DATE=09/25/03

TYPE=U-S EDITORIAL DIGEST

NAME=THURSDAY'S EDITORIALS

NUMBER=6-130104

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: President Bush's speech to the United Nations and Iraq-related topics continue to dominate Thursday's editorial columns. Other topics include the California gubernatorial recall election less than two weeks away. Now, here with a sampling is __________ and today's U-S Editorial Digest.

TEXT: Analysis of the president's address to the United Nations continues. In Eastern Connecticut, The [New London] Day says:

VOICE: President … Bush went to the United Nations ... with the issue of Iraq joined. Having attacked … in the face of great opposition, … the president now finds himself and the United States trapped by the demands for multi-billions of dollars and thousands more troops to stabilize the nation. … [But] The U-S and U-N must find ways to put aside their past differences and make that happen.

TEXT: However, California's San Diego Union-Tribune says a "consensus on rebuilding Iraq" is emerging in private talks.

VOICE: The easy assumption is that President Bush and the [U-N] are locked in an impasse [But] …In truth, there is already something of an emerging international consensus on Iraq, even among the disgruntled on the … Security Council. [Because] the post-war economic and political reconstruction of Iraq is far too vital to be allowed to fail.

TEXT: Kentucky's Louisville Courier-Journal is upset with the president for "not giving an inch" in his U-N speech, while South Carolina's Charleston Post and Courier says many papers misread Secretary General's Kofi Annan's speech as being critical of the United States. The paper says Mr. Annan was actually agreeing with Mr. Bush that -- quote -- "… in a world threatened by terrorism … and nuclear proliferation, pre-emptive military action may be required…."

As for Iraq itself, Thursday's Chicago Tribune says there is a real opportunity for brave international businessmen to get in at the beginning of a revived commercial economy in Iraq. And in Washington State, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer notes:

VOICE: A healthy sound has begun to echo off the walls of the U-S Capitol - - the sound of dissent. The cloak of invulnerability worn for months by George Bush … has slipped, exposing [him as both]… the president and candidate for re-election. We celebrate the resulting refreshingly open discourse.

TEXT: Denver's [Colorado] Rocky Mountain News cheers U-S Iraq administrator Paul Bremer for his detailed testimony to Congress this week about how the new 87-billion dollars sought by President Bush will be spent.

News that two U-S servicemen, both Muslims, are under arrest on suspicion of espionage in dealing with prisoners at Guantanamo, Cuba is drawing comment. The New York Post says the case raises troubling questions:

VOICE: Why does the Pentagon rely on radical Islamist groups to advise it on the hiring of Muslim chaplains? … [And] Can America's military presumptively trust its Muslim personnel as it conducts a war against extremist Islam? ... As the nation's military and intelligence institutions increasingly make use of a valuable, indeed vital, resource -- U-S citizens steeped in Arabic culture -- in the War on Terror, effective screening becomes more and more important. This does not mean that the loyalty of every Arab-American or Muslim serviceman should be questioned.

TEXT: Boston's Christian Science Monitor adds, quote -- " … No one should tar [Editors: portray] the entire American Muslim community as sympathetic to terrorism."

In regards to defending against domestic terrorism, several papers, among them The [Memphis, Tennessee] Commercial Appeal, Corpus Christi [Texas] Caller Times and Chicago Sun-Times, are critical of a memo from Attorney General John Ashcroft to federal prosecutors demanding the strongest charges possible for all defendants, and ruling out plea bargains. Florida's Saint Petersburg Times comments:

VOICE: [Mr.] … Ashcroft apparently doesn't trust the legal judgment of his own corps of professional prosecutors … Currently, 96 percent of federal criminal cases are resolved through plea agreements. Experts say, if this balance were altered even slightly, the system would be overwhelmed.

TEXT: Lastly, comment on the California gubernatorial recall election and a debate Wednesday night involving the five leading candidates. California's San Jose Mercury News comments:

VOICE: … In a chaotic debate format that did no candidate any favors, the candidates succeeded more in looking like the politicians they were disparaging than in offering a persuasive alternative.

TEXT: On that note, we conclude this editorial sampling of Thursday's U-S press.

NEB/ANG/TW