British dailies and the American plans against Iraq

The British daily the Independent reported yesterday that the administration of the US President George Bush started training members of the Iraqi opposition on economic matters for the phase following any American attack against Iraq.

In its yesterday's editorial, the paper said that the training programs cost the American government hundreds thousands of dollars, noting that the US Department of State assigned private companies for investments to organize a course for almost 100 members of the Iraqi opposition dealing with principles of the economy, accounting and financing which would enable them to restructure the Iraqi economy and converting this economy from a system controlled by the state to a free market economy.

The paper added that these measures give a new evidence that the US is preparing to change the regime in Baghdad despite the preparedness of the UN inspection team for mass destruction weapons to resume its work inside Iraq in implementation of UN security council resolution no. 1441.

For its part, the British daily the Guardian has warned, quoting the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq and the relief agencies, that launching any war against Iraq might lead to the repetition of the humanitarian crisis which took place in 1991, when thousands of Kurds were killed and almost half a million Kurds were displaced.

In a report yesterday, the paper said that the UN secretary general Kofi Annan has warned the US President George Bush not to be in a hurry to fish pretexts in order to launch a war against Iraq, noting that any decision to be taken to attack Iraq should be built on objective and fair basics.

The paper indicated the escalation of hostility against Muslims in the US by the extremist Christian preachers like Jerry Falwell who described prophet Muhammad as a terrorist and Jimmy Swagart who called for expelling Muslim students who are following up their study in the USA, as well as Pat Robertson who said that Muslims want to do to the Jews more than the Holocaust had done.