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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tsigprofit who wrote (4181)	10/27/2003 7:47:25 PM
From: Ron	Respond to of 20773

A long, hard slog US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld predicts "a long, hard slog" in Iraq. A few hours after a "brazen" attack on coalition headquaters in Baghdad, The International Herald Tribune reports that US Secretary of State Colin Powell conceded on Sunday that "we are still in a state of conflict," and that the administration had not expected insurgents to put up such an intense, increasingly sophistocated fight for such a long period of time. The Christian Science Monitor reports that US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz went to Iraq for a three-day visit designed to portray a nation on the mend, and ended up fleeing his heavily guarded hotel during the attack on coalition HQ at the Al Rashid hotel. The situation in Iraq is definitely one of mixed messages. As European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana describes it, "the situation in complicated." The administration is trying to do what it can. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Mr. Wolfowitz has pushed to realign hundreds of millions of dollars in spending to meet the needs on the ground in Iraq – getting better body armor to the troops, for example, and more armored Humvees. And whole regions of Iraq are peaceful, especially in the northern Kurdish areas, and the sectors controlled by the British. The Associated Press reports that US soldiers, faced with enormous obstacles, are still trying to bring a mixture of "military might, generosity and democracy" through Iraq. Administration officials still say they believe that things will get better, especially after Iraqi troops are trained to take over from US troops. President Bush said Monday that it is the progress in Iraq that is actually making insurgents more desperate, resulting in a dramatic increase in the number of attacks. But serious problems remain. Knight-Ridder reports that while life is safer for Iraqis, it's getting more dangerous for everyone else in Iraq. One problem is the quality of information the coalition forces are receiving. MSNBC reports that the US military intelligence gathering operation is being undercut by "a series of problems in using technology, training intelligence specialists and managing them in the field, according to an internal Army evaluation." The Christian Science Monitor reports that plans to replace US troops with Turkish troops foundered on the rock of strong Iraqi opposition to the idea. A new poll shows that Iraqi attitudes towards the coalition forces (even towards peacekeepers) are becoming more negative. According to the poll conducted by the independent, privately funded Iraq Center for Research and Strategic Studies, 67 percent of Iraqis now see coalition forces as "occupiers," and only 18 percent see them as "liberators." Perhaps more disturbing to the Bush administration, the Guardian reports, is the lack of support for Western-style democracy – 33 percent support a theocracy, and 23 percent an Islamic democracy similar to Iran. The BBC reports that Iraqis who support the US worry that public opinion in Baghdad has turned against the Americans because of the way US troops behave. "Just this morning I saw a US soldier beat an Iraqi man in the street. Some time ago in Kadhimiya I saw a man being shot three times just because he was standing and staring at the soldiers. We ran away so I don't know what happened to him. We want to live in peace," said [Hala, who lives in Mansour]. "Why this harsh treatment? It is like Saddam." The BBC reports that Iraqis and Americans alike are worried about the possibility of a full-scale Sunni-Shiites conflict. Tensions in the slums of western Baghdad have gotten so bad that gunfire between the Sunni and Shitte residents is common place. And the Financial Times reports that the attack Monday morning on the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Baghdad, which killed at least ten people, showed that no outside group is safe, even if it has no connection to coalition forces. A United Nations representative said the attack, which was one of a series of blasts Monday that resulted in 39 deaths, was aimed at driving all foreigners out of Iraq. The European Union issued a statement saying that the attack on the Red Cross was also probably targeted to prevent aid from being distributed. And in fact, the ICRC announced a few hours after the blast that it was considering cutting back its staff and operations in Iraq. Newsweek reports that Republican party insiders are worried about recent statements by US Senator John McCain, who compared Iraq to Vietnam in the sense of the way the administration was releasing information about military operation in Iraq. Mr. McCain has a very high standing among independents, a group much needed by President Bush in the 2004 elections. A Newsweek poll in the same issue showed that 59 percent of Americans still support the decision to go into Iraq, but 58 percent also think that too much money is being spent on the operation. The majority – 56 percent – think troops should be reduced and some should come home, up 7 points from the end of September. csmonitor.com

To: tsigprofit who wrote (4181)	10/27/2003 7:56:36 PM
From: rrufff	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20773

I don't know the source and I hate "cut and paste" but perhaps this brings a little different slant to the source of the problem in my opinion. Oct. 27, 2003 - Palestinians demand missing PA money By KHALED ABU TOAMEH "Where are the millions?" is the name of a popular Arab song in which Lebanese singer Julia Botrus denounces the failure of the Arab world to go to war against Israel. The song is played repeatedly on Palestinian Authority radio and TV as a cry of despair aimed at mobilizing the Arab masses on the side of the Palestinians in their fight against Israel. In recent weeks, amid reports that PA Chairman Yasser Arafat is in poor health, many Palestinians are also beginning to ask the same question, but in a different context: They are demanding to know what has happened to hundreds of millions of dollars belonging to the Palestinian people. Some Palestinians believe they already know where the money is: in secret bank accounts in Switzerland and elsewhere. A group of Palestinian legislators, who form the Democratic Bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council, is demanding an investigation into the whereabouts of the huge amounts of money. Hassan Khraisheh, one of nine members of the Democratic Bloc, said he and his colleagues believe that Arafat's adviser on economic affairs, Muhammad Rashid (also known as Khaled Salam), is holding at least $200 million in a secret bank account. Rashid is now living in Cairo after he reportedly fell out with Arafat. According to Khraisheh, only Rashid, who is chairman of the Palestine Investment Fund, and Arafat know where the money is deposited. A delegation from the fund visited Egypt lately in an attempt to find out what happened to the money. "Rashid refused to cooperate in revealing where the money is," Khraisheh said. "He also refused to meet with the PLO ambassador in Egypt to talk about the issue." "This is money that belongs to the Palestinian people," Khraisheh added. "It could have been invested in establishing a social welfare system instead of shady deals. The Americans and the Egyptians are protecting [Rashid], and Arafat provides him with cover. We're talking about tens of millions of dollars. How is it that one person can control such huge sums? When we asked Arafat about it, he said, 'Muhammad Rashid is my man. He is my financial adviser.' This is Arafat's method. The source of Arafat's power is money." According to a report released last September by the International Monetary Fund, $591m. in tax revenue and an additional $300m. in profits from commercial investments were "diverted away from the budget." In other words, PA officials stole the money. The report said petroleum duties paid via Israeli customs were not reaching the PA Finance Ministry. Instead, they were being deposited in a private account controlled by Arafat and Rashid in an Israeli bank in Tel Aviv. In addition to numerous commercial investments, the IMF discovered that millions of dollars in fees and profits derived from cement, gasoline, and other lucrative monopolies controlled by senior PA officials were also being channeled into "off-budget activities." "We are trying to find out where all the money went, especially the money that was taken from the monopolies," said Khraisheh. "Senior officials control many monopolies and deposit the money in secret bank accounts abroad. We have also discovered that the Palestinian Authority has a secret bank account in Switzerland. That's where they deposit tax revenues from the workers paid by Israel." Khraisheh said Arafat and Rashid have exclusive control over the Swiss bank accounts. Last week, representatives of the international donors met in Ramallah with PA officials to discuss the PA's financial needs. The meeting comes ahead of the donors' conference in Italy next month, where the PA is expected to ask for hundreds of millions of dollars to cover its deficit. "The Palestinian Authority is going to ask for urgent aid for its general budget, which is suffering from a large deficit," said Imad Sha'ath, director-general of the PA Ministry of International Cooperation. "In addition, the Palestinian Authority will ask the donors to present vital projects to create jobs for thousands of unemployed laborers," said Sha'ath. PA Finance Minister Salaam Fayad is expected to tell the donors that he has succeeded in implementing major reforms in the PA. But Kharaisheh and his colleagues argue that as long as hundreds of millions of dollars remain unaccounted for, there can be no talk about real reforms. "They are talking about reforms, but nothing has changed," Kharisheh said. "I understand that Rashid and Arafat are now not talking to each other, and Rashid is refusing to return the money."