Russians Told Iraqi Regime of U.S. Troop Movements

WASHINGTON - Russian diplomats passed detailed but sometimes
inaccurate information about American troop movements to senior
Iraqi officials even as U.S. troops closed in on Baghdad during
the 2003 invasion. By Peter Spiegel and Greg Miller.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/ezv...Io30G2B0HOtH0EL

Israeli Arabs Feel Little Stake in Vote

NAZARETH, Israel - As they gear up for Israel's election on
Tuesday, some in the minority electorate say they feel cut off
from the state. By Laura King.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/ezv...Io30G2B0HOtK0EO

Pope Stresses Unity in Installing Cardinals

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI installed his first group of
cardinals, crowning 15 new princes of the Roman Catholic Church
with scarlet hats symbolizing their willingness to shed blood in
defense of the faith. By Tracy Wilkinson.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/ezv...Io30G2B0HOtL0EP

March 25, 2006
Russia Denies Giving U.S. Intel to Iraq
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 8:14 a.m. ET

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia on Saturday denied that it provided information on U.S. troops movements and plans to Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Interfax news agency reported.

''Similar, baseless accusations concerning Russia's intelligence have been made more than once,'' Interfax quoted Foreign Intelligence Service spokesman Boris Labusov as saying. ''We don't consider it necessary to comment on such fabrications.''

An unclassified Pentagon report released Friday cited two confiscated Iraqi documents as saying the Russians collected information from sources ''inside the American Central Command'' and that battlefield intelligence was provided to then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein through the Russian ambassador in Baghdad.

The report also said the Russian government had sources inside the American military command as it planned and executed the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Pavel Felgenhauer, a respected independent Moscow-based military analyst, said the report was within the realm of possibility.

''It's quite plausible,'' he told The Associated Press.

He said a unit affiliated with the Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Department, known by its abbreviation GRU, was actively working in Iraq at the time of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The unit apparently was shut down after the fall of Baghdad.



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March 25, 2006
US Soldier, 7 Taliban Killed in Afghan Battle
By REUTERS
Filed at 7:59 a.m. ET

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S. and Afghan government troops attacked a group of Taliban on Saturday and seven of the insurgents and one American were killed, an Afghan commander said.

Afghanistan has seen a surge in attacks by Taliban and their militant allies in recent months and the Taliban have vowed to launch a spring offensive against U.S.-led foreign forces and the Western-backed government.

Fighting erupted after U.S. troops backed by helicopter gunships and jets launched an operation in the Sangin district of the southern province of Helmand, after being tipped-off about the presence of Taliban in a village, police said.

U.S. and Afghan forces fought the biggest battle in months against Taliban fighters in the same district at the beginning of February.

On Saturday, U.S. and Afghan forces backed by aircraft attacked about 20 insurgents, the U.S. military said. One American was killed and one wounded. One Afghan soldier was wounded, it said.

``There are known Taliban extremists in the Sangin district, and the Afghan National Army and coalition forces will continue to attack,'' said senior U.S. commander Major General Benjamin C. Freakley.

Residents of the area said U.S. aircraft bombed a house where Taliban were staying.

The U.S. military did not comment on Taliban casualties saying battle damage was being assessed. An Afghan army commander, General Rehmatullah Raufi, said seven Taliban had been killed.

Helmand has been a bastion of Taliban insurgents since U.S. and Afghan opposition forces ousted their government in late 2001.

The province is also Afghanistan's main opium-growing region and the insurgents are in league with drug gangs, complicating efforts to bring security and stamp out drugs, officials say.

British troops have been arriving in the province in recent weeks as part of an expansion of a NATO-led peacekeeping force into the Afghan south. In all, 3,300 British troops will soon be based in Helmand.



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March 25, 2006
Security Council Too Often Ineffective: ElBaradei
By REUTERS
Filed at 7:53 a.m. ET

KARLSRUHE, Germany (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council has too often failed to act swiftly and effectively to contain international crises and needs to be reformed, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Saturday.

``Too often, the Security Council's engagement is inadequate, selective, or after the fact,'' said Mohamed ElBaradei, last year's Nobel Peace Prize winner.

``The tragedies of recent years in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Darfur are cases in point,'' he told an audience of mostly German dentists.

His criticism of the U.N. body responsible for maintaining international peace and security comes as its five permanent members struggle to agree on a draft statement rebuking Iran for pressing ahead with its nuclear enrichment program.

In an annual lecture organized by a Karlsruhe dental institute, the Egyptian diplomat said the 15-nation Security Council was still incapable of tackling violence in Sudan's troubled Darfur region.

`` ... Darfur continues to suffer from the inability of the Security Council to muster sufficient peacekeeping troops and sufficient resources to prevent the continuing atrocities.''

On Friday, the Council voted to speed planning for a new U.N. peacekeeping force to be sent to Darfur later this year to relieve underfinanced African Union troops.

Speaking before receiving an award from the institute for ''global bridge building,'' ElBaradei said the Council's lack of success has also been visible in the field of arms control.

He said it ``has made little effort to address nuclear proliferation threats in context, by dealing with the 'drivers' of insecurity that give rise to proliferation.''

``In the case of Iraq, the Council for over a decade imposed a series of blanket economic sanctions -- which were manipulated to the advantage of the ruthless regime in power, and resulted in the death and suffering of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians,'' he said.

In 2003, the Council was unable to agree on either the need or timing of the use of force in Iraq, said the director-general of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

``It is clearly time for the Security Council to be reformed, expanded and strengthened, as part of the current efforts to reform and revitalize the United Nations,'' ElBaradei added.

U.N. RESOLUTIONS IGNORED

There was also the problem of past Security Council resolutions that have been ignored, ElBaradei said.

He mentioned resolutions demanding that India and Pakistan refrain from any further testing and development of nuclear weapons or that Israel open its nuclear facilities to the IAEA.

Unlike the official nuclear weapons states -- the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain -- India, Pakistan and Israel have never signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

In the case of North Korea, which may already be the ninth state to acquire the bomb, the Council was unable to agree on a response when the IAEA's governing board referred the matter to it in 2003 after Pyongyang expelled the IAEA and quit the NPT.

ElBaradei reiterated his doubts about Iran's insistence that its atomic plans were purely peaceful.

`` ... the fact that its program was conducted so long in secret, and particularly that aspects of it have not been clarified, has created a confidence deficit regarding its nature and its direction,'' he said.

Iran's plans to press ahead with its uranium enrichment program, which can make fuel for electricity or bombs, could increase insecurity in an already unstable Middle East, he said.



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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle...ticle353501.ece

Battle for Baghdad 'has already started'
By Patrick Cockburn in Arbil
Published: 25 March 2006
The battle between Sunni and Shia Muslims for control of Baghdad has already started, say Iraqi political leaders who predict fierce street fighting will break out as each community takes over districts in which it is strongest.

"The fighting will only stop when a new balance of power has emerged," Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish leader, said. "Sunni and Shia will each take control of their own area." He said sectarian cleansing had already begun.

Many Iraqi leaders now believe that civil war is inevitable but it will be confined, at least at first, to the capital and surrounding provinces where the population is mixed. "The real battle will be the battle for Baghdad where the Shia have increasing control," said one senior official who did not want his name published. "The army will disintegrate in the first moments of the war because the soldiers are loyal to the Shia, Sunni or Kurdish communities and not to the government." He expected the Americans to stay largely on the sidelines.

Throughout the capital, communities, both Sunni and Shia, are on the move, fleeing districts where they are in a minority and feel under threat. Sometimes they fight back. In the mixed but majority Shia al-Amel district, Sunni householders recently received envelopes containing a Kalashnikov bullet and a letter telling them to get out at once. In this case they contacted the insurgents who killed several Shia neighbours suspected of sending the letters.

"The Sunni will fight for Baghdad," said Mr Hussein. "The Baath party already controls al-Dohra and other Sunni groups dominate Ghazaliyah and Abu Ghraib [districts in south and west Baghdad]."

The Iraqi army is likely to fall apart once inter-communal fighting begins. According to Peter Galbraith, former US diplomat and expert on Iraq, the Iraqi army last summer contained 60 Shia battalions, 45 Sunni battalions, nine Kurdish battalions and one mixed battalion.

The police are even more divided and in Baghdad are largely controlled by the Mehdi Army of the radical nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Badr Organisation that has largely been in control of the interior ministry since last May. Sunni Arabs in Baghdad regard the ministry's paramilitary police commanders as Shia death squads.

Mr Hussein gave another reason why the army is weak. "Where you have 3,000 soldiers there will in fact be only 2,000 men [because of ghost soldiers who do not exist and whose salaries are taken by senior officers]," he said. "When it comes to fighting only 500 of those men will turn up."

Iraqi officials and ministers are increasingly in despair at the failure to put together an effective administration in Baghdad. A senior Arab minister, who asked not to be named, said: "The government could end up being only a few buildings in the Green Zone."

The mood among Iraqi leaders, both Arabs and Kurds, is far gloomier in private than the public declarations of the US and British governments. The US President George W Bush called this week for a national unity government in Iraq but Iraqi observers do not expect this to be any more effective than the present government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. One said this week: "The real problem is that the Shia and Sunni hate each other and not that we haven't been able to form a government."

The Shia and Kurds will have the advantage in the coming conflict because they have leaders and organisations. The Sunni are divided and only about 30 per cent of the population of the capital. Nevertheless they should be able to hold on to their stronghold in west Baghdad and the Adhamiyah district east of the Tigris. The Shia do not have the strength and probably do not wish to take over the Sunni towns and villages north and west of Baghdad.

Though the Kurds have long sought autonomy close to quasi-independence, their leaders are worried that civil war will increase Iranian and Turkish involvement in Iraq. Mr Hussein said he feared that civil war in Baghdad could spread north to Mosul and Kirkuk where the division is between Kurd and Arab rather than Sunni and Shia.

Already Baghdad resembles Beirut at the start of the Lebanese civil war in 1975, when Christians and Muslims fought each other for control of the city.

The battle between Sunni and Shia Muslims for control of Baghdad has already started, say Iraqi political leaders who predict fierce street fighting will break out as each community takes over districts in which it is strongest.

"The fighting will only stop when a new balance of power has emerged," Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish leader, said. "Sunni and Shia will each take control of their own area." He said sectarian cleansing had already begun.

Many Iraqi leaders now believe that civil war is inevitable but it will be confined, at least at first, to the capital and surrounding provinces where the population is mixed. "The real battle will be the battle for Baghdad where the Shia have increasing control," said one senior official who did not want his name published. "The army will disintegrate in the first moments of the war because the soldiers are loyal to the Shia, Sunni or Kurdish communities and not to the government." He expected the Americans to stay largely on the sidelines.

Throughout the capital, communities, both Sunni and Shia, are on the move, fleeing districts where they are in a minority and feel under threat. Sometimes they fight back. In the mixed but majority Shia al-Amel district, Sunni householders recently received envelopes containing a Kalashnikov bullet and a letter telling them to get out at once. In this case they contacted the insurgents who killed several Shia neighbours suspected of sending the letters.

"The Sunni will fight for Baghdad," said Mr Hussein. "The Baath party already controls al-Dohra and other Sunni groups dominate Ghazaliyah and Abu Ghraib [districts in south and west Baghdad]."

The Iraqi army is likely to fall apart once inter-communal fighting begins. According to Peter Galbraith, former US diplomat and expert on Iraq, the Iraqi army last summer contained 60 Shia battalions, 45 Sunni battalions, nine Kurdish battalions and one mixed battalion.

The police are even more divided and in Baghdad are largely controlled by the Mehdi Army of the radical nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Badr Organisation that has largely been in control of the interior ministry since last May. Sunni Arabs in Baghdad regard the ministry's paramilitary police commanders as Shia death squads.
Mr Hussein gave another reason why the army is weak. "Where you have 3,000 soldiers there will in fact be only 2,000 men [because of ghost soldiers who do not exist and whose salaries are taken by senior officers]," he said. "When it comes to fighting only 500 of those men will turn up."

Iraqi officials and ministers are increasingly in despair at the failure to put together an effective administration in Baghdad. A senior Arab minister, who asked not to be named, said: "The government could end up being only a few buildings in the Green Zone."

The mood among Iraqi leaders, both Arabs and Kurds, is far gloomier in private than the public declarations of the US and British governments. The US President George W Bush called this week for a national unity government in Iraq but Iraqi observers do not expect this to be any more effective than the present government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. One said this week: "The real problem is that the Shia and Sunni hate each other and not that we haven't been able to form a government."

The Shia and Kurds will have the advantage in the coming conflict because they have leaders and organisations. The Sunni are divided and only about 30 per cent of the population of the capital. Nevertheless they should be able to hold on to their stronghold in west Baghdad and the Adhamiyah district east of the Tigris. The Shia do not have the strength and probably do not wish to take over the Sunni towns and villages north and west of Baghdad.

Though the Kurds have long sought autonomy close to quasi-independence, their leaders are worried that civil war will increase Iranian and Turkish involvement in Iraq. Mr Hussein said he feared that civil war in Baghdad could spread north to Mosul and Kirkuk where the division is between Kurd and Arab rather than Sunni and Shia.

Already Baghdad resembles Beirut at the start of the Lebanese civil war in 1975, when Christians and Muslims fought each other for control of the city.

Belarusian Police Clash With Protesters ABC News
Belarusian Police Clash With Protesters Outside Jail; About 20 People Detained. Black-clad riot police clubbed demonstrators as government opponents marched Saturday in defiance of a show of force by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko that has drawn U.S. and European Union sanctions. A week into protests set off by the disputed election that handed Lukashenko a third term, opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich told a crowd of thousands that momentum is growing to bring democracy to Belarus. "We are starting work against dictatorship, and this work will sooner or later bear its fruit," he said. But Milinkevich also urged a monthlong recess in protests, apparently hoping to calm tensions and gain time to build opposition forces, which have fallen far short of the huge outpourings that peacefully overturned governments in Ukraine and Georgia. The day of confrontation and wildly swinging emotions left two big questions for the former Soviet republic of 10 million people, characterized in the West as Europe's last dictatorship: How much dissent are the authorities willing to allow and how much support does the opposition have? Milinkevich spoke at an impromptu rally in a park after hundreds of police blocked protesters from gathering on the central square that had been the focus of anti-Lukashenko demonstrations until riot squads swept in before dawn Friday and arrested dozens of people. Demonstrators held flowers, waved the red-and-white flag of the opposition and shouted "Milinkevich!" and "We are not afraid!" Police didn't interfere with the 7,000 people in the park, raising hopes that security forces' long history of violence against dissenters was softening. But authorities showed their tolerance had limits after part of the rally's participants marched off toward a jail holding some of those arrested during demonstrations against the March 19 presidential election that the protesters consider fraudulent. Cheerily chanting "police be with the people" as they passed officers along the way, the crowd of about 3,000 suddenly grew somber when a three-deep phalanx of riot police with shields confronted them at a railroad underpass. Banging truncheons on shields, the officers advanced on the marchers, causing some to scurry away. Police herded other protesters back along the street, beating some bloody and arresting about 20, as demonstrators shouted "Fascists!" At least four percussion grenades were detonated, adding to the chaos. Interior Minister Vladimir Naumov later denied the explosions were set off by police, but did not say what caused them. More than 100 people were arrested throughout the day, said Ales Byalyatsky of the human rights group Vasnya. The International Helsinki Federation said one demonstrator was severely injured with a fractured skull. A Russian journalist, Pavel Sheremet, was beaten and detained earlier in the central city, his father told The Associated Press. Among those arrested at the march was Alexander Kozulin, who like Milinkevich was a candidate against Lukashenko in the election. His spokeswoman, Nina Shedlovskaya, said he was beaten by police. Kozulin apparently initiated the march to the jail, angering Milinkevich, who said that "Kozulin decided to spoil this holiday for the people." The two have appeared together at opposition meetings over the past week, but Milinkevich clearly commands the crowds' affections. The rally at the park was the biggest since the first protest on election night, when about 10,000 people turned out. But the large number was counterbalanced by hundreds of others who walked by in apathy, disgust or fear of taking part. The crowd was mostly people younger than 30, with a large contingent of elderly. Middle-aged or middle-class people were few, underlining that the opposition so far isn't drawing broad-based support in public. Milinkevich nonetheless said he was elated by the turnout. "The people have come out today, they have come out in the face of truncheons, in the face of arrests," he said. "The more the authorities conduct repression, the closer they bring themselves to their end." Still, he acknowledged opposition numbers are not enough to defeat Lukashenko's government. "We can be proud of what we have already done: Fear is vanquished," he said. "But today there are not 200,000 or 500,000 of us coming out into the square. If there were, they (the authorities) would run away from the country." Milinkevich called for the next rally to take place April 26, the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster, which sent radiation over Belarus. Many people are unhappy over Lukashenko's moves to repopulate evacuated areas of the contamination zone. Saturday's rally came on the anniversary of Belarus' first independence declaration in 1918, which Milinkevich hoped would spur a big turnout of discontented Belarusians. "I am tired of being afraid, and the fear is leaving me," said Yelena Sokolovskaya, 44, an accountant who listened to his speech. She said the government's claims that the economy is thriving are "a lie Milinkevich speaks the truth." The confrontation at the march came a day after police stormed a tent camp in the central October Square where around-the-clock protests began after Lukashenko won a new five-year term by a landslide. Among those arrested at the square was Poland's former ambassador to Belarus, Mariusz Maszkiewicz, the Polish Embassy said Saturday. Neighboring Poland, which shed Moscow's domination in 1989, has angered the pro-Russian Lukashenko with its support for the opposition. Responding to the crackdown on government opponents, the European Union and the United States said Friday that they would impose sanctions on Lukashenko. However, the sanctions seemed unlikely to influence Lukashenko, who despises the West and has allied his country with Russia. In a statement late Friday, the Foreign Ministry said that the sanctions had "no prospects" and that Belarus reserved the right to take retaliatory measures.
Belarus Opp leader held in cop-protestor clash The Statesman
Elation, explosions end day of protest Seattle Post Intelligencer
Reuters - Aljazeera.net - Jerusalem Post - Hindu - all 1,775 related »

For the French, Joie de Vivre Fades Into Fear

By Molly Moore

PARIS, March 24 -- Outside the Grand Palais museum, people stood in line for hours in biting cold this winter to see the city's most popular art exhibit -- Mélancolie , a collection of paintings and sculptures evoking depression, sadness and despair.

To view the entire article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...er=emailarticle

Protest Takes Bloody Detour in Belarus

MOSCOW - In a clash over the March 19 vote, riot police confront
marchers, clubbing some to the ground and arresting dozens. By Kim
Murphy.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/ezw...Io30G2B0HOuc0E3

Bolivia Bomb Suspect 'Own Worst Enemy'

BUENOS AIRES - Northern California native served time in state
youth and mental facilities and six months in Argentina for a 2005
blast at a bank. By Patrick J. McDonnell and Lee Romney.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/ezw...Io30G2B0HOud0E4

U.S. Again Presses Iraqis on Task

BAGHDAD - For the second time in less than a week, a group of U.S.
senators met with Iraqi leaders to warn that American interest in
stabilizing the country could dwindle unless they speed up work to
form a unity government. By Richard Boudreaux.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/ezw...Io30G2B0HOue0E5

Arabs pledge same level of aid for Palestinians Yahoo! NEWS
Arab foreign ministers on Sunday dismissed Western explanations for cutting aid to the Palestinian Authority but offered no extra money to compensate for a budget shortfall when Hamas Islamists take office. The ministers, meeting in the Sudanese capital Khartoum to prepare for an Arab summit this week, renewed an old pledge to give the Palestinians some $50 million a month and left open the possibility of giving more later if the Palestinians need it. They rejected unilateral steps by Israel, as interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in Jerusalem he wanted to define Israel's borders without dealing with a Hamas government. The Palestinians say they already face a financial crisis because Israel refuses to hand over about $55 million a month which it collects in tax and customs revenue on their behalf. The United States, which calls Hamas a terrorist organization and demands it recognize Israel, insisted that the Palestinian Authority give back $50 million as part of a review of U.S. aid after Hamas won parliamentary elections in January. Hamas might take office on Monday when the Palestinian Legislative Council convenes for a confidence vote on a 24-member cabinet dominated by the Islamists, who reject the compromises the Palestinians have made with Israel since 1993. A resolution approved by the Arab ministers said: "(The council of ministers) calls on the international community to continue to provide grants and financial and economic assistance to the Palestinian Authority." It said the ministers "reject the pretexts (for threatening to cut aid) and point out the dangerous negative repercussions it would have on the economic and social circumstances of the Palestinian people and on stability and security in the region." They asked the Palestinian Authority to prepare a report on the amount of aid it will lose if donors cut aid and submit it to Arab governments "to take an appropriate decision on it." The Palestinian Authority, which remains led by President Mahmoud Abbas of the electorally defeated Fatah movement, did not invite any Hamas members to join the Palestinian delegation to Khartoum, postponing any dispute over the differences between an Arab peace initiative and Hamas's strategy toward Israel. Hamas has rejected demands that it recognize an Israeli right to exist, renounce violence and accept previous peace agreements, even at the risk of losing aid from Western donors. In Hamas's absence, the ministers reaffirmed the commitment of Arab governments to their 2002 offer to open normal relations with Israel if it withdraws to the borders as they stood on the eve of the Middle East war of 1967. Israel rejects the offer. They also added an endorsement of the international peace plan known as the road map, which commits the Palestinian Authority to disband unofficial militias such as that of Hamas. Delegates said that governments friendly toward the United States, including Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, had pressed for a mention of the road map against the objections of Syria. But Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, asked about the road map, said: "Before you ask about Hamas's attitude toward the peace process, ask Israel about its position." On Iraq, the ministers promised that their governments would set up a diplomatic presence in Baghdad as soon as possible, provided the Iraqi government ensures adequate protection. Few Arab countries have diplomatic missions in Iraq, for fear insurgents will kill or kidnap their diplomats in protest at what they see as recognition of the U.S.-backed government. The ministers also recommended that the Arab leaders, who meet in Khartoum on Tuesday and Wednesday, cancel Iraq's debts to Arab governments, estimated at billions of dollars dating back to the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. Arab governments have little leverage over the main political factions in Iraq and are worried that ethnic and sectarian divisions will weaken or fragment what used to be a powerful and influential Arab state. Their main political initiative has been the reconciliation meeting the Arab League organized in Cairo last year, which had little effect on the conflict on the ground. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters after the meeting that another round of reconciliation talks would start in Iraq on June 1. He said possible venues were Baghdad, Basra in the south or Kurdistan in the north. "I think that the resolution we extracted from them (the other Arab ministers) is reasonable -- the minimum of what we expect the Arab countries to do to help," Zebari added.
By Suleiman al-Khalidi

Afghan judge says Christian convert case has flaws Yahoo! NEWS
The judge presiding over the case of an Afghan man who could face the death penalty for converting to Christianity said on Sunday the case against him had flaws and had been referred back to prosecutors. The row over the man, Abdur Rahman, 40, jailed this month for abandoning Islam, threatens to create a rift between Afghanistan and the United States and other Western backers who have been calling for the man's release. "The case, because of some technical as well as legal flaws and shortcomings, has been referred back to the prosecutor's office," the judge, Ansarullah Mawlavizada, told Reuters. He declined to elaborate on the flaws or say if the review would delay the trial, which had been due to begin in coming days. Rahman, detained this month for converting to Christianity, told an Italian newspaper from his Kabul jail cell that he was ready to die for his new faith. Death is the punishment stipulated by sharia, or Islamic law, for apostasy -- abandonment of the faith. The Afghan legal system is based on a mixture of civil and sharia law. The government is trying to satisfy Western demands for the man's release, while not angering powerful conservatives at home who have demanded a trial and death sentence under Islamic law. Officials in President Hamid Karzai's government declined to comment, except to say discussions on a solution were going on. "I'm hopeful something will be worked out," said one. Officials and analysts say they do not expect Rahman to be executed. Mawlavizada said earlier that Rahman's mental state could be taken into account. Rahman has denied he is mentally unstable but a prosecutor preparing the case him said he would be examined. "He will undergo a medical examination tomorrow for the reported mental issue," said the prosecutor, Zemarai, who uses only one name.

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE"
U.S. President George W. Bush has urged Afghanistan to show it respects religious freedom and resolve the case quickly. Several other countries with troops in Afghanistan, including Canada, Italy, Germany and Australia, have voiced concern. Some foreign critics have urged that their troops be withdrawn. But the foreign pressure on Afghanistan has only been met in Afghanistan by threats of rebellion if the government gives in and frees Rahman. Rahman told a preliminary hearing 10 days ago he had become a Christian while working for an aid group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan 15 years ago. He later lived in Germany before returning to Afghanistan. He was detained after his family told authorities he had converted, apparently following a family dispute involving two daughters, a judicial official said. "I don't want to die. But if God decides, I am ready to face up to my choices, all the way," he was quoted as saying in Sunday's La Repubblica newspaper. The Italian newspaper conducted the interview by sending Rahman written questions via a human rights worker who visited him in jail outside Kabul. Rahman said he would defend himself in court as no lawyer would want to, and that he did not want to be forced to leave Afghanistan, a possible option if he is allowed to go free. Defying the conservative clamor, a newspaper made the first public call in Afghanistan for Rahman's release, saying the country could not ignore international opinion when it needed support to fight terrorism and rebuild. "Afghanistan cannot live in isolation," said the Outlook newspaper, which is funded by a member of parliament who led a faction during civil war in the 1990s.
By Sayed Salahuddin

IRAN'S NUCLEAR STEPS QUICKEN, DIPLOMATS SAY: TEHRAN REPORTEDLY IS GEARING UP FOR URANIUM ENRICHMENT. A SPLIT IN THE SECURITY COUNCIL MAY IMPEDE EFFORTS TO HALT THE PROGRAM - ALISSA J. RUBIN AND MAGGIE FARLEY (LOS ANGELES TIMES, MARCH 25)
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/l...1,1197096.story

MISSION IMPROBABLE: EVEN THE NEOCONS, WHO LONG FOR WAR WITH IRAN, CONCEDE IT ISN?T FEASIBLE - SCOTT MCCONNELL (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE)
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_03_27/feature.html

TOWARD A STRATEGY FOR REGIME CHANGE - ALEX ALEXIEV (FOCUS NEWS, MARCH 25): What needs to be done immediately is for the United States to formulate and begin executing a comprehensive strategy that aims to prevent or delay as long as possible the acquisition of a nuclear capability by Iran as the first step and effect regime change in Tehran as the ultimate objective.
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?focus=a...aid=7846&acat=5

IRAN: NUKE TREATY MESS REACHES CRITICAL MASS - KAVEH L AFRASIABI (ASIA TIMES, MARCH 25): The Iran nuclear crisis carries both positive and negative potential with respect to the non-proliferation regime, and its eventual outcome is not pre-fixed; rather, it depends on the will and acumen of leaders and decision-makers who are involved in this crisis threatening the world peace.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HC25Ak02.html

ISRAEL, AL QAEDA AND IRAN - MARJORIE COHN (TRUTHOUT, MARCH 23): Since George W. Bush gave his "axis of evil" speech, he invaded Iraq, changed its regime, and created a quagmire reminiscent of Vietnam. His administration is now sending clear signals that Iran is next in line for regime change. The raison d'être: Iran's nuclear program, an al Qaeda connection, and protecting Israel.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032306Z.shtml

CHINA AND AMERICA: CONVINCE ME -- PUBLIC DIPLOMACY BEGINS AT HOME - TOM PLATE (PACIFIC PERSPECTIVES, MARCH 21): Rather than seeking to enlist Asians in a China-hedging coalition, our national government needs to enlist the American people in a huge and historic national effort to understand how to maximize the harmony and minimize the friction. Public diplomacy -- for the all-important China question -- best begins at home, not abroad. We have to convince ourselves of what our vision is before we can convince anyone else of what their vision ought to be.
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/columns.asp?parentid=41291
VIA
http://eccentricstar.typepad.com/ (SCROLL DOWN LINK FOR ITEM)

IN THE NAME OF THE IRANIAN PEOPLE - REGIME CHANGE OR REGIME REFORM? - HOOSHANG AMIRAHMADI (PAYVAND, IRAN, MARCH 24): To complement the international isolation of Iran, the Bush Administration will put into action a funding package and actively "support the aspirations of the Iranian people for freedom.? The fund will be used to "empower civil society" and "promote democracy" in Iran, increase satellite TV and Radio broadcasting to the country, expand outreach to young and professional Iranians, and enhance communication for public diplomacy. As one official said, the Administration hopes to use the fund to "deepen" ties with the Iranian people and initiate a political movement in Iran akin to the Polish "solidarity model."
http://www.payvand.com/news/06/mar/1208.html

IT'S US POLICY THAT INFLAMES THE ARAB WORLD: BLAMING THE ISRAEL LOBBY - JOSEPH MASSAD (COUNTERPUNCH): Even without the pathetic and ineffective efforts at US propaganda in the guise of the television station Al-Hurra, or Radio Sawa and the now-defunct Hi magazine, not to mention US-paid journalists and newspapers in Iraq and elsewhere, a whole army of Arabic newspapers and state-television stations, not to mention myriad satellite television stations celebrate the US and its culture, broadcast American programmes, and attempt to sell the US point of view as effectively as possible encumbered only by the limitations that actual US policies in the region place on common sense. Note: Per its title, article also discusses the ?Israel lobby? controversy (see below items 51-54.
http://www.counterpunch.org/massad03252006.html

ESOPOTAMIAN SPEAKERS NEEDED: DETAILS OF THE WORK LIFE OF THE PRESS ATTACHÉ AT U.S. EMBASSY BAGHDAD - PAUL D. KRETKOWSKI (BEACON, MARCH 23): An account of time spent in Baghdad by Robert J. Callahan, a Foreign Service Officer who was the press attaché at the American Embassy makes several interesting points, including language environment for Americans working in Iraq -- in government, relief organizations, the media -- is even more complex than generally understood.
http://softpowerbeacon.blogspot.com/ (SCROLL DOWN LINK FOR ITEM)

NEIGHBORHOOD BRIEFING The Community Connections program, sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development and administered by World Learning, is designed to promote public diplomacy through the exchange of cultural ideas and values. It seeks to establish links with communities in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/121602

U.S. REVOKES VISA OF PAKISTANI SENATOR: MUSHARRAF CRITIC WAS TO BE STATE DEPT. GUEST - SHANKAR VEDANTAM (WASHINGTON POST, MARCH 25): Sana Ullah Baloch, who had been invited by the State Department last year and issued a visa, was told recently by the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad that he could not attend a State Department-sponsored program on accountability in government and business and that a visa he had already received had been revoked.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6032401723.html

BY FORCE OF DEAD HABIT: MUSHARRAF'S FLASHY PEACEMAKING HAS ITS FLAWS, BUT THAT'S NO REASON TO SWITCH OFF - PREM SHANKAR JHA (OUTLOOK, INDIA, MARCH 24): New Delhi has reservations about both Musharraf?s style of public diplomacy and the studied vagueness of his prescriptions.
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodna...=Col+Prem&sid=1
SUBSCRIPTION NEEDED

BOUND, BLINDFOLDED AND DEAD: THE FACE OF ATROCITY IN BAGHDAD - JEFFREY GETTLEMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, MARCH 25): In the last month, hundreds of men have been kidnapped, tortured and executed in Baghdad. Many Sunnis, who used to be the most anti-American community in Iraq, are asking for American help.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/internat...artner=homepage

MILITIAS KILL MORE IRAQIS THAN "TERRORISTS": US ENVOY (ISLAMONLINE.NET & NEWS AGENCIES) - US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said on Saturday, March 25, that militias, many with strong ties to powerful Shiite leaders and well entrenched in security and police forces, are killing more Iraqis than "terrorists," urging Iraqi leaders to rein them in.
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/20...article06.shtml

IT'S ALREADY BEGUN: THE BATTLE FOR BAGHDAD - PATRICK COCKBURN (COUNTERPUNCH, MARCH 25-26): Already Baghdad resembles Beirut at the start of the Lebanese civil war in 1975, when Christians and Muslims fought each other for control of the city.
http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick03252006.html

A PROFESSOR'S BLEAK VIEW OF IRAQ'S FUTURE ? (NEW YORK TIMES, MARCH 25): "Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency in Iraq" (Cornell), by Prof. Ahmed S. Hashim of the United States Naval War College, is a pessimistic analysis of the war that is causing controversy ahead of its May publication.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/weekinreview/26QandA.html

THE GOOD NEWS FROM IRAQ: WE CAN'T HEAR IT -- THE BOMBS ARE TOO LOUD - JOHN DICKERSON (SLATE, MARCH 24): Reporters trying to cover the good news in Iraq face a formidable obstacle in the continual and overwhelming bad news. Journalists are kept busy covering explosions, mass killings, reprisals, and kidnappings, which a recent State Department report called "a daily occurrence throughout all regions and sectors of society."
http://www.slate.com/id/2138622/

A BALANCE SHEET FOR AMERICA'S IRAQ - SAMI MOUBAYED (ASIA TIMES, MARCH 25): Sadly, what probably Iraqis need is not a Saddam, but a powerful man who has the will and ability to be forceful on all sects and bring everybody under the strict authority of the central government. This is a concept that must be accepted by Iraqi politicians and the US administration. Otherwise, Iraq will remain in a state of civil war that could become one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 21st century -- despite the thundering assurances of Bush.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HC25Ak03.html

Is Britain's Labour selling lordships?
A donor controversy has revived debate on how politics should be funded
there. By Mark Rice-Oxley
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0327/p04s01-woeu.html?s=hns


Israeli right nips at Kadima
The moderates are expected to win Tuesday's vote, but the right is
gaining. By Ilene R. Prusher
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0327/p06s02-wome.html?s=hns

Two faces of democracy: Belarus, Ukraine
The 'freest' vote ever was held in Ukraine Sunday. But Belarus is
cracking down on opponents. By Fred Weir
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0327/p07s03-woeu.html?s=hns

Backstory: Argentina's indigenous shadows
A nation that cultivates a European image barely sees the dwindling
culture that was here first. By Richard O'Mara
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0327/p20s01-woam.html?s=hns

March 27, 2006
Reform Leader Suffers Setback in Ukraine Vote
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
KIEV, Ukraine, Monday, March 27 — President Viktor A. Yushchenko, who led a wave of popular protest to office promising a freer Ukraine aligned with Europe and the United States, suffered a stunning political defeat in parliamentary elections on Sunday, leaving him weakened and his reformist policies in doubt.

Mr. Yushchenko called the vote for a new and newly empowered Parliament "the first fair, democratic elections in Ukraine," and his party appeared to have been routed.

Nearly a year and a half after the protests and international pressure swept Mr. Yushchenko to the presidency, his party fell far behind not only the party of the man he beat for the top job, Viktor F. Yanukovich, but also the party of his former prime minister, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, according to an independent survey of voters leaving the polls, announced by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, after voting ended at 10 p.m. on Sunday.

Mr. Yanukovich's Party of Regions, which the survey showed with 33 percent of the vote, was poised to win the largest bloc of seats in the 450-seat Parliament, but not enough to win control outright. Ms. Tymoshenko's bloc received 22 percent, while Mr. Yushchenko's party, Our Ukraine, trailed in a distant third place, with only 13 percent, according to the survey.

Mr. Yanukovich, the former prime minister whose supporters were accused of having rigged the presidential race against Mr. Yushchenko in November 2004, declared "a decisive victory," using the sort of language that rallied those against him and his patron, the former president, Leonid D. Kuchma. "Ukraine made its choice," he said. "Its choice is freedom, democracy, stability and confidence in the future."

Mr. Yanukovich's strength is less a reflection of his political successes than it is of the failings of Mr. Yushchenko, whose reputation at home has suffered from one problem after another despite his image abroad as a reform-minded democrat.

His inability to help improve the weak economy and lessen the country's reliance on Russian gas, which caused painful shortages this winter in a price dispute, deeply hurt him.

The election results set the stage for a period of political jockeying that could last for days or even weeks before a new government is formed. Much will depend on the success of an array of smaller parties that needed to win at least 3 percent of the vote to secure seats.

The voting was the first electoral test of the sweeping changes Mr. Yushchenko promised during the huge street protests that came to be known as the "Orange Revolution."

If the results of the voter survey hold, the election will underscore the disastrous turnaround in Mr. Yushchenko's political fate, leaving him forced to compromise.

At stake are Mr. Yushchenko's stated policy goals, including integrating Ukraine into the European Union and NATO. Mr. Yanukovich's party has promised to restore economic stability and forge closer ties with Russia.

The election has added significance for Ukraine, a country of 47 million on the edge of a newly expanded European Union, because of a political compromise that cleared the way for Mr. Yushchenko's presidency. Under constitutional changes adopted then, the new Parliament will have the power to choose the prime minister and most of the cabinet, though Mr. Yushchenko will retain control over foreign affairs and security ministries.

Mr. Yushchenko's party now faces a choice of whether to repair the fractured coalition with Ms. Tymoshenko, who served as his first prime minister until a falling out amid infighting over policy and accusations of corruption, or possibly to face a hostile government. Together, their parties still drew more votes than Mr. Yanukovich's, according to the voter survey, but her showing increased her leverage in the talks.

Without Ms. Tymoshenko's support, Mr. Yushchenko's only other choice would be an improbable alliance with Mr. Yanukovich. The president remained noncommittal on Sunday, saying in televised remarks that he was considering "all kinds of various combinations."

Later, though, as the gravity of his party's poor showing became clear, Mr. Yushchenko's aides said they were prepared to revive the "orange" coalition. The mood at the party's headquarters was funereal, despite rock bands that performed on the central square of Kiev, the capital, and videos that evoked the 2004 protests there.

A scheduled appearance by the current prime minister and leader of the party, Yury I. Yekhanurov, was abruptly canceled without explanation early Monday morning.

Ms. Tymoshenko, by contrast, clearly relished a result that provided a measure of vengeance after her dismissal last September. She said those who supported the Orange Revolution were still a majority — now led by her, her remarks suggested, though she stopped short of declaring her insistence on becoming prime minister again.

"I would not like us to let the people down again," she said.

Although Mr. Yanukovich's party complained of widespread irregularities ahead of Sunday's vote, including names missing from voter lists or Russian ones mistranslated into Ukrainian, there were few immediate reports of fraud or significant disruptions. But long lines formed as voters slogged through a ballot with 45 parties, and a homemade firebomb damaged one polling place in the Kiev region.

For many of those who voted, the significance was not in the results, but in the process. They described a Ukraine that was freer and more democratic, if also unruly and still divided along the same ethnic, social and political lines of 2004.

"It is already a big victory," Mr. Yushchenko said, putting the best face on his party's performance.

The survey of voters was carried out for the Democratic Initiatives Foundation by the Razumkov Center and the Kiev International Institute of Sociology, which is part of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy. Final results are not expected at least until late Monday, and perhaps later.

Critics of Mr. Yushchenko's performance as president welcomed the freedom of choice.

Maria I. Kompaneyets, 63, said that she voted for Mr. Yanukovich in 2004, but that she had hopes that Mr. Yushchenko would use his popular mandate to improve life in Ukraine, especially the economy and pensions, recurrent complaints among those less well off.

"Nothing changed, at least nothing changed for better, neither in the country nor in our own life," she said, as she voted with her husband, Pyotr. "Of course we had hopes. So much had been said in those days. Who could expect that it would turn out so bad?"

Nikolai Khalip contributed reporting for this article.



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Ukraine Opposition Leads in Vote, Exit Poll Shows Bloomberg
The largest Ukrainian opposition party won the first parliamentary elections to be held following the Orange Revolution less than fifteen months ago, an exit poll showed. The Regions Party of Viktor Yanukovych, who wants to keep the country out of NATO and forge closer ties with Russia, had 33 percent of the vote, according to the exit poll released immediately after the end of voting today by the Democratic Initiatives research group. A party led by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who defeated Yanukovych in a re-run of disputed presidential elections in December 2004, finished third with 14 percent, the poll said. At stake is the future direction of the former Soviet republic. Yushchenko, 52, seeks to join the World Trade Organization, the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, sell more state assets and woo foreign investors. Yanukovich, 55, has found support from voters who say the current government hasn't lived up to its promises to boost living standards and curb corruption. A political force led by former Premier Yulia Timoshenko was second, with 23 percent support, the poll showed. The poll surveyed 19,766 people through 6 p.m. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percent.

Crowded Field
Only six parties out of 45 made it past the three percent threshold needed to make it into the 450-seat parliament, according to the poll. The Central Electoral Committee in Kiev will begin releasing official results at 2 a.m. tomorrow. The Socialist Party had 5.4 percent, while the Communist Party took 3.4 percent, according to the poll. The Progressive Socialists Party of Natalia Vitrenko also had 3.4 percent, the poll said. The margin of error for the smaller parties is plus or minus 1 percent. Turnout of the 36.8 million eligible voters was over 58 percent as of 9 p.m. in Kiev., the Central Election Commission announced. No significant problems with the vote were reported. A new cabinet will enjoy broader power, with some authority being transferred from the president to parliament, including naming of the prime minister. The parliament's mandate will increase to five years from four previously. Optimism fostered by the revolution has dissipated amid slowing economic growth, accelerating inflation and a split between Yushchenko and Timoshenko after allegations of corruption. Voters today in the nation of 47 million also selected a mayor of Kiev and regional parliaments and city councils.
Russia-backed opposition leads in Ukraine - exit polls Reuters.uk
Ukraine vote may undermine Orange Revolution, polls suggest CBC News
Reuters Canada - Christian Science Monitor - Voice of America - The Moscow Times - all 603 related

EU cohesion fund needed to cement relationship Swissinfo, Switzerland
Switzerland's relationship with the European Union could suffer if voters refuse to contribute to the EU's enlargement eastwards, says the German ambassador. Swiss Economics Minister Joseph Deiss echoed the diplomat's comments, criticising the rightwing Swiss People's Party for calling for a nationwide vote on the issue. Andreas von Stechow, Germany's new ambassador to Switzerland, told the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper that a "no" vote to the Swiss financial contribution to the so-called EU Cohesion Fund would damage Switzerland's reputation as a negotiating partner. The fund has helped EU member states reduce economic and social disparities and stabilise their economies since 1994. After the latest enlargement of the EU in 2004, the European Commission requested the Swiss make a financial contribution. Most of the ten newest EU members are former communist bloc states in eastern Europe. Switzerland, which is not a member of the EU, pledged SFr1 billion ($760 million) to the fund after it signed a second set of bilateral accords with the Union in May 2004. The commission has said in the past that the financial contribution had to be seen in the context of Switzerland benefiting from access to the EU's enlarged internal market and to a number of EU programmes and activities. "The Swiss government has been right in saying that if Switzerland was going to benefit from the EU's enlargement to the east, then it had to offer some kind of compensation," said von Stechow.

Challenge
The Swiss parliament approved the funding during its last session, but immediately afterwards, rightwing parties called for a nationwide vote on the issue. The Lega dei Ticinesi group announced it would challenge the payment, followed by the far-right Swiss Democrats and the leading Swiss People's Party. They need to collect at least 50,000 signatures over the next three months to force a vote likely to take place next year ahead of parliamentary elections. Economics Minister Deiss criticised the People's Party decision to call for a ballot in an interview with the SonntagsZeitung on Sunday. While he admits that the rightwing party had always fought against closer ties with the EU, he believes this time round its members were playing politics. "It's a transparent attempt to use this issue to drum up support ahead of the 2007 parliamentary elections," he said. Deiss added that as one of four government parties, the People's Party was behaving irresponsibly for tactical reasons and threatening the good relationship between Switzerland and the EU.

Loss of goodwill
The minister, a centre-right Christian Democrat, said that a refusal to contribute to the EU enlargement would cost the Swiss a huge amount of goodwill in Europe. "The economic damage would be major as our companies would have to operate in an unfriendly environment," he told the Sonntagszeitung. According to Deiss, a refusal would also threaten a series of bilateral accords, such as the Schengen agreement on the free movement of people. "The EU or EU-member states could decide not ratify such an accord," he added. For the economics minister, the contribution to the EU fund is not an entry fee to new markets, but a gesture of solidarity and a defence of Switzerland's own economic interests. "Small gestures are sometimes important, just like an unexpected phone call or a bouquet of flowers can contribute a lot to a good relationship," he said.
EU cohesion fund needed to cement relationship NZZ Online
all 4 related »

Guantanamo tribunals under court scrutiny Yahoo! NEWS
Osama bin Laden's former driver is at the heart of a U.S. Supreme Court case this week that could determine whether President George W. Bush has the power to use military tribunals in his war on terrorism. The case, focusing on the war crimes tribunals for prisoners at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo, Cuba, also will weigh the balance of power between the presidency and the courts. In 90 minutes of arguments on Tuesday, the session could produce the most significant ruling on presidential war powers since the end of World War Two. "Reduced to its essence, the government's argument is that the federal judiciary has no real power to review actions taken by the president in the name of fighting terrorism," wrote University law professor Neal Katyal, who is defending bin Laden's former driver-bodyguard, Salim Ahmed Hamdan. In revisiting Bush's policies in the war on terrorism for the first time in nearly two years, the Supreme Court also will take up a second important issue on whether Guantanamo prisoners can go to court in the United States to enforce the protections of the Geneva Convention. The Bush administration says the president has the power to create the military tribunals and the protections of the Geneva Convention do not apply. In the past, the Supreme Court has provided a check on the president's powers in the war on terrorism. Before the justices can rule on either issue, they must decide a third crucial issue -- whether a recent law stripped the court of its jurisdiction over the appeal by a Yemeni accused of being Osama bin Laden's bodyguard and driver. The Detainee Treatment Act, signed by Bush on December 30, severely restricts the ability of prisoners at Guantanamo to bring challenges in federal court. The Bush administration argued the law applied to all existing cases and that the Supreme Court must dismiss Hamdan's appeal without deciding the key issues. Hamdan's attorneys disagreed. They said the U.S. Congress did not intend to strip the court of the power to decide challenges to the lawfulness of the tribunals.

SCALIA QUESTIONS RIGHTS
During the weekend Newsweek magazine reported Justice
Antonin Scalia in a private meeting in Switzerland dismissed the idea that Guantanamo detainees have constitutional rights. Critics complained that he was prejudging the issue and should step aside, although there was no indication he would. Formally called military commissions, the special tribunals were authorized by Bush after the September 11 attacks and have been criticized by human rights groups as being fundamentally unfair. Katyal said Bush lacked the authority to establish the tribunals, based on the president's inherent powers or the joint resolution authorizing military force that the U.S. Congress approved after the September 11 attacks. "Here, the president seeks not merely to detain temporarily but to dispense life imprisonment and death through a judicial system of his own design," Katyal told the court in a written brief filed on March 14. But Solicitor General Paul Clement of the U.S. Justice Department argued the United States throughout its history has used military commissions to try violations of the law of war. "Ninety years ago, in revising the articles of war, Congress recognized that historic practice and approved its continuing use," he said. "And this court upheld the use of military commissions during and after World War Two." Clement repeated Bush's position that the Geneva Convention does not cover or give prisoner-of-war status to al Qaeda members like Hamdan. The Hamdan case will be heard by eight justices. Chief Justice John Roberts has removed himself because before joining the Supreme Court, he was part of a U.S. appeals court panel that ruled against Hamdan. A 4-4 tie would not produce a ruling on the merits but would affirm the appeals court decision for the government. In June 2004, the court dealt the administration a stinging defeat by ruling that Guantanamo prisoners could bring challenges in U.S. courts and that Americans held as enemy combatants must be allowed to contest their detention.
By James Vicini

Pacifist Japan Puts Troops Under Unified Command
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Pacifist_J...ed_Command.html

Tokyo (AFP) Mar 28, 2006 - Japan placed its ground, air and sea forces under a new integrated chain of command Monday, hoping to improve efficiency in the face of threats from North Korea and terrorism. In a major change, the Self-Defense Force, which was set up in 1954 after a defeated Japan was forced to renounce war, abolished the separate commands for each service.

Ukraine Teeters Between Two Futures After Voting

KIEV, Ukraine-Two former allies in the Orange Revolution may unite
again to form a ruling coalition - or one may join with its former
nemesis. By David Holley.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/ez1...Io30G2B0HPKY0Ee


Russia's Stance on Neighbors Irks U.S.

WASHINGTON-In another sign of friction with Moscow, a Bush
administration official criticizes its approach to elections in
Belarus and Ukraine. By Paul Richter.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/ez1...Io30G2B0HPKZ0Ef


China's Clash of Cultures in Cyberspace

BEIJING-A blogger's video spoof of a big-budget film is swept up
in the debate over censorship and the freedom to speak one's mind
on the Internet. By Ching-Ching Ni.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/ez1...Io30G2B0HPKa0Em

Israelis vote, polls predict Olmert victory Yahoo! NEWS
Israelis voted on Tuesday in an election seen as a referendum on uprooting some West Bank settlements while enlarging others to impose Israel's final borders if peacemaking with the Palestinians stays frozen. Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose centrist Kadima party is expected to win, aims unilaterally to dismantle remote settlements by 2010 and move thousands of dislodged settlers to bigger blocs on occupied land Palestinians want for a state. Some 20,000 police and volunteers were on patrol for possible Palestinian bombings as Israelis voted. In southern Israel, two Israeli Arab shepherds were killed in a suspected rocket attack from Gaza, medics said. The army said it was investigating whether the rocket had been fired on Tuesday or had lain unexploded until set off by the shepherds. Opinion polls have shown Kadima will win some 34 seats, enough to form a governing coalition in the 120-member parliament. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon founded Kadima last November before he suffered a stroke and went into a coma. Unilateralism appeals to many Israelis worn down by a five-year-old Palestinian uprising and concerned by the rise to power of Hamas in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip after the Islamist militant group won elections in January. "I'm in favor of some withdrawals. I hope there won't be any more wars," said Tovah Weiss, an elderly woman in Jerusalem who said she voted for Kadima. Israelis were voting a day after Hamas presented its cabinet to the Palestinian parliament for approval, showing no sign of softening its stance on the Jewish state. Hamas is formally sworn to Israel's destruction. Media exit polls will be issued after balloting ends at 10 p.m. (3.00 a.m. EST). For Olmert, victory would mean approval of "consolidation," his term for the go-it-alone steps he plans should Hamas refuse to recognize Israel, disarm and accept interim peace accords. The World Court has ruled that all settlements are illegal. Israel disputes this. "These elections will determine the state's character, its borders and moral identity," elder statesman and Kadima candidate Shimon Peres said after voting. Palestinians condemn Olmert's proposal, saying it would destroy any prospects for peace and deny them a viable state by grabbing land Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. One Hamas official said all major Israeli political parties were hostile toward the Palestinians. "We will confront whatever is the result of the election by uniting against the occupier and against the Israeli aggression ... by all possible means," said lawmaker Mushir al-Masri.

UPHEAVAL
The trauma for settlers of any withdrawal from land they see as a biblical birthright could dwarf that of last year's Gaza pullout, which Sharon championed in a reversal of policy. Some 60,000 West Bank settlers could be affected by Olmert's plan, far more than the 8,500 removed from Gaza. Around 240,000 Israelis live among 2.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank. Israeli right-wingers say removing more settlements would reward and encourage Palestinian violence. Opinion polls published at the close of a lackluster but high-stakes campaign showed the centre-left Labor Party running second, with about 21 seats, making it a likely coalition partner for Kadima. The right-wing Likud party was touted to take some 14 seats. Turnout after a few hours of voting was 9.9 percent of registered voters, the lowest in any Israel election but close to the last polls in 2003. Analysts say turnout could be crucial in deciding the shape of a coalition government. Olmert's policy of imposing Israel's borders on its own terms is incompatible with a peace "road map," which envisaged a cessation of violence and the start of mutual steps leading to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel. Neither side has fulfilled its commitments under the plan sponsored by the "Quartet" of Middle East mediators -- Russia, the United States, the
European Union and the United Nations.
By Dean Yates

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HC29Ak01.html
Talking to the enemy
By Iason Athanasiadis

BAGHDAD - The press conference room inside Baghdad's Green Zone is an improvised tangle of television wires snaking along the floor of the trailer. At the far end of the room, nine US senators led by Vietnam War veteran and presidential hopeful John McCain stand in front of the made-for-TV background featuring American and Iraqi flags abutting a State Department logo.



"We have conveyed to them [Iraqi politicians] a sense of urgency," McCain announces. McCain is alluding to the underlying concerns bedeviling negotiations between the American occupying authority and Iraq's politicians to form a government, that a stable national unity government must be put in place if the country is not to fall further apart.

The US's position has been complicated by the killing of at least 40 worshipers in a Shi'ite community hall near a mosque in Sadr City, a large Shi'ite ghetto in Baghdad and support base for powerful Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army. The US has repeatedly urged the government to disband militias linked to political parties. The victims are believed to have been killed in an operation involving combined US and Iraqi forces.

The United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the Shi'ite bloc with the largest number of seats in parliament, promptly called for the US occupation to turn over control of all security operations to the Iraqi government. Some UIA politicians also indicated that they now wanted to pull out of the protracted talks to form a government that have dragged on since elections in January.

Increasingly, it is dawning on Washington that the US must leave Iraq sooner rather than later. "I think they want us out, but not now," McCain says. "And we want out."

And to do this, the US has had to turn to Iran, with which it has had no diplomatic relations since 1979, which it accuses of developing a nuclear weapons program and which it consistently accuses of meddling in Iraqi affairs.

Stepping out of the press conference in Baghdad, one of the senators told Asia Times Online that talks with Iran "have been ongoing for some time and I feel that they've reached some tentative agreement". This confirms an earlier comment by a European diplomat in Tehran who told Asia Times Online that the "talks have been going on for some time through the Iranian and US embassies in Kabul".

The US Embassy in Baghdad, however, denies that the talks have begun.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi was quoted on Monday by the official IRNA news agency as saying that Iran would talk with the US to pave the way for the withdrawal of US forces from the country.

"Although Tehran does not trust Washington, it is seriously concerned about the repercussions of wrong US policies in Iraq, which is the main reason it has accepted Iraqi officials' request that it hold negotiations with the US," Asefi said.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has confirmed that the US will talk to Iran about Washington's accusations of Iranian destabilization of Iraq.

The political deadlock and rising violence that prompted the Bush administration to open talks with Tehran have also deepened the rift between Shi'ite prime minister-elect Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

Talabani, a Kurd, was angered by a trip by Jaafari to Ankara to meet arch-rival Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey's diplomats have increasingly sought to build an alliance with Iraq's Shi'ite community as they have seen traditional allies such as the Turkmens failing to project their power at the ballot box.

"I hope the US and Iran will start their meetings and talks as soon as possible and the knot in relations between the two countries would be untied through the negotiations," Jaafari was reported by IRNA as saying.

But on Sunday, Talabani demanded that no negotiations take place over his head, according to American officials in Baghdad. His objection centered on the absence of an Iraqi government. Talabani's Kurdish constituency has increasingly accused Tehran of hiding behind attempts to destabilize the north, such as the recent riots in a small town called Halabjah that was the target of a gas-attack by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

These allegations mirror similar charges made by Iranian officials in the aftermath of the rumbling ethnic violence that has plagued Iran's western Kurdistan and Khuzestan regions, along the long border with Iraq.

Despite being Iranian citizens, the Arab and Kurdish inhabitants of these provinces have been accused by Tehran of receiving aid from the British Army occupying southern Iraq. Halabjah could be an example of Iran demonstrating that it can hit back, not only in Shi'ite southern Iraq, but also in the till now peaceful north. On Monday, more than 40 people were killed by a bomb explosion set of by a suicide attacker inside a joint US-Iraqi military base in the northern city of Mosul.

An emerging alliance between Iraq's Kurdish political elite and Sunni politicians has not gone unnoticed in Tehran, which - other than supporting Iraq's majority Shi'ite community - has also cultivated both sides of the Kurdish leadership.

The Kurdish "defection" and Iran's search for new strategic partners may have been part of the reason why Tehran is now talking with US Ambassador to Baghdad Zalmay Khalilzad. These follow negotiations conducted between Tehran and Washington in the run-up and aftermath of the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan that were kept secret at the time.

"Informally they are cooperating with each other," an Iranian academic told Asia Times Online. "It's better for Iran to see a balanced government than a Shi'ite state which could cause instability in the region. Even Iran is happy to see some important Sunnis taking key posts. It's not good that we put all our eggs into one basket."

While Tehran publicly complains about the US presence in Iraq, the Bush administration-led war against Saddam toppled Iran's bitterest adversary, against which it fought a bloody eight-year war in the 1980s that claimed the lives of an estimated million soldiers on both sides.

Historically, Iran has never managed to expand its influence in the region without the support of foreign powers. The Shah's closest ally was the US. Before that, the Safavid ruler Shah Abbas allowed the British Empire into his sphere of influence so they could expel the Portuguese from the strategic Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. As current allies Russia and China become decreasingly supportive of Tehran, it appears to be turning towards Washington.

Speaking to the Asia Times Online last year, a former deputy foreign minister said that it is "neither in Iran's interest to have a stable Iraq, nor do we want a fragmented Iraq. Ambiguity is the cornerstone of the policy."

Iason Athanasiadis is an Iran-based correspondent.

(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HC29Ak02.html
Fighting with friends
By Ehsan Ahrari

The US military is now fighting with Shi'ite militias, raising the question of whether this is a deliberate attempt by the Bush administration to diminish the power of these militias, or an unwitting consequence of appearing to be impartial in the growing sectarian violence in the country. Either way, the result is that the US is alienating Shi'ites, on whom they have, up to now, pinned most of their hopes for stabilizing the country.

On Sunday, at least 40 Iraqis were killed after elite US and Iraqi troops staged an operation in Sadr City in Baghdad, the stronghold of influential Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army, a militia with which the US has clashed before. Police said the incident erupted after the Mehdi Army tried to stop troops from entering a mosque, but accounts vary widely.

The United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the dominant Shi'ite bloc in parliament, called for the US to turn over control of all security operations to the Iraqi government, while some UIA politicians said they would pull out of the talks to form a government.

Shi'ites in Iraq look on US forces in their country as a necessary evil: a reality that will help cement their rule, but still an "evil" force given its pro-Israeli posture. The Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the powerful cleric to whom Shi'ites defer, probably has the best idea of exploiting the American presence in his country: he has used it to institutionalize Shi'ite dominance, with a clear Islamist twist.

The fly in the ointment, from the Shi'ite perspective, was the decision of Sunnis in January to participate in elections. Consequently, they emerged as a respectable bloc, with every intention of becoming involved in the intricate game of coalition-building following the elections. This process is still under way.

In this sense, the elections became extremely crucial. The UIA lost its dominance of the previous election. So did the Kurds. However, in the horse-trading to choose a premier, a major split emerged among the Shi'ites and between the Kurds when Ibrahim al-Jaafari was elected by one vote, after Muqtada supported him.

Kurdish President Jalal Talabani, although he holds a largely ceremonial position, was unhappy with the choice of Jaafari, and has said he will not accept him. These are some of the undercurrents that are playing an important role in the inability of the various Iraqi factions to formulate a national government.

To understand the growing US-Shi'ite rift, one has to keep several factors in mind. The Bush administration is increasingly wary of the growing power of Muqtada. The young and relatively junior cleric has proved to be an adept political actor. By maneuvering the election of Jaafari as prime minister designate, he clearly established himself as a power that the US military had to reckon with.

He also started making confusing statements regarding Iran, with which the US has signaled it will hold talks on Iraq's future. Muqtada has stated that Iraq would not follow the Iranian example of adopting a vilayat-e-faqih (rule of the clergy) model of governance. On other occasions, he showed a clear affinity toward Iran by stating that any US attack on Iran would be deemed as an attack on Shi'ite identity.

Muqtada has also made a point of building an alliance with Sunni groups. The Sunnis don't exactly trust him, but they have ample reason to have more positive feelings toward him than toward other Shi'ite leaders who are much closer to Iran. These Shi'ites also want Iraq to be carved into virtually independent zones, something that would marginalize the Sunnis, certainly economically, as they would be excluded from oil-rich areas.

As the US becomes focused on creating a "national unity" government, Muqtada's role is appearing as a major obstacle. Besides, the bloody role played by Shi'ite militias in Iraq has also provided ample reasons for the US military to confront the Mehdi Army. Sunday's clash might have been the moment of showdown that most observers have been expecting.

Whether this is an isolated incident, or the beginning of an era of confrontation between Shi'ites and US forces, is unclear. There is little doubt, though, that US forces have shown their resolve to confront Muqtada.

Considering the growing combustibility of the political situation in Iraq and amid increasing speculation about the outbreak of full-blown civil war, the last thing the Bush administration needed was to confront Shi'ite forces. But this is exactly what is developing.

In the wake of the explosion at the Shi'ite Golden Dome in Samarra last month, US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad has urged Shi'ite leaders to be politically accommodating toward Sunnis, even as the incident inflamed sectarian violence between the groups.

However, the Shi'ites are depicting the US diplomat's suggestion as an appeasement of Sunnis. Thus, Sunday's raid is being interpreted by Shi'ites as more evidence of strong-arm tactic used by the US government to force a concession from them regarding Sunnis, including the "real" objective of the Bush administration - to drop Jaafari as the nominee of the UIA for prime minister.

The most important aspect of the growing rift between the US and Shi'ites is that Sistani's reaction has not been forthcoming. It appears that he is unwilling to show his hand until he is convinced who is at fault in this latest development. Sistani is no fan of the American forces, but he is not likely to be critical of the Americans at this sensitive time.

There is little doubt that the Americans are not interested in unnecessarily inflaming the situation by confronting Muqtada. At the same time, they are not likely to back down if there is no unity government within the next few days. The chief culprits, in their estimation, are Muqtada, his Mehdi Army and other Shi'ite militias.

They seem to have concluded that they have reached a point when they must confront or even help the Iraqi security forces in dismantling these militias, and as they do this they are likely to realize that, in most instances, the Iraqi security forces are an extension of these Shi'ite militias.

Ehsan Ahrari is the CEO of Strategic Paradigms, an Alexandria, Virginia-based defense consultancy. He can be reached at eahrari@cox.net or stratparadigms@yahoo.com. His columns appear regularly in Asia Times Online. His website: www.ehsanahrari.com.

(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing .)

A million French protest against youth job law Yahoo! NEWS
At least one million people marched in French cities and unions staged a one-day national strike on Tuesday, urging the government to scrap a youth jobs law in one of France's biggest protests in decades. Unions and student groups said 3 million people took part in rallies across the country, including 700,000 in central Paris, where police used tear gas against hundreds of youths who threw bottles and Molotov cocktail petrol bombs. One union official said demonstrations against Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's CPE First Job Contract were among the biggest since the Fifth Republic was founded in 1958. The Interior Ministry put the national turnout at 1,055,000, twice that of a day of action a week ago. Unions and police habitually give widely diverging estimates. Union and student leaders say the CPE will create a generation of "throwaway workers" by making it easier to dismiss employees under 26 during a two-year trial period. Villepin hopes it will reduce youth unemployment of almost 23 percent. "We're demanding the complete withdrawal of the CPE. You can't treat people like slaves. Giving all the power to the bosses is going too far," said Gregoire de Oliviera, a 21-year-old student protesting in Paris. Villepin, 52, has stood firm over the plan but the strong turnout increased pressure on him to amend or withdraw the measure and calls for his resignation grew. He made a new call for talks with unions, but they rejected his appeal. The protests forced the Eiffel Tower to close to tourists, while commuters around the country faced delays on public transport and airports were disrupted. "The problem is we are studying just to be exploited. The government must withdraw the CPE. We will continue to protest on the streets," said Laura Dali, an 18-year-old student in Paris. Isolated skirmishes hit marches in provincial cities and Paris, where police fired paintballs to mark troublemakers and 245 people were arrested. A water cannon was later used to quell protesters throwing missiles, but the Paris clashes were smaller than after protests last week.

TOUGH CHALLENGE
Villepin, a potential candidate in next year's presidential election, faces his biggest challenge since becoming prime minister last May. Opinion polls show almost two-thirds of French people oppose the CPE. Business leaders also fear France's image will be damaged if protests continue and that investment and tourism could suffer, particularly because the crisis has erupted so soon after rioting by angry youths in city suburbs late last year. Unions refused to meet Villepin for talks on Wednesday but he renewed the invitation, offering to compromise on the length of the trial period and the terms for giving notice. "Useful time remains, let's use it for dialogue. But there is one thing that I will not accept ... that is to remain with my arms folded given youth unemployment about which you have never spoken before," he told jeering opposition deputies. Villepin also faces pressure from inside the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) headed by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, a likely rival for the 2007 presidential race. The UMP parliamentary group on Tuesday backed Sarkozy's proposal that the government not rush to enforce the law and so leave the door open for further negotiations. President Jacques Chirac, who has backed Villepin during the crisis, canceled a trip to northern France planned for Thursday because of the situation, sources close to the president said. Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande warned Chirac and the government against "running the risk of confrontation with a majority of the country."
By Kerstin Gehmlich and Anna Willard

Japan Undertaking Cautious Review Of Military Use Of Space
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Japan_Un...e_Of_Space.html

Tokyo (AFP) Mar 29, 2006 - Japan's ruling party Tuesday approved the blueprint of a law to allow military use of its space program, breaking another taboo in the officially pacifist country. The law would be largely symbolic since Japan has already launched spy satellites.

Can Turkey bridge the gap between Islam and the West?
By improving ties with Iran and Syria, Turkey aims to help mediate
tensions. By Yigal Schleifer
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0329/p04s01-wome.html?s=hns

In France, systematized revolt
A million people took to the streets Tuesday, but the leaders treated
the 'crisis' as part of the political process. By Susan Sachs
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0329/p06s01-woeu.html?s=hns

Ex-warlord escapes from Nigeria
Charles Taylor's escape will dominate Bush's talks with Nigerian
president. By Katharine Houreld
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0329/p07s02-woaf.html?s=hns

March 29, 2006
Voters in Israel Support Parties Vowing Pullout
By STEVEN ERLANGER and GREG MYRE
JERUSALEM, Wednesday, March 29 — Israelis voted Tuesday to bring to power a new centrist party, Kadima, which is committed to a further pullout from the occupied West Bank.

Kadima's leader, Ehud Olmert, will become prime minister, but his support proved tepid and he will find it harder than expected to impose his agenda on a larger coalition.

Kadima, founded in November by Ariel Sharon when he broke with the Likud Party, won the most seats in the 120-member Knesset, or Parliament. But with 99.5 percent of the vote counted Wednesday morning, Kadima is expected to win only 28 seats, fewer than voter polls had suggested.

At the same time, Israelis turned away from the right, and Mr. Olmert should be able to carry out his plan for another withdrawal, unilaterally if necessary, from the West Bank to reduce the costs of the continuing occupation.

The Labor Party, which supports a West Bank withdrawal, was second, with 20 seats, giving it a strong position to bargain with Kadima for a powerful role in a coalition government. The Labor leader, the Moroccan-born Amir Peretz, is expected to insist on key ministries like finance, social welfare and possibly defense.

A big surprise of the election was the far-right Russian-oriented Israel Beiteinu Party led by Avigdor Lieberman, which benefited from Likud's implosion and which took Russian votes that would have gone to Mr. Sharon. The party won 12 seats, one less than the religious Shas Party.

The voters repudiated Likud and its leader, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who warned against any new withdrawal as a victory for Palestinian terrorism. The party won only 11 seats and found itself once again on the fringes of Israeli politics after decades of being at the heart of things.

Before speaking to his supporters early Wednesday morning, Mr. Olmert, 60, went to the Western Wall to pray. He praised Mr. Sharon, who has been comatose since an extensive stroke in January, as "the man who had the courage, the strength, the will and the determination to see things differently and to create change."

Mr. Olmert then declared: "In the coming period, we will move to set the final borders of the State of Israel, a Jewish state with a Jewish majority." He said he would "work to do this through negotiations, in an agreement with the Palestinians."

Then, addressing the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who was in Ramallah, Mr. Olmert said: "We are prepared to compromise, give up parts of our beloved land of Israel, remove, painfully, Jews who live there, to allow you the conditions to achieve your hopes and to live in a state in peace and quiet."

Mr. Olmert urged Palestinians, too, to recognize Israel, "to accept only part of their dream, to stop terror, to accept democracy and accept compromise and peace with us. We are prepared for this. We want this." If not, he said, Israel would act in its own interests, whether the world agreed or not. "The time has come to act," he said.

But a Palestinian Authority run by the radical Islamic group Hamas, which does not recognize Israel's right to exist, is not expected to become a peace partner any time soon.

The other big surprise in the election was a protest vote, much of it from first-time voters, who gave the Pensioners Party, devoted to better rights for the elderly, seven seats and a likely role in government. The Pensioners seem likely to support Mr. Olmert's withdrawal plan.

Mr. Olmert will have to form a broader coalition than he had hoped, to achieve a working majority of 61 seats. The final shape of the coalition may not be clear for weeks, with most analysts suggesting that Mr. Olmert would join with Labor, the Pensioners and one or two religious parties, United Torah Judaism, with 6 seats, and Shas, with 13, to try to form a compact but stable government with the needed 61 seats.

Mr. Olmert might also try to take in Mr. Lieberman's Israel Beiteinu Party if it promises to support a West Bank withdrawal. If Mr. Netanyahu is pushed from Likud's leadership by the former foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, Likud could also be a partner if it too agreed to the pullback.

Mr. Olmert is not nearly as strong as he would like. But the new Parliament is diffuse, and the right wing opposed to withdrawal does not have enough votes to block it.

"I'm pretty confident it will be Kadima and Labor, and they will bring in the Pensioners and one of the religious parties," said Mark Heller, of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. "I think it can be a pretty stable arrangement."

Mr. Olmert says his aim in the next four years will be to set Israel's borders with the Palestinians, unilaterally if necessary, and called the election a referendum on his intentions. But with Kadima's smaller total, he may find it necessary to have a national referendum on the issue — something Mr. Sharon always rejected — in order to carry it out with less protest, or even violence.

Palestinians fired its first Katyusha rocket from the Gaza Strip into Israel on Tuesday, according to the army. A spokesman said that the 122-millimeter shell struck near a kibbutz but caused no damage.

But the Katyusha has a range of up to 12 miles, about twice that of the makeshift Qassam rockets frequently aimed at Israel.

The voter turnout, though high by American standards, was a low for Israel: about 63.2 percent, compared with 67.8 percent in 2003. The lower figure hurt the larger parties, because it reduces the number of votes required for small parties to pass the threshold of 2 percent of the vote required to get seats.

Kadima was established by Prime Minister Sharon last November when he broke with the Likud Party, and he brought some of Likud's best politicians with him, along with the former Labor Party leader, Shimon Peres.

But Mr. Sharon's severe stroke on Jan. 4 put a pall on the campaign, and Mr. Olmert and his team, including his new deputy, Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister, faced the prospect of the party's collapse.

Mr. Netanyahu, leading the remnants of Likud, called Mr. Olmert's new pullout plan dangerous, especially after the victory of the radical Islamic group Hamas in the Palestinian legislative elections on Jan. 25. But Mr. Netanyahu appeared to get little traction with the public.

Kadima was also aided by the success of the army in preventing a spate of suicide bombings during the long campaign. Such attacks helped Mr. Netanyahu defeat Mr. Peres in 1996.

Mr. Sharon argued that Israel, in the absence of serious peace talks with the Palestinians, could move unilaterally to establish its own borders, largely defined by the separation barrier the army built to protect the country from suicide bombers.

But the route of the unfinished barrier also incorporates about 8 percent of the occupied West Bank and most of East Jerusalem, including a large majority of Israeli settlers, leading Palestinians to call it a land grab.

Mr. Olmert calls his plan "hitkansut," which roughly means ingathering or consolidation or convergence.

One major test of the new government will come from Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the Israel, the United States and the European Union.

On Tuesday, election day in Israel, the Palestinian parliament voted to confirm the new Hamas government, led by Ismail Haniya, in a vote of 71 to 36. There were two abstentions.

Hamas has refused to meet American and European demands that it recognize Israel, forswear violence and accept previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements based on the idea of two states living side-by-side. President Abbas has also demanded that Hamas meet at least the last two demands, but he has agreed not to try to block the party from taking office.

Still, once the Hamas cabinet is sworn in, which could take place on Wednesday, the Palestinian Authority faces a cutoff of needed financial and development aid, though emergency aid will continue.

Mr. Haniya, whose group has carried out dozens of suicide bombings in Israel over the past decade, said in a speech that the Palestinians were entitled to continue their armed fight for independence. "We were born from the womb of resistance, we will protect resistance and the arm of resistance will not be touched," he said.



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March 29, 2006
Bush Opposes Iraq's Premier, Shiites Report
By EDWARD WONG
BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 28 — The American ambassador has told Shiite officials that President Bush does not want the Iraqi prime minister to remain the country's leader in the next government, senior Shiite politicians said Tuesday.

It is the first time the Americans have directly expressed a preference in the furious debate over the country's top job, the politicians said, and it is inflaming tensions between the Americans and some Shiite leaders.

The ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, told the head of the main Shiite political bloc at a meeting on Saturday to pass on a "personal message from President Bush" to the interim prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said Redha Jowad Taki, a Shiite member of Parliament who was at the meeting.

Mr. Khalilzad said Mr. Bush "doesn't want, doesn't support, doesn't accept" Mr. Jaafari as the next prime minister, according to Mr. Taki, a senior aide to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Shiite bloc. It was the first "clear and direct message" from the Americans on a specific candidate for prime minister, Mr. Taki said.

The Shiite bloc, which won a plurality in the parliamentary election in December, nominated Mr. Jaafari last month to retain his post for four more years.

American officials in Baghdad did not dispute the Shiite politicians' account of the conversation, though they would not discuss the details of the meeting.

A spokeswoman for the American Embassy confirmed that Mr. Khalilzad met with Mr. Hakim on Saturday. But she declined to comment on what was said.

"The decisions about the choice of the prime minister are entirely up to the Iraqis," said the spokeswoman, Elizabeth Colton. "This will be an Iraqi decision."

In Washington, the State Department said it would not comment on diplomatic conversations, but Adam Ereli, the deputy spokesman, reiterated American support for "a government of national unity with strong leadership that can unify all Iraqis."

The Americans have harshly criticized the Jaafari government in recent months for supporting Shiite militias that have been fomenting sectarian violence and pushing Iraq closer to full-scale civil war.

Mr. Khalilzad has sharpened his criticism in the last week, saying the militias are now killing more people than the Sunni Arab-led insurgency. American officials have expressed growing concern that Mr. Jaafari is incapable of reining in the private armies, especially since Moktada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric who leads the most volatile militia, is Mr. Jaafari's most powerful backer.

Haider al-Ubady, a spokesman for Mr. Jaafari, said the prime minister had received the ambassador's message and accused the Americans of trying to subvert Iraqi sovereignty.

"How can they do this?" Mr. Ubady said. "An ambassador telling a sovereign country what to do is unacceptable."

Tensions between Shiite leaders and the American government, which had been rising for months, boiled over after an assault on Sunday night by American and Iraqi forces on a Shiite mosque compound in northern Baghdad.

Shiite leaders say at least 17 civilians were killed in the battle, most of them members of a Shiite political party. American commanders say the soldiers fought insurgents.

The reported American pressure over Mr. Jaafari's nomination is another sign of White House impatience over the deadlocked talks to form a new government. American officials say the impasse has created a power vacuum that has encouraged lawlessness and civil conflict.

The nomination has become one of the most contentious issues in those talks, with the main Kurdish, Sunni Arab and secular blocs calling for the Shiites to replace Mr. Jaafari. On Monday, Shiite leaders suspended their participation in the negotiations, saying they were enraged by the assault on the mosque complex.

In Baghdad on Tuesday, at least 21 people were abducted in four separate incidents in the biggest wave of kidnappings in a month, an Interior Ministry official said. In one incident, 15 men in Iraqi Army uniforms dragged at least six people from a money exchange shop and stole nearly $60,000. In two other cases, people wearing Interior Ministry commando uniforms snatched victims from two electronics shops.

The police in western Baghdad discovered 14 bodies on Tuesday, all killed execution-style with gunshots to the head, apparently the latest victims of sectarian bloodletting. On Monday, Iraqi forces found 18 bodies near Baquba with similar wounds. Earlier reports of 30 beheaded bodies found in that area were wrong, the Interior Ministry official said.

An American soldier was killed Tuesday by small-arms fire in Baghdad, and another was killed and three were wounded by a roadside bomb outside Habbaniya, the American military said.

The Iraqi security minister, Abdul Karim al-Enizi, said on the state-run Iraqiya network on Tuesday night that the Iraqi forces who had raided the mosque compound in Baghdad were not part of the Interior or Defense Ministry. A survivor said the soldiers did not speak Arabic well, implying they may have been Kurdish militiamen working with Americans, Mr. Enizi said.

At the Pentagon, senior officials defended the raid, releasing photographs they said proved that weapons and bomb-making materials had been seized inside the compound, which they described as a school complex that had been turned into a base for a "hostage ring."

When the soldiers entered the compound, "they found that there was a building there that had a small minaret and a prayer room inside it," said Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Some people are calling that a mosque."

The surge in violence has shaken confidence in Mr. Jaafari, who has been widely criticized by Iraqis for failing to smash the Sunni-led insurgency, letting Shiite death squads run rampant and doing little on reconstruction.

Mr. Jaafari won the Shiite bloc's nomination for prime minister by one vote in a secret ballot of its members of Parliament, beating out the deputy of Mr. Hakim, the bloc's leader. As the largest bloc, with 130 of the 275 seats, the Shiites have the right to nominate the prime minister.

But a two-thirds vote of Parliament is required for approval of the new government. As long as the other major blocs oppose Mr. Jaafari, the process is at a standstill.

Thom Shanker and Steven R. Weisman contributed reporting from Washington for this article.



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March 29, 2006
Report Adds to Criticism of Halliburton's Iraq Role
By JAMES GLANZ
Even as a Halliburton subsidiary was absorbing harsh criticism of its costs on a 2003 no-bid contract for work in Iraq, the government officials overseeing a second contract wrote that the company was running up exorbitant new expenses on similar work, according to a report issued yesterday by the staff for the Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee.

The report, prepared for a frequent critic of Halliburton, Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, is based on previously undisclosed correspondence and performance evaluations from 2004 and 2005.

The documents show that the government's contracting officers became increasingly frustrated as they tried to penetrate what they considered to be inaccurate or misleading progress reports and expense vouchers filed by the subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root.

In August 2004, one of the officers wrote to the company that "you have universally failed to provide adequate cost information as required."

A few months later, after the company was served with a "cure notice," in which the government threatened to terminate the contract if performance was not improved, or "cured," another officer said he was writing "in sheer frustration with the consistent lack of accurate data."

Kellogg Brown & Root's second contract, awarded in January 2004 for rebuilding oil infrastructure in southern Iraq, has a maximum value of $1.2 billion. A company spokeswoman, Melissa Norcross, said that the report was "as devoid of context as it is new information" and that many of the issues raised by the contracting officers had been resolved.

The company, Ms. Norcross said, was forced to work with an ever-shifting cast of oversight organizations and at least 15 government contracting officials. "With each change, the company adjusted to meet the needs of its customer," she said, "all while operating in an extremely hostile war zone."

But Mr. Waxman, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said the report showed that the company had "actually done a worse job under its second Iraq oil contract than it did under the original no-bid contract."

William L. Nash, a retired Army general who is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and an expert on post-conflict zones, said the unusually revealing documents laid bare "a microcosm of all the ills" of the Iraq rebuilding effort. "This a continuing example of the mismanagement of the Iraq reconstruction from the highest levels down to the contractors on the ground," he said.

The second contract was not terminated after the cure notice, and contracting officers later noted improvements in some areas. But the company received what appears to be a rebuke when it was given nothing out of a possible $7.9 million in socalled award fees for its first year of work on the contract. The award fees are incentives given by the government to reward good performance.

An award fee given for a later period, roughly the first half of 2005, was about 20 percent of the maximum, which Mr. Nash, who has been involved in determining such fees, described as extraordinarily low.

Both Kellogg Brown & Root contracts called for things like repairing oil wells and pipelines, installing power generators at oil facilities and importing fuel to Iraq. The first contract, worth $2.4 billion, generated enormous controversy after Pentagon auditors questioned more than $200 million in fuel delivery costs.

Critics like Mr. Waxman called the challenged costs overcharges, a description rejected by the company, which claimed a measure of vindication last month when the Army overruled the auditors and reimbursed nearly all of the delivery charges.

The new report, which says that Pentagon auditors have questioned $45 million of the $365 million in costs they reviewed, may revive the battle. A spokesman for the Defense Contract Audit Agency confirmed those figures.

Responding to the numbers, an official with Kellogg Brown & Root said, "Audits are part of the normal contracting process, and it is important to note that the auditors' role in the process is advisory only."

But what are likely to be seen as the most striking portions of the report are those that cite the variously stern, heated and even anguished language of contracting officers trying to bring the company to heel.

"As I have said in numerous meetings, KBR's lack of cost containment and funds management is the single biggest detriment to this program," one officer, Maj. Michael V. Waggle, wrote in the cure notice. He noted that the company had listed an impossibly high cost overrun of $436,019,574 on one job, charges of $114,308 for an oil spill cleanup that failed to remove any oil and another set of tasks in which the overruns were 36.9 percent of all costs.

The slides used in presentations during the deliberations of the board that determined the first award fee are almost equally eye-catching. On one slide, covering the company's success at meeting its planned schedules, a section labeled "Strengths" bears only the notation "N/A," presumably meaning no answer or not applicable. The "Weaknesses" section contains four detailed items.



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March 29, 2006
New U.N. Draft on Iran Softens Condemnation
By WARREN HOGE
UNITED NATIONS, March 28 — European and American diplomats circulated a new draft statement to the Security Council on Tuesday evening that weakens language condemning Iran's nuclear program but still calls on Tehran to abandon uranium enrichment activities, which the West believes are intended to make weapons.

The new draft, written by Britain and France and supported by the United States, eliminates or softens elements in earlier drafts that had raised objections from China and Russia.

The three Western nations hope the new version can be adopted Wednesday, a day before the foreign ministers of the five permanent Council members and Germany meet in Berlin to discuss strategy on Iran.

"We feel a sense of urgency," said John R. Bolton, the American ambassador, pointing out that it has been three weeks since Iran's case was delivered to the Council by the International Atomic Energy Agency, United Nations nuclear watchdog based in Vienna.

Negotiations to reach consensus on the relatively mild Security Council action of a nonbinding presidential statement have faltered over Chinese and Russian objections to language that they argue lays the groundwork for taking tougher action like sanctions, which they both oppose.

One of the changes in the text is a watering down of a phrase calling Iran's actions a possible "threat to international peace and security," a term that Beijing and Moscow said established a pretext for sanctions.

The new version simply notes the Council's "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security."

The revised text also drops any mention of specific charges and demands against Iran, and instead refers to resolutions of the nuclear agency that incorporate them.

In another modification, it now requests a report back from the director of the nuclear agency on Iran's compliance with the Security Council statement in 30 days instead of the 14 days in the original text.

China had suggested a time frame of four to six weeks, and Russia had spoken of more than two months.

Mr. Bolton acknowledged that the wording disagreements might be difficult for most people to understand. "But they are important points about the role of the Security Council and the I.A.E.A., and it's important to get it right because we want to send a clear message to Iran," he said.



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Sharon's Party Is Winner In Israel

By Scott Wilson

JERUSALEM, March 28 -- The Kadima party led by acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert won the most seats in Israel's parliamentary elections Tuesday, in a vote that hing