Bush follows successful pattern in Iraq diplomacy

WASHINGTON, Feb 16: President George W Bush’s reference last month to an "axis of evil" sparked anxiety around the world that a US attack on Iraq was imminent as "phase two" of the war on terrorism.

But far from a war-mongering rush to battle, Bush’s diplomatic blueprint for phase two is shaping up along similar lines he pursued a year ago, when he took office determined to scrap the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty in order to build a missile defence shield.

The world wrung its hands in fear then, too. Bush’s recklessness would spark a new arms race with Russia, or China, it was thought. The United States would be "decoupled" from Europe, secure under its missile shield and unwilling to risk all for its allies.

Not so. Through months of patient, persistent and consistent diplomacy that was more nuanced in execution than its rhetoric, the Bush administration reduced the opposition to a whimper. By the time Bush announced US withdrawal from the treaty in December, the world merely yawned.

Look for a similar dynamic to occur in the coming US Confrontation with Iraq. For Iraq is the real target here, not Iran and North Korea, the other countries thrown into the "axis of evil". Washington’s concerns with them are real, but there is little urgency in US statements about dealing with them.

The real innovation in Bush’s state of the union speech was not the "axis of evil", but the linkage of the new war on terrorism to the older threat of weapons of mass destruction. And even that was foreshadowed in late November, when Bush called for Saddam Hussein to allow weapons inspectors back into Iraq or "find out" the consequences.

We now know that Bush was convinced shortly after September 11 that Hussein was behind the attacks on the United States. But without proof, he needed another basis for targeting Iraq.

Beyond laying down a marker for Baghdad, Bush’s "axis of evil" was aimed at countries - notably Russia, France, Germany and China -that have resisted or thwarted past efforts to strengthen international sanctions on Iraq.

"If America’s friends and allies want to dissuade the United States from unilaterally attacking Iraq, they will have to do more than wring their hands and point out all the dangers that would be involved," said Philip Gordon, an analyst at the Brookings Institution Think Tank in Washington.

"Instead, they will have to take concrete actions to stop or slow the pace of Iraq’s development of weapons of mass destruction, deter it from supporting terrorism and hasten the day when a new and better regime will come to power," Gordon said.

And by saying "all options remain open", including unilateral military action, the Bush administration is telling its friends and allies to join up if they want a say in how things turn out.

"Where there is a matter of principle, where we believe strongly about something and we have to stick by our principles, we will do that, and lead, and try to convince others to go with us," Secretary of State Colin Powell said this week. "This isn’t unilateralism this is leadership."

Powell is the Bush team’s diplomatic pointman on Iraq, just as he was with the ABM issue last year. This is especially notable because the moderate Powell is the administration’s champion of "Smart sanctions". To hear him taking a harder line against Iraq displays the Bush team’s unity.

And his early efforts appeared to pay off this week when Canadian Foreign Minister William Graham said Canada could support an attack if the United States demonstrates that Baghdad’s weapons programme poses a "clear and present danger".

The United Nations is due to debate Iraqi sanctions again at the end of May. The US stance appears to favour a hard line against Russian objections to the new sanctions and a clear demand that Baghdad accept UN Weapon Inspectors. (DPA)

Letters show warmth between Enron’s Lay, Bush

HOUSTON, Feb 16: Ken Lay, former Chairman of bankrupt energy giant Enron Corp., often sought President George W Bush’s support for business projects and legislation when Bush was Governor of Texas, according to correspondence released yesterday.

The documents, which include a number of notes and letters released by state archivists, show a close personal relationship between the two men as well as an alliance built on common political and business interests.

"I wish to thank you for your efforts to find a middle ground on the debate regarding electricity industry restructuring in Texas," lay wrote to Bush in a June 5, 1997 letter on Enron stationary.

"Of course we would have liked to have accomplished more, but realistically, the issue would not have moved nearly as far as it did without your involvement, and for that enron is deeply grateful."

The documents were released to news organizations and public interest groups who filed freedom-of-information requests to see Bush’s Enron-related papers. A spokesman for consumer group public citizen, which provided the papers to a news agency, said more would be released next week.

Lay’s relationship with Bush has become a political issue since Enron, once the nation’s largest power trader, collapsed in the biggest bankruptcy in US history in December amid a widening financial scandal.

Lay, who resigned from the company in disgrace earlier this month, was a long-time Bush ally and a generous donor to his political campaigns. He was part of an elite group known as the "Bush pioneers" who gathered at least 100,000 dollars in donations for Bush’s 2000 run for the presidency.

High-level members of the Bush administration said lay called asking for help while he fought to keep Enron out of bankruptcy, but they said they did nothing and that the President knew nothing about it.

The White House yesterday dismissed the letters.

"It’s old news. The Governor, like any other Governor, received thousands and thousands of letter from people across texas with diverse views on a variety of issues. And as Governor, he (Bush) always made his decisions based on what was in the best interest of all Texans," said White House Spokesman Scott McClellan, adding that Bush has "always acknowledged that Lay was a supporter." In recent public statements, Bush has steadily distanced himself from Lay and Enron, but the letters released yesterday show their relationship was a warm one.

They exchanged Christmas presents, expressed concern about each other’s health and sent birthday wishes.

"Dear George, I was very sorry to read that you will be going through arthroscopic knee surgery in a few days. But I also want you to know that at least one jogger got past 50 without surgery," Lay wrote in a January 13, 1997 handwritten note.

"Dear Ken: One of the sad things about old friends is that they seem to be getting older — just like you 55 years old. Wow that is really old," Bush said in a April 14, 1997 letter.

But when the joviality and warm regards were finished, the letters indicate that the Lay-Bush relationship was about business.

While Bush lobbied for such things as electricity deregulation and tort reform, both Enron pet projects, lay called upon Bush to meet visiting dignitaries from countries where enron was going into business.

In an April 3, 1997 letter, Lay arranged a meeting between Bush and Uzbekistan’s US Ambassador, pointing out that "Enron has established an office in Tashkent and we are negotiating a 2 billion dollars joint venture ... To develop Uzbekistan’s natural gas."

In a June 11, 1999 note, Lay tells Bush that the Prime Minister of Romania wants to meet him.

"Enron has recently finalized a gas marketing joint venture with petrom and staffs an office in Bucharest. We are committed to participation in the Romania energy and water markets ... Warm personal regards, sincerely, Ken." (AGENCIES)

London fashion Guru champions curves

LONDON, Feb 16: Superwaifs step aside: Top names in British fashion are celebrating the female curve.

Leading photographer Nick Knight, well used to shooting angular beauties for fashion bible vogue, has launched an online exhibition celebrating the more voluptuous woman.

"Saying only one body type is acceptable is ludicrous," Knight told newsmen in the run up to London Fashion Week, ever fat with waifs. "Fashion needs kicking off its pedestal."

"Outsize?" is the latest venture in Knight’s crusade to liven up what he sees as a stagnating fashion scene fixated on a thin aesthetic epitomised by supermodels such as Kate Moss.

It showcases clothes specially designed by cutting-edge designers, including John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, agent provocateur, Boudicca and Roland Mouret — all for women sized 16 and up.

High fashion usually stops at a size 14 (US size 10) —the average dress size in Britain — and so-called plus-size women are still a black hole for most designers.

"I wanted to see how designers would cope designing for a shape they usually don’t have anything to do with," Knight said. "People don’t normally ask john galliano to design for that kind of shape. And if he’s not asked to do it, he doesn’t do it."

Galliano created a plunging red calf-skin dress, agent provocateur revealed a whisper of Chiffon underwear, rising fashion talent Sophia Kokosalaki draped a Buxom Model in grey silk, and Mouret swathed a statuesque brunette in a black silk apron glittering with crystals.

"Outsize is subject matter I don’t normally get allowed to do in conventional fashion magazines," said Knight, who was the photographer behind dior and lancome advertising campaigns.

"I had some luck in British vogue a few years ago when we did Sara Morrison (a size 16 model) and Sophie Dahl for ID magazine.

"But the fashion press saw it as that season’s exciting thing to talk about. They treat it is as very seasonal...Like a pair of flares."

Since Knight photographed Morrison for British vogue in 1997, no model larger than a size 10 has graced its pages.

Dahl, once a flag-bearer for bigger beauties, has famously shrunk to radically reduced proportions.

"Bigger models was a last year thing. We’ve moved away from that issue now," one editor at a big-selling fashion glossy said when asked about the market for plus-size models.

Another said: "A model is a model. They all come in sample size...Plus-size just isn’t a model."

Alexander McQueen collaborated with Knight on a shoot using disabled and older models in avant-garde magazine "dazed confused". Jessica Ogden used friends and family as models for her spring/summer 2002 collection.

"The more times you can say to people there is more than one acceptable way of being the better," said Knight. "Eventually it gets through."

And he may be right.

One of the most trumpeted products launched at the American toy fair this week was a voluptuous rival to challenge wasp-waisted barbie, bane of feminists. Emme, full of hip and generous of bosom, was created by an ex-designer from bill blass fashion house — and was based on a size 16. (AGENCIES)

No ‘assistance’ needed to begin talks: Mansingh

WASHINGTON, Feb 16: India’s Ambassador to US Lalit Mansingh has said New Delhi and Islamabad did not need any "assistance" to begin talks with each other but would have to first agree on an agenda, a process hindered by Pakistan.

"We don’t need any assistance for sitting at the table. As Prime Minister (Atal Behari Vajpayee) said, we (India and Pakistan) speak the same language. We don’t need any interpreters to come between us. We don’t need anybody’s help to bring us to the table. It is just that we have to agree on the agenda. There has been difficulty on the Pakistani side," he said yesterday.

"If you look at any dispute where mediation has been used, the efforts are to get parties together who are normally reluctant to face each other. That applies to the Middle East.

"In our case, it is totally different. We are not reluctant to face each other. In fact, we have been meeting each other," he said when asked about President George W Bush’s statement during Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s visit here that US hoped to `facilitate’ dialogue between the two South Asian neighbours. (PTI)

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