Nation & World News
House committee approves Bush aid package
Easy passage of the bill is expected
after a supportive vote from the
House Appropriations Committee,
By Sumana Chatterjee
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
WASHINGTON — President Bush won a
dear victory Thursday by persuading key House
Republicans to support his plan to give rather
than lend Iraq $18.6 billion to rebuild its de
crepit economy.
The House Appropriations Committee en
dorsed the administration's grant approach and
voted 47-14 to give the president almost the en
tire $87 billion he sought for Iraq and
Afghanistan. The bill would provide $65.3 bil
lion for military operations in both countries,
$18.6 billion for Iraq reconstruction and $1.2
billion for Afghanistan. The rest would cover ad
ministrative costs in Baghdad and aid to Liberia.
The key committee vote paves the way for easy
passage of the spending bill next week by the full
House of Representatives. Democrats may try to
amend the measure to turn the reconstruction
aid into a loan rather than a grant, but without
Republican support they cannot succeed.
The Senate is expected to pass a similar meas
ure next week. Leaders in both chambers want
to make sure the legislation is completed before
Bush sends representatives to Madrid, Spain, on
Oct. 25 to ask other nations to donate money
for Iraq reconstruction.
Lawmakers from both parties had chafed at
Bush's original request for $20.3 billion to re
build the oil-rich nation. Led by Rep. Zach
Wamp, R-Tenn., they wanted half the money to
be doled out as a grant immediately and the re
mainder to be loaned after a democratically
elected government was in Baghdad. Wamp had
said Iraq's oil revenue should be used to repay
the United States for its loan.
Bush persuaded Wamp to drop the loan effort.
"My God, if his eyes had been lasers, mine
would have been burned out," Wamp said. The
president said it would "jeopardize our ultimate
success in Iraq," Wamp told his committee col
leagues, then withdrew his loan amendment.
The administration contends that giving only
loans to Iraq would bolster the stance of inter
national critics who charge that America invad
ed Iraq for its oil revenues. Also, the administra
tion says, loans would make other nations reluc
tant to donate money to Iraq. The donors' con
ference could turn into a lenders' conference,
Bush argued.
Lawmakers also rejected, 36-25 along party
lines, a Democratic amendment that would
have set up a trust account at the World Bank to
lend $7 billion for rebuilding Iraq. The amend
ment also called for paying for the $87 billion
by canceling the 2001 income tax cut for the
wealthiest 1 percent of Americans.
Prompted by reports that private firms Hal
liburton and Bechtel had won lucrative no-bid
contracts to conduct reconstruction work in
Iraq, lawmakers also required that the adminis
tration inform them of any contracts given with
out competition.
Incensed at reports that many soldiers do not
have Kevlar body armor or water purification fil
ters, lawmakers added more than $250 million
for equipment to reduce casualties and improve
the quality of life in a war zone. They also added
money to hire Iraqis to clear unexploded mines
and to contract civilian guards to replace re
servists who secure Army installations. Accord
ing to the Army, hiring security guards could al
low 7,000 to 10,000 reserve soldiers to go home.
Even as they approved the new spending,
many lawmakers expressed dismay that they
have yet to receive an accounting for the $78.5
billion they approved for Iraq last April. They re
quired additional reports on expenditures, say
ing they wanted to keep a closer eye on how the
latest $87 billion is spent.
They are also waiting for the administration to
turn over a classified report from the Joint Chiefs
of Staff titled “Operation Iraqi Freedom: Strate
gic Lessons Learned.* In a letter to Gen. Richard
Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sev
eral Democratic lawmakers said they could not
consider the spending request without reviewing
the report, which was written in March.
"Our constituents are demanding that Con
gress exercise its constitutional responsibility to
thoroughly assess the administration's post-war
policies prior to authorizing $87 billion for mil
itary operations," according to the letter, signed
by 30 Democrats led by Rep. Tom Lantos of Cal
ifornia, the senior Democrat on the House In
ternational Relations Committee. No Republi
cans signed the letter.
(c) 2003, Knight Ridder/
Tribune Information Services.
Attacks leave 10 dead, 40 injured in Baghdad
Within an hour of each other,
a car bomb explodes and a
Spanish intelligence officer
is murdered in Iraq's capital
By Christine Spoiar and
Deborah Horan
Chicago Tribune (KRT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq — A suicide car
bombing at an Iraqi police station
and the slaying of a Spanish intelli
gence officer in an open street —
assaults that occurred within an
hour Thursday morning — left at
least 10 victims dead and more
than 40 injured.
The strikes occurred in neighbor
hoods at opposite ends of Baghdad
and, like other high-profile attacks
on supporters or allies of the U.S.
led coalition that invaded Iraq, the
slayings could not be linked to any
one group. The car blast Thursday
was the seventh major deadly
bombing in Iraq since August.
The day of tumult was also
marked by the death of a U.S. sol
dier. The soldier, whose identity was
not immediately released, was trav
eling in a convoy that was hit by
rocket-propelled grenade after mid
night during a patrol near the town
of Baqouba, about 30 miles of north
east ofBaghdad.
The attacks in Baghdad, which
erupted six months after the city's fall
to American forces, came as the Bush
administration intensified its efforts
to stress positive aspects of Iraq's
postwar recovery.
"We're making great progress (in
Iraq). I don't care what you read
about," President Bush said at a
fund-raiser in Lexington, Ky.
In Baghdad, coalition administra
tor Paul Bremer called a news confer
ence to highlight school openings,
new jobs and increased electricity in
Iraq. He played down the violence in
the capital of 5.7 million people,
calling the attacks "bumps in the
road" for a country in pursuit of a
free and democratic society.
"We have made an enormous
amount of progress in six months,"
Bremer said. "There will be bumps in
the road, bad things like today. ... I
think it's important to put that in
perspective. It is a lot better than
what it was."
Trouble in Baghdad began Thurs
day about 8 a.m. in the well-to-do
Mansour neighborhood when a mili
[“ 7777; 777
tary aide in Spain's intelligence serv
ices, Jose Antonio Bernal Gomez,
was killed by gunmen who showed
up at his front door, chased him into
the street and pumped bullets into
him as he pleaded for his life.
At least one witness said one of
the attackers wore the black turban
of a Shiite Muslim cleric as an ap
parent disguise. That assailant
knocked on Gomez's door and
then, as the Spaniard ran into the
street, the gunman dressed as a cler
ic and at least two other men in a
sedan opened fire.
The Spanish diplomat "was
yelling, No! No! No!'" said witness
Ahmed Ismail Abed, an Iraqi guard at
a Sudanese school across the street.
"He fell to his knees. When he
tried to stand, they shot him. He fell
down again." The attackers returned
to their car and disappeared down a
side street, Abed said.
Authorities who arrived on the
scene found Gomez, 34, slumped on
the side of the road about 150 feet
from his front gate, witnesses said.
Spanish authorities later identi
fied Gomez as an air force sergeant
attached to the embassy in Baghdad
and as an attache from Spain's Na
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tional Intelligence Center. No mo
tive for the attack was immediately
apparent, although the Spanish gov
ernment strongly supported the U.S.
led war against Iraq.
Half an hour after the slaying of
Gomez, violence erupted across
town in Sadr City, a Shiite Muslim
stronghold. A car, apparently laden
with explosives, sped past armed
guards at a police headquarters just
as officers were lining up to receive
their monthly salaries.
The suicide attack killed the
bomber or bombers and at least nine
other people, including two police of
ficers and civilian construction work
ers who had showed up to renovate
part of the station, officials said.
Hospital officials in Baghdad said
as many as 45 others were injured,
several seriously. Iraqi police, who ex
amined the blackened remains of the
vehicle, said they believed two men
were inside the car when it exploded.
"The guard tried to stop (the sui
cide bombers) — he shot at the car —
but the car ran down the guard," said
Capt. Saad Abdul Lateef, who arrived
moments after the attack.
The car exploded about 100 yards
inside the yard, leaving a crater 9 feet
wide and 3 feet deep, he said.
The police headquarters, near a
large market area, was quickly sur
rounded by U.S. armored vehicles.
Soldiers cordoned off the area to
guard against a large, jeering crowd
of Iraqis who gathered within min
utes of the attack to denounce the
U.S. occupation.
Sadr City, a Shiite enclave that is
overwhelmingly poor, has been a
problem for U.S. troops since the
war. Muqtada al-Sadr, a young and
popular Shiite cleric in the district,
has openly opposed U.S. occupation
and the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Gov
erning Council.
Some time after the blast, hun
dreds of Shiites mobbed the offices
of the cleric, who apparently was not
in at the time. The crowd turned ag
gressive as rumors spread that Amer
ican troops would enter the offices.
At one point, an Iraqi police offi
cer was chased by the crowd, who
jeered him for working with Ameri
cans and then kicked him until he
fell into the dust.
(c) 2003, Chicago Tribune. Distributed
by Knight Ridder/Tribune information
Services. Staff writer Bill Glauber
contributed to this report.
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