Iraqi National Congress

ANKARA, Turkey -- Hoping to help rebuild an opposition movement in Iraq, the Clinton administration is bringing the leaders of two rival Iraqi Kurdish factions to Washington for face-to-face talks aimed at ending their military conflict.A meeting between Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is expected to take place within the next two weeks. The U.S. effort comes amid concern that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein may be ready to use force to reassert his rule over Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - I spent last week driving and flying around central Iraq. There are so many crosscurrents swirling here, the only way I can summarize them is with this postcard home: Biggest Surprise: How dirt-poor Saddam Hussein had made his own country - thanks to his wars with Iran and Kuwait, 10 years of sanctions and 30 years of tyranny. Outside the main cities, most of the houses people were living in what appeared to be mud-brick huts, often with open sewers and no sidewalks. Many villages and towns here look like ancient Babylon with electricity poles.

Hussain Bakir has about a hundred reasons to support a war in Iraq: his relatives who live there under the shadow of Saddam Hussein. "We have to live in peace, and we need help to do it. War is our only option," said Bakir, an Owings Mills resident whose six brothers and sisters live in and around Baghdad. Dozens of cousins live nearby. But Fawz Bakir, a North Potomac resident unrelated to Hussain, cites family as his reason for adamantly opposing military action. "Can you imagine the scars this will leave?"

WASHINGTON -- Now that a massive U.S. bombardment of Iraq has been put on hold, the Iraqi opposition in exile and powerful supporters in Washington have another suggestion: an insurrection supplied with U.S. weapons.With an eagerly anticipated $97 million worth of U.S. anti-tank weapons, rifles, artillery and training, the Iraqi opposition aims to insert 5,000 warriors into southern Iraq who would encourage defections from Saddam Hussein's army. With American air cover, the forces would launch insurrections from this "safe haven" aimed at replacing Hussein with a broad-based democratic government.

WASHINGTON -- Two months after President Clinton pledged greater support for efforts to topple Saddam Hussein, U.S. officials have failed to persuade the disparate and divided Iraqi opposition to hold a meeting, let alone organize a revolt."

WASHINGTON - Two high-ranking Defense Department officials denied yesterday that a special Pentagon intelligence unit manipulated information on Iraq's weapons programs and links to al-Qaida in an effort to build public and political support for war. In an unusual news conference, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith and his deputy, William Luti, said the Office of Special Plans was never told to produce evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime...

This editorial appeared yesterday in the New York Times: Awash with money from Congress for covertly promoting Iraqi opposition to Saddam Hussein, the Clinton administration is once again dreaming about engineering his ouster.The only problem is that no one in Washington has figured out how to do so. Instead, the administration is preparing to renew its courtship with Massoud Barzani, a Kurdish factional leader who betrayed Washington and other opposition groups by forming a temporary military alliance with Baghdad in 1996.

WASHINGTON - The FBI has launched an investigation into who disclosed to Ahmad Chalabi that the United States had broken an Iranian communications code, information he reportedly passed on to the Iranian intelligence service. Federal law enforcement officials confirmed yesterday that the FBI's counterintelligence division was investigating the leak to Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress and until recently the Pentagon's favorite to rule Iraq. "We're not looking into Chalabi so much as we're looking into who provided him that information," one official said.

WASHINGTON - When Thair Nakib's thoughts turn to Iraq, he sees his family's three-story stone house, shaded by palms on a Baghdad side street, his room brimming with boyhood swimming trophies and medals. And there was his grandfather's farm, about an hour from the city, where he and friends would spend summer days fishing in the river, riding horses or picking apples and peaches. That was more than 30 years ago, before his father, an army general, defected, just before a little-known general named Saddam Hussein seized power.

TEHRAN, Iran - Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi opposition leader, announced yesterday that he intends to travel to Iraq shortly to meet with other opposition leaders and plan a provisional government that would replace the regime of Saddam Hussein. Chalabi, who heads the Iraqi National Congress, the main umbrella opposition group, told a news conference that he was going into Iraq despite objections from some members of the Bush administration but with the White House's blessing. The setting of Chalabi's message was almost as striking as the substance.