In the same article, the Observer tells us all about ex-CIA chief Woolsey:
Speaking to a group of college students in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Woolsey described the war in Iraq as the onset of the 'Fourth World War' (the third being the Cold War), saying: 'This Fourth World War, I think, will last considerably longer than either World Wars I or II did for us.'
He claimed the new war faces three enemies: the religious rulers of Iran, the 'fascists' of Iraq and Syria, and Islamic extremists such as al-Qaeda.
'As we move toward a new Middle East,' he said, 'over the years and, I think, over the decades to come...we will make a lot of people very nervous. Our response should be, "Good! We want you nervous. We want you to realise now, for the fourth time in 100 years, this country and its allies are on the march."'
Woolsey was a member of the Project for the New American Century, a forum that laid out plans for global, unchallenged American power. He now sits on the powerful Defence Policy Board, a hawkish semi-official ideological body that advises the Pentagon.

The Observer gives an overview of U.S. plans for post-war Iraq:
The Pentagon's list of people who could run the interim administration, including the hardline hawk and former CIA head, James Woolsey, which was revealed in leaked documents last week, brought signs of exasperation from this side of the Atlantic.
'It was a convenient leak,' said one Whitehall official. 'They put their names out and then it's up to everyone else to debate that plan rather than other options. But that is all it was, an option. Nothing has been settled.'
One Pentagon source claimed that the plans were in place and those who opposed the war will be sidelined. 'It is America's own plan, to enact as we see fit, with our coalition allies,' said the official. 'France wants a postwar role? They've got to be kidding.'
A colony of potential US administrators has assembled in waiting, along a stretch of Kuwaiti seaside villas, speaking well or not-so-well of the man regarded as the real architect of the new order, Paul Wolfowitz, deputy to Rumsfeld at the Pentagon, or 'Wolfowitz of Arabia' as he's been dubbed.
The man entrusted to broadcast the new order to Iraqis over television and radio airwaves will be Robert Reilly, who, as head of Voice of America, relayed information to the communist bloc during the Cold War.

The Oregonian reports on the secret arrest of a Palestinian-American:
A Portland federal judge, in a secret court hearing, denied bail for an Arab American held since March 20 as a material witness in an ongoing terrorism investigation.
Maher "Mike" Hawash, a contract software engineer at Intel, has not been charged with a crime. Federal law enforcement officials and his defense lawyers have refused to talk about the case, citing a gag order imposed by the judge.
Furthermore, there is no public court record of his arrest or searches of his home and office. On Thursday Hawash was listed on the U.S Bureau of Prison's Web site as an inmate at the federal prison in Sheridan, but on Friday, his name had been removed.
Hawash, who was born in the Palestinian city of Nablus on the West Bank and has been U.S. citizen since 1988, was arrested at his Intel office by agents with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.

News about the attack on al-Jazeera's website this week:
The Web site of Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera was refused assistance this week when it sought help from Akamai Technologies Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., in dealing with hacking attacks and massive interest from Web users.
"We think it's political pressure," said Nabil Hegazi, deputy managing editor of Al-Jazeera's English-language Web site.

Al-Jazeera's reporters are back in Baghdad:
The Iraqi Ministry of Information lifted its ban against two correspondents for the Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera and said the pair could resume broadcasting from Baghdad, the Qatar-based station said Friday.
On Thursday, Al-Jazeera said Iraqi officials gave no reason for their "sudden and unjustified" ban. The network announced would stop all correspondents' reports from Iraq and only broadcast live and recorded images received from its Baghdad office.

Concerns emerge about plans for the interim authority in post-war Iraq:
A group of exiled Iraqi lawyers and judges yesterday expressed concern about the Bush administration's plans for creating an interim authority in postwar Iraq and said that anyone appointed to serve in a transitional government should be barred from running in the country's first elections.
Their remarks came during a news conference at a Washington hotel at the conclusion of a two-week legal workshop sponsored by the State and Justice departments. The more than 30 exiled Iraqis at the workshop received training to prepare them for assuming legal and judicial roles in Iraq after the overthrow of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

An examination of al-Jazeera's increasing popularity:
Khoury gets what he calls an "unfiltered" view of the Iraq war -- with vivid images of death, destruction and gore -- beamed by the controversial al-Jazeera network and other Arabic satellite stations. The picture he and thousands of other Arab-Americans are getting is a world away from the version most Americans see, they say.
"It's a shame. It's against the whole of humanity," Khoury, one of thousands of Americans whose parents hail from Jordan who live in Yonkers north of New York City, says of the war images.
Qatar-based al-Jazeera, called "the Arab CNN" and often broadcasting live from Baghdad, is seen by many Arab-Americans as more accurate than its American counterparts, though not without anti-American bias.
Arab-Americans say they like its fast-paced Western-style coverage and see it as more balanced than some U.S. networks like Fox News, whose reporters they say are just cheerleaders for the U.S. side, demonizing Iraqis.
The perceived lack of objectivity of U.S. networks is basically why Muhammad al-Sayed is booked solid installing the reception equipment for the Arabic television stations in the homes of Arab-Americans in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
"For the past two weeks, I have been working 18 hours a day. Before the war it was the normal eight or nine hours," said Sayed, a Lebanese-American. "The people want to hear the other side."

The Wall Street Journal analyzes al-Jazeera:
It's the same conflict seen through two different lenses. CNN plays up technology and strategy and 3-D maps analyzed by retired generals. There are few civilians other than embedded reporters. On al-Jazeera, the biggest Arabic-language TV network, the conflict is messy, bloody and chaotic. Soldiers fire from dusty trenches; injured children fill hospitals.
Often called the Arab CNN, al-Jazeera regards itself as the first independent Arab TV station, the only one that is ever critical of Arab governments. It has changed the media landscape in the Arab world since the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when most Middle Eastern media were state-controlled and many regional viewers were skeptical of what they saw. Now the "al-Jazeera effect" resembles "the CNN effect" that came into sharp relief in 1991, when seeing images of the war on TV shaped public opinion.
Al-Jazeera, available via satellite, says it reaches 35 million viewers in the Arab world, 300,000 viewers in the U.S., and four million in Europe, which doubled to eight million during the first week of the war.

Reuters reports on a meeting regarding which companies will control Iraq's oil fields:
Long-term contracts are expected to see U.S. companies ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco and ConocoPhillips compete with Anglo-Dutch Shell, Britain's BP, TotalFinaElf of France, Russia's LUKOIL and Chinese state companies.
Iraqi exiles and senior U.S. officials agreed on Saturday that international oil companies should take a leading post-war role in reviving Iraq's oil industry, delegates to a policy meeting told Reuters.
Talks in London between Iraqi experts under the auspices of the State Department also recommended Baghdad stay in OPEC, though without limits on production, the Iraqis said.
The recommendations came from the fourth meeting of the oil and energy working group of the State Department's Future of Iraq project run by Thomas S. Warrick, Special Advisor to the U.S. Assistant of State for near eastern affairs.
A statement afterwards called for Iraqi oil and natural gas to be exploited for the benefit of the Iraqi people.
It added: "The country should establish a conducive business environment to attract investment of oil and gas resources."
U.S. officials at the meeting declined to elaborate.
"This is a highly-sensitive issue and we do not want any publicity," said one. "This is guidance by Iraqis for Iraqis facilitated by the U.S." said another.

Some details regarding the post-war administration:
The United States plans to install the first stages of a civil administration to run post-War Iraq in the southern port of Umm Qasr within days, a U.S. official said on Saturday.
Members of the Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) are scheduled to start operating in the port as early as Tuesday, the official said.
Retired U.S. General Jay Garner is set to make his media debut in Kuwait on Monday as the man whom the United States has named to be Iraq's temporary postwar civilian administrator.
Garner's team will administer three regions, with retired General Buck Walters in the south, retired General Bruce Moore in the north and former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine in the central region.

A look at the situation in Lebanon:
A small bomb exploded in a McDonald's restaurant near Beirut Saturday, wounding five people and highlighting the rising anti-American sentiment in Lebanon due to the war in Iraq
On Thursday, the U.S. Embassy urged Americans to consider leaving Lebanon, or, if staying, to exercise caution.
There have been several pro-Iraq demonstrations in front of the U.S. and British embassies in Beirut since the war began March 20.

A short overview of empires that have come to Iraq:
A glance at history's foreign footprints in the desert, from Trajan's to Lawrence of Arabia's, suggests what a challenge modern America faces in attempting to remake the Middle East.
Trajan, the Roman emperor, built his road to Aqaba but found it led him nowhere. Lawrence blew bridges near here to chase out Turks so that Britain could take its turn at imperial failure - Palestine, Suez, Iraq

A report on the situation in Baghdad's hospitals:
Baghdad's hard-pressed surgeons, flooded with war-wounded, are amputating the limbs of children and adults with too few anesthetics to block the pain and too few antibiotics to protect the patients, a Greek doctor newly arrived from Iraq reported Saturday.
They don't have drugs," Dr. Dimitrius Mognie said. "I saw it myself. I opened the cabinets."
As U.S. forces probed Baghdad on the ground Saturday and pounded the city intensively from the air, the International Committee of the Red Cross said its workers there reported several hundred wounded Iraqis and dozens of dead had been brought to four main city hospitals on Friday and on Saturday morning.

This week's Business Week reports on page 36 that "military police have started stripping Iraqis nakes as they are taken as prisoners of war. Imposing such indignities on them will hardly help win hearts and minds."

Throughout this war, the U.S. has maintained control of the skies over Iraq and has steadily extended control, despite attacks by the fedayeen, over the territory before it, from the Kuwait border to lands above Kirkuk and Mosul. The only sphere Iraq has managed to control is the ground behind it, which it has been able to fall back on in its constant retreats. Now, with U.S. forces in the Baghdad suburbs, Iraq's troops in central Iraq no longer even have ground it can safely use for retreat. In Baghdad, though, there are apparently extensive underground tunnels and bunkers. Saddam Husein and his comrades have used that system as a hiding place, and presumably also as a secure place to strategize for the war and attempt to maintain control over Iraq.
If Iraq is indeed planning an unconventional attack on U.S. forces, it's probable that Iraq would use the underground city as part of that attack. That could mean chemical or biological weapons are being stored there, and will be taken above ground for use against the U.S., or it could mean bombs and other weapons-suicide bombers?-will use the system to plan or commit attacks against U.S. forces. It's also obvious that Saddam Hussein and his comrades probably see the underground city as the last best place for them to hide from the U.S., as they are even now losing control of the city of Baghdad.
The London Times says that the companies that built the bunkers and tunnels "have said that the US 'bunker-buster' bombs will not be adequate to penetrate the bunkers' defences. This is because they have been designed to withstand nuclear attack. So it may be left to special forces or other ground troops have to find and capture the tunnels and bunkers." In such a scenario, the U.S. would be extremely vulnerable, especially if the attackers were suicidal, to a chemical or biological attack from within the underground city, and its superior firepower would be neutralized even more than it would be in street-to-street fighting in Baghdad.
Of course, no one seems to know if the Ba'ath leadership and its troops will use these tactics in the coming days, but again, one would think the underground city is quickly becoming the last decent alternative for them. If Hussein and his comrades merely decide to use the bunkers and tunnels as a hiding place, it would probably lead to a seach by the U.S. similar to last year's search in the caves of Tora Bora for Osama bin Laden and others in al Qaeda and the Taliban.

The Bush administration, responding to continued threats between Iraq and Pakistan, has said:
that India must not use the US-led pre-emptive war against Iraq as a pretext for an attack on Pakistan.
"Any attempts to draw parallels between the Iraq and Kashmir situations are wrong and are overwhelmed by the differences between them," State Department spokeswoman Joanne Prokopowicz said on Friday.

India seems to disagree with that notion:
A day after he yet again stirred up a militarist exchange of words with Pakistan, Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha claimed on Friday that New Delhi had a better case to launch pre-emptive strikes against its foe than the United States had over Iraq.
Taking a leaf from the American ruse to launch a massive military campaign against Iraq, Mr Sinha said Pakistan had self- declared weapons of mass destruction and alleged that it continued to be the epicentre of terrorism.
"If these were considerations for a pre-emptive strike against another country, then definitely India has a better case", Mr Sinha said in his interview to PTI.

The AP offers a quick analysis of urban combat in Baghdad:
Weapons most effective in urban settings are not necessarily the multimillion dollar fighter jets, bombers and helicopter gunships coalition forces have used outside Baghdad.
Helicopters are vulnerable to small arms fire and air power isn't much use to an infantry fighting from buildings.
And, while air support would undoubtedly play a role in a Baghdad battle, experts don't expect to see troops parachuting into the city.
Singer said that US urban combat weapons included pick axes and shovels to rip open doors, ropes with grappling hooks, and explosives to punch through walls.
Combat engineers would move in to destroy key targets and infrastructure, perhaps using bulldozers as Israel did in the siege of the Jenin refugee camp last year.

The U.N. might fight to retain sanctions against Iraq, says Reuters:
With billions of dollars in contracts for humanitarian aid and reconstruction at stake, some Security Council members could see an advantage in maintaining the sanctions, said Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, a private business lobby group.
Although U.S. companies are expected to get a large chunk of the reconstruction business, they face potential obstacles if U.S. unilateral sanctions on Iraq are not removed.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives on Thursday approved language allowing Bush to lift U.S. sanctions as part of $80 billion spending bills to fund the war.
The business community prefers the Senate version, which would allow Bush to repeal the 1990 Iraqi Sanctions Act, rather than the House version, which only allows Bush to suspend the act.

Toronto hosted a pro-U.S./pro-war rally today:
Prominent politicians and thousands of Canadians gathered in driving freezing rain Friday for a downtown rally intended to show goodwill toward the United States, but which ultimately took on a pro-war flavour.
Local media estimated the event drew about 2,000 people, while organizers put the number at 12,000. Police refused to provide a number.

A report on Iraq's post-war finances:
Iraq will emerge from the war a financial shambles, many economists say, with a debt load bigger than that of Argentina, a cash flow crunch rivalling those of Third World countries, a mountain of unresolved compensation claims, a shaky currency, high unemployment, galloping inflation and a crumbling infrastructure.
"Unless debt and reparations are dealt with properly, Iraq is basically bankrupt," said Rubar Sandi, an Iraqi-American investment banker who is pressing for a major debt relief initiative.

A Sydney Herald report headlined, "Eyeing the inside running in race to cash in on destruction," investigates Australia's role in post-war Iraq, as Aussie Foreign Minister Downer visits Washington, D.C.:
Mr Downer admitted that one of the goals of his trip was to lobby on behalf of Australian companies keen to bid for work rebuilding Iraq after the war.
It was "impossible to say" whether Australia's military support was going to pay off in terms of winning rebuilding contracts, he told Sky TV on Thursday. There will be plenty of work available. The United Nations Development Program has put the cost of rebuilding Iraq at $US30 billion ($50 billion), while various Washington experts have made estimates above $US100 billion.
Australian companies stood an "excellent chance" of winning tenders, said Mr Downer. "But they've got to compete for them, of course."
That is not the answer from Washington that Australian companies wanted to hear. "Australia has made a commitment here and perhaps we should be given some kind of inside running," said Brian Hewitt, the managing director of Perth construction firm Clough Ltd.

A report on German-American relations at Texas' Fort Bliss:
But the war against Iraq is beginning to weaken that cherished solidarity. As Germany's opposition to the war has grown increasingly strident, as the mood here plunges with word that Iraqis have killed or captured at least 15 Fort Bliss soldiers, the troops are suddenly viewing each other with a wary, distant eye. After all these years, they are - once again - strangers more than allies.
Some German and American families who have been neighbours for years are suddenly not speaking to one another. "I don't understand this stand-off," said Skip Stoltenberg, an El Paso resident who was born in Germany and emigrated to the US in 1948 after marrying a US Army officer.

The AP reports on yesterday's checkpoint attack:
U.S. Central Command said Friday that a car exploded at a U.S. special operations checkpoint in western Iraq, killing three coalition soldiers, a pregnant woman and the car's driver.
The apparent suicide attack occurred Thursday night about 18 kilometers (11 miles) southwest of the Haditha Dam. The site is northwest of Baghdad and about 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of the Syrian border.
Al-Jazeera broadcast separate videotapes of two Iraqi women, each of whom stood in front of the Iraqi flag, right hand on the Quran placed on a table in front of her and left hand brandishing an automatic rifle.

It appears Saddam Hussein has put to an end speculation of his departure from the ranks of the living:
Iraqi television showed President Saddam Hussein being cheered by crowds on Baghdad's streets, in the first footage of the Iraqi leader in public aired since the start of the war on March 20.
Witnesses, who refused to be named, told AFP they had seen the Iraqi leader in the Al-Mansour district of the capital in the early afternoon while the scenes were being filmed.

Business Week catalogs some of the Hussein regime's investment activity:
The sources of Saddam's wealth are no secret. Despite a dozen years of U.N. sanctions, the Iraqi regime has openly smuggled out oil -- by truck, tanker, and pipeline, via Syria, Turkey, and the Persian Gulf -- and smuggled in cigarettes and luxury goods. Saddam even found ways to profit from the U.N.-run Oil for Food Program: Although the U.N. controlled the bulk of the proceeds from Iraqi oil sales, the Baghdad regime built a 30 cent to 50-cent-per-barrel kickback into its oil price, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office and the Coalition for International Justice, a Washington-based human-rights group. The group says Saddam's eldest son, Uday, has overseen much of the skimming and smuggling. A spokesman for the U.N. Oil for Food Program declined to comment.
In the 1980s, Saddam invested in Western companies, including Lagardere, the French defense and media group that owns Hachette, the French publisher of Elle and Car & Driver. Hachette says Saddam's 8.4% stake, estimated to be worth $90 million, has been frozen since 1990.

The House, which presumably did not solicit opinions from the people of Iraq before passing the war spending bill, has barred several countries opposing the war from attempting to help rebuild Iraq:
Proposed by Minnesota congressman Mark Kennedy, a Republican unrelated to the famous Kennedy clan, and passed by show of hands, the measure would even bar access by the four countries to information on reconstruction bids in Iraq.
The Kennedy amendment stipulated "that none of the funds made available in the bill for reconstruction efforts in Iraq may be used to procure goods or services from any entity that includes information on a response to a Request for Proposal (RFP) that indicates that such entity is organized under the laws of France, Germany, the Russian Federation, or Syria."

Tony Blair vehemently denies thoughts of a plan to depose other Middle East regimes:
"There is no question of 'who next?' We are in Iraq for a particular reason. This is not a war against Iraq, it is a war against Saddam.
"They (the Americans) have got absolutely no plans to attack those two countries. What they were saying is that it is important that neither country assist those forces loyal to Saddam."
He told people to stop "looking for conspiracy theories -- Iraq one day and a whole series of countries the next."
"My own judgment is that the single most important thing we can do is to bring some hope to the situation between Israel and Palestine.
"I believe it is every bit as important that we make progress on that as we get rid of Saddam."

The London Times answers questions about Baghdad's underground city:
We don't know much detail about the tunnels discovered around the airport outside Baghdad. However, they may have been used by units of the Special Republican Guard, as there was a base for these elite troops found near the airport.
We are just scratching the surface of what we think is in Baghdad. We could be entering as critical phase of the campaign to expose and capture the tunnels and bunkers that Saddam Hussein has had constructed throughout Baghdad.
The tunnels and bunkers will make the job of finding Saddam Hussein and his commanders very difficult. Since the 1970s he has spent millions of dollars constructing these complexes under presidential palaces and elsewhere. The coalition probably does not know where all of them are located.

Britain has confirmed the use of cluster bombs in Iraq:
British pilots have dropped 50 "cluster" bombs on Republican Guard units, the Chief of the Air Staff said today.
The cluster bombs have a "unique capability" against certain targets that are well away from built-up areas, Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Squire told a Ministry of Defence press conference.
He said: "We have dropped some 50 clusters. They have all been targeted against Republican Guard divisions well away from Baghdad as the forces have gone north. "We have recorded where the weapons have gone to assist clear-up after the conflict."
British pilots have dropped 50 "cluster" bombs on Republican Guard units, the Chief of the Air Staff said today.

Members of Congress are looking for a strictly pro-Israel position from the White House:
Republicans and Democrats are pressing the White House to adopt a more staunchly pro-Israel stance, even if it feeds the perception the United States is too closely aligned with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government.
In speeches this week and a letter scheduled for delivery later this month, GOP and Democratic congressional leaders -- who are competing for Jewish voters and donors -- make clear they will oppose any peace deal that does not first require the Palestinians to change their government and end all terrorist activities before imposing significant requirements on Israel.
"Experience and common sense lead to one conclusion about America's proper role in the Middle East: We are absolutely right to stand with Israel, and our opponents are absolutely wrong." DeLay said it was "absurd" for the State Department this week to report that Israel has a poor human rights record. The newly released annual document criticized Israel and the Palestinians for abuses over the past year.

The Washington Post reports on the inevitable interest from Hollywood in the Jessica Lynch story:
An American hero? Count on Hollywood to enlist.
Army supply clerk and Iraqi prisoner of war Jessica Lynch was barely in the air on her way to Ramstein Air Base after her rescue when Tinseltown producers started buzzing about her story's possibilities for a television movie.

Someone in the Western media finally mentions the brutality of the Mongols in 1258 in Baghdad, if only as an indication of how the Middle East media are covering the war:
The Israeli flag is superimposed on the American flag. The Crusades and the 13th-century Mongul sack of Baghdad, recalled as barbarian attacks on Arab civilization, are used as synonyms for the American-led invasion of Iraq. Horrific vignettes of the helpless — armless children, crushed babies, stunned mothers — cascade into Arab living rooms from the front pages of newspapers and television screens.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw comments on the plan for post-war Iraq:
"There will initially have to be a military occupation because that is the only legal base and practical base for running the country," Straw told BBC's Newsnight programme.
"There will then be a phase, we hope as rapid as possible, which leads to an interim Iraqi authority and that would have to be endorsed by the UN.
"What we want to see is a very, very swift transition from what will necessarily be a military occupation, where we are, to a situation where we set up an interim Iraqi administration and then a more permanent one which is a government of the Iraqis, for the Iraqis, by the Iraqis."

A London Times reporter offers a comparison between the two cross-Atlantic allies:
Mr Bush’s optimism contrasted with a much more sober assessment in London. Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, had earlier cautioned against viewing the rapid advance on Baghdad as the beginning of the end of the military campaign.
“Do not underestimate the task that still faces our forces or the length of time it may take to complete. We are still very much in the second phase of steady progress,” he said.
Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, said that American forces were “closer to central Baghdad than many American commuters are from their downtown offices”.

A report melodramatically bylined, "By John Irvine of ITV News, the last Western journalist at Saddam's airport," mentions the ill-timing of the reporter and his minder:
Our government minder had taken my cameraman, Phil Dye, and I the 12 miles out out to the airport on the capital’s southwest fringe to rebut reports that coalition forces were massed to attack.
A much larger group of reporters had visited earlier in the afternoon, courtesy of the Iraqi Government, and did indeed see nothing but a vast expanse of Tarmac and two completely empty runways of what was effectively a ghost airport.

AFP reports on the chances of an attack from Iraq:
"Now that we have penetrated Baghdad's outer ring, the likelihood (of a chemical or biological attack) is negligible," said Captain Adam Mastrianni, the intelligence officer of the 101st Airborne Division's Aviation Brigade.
"The commanding general of the 101st, General David Petraeus, gave the order at 9:00 pm (1800 GMT) that soldiers in the division would be able to take off their anti-chemical and biological suits as of Friday morning," he added.

Treasury Secretary Snow made explicit today the idea that enacting President Bush's tax cut is analogous to fighting evil in Iraq. Emphasizing security, not freedom, he made these remarks:
"We cannot afford to fail the American people, especially our troops overseas," he said in a speech to the Orlando Chamber of Commerce.
"I believe that these are the two pillars supporting our nation's greatness and the well being of our people: national security and economic security.
"As a matter of principle, this administration believes we have an obligation to the American people to rebuild our economy, even as we protect our national security.
"Choosing one over the other is a false choice."

An introduction to the appointed head of the post-war government of Iraq:
The overall boss of this Iraqi government-in-waiting, an operation that has been endowed with the Washington-speak title "Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance," is retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner. When he gets to Baghdad, he will be in charge of everything the American military is not: feeding the country, fixing the infrastructure and creating what the Bush administration has said will be a democratic government.
A stocky 64-year-old, on leave from a top post at the defense contractor L-3 Communications, General Garner was responsible for protecting Kurdish refugees in northern Iraq after the first gulf war, a smaller task than the one at hand but one that gave him a taste for the country, a colleague said.

France sends its humanitarian aid to Iraq:
A convoy of trucks packed with 60 tons of blankets and food essentials pulled out from the foot of the Eiffel Tower on Wednesday, marking the first batch of French humanitarian aid for Iraq.
The Paris landmark was chosen as a symbol for the mission, which was funded by about $180,000 in donations that poured in over the last week, according to Solidarite, the Paris-based aid group that organized the trip.

The AP reports on the growing presence of non-citizens in the U.S. military:
Among the first U.S. troops killed in Iraq were men who died for a country where they couldn't even cast a vote.
Marine Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, a native of Guatemala, and Cpl. Jose Angel Garibay, from Mexico, were among the 31,000 non-citizens serving in the military.

Two quotes by Donald Rumsfeld from today's Pentagon briefing:
"Iraq is running out of real soldiers. All that will be left are war criminals."
"We have seen that Syria continues to conduct itself the way it was prior to the time I said what I said."

South Korea's troops are headed to Iraq:
South Korean troops assisting the U.S. war on Iraq will start arriving in the Middle East as early as late this month according to the Defense Ministry yesterday.
A 566-member battalion-level military engineering unit and a 100-member medical unit will be sent for non-combat missions in Iraq and nearby areas.

The New York Times reports from Hilla:
Dr. Saad al-Fallouji, the hospital's chief surgeon, said that on Tuesday alone, the hospital received 33 victims dead on arrival and 180 others who were wounded by American fire. "Most of them — no, all of them — were civilians," he said. "All of them were from Nadir village, women and children and men of all ages, mostly they had very serious injuries to their abdomens, to their intestines, to their chests and their heads. Many of the bodies were completely torn apart."
Reporters had no difficulty confirming that there had been scores of casualties — the dead evident in the procession of coffins, and in the torn bodies that crowded the shelves of the large refrigerator in the hospital's front garden, the wounded filling every ward, many eager to recount how they had come under American fire.

A report from Basra:
British snipers have begun operating inside Basra in a series of "harass and destroy" missions against Iraqi regular and paramilitaries defending the city.
Difficulties in locating Iraqi army and militia units are being overcome by "turning" Ba'ath party members against the regime and sending them to confirm hideouts.

Iran's President Mohammad Khatami gives his thoughts on the war:
"With this war you are giving a green light to extremist movements and violence-seekers to answer back your violence with violence," the official IRNA news agency quoted Khatami as saying in a speech.
"The result of this war is the death of innocent people and circulating and strengthening extremism and violence," he said.

Iran reacts to the death of a BBC cameraman:
Mohammad Sohofi, Iran's deputy minister of culture, expressed his regret over the death of Golestan, who he described as "an artist known throughout the world".
"The cruel US-British-led war on Iraq has not only taken the lives of hundreds of civilians, including innocent children and women but also journalists such as Kaveh Golestan," he said in comments carried by the Iranian Student News Agency.

The debate over who will govern post-war Iraq continues:
European Union and NATO leaders came out of a series of meetings with Powell, their first full session with him since the U.S. and British forces invaded Iraq last month, saying they saw a possible transatlantic consensus on the U.N.'s role emerging.
Powell also said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization might provide peacekeeping troops for postwar Iraq since no member objected to this. France, Germany and Belgium opposed a pre-war plan for NATO to help boost Turkey's defenses.
"There will definitely be a U.N. role but what the exact nature of that role will be remains to be seen," Powell told a news conference after more than 20 meetings.

ITN comments on findings that its journalists were hit by crossfire:
A private security company's search of the site in southern Iraq where a British TV journalist was killed has established that his team came under fire from both coalition and Iraqi forces, their company, ITN televison, said Thursday.
Stewart Purvis, ITN's chief executive and editor-in-chief, asked British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon and U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to press coalition commanders to produce a formal account of the incident.
"We're now clear that somebody in the American or British military knows what happened ... but they have not come forward," Purvis said.
"We need details of the incident and the immediate aftermath to understand what happened to Fred and Hussein and to ease the anguish of their desperate families."

Reuters reports:
An Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim leader has urged Iraqis not to hinder U.S. invading forces after previously asking them to resist efforts to topple President Saddam Hussein, a Shi'ite group in the UK said on Thursday.
In a religious ruling, or fatwa, Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani urged Iraqis to stop fighting in and around the Shi'ite holy shrine of Najaf, the Al Khoei foundation in London told Reuters.

A report on the future of Iraq's oil says:
Oil majors will want to wait for a legitimate new government to settle in Baghdad before risking full-blown investment in undeveloped oilfields, said the report by the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA).The forecasts will make comforting reading for Iraq's fellow members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Fears in OPEC are that heavy early investment in Iraq might flood world oil markets, hitting prices and undermining the Saudi-led OPEC strategy of production restrictions aimed at supporting $25-a-barrel crude.

Tomorrow's Washington Post reports:
The Defense Department is pressing ahead with plans to temporarily manage Iraq's oil industry after the war and to use the proceeds to rebuild the country, creating a conflict with U.S. allies in Europe and the Middle East, according to diplomats and industry experts, The Washington Post reports in its Thursday edition.
Industry sources said former Shell Oil Co. chief executive Philip J. Carroll is the leading candidate to direct production, the Post said.

AFP reports that Al-Jazeera, seemingly refuting any idea that it's a propaganda organ for Iraq, is:
suspending the work of its journalists in Iraq after authorities banned one correspondent from working and asked another to leave, the station announced early today.
Al-Jazeera "has decided to suspend, until further notice, the work of all its correspondents in Iraq" after the information ministry informed its office in the Iraqi capital of the ban on Baghdad-based correspondent Diyar al-Umari and the request for Tayseer Alluni to leave the country "as soon as possible", it said.

The idea of an analogy between Iraq's guerilla tactics and those used in Somali was made explicit today by the Sydney Herald, which headlined this story "Black Hawk down: seven killed":
A military source told a Reuters correspondent with the 3rd Infantry that vanguard units were just 30km from the southern edges of the capital of five million people, where bombs killed several motorists and hit a Red Crescent hospital.
Forces heading up the Tigris valley from the southeast were as close as 40km to the city, the source said.

The U.S. appears to be trying to smooth over relations with Canada:
"There's a little bit of a strain, but I think both of us have to work to keep it business as usual," Cellucci told reporters in Montreal after a speech on the issue of energy in North America.
"I felt it was important to let people here and in the government know that there was some disappointment in Washington relative to not fully supporting the U.S. in the war in Iraq and to statements from members of the government," Cellucci said.

The AP reports on the use of cluster bombs in Iraq:
The U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar, said it is investigating reports that cluster bombs killed at least 11 civilians in Hillah, a city 60 miles south of Baghdad and the scene of heavy fighting. "Cluster bombs have a very bad reputation, which they deserve," said Colin King, author of Jane's Explosive Ordnance Disposal guide and a British Army bomb disposal expert from the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Cluster bombs are quickly catching up to landmines as the lethal legacy of an old war. Human Rights Watch said ordnance experts in Kuwait, which was heavily bombed after Iraq claimed the country as its own in 1991, were finding roughly 200 cluster bombs per month just last year — roughly the same rate as the previous year.

This is one of a fairly small number of reports to come out of Basra the past two or three days, as attention has shifted quite fully to central and northern Iraq:
Up to now, the British soldiers, tanks and artillery have been concentrating on the outskirts of Basra, taking "bite-sized chunks" of outer suburbs and assimilated towns in the words of one British military spokesman Tuesday.
A US military spokeswoman said Wednesday "the mission is continuing" with artillery shelling of Iraqi positions in the city and British checkpoints to stop the inflow of any weapons.

It is worth noting that the term "fedayeen" originally referred to Palestinians. One site says:
This wave of attacks on Israel became more organized in the form of Palestinian Arab terrorist groups, called "fedayeen" (peasants who were deemed "Men of Sacrifice" or "Suicide Fighters"), who began to conduct raids against the Israeli civilian population by 1951. The fedayeen operated from bases in the territories surrounding Israel: Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan. They were trained and equipped, primarily by Egyptian Intelligence, to engage in hostile action on the border and infiltrate Israel to commit acts of sabotage and murder.

As this professor points out, "fedayeen" is not a casual term for Muslims to use, and considering the Hussein regime's support for Palestinian suicide bombers, the allies should hesitate before substituting the term "thugs" or "paramilitaries":
Consider his use, only since the start of the war, of the term 'fedayeen Saddam' to describe his protective force. 'Fedayeen' has been used for years to refer to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) fighters of the 1960s and 1970s. By appropriating it, he is attempting to blur the lines between the Palestinian cause and his own.
Unfortunately, the Pentagon and some of the media initially took his bait. 'Fedayeen' has been translated here as 'martyrs', giving it a religious connotation. But the word in fact means 'someone who is willing to sacrifice himself' - in this case, for Mr Saddam. If the Pentagon had wanted to use 'fedayeen' to its advantage, it would have translated it as 'killers for Saddam'.

In a story about New York Yankee Derek Jeter separating his shoulder in a play against the Toronto Blue Jays a couple days ago, the New York Times seems to compare the situation to the war in Iraq. For example:
"They probably have a poster of Osama, Saddam and Ken Huckaby hanging in New York right now," said J. P. Ricciardi, the Blue Jays' senior vice president and general manager, from the dugout, a few feet from where Huckaby found himself in the news media crosshairs for the first time in a career both long and obscure.
As much as it was Jeter left with the pain and an uncertain prognosis today, it was Huckaby, 32 and somber-faced, who seemed to be the more pitiable of the two, as he explained that he was no baseball terrorist, no executor of dirty tricks. He said he had obtained a cellphone number for Jeter from a teammate late Monday night. He called to express his sorrow for the outcome of the play, not the effort. He left a message, he said, on the voice mail.

And finally, the writer could well be making an allegorical reference to the "resistance" offered by Iraq's fedayeen and Republican Guard troops when he says:
the Non-Yankees are typically treated like the extras in an ensemble cast. That doesn't mean they don't have the right to compete.

Regarding the last post-Iraq and Tony Blair are accusing each other of attacking those holy sites in the two cities:
The prime minister said that intelligence reports showed that the Iraqi regime "intends to damage the holy sites, the religious sites, with a view to blaming the coalition falsely for that damage."
Asserting that this was "precisely what Saddam did in 1991," he said, "I would like to emphasize to the House and the wider Arab and Muslim world — we are doing everything we can to protect those holy sites and shrines."
Almost at the same hour, Iraq's information minister, Muhammad Said al-Sahhaf, said at a news conference in Baghdad that allied forces were trying to destroy mosques in the cities of Karbala and Najaf. "They are trying to crack the buildings by flying low over them," he said.

In the past few days, more and more people are mentioning the significance to Shiites of Karbala and Najaf. We've seen reports from the two cities for a week or more, but only now, when the allied forces appear to be advancing beyond them, are we seeing reports emphasizing their religious status. I don't know how to explain this change. The only decent reason might be an increased emphasis by the U.S. military on the need to avoid damaging the mosques and holy sites of the two cities. Previously, here in the U.S., people talked about Iraq as the cradle of civilization, and the home of ancient kingdoms like Babylon, but not as an ancient home of the Islamic faith and culture. I have seen no one mention Baghdad as the city nearly destroyed by the Mongols in 1258, when many thousands of its citizens were massacred by Mongol forces which threatened both the Islamic world and Christendom.

Throughout the last two weeks, all kinds of people have, in what appears to be a reflexive instinct, compared this war to the movies, even to reality tv. This is part of what's now a dominant theme in the media, where wars and other disasters are thought of in terms of movies or reality tv. Except for the Gulf War, where the comparison was to video games, and everyone was calling it a "video game war." Now, technology has advanced-instead of just comparing the war to a video game, we have the chance to shift on the fly and adapt the video games to real life, as seen in this story:
As the war in the Gulf region moved into its second week and casualties on both sides mounted, a number of video games were emerging online that let players live out the conflict vicariously through their computers.
With names like "Blood of Bin Laden" and "Desert Combat," the games, whether new or underground modifications to existing games, offer players the chance to take part in the kinds of real-life battles seen on American television in the last two weeks.

The Jordanian king has announced his views on the war:
Jordan's King Abdullah II today described for the first time the US-British-Australian attacks on neighbouring Iraq as an "invasion" and said his country had persistently refused to open its airspace to the coalition.
Abdullah, in an interview with the official Petra news agency, also expressed his "pain and sadness" over civilian war casualties in Iraq, whom he described as "martyrs".

Australia's Prime Minister asks for some perspective in considering the civilian deaths in Iraq:
The Prime Minister, John Howard, has called for balanced consideration of the graphic images of civilian death and suffering coming from the war in Iraq.
"Does Saddam Hussein allow the television cameras to go into his torture chambers? Does he allow the television cameras to photograph people who have been victims of his regime? Of course, he doesn't," Mr Howard said. "You've got to always put that into balance and bear that in mind when you understandably express concern about what has happened."

The Guardian reports on another promise, this one from the U.K.:
Britain would have "nothing whatever" to do with military action against Syria or Iran, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, signalled today.
Asked whether he was worried that an impression was being created that Syria and Iran were next in line behind Iraq, Mr Straw replied: "it would worry me if it were true. It is not true, and we would have nothing whatever to do with an approach like that."

Saddam Hussein and his government has issued promises of punishments and rewards:
Two additional statements Wednesday were also attributed to Saddam — a warning to Iraqi Kurdish leaders who are cooperating with U.S. forces in northern Iraq, and an offer of cash rewards to those who help identify spies for the U.S.-led coalition.
Saddam did not read the statements on the air and there was immediate way to verify he authored them.
Citing an "authorized source," state television advised Iraqis on Wednesday to surrender their cellular telephones, making it easier for the government to identify "infiltrating" transmissions.
The statement also appealed to "those involved in working with the enemy" to surrender their cell phones. Those who did not, the statement warned, would be treated as spies.
But Iraq — except for the autonomous, northern enclave of Kurdistan — doesn't have a mobile telephone network, suggesting the statement actually meant satellite telephones, which are used by foreign journalists to file their reports.

Reuters reports confusion over North Korea's supposed firing of a surface-to-surface missile:
But officials in Seoul then contradicted the reports about South Korea's communist neighbor, which says it believes it will be the next target after the U.S. war in Iraq is over.
"Following our initial investigation, we could not find evidence that North Korea fired a missile," a South Korean Defense Ministry official told Reuters.

Poland has offered some details on its operations in Iraq:
Poland has sent 56 members of its elite GROM commando unit to the Iraq campaign in a signal of support for the United States. Unit commander Col. Roman Polko, reporting in Warsaw on his soldiers' activities, said they had come across many Iraqis who appeared to be civilians.
Polko refused to give details of GROM activities in Iraq, saying the troops' safety demanded secrecy about their location and engagements. However, he said GROM members were among Polish troops who secured oil platforms on land and sea near the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.

Reuters reports on the storm in the Middle East over the war:
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz appeared to add fuel to the fire when he said both Israel and the United States viewed as "very grave" the aid Syria has allegedly given to Iraq.
In Algiers, Algerian Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem told parliament in an extraordinary session on Iraq that U.S. threats to Syria would worsen the crisis in the Middle East.
"Algeria expresses its solidarity with brotherly Syria in the face of threats and menaces. The question now is who will be the next to be threatened?" he asked.

Reuters reports on another appearance by Hussein on state tv:
Iraqi domestic television showed footage of President Saddam Hussein on Wednesday, smiling and laughing with members of his cabinet.
A Reuters correspondent in the capital, monitoring state television, said Saddam was wearing military uniform in the footage. The president and his ministers appeared to be in a bare, closed room, with no windows or curtains.

The Globe and Mail reports:
More Canadian military officers on exchange with American units could be headed to Iraq, the head of Canada's army said Tuesday.
Some exchange officers could be among 120,000 additional troops now being deployed to the Persian Gulf by the United States, Lieutenant-General Mike Jeffery told the House of Commons defence committee.
There are already 31 Canadian military officers serving on exchange with coalition forces in the war on Iraq, even though the Canadian government has not backed the invasion. A handful have actually been deployed in Iraq itself.

An AP reporter gives a somewhat elegaic depiction of Baghdad as it is now:
But by day, despite two weeks of attacks and damage to dozens of local sites and landmarks, the Iraqi capital maintains the appearance of a functioning city.
The targets have varied greatly, from presidential palaces to residential areas and at least five telephone exchanges. But the city's power supply remains intact and street lights come on at night.
The phone exchanges have provided the city's residents with the most graphic scenes of destruction. Strewn among the wreckage are thousands of wires, as well as furniture, computers, metal cabinets, chairs and the sponge used to fill in false walls and ceilings.
Iraqi TV is another Baghdad institution still standing — though Saddam Hussein last appeared on it on Saturday night. Al-Sahhaf went on the air Tuesday to read a statement purportedly from the Iraqi president to his people, though Saddam himself was nowhere to be seen.

The Guardian, though more cautious, also reports of "imminent" attack on Baghdad:
The Pentagon said President Bush was leaving the timing of the assault on Baghdad to General Franks, but a senior military source at central command in Qatar said a massive US-led ground battle for the Iraqi capital was "imminent". He added: "The next four days will be critical."

The editor of an Australian newspaper whose two reporters are in Iraq's custody says:
"We believe that they are under nominal house arrest together with the five Italian journalists who were picked up the other day and they are in the same hotel and there are some French journalists as well."
However Mr McGeough said he did not expect all foreign press to be expelled as Baghdad prepared for invasion.
``There's a lot of upside for them having the foreign press here,'' he said.

The "battle for Baghdad" may be very near:
A major battle that may decide the fate of Saddam's regime could be "no more than hours away", according to Allied officials as Gen Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said "serious combat" operations against Iraqi forces had begun.Saddam told the Iraqi people they were fighting a jihad, or holy war, against the invaders.
In a message to the nation read out on television by Iraq's information minister, he said: "Jihad is a duty. They are evil aggressors damned by God. Hit them, fight them. Fight them everywhere."

Dawn reports that:
The United States has imposed commercial sanctions on the Khan Research Laboratories because it arranged a transfer of North Korean missiles to Pakistan, a US official alleged on Monday.
Under the sanctions, the United States will not enter into contracts or issue licenses to KRL and the company will not be authorized to export to the United States.
A senior State Department official said KRL had imported missiles from the North Korean's state-owned Changgwang Sinyong Corp, which has been under the same sanctions since August.

A response to the charges from the Pentagon outlined below:
"It is not helpful to have those kind of comments come out when we've got troops in combat, because, first of all, they're false," said Air Force General Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"They're absolutely wrong, they bear no resemblance to the truth, and it's just harmful to our troops that are out there fighting very bravely, very courageously," he said as Rumsfeld looked on at a Pentagon news conference.

A report from Nassiriya:
"It's almost calm. Only 30 or 40 Baath Party activists are there," Hussein Irani said, speaking through an interpreter. The Iraqi army withdrew from the city or deserted within four or five hours of the start of fighting, he said.
According to the 21-year-old unemployed man, most residents of Nassiriya wanted to get rid of Saddam's government.
"They only want to get rid of the regime, no matter who gets rid of it -- whether America, Britain, anybody. But most of them cannot believe America will continue doing that."
Asked if there could be a popular uprising against Saddam in the city, Irani's friend, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "Not again after 1991. We feel very weak."

Seymour Hersh's article in this week's New Yorker includes these charges from a Pentagon planner:
In the planner’s view, Rumsfeld had two goals: to demonstrate the efficacy of precision bombing and to “do the war on the cheap.” Rumsfeld and his two main deputies for war planning, Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, “were so enamored of ‘shock and awe’ that victory seemed assured,” the planner said. “They believed that the weather would always be clear, that the enemy would expose itself, and so precision bombings would always work.”

The article also says:
One witness to a meeting recalled Rumsfeld confronting General Eric Shinseki, the Army Chief of Staff, in front of many junior officers. “He was looking at the Chief and waving his hand,” the witness said, “saying, ‘Are you getting this yet? Are you getting this yet?’”
Gradually, Rumsfeld succeeded in replacing those officers in senior Joint Staff positions who challenged his view. “All the Joint Staff people now are handpicked, and churn out products to make the Secretary of Defense happy,” the planner said.

The AP reports on rumors of negotiations between the U.S. and Iraq:
Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defense Secretary, today denied that the United States is negotiating an end to war with Iraq saying: "The only thing the coalition will discuss with this regime is their unconditional surrender".
Mr Rumsfeld said President Saddam Hussein's Government had been spreading rumours that American officials were talking to Iraqi leaders, with the goal of convincing Iraqi citizens that "the coalition does not intend to finish the job".
Speaking directly to the Iraqi public, Mr Rumsfeld denied such rumours and accused Saddam's Government of lying.
"There are no negotiations taking place," he said. "There is no outcome to this war that will leave Saddam Hussein and his regime in power."

The London Times reports that in the U.K.:
Tony Blair believes the war in Iraq has now entered its second phase of "steady advance" towards the final goal of removing Saddam Hussein's regime from power, Downing Street said today.
Mr Blair's official spokesman said that in areas already occupied by coalition forces, the fear factor among the local population was now "receding day-by-day" with troops increasingly being given a "warm welcome".

The State and Defense Departments are struggling over a post-war Iraq government:
In an effort to ensure the Pentagon controls every aspect of reconstructing Iraq and forming a new government, the US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, has rejected a team of postwar administrators proposed by the State Department.
While vetoing the group of eight current and former officials, including several ambassadors to Arab states, the Pentagon's top civilian leadership has planned prominent roles in the postwar administration for the former CIA director James Woolsey and others who have long supported replacing Iraq's government, sources said.

The Sydney Herald reports on possible U.S. casualties in this war:
The United States is prepared to pay a "very high price" in terms of casualties to capture Baghdad and oust President Saddam Hussein, a US central command official has said.
"We're prepared to pay a very high price because we are not going to do anything other than ensure that this regime goes away," the official said, adding that US casualties in the war had been "fairly" light.
"If that means there will be a lot of casualties, then there will be a lot of casualties," said the official, who spoke on condition that he not be named.

Both Britain and the U.S. appear to blame Saddam Hussein for yesterday checkpoint shooting, reports the AP:
A British official said the checkpoint shooting was a tragedy but doesn't compare with the deliberate killing of civilians by Iraqi forces.
"This is a tragedy that's happened as a result of the heat of war, as opposed to the callous murder and slaughter of the Iraqi people by Saddam Hussein," Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram told Sky News television.
Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, a Central Command spokesman in Doha, blamed the deaths on the Iraqi regime's guerrilla tactics and its practice of using women and children as shields.
"The most horrendous thing about this is that this is the result of what is apparently the strategy of the regime to challenge us at checkpoints, which has caused us to be on our toes and ensure that these are not suicide bombers," he said. "So the blood of this incident is on the regime of Saddam Hussein."

The Moscow Times reports on upheaval in Russia's cabinet:
In a surprise move Monday, President Vladimir Putin named Russia's former Miss Universe as a deputy prime minister. Oksana Fyodorova takes over the post vacated by Valentina Matviyenko, who left the government earlier this month to become Putin's envoy in the Northwestern Federal District.
The green-eyed beauty, who will be one of four deputy prime ministers, will be in charge of social affairs and oversee the work of the Health, Culture, Education and Labor ministries. "I love social things. I'm healthy, I adore culture and I wanted to work as a teacher -- so I think I am very qualified," Fyodorova was quoted by Interfax as saying at a Kremlin reception, where her fellow deputy prime ministers presented her with a bouquet of flowers.
"Being a deputy prime minister is not the same as being Miss Universe," a visibly annoyed Putin said in remarks shown on Channel One and later rebroadcast on "Spokoinoi Nochi, Malyshi." "She has a beautiful mind, will fulfill all her duties and will not gain any weight."

In a story about Dagestani boys named after Saddam Hussein, the St. Petersburg Times mentions that:
Dagestan recently saw a series of rallies protesting the U.S.-led offensive in Iraq. The republic's representative in State Duma, Gadzhi Makhachev, admitted publicly that 8,000 Dagestanis had volunteered to fight for Hussein in Iraq.

In a story headlined, "U.S. insists on running postwar Iraq," and sub-headed, "Putting UN, others on notice to butt out is a flawed strategy for building peace, analysts warn," the Globe and Mail reports on Iraq:
Like the Stars and Stripes that was raised and then quickly lowered over Umm Qasr, the vocabulary of conquest is proving hard to expunge from the U.S. campaign against Iraq.

Results of a poll in Australia:
The 44 per cent of people surveyed who said they supported the war has climbed sharply from just 6 per cent in January. At the same time, opposition to the war without UN backing has almost halved from 92 per cent in January to 48 per cent this week.
Of those against the war, 27 per cent said they were opposed because it did not have UN backing and 21 per cent said Australia should not be involved at all.

The AFP reports on a body in Iraq:
US Marines moved into the southern Iraqi town of Shatrah today to recover the body of a dead comrade which had been hanged in the town square, officers said.
Hundreds of troops were dispatched on the operation after intelligence reports indicated the body of a dead American, who was killed in a firefight last week, had been paraded through the streets and hanged in public.

Reuters reports that many Muslims are leaving the U.S. for Canada in response to the new rules for immigrants from many Middle Eastern countries :
The new rule, coupled with the arrest of hundreds of Iranians in California in December, has sent ripples of panic through Muslim communities across the United States. And a March registration deadline for Pakistanis and Saudis has driven even more people toward the border.

The AP reports that much of Ansar al-Islam has fled to Iran, and evidence of links to other Islamic terrorists was found in their compounds:
Among a trove of evidence found inside Ansar compounds were passports and identity papers of Ansar activists indicating that up to 150 of them were foreigners, including Yemenis, Turks, Palestinians, Pakistanis, Algerians and Iranians.
Coalition forces also found a phone book containing numbers of alleged Islamic activists based in the United States and Europe as well as the number of a Kuwaiti cleric and a letter from Yemen's minister of religion. The names and numbers were not released.
Seized computer disks contained evidence showing meetings between Ansar and al-Qaida activists, according to Mahdi Saeed Ali, a military commander.

The AP reports on continued U.S. assertions that Saddam Hussein is dead or hiding:
U.S. intelligence sources have been unable to confirm that Saddam Hussein survived the March 19 strike on a bunker where he was believed to be staying, a top Pentagon general said Monday.
That information comes from the same intelligence sources that pinpointed Saddam's location before the airstrike, said Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Iraqi military units, including those of Saddam's elite Republican Guard, are showing no signs they are getting orders from top Iraqi leaders, Pace said, echoing what other U.S. military officials have been saying for days.

Pakistan reiterates its opposition to the Iraq war:
The war against Iraq, if it was not stopped immediately, could lead to serious consequences, said Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali.
He said it in an interview to China Central Television, which was telecast on its main channel (CCTV-I) on Sunday.
Asked what could be the "genuine objective" or justification which forced US to impose war on Iraq, the prime minister said Washington had been following a policy chalked out by itself. "We are not part of their policy.
"Pakistan and China, expressing concern over Iraq crises, agreed that war should not prolong." The two countries were concerned over humanitarian catastrophe in Iraq, he added.

USA Today reports on the support behind the "support our troops" rallies:
Dozens of flag-waving rallies for American troops in Iraq look like spontaneous, grass-roots gatherings. But many are orchestrated by conservative political groups, just as anti-war protests are led by peace groups and activists on the political left.
Free Republic Network, an Internet group that promotes ''front-line conservative activism,'' organized ''Liberty Weekend'' March 22-23. National director Bob Johnson says an estimated 150,000 people attended more than 100 ''Rally for America'' gatherings.
Co-sponsors of the rallies include nine other conservative groups, including the American Conservative Union, Young Americans for Freedom and the Liberty Belles, a gun rights organization for women.

Reuters reports that the UN inspectors expect to return to Iraq:
"The IAEA mandate in Iraq is still valid and has not changed, and the IAEA is the sole body with legal authority to verify Iraq's nuclear disarmament," IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei told Reuters in an emailed statement.
"Our operation is interrupted because of hostilities. We expect to go back with full authority after the cessation of hostilities, to resume our inspection activities in Iraq," he said.
The United States has said that U.N. inspectors might only play a limited post-war role in Iraq, a position ElBaradei appeared to be calling into question.
"The world has learned over three decades that only through impartial, international inspections can credibility be generated," he said. "Iraq is no exception to that requirement."

The State Department appears to be warning other countries not to develop chemical, nuclear or biological weapons:
"The outcome in Iraq, which will be decisive and final, we hope will cause other states in the region, and indeed around the world, to look at the consequences of pursuing weapons of mass destruction and draw the appropriate lesson that such pursuit is not in the long term in their national interest," U.S. Under Secretary of State John Bolton said in a speech.
"In the aftermath of Iraq, dealing with the Iranian nuclear weapons program will be of equal importance (as) dealing with the North Korean nuclear weapons program," Bolton said, noting that it is Bush's intention to pursue a peaceful resolution to Pyongyang's alleged nuclear efforts.

The AP reports on the firing of Peter Arnett after he granted an interview to Iraq's state television:
"America is re-appraising the battlefield, delaying the war, maybe a week, and re-writing the war plan," Arnett said in the interview. "The first war plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance now they are trying to write another war plan."
NBC said in a statement it was wrong for Arnett to grant an interview with state-controlled Iraqi TV at a time of war and chastised him for making personal observations and opinions.
Asked how much of a priority patriotism should be for an objective journalist, he said, "When you go on state-controlled television after Iraq's vice president promised to send terrorists into your country, I do think some patriotism is appropriate in this instance."

The Sydney Herald reports on a "friendly fire" incident in Iraq:
British soldiers injured when an American "tankbuster" aircraft attacked their convoy, killing one of their comrades, hit out angrily at the "cowboy" pilot today.
Troops wounded in Friday's attack accused the A-10 Thunderbolt pilot of "incompetence and negligence" while others privately called for a manslaughter prosecution.

The AP reports from Basra:
Iraqi troops reportedly fired machine guns and artillery shells at several hundred refugees fleeing Basra today, triggering a shootout with British soldiers that pinned down terrified refugees in the crossfire.
More than 1,000 Iraqi fighters are holed up in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city. British commanders who control this bridge, about six miles from Basra, said Iraqi militias cruise the area in pickup trucks mounted with machine guns. The militia members use cell phones to call in sniper attacks and mortar strikes from a factory north of the bridge and a nearby shantytown.
"If they go in, it will be a bloodbath," warned Aris al Darraj, a Basra resident. "There will be a lot of casualties. The Fedayeen are very good at street war."

The New York Times reports that two U.S. soldiers spent seven days in Iraq's desert:
As days passed without rescue, the soldiers dug trenches to defend their position, alternated night watch, and drew S O S in the sand. They said they gave away much of their food to hungry Iraqi civilians who approached their truck.
Sergeant Klein, of Independence, Ky., said suspicious white vehicles with passengers in Arab dress slowed down to get a better look, but did not stop.

As Dawn reports, the bickering between India and Pakistan continues:
War of words between Pakistan and India hit a new low on Saturday with the Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha equating Pakistani leadership with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
Sinha in an interview with the BBC World on Saturday had said that US call for resumption of dialogue with Pakistan after the killing of 24 Hindu Pundits was "as gratuitous and misplaced" as New Delhi asked Washington to open dialogue with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
The foreign office spokesman on Saturday termed the statement by the Indian foreign minister "as the utterance of an extremely sick and frustrated man who is piqued at the fact that Pakistan has won appreciation of the whole world over its critical and substantive role in the international war against terrorism."

The AP reports on the status of Iraqi Shiites in Iran:
Abu Islam, spokesman of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq, denied that Iran-based forces have entered Iraq since the current war began, but said Badr guerrillas are based throughout that country. Some are even officers in Iraq's regular army, he said Sunday.
Iranian government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying, "Tehran does not allow any military activities on its (Iraq) border in favor or against any of the belligerent parties."
Unlike the 2 million Afghan refugees in Iran, where life is vastly better than in their bombed-out country, the roughly 200,000 Iraqi expatriates seem eager to return to their homeland post-Saddam.

Reuters reports more U.S. allegations of ties between al Qaeda and Ansar al-Islam:
The United States said on Sunday that U.S.-led forces had destroyed "a massive terrorist facility" in northern Iraq which could have been used by al Qaeda to make chemical weapons. The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, told CNN the site in northeast Iraq could have been a training ground and may have produced the lethal poison ricin that was found in a London flat in January.
"Some of the bodies that have been recovered, enemy bodies that have been recovered up there, are not Iraqis, they're not Iranians. We don't know for sure, but they're most likely al Qaeda."

As the AP reports, the U.S. military had more encounters with Iraq's soldiers and civilians today:
In Najaf — where an Iraqi suicide attack Saturday killed four U.S. troops — the 101st Airborne division surrounded the city Sunday and secured an airfield after fierce fighting.
Rank-and-file Marines, ordered to intercept and question each civilian they see along the route after an Iraqi army officer attacked a group of Americans in a suicide bomb attack Saturday, also handed out ration packets. For hungry Iraqis, this gift was the only thing that could convince them the Marines were not there to hurt them.
One Marine said an Iraqi prisoner of war had told him "they'd heard to be a Marine you had to eat a baby, or kill someone."

Meanwhile, South Korea tries to rebuild investor confidence overseas:
South Korea will hold a series of investor relation sessions in London and New York April 10-16 to improve foreign investors’ understanding of the latest developments in the business environment on the Korean peninsula, the Ministry of Finance and Economy announced yesterday.
Through the sessions, the government plans to provide important background and analysis in regard to the North Korean nuclear crisis, trying to convince foreigners that the North’s provocations are not as dangerous as they think and that it is attempting to ease tensions in the region.

The Korea Times reports on President Roh's strategy vis a vis North Korea and the U.S.:
Wherever he goes nowadays, President Roh Moo-hyun, supposedly liberal head of state who was elected on a promise to devolve from Seoul’s erstwhile U.S.-oriented foreign policy, speaks of the importance of the South Korea-U.S. alliance.
Holding on to his troop dispatch plan appears to be a very politically risky business to Roh. Surveys found that about 80 percent of the Koreans think that the U.S. war on Iraq is not justifiable. This fact alone damages the populist head of state who has a weak partisan power base and relies heavily on public opinions for the legitimacy of his governance.
As he stopped short of saying it out loud, pragmatic Roh is building his case for the U.S. to soften its stance and talk to North Korea, which the U.S. president designated as part of ``an axis of evil’’ together with Iran and Iraq and may be the next target of Bush’s war on global terrorism.