G U L F W A R S P E C I A L P A G E

US deploying more troops to Gulf region

WASHINGTON, March 26 - The United States is deploying more troops, including its high-tech 4th Infantry Division and some other units, to the Gulf region to "The 4th Infantry Division has received orders to move and will be going in the coming days," Dan Hassett, a spokesman at Ford Hood, Texas, was quoted as saying.The division, with a total strength of some 16,000 troops, is based at Ford Hood and has been waiting for about two months for deployment in Turkey, where the Pentagon planned to open a second front in war with Iraq. But the deployment was aborted after Turkey's parliament rejected a government bill in early March to allow use of Turkishsoil by US troops.

Ships carrying the division's heavy equipment, including over 200 tanks and other military vehicles, have been diverted from waters off Turkey to Kuwait, where the US military launched ground campaign toward Baghdad six days ago. Meanwhile, some other military unity totaling about 14,000 troops have also received orders to move with the division, Hassett said.The reinforcement will bring the total US military presence in the Gulf region to about 280,000 troops.

Indian analysts condemn "new face of colonialism"

LONDON, March 26 The Iraq war waged by the American and British authorities has revealed the "new face of colonialism, ruthless, aggressive and inhuman," Indian political analysts noted. In an article published Tuesday in "The Hindu," India's leadingnewspaper, political analyst Mushirul Hasan wrote that a large number of the American and British people recognize the "new face of colonialism, ruthless, aggressive and inhuman" through the Iraqwar.

"What are the immediate consequences of this war against Iraq? An American 'victory' is assured. But the U.S. has lost the moral authority that it wielded in certain circles; it may be hard to recover the ground that it has lost in recent months and weeks," he wrote.

Overriding the United Nations and disregarding public opinion will cost the United States dearly, he said in the article. In addition, the Anglo-American hopes of mass desertions and popular support for their mission of "liberation" has not borne fruit, he added. He said that the Iraqi army has, in fact, offered stout resistance that is very commendable indeed.

Furthermore, he said that there is, as of now, no evidence of the great divide between the Iraqi regime, the Shias, and the Kurds."What the Kurds might do in response to Turkey's intervention is difficult to predict, but the Shias have not, contrary to earlier predictions, deserted Saddam Hussein. This is a silver lining in an otherwise dismal picture," he noted.

The fact that the American and British troops have not so far found any weapons of mass destruction and the chemical and biological warfare has not taken place has belied the American propaganda unleashed by US President George W. Bush and orchestrated dutifully by the CNN and the BBC, he said in his article.

Another analyst Siddharth Varadarajan wrote Wednesday in another newspaper, Times of India, "If Saddam Hussein is overthrown, US oil companies would be well placed to gain control of Iraqi reserves from the extraction to marketing stage."The United States could also block Russian, French and Chinese oil majors from benefiting, he said, adding that control over the international oil trade will help to protect the dollar's dominantposition vis-a-vis long-term rivals like the euro.

"But this war is about more than just oil: It is about cementing the domination of the U.S. in a world that is likely to undergo fundamental economic and strategic changes in the next fewdecades," he went on to say.

Meanwhile, Kulbir Krishan, an anti-terrorism expert of the Institute of Defense Studies, wrote Wednesday in "The Hindustan Time," "The current U.S.-led attack on Iraq is significant in thatit is an attempt to use the post-Cold War global dominance of the US to realign political and economic realities in West Asia."The attacks on Iraq are a part of the new US policy of pre-emption, he wrote. It also brings out the US willingness to act unilaterally to pursue its global objectives without bothering about the UN, etc., he added.

He stressed, while the reasons for the attack on Iraq may be varied and have political, economic and long-term objectives, in large parts of the Arab and Islamic world, they are seen as yet another example of US bullying and disregard for Muslim sentiment.

Al-Jazeera website attacked

March 27 2003 Doha Hacker attacks and technical glitches have caused a string of headaches for a new English-language website launched by Arab satellite TV network Al-Jazeera. The Qatar-based network has faced a storm of criticism in the United States for broadcasting Iraqi footage of five US prisoners of war and at least eight corpses. Its new site (english.aljazeera .net) went live on Monday, but was quickly hit by hacker attacks - as was the Arabic-language site (www.aljazeera.net).Managing editor Joanne Tucker said staff were unable to update the English site for about four hours on Tuesday.

"We've had a lot of obstacles thrown in our way," Ms Tucker said. "I thought the launch would be quite smooth and wouldn't make make too many waves, but the reaction has been amazing. It has been almost surreal."Al-Jazeera ran into more problems yesterday when the New York Stock Exchange banned its reporters from the trading floor - a move widely seen as retaliation for the channel's war coverage.The ban prompted criticism from a host of media watchdogs.

Stock exchange spokesman Ray Pellecchia said the decision to rescind the accreditation of the two journalists had been taken to accommodate a surge in requests from television networks for access to the stock exchange."We've had to prioritise requests ... and focus our efforts on those who focus on providing responsible business coverage, and as a result we cannot accommodate Al-Jazeera at this time," Mr Pellecchia said.

British Airways cuts more flights in response to war

British Airways announced Wednesday it is to cut flights by 4 percent in response to a drop in bookings caused by the war in Iraq. The airline is also bringing forward 3,000 job cuts planned forMarch next year to September this year in an effort to cut costs.Chief executive Rod Eddington said that the capacity cuts of the British airline will come into effect in April and May when about 6.4 million people would normally fly with British Airways.

The changes represent a capacity reduction of 6 percent on the North Atlantic routes. The cutbacks roughly equate to 132,000 fewer aeroplane seats during the two-month period. International passenger travel will drop 15 to 20 percent during the war, experts estimated. Eddington said the reduced transatlantic service will include suspension of one of the seven Heathrow to New York daily return services until the end of May.

It will also mean the cancellation of one of two daily Heathrow-Chicago return services until April 8. Extra services between Heathrow and Newark, Heathrow and Toronto and Heathrow and Houston in Texas are being delayed. The airline which relies heavily on transatlantic flights has already canceled four such flights this week. Eddington said in a statement that "there are clearly tough times ahead and experience has shown us that conserving cash is critical at these times."

British Airways, which has slashed thousands of jobs and cut capacity by about one fifth in the past two years, relies heavily on income from its transatlantic routes. However, it said services between London and Tel Aviv in Israel,which were suspended earlier this month, will be resumed on Friday.

But services to Kuwait, also halted earlier in March, will continue to be suspended while London-Dubai services will continueon a reduced-frequency basis. The changes represent a 26 percent reduction in the airline's Middle East capacity. "However, we are in good shape with more than 2 billion pounds or 3.16 billion US dollars in cash and committed facilities available and we will survive this conflict, he said. Last week, the airline said it was still on track to post a profit this financial year despite the war in Iraq.

British company condemned for selling gas masks at subway station

London -March 26 A British company which sent sales clerks wearing its gas masks to a London Tube station had been condemned for its "alarmist" tactics when the country was involvedin a tough war in Iraq, a local report said Wednesday. The company, You Won't Get Me, distributed leaflets with the message "New York, Bali, Tokyo. Who's Next?" outside Victoria Station, a major underground station in central London, according to the report. John Eldridge, the editor of Jane's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense, said it was no surprise that businessmen were trying to cash in on people's fears. "I think the way they are being advertised is very alarmist," Eldridge was quoted as saying. However, John Gladden, the managing director of You Won't Get Me, denied his company was being alarmist. "We are at war, aren't we?" he asked.

His company offers full face masks at 150 pounds (some 236 US dollars), claiming they protect against a range of poisons including nerve agent VX, mustard gas, phosgene and sarin, the gasused on the Tokyo underground in 1995. The company also offers pocket face masks, which claim to protect against ricin and anthrax, at 15 pounds each.According to a new survey issued by Wednesday's Financial Times, a fifth of Londoners said they were now less likely to go out in central London because of the conflict, which has increased the fears that London might be a top-level target of the terrorists seeking for revenge. On March 19, one day before the United States started bombing in Iraq, the British Home Office suggested Britons to stock up on food and batteries in case of terrorist attacks happening.

"We are aware of the risk of international terrorist groups seeking to exploit military action against (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq by further attacks (in Britain)," the Home Office said in a statement at the time."It is sensible to be prepared for any emergency in the home and to make plans for any major disruption," it said, but claimingit was unnecessary for the public to buy gas masks and protect suits.

UN expected to adopt soon resolution on Iraq humanitarian aid

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday failed to reach agreement on a draftresolution adjusting the already-suspended oil-for-food program inorder to meet the urgent need of the war-plagued Iraqi civilians. But many council members expressed optimism after the meeting that the council could soon adopt the resolution, which would giveUN Secretary-General Kofi Annan the authority to run the humanitarian oil-for-food program for 45 days. "It (the meeting) ended better than it started ... there was light at the end of the tunnel and I think now the tunnel is short," French Ambassador to the United Nations Jean-Marc de La Sablieretold reporters.

"There were some proposals made by the UK (United Kingdom) and I think these proposals meet the concerns of many delegations," hesaid, but failing to specify the proposals. All delegations agreed that there is "an urgent need to move fast," he said, adding: "I am quite optimistic now." British Ambassador to the UN Jeremy Greenstock said the counciltalked about giving Annan the authority to "make an immediate difference" to the oil-for-food program. "We made some progress today," he said, adding that the Germany-chaired expert group will meet again this afternoon on the precisewording of the draft text.

The upbeat tone of the two envoys was shared by German UN Ambassador Gunter Pleuger, who heads the council's sanctions committee overseeing the implementation of the oil-for-food program.

"I am very optimistic that we might be able to produce a new text by tonight and then go to capitals for approval in the near future," he said. Germany has made an appeal to all council members to work out the terms quickly "because of the size of the humanitarian catastrophe we might be faced with," Pleuger noted. "Eighty percent of food basket in Iraq depend on the oil-for-food," he stressed.

"The problem we have to cope with now is how do we rearrange and make necessary adaptations to the oil-for-food program for thenext 45 days, what kind of authorization should be given to the secretary-general and how can we do this in the context of international law, especially the international humanitarian law,"he said.But he declined to disclose the differences on the draft resolution among the council members.

Some council members have expressed fears that with the existing Iraqi government still in office, the adoption of such a resolution could give legality to the US-led invasion which was launched without prior UN authorization. The oil-for-food program, which has been in place since December 1996, was suspended last week after Annan ordered all international staff out of Iraq ahead of the ongoing conflict.

Three US military cars torched near air base

ROME, March 26 -- Three cars used by US military staffwere firebombed on Tuesday night outside the servicemen's homes near major US air facilities. Two of the attacks took place in this city 38 km west of Venice,which hosts the headquarters of NATO's southern European tactical air force command, SETAF. The other occurred near Italy's largest US air base, Aviano, 50km north-east of Vicenza in the Friuli region bordering Austria. In the first Vicenza firebombing, an Opel Calibra, suffered extensive damage after a loud explosion in a blaze that singed nearby vehicles.

A Wrangler jeep suffered minor damage after its overnight winter canopy was burned off. Neighbors said they heard a blast before looking out and seeing flames. The cars' owners are posted to a barracks in the city, attachedto SETAF. Investigators said they were trying to establish what kind of devices were used in the blasts. Both fires were put out by the local fire brigade. The car torched near Aviano was owned by a couple who work at the base and live nearby with their three children. The attack took place outside their house in a local town, where a residential area has been given over to US military personnel.

Philippine immigration bureau, police to face suit for 11 Iraqis' detention

MANILA, March 26 -The Philippine Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said it would file a suit before a Manila regional trial court Wednesday for the detention of 11 Iraqi nationals suspected of plotting sympathy attacks in the country.Once the case is filed, the Philippine National Police and the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) would be given 24 hours to explain why the Iraqis should be detained, the PhilippineDaily Inquirer on-line news quoted CHR Commissioner Dominador Calamba as saying."They (police) don't even have a warrant of arrest. They can't detain them (Iraqis) without a pending case," Calamba said.At the same time, Calamba said the CHR would investigate the detainees' claims that they were tortured and forced to admit that they had links with international terrorists.

"Some of them were interrogated for two days straight without sleep," Calamba said. The Iraqis were arrested on March 19, a day before the US-led coalition forces rained missiles on Baghdad.On Monday, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs asked Iraqi Embassy First Secretary Abdul Karim M. Shwaikh and Attache Karim Nassir Hamid to leave on suspicion they had links to terrorist groups.Last month, The Philippine government expelled Iraqi Embassy Second Secretary Husham Hussain for reported links with the kidnap-for-ransom group Abu Sayyaf.

Saudi Arabia backs away from peace plan for Iraq war

Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said on Wednesday that his country has put forward ideas and not a formal initiative to end the ongoing Iraq war, backing away from an announcement a day earlier. Speaking to the press, Saud said "We have thoughts and ideas that will not come to fruition unless both (the United States and Iraq) agree in principle it is time to stop the fighting.""Saudi Arabia has always thought the war should not have happened in the first place," Saud said. "Perhaps it is a good time (now) to ...think about diplomatic solutions," the foreign minister added. On Tuesday, Saud told the reporters that Saudi Arabia had made a peace proposal to Iraq and the United States and pledged to "knock on all doors" to get it heard. He did not give details of the peace plan.Both the United States and Iraq have rejected the reported peace initiative.

Iranian, Turkish FMs hold phone talks over Iraqi war impact

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharazi Wednesday discussed over the phone the Iraqi war and its repercussions. Kharazi called Gul to exchange views on the US-led invasion of Iraq and its possible impact on their countries, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Huseyin Dirioz told reporters here.The two ministers discussed ways of providing humanitarian aid as both countries are bracing for a massive influx of Iraqi refugees stemming from the ongoing war in Iraq, Dirioz said. Turkey and Iran, Iraq's two neighbors, hosted tens of thousands of Iraqi refugees in the first Gulf War in 1991. With the war in Iraq intensifying, the two countries have stepped up preparation to deal with a possible new refugee crisis.

Kenya hands over Al-Qaeda suspect to US

NAIROBI, March 26 -The Al-Qaeda suspect in Kenyan custody has been handed over to the United Sates, Kenyan authorities announced here on Wednesday. The suspect, identified as Suleiman Abdalla, 30, alias 'Chuck Norris' was on Wednesday en route to the US to face trial, Kenyan Minister for Security Chris Murungaru said at a news conference. The suspect has confessed his links with Al-Qaeda and provided useful information on the 1998 bombing of US embassy in Nairobi and the 2002 terrorist attacks on Israeli interests in Kenya's port city of Mombasa. The suspect has also disclosed possible future terrorist plansin the region, the minister added. "All arrested terrorist connected to the (1998) attacks were tried in the US. It has been decided therefore that Suleiman should be taken to the US for trial like all the other suspects," Murungaru said. Exactly one week ago, Murungaru announced the arrest of the suspect, saying "Kenya police have in their custody a suspected Al-Qaeda operative for questioning over multiple terrorist attacks ineast Africa." The arrest was a joint effort by Kenyan security agents and Somali leaders who do not want to see terrorists to operate in their country, the security minister said. In August 1998, terrorists destroyed the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing over 200 people dead and wounding more than 5,000. In November last year, terrorists bombed an Israeli-owned hotelin Mombasa, killing 17 people.

Russia to Investigate Arms Sales to Iraq : Powell

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday that his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov has promised to investigate alleged arms military equipment sales to Iraq by Russian firms.Testifying before a House budget subcommittee, Powell said he gave some new evidence of the sales to Ivanov during their telephone conversation earlier in the day.He said the Russian foreign minister assured him that the new information was "interesting that they would run it to ground."The Russians "are hard at work on it and I hope that they will find out what we know to be the case and deal with it," Powell said. "They do not want this to be an irritant in our relationship."

The US State Department has alleged that Russian companies soldsensitive military equipment to Iraq in the run-up to the US-led war against Iraq, saying that it had raised the issue with the Russian government a number of times.However, Russians have denied as rumors that Russian firms had sold military equipment to Iraq, saying an investigation into the claims had yielded no results