Gunmen kidnap lawyer for Saddam co-defendant
Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi is one of two lawyers for Awad Hamed al-Bandar, one of seven Baath Party officials being tried.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/20/news/iraq.php

Bigger relief effort needed for 3 million quake survivors
Jan Egeland, the U.N. relief coordinator, said he was appealing to NATO and other potential donors to step in with ''a second Berlin air bridge.''
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/21/asi...b.1021quake.php

Bush says militias hurt the hopes of Palestinians
There was no sign that any progress had been achieved on the issues over which Israel and the Palestinian leadership have been at odds since the pullout of Israeli settlers from Gaza.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/20/news/prexy.php

Immigration, once a subject of debate in the Netherlands, is now more a matter of survival.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/16/news/islam1.php

Avian flu reaches Taiwan
Taiwan said it had encountered the H5N1 strain of bird flu in birds shipped in a container smuggled from China.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/20/news/taiwan.php

Founder of Yukos sent to Siberia
Penal officials said the 42-year-old oil tycoon, once Russia's richest man, had arrived at camp IK-10, near the border with China.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/20/business/yukos.php

Chinese economy steams along
China's roaring economy grew by 9.4 percent in the third quarter of this year, fueled by surging exports, strong investments in infrastructure and solid retail sales.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/20/business/yuan.php

Mugabe's colonial ghosts
There is every reason to support the opposition to President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe in its brave efforts to oust Mr. Mugabe's clique.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/20/opinion/edmugabe.php

Helping Palestinian democracy
Having Hamas in the Palestinian political process is far better than keeping it out.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/20/opinion/edmarwan.php

A direction for Europe
The EU has become directionless and politically damaged in a fundamental sense. So, where should we go now?
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/20/opinion/edpeter.php

BMD Focus: China Relies On Missiles
http://www.spacewar.com/news/abm-05zg.html

Washington (UPI) Oct 20, 2005 - China's highly successful two-man space mission that ended this week will not boost the nation's military power and strategic missile program: It doesn't have to.

Analysis: China's Opacity Seen As A Threat
http://www.spacewar.com/news/china-05zzzzzzzzzy.html

Washington (UPI) Oct 20, 2005 - U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's visit to China has focused attention again on concerns that the vast Communist nation's unpredictability during times of crisis is a threat to international security.

- Rumsfeld Shares Transformation Philosophy With Chinese Military
http://www.spacewar.com/news/china-05zzzzzzzzzz.html

India To Spend Three Pct Of GDP On Defence If Its Grows At Eight Pct
http://www.spacewar.com/news/india-05zzm.html

New Delhi (AFP) Oct 20, 2005 - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Thursday the government could allocate about three percent of India's gross domestic product for its defence needs if the economy grows at eight percent annually.

Former Top Official Blasts 'Cheney Cabal'
http://www.spacewar.com/news/iraq-05zzzzs.html

Washington (UPI) Oct 20, 2005 - Colin Powell's right-hand man as secretary of state unleashed a blistering attack on the top policymakers in the Bush administration Wednesday, accusing them of running foreign policy in a tight, secret cabal and, even worse, bungling it disastrously.

Outside View: Iraq War Challenge Remains
http://www.spacewar.com/news/iraq-05zzzzt.html

US, SKorea Discuss Wartime Command Of Forces, Nuclear Guarantee
http://www.spacewar.com/news/korea-05zzzzw.html

Seoul (AFP) Oct 20, 2005 - The United States and South Korea discussed shifting roles for the US military here, including who should have operational command of forces in wartime and whether to soften a US pledge to provide a nuclear umbrella, a top US general said Thursday.

NKorea would accept IAEA visit, Richardson says
http://www.spacewar.com/2005/051021040505.53vialxm.html

Rumsfeld Voices Concern Over Chinese Nuclear Arsenal
http://www.spacewar.com/news/nuclear-doctrine-05zzn.html

Beijing (AFP) Oct 20, 2005 - China appears to be expanding its nuclear strike capability with missiles able to reach beyond the Pacific, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday, urging Beijing to shed more light on its intentions.

Venezuela Says It Has Right To Pursue Nuclear Energy
http://www.spacewar.com/news/nuclear-doctrine-05zzo.html

Caracas (AFP) Oct 19, 2005 - The vice president of Venezuela insisted on Wednesday that his government had the right to develop civilian nuclear power as an alternative source of energy.

http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?Stor...20-100359-7402r

Politics & Policies: U.S. steps up pressure on Syria
By Claude Salhani
UPI International Editor
Published October 20, 2005


WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is taking new diplomatic steps against Syria, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington on Wednesday, indicating that regime change was not out of the question.

Rice said the United States was using diplomacy to urge change in Syria's behavior, but did not rule out military force.


"I'm not going to get into what the president's options might be," Rice said. "I don't think the president ever takes any of his options off the table concerning anything to do with military force."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Syria was "trending in the wrong direction from the rest of the Middle East."

Earlier this month, Newsweek magazine reported the U.S. government had discussed a possible military intervention in Syria. According to the article, Rice convinced her colleagues in the administration to await the release of Detlev Mehlis' report on his investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri before making a decision.

This was confirmed to United Press International by Western diplomatic sources who say they convinced the Bush administration to at least wait until the Mehlis report was published and its results were made known.

The goal seems to be to "get (the regime) by the throat, and then really squeeze," Joshua Landis, a Fulbright scholar in Damascus who runs an influential Web log, or online diary, called Syriacomment.com, told Newsweek.

Between the apparent suicide of Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kenaan and pending the publication of the Mehlis report, analysts are asking just how stable is Bashar Assad's regime? Some believe Bashar is walking a tightrope without a safety net.

Indeed, after decades of relative political stability, never has the mood in Syria been so fraught with incertitude, say several observers who recently visited the Syrian capital. In a country where events traditionally moved at a snail's pace, where time almost stood still during the 30 years of Hafez Assad's rule, events have suddenly shifted into warp speed.

Hariri's assassination on Feb. 14 jolted Lebanon's silent majority out of their years of political stupor, driving them to the streets en masse, demanding the withdrawal of Syrian forces. With the tacit support of France and United States, the Cedar Revolution coerced Syria to pull its military and intelligence units out of Lebanon after almost three decades of occupation.

The pace suddenly picked up. Syrian troops withdrew and Damascus reported that it also pulled out its intelligence units. Then came the investigation into Hariri's killing by Mehlis, the unrelenting German U.N. investigator -- the Elliott Ness of the Middle East -- whose mission in Beirut and Damascus raised a political storm and left a climate of uncertainty as to what may come next.

Mehlis and his team of "Untouchables" questioned several high-ranking Syrian officials, including Roustom Ghazalé, the former head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon, and Asef Shawkat, the current security chief in Damascus who is also the Syrian president's brother-in-law.

Mehlis questioned six more high-ranking Syrian intelligence officials, according to the German magazine Stern.

The Mehlis report also led to the arrest of four top Lebanese security officials. In June, Mehlis' team had searched the office and private apartment of Mustafa Hamdan, the pro-Syrian head of the Lebanese presidential guard. Hamdan is accused of messing with evidence at the scene of the crime, having ordered the crater left by the bomb to be filled in, Stern reported. Prosecutors arrested three more Lebanese officials, including Jamil Sayyed, the country's former security chief.

Then came the apparent suicide of Syria's Kenaan, though informed sources have told UPI that Kenaan did not commit suicide but was killed by someone very close to the Syrian president. This information, of course, could not be independently confirmed.

At the same time, pressure on Damascus from Washington is mounting more than ever before. Western diplomatic sources told UPI the Bush administration wants Damascus to:

a) Secure its border with Iraq to prevent jihadi fighters entering Iraq to help the insurgency.

Stop interfering in Lebanon.

c) Force the groups Washington considers as terrorist organizations to close their offices in Damascus. (One possibility is that they may relocate to Gaza.)

d) Establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon; something Syria has resisted until now claiming the two countries are too close to require the exchange of diplomatic missions.

Meanwhile, a key part of the U.N. investigation focused on the Lebanese and Syrian mobile phone networks, and call records in the days preceding Hariri's death. In late September, the Lebanese police raided the offices of mobile phone company MTC Touch. In Damascus, the investigators demanded data from Syriatel and Spacetel, the country's two mobile phone operators. What the investigators found was that the requested information was provided with the notable exception of data relating to one particular transmission station serving Lebanon.

Given those circumstances, commentators have speculated that Kenaan might have been killed as a sacrificial lamb to enable the regime to shirk responsibility for Hariri's killing, by portraying Kenaan as a loose cannon who had acted alone.

It is widely expected that the U.N. report will implicate Syria's intelligence apparatus in Hariri's death. This is raising fears in Damascus that the United States will use the report as justification for direct military intervention.

http://www.spacewar.com/news/iraq-05zzzzl.html

Outside View: Another Scapegoat?

'It is true foreign insurgents do infiltrate Iraq from Syria, as do many others from Iran. But how much longer will the administration continue to blame foreign insurgents for its failure to cope with the insurgency in Iraq when in fact, according to American intelligence reports, they constitute no more than 4 percent to 6 percent of total insurgents?'
By Alon Ben-Meir
Oustside View Commentator
New York (UPI) Oct 17, 2005
The increasing number of clashes between U.S. and Syrian forces raises serious questions about the Bush administration's intentions and the wisdom of its actions. It appears this escalation on the American side is dictated not entirely by the urgency over the infiltration of foreign insurgents from Syria into Iraq.
Rather, it is motivated by the administration's desire for regime change in Damascus. This preoccupation explains why instead of persuading Syria to support the administration's efforts in Iraq by offering it real incentives, the White House has chosen to bully yet another nation, at the tremendous risk of escalating the war in Iraq and engulfing not just Syria but other states in the region.

It is not difficult to present a complete dissertation on Syria's egregious past and present support of extremist groups committing acts of terror in Israel, Lebanon and Iraq. Syria can vehemently deny such a role, but any serious review of its conduct and the sanctuary that Damascus offers to these groups affirm that assertion. That said, Syria has in the post-Saddam period also cooperated with U.S. intelligence and has, by the CIA's own admission, proven to be of use.

And time and again, the Syrians have made overtures to the United States for the two nations to engage in meaningful dialogue, only to be rebuffed by an administration fixated on regime change in Syria. The administration's intentions coupled with persistent public criticism from Washington are what pushed Damascus a few months ago to end all security and intelligence cooperation between the two nations. Yet while the administration has made no secret of its goal of regime change, it turns to Syria for help in Iraq, though clearly, if the United States succeeds in Iraq, the Syrian government will be targeted next.

Although it is naive to assume any country will contribute to its own demise, this administration is not looking to offer either a logical approach or a sound rationale for its policies toward Syria. Having systematically misled the American public about the dismal reality in Iraq, now the administration finds itself in need to invent another international crisis to divert attention from the real nature of its plight, which is increasingly coming to light.

It is true foreign insurgents do infiltrate Iraq from Syria, as do many others from Iran. But how much longer will the administration continue to blame foreign insurgents for its failure to cope with the insurgency in Iraq when in fact, according to American intelligence reports, they constitute no more than 4 percent to 6 percent of total insurgents?

Although foreign fighters are more likely to become suicide bombers and thereby inflict disproportionate damage, as was suggested by a former senior intelligence officer, and recently reported by The New York Times, it is always easier to blame foreign fighters for the strength of the insurgency than to develop effective new counterinsurgency strategies.

As recently as Oct. 2, Gen. John Abizaid, commander of the U.S. Central Command, said on NBC's "Meet the Press," he recognized the need to "avoid hyping the foreign fighters' problem."

Indeed, the vast majority of insurgents are former Iraqi military personnel the administration disbanded immediately after the fall of Baghdad, thereby itself creating an instant deadly enemy. With their families, these soldiers and officers represent more than 2 million Iraqi Sunnis who have been abandoned with no jobs and no future: it is they who make up the core of the insurgency.

For these reasons, the administration must defuse the conflict with Syria by opening a dialogue with Damascus. Threats and intimidation will work with Syria only up to a point. President Bashar Assad would not last another day in power if he caved in to American pressure, especially after his surrender of Lebanon.

But if the intention of the administration remains to topple Assad, his demise will not provide the regime change it is hoping for. His successor is likely to be smarter, more experienced and certainly much bolder in securing his power base because only a strong leader can muster the support of the Syrian Baath party, which forms the country's military establishment.

Working with Syria's present government is hardly impossible. The administration continues to negotiate directly and indirectly with many unsavory regimes, including those of North Korea and Iran, and with dictatorships and theocracies. There is no reason to treat Syria differently, especially when Damascus can be extremely helpful to the United States. The administration's choices are not, as it would have people believe, limited to seeking diplomatic isolation of Syria, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice advocates, or using more coercive methods, as the Defense Department proposes.

Syria is eager to normalize relations with the United States, because the government there knows that much of the country's economic development and national security considerations, and certainly its hopes for recovering the Golan Heights, depend on U.S. willingness to help. Syria is eager to have an open-ended dialogue with the United States that will serve their mutual interests.

It should be noted in this regard that Syria's relations with these extremist groups, to which Damascus does not admit, is nothing more than a marriage of convenience. They are bargaining chips that Syria will happily trade for an offer of constructive relations with the United States with some security guarantees. Instead of resorting to coercive methods to force Damascus into submission, a policy that will certainly backfire, the administration must first abandon the idea of regime change and use incentives to persuade Syria to support its efforts in Iraq.

Emboldened by its success in Lebanon, the administration can make a tragic mistake in trying to push the Syrians to the breaking point by launching military strikes inside Syria as some administration officials speculate. The unintended consequences of a bloody conflict with Syria will be far more severe than this administration could imagine, if Iraq offers an example. Conflict with Syria could ignite a regional war engulfing Israel and Lebanon and shattering any remaining hope that the Middle East will see democracy and stability in the foreseeable future.

(Alon Ben-Meir is professor of international relations at the Center for Global Studies at NYU and is the Middle East Project Director at the World Policy Institute, New York. Alon@alonben-meir.com.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)

All Rights Reserved. © 2005 United Press International. Sections Of The Information Displayed On This Page (Dispatches, Photographs, Logos) Are Protected By Intellectual Property Rights Owned By United Press International.. As A Consequence, You May Not Copy, Reproduce, Modify, Transmit, Publish, Display Or In Any Way Commercially Exploit Any Of The Content Of This Section Without The Prior Written Consent Of United Press International.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/635922.html
U.S. says it won't rule out military option against Syria

By News Agencies

The United States on Wednesday refused to rule out possible military action against Syria but said it had not exhausted diplomatic moves to get Damascus to change its ways over Iraq and Lebanon.

Addressing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said both Syria and Iran were allowing fighters and military assistance to reach insurgents in Iraq.

"Syria and Iran must decide whether they wish to side with the cause of war or with the cause of peace," Rice told a hearing called to discuss U.S. strategy in Iraq, where more than 150,000 U.S. troops are struggling to end an insurgency.

Pressed by senators over whether the Bush administration was planning military action against Syria in particular, Rice said the United States was still on a "diplomatic course" with Damascus but the military option remained open.

"The president never takes any option off the table and he shouldn't," said Rice when asked about a military option.

The Bush administration has accused Syria of doing too little to stop foreign fighters from entering neighboring Iraq. Syria, in turn, says the United States has not done enough to secure the border or deliver technical help it has promised.

Rice declined to say whether the president would present any plans to Congress before launching military action against Syria, saying she did not want to circumscribe his powers.

Her strong criticism of Syria comes before the United Nations is set to release a report on Friday on the assassination last February of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

The United States, France and others, say they believe Syria might have played a role in the killing of Hariri and 20 others in a massive truck blast in Beirut on Feb. 14 and are calling for strong action if that is the case.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said Syria was not involved in Hariri's death and he reiterated this in an interview with a German newspaper released on Wednesday, telling Die Zeit that Syria is "100 percent innocent."

"We are 100 percent innocent," Assad said in an interview in Die Zeit weekly newspaper released on Wednesday.

Chief UN investigator Detlev Mehlis will hand over a copy of a report on the February killing of Lebanon's former prime minister to Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday and it will form the basis of a debate in the Security Council next week.

Lebanese political sources and diplomats expect it to charge Syrian and Lebanese officials with the murder, which led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Beirut after mass protests.

Assad told Die Zeit that Hariri's assassination was a crime which Syria did not understand.

"Also what has happened in Lebanon is not in Syria's interests. Quite the opposite. It damages us. Why should we support such acts?" Assad said, adding that Syria was fully cooperating with UN investigators.

Syria has grown increasingly nervous over Lebanese and international charges that is it linked to Hariri's death.

Syrian officials have blamed a Lebanese smear campaign for pushing Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan to commit suicide last week. Kanaan had been questioned by UN investigators in connection with the Hariri investigation.

German magazine Stern said on Tuesday the UN's investigator had named Syrian military intelligence chief Asef Shawkat, Assad's brother-in-law, as a suspect in the killing.

The United States and France are readying new United Nations Security Council resolutions critical of Syria ahead of a UN report expected to show Syrian complicity in the February 14 assassination, diplomats and U.S. officials say.

On Tuesday, a UN investigator named a brother-in-law of Assad as a suspect in Hariri's killing, a German report said.

The timing of the new resolutions is also intended to highlight recent allegations that Syria is funneling weapons and stirring up trouble in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that negotiations on the resolutions have not been completed.

Annan and Rice discuss Syria
Rice discussed Syria and Lebanon during an unannounced breakfast with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday.

"It was a good opportunity for her to raise the issues surrounding the calendar," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said afterward.

Anti-Syrian politicians in Lebanon blame Syria for the assassination of Hariri, a charge Syria denies. UN investigator Detlev Mehlis is to release a report on the matter by October 24.

Also in the works is a report on Syrian compliance with Security Council resolution 1559, which demands the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, among other requirements.

Both reports are expected to be taken up by the Security Council next week.

Rice shuttled among Paris, Moscow and London last week for discussions that included the Syria-Lebanon question six months after Syria withdrew forces from its much-smaller Western neighbor.

Syria was the dominant military and political force in Lebanon for nearly three decades, and the Bush administration charges that Syrian intelligence agents remain there.

Washington recalled its ambassador to Syria in protest over Hariri's murder and is at loggerheads with Damascus over its alleged support for Iraqi insurgents, accusing it of failing to do enough to stop fighters from crossing into Iraq.

Mehlis has named four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals as suspects and questioned seven Syrian officials, one of whom - Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan - committed suicide last week.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said U.S. officials want to discuss both reports with other council members, among other countries.

The goal, he said, is to review "what actions, what further steps, if any, might be warranted by what's contained in the reports. But we have to see what's in the reports first."

Separately Tuesday, a Lebanese judge charged a former Syrian intelligence officer with murder, accusing him of lying to UN investigators in the Hariri case.

Hariri supporters also began lobbying foreign embassies representing UN Security Council members to back their call to set up an international tribunal to try those responsible for his murder.

One of the new UN measures would seek an extension of Mehlis' mandate, a U.S. official said, perhaps to continue investigation or to refer his findings to some kind of court or tribunal.

Egypt is also trying to defuse tension between the United States and Syria, the Egyptian foreign minister said Tuesday.

"The last thing Egypt wants is to see another point of tension in the region," Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters before leaving for Moscow for talks with the Russian government, which has long been allied with Syria.

Another Egyptian diplomat said Cairo wants to avoid a situation like the U.S.-Iraq standoff, which culminated in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

The Lebanese government has asked to extend the Mehlis investigation, but a UN diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Lebanese officials are divided about whether to expand it to either the suicide of Syria's interior minister or the assassination and attempted assassination of journalists.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1021/p06s03-woiq.html
Specials > Iraq in Transition
from the October 21, 2005 edition

Does Iraq arrest signal Syrian turnabout?

Captured insurgent backer was deported by Syria.

By Dan Murphy and Rhonda Roumani

BAGHDAD AND DAMASCUS – Yasser Sabawi al-Tikriti's appearance at a rally demanding the release of Saddam Hussein in the former dictator's home town Tuesday, turned into a costly mistake that Iraqi officials quickly seized on.
"Basically he was found, and caught red-handed giving money to the demonstrators, who he was trying to incite to violence,'' says Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser. "We believe he was a major fundraiser and a major supporter of the terrorists."

But there are indications that help in Mr. Sabawi's arrest came from an unexpected corner: Syria.

The country Iraqi officials and the Bush administration accuse of aiding Iraq's raging insurgency recently deported Sabawi to Iraq, according to an official at the Defense Ministry, who asked not to be named. This was first reported by the Associated Press, citing two anonymous sources.

However, Mr. Rubaie said "there was no Syrian help" in Sabawi's arrest, saying it was a lucky break brought about by the man's own carelessness. Asked if he knew whether Sabawi had been expelled from Syria, he replied: "I don't have any comment on that."

Sabawi's arrest came on a day when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice maintained US pressure on the Syrian regime, alleging that it and Iran are funding and supporting insurgents inside Iraq. "Syria and Iran must decide whether they wish to side with the cause of war or with the cause of peace," Rice said. She added that President Bush had not taken the possible use of force "off the table" with regard to Syria.

Thursday, UN investigators were expected to submit a report in New York implicating members of the Bashar Assad's regime in Damascus of master-minding the assassination of Lebanese politician Rafik Hariri earlier this year. That report is expected to be used by the US in its ongoing campaign to isolate the regime.

Nevertheless, Mr. Assad's Syria, a secular regime that is confronted by Islamist militants, has been taking steps to relieve the pressure from the US. It also worries that fighters radicalized in Iraq could return home and cause trouble for the regime.

"In the last few months, Syria has been cracking down on Islamic insurgents and is trying to open up an intelligence dialogue with the US and show that they are cooperating,'' says Josh Landis, a history professor at the University of Oklahoma who runs the influential Syriacomment blog and currently lives in Damascus.

Mr. Landis says he doesn't know what aid, if any, Syria provided in apprehending Yasser Sabawi, but said it fits a recent pattern. "This [arrest] is Syria's way of saying that we're ready for a deal - of course, a backdoor deal.... They are not ready for public humiliation. They don't want to be completely humiliated in front of an international audience. And the US doesn't want to hear this kind of yes. The US is insisting that Syria [make] a clear break with the past."

While circumstances of the arrest remain unclear, Sabawi and members of his family have long been sought inside the country. An official at the Joint Command Center in Tikrit, a body that coordinates Iraqi and US military efforts, says he only knew of the arrest from the media.

In July, the US treasury department added Sabawi, thought to be 35, and five of his brothers to a list of suspected terrorist financiers. Their father is Sabawi Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, a half brother of Saddam Hussein and a former adviser to the deposed dictator.

Though Iraqi officials continue to insist that Syria and Jordan, a close US ally, are providing sanctuary to members of Mr. Hussein's Baath regime who are funding violence here, Syria has surrendered other alleged financiers in the past.

In February, Syria handed over their father, who was head of Iraq's intelligence service during the 1991 Gulf War and head of security until 1996, and who has been accused of ordering the torture and murder of Hussein opponents.

In September, Ayman, one of his sons, was sentenced to life in prison by an Iraqi court for bombmaking and providing support to insurgents.

"From the human rights activists in Syria, we have a picture that the Syrians have put the heat on anybody going to Iraq,'' says Landis. "They have arrested brothers, relatives going to Iraq to fight. They have arrested anybody coming back. Syria has been trying to crack down on these networks that are moving people through Syria into Iraq."

Alleged Desecration of Bodies Investigated

By Bradley Graham

The senior U.S. operational commander in Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, flew to the southern city of Kandahar yesterday to confer with officers about the alleged burning of two Taliban fighters by U.S. soldiers in the area as the Bush administration moved to try to limit the damage from the reported incident.

Fearing a Muslim backlash against television images of the apparent desecration, the State Department sent U.S. embassies instructions "to engage on this issue" and to stress that the pictures do not reflect U.S. values or the actions of "the vast majority" of the U.S. military, said spokesman Sean McCormack.

Specialists in U.S.-Muslim relations warned that the alleged incident could deepen hostility against the United States and further damage an American image already tarnished by scandals over mistreatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"If true, the incident would fit a seeming pattern that has emerged of the U.S. military gaining enough knowledge of Islamic culture and sensitivities to devise ways of offending Muslims," said Khaled Abu el Fadl, a specialist in Islamic law at UCLA law school.

The latest scandal surfaced Wednesday when an Australian television network aired video showing members of a U.S. airborne unit purportedly setting fire to the Taliban bodies, followed by other soldiers, identified as specialists in psychological operations, using the event to taunt other enemy fighters and draw them out of nearby hills to retrieve the remains.

Military officials identified the soldiers involved in the burning as members of the 1st Battalion, 508th Infantry Regiment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. The brigade has been in Afghanistan since March and has seen considerable combat in southern Afghanistan, where resistance from Taliban fighters remains significant.

The psychological operations specialists were identified as reservists from an Arkansas unit attached to the brigade.

Army Lt. Col. Jim Yonts, U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, said he knew of no previous problems involving either the infantry soldiers or psychological operations troops, all of whom are now under criminal investigation.Cremation is shunned by Islamic custom, which calls for even the sinful to receive a proper burial. Several U.S. officers with experience in Afghanistan said normal U.S. military procedures involve either burying dead enemy fighters or handing bodies over to local representatives.

U.S. troops have blown up bodies as an act of self-defense, after discovering explosives on them, one officer said. At times, too, U.S. forces have laid ambushes near enemy dead to entrap others who return to collect the bodies, the officer said.

The alleged body burning near the village of Gonbaz would go well beyond these precedents. "It would be a violation of both military law and the Geneva Conventions, which list mistreatment of the dead as a war crime," said John Sifton, a researcher with Human Rights Watch in New York.

According to the account broadcast by the program "Dateline" on Australia's SBS network, the U.S. airborne unit was ambushed the day before the burning. A battle left one American and one Afghan soldier dead, along with the two Taliban fighters. "Dateline" showed the U.S. soldiers searching Gonbaz for anyone associated with the militants and indicating frustration at the lack of cooperation from residents.

Stephen Dupont, the Australian journalist who took the video, said the airborne troops who burned the bodies indicated they had been ordered to do so purely to dispose of them.

"They said to me, 'We've been told to burn the bodies because the bodies have been here for 24 hours and they're starting to stink,' " Dupont said in an interview on the network's Web site. "So for hygiene purposes, this is what we've got to do."

It was later, he said, that the psychological operations team decided to use the event for propaganda purposes. "They deliberately wanted to incite that much anger from the Taliban, so the Taliban could attack them," he said.

Staff writer Ann Scott Tyson contributed to this report.




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Controversy Swells Over UN Hariri Murder Report Voice of America
UN officials are defending themselves against allegations that they tried to conceal the identities of senior Syrian officials implicated in the plot to assassinate former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The suspects' names were included in earlier drafts of a report on the killing, but were deleted from the version released to the public.

UN investigator Detlev Mehlis, left, speaks after handing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan the report on the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri
The Hariri assassination report German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis gave to Secretary-General Kofi Annan Thursday named as suspects several high-ranking Syrian officials. The names included Maher al-Assad, younger brother of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as well as his brother-in-law, Syrian military intelligence chief Assef Shawkat. In one of its most explosive sections, the report says both men attended a September 2004 meeting at which the Hariri assassination was planned. But Mr. Mehlis says he went back and deleted the suspects' names Thursday, after learning the report was to be made public. Copies of the document received by most news agencies did not identify the suspects. The attempt to suppress their names failed, however, when earlier drafts of the report were leaked to reporters. The deletions raised suspicions that Secretary-General Annan had pressured Mr. Mehlis to protect the suspect's identities. But at a hastily arranged news conference Friday morning, the prosecutor strongly denied suggestions that he had been pressured. "I decided that as the report was supposed to be made public, that these names should not be in the report, because it could give the wrong impression that this was an established fact, and for that [reason] these names never appeared in the conclusions, named by a witness, and the presumption of innocence stands, so that was basically the reason, but no one influenced me, and I'm not one who would accept changes from outside," he said. During a testy exchange with journalists, Mr. Mehlis said he stands by his conclusions. He brushed aside suggestions that the leaking of suspects' identities in any way undermines the credibility of his report. "I hope not, but it very much depends, if you believe what I'm telling you or not; if you don't believe it, it's undermining the credibility, if you do, it's not," he explained. U.N. spokesman Stefan Dujarric Friday said Secretary-General Annan has extended Mr. Mehlis's mandate until mid-December. He also denied there had been any attempt to influence Mr. Mehlis's investigation or his report. "The secretary-general has insisted throughout the process on the importance of the independence of the Mehlis investigation," he said. "This is Mr. Mehlis's investigation. This is his report. The secretary-general has at no time made any attempt to influence the content of the report." The spokesman attributed the release of suspects' identities to what he called an "unfortunate clerical error." Washington's U.N. Ambassador John Bolton dismissed the controversy, saying it was distracting from the main findings of the investigation. He added, "the report's substance does not change, no matter what version you have."
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Front page / World / Continents / Asia

USA desperate to shift blame for Iraqi mess on Syria and Iran

10/21/2005 14:09

Condoleezza Rice does not exclude an opportunity for the USA to strike Syria and Iran

The International Committee of the US Senate has held yet another session devoted to the situation in the Middle East. The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated during the discussion that Iran and Syria were guilty of ongoing terrorist activities in Iraq. According to Rice, the US administration does not exclude an opportunity to strike the above-mentioned two states.

"Syria and indeed Iran must decide whether they wish to side with the cause of war or with the cause of peace," Rice said. According to the US Secretary of State, the two Mideastern states allow militants and military assistance reach insurgents in Iraq. Answering a question about a possible military operation against Syria and Iran, Rice said that the USA was still on a "diplomatic course" with Damascus but the military option remained open. "The President never takes any option off the table and he shouldn't," said Dr Rice when asked about a military option.

The US administration has been talking about a possibility of a war with Iran for 26 years already, since the time when the Islamic revolution occurred in the country. US officials have been reasoning the need to conduct a military operation against Iran with Tehran's nuclear program and the disagreement of the Iranian government to grant foreign inspectors access to its nuclear objects. This list has been added with notorious "international terrorism" accusations and Tehran's involvement in anti-American actions conducted by Muslim Shiites in Iraq.

It is noteworthy that Iran does make other states become concerned about its home policies. The newly elected president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has recently started from a UN tribune that Iran was ready to share nuclear technologies with other Muslim states. As for the support of Shiites in Iraq, Russian specialists say that such a support is obvious, because Iran is a Shiite state. However, terrorists conduct bloodies attacks against the Shiite people in Iraq, although Washington prefers to turn a blind eye on it.

American officials recollected another neighbor of Iraq - Syria. It is true that a part of the Syrian population has ties with Iraqi Bedouins. In addition, Syria has been the historical enemy of USA's prime enemy in the Middle East, Israel. Unlike Saudi Arabia, for example, Syria cannot be described as a stronghold of Islamic fundamentalism. Syrian women may not wear veils or paranjas; a lot of Syrian Muslim females, including the wife of the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, do not even cover their heads, which is still impossible in Iran, for instance. To crown it all, Christians make up ten percent of the Syrian population; their rights are officially legalized.

If one takes an analytical look at the Arab part of the eastern world, Syria may seem to be one of the most open and secular states of the entire region. Women enjoy quite a handful of rights in Iran too: they can elect and be elected, they can study, work, visit resorts, etc. On the other hand, it is strictly prohibited to open Christian temples on the territory of the US's central ally in the Arab world - Saudi Arabia. People could not go to cinemas for 20 years there; the Internet still remains highly restricted. Wahhabism is considered to be the state ideology of Saudi Arabia (world's most wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia too). The country annually assigns billions of dollars to various Islamic organizations; the money is subsequently used to perform terrorist attacks around the globe, in Palestine and Iraq, first and foremost.

Iran and Syria do have quite impressive links with the population of Iraq. Nevertheless, neither Damascus, nor Tehran have ever been Iraq's allies during Saddam Hussein's stay at power.

It looks like the USA is ready to use any reason to make Arab states carry responsibility for US-led actions, which made Iraq become the hottest of all hot spots on the globe.

Ivan Shmelev

You can discuss this article on Pravda.Ru FORUM


Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/world/2005/5/15/39/21113_SyriaIran.html (Translated by: Dmitry Sudakov)

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