Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=5/18/2004

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=IRAQ WRAP (L)

NUMBER=2-316022

BYLINE=NICK SIMEONE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Top Bush administration officials faced questions Tuesday from members of Congress who are concerned about the increasing violence in Iraq -- including what will happen once political power is handed back to Iraqis if, as U-S military commanders predict, the unrest only worsens. In Washington, Correspondent Nick Simeone reports more hearings on Iraq were held just as the first American charged with abusing Iraqi prisoners prepares to face a court martial.

TEXT: /// BIDEN ACT ///

We're losing the support of the Iraqi people.

/// END ACT ///

Democratic Senator Joe Biden, worried that Iraqis are losing confidence in the process designed to lead to an interim government taking over in Baghdad on July first.

During what was its fifth hearing on Iraq in a month, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee what U-S military commanders in Iraq have been saying for weeks -- that groups opposed to a democratic Iraq are likely to create even more instability after the scheduled June 30th transfer of power.

/// WOLFOWITZ ACT ///

They are going to be doing everything they can in the coming months, not just until July first but at least up until elections to try to destabilize the country sufficiently to prevent that progress from happening.

/// END ACT ///

And because of that, he says, it's impossible to predict how long American troops will have to remain in the country, even though the Bush administration and its allies have said foreign troops would leave if the Iraqi people want them to. Despite the violence, the U-S-led occupation authority is holding firm, saying the June 30th handover of power will not be postponed. Spokesman Dan Senor.

/// SENOR ACT ///

We must stay on course here. American credibility certainly would be injured in the region if we made this promise that we've been quite vocal about and then we broke it or postponed it.

/// END ACT ///

With a United Nations envoy still working to craft Iraq's next government, U-S officials acknowledge they do not know who will be in charge of the country on July first. Even so, President Bush suggested a democratic Iraq would put other governments in the Middle East on notice.

/// BUSH ACT ///

This will send a powerful message from Damascus to Tehran that democracy can bring hope to lives in every culture.

/// END ACT ///

A day after a terrorist car bomb killed Izzidin Salim, head of the U-S backed Iraqi Governing Council, U-S military spokesman Mark Kimmitt backed away from his initial suspicion that the assassination was the work of suspected Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

/// KIMMITT ACT ///

Some of the forensics evidence we have picked up at the site would cause us to think that possibly this was not an attack conducted by Zarqawi.

/// END ACT ///

On Wednesday, Jeremy Sivits, the first American soldier to be charged with abusing Iraqi prisoners, will be court martialed in Baghdad in a trial that will be open to the media.

/// 2nd KIMMITT ACT ///

Our aspiration is not to turn this into a show trial. Our aspiration is to mete out justice to Mr. Sivits. He might be found innocent. He might be found guilty.

/// END ACT ///

Three other low level reservists accused of abusing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison will be arraigned Wednesday ahead of their upcoming trials. (SIGNED)

NEB/NJS/KL/RH