--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> [what a great headline]
>
> Death, Sabotage and Menace Greet Iraq Economic Plan
> By Nadim Ladki
>
> BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More killings, reports of rising
> sabotage and a
> CIA (news - web sites) assessment that Saddam
> Hussein (news - web
> sites) may be lurking in the shadows greeted an
> economic
> reconstruction plan from Iraq (news - web sites)'s
> U.S. civilian
> administrator Paul Bremer on Monday.
>
> Two U.S. soldiers were killed and four wounded
> overnight in a spate
> of guerrilla attacks which also left at least two
> Iraqis dead and one
> wounded, the U.S. military and witnesses said.
>
> The continuing attacks, CIA confirmation that ousted
> leader Saddam
> Hussein had probably spoken out on a tape and a plea
> to help stop
> rising sabotage have heightened the sense that U.S.
> and British
> occupation forces are facing organized resistance in
> Sunni Muslim
> central Iraq, once the cradle of Saddam's support.
>
> The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (news - web
> sites) said it
> believed the ousted Iraqi leader's voice was most
> likely on an
> audiotape broadcast last week which warned of more
> bloodshed and
> urged Iraqis to fight U.S. forces. CIA spokesman
> Bill Harlow said the
> tape's quality was too poor to be certain it was
> Saddam.
>
> "But the CIA's assessment, after a technical
> analysis of the tape, is
> that it is most likely his voice," he said, adding
> that the date of
> the recording could not be determined.
>
> An official of the U.S.-led reconstruction effort
> said sabotage
> against oil and electric power grids is increasing
> and appealed to
> Iraqi citizens to turn in saboteurs.
>
> Hours after the U.S. soldiers were killed in the
> troubled capital
> Bremer hailed the first session of the Baghdad city
> council as a
> major step toward democracy in Iraq.
>
> The civilian administrator told Iraqis in his weekly
> televised
> address that a new Iraqi dinar would replace the
> "Saddam dinar"
> bearing Saddam's face and declared a nine trillion
> Iraqi dinar budget
> for second half 2003 to finance infrastructure
> reconstruction
> programs.
>
> At street rates in Baghdad of about 1,400 dinars to
> the dollar nine
> trillion dinars is worth about $6.5 billion.
>
> But he conceded that his main concern remained
> security.
>
> "My number one priority remains, as always,
> security, providing the
> security which Iraq needs in order to rebuild."
>
> DEADLY ATTACKS
>
> Bremer said the meeting was perhaps the most
> important event since
> U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam on April 9. "Today
> marks the
> resumption of a democratic system for Baghdad," he
> said.
>
> The 37-member council can only offer suggestions to
> U.S.-controlled
> bodies running the chaotic city of five million
> people. But Bremer
> pledged their ideas would be taken seriously.
>
> The death of the U.S. soldiers brought to 29 the
> number killed in
> action in Iraq since President Bush (news - web
> sites) declared major
> combat over on May 1.
>
> A U.S. military spokesman said one of the soldiers
> killed was on a
> patrol pursuing Iraqi gunmen in the Azamiyah
> district of Baghdad late
> on Sunday. An Iraqi gunman was killed and another
> wounded in that
> clash.
>
> The second U.S. soldier was killed early on Monday
> when a
> rocket-propelled grenade hit his vehicle in the
> district of Kadhimiya.
>
> In the volatile town of Ramadi, about 100 km (60
> miles) west of
> Baghdad, at least one Iraqi man was shot dead and
> four U.S. soldiers
> were wounded during attacks. On Saturday seven
> recruits to a new
> U.S.-backed police force were killed.
>
> Ramadi is part of a mainly Sunni Muslim area to the
> north and west of
> Baghdad where U.S. forces have faced much of the
> most violent
> resistance to their occupation of Iraq.
>
> The chief of Turkey's armed forces said on Monday
> the weekend arrest
> of Turkish troops by U.S. forces in Iraq had caused
> a crisis in
> relations between the two NATO (news - web sites)
> armed forces.
>
> The 11 Turkish soldiers were released on Sunday
> evening and returned
> on Monday to their offices in northern Iraq.
>
> (Additional reporting by Michael Georgy and Andrew
> Gray)
>
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