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<p>March 28, 2003 -- EVEN with coalition forces engaged in Iraq, the State Department, the CIA and other key agencies remain hostile to the Iraqi National Congress - demonstrably the most effective, most representative and most democratic anti-Saddam Iraqi organization.</p>

<p>EVEN with coalition forces engaged in Iraq, the State Department, the CIA and other key agencies remain hostile to the Iraqi National Congress - demonstrably the most effective, most representative and most democratic anti-Saddam Iraqi organization.</p> <p>It would seem elementary common sense to work with the INC: It can speak to the Iraqi people as one Iraqi to another, give them guidance that is untarnished by the accents of Americans who have betrayed the Iraqis in the past and credibly explain the democratic goals of the coalition forces.</p>

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Iraqi opposition groups called Thursday for a popular uprising to liberate the country from Iraqi "dictatorship" and outlined a detailed plan for the future of Iraq. In a statement faxed to The Associated Press, the six-member Iraqi opposition leadership council -- set up this year to formulate policies for a post-Saddam Iraq -- urged the Iraqi armed forces to "sever ties with the Baghdad regime" and join them. "The Iraqi opposition command, out of a sense of responsibility to save the people, army and people of Iraq ... calls on the people of Iraq in northern, central...

British Engage Column of Iraqi Vehicles By DOUG MELLGREN .c The Associated Press NEAR BASRA, Iraq (AP) - British forces engaged a column of Iraqi armored vehicles - tanks and armored personnel carriers - that filed out of the southern city of Basra late Wednesday, a British military source said. The source said coalition aircraft as well as ground units were hitting the column, which he estimated at about 120 vehicles. The vehicles were moving south along Highway 6 . Basra had been largely quiet for much of the day, with British forces trading occasional fire with some of the...

The question of regime change in Iraq figures prominently in news bulletins and is occupying the full attention of politicians and world leaders, experts in Arab and Islamic affairs, and, of course, the Iraqis themselves. The thorny issue of whether or not there should be a change of regime by force has become the focus of much discussion. Even among those who support such a change there still remains heated argument as to how best this is to be accomplished, and when — each of the involved parties naturally being influenced by political and economic factors and allegiances. The problem...

British Fight Iraqi Loyalists in Basra By DOUG MELLGREN .c The Associated Press NEAR BASRA, Iraq (AP) - British forces battled more than 1,000 die-hard Iraqi loyalists for control of Basra on Wednesday, coming to the defense of inhabitants who rose up against President Saddam Hussein in the streets of Iraq's second-largest city. Inhabitants of the mostly Shiite Muslim city started attacking members of Saddam's Baath Party and other Iraqi fighters, who responded by firing mortars Tuesday at their own people, the British military said. The British, in turn, shelled the mortar positions and bombed Baath headquarters. British Prime Minister...

CIVILIANS have fought with axes and knives against Saddam Hussein's heavily-armed militiamen during an uprising in Basra, an Iraqi opposition group has said. The "Iraq Headquarters" of the US-backed Iraqi National Congress (INC), located in Kurdish-held northern Iraq, said it had received reports from "field officers" by satellite phone. "Civilians fought with axes and knives against Saddam's Fedayeen", who used mainly mortars and Kalashnikov rifles, an INC spokesman said. There were casualties, but no figures were available, he added. Saddam's Fedayeen, a paramilitary militia which according to the British military has 1000 men in Basra, is headed by the Iraqi...

In a Fox News interview on Sunday from northern Iraq, Ahmad Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress — the umbrella organization of the Iraqi democratic opposition — quietly suggested that it might be easier to induce the surrender of Iraqi soldiers if they were approached by Iraqi opposition leaders rather than by American military officers. He mentioned in passing that his soldiers had been ordered to await the arrival of Allied liaison officers. One must regret that such officers had not been with the INC since the onset of hostilities — no doubt Turkey’s outrageous refusal of cooperation...

On the eve of his recent trip to Tehran to attend an Iraqi Shiite conference, Iraqi National Congress (INC) leader Ahmed Chalabi contacted the Iranian Embassy in London. Chalabi spoke with the embassy’s adviser for relations with Iraqi opposition groups, Hossein Niknan, who used to be Iran’s charge d’affaires in Beirut. The INC leader asked the Iranian diplomat to issue a multiple entry visa for his public relations consultant whom he said would be traveling with him to Iraqi Kurdistan through Iran and back again. Under strict orders from Tehran to comply with all Chalabi’s requests, Niknan did not hesitate...

Iraqi opposition forces clashed with units of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard last night on the outskirts of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, according to the Iraqi National Congress, a longstanding resistance group. The Iraqi rebel troops have taken up fortified positions in preparation for an offensive against Saddam's forces, said the umbrella group's Washington, D.C., director, Entifadh Quanbar. The resistance troops came under fire from Republican Guard units along the roads leading to Taqtaq and Chamchamal, he said. There were no reports of casualties. The Iraqi forces opposing Saddam are working in coordination with coalition troops. "They can play a huge...

The speech President Bush gave last night at the American Enterprise Institute was not only one of the most important of the war – it ranks among the most important state papers of the past three decades. In front of 2000 dinner guests, the president announced that the assumptions that have governed U.S. policy in the Middle East since 1945 would govern no longer. The U.S. government did not use to care about the internal governance of the oil-producers of the Middle East. From now on, it does. The U.S. will not merely overthrow Saddam Hussein – and throughout the...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- A key Iraqi opposition leader announced Thursday that his organization would announce the formation of a provisional government the moment his fighters arrived in Arab Iraq. Speaking to an audience at the American Enterprise Institute, Ahmad Chalabi, one of the founders of the Iraqi National Congress, said, "The moment free Iraqis land in Arab Iraq will be simultaneous with the announcement of a transitional government for Iraq." Chalabi added that this government would be receptive to defections from the Iraqi military; prepared to distribute humanitarian aid to Iraqis; keep order, prevent random violence and...

May 4, 2002 Liberty TV gets snowed by Foggy Bottom Alexander Rose National Post At 10 a.m. GMT on Wednesday, the plug was pulled on satellite broadcasts beamed in to a repressed country where the government restricts the free flow of information. Which country? No, not Canada -- where the regime already jams foreign satellite signals to prevent cultural pollution -- but Iraq.Established last August, "Liberty TV" was financially administered by the U.S. State Department using funds authorized by Congress under the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act, but owned and operated by the Iraqi National Congress (INC), the umbrella group opposed...