[A-List] News Archive: July 8, 2003

["bon moun" <sherrynstan@xxxxxxx>]

A powerful explosion tore apart an Israeli home near the West Bank late
Monday night, and police were investigating the incident early today as
a possible suicide bombing. Two bodies were found in the rubble, one of
a woman and the other of a young man, the police said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/07/08/MN60672.D
TL

The CIA confirmed on Tuesday that an audiotape aired on Arab television
last week allegedly of Saddam Hussein urging Iraqis to support
resistance to US forces, was probably authentic.
http://onenews.nzoom.com/onenews_detail/0,1227,203879-1-9,00.html

A parliamentary committee criticized yesterday the British government's
handling of intelligence estimates used in making the case for war in
Iraq, but narrowly cleared Prime Minister Tony Blair's communications
chief of exerting ''improper influence'' in drafting an intelligence
report dubbed ''the dodgy dossier.''
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/189/nation/Blair_rebuked_for_handling_
of_Iraq+.shtml

Insurgents fired mortar rounds at a U.S. supply base north of Baghdad,
and American forces arrested at least 12 Iraqi suspects in a
counterattack, the U.S. military said Tuesday. There were no reported
casualties.
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/189/world/Insurgents_fire_mortars_at_U_S
:.shtml

Iraq's northern export pipeline to Turkey was damaged by a new sabotage
blast over the weekend and repairs will take two weeks, a senior Iraqi
oil ministry official said on Tuesday.
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=3051894

Delegates yesterday held the inaugural session of a new Baghdad city
council, hailed by the United States as a major step towards democracy
in Iraq even though it has only an advisory role.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=92121

A U.S. patrol in north Baghdad was hit by a homemade bomb early Monday,
taking the life of a soldier in the 1st Armored Division.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/625194
8.htm

Pakistan on Monday confirmed clashes on the Pakistani-Afghan border, but
said there is noting to be worried.
http://www.irna.ir/en/head/030708102317.ehe.shtml

AMID THE murderous chaos and tribulations of ''postwar'' Iraq, the
initial reports reaching here over the holiday weekend from a small town
in extreme northern Iraq suggested a welcome, successful operation.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/189/oped/Questions_over_Turkish_presen
ce_in_Iraq+.shtml

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld goes to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to
answer growing concerns from lawmakers who have been hearing reports,
sometimes directly from soldiers in the field. Some lawmakers have found
rising frustration among the troops, who face an average of 13 attacks
per day and are not sure when they will return home.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-07-07-iraq-usat_x.htm

The deaths of the U.S. soldiers come at a time when the morale of the
troops and their families back home appear to be at a new low.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/07/07/154231

"Morale is very, very low," said Steve Blankenship, head of the national
communications committee for the Allied Pilots Association. "But we
clearly understand the long-term viability of this airline is directly
related to the sacrifices we've made."
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/6255946.htm

After "Intifada" (shaking off) and "Shahid" (martyr), another Arabic
term has entered the world's vocabulary: "Hudna" (truce).
http://www.counterpunch.com/avnery07072003.html

We must take with a grain of salt the recent sensational reports of
thousands of students demonstrating in Teheran. True, Iranians appear to
be frustrated with the democratization process, with low turnouts in
recent local elections and frustration with both the clerics and the
'reformers'. But there is more than a bit of confusion about what the
focus of the recent demonstrations is.
http://www.counterpunch.com/jones07072003.html

For Palestinians, the Camp David Peace Treaty, signed between Egypt and
Israel in March 26, 1979, under American sponsorship, equaled a
catastrophe.
http://www.counterpunch.com/baroud07072003.html