Iraq

Franks voids Baath Party

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, announced Sunday that Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, which dominated the country for more than three decades through violence and intimidation, has been abolished, although U.S. authorities have allowed many prominent members to return to top government positions.

The party essentially evaporated after U.S. forces invaded Iraq and overthrew Hussein, but Franks made it formal. He said in a broadcast on U.S.-controlled radio that one-party rule was over.

"The Iraqi Baath Socialist Party is dissolved," Franks said in a statement read by an announcer in Arabic and broadcast across Iraq Sunday afternoon. He said the "apparatus of Iraqi security, intelligence and military intelligence belonging to Saddam Hussein are deprived of their authority and power."

Franks' declaration seemed largely symbolic, given the party's organizational implosion and the somewhat contradictory U.S. request that many former high-ranking government officials, most of whom were Baath members, report to their jobs as usual.

DOHA, Qatar - The U.S. military will pull out of one Qatari air base and upgrade another, the top U.S. military officer said Sunday.

The moves reflect the changed circumstances for American forces since the demise of Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq, particularly for air forces based in Qatar and elsewhere in the gulf. Iraq's neighbors no longer feel threatened, and there is no need to enforce no fly zones over Iraq.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a visit to U.S. and allied troops that the American presence at an air base called Camp Snoopy would "go away" soon.

Major changes are under way at another Qatari air base. Under Pentagon ground rules for reporting on Myers' visit to Qatar, that air base could not be identified.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A food-ration system showcased by Saddam Hussein's government as an example of efficiency and social equality will be revived for a massive food-aid distribution program led by the United Nations, a top official said Sunday.

James T. Morris, head of the U.N. World Food Program, said the six-month, $1.85-billion program would involve the distribution of 2.8-million tons of food. Funding will come primarily from Iraqi assets.

Morris said the program would rely on the vast and fully computerized distribution network put in place by Baghdad when U.N. sanctions were imposed to punish Iraqi for invading Kuwait in 1990. About 60 percent of Iraq's 24-million people relied entirely on food obtained from the ration system.

CLERIC DENOUNCES OCCUPATION: Shiite Muslim cleric Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, who returned from two decades in exile this weekend, denounced the U.S.-led occupation forces Sunday and demanded they pull out. "We don't fear these (U.S. and British) forces. This nation wants to preserve its independence and the coalition forces must leave this country," al-Hakim told about 4,000 supporters in Nasiriyah.

"MAYOR' RELEASED: Iraqi exile Mohammed Muhsin al-Zubaidi, who was arrested by the U.S. military for declaring himself the mayor of Baghdad, was freed Sunday after acknowledging he had overstepped his authority, U.S. Central Command said. U.S. troops arrested al-Zubaidi two weeks ago and accused him of subverting their efforts to set up an administration.

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