The UN, US and Iraq IV

GIs in Iraq Kill Aide to Italian Envoy
By ALESSANDRA RIZZO

ROME (AP) - American soldiers in northern Iraq fired on a car carrying the Italian official heading up U.S. efforts to recover Iraq's looted antiquities, killing the man's Iraqi interpreter, an official said Friday in Rome. The Italian, Pietro Cordone, was unhurt.

Cordone, who is the senior adviser for cultural affairs of the U.S. provisional authority and the top Italian diplomat in the country, was traveling on the road between Mosul and Tikrit on Thursday when his car was fired on at a U.S. roadblock, said a Foreign Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said American troops fired at the car, and that Cordone's Iraqi interpreter was killed. Cordone was unharmed.

The official said it appeared the car's driver did not understand the signals that the American troops were giving, and that the American's didn't understand what the car was trying to do.

The Foreign Ministry said U.S. officials had expressed regret over the incident.

Cordone, who was born in Egypt and spent his diplomatic career in the Arab world, was named to his position in May to head up the coalition office responsible for finding and restoring Iraq's looted antiquities.

He was on hand at the Iraqi National Museum last week when three men returned the Vase of Warka, a 5,000-year-old white limestone vessel that is one of the most valuable of the museum's artifacts.

The museum, once the home of rare Islamic texts and priceless, millennia-old collections from the Assyrian, Sumerian and Babylonian civilizations, was plundered in the lawlessness and chaos that followed the fall of Baghdad on April 9.

The destruction triggered an international uproar, with many curators and archaeologists from around the world blaming the United States for failing to protect the institution.

When he was named to his position, Italian Culture Minister Giuliano Urbani said Cordone's task was to recover ``one of the most important artistic patrimonies'' in the world.


09/19/03 07:08

The United Nations must play a central role. [..] The international mission needs greater legitimacy in order to accelerate the process leading to a government acting on its own authority in Iraq.

In addition to its current military involvement in Afghanistan, the Balkans and elsewhere, Germany is willing to provide humanitarian aid, to assist in the civilian and economic reconstruction of Iraq and to train Iraqi security forces.

Things seem to be looking up for the Iraqis.

Will be curious to see how Germany will tie ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush stands a good chance of healing a rift with European allies over the U.S. war in Iraq if he pursues a partnership with Europe, a senior German legislator said Thursday.

With nearly 2,000 troops in Afghanistan and willing to help train Iraqi police, Germany is contributing to U.S. efforts in both countries, Wolfgang Schaeuble, deputy chairman of the conservative opposition in the Bundestag, said.

Schaeuble said he had told Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security assistant, during talks here that there is a need for Europe to become a stronger partner of the United States.

The German legislator said Bush would meet with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder next week in New York while the two leaders attended the U.N. General Assembly session.

The meeting may help to close the gap between the United States and Germany on Iraq, he said. If Bush ``shows he is not going a unilateral way he could bridge the differences,'' Schaeuble said.

Germany opposed the war with Iraq, lining up with France. Schroeder met in Berlin Thursday with French President Jacques Chirac and they will meet also with British Prime Minister Tony Blair this weekend.

Chirac said in Berlin that he would like to see a transfer of power in Iraq in a matter of months. Earlier, he had called for an end of the U.S. occupation in one month's time.

Chirac also voiced support for an offer by Schroeder to help train new Iraqi security forces in Germany, which Schroeder renewed at Thursday's news conference outside the chancellery in Berlin.

In Washington, a senior U.S. official hesitated to assess Chirac's apparent willingness to delay a handover of power to Iraqis for months. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States also wanted to see Iraqis taking charge of their country. But he said the timetable was up to the Iraqis to set.

At the same time, the official said the United States and Germany agreed on several Iraq issues and Germany's offer to train security forces reflected a shared interest in a free, prosperous and stable Iraq.

Schaeuble said he hoped the Schroeder-Chirac-Blair meeting on Saturday would help close the gap with France and Germany.

Pondering the reasons for the rift, Schaeuble said it is very difficult for Americans to understand what is going on in Europe and it is very difficult for France to accept the loss of its position as a world power.

He advised all sides to look to the future, and not to the past.
German: Bush May Heal Rift With Europeans

hobitbob wrote:

Things seem to be looking up for the Iraqis.

Indeed they are. The European Union and The UN are coming around, IMHO. The two bodies cannot in conscience continue to allow the Iraqi People to suffer as consequence of pointless, self-serving geopolitical power games. That is the lesson they have drawn from Kosovo, and it is beginning to dawn on them.

Indeed they are. The European Union and The UN are coming around, IMHO. The two bodies cannot in conscience continue to allow the Iraqi People to suffer as consequence of pointless, self-serving geopolitical power games. That is the lesson they have drawn from Kosovo, and it is beginning to dawn on them.

The president of the United States decides to go to war against a nation led by a brutal dictator supported by one-party rule. That dictator has made war on his neighbors. The president decides this is a threat to the United States.

In his campaign for president he gives no indication of wanting to go to war. In fact, he decries the overextension of American military might and says other nations must do more. However, unbeknownst to the American public, the president's own Pentagon advisers have already cooked up a plan to go to war. All they are looking for is an excuse.

Based on faulty intelligence, cherry-picked information is fed to Congress and the American people. The president goes on national television to make the case for war, using as part of the rationale an incident that never happened. Congress buys the bait -- hook, line and sinker -- and passes a resolution giving the president the authority to use "all necessary means" to prosecute the war.

* * *

Sound familiar? It does to me.

The president was Lyndon Johnson.

In his campaign for president he gives no indication of wanting to go to war.

Major EU countries are now coming over to the US side, re: Iran. Seems the US preferred a 'harder line approach' concerning Iran's refusal to allow snap inspections of their nuclear facilities, while Brits, Germany and Russia, I think, were offering Iran some special incentive to comply.

Britain, Germany and France defied the United States last month by offering Iran the prospect of sharing technology if it stops its disputed nuclear fuel enrichment program and accepts tougher U.N. inspections. ....