. troops arrested Mohammed Muhsin al-Zubaidi two weeks ago and accused him of subverting their efforts to set up an administration in the wake of Saddam Hussein's fall.
Before his release, al-Zubaidi acknowledged that he had overstepped his authority, Central Command said in a statement. It said al-Zubaidi issued his own statement, saying, "I am not the mayor of Baghdad, nor am I interested in working independently of the coalition to achieve what we all understand to be the same goal peace and prosperity for all Iraqis."
"I now realize that a number of my statements and actions have actually served to hinder progress in the very areas in which I was working to improve," al-Zubaidi was quoted as saying.
After Saddam's fall, Al-Zubaidi -- who was associated in the past with Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress, a London-based exile group close to the American military -- had cast himself as a volunteer to help Iraq get back on its feet. He declared himself mayor, set up shop at the Sheraton Hotel and opened offices in a country club next door.
Thousands of government workers turned up at the offices to re-register for their jobs, believing al-Zubaidi was in charge and assuming the Americans appointed him. Al-Zubaidi reportedly tried to fire employees at the government electricity company and replace them with his associates.
The U.S. military denied appointing al-Zubaidi, then ordered him to stop his actions, and in the end arrested him on April 27.
"It is important that self-appointed leaders do not spring from the void formed with the removal of the regime. There will be officials elected and appointed who will represent Iraqis," Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, commander for the Coalition Forces Land Component Command, was quoted as saying in Sunday's statement.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-would-be-mayor,0,3360025.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Shiite Leader Demands U.S. Leave Iraq
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
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Shiite Leader Demands U.S. Leave Iraq
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By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer
May 11, 2003, 6:26 PM EDT
NASIRIYAH, Iraq -- The leader of Iraq's largest Shiite Muslim group denounced the U.S.-led occupation forces Sunday and demanded they pull out and allow the Iraqi people to establish their own government.
Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, who returned to his homeland Saturday after spending more than two decades in exile in neighboring Iran, made the call in this predominantly Shiite city despite the presence of a squad of U.S. Marines who were protecting him.
"We don't fear these (U.S. and British) forces. This nation wants to preserve its independence and the coalition forces must leave this country," al-Hakim said. As he spoke, about 4,000 supporters chanted "Yes to Hakim" and "Hakim is our leader."
A U.S. officer said the Marines were there to protect al-Hakim, leader of the Iran-backed Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq.
Last month, two prominent Shiite clerics were assassinated in the nearby city of Najaf. Their killings were widely perceived as part of an internal dispute among rival Shiite factions.
While al-Hakim spoke, some children offered bread or flowers to the Marines.
"We wave to the Americans," said Hasan Jaberi, a teenager. "But in Arabic, we tell them slaps will come if you don't leave."
In his speech, al-Hakim vowed to defend the rights of all Iraqis and insisted he would not seek a Shiite government.
"Some say Shiites want to seize the power in Iraq but this is not true, although we are the majority. But it was all Iraqis who sacrificed their blood. We don't want a tribal government," he said.
The Shiite sect of Islam, a minority in the Islamic world, represents a 60 percent majority in Iraq. It was persecuted and oppressed under Saddam's Sunni Muslim-dominated regime.
Immediately after his return on Saturday, Hakim told cheering supporters that Iraq should have an Islamic government. In the same speech, however, he condemned religious extremism and rejected any foreign-installed government.
On Sunday, he stressed that U.S. authorities in Iraq were opposed to an Islamic government.
"The forces here will not bring Islam," he said.
Al-Hakim told the Arabic language television station Al-Jazeera on Sunday that he will not personally attend U.S.-sponsored meetings to establish a transitional administration, although he indicated representatives of his Supreme Council would.
"We believe in specialization," he said. "I specialize in religious affairs." he said others in his movement dealt with governmental issues and "therefore I don't think i will attend any of these meetings, whether they are supervised by Iraqis or by others."
Washington opposes an Iranian-style theocracy taking control in Iraq, and particularly fears the possibility that a democratic vote might produce a conservative, Islamic-oriented government with close ties to Iran's anti-American Shiite clerics.
Last month, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said that a government dominated by hardline religious clerics "isn't going to happen."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-shiite-cleric,0,674205.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
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Shiite Leader Demands U.S. Leave Iraq
--------------------
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer
May 11, 2003, 6:26 PM EDT
NASIRIYAH, Iraq -- The leader of Iraq's largest Shiite Muslim group denounced the U.S.-led occupation forces Sunday and demanded they pull out and allow the Iraqi people to establish their own government.
Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, who returned to his homeland Saturday after spending more than two decades in exile in neighboring Iran, made the call in this predominantly Shiite city despite the presence of a squad of U.S. Marines who were protecting him.
"We don't fear these (U.S. and British) forces. This nation wants to preserve its independence and the coalition forces must leave this country," al-Hakim said. As he spoke, about 4,000 supporters chanted "Yes to Hakim" and "Hakim is our leader."
A U.S. officer said the Marines were there to protect al-Hakim, leader of the Iran-backed Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq.
Last month, two prominent Shiite clerics were assassinated in the nearby city of Najaf. Their killings were widely perceived as part of an internal dispute among rival Shiite factions.
While al-Hakim spoke, some children offered bread or flowers to the Marines.
"We wave to the Americans," said Hasan Jaberi, a teenager. "But in Arabic, we tell them slaps will come if you don't leave."
In his speech, al-Hakim vowed to defend the rights of all Iraqis and insisted he would not seek a Shiite government.
"Some say Shiites want to seize the power in Iraq but this is not true, although we are the majority. But it was all Iraqis who sacrificed their blood. We don't want a tribal government," he said.
The Shiite sect of Islam, a minority in the Islamic world, represents a 60 percent majority in Iraq. It was persecuted and oppressed under Saddam's Sunni Muslim-dominated regime.
Immediately after his return on Saturday, Hakim told cheering supporters that Iraq should have an Islamic government. In the same speech, however, he condemned religious extremism and rejected any foreign-installed government.
On Sunday, he stressed that U.S. authorities in Iraq were opposed to an Islamic government.
"The forces here will not bring Islam," he said.
Al-Hakim told the Arabic language television station Al-Jazeera on Sunday that he will not personally attend U.S.-sponsored meetings to establish a transitional administration, although he indicated representatives of his Supreme Council would.
"We believe in specialization," he said. "I specialize in religious affairs." he said others in his movement dealt with governmental issues and "therefore I don't think i will attend any of these meetings, whether they are supervised by Iraqis or by others."
Washington opposes an Iranian-style theocracy taking control in Iraq, and particularly fears the possibility that a democratic vote might produce a conservative, Islamic-oriented government with close ties to Iran's anti-American Shiite clerics.
Last month, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said that a government dominated by hardline religious clerics "isn't going to happen."
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-shiite-cleric,0,674205.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Experts Cut Iraq Oil Production Forecast
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Updates
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Experts Cut Iraq Oil Production Forecast
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By CHARLES J. HANLEY
AP Special Correspondent
May 11, 2003, 1:37 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi oil experts, reassessing damage to their industry from postwar looting, have scaled back projections by one-third and expect to produce only 1 million barrels a day in June, the acting oil minister said Sunday.
In one sign of the energy shortfall in this oil-rich nation, Baghdad expects within two weeks to begin importing gasoline from neighboring Kuwait to help motorists who now line up for hours to buy scant supplies at city gas stations.
"There will be a clear improvement," said acting minister Thamir Ghadban.
As if to underscore the depth of the energy crisis, the news conference at which Ghadban and Iraq's acting electricity chief spoke had to be moved to a sunlit hallway when city power failed and lights went out in an Oil Ministry conference room.
Kareem Hasan, interim head of the national Electricity Commission, said the capital was receiving only 40 percent of its electricity needs, but "hopefully" full power will be restored within two months, when repairs are completed to transmission lines extensively damaged by U.S. bombing and vandals.
Ghadban and Hasan, named to their interim posts by the U.S. occupation authorities, met to coordinate the supply of oil to Iraqi power installations.
Before the U.S.-British invasion shut down the industry in March, Iraq was producing about 3 million barrels a day of crude oil, of which at least 2.1 million barrels was exported. Heavy postwar looting of oilfield and other industrial equipment has slowed the industry's resumption of full production.
Iraqi oil specialists had predicted the industry might rebound to half its prewar production level in June, but Ghadban said that wouldn't happen.
"We were more optimistic, but after meeting with senior people from the various upstream companies, we are now more realistic," he said. "We shall meet that target" -- 1.5 million barrels a day -- "at a later date."
The "upstream" companies are state-owned enterprises at the crude-protection end of the industry.
Ghadban attributed the more pessimistic outlook to damage to equipment and to limited supplies of industrial water, needed in huge quantities for oilfield operations. Power shortages have reduced water-pumping capacity in many places.
Iraq's proven crude oil reserves -- at 112 billion barrels -- are second in size worldwide only to Saudi Arabia's. Oil had accounted for 95 percent of Iraqi revenues in recent years.
Since the mid-1990s, under international economic sanctions, Iraq has been able to export oil only under close U.N. supervision, using the proceeds largely to buy food and other humanitarian goods. The United States and Britain are seeking a lifting of the U.N. sanctions and restoration of open trade in Iraqi oil.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-oil,0,6572348.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Updates
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Experts Cut Iraq Oil Production Forecast
--------------------
By CHARLES J. HANLEY
AP Special Correspondent
May 11, 2003, 1:37 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi oil experts, reassessing damage to their industry from postwar looting, have scaled back projections by one-third and expect to produce only 1 million barrels a day in June, the acting oil minister said Sunday.
In one sign of the energy shortfall in this oil-rich nation, Baghdad expects within two weeks to begin importing gasoline from neighboring Kuwait to help motorists who now line up for hours to buy scant supplies at city gas stations.
"There will be a clear improvement," said acting minister Thamir Ghadban.
As if to underscore the depth of the energy crisis, the news conference at which Ghadban and Iraq's acting electricity chief spoke had to be moved to a sunlit hallway when city power failed and lights went out in an Oil Ministry conference room.
Kareem Hasan, interim head of the national Electricity Commission, said the capital was receiving only 40 percent of its electricity needs, but "hopefully" full power will be restored within two months, when repairs are completed to transmission lines extensively damaged by U.S. bombing and vandals.
Ghadban and Hasan, named to their interim posts by the U.S. occupation authorities, met to coordinate the supply of oil to Iraqi power installations.
Before the U.S.-British invasion shut down the industry in March, Iraq was producing about 3 million barrels a day of crude oil, of which at least 2.1 million barrels was exported. Heavy postwar looting of oilfield and other industrial equipment has slowed the industry's resumption of full production.
Iraqi oil specialists had predicted the industry might rebound to half its prewar production level in June, but Ghadban said that wouldn't happen.
"We were more optimistic, but after meeting with senior people from the various upstream companies, we are now more realistic," he said. "We shall meet that target" -- 1.5 million barrels a day -- "at a later date."
The "upstream" companies are state-owned enterprises at the crude-protection end of the industry.
Ghadban attributed the more pessimistic outlook to damage to equipment and to limited supplies of industrial water, needed in huge quantities for oilfield operations. Power shortages have reduced water-pumping capacity in many places.
Iraq's proven crude oil reserves -- at 112 billion barrels -- are second in size worldwide only to Saudi Arabia's. Oil had accounted for 95 percent of Iraqi revenues in recent years.
Since the mid-1990s, under international economic sanctions, Iraq has been able to export oil only under close U.N. supervision, using the proceeds largely to buy food and other humanitarian goods. The United States and Britain are seeking a lifting of the U.N. sanctions and restoration of open trade in Iraqi oil.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-oil,0,6572348.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Small Blast on S.F. Plane Cargo Hold
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Updates
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Small Blast on S.F. Plane Cargo Hold
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By Associated Press
May 11, 2003, 4:11 PM EDT
SAN FRANCISCO -- A shipping container packed with electronic test equipment exploded inside an airliner's cargo hold Sunday while passengers were boarding, officials said.
A battery pack in the container of electronic gear may have been to blame for the small blast, said Mike McCarron, a spokesman for San Francisco International Airport.
United Flight No. 33 was preparing for takeoff on a flight to Kauai Island, Hawaii.
"As the baggage handler was moving bags around the cargo hold one of the packed shipping containers exploded, a minor explosion, and blew the hinges off" the container, McCarron said.
There were no injuries, McCarron said, but the baggage handler was "upset."
He said the container was well padded and insulated and would likely not have caused any damage to the plane had it been airborne.
Passengers were evacuated and rescheduled for an alternate flight.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-brf-baggage-explosion,0,783476.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Updates
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Small Blast on S.F. Plane Cargo Hold
--------------------
By Associated Press
May 11, 2003, 4:11 PM EDT
SAN FRANCISCO -- A shipping container packed with electronic test equipment exploded inside an airliner's cargo hold Sunday while passengers were boarding, officials said.
A battery pack in the container of electronic gear may have been to blame for the small blast, said Mike McCarron, a spokesman for San Francisco International Airport.
United Flight No. 33 was preparing for takeoff on a flight to Kauai Island, Hawaii.
"As the baggage handler was moving bags around the cargo hold one of the packed shipping containers exploded, a minor explosion, and blew the hinges off" the container, McCarron said.
There were no injuries, McCarron said, but the baggage handler was "upset."
He said the container was well padded and insulated and would likely not have caused any damage to the plane had it been airborne.
Passengers were evacuated and rescheduled for an alternate flight.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-brf-baggage-explosion,0,783476.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Palestinian Gunman Kills Israeli Motorist
From: p
Military Care Packages War Updates
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Palestinian Gunman Kills Israeli Motorist
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By STEVE WEIZMAN
Associated Press Writer
May 11, 2003, 12:32 PM EDT
JERUSALEM -- Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli motorist in the West Bank and Israeli troops raided a Palestinian town Sunday as Secretary of State Colin Powell urged both sides to take concrete steps toward Mideast peace.
Fatah, the mainstream Palestinian group led by Yasser Arafat and new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, and the Popular Front group, a radical member of the PLO, claimed responsibility for the roadside ambush. The shooting killed a father of six near the Jewish settlement of Ofra.
Later Sunday, three Islamic Jihad members surrendered to Israeli troops after tanks and armored personnel carriers surrounded a building in the West Bank town of Jenin while helicopters provided cover fire from machine guns, residents said. The army said troops were looking for suspected militants.
The raid came as Powell met Abbas as part of U.S. efforts to get started on a new peace plan, the so-called "road map" to Palestinian statehood.
The plan calls for the Palestinians to rein in militants while Israel eases its grip on the Palestinian areas. The Palestinians have demanded that Israel halt military strikes and targeted killings of suspected militants to improve the atmosphere and allow Palestinian security forces to assume control.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said Israeli troops would not let up in their campaign against militants responsible for scores of shootings and bombings in the past 31 months of fighting.
Powell said Sunday the United States expects "rapid and decisive actions by the Palestinians" to dismantle terror groups and he has discussed "a number of specific actions" Israel can take to move the process forward.
Powell's meeting with Abbas was held in the West Bank town of Jericho, underscoring the U.S. intention to exclude Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from the process. Israel has confined Arafat to the West Bank town of Ramallah. Both the United States and Israel have accused Arafat of encouraging and aiding terrorism.
Powell backed Israel's insistence that Abbas take strong action to crack down on militant groups.
"We must ... see rapid and decisive actions by the Palestinians to disarm and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure," Powell said.
Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas, responded that if the Palestinian leadership cracks down on militants -- as it did in 1996 -- "it will be like political suicide for the Palestinian government."
"Their (the United States' and Israel's) demands were clear: dismantle the Palestinian (militant) organizations and in return they will ease daily life, which is something unacceptable," Rantisi said.
Powell said he and Sharon also discussed "a number of specific actions Israel can take immediately to improve the situation in the West Bank and Gaza and help build an environment for peacemaking."
In what Israel billed as a confidence-building measure, it released 61 Palestinian detainees Sunday and said dozens more would be freed in coming days. A prisoners' support group said those being released were due to go home within two weeks anyhow, and dismissed the Israeli action as largely cosmetic.
Israel holds about 5,000 Palestinians, most of them rounded up during military offensives in the past year.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-israel-palestinians,0,1815995.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Military Care Packages War Updates
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Palestinian Gunman Kills Israeli Motorist
--------------------
By STEVE WEIZMAN
Associated Press Writer
May 11, 2003, 12:32 PM EDT
JERUSALEM -- Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli motorist in the West Bank and Israeli troops raided a Palestinian town Sunday as Secretary of State Colin Powell urged both sides to take concrete steps toward Mideast peace.
Fatah, the mainstream Palestinian group led by Yasser Arafat and new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, and the Popular Front group, a radical member of the PLO, claimed responsibility for the roadside ambush. The shooting killed a father of six near the Jewish settlement of Ofra.
Later Sunday, three Islamic Jihad members surrendered to Israeli troops after tanks and armored personnel carriers surrounded a building in the West Bank town of Jenin while helicopters provided cover fire from machine guns, residents said. The army said troops were looking for suspected militants.
The raid came as Powell met Abbas as part of U.S. efforts to get started on a new peace plan, the so-called "road map" to Palestinian statehood.
The plan calls for the Palestinians to rein in militants while Israel eases its grip on the Palestinian areas. The Palestinians have demanded that Israel halt military strikes and targeted killings of suspected militants to improve the atmosphere and allow Palestinian security forces to assume control.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said Israeli troops would not let up in their campaign against militants responsible for scores of shootings and bombings in the past 31 months of fighting.
Powell said Sunday the United States expects "rapid and decisive actions by the Palestinians" to dismantle terror groups and he has discussed "a number of specific actions" Israel can take to move the process forward.
Powell's meeting with Abbas was held in the West Bank town of Jericho, underscoring the U.S. intention to exclude Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from the process. Israel has confined Arafat to the West Bank town of Ramallah. Both the United States and Israel have accused Arafat of encouraging and aiding terrorism.
Powell backed Israel's insistence that Abbas take strong action to crack down on militant groups.
"We must ... see rapid and decisive actions by the Palestinians to disarm and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure," Powell said.
Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas, responded that if the Palestinian leadership cracks down on militants -- as it did in 1996 -- "it will be like political suicide for the Palestinian government."
"Their (the United States' and Israel's) demands were clear: dismantle the Palestinian (militant) organizations and in return they will ease daily life, which is something unacceptable," Rantisi said.
Powell said he and Sharon also discussed "a number of specific actions Israel can take immediately to improve the situation in the West Bank and Gaza and help build an environment for peacemaking."
In what Israel billed as a confidence-building measure, it released 61 Palestinian detainees Sunday and said dozens more would be freed in coming days. A prisoners' support group said those being released were due to go home within two weeks anyhow, and dismissed the Israeli action as largely cosmetic.
Israel holds about 5,000 Palestinians, most of them rounded up during military offensives in the past year.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-israel-palestinians,0,1815995.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
U.S. Reshuffles Iraq Reconstruction Team
From: p
War Blog Updates
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U.S. Reshuffles Iraq Reconstruction Team
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By CHARLES J. HANLEY
AP Special Correspondent
May 11, 2003, 2:40 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- One top U.S. occupation official left her post Sunday, another was preparing to leave, and a new administrator arrived in the region, ready to take over, less than three weeks after their newborn reconstruction agency opened for business in the postwar chaos of Baghdad.
Besides the rapid-fire changes at the top, there was other unsettling news Sunday for Iraqi rebuilding: Oil production, vital for recovery, may resume more slowly than thought, and it may take two more months to get full electricity back in Baghdad.
As if to underscore the challenges facing the Americans, new arson fires broke out Sunday, sending palls of smoke billowing over a city wracked by looting and other lawlessness since a U.S.-British invasion toppled President Saddam Hussein's government last month.
The departed official, ex-ambassador Barbara Bodine, was coordinator for central Iraq, including Baghdad, within the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. The office thus far has assembled some 800 specialists from U.S. government agencies and allied governments to organize aid, reconstruction and the establishment of a new government for Iraq.
An ORHA spokesman, U.S. Army Maj. John Cornelio, confirmed that Bodine was leaving Baghdad on Sunday. But the agency issued no statement explaining the reason for her swift departure, just two weeks after she chaired a familiarization meeting with top bureaucrats of the former Baghdad city administration.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that Bodine, former U.S. ambassador to Yemen, was being reassigned as deputy director of the State Department's political-military division.
No replacement for her has been named yet, Cornelio said. The replacement for chief U.S. administrator Jay Garner, on the other hand, has been known for more than a week.
L. Paul Bremer, a longtime State Department aide, flew to Qatar this weekend as he prepared to take over in Baghdad as head of ORHA. Bremer, 61, whose new agency is essentially a military administration reporting to the U.S. Central Command, flew to Qatar with the Pentagon's top soldier, Air Force Gen. Richard Myers.
Spokesman Cornelio said Garner also was in Qatar, presumably meeting with his successor. The 65-year-old retired Army lieutenant general, who arrived in Baghdad on April 21, had said his assignment here would be short-term, but it had been expected to last three months.
Now, Garner has said, he will depart after making a "good handoff" to Bremer -- probably by late May. Bremer is expected in Baghdad this week.
In its three weeks here, the reconstruction agency has made some inroads in a city and country drifting without law and order, or other government functions, since U.S. troops took control of Baghdad around April 9.
The Americans have deployed some Iraqi police in Baghdad's streets, have made nominal US$20 emergency salary payments to draw many bureaucrats back to government offices, and have inaugurated a political process through which Iraq's anti-Saddam factions may produce an interim government by June.
But many ordinary Iraqis complain loudly that the U.S. occupation has failed to restore basic services.
Baghdadis are getting less than half the electrical power they need. That, in turn, has limited the treatment and pumping of clean water. Worst of all, Iraqis say, looters and other criminals are still free to prey on ordinary citizens and their property.
On Sunday, the interim head of the national Electricity Commission, Kareem Hasan, told reporters that full power may not be restored for two months until repairs are completed to transmission lines extensively damaged by U.S. bombing and vandals, who shoot down power lines to darken areas for looting.
Iraq's interim oil minister, Thamir Ghadban, who like Hasan was designated by ORHA, said his ministry was scaling back projections for resumed national oil production, saying it might reach only 1 million barrels a day -- instead of 1.5 million -- in June. He said damage to oil industry equipment from looting was more extensive than initially thought.
The dimensions of the challenges facing Bodine in Baghdad were apparent at her initial meeting with city officials on April 27.
"Working with the technocrats to get everything up and running is a first priority," she said then. But the setting was a meeting room without light or electricity, in a looted, debris-strewn city building, with nine Iraqi men sitting glumly around a table, clearly unhappy.
Bodine had another problem as well -- an Iraqi opposition figure named Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi, who had set himself up as a rival "governor" of Baghdad. That same day, April 27, the U.S. military arrested al-Zubaidi, holding him for two days and ending his challenge. Now his American rival is gone, too.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-us-administrators,0,1054885.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
War Blog Updates
--------------------
U.S. Reshuffles Iraq Reconstruction Team
--------------------
By CHARLES J. HANLEY
AP Special Correspondent
May 11, 2003, 2:40 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- One top U.S. occupation official left her post Sunday, another was preparing to leave, and a new administrator arrived in the region, ready to take over, less than three weeks after their newborn reconstruction agency opened for business in the postwar chaos of Baghdad.
Besides the rapid-fire changes at the top, there was other unsettling news Sunday for Iraqi rebuilding: Oil production, vital for recovery, may resume more slowly than thought, and it may take two more months to get full electricity back in Baghdad.
As if to underscore the challenges facing the Americans, new arson fires broke out Sunday, sending palls of smoke billowing over a city wracked by looting and other lawlessness since a U.S.-British invasion toppled President Saddam Hussein's government last month.
The departed official, ex-ambassador Barbara Bodine, was coordinator for central Iraq, including Baghdad, within the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. The office thus far has assembled some 800 specialists from U.S. government agencies and allied governments to organize aid, reconstruction and the establishment of a new government for Iraq.
An ORHA spokesman, U.S. Army Maj. John Cornelio, confirmed that Bodine was leaving Baghdad on Sunday. But the agency issued no statement explaining the reason for her swift departure, just two weeks after she chaired a familiarization meeting with top bureaucrats of the former Baghdad city administration.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that Bodine, former U.S. ambassador to Yemen, was being reassigned as deputy director of the State Department's political-military division.
No replacement for her has been named yet, Cornelio said. The replacement for chief U.S. administrator Jay Garner, on the other hand, has been known for more than a week.
L. Paul Bremer, a longtime State Department aide, flew to Qatar this weekend as he prepared to take over in Baghdad as head of ORHA. Bremer, 61, whose new agency is essentially a military administration reporting to the U.S. Central Command, flew to Qatar with the Pentagon's top soldier, Air Force Gen. Richard Myers.
Spokesman Cornelio said Garner also was in Qatar, presumably meeting with his successor. The 65-year-old retired Army lieutenant general, who arrived in Baghdad on April 21, had said his assignment here would be short-term, but it had been expected to last three months.
Now, Garner has said, he will depart after making a "good handoff" to Bremer -- probably by late May. Bremer is expected in Baghdad this week.
In its three weeks here, the reconstruction agency has made some inroads in a city and country drifting without law and order, or other government functions, since U.S. troops took control of Baghdad around April 9.
The Americans have deployed some Iraqi police in Baghdad's streets, have made nominal US$20 emergency salary payments to draw many bureaucrats back to government offices, and have inaugurated a political process through which Iraq's anti-Saddam factions may produce an interim government by June.
But many ordinary Iraqis complain loudly that the U.S. occupation has failed to restore basic services.
Baghdadis are getting less than half the electrical power they need. That, in turn, has limited the treatment and pumping of clean water. Worst of all, Iraqis say, looters and other criminals are still free to prey on ordinary citizens and their property.
On Sunday, the interim head of the national Electricity Commission, Kareem Hasan, told reporters that full power may not be restored for two months until repairs are completed to transmission lines extensively damaged by U.S. bombing and vandals, who shoot down power lines to darken areas for looting.
Iraq's interim oil minister, Thamir Ghadban, who like Hasan was designated by ORHA, said his ministry was scaling back projections for resumed national oil production, saying it might reach only 1 million barrels a day -- instead of 1.5 million -- in June. He said damage to oil industry equipment from looting was more extensive than initially thought.
The dimensions of the challenges facing Bodine in Baghdad were apparent at her initial meeting with city officials on April 27.
"Working with the technocrats to get everything up and running is a first priority," she said then. But the setting was a meeting room without light or electricity, in a looted, debris-strewn city building, with nine Iraqi men sitting glumly around a table, clearly unhappy.
Bodine had another problem as well -- an Iraqi opposition figure named Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi, who had set himself up as a rival "governor" of Baghdad. That same day, April 27, the U.S. military arrested al-Zubaidi, holding him for two days and ending his challenge. Now his American rival is gone, too.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-us-administrators,0,1054885.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
Alert: Total Lunar Eclipse Set Thursday
From: p
48
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Alert: Total Lunar Eclipse Set Thursday
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By Associated Press
May 11, 2003, 4:16 PM EDT
LOS ANGELES -- If the weather cooperates, a total lunar eclipse will be seen across North America late Thursday -- the first visible in the United States in three years -- and just before dawn Friday in western Europe and western and southern Africa.
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth casts its shadow on the full moon, blocking the sunlight that otherwise reflects off the moon's surface. Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are safe to view with the naked eye.
In North America, the moon will remain totally eclipsed for 53 minutes, and should turn substantially darker and reddish in color.
The total eclipse will start at 8:13 PDT in Los Angeles, 11:13 p.m. EDT in New York.
A second lunar eclipse, on Nov. 8, will be visible from North and South America.
Eclipses once helped prove the Earth is round, because its shadow on the moon is curved.
* __
On the Net:
Naval Observatory: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/LunarEclipse.html
Griffith Observatory: http://www.griffithobs.org/lunareclipse.html
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-brf-lunar-eclipse,0,3184112.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
48
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Alert: Total Lunar Eclipse Set Thursday
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By Associated Press
May 11, 2003, 4:16 PM EDT
LOS ANGELES -- If the weather cooperates, a total lunar eclipse will be seen across North America late Thursday -- the first visible in the United States in three years -- and just before dawn Friday in western Europe and western and southern Africa.
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth casts its shadow on the full moon, blocking the sunlight that otherwise reflects off the moon's surface. Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are safe to view with the naked eye.
In North America, the moon will remain totally eclipsed for 53 minutes, and should turn substantially darker and reddish in color.
The total eclipse will start at 8:13 PDT in Los Angeles, 11:13 p.m. EDT in New York.
A second lunar eclipse, on Nov. 8, will be visible from North and South America.
Eclipses once helped prove the Earth is round, because its shadow on the moon is curved.
* __
On the Net:
Naval Observatory: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/LunarEclipse.html
Griffith Observatory: http://www.griffithobs.org/lunareclipse.html
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-brf-lunar-eclipse,0,3184112.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
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