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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (75808)	2/19/2003 8:20:02 PM
From: Condor	Respond to of 281500

State Department downgrades " Axis of Evil" to "Axle of Evil" it would seem......C +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ U.S. Sees Democratic Glimmerings in Iran (AP) By BARRY SCHWEID 02/19/2003 19:03:21 EST The State Department says there is a flowering of democracy in Iran that sets it apart from Iraq and North Korea, the two other members of President Bush's "axis of evil." Iran has held elections and permitted some self-expression, and the United States supports the trend, department spokesman Richard Boucher said. When Bush lumped the three countries together in January 2002, he accused them of arming themselves with weapons of mass destruction. The president now is considering military action to disarm Iraq and diplomacy to halt North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Last week, in an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Iran was properly designated part of that axis, but differs from Iraq and North Korea in that it is a democracy and should be approached differently. Armitage declined to say whether the Bush administration had an agreement with Iran in event of war with Iraq. He did say Iran has "done some good things in the war on terrorism." But, he said, "they have done some other things, and there is still some al-Qaida in Iran." Asked about Armitage's remarks, Boucher said "certainly Iran has more democratic flowering than any of the other two governments." "It's quite clear the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people is something that we have supported," Boucher said. "They have held elections, they have had some ability to express themselves, and we very much supported those kind of aspirations on the part of the Iranian people," Boucher said. "So any steps toward democracy, movement toward democracy and democratic activity in Iran is something we want to support."

To: Ilaine who wrote (75808)	2/20/2003 12:25:47 AM
From: frankw1900	Respond to of 281500

Masterfull coat trailing: Partly because of the breadth of the relationship Chirac and Hussein had created in a relatively short period of time and the obvious warmth of their personal ties, there was intense speculation about the less visible aspects of the relationship. For example, one unsubstantiated rumor that still can be heard in places like Beirut was that Hussein helped to finance Chirac?s run for mayor of Paris in 1977, after he lost the French premiership. Another, equally unsubstantiated rumor was that Hussein had skimmed funds from the huge amounts of money that were being moved around, and that he did so with Chirac?s full knowledge. There are endless rumors, all unproven and perhaps all scurrilous, about the relationship. Some of these might have been moved by malice, but they also are powered by the unfathomability of the relationship and by Chirac?s willingness to publicly affirm it. It reached the point that Iranians referred to Chirac as ?Shah-Iraq? and Israelis spoke of the Osirak reactor as ?O-Chirac.?