Iraq

Bush wrestles with Congress to keep aid from becoming loan

WASHINGTON - President Bush fought Tuesday to prevent the Senate from turning U.S. reconstruction aid for Iraq into a loan, lobbying senators of both parties at the White House - but with uncertain results.

The intensified campaign came as the Senate returned from a week's recess and resumed debating Bush's $87-billion proposal for Iraq and Afghanistan. The president has proposed outright grants worth $20.3-billion for rebuilding Iraq's economy and government - money that many Democrats and some Republicans want to turn into loans instead.

By 57-39, the Senate rejected a proposal by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., to erase the $20.3-billion from the legislation and require the Iraqis to borrow the money. Florida's senators, both Democrats, voted for the proposal. Its defeat was expected, but narrower amendments seemed to have more support - like one by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, putting half the $20.3-billion into a loan fund administered by the World Bank.

HOUSE PROSPECTS: At least half the Democrats in the House are expected to vote against President Bush's $87-billion spending request for Iraq and Afghanistan this week, and scores of others will support it only under protest, the New York Times reports, quoting unnamed lawmakers and congressional officials.

A smaller proportion of Senate Democrats may also vote no Thursday or Friday. However, the newspaper reported, the spending bill will almost certainly pass both houses with virtually unanimous Republican support.

CANDIDATES SPLIT: Three Democratic presidential candidates who supported waging war against Iraq said Tuesday that they will cast different votes on President Bush's postwar plan for the Persian Gulf nation.

Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut said he will vote for President Bush's $87-billion request for military occupation and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, while Sens. John Edwards of North Carolina and John Kerry of Massachusetts said they will oppose it in its current form.

The Pentagon said Tuesday that an Army battalion in Iraq should not have sent form letters to newspapers in the United States and that it has been told not to do so again.

In the past month, newspapers across the country have received letters signed by U.S. soldiers with overwhelmingly positive descriptions of their work in Iraq.

But the messages home, published in at least 11 papers, were form letters written by the command staff for the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, then signed by the soldiers.

WASHINGTON - Sunni Muslim extremists who sympathize with the al-Qaida terror network intend to make Iraq their next battleground, as in Bosnia, Chechnya and Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, say U.S. intelligence officials monitoring their communications.

American intelligence experts estimate that several hundred to several thousand violent Islamic militants have entered Iraq to make war on U.S. and British forces. And the collective decision by so-called jihadists across the Islamic world suggests more are on the way.

Whether enough will arrive to create a sustained guerrilla war is not yet clear, U.S. officials said.

"Iraq is emerging as the next jihad venue for Sunni extremists," according to one recent U.S. intelligence report obtained by the Associated Press.

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