Monday, May 12, 2003

 
Bush, Iraq, North Korea News Summaries

Frustrated, U.S. Arms Team to Leave Iraq (Washington Post) The group directing all known U.S. search efforts for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is winding down operations without finding proof that President Saddam Hussein kept clandestine stocks of outlawed arms, according to participants. The 75th Exploitation Task Force has been described from the start as the principal component of the U.S. plan to discover and display forbidden Iraqi weapons.

Former Iraqi official claims Syria is protecting one of the 'most wanted' Iraqis (UK Telegraph) The king of clubs from America's card deck of most wanted Iraqis is being sheltered at a military base in the Syrian capital Damascus, according to a Gulf diplomat. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former vice-president of Iraq and one of Saddam Hussein's closest henchmen, is said to be under the protection of Syria's Republican Guard in the decrepit military base near the airport. He is among thousands of regime figures who are believed to have slipped into Syria before Damascus sealed the border. [This claim seems distinctly similar ot the miriad of lies tossed around prior to the invasion of Iraq. Rest assured the Administration will use this as 'evidence' that Syria too should be invaded.]

U.S. to Syria: Don't Be 'On Wrong Side of History' (Reuters) Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday that Syria would find itself "on the wrong side of history" if it tried to destabilize postwar Iraq or continue harboring radical Palestinian groups. Powell spoke in an Israeli television interview after launching talks with Israel and the Palestinians on implementing a new "road map" peace plan. He said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should have "every incentive to respond" to issues he raised in talks with him in Damascus a week ago addressing strategic change in the Middle East after the fall of Iraq's Saddam Hussein in a U.S.-led war.

North Korea Warns Of Emergency Steps (Associated Press) North Korea warned on Sunday that it will take "emergency measures" if the U.S. does not drop what it described as a hostile policy toward the communist country. The warning an hour before South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun left for Washington for talks with President George W. Bush on the issue. "If the United States does not give up hostile policy toward North Korea and tries to resolve the nuclear issue by force to the end, we cannot but take emergency measures," the North's official newspaper Rodong Sinmun said, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

Powell Ends Mideast Talks with No Sign of Progress (Reuters) Secretary of State Colin Powell held critical talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Sunday but emerged with no sign of progress in persuading them to begin implementing a peace "road map." Powell tried but apparently failed to squeeze concessions from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas for ending 31 months of violence. Powell planned consultations with envoys of Washington's partners in the peacemaking Quartet -- the United Nations, European Union and Russia -- in Jerusalem on Monday morning before leaving for Cairo, a U.S. official told reporters.
 
Treasury Chief Sees Iraqi Oil Key to Rebuilding (Reuters) Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Sunday that Iraqi oil revenues will play a major role in helping to finance the nation's post-war reconstruction. The United States and Britain have introduced a U.N. draft resolution to phase out an oil-for-food humanitarian program for Iraq and end 12 years of U.N. sanctions against Iraq. The proposal would deposit Iraqi oil revenues in an "Iraqi Assistance Fund" for humanitarian and reconstruction purposes, to be held by the Iraqi Central Bank, currently managed by Peter McPherson, a former deputy U.S. Treasury secretary.

Bush Shakes Up Iraq Administration (Washington Post) The American diplomat serving as chief administrator of Baghdad has been reassigned by the Bush administration after less than three weeks in Iraq in what U.S. officials here said was part of a broader shake-up of the troubled Pentagon operation to rebuild the country. Barbara K. Bodine, a former ambassador to Yemen and the highest-ranking woman in the U.S.-led interim administration in Iraq, said she intended to leave for Washington on Sunday to fill a senior post at the State Department. Senior U.S. officials said other top members of the reconstruction effort here, including the overall leader, Jay M. Garner, a retired Army lieutenant general, and several of his close aides would depart soon.

Oil Income of $15 Billion a Year Won't Solve Iraq's Pressing Needs (WSJ) For years to come, Iraq's oil revenues could fall well short of what is needed to quickly revive the country and its shattered economy. The U.S. is counting on using Iraqi oil revenue to rebuild the country, but some observers question whether petrodollars alone can finance a stable Iraq. Western oil company officials say large-scale foreign investment in Iraq's oil industry is years away. Major oil companies are unwilling to invest the billions of dollars needed to develop large new oil fields until Iraq has a stable government, enacts a law governing the petroleum industry and negotiates sustainable deals -- developments that could take three years or longer.

Occupation of Iraq Has No Time Limit (Washington Post) Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday pledged to keep as many U.S. troops in Iraq as necessary to stabilize the country and said it could take longer than a year to create the conditions necessary for a new Iraqi government to assume control of the nation. "The United States is prepared to keep any number of troops that are appropriate and necessary in Iraq for as long as it takes to create a secure and permissive environment so that [the Iraqis] can go about their business of reconstructing their country," Rumsfeld said.

Iraq in danger of starvation, says UN (UK Guardian) Iraqi agriculture is on the brink of collapse, with fears that many of its 24.5 million people will go hungry this summer, according to a confidential report being studied by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation. A special assessment prepared by the UN agency's staff in Rome, which has been seen by The Observer, reveals a catastrophe in the making, with crops and poultry being especially hard hit. Government warehouses that would have served as the main suppliers of seeds, fertilisers and pesticide sprays have been looted, particularly in the centre and south of the country.

Seven Nuclear Sites Looted (Washington Post) Seven nuclear facilities in Iraq have been damaged or effectively destroyed by the looting that began in the first days of April according to U.S. investigators and others with detailed knowledge of their work. The Bush administration fears that technical documents, sensitive equipment and possibly radiation sources have been scattered. It is well documented that looters roamed unrestrained among stores of chemical elements and scientific files that would speed development, in the wrong hands, of a nuclear or radiological bomb. Many of the files, and some of the containers that held radioactive sources, are missing.

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posted by Thomas Ball 12:41 PM