U.S.: “Hussein Is Likely Dead”

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said on Wednesday in the first of a series of Web chats, in which Internet users had the chance to question President Bush`s most-powerful aide on any topic they liked, that he believes Saddam Hussein is dead, as reported by AP.

“The good news is that his regime is no longer a threat to the people of Iraq, nor to the U.S. or our allies," said Card. He however, did not respond to a question asking “if the war in Iraq was deemed successful without Saddam Hussein`s death or capture.”

The Pentagon announced that Iraq will be divided into 3 districts; a district for U.S. ground forces, a district for U.S. Marines, and a district for other coalition forces to cope with rapidly changing environment.

Head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Tommy Franks visited Baghdad on Wednesday, a week after the fall of Baghdad. “This gives me a chance to meet these people who`ve been doing such a great job down here," said Franks. He visited one of Saddam Hussein`s palaces and criticized Hussein saying "All the money earned from oil exports must have been spent on these luxury palaces.”

Meanwhile Hans Blix, chief of United Nations arms inspections, is to address the UN Security Council on April 22 on resumption of the search for any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, reported AFT on Wednesday.

Blix told the Spanish daily El Pais on April 9 that he believed finding banned weapons in Iraq -- the pretext for the war – was not the main concern of the U.S. and Britain.

However, Washington plans to send a group of 1000 inspectors consisting of scientists, engineers, and information analysts to Iraq to look for weapons of mass destruction. The “Iraq Survey Group” will replace the existing activities of U.S. inspectors, reported the internet edition of the Wall Street Journal, on Thursday.

Ki-Tae Kwon kkt@donga.com