Saddam's Sacked Bodyguard: I know where the weapons are...
DEBKA-Net-Weekly Exclusive Interview

As a member of the elite trusted group of five to six men sworn to defend the Iraqi ruler with their lives, he claims to know where Iraq's weapons of mass destruction are hidden - and points to three sites.
...
DEBKA-Net-Weekly's intelligence experts who went over the transcript of the interview portrayed Jassem as a typical Middle East VIP bodyguard, essentially a simple man who, for the most part, told the truth. Content that our experts found to be inaccurate has been expunged. In brief, he claimed that Saddam had concealed his prohibited weapons in a tunnel complex under the main streets of Baghdad, the sand dunes in Ouja, near Tikrit - where they are stored in mobile bunkers that can be buried deeper by the flick of a remote control - and in the Hawala district of Tikrit.
...

Dear Comrades and Friends,

I come to you from Iraqi Kurdistan-bringing you greetings from the Kurdish leadership-and a message from our people who hope for your support and solidarity in the struggle for democracy and liberation.
...
For Iraqis, our D-Day is at hand. As we watch the military preparations and the game of cat and mouse which the dishonest dictatorship in Baghdad is playing with the UN inspectors, we sense, and we hope, that deliverance is near.

The anticipation and nervousness that must have been felt in Rome nearly 60 years ago is today palpable in Iraq, both in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Free Iraq that was liberated in 1991, and in the areas still under the control of the Ba'athist regime.

In my office in Suleymaniyeh, I meet almost every day some traveller who has come from Baghdad, and other parts of Iraq. Without exception they tell me of the continued suffering inflicted by the Iraqi regime, of the fearful hope secretly nurtured by so many enslaved Iraqis for a free life, for a country where they can think without fear and speak without retribution.

Today, I stand before you not only as a representative of the Kurdish people in Iraq, but also as a messenger for the oppressed peoples of Iraq.

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Iraq will chair the United Nations' most important disarmament negotiating forum during the panel's May session.

At the rules-minded United Nations, it's not a country's status with international weapons inspectors, but the letters in its name which determine which member state chairs the Conference on Disarmament.

"The irony is overwhelming," a U.S. diplomat said.
...
Iraq will take its turn as the head of the conference, a U.N. spokesman said, because of a "purely automatic rotation by alphabetical order."

Therefore, joining Iraq as the co-chair for the May 12-June 27 session in Geneva, Switzerland, will be Iran.

» CNN.com - Iraq to chair U.N. disarmament conference

IN 1991, Pentagon planners secretly estimated that one in three of the 600,000 US troops deployed to the Gulf to eject Saddam Hussein's forces from Kuwait could become victims of germ warfare.

If the war was conventional, with no nerve gas or biological attacks, they guessed at 18,000 Americans killed in action.

Even optimistic assessments proved wildly inaccurate. The final butcher's bill for America was just 147, and 35 of those were victims of "friendly fire". The 20,000 bodybags shipped to the region in advance went home unused.
...
Some officers are concerned that the US public has become used to "sterile warfare" involving few fatalities and maximum use of precision-guided hardware. The worry is that popular opinion would turn swiftly against the prosecution of any war in which the opposition proved less amenable to being overwhelmed and started to stack up allied bodies in front of their positions.

Since Vietnam, in which the US suffered 58,000 dead, the White House has also become ultra-sensitive to military losses. US forces were withdrawn from Somalia in 1993 after 18 Rangers and Delta Force troopers were ambushed and slain in Mogadishu.

Withdrawal was also the end result a decade earlier when Hizbollah Islamic suicide bombers drove a truck bomb into US Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 240 peacekeepers.

Public opinion has remained firmly behind the war against terrorism since September 11, although only 26 Americans have died in Afghanistan so far. At least five of those fell in "fratricidal accidents", as friendly fire incidents are now described.

» US stays silent on Iraq war bodybag factor

UNITED NATIONS -- When chief U.N. arms inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei finish briefing the Security Council Monday on Iraq's efforts to disarm, President Bush will face perhaps the most momentous decision of his presidency: whether to wage war on Saddam Hussein.
...
Under intense pressure from reluctant allies, U.S. officials have signaled that Bush may be willing to allow inspections to continue for a few more weeks, perhaps a month.

But Powell traveled to an international forum in Davos, Switzerland, over the weekend to deliver a stark message: "Time," he warned, "is running out."

Three major scenarios are available to Bush and his foreign policy team, and U.S. officials say that within weeks, not months, they will choose one of them. Inaction, they say, will not be accepted.

Let's start with one simple fact: Iraq is a black box that has been sealed shut since Saddam came to dominate Iraqi politics in the late 1960's. Therefore, one needs to have a great deal of humility when it comes to predicting what sorts of bats and demons may fly out if the U.S. and its allies remove the lid. Think of it this way: If and when we take the lid off Iraq, we will find an envelope inside. It will tell us what we have won and it will say one of two things.

It could say, "Congratulations! You've just won the Arab Germany -- a country with enormous human talent, enormous natural resources, but with an evil dictator, whom you've just removed. Now, just add a little water, a spoonful of democracy and stir, and this will be a normal nation very soon."

Or the envelope could say, "You've just won the Arab Yugoslavia -- an artificial country congenitally divided among Kurds, Shiites, Sunnis, Nasserites, leftists and a host of tribes and clans that can only be held together with a Saddam-like iron fist. Congratulations, you're the new Saddam."

» Thinking About Iraq (II)

This area was heavily bombed during the Gulf War. According to the U.S. Army Environmental Policy Institute, more than 900,000 depleted uranium tipped bullets were fired. When they exploded, say experts, toxic substances were released in the ground and air, and after four or five years, entered the food chain, affecting human lives. Gulf War syndrome has been reported in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and even among American soldiers on the ground. (Washington denies that the illnesses are caused by depleted uranium.) The Iraqi government has noted a remarkable increase in cancer, reduced fertility, miscarriages and children born with congenital defects. In the southern Basra province, multiple congenital malformation cases have shot up from 37 in 1990 to 301 in 2002. "We have a generation of children that are going to die too soon," says Dr. Jnana Ghalib Hassan, Zainab's pediatrician. "First the Americans poisoned our land, and now we are being denied medicines to help these people."

Dr. Hassan stalks through the cancer ward of the Basra hospital where several children lie hooked up to intravenous drips. She shows hideous photographs of damaged children, many of them little more than lumps of meat. Those did not make it, but there are plenty that would survive if only they had some medication. But these are poor people and cannot afford medicines. Cancer drugs, for instance, fall under the dual use category and are listed under UN sanctions. So, although medical services are highly subsidized in Iraq, these children can have no treatment. Leukemia patients are given a blood transfusion and discharged. Other cancers are treated symptomatically. Everything is available in Iraq, even medicines, but come at a heavy price in the black market. A drug that the in the states would sell for around $80 U.S. can cost up to $80,000. "I know these children are going to die," says Dr Hassan. "But I don't say anything. I just send them home."

» TIME.com: Letter from Iraq: The Children's Ward

WASHINGTON - An American military strike on Iraq could be delayed until March to give Washington more time to win over reluctant allies and build up its forces in the Gulf.

Despite a wave of deployment orders issued by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the past five weeks, the Pentagon has only begun sending major combat elements to the Persian Gulf and cannot assemble the force required for an invasion of Iraq until late next month or early March, defence officials and analysts told the Washington Post yesterday.

The military timetable provides a cushion for the Bush administration's efforts to enlist the support of reluctant allies on the United Nations Security Council, notably Germany and France.

» US may not attack Iraq until March

NEW YORK Jan. 23 --
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz asserted Thursday that Iraq had threatened to kill its scientists if they cooperated with U.N. weapons inspectors and warned that Saddam Hussein was running out of time to avoid war.

Wolfowitz said Iraqi scientists fear for their lives if they speak to inspectors privately, disputing an Iraqi official's statement that the government is encouraging its scientists to cooperate.

"Today we know from multiple sources that Saddam has ordered that any scientist who cooperates during interviews will be killed, as well as their families," he said.

Wolfowitz also said Iraq was tutoring scientists on what to say and that Iraqi intelligence officers were posing as scientists to be interviewed.

» ABCNEWS.com : Wolfowitz: Iraq Threatened Scientists

Why We Know Iraq Is Lying
By CONDOLEEZZA RICE

There is no mystery to voluntary disarmament. Countries that decide to disarm lead inspectors to weapons and production sites, answer questions before they are asked, state publicly and often the intention to disarm and urge their citizens to cooperate. The world knows from examples set by South Africa, Ukraine and Kazakhstan what it looks like when a government decides that it will cooperatively give up its weapons of mass destruction. The critical common elements of these efforts include a high-level political commitment to disarm, national initiatives to dismantle weapons programs, and full cooperation and transparency.

In 1989 South Africa made the strategic decision to dismantle its covert nuclear weapons program. It destroyed its arsenal of seven weapons and later submitted to rigorous verification by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Inspectors were given complete access to all nuclear facilities (operating and defunct) and the people who worked there. They were also presented with thousands of documents detailing, for example, the daily operation of uranium enrichment facilities as well as the construction and dismantling of specific weapons.
...
Iraq's behavior could not offer a starker contrast. Instead of a commitment to disarm, Iraq has a high-level political commitment to maintain and conceal its weapons, led by Saddam Hussein and his son Qusay, who controls the Special Security Organization, which runs Iraq's concealment activities. Instead of implementing national initiatives to disarm, Iraq maintains institutions whose sole purpose is to thwart the work of the inspectors. And instead of full cooperation and transparency, Iraq has filed a false declaration to the United Nations that amounts to a 12,200-page lie.

Many Americans hold an idealistic view of the world community that leads them to conclude that any military action against Iraq should be approved by the U.N. Security Council, while others stung by criticism the U.S. is arrogant and unilateralist, favor military action under the umbrella of United Nations approval simply to pacify world opinion.

This idealistic view that the U.N. will do the "right thing" about Iraq, fails to recognize the realities of international politics and the impact that national self-interest has on the decision making process in the U.N.

For example, both Russia and France have significant financial interests at stake, including oil exploration and development contracts worth billions of dollars. For years, both Russia and France have been more interested in getting U.N. sanctions lifted for their own economic gain, then in ensuring that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction.

Rumsfeld once again laid out the administration's case against Saddam and sounded a warning note that war is drawing nearer -- within weeks, rather than months.

"Clearly, in the case of Iraq, we are nearing the end of a long

road, where every other option has been exhausted," Rumsfeld said. "No one wants war.... Either they will cooperate or they won't. And it won't take months to make that judgment."
...
Immediately after a war, if there is one, the U.S. military will have to ensure that all the weapons of mass destruction -- chemical, biological and nuclear materials -- are located and destroyed, maintain Iraq's borders and prevent a "land grab" by Kurdish and Shi'a minorities, and see to it that some level of democratic reform takes place.

"It'll have to be something uniquely Iraqi," Rumsfeld said. "I think, when (Saddam) isn't there an Iraqi advisory element will be constituted."

Iraq experts told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last year that as many as 75,000 American troops will have to remain behind in Iraq.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated last fall that rebuilding and occupation of Iraq could cost the United States as between $1 billion and $4 billion a month, depending on the number of troops involved. Rumsfeld suggested Monday that money from Iraq's vast oil resources will greatly help in reconstruction.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell suggested in December that protecting the oil fields from Iraqi sabotage will be critical.
...
In Iraq Monday, U.S. forces dropped 360,000 leaflets over six cities in southern Iraq listing radio frequencies to listen to for American messages. All of the cities were less than 225 miles from the capital Baghdad. It was the fifth leaflet drop this month.

» United Press International: Rumsfeld: Decision on Iraq soon

HOUSTON, Jan. 20 -- An extended war with Iraq would have severe consequences that are likely unanticipated by the US and its allies, said some academic experts at a Jan. 17 forum on Middle East oil at the University of Houston.

The world economy is "in good shape to weather a quick, victorious war" between Iraq and US-led forces, " said Joseph A Pratt, Cullen professor of history and business at the University of Houston. But the world economy is not prepared "if this becomes a real war instead of a TV war" as was Desert Storm in 1991, he said.

If anticipated military action against Iraq bogs down or--even worse--spills over into other Middle East oil-producing countries, Pratt predicted, "The US will have no allies in a long war, including about half of the US (population) if large numbers of body bags start coming home."
...
One of several "unspeakable" dangers that could come from anticipated military action against Iraq is an escalation of terrorism against the US, Pratt said.

Meanwhile, other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries have warned that they can't make up simultaneous loss of production from both Iraq and Venezuela, where oil production and exports have been crippled by a general strike now in its eighth week, aimed a ousting Venezuela President Hugo Chávez.

"The potential problem of losing 5 million b/d (of world oil supplies through a war in Iraq and the Venezuelan strike) should not be taken lightly by anybody," warned Michael J. Economides, professor of chemical engineering at the University of Houston. "The loss of 3 million b/d could drive oil prices above $40/bbl," he said.

» Oil & Gas Journal - A prolonged war in Iraq could have unknown consequence, experts warn

Asked his thoughts about replacing Iraq's government by force, Sheik Talel al-Khalidi, a member of parliament and tribal leader from Mosul, launches into one of those all-too-common sermons about President Saddam Hussein winning 100 percent of the vote in a referendum last October.

He demands to know how the Bush administration can possibly ignore such overwhelming support, prompting a visitor to note that Americans tend to respect election results when voters actually have a choice.

"But there was a choice!" the sheik protests. "People could vote yes or no."

Any interview in Iraq runs the risk of capsizing beneath the flood of Orwellian language that courses through all public discussions, rendering true thoughts and sentiments extremely elusive. Occasionally someone angry or reckless enough voices harsh criticism of the Iraqi government, but such encounters are both furtive and extremely rare.

Since most interviews between Iraqis and the Western press are organized and monitored by minders from the Ministry of Information, many Iraqis take the prudent step of garnishing their remarks with some praise for their president. This is an old-school totalitarian regime, after all, where criticizing the president is illegal, and parents have been known to disappear after their children parroted anti-Hussein remarks heard at home.

Foreigners with long experience here believe this is a matter of conditioning, of fear and self-censorship that have become innate. Iraqis are raised from childhood to sing -- often literally -- the president's praises.

They are also taught to mistrust foreigners. So when they find themselves talking to a foreigner, they respond as if by rote, often with safe, stock phrases.

» Fear Has Its Own Language in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Top U.N. officials warned Iraq on Saturday that it is running out of time to cooperate and avoid war, and arms inspectors examined the type of mobile lab the United States says could be used to make biological weapons.

America's top general, meanwhile, said there's still time for Iraq to come clean about its banned weapons programs and avoid an attack. Around the world, thousands of people demonstrated for peace.
...
Saddam, meanwhile, said Saturday that any war against the United States would be decided on the ground, but warned army commanders that Iraqi forces could be hurt by Washington's abilities to fight "from afar."

U.N. inspectors have complained that Iraq failed to disclose required details of its weapons programs in a 12,000-page declaration submitted in December. U.S. officials maintain that Iraq's failure to submit a complete report is evidence that Saddam has no intention of complying with orders to disarm.

As anti-war forces are gathering for a major demonstration on Saturday in Washington, a group of parents of the soldiers currently being deployed in the Gulf have decided to speak out against the drive for war.

They have been joined by organisations representing Gulf War veterans, who are particularly concerned about the problem of chemical and biological warfare casualties among servicemen.

The anti-war former soldiers hope to replicate the success of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in the l960s, who were a crucial part of the anti-war coalition that helped end US involvement in that war.

BOSTON (Reuters) - An Internet-based group of activists has remade a chilling Cold War-era television advertisement to try to turn the public against a war in Iraq.

The advertisement resurrects former Democratic President Lyndon Johnson's "Daisy" election ad of 1964 which tried to depict Republican Barry Goldwater as a trigger-happy extremist who could usher in nuclear Armageddon if elected president.

Like the original, the 30-second spot, airing in several cities on Thursday, begins with a little girl picking petals from a daisy and ends with the mushroom-shaped cloud of a nuclear explosion.

"War with Iraq," a narrator says. "Maybe it will end quickly. Maybe not. Maybe it will spread. Maybe extremists will take over countries with nuclear weapons."

The ad, which also features footage of burning oil wells and a crowd of Middle Easterners seething with anger, concludes with the words: "Let the inspections work."

» Yahoo! News - Remake of LBJ's 'Daisy' Nuke Ad Opposes Iraq War

Time has run out for the CIA to organize a coup against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, leaving conventional warfare as the main instrument to achieve the U.S. goal of "regime change" in Baghdad, intelligence experts say.

"Given the timeline here it's unlikely you're going to be able to put together a successful coup in a couple of months," said one former intelligence official.

Added a U.S. official: "It would always be very, very difficult to do."
...
Saddam has tight control over his inner circle and would kill anyone suspected of plotting a coup. "This guy has historically killed off anybody anywhere around him, including members of his immediate family, who look like they're sticking their heads up," said James Woolsey, a former CIA director.

As war-clouds loom over Iraq, many Arabs are frustrated that they cannot readily take to the streets to vent their anger over any U.S.-led invasion.

Arab governments, backed by the military, intelligence services and police, are clamping down on any sign of public disaffection in a region which has little tolerance for any protest not orchestrated or sanctioned by the authorities.

As the United States and Britain pour troops into the Gulf in their buildup against Iraq, anti-war activists around the world are mobilising, organising protests and offering to act as human shields in solidarity with Iraqis.

But to the dismay of many Arab citizens, opposition is not something they can easily take into the streets. Their rulers, some beholden to the United States for survival, fear that letting their people vent their rage could be dangerous.

Baghdad - Iraq has blocked access to the Internet in response to a US-inspired email campaign urging military and civilian leaders in Iraq to turn away from President Saddam Hussein, Iraqi sources said on Sunday.
...
The break in Internet services follows the propaganda campaign launched by the United States in line with the Bush administration's policy of encouraging Iraqi soldiers to topple Saddam themselves or at least lay down their arms should the US war machine roll in.

The state-controlled email service is available largely only to a small number of Iraqis, mainly government officials, senior public servants, academics and scientists.

"If you provide information on weapons of mass destruction or you take steps to hamper their use we will do what is necessary to protect you and protect your families," one of the email messages said.

"Failing to do that will lead to grave personal consequences," it added.

» IOL : Iraq blocks Net access after email campaign

On Sept. 17, 2001, six days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush signed a 21/2-page document marked "TOP SECRET" that outlined the plan for going to war in Afghanistan as part of a global campaign against terrorism.

Almost as a footnote, the document also directed the Pentagon to begin planning military options for an invasion of Iraq, senior administration officials said.

The previously undisclosed Iraq directive is characteristic of an internal decision-making process that has been obscured from public view. Over the next nine months, the administration would make Iraq the central focus of its war on terrorism without producing a rich paper trail or record of key meetings and events leading to a formal decision to act against President Saddam Hussein, according to a review of administration decision-making based on interviews with more than 20 participants.

Instead, participants said, the decision to confront Hussein at this time emerged in an ad hoc fashion. Often, the process circumvented traditional policymaking channels as longtime advocates of ousting Hussein pushed Iraq to the top of the agenda by connecting their cause to the war on terrorism.

With the nation possibly on the brink of war, the result of this murky process continues to reverberate today: tepid support for military action at the State Department, muted concern in the military ranks of the Pentagon and general confusion among relatively senior officials -- and the public -- about how or even when the policy was decided.

A senior leader of the militant Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, has urged Iraq to defend itself against any invading US and European troops by recruiting 'thousands, tens of thousands' of suicide bombers.
...
Mr Rantisi said he was not urging Muslims to carry out suicide attacks in the United States or Europe or against US and European interests elsewhere, but only in Iraq and only as a means of protecting the Iraqi people and their nation if they come under attack.

'We are against attacking innocents anywhere,' Mr Rantisi said.

&raquo Hamas calls for suicide bombers to defend Iraq

The White House has insisted that it knows "for a fact" that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction but provided no evidence, saying it will wait to see where UN inspections lead.

"The heart of the problem is Iraq is very good at hiding things," said White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer on Thursday.
...
"We know for a fact that there are weapons there," he said, and added that the burden was on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to disarm.

The US, keeping with past practice, did not reveal what evidence it possesses proving Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.

Washington says Iraq has chemical and biological weapons and is attempting to develop a nuclear bomb.

With a massive US military build-up proceeding in the Gulf region, US officials said President George W Bush has made no decision to go to war.

» IOL : Iraq guilty regardless of UN findings, says US

In a rare step for a poet laureate, Andrew Motion today speaks out in his newest poem against the momentum towards a US-led invasion of Iraq using British forces who would be serving nominally under the Queen.

In the 30-word poem, Motion, who was appointed by the Queen in 1999, sides with those who are "doubtful" about a war - and against the political leaderships of Britain and America.
...
"There is no compelling evidence yet. It may still come to light, in which case the picture changes. This is not a poem about whether we should go to war. We can't decide that because we don't yet know whether there are weapons. It's a poem about wishing to be more candid.

"I have absolutely no misgivings about getting short words from the Queen. In fact, if weapons do turn out to be there, I may well write a poem supporting going."
...

CAUSA BELLI by Andrew Motion

They read good books, and quote, but never learn
a language other than the scream of rocket-burn.
Our straighter talk is drowned but ironclad:
elections, money, empire, oil and Dad.

» Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Poet laureate joins doubters over Iraq

"The Defense Department claims 12 nations with nuclear weapons programs, 13 with biological weapons, 16 with chemical weapons, and 28 with ballistic missiles as existing and emerging threats to the United States. But only one of those countries sits atop the second largest oil reserves in the world."

Charles Peña, Senior Defense Policy Fellow of the Cato Institute, for The Chicago Tribune

NEW YORK--The American invasion of Iraq promises to be a blockbuster. They've designed the logos, focus-grouped the test audiences, and run the trailers. At this late date Bush wouldn't dare disappoint us with a boring old peace agreement. There's just one thing still missing from the script: the happy ending.

The ancient kingdom of Mesopotamia, which flourished in the region that became Iraq, is what textbooks like to call the birthplace of urban civilization. The Mesopotamians were the first to record their thoughts in writing, the first to divide the day into 24 hours, the first to eat off ceramic plates. Iraq is home to some of the most important landmarks of the Judeo-Christian tradition, including the reputed Garden of Eden and Ur, the birthplace of the patriarch Abraham.
...
With war in Iraq looming, many in the art historical world are worried about what might be damaged or destroyed.
...
Samarra. Major Islamic site and religious center 70 miles north of Baghdad, very close to a main Iraqi chemical research complex and production plant. Home to a stunning ninth-century mosque and minaret that were hit by allied bombers in 1991.
...
Ur. Supposedly the world's first city. Peaked around 3500 B.C. Ur is mentioned passingly in the Bible as the birthplace of the patriarch Abraham. Its fantastic temple, or ziggurat, was damaged by allied troops during the gulf war, which left four massive bomb craters in the ground and some 400 bullet holes in the walls of the city.

Basra Al-Qurna. Here, a gnarled old tree, supposedly Adam's, stands on the supposed Garden of Eden.

» Iraq's Cultural Capital

"We are in our country and the one who is in his country is right and its enemy is wrong. When the enemy comes as an aggressor, the victory will go to the people of right when they are inside their homeland," [Hussein] said in a taped, televised speech marking Army Day.
...
"We are confident, depending on the Almighty, that you will be, with the beginning of every new day, better till you reach the best situation, in defiance of the disappointed enemy, the friends and helpers of Satan, night and darkness," Hussein said. "Their arrows will go aimlessly while your arrows will hit them."
...
In his speech, Hussein accused the United States of trying to push the UN arms inspectors to go beyond their duties outlined even in "the bad resolutions of the Security Council", specifically mentioning American efforts to persuade the inspection teams to be more aggressive about questioning Iraqi scientists about the country's arms programmes.

"Instead of searching for what are called weapons of mass destruction, they are busy with collecting the lists containing the names of the Iraqi scientists (and) posing silly, meaningless questions to them," Hussein said.

» 'Justice on Iraq's side' - Hussein

Two senior Iraqi officials have reacted angrily after being held for several hours at a site in Baghdad that was sealed off and searched by United Nations weapons inspectors.
...
For about six hours, the inspectors prevented anyone entering or leaving the site, as they filmed and searched cars - as well as looking inside handbags.

Mr al-Douri told reporters that the behaviour of the inspectors was unacceptable and that they should allow people to go in and out in a more civilised way.

General Amin described the move as "maximum intrusiveness", but said Iraq did not want to complain officially in case it was interpreted as opposition to the search itself.

» BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iraqi anger over 'intrusive' inspectors

Thousands of people rallied in major cities across Pakistan yesterday to protest possible U.S. attack on Iraq in response to a call by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Islamic alliance.

Around 4,000 participated in the demonstration in Peshawar, capital of MMA-ruled North-West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, with low turnout in other cities. The overall response apparently fell short of expectations as the sponsors had forecast massive rallies.

The rallies also denounced U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan to hunt Al Qaida and Taliban, FBI activities in Pakistan and "violation" of national sovereignty.

"The U.S. has started a war against Muslims," Maulana Samiul Haq, one of the main MMA leaders, told the protesters in the federal capital.
...
"This is a war between the friends of Allah and the friends of satan."

"The American attack on Iraq will be an attack on the Islamic world," said another MMA Fazlur Rahman.

"If today we cannot stop America from attacking Iraq, then tomorrow they will attack Iran, and then it could be Pakistan," Fazlur Rehman told the rally in Peshawar.

» GN Online: MMA leaders warn U.S. against attacking Iraq

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 The administration's top budget official estimated today that the cost of a war with Iraq could be in the range of $50 billion to $60 billion, a figure that is well below earlier estimates from White House officials.
...
Mr. Daniels would not provide specific costs for either a long or a short military campaign against Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). But he said that the administration was budgeting for both, and that earlier estimates of $100 billion to $200 billion in Iraq war costs by Lawrence B. Lindsey, Mr. Bush's former chief economic adviser, were too high.
...
Mr. Daniels declined to explain how budget officials had reached the $50 billion to $60 billion range for war costs, or why it was less in current dollars than the 43-day gulf war in 1991. He also declined to specify how much had been budgeted for munitions and troops.

» White House Cuts Estimate of Cost of War With Iraq

Iraq urged the Arab world yesterday to take inspiration from fellow "axis of evil" member North Korea, as the U.S. military ordered more than 11,000 desert-trained troops to begin heading to the Persian Gulf.

"We Arabs need to revise our behavior towards the United States, as North Korea has done, to be respected," said the daily Babel, owned by President Saddam Hussein's elder son, Uday. The paper was referring to Pyongyang's relaunching of its nuclear program in the face of stiff U.S. criticism.

"Arabs need to learn the lesson from the Korean example to mobilize in order to stop an attack on Iraq and prevent a U.S.-Zionist crusade in the Arab world," Babel said.

"Korea insists on its right to possess a technology used by the United States to raze Japanese cities [during World War II] and which it still uses to blackmail the world and force it to obey its orders."

» Iraq urges Arabs to follow N. Korea -- The Washington Times

Confronted with a nuclear challenge from North Korea and the possibility of war with Iraq, US President George W Bush resolved today to try to find peaceful solutions to both in 2003.
...
Bush drew distinctions between the two international threats. He expressed confidence that diplomacy could head off North Korea's nuclear ambitions while reminding Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that the growing US military presence in the Gulf was designed to make sure he "heard the message."

Asked about the potential cost of a war against Iraq, Bush countered: "An attack from Saddam Hussein or a surrogate of Saddam Hussein would cripple our economy."

» Bush vows to end Iraq, North Korea crises peacefully