NEWS: 27 Sept. to 3 Oct

[Nathan Geffen <ngeffen@DELETETHISyahoo.com>]

This email contains news articles concerning Iraq for
the period 27 September to 3 October, 1999.

Highlights from this week's news:

* The US military diverted at least 5 ships carrying
goods to Iraq.

* The US govt. is considering allowing Iraq to exceed
the Oil for Food export quota.

* US/UK air forces bomb Iraq on two separate days.

* Turkish army crosses the Iraqi border to
attack/pursue Kurdish rebels.

* Also see comments by US Christian groups, Jesse
Helms, various newspaper editors and Stratcom. 

# Thanks to Colin, Drew and Jean for their clippings.

---------------------------------------------

Sunday October 3, 3:49 pm Eastern Time 
Iraq Urges OPEC To Cut Production
By WAIEL FALEH 
Associated Press Writer 
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The Organization of the
Petroleum Exporting Countries should cut production
further to raise the oil price to more than $33 a
barrel, Iraq's parliamentary speaker said Sunday. 
In an article published in the Al-Thawra newspaper,
Sadoun Hammadi, who is also an economist, accused OPEC
member states of flooding the market with oil to
please the United States. 
``The most important issue that should be discussed at
the OPEC summit in Venezuela is production ceilings
and prices,'' Hammadi wrote in the paper, which is
controlled by the ruling Baath Party. OPEC is due to
meet in Venezuela in March. 
``The oil price should be $33.71 per barrel, which is
a just and reasonable price,'' he said. 
In London on Friday, North Sea Brent crude oil futures
settled at $23.67 a barrel on the International
Petroleum Exchange. 
The price fell to below $10 a barrel in February as
the world experienced a glut of oil. OPEC and non-OPEC
members subsequently agreed on a series of production
cutbacks which raised the price. 
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was reported as telling
his Cabinet last week that the price was still too low
and accused the United States of manipulating the
market. 
``Would certain OPEC members abandon the policy of
flooding the market with oil to suit the interest of
big industrial countries (such as) the United
States?,'' Hammadi asked in a clear reference to Saudi
Arabia. 
Iraq has long accused Saudi Arabia of exporting more
than it should. 

---------------------------------

Sunday October 3 4:01 PM ET 
U.S., British Planes Bomb Northern Iraq
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi military spokesman said
U.S. and British aircraft bombed civilian targets in
northern Iraq Sunday before being driven off by Iraqi
defenses. 
The spokesman, quoted by the official Iraqi News
Agency, said the planes flew 12 sorties over northern
Iraq at 12:45 p.m., and had bombed a civilian target.
He did not mention any casualties. 
``Hostile crows...flew over regions in the provinces
of Duhok, Arbil, Nineveh and attacked a number of
service and civilian installations,'' the spokesman
said. 
Ground forces intercepted the planes ``and forced them
to leave our airspace, retreating disappointingly into
the bases of evil from where they came in Turkish
territories.'' 
U.S. and British planes patrol no-fly zones over
Iraq's north and south. The exclusion zones were
imposed by the West after the 1991 Gulf War over
Kuwait to protect opponents of President Saddam
Hussein. 
In Germany, the United States European Command said
Sunday that aircraft monitoring the northern no-fly
zone in Iraq bombed air defense systems after being
shot at twice by anti-aircraft guns. 
Stuttgart-based Eucom said in a statement the exchange
happened near the Saddam Dam, northwest of the city of
Mosul. It said all planes left the area safely. 
In London, a British defense ministry spokesman said:
``We do not bomb Iraqi civilians.'' He said British
aircraft provided reconnaissance in the no-fly zone
operation and would respond in self-defense. 

-----------------------------------------------

Saturday October 2 5:33 PM ET 
Iraq Protests U.S. Diversion of Ships
By WILLIAM C. MANN Associated Press Writer 
WASHINGTON (AP) - American sailors diverted at least
five ships carrying cargo to Iraq after boarding
parties had problems searching for contraband, the
U.S. military said Saturday. In a protest to the
United Nations, Iraq called such action a misuse of
U.S. force. 
The incidents in the Persian Gulf happened over the
last month as U.S. ships enforced a 9-year-old trade
embargo against Iraq. 
In a letter to Kofi Annan, the U.N. secretary-general,
Iraq cited only two of the incidents, involving ships
from Denmark and China. 
Both were ordered to rearrange their cargoes and to
remove obstacles blocking full access to searching
Americans. Each ship eventually was reinspected,
``given the thumbs up and sent on its way,'' said Army
Lt. Col. Mark Samisch, spokesman for the U.S. Central
Command headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. 
``Every ship that goes into the Gulf is queried by
inspectors,'' Samisch said. 
``The ships are boarded if there is any question about
the cargo after the query. If it is not configured
appropriately, so the crew cannot inspect properly,
the ship is asked to go to the port of its choice - as
long as it's not in Iraq - for reconfiguration.'' 
Such action is ``sheer aggression on civil navigation
in the Gulf,'' Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed
al-Sahhaf's letter said. He asked Annan to put a stop
to it. 
``The Iraqi government condemns this misuse of force
by the United States to prevent the arrival of
humanitarian items to Iraq,'' the official Iraqi News
Agency quoted al-Sahhaf's letter as saying. 
Under the U.N. sanctions, imposed after Iraq invaded
neighboring Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, most trade with
President Saddam Hussein's government is banned. The
sanctions regime allows Iraq to sell $5.2 billion
worth of oil every six months and use the proceeds to
buy humanitarian supplies for the 22 million Iraqis. 
In recent months, the United States and Britain, the
main enforcing parties, have been largely alone on the
15-nation Security Council in strong support of
continuing sanctions until Iraq complies with
conditions set by the council. They include
confirmation by the Security Council that any Iraqi
chemical, biological and nuclear weapons have been
destroyed, and Saddam has abandoned efforts to develop
them. 
Iraq insists the conditions have been met. Without
inspection teams inside Iraq, which Saddam expelled a
year ago, the United States and Britain reject the
assurances. 
In Bahrain, a Gulf emirate where the U.S. 5th Fleet is
headquartered, U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Donald Bunn said
multinational forces in the Gulf have made more than
1,700 radio queries on ships entering or leaving Iraqi
ports. Through Aug. 31, Bunn said, 515 vessels had
been boarded. 
The first of the diversion incidents, al-Sahhaf's
letter said, involved the Chinese vessel Dahua, which
was inspected in late August and carried a tugboat and
a generator. The letter also protested the
interception of the Arktis Crystal, a Danish ship
carrying 60,000 bags of white beans from the
Philippines. 
Both were sent to port to reconfigure their loads -
the Dahua twice - and then were reinspected and
cleared. The same was true for the other three ships,
Coast Guard spokesman Bunn said. 
In a related matter, Central Command spokesman
Samisch, of the Central Command, said a new element in
the last two weeks has been the emergence of tankers
smuggling oil out of Iraq. Five have been taken over
since Sept. 15, ``since the price of oil increased.'' 
- 
EDITOR'S NOTE - Associated Press Writer Waiel Faleh
contributed to this report. 

-----------------------------------

Friday October 1 7:22 PM ET 
Countries Under Fire for Weapons
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iraq and North Korea came under
fire Friday for failing to cooperate with nuclear
weapons inspectors, while Israel was accused by its
neighbors of blocking efforts to create a nuclear
weapon-free zone in the region. 
At the International Atomic Energy Agency's 43rd
annual meeting, representatives from more than 100
countries urged Iraq and North Korea to comply with
agreements allowing the United Nations' nuclear
watchdog agency to inspect the nuclear programs of the
two nations. 
Iraq has been accused of blocking access to documents
and possible nuclear sites, and the IAEA has been
unable to conduct inspections since December. 
Iraqi officials have repeatedly argued that they have
fulfilled their obligations, and sanctions imposed by
the U.N. Security Council at the end of the Gulf War
should be lifted. 
However, U.S. representative John B. Ritch III said,
``Iraq is challenging the will of the Security
Council. Iraq is solely responsible for the present
situation.'' 
Also in the Middle East, Israel, which is widely
believed to possess nuclear weapons, was roundly
criticized by its neighbors for failing to sign the
nuclear nonproliferation treaty. 
``Middle Eastern countries look forward to
establishing a nuclear free weapons zone in the
region,'' Iranian representative Ali Akbar Salehi
said, adding that efforts have been blocked ``due to
Israel's arrogance and its stubbornness.'' 
Without citing Israel specifically, IAEA
representatives approved a resolution pushing for the
Mideast to seriously consider establishing itself as a
nuclear weapons-free area. 
Israeli representative Giora Amir conceded ``a nuclear
weapons free zone could serve to complement peace,
security and weapons control in the region.'' 

--------------------------------

FOCUS-Turk forces attack Kurd rebels in north Iraq 
11:51 a.m. Sep 30, 1999 Eastern 
By Yilmaz Akinci 
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Thousands of
Turkish troops pushed about 10 km (six miles) into the
mountains of northern Iraq on Thursday to engage
Kurdish rebels hiding in the remote region, a security
official said. 
The operation, which the official told Reuters had
been launched on Monday, coincided with hardline
statements from Turkey's influential military vowing
to fight until every ``terrorist'' has surrendered or
been ``neutralised.'' 
Iraq condemned the incursion, saying it was aggression
and a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. The Iraqi
government lost direct control of northern Iraq in the
wake of the 1991 Gulf War. 
The developments represent a blow to Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) rebels who say they are suing for peace.
Their leader, Abdullah Ocalan, is on death row in a
top security island jail. 
``Clashes are continuing but there is no information
yet on casualties,'' an official in the southeast
said. 
However, military and civilian sources in the region
said 18 PKK rebels and five Turkish soldiers had been
killed. Three members of a Turkish Kurd militia force
and three ``peshmerga'' fighters for an Iraqi Kurd
group, both allied to Ankara, also died. 
About 5,000 troops backed by air power and armoured
vehicles entered the Kurdish-held enclave of northern
Iraq at three points along the border some 80 km (50
miles) apart. 
U.S.-built Cobra helicopter gunships were used to
attack the rebel hideouts on the Haftanin and Metina
mountains just over the border from Turkey. 
Turkey's defence minister said a lack of central
authority in northern Iraq, in the hands of rival
Kurdish factions since the 1991 Gulf War, allowed the
PKK to set up bases there and forced Turkey to
intervene. 
The regular operations infuriate Iraq, which said it
``reserves the full right to choose the place and time
suitable to retaliate against such Turkish
aggression.'' 
OCALAN CASTS HIMSELF AS DOVE 
Since his capture and sentencing to death earlier this
year, Ocalan has sought to portray himself as a
peacemaker, ordering his PKK guerrillas to stop
fighting and leave the country. 
Most recently, he called on one group to turn
themselves in to authorities as sign of their desire
for peace and an end to the 15-year conflict in which
over 30,000 people have died. 
A group of Kurdish lawyers have travelled to the
southeast to oversee the surrender of a group of
around 25 guerrillas. 
``The point is to secure the safety of the group that
is planning to come,'' a spokesman for the lawyers
said in Istanbul. 
But a Reuters Television cameraman said the lawyers
and journalists accompanying them were stopped by
security forces near the border province of Hakkari
and ordered to turn back. 
Officials say the PKK group will be detained and
prosecuted as would any other guerrillas. Parliament
recently passed an amnesty for rebels who had not
taken part in armed attacks. 
Ocalan's PKK set out in 1984 to fight for self-rule in
the mainly Kurdish southeast but now says it only
seeks cultural rights. It says it aims to campaign as
a peaceful democratic force, but appears increasingly
frustrated at Turkey's refusal to answer its peace
overtures. 
The defence minister said Ocalan's new line was
insincere. 
Ocalan said this week that the conflict could spin out
of control if Ankara did not take his peace overtures
seriously. 

-------------------------------------------------------

Published Thursday, September 30, 1999, in the Miami
Herald 

Anti-Hussein coalition split on Iraq punishment
BY CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS
Herald Washington Bureau 

WASHINGTON -- The international coalition that
expelled Iraq from Kuwait
nearly nine years ago is unraveling, with former
allies blaming Washington
for surging child mortality rates in Iraq, an
unremitting air war and a
failing effort to disarm President Saddam Hussein.

The United States and the other permanent members of
the United Nations
Security Council still agree on the need to prevent
the Iraqi leader from
developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons,
but they are badly
split over how best to force him to cooperate.

Russia, China and France support a move to suspend
economic sanctions
against Iraq in 100-day increments if Baghdad allows
U.N. arms inspectors to
resume their work. The United States and Britain
reject that plan, saying
Hussein must accept monitoring without any conditions.

French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine blasted
Washington last week for
being ``insensitive to the human catastrophe under way
in Iraq.'' U.S.
officials countered that Hussein is to blame for his
country's misery, but
they seemed to hedge their bets by indicating they
won't object if he tries
to sell more oil than U.N. sanctions allow.

Meanwhile, U.N. officials and envoys privately grumble
that the United
States and Britain, which have bombed more than 400
sites in Iraq since
December, have forsaken their diplomatic mandate and
are engaged in a
little-noticed campaign to topple Hussein.

``Now he's got a weakened international resolve -- or
at least a much more
distracted international community, if nothing else --
to the point that
he's got to be feeling pretty good, that he's just
going to ride this one
out,'' said Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican.


GENERAL WEARINESS 

Analysts said several factors are straining the
U.S.-led coalition, among
them a general weariness with the subject among
diplomats, U.S. neglect of
its allies, publicity of suffering Iraqis, a renewed
commercial interest in
Iraq by nations such as France and a belief that the
United States can be
relied on to contain any arms threat posed by Iraq.

Complicating the scenario is a little-noticed bombing
campaign by U.S. and
British planes over Iraq. Since December, when Hussein
declared his forces
would no longer honor two no-fly zones in northern and
southern Iraq, U.S.
and British jets have flown nearly 24,000 sorties and
unleashed more than
1,300 smart bombs and missiles.

U.S. and British diplomats say the attacks are purely
defensive -- responses
to anti-aircraft fire and Iraqi radars locking on to
allied planes. Hussein
has offered a $14,000 reward to any Iraqi who shoots
down an American jet.

But the attacks don't have U.N. authorization, and
many nations -- including
Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which provide air bases --
are uncomfortable with
the nebulous mission. U.S. officials concede the cost
and the risk to pilots
make the strategy hard to sustain.

---
Editorial - The Washington Post
'Counterfeit Bills'

Thursday, September 30, 1999; Page A22 

IF WINNING means surviving, staying in the fight and
continuing to work for
chosen objectives, then Iraq won the Gulf War. Though
its army was defeated
and its population suffers still, a decade later
Saddam Hussein remains in
power and in pursuit of the deadly weapons the world's
nations ordered him
to yield. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee made
a quick tour of the
possibilities the other day and came up with the grim
message that there is
no easy way out.

In the U.N. Security Council, Russia, China and France
are ready to peel
back the economic sanctions voted in the war. But,
eyes on narrow strategic
and commercial prizes, they are not ready to demand
that first Iraq disarm
and submit to international inspection. The United
States and Britain go at
it from the other direction: first, inspections to
make sure Iraq has
eliminated its nuclear, chemical and biological
weapons, and then suspension
of sanctions for renewable periods to ensure
compliance. This is the better
way -- the only way, in fact, to keep these weapons
out of irresponsible
hands.

Somehow split the difference? This sounds reasonable
but carries the seeds
of deception. An arrangement that rested on
expectations of good-faith
behavior would invite Saddam Hussein to prolong the
violations and lies that
have marked his approach to disarmament from the
start. It is so that
international inspectors have not been permitted to
return to the job for
almost a year -- a long time in which to build and
hide illegal weapons. But
the answer cannot be to swallow what former chief
inspector Richard Butler
calls Saddam Hussein's "counterfeit bills."

That leaves the United States and Britain to continue
containment by
economic sanctions and military pressure. The deeper
requirement -- to oust
Saddam Hussein -- shimmers beyond the reach of the
Western countries and
assorted other fatigued allies. The alternative is to
show the patience for
a policy of the long haul. 


---
The Washington Post
"For the Record"

Wednesday, September 29, 1999; Page A28 

>From remarks yesterday by Chairman Jesse Helms
(R-N.C.) before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee:

I have heard it argued that any weapons inspections in
Iraq are better than
no inspections. I do not subscribe to such a view for
one obvious reason:
Meaningful inspections must be intrusive, thorough and
open-ended--in other
words, not different from the inspections conducted by
UNSCOM. If anyone
concludes, therefore, that I regard any new inspection
regime accepted by
Saddam Hussein as a charade, the conclusion will be
valid--for that is
precisely my apprehension.

Worse yet, in exchange for whatever inspection regime
Saddam and his allies
will agree to, the United Nations will ease sanctions
on Iraq. Our friends
at the Department of State obviously believe that
easing sanctions on Iraq
will undercut the argument that it is sanctions that
are starving the Iraqi
people.

Which, it seems to me, is bureaucratic nonsense. It is
Saddam who is
starving the people of Iraq. Food and medicine are
rotting in Iraqi
warehouses while little children suffer and die. In
Northern Iraq, where the
United Nations distributes food, child mortality rates
are below pre-war
levels. In the center and South (where Saddam is in
charge) mortality rates
are twice what they were before the war.

Meanwhile, Forbes magazine recently rated Saddam
Hussein as one of the
richest men in the world, with $6 billion in personal
wealth. 

-------------------------------

11:31 a.m. Sep 29, 1999 Eastern 
By Ferit Demir 
TUNCELI, Turkey, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Thousands of
Turkish troops, backed by air power, have crossed into
northern Iraq to hunt down Kurd rebels who have vowed
never to surrender, a senior Turkish military official
said on Wednesday. 
Some 5,000 troops crossed the border at three points
on Monday to reinforce soldiers there, the official
told Reuters. 
They attacked positions held by Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) forces loyal to condemned rebel chief
Abdullah Ocalan. 
Armoured vehicles and infantry entered the remote
Kurdish-held enclave through the Habur, Uludere and
Cukurca passes, some 80 km (50 miles) apart on
Turkey's border with the mountainous enclave of
northern Iraq. 
U.S.-made Cobra helicopters bombed mountainside
hideouts in support of the advancing troops, the
official said. 
A rebel spokesman told Reuters the Turkish forces had
hit a group of guerrillas pulling out of Turkey to
north Iraq. 
``This is an attack on PKK forces that were
withdrawing from Turkey,'' said a spokesman for the
PKK's political wing. ``They ambushed the guerrillas
as they were traversing one of the mountain passes
into Iraq.'' 
The rebels are thought to be gathering in north Iraq,
outside Baghdad's control since the 1991 Gulf War,
after Ocalan ordered them to abandon their armed
struggle and leave Turkey. 
``This will not stop our efforts for peace. The PKK
only fought back because they were attacked,'' the
spokesman said. 
The PKK set out to fight for Kurdish self-rule but now
only seeks cultural rights. It says it aims to
campaign as a peaceful democratic force in Turkey but
appears increasingly frustrated at Turkey's refusal to
answer its peace overtures. 
The clashes came a day after Ocalan, on death row in a
Turkish jail, warned that the 15-year conflict could
spin out of control if Ankara did not take his offers
seriously. 
Turkey has refused to ease its military assault. The
army said on Tuesday operations would continue until
every ``terrorist'' had surrendered or been
``neutralised.'' 
NO SURRENDER 
PKK commanders in the mountains of northern Iraq
slammed what they called Turkish intransigence and
said the rebels would continue to seek peace but never
surrender. 
``The (Turkish) General Staff is set on a policy of
war over peace, surrender over freedom and destruction
and oppression over democracy,'' the PKK leadership
said in a statement carried by the German-based
Kurdish DEM news agency. 
``While making sacrifices for peace and democracy, we
reject surrender. We have rejected surrender, we
reject it now and will reject it in the future,'' the
statement said. 
Ocalan called last week for a group of PKK fighters to
surrender with their weapons to show their desire for
peace. The PKK statement said the surrender would
still take place. 
But there was no sign that any of the rebels were
giving themselves up and observers said the army's
hardline stance and the clashes could have derailed
the PKK plan. 
Ocalan was sentenced to death in June for leading a
15-year armed struggle for Kurdish self-rule in which
some 30,000 rebels, soldiers and civilians have died,
most of them Kurds. 
While awaiting a ruling on his appeal, Ocalan has
portrayed himself as the only man able to negotiate an
end to the war. 
The Turkish official gave no details of casualties in
the offensive, but DEM said 15 soldiers and six
guerrillas had died. 
Iraqi Kurd ``peshmerga'' fighters opposed to the PKK
were cooperating in the operation, the Turkish
official said. 
Fighting also continued in Turkey. A security official
said 13 Kurdish guerrillas were killed in overnight
clashes with Turkish forces in the mountains of the
southeast. 

---------

Tuesday September 28 8:10 PM ET 
US Wants Iraq To Export More Oil
By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press Writer 
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States has begun
drafting a plan to let Iraq export oil beyond its
U.N.-mandated limit without suspending the oil
embargo, U.N. and U.S. officials said Tuesday. 
The move came as Iraqi Oil Minister Amer Mohammed
Rashid vowed Baghdad would continue to export oil
regardless of whether the Security Council approved
it. 
``We'll continue to produce and export as much as we
can within our capabilities, independent of any other
measure,'' the minister said at a news conference in
Baghdad upon the arrival of his Russian counterpart,
Viktor Kaluzhny. 
The U.S. plan would let Iraq keep exporting oil even
after it reaches the $5.26 billion ceiling authorized
under the U.N. oil-for-food program, which allows
Baghdad to sell limited amounts of oil over six months
to buy food and medicine. 
Iraq is expected to reach that limit by the second
week in October, nearly a month before the current
six-month phase ends Nov. 20. 
Without Security Council authorization to exceed the
ceiling, Baghdad wouldn't have the legal right to
continue exports. 
The U.S. plan, which would require a council
resolution, would allow Iraq to keep exporting oil
beyond the $5.26 billion limit to make up for export
shortfalls from previous six-month periods. 
Because of low oil prices and production limits, Iraq
fell $3.5 billion short of the ceiling over the course
of two six-month periods last year. 
At current prices and production levels, Iraq can be
expected to generate about $7 billion in oil by Nov.
20, still short of the $8.76 billion that would be
allowed if the U.S. plan is approved. 
A second proposal under consideration would have the
Security Council estimate how much Iraq could earn
through exports by the Nov. 20 expiration of the
current phase and adjust the revenue ceiling up to
that number, diplomats said. 
The United States and Britain - Iraq's toughest
critics on the council - were reluctant to lift the
export cap altogether before the council reaches
agreement on an overall resolution on returning U.N.
weapons inspectors to Iraq while improving the
humanitarian situation for Iraqis. 
Iraq's 22 million people have lived under sanctions
imposed after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. 
Under U.N. resolutions, sanctions cannot be lifted
until Iraq is declared to be free of its biological,
chemical and nuclear weapons. Iraq says it has fully
complied and deserves to have sanctions lifted
immediately. 

--------------------------

Talabani: US policies do not lead to the liberation of
Iraq
Kurdish Media - Sep 29, 1999
In an interview with Al-Zaman Newspaper (issue Sep
28,1999) JalalTalabani, 
the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK),
played down therole 
of the US administration in its approach to change the
regime in Iraq.
In reply to a question whether he agrees with the US
foreign office 
initiative in bringing groups of Iraqi oppositions to
New York,Talabani 
said, "coming to New York was not accomplished by
American initiativealone, 
but achieved by the Iraqi oppositions initiative and
originally wesucceeded 
in it with the co-ordination of the 'Higher Islamic
Committee forIslamic 
Revolution' and other Iraqi forces working in the
homeland, includingthe 
Iraqi Communist Party and the "Movement of Islamic
Unity in Kurdistan".
Oppression of parts of Kurdistan under Saddam's
control
In this context Talabani said: "The meeting with Mrs
Albright was clearand 
frank. We made it clear to her that the Iraqi people
are sufferingunderthe 
oppression, displacement and under the current
depopulation of Kurdsand 
Turkman from Khanaqeen, Kirkuk, Makhmoor and other
parts of Kurdistan 
controlled by the Iraqi regime.
We also expressed to Mrs Albright that the Iraqi
people are sufferingform 
the dictatorial policies implemented by the regime in
Baghdad. We askedfor 
the activation of the UN resolutions that are in
favour of the Iraqipeople 
and not just focusing on the resolutions that are
related to thedestruction 
of weaponry. We emphasize the importance of
implementations of the UN 
resolution 688 that is emphasizing the human rights
and the resolutionsthat 
relate to the oil-for-food programme in an appropriate
manner that mayserve 
the Iraqi people.
In addition, we asked the end of the suffering of
Iraqi people andremoval 
of the sanctions on the Iraqi people and bypassing the
regime inBaghdad.
We asked her to send international missions to monitor
the humanrights abuses.
We found Mrs Albright responding very positively to
all what we asked."
Removing Saddam's regime
In the context of American plan to remove Saddam from
power,Talabanisaid, 
"...we are not against 'liberation of Iraq' but we
object to the USpolicies 
that do not lead to the liberation of Iraq and we have
expressed thatthe 
opposition groups that are based abroad cannot
liberate Iraq."
"The outside conspiracies cannot liberate Iraq and we
believe thatactive 
oppositions should emanate from the homeland and
should be ready for 
democratic changes in the Iraqi nation and not be a
tool of outside 
conspiracies whether it is American or others."
In reply to a question whether the PUK has received
any help from the$97M 
allocated to the Iraqi oppositions by the US Congress,
Talabani repliedin a 
humorous manner, "thanks god we have not and we shall
not receive asingle 
dollar of this help."

------------------------------------------------

Iraq Says Western Planes Wound Six Civilians 
07:07 a.m. Sep 28, 1999 Eastern 
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. and British planes hit
residential areas in southern Iraq Monday night,
wounding six civilians, including two children, the
official Iraqi News Agency (INA) said Tuesday. 
The U.S. Central Command said earlier aircraft
patrolling no-fly zones in Iraq attacked military
radar and communications sites in the south of the
country Monday night. 
``The Americans and Britons committed last night
another crime in their long list of crimes against
residential quarters and civilian installations in
Iraq,'' INA said. 
It said the planes bombed the villages of Tala'e and
Mezbaniyeh near the city of Amara, some 220 miles
southeast of Baghdad. 
It said six civilians, including a six-month-old baby
girl and a four-year-old girl, were wounded and
several houses and a school badly damaged in the
attack. 
An Iraqi information ministry official said the raid
took place at 9:30 p.m. He gave no further details but
said reporters would shortly be taken to the bombed
area. 
The U.S. Central Command, in a statement faxed to
Reuters in Dubai, said: ``The strikes were in response
to numerous incidents of Iraqi surface-to-air missile
and anti-aircraft artillery fire directed at coalition
aircraft yesterday (Sunday).'' 
The command said that two Iraqi fighter jets also
''violated'' the southern no-fly zone. 
It said the communications and radar sites were
targeted to ''further degrade Iraq's ability to
jeopardize coalition pilots and aircraft enforcing the
United Nations mandate.'' 
U.S. and British planes patrol no-fly zones over
northern and southern Iraq. The exclusion zones were
imposed by the West after the 1991 Gulf War over
Kuwait to protect opponents of President Saddam
Hussein. 
Iraq says the no-fly zones are illegal since they were
not included in United Nations resolutions adopted
after the war. 
It says nearly 200 civilians have been killed and 600
wounded in repeated air strikes over its northern and
southern regions since late December. 

--------------------------------------

CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS LEADERS URGE END TO IRAQI
EMBARGO>> 
(WASHINGTON, DC, September 28, 1999) 
Today twenty-four leading American Christian religious
leaders, including heads of major Christian
denominations, joined in urging President Clinton to
support liftingof the nine-year-old economic embargo
against Iraq. The religious leaders cited "clear
evidence that the embargo against Iraq is contributing
to falling living standards and life expectancy. By
almost every measure - - such as malnutrition, child
mortality and overall morbidity - - the situation of
most Iraqi civilians has deteriorated markedly over
the past eight years."
It is morally imperative, the religious leaders
concluded, forthe> international community to ease the
intolerable suffering of theIraqi civilian population
caused in part by the embargo's indiscriminate
effects. "Since the end of the Gulf War, the U.S.
Catholic bishops have repeatedly called for ending the
economic embargo, but we are increasingly concerned
and impatient with the morally intolerable suffering
that continues in the absence of any change of
policy," said Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of
Galveston-Houston, President of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops. "The U.S. churches
individually and together have spoken out consistently
about the immoral level of suffering created by the
sanctions againstIraq, but this is the first time that
church leaders from the Catholic,Protestant and
Orthodox traditions have raised our voices together,"
said Bishop Craig B. Anderson of the Episcopal Church
USA, President of the National Council of the Churches
of Christ in the USA. "We believe this will strengthen
our common witness and impress upon our government the
urgency of the situation." The religious leaders have
expressed grave concern about theembargo's> effects on
a number of occasions over the past several years.
They have appreciated the fact that there have been
and continue to be discussions within the United
Nations Security Council about the embargo's impact on
Iraqi civilians. Today, however, the religious leaders
called attention to the failure of existing efforts to
address adequately the humanitarian crisis in Iraq.
The UN-sponsored oil-for-food program, they said, "was
never intended to meet the overall needs of Iraq'
people. . . and cannot meet basic needs, much less
fund the rebuilding of Iraq's infrastructure and
civilian economy,which alone can insure adequate
nutrition and health standards." The Iraqi government,
the religious leaders pointed out, has contributed to
the suffering of its own people by failing to comply
with the GulfWar cease-fire resolutions and by failing
to take full advantage ofexisting> exemptions to feed
and care for its people. "The Iraqi government's
actions, however, do not relieve the international
community of its responsibility to end the dreadful
suffering caused by the embargo. The international
community cannot pursue its legitimate goals of
eliminating Iraq's weapons of mass destruction by
threatening the lives and livelihood of innocent
people." The religious leaders called for lifting
restrictions on normal trade in ordinary civilian
goods, "while maintaining appropriate political
sanctions and a strict embargo on military-related
items. Taking these steps should not be seen as
rewarding irresponsible conduct on the part of the
Iraqi government, but as necessary to relieve a
morally intolerable situation for which the
international community bears a share of
responsibility."
 "More focused and morally defensible means" of
eliminating Iraq's weapons of mass destruction should
be pursued within the context of regional disarmament
called for by UN Security Council Resolution 687, they
added. This appeal to President Clinton was signed by
the following religious leaders:
The Right Reverend Craig B. Anderson, President, The
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA;

The Reverend H. George Anderson, Presiding Bishop, The
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; 
Mathews Mar Barnabas, Metropolitan of the American
Diocese of the Malankara Orthodox Church (India); 
Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate, Diocese of the
Armenian Church of America; 
John A. Buehrens, President, Unitarian Universalist
Association; 
The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, General Secretary, The
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA;

Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, President, National
Conference of Catholic Bishops; 
Brother Stephen Glodek, SM, President, Catholic
Conference of Major Superiors of Men's Institutes;
Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, General Secretary,
Reformed Church ofAmerica;
The Most Reverend Frank T. Griswold, Presiding Bishop
and Primate, Episcopal Church, USA; William Boyd
Grove, Ecumenical Officer, United Methodist Council of
Bishops; 
Richard L. Hamm, General Minister and President, The
Christian Church Disciples of Christ in the U.S. and
Canada; Archbishop Cyril Aphrem Karim, Syrian Orthodox
Church of Antioch; Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk
of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.);
Dr. Ronald J.R. Mathies, Executive Director, Mennonite
Central Committee; 
Johan Maurer, General Secretary, Friends United
Meeting; 
Kara Newell, Executive Director, American Friends
Service Committee; 
Metropolitan Philip Saliba, Primate, Antiochian
Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America; 
Paul H.Sherry, President United Church of Christ;
Metropolitan Theodosius, 
Primate, Orthodox Church in America; 
The Right Reverend Dr. Zacharias Mar Theophilus,
Bishop, Mar Thomas Church; 
Joe Volk, Executive Secretary, Friends Committee on
National Legislation; 
Bishop Vsevolod, Ukrainian Orthodox Church of USA; 
The Rev. Dr. Daniel Weiss, General Secretary, American
Baptist Churches
MEDIA NOTE: A full text copy of the letter to
President Clinton is available from Corinne Whitlatch
at 202/546-8425
>From Stratcom

---------------------------------------------

2200 GMT, 990927 - Iraqi "Cooperation" May Help Ease
U.N. Sanctions Iraq is making overtures of cooperation
toward the U.S., raising some interesting
possibilities for the future of U.N. sanctions. Iraq
appears to be softening its "all-or-nothing" approach
to the lifting of sanctions, opening up to trade with
U.S. oil companies. Until recently, Iraq has prevented
U.S. companies from doing business in Iraq,
maintaining that it would not cooperate with any U.N.
proposals or weapons inspection programs unless all
sanctions were lifted. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister
Tariq Aziz made a statement on Sept. 24 that deviated
significantly from the original, firm Iraqi position.
Although Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his
foreign minister maintain a stance of non-cooperation
without a complete lifting of the sanctions, Aziz said
that Iraq would consider accepting a "serious easing"
of sanctions if a total repeal could not be achieved.
Additionally, the Iraqi Oil Ministry undersecretary,
speaking at the inauguration of the oil and gas
technology fair on Sept. 26, said that Iraq is ready
to deal with international oil companies, including
those from the United States. Iraq hopes to purchase
spare parts for oil-producing equipment from the
companies, which would not violate the sanctions. If
U.S. oil firms begin making money in Iraq, they may
pressure the U.S. government to ease or even lift the
sanctions. This could be just what Iraq is looking to
achieve with this move.  Iraq may truly be trying to
cooperate and show some flexibility in order to get
the sanctions eased. More likely, however, Iraq is
trying to attract American oil companies in hopes that
they will put internal pressure on the U.S.
administration. While Iraqi cooperation may or may not
be genuine, it indicates a possible softening of
Iraq’s previously rigid stance.


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