DATE=10/06/03

TYPE=U-S EDITORIAL DIGEST

NAME=MONDAY'S EDITORIALS

NUMBER=6-130115

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: As it has done almost daily since the U-S-led invasion, Iraq continues to dominate the U-S editorial columns. Other commentaries deal with the vote in California to recall the state governor; the terrorist bomb in Israel; and some long-sought truth emerges in Mexico. Now, here is __________ with a sampling in today's U-S Editorial Digest.

TEXT: American newspapers continue to digest the latest interim report from the chief U-S weapons inspector in Iraq, David Kay. Oklahoma's Tulsa World was disappointed in what it feels is the report's meager findings.

VOICE: No matter what kind of spin (interpretation) the Bush administration puts on the report by its chief weapons inspector … the news is not good. … There was no discovery of any large, ongoing program to develop chemical weapons after 1991. … [And Mr.] Kay found no evidence that Saddam made any serious effort after 1988 to obtain the ability to build such weapons.

TEXT: Taking the opposite view, California's San Diego Tribune says "Too little attention was focused on why [Mr.] Kay did find."

VOICE: Three months of searching … has produced unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein was, in fact, hiding evidence of prohibited weapons programs from [U-N] … inspectors, that Iraq was preserving the option of resuming chemical and biological weapons production, and that a potential nuclear weapons program was being held in abeyance pending an easing of international pressure.

TEXT: Connecticut's [New London] Day is worried about the effects on the U-S economy of that 87-billion additional dollars President Bush needs to continue rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan.

But Nebraska's Omaha World Herald and Chattanooga's [Tennessee] Free Press, one quoting a returning Congressman and the latter a new Iraqi public opinion poll, suggest things are going better there than the impression given by the majority of American dailies.

Domestically, the California gubernatorial recall election, set for tomorrow draws widespread comment. In Salt Lake City Utah, The Deseret Morning News decries the laws that allow easy recall of politicians.

VOICE: …it's no secret that this page frets for any state where there is too much direct democracy. The sad outcome is the circus that is the California governor's race.

TEXT: Several papers, including the Chicago Tribune and the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, are criticizing Austrian-born actor Arnold Schwarzenegger for his admitted boorish sexual behavior toward women. Frustrated with both the comedic atmosphere of the campaign, and the seriousness of the state's problems, Ohio's Cincinnati Post ponders whether "The real winners may be the candidates who lose."

Internationally again, Chicago's Sun-Times says of the latest terrorist bombing in Israel and of the subsequent Israeli strike against Syria.

VOICE: Israel's retaliatory strike into Syria serves as a vital reminder that the war against terrorism has many battlefronts. Syria is branded a sponsor of terrorism by the State Department, and Damascus is the headquarters city for a dozen terrorist gangs, including the Islamic Jihad thugs guilty of the bombing murders of 19 people…in … Haifa on Saturday.

TEXT: In this hemisphere there is praise in San Antonio's [Texas] Express-News for a long overdue truth telling from the Mexican government. It now admits that the 1968 massacre of students was in fact caused by government snipers shooting at pro-democracy demonstrators.

On another Mexican issue, the newly issued identification cards Mexico provides its legal and illegal residents in the United States, Florida's Orlando Sentinel says they do serve a useful purpose. The Sentinel adds that Congress must soon address the broader issue of… "illegal immigration -- not only from Mexico, but from other countries [that has resulted in] there [being] at least nine million illegal immigrants in the [U-S] and the number is still growing. On that note, we conclude this editorial sampling of Monday's U-S press.

NEB/ANG/KL