News,
30/9-6/10/01 (1)
FINGER POINTING AT IRAQ
* Powell hints US campaign could target
Iraq
* Iraq removed from US target
list
* Iraq Accuses U.S. of
'Terrorizing' the World
*
'Hijacker met Iraqi diplomat in Prague' [Fairly detailed account
of
possible Iraqi connection to Mohammad Atta]
* Hussein overthrow could be risky, lawmakers
told [Also features ex-¹UN¹
my inverted commas, PB weapons inspector,
Charles Duelfer, saying: ^ĢIn its
war against Iran, Iraq "survived
and prevailed in that war because of their
possession of weapons of mass
destruction."¹ Which amounts to saying that
Iraq needs WMDs; and we
can only assume Mr Duelfer approves, unless, of
course, he wanted Iraq to
be taken by revolutionary Iran?]
*
Other US anti terrorism attacks expected in Sudan, Iraq, Lebanon and
Iran
[Sounds like Clinton¹s famous ^Ģpinpricks¹ which were so lustily
ridiculed by
Bush¹s present team when they were in opposition]
* Testing the mood in Iraq [Iraqi public
demonstrations going easy on the
anti-Americanism]
URLs
ONLY:
http://www.nydailynews.com/2001-10-01/News_and_Views/Beyond_the_City/a
126994.asp
* Iraqi's Mission: To Get Bin Laden a
Nuke
by BOB PORT and GREG B. SMITH
New York Daily News, 1st
October
Story of Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, Iraqi-trained electrical engineer,
from
testimony in Embassy bombing trial. Iraq as such does not appear to
be
implicated. Chemical factories in Sudan usually given as linked to Iraq
and
bin Laden are here given as being linked to Iran and bin Laden.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,248-2001342151,00.html
* The twin towers trail leads to Saddam
by
DANIEL FINKELSTEIN
The Times, 3rd October
The Laurie Mylroie thesis
about Iraq¹s possible involvement in the 1993 WTC
bombing, which has been
given much publicity in the US, comes to the The
Times. Whatever happened
to Abdul Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric who was
supposed to have been
the mastermind behind the 1993 bombing?
IRAQIMIDDLE EAST/ARAB WORLD
RELATIONS
* Iraq-Kuwait
border said calm despite violations
*
Iraq, Iran exchange remains of their war victims [So far as I know the
US
and Kuwait have never offered to return the remains of Iraqi war
victims on
the road to Basra]
*
Oman firms urged to boost trade with Iraq
* Saudi Arabia Beats Iraq 2-1 [in the final
round of Asian qualifying for
next year's World Cup]
MILITARY
MATTERS
* Iraq Protests U.S
Navy Acts Against Iraq-bound Ships
*
Coalition planes strike Iraqi no-fly zone [on Tuesday]
* Allied aircraft strike artillery sites in
southern Iraq for second
consecutive day [This and the following two
pieces, each of which adds a
little tidbit of information of its own, are
on the raids on Wednesday]
*
Allied Planes Strike Iraqi Sites
*
Two persons killed in new American raids against Iraq
* Special, Not Super [Amusing stories about
unfortunate experiences of US
Special forces fighting the same sort of war
in Iraq that they will have to
fight in Afghanistan]
AND
IN NEWS, 30/9-6/10/01 (2)
NORTHERN IRAQ/SOUTHERN KURDISTAN
* Iraqi Kurds Reports Attack by Armed Islamic
Groups
* Iraqi Kurds Brace for
U.S. Attack
* KDP and PUK in
Washington to jointly declare concern on situation in
northern Iraq
* Turkey shuts gateway to Iraqi
Kurdistan
URL ONLY:
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20011002-3530884.htm
* Look to the Kurds in Iraq
by Carole
O“Leary
Washington Times, 2nd October
OIL
* UK/Iraq Oil prices: European prices
approved
* War risk insurance
dents Iraqi exports
IRAQI/INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
* Russian firms win $40b Iraqi deals [They
must be desperate to get rid of
sanctions ...]
* Iraq raises objections over Pakistan wheat
quality
* Wheat issue: top
Pakistan team to visit Iraq shortly
CAMPAIGNING
* Sanctions on Iraq labelled terrorism [by
activists in Canada]
* British and
US planes attack Iraq again in battle that never ends [Good,
supportive
piece in The Scotsman. Congratulations to CASI¹s Per Klevnas for
an
effective interview, though anumal lovers among the peacenik boobies
won¹t
regret too much that ^ĢTherefore the chicken farming industry dies¹.
IRAQI/UN
RELATIONS
* UN: Iraq spends
too little on food
* Iraq Denies
UN Charge It Spends Too Little on Food
IRAQIS ABROAD
* Iraqi refugees become suspects in U.S.
attacks
* Danes investigate Iraqi
commander
* Iraqi man is ordered
detained for remarks
FINGER POINTING AT IRAQ
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=407389623
* POWELL HINTS US CAMPAIGN COULD TARGET
IRAQ
Times of India, 2nd October
WASHINGTON ( AFP ): US
Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday hinted the
United States might
eventually target Iraq as part of its anti-terrorism
campaign, but
stressed that Afghanistan-based Osama Bin Laden and his
al-Qaeda network
remain the primary objectives.
Asked if the Bush administration had
ruled out for the time being bombing
targets in Iraq, Powell told a CBS
television interviewer: "The president
has focused on the first phase
of the operation." "It deals with al-Qaeda,
it deals with Osama
bin Laden, it deals with the general issue of terrorism
around the
world.
"He has ruled nothing out with respect to the second, third
or fourth phases
of our campaign militarily." The United States has
designated Bin Laden,
currently sheltered by the ruling Taliban militia in
Afghanistan, as the
prime suspect in the September 11 suicide attacks in
New York and
Washington, which tool the lives of around 5,700
people.
The United States has so far produced no evidence to link
Iraq with the
operations against the World Trade Center in New York and
the Pentagon
outside Washington.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,561767,00.html
* IRAQ REMOVED FROM US TARGET LIST
by
Audrey Gillan and Julian Borger in Washington
The Guardian, 2nd
October
Jordan's King Abdullah said President George Bush had
promised not to launch
military strikes on Iraq as part of the retaliation
for the terrorist
attacks, according to reports from Amman
yesterday.
The Jordanian embassy played down the reports but
confirmed the king had
asked for an undertaking that Iraq would be
exempted when he visited
Washington on Friday, out of concern over Arab
public opinion and regional
stability.
Military sources and
diplomats in Washington confirmed Iraq had been taken
off a target list in
the war on terrorism, despite calls from the Pentagon
to use the conflict
to eliminate a long-standing foe.
"Iraq hasn't been on the
table for days," a military source with knowledge
of Pentagon
planning said yesterday.
The need to build a Middle Eastern
coalition in the hunt for Osama bin
Laden, and the absence of any solid
evidence of Iraqi involvement, are
thought to be behind the
decision.
Pentagon hawks such as the deputy defence secretary, Paul
Wolfowitz, had
argued that the most serious long-term threat to US
security was posed by
Iraq.
However the urgent need for
intelligence and concern at stoking instability
within friendly Arab
states have strengthened the hand of Colin Powell, the
secretary of state,
who had argued for a narrower campaign.
The Arab reaction to remarks
made by the Italian prime minister, Silvio
Berlusconi, about the superior
status of western civilisation, has
demonstrated the perils of allowing
the conflict to be portrayed as a
western crusade against Islam.
According
to Jordan's state-run news agency Petra, King Abdullah told army
officers
that President Bush had "promised not to deliver a military strike
against
Iraq or any Arab country as part of a retaliatory response for the
attacks".
The White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, denied any such promise
was
made. "What the president told the king is those who harbour
terrorists
will meet the same fate as the terrorists," he said.
Military
observers in Washington say the compromise reached within the
administration
has been to target Bin Laden's forces and their Taliban hosts
in the first
wave of the military campaign. US-led special forces would
retain a heavy
presence in the region over the next few years, carrying out
raids
whenever intelligence indicated any emerging terrorist threat. Such
raids
could target Iraqi installations.
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=worldnews&StoryID=262022
* IRAQ ACCUSES U.S. OF 'TERRORIZING' THE
WORLD
by Hassan Hafidh
Reuters, 3rd October
BAGHDAD: Iraq
accused the United States on Wednesday of using its huge
military build up
against Osama bin Laden and Afghanistan as a way of
"terrorizing"
the world.
Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said the hunt for one
man and possible
action against Afghanistan's Taliban rulers did not
require such a large
force.
"The American military
preparation is a war against humanity, not against a
single country or a
single individual. (It) aims at terrorizing the whole
world," Aziz
told reporters.
"That country and that individual do not need
such a great amount of
military arsenal. The main objective of these
military preparations is to
impose U.S. hegemony and imperialism on the
world."
The U.S. military is mobilizing heavily in the Gulf and
Indian Ocean regions
in apparent preparation for an assault on
Afghanistan, whose Taliban rulers
have sheltered bin Laden -- Washington's
prime suspect for the September 11
attacks on the United States in which
some 6,000 people were killed or are
missing.
U.S. officials
have not ruled out raids on other countries they accuse of
harboring
"terrorists." Iraq is one of seven nations Washington regards
as
"state sponsors of terrorism."
"If the United
States is planning for a new aggression (against Iraq) we
will confront
such aggression as we had done in the past," Aziz said.
[.....]
Aziz condemned Iraq's foe Kuwait for accusing two Iraqi nationals
of spying.
Kuwaiti state television last week showed two men it described
as Iraqi
agents who had spied on military and civilian targets in
Kuwait.
"The Kuwaiti rulers are lying and they are trying to
find false excuses for
the United States to launch new aggression on Iraq,"
he said.
[.....]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=1226338950
* 'HIJACKER MET IRAQI DIPLOMAT IN
PRAGUE'
Times of India, 5th October
PRAGUE ( AFP ): Mohamed
Atta, one of the hijackers of the plane that crashed
into New York's World
Trade Center, visited Prague at least twice in 2000
and met with an Iraqi
diplomat, the Czech daily Dnes said on Friday.
The Egyptian national
met with the former consul of the Iraqi embassy in
Prague, Ahmed Khalil
Ibrahim Samir Al-Ani, who was subsequently declared
persona non grata and
expelled, said the paper, citing intelligence
services.
Czech
interior minister Stanislav Gross revealed recently that Atta,
identified
as the pilot who flew a jet into the north tower of the World
Trade
Centre, travelled to Prague in June 2000 but was not allowed to stay.
Arriving
from Germany, he had no visa to enter the country, and therefore
spent a
few hours at Prague airport before departing on a flight bound for
New
Jersey, the minister said.
According to Dnes, Atta visited Prague
"a few months later" and met the
Iraqi diplomat.
Czech
intelligence services do not know exactly what the two men discussed,
and
can therefore, draw no concrete link between the meeting and any Iraqi
implication
in the September 11 attacks, the paper said.
Last April, Ahmed
Khalil Ibrahim Samir Al-Ani was declared persona non grata
due to
"activities incompatible with his status as a diplomat" and
expelled
from the country, the foreign ministry said.
On
September 20, the interior ministry announced it was investigating Atta's
activities
in the Czech Republic, as well as those of other suspects, saying
it would
transmit any information directly to US authorities.
http://europe.cnn.com/2001/US/10/05/ret.house.saddam.overthrow/index.html
* HUSSEIN OVERTHROW COULD BE RISKY, LAWMAKERS
TOLD
CNN, 5th October
WASHINGTON: Overthrowing Saddam Hussein
could cause problems for the United
States without strong evidence of an
Iraqi connection to the September 11
terrorist attacks, House lawmakers
were cautioned this week.
Without such evidence, one expert on Iraq
told the House Subcommittee on the
Middle East and South Asia, the United
States could have trouble forming a
coalition against Iraq's
president.
At present there is only circumstantial evidence tying
Hussein to the deadly
strikes on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, and
that's not enough, said
Geoffrey Kemp, who spoke with lawmakers.
"Anti-Americanism
in the Muslim world is intense and pervasive," said Kemp,
who served
in the first Reagan administration as senior director for the
State
Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. "There is no guarantee
that
any of Saddam's successors ... will be any less anti-American than
Saddam
or that they will disband their weapons of mass destruction programs.
"In
the process, we could anticipate a severe backlash throughout the Muslim
world,"
Kemp said.
The House subcommittee has been scrutinizing Hussein's
activities since
United Nations weapons inspectors pulled out of Iraq
three years ago ahead
of U.S.-British air strikes. Iraqi officials say
their nation has eliminated
its weapons of mass destruction and the means
to produce them, but lawmakers
aren't convinced.
"There's
no other way to fully and finally end the threat Iraq poses to our
national
security," Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-New York, the subcommittee's
chairman,
said at a hearing Thursday. "While we are striking at other
terrorists,
we should end the regime of a master terrorist like Saddam."
Rep.
Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, agreed. "If we're serious about ending,
destroying,
stopping international terrorism, we absolutely have to target
Saddam
Hussein," he said.
The United States should have ousted Hussein
during the 1991 Gulf War, added
Rep. Tom Lantos, D-California. Failing to
topple Hussein 10 years ago was
"one of the great policy mistakes of
the end of the 20th century," he said.
Once the international
coalition against terrorism has finished its job with
suspected terrorist
mastermind Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network,
then "this
nation and our willing allies will have to move on to get rid of
Saddam
Hussein and other similar regimes," Lantos said.
Hussein's
arsenal includes weapons of mass destruction, and possibly nuclear
weapons,
experts told the subcommittee.
Iraq, if pushed, could attack a
neighboring state with an array of weaponry,
"including nuclear,
chemical and biological weapons," Kemp said.
Iraq has used
chemical weapons before, said Charles Duelfer, who was a top
official of
UNSCOM, the weapons inspection group that monitored Iraq until
pulling out
three years ago. In its war against Iran, Iraq "survived and
prevailed
in that war because of their possession of weapons of mass
destruction,"
he said. "One can only assume that they continue to harbor
ambitions
of having a full array of these weapons, including nuclear."
Iraq
is just as capable of using biological weapons, said Gary Milhollin,
director
of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control. Iraq has "the
strains,
the equipment and the know-how necessary to make biological
weapons,"
said Milhollin. The country, he warned, has "stocks of chemical
agents"
and a "workable nuclear design."
Quoting to weapons
inspectors, Milhollin said Iraq needed about "15 to 16
kilograms of
high enriched uranium" to complete a "successful" nuclear
bomb.
"If Iraq could acquire that somehow on the international
black market, I
think we have to assume that Iraq could make a bomb within
weeks -- months
at the most," he said.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/011006/2001100607.html
* OTHER US ANTI TERRORISM ATTACKS EXPECTED IN
SUDAN, IRAQ, LEBANON AND IRAN
Arabic News, 6th October
The
advisor at the CIA and the FBI Marvin Citron has stated in an interview
issued
by the Italian daily Correire Dela Seira that there will be other
attacks
besides those at Afghanistan in the expected military campaign to
fight
terrorism.
Citron who prepared a report on terrorism last year 2000
for the two said
agencies ( CIA, FBI) explained that there will be light
attacks in other
countries like Sudan, Iran, Iraq and Lebanon and might
possible in Pakistan
where terrorism training camps do exist.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/from_our_own_correspondent/newsid_158
1000/1581454.stm
* TESTING THE MOOD IN IRAQ
by Barbara Plett
BBC,
6th October
[.....]
They had been called up to show
their support for the Palestinian intifadah.
First came the Palestinians,
chanting about sacred land and the power of
stones. Then the Syrians in
disciplined rows, the Tunisians tight-lipped and
serious, the Somalis
beautiful and straggling at the rear.
The Sudanese strolled along
chatting casually until they reached the UN
headquarters, where they
suddenly became sweaty, angry flag burners
shouting: "Down, down
USA."
They'd had lots of practice since 1998. I remembered that
chant echoing
through Khartoum after a US missile struck the medicine
factory allegedly
connected to chemical weapons and to Osama Bin
Laden.
Now it's Osama Bin Laden again, more strikes expected, and
this time it was
Iraq that might be in the line of fire. It was the topic
on everyone's mind,
but no one could talk about it.
Our
government minders would not allow us to sound out public opinion. They
had
been given strict instructions to prevent any display of anti-American
sentiment.
Baghdad didn't want to encourage the hawks in Washington that
were
lobbying to put it on the list of targets.
It wasn't clear to me why
the Sudanese could burn American flags when I
couldn't even ask a question
about America, but of course, it was clear to
the minder: These are other
Arabs, he emphasised, not Iraqis.
[.....]
Iraq was
notably the only Arab country that did not initially condemn the
attacks.
That didn't go down well in Washington at all. But the Iraqi
president
refused to budge.
To send condolences would be hypocritical when
America was waging war on
Iraq, he said, and we are not hypocrites.
The
Americans need advice more than condolences, one of his deputies added.
That
is why we stressed it was time for them to rethink their foreign
policy,
which is what led to the New York attacks, he said.
All perfectly
logical from an Iraqi point of view, and, it has to be said,
in many parts
of the Arab world. In fact, the words were probably directed
at the Arab
world, but not exactly designed to deflect angry attention from
across the
ocean.
The authorities continued to direct local attention to the
anniversary of
the Palestinian uprising. At another rally tens of
thousands of people were
bussed to the parade grounds in Baghdad.
There
were lots of anti-Israeli slogans and banners. The Israeli Prime
Minister
Ariel Sharon was burned in effigy, but Iraq's public enemy number
one did
not get similar treatment. These were Iraqis, after all, not other
Arabs.
The US, what US? said the people. It's not our concern.
I
couldn't help but feel a grudging admiration for this rather impressive
feat
of mass organisation, in every respect. Privately, people did express
fears
that Iraq would be hit, and hit hard.
But concerns about America's
plans were added to an already heavy load of
daily burdens - the struggle
to survive after more than a decade of UN
sanctions. To some extent there
was a resigned air of deja vu. We've been
here before, we know what to do,
we certainly know what to say.
[.....]
IRAQIMIDDLE
EAST/ARAB WORLD RELATIONS
http://europe.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/10/01/iraq.un.border.reut/index.html
* IRAQ-KUWAIT BORDER SAID CALM DESPITE
VIOLATIONS
CNN, 2nd October
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N.
peacekeepers monitoring the Iraq-Kuwait
border said Monday that 255
violations had occurred along the frontier over
a six-month period, most
apparently involving U.S. and British planes.
In a survey of the
U.N. Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission, known as UNIKOM,
Secretary General
Kofi Annan said the demilitarized zone between the
countries
"remained generally calm" despite the 255 violations: 10 on the
ground,
8 for carrying weapons, 74 at sea and 163 in the air.
The report
declined to give details of the aircraft involved, as Iraq had
demanded,
saying they were "flying too high to be observed or
identified."
It noted, however, that Baghdad had documented the
flights and complained
bitterly about the failure of UNIKOM to do
likewise.
The United States and Britain have declared unilateral
no-fly zones over
large chunks of Iraq. They often use Kuwaiti airspace
and fly over the
demilitarized zone.
In other violations,
UNIKOM said uniformed Iraqis entered the zone seven
times and Kuwaiti
police once, all with arms.
Maritime violations involved Iraqi
fishing boats straying into Kuwaiti
waters and ground violations occurred
when Iraqi vehicles used a gravel road
that crosses in and out of Kuwaiti
territory, the report said.
UNIKOM, established after the 1991 Gulf
War, numbers 1,319 troops and
military observers from more than 30
countries, including a 757-member
Bangladeshi infantry battalion.
Annan,
in the six-month report, recommended the mission continue. The U.N.
Security
Council is expected to back that request.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/011001/2001100110.html
* IRAQ, IRAN EXCHANGE REMAINS OF THEIR WAR
VICTIMS
IArabic News, 1st October
Iraq and Iran have set
October 13 as a date to hold the operation of
exchanging remains of
fighting who were killed in the war between the two
countries during the
year 1980- 1988.
The Iraqi daily al-Joumhoreyah ( the Republic )
said on Sunday that the
Iraqi- Iranian joint committee to this effect was
able during their recent
meetings on October 10th from eliminating certain
negative aspects that used
to emerge in previous meetings.
The
committee, according to the Iraqi daily, reached an agreement on new
areas
of work in Misan area in search for the remains of killed soldiers
near
al-Amara in the south after ending work in al-Shalamija south area. In
this
area remains to be found will be exchanged.
Worthy mentioning that
that two countries for several times exchanged
remains of killed persons
in the war in the south and central parts of Iraq
in the framework of a
program agreed upon between them.
On August 16, the two countries
exchanged the remains of 318 Iraqi and
Iranian soldiers.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=28001
* OMAN FIRMS URGED TO BOOST TRADE WITH
IRAQ
by Arif Ali
Gulf News, 3rd October
Muscat: Oman's
private sector should move quickly to boost its trade links
with Iraq if
the GCC state is to fully utilise the $350 million quota fixed
by the UN
under the oil-for-food programme, Maqbool bin Ali Sultan, Minister
of
Commerce and Industry, warned yesterday.
Addressing businessmen at
the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he
said: "Oman's private
sector has been slow and did not utilise the
opportunity available in
Iraq. Omani exports amounted to only $49 million
until the 9th stage of
the UN programme."
Ali Sultan recently became the first Omani
minister to visit Iraq after the
Gulf War. He said his visit resulted in
an agreement paving the way to
promote Omani private sector products in
Iraq.
He hope the private sector would have a sizeable presence in
the forthcoming
Baghdad International Trade Exhibition.
[.....]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011005/sp/soc_world_cup_rdp_2.html
* SAUDI ARABIA BEATS IRAQ 2-1
Yahoo (from
Associated Press), 5th October
Saudi Arabia held on to first place in
Group A of the final round of Asian
qualifying for next year's World Cup,
beating Iraq 2-1 Friday at Amman,
Jordan.
Abdullah Shihan put
Saudi Arabia in the first minute, but Abdul-Wahab
Abul-Hail tied the score
in the 32nd minute. Shinan scored again in the
40th.
Saudi
Arabia (4-1-2) has 14 points, two ahead of Iran (3-0-3) and seven in
front
of Iraq (2 4-1).
At Tehran, Iran won 1-0 against visiting Thailand
(0-2-3) on Ali Reza Vahedi
Nikbakht's goal in the 32nd minute.
The
two Asian group winners qualify for next year's 32-nation field in Japan
and
South Korea, and the second-place teams advance to playoffs. China
(4-0-1)
can clinch first place in Group B on Sunday with a win or a tie
against
visiting Oman (0-3-2).
MILITARY MATTERS
http://www.bernama.com/world/wo0110_5.htm
* IRAQ PROTESTS U.S NAVY ACTS AGAINST
IRAQ-BOUND SHIPS
BAGHDAD, Oct 1 (Bernama-Kyodo): Iraq asked U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan
on Sunday to help end U.S. ''acts of piracy
and terrorism'' against Iraqi
and Iraq-bound passenger and cargo vessels,
the Iraqi News Agency (INA)
reported.
Iraq's Foreign Minister
Naji Sabri made the request in a letter that said
U.S. Navy personnel have
been ''harassing and beating the crews of these
vessels and sometimes
sinking their ships.''
Sabri said the Iraqi-bound vessel Georgy was
seized for 34 days with its
12-member crew, and then it was sunk Aug.
5.
The foreign minister also said that on Sept. 11, a group of 15
U.S. Marines
boarded a passenger vessel bound for Iraq's Um-Qasr port and
stormed the
captain's cabin and the engine room, keeping the crew and the
captain out.
The Marines even searched the pockets of the crew and
seized their identity
cards and documents, which they took to their
warship for copying, he said.
http://europe.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/10/02/iraq.attack/index.html
* COALITION PLANES STRIKE IRAQI NO-FLY
ZONE
CNN, 2nd October
WASHINGTON: Planes in the U.S.-British
coalition enforcing the Iraqi no-fly
zones conducted another strike in the
area Tuesday.
"In response to hostile Iraqi threats against
coalition pilots and aircrews,
coalition aircraft used precision-guided
weapons today to strike an Iraqi
anti-aircraft artillery site in southern
Iraq at approximately 8 a.m. EDT,"
a Pentagon statement said.
The
Pentagon statement said the strikes were "executed as self-defense
measures
in response to Iraqi hostile threats and acts against coalition
aircrews
and their aircraft and are not related to the president's campaign
against
terrorism."
The last strike in the southern no-fly zone was
against command and control
sites on September 27.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20011003_648.html
* ALLIED AIRCRAFT STRIKE ARTILLERY SITES IN
SOUTHERN IRAQ FOR SECOND
CONSECUTIVE DAY
ABC News, 3rd October
RIYADH,
Saudi Arabia (AP) Allied warplanes attacked military installations
in
southern Iraq on Wednesday, the second such airstrike in two days, a U.S.
military
spokesman said.
Warplanes struck two anti-aircraft artillery sites
in Shahban, 225 miles
southeast of Baghdad, in response to threats against
planes patrolling the
southern no-fly zone Wednesday, said Chief Petty
Officer David Nagle.
Nagle, spokesman for the Saudi-based
U.S.-British Joint Task Force Southwest
Asia, did not elaborate on the
nature of the threats. All aircraft returned
safely to base, he
said.
No damage assessment was available, and Iraqi officials did
not immediately
comment on the strikes.
A day earlier, U.S. and
British aircraft attacked an Iraqi military
installation at Al-Hallah, 265
miles southeast of Baghdad.
[.....]
http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,313414-412,00.shtml
* ALLIED PLANES STRIKE IRAQI SITES
CBS,
3rd October
[.....]
The Iraqi military spokesman said
Riyadh Nahi Shaker and Murtadha Abdel Amir
were killed in the air raids,
while Amjad Rahim Khudhair was injured,
according to the agency
report.
[.....]
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/011004/2001100417.html
* TWO PERSONS KILLED IN NEW AMERICAN RAIDS
AGAINST IRAQ
Arabic News, 4th October
[.....]
The
spokesman added that several American and British warplanes formations
backed
by AWACS plane carried out armed sorties over areas in the provinces
of
al-Basra, Zee Qar, al-Muthanna, al-Najaf, Dahouk, Arbiel and Ninoa,
noting
that the raiding planes bombarded services and civilian targets in
al-Basra
province and this resulted in killing two and wounding another.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2680-2001Oct3.html
* SPECIAL, NOT SUPER
by Rick
Atkinson
Washington Post, 3rd October
The Pentagon's
confirmation that U.S. Special Forces have deployed to
Central Asia should
unsettle even a fugitive as elusive as Osama bin Laden.
Not only are
Special Forces among the finest combat troops in the American
military,
they are among the best trained, best equipped and best
conditioned
soldiers of any army in any era.
But we need look no further than
the Persian Gulf War a decade ago to see
that there are limits to what can
be expected of these elite forces, whose
ranks include Navy SEALs, Air
Force gunship crews and Army Rangers, Delta
Force commandos, and
helicopter units. In a war in which virtually
everything went right
militarily, the 9,400 SF troops deployed against Iraq
had a
disproportionate share of frustration, disappointment and failure.
Their
experience in the Persian Gulf in 1991 suggests some of the challenges
they
face in Afghanistan today.
[.....]
Two Delta Force
squadrons, the Task Force 160 helicopter unit and a Ranger
company -- some
800 men -- roamed through western Iraq in a hunt for Scud
missiles without
destroying a single confirmed mobile missile launcher.
Traveling in teams
of 20 to 40 men for up to two weeks at a time, the
commandos certainly
complicated Iraqi efforts to launch Scuds at Israel. But
finding a flatbed
missile truck in an area nearly the size of New England
proved as
difficult in 1991 as finding a terrorist ringleader in a country
the size
of Texas may be in 2001; the task has been called "reading
Braille,"
a tactile sensing of the land and its many hiding places. On
several
occasions SF troops found themselves chased for many miles across
the
desert by Iraqi soldiers also able to read Braille.
Other SF
missions proved even more frustrating. Five Green Beret
"A-teams"
-- squads of six to ten specialists usually commanded
by a captain or a
warrant officer -- found only trouble in searching for
mobile Scuds in
eastern Iraq; at least two teams were spotted immediately
after being
inserted by helicopter and required emergency
extraction.
On the eve of the Allied ground offensive, 10 A-teams
were given deep
reconnaissance missions to watch for signs of an Iraqi
counterattack. This
required living for days in a "hide site,"
meticulously constructed holes
usually built for three men with a
subterranean frame of plastic tubing and
plywood that is then camouflaged
with chicken wire, burlap and spray paint.
Teams are taught to avoid
shrubbery lest it attract grazing animals, and to
keep their own waste in
sealed bags to avoid luring dogs. Because any sudden
gesture can betray
them, the men practice moving with exaggerated
deliberation, as though
operating underwater. Special pains are taken to
"sterilize"
each hide site before climbing in, by sweeping away boot prints
with whisk
brooms and even using fingers to resculpt any tire tracks in the
area.
Two
of the missions were scrubbed before being launched; a few dug in
without
incident, including one team that hid for 60 hours and saw nothing
but two
Bedouin and a camel. Others, however, including two halfway to
Baghdad,
were betrayed by native children or villagers, leading to ferocious
firefights
and extraordinary rescue operations by SF helicopter crews.
[.....]
Rick
Atkinson, author of "Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf
War,"
is writing a narrative history of the American Army in the liberation
of
Europe in World War II.