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News, 10-16/6/01 I¹m sending a separate supplement on Kurdish affairs which I strongly recommend as more interesting than anything below. Though it makes disagreeable reading for those of us who are opposed to the No Fly Zones which, of course, most sections of Kurdish opinion support vigorously. SANCTIONS REFORM * Smart Diplomacy Yields a Sensible Plan for Iraq [Praise for the Œsmart sanctions¹ policy. It says that the old Œoil for food¹ policy Œblocked imports that the population needed¹. I thought it was the US and British government which were doing this. The article also says that the British want the Saudis and Kuwaitis to compensate Turkey, Syria and Jordan for loss of smuggling revenue ...] * New UN Plan Lets Foreigners Render Services in Iraq [account of proposed changes in the British Œsmart sanctions¹ proposal] IRAQI/MIDDLE EAST-ARAB WORLD RELATIONS * Turkish truckers run race for right to haul diesel from Iraq * A demonstration in support of the Intifada on Syria - Iraq border * Saudi Arabia seizes Iraqi pipeline on its territory * Iraq oil still flowing to Syria despite tough talk * Jordan's opposition to impose smart sanctions on Iraq * Iraqi-Egyptian trade reaching $2.5bn IRAQI/UN RELATIONS * Iraq on the eve of a new confrontation: Saddam * U.N. chief recommends extra cash for Iraq's oil industry * UN: No Progress on Recovery of Kuwaiti Property IRAQI/INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS * [South African] Mercy flight to Iraq 'not against UN policy' [meaning that they have obtained UN approval for the flight. Their opposition to the policy is pretty clearcut] * 'Iraq Cell' set up at Export Promotion Bureau [in Pakistan] * Iraqi children to be treated in Malaysia * 300 leave [from Malaysia] on peace mission to Baghdad IRAQI OPPOSITION * State Department launches audit of Iraqi rebels [ŒAnd as the bureaucrats drag their feet, the INC's accounts are in dire shape. The money allotted for 2000, some $4 million, has been spent. Chalabi said the INC has not been able to publish its newspaper. Other INC officials say the group cannot afford to pay its telephone bills and a bailiff in London has been dispatched to collect back rent money for the organization's offices there.¹ What couldn¹t we do with $4m!] * U.S. to Give Iraqi Opposition $6 Million More INSIDE IRAQ * Iraqi novel [guess which one!] basis for TV series * Some 8967 Iraqis died in May because of the sanctions * Andy Kershaw to present radio shows from Iraq [this is presumably from Iraqi, or, if you prefer, Southern, Kurdistan] * A story from inside [account of an Iraqi dissident¹s mistreatment in Iraq and in Australia] * US warplanes strike Iraqi targets WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION * Did Iraq Conduct a Clandestine Nuclear Test? [apparently not, according to Hans Blix, despite the best efforts of the Sunday Times and BBC to prove the contrary] NEW WORLD ORDER * Sir David Spedding [Obituary for man who was head of MI6 aka SIS at the time of the arms to Iraq scandal. He boasts that by selling arms to Saddam Hussein we gained the intelligence information necessary to being able to destroy them. A win-win situation if ever there was one] * U.S. v. multilateralism [Defence of US refusal to submit to international law: ŒThe strictures imposed by Kyoto would lop as much as US $500-billion off of the national GDP in 2010. Land mines protect 37,000 U.S. soldiers in South Korea [? PB]. The Test Ban Treaty would tie U.S. hands without keeping adequate tabs on rogue states. And the International Criminal Court would subject G.I. Joe to the jurisprudential whimsy of human rights lawyers.¹] SANCTIONS REFORM http://www.iht.com/articles/22439.html * SMART DIPLOMACY YIELDS A SENSIBLE PLAN FOR IRAQ by David Ignatius International Herald Tribune, June 11, 2001 PARIS: President George W. Bush heads to Europe this week carrying some heavy baggage, especially on missile defense and global warming. And he will undoubtedly be chided by the Europeans for the administration's supposed arrogance and unilateralism on these issues. But there is one foreign policy area where the Bush administration has been making slow but steady progress with good cooperation from its European allies. That is in recasting UN sanctions toward Iraq so that they punish the thugs and torturers who run Saddam Hussein's regime rather than the long-suffering Iraqi people. The new policy is known as "smart sanctions," to distinguish it from the tough-sounding but stupid sanctions policy that preceded it, which had the perverse effect of helping Saddam and his cronies but hurting ordinary Iraqis. The old sanctions regime was known as "oil-for-food." In theory it channeled oil sales through UN accounts to benefit the people. But it blocked imports that the population needed, and spawned oil smuggling and under-the-table surcharges for official oil sales that enriched Saddam's cronies and helped finance the regime's secret police. How's that for getting it backward? Some hard-liners in the Bush administration initially opposed changing this policy, lest they appear to be easing pressure to topple Saddam. But Secretary of State Colin Powell wisely opted for a new approach that would seek to restrict military imports and smuggling revenues for the regime but otherwise open up the economy. He managed to win over the hard-liners by arguing that this "smart" sanctions regime was a necessary condition for any successful effort to overthrow the Iraqi dictator. The Bush administration worked closely with France and Britain to hammer out the details of the new sanctions plan, and they have been pushing hard these past few weeks to sell it to the other two permanent members of the UN Security Council, Russia and China. They are now close to consensus, but one crucial task for Mr. Bush will be to get final Russian agreement when he meets President Vladimir Putin. A key element of the U.S.-British-French proposal is a "compensation fund" to help Turkey, Syria and Jordan, which have benefited financially from Saddam's smuggling. The British are said to have asked the Saudis and Kuwaitis to put up the money. The French propose instead that it come out of an escrow account of unspent Iraqi oil revenues. That's a nice touch - using Iraqi money to bribe the country's neighbors not to smuggle Iraqi oil. All told, the compensation payments could total at least $500 million a year, a U.S. official estimates. Saddam, no dummy, quickly realized that smart sanctions were potentially disastrous for him. Just how much they threaten his regime became clear last week when Iraq announced that it would halt all oil sales in protest. That move exposed the hypocrisy of Iraqi policy. They had complained before that sanctions were destroying the economy, but now that the United States and its allies were proposing to scrap the old system, Saddam wanted it back. The Iraqis may have hoped that by withholding their roughly 2.5 million barrels per day from the market they could trigger a panic. But last week's OPEC meeting took the news in stride, with the Saudis announcing that they would increase production to make up for whatever the Iraqis held back. The smart sanctions threaten the regime's lifeline - the cash that comes from smuggling and hidden surcharges. "This threat, more than any other, probably worries the Iraqis most, as these funds give the government spending flexibility and help it to sustain a patronage network that ensures its survival," noted a report last week by the Petroleum Finance Co., a Washington consulting group. Saddam may have bigger problems ahead. He rushed last month to install his younger son Qusay to a top position in the Ba'ath Party leadership. Qusay already controls key intelligence and military units that safeguard the regime. Some analysts, noting that Saddam appears to have weakened physically in recent months, speculate that he may be rapidly grooming Qusay as his successor. To complete the transition from dumb to smart sanctions, the Bush administration will have to finesse the corruption that surrounds Iraqi oil sales. Powerful interests in Turkey, Syria and Jordan now benefit from smuggling. And dozens of small, shadowy companies (including some based in Russia) appear to have been buying Iraqi oil at a discount, and paying hidden surcharges to Baghdad, before selling the oil onward. "This is a minefield," notes the authoritative newsletter Middle East Economic Survey. "Many of the small firms are owned by the political elites in the countries concerned." The Bush administration's success with smart sanctions offers a lesson. A little diplomacy, the old-fashioned kind where you work carefully with allies to build a coalition through the United Nations, can work wonders. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010611/wl/iraq_un_sanctions_dc_2.html * NEW UN PLAN LETS FOREIGNERS RENDER SERVICES IN IRAQ by Evelyn Leopold UNITED NATIONS (Reuters, 11th June) - The United States and Britain proposed on Monday that foreign companies be allowed to provide services for civilian projects in Iraq but not make investments in Baghdad's oil industry as France wanted, according to a revised resolution on Iraqi sanctions. But the new draft, which makes minor changes, is not different enough from the previous one to please Iraq, whose officials said they would not deal with it. Baghdad has shut off oil sales to protest the so-called ``smart sanctions.'' France and others are lobbying for foreign investment in Iraq's oil industry, which countries like Ireland also support. But the United States and Britain still oppose this. Other provisions altered in the text, include alternatives for money Baghdad has to pay for compensation to Gulf War victims. The draft also gives less detail on how to monitor Iraq's borders to stop smuggling and calls for consultations with Jordan, Syria and Turkey. The new measure says that services, previously prohibited, would include maintenance of equipment, such as water pumps or vehicles, by companies that sold Iraq the items in question. At issue are U.S.-British proposals that would ease bans on civilian supplies going into Iraq. But the plan would continue to bar military materiel outright and draw up a list of items that could have military uses for council approval. The controversial list, which Russia, France and China say is far too long, is being discussed in Paris on Tuesday and Wednesday by technical experts from these three nations and the United States and Britain. All five nations are permanent security council members with veto power and Iraq has urged Moscow, which has reservations about the entire resolution, to use its negative vote to kill the measure. The U.S.-British plan is a revision of the oil-for-food program, an exception to the sanctions imposed in August 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait. That program allows Iraq to sell oil and order food, medicine and other goods under U.N. supervision. The United States and Britain hope to complete negotiations by July 3, the date set in a previous resolution that extended the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq by a month. The draft still calls for each of Iraq's neighbors including Syria, Turkey and Jordan, to be allowed to purchase up to 150,000 barrels a day of Iraqi oil. The effort to stop trading outside of the oil-for-food program is now less detailed and no longer speaks of border monitoring. Instead, it leaves Secretary-General Kofi Annan to make recommendations as in the original draft and stresses he has to consult with the neighboring states. Annan, in both versions of the resolution, also has to draw up recommendations on selecting companies and trading organizations to purchase Iraqi oil. The purpose of this provision is to eliminate traders who are paying Iraq an illegal surcharge outside of the U.N. system. The new draft also signals the U.S.-British willingness to allow Tunisia and Jordan to return Iraqi aircraft they have held since the Gulf War. This provision is still in dispute but a previous one saying Tunisia and Jordan should sell the planes has been deleted from the text. On the compensation fund, the new resolution reflects a dispute over whether Iraq should continue paying 25 percent of its oil revenues to compensate Kuwait and other Gulf War victims. France wants this reduced to 20 percent and the resolution also gives an alternate rate of 30 percent. But diplomats said this is for negotiating purposes and the final figure would be no higher than 25 percent. IRAQI/MIDDLE EAST-ARAB WORLD RELATIONS http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/06/10/turkey.truckersrace.ap/index.html * TURKISH TRUCKERS RUN RACE FOR RIGHT TO HAUL DIESEL FROM IRAQ CNN, June 10, 2001 ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- More than 300 Turkish truckers ran a 2.5-kilometer (1.5-mile) race to try to win the coveted prize of a government permit to import sanctions-busting diesel from Iraq, reports said Sunday. The first ten truckers to cross the finish line Saturday avoided the days-long authorization process it sometimes takes and automatically received a permit to haul cheap Iraqi diesel into Turkey, Radikal newspaper reported. Even with a permit, though, truckers still often must form long lines at the Habur border crossing between Iraq and Turkey to deliver the diesel. Although the diesel imports violate U.N. sanctions, officials have been turning a blind eye to the trade to support Turkey's impoverished southeast region. About 150 trucks are allowed to cross the border everyday. Turkey says it has lost more than $30 billion in trade since sanctions were imposed on Iraq in 1990 following its invasion of Kuwait. The trade also helps the economy of the autonomous Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq. The United States, however, is pressing to crack down on the trade which it says is benefitting Saddam Hussein. The truck drivers say they make about 550 million Turkish lira ($450) from a single trip to Iraq. The diesel is purchased by Iraqi Kurds from Iraqi refineries and sold to the Turkish truckers. The truckers then sell it to a Turkish government-run depot. Saturday's winner was Salih Ugur, who also won the local government-organized race last year. Nine other truckers also won permits. Last week, Iraq stopped pumping oil through its two U.N.-approved export pipelines to protest a Security Council decision to extend by one month instead of the usual six months the U.N. oil-for-food program. The diesel trade to Turkey, however, has continued. http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010611/2001061111.html * A DEMONSTRATION IN SUPPORT OF THE INTIFADA ON SYRIA - IRAQ BORDER Arabic News, 11th June The Iraqi national council ( parliament) is intending to organize a joint demonstration with the parliaments of Syria, Jordan and Palestine on the Iraqi- Syrian borders in support of the Palestinian Intifada. Reports in Baghdad said that the Syrian parliament (People's Assembly) told the Iraqi parliament about its consent to hold this demonstration which is still under negotiations to define its date, while contacts have been continued with the Jordanian and Palestinian parliamentarians to get their consent to take in this demonstration. http://www.dawn.com/2001/06/12/int7.htm * SAUDI ARABIA SEIZES IRAQI PIPELINE ON ITS TERRITORY Dawn, 12th June UNITED NATIONS, Reuters, June 11: Saudi Arabia said on Monday it seized ownership of an Iraqi crude oil pipeline that crosses its territory and has been shut down since Baghdad's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The move is certain to increase tensions between the two Gulf neighbours, stirred up last week by Saudi allegations that Iraq has staged a series of raids on Saudi border outposts in recent months. Saudi Arabia, in a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said it was taking over the pipeline because Iraq had made threats against it and committed aggression, "thereby causing serious damage to the Saudi people in terms of lives and property, as well as to natural resources and the environment." It did not offer specifics. Because of this, it said the pipeline - including pumping stations, storage tanks, communications system, loading facilities and a maritime terminal at the Red Sea port of Mu'jiz - "will revert in its entirety to the government of Saudi Arabia." The seizure took effect last Thursday. The Iraq-Saudi pipeline cost at least $2.25 billion to build and had the capacity to bring 1.6 million barrels per day to the Red Sea. It had been in full operation less than a year, from September 1989 until Aug. 13, 1990, alternately carrying Saudi and Iraqi crude to the Red Sea for export, when it was shut down. Saudi Arabia disconnected the pipeline and blocked both ends after the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Iraq for its invasion of Kuwait. Iraq last September asserted Saudi Arabia owed it unspecified damages for shutting down the pipeline. But in the letter to Annan, Saudi Arabia said Iraq could deduct any damages from the money due Riyadh "for the damage resulting from the Iraqi aggression." Sorting out the damage claims from the 1991 Gulf War is the work of the Geneva-based UN Compensation Commission. Saudi Arabia last week accused Iraq of staging 11 raids on Saudi border outposts in March, April and May and warned the Security Council more such attacks could have "grave consequences." But Iraq's UN ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, wrote Annan in a letter circulated on Monday that Saudi Arabia had fabricated the charges to build support for efforts by Britain and the United States to overhaul the UN sanctions on Iraq. [.....] http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=19608 * IRAQ OIL STILL FLOWING TO SYRIA DESPITE TOUGH TALK Reuters, 12th June Iraq is maintaining illicit oil sales to Syria to secure vital hard currency despite Baghdad's vow to cut off most exports in its latest showdown with the United Nations over sanctions, industry sources said yesterday. The sources said Syria was still exporting oil at a higher rate, evidence that it continues to receive extra supplies from Iraq via a recently refurbished pipeline. "There are no signs that Syria is selling less oil to its customers. They have not notified customers of any real cuts," said one industry source. "We have not received a telex from Syria saying there is less oil available. They are still getting oil from Iraq," said another. Diplomats also said that major producer Iraq was still delivering crude to neighbour Syria. The industry sources said Iraq currently was probably delivering about 100,000-150,000 barrels per day to Syria. Iraqi supplies to Syrian refineries through a pipeline reopened at the end of last year have freed up large amounts of Syria's home-produced oil for export. One source said that Syria had informed a customer of a 10 per cent reduction in supply, but then changed its mind and offered a full cargo for a later date. "There are two extra cargoes of Syrian Heavy on the spot market. I don't think they are reducing exports," said the source. "We have not been informed of any reductions in Syrian oil." Syria and neighbours Turkey, Jordan and Syria brings Baghdad about $1.5 billion. Neither Baghdad nor Damascus has admitted to the trade, but Washington has called on Syria to bring the sales under the terms of the United Nations oil-for-food programme with Iraq. Iraq last week cut off oil sales under the UN exchange to protest a U.S.-British proposal to revamp Gulf War sanctions. The plan would ease restrictions on imports of civilian goods while tightening controls on weapons-related imports and oil smuggling to Iraq's neighbours. Iraq said on Friday that it was now only supplying crude to Jordan. Turkey had been getting about 100,000 barrels daily trucked across the border but Kurdish rebels that control that trade said it dried up last week. Iraq has used its oil exports as a political weapon against the United Nations, hoping to rattle the oil market and chip away at stringent sanctions imposed after its troops invaded Kuwait in 1990. Although most previous Iraqi outages have been short lived, analysts said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein appeared ready for a longer battle with the U.N. this time around. There is no sign that other big producers are prepared to step in and supply Syria with crude to make up for any Iraqi shortfall. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said last week that his country - the world's biggest oil exporter - would not step in to supply Syria with oil to make up for any loss in crude deliveries to that country. Reports that Riyadh was preparing to reopen a pipeline with Syria were without substance, regional sources familiar with Saudi foreign policy said. http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010613/2001061310.html * JORDAN'S OPPOSITION TO IMPOSE SMART SANCTIONS ON IRAQ Arabic News, 13th June The Jordanian Parliament has stressed categorical rejection to what is called smart sanctions due to be imposed on Iraq for further isolation from its Arab surrounding. In a statement released on Monday, the parliament said that these sanctions are greatly damaging for Iraq and its neighbors and undermine the national economic interests of the region's states, including Jordan. The parliament called on the Jordanian government to refuse these sanctions and to continue working for lifting the embargo imposed on Iraq and to end the sufferings of the Iraqis and maintain co-operation relations with Iraq. The Jordanian parliament renewed its assertion to lift the sanctions imposed on Iraq together with all forms of sanctions impose on it in being targeted to undermine Iraq's own existence and very role. [.....] http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1390000/1390220.st m * IRAQI-EGYPTIAN TRADE REACHING $2.5BN BBC, 16th June Egyptian officials in Baghdad say that trade between Egypt and Iraq is set to reach more than $2.5bn by the end of the year. Egypt's charge d'affaires in Baghdad , Mahmud Sherif Rayhan, said that a number of joint projects were due to be carried out by Egyprian companies, especially in the construction sector. Egypt - with which Iraq enjoys a free-trade agreement - is currently Baghdad's third-largest trade partner. IRAQI/UN RELATIONS http://www.timesofindia.com/110601/11mide2.htm * Iraq on the eve of a new confrontation: Saddam Times of India, 11th June BAGHDAD: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has said his country should prepare for "a new confrontation", in a fresh attack by Baghdad on the plans for a revision of the sanctions regime imposed on Iraq by the UN. "We are on the eve of a new confrontation. That is why it is our duty to be prepared for it," Saddam said during a cabinet meeting to discuss the "smart sanctions" on Saturday. Britain, with US backing, has put forward a draft that would abolish the embargo on civilian trade with Iraq, while tightening a weapons ban and controls on smuggling outside a UN Oil-for-Food deal. "The main goal of the enemy is to break Iraq's national will and colonise us with new methods and under new names," Hussein said, explaining "this could be through controlling Iraqi funds and by preventing Iraq from developing itself". Earlier on Saturday, an Iraqi foreign ministry official said Iraq no longer considers itself bound by the Oil-for-Food programme after the UN renewed the humanitarian programme for only one month as opposed to its customary six-month renewal. "The UN has violated the letter of this agreement in prolonging it by one month instead of six," said Naji al-Hadithi, state minister at Iraq's foreign ministry. "When a party violates its commitments this means that the agreement has been broken and Iraq will act in consequence," Hadithi said. "Iraq believes itself equally exempt of all engagements within the body of this agreement have been revoked" by the UN, he said. (AFP) http://hoovnews.hoovers.com/fp.asp?layout=displaynews&doc_id=NR20010615140.5 _44560003f63a0f6f * U.N. CHIEF RECOMMENDS EXTRA CASH FOR IRAQ'S OIL INDUSTRY UNITED NATIONS (Associated Press, 14th June) _ Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the Security Council to approve arrangements to transfer 600 million euros (dlrs 510 million) to Iraq every six months to help repair its decrepit oil industry. In a letter sent to the council Thursday, Annan said the dlrs 1.2 billion Iraq is currently allowed each year to purchase spare parts and equipment for its oil industry isn't enough to prevent a drop in production and must be supplemented with extra cash to cover the cost of installing and maintaining new equipment. Iraq's Ministry of Oil advised the United Nations that unless spare parts and equipment were put into operation, crude oil production would fall dramatically by December, U.N. experts said in a report. [.....] Last December, in response to an Iraqi request, the Security Council approved a proposal to give Baghdad access to cash it could spend locally on upkeep of its oil industry. At the request of the council, a team of U.N. experts visited Iraq from March 18 to April 1 and agreed with oil ministry officials on arrangements for the transfer of the money. Annan recommended that the council approve the arrangements. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010614/wl/iraq_kuwait_property_dc_1.html * UN: NO PROGRESS ON RECOVERY OF KUWAITI PROPERTY UNITED NATIONS (Reuters, 14th June) - The United Nations reported on Thursday there was still no progress with Iraq in recovering Kuwaiti military gear, museum pieces and historical documents missing more than a decade after Baghdad's troops invaded the emirate. While Baghdad has promised to keep searching, it has yet to either return or account for much missing property, including Kuwait's national archives, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report to the U.N. Security Council. Recovery efforts will succeed only when there is ``a substantial change of attitude on the part of the Iraqi leadership,'' he said. But since his last report on the sensitive issue, six months ago, ``there has been no such change in attitude in Baghdad,'' Annan said. He said particular attention was paid over the past six months to the missing national archives since Kuwait was ''deprived of access to its own history, a situation painful for any nation.'' Iraq occupied Kuwait for seven months, until it was expelled by a U.S.-led coalition during the 1991 Gulf War. The United Nations has been trying ever since to account for looted property as well as more than 600 missing Kuwaitis. The search for missing Kuwaitis has also faltered, with Iraq boycotting a committee set up to help resolve the issue. Diplomats see the missing persons issue, in particular, as a major stumbling block for Baghdad in its campaign for the lifting of sanctions imposed by the Security Council after the August 1990 invasion. Annan said his high-level coordinator on both issues, Yuli Vorontsov of Russia, had remained active during the period, trying to line up international support behind a resolution of the problem. He flatly rejected Iraqi claims that Vorontsov, who served as Moscow's ambassador to the United Nations from 1990 to 1994, was biased. ``It cannot be overemphasized that Ambassador Vorontsov is well known for his integrity, objectivity and even-handed efforts,'' Annan said. ``I am confident that the coordinator will continue to exercise this approach in the future.'' IRAQI/INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS http://www.iol.co.za/html/frame_news.php?click_id=123&art_id=ct2001061021400 9659I623516 * MERCY FLIGHT TO IRAQ 'NOT AGAINST UN POLICY' by Peter Fabricius Independent, June 10 2001 Six tons of humanitarian aid from South Africa were due to arrive in Baghdad, capital of Iraq on Monday night, but the South African government rejects suggestions that the mission defies United Nations economic sanctions against Saddam Hussein's state. The mercy flight of mainly baby food and medicine for Iraqis reportedly starving because of UN sanctions, left South Africa on Saturday and was travelling via Cairo and Jordan's capital Amman, Anil Suklal, acting deputy director general of Foreign Affairs for Asia and the Middle East, said on Sunday night. A delegation of about 100 civic leaders, business executives, officials and journalists was accompanying the approximately R1-million worth of aid. It was mostly collected from the South African community by the Durban-based Iraqi Action Committee. Suklal said Public Works Minister Jeff Radebe and Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad were to have joined the flight in Amman for the last leg to Baghdad. Radebe was in the delegation because Eskom and other parastatals are participating in the visit to look for investment opportunities. A cross-section of private businesses was also represented in the delegation, mainly seeking business deals in infrastructure. Suklal said Eskom was sponsoring the cost of the flight, estimated at around R500 000. Suklal denied reports in South Africa that the flight was being conducted in defiance of UN sanctions against Iraq. The aid was being delivered through the oil-for-food programme which had been approved by the UN. South Africa had cleared the mission through the UN Security Council and had consulted all interested parties including Saudia Arabia and Kuwait, both of which are enemies of the Hussein government. South Africa supported the Non-Aligned Movement's opposition to the sanctions, which it felt were harming the Iraqi people without resolving any political problems. But South Africa also observed UN rules as a matter of principle, he said. http://www.dawn.com/2001/06/13/ebr9.htm * 'Iraq Cell' set up at Export Promotion Bureau Dawn, 13 June 2001, 20 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1422 KARACHI, June 12: Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) has established "Iraq Cell" at its office to extend all possible help to exporters intending to exports goods to Iraq. According to EPB here on Tuesday, exporters can get information and assistance relating to exports of goods to Iraq from this cell headed by the concerned director general. The cell will also help exporters when they are confronted with any problem relating to exports. The EPB has given special focus towards enhancement of bilateral trade with Iraq.-APP http://www.timesofindia.com/130601/13hlth15.htm * IRAQI CHILDREN TO BE TREATED IN MALAYSIA Times of India, 13th June KUALA LUMPUR: Iraqi children suffering from various diseases and needing medical attention will be brought to Malaysia soon for treatment, Iraqi ambassador to Malaysia Adna Malik Al-Ghazali has said. He said that the Iraqi health system could not cater to the medical needs of its people and there was also lack of facilities following the UN sanctions imposed on Iraq. "We are now discussing about having the patients sent to Malaysia in order to be treated," he told reporters after receiving a documentary on Iraqi children by the Golden Kids Club (GKC). The 15 minute documentary which highlights the plight of the Iraqi children was documented and recorded by seven presenters of GKC, an NGO during their mission to Iraq from March 12-19 this year. Adnan said that efforts to bring the patients here would be carried out in collaboration with various NGOs groups and charitable bodies which would raise funds to meet the required expenses for the children to be brought to Malaysia. "Once it has been finalised, the first group will be brought in between one week to two months and how many, it depends on the sponsors," he said. Adnan said the initiative came about following the visit by a delegation led by Prime Minister's wife, Dr Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, and Health Minister Chua Jui Meng to Iraq recently. Adnan added the Iraqi government was deeply touched by efforts by Malaysia and its people to help the Iraqi children, especially those who need medical treatment. (PTI) http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2001/6/14/nation/1402odpe&sec=nat ion * 300 LEAVE ON PEACE MISSION TO BAGHDAD The Star (Malaysia), 14th June SEPANG: Three hundred Malaysians, representing various organisations, left for Baghdad yesterday on a peace and friendship mission. Led by Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, the three-day mission symbolises Malaysia's sympathy towards Iraqi civilians affected by trade sanctions imposed by the United Nations. The mission, which also included several doctors and members of the local and foreign media, took along essential supplies and medical aid items. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad was among those who were at the KL International Airport's Bunga Raya Complex to send off the mission. Speaking to reporters before flying off, Syed Hamid said the mission's objective was to create international awareness on the sufferings faced by the Iraqi civilian population. "We hope this mission will open the way for others, and for young Malaysians to extend a helping hand to the innocent people of Iraq. "The civilian population are the ones who are suffering the most because of the sanctions," he added. IRAQI OPPOSITION http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=192870 * STATE DEPARTMENT LAUNCHES AUDIT OF IRAQI REBELS by Eli J. Lake WASHINGTON, June 10 (UPI) -- The State Department's secretive Inspector General's office has launched an audit of an Iraqi rebel coalition viewed by the Pentagon and many at the Whitehouse as a key plank in the U.S. strategy to oust Saddam Hussein from power, United Press International has learned. The audit of the Iraqi National Congress is likely to further delay the disbursement of some $22 million in U.S. aid recommended by Congress and promised last year by the Clinton administration to the cash-strapped INC. The State Department has already placed a hold on any funds designated for use inside Iraq, despite agreements dating back to January, when the White House ordered the treasury to grant the INC a license for just such activities. Last month, the State Department's Inspector General ordered a review of the INC's finances, following an audit performed by the British accounting firm Gordon Berman for a $4 million grant disbursed earlier this year. The London accountants had not worked before on State Department accounts and as such were unfamiliar with the technical specifications required by the department, according to State Department officials. The State Department is required to review all audits by accountants who have not worked with the department in the past. It was this review, according to State Department officials, that triggered the current audit by the Inspector General. Auditors from the IG's office arrived last week at the group's London offices, according to INC officials. "The Inspector General is doing this because they wanted to be certain of the financial controls," one senior State Department official told UPI. "Also the audit did not cover the full $4 million grant, it only covered part of it." In a telephone interview from London, one of the INC's leaders, Ahmad Chalabi, told UPI his organization welcomed the audit. He said the review would cover, "stock taking, inventory, expenditure, travel vouchers and who approves what. "The contract gives them the right to do an audit," Chalabi added. "They approved a British accounting firm and then they came back and said these people were not familiar. They have no serious concerns." Chalabi has been dogged by allegations that he embezzled millions from the Petra Bank of Jordan when he was its president. However, no State Department official, congressional staffer, or government official interviewed for this article questioned Chalabi or his organization's integrity or grant worthiness. But State Department officials did say they expected the audit to slow down the already delayed aid program for the INC. "It will take some time to implement the recommendations from the audit," one senior State Department official said in an interview. This means that plans to build a satellite transmitter in Northern Iraq; send teams of INC operatives into the country to collect political and military information on Saddam's regime; and a program to distribute humanitarian aid to Iraqis are essentially in policy limbo for now. "They have not approved any operations inside Iraq," Chalabi said. He said State Department bureaucrats have told him the "principals must decide on this," referring to the group of senior Bush administration officials that vet policy before going to the president. This group includes Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "The bureaucrats are saying this above our pay grade." The obstacle to receiving the substantive aid the INC has pushed for since 1998 is a significant setback for the group. The INC was touted in last year's GOP election platform as a major plank of policy on Iraq. When Bush was elected, INC officials and their allies in Washington had hoped to fast track the implementation of the Iraq Liberation Act, which would require the Pentagon to disburse nearly $100 million in military aid and training. But in the nearly six months since President Bush has taken office, the debate on Iraq policy as it concerns the rebels has shifted to humanitarian, non-lethal activities. And as the bureaucrats drag their feet, the INC's accounts are in dire shape. The money allotted for 2000, some $4 million, has been spent. Chalabi said the INC has not been able to publish its newspaper. Other INC officials say the group cannot afford to pay its telephone bills and a bailiff in London has been dispatched to collect back rent money for the organization's offices there. A senior State Department official told UPI that it is willing to disburse emergency or temporary funds to the INC while the audit is taking place. "We are prepared to continue to advance them money to cover their infrastructure expenses, telephones, rents, salaries -- this is while the audit is going forward," a senior State Department official said. "Then we have told them once the audit is complete and any recommendations for new physical controls implemented, we want to move rapidly to new programming as well." The State Department is willing to front the group between $300,000 and $400,000 a month to stay afloat, according to this official. "We are talking about a few weeks or a few months of temporary funding," this official said. But so far, the INC is not biting. By way of comparison, U.S. diplomats at the United Nations have released holds on $1.2 billion worth of contracts for Saddam Hussein's government in Baghdad in the last month alone. The holds were lifted in anticipation of the U.S. push to loosen U.N. sanctions against Iraq. On June 1, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution to extend for thirty days the current mechanism for controlling Iraqi oil profits, known as the U.N. oil-for-food program. Powell has insisted that a regime change policy is distinct from the U.S. sanctions push, it is clear that sanctions have become a higher priority at the State Department than funding Chalabi's rebels. One State Department official told UPI, "The sanctions are the priority now." A British U.N. official put it this way in an interview. "The only way you are going to get a change of attitude from Iraq is if you have a solid international approach. As far as some members of the United Nations are concerned, talk about regime change is interfering with Iraq's sovereignty. Talking about regime change just doesn't go here. It ain't going to happen." http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010614/pl/iraq_usa_opposition_dc_1.html * U.S. TO GIVE IRAQI OPPOSITION $6 MILLION MORE WASHINGTON (Reuters, 14th June) - The United States has decided to give the opposition Iraqi National Congress (INC) $6 million toward operating costs, even while auditors look at earlier grants, the State Department said on Thursday. The $6 million, part of the $18 million allocated to the opposition group in this year's U.S. budget, will maintain current INC programs, which include media and public diplomacy activities and gathering information on war crimes, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker told a daily briefing. [.....] INSIDE IRAQ http://salon.com/books/wire/2001/06/11/iraqi_novel/index.html * Iraqi novel basis for TV series by Waiel Faleh BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP, 11th June) -- Iraqi producers are planning a television version of a novel some think was written by President Saddam Hussein. "Zabibah and the King," which tells the tale of a king who falls in love with a poor, married woman, was published anonymously late last year, but its pointed political references have led to speculation Saddam wrote it. "It will be a series of 20 parts produced by the Iraqi satellite channel and the production process is on the way," Mizahim al-Baiati, who would supervise the television script, was quoted as telling the Iraqi newspaper al-Thawra. Al-Baiati predicted the series would be a success in the Arab world because of the "powerful meanings and thoughts indicated in the novel." It was not clear when the first episode would air. Al-Baiati could not be reached for comment Monday. The release of the novel was preceded by unusual publicity, with daily advertisements on Iraqi television, radio and in newspapers. Since then, it has been selling out of book stores here. In the novel, the king's close relation to the common people, as symbolized by his love for Zabibah, makes other kings jealous and they plot against him. "They brought shame to the Arab uniform they wear," reads a passage in the novel some interpret as criticism of the leaders of neighboring states. Zabibah is killed and raped on January 17 -- the anniversary of the start of the 1991 Gulf War that forced Iraq to reverse its invasion of Kuwait. No ordinary writer could have made such a reference to that date, Iraqi readers say. In later passages, a "people's council" takes over the kingdom -- because no single person could match the abilities of the beloved king. Saddam is the most popular guess of Iraqis about the identity of mysterious writer. But some point to the possibility Saddam's son Odai was the author because of its unusually frank sexual passages. Odai is known as a womanizer. U.S. intelligence officials reportedly believe that if Saddam didn't write "Zabibah and the King," he at least closely supervised its production. The CIA is believed to have studied the novel for insight into Saddam's political thinking. http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010613/2001061308.html * SOME 8967 IRAQIS DIED IN MAY BECAUSE OF THE SANCTIONS Arabic News, 13th June [.....] On the impact of the sanctions on the Iraqi people, a statistics released by the Iraqi ministry of health said that 8967 Iraqis of both sexes died in May as a result of being effected by various diseases as a result of the shortage of food, medicines and other basic needs. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_327667.html * ANDY KERSHAW TO PRESENT RADIO SHOWS FROM IRAQ Ananova, 15th June Andy Kershaw is to present two roots radio shows from Iraq next month. The shows will study the way Saddam Hussein has used traditional music in Iraq. Kershaw will also talk to political exiles in the shows, which are to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on July 14 and July 21. He will also explore the classical and Sufi traditions, gypsy music, Kurdish folk and modern Iraqi pop music as specials on his new World Routes series. http://www.smh.com.au/news/0106/16/review/review7.html * A STORY FROM INSIDE Sydney Morning Herald, 16th June I fled Iraq because I was afraid for my life. In Iraq ... I criticised the government. I was put in jail there and subsequently escaped. I spent 70 days in Syria before boarding a flight to Indonesia, where I got a boat to Australia. I was taken into detention in Darwin and transferred to Woomera. In November last year I received a letter from one of my sons who still lives in Iraq, talking of the suffering my family had gone through since I left. His letter said two of my sons, the two oldest, had been jailed because I fled and applied for residency in Australia. I showed the letter to an ACM [Australasian Correctional Management] officer and started to cry. I was punished for this as I was put in an isolated room for eight days. After my application was refused I became very upset. I went on a hunger strike with 16 other people and I stopped eating for 11 days. I was put in the hospital inside the centre. I had handcuffs placed on my wrists and my hands and feet were handcuffed to my bed ... I also had things, I am not sure what they were, stuck up my nose. My nose started to bleed and I think it bled from about 3 one afternoon until 1am the next morning. No-one took any notice or care that this was happening. I would estimate that out of all the ACM officers at Woomera, 20 per cent of them are good. The rest would constantly make me feel like I was in a war or in jail. In Sydney the ACM officers made fun of me and would motion with their hands telling me that I was crazy and that I was going to a hospital for crazy people ... When they took me to Bankstown Hospital I refused to go. However they took me by force. I have been at the Villawood Detention Centre for about four months. I am treated much better here than I was at Woomera. I have been allowed to see visitors and an ex-Woomera detainee came to visit me on one occasion. In mid-February I called my sister in Iraq. She told me not to call again because of what has happened to my family since I fled the country. She said they were scared of being punished by the Iraqi Government. I have not called my children. (A statement from an Iraqi woman, an activist who left children behind in Iraq. She has been in detention, in Woomera then at Villawood in Sydney, for almost a year. Her refugee application was refused on the grounds that she came through Syria and could have sought refugee status there. She claims asylum seekers in Syria have been sent back to Iraq. Some of her children are in hiding.) http://www.timesofindia.com/160601/16amrc6.htm * US WARPLANES STRIKE IRAQI TARGETS Times of India, 16th June WASHINGTON: US warplanes struck air defence sites in northern and southern Iraq on Thursday, retaliating for Iraqi anti-aircraft fire directed against coalition aircraft enforcing no-fly zones, the US military said. The US European command said coalition aircraft operating out of Turkey's Incirlik air base were targeted by Iraqi missile guidance radar systems north of Mosul and were fired on by anti-aircraft guns. "Coalition aircraft responded to the Iraqi attacks by dropping ordnance on elements of the Iraqi integrated air defence system," it said. In the south, US F/A-18 fighters from the aircraft carrier USS Constellation struck a radar site near Al Kut in southern Iraq with precision-guided weapons, the US Central command in Tampa, Florida said. It said the air strike was in response to anti-aircraft fire against US aircraft monitoring the southern no-fly zone, spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Mark Samisch said. (AFP) WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010611/wl/iraq_un_nuclear_dc_1.html * DID IRAQ CONDUCT A CLANDESTINE NUCLEAR TEST? by Evelyn Leopold UNITED NATIONS (Reuters, 11th June) - The chief U.N. arms inspector and experts at a London think tank have concluded there was no evidence Iraq had carried out a successful nuclear test in 1989, as alleged in news reports earlier this year. Hans Blix, the executive chairman of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, said he reported to the U.N. Security Council last week ``the information is totally wrong'' that Iraq conducted a nuclear test beneath Lake Rezazza, southwest of Baghdad on Sept. 19, 1989, before the Gulf War. He told reporters his department and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had evidence in its files, from overhead flights and previous ground inspections ``there had been no nuclear tests'' nor a tunnel under the lake. Purported evidence of a test, from two defecting former scientists in Iraq and an interpretation of satellite photographs of the test area, was reported in London's Sunday Times newspaper in February and received fairly wide coverage. Terry Wallace, a professor of Geosciences at the University of Arizona, says that while it is far easier to prove something did happen than to prove it did not there was no reason to believe the story is ``anything but a hoax.'' An examination of global earthquake catalogs, produced by the International Seismic Center and U.S. Geological Survey, revealed no significant seismic activity in Iraq the day the test was alleged to have taken place, Wallace said. Such an explosion he said, in an article for the London-based think tank, the Verification, Training and Information Center, would have been easily detectable by international or by regional monitoring in Iran, Israel or Jordan, which keep records of earthquakes. None of them reported any seismic events of the magnitude necessary for a nuclear test in the region around Lake Rezazza, Wallace said. U.N. arms inspectors have not been permitted to track down Baghdad's weapons of mass destruction since mid-December 1998, when they were withdrawn shortly before the United States and Britain launched a four-day bombing campaign prompted by Iraq's failure to cooperate with the arms teams. Blix's agency has now signed a contract with a private, satellite firm and is restarting overhead flights this month. Earlier this year, Western intelligence agencies alleged that Iraq had reconstituted parts of its banned arms programs. The German Federal Intelligence Agency (BND) in February told selected reporters Iraq could produce a nuclear device in three years and fire a missile as far as Europe by 2005. U.S. and British officials alleged in January that Iraq had rebuilt three factories capable of producing chemical and biological weapons. The IAEA, meanwhile, carried out its annual inspection of the Iraq's Tuwaitha nuclear power center in January and reported that low-grade nuclear material held there had not been moved since its last visit. NEW WORLD ORDER http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/story.jsp?story=78116 * SIR DAVID SPEDDING by Nigel West Independent, 15 June 2001 David Rolland Spedding, diplomat and intelligence officer: born 7 March 1943; Third Secretary, Foreign Office 1967-70, Second Secretary 1970-74, First Secretary 1974-83; OBE 1980; CVO 1984; Counsellor, Amman 1983-86, Counsellor, Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1987-94; Chief, Secret Intelligence Service 1994-99; KCMG 1996; married 1970 Gillian Kinnear (two sons); died 13 June 2001. David Spedding, former chief of Britain's most secret organisation, the Secret Intelligence Service (commonly known as MI6), which has long "punched over its weight", was one of the last of Britain's Cold Warriors. Spedding was fluent in Spanish, French and Arabic, and his first appointment after he had attended the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies at Shemlan, in the Lebanon, was to the SIS station in Beirut in 1970. The station had long been a crossroads of international espionage whence, eight years earlier, Kim Philby had defected, and George Blake had been recalled to face arrest and imprisonment. Newly married and aged just 27, Spedding worked for the legendary Norman Darbyshire, the tremendously experienced station commander who had spent much of his career in Iran. Having cut his teeth in Beirut, Spedding was posted to Chile where he was a witness to the turbulent events that led to the overthrow of President Salvador Allende in 1973 and the installation of General Augusto Pinochet's regime. After graduating in History from Hertford College, Oxford, Spedding had worked briefly at the British Embassy in Santiago. When he was brought back to Century House in 1974 the station there was closed down on budgetary grounds, a false economy that led to very limited reporting from Latin America in the months preceding the Argentine threat to invade the Falklands in 1977, and General Leopoldo Galtieri's actual invasion five years later. Thereafter Spedding concentrated on the Middle East and was posted to Abu Dhabi and then Jordan, both sensitive places in a troubled region. In 1984 he was credited with effective liaison with the local security apparatus in Amman that prevented a terrorist plot by Abu Nidal to assassinate the Queen during a state visit. According to one of his predecessors as SIS station commander in Jordan, Sir Alan Urwick, Spedding identified and ensured the arrest of two PFLP suspects and thereby enabled the tour to be completed without incident. He returned to London in 1987 to be SIS's Controller, Middle East, and then deputy Chief to Sir Colin McColl, whom he was to succeed in 1994, becoming only the second head of the Service (code-name "C") to be officially identified on his appointment. It was during this latter period that SIS became embroiled in what was to be labelled the "arms-to-Iraq" affair, during which various sources reporting on the continuing conflict between Baghdad and Tehran were also engaged in defence sales. Although exports of weapons to both countries were the subject of a United Nations embargo, both SIS and MI5 had recruited some well-placed agents, among them Paul Henderson, whose engineering business had achieved official permission to install machine tools at various sites of interest in Iraq. Thanks to Henderson and others like him, SIS was impressively well-informed about Saddam Hussein's clandestine procurement organisation, and had developed a comprehensive picture of his industrial infrastructure. The dangers of collecting this intelligence in Iraq were illustrated by the execution in March 1990 of the Observer journalist Farzad Bazoft. However, SIS's overall picture of the country's military-industrial complex was sufficiently accurate and detailed to ensure its almost total destruction during the coalition's air-raids during the Gulf War. The blowback for SIS was an attempt by Customs & Excise to prosecute Henderson for breaches of the rules governing export licenses for equipment that, while not strictly military hardware, had a dual use, but the case collapsed when he was allowed to reveal that he, like others working for Matrix Churchill, had been reporting to SIS, and had been encouraged to develop their business links with Baghdad. McColl was heavily criticised for not having intervened to protect Henderson, but it was Spedding who was obliged to take the flak upon the publication in February 1996 of Sir Richard Scott's report condemning SIS failures. Based in Henley-on-Thames, and always fond of a round of golf at Huntercombe, Spedding was unassertive, and this may be part of the explanation for the embarrassment caused in 1998, during his final year in office, when SIS dismissed a probationary officer, Richard Tomlinson, who attempted to bring proceedings for wrongful dismissal against the Service. For the first time, "C" was obliged to ask the Foreign Secretary, Malcolm Rifkind, to issue a Public Interest Immunity Certificate against one of his men in the vain hope of silencing his complaints. The consequences of this hopelessly bureaucratic approach were to prove disastrous for SIS, which subsequently endured the publication on the internet of dozens of its key operations personnel, and the humiliation of Tomlinson's poisonous memoirs being published first in Moscow, and then later in London. http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20010616/593855.html June 16, 2001 * U.S. V. MULTILATERALISM National Post (Canada), 16th June During the past week, George W. Bush, the United States President, has heard diplomatic catcalls in each of the EU's 11 official languages. The flashpoints were Mr. Bush's plan to build a national missile shield and his rejection of the Kyoto global warming protocol. Yet the disagreements are less substantial than they appear. Not one EU member has ratified Kyoto and several European officials have discreetly expressed interest in a missile shield. The arguments between Mr. Bush and Europe were primarily proxies for a larger fight about how world affairs should be conducted. In the EU, multilateralism has attained the status of unshakable truth. Mr. Bush's threat to this dogma is the real source of friction. Multilateralism's revered status in Europe stems from the beginning of what Mr. Bush's father dubbed a "New World Order." With the eclipse of Soviet Communism, there seemed little for people to fight about. The Berlin Wall fell. Democracy swept through Latin America, East Asia and Africa. Chinese peasants were drinking Pepsi. Arab accountants were using Windows. With the exception of Iraq, Yugoslavia and other backwaters, the world seemed a smaller, kinder place. The sense that nations were moving toward a single democratic, globalized ideal animated a flurry of international initiatives. Before the Nineties, multilateral bodies had narrow goals. The United Nations was generally concerned with preventing war between nations. NATO focused on defending Western Europe from Russian tanks. And no one was protesting the World Trade Organization meetings because the WTO didn't exist. All this changed when globalization replaced the Cold War as the dominant foreign affairs paradigm. Peacekeeping, peacemaking and "nation-building" in areas besieged by war -- Bosnia, Indonesia, Kosovo and Congo -- are now constantly on the agenda. The belief has spread that murderous historical rivalries will dissolve in the warm, fuzzy spirit of globalization. The Northern Ireland Good Friday agreement was signed in 1998. The first Oslo agreement was signed in 1993. Until recently, peaceniks mused Israel might someday join the Arab League. Utopian multilateralism also produced utopian leaders such as Bill Clinton and Tony Blair with their sunny, inclusive Third Way politics. Canadians were consistent supporters of multilateralism long before its current fashion. Jean Chrétien has never seen an international agreement he didn't want to sign. Despite this boosterism, there arose a growing gulf between Europe and the United States. Aside from Kyoto, the last five years brought us the 1998 Rome Treaty on the International Criminal Court, the 1997 Land Mine Treaty and the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. In each case, European nations piled in enthusiastically, while Americans kept their distance. In October, 1999, the U.S. Senate rejected the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which has been ratified by every other member of NATO. In 1997, the Senate voted 95-0 against any global warming resolution that, like Kyoto, would bind industrialized countries but not developing nations. Last December, president Clinton signed the International Criminal Court as an 11th hour gesture of multilateralist goodwill, but said it should not be sent to the Senate "until our fundamental concerns are satisfied." As for the Land Mine Treaty, Mr. Clinton didn't even sign it. Mr. Bush is not solely responsible for U.S. unilateralism. The Senate has been singing the tune for years, and some ventures were too much even for Mr. Clinton. European critics say the United States has become drunk on its own superpower now that it doesn't have to share the bottle with Soviet Russia. But Washington has simply been defending U.S. national interests. The strictures imposed by Kyoto would lop as much as US$500-billion off of the national GDP in 2010. Land mines protect 37,000 U.S. soldiers in South Korea. The Test Ban Treaty would tie U.S. hands without keeping adequate tabs on rogue states. And the International Criminal Court would subject G.I. Joe to the jurisprudential whimsy of human rights lawyers. Why do Europe and the United States see things so differently? Two main reasons. First: With the creation of the EU, the whole structure of Europe became multilateral. And on a broad range of issues -- such as capital punishment, on which Mr. Bush has taken a hammering during his European trip -- there is little substantive disagreement among the continents bien pensants. European leaders seem to have internalized the view that every disagreement can be settled through rational discussion. When the leaders of France and Germany met Mr. Bush on Wednesday, they argued the threat from rogue nations should be settled with "diplomacy" instead of anti-ballistic missiles. To Americans, the belief that plots of Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-il can be defused with talk and good intentions is laughable. It is the United States that gets its embassies blown up, and it does a lot more mucking about in the world's dark corners than the French or Germans. The second reason has to do with foreign policy. In Europe, creating a multilateralist bulwark to the United States isn't just consistent with foreign policy objectives, it is a foreign policy objective. The French have taken a leading role in this regard. It was Hubert Védrine, the French Foreign Minister, who coined the term hyperpuissance, and it is France that has most explicitly sought to establish a second Western pole of global power. "France's big project of the coming decades will be to transform Europe into a new kind of superpower," wrote Christopher Caldwell in Policy Review last year, "a collective one that has France at its intellectual and moral center." George W. Bush and Europe's leaders hold different views on issues such as the 1972 Anti Ballistic Missile Treaty and and the Kyoto protocol. But their disagreements are underpinned by a larger battle about multilateralism. All signs indicate this fight will be with us long after Kyoto and the ABM Treaty fall off the agenda. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full details of CASI's various lists can be found on the CASI website: http://www.casi.org.uk