Arabs, Muslims support Saddam

ON THE VERGE OF THE SECOND IRAQ WAR: CONSIDERABLE SUPPORT BY, AND
SYMPATHY FOR, SADDAM FROM ARABS AND MUSLIM NATIONS

Mid-late 2002: Saudi-led stalling has delayed US forceful moves vs.
Saddam-Arab leaders are motivated by the prospect of a wounded Saddam
taking revenge on Arab neighbors, and worry at the effects of an Iraq
partition and the potential contagion of democracy. The UN jumped at
Saddam's sham of negotiating concerning nuclear inspectors, which was
obviously just his way of stalling for time. Saddam has been fueling
and funding the Palestinian intifada so as to keep playing the
inflammatory Israel card, keeping Arabs out of the Coalition. The
Saudis are refusing to allow US forces to use US facilities in Saudi
Arabia, forcing the US to spend billions to duplicate those assets
elsewhere.
Syria is allowing military equipment and parts to brought into
Iraq via rail link. Non-military rail freight is permitted under the UN
oil-for-food program, but the Syria trains are bringing in considerable
tanks, surface-to-air missiles, and unconventional weaponry.

PAKISTAN GIVES AMBIGUOUS SIGNS: 2/03-THE Pakistani population is
anti-American, although the Pakistani leadership generally voices
pro-US views. Pakistani leaders are saying it would, due to domestic
opposition, be difficult to vote in the UN for any pro-US war
resolution.

ISLAMIC TURKEY DEFIES US ON IRAQ LIBERATION: 2/03-- Turkey's
parliament dealt a stunning blow to U.S. war planning by failing to
approve a bill allowing in American combat troops to open a northern
front against Iraq. The decision, which likely will strain ties with
Washington, marked a setback to U.S. efforts to show Saddam Hussein
that he is surrounded and his neighbors support a U.S.-led coalition.
Turkish lawmakers had faced overwhelming public opposition to basing
U.S. troops on Turkish soil. Yet Washington had been so sure of winning
approval from close ally and NATO member Turkey that ships carrying
U.S. tanks are waiting off Turkey's coast for deployment and the U.S.
military has thousands of tons of military equipment ready to unload at
the southern Turkish port of Iskenderun. For weeks, the Bush
administration had been pressing Turkey to agree to a possible northern
front, which would split Saddam Hussein's army between the north and
the south, likely making a war shorter and less bloody.
The motion would have empowered Turkey's government to authorize the
basing of up to 62,000 troops, 255 warplanes and 65 helicopters. In
exchange, Washington promised $15 billion in loans and grants to
cushion the Turkish economy from the impact of war. Besides that
funding, Turkey also risks losing Washington's support which was
crucial in securing billions in loans that rescued the country during
an economic crisis in 2001. The United States has also pushed Turkey's
eagerly sought candidacy in the European Union. And if Turkey does not
agree to host U.S. forces, it loses a say in the future of neighboring
Iraq if there is a war. Polls show as much as 94 percent of the
Muslim-dominated Turkish public opposes a war with Iraq. Before the
vote, 50,000 Turks staged an anti-war rally near parliament as 4,000
police stood guard. They chanted ``No to War'' and ``We don't want to
be America's soldiers.'' Some carried banners that read: ``The people
will stop this war.'' After the speaker nullified the vote, hundreds of
Turks celebrated in the streets of central Ankara, shouting anti-U.S.
slogans.
``We are all Iraqis ... We will not kill, we will not die,'' they
chanted. They also accused the Islamic-rooted Justice party of
``collaborating'' with Washington.
TURKEY APPARENTLY SENDS 1000 COMMANDOS INTO NORTHERN IRAQ-3/03:
this is denied by the Turks, but soldiers in armored personnel carriers
rolled into NE Iraq-at the same time Turkey refused to open its
airspace for US strikes vs. Iraq until the US agreed to move more
troops into Northern Iraq-Turkey later dropped this demand and
allowed overflights. Other NATO nations pressured Turkey not to send
troops into Iraq and threatened to withdraw various tactical supports.
IRAQ WAR AND TURKEY: Fall 2003-- US seeks to deploy Turkish troops in
occupied Iraq. The Ottomans ruled Iraq for four centuries. The Turks
seek huge loan guarantees as a bribe for supplying troops, yet the
Turks denied us basing rights as the war started, and denied us the
crucial positioning of striking northern Iraq from Turkish territory,
despite its NATO commitments. Over 90% of Turks opposed the war.
The Turkish parliament strung us along and spewed malicious
anti-American sentiments. The US agrees to loan Turkey $8.5 billion to
prop up its economy, but insists this is not intended to buy Turkish
assistance in Iraq-the US seeks 10,000 Turkish troops.

PALESTINIANS AND SADDAM: PERFECT TOGETHER-2/03: In the Gaza
Strip, Saddam sells. Palestinians crammed Tareq Abu Daya's shop to buy
Iraqi flags, glossy pictures of Saddam Hussein, T-shirts and American
flags to set ablaze at a demonstration against the U.S.-led strike in
Iraq. ``This is the only thing I can do to show my support to this man
(Saddam) and his nation,'' said Marwan Musallam, a 35-year-old taxi
driver who bought two small Iraqi flags at Abu Daya's shop. ``Saddam is
the only Arab leader to support the Palestinians.'' The Iraqi leader is
popular in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, partly because of the more
than $35 million he has doled out to Palestinian families who've had
relatives killed in the uprising the Israelis. In the 1991 Gulf War,
Saddam portrayed himself as the liberator of Palestinians from Israeli
occupation, and many Palestinians cheered when Iraq's 39 Scud missiles
fell on Israel, causing heavy damage and injuries but few casualties.
``From the minute people got wind of the bombardment against Baghdad,
flag sales and sales of Saddam's picture have not let up.'' His
business, called Tareq's Flag Shop, also sells Palestinian flags,
inflatable Yasser Arafat dolls, T-shirts of Argentine revolutionary Che
Guevara and flags from China, France, Germany and Russia - the four
countries that opposed the U.S. strike against Iraq. Sales have been
good in the seven years since he opened, but the war has rallied
support for Saddam, boosting his sales. Throughout the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, thousands of Palestinians took to the streets, calling on
Muslims to boycott American products and for Arab nations to break
diplomatic ties with the United States and Britain. Many chanted old
slogans popular during the 1991 Gulf War, urging Saddam's army to
strike Tel Aviv. In the West Bank town of Bethlehem, thousands marched
in support of Iraq, burning U.S. flags and chanting, ``Oh beloved
Saddam, hit Haifa and Tel Aviv.'' In Ramallah, home to Yasser Arafat's
shattered compound, hundreds packed the streets chanting anti-American
slogans. Saddam is distributing $10,000 each to the families of 260
suicide bombers, bringing to over $35 million his contributions to the
intifada.

ARABS DESPERATELY SEEK TO PRESERVE SADDAM: 3/03-- Arab envoys at the
United Nations demanded an urgent session of the Security Council to
press for a quick halt to the war in Iraq, as requested by their
foreign ministers meeting in Cairo. Syria's U.N. ambassador said the
group intended to ask the 15-nation council to adopt a resolution
demanding an immediate end to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The
resolution would also demand the withdrawal of all foreign forces from
Iraqi soil and the observance of Iraqi territorial integrity. Arab
diplomats said that during their meeting, only Kuwait opposed the
action, as it had in Cairo. The appeal for an emergency council session
was first voiced at the close of a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in
Cairo earlier in the day, which ended in adoption of a resolution
condemning the war against Iraq. "We call on all forces to withdraw
from Iraq and to put an end to this attack, to this assault," Arab
League chief Amr Moussa told reporters in Cairo after the one-day
meeting. The resolution also reiterated an earlier Arab summit
declaration that the group's members, some of which are now hosting
U.S. forces, should "refrain from participating" in the attack.
In Iran, which fought a bloody eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s,
Muslim clerics denounced the Iraqi regime but also took the United
States to task for its support of Israel. "It is obvious that America
in this war is trying to strengthen Zionists in the region," Grand
Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani was quoted as saying by Iranian state radio.
The Arab man on the street, and many Arab leaders, sees Saddam as
defending Arab pride, that Arab holdouts vs. the US are heroic, that
Saddam has stood up to the US invading empire. Moderate Arabs are
alienated and adopting extreme US views, urging resistance to the US
invaders. Thousands of young men are responding to religious and
secular calls to go to Iraq and defend the Arab homeland. Few care that
the US has liberated millions of Arabs from a tyrant. Tens of thousands
of new terrorists have been created.

3/03-- US SOLDIER THROWS GRENADES AT AMERICANS-- EVER SOLICITOUS OF
MUSLIM SENSIBILITIES, INITIAL NEWS REPORTS DECLINED TO IDENTIFY THE
ATTACKING US SOLDIER AS MUSLIM: Most soldiers were in uniform, but some
were wearing the workout clothes they sometimes sleep in. Realizing the
explosions were not Scuds, the reporter walked over to the tent where
the grenades had gone off and saw two very badly wounded soldiers-- one
bleeding from his leg, back and stomach. The medics had not yet
arrived, so soldiers were bandaging wounds themselves-a dozen or so
had been wounded. Sergeants were shouting orders to form a security
perimeter. Some of the younger soldiers were looking on in a state of
shock and had to be hand-led to their positions. Fifteen minutes later
an ambulance drove up to take away the badly wounded soldiers. One died
soon after.
Because a number of officers had been hit, no one knew at first who was
in charge. Then two officers who were bleeding from wounds started
giving orders.
Thinking there was a terrorist on the loose, a group of soldiers began
assembling to conduct a manhunt. Other officers were inspecting the
tents and bunkers to make sure everyone was accounted for.
One of those officers spotted a soldier, lying alone in a bunker near
the explosions, who appeared to be wounded. The soldier, who has a
Muslim name, had, according to military sources, recently been acting
insubordinate; his superiors had decided not to bring him into Iraq.
Camp sources say he initially admitted responsibility. The officer drew
his weapon and called for backup. Then they handcuffed the soldier,
read him his rights and waited for criminal investigators to arrive.
If it is an angry Muslim soldier who threw the grenade, and the press
and government know it, their solicitousness of Muslim sensibilities is
once again outrageous. We protect the very religion making war on the
decent world. Remember the DC snipers, who were militant Islamic
terrorists, though you wouldn't know it from media coverage.

AS THE WAR STARTS: In the Arab world, thousands of protesters vented
their fury at the start of the war to oust Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein, with demonstrators in Egypt and Syria demanding the expulsion
of U.S. ambassadors. In Cairo, the Arab world's biggest city, riot
police used water cannon and batons against hundreds of rock-throwing
protesters who tried to storm towards the U.S. embassy.
In the Gaza Strip, about 1,000 Palestinian women and children marched
in the Rafah refugee camp, holding Iraqi flags and posters of Saddam
and setting fire to Israeli and U.S. flags. About 150 people marched in
Bethlehem in the West Bank.
3/03-- Thousands of Arabs seething with anger about a heavy U.S.-led
bombing of Baghdad protested for a third day, amid concern the
demonstrations could threaten stability in the volatile region. With
live footage of the fiery explosions and burning buildings in Iraq
beamed into most Arab homes, feelings are running high over what many
consider a sinister ploy to dominate the Arab world. "Did you see all
those bombs falling on TV? All the poor people? And for what? America
wants to subjugate the entire region for the sake of Israel. They want
to bring the Arabs to their knees," said 50-year-old Egyptian housewife
Samia. Some analysts say the widespread and sometimes violent anti-war
protests, from Arab states in the Gulf to Morocco on the Atlantic, have
the potential to undermine stability in a region described by one
expert as a "cauldron of discontent."
In Damascus and Khartoum, police pushed back anti-war protesters trying
to storm towards the U.S. embassies. "Bush and Blair are war
criminals," and "Stop the war now!" chanted hundreds of demonstrators
in the conservative Gulf Arab sultanate of Oman, where protests are
rare.
Amr Moussa, the head of the 22-member Arab League, said "no Arab with
any remnant of conscience can tolerate" the bombing of Baghdad, once
the proud capital of the Islamic world. "The bombing and violence we're
seeing on satellite TV should stir the ire of every Arab who sees it,"
said the secretary-general, who has warned a war against Iraq could
"open the gates of hell" in the Middle East. Many Arabs also blame
their governments for failing to prevent the conflict, and accuse them
of political impotence.
In Gaza, where protesters have voiced greater support for Saddam
himself, around 10,000 Palestinians marched through the streets holding
pictures of the Iraqi president. "We are with you Saddam Hussein and
the people of Iraq," they chanted. "With our blood and soul we will
redeem you, Saddam!"

ARABS WILDLY PROTEST US LIBERATION OF IRAQ: 3/03-- Police clashed with
30,000 anti-war demonstrators outside the U.S. Embassy in Yemen,
setting off an exchange of gunfire that killed three people and injured
dozens. Similar outrage over the U.S.-led assault on Iraq spilled into
streets in cities around the world. The protest in San'a, Yemen, was
the most violent there since price-hike riots six years ago. Hundreds
of police ringing the embassy compound tried to stop the crowd with
tear gas and water cannons before firing automatic rifles into the air.
Protesters kept up their push, picking up stones and tear gas canisters
and hurling them at police lines. Crowds shouted, ``No American and no
British Embassy on Yemeni land!,'' and, ``Death to America! Death to
Israel!''
Riot police fired rubber bullets at a smaller crowd in Bahrain, while
water cannons and tear gas were used in Egypt and Jordan. In Cairo,
10,000 people chanted anti-U.S. slogans as they gathered under tight
security after Friday's weekly prayers. Thirty-five protesters and
eight police officers were injured in Egypt and at least 10 were
injured in Bahrain. ``Islam is being raped. I feel terrible,'' said
Um-Mohammed, an Egyptian woman demonstrating outside the venerable
Al-Azhar mosque.
In his sermon, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the Grand Sheik of Al-Azhar and
the Muslim world's top Sunni cleric, called for jihad, or holy war, to
support the Iraqi people but avoided any reference to the United States
or the Iraqi regime. ``Jihad in Islam is meant to defend the religion,
money, soul and freedom and to support those who were subject to
injustice,'' he said. ``Islam supports defending the righteous path,
and we have to support and defend the people of Iraq.''
About 500 Palestinians marched through the al-Yarmouk refugee camp
outside Damascus, Syria, with posters of Saddam Hussein and Yasser
Arafat. They condemned Arab leaders who have aided the U.S. war effort
and chanted, ``Oh, Saddam! Destroy Kuwait! Destroy Kuwait's prince!''
Iranian leaders slammed the war as ``Satanic'' and a ``threat to
humanity'' in statements marking the first day of the Persian new year
Friday.

PALESTINIANS RALLY WILDLY FOR SADDAM: 3/03-- Thousands of Palestinians
holding pictures of Saddam Hussein poured out of mosques after Friday
prayers to protest the U.S.-led attacks on Iraq and show support for
the Iraqi leader. In the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, a cross-section
of Palestinians from militant groups, various political factions and
ordinary people turned out in the rain to shout slogans of
encouragement to Iraqi fighters, reviving some chants from the 1991
Gulf War. ``Oh, beloved Saddam, we are ready to sacrifice our blood for
you,'' a crowd chanted in downtown Gaza City. In Jerusalem, worshippers
on the Old City's hilltop mosque compound shouted together, ``Our
beloved Saddam, hit Tel Aviv.'' On the first Muslim sabbath since U.S.
and British forces began attacking Iraq, imams delivered sermons
condemning the assault. Inside the Omari Mosque in Gaza City, prayer
leader Mohammed Najam told 15,000 worshippers: ``We urge the Arab
armies and people to resist the invaders and to reject any attempt to
extend facilities to the American aggressors.''
At Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque, an imam asked Muslims to help Iraqis in
time of need and prayed for the victory of Iraqi forces. In the 1991
Gulf War, Saddam portrayed himself as a liberator of the Palestinians
from Israeli occupation and many Palestinians cheered as Iraq fired 39
Scud missiles at Israel. The Iraqi leader remains popular in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip - in part because of more than $35 million he has
paid to families of Palestinians - including suicide bombers and
civilians - killed in fighting with Israel in the past 30 months.
Yasser Arafat embraced Saddam in 1991, but his Palestinian Authority
has been careful to remain on the sidelines this time. Palestinian
leaders have said they oppose the U.S. offensive, but have not
expressed support for the Iraqi leader.
Commenting on the demonstrations, Palestinian Labor Minister Ghassan
Khatib said: ``We think that using force is unjustified. We have a
position against this war like the majority of nations and peoples
worldwide.''

PATERSON MUSLIMS PROTEST IRAQ WAR: 3/03-- Anti-war protesters and
counter-demonstrators squared off in an angry shouting match in a city
park while police in riot gear watched. About 200 people protesting the
U.S.-led war with Iraq were confronted by a group backing President
Bush's decision to take on Saddam Hussein. The rally was held in the
heart of Paterson's Arab-American community.
The organizers, a broad coalition of peace groups from northern New
Jersey, said they chose Paterson to show solidarity with Arab and
Muslim communities that have suffered a backlash since the Sept. 11
attacks.

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