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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (676504)	3/23/2005 8:35:43 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 769670

Iraq says 80 rebels killed in clash; politicians search for deal aimed at curbing insurgency By Qasim Abdul-Zahra, Associated Press, 3/23/2005 06:59 BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) A raid by U.S. and Iraqi forces on a suspected rebel training camp left 80 militants dead, the single biggest one-day death toll for rebels in months and the latest in a series of blows to the country's insurgency, Iraqi officials said Wednesday. Politicians helping shape a post-election government expected within days said negotiators are considering naming a Sunni Arab as defense minister in a move aimed at bringing Sunni Arabs into the political process and perhaps deflate the insurgency they lead. The U.S. military announced late Tuesday that its air and ground forces backed Iraqi commandos during a noontime raid on a suspected guerrilla training camp near Lake Tharthar in central Iraq. Seven commandos died in fighting, the U.S. military said, but it didn't give a death toll for rebels. Iraqi officials said Wednesday 80 rebels died in the clash the largest number of rebels killed in a single battle since the U.S. Marine-led November attack on the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah that left more than 1,000 dead. On Sunday, U.S. forces killed 26 assailants after they were ambushed south of Baghdad. Also Wednesday, a mortar shell or rocket landed on an elementary school in western Baghdad, killing at least one child and injuring three others, according to a police official who asked not to be named out of fear of retribution by attackers. Kids fled the schoolhouse, abandoning backpacks and books on desks littered with glass shards. One teacher wept outside as parents rushed to collect their children. On the political front, Abbas Hassan Mousa al-Bayati, a top member of the United Iraqi Alliance, said negotiators from his Shiite-dominated bloc and a Kurdish coalition could tap a Sunni Arab to head the ministry of defense, which oversees the Iraqi army battling the insurgency. ''The defense ministry will go to a Sunni Arab because we do not want Arab Sunnis to feel that they are marginalized,'' al-Bayati told The Associated Press. ''They will be given one of the four major posts because we want them to feel that they are part of the political formula.'' Sunni Arabs, dominant under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, largely stayed away from the Jan. 30 balloting amid calls for them to boycott and threats against voters by the Sunni-led rebellion. Political leaders have in the past announced plans on filling cabinet positions, only to reverse themselves later. Al-Bayati said his group and the Kurdish coalition, which together won 215 seats in the new 275 seat National Assembly, were expected to name a president on Saturday, the next step toward forming a new government. Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani is expected to fill the post. Fuad Masoum, a member of the Kurdish negotiating team, said no definitive decisions on divvying up the 32-member Cabinet have been made. He declined to confirm that a Sunni Arab will be named defense minister, but said that it was one option under consideration. Handing the post to a Sunni Arab could help undermine support for the insurgency, while assuaging Sunni fears that the Shiites will dominate all aspect's of the country's upcoming government. The army chief of staff could be a Shiite, al-Bayati said. He added that his bloc was pressing for a Shiite to head the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police Iraq's other main security force and that a Kurd could become foreign minister. Amid the political wrangling, top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani had been scheduled to talk with Talabani on Wednesday. But the meeting was canceled due to ''security concerns,'' said Meithemn Faisal, an official from al-Sistani's offices in Baghdad. Kurds are thought to number between 15 to 20 percent of Iraq's 25 million people, with Sunni Arabs roughly equivalent. Shiite Arabs make up 60 percent of the population.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (676504)	3/23/2005 8:36:42 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 769670

Jordan seeks to ease tension with Iraq [Middle East News] AMMAN, Jordan, March 22 : Jordanian newspapers focused Tuesday on the easing of tensions between Jordan and Iraq after Amman decided to return its charge d'affaires to Baghdad. Local press said King Abdullah took the initiative to return the envoy in a gesture aimed at reaffirming Amman's support of the Iraqi government. The daily al-Rai commented that Jordan had always been supportive of Iraq, especially Iraqi leaders who are currently in power and were hosted by Amman in the past. Al-Dustour newspaper said, "The Jordanian policy toward Iraq is clear and based on fact and cannot be tarnished by unfounded accusations."The newspaper said that Jordan had always rejected the partitioning of Iraq and any attempt to undermine historic bilateral relations. Tension had been building between the neighbors after a Jordanian national, identified as Raed Banna, carried out a suicide bomb attack in Hulla, south of Baghdad, two weeks ago, killing 130 Iraqis and wounding dozens of others. The attack evoked public outrage, especially among Shiites, who demonstrated outside the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, burning and trampling the Jordanian flag. The Jordanian government condemned the attack and recalled its charge d'affaires last week for consultations, and Iraq also summoned its envoy to Amman. - -- Copyright 2005 by United Press International.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (676504)	3/23/2005 8:37:44 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 769670

UN pledged Iraq oil money to defend official (AFP) 23 March 2005 UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations faced new questions on Tuesday about the oil-for-food programme in Iraq after admitting it agreed to use Iraqi money to pay the legal fees of a UN official under investigation. Benon Sevan, who ran the scandal-tainted programme, has already been accused of serious violations of UN conduct after an enquiry found he had got oil allocations from the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein for an acquaintance. On Tuesday, the United Nations said it had pledged to reimburse Sevan for “reasonable” legal fees while he was under investigation by the enquiry, which is headed by former US Federal Reserve banking chief Paul Volcker. The money was to come from an escrow account containing 2.2 percent of Iraqi oil revenues that had been used to run the defunct 64-billion dollar oil-for-food programme, the largest aid scheme in UN history. Fred Eckhard, the spokesman for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, said that arrangement was halted last month when an initial report from Volcker’s commission, known as the IIC, charged Sevan with violating UN rules. He said no money had yet been paid and that the United Nations was now questioning the legal bills Sevan had presented for payment. “Although Mr Sevan has subsequently submitted legal fees, the amount he is seeking is currently being questioned by the United Nations on the grounds that not all costs releate to his cooperation with the IIC,” Eckhard said. Since Saddam’s ouster by US forces two years ago, Iraq has repeatedly complained that the United Nations should turn over the remaining money in the so-called 2.2 account. Instead, part of it has been used to pay for the costs of the Volcker investigation, estimated at around 30 million dollars. Annan appointed Volcker to head the probe in a bid to head off charges of fraud and corruption in oil-for-food that he said had cast a shadow over the United Nations. Volcker’s next interim report, due to be released in a week, is expected to focus on questions about Annan and his son Kojo, who worked for a company that had contracts under the oil-for-food programme. Oil-for-food, which ran from December 1996 to November 2003, was intended to ease the effects of international sanctions on ordinary Iraqis, allowing Iraq to sell oil and use the revenue to buy humanitarian supplies. An Iraqi newspaper last year published a list of individuals it said had gotten allocations of oil from Saddam’s regime. Last month, the Volcker panel said Sevan had steered oil allocations to a firm linked to a relative of Annan’s predecessor as secretary general, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and that the regime was trying to buy influence through Sevan. It stopped short of saying he had taken bribes or committed a crime, but raised questions about cash payments he claimed had come from a relative—and said the investigation into his affairs would continue. It said his behaviour “created a grave and continuing conflict of interest. His conduct was ethically improper and seriously undermined (UN) integrity.” Eckhard, who said Annan personally decided to authorise paying for Sevan’s legal fees, said the United Nations reserved the right to get any money back from Sevan if the charges against him were upheld. The oil-for-food debacle has embarrassed the United Nations and the latest revelations, first reported in the New York Sun, came just one day after Annan pledged UN reforms to improve accountability and transparency.