Saudi religious leaders, tribal chiefs and government officials gathered in Riyadh to formally declare their loyalty to the new monarch King Abdullah, on the heels of foreign dignitaries including French President Jacques Chirac, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, and Britain's Prince Charles. Regional Saudi leaders waited their turn to file by the new king, shake his hand, and swear their allegiance. King Abdullah made brief remarks, telling his audience that he will continue the policies of his late predecessor and half-brother King Fahd, who died Aug 1. (VOA, Aug. 3) Although this is the first formal change in the throne in 23 years, he has been the kingdom's effective ruler for 10 years. Foreign press accounts have emphasized that he is seen as a reformer, and is related by marriage to US ally King Hussein of Jordan. (AP, Aug. 1) But the Israeli security-oriented website DEBKA noted last June, when the Iraq interim regime took over, that then-Prince Abdullah has marital ties to a powerful trans-border Arab tribe that the new interim president was also a member of—and has played a critical role in Iraqi politics.

From AP, Aug. 3:

2 NY Officials Back Terror Check Profiling
Middle Easterners should be targeted for searches on city subways, two elected officials said, contending that police have been wasting time with random checks in efforts to prevent terrorism in the transit system.

The UN is pledging to lead an investigation into the helicopter crash that claimed the life of Sudan's newly-installed vice president John Garang, longtime leader of the southern guerillas. (UPI, Aug. 3) Violence since his death has already left at least 84 dead. Garang's position, both as vice president and leader of the SPLA guerillas, is to be assumed by his second-in-command Salva Kiir Mayardit, described by the New York Times as "a fierce fighter with traditional Dinka tribal scarring on his forehead" who has "fought shoulder to shoulder and occassionaly face to face wth Mr. Garang for two decades." (IHT) This commentary by Julie Flint in Lebanon's Daily Star (excerpts below) makes clear the multiple challenges Kiir Mayardit faces—first, to hold together his own SPLA organization, which unites several southern peoples. Not included in the recent peace agreement are the conflicts in Darfur in Sudan's west and the much less-known Beja region in the east. We hope Garang's contentious air crash will not be remembered in the same light as that of Rwanda's President Juvenal Habyarimana in 1994.

Wow, the more things change the more they stay the same. This is exactly the issue which led to Saddam Hussein's world-changing invasion of Kuwait in 1990 (see WW4 REPORT #70). Is it ever going to be embarrassing for the White House if two of its Persian Gulf client states go to war with each other! Via TruthOut:

Iraqis Accuse Kuwait of Stealing Oil
The Associated Press

Tuesday 02 August 2005

Baghdad - Iraqi legislators accused Kuwait of stealing their oil as well as chipping away at their national territory on the border - allegations similar to those used by Saddam Hussein to justify his invasion of Kuwait that began 15 years ago Tuesday.

An Iraqi delegation was scheduled to head to Kuwait on Wednesday discuss the incidents along the Kuwaiti border

"There have been violations such as digging horizontal oil wells to pump Iraq oil," legislator Jawad al-Maliki, chairman of the parliament's Security and Defense Committee, told the National Assembly on Tuesday.

Some fairly amazing words of self-evident truth from Jack Straw, which it is impossible to imagine issuing forth from any figure in the US administration. But a consensus appears to be emerging on both sides of the Atlantic that there will be big troop reductions after the new constitution takes effect next year. Is this just intended for public consumption or do they mean it? And will there be a significant escalation of violence before the new constitution is worked out? Via TruthOut:

US-Led Troops in Iraq Part of Problem - UK's Straw
Reuters
02 August 2005

London - The presence of British and U.S. troops in Iraq is fuelling the Sunni-led insurgency which has killed hundreds of people, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in comments published on Tuesday. In an interview with Britain's Financial Times newspaper, Straw said it was crucial Iraq's draft constitution was ready by a mid-August deadline to pave the way for a troop withdrawal.

"The more certainty you have on that (the constitution), the more you can have a programme for the draw-down of troops which is important for the Iraqis," he said. "Because -- unlike in Afghanistan -- although we are part of the security solution there, we are also part of the problem."

Daniel Yergin, author of the Pulitzer-winning history of the petroleum industry, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power, was recently invoked by New York Times columnist Bob Herbert to drive home the point that the Persian Gulf oil reserves are "the greatest single prize in all history"—and at the root of George Bush's Iraq adventure. On July 31, Yergin had an op-ed in the Washington Post (online at the website of Yergin's own group, Cambridge Energy Research Associates or CERA) raining on the morbid parade of the "peak oil" apocalyptoids. Yergin argues that the current price spike is due to "above ground" factors like political instability, not the "below ground" factor of dwindling reserves. But he fails to consider that the driving forces behind this instability—the US military grab for the Gulf reserves, and the jihadi imperative to resist it—may, at least, be driven by the perception that reserves are running on empty. And even Yergin admits that that world energy consumption will explode over the next several years if current trends continue, providing what he perhaps somewhat understatedly calls "a very big challenge." WW4 REPORT has always argued that the price spike could be an intentional creation of a White House strategy to boost global production—which is exactly what Yergin argues it will do. It should also be kept in mind that from the standpoint of the health and stability of the biosphere, continued high oil production is probably the worst thing imaginable, as signals mount of global ecological collapse.

From yesterday's Newsday:

LONDON -- Bombers in the botched July 21 attacks here were avenging the deaths of Muslim civilians in Iraq, one suspect reportedly told authorities, as British and Italian police seized eight more suspects yesterday and extended their probe to Saudi Arabia.

The startling admissions by the suspect, Osman Hussain, during a closed-door hearing in Rome were published in Italian media yesterday as Britain and Italy remained on high alert for attacks.

The July 21 bombers were shown hours of footage of dead Iraqi civilians and grieving Iraqi widows in preparation for their attacks aboard three subways and a bus, Hussain, 27, was quoted as saying at the hearing in Rome, where he was captured Friday.

"We were told we must do something big," Hussain reportedly said.

John McCain—who knows a thing or two about what it is like to be a prisoner of war—steps up to the plate. And it is revealed that even Pentagon legal staff had warned that the current policy would invite abuse and violate law. But Bush insists on complete unaccountability and impunity, and no fixed definition for the continuing legal fiction of "enemy combatant" designation. Marjorie Cohn writes for TruthOut, Aug. 1: