Revue <strong>de</strong> Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro <strong>de</strong> la Prensa-Baszn Öz<strong>et</strong>i L'attentat <strong>de</strong> Bagdad n'ébranle pas l'administration Bush Le Pentagone maintient que le dispositif mis en place en Irak est approprié WASHINGTON <strong>de</strong> notre correspondant Que doivent faire les Etats-Unis face aux sabotages, aux attentats <strong>et</strong> à la criminalité qui sévissent en g Irak? Augmenter leur présence ~ militaire? Accepter le mandat <strong>de</strong> '5 l'ONU qu'exigent la France, l'Alle-
Revue <strong>de</strong> Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro <strong>de</strong> la Prensa-Bastn Öz<strong>et</strong>i and West. "Cultures can't be closed on themselves for long without paying a price," he explained. "But ours has been a vestigial and closed culture for many years now. The West nee<strong>de</strong>d us in the past and now we need it. This is the circle of history. Essentially what you are seeing here is a cultural collision. I am optimistic insofar as I believe that my country - and I am a pan-Arab nationalist - is going to benefit from this e~- .counter with the more advanced SOCI<strong>et</strong>y, and we are going to .pay at ~e sa~e time. Your experience ln Iraq. IS gomg . to create. two reactions: one is hypersensitivity, led by the Islamists,and the other is welcoming, led by the seC\llarists. But you have to un<strong>de</strong>rstand that what you are doing is a pen<strong>et</strong>ration of one culture into another. Ifyou succeed heré; Iraq could change the habits and customs cif the people in the whole We Americans may fail because the area." Bush teamthinks it can fight The Big So, the terrorists g<strong>et</strong> it. Iraqi liberals One in the Middle East - while cutting g<strong>et</strong> it. The Bush team talks as ifit g<strong>et</strong>s it, taxes at home, shrinking the U.S. Army, but itdoësn't act liÏœ it. The Bush team chan&ing the tax co<strong>de</strong> to. e~courage tells us, rightly, that this nation-build-' Amencans to buy gas-guzzhng cars ing project is the equivalent of Ger- ~t mak,e us more ~epen<strong>de</strong>~t on many in 1945,and y<strong>et</strong>, so far, it has ap- ~d~t od and by gratUitously ahenatproached the postwar in Iraq as if it's lng alhes. . .. Grenada in 1982. . We may fad because. to WIn 1?te Big We Americans may fail, but not be- OD;e,we need an Amenca~ pubhc, and cause we have attracted terrorists who alhes, ready to pay any pnce and.bear un<strong>de</strong>rstand what's at stake in Iraq. . any bur<strong>de</strong>n, but ~e. have a presi<strong>de</strong>nt We may fail because of the utter in- u~ble or unWllhng to summon èomp<strong>et</strong>ence with which the Pentagon either. lea<strong>de</strong>rship has handled the postwar. The United States doesn't even have enough translators in Iraq, l<strong>et</strong> alone . military police, and the American media n<strong>et</strong>work s<strong>et</strong> up there to talk to Iraqis is so bad that America would be b<strong>et</strong>ter offbuying ads on Al Jazeera. • Bombing at Shiite's home kills 3 Key cleric in An Najaf was targ<strong>et</strong>ed but only lightly hurt The Associated Press BAGHDAD: A bomb ripped through the home of one of Iraq's most important Shiite clerics in the Islamic holy' city of An Najaf on Sunday, killing three guards and wounding family members, a relative of the cleric and member of the Iraqi Governing Council said. Also Sunday, Iraqi sources said that the U.S. authorities were recruiting key former members of Saddam Hussein's feared security service, working to expand intelligence gathering and root out the resistance that has peppered U.S. forces with guerrilla attacks and terror bombings. The Iraqis, closely linked to the Mukhabarat service, spoke only on condition of anonymity. They said that the U.S.recruitment of about 100 former intelligence higher-ups had been in progress for more than two weeks. The Iraqis said the former agents of the secr<strong>et</strong> police and intelligence operation would work with Americans insi<strong>de</strong> Saddam's old presi<strong>de</strong>ntial palace where the U.S.-led coalition has its headquarters. The Americans "couldn't hope to pacify such a big country as Iraq without the Mukhabarat, said a second. Iraqi who worked closely with the <strong>de</strong>posed regime's intelligence operation. '~d the Mukhabarat men, they need money now," said a second Iraqi who worked closely with the <strong>de</strong>posed regime's intelligence operation. L. Paul Bremer 3rd, the civilian chief of the American occupation in Iraq, acknowledged the need for b<strong>et</strong>ter information. "It's not a question of more troops. It's a question ofbeing effective with our intelligence, g<strong>et</strong>ting more Iraqis to help us," Bremer said in an interview on ABC television. Responding to questions about the recruitment of former Saddam intelli- gence officers, Charles Heatly, a spokesman groups erupted into a melee at the for the coalition said that U.S. mil- Shrine of Ali, the third most important itary intelligence and the civilian Shiite religious site after' Mecca and authorities were "not leaving any stone Medina in Saudi Arabia. unturned to uncover the people who Shiites make up some 60 percent of are conducting attacks against the Iraqi Iraq's 24 million population. people and the coalition forces." Muhammad Saeed Al-Hakim, in his In the An Najafbombing, a gas cylin<strong>de</strong>r late 60s, holds the highest theological wired to explo<strong>de</strong> was placed along title in Shiite Islam - Ayatollah al- . the outsi<strong>de</strong> wall of the home of Uzma, which means grand or supreme Muhammad Saeed al-Hakim. It blew up ayatollah. He was <strong>de</strong>tained by the Iraqi just after noon prayers. authorities in the 1980s because of his The cleric suffered scratches on his opposition to and criticism of Saddam. neck, according to Ab<strong>de</strong>laziz al-Hakim, Before the beginning of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March, most Shiite religious lea<strong>de</strong>rs in An Najaf, including He is one of three Hakim, were put un<strong>de</strong>r house arrest. Shortly after the collapse of Saddam's Shiite lea<strong>de</strong>rs regime, Hakim's office went back to work, dispensing religious advice to threatened with <strong>de</strong>ath resi<strong>de</strong>nts. by a rival Shiite cleric. He has many followers among the . world's 100 million Shiite Muslims and representatives and offices in countries a member ofIraq's U.S.-picked Govern- with Shiite populations. ing Council and lea<strong>de</strong>r of what was the In Baghdad, the International Comarmed wing of the Supreme Council for mittee of the Red Cross said Sunday Islamic Revolution in Iraq, that it was scaling back the number of headquartered in Iran before the war. people working in Baghdad after re- The two men are part of an influen- ceiving warnings that the organization tial family in the Shiite community. might be a terror targ<strong>et</strong>. Ab<strong>de</strong>laziz Hakim said An Najaf resi- Nada Doumani, spokeswoman for <strong>de</strong>nts had rushed to the ayatollah's the organization in Baghdad, said the house after the explosion, which organization would keep about 50 shattered windows and damaged a workers in the country, with those bewaIL ing pull out leaving positions in Bagh- Iraqi newspapers reported last week dad. that Muhammad Saeed al-Hakim had She said she was staying, but <strong>de</strong>received threats against his life. He is clined to give specific numbers of those also one of three top Shiite lea<strong>de</strong>rs being withdrawn. threatened with <strong>de</strong>ath by a rival Shiite Meanwhile, ovèr the weekend, two cleric shortly after Saddam Hussein U.S. soldiers died in non-combat inciwas toppled on April 9. . <strong>de</strong>nts, the U.S.military reported Sunday. A day after Saddam's ouster, a mob in A soldier from the 3rd Armored Cavalry An Najaf hacked to <strong>de</strong>ath a Shiite cleric. Regiment in Baghdad was killed in a who had recently r<strong>et</strong>urned from exile. friendly fire inci<strong>de</strong>nt. A second soldier Abdul Majid al-Khoei was killed when a from the same regiment drowned in the me<strong>et</strong>ing called to reconcile rival Shiite Euphrates River, west ofRamadi 113
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