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To: epicure who wrote (2958)	7/17/2003 12:27:22 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20773

US turns to Arabs to keep the peace By Emad Mekay CAIRO - The United States is turning to Arab regimes for support against increasing armed resistance in Iraq, official sources here say. A source close to the Egyptian foreign ministry confirmed reports that surfaced in the Arab press late last week that the United States has sought the help of Egyptian peacekeeping forces. "The Americans raised the issue," said the official who wished to remain unidentified. "They were testing our pulse." He declined to reveal what the Egyptian response would be. A US congressional delegation arrived in Cairo from Baghdad earlier this week for talks with Egyptian officials on the situation in Iraq. Chairman of the House intelligence committee, Florida Republican Porter Goss led the team. "The escalation in attacks against US forces in Iraq was at the center of Goss' talks with Egyptian officials," the official source said. The US Senate called last week for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and United Nations (UN) troops to be sent to Iraq. Spain, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary, the Baltic states and possibly the Philippines, Thailand and Mongolia may send peacekeeping forces. The Lebanese newspaper al-Kifah al-Arabi reported Saturday that the United States is seeking troops also from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a regional grouping that includes Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Earlier this week, the London-based pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat reported that the United States was seeking Egyptian help also to "win the support of other Arab states". Al-Hayat reported that the US wanted Egyptian support particularly to persuade other countries to accept ambassadors appointed by the new governing council in Iraq. The US governor of Iraq L Paul Bremer III, needs an Iraqi governing body to share responsibility - or blame - in establishing post-war order, and he needs Arab backing of these polices for the same reasons, Egyptian analysts say. A 25-member transitory council in Iraq appointed by the United States held its inaugural session Sunday. One of its first decisions was to celebrate April 9, the date the US troops entered Baghdad, as a national holiday, and to cancel holidays of the Saddam Hussein era. "The problem with the recently appointed council is that it is not elected," Hafiz Hussein, former head of the Nasser Academy for Strategic Studies in Cairo said. "It is not representative either. And it is the first council to celebrate the date of the start of an occupation. This is not a good start." The council comprises officials representing several religious and ethnic groups. It has been asked to map the path towards elections, not planned for at least a year. Most Arab regimes have publicly said they cannot accept US forces ruling Iraq because this would legitimize US occupation. "The bitter fact is that the council would still be a cover for decisions made by the Anglo-American occupation authority," commentator Saeed Ahmedi wrote on al-Jazeera.net. "Definitely, an Arab face for security and peacekeeping would take the sting from any Iraqi resistance operations." Analyst Anas Fouda wrote on the popular bab.com website that Egypt helped persuade Palestinian groups to stop resistance activities against Israel, and that Egyptian support to the US presence in Iraq could be calculated to have a similar effect. "But this time if Arab countries send troops to protect the Americans, the public will not look at this as effort to establish peace but as an effort to legitimize American occupation," he said. On Tuesday, a previously unknown Iraqi resistance group warned foreign countries, including Arab nations, not to give in to US demands to send troops to Iraq. "We will resist with weapons any military intervention under the umbrella of the United Nations, the Security Council, NATO, or Islamic and Arab countries," the group calling itself the Iraq Liberation Army said in a statement broadcast on the Dubai-based al-Arabiya television.

To: epicure who wrote (2958)	7/17/2003 8:49:41 PM
From: Ron	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 20773

GRAHAM: MAY BE GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT OF BUSH CONCORD, N.H. (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham said on Thursday there were grounds to impeach President Bush if he was found to have led America to war under false pretenses. While Graham did not call for Bush's impeachment, he said if the president lied about the reasons for going to war with Iraq it would be "more serious" than former President Bill Clinton's lie under oath about his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. "If in fact we went to war under false pretenses that is a very serious charge," Graham, the senior U.S. senator from Florida, told reporters in New Hampshire. "If the standard of impeachment is the one the House Republicans used against Bill Clinton, this clearly comes within that standard," he said. Democrats and some Republicans have raised questions about the unsubstantiated claim Bush made in his January State of the Union speech that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa in its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. Graham's comments came as reporters followed up on his remarks earlier this week that any deception by Bush over Iraq might rise to the standard of an impeachable offense -- as defined by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives when it voted to impeach Clinton. Clinton was ultimately cleared by the U.S. Senate after being impeached by the House. After his appearance in New Hampshire, Graham issued a statement saying he was not calling for Bush's impeachment and saw the issue as a largely academic one, adding that if Bush had misled the American public he would pay the price for it in the 2004 presidential election. In Washington on Thursday, Bush told a news conference that the speech reference was based on "sound intelligence" and he was certain that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was trying to reconstitute his nuclear weapons program. "We won't be proven wrong," he said with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at his side. The flap over Iraq upstaged Graham's economic proposals. He said his plan would balance the federal budget within five years while providing middle-class tax relief and creating 3 million new jobs. His plan would repeal most of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. It would reinstate a 38.6 percent tax bracket for wealthy individuals and create a new "millionaires tax bracket" at 40 percent. Graham also proposed cracking down on individuals and companies who transfer assets offshore or renounce U.S. citizenship to escape taxation. asia.reuters.com