SOUTHERN IRAQ: The United States and Britain unleashed massive aerial assaults on targets in Baghdad and beyond yesterday in a major escalation of the war to drive Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power. American and British troops seized Iraq’s only port city after crushing Iraqi resistance.

Explosions reverberated in downtown Baghdad, sending great columns of smoke into the night sky as cruise missiles found their targets and warplanes dropped bombs over the capital city. Some two hours later, the distinct sound of aircraft could be heard over Baghdad for the first time since the start of the US-led attack on Iraq. A huge fire raged to the south of the city, and the presidential compound was struck anew by missiles after a lull in the heaviest attack on Baghdad since the conflict began. “We’re making progress” toward the goal of liberating Iraq, US President George W Bush said in Washington, and halfway around the world, large numbers of Iraqis surrendered rather than resist.

Coalition forces also advanced on southern Iraqi oilfields, hoping to prevent any sabotage by retreating troops already accused of setting some wells ablaze. And in the western part of the country, coalition troops seized two airfield complexes believed to house Scud missiles capable of reaching Israel. Military officials reported two American combat deaths. One Marine was killed in a firefight to secure an oil pumping station in southern Iraq. A second Marine died in the battle for Umm Qasr, the port city seized by coalition forces.

US intelligence officials, claiming disarray among the Iraqi military, said there was no evidence that Saddam — or another senior official — was in overall command of the country’s security or military operations. Anti-war sentiment flared in the United States and around the world. Police clashed with thousands of anti-war demonstrators trying to storm the US Embassy in Yemen, leaving a policeman and a protester dead amid a barrage of bullets, rocks, water cannons and tear gas canisters. In the United States, protesters moved into the financial district in downtown San Francisco and 70 people dropped to the ground on damp grass outside a federal courthouse in Baltimore.

In Iraq, the government-run news agency said Saddam had decreed that any Iraqi who kills an enemy soldier would get a reward equivalent to $14,000. The reward for capturing an enemy solider was put at $28,000. Iraqi defense minister, Lt Gen Sultan Hashim Ahmed, told reporters in Baghdad that coalition forces also were targetting the southern cities of Basra and Nassiriyah, but that Iraqi forces had “dealt with” coalition forces in the desert near Jordan. Aid agencies yesterday reported a steady stream of people, mainly migrant workers, leaving Iraq but said there were no immediate signs of a mass outflow of refugees. Some Iraqis in Jordan talked of returning to Iraq to fight.

“Iraqis will stand on our own land. God willing, we will defeat them if I have the chance. I’ll pick up a gun and fight for my country,” said Mohammed Hamza, an Iraqi truck driver headed home. Iraqi taxi driver Riad Karim said: “We are not afraid. Our families are there. What can we do here.” The capture of Umm Qasr also produced a minor controversy. American troops who raised the US flag over the city were quickly ordered to take it down, in compliance with Bush’s oft-repeated statement that Americans are fighting in Iraq as liberators, not conquerers.

THE Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is in Port-of-Spain searching for 27-year-old terror suspect Adnan Muhammed El Shukrijumah, who may be hiding in Trinidad and whose Guyana-born father worked as an Islamic Missionary in Central Trinidad.

The Legal Attache of the FBI, based in Barbados came to Trinidad yesterday and met with US Embassy officials and Head of the Police Special Branch Frank Diaz, where a file on the wanted man was handed over. Diaz confirmed that he met with the FBI agent, but declined to give any details. But Newsday was informed that based on intelligence reports, El Shukrijumah could be in Trinidad and searches have begun for the wanted man in Central and South Trinidad, and in particular, Palo Seco.

The file brought by the FBI agent contains photographs and a detailed account of the reasons why the wanted man is being sought by the United States. Born on August 4, 1975 in Saudi Arabia, El Shukrijumah went to the United States in November 1995 when he was just 19 so he could attend college and also learn English. He obtained a computer engineering degree from the Broward Community College in Fort Lauderdale. This was confirmed yesterday by his father, 72-year-old Shaykh Gulshari Muhammed El Shukrijumah, who was born in Guyana and who worked for years as an Islamic Missionary in Central Trinidad, on behalf of the Saudi Arabian Government.

The father said Adnan graduated in 2001 and left for Arabia. “The last time we saw him was in May 2001. He calls sometimes and sends letters, but not regularly,” said Shaykh from his home in Miramar, Florida, where FBI agents converged searching for the man suspected of having links with Osama Bin Laden’s al Qaeda network. Shaykh confirmed that five FBI agents visited his home on Thursday for more than an hour asking for his son. He said the FBI wanted to know about his son’s friendship with Imran Mandhai, the 19-year-old Pakistani student who was convicted with Trinidadian Shuyeb Mossa Jokhan in 2002 for conspiring to bomb South Florida electrical stations, a National Guard Armory, and Jewish businesses in 2001. Jokhan, 24, formerly of St Joseph, was jailed for close to five years for his role in the conspiracy. Mandhai was imprisoned for 12 years. Shaykh confirmed that Mandhai came to him for spiritual leadership and for lessons in Arabic at the neighborhood mosque in Miramar called Masjid El-Hijrah. “My son knew him yes. I would not say he was a close friend, but they would go to restaurants and things like that. As far as I knew, he was a good Muslim, too.”

FBI agents are conducting a global search for Adnan with suspected ties to al Qaeda and ‘’wanted in connection with possible terrorist threats’’ against the United States. Adnan has been the focus of an intensified manhunt since the March 1 arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, believed to be al Qaeda’s chief operational planner and suspected mastermind of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Shakyh said Thursday’s visit by the FBI agents was the sixth time they visited the family since the terrorist attacks that killed 3,000 people in New York, Washington DC and a Pennsylvania field. ‘’Each time I tell them the same thing: I do not know the whereabouts of my son and he is not a violent person,’’ said Shaykh Investigators are trying to determine whether he had connections to the 19 September 11 hijackers — 13 of whom lived and trained in South Florida.

The father said his son could never be involved in terrorism. ‘’He has no involvement with al Qaeda and he doesn’t know how to drive a plane. I don’t know where any of these things come from,’’  he said. Adnan carries several aliases — Adnan G El Shukri Jumah, Abu Arif, Ja’far Al-Tayer, Jaffar Al-Tayyar, Jafar Tayar and Jaafar Al-Tayyar. Thursday’s news release caused teams of reporters to descend on the family’s tan-colored, single-story, fenced house. Their front door has Police Benevolent Association stickers and a sign directing visitors to www.masterarabic.com, a website for Arabic language lessons taught by the father. Friends say they doubted El Shukrijumah was involved in terrorism. “There is absolutely, emphatically, no way these people could be  involved in anything like that,’’ said Una Kahn, a family friend from Trinidad. “They are the most beautiful people you could meet.’’ Adnan was known in Broward as a quiet man and a bit of a  loner. Florida motor vehicle records show he had two speeding tickets in 1996 and a violation for running a red light in 1997.

Adnan has a record in Florida. On October 12, 1997, El Shukrijumah was charged with domestic battery and cruelty to a child by Miramar Police for allegedly biting his 15-year-old sister Hanna. The charges were turned over for investigation by Florida’s Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services and later dropped, according to their father. State records show the charges were abandoned in November 1997. He was an occasional worshiper at the Islamic Movement of Florida mosque in Davie but hadn’t been seen there in the last two years. When Adnan attended mosque, he’d come in, say his prayers, then leave, said Edwin Hazrat Ali, of Miramar, who knew El Shukrijumah when the now-wanted man was a youth in Guyana and later in Miramar.

A small group of muslim men, women and children marched from Woodford Square to the American and British Diplomatic Commissions yesterday, to present  signed petitions, pleading for an end to the US-led war on Iraq.

The contingent gathered in Woodford Square around 12 noon, where they proceeded to pray before marching up Pembroke Street, along Frederick Street and across the Savannah, to the US Embassy. The march was led by Imam of the Calcutta mosque Wajid Ali-Langton, Dr Musa Mohammed Senior member of the Anjuman Sunnat-Ul Jamaat Association (ASJA), General Secretary of ASJA Mohammed Hussein, and PRO of ASJA Nazam Shah.

Chanting and calling for an end to the attacks on Iraq, and armed with placards reading “Give Peace A Chance,” “Dialogue, Not Blood” and “Why Suffer An Entire Nation For One Man,” the small contingent marched across the Savannah under the watchful eyes of armed security. While curious passersby slowed their vehicles to look on at the proceedings,  American Consul Richard Sherman emerged to speak briefly with the contingent, and to accept the signed petition.

In accepting the petition, Sherman explained the Embassy had certain rules and regulations to follow, but that he would convey the objections raised, not only   by ASJA, but by the entire country to US Ambassador Dr Roy Austin. At the British High Commission on Elizabeth Street, St Clair, the contingent had to wait for approximately ten minutes before Ali-Langton, Mohammed and Hussein were allowed in to speak with the Head of the British High Commission in TT, Ryan Scarborough.

Speaking with reporters following the exchange of the petition with Scarborough, Dr Musa Mohammed said he (Scarborough) had been happy to receive them, and that he would also be passing the petition to the authorities. Imam Wajid Ali-Langton described the march as “a demonstration against the war in Iraq.” Ali-Langton said ASJA was of the view that the “UN’s Security Council was marginalised in the whole situation,” and explained that the UN had been formed so that “the weak would be protected from the strong.” PRO of ASJA Nazam Shah, commended the government for the stance adopted in which Foreign Affairs Minister Knowlson Gift and Prime Minister Patrick Manning described the war on Iraq as “unjustified.”

Government was forced to pull out all those clauses from the Kidnapping bill which required a special majority, after it became clear that it was not going to get the support of the Opposition UNC.

“We are passing it without you,” Health minister Colm Imbert stated, as he made the announcement that government was removing Clauses 2, 11, 15 and 17.  He dramatically slammed his notes onto the table and took his seat. The Opposition sat unmoved, but there was loud desk-thumping on the government benches. Among the clauses which the PNM had to remove were Clause 11, which would allow the assets accruing to anyone involved in kidnapping to be liable to confiscation or forfeiture and Clause 17, which which would have made kidnapping a non-bailable offence. And as the debate on the bill got on the way, two speakers – Gillian Lucky and Ganga Singh – maintained that the Bill would not get Opposition support.

However the government, also had to amend clause 6 in response to concerns expressed by local attorneys and the Opposition. They argued that the clause as written would expose any person — including relatives of the kidnap victim and others operating on behalf of the victim, to a 25 year sentence. Imbert said government, “for the avoidance of doubt and to remove all ambiguity”, prepared an amendment specifying that this clause did not apply to persons who negotiated or assisted in negotiating on behalf of the kidnapped person. Imbert said that while government accepted the arguments of Gillian Lucky on Clause 6, it did not accept the Oppositions’ other arguments.

Imbert lambasted the UNC for not caring about kidnap victims and for doing absolutely nothing during their term of office during which the problem of kidnapping escalated considerably. He quoted police statistics to show that in 1995 there were 56 reported cases of kidnapping. In 1996-81; 1997-80; 1998-100; 1999-136; 2000-156; 2001-135; 2002-227. “We have come from a situation where kidnapping moved from 56 in the period of the PNM to a three-fold increase during the UNC years.

OPPOSITION LEADER Basdeo Panday declared it was irrelevant where Parliament is located and the only thing that matters is what happens in Parliament.

Speaking with reporters shortly after he arrived at Piarco International Airport yesterday, Panday said: “Where Parliament is situated is irrevelant. what happens in Parliament, that is relevant. Mr Manning could sit down in Woodford Square, in a Parliament, in a tower, he’ll still do the same stupidness. It is of no relevance at all where the Parliament sits. Parliament is there. It has historical significance. To move it is just to draw a red herring. That should not be talked about.”

On the subject of Caroni (1975) Limited, Panday said he fully supported the UNC’s refusal to support parliamentary bills that require a special majority for passage, until the Caroni issue is fully ventilated. “I intend to internationalise this struggle in Trinidad and Tobago against discrimination. What is happening in Caroni is only symptomatic of what is happening in Trinidad and Tobago,” the UNC leader declared. Panday and several other Opposition Mps are carded to speak today at a rally in Couva being held by the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union (ATSGWTU). Asked about the health of his wife Oma following her recent surgery, Panday replied that while some initial complications delayed their return home, she was recuperating well. The UNC leader also said war in Iraq was now a fact of life and there was nothing Trinidad and Tobago could do about it. Panday supported President Max Richards’ call for the nation’s leaders to work together, adding this was why he was advocating constitutional reform.

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO’S standing in the international community is based on its debt position and Prime Minister Patrick Manning called upon the nation’s statutory authorities to assist the Government in this regard.

Addressing the chairmen, CEO’s and members of statutory boards at the Cascadia Hotel yesterday, Manning observed: “Our standing in the international community  is determined in large measure, on the basis of our debt position. “Improvements in Trinidad and Tobago’s ratings translate into tangible benefits in terms of reduced borrowing costs, and this can be very significant. “At the end of September 2002, the outstanding debt of statutory authorities guaranteed by the Government amounted to $5.1 billion or 16 percent of the total public sector debt. “Achieving our macro-econ targets is therefore integrally linked to the quality of management that you exercise.”

The Prime Minister said while “in most instances, the statutory framework within which you operate already provides for the basic elements of governance, the Government proposes to introduce new mechanisms for more effective oversight”. “In this connection we are seeking to bring the statutory authorities into closer liaison with the Ministry of Finance. This has been long overdue,” he declared. Manning added:  “Today more than ever, our economic fortunes are inextricably tied to the manner in which we conduct the business of government. Increasingly, owners of capital are selecting destinations on the basis of integrity in the conduct of business.” Trade and Industry Minister Ken Valley said the nation’s statutory bodies are projected to manage a total budget of $6.8 billion this year and the Ministry of Finance has established a Central Audit Committee “to monitor processes and practices to ensure your compliance with applicable laws, instructions and regulations”.