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News titles, 4-10/6/03 News, 4-10/6/03 (1) ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEMS * U.S. to issue pink slips to 500,000 Iraqi workers [They get $20.00 severance pay] * Bush's can-do man puts the business into Baghdad [frightening article by Naomi Klein on Paul Bremer, 'Iraq's one-man International Monetary Fund'] * Grain Exports To Iraq May Suffer In Wake Of New Appointment [Assiduous followers of these mailings will know how important the Indian (and Pakistani)/Iraqi grain trade has been. Now that a US grain company boss - Dan Amstutz - has been put in charge of 'agricultural reconstruction in Iraq', the future for this trade looks a little bleak] * New Report Exposes Contractor Bechtel as Threat to Iraqi Environment, Human Rights and Basic Services * U.N.: Health Problems Widespread in Iraq * Cash Crisis Forces U.S. to Print Saddam Banknotes [We learn that the pre-1991 'Swiss dinar' did not bear Saddam's face, though he had been President since 1979. Does that suggest that the hysterical personality cult we all know about was largely a product of the radical insecurity of the post-1991 situation?] GIANT STEP FORWARD TOWARDS THE END OF HISTORY * Iraq now takes Visa CULTURE CORNER * Most Iraqi Treasures Recovered ['"It is a great relief that so much of the museum's main collection is safe and in good condition," said Ambassador Pietro Cordone, an Italian diplomat who is senior adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Culture at the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority.' Who are these people?] * Tank is canvas for Iraqi kids [A USAid worker has the bright idea of getting a bunch of children to paint jolly pictures on a shot up Iraqi tank. Has he never heard of depleted uranium? I have been in correspondence with the author of the article, who sees the point] FORCES OF CIVIL SOCIETY * A tribal rivalry may give clues to Iraq's future [Account of two prominent members of Jaburi clan - Ibrahim Al Jaburi and Mashaan Al Jaburi - representing different perspectives on Iraq's future. Interesting account of their previous relations with Saddam.] PROBLEMS WITH SECURITY * U.S. administrator says new military recruitment to begin in late June * U.S. Soldier Killed in Iraqi Attack [In Fallujah, 5th June: 'The attacks brought to eight the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq during the past eight days'] * U.S. troops attacked again in central Iraq [Friday, 6th June in the town of Khaldiya, 45 miles west of Baghdad] * U.S. Soldiers Face Growing Resistance [Soldier killed at a checkpoint near the Syrian border, 8th June; attack in Tikrit; continuous trouble in Fallujah] AND, IN NEWS, 4-10/6/03 (2) PROBLEMS WITH THE PRETEXT * Iraq Survey Group prepares to restart inspections * We Went Into Iraq Because We Knew We Could [Thomas Friedman wholly and unreservedly adopts the agenda of P.Wolfowitz. Arab hatred of the US derives from failed rogue governments. Those rogue governments have to be overthrown and new, spectacularly successful, pro-US regimes installed in their place. Then peace, joy and light will spread throughout the region] * Bush ignores UN call for inspectors [Overwhelming majority of the Security Council, including Britain, want UNMOVIC back. But who cares?] * Blair defeats motion for inquiry into Iraqi WMDs [Useful summary of events] * Revealed: The Secret Cabal Which Spun for Blair ['Operation Rockingham' which, we are told, goes back to 1991 and was therefore spinning in support of sanctions. Though I find it difficult to adjust to the idea that 'intelligence' consists of honourable people above mere political considerations who aren't supposed to do this sort of thing] * Blow to Blair over 'mobile labs' [Detailed account of reasons for thinking the trailers were about balloons and not germs. And The Observer actually finds someone - Professor Harry Smith, who chairs the Royal Society's working party on biological weapons - prepared to put his name to it] PROBLEMS WITH THE PAST * U.S. troops arrest more Ba'ath Party members [in Fallujah] * New mass grave found in Iraq [Salman Pak. With (surely incomplete?) list of grave sites discovered so far] * Iraq's former health chief detained by US forces since May ‹ son [Omid Mubarak, Iraq's health chief since the Gulf War in 1991, 'a Kurd who did not belong to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party'] * Saddam's last victims dug up in Iraqi grave [At Madaen, 30 kilometres west of Baghdad] OLD FRIENDS * SCIRI's Badr brigade dismantled by U.S., will change focus [members of brigades and of SCIRI apparently detained in Ba'qubah and near Mosul] * Kurdish paper says Hussein loyalist assisting PUK [Muhammad Najm al-Din Naqshbandi] * Kurds want more money from U.S. ['"We liberated this area with our blood. Now they act with us like we are cheap, not human, like some kind of servants."'] * Committee to develop northern Iraqi airport * Economy in northern Iraq is hardest hit due to friendship with U.S. [The Kurdish zone we understand uses dollars and is suffering because the dollar is plunging in value while the dinar - the one with Mr Hussein's face on it - is rising. Anyone understand any of this?] * Shi'ite, Kurds question Iraq administration plans [Masoud Barzani in Najaf, where he meets Hakim and Sistani] * Iraqi sceptics optimistic after relaunch of political talks ['Bayati said Iraqi delegates had received assurances from Bremer that the political council would have real powers. "He said it is not an advisory council. It is a political council that is going to appoint advisers to the ministries, it is going to set up committees ..."' and 'KDP spokesman Hoshyar Zebari said ... 'it would appoint interim ministers directly and not just advisors. They can present concrete proposals and represent Iraq in some (regional or international) bodies."' It is not an advisory council. It will appoint advisors. They won't be just advisors, they can put forward proposals. Am I stupid or are these people incredibly easily pleased?] * US-led coalition at odds with Iraq Shiites as arms deadline nears [more on attempt to disarm SCIRI] AND, IN NEWS, 4-10/6/03 (3) INTERNATIONAL PROSTITUTION RACKET * U.N. expected to exempt U.S. from suits by new court [Renewal of 'a resolution that shielded Americans serving in U.N.-approved peacekeeping missions from prosecution by the International Criminal Court' because '"The council is in too fragile a state to put it through another meat grinder."'] NERVOUS NEIGHBOURS * Bahraini King Invites Iraqi Groups To National Conference * Iraq needs $500 billion investment ‹ McKinsey [Presentation given by the US McKinsey Company at the "Doing Business with Iraq" conference at the Hyatt Amman in Jordan] * Future of prewar Iraq contracts still uncertain [More from the "Doing Business with Iraq" conference in Jordan: 'For Mustafa Hasan, general manager at Metito Emirates, a company that supplies water and sanitation products and services, the situation is particularly uncomfortable. Metito has almost $30 million worth of prewar business with Iraq hanging in the balance ... You hear about all these organisations, including the UN, expressing concern about water and sanitation in Iraq. Yet, we haven't been contacted at all. I don't understand it."' * The Arab world, divided and humiliated, asks: 'Which way Iraq?' [David Hirst in the Lebanon Daily Star on the unappealing choice between the 'democrats' (only a remodelled democratic Arab world can confront US/Israel) and 'nationalists' (need to launch an anti-imperialist war straightaway)] WHO'S NEXT? * Administration to Announce 'Rollback' Strategy for WMD [Lone Ranger - in the form of John Bolton. 'Undersecretary of State for Arms Control' (!) - moves on to the next battle in the war against Evil. But will Tonto be there beside him?] * Rumblings afoot in Azerbaijan [Southern Azerbaijan National Awakeness - sic, PB - Movement as possible launching pad for attack on Iran] PROBLEMS WITH THE WORLD * Russian contracts in Iraq: forgive or forget? [Fate of the LUKOil contract for the West Qurna oil field. Russia loses $70 billion worth of oil because, like the idiots they are, they abided by 'international law'. The US scooped it all up with their illegal invasion] * US raid on Palestinian embassy in Baghdad: an act of political gangsterism [Following on 'the deliberate bombing of the embassy on April 7'. And the world is supposed to believe that these people can act as honest brokers in the Israel/Palestine dispute?] PROBLEMS WITH MEDIA * Occupiers Propose New Media Code in Iraq [Actually two different wings of the occupation seem to be proposing two different new media codes] * A nasty slip on Iraqi oil [Guardian apologises for errors in reporting remarks by P.Wolfowitz and for Colin Powell meets Jack Straw story. Though the real meaning of Wolfowitz's remarks - sanctions didn't work against Iraq because Iraq had the means to feed its population; but North Korea hasn't - was still pretty nasty. For some further details on the background to this see Elga Sutter's mailing to the list on 9th June] _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. 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