Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro
de la Prensa-Bastn Özeti
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 needed 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 SOCIety,
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 understand that
what you are doing is a penetration 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 get it. Iraqi liberals One in the Middle East - while cutting
get it. The Bush team talks as ifit gets it, taxes at home, shrinking the U.S. Army,
but itdoësn't act liÏœ it. The Bush team chan&ing the tax code 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 ~epende~t on
many in 1945,and yet, 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
understand what's at stake in Iraq. . any burden, but ~e. have a president
We may fail because of the utter in- u~ble or unWllhng to summon
èompetence with which the Pentagon either.
leadership has handled the postwar.
The United States doesn't even have
enough translators in Iraq, let alone .
military police, and the American media
network set up there to talk to Iraqis
is so bad that America would be better
offbuying ads on Al Jazeera.
•
Bombing at Shiite's home kills 3
Key cleric in An Najaf was targeted 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 secret police and intelligence operation
would work with Americans inside
Saddam's old presidential 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 deposed
regime's intelligence operation. '~d
the Mukhabarat men, they need money
now," said a second Iraqi who worked
closely with the deposed regime's intelligence
operation.
L. Paul Bremer 3rd, the civilian chief
of the American occupation in Iraq, acknowledged
the need for better information.
"It's not a question of more
troops. It's a question ofbeing effective
with our intelligence, getting 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 cylinder
late 60s, holds the highest theological
wired to explode was placed along title in Shiite Islam - Ayatollah al- .
the outside wall of the home of Uzma, which means grand or supreme
Muhammad Saeed al-Hakim. It blew up ayatollah. He was detained 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 Abdelaziz al-Hakim, Before the beginning of the U.S. invasion
of Iraq in March, most Shiite religious
leaders in An Najaf, including
He is one of three Hakim, were put under house arrest.
Shortly after the collapse of Saddam's
Shiite leaders
regime, Hakim's office went back to
work, dispensing religious advice to
threatened with death
residents.
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 leader 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 target.
Abdelaziz Hakim said An Najaf resi- Nada Doumani, spokeswoman for
dents 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 dereceived
threats against his life. He is clined to give specific numbers of those
also one of three top Shiite leaders being withdrawn.
threatened with death 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.
. dents, 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 death a Shiite cleric. Regiment in Baghdad was killed in a
who had recently returned from exile. friendly fire incident. A second soldier
Abdul Majid al-Khoei was killed when a from the same regiment drowned in the
meeting called to reconcile rival Shiite Euphrates River, west ofRamadi
113