"[The sponsor of Sept. 11] was Saddam Hussein. Ever since the Gulf War, he's been trying to get back at us. Maybe it was Osama bin Laden's people, but my feeling is it was Saddam Hussein behind it. He footed the money."
Spc. Clint Brookins (23, Clio, Michigan), fighting back in Baghdad (AP, Sept. 8)

I shouldn't be surprised. National Geographic reports that 85% of young Americans (18-24) cannot identify Iraq, Afghanistan or Israel on an unmarked map. 56% cannot find the Indian subcontinent, dangling there so conspicuously into none other than the Indian Ocean. Only 19% can name four countries that acknowledge having nuclear weapons.

BERLIN (AP) 1 hour ago -- Two German engineers held hostage in Iraq since January have been released and are safe. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the men -- Thomas Nitzschke and Rene Braeunlich, of Leipzig -- were in a safe place in Iraq and were being cared for by German officials there. They were expected to return to Germany sometime Wednesday.

Nitzschke and Braeunlich were kidnapped Jan. 24 from an Iraqi government-owned detergent plant in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad. Their employer, Leipzig-based Cryotec Anlagenbau AG, has a commercial relationship with that company.

● News: Deutsche Welle

UN Ambassador John Bolton  complained that developing nations last week adopted a resolution "which, for all intents and purposes, tanks" U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's management reform plan.

Bolton said he hoped those nations, which he said provide around 12 percent of the U.N. budget, realize that "repudiating the countries that contribute the overwhelming bulk of the U.N. budget isn't a way to win friends and influence people."

Bolton also rebuffed persistent questions from Democrats on whether in his previous post as the State Department's top arms control diplomat, he had a role in writing administration documents making now discredited assertions about Iraq's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, congressman. I had no role in this issue," Bolton told Rep. Henry Waxman of California, top Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee. Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat, remarked that it was "stunning that you were not in the loop."

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel is visiting the US for a two-day trip set to be dominated by the confrontation over Iran's nuclear programme.

Officials in Berlin said the visit would be used to show unity with the US in increasing the pressure on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment. They said the discussion of sanctions was a possibility, but that Germany remained opposed to the use of force.

Europe and the UN Security Council discussed how to keep Iran from developing nuclear technology

This is Mrs Merkel's second visit to Washington since taking office.

Topic Bush Wishes to be Discussed ...