News,
01-4/1/02
These news items are pretty old but I¹m just making up the
week I
interrupted when I went off on my travels. Nothing very
interesting
except to note that, probably thanks to the efforts of Mr
Wolfowitz¹s
chums, commentators are beginning to notice that the hard
evidence for
Iraqi involvement in ^Ìterrorism¹ is still very slight
(terrorism against
Iran of course doesn¹t count). Do not fear, though. In
the following
week¹s articles which will soon appear on your computer screens,
Laura
Mylroie comes to the rescue.
INCITEMENT TO HATRED
*
Europe's Armory For Terrorism [The hatred this time is directed
against
Belarus, accused of helping the Iraqi government to defend itself
against
the illegal - even by the slippy criteria of the United nations -
US and
British violation of its airspace. It seems, however, that Belarus
is
impregnable because it is already subject to international embargo and
so
it has nothing to lose. The author does not seem to have noticed that
this
is a good argument against the use of sanctions]
* The Unspoken Case
for Toppling Saddam {The author dismisses the usual
arguments justifying
war on Iraq (Iraq doesn¹t support much terrorism and
probably doesn¹t have
much in the way of weapons of mass destruction)
then adds a third even
more unconvincing argument, that the fall of Mr
Hussein will unleash a
wave of secularism throughout the Arab and Muslim
world. Of course,
there is secularism and there is secularism. Readers
will be
interested to learn that a ^Ìmoderate secular regime¹ has
recently come to
power in Kabul]
* Lieberman, McCain hear Turkish concerns about
extending war to Iraq
[Counsels of moderation from Turkey, anxious to keep
the Kurds in their
place]
* Iraq question at centre of 'War of
Bush's Ear' [Counsels of moderation
from Brent Scowcroft who, it seems, is
behind Condoleeza Rice]
URL ONLY:
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=B48EF3D7-733D-447F
A57BAD4AA84F752D&Title=Should%20the%20US%20Go%20After%20Saddam%20Hussein%3F
*
Should the US Go After Saddam Hussein?
by Motabar Shirwani
Voice
of America, 1st January
Graham Fuller, senior consultant at Rand, and
Henry Barkey, professor of
International Relations at Lehigh University,
together fail to contribute
anything new or interesting to the
discussion.
IRAQI/UN RELATIONS
* Iraq accuses the
UN of obstructing contracts at a cost of 6 billion
* Weapons
Inspections in Iraq [Letter from UNMVIC defending itself
against the
criticisms of Khidr Hamza and indicating that its potential
for keeping
sanctions in place indefinitely is almost as great as
UNSCOM¹s]
*
Iraq accuses UN Compensation Commission of mismanagement [It seems
there
have been several cases of payment to different countries being
given out
twice]
* Syria on Security Council complicates terrorism fight
[Horror that a
country that might timidly on occasion express disagreement
with US
policy (aka ^Ìthe international consensus¹) should have a seat in
the
United Nations Security Council Permanent Five spectators¹
gallery]
IRAQI/MIDDLE EASTERN-ARAB WORLD RELATIONS
*
Egypt, Iraq discuss spheres of economic, trade cooperation
*
Turkish forces incur into Iraq to chase Kurdistani workers party
members
*
Syria opposes US strike on Iraq: Minister
* Some 8 Arab
journalists were killed because of their career in 2001
REMNANTS OF
DECENCY
* Ramsey Clark says Iraq war no answer [Includes a
brief, rather
disapproving, account of some highlights in Ramsay Clark¹s
career as a
peace activist]
* Teacher to Address Sanctions on
Iraq
OIL
* Iraq hails oil producers cooperation,
production cut
INSIDE IRAQ
* Iraqi minister looks
into water, electricity, storage of pollutants in
Ninawa
INCITEMENT
TO HATRED
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54510-2002Jan2.html
*
EUROPE'S ARMORY FOR TERRORISM
by Mark Lenzi
Washington Post,
3rd January
[.....]
Lukashenko's efforts to sell weapons
to generate much-needed income for
his beleaguered economy appear to have
no bounds. For a country of only
10 million people, it is unsettling that
Belarus is ranked year after
year among the top 10 weapons-exporting
countries. To put in perspective
how much military equipment left over
from the Soviet Union Lukashenko
has at his disposal, consider the
following fact: The Belarusian army has
1,700 T-72 battle tanks. Poland, a
new NATO member with the most powerful
army in Central Europe and with
four times the population of Belarus, has
only 900 T-72s.
Despite
strong denials from Lukashenko, Belarus has been a key partner of
Saddam
Hussein in his effort to rebuild and modernize Iraq's air defense
capability.
Belarus has violated international law by secretly supplying
Baghdad with
SA-3 antiaircraft missile components as well as technicians.
Given that
Iraq has repeatedly tried to shoot down U.S. and British
aircraft
patrolling the U.N. no-fly zone -- with more than 420 attempts
this year
alone -- covert Belarusian-Iraqi military cooperation is
disturbing and
should set off alarm bells in Western capitals.
Former Belarusian
defense minister Pavel Kozlovski, obviously someone
with firsthand
knowledge of Minsk's covert arms deals, recently summed up
Belarus's
cooperation with Iraq and other rogue states by saying, "I know
that
the Belarusian government does not have moral principles and can
sell
weapons to those countries [such as Iraq] where embargoes exist.
This is
the criminal policy of Belarusian leadership."
In many ways,
the mercurial and authoritarian Lukashenko feels he has a
free hand to
sell arms to nations and groups that are unfriendly to the
West, because
the European Union and the United States do not recognize
him as the
legitimate Belarusian head of state anyway. Threats of
U.S.-led economic
sanctions or other diplomatic "sticks" against Belarus
hold
little weight, since the country is already isolated to a degree
rivaled
only by a handful of other countries.
It is only thanks to cheap
energy subsidies from Russia that the
Belarusian economy remains afloat.
Since Russia is the only country that
has the necessary economic and
political influence on Belarus, it is
imperative that Washington use its
new relationship with Moscow to
encourage the Russians to exert their
leverage on Belarus to cease covert
arms sales to rogue states and
terrorist groups.
In the Bush administration's worldwide effort to
combat terrorism, it
should not overlook a little-known country right on
NATO's border.
The writer is a Fulbright scholar working in
Lithuania and studying U.S.
relations with Belarus.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bizwk/020103/vtzcqy9kmu4xwsyfhyfptw_1.html
*
THE UNSPOKEN CASE FOR TOPPLING SADDAM
by Stan Crock
Yahoo
Business Week, 3rd January
The Bush Administration and other
advocates of ousting Saddam Hussein
usually make two arguments. The first
is that getting rid of the Iraqi
strongman is necessary to take the war
against terrorism to its next
phase. The second is that it'll stop Saddam
from using weapons of mass
destruction.
There's a third
argument that you don't hear much of -- let's call it the
Unspoken
Argument. It's unsaid because it would likely provoke a
diplomatic uproar.
But I'd argue that it makes the most compelling case
of all for ousting
Saddam.
If the brutal ruler were toppled, rather than unleash a
torrent of Muslim
extremism across the Middle East and Asia, an
opportunity might be
created for sweeping secular reform throughout the
region. What's more,
that could irrevocably alter the global oil equation
-- and from a U.S.
standpoint, that would be a beneficial outcome.
Let's
look at the public arguments first. The fact is, Iraq is fairly low
on the
totem pole of current sponsors of terrorism. Despite efforts to
link
Baghdad to the September 11 attacks, little evidence exists of such
a
connection. Indeed, the strongest sign of a tie between Saddam Hussein
and
terrorism is the attempted assassination of President George W.
Bush's
father during a visit to Kuwait. But that was back in 1993.
Indeed,
Baghdad isn't high even on the hit list of Israel, a country
particularly
sensitive to Middle East terrorism. Israel is much more
concerned about
Iran, which actively bankrolls terrorist groups and still
vows to destroy
the Jewish state.
Targeting Iraq as a way to stop the proliferation
of weapons of mass
destruction is a stronger argument. Saddam's opponents
are usually
dismissive of U.N. weapons inspectors' efforts. But these
detectives
found and destroyed thousands of chemical and biological
weapons. In the
three years since the inspectors left, it's possible that
the regime has
replaced some of that arsenal. Still, it's unlikely to be
as large as it
was.
It's also unlikely that Saddam has nukes --
and little chance that he has
the ballistic-missile capability to deliver
such weapons to the U.S.
While weapons of mass destruction are a reason
for ousting him, it's not
necessary to do so now.
But let's
consider the Unspoken Argument. The cumulative impact of seeing
secular
moderates such as the opposition Iraqi National Congress assuming
power in
Baghdad so soon after a moderate secular regime came to power in
Kabul
could have a transforming impact on the entire Middle East. For too
long,
the blithe assumption has been that the two alternatives for
government in
the region are the current corrupt, antidemocratic,
oppressive regimes or
the radical fundamentalists.
However, Afghanistan and Iraq could
demonstrate a Third Way. The secular
traditions of a Turkey or Indonesia
could take hold in other parts of the
Islamic crescent. Look at Morocco,
which is already is starting to
transform itself into a more modern
political and economic model.
Iraq's enemy, Iran, could be one of
the first to change. Without a
dangerous neighbor like Saddam, the more
moderate forces in Tehran may be
able to wrest power from the
archconservative mullahs. Jordan and Egypt
also could evolve.
And
-- dare I say it -- the spread of ``radical moderation'' across the
Muslim
world could catch fire in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. With Saddam
out of
power, America would have no reason for stationing its troops in
Saudi
Arabia. The U.S. could bring home the GIs, soothing a sore spot
with
millions of Muslims who regard the U.S. military presence in the
holy
kingdom as a insult to Islam. Removing the troops by itself could
nudge
reform along in Saudi Arabia, for the House of Saud would no longer
have
that shield.
Don't forget: After Saudi Arabia, Iraq has the world's
second-largest oil
reserves. With Saddam out of the picture and moderates
in charge in
Baghdad, international investment would likely pour in, and
increased
crude output would keep oil prices stable. This also would
reduce Saudi
Arabia's clout, which might not be a bad thing.
Could
all this have the opposite effect, provoking massive instability in
the
Muslim world? After all, U.S. efforts to prop up the Shah of Iran
during
the 1970s ended in a horrific backlash. But I'd argue that Iran's
history
is indeed an interesting guide to the Islamic future in a way you
might
not have thought.
The Ayatollah Khomeni replaced the hated Shah
because a whole range of
economic and social problems had reached the
breaking point in Iran. Now,
Iran is changing again because the population
has no interest in the
strict, ascetic Islam the mullahs want to impose.
It didn't take that
long for Iranians to reject the fundamentalist state
the mullahs
proclaimed and to support more moderate politicians such as
Iranian
President Mohammad Khatami.
Truth is, elections in the
Islamic world have never produced anything but
paltry support for
fundamentalist parties. Another reason for optimism:
The Islamic world
didn't rise up when Osama bin Laden and the Taliban
came under attack in
Afghanistan.
The Middle East is going to change. The only questions
are whether it
will change now or later, and whether it will be through a
series of
political explosions or more gentle transformations. It's
certainly
possible that the transition could be messy in the short term.
But it
could be even messier down the road.
None of this can be
discussed in polite diplomatic circles, of course.
Washington isn't about
to tell a half dozen Arab regimes helping us in
the antiterrorism battle
to bow out. But some analysts believe that's the
game now going on. We
just have to wait and see how the Bush team will
play its hand.
http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/international/ap_turkey01042002.htm
*
LIEBERMAN, MCCAIN HEAR TURKISH CONCERNS ABOUT EXTENDING WAR TO IRAQ
Boston
Herald (from Associated Press), 4th January
ANKARA, Turkey - The
United States still believes Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein should be
ousted, but it will not strike at him without
consulting Turkey first, an
American delegation told Turkish leaders
Friday.
Turkey does
not want the United States to target Iraq in the war on
terrorism because
it fears Iraqi Kurds could take advantage of a
subsequent power vacuum to
create a Kurdish state.
That could boost aspirations of
autonomy-seeking Kurds within Turkey.
Nonetheless, the nine U.S.
lawmakers, visiting Central Asia for a week,
said Saddam remains a
potential target.
``The war against terrorism will not end until
Saddam Hussein is removed
from power in Baghdad,'' Sen. Joseph Lieberman,
D-Conn., said after
meeting with Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and Foreign
Minister Ismail
Cem.
``A change in regime in Baghdad, which I
think so critical to the
security of the United States, does not mean that
territorial integrity
of Iraq should in any way be changed from what it is
today.''
Lieberman said the Turkish premier stressed that Iraqis
should decide
whether Saddam remains in power. He responded that the
United States
understands the ``importance of maintaining territorial
integrity of
Iraq.''
Lieberman and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.,
assured Turkish leaders that
anything the United States does regarding
Iraq would involve
consultations with Turkey.
``We are
appreciative ... of the sensitivity regarding Kurds, that's why
any action
taken by the United States vis-a-vis Saddam Hussein would be
after a
period of consultation and hopefully cooperation particularly
with the
Turkish government,'' McCain said.
Turkish support would be crucial
to any fight against Iraq. Turkey was
the launching pad for attacks
against Baghdad during the 1991 Gulf War
and has since hosted U.S. and
British warplanes enforcing a no-fly zone
above northern Iraq.
The
advocates of attacking Iraq argue that Saddam is maintaining programs
to
build weapons of mass destruction, which U.N. inspectors tried to
dismantle
after the Gulf War. Inspectors have not been allowed into Iraq
since
1998.
President Bush has said the U.S. war against terrorism would
not be
limited to Afghanistan, but has not specified which other nations
could
become U.S. military targets. Iraq is considered a
possibility.
``We believe that there is no way to imagine
reconciliation with Iraq
under Saddam,'' Lieberman said.
After
leaving Turkey, the senators will travel to Pakistan, Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan
and Oman. Lieberman said the delegation also would travel to
Afghanistan.
http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20020104/1032005.html
*
IRAQ QUESTION AT CENTRE OF 'WAR OF BUSH'S EAR'
by Toby Harnden
National
Post (Tortornto, from The Daily Telegraph), 4th January
Phase Two of
the war against terrorism has already started in Washington.
It
could be called the War of Bush's Ear, a struggle to win over the
President
on the question of what, if anything, to do about Iraq.
Lieutenant-General
Brent Scowcroft is one of the leading doves who
question the sense of
extending the war to a major Arab state when its
links to terrorist
movements are poorly documented.
Iraq should not be part of the new
war on terrorism at all, says the
former national security advisor to
President George W. Bush's father
during the 1991 Gulf War. "It's not
a terrorist state. The only thing
that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden
have in common is hatred of the
United States.''
Gen.
Scowcroft's influence is said to be exercised through Condoleezza
Rice,
who occupies his old seat at the National Security Council.
Just as
the general, 76, was Mr. Bush Sr.'s right-hand man, Ms. Rice has
a close
rapport with his son. On foreign policy matters, the President
tends to
trust her above all others.
Ranged against him are figures such as
James Woolsey, a former Central
Intelligence Agency chief, and Richard
Perle, head of the defence policy
board. Their heroes are Donald Rumsfeld,
the Pentagon chief, and Paul
Wolfowitz, his deputy.
Now
occupying positions in think-tanks, government advisory boards and
lobbying
firms, these veterans of the Reagan and Bush Sr. period are
proxy warriors
for the main players in the White House, State Department
and
Pentagon.
So who is winning the argument within the Bush
administration?
"I don't know,'' Gen. Scowcroft concedes.
Administration
hardliners -- and many leading congressmen -- take the
view Iraq must be
attacked. For Gen. Scowcroft and the other combatants,
the terrain is
familiar. They are on either side of the same fault line
that has run
through U.S. foreign policy and the Republican party for a
decade.
Mr.
Wolfowitz, then an under-secretary at the Pentagon, was one of the
few who
argued for pushing on to Baghdad in 1991. According to Gen.
Scowcroft, he
was wrong then and he is wrong now. "The people who want to
go into
Iraq are very vocal and are getting attention first,'' said the
general.
"To
go into a massive military campaign against Iraq right now would
destroy
our ability to deal with terrorism because we lose most of our
friends,
certainly in the Middle East.''
Mr. Wolfowitz's allies suggest they
are winning the War of Bush's Ear,
but Gen. Scowcroft disagrees. He said
Mr. Bush's foreign policy instincts
since Sept. 11 are "very close''
to those of his father.
IRAQI/UN RELATIONS
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/020102/2002010211.html
*
IRAQ ACCUSES THE UN OF OBSTRUCTING CONTRACTS AT A COST OF 6 BILLION
Arabic
News, 2nd January
Iraq has accused the UN of acquiring the greater
part of the revenues of
the oil-for-food program.
News reports
quoted the Iraqi minister of commerce Muhammad Mahdi Saleh
as saying in an
interview with the Iraqi Satellite TV station that the UN
sanctions
committee caused the obstruction of several contracts Iraq had
signed at a
value of USD 6 billion.
The Iraqi minister said the UN got sums from
Iraq that exceed USD 18
billion while the Iraqi people got USD 15
billion.
Saleh explained that the UN sanction committee is
obstructing the
contracts for one or two years and then agree on it
without a change with
the aim to obstruct the arrival of foodstuffs to
Iraq.
http://www.iht.com/articles/43514.html
*
WEAPONS INSPECTIONS IN IRAQ
Letter from UNMVIC
International
Herald Tribune, January 3, 2002
Regarding "Inspectors in Iraq?
Hiding His Weapons Is Easy for Saddam"
(Opinion, Dec. 18) by Khidhir
Hamza:
Mr. Hamza stated that the "new protocols" of the
United Nations
Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission "do
not allow
inspectors to demand immediate access after finding a site."
On
Dec. 18 at the United Nations, Hans Blix, the executive chairman of
the
commission, stated that this is erroneous. He noted that the Security
Council
resolution establishing the commission stresses that Iraq must
grant
"immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access" for
inspection.
The chairman has repeatedly and explicitly stressed that
we will not give
any discounts on the Security Council's requirements. The
right of
immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access is central to
the
commission's function. Moreover, the granting of such access is
required
if Iraq is to provide the "cooperation in all respects"
which is a
condition for a suspension of sanctions by the Security
Council.
Ewen Buchanan.
The writer is public information
officer for the UN Monitoring,
Verification and Inspection
Commission.
http://www.worldoil.com/news/newsstory.asp?ref=http://62.172.78.184/feeds/world
il/new/article_e.asp?energy24=245835
*
IRAQ ACCUSES UN COMPENSATION COMMISSION OF MISMANAGEMENT
World Oil
(from AFP), 3rd January
Iraq accused the UN Compensation Commission
(UNCC) on Thursday of
mismanaging its oil revenues by paying reparations
'twice' to hundreds of
victims of the 1991 Gulf War.
"The
UNCC paid reparations twice for hundreds of claims," said an
"authoritative
source" at the Iraqi foreign ministry, quoted by the
weekly
al-Zawra.
India, Sri Lanka, Yugoslavia and Bosnia "notified the
UNCC that it had
paid compensation twice for 575 claims" made in the
four countries, the
source said.
The commission also paid the
Kuwaiti committee for prisoners of war and
missing people 153.4 million
dollars, that is nearly twice the 85.4
million dollars it had claimed,
according to the source.
The UNCC, set up in 1991, says it has
received some 2.6 million
compensation claims, equivalent to 300 billion
dollars, in relation to
the Gulf War sparked by Iraq's 1990 invasion of
Kuwait.
Twenty-five percent of revenues from Iraqi oil sales are
earmarked for
the commission.
Iraq, which has been under UN
sanctions since invading Kuwait, is allowed
to sell crude under UN
supervision in the framework of an "oil-for-food"
program with
the United Nations.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal
te.syria04jan04.story?coll=bal%2Dnews%2Dnation
*
SYRIA ON SECURITY COUNCIL COMPLICATES TERRORISM FIGHT
by Mark
Matthews
Baltimore Sun, 4th January
WASHINGTON - For the first
time in a decade, the United Nations Security
Council now includes a
strident voice for Arab nationalism, one that
could complicate U.S.
efforts to tighten pressure on Iraq and wage a
global war on
terrorism.
Syria, which will join the council today for the year's
first
consultations, has long been on America's list of state sponsors
of
terrorism and, U.S. critics say, is blatantly violating U.N. sanctions
against
Baghdad by importing Iraqi oil.
Though hopes for moderation were
raised when Bashar al-Assad succeeded
his late father, Hafez al-Assad, as
president in 2000, Syria remains
hostile to one of America's closest
allies, Israel.
Syria's ambassador to Washington pledged yesterday
that his country would
try to work with the United States during its
two-year term on the
Security Council.
"Syria will
cooperate with all the members of the Security Council to
achieve the
noble goals and objectives of the U.N. and preserve
international peace
and security," said Rostom Al Zoubi.
For the moment, John D.
Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations, says he will take
the Syrians at their word.
"We'll have to wait and see,"
Negroponte said in an interview. "We will
engage them constructively
and expect them to reciprocate. We will not go
into this with ironclad,
preconceived notions."
But those who think Syria might assume a
low profile on the council would
have to overlook an address its foreign
minister, Farouk Sharaa, made to
the U.N. General Assembly in
November.
He excoriated Israel as terrorism's worst perpetrator,
invoking a list of
Israeli "crimes" against Palestinians and
Lebanese.
"Anyone who would like to target terrorism in our
region must target
Israeli terrorism first and foremost, because what
Israel does is the
utmost form of terrorism," Sharaa said.
Syria
won its two-year regional seat on the Security Council with support
from
the Arab world and Asia that foreclosed any real opportunity for the
United
States to lobby against it. It is the most hard-line Arab regime
to sit on
the council since Yemen in 1991.
Over the past decade, the United
States has enlisted allies in blocking
both Libya and Sudan from gaining
seats on the council. But in both
cases, it argued that those countries
should be disqualified because they
were targets of U.N. sanctions, which
Syria is not.
In recent years, the Arab world has been represented
on the council by
moderate, pro Western Tunisia, Oman and Morocco.
The
only country to speak out forcefully against Syria's membership was
Israel.
"A
country's election should be based on its contribution to the
maintenance
of peace and security," Aaron Jacob, the No. 2 official at
Israel's
mission to the United Nations, said in an interview.
"Syria is
harboring terrorists, is supporting terror organizations,
especially
Hezbollah, and should be disqualified. It diminishes the
standing of the
Security Council when countries such as Syria sit on the
council."
As
one of 10 non-permanent members on the 15-member Security Council,
Syria
won't be able to play a decisive role, as do the five permanent
members -
the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - all of
which can
veto resolutions. But membership on the council offers a bully
pulpit.
"You're
able to influence the tenor of discussions," said Jeffrey
Laurenti,
director of policy studies at the United Nations Association of
the
U.S.A.
The Syrian government newspaper Al-Thawra said yesterday that
Damascus
would "play a pivotal role in explaining the just Arab
causes on an
international level."
Unless a veto is cast,
resolutions require nine votes to pass. But
especially during crises,
members of the council often try to produce a
unanimous vote to show the
world it is speaking with one voice.
In June, Syria will assume the
rotating one-month presidency of the
council, which will give it
additional leverage to stall action on
issues, diplomats say.
Iraq
offers an early test of how Syria will behave. President Bush has
made it
a priority to pressure Baghdad to readmit U.N. arms inspectors,
whom
Saddam Hussein expelled in 1998.
Many U.S. analysts fear that Iraq
has used the past three years to
increase its stockpile of biological and
chemical agents and possibly to
resume development of nuclear
weapons.
In 1991, the United States was able to use Hafez al-Assad's
longtime
rivalry with Hussein to enlist Syria in the coalition that drove
Iraqi
forces out of Kuwait. But relations between Damascus and Baghdad have
improved
and have gained a commercial dimension.
A reopened oil pipeline
between the two countries allows them to share $2
billion a year in
revenue from oil sales that violate a United
Nations-imposed embargo,
according to Patrick Clawson of the Washington
Institute for Near East
Policy. A senior U.S. official says the "flow has
been quite
substantial."
Al-Zoubi, Syria's ambassador in Washington,
denies the accusation of
sanctions-busting, saying his country has
complied with U.N. resolutions.
The pipeline is old and damaged, he said,
and reports that it is used to
export Iraqi oil through Syria are
"not accurate."
He declined to predict Syria's overall
stance toward Iraq, except to say
"Syria is always with the
international consensus" and "every issue will
be discussed in
its time." Al-Zoubi said Syria hopes to "lessen the
suffering of
the Iraqi people" after years of sanctions.
But asked about the
prospect of U.S. military action against Iraq if
Hussein continued to
block the return of U.N. weapons inspectors,
Al-Zoubi said, "We are
against any targeting of any Arab country."
Syria, a secular
regime, counts itself among the targets of
fundamentalist Islam. The elder
Assad crushed the militant Muslim
Brotherhood group as a political force
in Syria during a 1982 crackdown
that left thousands dead.
Syria
refuses to apply a terrorist label to Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based
group
that once held Americans hostage and continues to attack Israeli
forces on
the Lebanese border. And it gives Palestinian terrorist groups
a
haven.
"All these are information offices," Al-Zoubi said.
"Syria is host to
more than 400,000 Palestinians as refugees. These
information offices
represent these 400,000 Palestinians, and they don't
launch any act
against Israel from Syrian territory.
"There
should be a distinction between terrorism and the right of people
to
resist [Israeli] occupation forces," he said.
U.S. and European
diplomats say they hope that the world spotlight on
Syria and its
ambassador to the United Nations, Mikhail Wehbe, will
prevent Syria from
trying to obstruct the Security Council's efforts to
achieve
consensus.
But in offering to cooperate with the United States,
Al-Zoubi says Syria
wants something in return: a change from what it
considers a pro-Israel
stance on the Middle East peace process.
"All
that we need from the U.S.A. is to play an effective and neutral
role for
the achievement of a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in
the
region," Al-Zoubi said.
IRAQI/MIDDLE EASTERN-ARAB WORLD
RELATIONS
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/020102/2002010239.html
*
EGYPT, IRAQ DISCUSS SPHERES OF ECONOMIC, TRADE COOPERATION
Arabic
News, 2nd January
Egyptian Trade Minister Mohammed Mahdi Saleh
stressed that the Egyptian
delegation's visit to Iraq under Foreign Trade
Minister Youssef Boutros
Ghali was successful and helped in deepening
economic and trade
interaction between the two states.
At a
meeting with Egyptian parliament member Emad el-Saed el-Geldah, the
Iraqi
minister voiced satisfaction with the level of growth of relations
between
Iraq and Egypt to which President Saddam Hussein was attaching
special
importance.
The Egyptian parliamentarian, on his part, said the
Egyptian-Iraqi talks
probed future cooperation in the economic and trade
fields in light of
the 11th stage of the UN-sponsored oil-for-food program
which started on
December 1, 2001.
On the other hand, Chairman
of Egypt's General Organisation for
International Exhibitions and Fairs
Mohammed el-Saed Saleh said the year
2002 would witness a number of
specialised fairs in Baghdad to give Iraqi
citizens an opportunity to get
acquainted with the Egyptian products.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/020102/2002010210.html
*
TURKISH FORCES INCUR INTO IRAQ TO CHASE KURDISTANI WORKERS PARTY
MEMBERS
Arabic
News, 2nd January
Turkish military and customs officials said that
hundreds of Turkish
soldiers incurred into north Iraq during the two past
days to chase
Kurdish Turks belong to the " Kurdistani workers
Party."
Turkish government officials said that trucks carrying
800 Turkish
commandos crossed al Khabour border gate and headed to
Bahdinan area
which is dominated by the Kurdistani national federation,
one of two
warring Iraqi Kurdish parties. dominating north Iraq.
Ankara
says that some 500 separatist Kurds are stationed in North Iraq
and Iran
since the end of the campaign they launched after the detention
of the
leader of the Kurdistani workers party Abdullah Ocalaan in 1999.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=906955431
*
SYRIA OPPOSES US STRIKE ON IRAQ: MINISTER
Times of India, 2nd
January
DUBAI (AFP): Syria would oppose a US military strike on
Iraq, and
Washington's division of Iraq into enclaves has nothing to do
with UN
resolutions, according to Syrian Information Minister Adnan
Omran.
"Our position regarding Iraq is nationalistic and
unequivocal: we are
against the targeting of any Arab country without
exception," Omran said
in an interview appearing in Thursday's issue
of the Daily
Star-International Herald Tribune joint regional edition
published in
Beirut.
Even Kuwait is in line with "the
joint Arab position ... (that) opposes
any aggression against Iraq,"
Omran said in the interview, an advance
copy of which was faxed to AFP in
Dubai on Wednesday.
"The excuses the Americans are using to
accuse Iraq are laughable and
have nothing to do with UN
resolutions," said Omran when asked about US
suggestions that Iraq
might be targeted in a future phase of Washington's
war on terror.
"They
have divided Iraq along imaginary lines, carving up one enclave in
the
north and another in the south; even the country's airspace has been
divided
in a way that bears no relation to UN resolutions," he said,
referring
to no-fly zones enforced by US and British warplanes in
northern and
southern Iraq.
"Every now and then, Iraq's national sovereignty
is violated in an
unacceptable and unjustified manner in the north of the
country. This not
only abuses to UN resolutions, it also violates the UN
Charter," he said.
Omran said even Kuwait, which was occupied
by Iraq for seven months in
1990-1991, opposed US military action against
its northern neighbour.
"We were very happy to hear Kuwaiti
Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister
Sheikh Sabah al Ahmad say the other
day that Kuwait opposes any
aggression against Iraq. It was a clear
pan-Arab nationalist position
expressed by the most senior Kuwaiti foreign
policy official," the Syrian
minister said.
He went on to
deny that Syria was standing by Iraq because of its vast
commercial
interests with Baghdad, adding that Syria's economic
integration with Iraq
was neither a gimmick nor opportunistic.
The United States has not
ruled out taking military action against Iraq
as part of its war on terror
which began in Afghanistan on October 7 in
retaliation for the September
11 terror attacks.
US President George W Bush warned Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein on
November 26 to allow UN weapons inspectors back into
Iraq or face
unspecified consequences.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/020104/2002010408.html
*
SOME 8 ARAB JOURNALISTS WERE KILLED BECAUSE OF THEIR CAREER IN 2001
Arabic
News, 4th January
The Arab organization for the freedom of the press
which takes London as
a headquarters said that number of Arab journalists
which were killed
while performing press missions or because they practice
this career
increased to 8 including two women journalists in 2001, for
only one
journalist who was killed in 2000.
In a statement
issued on Wednesday, the statement said it is the first
time in which
number of Arab press victims while carrying out their
duties reached this
number.
The statement said the Arab press played an important role
in the attempt
to disseminate the language of dialogue and
tolerance.
The statement mentioned the names of the killed
journalists. They are
Ammari Bin Zuqeir who was assassinated by
unidentified persons in Algeria
on January2nd 2001; Hisham Mekki who was
assassinated on January 17 in
Gaza, Hedayah Salem al-Sabah, a Kuwaiti
woman journalist who was shot in
Kuwait on March 12. An accused Kuwaiti
police officer said he
assassinated Hedayah in revenge of his tribe
because she wrote articles
against this tribe.
The statement
also included Muhammad Jamil Bandi Rosbayani who was
assassinated in his
house in Baghdad and his deformed body was found on
March 26. It was
expected that he was killed by the Iraqi intelligence.
The statement also
included Fadilah al-Najmah who was crushed by a car as
she was covering a
demonstration by al Qabayel men in Algeria on July 14
and also Adel Razouq
who was killed upon covering the events of
al-Qabayel demonstration in
Algeria on June 14, 2001.
The statement also mentioned the names of
Muhammad Beshawi and Othman
Ibrahim Qattani who were shot in Nablus during
a press interview at Hamas
studies office on July 31, 2001.
REMNANTS
OF DECENCY
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020103-23330996.htm
*
RAMSEY CLARK SAYS IRAQ WAR NO ANSWER
by Ellen Sorokin
Washington
Times, 3rd January
A former U.S. attorney general and longtime
liberal activist yesterday
argued there was no justification for extending
the war on terrorism to
Iraq.
Ramsey Clark, a seasoned foe of
U.S. foreign policy who served as
attorney general during the Johnson
administration, called on the Bush
administration to instead lift the
11-year-old sanctions against Iraq
that he said were responsible for the
deaths of more than 1 million
adults and children there.
"The
sanctions have to end. They're genocidal in themselves," Mr. Clark
told
The Washington Times yesterday. "It's hard to imagine how our own
people
can tolerate a policy that has led to so many deaths."
Mr.
Clark's comments came after several members of the International
Action
Center ^Ë which Mr. Clark founded ^Ë held a news conference urging
the president
not to begin a military campaign against Iraq, a country
the anti-war
group says already has suffered through U.S.-imposed
sanctions.
The
United States imposed sanctions on Iraq after the country's invasion
of
Kuwait in 1990.
Seated against a backdrop of posters that read,
"War and Racism are not
the answer," and "Defend Civil
Rights," members of the IAC said a
military attack on Iraq would
further devastate a war-torn country where
an estimated 1.5 million people
have been killed and many more are
malnourished and impoverished.
"A
war would be a form of terrorism," said Brian Becker, a coalition
spokesman
and one of several IAC members who belong to the Worker's World
Party
(WWP).
The WWP is a Marxist organization with a record of supporting
repressive
communist regimes in Cuba, North Korea and elsewhere. Some
party members
have traveled to Africa, the Middle East and Europe in a
campaign to end
sanctions against Iraq.
"It is clear that
whatever good our government had hoped to do has been
surpassed by
evil," said the Rev. Thomas Gumbleton, auxiliary bishop with
the
Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit and an IAC member. "We want the
United
States to promote dialogue to make it possible for Iraq to live."
The
IAC members urged the government to spend the money that would
finance a
potential war on Iraq to fund education and provide quality
health care in
the United States.
IAC members also said the United States should
cut its economic ties with
Israel, a country they contend uses U.S. funds
to oppress Palestinians.
They said U.S. policy toward Israel fuels
"resentment and hatred" in
other parts of the world and is
partly to blame for the September 11
terrorist attacks in New York and
Washington.
"Our tax dollars could be used to build schools and
improve health care,"
said Damu Smith, an official with Black Voices
for Peace. "We urge the
United States to cut its economic ties with
Israel as long as it refuses
to let up its occupation of Palestine. ... We
helped establish the
conditions and context for people to make those
attacks on us."
To further drive home their opposition to war,
the IAC is organizing a
national anti-war march in Washington on April
27.
Mr. Clark has a long record of controversy. In the summer of
1972, he
visited North Vietnam as a member of the Stockholm-based
International
Commission of Inquiry investigating claims of U.S. war
crimes in
Indochina.
In 1977, Mr. Clark intervened on behalf of
CIA defector and self-avowed
Marxist Philip Agee to fight deportation from
Britain, calling the
British deportation hearing an "utterly lawless
proceeding."
Mr. Clark also attended the 1980 International
Conference to Investigate
U.S. Intervention in Iran, sponsored by Iran's
revolutionary government
and the Soviet front group, the International
Association of Democratic
Lawyers.
He traveled to Managua,
Nicaragua, in 1986 to observe the trial of
American Eugene Hasenfus for
smuggling supplies to the anti-communist
Contra guerrillas. Mr. Hasenfus'
attorney labeled the trial a kangaroo
court. Mr. Clark defended the
tribunal because, he said, Nicaragua faced
"war conducted by U.S.
resources."
In 1990, Mr. Clark organized the Coalition Against
U.S. Intervention in
the Middle East to protest America's role in the
Persian Gulf. During a
rally that year, he called the former Bush
administration "an imperial
presidency as unrestrained as any
military dictatorship that ever lived."
Last month, Mr. Clark
wrote a letter to the ambassador and foreign
minister of each member of
the U.N. Security Council and the U.N. General
Assembly, demanding that
the Security Council prohibit the United States
from attacking Iraq.
"We've
got to stop the violence," Mr. Clark said. "How many children
have
to die because Saddam Hussein is a bad man?"
http://www.latimes.com/editions/ventura/la
000000546jan03.story?coll=la%2Deditions%2Dventura
*
TEACHER TO ADDRESS SANCTIONS ON IRAQ
Los Angeles Times, 3rd
January
Ventura teacher Leah Wells will speak on United Nations
sanctions against
Iraq on Wednesday at an Amnesty International meeting in
Ventura.
Wells traveled to Iraq in July and August with a delegation
sent by a
Chicago group that advocates ending the sanctions.
Wells
lived with a family in Basra for 10 days to observe the effects the
measures
are having on Iraqis. She said the U.N. sanctions are causing
widespread
starvation and inadequate medical care and are not achieving
the goal of
ending Saddam Hussein's dictatorship in the country. The
meeting will be
held at 7 p.m. at College United Methodist Church, 4300
Telegraph Road.
Admission is free. For information, call 643-6605.
OIL
http://www.worldoil.com/news/newsstory.asp?ref=http://62.172.78.184/feeds/world
il/new/article_e.asp?energy24=245858
*
IRAQ HAILS OIL PRODUCERS COOPERATION, PRODUCTION CUT
World Oil (from
AFP), 3rd January
Iraqi Oil Minister Amer Mohamed Rashid hailed
Thursday the cooperation
between OPEC Countries and non-OPEC producers,
which led to a 'positive'
production cut.
"The position of
non-OPEC member countries and their cooperation with the
cartel was
positive," said Rashid in an interview with the Iraqi
satellite
television.
"We hope to see this cooperation and coordination
continue for the
interest of all producers and for that of the oil
market," he said.
Rashid said the "OPEC decision to reduce
production is good and
efficient, and we hope it would help improve prices
after the fluctuation
of prices during the last three months."
OPEC,
which produces 40 percent of the world's oil, agreed in November to
cut
its production by 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd), but only if
non-OPEC
rivals like Russia and Norway also cut by 500,000 bpd.
In the event
its rivals cut by slightly less, OPEC agreed to go ahead
with its own cuts
anyway.
Crude prices, which slumped dramatically after the September
11 terror
attacks in the United States, have recovered in recent days
after the
OPEC deal with its rivals, but still remain well outside the
cartel's own
22-28 dollar target range. On Thursday the OPEC basket price
stood at
18.85 dollars.
INSIDE IRAQ
http://hoovnews.hoovers.com/fp.asp?layout=displaynews&doc_id=NR20020104670.2_b0
c0047b4b635bb
*
IRAQI MINISTER LOOKS INTO WATER, ELECTRICITY, STORAGE OF POLLUTANTS
IN
NINAWA
Hoover's/Financial Times. 4th January
Source: Al-Iraq
web site, Baghdad, in Arabic 30 Dec 01
Iraqi Military
Industrialization Minister and Deputy Prime Minister
Abd-al-Tawwab
Abdallah al-Mulla Huwaysh has visited the north-west to see
the progress
of the Ninawa Governorate development projects. He was
informed that
"temporary measures" had caused the electricity outages in
the
region, and he was informed that the Mosul Water Project was almost
complete.
He also inquired about industrial zones which are to be set up
in Ninawa
"to handle pollutant and other non-pollutant substances". The
following
is the text of a report by Mawhan al-Zahir published by Iraqi
newspaper
Al-Iraq web site on 30 December:
Al-Iraq has been taken on a guided
tour by Mr Abd-al-Tawwab Abdallah
al-Mulla Huwaysh, the deputy prime
minister and the minister of military
industrialization, to witness the
completion of the first phase of the
development of the Governorate of
Ninawa. The development had been
ordered by His Excellency the leader
Saddam Husayn, may he enjoy God's
protection and care. His excellency had
assigned the task of overseeing
the development of the governorate to Mr
Abd-al-Tawwab Abdallah al-Mulla
al-Huwaysh. During this guided tour,
al-Iraq recognized a tangible change
from what the governorate looked like
six months ago. That was obvious
from the feedback of the governorate's
population who had looked to the
best services from the State. Citizens of
the governorate noted that, if
their services were solicited, they were
more than willing to do whatever
was in their power.
Ahead of
meeting any official in the governorate's departments, the
deputy prime
minister held an expanded session with the directors general
of Al-Faw
General Engineering Companies and Jabir Bin-Hayyan al-Kindi. He
also
conferred with a number of the engineers and technicians who were
involved
in the first phase of the development scheme.
Mr Abd-al-Tawwab
al-Mullah Huwaysh had intended from that session to see
first-hand the
details that he had been following personally. He also
sought to find out
about the impediments that may have stood in the way,
as well as how to
find definitive answers through a cooperative effort
with the
governorate's departments. He asked if that cooperation had
measured up to
the ambition that matched the requirements of the
governorate's population
given that they deserve our best effort in view
of their palpable
patriotic stands. The minister was told that if it were
not for a
distinctive level of cooperation, these remarkable results
would not have
been possible.
However, it was pointed out to the deputy prime
minister that the
governorate suffered from outages in the electricity
supply that were as
long as 20 hours per day. At which point, he called
the head of the
Electricity Authority to ask about an outage that was
unheard of even
last summer. It turned out that the situation had been
brought on by
temporary measures, and the head of the authority emphasized
the need to
make sure there was no repeat of the interruptions in the
power supplies.
He noted that the consumers should be given advance notice
of any such
interruptions in the future.
The deputy prime
minister next conferred with the directors general of
the companies of the
Military Industrialization Authority who are
involved in this effort. He
underlined three fundamentals that had to be
observed in the day-to-day
running of things. These are the availability
of drinking water; the
proper maintenance of the sewage system; and the
cleanliness of the city.
He stressed that these fundamentals must take
first priority in this and
in every other job that the authority is
assigned on that jihad-based road
to further the well being of our great
people.
The deputy prime
minister was then informed that the right side Mosul
Water Project had
been completed and that the left side Mosul Water
Project was 96 per cent
complete. He urged the officials to exert
themselves when it came to
building water complexes.
At the end of the meeting with these
officials of the Military
Industrialization Authority, he called for
drawing up a questionnaire
that would canvass citizens on the measures
that had been taken in the
governorate of Ninawa. The respondents would be
asked to present
proposals as to how best the govenorate's work crews
could go about the
second phase of the development campaign which is to
get under way at the
start of the new year.
Afterwards, the
deputy prime minister held a broad-based meeting attended
by Mr Abd-al
Wahid Shinan Al Rabat, the governor of Ninawa and the
secretaries of the
Arab Socialist Ba'th Party chapters in the
governorate, plus the heads of
departments in the region. The governor
presented an outline of the
progress of the work and praised the deputy
prime minister's keeping track
of things and his Ministry's cooperation
in getting any snags that have
cropped up out of the way. The directors
of departments then present a
detailed lay out of their respective works.
The deputy prime
minister stressed that it is up to us to do all we can
for the good of the
population of the governorate of Ninawa and that we
are thereby not doing
this as a favour. This, he vowed, has been made
possible thanks to the
care and attention that the leader is giving to
his great people. We are
working on offering still superior services, he
added.
Addressing
the water problem in response to remarks made by the head of
the water
services in the governorate, Mr Abd-al-Tawwab al-Mulla Huwaysh,
had this
to say. Water is a cornerstone and we have been a source of
gratification
for us to learn that persistent problems had been worked
out. There is
going to be stability in the performance of water projects,
and, he added,
the problems that had troubled us in the past, are not
going to appear
again, particularly in the left side of the governorate.
The deputy prime
minister disclosed that funds had been budgeted for the
drinking water
network in Tall Afar and the old network, and work is set
to begin there
within the framework of the second phase. Also, the Iski
project has been
incorporated into the larger project.
Mr Abd-al-Tawwab Abdallah
al-Mulla Huwaysh then asked about how things
were going in regard to a
directive he had issued; namely that industrial
zones be created in the
governorate of Ninawa to handle pollutants and
other non-pollutant
substances. He urged that this matter receive the
serious attention it
deserved and that this directive in particular be
pursued so as to live up
to the right specifications of proper industrial
zones. He noted that a
person working in the industrial domain needed to
work within certain
controls and it was up to that individual to look
after the city, this
work being related to its civilized face. He said
the State was willing to
offer every assistance to these societies in
order for them to be able to
fulfil their responsibility.
The deputy prime minister underlined
the need to cut out courtesies when
it came to power outages and that the
consumer public should not be made
to suffer unnecessarily. He emphasized
that the mill operators who have
generators of their own must use them and
not be fed with electricity
supplies at night-time. The energy thus saved
should be channelled to
residential areas, he said.
Meanwhile,
the deputy prime minister attended part of the ceremony that
the
governorate set up and at which 72 specialized vehicles were paraded
after
having been repaired and rehabilitated. There were among them
rubble-removers,
steamrollers, and cranes.