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Wednesday,
March 5, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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War with
Iraq may be next week N. Korea
intercepts US air force plane
USA will
target 50 top Iraqis: paper |
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Secret document details plan to bug key SC members’ phones London, March 4 The USA is conducting a secret `dirty tricks’ campaign against UN Security Council delegations in New York as part of its battle to win votes in favour of war against Iraq. Tape
shows Sept 11 preparations Khalid flown to Bagram Blast in Philippines kills 18
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War with Iraq may be next week
New York, March 4 “The next week is critical. On Friday, the United Nations weapons inspectors will brief the Security Council on Iraq’s progress in destroying prohibited weapons. Soon thereafter, US officials are hoping the Security Council will vote for a new resolution paving the way for war,” the report said. But no matter what Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein does, it may not be enough, ABC said. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said yesterday Mr Saddam Hussein had put himself in a “Catch 22” and created a situation where nothing he said could be believed. “He denied he had these weapons, and then he destroys things he says he never had,” Mr Fleischer said. “How do you know this is not the mother of all distractions, diversions, so the world looks in one place, while he buries them in another”, he asked. On Saturday, Washington’s hopes of creating a northern front in Turkey were halted when that country’s parliament refused to allow more than 60,000 US troops to “stage” inside Turkey for a push into northern Iraq. Turkey’s government today showed no signs of asking lawmakers to reconsider the vote. With the Bush Administration facing one political setback after another, analysts say: “Some in the Administration are urging the President to go ahead”. Sources said the Administration was weighing its military and, especially, political options. On the ground, American troops in the desert of Kuwait, now more than 115,000, are studying maps of where they expect to go. The main thrust of any US invasion, the report said, would come from this mass of American and British firepower now in Kuwait. But the standoff with Turkey presents a huge problem for US strategy of pressuring Baghdad from the North, and it could lengthen the war. The USA and Britain are likely to seek a Security Council vote next week on their draft resolution, condemning Iraq and opening the way to war, a Council diplomat said. He said sponsors of the draft, including Spain, thought there was “a slightly better than a 50-50 chance” of a vote in their favour, but the odds could change after a briefing by chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix expected on Friday. Jerusalem: In an unprecedented access to command intelligence, Israel and the USA have set up a joint command post next to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv at which Israeli army officers will be able to view real-time pictures of the movements of American war planes over Iraq in the event of war. The aim is to prove to Israel the sincerity of the American efforts in doing everything possible to prevent Iraqi missiles from hitting Israel and, in turn, convince it not to retaliate, should any missile nevertheless hit. This will make Israel the only foreign country to be hooked directly to the U.S. central command’s communications system.
PTI, UNI |
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N. Korea intercepts US air force plane
Washington, March 4 Two advanced MiG-29 fighters and two others believed to be MiG-23s intercepted the sophisticated four-engine RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft 150 miles off the coast of North Korea and shadowed the American jet for about 20 minutes, said Navy Lt Cmdr Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. “The closest point they came was within 50 feet” of the RC-135, he said, adding the air force plane was on a routine reconnaissance mission at the time. Senior US officials said Washington would formally protest against the incident, once the best means for such a move had been determined. North Korea and the USA do not have diplomatic ties. “This will be formally protested. This is particularly provocative and has the potential to frighten our allies even more than previous provocations,” said a senior Bush Administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Another official said the USA was in “close consultation” with South Korea and other allies about the incident and how to lodge a protest. The Pentagon initially said one of the North Korean jets, which were armed, had locked on to the RC-135 with its fire-control radar, but later said it was not certain and the Defence Department was checking tapes of the incident.
Reuters |
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USA will target 50 top Iraqis: paper
Washington, March 4 Besides Mr Saddam Hussein himself, the list includes Mr Ali Hassan
Majid, a cousin of Saddam, who is believed to be the architect of a 1988 gas attack against northern Kurds, the newspaper said. Mr Bush’s goal of regime change in Iraq will mean removing from power perhaps as many as 50 persons mostly related to the Iraqi President by blood or marriage, according to the paper. Topping the list will be a group the State Department calls the “dirty dozen,” including Saddam’s two sons — Uday and Qusay — though not his three daughters — several of his brothers and people from his tribe, al Bu Nasser, the report said. The 50 will be targeted for either capture or death in combat, the paper said. The group includes some of the most visible figures in Iraq’s government, such as Ms Taha Yassin Ramadan, Vice-President of the country, and army commander, and Deputy Prime Minister Tariq
Aziz. If the individuals from the list are not killed in action, the Bush administration may be interested in bringing some of them to war crimes trials, which could be used to show that US forces acted as liberators, not conquerors, the paper said.
AFP |
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US dirty tricks revealed to win vote
London, March 4 Details of the aggressive surveillance operation, which involves interception of home and office telephones and e-mails of UN delegates in New York, are revealed in a document leaked to The Observer. The disclosures were made in a memorandum by a top official at the National Security Agency — the US body which intercepts communications around the world — and circulated among both senior agents in his organisation and a friendly foreign intelligence agency — which cannot be identified, asking for its input. The memo describes orders to staff at the agency, whose work is clouded in secrecy, to step up surveillance operations `particularly directed at... UN Security Council members (minus USA and GBR, of course)’ to provide up-to-the-minute intelligence for Bush officials on the voting intentions of UN members on Iraq. The leaked memorandum makes clear that the target of the heightened surveillance efforts are the delegations from Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Mexico, Guinea and Pakistan at the UN headquarters in New York the so-called `Middle Six’ delegations whose votes are being fought over by the pro-war party led by the USA and Britain and the party arguing for more time for UN inspections, led by France, China and Russia. The memo is directed at senior NSA officials and advises them that the agency is `mounting a surge’ aimed at gleaning information not only on how delegations on the Security Council will vote on any second resolution on Iraq, but also `policies’, `negotiating positions’, `alliances’ and `dependencies’ — the `whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge in obtaining results favourable to US goals or to head off surprises’. Dated January 31, 2003, the memo was circulated four days after the UN’s chief weapons inspector, Mr Hans Blix, produced his interim report on Iraqi compliance with UN resolution 1441. It was sent by Mr Frank Koza, chief of staff in the `Regional Targets’ section of the NSA, which spies on countries that are viewed as strategically important for US interests. Mr Koza specifies that the information will be used for the US ‘Quick Response Capability’ against’ key delegations. Suggesting the levels of surveillance of both office and home phones of UN delegation members, he also asks regional managers to make sure that their staff “pay attention to existing non-UN Security Council member UN-related and domestic comms (office and home telephones) for anything useful related to Security Council deliberations.” Mr Koza also addresses the foreign agency, saying: “We’d appreciate your support in getting the word to your analysts who might have similar more indirect access to valuable information from accesses in your product lines, (intelligence sources)”. Disclosure of the US operation comes in the week when Mr Blix will make what many expect to be his final report to the Security Council. It also comes amid increasingly threatening noises from the USA towards undecided countries on the Security Council who have been warned of the unpleasant economic consequences of standing up to the USA.
Guardian |
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Tape shows Sept 11
preparations
Washington, March 4 The 29-minute tape, time-stamped August 31, 1997, looks like a tourist video, but was shot by an Al-Qaida surveillance team sent from Spain to scout targets, ABC reported, citing the authorities. The video, obtained by the network, shows both towers of the World Trade Center, along with the lobby and observation deck of the South Tower, the antennae on top of the North Tower and close shots of the building structure. The videotape includes a view of the Hudson river, the same path taken by the two hijacked planes that slammed into the towers on September 11, killing 3,000 people. The authorities said the video was shot by Ghasoub al-Abrash Ghalyoun, a Syrian national who was arrested in a raid on a suspected Al-Qaida logistics cell in Madrid in 2002. The report said Ghalyoun had been charged in Spain’s investigation of the Madrid cell but was now free on bail. The videotape was made public because of a lawsuit against the Saudi government by families of victims of the attacks.
Reuters |
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Khalid flown to Bagram
Islamabad, March 4 Pakistan Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said that Mohammed, one of the chief suspects in the September 11 attacks in the USA, had been handed over to the US custody with permission from the Kuwaiti Government, four days after his arrest in a joint Pak-US operation near here. The Information Minister said Pakistani interrogators had extracted all intelligence they needed from the suspect, who has been on the FBI’s most wanted list, and the USA had recently increased the reward for his capture to $ 25 million. An unnamed official quoted by the AFP said that a second Al-Qaida suspect arrested along with Sheikh Mohammed was also flown to Bagram air base early today. In a significant development, the Pakistan intelligence officials have detained Major Adil Qudoos, believed to be the uncle of Ahmad Qudoos, the local accomplice arrested along with Sheikh Mohammed in Rawalpindi. Qudoos was detained at his cantonment residence in Kohat, a town in the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, on Saturday night, local daily Dawn quoted officials as saying. PTI
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Blast in Philippines kills 18
Manila, March 4 The bomb went off in the midst of scores of people who had taken refuge from a downpour in a shelter just outside the airport’s arrival terminal. Soon after that explosion, a home-made bomb went off outside a health centre in the nearby town of Tagum, killing one person and wounding three, police said. Reuters
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