DATE=9/30/03

TYPE=U-S EDITORIAL DIGEST

NAME=TUESDAY'S EDITORIALS

NUMBER=6-130107

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Assignments

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: The contentious justification for the war in Iraq is the focus of many U-S newspaper editorials, with the Bush administration being accused of exposing a C-I-A agent. The situation in Iraq itself is also covered; as is the potential danger of Syria and a potential financial embarrassment for Laura Bush at the UNESCO conference in France. Now, here with a sampling is ___________ and today's U-S Editorial Digest.

TEXT: The number one editorial topic in the nation involves a growing dispute over the disclosure of the name of a Central Intelligence Agency operative, reportedly by Bush administration staffers. The woman is the wife of a former diplomat who wrote a report discrediting the White House claim that Saddam Hussein tried to buy enriched uranium ore in Africa. The disclosure was apparently done for revenge and now there is a clamor for those making the claim to be fired. California's Los Angeles Times comments:

VOICE: White House officials have always leaked [Editors: slang for "unofficially disclosed"] information to boost their own standing or damage rivals. But even by Washington standards, there is something particularly odious about an alleged White House leak seemingly designed to destroy the career of an undercover C-I-A officer married to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson The Fourth. The C-I-A is right to ask the Justice Department to investigate.

TEXT: In Baltimore, The Sun says: "The offense here is so grave that the president must act immediately to find out who is responsible and at the very least demand their resignations."

Seconding that idea, The Austin American-Statesman from the Texas capital says: "[Mr.] Bush shouldn't wait for a Justice Department investigation… He should cashier [Editors: fire] all those responsible…

And in Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette says "[Mr.] Bush owes the country a thorough investigation."

As for the situation in Iraq itself, and the so-far futile search for weapons of mass destruction, San Antonio's [Texas] Express-News has a novel idea. It says the U-S needs to find and hire away the Iraqi "genius" who hid them, because we could use that expertise here.

In Tennessee, Chattanooga's Free Press says finding them is not an easy job, and should not obscure the progress being made elsewhere in the country.

VOICE: Iraq is a big country, four times the size of Tennessee. Even if they never find any W-M-D, Saddam proved by his murderous attacks on the Kurds that he possessed them, and therefore was a threat to the world. [And] The good news in Iraq far outweighs the bad. Nearly 25 million people have been freed. About two-thirds of Iraq is quiet, peaceful and safe. An interim Iraqi governing council has been formed. A peacekeeping Iraqi army is being built. Schools and hospitals have been reopened.

Electricity and water facilities have been improved. Businesses have opened. Oil is beginning to flow to finance economic recovery. There is more to be done in Iraq, but much has been done - with too little notice by Americans at home…

TEXT: Views of the Chattanooga [Tennessee] Free Press.

As for going to war in the first place, Washington State's Seattle Post-Intelligencer says:

VOICE: The Bush administration has offered a vague and insufficient response to stinging charges that the United States went to war on Iraq with sketchy intelligence on weapons of mass destruction. The case for war continues to crumble, and with it the administration's credibility.

TEXT: On the subject of that 87 billion additional dollars to rebuild Iraq, Ohio's Akron Beacon Journal observes: "[Mr.] Bush deserves criticism for the postwar in Iraq. [But] He also deserves the necessary money for rebuilding."

TEXT: Today's Washington Times notes the Bush administration's growing concern about Syria which it feels, the Times says, is becoming "a sort of ex-officio member of the axis of evil club, alongside Iran and North Korea." The paper cites Damascus' support of various terrorist groups, and a continuing quest for weapons of mass destruction.

Wisconsin's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes that Laura Bush, the president's wife, may have been embarrassed in Paris as she celebrated the readmission of the United States to UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The U-S left UNESCO in 1984 claiming mis-management, but the Journal Sentinel notes now that we are rejoining, the Senate has "foolishly and needlessly" deleted the 71 million dollars president Bush asked Congress to approve for the re-entry.

Lastly, Florida's Saint Petersburg Times complains that with the closing in Africa, of Zimbabwe's Daily News, Harare's last independent daily paper, the "tyranny" of President Robert Mugabe "wins again…"

On that note regarding a free press, we conclude this editorial sampling of Tuesday's U-S press.

NEB/ANG/RH