Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq
PLEASE NOTE THIS SITE IS NOW AN ARCHIVE, AND IS NO LONGER UPDATED.
For information on Iraq since May 2003, please visit www.iraqanalysis.org.

Iraq news extracts

NOTE: This file was originally intended for internal use by its compilers. Its coverage is neither comprehensive nor uniform. Editorial decisions are shaped by the editors' own interests, sense of what is important and new, and time constraints. EDITORIAL DECISIONS DO NOT REFLECT CASI POLICY. This is made publicly available not to present an authoritative chronology but as a research tool. ALL QUOTATIONS, ESPECIALLY EARLIER ONES, SHOULD BE CHECKED AGAINST OFFICIAL SOURCES. When the file is updated, it is likely that articles from before, as well as after, the last update will be added. Since 9 February 2003, articles felt to be especially important have been marked with a green star,

Last updated Fri May 23 14:17:54 2003.

15/05/03

300,000 children malnourished: U.N.

Toronto Star: More than 300,000 Iraqi children face death from acute malnutrition, twice as many as before U.S. and British forces invaded the country in March, UNICEF warned yesterday. Many of these - nearly 8 per cent of all Iraqi children under 5 - could be saved if the occupation forces ensured that aid convoys could move around freely and kept looters away from water plants and pipelines, the United Nations agency said. ... UNICEF, charged with protecting children around the globe, said a survey taken in Baghdad indicated that 7.7 per cent of children under 5 in urban centres were suffering from acute malnutrition, nearly twice as many as one year ago.

Kurdish Group Takes Autonomous Role in Iraq Oil Projects

New York Times, SABRINA TAVERNISE with NEELA BANERJEE: The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two main Kurdish parties in Iraq, has signed production-sharing contracts with two Turkish companies, PetOil and General Energy, to develop and survey oilfields in northeast Iraq, according to Rasheed Khoshnaw, deputy director of the party's special projects division. In addition, party officials recently agreed to allow an Australian company to do surveying work in eastern Iraq, said Mr. Khoshnaw.

12/05/03

Israel’s Fleeting Affair With Chalabi

Americans for Peace Now: Middle East Peace Report: Smadar Peri, writing in Yedioth Ahronoth, reported that for many years mystery shrouded the reasons the U.S. regarded Ahmed Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, so warmly. ... Chalabi, it turns out, was pushed into America’s arms by Israeli intelligence. Chalabi’s Israeli link took place 13 years ago. KZ, a Defense Ministry official, recently revealed details of his first meeting with Chalabi in London. ... The information on the Israeli MIAs and POWs, which Chalabi promised through his contacts in Teheran, never materialized, neither in Rothschild’s next two meetings with Chalabi. This did not prevent Israeli security officials from recommending Chalabi to the American administration and connecting him to senior advisers in the White House, the Pentagon and the CIA. As a result of the recommendations, James Woolsley, the former CIA director, gave him patronage. (Yedioth Ahronoth, 5/2/03) ... Fast forward to 2003, when Chalabi showed up in southern Iraq after 45 years in exile and promised a “new Iraq.” Amman conveyed a strong message to the Bush Administration that if Chalabi, with U.S. help, fulfills his dream and is given a central role in Iraq, this will immediately cast a heavy shadow on Jordan-Iraq relations. The Jordanian royal family also watched with concern the involvement of Israeli security officials in opening the gates of the Pentagon for Chalabi.

SELECTIVE INTELLIGENCE

New Yorker, SEYMOUR M. HERSH: The full record of Hussein Kamel’s interview with the inspectors reveals, however, that he also said that Iraq’s stockpile of chemical and biological warheads, which were manufactured before the 1991 Gulf War, had been destroyed, in many cases in response to ongoing inspections. The interview, on August 22, 1995,was conducted by Rolf Ekeus, then the executive chairman of the U.N. inspection teams, and two of his senior associates — Nikita Smidovich and Maurizio Zifferaro. “You have an important role in Iraq,” Kamel said, according to the record, which was assembled from notes taken by Smidovich. “You should not underestimate yourself. You are very effective in Iraq.” When Smidovich noted that the U.N. teams had not found “any traces of destruction,” Kamel responded, “Yes, it was done before you came in.” He also said that Iraq had destroyed its arsenal of warheads. “We gave instructions not to produce chemical weapons,” Kamel explained later in the debriefing. “I don’t remember resumption of chemical-weapons production before the Gulf War. Maybe it was only minimal production and filling. . . . All chemical weapons were destroyed. I ordered destruction of all chemical weapons. All weapons—biological, chemical, missile, nuclear—were destroyed.” ... In 1998, Albright told me, he and Hamza sent publishers a proposal for a book tentatively entitled “Fizzle: Iraq and the Atomic Bomb,” which described how Iraq had failed in its quest for a nuclear device. There were no takers, Albright said, and Hamza eventually “started exaggerating his experiences in Iraq.” The two men broke off contact. In 2000, Hamza published “Saddam’s Bombmaker,” a vivid account claiming that by 1991, when the Gulf War began, Iraq was far closer than had been known to the production of a nuclear weapon. ... In separate interviews with me, however, a former C.I.A. station chief and a former military intelligence analyst said that the camp near Salman Pak had been built not for terrorism training but for counter-terrorism training. In the mid-eighties, Islamic terrorists were routinely hijacking aircraft. In 1986, an Iraqi airliner was seized by pro-Iranian extremists and crashed, after a hand grenade was triggered, killing at least sixty-five people. ... Iraq then sought assistance from the West, and got what it wanted from Britain’s MI6. The C.I.A. offered similar training in counter-terrorism throughout the Middle East. “We were helping our allies everywhere we had a liaison,” the former station chief told me. ... The former C.I.A. official noted, however, that terrorists would not practice on airplanes in the open. “That’s Hollywood rinky-dink stuff,” the former agent said. “They train in basements. You don’t need a real airplane to practice hijacking. The 9/11 terrorists went to gyms. But to take one back you have to practice on the real thing.” ... A former Bush Administration intelligence official recalled a case in which Chalabi’s group, working with the Pentagon, produced a defector from Iraq who was interviewed overseas by an agent from the D.I.A. The agent relied on an interpreter supplied by Chalabi’s people. Last summer, the D.I.A. report, which was classified, was leaked. In a detailed account, the London Times described how the defector had trained with Al Qaeda terrorists in the late nineteen-nineties at secret camps in Iraq, how the Iraqis received instructions in the use of chemical and biological weapons, and how the defector was given a new identity and relocated. A month later, however, a team of C.I.A. agents went to interview the man with their own interpreter. “He says, ‘No, that’s not what I said,’” the former intelligence official told me. “He said, ‘I worked at a fedayeen camp; it wasn’t Al Qaeda.’ He never saw any chemical or biological training.” Afterward, the former official said, “the C.I.A. sent out a piece of paper saying that this information was incorrect. They put it in writing.” But the C.I.A. rebuttal, like the original report, was classified. “I remember wondering whether this one would leak and correct the earlier, invalid leak. Of course, it didn’t.” ... A former high-level intelligence official told me that American Special Forces units had been sent into Iraq in mid-March, before the start of the air and ground war, to investigate sites suspected of being missile or chemical- and biological-weapon storage depots. “They came up with nothing,” the official said. “Never found a single Scud.”

06/05/03

Iraq bank manager: Thieves, not Qusay

Ghassan al-Kadi, UPI: A top Iraqi banker Tuesday denied a news report that accused Saddam Hussein's younger son, Qusay, of taking $1 billion in cash from Iraq's Central Bank a day before the United States launched its war against the Arab nation. He said the money was looted by professional thieves.

05/05/03

Iraq reconstruction inches forward, as humanitarian disaster looms

AFP: US engineers struggling to restore power in the capital were grappling with a bizarre power grid built to light Saddam's palaces rather than the capital at large, said US Captain Travis Morehead. ... Rumsfeld also told US television that Iraqi prisoners could help US forces hunt down the weapons of mass destruction that Washington accused Saddam of hiding and that it used to justify the war. "The intelligence shows that they (Saddam's regime) were systematically trying to prevent the inspectors from finding them," he said on Fox television. Meanwhile the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) again demanded access to all Iraqi prisoners of war in US and British custody. ICRC spokeswoman Nana Doumani said the US-led forces "must respect the Geneva Convention on prisoners (of war)." ... Time magazine reported the US military may have downplayed the coalition's use of deadly cluster bombs during the campaign. While US officials claim that only 26 cluster bombs landed in civilian areas during the fighting, accounts from Iraqi hospitals, residents and civil defense officials indicate many more fired. ... The Karbala civil defense chief told Time his men were finding some 1,000 cluster bombs daily in places US officials said were not targets. ... Chalabi has taken possession of 25 TONNES OF DOCUMENTS from Saddam Hussein's secret police, some of them onerous for the Jordanian royal family, Newsweek reported. "Some of the files are very damning," Chalabi told Newsweek, implying that some of the most incriminating material concerned King Abdullah.

Birth Pangs: As a New Era Dawns in Baghdad, Life Goes On -- Sometimes, Just Barely

Richard Leiby, Washington Post: As the sun starts to set, Khaldoon stands weeping outside the entrance to the hospital. The grandfather, 65-year-old Ghanim, normally a placid man, flares with anger: "There's no milk, no medicine, no salaries, no safety in the streets. What kind of freedom are you talking about? Under Saddam it was better than now!" He collects himself, seems to regret the outburst and continues. "I don't know if tomorrow I will find my granddaughter dead." ... In a place that suddenly has no government, few police and effectively no laws, Officers City residents crave stability and many say they wish there was more -- immediately. They complain about what seems to remain a halfhearted military occupation. "You should be our savior," Osama Said Raheem, 35, insists to an American who approaches one darkened street corner. Volunteers like him congregate to surveil pitch-black streets for strangers. "No one provides for us." Can't Iraqis do it themselves? "People here don't know the meaning of freedom," says Raheem, the son of a retired staff colonel. ... In the hospital on Saturday evening, a cluster of distraught mothers start shrieking at an American reporter and photographer. They present their ill children for inspection and beseech us for help -- any kind of help. "Why are you here?" one asks angrily. "If you can't help, then leave. We don't want to be studied like specimens." That night, still fearing the worst, Mona and Khaldoon stay at the hospital, tending to baby Maryam. In a nearby crib, a 5-day-old baby dies. In the morning, a 7-day-old dies too.

03/05/03

Iran rebels in Iraq flex muscles on Iranian border

Saul Hudson, Reuters: The United States bombed Mujahideen bases at the start of the war against Saddam Hussein, but decided last month to let the rebels keep their weapons in "non-combat" positions. "We are obviously in combat positions here, but we are not against the U.S. forces," Mitrah Bagherzadeh, a Mujahideen commander, told Reuters, within sight of Iranian peaks. "We had to establish these bases near the border to defend ourselves against incursions and provide a shield against the Iranian regime," the 42-year-old woman fighter said. The United States and the Mujahideen have a common interest in stopping Iraqi fighters of the Tehran-based Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) from returning to their homeland to fill the power vacuum left by Saddam's removal.

02/05/03

Children of Sadr City bear brunt of crisis made worse by war

Donald Macintyre, Independent: The gastroenteritis outbreak started at about the same time that much of the world was celebrating the fall of Baghdad, on 9 April, and when the hospital was working flat out to cope with civilian injuries inflicted by Allied cluster bombs. ... The US-led Organisation for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance has not provided any help, so it is the Islamic scholastic group Hawza that is paying the doctors, has hired the man at the door with the AK-47 to keep out looters, and is shipping in from Najaf what little medical supplies it can.

01/05/03

At Iraqi Oil Plant, Bitterness and Idleness: Workers' Frustrations Mount in South as Operations Remain Stalled

Peter S. Goodman, Washington Post: "We can do our jobs; we don't need anybody to help us," said Hadi Sultan, a chief technical officer at the plant. "All we need is the tools." At a nearby residential complex where workers live in crumbling brick houses built in the 1950s, Kadhen Sae'ed Kailan, a safety inspector with Iraqi Drilling, was again staying home for lack of any work to inspect. He complained that KBR has yet to replace his stolen and destroyed equipment, and he smirked at what he said was the one tangible piece of evidence of KBR's progress: the new laminated identification cards they have been furnishing to oil workers, complete with photo and the approval of a now essentially defunct "Ministry of Oil." "They do nothing," Kadhen said. "During a month, they do nothing. Just changing this. This is a joke."

29/04/03

Iraq's cancer children overlooked in war

Jonathan Duffy, BBC: With Iraq's hospitals in disarray, the long-term sick are being passed over in a frantic effort to treat emergency cases. For the thousands of young leukaemia victims, the outlook is bleaker than ever. ... Munther has been unable to travel the 230 miles to Baghdad for his monthly treatment session at a specialist cancer care hospital, where he receives chemotherapy drugs injected into the spine and intravenously. ... Munther's medicine dried up a week ago and no-one knows if, or when, new supplies will be available. ... "I've been to the American [military] hospital in Nasiriyah and the Red Cross for help but they only handle first aid and they can't do anything," says Mr Abbas.

28/04/03

Iraqi scientist: Sanctions killed germ war program

CNN: The scientist, Nassir Hindawi, left Iraq's bio-weapons program in 1989, and one of his students -- Rihab Taha -- eventually became notorious as Iraq's leading biological weapons expert. But Hindawi told CNN that Taha -- who was nicknamed "Dr. Germ" in the West -- didn't have the practical capability to advance the program. Hindawi said economic sanctions imposed after the first Persian Gulf War effectively halted the program, and it probably could not have been reconstituted with whatever materials that remained from the previous years.

26/04/03

U.S. Still Has Not Found Iraqi Arms: Search Goes On for Weapons Powell Cited

Walter Pincus, Washington Post: The United States has yet to find weapons of mass destruction at any of the locations that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell cited in his key presentation to the U.N. Security Council in February, according to U.S. officials. ... They also have not turned up anything to support Powell's claim to the Security Council that "nearly two dozen" al Qaeda terrorists lived in and operated from Baghdad. ... One of Powell's most dramatic disclosures was that ... the United States "knew from sources that a missile brigade outside Baghdad was dispersing rocket launchers and warheads containing biological warfare agents . . . to various locations in western Iraq. ... most of the launchers and warheads had been hidden in large groves of palm trees and were to be moved every one to four weeks to escape detection." None of those weapons has been found, a senior administration official said yesterday. ... Powell detailed Iraq's use of mobile laboratories to produce chemical or biological weapons as a way of avoiding discovery. ... None of the truck laboratories has been discovered and none of the defectors has come forward. "They are not likely to appear," the senior official said, until Hussein's fate is known.

25/04/03

Clerics take charge as generals dither

Roula Khalaf, FT: When a three-man US army medical team walked into Baghdad's Qadisiya hospital this week, commotion ensued. Sayed Hashem, a young theology student given charge of the hospital by Shia clerics from the holy city of Najaf, seemed perturbed and explained the director general of the hospital was absent. ... The conversation was relaxed, as if between friends, until the issue of security was mentioned. When Major Bozzo offered to send soldiers to stand guard outside the hospital, a poker-faced Mr al-Jawahiri started to fidget in his seat. "This issue is sensitive now," the co-director said. "The population is sensitive. We are highly conservative." ... Sayed Hashem, who stood outside the door of the office, had by that time sent two envoys to interrupt the conversation and whisper in Mr al-Jawahiri's ear. The co-director advised patience and said that his visitors were a medical team discussing medical issues. ... "We told the Americans we would not co-operate with them and we could restore security ourselves," said Sayed Hashem. "They believed they could stop us from having weapons when groups like Ahmad Chalabi's [the formerly exiled Iraqi National Congress] had been armed by them."

U.S. To Use Corporate Structure To Run Iraq's Vast Oil Industry

Susan Warren and Chip Cummins, Wall Street Journal: Philip J. Carroll, former chief executive of Shell Oil Co., the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch/Shell Group, will be chairman of the board, working closely with an Iraqi vice chairman. That position is expected to be filled by Fadhil Othman, who led Iraq's oil-marketing group before Mr. Hussein assumed power 24 years ago, though the final team and their titles are still being negotiated. ... Thamir Gadhban, a senior oil ministry official coordinating reorganization efforts in Baghdad, said he would expect Iraq's top oil man to come from the current ranks of the ministry. "The Iraqi oil industry is not a new one, and there are experienced people in the ministry of oil and its organizations," who would be best qualified for the job, he said, adding, "this is the only normal way." ... Though Iraq's politically appointed oil minister hasn't been seen since American forces pushed Mr. Hussein from power, many of the agency's top bureaucrats appear firmly back in control. Mr. Gadhban and Kahtan Al-Anbaki, another top official involved with ministry reorganization efforts, said they expect Iraq to be able to quickly resume significant crude-oil output and could increase its current production-growth targets under a new government.

US May Use Mujahideen Rebels in Tensions with Iran

Firouz Sedarat, Reuters: After years of shunning the Iraq-based People's Mujahideen as "terrorists," the United States might use Iran's main rebel group to pressure Tehran as tensions rise between the two countries over post-Saddam Iraq. ... A left-leaning Islamist group during the 1979 revolution against the U.S.-backed shah, the Mujahideen broke from the ruling clergy, accusing them of trying to monopolize power. The group -- also known as Mujahideen Khalq -- waged a bloody campaign in the early 1980s to topple the Islamic Republic with a wave of assassinations of top officials. But many agree the group lost much of its popular support after it collaborated with Baghdad during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. ... A U.S. official said in February Washington would remove the Mujahideen from Iraq as part of Saddam's "brutal apparatus."

Reason for War? White House Officials Say Privately the Sept. 11 Attacks Changed Everything

John Cochran, ABCNews: To build its case for war with Iraq, the Bush administration argued that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, but some officials now privately acknowledge the White House had another reason for war — a global show of American power and democracy. Officials inside government and advisers outside told ABCNEWS the administration emphasized the danger of Saddam's weapons to gain the legal justification for war from the United Nations and to stress the danger at home to Americans. "We were not lying," said one official. "But it was just a matter of emphasis." Officials now say they may not find hundreds of tons of mustard and nerve agents and maybe not thousands of liters of anthrax and other toxins.

U.S. to Offer Resolution to End Sanctions

Karen DeYoung and Colum Lynch, Washington Post: The Bush administration plans to introduce next week a U.N. Security Council resolution that would lift more than a decade of international sanctions on Iraq, while limiting U.N. involvement in Iraq's foreseeable future to a consultative role, senior administration officials said yesterday.

24/04/03

Media, Troops Investigated in Iraq Theft

CURT ANDERSON, AP: Members of the news media and U.S. soldiers are being investigated for taking art, artifacts, weapons and cash from Iraq, with criminal charges already brought in one case, federal officials said Wednesday. ... None of the items displayed at a news conference were priceless antiquities looted from Iraqi museums. ... Customs agents are in Baghdad working with the museums to inventory what was stolen. The FBI and the Interpol law enforcement network also are helping investigate and recover lost items.

23/04/03

Not a drop that's safe to drink

Jonathan Duffy, BBC News Online: The electricity shutdown has also brought the sewage pumps [in Nasiriya] to a halt, so that much of this city of half a million people is sitting on a bed of stale human waste. In places it has started to seep up to ground level. ... With temperatures rising as summer approaches, Nasiriya could find a cholera epidemic on its hands, says one highly experienced aid worker. Clean water, or the lack of it, is more of a problem than anything else in Nasiriya. There is no shortage of food. The central distribution system set up under the Oil for Food programme ensured everyone here had enough rations to last them through to August. ... In some medical practices, 80% of patients seen are suffering from some sort of water infection. Dr Abdul Al-Shadood says his Al-Meelad clinic is seeing an average of 22 gastroenteritis cases a day, compared to one or two before the war. ... Dr Shadood's clinic has run out of the most basic treatment - oral rehydration solution. Instead, he is prescribing an antibiotic called Flagyl. But he has only a few days' stock left and no deliveries are scheduled.

Iraq-Israel peace treaty falters

Richard Sale, UPI: Bush administration plans to instal a pro-U.S. interim government in Iraq that would quickly sign a peace treaty with Israel appear to be faltering, thanks to a power vacuum in Baghdad and mounting Islamic opposition to any continued U.S. military presence, administration officials said. A second administration plan that would allow U.S. military forces access to four long-term bases in Iraq are also in jeopardy, these sources said. ... Administration officials confirmed that the Pentagon has pushed very hard to install Iraqi exiles such as Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, as head of any Iraqi interim government. ... But the first setback to the Pentagon plans apparently came at the hands of the British during the recent U.K.-U.S. summit meeting in Northern Ireland, U.S. officials said. Thanks to stormy debates between British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and President Bush, the Bush administration agreed that the DOD leadership candidates such as Chalabi would not have the required following in Iraq, and that legitimacy of a new government there would best be established by promoting local figures with solid roots in the populace. ... A former senior DIA intelligence official, Pat Lang, said: "If we thought there would be a nice leisurely transition, we were wrong. It looks like the Shia have beaten us to the punch in the south - they're taking over the country, and they'll make it clear they don't want us there." ... "The priority of establishing relations with Israel has to be placed in the context of broader Iraqi needs and the importance of any new government first establishing respectable and legitimate nationalist credentials early on," said former CIA national intelligence officer and Middle East expert Graham Fuller.

U.S. Tries to Curb Iranian Role in Iraq

Jonathan Wright, Reuters: "We've made clear to Iran that we would oppose any outside interference in Iraq's road to democracy," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. ... But Iran and Iraq have cultural ties dating back to the beginnings of civilization. Interaction between Iran and the Shi'ite south of Iraq has been especially close since Shi'ite Islam became Iran's state religion in the 16th century. Iraqi and Iranian clerics have moved between the two countries for centuries as teachers and community leaders. ... "Chalabi helped sell the idea of secular Shi'ism to them and gave the policy makers a sense of security," said the official, who asked not to be named. Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress has failed to build a domestic constituency in the two weeks since the fall of Saddam, despite material support from U.S. forces. "I've heard rumblings their confidence in Chalabi is waning. The INC are like the Miami Cubans, who think they can go back from exile and run things," the official said. ... Former Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk told an audience at the Brookings Institution the United States would have to act in Iraq like old-style imperialists. "We have to get rid of this naive notion that by turning on the lights and fixing the hospitals we are going to be able to build a moderate, representative government in Iraq. We're going to have to play the old imperial game of divide and rule and the stakes could not be higher," he said.

Why the Mullahs Love a Revolution

DILIP HIRO, New York Times: The supreme council has a 10,000-man army, armed by Iran, and controls many Iraqi towns near the Iranian border. By contrast, the Free Iraqi Forces loyal to Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the American-sponsored Iraqi National Congress, has only about 600 men at arms. The Pentagon made a show of airlifting Mr. Chalabi's men into the April 15 assembly of Iraqi politicians convened by the American pro-consul, retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner. But the attendance of a mere 80 delegates (the supreme council, previously part of the American-sponsored official Iraqi opposition, boycotted), along with a noisy anti-American protest by 20,000 demonstrators, showed the weakness of Washington's hand. ... Had [Chalabi] joined the hundreds of thousands of Shiites who made the pilgrimage to Karbala this week he might have enhanced his standing. ... Compare this luxury-loving, highly Westernized banker (who was convicted by Jordan in absentia of embezzlement and fraud) with Ayatollah Khomeini, the ascetic Iranian Shiite cleric who shunned worldly goods and and led a popular revolution that overthrew what was the most powerful regime in the Middle East. It is an illustration of the difference between a "regime change" achieved by the people and one imposed by a foreign military power.

22/04/03

What the Kurds Want

BARHAM SALIH, Wall Street Journal: The new Iraqi state should have clearly limited powers. Those who want a strong executive presidency show no understanding of either Iraq or the Middle East. ... Justice demands that we reverse ethnic cleansing. The Arabization of Iraqi Kurdistan, the settlement program that few have ever heard of, began 40 years ago, before the long tyranny of the Baath Party. ... The Arab settlers who were used to colonize Khanaqin, Sinjar, Makhmoor, Sheikhan and Kirkuk must be treated fairly. ... As for the U.N., it has a role to play; but it must win back the trust of Iraqis. The U.N.'s Oil-for-Food program has been mismanaged appallingly. Half of the money allocated to Iraqi Kurdistan never reached us, thanks to bureaucratic obstacles erected in Baghdad and supported by U.N. Plaza. In Suleimaniyah, we have waited five years for the program to build a 400-bed hospital. No money from Oil-for-Food was allocated to cover the basic running costs of the Kurdish authorities. We could not pay a single Kurdish teacher or doctor with this money, while Oil-for-Food largesse went to Uday Hussein's National Olympic Committee. ... We have been told that any money taken from the Kurdish account [under Security Council Resolution 1472] is "reimbursable," that we will still be entitled to it. When, how, and, frankly, if, this money will ever be reimbursed we do not know. Let international control of Iraqi oil continue, but please, let it be to the benefit of Iraqis and not U.N. bureaucrats.

21/04/03

Confusion over who controls Iraq oil ministry

Charles Clover, Financial Times: A man in a green suit, standing outside the barbed wire, introduced himself as Fellah al-Khawaja and said he represented the Co-ordinating Committee for the Oil Ministry, which few of the employees had heard of. It draws its authority from a self-declared local government led by Mohamed Mohsen al-Zubaidi, a recently returned exile who says he is now the effective mayor of Baghdad. According to Faris Nouri, a ministry section chief, the committee has issued a list of who should be allowed into the ministry by US troops guarding the building. ... The [former] director-general said he was confused by the lack of any formal notices, and had a only a vague idea of the committee, backed by the Iraqi National Congress, the formerly exiled opposition group. "I don't honestly know who they are, who chose them, how they are being motivated," he said. "I know I am in contact with no one and no one is in contact with me." However, he lamented the whole US approach to dealing with postwar Iraq. "We have a lot of experience with coup d'états and this one is the worst," he said. "Any colonel in the Iraqi army will tell you that when he does a coup d'état, he goes to the broadcasting station with five announcements." "The first one is long live this, down with that. The second one is your new government is this and that. The third is the list of the people to go on retirement. The fourth one, every other official is to report back to work tomorrow morning. The fifth is the curfew." This is usually done within one hour, he added. "Now we are waiting more than a week and still we hear nothing from them."

Illicit Arms Kept Till Eve of War, an Iraqi Scientist Is Said to Assert

JUDITH MILLER, New York Times: A scientist who claims to have worked in Iraq's chemical weapons program for more than a decade has told an American military team that Iraq destroyed chemical weapons and biological warfare equipment only days before the war began, members of the team said. ... Under the terms of her accreditation to report on the activities of MET Alpha, this reporter was not permitted to interview the scientist or visit his home. Nor was she permitted to write about the discovery of the scientist for three days, and the copy was then submitted for a check by military officials.

'Let Them Arrest Him,' Tariq Aziz's Aunt Says

DAVID ROHDE, New York Times

19/04/03

Gunfire interrupts first press conference by 'Pentagon's man'

Kim Sengupta, Independent: Outside, one of his supporters, Haqi Ismail, sat in shock dabbing the graze on his nose from one of the eight bullets fired into his pick-up truck. ... In an increasingly surreal atmosphere he refused to explain what the flag of his movement – yellow, green and blue with what looked like red cluster bombs in the middle – symbolised. It was being carried by the Free Iraqi Forces, he said. But who exactly were they? "They are brave volunteers who are part of the coalition forces. Just like the British they are under General Tommy Franks," he responded. How did he explain that these volunteers have told journalists that they were in fact being paid around $300 a month by him, Mr Chalabi. "It is not $300, that is not the right figure," said Mr Chalabi looking rather alarmed...

Soldiers Stumble on Outrageous Fortune: An estimated $650 million in cash discovered in barricaded cottages will be held for the Iraqi people, U.S. officials say

David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times: Two Army sergeants went searching for saws Friday to clear away branches that were blocking their Humvees. But they stumbled across a sealed-up cottage that aroused their curiosity -- and ultimately led to the discovery of an estimated $650 million in cash. ... Taylor Griffin, a U.S. Treasury spokesman, offered assurances that any cash retrieved from Hussein's regime would be held aside for the people of Iraq. "If we find money and it's not counterfeit, any assets belonging to Saddam Hussein and his cronies will be returned to the Iraqis," Griffin said. ... Each aluminum box was sealed with metal rivets and hard plastic straps. Green tags read, in English and Arabic: "Jordan National Bank," followed by a serial number. ... Cash has been the preferred medium for all off-the-books transactions in Iraq because bank transactions have been monitored since the Gulf War, the former Iraqi official said. ... Many of the 7-inch $100,000 bundles were sealed in plastic shrink wrap and labeled "Boston series," "New York series," or "Richmond series," corresponding to the Federal Reserve Bank in those cities. The labels also listed the serial numbers of the bills, which were sequential new notes, many dated 1999 or 2001.

18/03/04

Baghdad protesters denounce 'occupation'

BBC: Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Baghdad after Friday prayers, to protest against what they see as a foreign occupation of their country. The marchers carried flags and banners saying "No to occupation" and demanding that the unity of Iraq be preserved. ... The talks in Riyadh - the first such meeting since the start of the war - are to address the reconstruction of Iraq and the issue of how to deal with a future US-led administration in Baghdad. Egypt and Iran have already said they would not recognise such a government.

Firm to sue Annan over lost trade

Gulf Daily News: A Bahraini trading and marketing company is planning to sue UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for the loss of millions of dollars worth of business in Iraq.

Expert Thieves Took Artifacts, UNESCO Says

Robert J. McCartney, Washington Post: Well-organized professional thieves stole most of the priceless artifacts looted from Baghdad's National Museum of Antiquities last week, and they may have had inside help from low-level museum employees, the head of UNESCO said today. ... Matsuura said top museum officials tried to protect the institution, but the thieves may have succeeded in paying off guards or other low-ranking personnel. He said he doesn't blame the U.S. military, even though UNESCO had urged the U.S. government before the war to safeguard it and other cultural sites. ... The University of Chicago's Oriental Institute has already listed between 2,000 and 3,000 lost objects in a database, according to institute professor McGuire Gibson, who is one of the specialists advising UNESCO. ... Some of Iraq's most valuable artifacts were placed in a vault in the national bank after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. It isn't yet known if that vault is secure, or which items were placed there.

17/04/03

Bush Cultural Advisers Quit Over Iraq Museum Theft

Reuters: The head of a U.S. presidential panel on cultural property has resigned in protest at the failure of U.S. forces to prevent the wholesale looting of priceless treasures from Baghdad's antiquities museum. ... Earlier this week, antiquities experts said they had been given assurances from U.S. military planners that Iraq's historic artifacts and sites would be protected by occupying forces. U.S. archeological organizations and the U.N.'s cultural agency UNESCO said they had provided U.S. officials with information about Iraq's cultural heritage and archeological sites months before the war began.

16/04/03

So who really did save Private Jessica?

Richard Lloyd Parry, The [London] Times: “What the Americans say is like the story of Sinbad the Sailor — it’s a myth,” said Harith al-Houssona, who saved Private Lynch’s life after she was brought to the hospital by Iraqi military intelligence. ... US soldiers videotaped the rescue, but among the many scenes not shown to the press at US Central Command in Doha was one of four doctors who were handcuffed and interrogated, along with two civilian patients, one of whom was immobile and connected to a drip. “They were doctors, with stethoscopes round their necks,” Dr Harith said.

Lack of troops threatens Bush's post-war goals

Alan J. Kuperman, USAToday: By contrast, during instability in places such as Northern Ireland, Malaysia, Bosnia and Kosovo, intervention forces have required approximately 20 troops per thousand residents to maintain order. Postwar Iraq will likely fall in the latter category. ... Given Iraq's population of about 24 million, that could mean 480,000 peacekeepers. Two factors potentially could lessen the demand for U.S. troops. First, past cases indicate that if violence were lighter or regionally circumscribed, policing requirements might drop as low as 10 troops per thousand, or a total of 240,000. Second, our allies might contribute troops ... At least 200,000 peacekeepers probably would have to be Americans. ... Thus, Bush will have to compromise at least one of his aspirations: He could sacrifice democracy in Iraq ... Bush could sacrifice the war on terror ... [or] he could either reinstitute the military draft or activate large numbers of military reserves for extended tours of active duty.

15/04/03

US manages interests by pushing for Iraq debt relief

Al-Jazeera: By having Iraqi debt forgiven, however, coming US building costs may be met by Iraqi oil sales and the US taxpayer may not end up spending much more than they are already being asked to pay for the invasion so far. ... "In exchange for debt relief, France, Germany, Russia and others are very likely to ask for contracts to rebuild the country and sell Iraqi oil, as well as a voice in economic policy," points out Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International and a former State Department official in the Carter Administration. ... Middle East countries, Russia, Germany and France are all owed billions of dollars worth of money – yet the House of Representatives approved an amendment that would prevent reconstruction contracts going to Syria, Russia, Germany or France last week. ... "No one has forgiven Russia's debt, regardless of what kind of regime it was and regardless of the country's clout," Kudrin said. "For this reason, international law and our membership of the Paris Club of creditor nations will allow us to press for the repayment of our loans."

14/04/03

Anti-US protest in Baghdad

Al-Jazeera: “They are guarding oil facilities, but have not done anything as yet to restore essential services like power and water, “ alleged Ali Zuhair. ... Stung by the pitch of the protests, US soldiers quickly set up barricades round the hotel to keep the protestors at bay. ... “I saw for myself how the US troops goaded Iraqis to loot and burn the University of Technology,” claimed the professor Shakir Aziz. ... The dean of Basra university, Abdul Jabar al-Khalifa was gripped with rage as he surveyed the charred remains of what once used to be his office. “Is this freedom of Iraq or the freedom of thieves,” he questioned. ... “One day or another, honest Iraqis are going to force out the Americans, not for the sake of Saddam Hussein, but for the sake of Iraq,” Hadithi said.

US rejects Iraq DU clean-up

Alex Kirby, BBC: Both the US and the UK acknowledge the dust can be dangerous if inhaled, though they say the danger is short-lived, localised, and much more likely to lead to chemical poisoning than to irradiation. ... The UN Environment Programme study, published in March 2003, found DU in air and groundwater in Bosnia-Herzegovina seven years after the weapons were fired. The UN says the existing data suggest it is "highly unlikely" DU could be linked to any of the health problems reported. ... Reports from Baghdad speak of repeated attacks by US aircraft carrying DU weapons on high-rise buildings in the city centre.

Muslims save Baghdad's Jewish community centre from looters

AFP: Iraqi Muslims came to the aid of Baghdad's tiny Jewish community yesterday, chasing out looters trying to sack its cultural centre in the heart of the capital. "At 3am, I saw two men, one with a beard, on the roof of the Jewish community house and I cried out to my friend, 'Hossam, bring the Kalashnikovs!'" said Hassam Kassam, 21. ... Two days ago, amid rampant looting in the capital, neighbours removed the sign reading 'Special Committee for the Religious Affairs of Ezra Menahem Daniel' to make the premises less conspicuous. ... "The Jews have always lived here, in this house, and it is only normal that we should protect them," said Ibrahim Mohamad, 36, who works in a small undergarments factory near the centre of town. Although the majority of Jews fled the country in the early 1950s, many of their Muslim tenants come each week to pay their rent to an old woman at the centre, Mohamad said. ... "We are defending the synagogue like all houses on the street and we will not let anyone touch it," said Edward Benham, a 19-year-old computer science student. The young Christian said that Jews normally came each Saturday but because of the lingering security problem, no one came last Saturday.

Financial scandal claims hang over leader in waiting

David Leigh and Brian Whitaker, The Guardian: some more details on Petra Bank collapse

Iraqi External Debt Stands At $104-129Bn, Says Report

MEES: summary of Exotix report

13/04/03

Armed groups order Shi'ite leader to quit Iraq

Reuters: Dibaji said the house was surrounded by members of Jimaat-e-Sadr-Thani, a splinter group led by Moqtada Sadr, the 22-year-old son of a late spiritual leader in Iraq. ... Senior Shi'ite leaders have blamed Jimaat-e-Sadr-Thani for orchestrating Thursday's killing of Khoei ... Budairi said he believed Sistani had been targeted because he was Iranian-born, and the radical groups opposed to him wanted an Iraqi as the country's spiritual leader. ... Moqtada is the son of Mohammed Sadeq Sadr, a Shi'ite Muslim spiritual leader killed along with his two other sons in 1999. Their deaths are widely blamed on the Iraqi secret service. After the death of his relatives, Moqtada took his fight against Saddam underground, attracting a large following of religious activists from poverty-stricken areas. His group resurfaced after U.S.-led forces captured Najaf on April 4.

Scandal-hit US firm wins key contracts

Antony Barnett, The Observer: DynCorp, which has donated more than £100,000 to the Republican Party, began recruiting for a private police force in Iraq last week on behalf of the US State Department. ... An Observer reporter who contacted the firm's US headquarters purporting to be a potential police recruit for Iraq was told it was hoping to 'get people on the ground in two to four weeks'. The recruiter told the reporter he could expect a salary of $80,000plus 'hazard bonuses'. He was offered a contract of between three months and a year and told he did not need to be able to speak Arabic. ... DynCorp personnel contracted to the United Nations police service in Bosnia were implicated in buying and selling prostitutes, including a girl as young as 12. Several DynCorp employees were also accused of videotaping the rape of one of the women. When Dyncorp employee Kathy Bolkovac blew the whistle on the sex ring she was dismissed by the company for drawing attention to their misbehaviour, according to the ruling of a British employment tribunal in November. ... A group of Ecuadorean peasants have filed a class action against the company alleging that herbicides spread by DynCorp in Colombia were drifting across the border, killing legitimate crops, causing illness, and killing children. The company denies the charges.

12/04/03

Looters Ransack Baghdad's Antiquities Museum

Hassan Hafidh, Reuters: Surveying the littered glass wreckage of display cases and pottery shards at the Iraqi National Museum on Saturday, deputy director Nabhal Amin wept and told Reuters: "They have looted or destroyed 170,000 items of antiquity dating back thousands of years...They were worth billions of dollars." She blamed U.S. troops, who have controlled Baghdad since the collapse of President Saddam Hussein's rule on Wednesday, for failing to heed appeals from museum staff to protect it from looters who moved into the building on Friday. "The Americans were supposed to protect the museum. If they had just one tank and two soldiers nothing like this would have happened," she said. "I hold the American troops responsible for what happened to this museum."

Abdul Majid al-Khoei: Shia cleric who preached tolerance

Adel Darwish, Independent:

U.S. Search for Illegal Arms Narrowed to About 36 Sites

DON VAN NATTA Jr. and DAVID JOHNSTON, New York Times: American forces have narrowed their hunt for banned weapons in Iraq to about three dozen sites, hoping to accelerate their search, government officials say. So far, no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons have been found. ... They were selected from more than 1,000 laboratories, plants, military installations and storage facilities once thought to contain banned weapons and component materials, the officials said. ... the inspection of the sites is expected to take at least a month, the officials said. ... American military intelligence officials have also sought evidence that the Qaeda terror network had a presence in Iraq and ties to Mr. Hussein's government. Here, too, they have come up empty. However, United States officials said they had still not found any evidence linking Al Qaeda's presence in northern Iraq with the toppled Baghdad government. ... Officials said they had not located Mr. Zarqawi or found any evidence of a Qaeda cell operating in Baghdad.

11/04/03

U.S. Plans for Iraqi Economy Hit Friction: To Help, World Bank Says It Needs U.N. Go-Ahead

Paul Blustein, Washington Post: The Bush administration hopes to start marshaling international support behind its reconstruction plans for the Iraqi economy, including forgiveness of much of the country's debts, at meetings this weekend of top economic policymakers from around the world. ... For the World Bank -- traditionally a major source of funding and expertise in "post-conflict" situations such as Kosovo and East Timor -- part of the problem is that it knows little about the Iraqi economy because of Baghdad's long-standing proclivity for secrecy. The bank last made a loan to Iraq in 1973. Its top staffers are now relying on figures supplied by the Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd., an analytical arm of the company that publishes the Economist magazine, for estimates of Iraq's gross domestic product, which they peg at about $26 billion. ... "We stand ready in any situation of reconstruction to be helpful," Wolfensohn said. But he added that the bank can only lend to a recognized government, "and that is a decision for the United Nations to take in principle." Even just to launch an assessment of needs, he said, bank staffers' activities would be severely limited by a long-standing U.N. resolution prohibiting any bank support for Iraq.

Iraqis left to fight debt mountain up to 383 billion dollars

AFP: Rick Barton, director of the Iraq post-conflict reconstruction project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think-tank, said the liabilities broke down as follows: -- 199 billion dollars in Gulf War compensation claims. Of this, 172 billion dollars is for companies, governments and institutions. The rest is money still owed to families and individuals. -- 127 billion dollars in debt, of which 47 billion dollars was accrued interest. -- 57 billion dollars owed for pending contracts, such as energy and telecommunications deals. Most of this is owed to Russia. ... The debt, removing the accrued interest, would be 80 billion dollars, of which about 30 billion dollars is due to Gulf States, 17 billion dollars to Kuwait and 12 billion to Russia. "Like a typical bankrutpcy, it is probably worth a penny to two pennies on the dollar," he said. ... Michael Mussa, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund (news - web sites) and scholar at the Institute for International Economics, said the debt was expected to be written down substantially. "You need to have a new Iraqi government in place that is capable of negotiating its side of that issue. It is not something that is going to be settled by an interim military administration or an interim UN-backed administration," he said. ... Barton, however, pressed for a quicker solution, preferably wiping out all of the Iraqi debts and obligations, with the struggle starting as soon as IMF-World Bank meetings here this weekend.

Boston Globe: IMF and World Bank pledge billions

Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press: Preliminary estimates of the cost of that effort have ranged from $20 billion per year for the first several years to as much as $600 billion over a decade. ... Wolfensohn and IMF Managing Director Horst Koehler both said that their boards, which include the United States and the other G-7 nations, would have to approve any new loan programs. That means the United States will need to resolve any disagreements over the reconstruction effort before it will be able to achieve IMF and World Bank backing. Wolfensohn and Koehler said that before new loans begin flowing, the two institutions would join to send fact-finding missions to Iraq to gather data on Iraq's economy, which has been an enigma to the outside world because of the secrecy imposed by Hussein's regime. ... The US Treasury Department already has a team in Washington, headed by Undersecretary John Taylor, that is working on plans to set up a functioning banking and currency system for the country. ... The administration has also seized some $1.65 billion in Iraqi government assets that have been frozen in US banks since the first Persian Gulf War in 1990-91, money it plans to use to help in the rebuilding effort.

End of a dictator

Faleh A. Jabar, FT

Flow of Oil From Postwar Iraq Could Be Blocked by Rifts at U.N.

Jess Bravin and Bhushan Bahree, WSJ: "The French have been threatening to veto resolutions [on Iraqi reconstruction] before they've even been circulated," one council diplomat said. ... Now, without Security Council action, Iraqi oil exports might not be able to resume. ... Mr. Khelil and Abdullah Hamad bin Al-Attiyah, the president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said they had no idea when Iraq would resume oil exports. ... [ChevronTexaco Corp.] is waiting until there is "some certainty to the [oil-for-food] program and assurances about the title and who has the authority to sell it" before they purchase any Iraqi crude, he says. ... U.S. diplomats acknowledge they need council assent to lift the embargo. "There is no suggestion whatsoever of going outside of the system," said one U.S. official. Instead, the U.S. hopes to persuade the Security Council to approve pumping Iraqi oil again and selling it to help pay for reconstruction and other Iraqi needs. ... If the U.S. and Britain "are going to be in charge of selling the oil, there should be safeguards to ensure the proceeds are used for the benefit of the Iraqi people," a U.N. diplomat said. ... With that regime gone and no legitimate successor recognized, oil companies fear their dealings could be tied in legal knots.

10/04/03

Saddam key in early CIA plot

Richard Sale, UPI

07/04/03

Russia And Iraq: The Question Of The Russian Oil Contracts

Florence C. Fee, MEES

06/04/03

Red Cross says hospitals no longer counting casualties

AP: ''All of the hospitals are under pressure and the medical staff is working without respite,'' said the ICRC statement. ''Despite the intense and desperate activity, hospital staff is still managing the situation.'' But it said that hospitals urgently needed more water supplies. Given the general power outage in Baghdad, most hospitals and water installations are now being powered by backup generators. It said it was getting many requests for service kits, spare parts and repairs for water plants. ... The ICRC said that Red Cross delegates who reached the southern city of Basra reported that the medical situation was generally under control and that there were no signs of epidemics. But it said it feared the worst for other hospitals outside Baghdad and Basra.

The fight yet to come

Ed Vulliamy and Kamal Ahmed, The Observer: many relief organisations - including Oxfam and Medecins Sans Frontiers - have said they will refuse to operate under such arrangements. Thirteen leading non-governmental aid groups have sent a letter to George Bush urging him to 'ask the UN to serve as the humanitarian coordinator for Iraq'. ... Meanwhile, the Americans lay their plans regardless, with some controversial names emerging for the postwar government. Woolsey is a controversial figure, principally for his proximity to those who harbour fervent ideological commitment to unchallenged US power in the region and the world. ... He claimed the new war faces three enemies: the religious rulers of Iran, the 'fascists' of Iraq and Syria, and Islamic extremists such as al-Qaeda. ... 'It looks like we are on the verge of further alienating allies,' said one State Department official, 'and it looks like we are going to do exactly what we promised we would not - take small groups of exiles with limited influence in Iraq and bring them in as the bulk of a transition government.' One senior former diplomat in Baghdad and elsewhere in the region told The Observer: 'There are no serious Arabists left in the government now; only those who have been telling the White House what it wants to hear. The dragons have taken over'.

The U.S. Ex-General Who Will Run Iraq

Paul Holmes, Reuters: Garner is a friend of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, one of the administration's main hawks, and chaired a panel in the late 1990s on strategic missile defense. ... During the 1991 Gulf War, he commanded Patriot missile batteries used to defend Israel from Iraqi Scud missile attacks. He was then assigned to lead the military mission to set up a safe haven for Kurdish refugees in northern Iraq after Saddam's brutal suppression of a post-war Kurdish uprising. ... Garner was among 43 retired senior U.S. officers to sign a statement in October 2000 blaming the Palestinian Authority for the violence that followed the collapse of peace talks and praising the "remarkable restraint" of the Israeli army. The declaration was circulated by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, a Washington-based lobby group that says a strong and secure Israel is essential in the Middle East. ... He was fixing the boat deck when the call came to turn his attention to rebuilding Iraq, the Orlando Sentinel newspaper reported last month. "I'm going to be away for a while," the newspaper quoted him as telling a family friend. "I have to do a little work for Donald Rumsfeld."

Blasts Thunder Across Baghdad; U.S. Tightens Grip

Hassan Hafidh, Reuters: Figures for the number of civilians killed or injured in Baghdad were not available but International Committee of the Red Cross spokesman Roland Huguenin-Benjamin in Baghdad told Reuters on Sunday, "During fierce bombardment, hospitals received up to 100 casualties per hour." ... "I've been a doctor for 25 years and this is the worst I've seen in terms of number of casualties and fatal wounds," said Dr. Osama Saleh al-Duleimi, 48, who witnessed the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war and the 1991 Gulf War. An ICRC spokeswoman in Geneva said the situation in the city was becoming desperate. "The situation is extremely problematic now in terms of clean water supply and sewage evacuation. Everybody now is operating on backup generators as there is hardly any power any more," said Antonella Notari.

US accused of plans to loot Iraqi antiques

Liam McDougall, Sunday Herald [Scotland]: FEARS that Iraq's heritage will face widespread looting at the end of the Gulf war have been heightened after a group of wealthy art dealers secured a high-level meeting with the US administration. It has emerged that a coalition of antiquities collectors and arts lawyers, calling itself the American Council for Cultural Policy (ACCP), met with US defence and state department officials prior to the start of military action to offer its assistance in preserving the country's invaluable archaeological collections. The group is known to consist of a number of influential dealers who favour a relaxation of Iraq's tight restrictions on the ownership and export of antiquities. Its treasurer, William Pearlstein, has described Iraq's laws as 'retentionist' and has said he would support a post-war government that would make it easier to have antiquities dispersed to the US.

05/04/03

Postwar Plan Worries Legal Community: Iraqi Lawyers, Judges Object to Interim Authority, Propose Rules for Elections

Caryle Murphy, Washington Post: A group of exiled Iraqi lawyers and judges yesterday expressed concern about the Bush administration's plans for creating an interim authority in postwar Iraq and said that anyone appointed to serve in a transitional government should be barred from running in the country's first elections. ... Those recommendations are in a 700-page report that the group will present to the State Department and the United Nations.

U.S. Expects Fresh UN Fight Over Iraq Oil Exports

Bernie Woodall, Reuters: The United States is expecting another fight in the United Nations with Russia and France over how to get Iraq's oil exports going again once the war is over, U.S. officials said on Friday. ... Under international law, a country's resources belong to its people, oil industry figures said, raising questions about the power of a military government such as that contemplated by Washington to exploit Iraq's oil, even if the money went to reconstruction, as the United States has pledged. ... "Some companies, and this includes major U.S. oil companies, may not want to touch Iraqi oil because of all the legal questions," this trader said. "The lawyers in these companies may say they are not sure they are not buying stolen oil."

04/04/03

3 CIA assets killed in Baghdad

Richard Sale, UPI: Three Iraqis who aided the CIA in the March 20 attempt by the United States to kill Iraqi President Saddam Hussein were executed this week by Iraqi counterintelligence, former and serving U.S. officials told United Press International. ... Delta and Special Forces units in the country had help from three Iraqi agents recruited by the CIA some time after June 2000, when the first CIA paramilitary teams secretly entered Baghdad to do reconnaissance and recruitment. ... The March 20 operation involved more than 300 Special Forces, who moved into the country to join Delta troops and CIA paramilitaries, these sources said. ... One former long-time CIA operative said it was the Delta men, already in country, who made the breakthrough for the U.S. attack by infiltrating a key Baghdad telecommunications center and tapping a fiber optic telephone line. ... CIA paramilitary teams, working with Delta Forces, still are inside Iraq, attempting to kill 30 top Iraqi leaders, including Saddam's other son, Uday, who commands the Iraqi Fedayeen, several U.S. sources said. One administration official confirmed that U.S. intelligence has the names, addresses and cell phone numbers of the 30 targets. ... "The strategy is to goad [Saddam] to appear so that we can kill him," one former senior agency covert operative said.

03/04/02

Resisting occupation

Al-Ahram Weekly interview with Sayed Mohamed Baqer Al-Hakim, of SCIRI

31/03/03

WHO LIED TO WHOM? Why did the Administration endorse a forgery about Iraq’s nuclear program?

Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker: One senior I.A.E.A. official ... told me, “These documents are so bad that I cannot imagine that they came from a serious intelligence agency. It depresses me, given the low quality of the documents, that it was not stopped. At the level it reached, I would have expected more checking.” ... It took Baute’s team only a few hours to determine that the documents were fake. The agency had been given about a half-dozen letters and other communications between officials in Niger and Iraq, many of them written on letterheads of the Niger government. The problems were glaring. One letter, dated October 10, 2000, was signed with the name of Allele Habibou, a Niger Minister of Foreign Affairs and Coöperation, who had been out of office since 1989. Another letter, allegedly from Tandja Mamadou, the President of Niger, had a signature that had obviously been faked and a text with inaccuracies so egregious, the senior I.A.E.A. official said, that “they could be spotted by someone using Google on the Internet.” ... Baute, according to the I.A.E.A. official, “confronted the United States with the forgery: ‘What do you have to say?’ They had nothing to say.” ... Forged documents and false accusations have been an element in U.S. and British policy toward Iraq at least since the fall of 1997 ... A former Clinton Administration official told me that London had resorted to, among other things, spreading false information about Iraq. The British propaganda program—part of its Information Operations, or I/Ops—was known to a few senior officials in Washington. ... Over the next year, a former American intelligence officer told me, at least one member of the U.N. inspection team who supported the American and British position arranged for dozens of unverified and unverifiable intelligence reports and tips—data known as inactionable intelligence—to be funnelled to MI6 operatives and quietly passed along to newspapers in London and elsewhere. ... The chance for American intelligence to challenge the documents came as the Administration debated whether to pass them on to ElBaradei. The former high-level intelligence official told me that some senior C.I.A. officials were aware that the documents weren’t trustworthy. “It’s not a question as to whether they were marginal. They can’t be ‘sort of’ bad, or ‘sort of’ ambiguous. They knew it was a fraud—it was useless. Everybody bit their tongue and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if the Secretary of State said this?’ The Secretary of State never saw the documents.” He added, “He’s absolutely apoplectic about it.”

24/03/03

Post-Saddam Iraq Could Be A Supergiant Producer, Says Fadhil Chalabi

MEES: Dr Chalabi concluded that an ambitious program of capacity expansion would not be achieved easily in Iraq: “It would require political stability and the existence of a credible government, along with reforms to the oil industry with a view to higher rates of growth and contributing to solving the economic problems of Iraq. This can only be done if a new structure for the oil industry in Iraq is created. Iraq has politically always been against the presence of international oil companies, but in order to secure capital, good management and good market outlets, Iraq would have to allow the participation of foreign oil companies. Iraq would have to be realistic, and allow at least partial privatization.” He recommended the creation of an independent Iraqi oil company, supervised by government but self-managed. Importantly, a 25-40% privatization through the sale of shares in stock markets would enable the Iraqi industry to be managed jointly by international companies and Iraqi nationals, some representing the government, giving Iraq a majority share in decision-making. This radical reform in the structure of the oil industry in Iraq would need a thorough study by experts in legal and financial affairs, and it could take time before clear-cut measures are taken, Dr Chalabi noted. He drew a parallel to the case of Statoil of Norway, which was first 100% owned by the Norwegian Government and is now 20% privatized ... “It is also worth studying the case of the Russian oil industry after the collapse of communism and the conversion of the oil industry into the private sector. In fact, the present privatized Russian industry has achieved progress for expansion in the industry. However, this kind of radical reform may face particular resistance in Iraq, especially by the older generation, which may still be attracted by outdated concepts of oil nationalization.”

Three Administrative Regions For US Rule In Post-Saddam Iraq

MEES

23/03/03

Bush team sets war cost at $80 billion: Estimate comes after Congress has OKd budget

Dana Milbank, Mike Allen, San Francisco Chronicle [Washington Post?]: President Bush plans to tell congressional leaders on Monday that the war in Iraq will cost about $80 billion, administration officials said, three days after both chambers of Congress passed budget plans and authorized tax cuts without a war-cost estimate from the administration. For weeks, White House officials refused to provide a cost estimate, saying they could not account for the various war scenarios. But officials said Saturday that on Monday, Bush plans to tell congressional leaders he will ask for additional funding of about $80 billion. ... Pentagon officials last month suggested a range of $60 billion to $95 billion for the war alone.

First Stop, Iraq

Michael Elliott and James Carney, Time: "F___ Saddam. We're taking him out." Those were the words of President George W. Bush, who had poked his head into the office of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. It was March 2002, and Rice was meeting with three U.S. Senators, discussing how to deal with Iraq through the United Nations, or perhaps in a coalition with America's Middle East allies. Bush wasn't interested. He waved his hand dismissively, recalls a participant, and neatly summed up his Iraq policy in that short phrase. The Senators laughed uncomfortably; Rice flashed a knowing smile. The President left the room.

22/03/03

Blow for Short in battle with Pentagon: Military wants US firms to run Iraq's hospitals

Charlotte Denny, The Guardian: Whitehall officials expressed concern that America's military planners appear to be cutting the UN out of any political role in favour of its own plan to put a retired general, Jay Garner, in the driving seat. ... The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the US agency for international development has called for American companies to bid for more than $1bn (£640m) worth of reconstruction contracts, including running health and education services. Without a UN resolution, Whitehall lawyers say that the US and UK occupying forces would have no legal right to run the country's institutions. "There is no legal mandate for that sort of activity," said one Whitehall official. "It's all quite bizarre."

12/03/03

Oil groups eye stake in wake of conflict

Cathy Newman, FT: The [senior Whitehall] insider added that although the value of the oil would be handed back to the Iraqis, the US and the UK were keen to use some of the proceeds of developing it to offset the cost of war.

10/03/03

U.S. Is Quietly Soliciting Bids For Rebuilding Postwar Iraq

Neil King Jr, Wall Street Journal: The Bush administration is preparing to award a contract valued at as much as $900 million to begin rebuilding a postwar Iraq ... The U.S. Agency for International Development quietly sent a detailed "request for proposals" to bid on the contract to at least five of the nation's infrastructure-engineering firms. ... The work would form the core of a plan that Bush administration officials say is meant to demonstrate its resolve to immediately improve the quality of life in Iraq ... The plan sees starting reconstruction in Iraq immediately after a war ends and restoring essential water systems, roadways, ports, hospitals and schools. Planners envision wrapping up the rebuilding in 18 months, creating "a new framework for economic and governance institutions," the document says. "We are attempting to do something unusual, which is to begin humanitarian assistance and reconstruction simultaneously," said USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios, who otherwise declined to discuss the matter in detail. "We have never done anything on this scale before." ... [Anthony Cordesman:] "But what bothers people is that some of these contracts may not be real aid, but may obligate the Iraqis to pay for the work. There is also a concern that work may be given only to U.S. and British companies."

The Cost Of War And Reconstruction, Iraqi Debt – Who Will Foot The Bill?

MEES: good survey of various costs facing Iraq

Iraq’s Downstream Requires Immediate $700Mn Investment, Says 'Uqaili

MEES: former INOC, MinOil senior official assesses needs

09/03/03

A Hazy Target: Before going to war over weapons of mass destruction, shouldn't we be sure Iraq has them?

William Arkin, LA Times: Instructively, the one place where policy is not being driven by the focus on chemical and biological weapons is inside the American armed forces. ... Incredible as it may seem, given all the talk by the administration -- including Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's discourse last week about continuing Iraqi deception -- there is simply no hard intelligence of any such Iraqi weapons. There is not a single confirmed biological or chemical target on their lists, Air Force officers working on the war plan say. ... Moreover, "it takes a lot of chemicals to have a significant effect on the battlefield," [Maj. Gen. John Doesburg, the Army's top biological and chemical defense commander] told Bloomberg News. "We don't suspect he has the stockpile."

08/03/03

Some Evidence on Iraq Called Fake: U.N. Nuclear Inspector Says Documents on Purchases Were Forged

Joby Warrick, Washington Post: Documents that purportedly showed Iraqi officials shopping for uranium in Africa two years ago were deemed "not authentic" after careful scrutiny by U.N. and independent experts, Mohamed ElBaradei ... told the U.N. Security Council. ElBaradei also rejected a key Bush administration claim -- made twice by the president in major speeches and repeated by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell yesterday -- that Iraq had tried to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes to use in centrifuges for uranium enrichment. Also, ElBaradei reported finding no evidence of banned weapons or nuclear material in an extensive sweep of Iraq using advanced radiation detectors. ... Knowledgeable sources familiar with the forgery investigation described the faked evidence as a series of letters between Iraqi agents and officials in the central African nation of Niger. The documents had been given to the U.N. inspectors by Britain and reviewed extensively by U.S. intelligence. The forgers had made relatively crude errors that eventually gave them away -- including names and titles that did not match up with the individuals who held office at the time the letters were purportedly written, the officials said. "We fell for it," said one U.S. official who reviewed the documents. ... Despite international sanctions intended to block Iraq from obtaining weapons components, Western intelligence agencies and former weapons inspectors were convinced the Iraqi president had resumed his quest for the bomb in the late 1990s, citing defectors' stories and satellite images that showed new construction at facilities that were once part of Iraq's nuclear machinery. ... Several have said that the "anodized" features mentioned by Powell are actually a strong argument for use in rockets, not centrifuges, contrary to the administration's statement. ... "Despite being presented with the falseness of this claim, the administration persists in making misleading arguments about the significance of the tubes," the institute's president, David Albright, wrote in the report.

07/03/03

Unready for the Aftermath

Kenneth H. Bacon and George Rupp, Washington Post: The United States boasts that it has shipped nearly 3 million humanitarian daily rations to the region to help feed Iraqis. But individual meal packets will feed only a tiny portion of Iraq's 24 million people, and for just a few days. A United Nations official recently called U.S. and U.N. preparations to feed the Iraqi people "grossly inadequate." ... So far the U.N. refugee office has raised less than $20 million of the $60 million it is seeking for tents, stoves, blankets and other materials for refugee camps. Most of that money came from the United States. As result, the agency has positioned only about 20 percent of the equipment it needs in the region. ... In a flurry of news conferences last week, administration officials admitted that the military may have to provide food and medical assistance during and immediately after a conflict, but they said humanitarian tasks would quickly be turned over to the United Nations and private relief agencies. Sadly, private relief agencies, most of which depend on government funding, aren't yet well prepared for the task. Although the United States has spent $2.4 billion to send troops to the Persian Gulf region, it has spent less than $1 million to position relief agencies in the region.

26/02/03

Foreign Editor's Briefing: February 26, 2003

Bronwen Maddox, The Times: But there is much speculation that he would quickly hand over the day-to-day tasks to General John Abizaid, a three-star general, an Arabic-speaking Harvard graduate of Lebanese descent, and now regarded as one of the Administration’s most prized players. ... The military leader will work with a civilian administrator. One name repeatedly mentioned is that of Bernard Kouchner, the former head of the United Nations civil administration in Kosovo, and a French politician who loves America. Another mooted is Surin Pitsuwan, Thailand’s former Foreign Minister. Co-ordinating all the relief efforts will be the new Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, run by the Pentagon. It would be based in Doha, Qatar, during a war and moved to Iraq afterwards. The office is led by retired Lieutenant-General Jay Garner, who headed Operation Provide Comfort after the 1991 Gulf War, providing aid for Kurds in northern Iraq. His deputy is Ronald Adams. There will be three wings to the office: humanitarian aid, reconstruction, and civil governance. Michael Mobbs, a lawyer with good contacts in the Bush Administration, is now widely tipped for the governance wing.

24/02/03

Powell's U.N. report apparently contains false information

Gilbert Cranberg and George H. Gallup, Sarasota Herald Tribune: When Powell referred to this conversation, he quoted one of the parties as ostensibly saying, "And we sent you a message yesterday to clean out all of the areas, the scrap areas, the abandoned areas. Make sure there is nothing there." The State Department's transcript of the actual conversation makes it evident that Powell had embellished the quote to make it appear much more incriminating. Instead of being a directive to "clean out all of the areas, the scrap areas and the abandoned areas," as Powell claimed, the transcript shows the message from headquarters was merely "to inspect (emphasis added) the scrap areas and the abandoned areas." [State Department transcript]

20/02/03

Inspectors Call U.S. Tips 'Garbage'

CBS News: In fact, the U.S. claim that Iraq is developing missiles that could hit its neighbors – or U.S. troops in the region, or even Israel – is just one of the claims coming from Washington that inspectors here are finding increasingly unbelievable. The inspectors have become so frustrated trying to chase down unspecific or ambiguous U.S. leads that they've begun to express that anger privately in no uncertain terms.

satellite photographs purporting to show new research buildings at Iraqi nuclear sites. When the U.N. went into the new buildings they found "nothing."
Saddam's presidential palaces, where the inspectors went with specific coordinates supplied by the U.S. on where to look for incriminating evidence. Again, they found "nothing."
Interviews with scientists about the aluminum tubes the U.S. says Iraq has imported for enriching uranium, but which the Iraqis say are for making rockets. Given the size and specification of the tubes, the U.N. calls the "Iraqi alibi air tight."

17/02/03

No Overnight Oil Boom In Post-Saddam Iraq, Major Rehabilitation Needed, Says Issam al-Chalabi

MEES: "It is estimated that it will take a minimum of two years of hard and unrestricted efforts, plus around $3bn, to bring Iraq’s oil production capacity back to its pre-August 1990 level of 3.5mn b/d." ... In early 1990 the Iraqi government formed a plan to raise production capacity to around 6mn b/d by 1996, through the joint efforts of the Iraq National Oil Company (INOC) and the international oil companies (IOCs). This target would still be attainable under a new regime on the assumption of a period of political stability, but not realistically much before 2010. ... “In my view, talk of raising production and export capacity to 8mn b/d is premature; and such a move would be very expensive in terms of capital costs and operational needs. Iraq can, at some future point, consider a production target of around 8mn b/d, but only after reaching the earlier target of 6mn b/d, i.e., after 2010 at the earliest.”

16/02/03

Iraqi missile find raises tensions

BBC: Fresh allegations that Iraq is in breach of United Nations disarmament resolutions have been levelled at Baghdad after the discovery of a missile that marginally exceeds the maximum range set by the UN. However, it has emerged that it was Baghdad itself that informed arms inspectors about the existence of the al-Samoud II missile .... This would be enough to hit Kuwait, for example, but not enough to reach Israel.

War Will Cause Civilian Catastrophe: Aid Agencies, Iraq's Neighbors

Islam Online and New Agencies: [Walter Fust, the Swiss government's development aid chief] was summarizing opinions expressed during a two-day closed-door meeting between experts from 29 governments and 21 aid agencies that ended on Sunday. ... The United States declined to take part in the Geneva meeting. "We are uncertain as to how the conference would assist the planning," a U.S. official said this week. ... "According to polls, 40 percent of children (in Iraq) do not think life is worth living," Fust said, quoting data from humanitarian agencies. ... Fust said the neighboring countries -- Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey -- had "made a strong commitment... to a policy of open borders" to facilitate relief efforts. Fust said aid agencies had received many verbal pledges from donor countries but little in the way of actual payments to carry out their contingency planning. ... Apart from Iraq's neighbors, the other participants included the four permanent members of the Security Council other than the U.S. -- Britain, China, France and Russia -- as well as major donor nations Germany and Japan.

14/02/03

US, UN agree: Washington to care for post-war Iraq

Irwin Arieff, Reuters: The military would be obliged to take care of ordinary Iraqis under the 1944 Geneva Convention on civilian rights in wartime, said Kenzo Oshima, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator. ... Mark Malloch Brown, head of the U.N. Development Program, said recently that rebuilding Iraq could cost up to $30 billion over three years and eventually soar to up to $100 billion. ... U.S. humanitarian groups, however, called the Bush administration's planning inadequate ... "Administration officials have told us they do not plan to take responsibility for the care and protection of Iraqi civilians should these weapons (weapons of mass destruction) be used during the war," [Mary McClymont, president of InterAction, an alliance of 160 U.S.-based humanitarian groups] said in a statement.

13/02/03

British report on Iraqi 'rapist' scorned

Nicholas Pelham and Jean Eaglesham, Financial Times: Evidence cited in a British government document alleging human rights abuses in Iraq has been attacked as "absolutely incorrect" by [Human Rights Watch]. ... The new claim of inaccuracy centres on a case study includeed in a report on Iraq's human rights abuses, published by the Foreign Office in December. A box headlined "A Professional Rapist" purported to show the "government personnel card" for Aziz Salih Ahmed, who "activity" was described as "violating women's honour". The same index card was used in a similar US State Department briefing - Iraq: A Population Silenced - released at the end of last year. ... "Rather than employing Aziz as a rapist, the Iraqi authorities were suspecting him of rape," says Mouin Rabbani, a Middle East analyst in Amman. ... Peter Bouckaert, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch said ... "It's a mistranslation." ... The case study is sourced in the dossier to the Iraq Research and Documentation Project at Harvard University. The project is headed by Kanan Makiya... The Foreign Office stood by the case study.

Iraqis face famine and thirst

BBC: Donor countries have pledged nearly $40m to help deal with any humanitarian crisis, but Mr Oshima said they needed to give much more - estimating that at least $120m was needed.

10/02/03

A Terrorist With a Deadly Past

DON VAN NATTA Jr. with DAVID JOHNSTON, New York Times: But there is less consensus about Mr. Powell's contention that Mr. Zarqawi exemplifies a fledgling alliance between Iraq and Al Qaeda. In Germany, officials have investigated Mr. Zarqawi for more than a year, but Mr. Powell's assertion surprised them. "We have been investigating Mr. Zarqawi for some time," said a senior German intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "We need to examine the evidence that Powell has drawn from, and it is possible that he knows things that we don't. But as of yet we have seen no indication of a direct link between Zarqawi and Baghdad." ... Mr. Zarqawi's group is known as Al Tawhid, which Mr. Powell described as an "affiliate" of Al Qaeda whose terrorist goals seemed indistinguishable from those of Osama bin Laden's network. Though Mr. Zarqawi trained with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, several intelligence officials, who are somewhat skeptical of Mr. Powell's analysis, emphasized that Mr. Zarqawi might not be a member of Al Qaeda. "He has not pledged allegiance to bin Laden," said one American official. ... Some terrorism and intelligence experts questioned how the Americans could have such specific information so quickly. "It takes a long time to backtrack the chain of evidence from all these different arrests — not only being able to link them together in Europe but also to link them all the way to Iraq," said Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. "It seems awfully quick to be able to draw such solid lines between this large group and find evidence that leads all the way back to Zarqawi." ... Along with Mr. Zarqawi's medical treatment, one of the strongest circumstantial links cited by Mr. Powell was an incident last summer. Mr. Zarqawi, who was living openly in Baghdad at the time, disappeared from the Iraqi capital after officials in Jordan, at the urging of the Bush administration, asked Iraq to hand him over to face terrorism charges in Jordan.

09/02/03

France, Germany to Push Iraq Proposal

AP: France and Germany intend to present a proposal to the U.N. Security Council next week to send U.N. soldiers to disarm Iraq, ... The plan, according to a German newsmagazine, involves reconnaissance missions, the deployment of thousands of U.N. peacekeepers and tripling the number of U.N. weapons inspectors. ... The reported plan drew harsh criticism from U.S. officials including Secretary of State Colin Powell, who called it an ineffective ploy by Berlin and Paris to delay military action. ... ``Rumsfeld was here for 24 hours meeting with German and French officials and no one told him anything. That was not an auspicious start,'' a senior U.S. official at the Munich meeting said on condition of anonymity. ... [Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.] recalled the failure of U.N. soldiers to protect civilians in the Bosnian Muslim enclave of Srebrenica, where more than 7,500 were slaughtered in the summer of 1995. But Belgium backed the German-French plans Sunday, saying they were a chance to avoid war.

08/02/03

Journalists visit Iraq 'chemical weapons site'

Jim Muir, BBC: The site, used as a base by the Ansar al-Islam, is adjacent to the small hamlet of Sargatt in the hills which run along the Iranian border north of the Kurdish town of Halabja. ... At the back of a row of buildings there was one drum which had originally contained plastic-related chemicals but it was empty. The Ansar said it had been used to store fuel. ... If the site had been used for producing or experimenting in chemical or biological weapons, there was no obvious sign that that is still the case. ... We were told that fear of [an American] attack had led villagers in the immediate area to leave. In other nearby villages outside the Ansar pocket, elders also expressed fears that they might be the victims of American attacks gone wrong, like those that happened in Afghanistan. ... The people of the town of Khurmal, about five kilometres away to the west are particularly anxious since Mr Powell gave their town's name to the alleged chemical weapons site.

07/02/03

Hands off Kirkuk, US tells Turks, Kurds

Reuters: Turkish troops can enter a border area of Iraq for border control and humanitarian purposes if the United States invades Iraq but Washington does not want any Turkish or Iraqi Kurdish forces in the oil city of Kirkuk , an Iraqi opposition source said on Friday.

U.S. in Talks on Allowing Turkey to Occupy a Kurdish Area in Iraq

DEXTER FILKINS with C. J. CHIVERS, New York Times: Mr. Dizayee [KDP] referred to the various Turkish rationales for intervention as "pretexts." Like many Kurdish leaders, Mr. Dizayee expressed pride in the democratic institutions the Kurds have built during their 12 years of autonomy. ... "We think these democratic institutions have set a precedent for the rest of Iraq," Mr. Dizayee said. "If they were undermined, it would reflect badly on the whole operation." ... The senior official with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan said the Kurds were eagerly anticipating the arrival of American soldiers, but not that of the Turks. ... "We regard America as liberators," the official said. "And our neighbors as looters."

'The Game is Over,' Bush Warns Iraq: President Calls on U.N. to Follow Pledge to Punish, Disarm Hussein

Karen DeYoung, Washington Post: According to those surveyed in the Washington Post-ABC News poll, the allegation of Iraqi ties to al Qaeda was among the least convincing parts of Powell's argument. ... Powell told senators that if Hussein were serious, he would "turn over all [his] cards. ... he would be telling us what happened to the anthrax, what happened to the bombs, what's going on at this facility."

U.S. inaction on Iraqi camp is questioned

GREG MILLER, Los Angeles Times: Lawmakers who have attended classified briefings on the camp say that they have been stymied for months in their efforts to get an explanation for why the United States has not launched a military strike on the compound near the village of Khurmal. ... "This is it; this is their compelling evidence for use of force," said one intelligence official, who asked not to be identified. "If you take it out, you can't use it as justification for war." ... Failing to intervene appears to be at odds with President Bush's stated policy of pre-empting terrorist threats ... U.S. intelligence agents are said to be operating among the Kurdish population nearby, and U.S. and British warplanes already patrol much of northern Iraq as part of their enforcement of a no-fly zone.

Key White House Iraq Aide Is Out: Miller and Leverett Of CIA Will Leave

ADAM DAIFALLAH, New York Sun: The departures are being interpreted as a sign that Elliott Abrams, the NSC's recently appointed senior director for Near East, Southwest Asian and North African affairs with responsibility for Arab-Israeli issues, is exerting his influence.

Study: Postwar Iraq May Cost $50B a Year

MICHAEL McDONOUGH, AP: Peacekeeping operations after a war in Iraq could cost the United States and its allies between $12 billion and $50 billion a year, a leading military think tank said Friday. The Institute of International Strategic Studies computed the cost of a 50,000 to 200,000-person force using U.S. estimates that a peacekeeper in Bosnia costs $250,000 a year. ... The institute report said any fighting would likely cost less than the 1991 Gulf War. It cited a U.S. Congressional Budget Office estimate ...

Radical Islam in Iraqi Kurdistan: the mouse that roared?

International Crisis Group.

Detailed discussion of Ansar al-Islam, suggesting that much of its perceived importance owes to the PUK's presentation of it.

Iraq, al Qaeda Link Is Questioned

Ian Johnson, David Crawford and Gary Fields, Wall Street Journal: "Iraq is certainly allowing freedom of movement and financial transfers, but they're not in any way directing things," said Magnus Ranstorp of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. "Powell's remarks were for domestic consumption." ... German officials say their skepticism is based on their 18-month investigation of Mr. Zarqawi's Al Tawhid organization. A year ago, they scored a break by rounding up a dozen members of the group. ... But members of the cell say Iraq never figured into the picture. Indeed, they say Mr. Zarqawi isn't himself a core member of al Qaeda. They say his operations are more like an affiliate to the group, focusing on the Palestinian cause and establishing a theocracy in Jordan.

06/02/03

Kurds Puzzled by Report of Terror Camp

C. J. CHIVERS, New York Times: As [Powell] spoke, a monitor displayed a photograph with the caption: "Terrorist Poison and Explosives Factory, Khurmal." ... Some here quickly seconded Mr. Powell's opinion. "We have some information about this lab from agents and from prisoners," Kamal Fuad, the Parliament speaker, said. But Mr. Powell's assertion also produced confusion tonight. One senior Kurdish official, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan who is familiar with the intelligence on Ansar, said he had not heard of the laboratory Mr. Powell displayed. "I don't know anything about this compound," he said. ... Khurmal, the village named on the photo, is controlled not by Ansar al-Islam but by Komala Islami Kurdistan, a more moderate Islamic group. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which is allied with Washington and has been hosting an American intelligence team in northern Iraq for several months, maintains relations with Komala. It has been paying $200,000 to $300,000 in aid to the party each month, in an effort to lure Komala's leaders away from Ansar. ... "My sources say [the lab] is in Beyara," one Kurdish official said. "Not in Khurmal." Ansar has a headquarters in Beyara, a village several miles from Khurmal. Abu Bari Syan, an administrator for Komal Islami Kurdistan, the party that controls Khurmal, took an even stronger stand about Mr. Powell's claim. "All of it is not true," he said.

Exiled Mullah Denies Claims of Terror Ties Made by U.S.

DON VAN NATTA Jr., New York Times: "This is just not true," Mullah Krekar, whose group is Ansar al-Islam ... "Powell is trying to make a link that does not exist. Saddam Hussein is my enemy. I have never met a member of Al Qaeda. Powell's information is propaganda - it's very odd and very weak." ... Three months before Sept. 11, Mullah Krekar called Osama bin Laden the "jewel in the crown of the Muslim nation" a phrase widely attributed to him in the European press. But tonight he denied meeting Mr. bin Laden or allowing his organization to become a safe house for Qaeda members on the run.

A 'Big Cat' With Nothing to Lose: Leaving Hussein no hope will trigger his worst weapons, U.S. envoy in historic '90 meeting warns

Joseph C. Wilson [chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad from 1988 to 1991 and acting ambassador during Operation Desert Shield] LA Times: [insightful discussion of meeting with Saddam on 6 August 1990.] In exchange for keeping Kuwait, he would give the U.S. oil at a good price and would not invade Saudi Arabia. In a matter-of-fact manner, he dismissed the Kuwaiti government as "history" and scoffed at President Bush's condemnation of him. He mocked American will and courage, telling me that my country would run rather than face the prospect of spilling the blood of our soldiers in the Arabian Desert. I was never prouder than when the American response was to confront Hussein and ultimately force him from Kuwait. ... By all indications, Hussein is clear in his own mind about our intentions: He believes we are going to war to kill him, whether he disarms or not. ... When he released the women and children hostages, Hussein initially threatened to keep dual Kuwaiti-American citizens. I told his underling that unless all Americans were put on the evacuation flight within half an hour, I would inform the American TV networks that Hussein had again reneged on his promises and was toying with the lives of children. Hussein relented, and our official statements acknowledged Iraqi cooperation. There is now no incentive for Hussein to comply with the inspectors or to refrain from using weapons of mass destruction to defend himself if the United States comes after him.

Powell's Case Against Iraq: Piling Up the Evidence

MICHAEL R. GORDON, New York Times: "I think he made a strong case that Iraq is not cooperating with the United Nations and is in material breach of Resolution 1441,"' said Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control. But Mr. Milhollin argued that Mr. Powell had not demonstrated that the United States faced an imminent threat from Iraq. "Just because there is a terrorist cell in Iraq," he said, "does not prove that Saddam Hussein is ready to transfer mass destruction weapons to Al Qaeda for use against the United States." ... But a senior State Department officials stressed after the speech that the Bush administration was not asserting that Saddam Hussein was "exercising operational control" of Al Qaeda.

Despite Defectors' Accounts, Evidence Remains Anecdotal

Joby Warrick, Washington Post: A key intelligence source, described as an Iraqi chemical engineer, helped supervise one of the labs and knew intimate details of the project, Powell said. For example, Powell added, Iraqi scientists would often begin producing pathogens on Thursday nights and complete the process on Fridays, believing that U.N. officials were unlikely to conduct inspections on the Muslim holy day, Powell said. But such anecdotes did not ring true with some weapons experts. Raymond Zilinskas, a microbiologist and former U.N. weapons inspector, said a 24-hour production cycle was insufficient for creating significant amounts of pathogens such as anthrax. "You normally would require 36 to 48 hours just to do the fermentation," said Zilinskas, director of Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. "The short processing time seems suspicious to me." Zilinskas and other experts said the schematic presented by Powell as an example of Iraq's mobile labs was theoretically workable but that turning the diagram into a functioning laboratory posed enormous challenges -- such as how to dispose of large quantities of highly toxic waste. "The only reason you would have mobile labs is to avoid inspectors, because everything about them is difficult," Zilinskas said. "We know it is possible to build them -- the United States developed mobile production plants, including one designed for an airplane -- but it's a big hassle. That's why this strikes me as a bit far-fetched."

US recycles human test claims: Iraq accused of using prisoners as guinea pigs

Audrey Gillan, The Guardian: Colin Powell highlighted the claim that Saddam Hussein had used 1,600 prisoners on death row as guinea pigs for his biological and chemical weapons programme ... But last night, it emerged that this part of Mr Powell's testimony to the security council was old news. ... a spokeswoman for Amnesty International said it had no recent reports of such experiments: "We are aware that that did happen, but it happened in the 1980s. Prisoners were being experimented on, but as far as we know it's not something that is actually happening currently. We do know of political prisoners who are being subjected to systematic torture but as far as we know there are no transfers of prisoners for experiments." A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said it had no records of such experiments on its file of Iraqi human rights abuses.

Intelligence Break Led U.S. to Tie Envoy Killing to Iraqi Qaeda Cell

PATRICK E. TYLER, New York Times: An intelligence breakthrough in the last several weeks made it possible for Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to set forth the first evidence of what he said was a well developed cell of Al Qaeda operating out of Baghdad that was responsible for the assassination of the American diplomat Laurence Foley last October. ... Mr. Powell withheld some critical details today, like the discovery by the intelligence agencies that a member of the royal family in Qatar, an important ally providing air bases and a command headquarters for the American military, operated a safe house for Mr. Zarqawi when he transited the country going in and out of Afghanistan. ... The decision to identify Mr. Zarqawi, still at large in Iraq, as the leader of a Qaeda cell will put his life in jeopardy because Mr. Hussein has insisted that Baghdad has no links with Osama bin Laden's network. "A half hour after Powell mentioned his name, I'll wager he disappears or is killed," said a coalition official, recalling the death in Baghdad in 2001 [sic.] of the Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal, after intelligence reports suggested than he might be activating his own terrorist network.

All too human failings of 'human intelligence': Information from defectors, spies and prisoners may be unreliable, say experts

Jeevan Vasagar, The Guardian: Mr Powell also talked about at least two detainees, one of whom has claimed that Iraq had offered chemical or biological weapons training for "two al-Qaida associates". But, as a Guardian investigation revealed last month, the US is condoning the use of torture on prisoners held after September 11, raising doubts about the value of their confessions. ... There is also concern that al-Qaida detainees may be eager to see America going to war with a Muslim country. Mr Cirincione said: "When al-Qaida attacked us on September 11, they didn't just want to kill a lot of people, they wanted to provoke the US into a response they thought would ignite a war between the Islamic world and the west. The Bush administration may be about to give them that war."

04/02/03

The Exotic but Fallible Spy Machines Behind America's Case for War

PHILIP TAUBMAN, New York Times: If Baghdad knows the orbit, which is not hard to learn from public sources, it can time the movement of suspicious munitions when no satellite is passing overhead. India perfected these deceptive arts in 1998 when it was secretly preparing to conduct a series of underground nuclear tests. Work at the test site in the desert southwest of New Delhi was suspended whenever an American satellite flew overhead.

UN given 'peanuts' for Iraq clean-up

Greg Barrow, UN: Aid officials have told the BBC that they may have to divert money from existing emergencies in Angola, Ivory Coast and Afghanistan. Some have even indicated an unwillingness to undertake an operation that could appear to be "cleaning up" after a war by big powers in Iraq. ... Some agencies have even decided not to take money from countries which attack Iraq. ... "Nobody's interested to do it," [High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers] said. "There's not one government who has come to me with money. "When you ask me, is there a sort of planning of governments on what to do when it comes to military intervention, my impression is simply that they are not prepared for that." ... To date, they have received almost nothing - just a pledge from the United States for $15m, a figure described by one UN official as "peanuts". ... The BBC has learned that a number of leading international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have made a policy decision not to take funds from sponsors of war in Iraq.

03/02/03

No Evidence Thus Far Of Mining Of Iraqi Oil Wells

MEES: There is no evidence thus far that the regime in Baghdad has taken steps to blow up oil wells in the event of a US-led attack on Iraq, MEES learns from independent industry and diplomatic sources. Therefore, suggestions that the regime is carrying out such action are not based on any facts on the ground. ... Foreign drilling companies from Russia, Turkey and eastern Europe are working in northern and southern oilfields. Furthermore, the cooperation of Iraqi professionals in a project to sabotage the country’s oil industry in such a major way can not be taken for granted. ... UN oil-for-food inspectors make frequent visits, without notice, to oilfields and oil facilities to check that dual-use items are being used, as designated, in the hydrocarbon sector and not elsewhere. ... In its 29 January issue, The Wall Street Journal reported that the US was studying international law on oilfield rights, adding that “Pentagon and State Department attorneys also are debating how to interpret various treaties and precedents for a number of scenarios that may unfold in Iraq.” It is also being suggested in the US, by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, among others, that countries failing to support the US-led attack on Iraq risk losing out on future oil contracts there. A spokesman for Sen Lugar said on 27 January “the case he made is that the Russians and the French, if they want to have a share in the oil operations or concessions or whatever afterward, they need to be involved in the effort to depose Saddam as well.” ... Under the proposed arrangement, the Turkish army would only enter the country alongside the US army and without laying claims to Mosul and Kirkuk.

U.N. Inspectors Search Campus in Kurdish Zone, Provoking Anger

C. J. CHIVERS, New York Times: "I stopped them," said the president, Dr. Saedi Barzinji. Dr. Barzinji said he ordered that the Iraqi minders be escorted from the science buildings on the grounds that they were Iraqi intelligence agents. The Iraqis were quickly driven back to a checkpoint at Kalak, where a highway passes from the government-controlled zone of Iraq to the Kurdish-held north.

02/02/03

War Plan Calls for Precision Bombing Wave to Break Iraqi Army

ERIC SCHMITT and THOM SHANKER, New York Times: The Pentagon's war plan for Iraq calls for unleashing 3,000 precision-guided bombs and missiles in the first 48 hours of the opening air campaign, an effort intended to stagger and isolate the Iraqi military and quickly pave the way for a ground attack to topple a government in shock. ... Military planners said the immediate goals would be to break the Iraqi Army's will to fight, driving large number of troops to surrender or defect — and offering them guarded sanctuary if they do — while cutting off the leadership in Baghdad in hopes of causing a rapid collapse of the government of President Saddam Hussein. ... The tactics would expand on those used in the 1989 invasion of Panama, when troops flew in, dropped onto and attacked more than two dozen separate targets almost simultaneously in the opening assault. The strategy, called vertical envelopment, was not central to the gulf war, when Army and Marine troops drove Iraq from Kuwait by chewing through the desert, mile by mile. ... "Enormous effort is being given to how we prevent him from doing things," said one senior Defense Department official, referring to Mr. Hussein.

Iraqi Aide Threatens Suicide Attacks Across Region if U.S. Invades

IAN FISHER, New York Times: "Martyrs, perpetrators of suicide attacks, are our new weapons, and they will not only take action in Iraq," Taha Yassin Ramadan, a vice president who is considered one of the nation's top two officials after Saddam Hussein, is quoted as saying in the new issue of the German magazine Der Spiegel.

Split at C.I.A. and F.B.I. on Iraqi Ties to Al Qaeda

JAMES RISEN and DAVID JOHNSTON, New York Times: Some analysts at the Central Intelligence Agency have complained that senior administration officials have exaggerated the significance of some intelligence reports about Iraq, particularly about its possible links to terrorism, in order to strengthen their political argument for war, government officials said. At the Federal Bureau of Investigation, some investigators said they were baffled by the Bush administration's insistence on a solid link between Iraq and Osama bin Laden's network. "We've been looking at this hard for more than a year and you know what, we just don't think it's there," a government official said. ... Paul D. Wolfowitz, deputy defense secretary, and Stephen J. Hadley, deputy national security adviser, were cited as being most eager to interpret evidence deemed murky by intelligence officials to show a clearer picture of Iraq's involvement in illicit weapons programs and terrorism. Their bosses, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, have also pressed a hard line, officials said. ... "It's more than just skepticism," said one official, describing the feelings of some analysts in the intelligence agencies. "I think there is also a sense of disappointment with the community's leadership that they are not standing up for them at a time when the intelligence is obviously being politicized." ... Mr. Powell is expected to focus on intelligence about possible connections between Mr. Hussein, an Islamic militant group that may have produced poisons in a remote region of northern Iraq and a Qaeda terrorist leader, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi. Much of the intelligence has been publicly known for months. Some of the most recent intelligence related to Mr. Zarqawi centers on charges that he orchestrated the plot on Oct. 28 in Amman, Jordan, in which two Qaeda followers — under Mr. Zarqawi's direction — stalked and shot to death Laurence Foley, an American diplomat. In December, the Jordanian authorities announced that the two men had confessed to killing Mr. Foley and that they had been directed by Mr. Zarqawi. The connection to the Foley killing was important because the United States had evidence that Mr. Zarqawi, a Jordanian of Palestinian descent, had spent time in Baghdad earlier in 2002. ... He was hospitalized in Baghdad for treatment of his wounds, and then disappeared in August, after Jordanian officials told the Iraqi government they knew he was there. ... But intelligence officials say there is disagreement among analysts about whether there are significant connections between Ansar al-Islam and the Baghdad government. Some administration officials, particularly at the Pentagon, have argued that Ansar al-Islam has close ties to the Iraqi government, but other intelligence officials say there is only fragmentary evidence of such a link.

01/02/03

A Sign That U.S. Military May Use Turkey as a Base

DEXTER FILKINS, New York Times: Turkey's national security council, made up of top civilian and military leaders, recommended tonight that the Turkish legislature take up a constitutional provision that, among other things, allows for the basing of foreign troops on Turkish soil. The statement stopped short of an explicit call to open up Turkish bases to the American military. But a senior Turkish official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the country's leaders had decided privately to ask Parliament to let the United States base troops here in the event of an attack on Iraq. ... Some Turkish political analysts have theorized that any government request to allow American troops into the country could be so broadly worded as to let leaders deny the full extent of what they were doing.

31/01/03

Shadow of Impending War Darkens Kuwaitis' Horizons

Patrick E. Tyler, New York Times: Kuwait has opened its doors and territory so Washington can have another shot at Saddam Hussein. But many Kuwaitis say their hearts are not in it. ... If he could join the army and fight with the Americans he would, he said. But the Kuwaiti Army is not expected to play a role. ... "Mistrust" is the word he uses to describe his feelings about American intentions.

U.S. May Give the U.N. Data on Iraqi Labs

James Dao, New York Times: In a remarkably candid moment, Mr. Armitage, a blunt-spoken former Navy officer, also acknowledged that the administration had on occasion tried to build its case against Iraq on ambiguous intelligence, and he pledged that Mr. Powell would bring only the most compelling, clear-cut data available to the United Nations. As an example of such ambiguous information, Democrats today cited the administration's assertion, repeated by President Bush in his State of the Union address, that Iraq had bought aluminum tubes to restart its nuclear weapons program. ... Administration officials have expressed concern not only that some of the intelligence is subject to varying, even contradictory, interpretations, but also that revealing it might compromise sources or help other countries learn about American spy satellites. Some officials also worry that if Mr. Powell discloses precisely what the United States knows about Iraqi missiles, the Iraqis will move them before the United States can destroy them in a war. ... Many American intelligence officials contend there is little if any intelligence indicating a clear connection between Mr. Hussein and Ansar.

Blix Says He Saw Nothing to Prompt a War

JUDITH MILLER and JULIA PRESTON, New York Times: Mr. Blix took issue with what he said were Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's claims that the inspectors had found that Iraqi officials were hiding and moving illicit materials within and outside of Iraq to prevent their discovery. He said that the inspectors had reported no such incidents. Similarly, he said, he had not seen convincing evidence that Iraq was sending weapons scientists to Syria, Jordan or any other country to prevent them from being interviewed. Nor had he any reason to believe, as President Bush charged in his State of the Union speech, that Iraqi agents were posing as scientists. He further disputed the Bush administration's allegations that his inspection agency might have been penetrated by Iraqi agents, and that sensitive information might have been leaked to Baghdad, compromising the inspections. Finally, he said, he had seen no persuasive indications of Iraqi ties to Al Qaeda, which Mr. Bush also mentioned in his speech. "There are other states where there appear to be stronger links," such as Afghanistan, Mr. Blix said, noting that he had no intelligence reports on this issue. ... Blix said that his examination of a liquid-filled warhead that inspectors had discovered in a bunker on Jan. 16 found no signs of any chemical weapons agent. The other 11 warheads found in the bunker were empty, he said, adding that scores of samples his team had taken across Iraq in the past two months had turned up "no trace" of either chemical or biological agents. ... Mr. Blix said that the intelligence information being provided by Washington had improved of late. But diplomats and American officials said that tensions lingered over American suspicions that Iraq had infiltrated the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspections Commission, known as Unmovic. Both sides agree that American satellites photographed what American analysts said were Iraqi clean-up crews operating at a suspected chemical weapons site they had identified within 48 hours after the information about the site was shared with Unmovic. But the diplomats say inspectors concluded that the site was an old ammunition storage area often frequented by Iraqi trucks, and that there was no reason to believe it was involved in weapons activities. "It was a wild goose chase." one diplomat said.

Bush Warns Iraq It Has Only Weeks to Yield Weapons

RICHARD W. STEVENSON, New York Times: Mr. Bush directed Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, in a memorandum made public today, to free up $15 million from a special fund to prepare for any "humanitarian emergency in the Middle East" that might result from military action there. [ED: This figure is about 60 cents per Iraq, roughly what `oil for food' delivers every day.]

29/01/03

U.N. Estimates Rebuilding Iraq Will Cost $30 Billion

JULIA PRESTON, New York Times: The United Nations, stepping up the pace of its contingency planning for rebuilding Iraq after war, has concluded the costs will run to at least $30 billion in the first three years, according to the organization's top development official. ... But besides the United States and Britain, no other nation wants to finance contingency planning for Iraq, officials said, because it makes them appear to be endorsing war. United Nations agencies recently appealed for $37 million to begin planning, and got no response.

22/01/03

The myth of the war economy: Markets loathe uncertainty and volatility. Conflict brings both

Joseph Stiglitz, The Guardian

NATO Defers Decision on Iraq After Debate

Reuters: NATO postponed a decision on Wednesday on whether to prepare supporting measures in any U.S.-led war against Iraq after a heated debate among ambassadors, diplomats said.

Iraq extends war missing talks - sources

Reuters: Yuli Vorontsov, who is in charge of accounting for hundreds of people and property missing since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, said he had spoken to Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri and believed he was serious about cooperating. Wednesday's meeting was thesecond this month and came a day after a U.N. official said Baghdad was ready to present new information on Kuwai