[casi] News titles, 25/6-2/7/03

[Peter Brooke <pbrooke@DELETETHISukonline.co.uk>]

News titles, 25/6-2/7/03 Wednesday to Wednesday

News, 25/6-2/7/03 (1)

TOWARDS FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY

*  The Structural Disaster in Iraq [This important article puts the emphasis
where it belongs - on the destruction of the Iraqi bureaucracy. The creation
of a bureaucracy that functioned efficiently throughout the whole country
under near impossible circumstances was the great achievement of the Ba'ath
Arab Socialist Party and it could have enabled the emergence of a
functioning democracy had it not been for the criminal intervention of the
International Community.]
*  Cleric says resistance to continue, backs Pachachi ['Iraqi Sunni cleric
and head of the Unified Iraqi National Movement Ahmad al-Kubaysi']
*  Residents protest arrest of police chief [in the Diyala Governorate,
located northwest of Baghdad]
*  Government websites expected online in coming days [Uruklink comes back
amid controversy as to whether it has or hasn't been sufficiently purged]
*  U.S. administrator details plan for Iraq [We learn that the suffering of
the Iraqi people over the past 12 years was due to Saddam Hussein and
Socialism. The removal of Saddam Hussein and the delivery of all Iraqi
industrial enterprise into private hands will therefore end the suffering.
No mention of sanctions, but then we all know that sanctions were the fault
of President Hussein because of his insistence on keeping his weapons of
mass destruction]
*  US hunts Saddam loyalists, senators demand more world involvement in Iraq
[Extract. Fatwa from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani opposing the project of
a constitution drafted by an unelected convention]
*  Former Saddam aide in Babylon, a symbol of the new Iraq [Brief account of
Iskandar Jawad Watut, new governor of the region of Babylon]     
*  Bremer urges Kurd leaders to join council [if he's having difficulty
persuading Jalal Talabani]

MOPPING UP THE REMNANTS OF TYRANNY

*  Former Iraqi scientist hands over nuclear plans ['Mahdi Shukur Ubaydi,
who headed Iraq's uranium-enrichment program in the late 1980s and early
1990s']
*  IAEA says Baghdad did not restart nuclear weapons programme [IAEA comment
on the revelations of Mahdi Shukur Obeidi (see ...): "The findings and
comments of Obeidi appear to confirm that there has been no post-1991
nuclear weapons programme in Iraq and are consistent with our reports to the
Security Council."]     
*  The IRS Takes on Saddam's Kin [Apparently detailed account of
interrogation of Saddam Hussein's half brother, Barzan Tikriti. It  a deeply
unpleasant article, sneering at his 'criminal' efforts to get round the
restrictions imposed by sanctions. And is it normal to give details of
recent interrogations? Does this not smack of the humiliation of prisoners
of war which is supposed to be outlawed under the geneval convention?]
*  Ministers knew war papers were forged, says diplomat [Another anonymous
diplomat (though enough information is given that it should be possible for
someone to identify him) says US intelligence knew the Niger document was
forged. The article makes the point that, though Jack Straw claimed the
British accusation was based on separate sources, 'Neither the US nor
Britain ever gave the IAEA any other information to back up their
allegations on Iraq's uranium-buying activities'.]
*  Few al-Qaida Ties Seen in Iraq Arrests ["That he was promoting al-Qaida
is absurd. That there was a tolerance for a Zarqawi network in Iraq seems
clear" said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief]

MAKING THE WORLD A SAFER PLACE

*  Britain tries to weaken UN deal on cluster bombs
*  Galloway to sue Telegraph over Iraq claim
*  Rumsfeld advocates US-led global peacekeeping force


News, 25/6-2/7/03 (2)

TOWARDS PEACE AND SECURITY

*  Last stand at Majar al-Kabir [Account by David Blair in the Daily
Telegraph. Who says all six were together in the police station when they
died]
*  Six British troops killed in separate attacks [This account effectively
gives three separate incidents - ambush of patrol and shooting at
helicopter; demonstration against intrusive searches, in which four
demonstrators and two British military police were killed; siege of the
police station where four police were killed]
*  Marsh Arabs threaten to resist 'army of occupation' [Patrick Cockburn
points out that Majar al-Kabir is Marsh Arab territory, and the Marsh Arabs
have an old history of war with British soldiers. Wonder what Baroness
Nicolson thinks of it all?]
*  Iraqis step up attacks against US-led forces [Thursday 26th June:
'Reports of attacks on US troops appeared almost hourly ‹ too frequent for
military press officers to keep up with.']     
*  Hell starts now [Pepe Escobar's old thesis that whatever happened
President Hussein couldn't lose is beginning to look rather brighter than it
did a couple of weeks ago and so, despite starting off with the hoariest of
cliches (winning the war ... winning the peace), his spirits are picking up:
'So as in many a rap song, the "man" (the American forces) may control the
day, but "we" (the Iraqi people) control the night. The Saudi-owned al-Quds
al Arabi daily has reported how the Americans spend their days cleaning
anti-occupation graffiti and being forced to destroy Saddam portraits over
and over.']
*  U.S. soldier killed in Iraq attack [Friday, 27th June]
*  Thousands flee sulphur clouds [sabotage in the Iraqi Kurdish village of
Mahmur, 50km southwest of Arbil]
*  U.S. Troops Prodding New Iraqi Police [who are apprehensive about taking
action for fear of getting embroiled in tribal feuds]


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