War on Iraq- latest analysis and views

A comprehensive list of articles on the very latest analysis, views and news on this so-called war of liberation in Iraq:

1. On to Damascus?
http://motherjones.com/news/warwatch/2003/14/we_345_04.html#one

For months, even as Washington's hawks prepared for their long-sought war in Iraq, neoconservatives inside and outside the White House were eagerly speculating about which country would be next on the administration's list. Now, while US and British troops make their painstaking way toward Iraq and an urban battle military leaders want desperately to avoid, war party pundits are eagerly speculating once more. But this time, they are only writing about two countries: Syria and Iran. This week, in a speech to the America Israel Public Affairs Committee, the country's pre-eminent pro-Israel lobby group, Secretary of State Colin Powell declared that Washington wanted to see "more responsible behavior" from Damascus. And he didn't stop there. Denouncing the Syrian government's harsh criticism of the US-led invasion of Iraq, Powell declared that Syria now "faces a critical choice." It was strong language reminiscent of the nuanced threats leveled at Iraq last year, and it was greeted by hearty applause from the AIPAC crowd. But is the Bush administration, in a war that few still believe will be quick or simple, actually considering turning its military attention toward Damascus? Neoconservatives dearly hope so.

2. Evidence Against Syria Is Questioned
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wosyri033204221apr03,0,4315
121.story
April 3, 2003

Washington - The CIA has no credible evidence that the government of Syria has had a role in the shipment of night-vision goggles and other military equipment to Iraq, according to an administration official familiar with U.S. intelligence in the region. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last Friday suggested that Syria was responsible for the shipment to Iraq of defense-related goods, including the goggles, and warned that the United States considered "such trafficking as hostile acts and would hold the Syrian government accountable." Syria quickly denied the accusation. And the administration official yesterday said that while military goods, including goggles, have been smuggled through Syria into Iraq for many years, "It's not necessarily with the knowledge, consent or approval of the Syrian government."

3. Dad denies rescued POW shot
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/04/04/1048962913087.html
Friday 4 April 2003, 10:06 AM

The father of rescued prisoner of war Jessica Lynch today said she suffered no gunshot or knife wounds at the hands of her Iraqi assailants, contrary to reports quoting a US official. In a televised press conference from his home in Palestine, West Virginia, Gregory Lynch said he and his wife had spoken to her after she underwent surgery at a US military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. An examination revealed the 19-year-old private had "no multiple gunshot wounds or knife stabs" Lynch said, adding that there had been "no entry whatsoever". The Washington Post, citing a US official, reported that Jessica Lynch had "continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her in fighting (on) March 23".

4. Ex-CIA director: U.S. faces 'World War IV'
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/04/03/sprj.irq.woolsey.world.war/index.html
Thursday, April 3, 2003

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Former CIA Director James Woolsey said Wednesday the United States is engaged in World War IV, and that it could continue for years. In the address to a group of college students, Woolsey described the Cold War as the third world war and said "This fourth world war, I think, will last considerably longer than either World Wars I or II did for us. Hopefully not the full four-plus decades of the Cold War."

5. 'US may isolate Baghdad rather than storm it'
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=42
317969
AP[ FRIDAY, APRIL 04, 2003 04:03:10 AM ]

WASHINGTON: American forces might stop short of storming Baghdad and instead isolate it while the makings of a new national government are put in place, President George W Bush's top military adviser said on Thursday. Gen Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, indicated the coming days might bring neither an all-out fight for the city, as many have predicted, nor a conventional siege of the capital. "When you get to the point where Baghdad is basically isolated, then what is the situation you have in the country?" he said at a Pentagon news conference. "You have a country that Baghdad no longer controls, that whatever's happening inside Baghdad is almost irrelevant compared to what's going on in the rest of the country."

6 US Congress approves $80 bn for war
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articlelist?msid=30
359486
AP [ FRIDAY, APRIL 04, 2003 10:30:41 AM ]

WASHINGTON: Congress voted overwhelmingly to give President George W Bush about $80 billion for initial costs of the invasion of Iraq and other anti-terrorism efforts. The approval came after a debate in which conservatives failed in their bid to punish Turkey and other nations for hindering the US war effort. Senators approved their measure 93-0 and the
House adopted a similar bill by 414-12, underscoring lawmakers' resolve to back US forces in the field. The votes put the two chambers on track to send Bush a final package by his deadline of April 11, which would be uncommonly swift for a Congress that received his request for $74.7 billion only a week ago. Though lawmakers reined in Bush's request to control most of the funds and added aid for airlines and other items, the vote gave him a welcome victory on Capitol Hill, a week after the Senate voted to cut in half his plan for new tax cuts.

7. Iranian units to combat US forces in Iraq
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030403-024040-6730r

Iran's senior leadership decided last month to send irregular paramilitary units across their border with Iraq to harass American soldiers once Saddam Hussein's regime fell, according to US intelligence reports. On March 24, a US intelligence agency issued a "spot report" to a wide range of senior US officials detailing conversations in a meeting of the Islamic Republic's top leadership in the equivalent of the US National Security Council. The council, which is working on Iran's post-conflict strategy, includes Iranian President Mohammed Khatami and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei.

8. 280 Iraqi civilians dismembered by bombs, says Red Cross
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,6119,2-10-1460_1342460,00.html

The International Committee of the Red Cross described as "horrific" on Thursday the scene at a hospital south of Baghdad, where hundreds of Iraqi men, women and children "practically dismembered by explosions" were being treated. Floran Westphal of the Red Cross said from Geneva, that their workers reported seeing the local 280-bed hospital completely full of casualties of bomb attacks. A Red Cross doctor at the town of Hilla, 10km south of Baghdad, told CNN about 280 Iraqis had been wounded from bombing and fierce fighting in the previous 48 hours. He said the hospital was "overwhelmed" by hundreds of casualties, adding that he was "shocked" by what he saw.

9. US warned that oil cannot provide funds
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=393764
04 April 2003

A senior British official at the United Nations warned the United States yesterday that it should think twice before assuming it can administer post-conflict Iraq on its own terms. Mark Malloch Brown, the director of the UN Development Programme, also said Iraq's crippled oil industry would not finance reconstruction after the war. His candid remarks preface what is shaping to become another mammoth struggle between the powers in the UN Security Council over the role of the UN in running Iraq and helping it back to self-government. He said: "Maybe there are people in Washington who can't see round the next corner in the road and don't know where it goes, but eventually will." There is growing alarm in UN circles at what appears to be plans by Washington to install its own government in Iraq, headed by retired Lieutenant-General Jay Garner. He and a group of carefully selected
US officials are in Kuwait waiting for the moment to transfer to Baghdad and take over Iraqi ministries.

10. Hawkish lawyer to oversee Iraqi ministries, The Pentagon selects group
to take power
Friday April 4, 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,929378,00.html

A Pentagon lawyer who sought to have US citizens imprisoned indefinitely without charge as part of the war on terrorism will supervise civil administration in Iraq once Saddam Hussein is removed. Michael Mobbs, 54, who will take charge of 11 of the 23 Iraqi ministries, is one of several controversial appointments to the Pentagon-controlled government-in-waiting being assembled in a cluster of seaside villas in Kuwait. Other top-level appointees include James Woolsey, a former CIA director with Israeli connections, who has long pursued a theory that Saddam Hussein, rather than Islamic militants, was behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York.

11. Victory Plan Is Formed by U.S., Surrender Not Thought Essential
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23898-2003Apr3.html
Friday, April 4, 2003; Page A23

The Bush administration has devised a strategy to declare victory in Iraq even if Saddam Hussein or key lieutenants remain at large and fighting continues in parts of the country, officials said yesterday. The concept of a "rolling" victory contemplates a time -- not yet determined -- when U.S. forces control significant territory and have eliminated a critical mass of Iraqi resistance. U.S. military commanders would establish a base of operations, perhaps outside Baghdad, and assert that a new era has begun. Even then, tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers would remain to help maintain order and provide humanitarian assistance. Although President Bush spoke yesterday of accepting "nothing less than complete and final victory," administration officials do not envision a formal Iraqi capitulation in a scene akin to the German surrender to the Allies at Reims that ended World War II in Europe. Rather, they hope to recognize a moment when the military and political balance tilt decisively away from Hussein's Baath Party government. "The objective is not necessarily to take buildings or occupy areas," said a senior military officer involved in endgame planning. "It's the people. It's getting them to accept the fact that the regime is gone. That's the essence of the thing. It's not going to be a geographic piece."

12 'Liberated' city where looters run wild and death stalks the streets
Andrew Buncombe in Nasiriyah
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=393784
04 April 2003

Nasiriyah is a city of suffering. After some of the most intense and bloody fighting yet of this war, the United States has now declared this city of up to 300,000 people in its control – the largest city in Iraq to have been "liberated". Liberation has come at a price of undoubted suffering for the people of this settlement on the Euphrates: doctors claim that up to 250 people were killed by US air strikes or artillery attacks, and that up to 1,000 were injured. This could be the greatest challenge for the Allied forces. They have pushed north quickly, and many of the towns they have passed remain at best unstable. How best to police these cities without appearing as an occupying force appears to be something about which the Americans are unclear.

13. Mystery of the missing Republican Guard
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/international.cfm?id=394182003

AS WAR approached, they were always described as the "elite" Republican Guard . Last night at least two of six Republican divisions, 25,000 men, were effectively missing in action and their positions to the south of Baghdad destroyed by massive aerial bombardments. So what happened? .. Several forward units of the Medina division, located at the farthest point
of the defensive arc south of Baghdad, and closest to the perimeter of Karbala, are thought to have retreated back to the capital. Reinforcements from the Nebuchadnezzar division, normally based at Kirkuk in the north, have since been drafted in to provide back-up around Baghdad. To the rear of the crippled Baghdad division, farther to the north, is the armoured
Nida division, and to the west of Baghdad is the armoured Hammurabi division. Pentagon sources claimed intensive bombing had effectively destroyed the command structure of both. The Adnan division around Tikrit, north of Baghdad, was also under heavy air attack yesterday. There was also some doubt whether they would be allowed by Saddam to retreat into Baghdad if they faced overwhelming defeat. Phillip Mitchell, of the Institute of Strategic Studies in London, sounded a cautionary note. He said: "The Americans may claim two divisions of the guard have been wiped out, but so far, there has appeared to be no attack on the Iraqi troops heading south, which seems extraordinarily strange. It’s one of the imponderables. The remaining divisions have to be somewhere, and their desire to fight should still not be underestimated."

14 Anti-war feelings spread
http://www.buenosairesherald.com/the_world/note.jsp?idContent=9558

QUETTA, Pakistan — About 25,000 Pakistani Muslims called yesterday for a holy war against Washington and its allies as they protested against the US-led military action on Iraq. The protesters responded to calls from the Islamic Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) alliance to direct their anger against US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

15. US forces use schools for cover
By Russell Skelton in northern Iraq
April 4 2003
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/03/1048962881242.html

United States special forces have taken up strategic positions in three secondary schools located in a densely populated residential area of a city in northern Iraq. The schools, which have been closed since the war began, are located near a prominent Christian church and within 200 metres of a United Nations complex. The decision to locate the special forces in a
residential area appears to run counter to US policy. The Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, recently criticised Iraq for placing key military units and weaponry in and around mosques, hospitals and schools in both Baghdad and Basra. The decision also appears to be a departure from US policy in northern Iraq. Thousands of paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade have been deliberately located well away from any population centres. For security reasons the name of the city will not be published. But yesterday I observed four Humvees equipped with mortars, missiles and .50 calibre machine-guns unloading men and equipment at a girls' secondary school. Soldiers entered the school through a side entrance. The special forces had their faces covered and appeared to be returning from a mission. The vehicles were dusty and heavily laden with weaponry. When I attempted to approach the soldiers, local security forces intervened, saying that the street was off limits to the media and that photography was banned. This week big cities were put on high security alert after Iraq proclaimed it had 4000 Arab volunteers ready to carry out suicide bombings. Kurdish residents, who confirmed the exact location of special forces units, are furious at the decision to locate them in their midst but are afraid to speak out. They believe the special forces will be targeted by suicide bombers and the Iraqi armed forces.

16. British consulate in Turkey attacked
http://www.buenosairesherald.com/the_world/note.jsp?idContent=9558

ISTANBUL — Assailants hurled a bomb early today at the British consulate
in Istanbul, causing damage but no injuries, police said. The explosion
shattered some windows and damaged a gate and walls of the consulate
building in downtown Beyoglu district, the police said. No one has claimed
responsibility for the attack, which came only hours after Turkey’s 2-0
defeat before England in a Euro 2004 qualifier in England. Anti-British and
-US sentiment also runs high in this predominantly Muslim country because
of coalition attacks on Iraq, bordering Turkey. More than 90 percent of
Turks are against war and images of civilian casualties repeatedly
broadcast on Turkish television stations are fueling anger directed against
US and British administrations.

17. U.S. invasion has landed it in Israeli territory
By TARIF ABBOUSHI HoustonChronicle.com
April 1, 2003, 7:15PM
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/editorial/outlook/1847350

Our rules of war are based on overwhelming superiority of the force at our
disposal compared to that of the enemy. Israel's experience in Lebanon and
the Palestinian territories tells that overwhelming force cannot quell
fiery nationalism. And history tells that Iraqi nationalism is as fierce as
any. The cost of ignoring that will only mount with time. We will turn to
the Israeli military, the world's most experienced in combating suicide
bombers, and adopt their methods. We'll claim our right to defend ourselves
against the retaliation of those we attack. Our presence on their land is
what they detest, yet we will see their killing of our soldiers as proof
they are the terrorists our presence is needed to wipe out. We'll force
cars to stop at a safe distance and make their occupants approach on foot.
Then an Iraqi patriot will shuffle up to marines at a roadblock and
detonate a concealed explosives belt strapped to his waist. Our
counterterrorism experts will advise that we force Iraqis civilians to
strip to their waists before they approach our men. The effect, as Israel
knows all too well, will be to alienate the indigenous population. Our
actions will ratchet up their resentment and intensify their loathing of
the foreign military power controlling their lives. The number of Iraqis
ready to die to kill anyone sporting a Star-Spangled Banner or a Union Jack
will mushroom. We can win the war, but the peace will enervate us.
Welcome, America, to a vicious cycle of violence like that Israel is mired
in. In time our nation will yearn for freedom from Operation Iraqi Freedom.

18. Greeks strike nationwide to protest Iraq war
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Art
icle_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035780373721&call_pageid=968332188854&col
=968350060724
Apr. 3, 2003. 07:01 PM

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A nationwide strike called to protest the war in
Iraq shut down banks, stores and government services and disrupted flights
today in Greece, where thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in
several cities. Authorities fired tear gas to disperse a violent group of
demonstrators who scuffled with riot police, hurled eggs and red paint at
the U.S. Embassy in Athens and pushed flaming trash bins through lines of
officers. Seven people were arrested and three police officers were
slightly injured. The rowdy group broke away from 15,000 peaceful marchers
who also headed to the heavily guarded embassy, shouting "Americans are
killers." About 15,000 marched to the U.S. Consulate in the northern port
city of Thessaloniki.

19. Post-war oil may not flow
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2003/04/04/200810
Friday, Apr 04, 2003,Page 12

Iraqi oil policies and the high political risk attached to big-ticket
investments may delay a post-war Iraq oil boom for years, a leading London
think tank said in a new report published yesterday. Oil majors will want
to wait for a legitimate new government to settle in Baghdad before risking
full-blown investment in undeveloped oilfields, said the report by the
Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA). "Although Iraq is sitting
on massive oil reserves it will be years before they are tapped," it said.
"It is likely to take over five years for a legitimate regime to be fully
established."

20. Israel Tells US: 'Send In the Bulldozers'
http://rense.com/general36/isra.htm
Pentagon Takes Notes on House-to-house Fighting in Jenin
The Guardian (UK) April 3, 2003 Issue

Martin van Creveld's advice to the US marines on what lessons to draw from
Israel's bloody urban battle in Jenin was precise: Forget the helicopters,
invest in armored bulldozers. For months now, the Pentagon has been taking
notes from the Israelis in preparation for what looks increasingly likely
to be an arduous house by house, street by street, fight for Baghdad.
Pentagon strategists have pored over videos of the Israeli military's
assault on Jenin a year ago, when 150 lightly armed but determined
Palestinians kept the army at bay for 11 days and killed 23 soldiers. US
officers watched Israeli tank raids into West Bank cities in February, and
American soldiers have learned in the Israeli desert how to blow their way
from house to house to avoid booby traps and street fighting. The Israeli
insights build on years of exchanges of military technology and
intelligence between the deeply intertwined armies. Among other things,
the US is using Israeli-manufactured drones to scout across Iraqi lines.

21. Egyptian demonstrations in Alexandria
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/030403/2003040322.html
Egypt-Iraq, Politics, 4/3/2003

Demonstrations in Egyptian governorates in rejection of the US-led war on
Iraq took place with trade unions, students, Islamic and Christian
clergymen and members of parliament expressed condemnation of the current
war. More than 40,000 people yesterday held a popular rally at Alexandria
stadium to declare their rejection of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq
and their denunciation of the massacres committed against the Iraqi people.

22. US Congress bans France, Germany, Russia, Syria from rebuilding Iraq
http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1429_WM_B_20030404_13%3A00_2,00.html

In Washington, the House of Representatives late Thursday passed a
supplementary budget amendment excluding France,Germany, Russia and Syria
from taking part in US-funded reconstruction bids in Iraq, because they
opposed the US-led war in Iraq. The measure would even bar access by the
four countries to information on reconstruction bids in Iraq. The amendment
was passed despite opposition from the White House.

23 New Scientist - Military Rivalry 'Causes Friendly Fire Deaths'
19:00 02 April 03
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993575

In modern warfare, one of the biggest dangers to troops is not knowing who
is friend and who is foe. In the first days of the US and British invasion
of Iraq, an American Patriot missile shot down a British Tornado
fighter-bomber, while near Basra one British Challenger tank destroyed
another. Then in a disturbing echo of events in the 1991 Gulf War, an
American A-10 plane destroyed a British armoured vehicle. At first sight
these look like inevitable accidents, triggered by technological failures
of 21st-century military technology. But the truth may lie deeper. Blame
for such accidents usually lies with the culture of rivalry that pervades
the armed services, say safety experts. And the way such "friendly fire"
incidents are investigated - with the emphasis on finding individual
culprits rather than any organisational failings - means military planners
may never get to the root cause.

24. Rural Casualties Go Uncounted In Iraq
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=393688
04 April 2003

Samar Hussein was killed by a bomb that fell on dusty farmland miles
outside Baghdad. But, as Kim Sengupta discovers, she is just one of this
war's forgotten victims Samar Hussein was in the kitchen helping her aunt
Alia Mijbas to make breakfast when the missile landed. The farmhouse where
they lived, like most of the homes in the area, is built of a soft, brown
stone, and the explosion was close enough for shrapnel to cut through the
house's outer walls like butter and slice into Samar's stomach. Alia was
struck on both legs by razor-sharp fragments, while her five-year-old son
Mahmood, who was drinking a glass of milk, was hit on the chest and
shoulders. The blast knocked over the cooker, which burst into flames,
severely burning one of Mahmood's brothers, 11-year-old Sahal. All were
rushed to hospital, but Samar died before they got there. She was 13 years
old. The victims of this particular explosion were in Manaria, a village in
Mohammedia district, about 30 miles south of Baghdad. Since the war began,
this mostly rural area of dusty brown fields and quiet villages has seen 53
inhabitants injured and 22 killed.

These figures don't come from Iraqi government ministers as they tot up the
numbers of victims of "American and British aggression" during their daily
news conferences in Baghdad. Instead, I learnt of these deaths from a
doctor at the local hospital. For it seems that, while vivid atrocities in
Baghdad – such as the marketplace bombings at Sha'ad and Shu'ale, which
killed 72 people in two days – get huge international publicity,
everyone, including Saddam Hussein's regime, is unaware of the steadily
rising number of casualties in the rural areas just outside the capital.

25. US eyes war's impact on economy
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2003/04/03/200688
Thursday, Apr 03, 2003,Page 12

WATCH GROUP: Top policy-makers are meeting daily to monitor the world's oil
and financial markets while Cabinet members try to sell the
economic-stimulus package The White House has embarked on a campaign to
keep the war in Iraq from pushing the country back into a recession. A
"watch group" of the administration's top policy-makers began holding daily
meetings when the war started two weeks ago in an effort to stay on top of
developments in world financial markets, global oil markets and the US
economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan also has been a
participant in the sessions, which have been chaired by Stephen Friedman,
the director of the president's National Economic Council.

26 UQ Wire: Voices of September 11 Calls For Answers
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0304/S00059.htm
Thursday, 3 April 2003, 4:27 pm
Presented by… http://www.unansweredquestions.org/
First public hearing of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon
the United States Statement of Mary Fetchet to the National Commission on
Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States March 31, 2003
From: http://www.9-11commission.gov/hearings/witness_fetchet.htm

Good morning. My name is Mary Fetchet. Thank you all so much for being
here. I tragically lost my son Brad in the attacks on the World Trade
Center. I am Co-Chair of Voices of September 11th and a member of the
steering committee for the 9/11 Independent Commission.

27 USA and UK lied to UNO
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2003/04/03/45501.html
01:55 2003-04-03

The list of crimes committed by the United States of America and the United
Kingdom does not cease to grow. Before the criminal attack against Iraq, a
sovereign nation and member of the UNO, in which war crimes and murder are
being committed on a daily basis, these two countries had desperately tried
to create a causus belli where none existed. First, we were presented with
Colin Powell-s ?hard evidence¦ based on British intelligence reports,
which proved to be a lifted document written twelve years previously,
complete with spelling mistakes. This may have fooled the Bush
administration, but no-one else.

28. U.S. issues new rules for 'interfering' Iraqi civilians
jtamayo@herald.com
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/5536764.htm
Wed, Apr. 02, 2003

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq - Iraqi civilians who ''interfere with mission
accomplishment'' can be detained up to 30 days under new guidelines the
U.S. military issued Tuesday. The guidelines represent tougher military
attitudes toward Iraqi civilians in the face of continuing attacks by Iraqi
loyalist forces. The original rules of engagement issued for Iraq drew a
careful line between military targets and civilians, who were to be
protected.

29. Former Shell Man Set To Run Iraq Oil
Candidate for Production Job Is a Retired Shell Executive
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/02/international/worldspecial/02OIL.html?ex
=1050320689&ei=1&en=e56f25399ad0fa33

A former chief executive of the Shell Oil Company appears to be the leading
contender to oversee Iraqi oil production after the fall of Saddam Hussein,
industry experts who spoke to the Bush administration said yesterday. Those
experts said the administration was still developing a plan for American
involvement in the Iraqi oil sector, whose fields and facilities are
dilapidated but whose employees are widely respected for their
professionalism within international oil circles. They said it appears that
the executive, Philip J. Carroll, 65, would probably be responsible for
Iraqi oil production, and that someone else would probably be named to run
the refining and marketing of Iraqi oil.

30. Vaccine compensation debated
http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=190&xlc=973655
04/03/2003

WASHINGTON — Money has been set aside to compensate people injured or
killed by the smallpox vaccination, but lawmakers remain divided over how
much each person should get. A Senate committee approved GOP legislation
Wednesday along party lines, with Democrats promising a fight when the bill
reaches the full Senate. The bill, based on President Bush's plan, would
provide $262,100 to those who are killed or totally and permanently
disabled by the vaccine. People less severely injured could get up to
$50,000 in lost wages, plus unpaid medical expenses. The House defeated a
nearly identical bill Monday, with many lawmakers complaining compensation
wasn't generous enough, Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor
and Pensions Committee agreed Wednesday.

31 Russia protests US strikes near its Iraq embassy
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2377798a12,00.html
03 April 2003

MOSCOW: Russia called in the US ambassador to Moscow today to protest
against air strikes it said hit Baghdad's residential districts and
endangered the lives of diplomats still working at its embassy in Iraq.

32. Robert Fisk: The Day Cluster Bombs Rained On Babylon
03 April 2003
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=393458

The wounds are vicious and deep, a rash of scarlet spots on the back and
thighs or face, the shards of shrapnel from the cluster bombs buried an
inch or more in the flesh. The wards of the Hillah teaching hospital are
proof that something illegal – something quite outside the Geneva
Conventions – occurred in the villages around the city once known as
Babylon. The wailing children, the young women with breast and leg wounds,
the 10 patients upon whom doctors had to perform brain surgery to remove
metal from their heads, talk of the days and nights when the explosives
fell "like grapes" from the sky. Cluster bombs, the doctors say – and the
detritus of the air raids around the hamlets of Nadr and Djifil and Akramin
and Mahawil and Mohandesin and Hail Askeri shows that they are right. Were
they American or British aircraft that showered these villages with one of
the most lethal weapons of modern warfare? The 61 dead who have passed
through the Hillah hospital since Saturday night cannot tell us. Nor can
the survivors who, in many cases, were sitting in their homes when the
white canisters opened high above their village, spilling thousands of
bomblets into the sky, exploding in the air, soaring through windows and
doorways to burst indoors or bouncing off the roofs of the concrete huts to
blow up later in the roadways.

33 BBC man killed by landmine in north of Iraq
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=393461
03 April 2003

An award-winning BBC cameraman was killed in northern Iraq yesterday when
he stood on a landmine as he climbed out of his car, the corporation
confirmed last night. Kaveh Golestan, 52, an Iranian freelancer, died when
the four-man BBC team arrived at Kifri, in south-east Kurdistan, at midday
to film victims of Iraqi shelling close to where its army had abandoned a
fortress on the front line.

34. Change In Belgian Law Should End Suit Against Sharon
Thursday, April 03, 2003 Nisan 1, 5763
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=279975&contrassID
=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

The Belgian House of Representatives yesterday decided to curtail the
controversial law seeking to prosecute war crimes and genocide perpetrators
from around the world. The amendments, which are due to be ratified by the
Belgian Senate today, should bring an end to the lawsuit against Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon.

35. Blair at odds with US over Syria and Iran threats
(Filed: 03/04/2003)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$LTYIYTO4DOWLBQFIQMFSFF
OAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2003/04/03/warab03.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/04/03/ix
portaltop.html

Differences between London and Washington over the future of the Middle
East intensified yesterday when Tony Blair implicitly condemned the
Pentagon's bellicose language against Syria and Iran. The Prime Minister
was challenged in the House of Commons by anti-war Labour MPs over
speculation that the Bush administration might spread military action to
Iraq's neighbours. Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, has warned
Syria against supplying military equipment to Saddam Hussein's regime. He
also said the entry into Iraq of "military forces, intelligence personnel,
or proxies" from Iran would be treated as a hostile act. British diplomats
said Mr Rumsfeld's harsh language was likely to inflame Arab opinion and be
counter-productive in Syria and Iran.

36 Robert Fisk: Saddam's masters of concealment dig in, ready for battle
03 April 2003
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=393460

The road to the front in central Iraq is a place of fast-moving vehicles,
blazing Iraqi anti-aircraft guns, tanks and trucks hidden in palm groves, a
train of armoured vehicles bombed from the air and hundreds of artillery
positions dug into revetments to defend the capital. That a Western
journalist could see so much of Iraq's military preparedness says as much
for the Iraqi government's self-confidence as it does for the need of
Saddam Hussein's regime to make propaganda against its enemies.

37. Consumers to embrace GM food: govt
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/04/03/1048962874198.html
Thursday 3 April 2003, 6:05 PM

Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson said consumers would eventually embrace
genetically modified foods, as opponents to GM canola ratcheted up their
campaign. But GM opponents said there had been insufficient testing of
genetically altered foods to prove they were safe, both for human
consumption and the environment. This week the nation's gene technology
regulator released for comment proposed regulations governing the planting
of Australia's first GM crop, herbicide-resistant canola.

38. Iraq war brakes global growth
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/04/03/1048962850075.html
Thursday 3 April 2003, 10:05 AM

The Iraq war is delaying a global recovery just as the authorities run low
on ammunition to stir growth, the World Bank warned on Wednesday. The Iraq
war has cast a shadow over the economic and political landscape for months,
said the Bank's Global Development Finance 2003 report, drawn up in the
run-up to combat.

39 Al-Jazeera halts Iraq broadcasts
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2911935.stm

The Arabic news channel al-Jazeera says it is suspending its reports from
Iraq in protest after Baghdad banned two of its correspondents from working
there.

40. Israeli Forces Kill 6 In Gaza, West Bank
http://rense.com/general36/gaza.htm
By Nidal al-Mughrabi 4-2-3

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in a raid by tanks
and helicopter gunships on a refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip early
on Thursday, witnesses and hospital officials said. In the West Bank,
witnesses said troops shot dead two Palestinians in separate incidents, one
a 14-year-old boy. The army said the overnight operation in Rafah camp
targeted buildings used by gunmen and arms smugglers. It did not comment on
the dead youth in Qalqilya town, but said forces in nearby Nablus killed a
wanted man from the militant group Hamas.

41. Bush approves use of tear gas in battlefield
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Art
icle_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1035780243853
Apr. 2, 2003. 12:29 AM
Only to save civilian lives, military says ,Weapons experts fear violation
of law

President George W. Bush has authorized American military forces to use
tear gas in Iraq, the Pentagon says, a development that some weapons
experts said could set up a conflict between American and international
law. The U.S. Defence Department said that tear gas, which has been issued
to American troops but not used by them, would be used only to save
civilian lives and in accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention,
ratified by the United States in 1997. Critics say any battlefield use of
tear gas would violate the convention, offend crucial allies including
Britain, and hand Saddam Hussein a legal basis for using chemical weapons
against the United States.

42 Bosnia's arms to Iraq scandal claims top political scalp
http://www.guardian.co.uk/serbia/article/0,2479,928400,00.html
Serb leader quits before Ashdown sacks him
Thursday April 3, 2003 The Guardian

The Serb member of Bosnia's three-man, multi-ethnic presidency resigned
yesterday over illegal military supplies to Saddam Hussein. Mirko Sarovic,
a follower of the indicted Bosnian Serb war criminal, Radovan Karadzic,
stepped down to avoid the humiliation of being sacked by Paddy Ashdown, the
international community's high representative in Bosnia. Mr Sarovic was
found to have known about and done nothing to halt an elaborate scheme to
smuggle military aircraft engines and spare parts to Baghdad, in league
with Serbia's main arms trading company.

43. The lost rebellion
http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,928121,00.html
Wednesday April 2, 2003

Southern Iraq's Shias are being urged to rise up against Saddam. But Dan De
Luce hears how the US failed them in their hour of need 12 years ago The
column of Iraqi army soldiers looked exhausted and broken. They were in
retreat, making their way north from a humiliating rout in Kuwait. "Even
the Republican Guard was demoralised. They were holding two fingers down,
signalling defeat," said Sayed Nour Battat, recalling the closing days of
the 1991 Gulf in his home town of Basra. "The soldiers were desperately
looking for something to eat. They offered their weapons in exchange for
civilian clothes," Battat said. "Suddenly, there were a huge number of guns
in ordinary people's hands. With those weapons, we had the power to change
things. " Sensing Saddam Hussein was losing his grip, the Shia Moslems of
southern Iraq seized their moment in 1991 in an "intifada" that erupted
across southern cities in a spasm of violence and chaos. Twelve years after
that failed rebellion, Britain and the United States are hoping for Shias
in Iraq to rise up again. But the scars from the last attempt run deep, and
Shia exiles say they will never forgive Washington and its allies for
standing by while Baghdad exacted merciless revenge.

44 Strange path to Palestine
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,10551,928532,00.html
After this war, the history of the future will reveal unintended
consequences
Thursday April 3, 2003 The Guardian

'Free Palestine' said the placards held up by some marchers on the anti-war
demonstrations. Well, here's a surprise for them: this bloody mess of a war
may result in a free Palestine. Let me explain, through this extract from
the 2020 edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Contemporary World History:
"Curiously, the Iraq war can be seen as the turning point in progress
towards an independent Palestinian state. American forces, with their
overwhelming technological superiority, succeeded militarily in defeating
Saddam Hussein, but, as one American general ruefully observed, the enemy
was 'a bit different from the one we wargamed against'. The military
campaign resulted in civilian casualties and damage to Islamic holy places
that inflamed the whole Arab world. One young Egyptian sarcastically
remarked to a western television interviewer: 'Thank you very much, British
and Americans, because you're waking us up.'

45 Arafat Halts Peace Talks Due To War On Iraq
Arafat orders halt to peace talks due to war on Iraq
Wednesday, April 2, 2003
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/world.html

RAMALLAH — The Palestinian Authority has suspended formal negotiations
with Israel and the United States on the launch of a renewal of peace
efforts and the establishment of an independent state. Palestinian
officials said PA Chairman Yasser Arafat has ordered a halt to all open
contacts with Israel and the United States on the so-called roadmap, which
outlines steps for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian war and the
establishment of a Palestinian state. Officials quoted Arafat as saying
that the suspension of peace efforts would continue until the end of the
U.S.-led war in Iraq. "Arafat does not want to show Iraq that the United
States is a legitimate partner while it is destroying Baghdad," a PA
official said. "So right now, everything is on hold."

46. US Drops New High Tech Cluster Bomb In Iraq
Last Update: Thursday, April 3, 2003. 0:49am (AEST)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s823003.htm

US forces have dropped on Iraq "for the first time in combat history" a new
version of a cluster bomb that adapts to wind and weather to hit targets
more accurately, Central Command said. Six CBU-105 Wind Corrected Munitions
Dispensers were dropped by B-52 bombers at 5:15am local time (12:15pm AEST)
in central Iraq "to stop an Iraqi tank column from continuing on its route
towards coalition troops," a Central Command statement said.

47 This is not terrorism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,928433,00.html
Branding Iraqi attacks subtly suggests a 9/11 link
Thursday April 3, 2003 The Guardian

When Iraqi soldiers dress in civilian clothes and set off bombs at US
military checkpoints, or when they pretend to surrender and then fire at US
troops, are they committing acts of "terrorism"? Bush administration
officials have invoked the word. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer
recounted such incidents, then said, "We're really dealing with elements of
terrorism inside Iraq that are being employed now against our troops."
Major-general Stanley McChrystal, vice director of operations for the joint
chiefs of staff, said the attacks "look and feel like terrorism". It is no
mere matter of semantics to point out that these attacks have nothing to do
with terrorism. Many definitions of that word are floating around, but they
all agree that terrorism involves an attack on civilians or private
property, not on soldiers or military installations.

48 War games over but US fighters remain in S. Korea
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,180880,00.html?

Presence of stealth aircraft is a warning to North Korea to stop
threatening its neighbours while US is focused on Iraq SEOUL - US stealth
fighters and other warplanes brought to South Korea for joint war games
will remain to act as a deterrent against North Korea, the US military
said. The planes are the newest addition to the increased US military
presence in the region during a period of heightened tensions with the
North over its nuclear programme.

49 The 30-Year Itch
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2003/10/ma_273_01.html

Three decades ago, in the throes of the energy crisis, Washington's hawks
conceived of a strategy for US control of the Persian Gulf's oil. Now, with
the same strategists firmly in control of the White House, the Bush
administration is playing out their script for global dominance. If you
were to spin the globe and look for real estate critical to building an
American empire, your first stop would have to be the Persian Gulf. The
desert sands of this region hold two of every three barrels of oil in the
world -- Iraq's reserves alone are equal, by some estimates, to those of
Russia, the United States, China, and Mexico combined. For the past 30
years, the Gulf has been in the crosshairs of an influential group of
Washington foreign-policy strategists, who believe that in order to ensure
its global dominance, the United States must seize control of the region
and its oil. Born during the energy crisis of the 1970s and refined since
then by a generation of policymakers, this approach is finding its boldest
expression yet in the Bush administration -- which, with its plan to invade
Iraq and install a regime beholden to Washington, has moved closer than
any of its predecessors to transforming the Gulf into an American
protectorate.In the geopolitical vision driving current U.S. policy toward
Iraq, the key to national security is global hegemony -- dominance over
any and all potential rivals. To that end, the United States must not only
be able to project its military forces anywhere, at any time. It must also
control key resources, chief among them oil -- and especially Gulf oil. To
the hawks who now set the tone at the White House and the Pentagon, the
region is crucial not simply for its share of the U.S. oil supply (other
sources have become more important over the years), but because it would
allow the United States to maintain a lock on the world's energy lifeline
and potentially deny access to its global competitors.

50 Iraq war has UNICEF unprepared for its worst ever crisis
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=42
192609
AP [ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 02, 2003 09:48:31 PM ]

MADRID: UNICEF's Iraq representative said on Wednesday the organisation was
unprepared for what could be its worst crisis ever and insisted that
coalition countries waging the war should bear a large part of the
financial burden. "There is no comparison with anything we have dealt with
before," Carel de Rooy, the UN Children's Fund representative in Iraq, said
during a visit to Madrid.

51 Arundhati, Jemima join anti-war chorus
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=42
171406
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 02, 2003 04:45:02 PM ]

LONDON: Arundhati Roy and Jemima Khan have launched a blistering attack on
the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, uniting across South Asia's borders,
religious beliefs and British newspaper columns to say 'no' to war and
Western neo-imperialism. In passionate and coruscating pieces from India
and Pakistan respectively, Roy and Khan have used two separate British
broadsheet newspapers to warn "the economic outposts" of the American
empire "are exposed" and the world's sense of injustice was growing. Khan
describes her "rage and shame" at being British. Roy calls for the
"disabling" of the "American apparatus of empire". They warn that furious
anti-war activists around the world, including India, Pakistan and the
internet community are uniting to boycott Anglo-Amerian products and
businesses.

52 The flowering of fascism, Silencing dissent is extremist and
un-American
http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/2003-04-02/fishwrapper.html

Derek Alphran is a regular guy. He's a law professor at a local college.
Note I didn't say which college. There's a reason. This column is about
that most thuggish and un-American of traditions, intimidating people to
give up their constitutional rights. Alphran doesn't want his face shown,
or his law school named, or his exact address in Inman Park given. The
night riders have been to his house, brandishing fire and terror.