[Peace-discuss] News notes 030406

[C. G. Estabrook]

	Notes on the week's news from the "War on Terrorism"
	for the AWARE meeting, Sunday, April 6, 2003 --

	On this date in 1898 in St. Louis, Emma Goldman delivers her
	lecture "Patriotism," still very much worth reading today:
	"...our hearts swell with pride at the thought that America is
	becoming the most powerful nation on earth, and that it will
	eventually plant her iron foot on the necks of all other nations."

<dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/goldman/aando/patriotism.html>:

THEME OF THE WEEK: "We have no ambition there for ourselves, we seek no
wider war" --President Lyndon Johnson, February 17, 1965.

[1] "GOOD COP" POWELL ANNOUNCES NEXT VICTIMS. On Sunday, Powell said Iran
must stop its drive for weapons of mass destruction and Syria must end its
support for terrorism. In a strongly worded speech to the pro-Israel lobby
[AIPAC], Powell bracketed Iran and Syria with Iraq as promoters of
terrorism and suggested they faced grave consequences. His tough words
matched those last week of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and served
to signal unity within the Bush administration on the anti-terror front 

Rumsfeld on Friday accused Syria of supplying military technology to Iraq,
a charge Syria denied. He also said the United States would hold Iran
responsible for the entrance of Iran-sponsored forces into Iraq. Carrying
the threat a step forward, Powell on Sunday demanded that Iran "stop its
support for terrorism against Israel" and said Tehran also "must stop its
pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and the ability to produce them."
Turning to the regime in Damascus, Powell said "Syria now faces a critical
choice" of whether to "continue its direct support for terrorism in the
dying days" of President Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq. "Syria bears
responsibility for its choices and consequences," Powell said sternly at
the 44th annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee. And Powell said, to wide applause from the heavily Jewish
audience, "we will keep his weapons of mass destruction from the Middle
East." [AP 0331]

[2] DESTROYING EVIDENCE OF POWELL LIES. Dozens killed as US special forces
overrun 'terrorist' camps.  US special forces working with Kurdish militia
have over-run the base camps of Ansar al-Islam, a small Kurdish Islamic
group which achieved sudden notoriety when the US administration claimed
it was linked both to al-Qa'ida and Saddam Hussein.  About 100 US Special
Forces and 6,000 Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) peshmerga started
their attack last Friday against an Ansar force of 700, which for several
years has occupied a narrow wedge of hills between the eastern Kurdish
city of Halabja and the Iranian border. Barham Salih, the prime minister
of PUK-controlled eastern Kurdistan, said: "It was a very tough battle.
You're talking about a bunch of terrorists who are very well-trained and
well-equipped." He said 17 of his men and up to 150 Ansar militants were
killed. Ansar has been a thorn in the side of the PUK government, fiercely
defending its handful of villages close to the border with Iran, but in
Kurdish politics it was a small player. It came to international attention
when Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, claimed before the UN
Security Council that Ansar had connections simultaneously to al-Qa'ida
and Baghdad. But it was always an unlikely alliance. General Powell said
an al-Qa'ida member called Abu Musab Zarqawi had established a "poison and
explosive training factory" on Ansar territory. He also said the Iraqi
government had "an agent in the most senior levels of Ansar". The claim
that Ansar was linked to al-Qa'ida was encouraged by the PUK, which wanted
to get rid of a local irritant, and could point to some 100 Arabs within
the group who had previously been in Afghanistan. But Mr Salih said Ansar
had no link to Baghdad because the Iraqi Arabs with the group were clearly
anti-Saddam Hussein. In the few villages it held, Ansar had instituted an
Islamic regime similar to that of the Taliban in Afghanistan where
television, dancing, girls' schools and women appearing without a veil
were prohibited. There was little firm evidence, however, that Ansar was
connected to al Qa'ida.  The site alleged to have been the poison factory
turned out to be controlled by another Islamic group.  Mullah Krekar, the
leader of Ansar, in exile in Norway, denied any link with President
Saddam, whom he frequently denounced. "As a Kurdish man I believe he is
our enemy," he said. He also denied that a senior Ansar Iraqi Arab
commander called Abu Wa'el was linked to Iraqi intelligence, describing
him as "a toothless diabetic, too old feeble to harm anyone". Ansar could
not have survived without Iranian support, probably channelled through the
Revolutionary Guards just across the Iranian border. In recent months,
however, aid has been reduced or cut off because Iran fears complications
with the US.  In an authoritative report on Ansar published earlier in the
year, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said prophetically:
"Should Ansar lose its Iranian sponsor, it would be deprived of its
critical fall-back area across the border, and in the face of concerted
PUK assault, possibly with US assistance, it would not be likely to
survive as a visible fighting force."  Meanwhile on the front line north
of Kirkuk, Iraqi forces have fallen back seven or eight miles to a ridge
defending the city. The withdrawal, completed over the weekend, was
carefully planned and retreating troops left nothing in their bunkers.
Troops to the east of Kirkuk also pulled back to less exposed positions
nearer the city. [P. COCKBURN, INDEPENDENT UK 0331]

[3] THE BRITS' MOST DANGEROUS ENEMY. They will never forget the sound of
the guns: a cross between a moan and a roar, a fierce rattling of 30mm
cannon-fire from two A-10 Thunderbolts flying low overhead. The aircraft
shouldn't have been in the British-controlled area -- they were
"cowboying" at just 500ft looking for something to have a crack at. Last
Friday morning, two American pilots turned their guns on a convoy of five
British vehicles from the Household Cavalry, killing one man just three
days shy of his 26th birthday, injuring four others and wiping out two
armoured reconnaissance vehicles from the squadron's Two Troop. Two Iraqi
civilians, waving a large white flag, were also killed. Coloured smoke
signs were sent up to indicate that they were friendly troops but it
didn't stop the attack. The planes came back a second time, seriously
injuring those who had managed to scramble out with only superficial
wounds. The gunner Matty Hull, however, was the victim of a direct hit
into his gun turret. The men in the Scimitars were screaming over the
radio "stop the friendly fire, we are being engaged by friendly fire" and
"pop smoke, pop smoke". The forward air-controller, who liaises with
Allied air forces to bring in fire missions, was shouting "check fire,
check fire". Frantic calls were made to 16 Air Assault Brigade
headquarters to find out what was going on. No one seemed to know. The
A-10s were about to take a third swing when they were told by the US air
patroller working with the Household Cavalry to stop firing. And instead
of giving air cover while helicopters came in to evacuate casualties, they
baled out. The attack took place within the Household Cavalry's
battlefield control line which means that everything in the air should be
controlled by them and their embedded US air controller. The A-10s were
well out of their own area and the matter is being investigated amid calls
from some of the British troops involved that the pilots be prosecuted for
manslaughter. One of those injured in the attack, Lance Corporal of Horse
Steven Gerrard, 33, said yesterday: "He [the pilot] had absolutely no
regard for human life. I believe he was a cowboy. There were four or five
that I noticed earlier and this one had broken off and was on his own when
he attacked us. He'd just gone out on a jolly. I'm curious about what's
going to happen to the pilot."  The two Scimitars had been proving a road,
checking for landmines, enemy locations, assault batteries.  Amid the
grief, the British anger could not be contained. All of D Squadron's
vehicles are marked, with fluorescent panels on the roofs, flags and other
markings. It was something the soldiers kept repeating.  "We spend all
this money marking out our vehicles so this doesn't happen," one said, and
"as far as I am concerned, those two pilots should be done for
manslaughter."  Trooper Joe Woodgate, 19, the driver of the Scimitar in
which Corporal Hull was killed, walked away with holes in his bullet-proof
vest and a tear in either side of his shirtsleeve where shrapnel entered
and exited, without touching his arm. All the rest of his colleagues had
to be evacuated to the hospital ship Argos.  "I didn't realise that it was
the Americans that had hit us. I thought we had been contacted by an Iraqi
T-55 tank or something hiding out in the village," he said. "That gun, I
don't want to ever hear that again. It's like a cross between a moan and a
roar it's that fast." [GUARDIAN UK 0331] The widow of Lance
Corporal-of-Horse Matty Hull has told of her devastation at his loss. "It
is not easy to come to terms with the fact that someone who was so full of
life has had his so cruelly cut short, just three days before his 26th
birthday, but come to terms with it we must," his widow, Susan, said.
L/Cpl Hull, 25, of the Blues and Royals, Household Cavalry Regiment, was
killed when light armoured vehicles of D Squadron were hit by an American
A-10 "tankbuster" aircraft firing depleted uranium shells at two armoured
vehicles.

[4] SOMETIMES CONDITIONING FAILS. Two British servicemen have been sent
home from the Middle East after refusing to fight in the war against Iraq,
The Sunday Times reported. They said they would refuse to fight because of
the civilian casualties being caused by the US-British attack. They face
possible court martial and up to two years in jail for disobeying orders.
The two British soldiers are from 16 Air Assault Brigade, a frontline
unit, which has been engaged in heavy fighting in southern Iraq. Their
lawyer says they were ordered to return to the brigade's barracks in
Colchester, Essex, after raising their objections earlier this month. The
cases were confirmed this weekend by Justin Hugheston-Roberts, a solicitor
advocate who chairs Forces Law, a nationwide group of 22 law firms that
acts for service personnel and their families. "These cases are being
handled by a very experienced lawyer," he said. Gilbert Blades, a
Lincoln-based lawyer, said the Ministry of Defense was trying to hush up
the cases because it feared a public relations disaster. [AJ 0331]

[5] THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO KILL PEOPLE. In Monday's shooting incident,
soldiers opened fire at a vehicle that had ignored warnings to stop,
killing seven women and children and wounding two.  The four other
occupants of the vehicle were unhurt. The shooting took place near the
scene of a suicide bombing that killed four US soldiers at the weekend.
[AFTER WHICH THE AMERICANS KILLED AN UNKNOWN NUMBER OF IRAQIS BY SHOOTING
UP ALL THE TAXIS THAT CAME BY.] The soldiers involved "absolutely did the
right thing," General Peter Pace, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, said. "Our soldiers on the ground have an absolute right to defend
themselves." [PARTICULALRLY AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN, APPARENTLY.]

[6] BLURTING OUT THE TRUTH. In the UK a government minister admitted on
Monday that Iraqis did not yet see coalition troops as being on their
side. "We know that for the moment we will be seen as the villains," Home
Secretary David Blunkett told the BBC. "But once this is over and there is
a free Iraq, with a democratic state [WAIT FOR IT] the population as a
whole will say that we want a free country." US President George Bush said
there would be no pause in the assault, promising the Iraqi people that
"we are coming and we will not stop, we will not relent until your country
is free" [A LIE, AS USUAL].  [BBC 0331]

[7] HONOR AMONG THIEVES. A disagreement has broken out at a senior level
within the Bush administration over a new government that the US is
secretly planning in Kuwait to rule Iraq in the immediate period after the
overthrow of Saddam Hussein.  Under the plan, the government will consist
of 23 ministries, each headed by an American. Every ministry will also
have four Iraqi advisers appointed by the Americans, the Guardian has
learned.  The government will take over Iraq city by city. Areas declared
"liberated" by General Tommy Franks will be transferred to the temporary
government under the overall control of Jay Garner, the for mer US general
appointed to head a military occupation of Iraq.  In anticipation of the
Baghdad regime's fall, members of this interim government have begun
arriving in Kuwait.  Decisions on the government's composition appear to
be entirely in US hands, particularly those of Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy
secretary of defence. This has annoyed Gen Garner, who is officially in
charge but who, according to sources close to the planning of the
government, has had to accept the inclusion of a number of controversial
Iraqis in advisory roles. The most controversial of Mr Wolfowitz's
proposed appointees is Ahmed Chalabi, the head of the opposition Iraqi
National Congress, together with his close associates, including his
nephew. [GUARDIAN UK 0401]

[8] ON APRIL FOOLS' DAY, THE WSJ EDITORIALIZES: "All in all the Rumsfeld
war plan seems to be succeeding very well. Angered by Saddam's criminal
tactics, and determined now that American lives are at stake, public
support is firming behind it. The one fatal attraction would be to fall
now for a 'diplomatic pause' or cease fire."

[9] SOMETIMES CONDITIONING FAILS (II). White House To End Drugs & Terror
Ads. Also Stops Study That Found Campaign Wasn't Working [ADAGE.COM 0401]

[10] THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO KILL PEOPLE (AGAIN). At least 11 members of the
same family - mostly children - have been killed in a coalition air strike
on a residential district in central Iraq, western news reports say.
Hospital sources in Hilla, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of
Baghdad, said they were among 33 civilians killed and more than 300
injured in the attack early on Tuesday morning. [BBC 0401]

[11] MORE ON THE NEXT VICTIMS. "US intelligence reports" are credited with
the information that Iran's senior leadership decided last month to send
irregular paramilitary units across their border with Iraq to harass
American soldiers once Saddam Hussein's regime fell, according to U.S. On
March 24, a U.S. intelligence agency issued a "spot report" to a wide
range of senior U.S. officials detailing conversations in a meeting of the
Islamic Republic's top leadership in the equivalent of the U.S. National
Security Council. The council, which is working on Iran's post-conflict
strategy, includes Iranian President Mohammed Khatami and Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamanei. "This confirmed all of our suspicions that the
Iranians are not our friends and not for peace in the region. They are in
fact for a piece of the region," one U.S. intelligence official told
United Press International. This official said the units would target the
Iraqi cities of al-Najaf and Karbala, the two places in Iraq considered
holiest by the country's Shiite minority. But also targeted would be
Baghdad, where several hundred thousand Iraqi Shiites live in the suburb
known as Saddam City, as well as Basra and the oil-rich northern city of
Kirkuk. "They were saying we have to be careful ultimately in the battle
for Iraq. This is not to be won on the battlefield. Remember the tactics
we need are direct confrontation we must raise the cost of occupation,"
this official said recounting the conversation detailed in the March 24
intelligence report. Adding to American concerns, previous CIA reports on
Iran claim that the country's Revolutionary Guard has procured several
Saudi and Kuwaiti military uniforms, a tactic another intelligence
official said was meant to cause confusion on the battlefield. The
explosive intelligence from March 24 also confirmed the failure of U.S.
and British diplomatic efforts in the last three months to convince Iran
to remain neutral in the current conflict. On the weekend of March 16 the
U.S. special envoy to the Iraqi opposition met with Iranian diplomats in
Geneva, under the auspices of a U.N. grouping to discuss Afghanistan, to
firm up an agreement from Tehran not to send proxy forces over their
border or attempt to send agent provocateurs into Iraq during or after the
conflict. The private statements from last month's meeting follow with
many of the public statements from Iran's senior leaders in the run up to
Operation Iraqi Freedom. On March 14 Hujjat al-Islam Hassan Rowhani,
Iran's national security adviser, warned ominously in a public statement
that there will be no "happy ending to the way the Americans have chosen"
for their occupation of Iraq. "The U.S. presence in the Middle East is
worse than Saddam's weapons of mass destruction," Hashemi Rafsanjani, the
former Iranian president and current chairman of the country's powerful
expediency board, said on Feb. 7. The intelligence has already hardened
America's public reaction to Iran's intentions in the war. On March 28,
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld opened his news briefing with a stark
warning to the Baddr Brigades, the military wing of an Iranian opposition
group that he said was "equipped and directed" by Iran's Revolutionary
Guards. "The entrance into Iraq by military forces, intelligence
personnel, or proxies not under the direct operational control of (Central
Command Chairman) Gen. Franks will be taken as a potential threat to
coalition forces," Rumsfeld said. He added that the United States would
hold the Iranian government responsible for the actions of the Badr
Brigades. Two days earlier when Secretary of State Colin Powell was asked
whether Iranian proxies were becoming a problem for U.S. forces in the
Iraq campaign, he said, "Not yet." [UPI 0403]

[12] YOU CAN'T SAY THAT HERE.  Peter Arnett is back on the air from
Baghdad. Within days of being fired by the U.S. network NBC, Arnett found
an unlikely new audience Thursday: the Dutch-speaking -- and hopefully
English-comprehending -- citizens of northern Belgium. "Thanks Peter
Arnett, we are proud to have you on our team," said VTM news anchor Dany
Verstraeten after Arnett finished his first report for the private Belgian
TV network. VTN said it will have daily reports from one of the world's
most famous reporters until the end of the war. Also Thursday, a state-run
TV channel in Greece said Arnett would soon be providing nightly
dispatches for it, too. NBC fired Arnett on Monday for giving an
unauthorized interview with state-run Iraqi TV, during which Arnett said
the American-led war effort had initially failed because of Iraq's
resistance. Arnett, who apologized for his "misjudgment," told VTM he was
a "casualty of the information war." "There are two wars taking place,
Dany. You have the war of bullets and bombs, then you have the information
war," he said. He complained he was making "just obvious statements" about
the war that should not have backfired the way they did. "This caused a
firestorm in America. I was called a traitor," he said, adding NBC "let me
crash and burn." Arnett, a New Zealander who won a Pulitzer Prize
reporting in Vietnam for The Associated Press, gained much of his
prominence from covering the 1991 Gulf War for CNN 
 The state-run NET
channel in Athens said it will be carrying nightly reports from Arnett,
too, though it didn't specify when this would start. His English reports
will be translated into Greek for NET's audience, channel executives said.
Arnett is also writing weekly articles for The Daily Mirror of London.

[13] IF YOU WANT A GOOD JOB, GET A GOOD EDUCATION. USAT profile of how
poor burdened Mr. Bush is holding upi under the presuures of war contains
one of hte week's sillier lines: "His history degree from Yale makes him
mindful of the importance of the moment." [0402]

[14] NEVER MIND. Remember last week's 1,000-vehicle Iraqi convoy?
Wednesday's WSJ says officials have "concluded the convoy never existed."

[15] WELL, OKAY. The U.S.'s bombing campaign... has begun to loosen the
reins a bit. Among the targets now allowed to be hit are those labeled
"HCD," or high collateral damage. [WP 0402] It gets results: 60 civilian
deaths in the town of Hilla. "We've been overwhelmed by the large number
of civilian casualties brought in during the last 48 hours," said one Red
Cross official. "There are lots and lots of dead bodies, many of them
dismembered." [LAT 0403]

[16] DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS FLANK BUSH FROM RIGHT. Legislators said they
will give the White House all of the $75bn requested for war in Iraq and
related costs. But they also planned to push through -- against the wishes
of the White House -- billions of dollars for US airline aid and other
items they deem essential to US security [WHOSE SECURITY?]. Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist conceded that "the White House did not feel
that aviation had to be addressed," but said lawmakers from both parties
felt is was imperative to shore up the ailing airline industry. Meanwhile,
congressional Democrats this week added billions in proposed homeland
security funding to the spending plan - also against the wishes of the
president. "We need to apply the same vigilance and commitment that we're
showing abroad to our anti-terrorism efforts here at home," Senate
Minority Leader Tom Daschle said, while his colleague New York Senator
Charles Schumer derided the Bush administration for what he views as its
lackluster record homeland defence. "They're just laggard in fighting the
war here at home," said Schumer. Having granted Bush the authority to wage
war back in October, most members said their role was to close ranks
around their commander-in-chief - thereby also showing support to US
troops in the Gulf. Some of the harshest critics of Congress's silence
said the US legislature appeared to have lost its relevance during one of
the most important and divisive debates in several years in the United
States. [AFP 0404] Congress passed the supplementary war spending bill
late Thursday night. Both the House and Senate tried to make it difficult
for France, Germany, Russia, or Syria to get post-war rebuilding
contracts, but only the House passed such an amendment and the NYT hinted
it wouldn't make it through conference committee with the Senate. [NYT
0404] Rep. Dennis Kucinich offered an amendment to bring the troops home
immediately. The Kucinich amendment would cut $19.3 billion from Operation
Iraqi Freedom Fund. The amendment would leave $30.3 billion to fund the
war to date, plus $10 billion to get the troops out of Iraq. Kucinich
voted 'no' on final passage of the war supplemental but withdrew his
amendment.

[17] THINK OF IT LIKE THE WEST BANK. The US administration plans to
declare victory in Iraq in due course, whether or not Saddam Hussein and
his lieutenants have capitulated, the Washington Post reported, citing US
officials.  "The objective is not necessarily to take buildings or occupy
areas," one senior military officer involved in planning for the war's
conclusion told the Post. "It's the people. It's getting them to accept
the fact that the regime is gone. That's the essence of the thing."  And
the "rolling" victory theory will come at an as yet unspecified moment in
the future when US forces are in control of "significant territory and
have eliminated a critical mass of Iraqi resistance," the Post said.  US
officials do not foresee a surrender similar to Germany's to the Allies at
Reims that concluded World War II.  "Rather, they hope to recognize a
moment when the military and political balance tilt decisively away from
Hussein's Baath Party government," the unnamed senior military officer
told the daily.  But while the US administration intends to intimidate
Iraqi leaders and seize power, it risks credibility by declaring itself in
charge while significant resistance remains, the article adds.  General
Richard Myers, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Thursday
stated that the Iraqi capital would not have to be under US control in
order for the United States to set up a new interim administration.  When
Baghdad becomes isolated from the remainder of Iraq, the city would be
"almost irrelevant," Myers said. [0404 AFP]

[18] WHILE SADDAM WALKS THRU BAGHDAD, BUSH FEARS TO APPEAR ON WHITE HOUSE
LAWN. Citing security concerns, the annual Easter Egg roll at the White
House will be closed to the public this year and replaced with a smaller
event for the children of troops involved in the U.S.-led war on Iraq.
About 12,000 parents and children of active duty and reserve troops will
be invited to the event April 21, fewer than half the normal crowd of
40,000, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Friday. [WP 0404]

[19] SOME THINGS DON'T CHANGE. The Greek writer Lucian wrote about the
propaganda reports of the Roman invasion of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) in
165 AD, particulalry those of a 2nd-century equivalent of a Fox News
commentator: "He described incredible wounds and monstous deaths, how one
man was wounded in the big toe and died on the spot, and how Perseus the
general just gave a shout and twenty-seven of the enemy fell dead. And in
the number slain he even contradicted the officers' despatches with his
false figures: at Europus, he said, the enemy lost 70,236 killed, while
the Romans lost just two and had nine wounded. I do not think anyone in
his senses would accept that." [Lucian, "Pos dei istorian suggraphein" or
"How to write History"]

[20] NUMBERS WE CAN ACCEPT. "130,000 British and American troops are in
action in Iraq from a total force of 250,000 in the Gulf. The Allies have
launched 725 Tomahawk cruise missiles, flown 18,000 sorties, dropped 50
cluster bombs and discharged 12,000 precision-guided munitions. There have
been an estimated 1,252 Iraqi civilian deaths, 57 Kurdish deaths and 5,103
civilian injuries. 88 Allied troops have been killed in the conflict, 27
of whom are British. At least 12 Allied soldiers are missing, 34 Allied
soldiers have been killed in 'friendly fire' incidents or battlefield
accidents. 9 journalists have been killed or are unaccounted for. There
have been 2 suicide attacks on US troops, killing 7 soldiers. 8,023 Iraqi
combatants have been taken prisoner of war. So far, 0 weapons of mass
destruction have been found. 1,500,000 people in southern Iraq have no
access to clean water. 200,000 children in southern Iraq are at risk of
death from diarrhoea. 17,000,000 Iraqis are reliant on food aid, which has
now been stopped. 600 oil wells and refineries are now under British and
American control. 80bn dollars has been set aside by US Congress to meet
the cost of war. A capital city of 5,000,000 people now stands between the
Allied forces and their 1 objective: the removal of Saddam Hussein."
[INDEPENDENT UK 0405]

[21] FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The Web site of Arab satellite news channel
Al-Jazeera was refused assistance this week when it sought help from
Akamai Technologies Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., in dealing with hacking
attacks and massive interest from Web users. "We think it's political
pressure," said Nabil Hegazi, deputy managing editor of Al-Jazeera's
English-language Web site. Akamai rents out a network of 12,600 servers
that help customer Web sites deal with unexpected traffic, hacker attacks
and Internet bottlenecks. Al-Jazeera drew intense interest and criticism
after it carried Iraqi TV footage of dead and captive U.S. soldiers. U.S.
television networks had decided not to air footage of the corpses.
Al-Jazeera later honored a U.S. request to stop until families could be
notified. Its English-language Web site was brought down by Internet
attacks soon after it debuted last week, and the Arabic page was
unavailable for long periods as well. Hackers calling themselves the
"Freedom Cyber Force Militia" later diverted visitors seeking the English
site to a page with a U.S. flag. Web portal Lycos reported that
Al-Jazeera's site was the most sought-after on the Internet last week.
Al-Jazeera is based in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. It has received
funding by Qatar's government but is an unusually independent voice in the
Arab world. Its reporters were banned from the floor of the New York Stock
Exchange (news - web sites) last week.  [AP 0404]

[22] AND IN THE ONE-SIDED WAR. Two division-sized forces close in on
Iraq's capital. Elements of the 3rd Infantry pushed up from the south,
others took parts of the airport Thursday, engaging in a four-hour battle
with Republican Guard tanks on the southern approach to the city. The 1st
Marine Division closed on the city from the southeast, along the Tigris
[WSJ 0404].  (In the United States Army, a division typically consists of
10,000 to 20,000 troops commanded by a major general. Two Divisions
usually compose a corps and are composed of about 3 brigades. In the
United States Army the term brigade is used instead of the term regiment,
except in the cavalry; the Marines also use regiment.) U.S. commanders say
it isn't necessary to wait for the 4th Infantry to start the offensive,
which won't be fully deployed until mid-May. [NYT 0404] The WP's
front-page analysis argues that it all depends on the kind of welcome the
troops receive: While the troops in place right now are not powerful
enough to take Baghdad against stiff opposition, if initial probes into
the city turn up weak resistance or strong support from residents, the
bulk of the attacking force might go into the city to end things soon.
[0404] The number of casualties in Baghdad is so high that hospitals have
stopped counting the number of people treated, the International Committee
of the Red Cross said Sunday. [AP]

[23] FRIENDLY FIRE GETS OUT OF HAND. A Navy F/A-18 fighter jet that was
reportedly shot down by Iraq on Wednesday might have actually been downed
by a Patriot missile.

[24] VOICES FORM THE PAST. Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev
called in Beirut Friday on the United States and Britain Friday to end the
"bloodbath" in Iraq and allow the United Nations to resolve the crisis.
"Those that think they are leading themselves towards victory and will
achieve their goals are wrong," Gorbachev said, following talks with
Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud, in an allusion to the US-led coalition
invading Iraq. "This is only the beginning and it is time to end the
bloodbath and return to peaceful solutions under the authority of the
United Nations," he added. "I agree with President Lahoud on the need to
work to restore the authority of the United Nations and oppose violations
of international law," said Gorbachev, on his first visit to Lebanon.
Gorbachev, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been a vocal opponent of the
war in Iraq, although as president he fell in line with the United States
during the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait. On March 24, he drew a parallel
between the US-led invasion of Iraq and the ill-fated Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan in 1979, and said he believed the war was the result of a
domestic economic and social crisis in the United States. [AFP 0405]

[25] SHH, DON'T MENTION IT. War Provides Cover for a Fresh Israeli
Crackdown. While the world focuses on Iraq, 17 Palestinians have been
killed and more than 1000 detained as Israeli forces step up
'anti-terrorism' raids [SUNDAY HERALD/SCOTLAND 0406] Two peace activists,
an American and a Dane, were injured when Israeli occupation forces opened
indiscriminate fire on a number of Palestinian youths and peace activists
in the northern West Bank city of Jenin. American Barry Avery, 24,
sustained a serious gunshot in the face while Danish Lasse Schmit, 35, was
injured in the leg by shrapnel, during a clash between Palestinians and
Israeli forces, a spokesman for the Israeli army told the public radio.
But witnesses said that an Israeli tank opened fired in the evening in the
direction of a group of five pacifists in the street amid the clashes. The
two peace activists are members of the International Solidarity Movement
(ISM). [ISLAMONLINE.NET 0406]

[26] THEY WERE PROBABLY UP TO NO GOOD. The convoy carrying the Russian
ambassador to Iraq and diplomatic staff came under gunfire on the road
from Baghdad to Syria and several people were injured, a foreign ministry
spokesman said. [AFP 0406]

[27] FIGHTING OVER THE SPOILS. President Bush has given the Defense
Department primary control over the process of appointing an interim
government-a move that has State Department officials fuming. They fear
the Pentagon will stack an advisory panel determining who will control the
country with Iraqi exiles and other outsiders at the expense of potential
leaders within the country, thus undermining legitimacy of the new regime.
Everyone agrees the UN should handle the country's looming humanitarian
crisis, but when it comes to the future of Iraq's oil industry, the latest
word is that the UN is a "non-player," according to the NYT. [0406]

[28] WE SEEK NO WIDER WAR, REMEMBER? [a] Former CIA Director James
Woolsey, who has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the job of
information minister in postwar Iraq, told a UCLA audience that the U.S.
is engaged in "World War IV" -- against the religious rulers of Iran, the
"fascists" of Iraq and Syria, and Islamic extremists like al-Qaeda. [b] A
U.S. intelligence official tells Newsday that the CIA has no credible
evidence that the government of Syria has had a role in the shipment of
night-vision goggles and other military equipment to Iraq. [c] A U.S.
intelligence report says that the Iranian government has decided to send
irregular paramilitary units into Iraq to harass U.S. soldiers once Saddam
is ousted, in an attempt to raise the cost of occupation. [d] The NYT
Sunday magazine leads withy, "There are whispers in Washington that Iran
is next in line." [e] Another piece in the NYT looks at what the current
administration's policy on Iraq might mean for other countries, such as
North Korea, Iran or Syria. Preventive war, the piece notes, might have
the 
 effect of encouraging an arms race among countries that believe a
substantial arsenal of weapons might ward off an attack from Washington.

[29] MERCHANTS OF DEATH. US Firms, Bush Cronies Set to Make a Killing
Rebuilding Iraq [OBSERVER/UK 0406] The Bush administration's war to disarm
Iraq and its increasingly unilateral approach to international disputes,
say arms control experts, are helping to paralyze one of the most hopeful
products of the post-World War II era: the global arms control and
disarmament movement. [SFC 0406]

[30] ANTI-WAR DEMOS IN OAKLAND, CHICAGO. Antiwar Marchers Invoke Ideas of
King 35 Years After His Death. And Anti-War Marchers to Confront Bush in
Northern ireland on Monday. [BELFAST TELEGRAPH/NI 0405]

[31] AND FINALLY, Michael Moore gave a lecture at UI on Friday.  (No, not
THAT Michael Moore.) He is the proud possessor of a new endowed chair in
Philosophy and Law; in his talk, "Terror and Torture: Ethics and Law in
Extremis," this august scholar proceeded to justify the use of torture by
our government... As the Nazis found, there is never any lack of
intellectuals to suck up to power.

  ==============================================================
  C. G. Estabrook, Ph.D., Visiting Scholar
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [MC-190]
  109 Observatory, 901 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana IL 61801 USA
  office: 217.244.4105 mobile: 217.369.5471 home: 217.359.9466
  <www.carlforcongress.org>
  ===============================================================