www.abs-cbnnews.com By ESTRELLA TORRES and MIA GONZALEZ TODAY Reporters

In an effort to fully destroy the regime of Saddam Hussein, Washington is pressing foreign governments to expel all Iraqi diplomats stationed in their countries and freeze their bank accounts.

In Manila, Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said his department will study Washington’s request, noting that the Philippine government exercises sovereignty on the matter of expelling diplomats.

“We are not going to be stampeded into acquiescing to any request of a friendly foreign state. We have to study this in the light of our own interests,” Ople said in an interview with Malacañang reporters before the oath taking of newly appointed ambassadors at the Palace Ceremonial Hall.

In a separate interview with diplomatic reporters, Ople recalled that, “I expelled an Iraqi diplomat. Nobody requested it but in the interest of national security, it had to be done.”

He added, “It is the prerogative of a sovereign country to do so.”

President Arroyo said in an ambush interview that she was “leaving that [US request] for Secretary Ople to handle.”

Karen Kelley, first secretary and press attaché of the US Embassy in Manila, said the US State Department has requested foreign countries hosting Iraqi missions to expel the Iraqi diplomats.

“There is a worldwide request [from the US] where there are Iraqi missions. We have a formal request to have Iraqi diplomats suspended on a temporary basis and to take steps to assure their prompt departure [from those countries],” said Kelley in a telephone interview Friday.

Washington also plans to seize all the documents and records of the Iraqi officials located in the foreign governments.

“But the US State Department asks foreign governments to respect and protect property of the Iraqi diplomats and prevent destruction of records and documents of the Iraqi mission,” Kelley said.

The US government has also asked the foreign governments to freeze the bank accounts and assets of Iraqi diplomats being kept in the name of the Iraqi government.

Kelley said the request was made to foreign governments, including the Philippines, because of Saddam’s refusal to disarm and withdraw its weapons of mass destruction.

According to an earlier report from Washington, the US wants to expel some 600 Iraqi diplomats deployed in 30 countries, including the Philippines.

Relatedly, Ople said the DFA has not been directed to make a position on the possible US military use of Philippine airspace during war in Iraq, as there has been no request.

He indicated that the request, if it is ever made and granted, is not likely to draw opposition from Congress, as it had been done during the attack on Afghanistan.

He said the likelihood of such a request “is not great because all of their assets appeared to be already massed in the Persian Gulf in the vicinity of Iraq.”

Fearing retaliatory attacks, around 22 US embassies and consulates all over the world have shut down while 12 other posts have authorized their staff and their families to return home.

Kelley said the closure of the embassies and consulates were not based on the directive of the US State Department but decided upon by the respective ambassadors in every post.

“As a result of military action in Iraq, there is a potential for retaliatory actions to be taken against US citizens and interests throughout the world,” stated the US Worldwide Caution dated March 20, 2003.

According to a report on CNN website, the US embassies and consulates that closed down their operations are located in the cities of Almaly, Khazakstan; Amman, Jordan; all posts in Australia; Bucharest, Romania; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Cairo, Egypt; Caracas, Venezuela; Damascus, Syria; Istanbul, Turkey; Kabul, Afghanistan; Lagos, Nigeria; Paris, France; Nairobi, Kenya; Oslo, Norway; all posts in Pakistan; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Savanna Yemen; Skopje, Macedonia; all posts in South Africa; Surabaya, Indonesia; Tel Aviv, Israel and Jerusalem.

In Manila, the embassies of Canada and United Kingdom renewed travel advisories for their traveling citizens.

“The travel advisory is necessary because of the history of many incidents that travelers should be aware of,” said Paul Dimond, British ambassador to Manila.

“Heightened tensions as a result of the Iraq situation, together with increased threats globally from terrorism, put Canadians at greater risk. Canadians should maintain a high level of personal security awareness at all time as the security situation could deteriorate rapidly without notice,” stated Canada’s travel advisory dated March 21.

As for the Filipino workers in Kuwait, an area nearest to Iraq, Ople said they are already out of harm’s way.

He said some have crossed the border to Saudi Arabia, where they were received by a special team created by the Philippine foreign affairs department in Riyadh.

“The Filipino workers are more concerned about the panic reactions of their relatives in the Philippines,” Ople said.

Ople said the President has decided to retain Ambassador Bayani Mangibin in Kuwait “by popular demand.”

The President earlier disclosed a plan to send Mangibin to Iraq after the conflict because of his expertise in after-war construction.

“We have an excellent foreign service and we have a very deep bench in the Department of Foreign Affairs. So, if we send an ambassador to Baghdad, you can be sure that he will be very first class. He doesn’t need to be Ambassador Mangibin,” he said.

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english.pravda.ru 16:53 2003-03-21

America hasn’t yet destroyed Iraq by bombing, but the US Administration already begins a post-war reconstruction of the country. The situation resembles selling of lots on the Moon very much: purchase of such lots is possible, but at the same time it is very much fantastic.

The US Administration, as a manager of the Iraqi territory can give contracts to the sum total of 900 million dollars exclusively to US companies with a view of “initial reconstruction”.

And the situation is spoken about from a humanitarian point of view: as if the matter concerns a new “Marshall plan”, more investments in a young Iraqi democracy (but in fact it is not born yet). It is astonishing that objects of “initial reconstruction” are thoroughly studied already and “Iraqi money” is being distributed among friendly corporations.

In what democratic processes exactly are Americans going to invest? To begin with, they will invest in reconstruction of oil objects that Saddam, as supposed, is surely to damage. And quite natural that other objects will be damaged during bombings as well.

Then goes development of the military infrastructure. At that, it has been openly declared already that American army is to come to Iraq to stay there.

There are five American companies that will participate in the Iraqi reconstruction; two of them are the construction firms Bechtel and Fluor, plus the Halliburton oil group. Incumbent vice-president of America Richard Cheney used to be at head of the oil group, which by the way attaches some particular cynical tinge to the situation.

Halliburton representatives admitted that a subsidiary of the company, Kellogg, Brown and Foot “is working on prevention of arsons on Iraqi oil wells.” And this statement actually means that American special services are currently working on Mr. Cheney’s firm, and special forces will also have to fight under the flag of the oil concern.

The US International Development Agency announced its scheme of post-war activities; they pledged to reconstruct roads, bridges, mosques, schools and hospitals within half a year after the war. Together with this plan, there are also skeptical opinions saying that if Americans get oil, but other states don’t get anything at all, they will all the same suffer from consequences of the war.

The war will inevitably entail oil deficit and a sudden bounce of the oil price. France’s Liberation reports: “The next day after beginning of US’s war in Iraq, two million of barrels of Iraqi oil will vanish from the world market, consequently, OPEC’s total oil production level will drop to 22.5 million of barrels per day.” Besides, as the war begins, it’s highly likely that oil supplies from Kuwait that is close to the front will be also stopped; this means another reduction by 2 million of barrels on the world market. It is forecasted that oil prices will go up to 70 dollars per barrel. The pre-war oil price at the London Exchange made up 35 dollars.

OPEC representatives are trying to dispel such gloomy apprehensions: they say they have an opportunity to increased oil production every day (today’s total quota makes up 24.5 million of barrels per day) and to fix a price corridor within the limits of 22 to 28 dollars per barrel. It was decided that as soon as the war begins in Iraq, the oil cartel will increase its daily oil production by 4 million barrels. Saudi Arabia, the key oil producer, suggested that quotas on oil export deliveries must be cancelled in case of war in Iraq. The oil monarchy can increase its daily production of oil by 4 million of barrels, at that it will cover the deficit independently.

However, OPEC’s promises don’t sound convincing for those who deal with the fuel market professionally. Specialists say, majority of oil producing countries are at the breaking point of their production capacities. Even Venezuela’s recent return to the market of oil exporters cannot change the present-day situation radically as it hasn’t yet got back to its previous level of oil supplies. Venezuela Oil Minister Rafal Rodriguez declared at an extraordinary OPEC session in Vienna that at that moment oil production in the country made up 2.65 million of barrels of oil per day (and the quota makes up 2.81 million).

In accordance with available calculations, the West can hold out without importing oil within 110 days at the expense of its reserves. It is not clear what may happen then. It is probable that the West will be stricken with a fuel crisis, similar to that experienced in the early 1970s.

Sergey Dunayev Nezavisimoye obozrenie newspaper

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian: accidents.pravda.ru

www.indystar.com By Gregory Weaver gregory.weaver@indystar.com March 21, 2003   In response to the war with Iraq, companies with business interests overseas are restricting international travel and moving employees out of harm's way. RCI, a provider of time-share condominiums throughout the world, imposed travel restrictions for its employees early Thursday, shortly after American missiles began pounding Baghdad. Company spokesman John R. Barrows said only "critical business travel" will be allowed to Israel, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman and Venezuela. Last week, it relocated an employee based in Kuwait City. The company, with 1,100 workers in Carmel, also has other employees in the Middle East who currently are not considered at risk. However, it is making preparations to move them should that become necessary, Barrows said. "There's a surprising amount of business as usual in the areas surrounding Iraq," he said. "The airport in Kuwait City has continued to be open for commercial traffic, but we are following the lead of the (U.S.) government in terms of what areas are at risk." Joel Reuter, director of communications at Roche Diagnostics, was called back early from an overseas trip Wednesday as his employer also decided to restrict international travel. He and an Indianapolis co-worker were among 24 Roche employees from throughout the United States who were quickly called home. Reuter and his colleague were in Switzerland near Roche's worldwide headquarters to discuss business plans for the coming year. The medical device maker, with 2,500 workers in Indianapolis, is restricting all noncritical international business travel as a precaution. Reuter said improvements made in Roche's travel tracking system in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks facilitated the quick recall. "We have new software in place that makes it easy to determine in real time where everyone is -- which is critical in these times," he said. He said the company will encourage the increased use of video and telephone conferencing to accomplish some international business. Other businesses -- including Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. -- have remained under similar international travel restrictions since the terrorist attacks in 2001. "There are circumstances where you would prefer to meet face to face, but it can be done another way," said Lilly spokeswoman Joan Todd. "We would look to see if there were other ways to accomplish the same end."

Call Star reporter Gregory Weaver at 1-317-444-6415.

Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau Thursday, March 20, 2003

Washington -- In the months leading to war with Iraq, President Bush has often cited the postwar reconstruction of Germany and Japan, the greatest -- and most successful -- such undertaking in American history.

Just as the fascist regimes of Europe and Japan were transformed after World War II into democracies that secured peace in the latter 20th century, Bush has argued that a reborn Iraq can serve as a catalyst for democracy and peace throughout the fragile, dangerous and ancient terrain of the Middle East.

"This threat is new; America's duty is familiar," Bush said in his January State of the Union address. "Throughout the 20th century, small groups of men seized control of great nations, built armies and arsenals and set out to dominate the weak and intimidate the world. In each case, the ambitions of Hitlerism, militarism and communism were defeated by the will of free peoples. . . . Once again, we are called to defend the safety of our people and the hopes of all mankind. And we accept this responsibility."

PARALLELS NOT SO TIDY But historians and foreign policy analysts, including many conservatives sympathetic to the administration, warn that the parallels are hardly so neat and the hoped-for outcomes far from guaranteed.

For Bush's vision to succeed, they say, not only must the war go smoothly but also the peace -- in a country that has seen little of that in its long history.

"I think he really believes it," said Thomas Henriksen, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. "He does see the world as good and evil and believes the argument that democracies don't fight each other and are more peaceful. I'll give him that. But to do it is not going to be that easy."

Indeed, many believe that the closer parallel is not the luminous examples of post World War II nation-building but the far more recent and less tested efforts in Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan.

Germany and Japan offer "a seductive parallel that hearkens to one of our best moments in the history of our efforts at nation-building, so it's as good as it gets," added Thomas Carothers, a democracy specialist the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "But I think there are significant differences in the situation that both Japan and Germany were in at that time and where Iraq is now."

Yet time and again, with stirring rhetoric, Bush has pointed not to Kosovo, where his Democratic predecessor, President Bill Clinton, sent in troops without U.N. approval to rebuild a nation, but to Germany and Japan.

PERMANENT HOME FOR LIBERTY After World War II, "We did not leave behind occupying armies, we left constitutions and parliaments," Bush said Feb. 26 at the American Enterprise Institute. "In societies that once bred fascism and militarism, liberty found a permanent home. There was a time when many said that the cultures of Japan and Germany were incapable of sustaining democratic values. Well, they were wrong."

But using these two nations as models, said Tom Keaney, executive director of the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins University's Center for Strategic and International Studies, "leads more to immediate error than anything else."

Both Japan and Germany, prior to World War II and after it, were quite different from today's Iraq, scholars say.

Both had experience with democratic government that -- while obviously flawed -- nonetheless laid a foundation on which to build. Both enjoyed extraordinarily enlightened postwar leaders, Konrad Adenauer in Germany and Yoshida Shigeru in Japan.

"Iraq has had none of that," said Henriksen. "It's been a brutal dictatorship, one after another."

HOSTILE ETHNIC GROUPS Germany and Japan were homogeneous societies, not the fractured collection of hostile ethnic groups that is modern-day Iraq, first drawn on a map by colonial Britain.

Both had sophisticated economies with a diversified industrial base and a broad middle class. Iraq's economy is highly oil-dependent, with little industry and a middle class dramatically weakened by decades of war and international economic sanctions.

Oil-rich economies are rarely democratic, Carothers said, today's lone exception being Norway. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are monarchies; Nigeria, Indonesia and Venezuela "have all had huge troubles politically because of oil, " he said.

Oil-based economies concentrate wealth and political power in the hands of the few, who then do not want to relinquish it to an opposition group in a democratic election, he noted. Moreover, he said, vast, easily siphoned oil revenues fuel political corruption, even as they create a dependent population accustomed to relying on the state rather than self-governance.

LITERATE MIDDLE CLASS Still, others argue that despite years of oppression under Hussein, Iraq is a good candidate for democracy because its large middle class is one of the most literate in the Arab world.

Though reconstruction of a post-Hussein Iraq can't be compared to Germany and Japan, said Hoover Institution research fellow Guity Nashat, Iraqis could gladly embrace democracy -- as Kurds have shown in northern Iraq, where they have run an autonomous region for several years with the help of a no-fly zone patrolled by U.S. and British aircraft.

"It's only been three to four years that Kurds have had more autonomy, and they are functioning," said Nashat, an associate professor of history at the University of Illinois at Chicago and an expert on the Middle East. "It's a much more workable democracy than anywhere else in the Arab world."

Perhaps most important, scholars said, Iraq's experience of war will be different from Japan's and Germany's at the end of World War II.

"Both Germany and Japan tried the project of fascism, they were defeated at it, and the societies were exhausted," said Carothers. "They recognized that they had gone down a terribly wrong path, and they were ready to try something very different."

To be sure, Iraqis have been brutally oppressed by Saddam Hussein, "but there isn't the same sense that this war comes as a result of a wholesale recognition of failure on their part," he said. Iraqis, he warned, "haven't asked for this Western project of democratization. It's being thrust on them. I'm sure some will be sympathetic to it, but many will not be."

'HUMBLE' FOREIGN POLICY Ironically, Bush campaigned as as an international realist, urging a "humble" foreign policy and showing disdain for Clinton's "nation-building" and military interventions during the 1990s in Haiti, Somalia and Bosnia.

His national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, once said the 82nd Airborne should not be escorting children to school in far-off lands. Today, the administration proposes a wholesale rebuilding of Iraq's education system.

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Bush has metamorphosed from realist to an idealist so bold Woodrow Wilson might blush.

Critics on the left may view the Bush administration as "an evil cabal plotting to install American corporations all over the world," said Christopher Preble, director of foreign policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. He contends the administration "is doing this for what they perceive to be the right reasons, and out of benign intentions. But you know what they say about the road to hell."

E-mail Carolyn Lochhead at clochhead@sfchronicle.com.

goerie.com By BRUCE STANLEY AP Business Writer

LONDON (AP) - Iraqi troops needed just a few days and some plastic explosives to destroy more than 700 wellheads and turn Kuwait's oil fields into a desert inferno.

Fears are growing that Saddam Hussein might have organized a much more meticulous sabotage of Iraq's own oil fields, in a scorched-earth tactic that could cripple Iraqi production.

The oil industry has buzzed with rumors in recent weeks that Iraqis are rigging their wells with explosives in the hope of slowing a U.S.-led attack and making the country's oil wealth worthless for any new government. A loss of oil from Iraq _ home to the world's second-largest oil reserves _ could crimp supplies for importing countries, including the United States, which depends on Iraq for 2 percent of its imported crude.

Oil exports are also a major source of the money that would be needed to pay for Iraq's reconstruction after a war. Due to their strategic importance, the U.S. Defense Department says it would try to secure Iraq's oil fields quickly to prevent forces loyal to the Iraqi president from damaging them.

"We can confirm reports that (Saddam) has taken measures to booby trap oil wells by wiring the wells so that one person can blow them up," said Defense Department spokeswoman Megan Fox.

"If the worst happens and he does detonate something that causes the oil wells to catch fire, we'll do everything we can. Those assets belong to the Iraqi people, and as much as possible we'd like to keep them intact," she said.

Conventional explosives attached to wellheads and other vital facilities could halt production at any of Iraq's 1,685 wells. With more than twice as many oil wells as Kuwait, Iraq could suffer an even greater economic and environmental disaster.

When Iraqi troops retreated from Kuwait in February 1991, they attached plastic explosives to wellheads _ clusters of pipes and valves protruding from underground wells _ and piled sandbags against them to direct the force of the explosions for maximum effect.

The result was Dante-esque geysers of burning crude at 603 wells and serious damage at more than 100 others. Teams of firefighters from the United States, Canada and eight other countries worked from April until November of that year to douse the last flames.

Most of the teams used seawater pumped through Kuwait's empty oil pipelines to battle the fires. The heat was so intense, at more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,093 degrees Celsius), that water sometimes continued bubbling on the ground for two days afterward, said Mark Badick of Safety Boss, Inc.

"We've had fire helmets melt on our heads," said Badick, whose Calgary-based firm put out 180 of the Kuwaiti well fires.

Firefighters from Hungary had a different technique, using two jet engines mounted horizontally on a tank chassis _ a homemade vehicle they called "Big Wind" _ to blast flame-retardant foam.

It took Kuwait more than two years and $50 billion to restore its oil output to pre-Gulf War levels. Iraq, if it sabotaged its oil fields, could take longer and cost much more.

Iraq's fields and pipelines are badly run-down after 12 years of U.N. economic sanctions. Its fields are also much farther from the ocean than those in Kuwait, so firefighters might be unable to pump seawater to tackle burning wells there.

Destruction could be especially bad if Iraqis set off explosives underground, deep within the well shafts themselves. If that happened, firefighters would have to drill a new "relief well" and pump a mixture of sand, gel and mud into each damaged shaft to try to plug it up and stop the blowout.

"It's a long, arduous process," Badick said. Whereas he and his crews put out as many as five fires a day in Kuwait, cleaning up after a single underground explosion can take two months.

Manouchehr Takin, an analyst at the Center for Global Energy Studies, said he doubts that Saddam would go so far as to place explosives 100 meters (yards) into well shafts.

"I'm not sure there are enough engineers and rig operators in Iraq to do this kind of work," he said.

Even if the Iraqis did booby-trap their oil fields, Takin argued that Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and other OPEC member countries could ramp up their production to offset Iraq's 2 million barrels a day in exports.

Saudi Arabia, which has the world's largest crude reserves, has indicated repeatedly that it would boost its output to keep supplies flowing. Also, the United States and other oil importing nations could tap into their 4 billion barrels in strategic petroleum reserves, if necessary, to cover a shortfall.

Brown & Root Services of Houston has drawn up a plan for the U.S. Defense Department for containing and assessing any damage to Iraqi oil installations. The Pentagon has invited companies to express interest in this possible work but has yet to award any contracts.

The challenge for such companies would multiply if Iraq used chemical, biological or radioactive material to sabotage its oil fields.

"That's a whole new ball game," said Peter Gignoux, head of the oil desk at Salomon Smith Barney.

Such a nightmare scenario gives pause even to well-fire veterans like Badick.

Special suits designed to protect a wearer against biological or chemical agents would disintegrate in the heat of a burning well. Firefighters might have no choice but to wait until the fires burn themselves out.