Jim Miller on Politics

The cascade of bad news from Iraq leaves a returning visitor unprepared for a small surprise here: Compared with six months ago, when the war ended, the Iraqi capital is cleaner and more orderly.  The new Iraq is still a distant dream, but the work of rebuilding has at least begun.

Baghdad is a neater place than it was, and Iraqis and Americans are united in wanting real security.  But the window for cooperation won't stay open much longer.

When asked if he saw a distinction between legal and illegal immigrants earlier this month, Bustamante told reporters, "I think that anybody who works and pays taxes ought to have a right to citizenship."

U.S. citizenship is a right for non-Americans who break the law.

In Bustamante World, illegal immigrants should pay no penalty whatsoever.  Au contraire, they should be rewarded with documents, tuition discounts and health care.

"Now, is there a connection between the Iraqi government and the original World Trade Center bombing in '93?" Cheney said.  "We know, as I say, that one of the perpetrators of that act did in fact receive support from the Iraqi government after the fact."

As early as 1 October, intelligence intercepts had revealed that many German armored formations, especially elite SS Panzers, had been withdrawn from the front lines for rebuilding.   Most did not appear in the line but remained in reserve throughout October and November.   Furthermore intelligence also revealed the creation of the Sixth Panzer Army on 20 October, although the information was not released in intelligence summaries until the first week of November.  (This was standard procedure for protecting the intelligence source; the source was noted to be a German deserter.)

In retrospect, the defeat of the U. N. forces in northern Korea contains several interesting lessons.  The U. N. forces—initially at least—were not greatly outnumbered; they possessed several times the fire power of their opponents and had outstanding superiority in armor and artillery.  They were (with the relative exception of the ROK [South Korean] units) fully motorized and suffered no major logistical shortages.  Finally, they had complete air and naval superiority.  Yet they suffered one of the most definite defeats ever inflicted on American forces by a foreign army.

[Lehrer]: Why do you believe no weapons of mass destruction have been found since the end of the war?

Rolf Ekeus: I think that one has been first of all looking not in the right direction or for the right stuff.  My feeling is very clearly that the Iraqi policy long before the war was to build capability to develop its capabilities to produce weapons for the situation, for the conflict situation, not to produce for storage and create a problem of storage management.

Jim Lehrer: So it was a mistake to think that there were stockpiles buried underground or in warehouses or hidden in various places in Iraq in the first place?

Rolf Ekeus: Definitely, that's my, I tried to tell that for years, that the Iraqi policy was to have a capability to develop qualities -- to develop engineering, design, new types of weapons, especially in the chemical weapons and the bioweapons field in order to at a given moment, when the situation appears, to activate the production, because they learned during the 80's that when they produced say especially nerve agents like sarin, vx and all these things, when they put it in drums, in a storage places, after at least months the quality deteriorated.

Jim Lehrer: Okay, so let's go back to what's happening on the ground there now or isn't happening on the ground there.  What should the U.S., essentially now U.S. weapons inspectors, what should they be looking for then?  If they're looking for capability, testing of quality, what should they look for in order to prove that?

Rolf Ekeus: They should certainly, first of all they should bring in the right type of people.  And I understand they have started to do that, namely process engineers, specialists, researchers, and go into the civilian production facilities and investigate the whole production line, what's going on in such a facility, what is the input, what kind of chemicals are being put in, what is the output.  Can the site manager make it clear explanation what they have been…is there something missing from, if you compare input with output?  And to cross-examine the large number of people who have been involved in production.

But it's easier said than done, because my conviction is, as I've been in touch with some of the Iraqi weapons specialists, is that there's still fear for Saddam, they still don't trust that the U.S. will stay there and the guy who comes up and spends everything to, for instance, he may be in deep trouble.  If they think if Saddam is watching that and, a treacherous, he's a traitor and will be trouble.

Of particular concern to Pentagon officials is the information that Halabi allegedly attempted to deliver.  It includes a copy of flight information involving the movement of military personnel to and from Guantanamo Bay, details about which prisoners are housed in which cells, letters from detainees and copies of operations orders for the transfer of prisoners, according to court papers.

"If you put all that stuff together, in the wrong hands, hands that have the capability to use it, it's very significant," a senior defense official said.  The information could potentially be used to attack U.S. aircraft or to cause a riot, several officials said.

The allegations that Halabi was carrying messages from prisoners as well as cell numbers raise the disturbing possibility that the detainees are coordinating activities and communications among themselves or with outsiders, defense officials said.

Considering that there are only approximately 4,500 Muslims in uniform, their record of religious-based crimes is significant.  The most notorious case of conflicting loyalties was that of Sgt. Hasan Akbar, who killed two of his commanding officers in a grenade attack in Kuwait last winter and shouted, "You guys are coming into our countries, and you're going to rape our women and kill our children."

After five months of foreign military occupation and the ouster of Saddam Hussein, nearly two-thirds of Baghdad residents believe that the removal of the Iraqi dictator has been worth the hardships they have been forced to endure, a new Gallup poll shows.

But half the respondents said the occupation authority was doing a better job now than it was two months ago, and their view of Mr. Bremer himself was remarkably positive, with 47 percent holding a favorable view of him compared with 22 percent who held an unfavorable view.

Some corporate moves would be social and political dynamite.  Coca-Cola Co. quitting the U.S. to protest the invasion of Iraq would be one.  Sony Corp. leaving Japan because of the failure of reform would be another.  Deutsche Bank AG moving out of Germany on account of the growing anti-business culture of its home country would be a third.

The first two are pure fantasy.  The third?  Who knows?  Unbelievable as it sounds, it could happen.

In London last week, the Financial Times and the Times of London ran stories suggesting that Deutsche Bank may leave its Frankfurt base and relocate.  Maybe it would go to London, maybe somewhere else.  But it would get out of Germany.