Iraqi Human Rights Official Says Saddam Trial Not Far Away--New WMW

[Gloria]

Full excerpts, links up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com

WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR MARCH 22, 2004

1//Xinhuanet, China--INTERVIEW: IRAQI HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICIAL SAYS SADDAM TRIAL NOT FAR AWAY (When and how to try the now-jailed former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein? Iraqi deputy minister of human rights Ali Kabi told Xinhua during an interview this week that he did not expect the historical trial "to be delayed for a long time"…"Now the US has decided to send a group of lawyers to help Iraqis to prepare to try Saddam," he disclosed, adding that Iraq also had issued a law for Saddam trial, and "when the power is transferred to Iraqis, this will accelerate the efforts to try Saddam." …He stressed that once the new Iraqi government is in place, the compensation to war and after-war violence victims will be one of the priorities. According to the human rights official, a list they received from the coalition authority showed that at present there are still around 10,000 Iraqis jailed by the US army, but "we believe the number should be higher than that for a simple reason: many families came to our ministry and complained that the coalition also detained their sons or relatives.")

2//The Observer/Guardian, UK—INVESTIGATION: THE GLOBAL TERROR NETWORK--THE SECRET WAR (Some British based militants committed to so-called Holy War even claim that the British authorities in the early 1990s offered passports in return for information from fighters returning from the jihad against the Russians. But Britain's unwritten contract with Islamic extremists - which gave them a haven in exchange for sparing Britain - has eroded in recent years as Britain fell under US pressure to round up Islamist militants. The Jihadi sources reiterated this weekend that Britain remained ripe for an al-Qaeda attack… According to intelligence experts, the terrorists are operating in Europe and Morocco, travelling on fake documents. Investigators made a major breakthrough last week with the arrest of Jamal Zougam, a suspected terrorist involved in the Madrid atrocity who spent his childhood in the casbah of Tangier.)



3//The Independent, UK--OFFICIAL: UK WOULD FAIL TO COPE WITH MAJOR TERROR ATTACK (Britain could not cope with a terrorist bombing on the scale of this month's atrocity in Madrid, the country's top emergency planners have admitted…. Resources for emergency planning have declined in real terms since the destruction of the World Trade Center, according to those in charge… Britain's security services face censure for allowing a key suspect in the investigation into the Madrid bombings to disappear. Mohammed al-Garbuzi­ believed to have been in close contact with Jamal Zougam, who is being held by the Spanish police in connection with the attacks that killed 202 people­ fled his London home on Wednesday night, despite being well-known to MI5.)



4//Kyodo News, Japan--LAST CORE UNIT OF JAPAN TROOPS LEAVES FOR IRAQ MISSION(The third and final group of Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) core contingent left Chitose air base in Hokkaido on Sunday for Kuwait on a government aircraft, paving the way for full GSDF aid operations in Iraq. After undergoing training in Kuwait, the 120-strong team will be deployed in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah by the end of the month, completing the 550-member contingent tasked with supplying water, repairing local infrastructure and providing medical services.)



5//The Times of India, India--PAK’S OSAMA RUSE DUPED US (Pakistan hasn't yet delivered al-Qaeda No 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri to the United States in exchange for its recognition as a major ally, but the diplomatic bonanza will yield rich pickings, including arms and ammunition, in the coming days…"This could mean an expanded flow of US military hardware to Pakistan, putting us (again) on both sides of an arms race--this time a nuclear arms race as well as a conventional one," Cohen told TNN amid talk in the analysts’ community that Washington had just thrown some fuel into the South Asian fire which had shown signs of dying out.)

Related Story: POWELL TOOK US FOR A RIDE: INDIA (Two days after the US ambushed India with the decision to upgrade its military relations with Pakistan, the Vajpayee government has come out with an official statement expressing "disappointment at not having been warned in advance by US secretary of state Colin Powell when he was in Delhi on March 16".)