JP/6/OTHER

Pictures of Uday and Qusay Hussein

Yet again, the United States has chosen to flout international convention. On Thursday, the Bush administration took the extraordinary step of publishing the gruesome photographs of Uday and Qusay Hussein's corpses. The declared aim was to convince the Iraqi population that Saddam Hussein's heirs were dead, and sap the will of resistance groups fighting a guerrilla war against U.S. troops. They have failed and the result is, at best, a military, intelligence and PR botched job. At worst, it shows the U.S. disdain for human rights and the enemy dead.

-- The Independent, London

Documenting U.S. intelligence failures

The U.S. House and Senate intelligence committees have provided a great public service by meticulously documenting U.S. intelligence failures prior to the 9/11 attacks. Released last week, the joint committee report suggests that better cooperation and risk assessment by the nation's intelligence agencies may have prevented the terrorist hijackings. Rather than making excuses or taking political cover, the White House now should make sure that those failures aren't repeated.

President Bush says that creation of the Department of Homeland Security has expanded foreign-intelligence partnerships and increased cooperation between law enforcement and intelligence agencies since 9/11.

The report raises critical issues. Does the administration have a clear, global counter-terrorist strategy that is widely understood, adequately resourced and in place in all pertinent areas of government? Are the FBI, CIA, National Security Agency and other key intelligence operations now sharing information, collaborating on counter-terrorist action and focusing on the right priorities? Are the turf battles, information silos and bureaucratic protocol that hindered al-Qaeda's pursuit prior to 9/11 now history?

We're not persuaded that they are yet. Rather than using intelligence to identify and focus on credible terrorist suspects, too many post-9/11 security measures have broadly targeted immigrant communities. Thus, thousands of Middle Easterners have been deported for immigration violations, those communities fear cooperating with law enforcement and major resources have been diverted from real terrorist threats.

-- The Miami Herald, Florida,

Middle East

Last week, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas told U.S. President George W. Bush how he views the road map for peace in the Middle East. Now, it's the turn of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The road map, as we know, is a multistage plan which, in the end, should result in a strong Palestinian state, security guarantees for Israel and peaceful coexistence. In order for the discussion to continue at all about the difficult questions of borders, Jerusalem and refugees, it is imperative that the monthlong cease-fire holds. Neither party has succeeded in convincing the other side of their good will.

The security fence which Israel is building around the West Bank has in the past few days again become a source of debate. It is being built to stop terrorists entering Israel on Israel's conditions. Settlements which perhaps should be torn down are being safeguarded instead. The fence is hindering traffic between the West Bank and Israel that is necessary for peaceful cooperation to function. The fence exasperates the Palestinians in a difficult situation. It is both a concrete and symbolic obstruction to peace.

-- Hufvudstadsbladet, Helsinki, Finland

Ariel Sharon's U.S. visit

Israel's Ariel Sharon is in Washington for his eighth visit to the U.S. as Prime Minister. His current trip, featuring talks with President George W. Bush, is different from the previous seven ones. It comes a few days after his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, made a landmark visit during which he basked in the Bush administration's plaudits.

In an apparent bid not to lose out to Abbas in their battle for Washington's heart and mind, Sharon has taken several goodwill measures. Hours before flying to the U.S., he won his Cabinet's approval for the release of 540 Palestinian prisoners, ordered the removal of road blocks near the West Bank cities of Jenin and Hebron and reissued work permits for Palestinian laborers in Israel.

These steps are most likely to ease Palestinians' hardships and create a favorable atmosphere for fresh peace talks. Still, it behooves the three key partners -- Israel, the Palestinians and the U.S. -- to maintain and build on the renewed momentum to end the past three years of bloody turmoil and grapple with an agenda of thorny issues, mainly illegal Jewish settlements, borders, refugees and Jerusalem.

-- The Egyptian Gazette, Cairo, Egypt