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To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (21416)	7/2/2003 11:18:12 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

Saddam still haunts Iraqi capital ________________________ By Tarik Kafala BBC News Online Published: 2003/07/01 15:21:52 GMT Baghdad is a city still haunted by the former Iraqi leader. Where is Saddam Hussein? It's the question on everyone's mind. He could be dead, but if you ask Iraqis, to the man or woman they tell you that Saddam Hussein is in hiding in Baghdad. Then they look over their shoulder nervously. Coalition officials blame the increasing attacks against US and UK forces on "Saddam loyalists" or Baathists. The possibility that the former Iraqi leader is somehow organising these attacks has also been raised. Analysts, though, argue that the attacks are just as likely to result from local grievances or the beginnings of some kind of Iraqi resistance to the occupation. It's an extraordinary thought - that the former Iraqi leader and his two sons might be skulking about the capital city - more than 11 weeks after his statue was so dramatically pulled down in central Baghdad - organising a fight-back. The statues and murals have mostly gone, pulled down, vandalised or just covered up, but Saddam Hussein's presence, or the absence of any solid information on his fate, hangs heavy over the city. Rumours A shopkeeper told me that the former Iraqi leader had recently stayed in a hotel in Hindiya, a middle-class residential area just south of the city centre, up against the River Tigris. No, he wasn't there any more. No, he couldn't remember the name of the hotel. Baghdadis are convinced that below their city is a warren of tunnels, linking hundreds of safe houses. Saddam Hussein and his entourage, residents say, can come and go as they please. Sightings of the former leader since the end of the war have been reported, and frustrated US troops have received a number of fruitless tip-offs. People in Baghdad are also convinced that messages attributed to the former president are authentic. An Arabic newspaper in London in June received what it said was a fax from Saddam Hussein. The message called on Iraqis to expel anyone who supported the US-led invasion. The echoes of Osama Bin Laden's mysterious disappearance must be haunting US officials. Captured Baathists Although Saddam Hussein's whereabouts remain a mystery, there has been a steady stream of captures and surrenders of senior old regime figures. The most senior of these, Saddam Hussein's presidential secretary Abid Hamid Mahmoud al-Tikriti, was captured in mid-June. None of these captures or surrenders has produced any serious leads on the location of Saddam Hussein and his sons. American officials and soldiers in Iraq will tell you that the Iraqi leader can only be in Syria or Iran - coincidentally the two countries bordering Iraq that are still hostile to the US and its plans in the region. Syria has said that it will not harbour any senior regime figures. Iran insists it will try any senior Iraqi figures that fall into its hands for war crimes relating to the 10-year war the two countries fought. City in chaos The whole question of where Saddam Hussein and his sons are would matter far less if the occupation was going well. In Baghdad in particular, normal life still seems a long way off. The return of basic services has been very slow - electricity and water are still regularly interrupted, hospitals and schools are only very slowly reopening. But the main problem is security. After dark, the streets of the city are given up to US troops, armed criminals and looters. After 11pm, when the curfew starts, US troops can shoot on sight. Those looters that are captured were until recently held overnight and released the following morning. The US forces are simply not equipped or willing to hold large numbers of criminals. The Iraqi courts that finally opened up at the beginning of this week will have a massive task on their hands. There is a police force in the capital, but it is hard to spot. Even during daylight, gunpoint car-jacking and shootings are not unknown. Some businesses open Though US soldiers guard many of the main intersections, large swathes of the city are lawless. During the day, some shops are open for business, but often heavy shutters are down to protect shop fronts. One small hotel that was actually taking guests had bricked up its entire street level frontage except for the main door. Two armed guards are stationed in front of the hotel day and night. Back in the middle-class Hindiya area, a large and prosperous family restaurant is open for business. Apart from some boarding where a floor-to-ceiling window had been shattered, the restaurant is unscathed. Food is plentiful and excellent. The 20 or so Iraqi customers in a room that could hold 200 are treated like long-lost family. Service is a little rushed though. Customers don't want to linger, making sure they are back home safely before the sun starts to set just after 8pm. BBC News Online's Tarik Kafala has just returned from Iraq where he carried out a study of the Iraqi media for the BBC World Service Trust. Story from BBC NEWS: news.bbc.co.uk Published: 2003/07/01 15:21:52 GMT

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (21416)	7/2/2003 12:09:42 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

Tokyo's Nikkei blows past 9,500 Japanese banks soar; Asia markets rise after Wall St. rally By Allen Wan, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 3:02 AM ET July 2, 2003 TOKYO (CBS.MW) - Tokyo's main stock index soared over 3 percent to end at a fresh 9-month high Wednesday as improving business confidence in Japan, Wall Street's surge and the yen's weaker tone spurred on banks and tech issues for a second day. Asian markets rose across the region. The Nikkei Average jumped another 313 points, or 3.4 percent, to 9,592.24. The broader Topix rose 28 points to 945. Japanese bank stocks were the biggest high-flyers though technology and real estate issues weren't too far behind. Mizuho Financial (MZHOF: news, chart, profile) (JP:8411: news, chart, profile), the world's biggest in terms of assets, soared 18.5 percent to 122,000 yen. UFJ Holdings (UFJHF: news, chart, profile) surged 15.3 percent to 226,000 yen. Resona (JP:8308: news, chart, profile), which was bailed out by the government recently, gained 8 percent to 95 yen. Analysts say that Japanese banks are rebounding as fears of a financial system collapse have dissipated due in part to the government's more aggressive approach to deal with bad loans and willingness to use public funds to bail out troubled banks. Jesper Koll, chief economist at Merrill Lynch in Tokyo, said that the success of the Resona nationalization has altered the banking landscape. "Politically, the decisive use of taxpayer funds faced almost no opposition. Economically, the Resona nationalization removes fears of a 'credit crunch' with the new management under firm orders to maintain, even expand, the small/medium size loan book," he said in a note. Seiji Otsuka, analyst at JP Morgan in Tokyo, said that Japanese bank stocks have been rallying in recent days on the back of declines in bank bad loans, Wall Street's rally as well the residual effects from the government's bailout of Resona. "Public funds to Resona Bank have made people feel better about the financial system. Also the public funds were like a free gift to Resona stockholders and made them and other investors want to buy more stocks," he told CBS MarketWatch. A recent slew of positive Japanese economic data has also fueled the rally such as stronger-than-expected industrial production data and improved corporate confidence numbers from the tankan. Foreigners have been the biggest buyers of Japanese stocks. Markets across the region were on the rise after Wall Street staged a late day advance, with the Dow gaining 0.6 percent and the Nasdaq rising 1.1 percent. South Korea's Kospi index rose 1.6 percent to 685, Taiwan's Weighted Average jumped 1.5 percent to 5,095, Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged up 0.1 percent to 9,589 and Singapore's Straits Times Index rose 0.7 percent to 1,466. But Australia's All Ordinaries Index eased 0.2 percent to 3,003.

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (21416)	7/2/2003 1:29:45 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

'This is what the Iraqis think of us,' said the captain, cradling a charred helmet By Daniel McGrory A drive-by rocket attack is the latest tactic to be used against the Americans in Baghdad IN A most audacious attack on American troops, an Iraqi fired a rocket-propelled grenade from the sunroof of a Chevrolet car at a passing patrol yesterday, incinerating one of the army vehicles and seriously wounding four of those travelling in the convoy. Until now, the 22 Americans killed since President Bush declared the war over on May Day had mainly been victims of snipers or crude booby-trap bombs. However, yesterday’s attack in northern Baghdad was reckless and inventive, and is an alarming demonstration of how organised and determined the Iraqi resistance is becoming. Witnesses spoke of seeing two men appear through the sunroof of the white saloon with blacked-out windows and take aim with the shoulder-held rocket, launching it at the convoy from no more than 60ft away. Sifting through what little remained of the burnt Humvee, a young infantry captain did not even try to hide his disgust as he picked up the charred helmet belonging to one of his comrades who had been inside the vehicle. “This is what the Iraqis think of us,” the captain said, stamping out the last of the fires after the daylight attack at a busy crossroads. The Americans in the second Humvee had dived for cover, fearing that they too would be ambushed. Within minutes, armoured reinforcements had sealed off the road and did what they could for the injured, before making a swift retreat and leaving lumps of wreckage at the mercy of gleeful trophy hunters. What is worrying is that in suburbs such as al-Mustansiriya, a moderate, middle class enclave of academics and businessmen, there was little apparent sympathy for the victims. Mohammed Alawi, 19, who claimed to have seen the attack, said: “What do the Americans expect after what they have done to us? There will be more attacks like this until they leave.” As the American rescue force accelerated away, the looters moved in, stealing metal parts of the Humvee’s chassis and half a camouflaged flak jacket that was badly burnt. Two teenagers encouraged television crews to film a grotesque dummy that they made from a charred Kevlar helmet, the remains of a soldier’s body armour and a long blonde wig they fashioned from the stuffing ripped from one of the Humvee’s seats. Jabar Khadoum, a 49-year-old father of five who witnessed the attack, said: “I froze as I watched the Humvee arc into the air and crash back down on to the road.” His body was shaking with shock. Mr Khadoum said he tried to help one of the Americans who ran at him, half his upper body on fire. “It was hopeless,” he said. “Soon his face was eaten by the flames.” Less than 24 hours after Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, insisted that Iraq was not a new Vietnam, a day of spiralling violence saw at least four serious armed assaults on US patrols. Two US soldiers were wounded in a rocket attack on their convoy near Baghdad airport and other American soldiers were said to have been injured in a shooting at Samarra. Ten Iraqis were killed in an explosion inside a mosque in the troubled town of Fallujah, which local people blamed on a US airstrike. The Americans said it was caused by terrorists who blew themselves up in an illegal bomb factory. Later in Fallujah thousands of Iraqis chanted anti-American slogans as they buried victims of the blast, including the imam, Sheikh Laith Khalil. The US military, which has about 156,000 soldiers in Iraq, has carried out several operations to stamp out attacks. The latest, Operation Desert Sidewinder, began on Sunday with infantry backed by aircraft and armoured vehicles. Rival Iraqi groups are also increasingly turning on each other, with the leader of Saddam Hussein’s tribe assassinated yesterday as he was driving through Tikrit, which still flaunts its support for the old regime. An American military spokesman struggled yesterday to suggest that his troops were still in full control, using phrases such as “isolated incidents” and “seeing progress”, though on every street corner fear could clearly be seen in the eyes of many young Americans who had recently arrived, thinking the war was over. One 23-year-old private, sent to root out gunmen who were said to have stormed a Baghdad hospital, said: “I thought we were peacekeepers, but there isn’t any peace to keep.” timesonline.co.uk