Posted on 05/03/2003 9:00:35 PM PDT by null and void
Good Morning.
This is the Daily Thread of Operation Infinite Freedom, formerly Operation Iraqi Freedom - Situation Room - LIVE THREAD.
It is designed for general conversation about the ongoing war on terror, and the related events of the day. In depth discussion of events should be left to individual threads - but links to the threads or other articles is highly encouraged. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information.
Good Morning.
This is the Daily Thread of Operation Infinite Freedom, formerly Operation Iraqi Freedom - Situation Room - LIVE THREAD.
It is designed for general conversation about the ongoing war on terror, and the related events of the day. In depth discussion of events should be left to individual threads - but links to the threads or other articles is highly encouraged. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information.
Democratic presidential hopefuls Dick Gephardt, left, Bob Graham, center, and John Kerry in Columbia, S.C., on Friday night.
Democrats discuss Iraq early in debate
COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) -- The nine Democrats vying for the White House clashed over the U.S.-led war against Iraq and the threat posed by Saddam Hussein Saturday night in an ultra early primary debate in which they hope to distinguish themselves from the pack.
President Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard in Crawford, Texas, on Saturday.
Bush: U.S. will find banned Iraqi weapons - May. 3, 2003
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- As the United States plans to send 1,000 experts to Iraq to aid troops in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction, President Bush said Saturday that he is confident the U.S. will demonstrate that Iraq built chemical and biological weapons under Saddam Hussein's rule.
| Analysis: Washington's demands on Syria - BBC News 3/3/03.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell speaks of a new dynamic in the Middle East. It is not surprising that Damascus was his first stop in the region since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Damascus |Reuters | 04-05-2003
U.S. officials barred the crew of Hezbollah television from a briefing by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in Syria, which supports the militant faction, a TV crew member said yesterday.
A diplomatic source confirmed that Al Manar, a Hezbollah mouthpiece, was not allowed to take part in the media briefing by Powell.
"The woman in charge of the U.S. cultural centre in Damascus came to me and asked me are you with Al Manar television? I said yes. She said your presence here is not permitted," a member of the Al Manar crew said.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=86388
Here in southern Lebanon, where portraits of suicide bombers hang from power poles and an abandoned Israeli prison has become a tourist attraction, Hezbollah is viewed as the guardian of liberation and the provider of social services.
Mohammed Nayef, 33, welcomed the Israelis who invaded Lebanon in 1982 to drive out Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organisation, then turned against them when they stayed on as occupiers for 18 years.
By Robert Wielaard | The Associated Press
Posted May 4, 2003
KASTELLORIZO, Greece -- France and Germany, America's harshest critics of the Iraq war, halfheartedly endorsed a U.S. plan Saturday to divide Iraq into three zones and deploy a stabilization force -- one that excludes them.
After an EU foreign-ministers meeting dominated by debate on the dismal state of trans-Atlantic affairs, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said a stabilization force by a "coalition of the willing" did not diminish Berlin's wish for the United Nations to play a key role in rebuilding Iraq.
"This is not a new situation and is not in contradiction with our discussion about giving the United Nations a role in postwar Iraq," Fischer said after the meeting, held on a yacht off a tiny Greek Aegean island.
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told reporters that bringing in stabilization troops from countries other than the United States and Britain simply "widens the number of countries on the ground."
The United States said it planned to set up an international force in three regions of Iraq, with Poland and Britain controlling two zones and U.S. forces the third. Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and Ukraine would also provide troops.
Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewiczs said, "This is a fresh responsibility for my country, but we are ready to share it."
Poland, which joins the European Union next year, "would prefer" a U.N. Security Council resolution endorsing the stabilization force, but the initiative should be able to go ahead without one, Cimoszewiczs said.
The American plan not only put into sharper focus the prospect that the U.N. role in Iraq will be limited to providing humanitarian aid, but also underlined Europe's weakness to influence Iraq's postwar development. The EU wanted to bring the United Nations into that process.
Trans-Atlantic relations dominated the session, where EU nations engaged in sometimes frank exchanges about their inability to influence U.S. thinking about global issues.
"The meeting revealed a divergence in relations between Europe and the Americans that is not just about Iraq," a diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official spoke of a "segregation" between Europe and the United States and "the need for Europeans to speak with a single voice on the world stage."
To repair relations with Washington, the EU ministers said they would draft a broad security strategy to deal with such issues as terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction. The aim is to give Europe "a sense of direction" and narrow differences with Washington about global-security issues, Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, the meeting's host, said afterward.
At the request of France, Germany and Belgium, the ministers had a first discussion of a greater EU defense role, a possibility that concerns U.S. officials who fear it could erode the NATO alliance.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw surprised other EU members by saying that beefing up Europe's military posture was not a problem, as long as it occurred in tandem with NATO -- not in competition, officials said. In separate meetings, Straw briefed Fischer and de Villepin on the Iraq stabilization force.
"We see a vital role for the United Nations in humanitarian relief," Straw told reporters after the meeting.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/orl-aseczones04050403may04,0,7777043.story?coll=orl-news-headlines
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