WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration, to meet a legal requirement that it
channel $25 million this year through the Iraqi opposition, is willing to give grants to
organizations other than the mainstream Iraqi National Congress (INC), a State Department
official said Monday.

"We would also be in touch with other potential grantees to see if there are other programs
that we should be supporting," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told a
briefing.

The INC has been negotiating with the State Department on a program that could absorb the
$25 million, but the two sides have not been able to agree on the details.

"We're making a good-faith effort but so far the INC has not come up with a plan that meets
the legal requirements. So we're not going to rule out other potential grantees who may do
the job faster and better," another State Department official added.

The Los Angeles Times said Monday that Assistant Secretary of State Edward Walker met
last week with three non-INC Iraqis -- Gen. Najib Salihi, Hatem Mukhlis and Mudar
Shawkat -- in connection with the search for alternatives. It did not say which groups they
represented.

Boucher declined to confirm that the meetings took place. "I can't give you any more details
until we figure out if there are other grants that we want to issue," he said.

The U.S. Congress stipulated in the current year's budget that the administration make at
least $25 million available for spending by Iraqi groups on humanitarian work in Iraq,
broadcasting, and gathering and disseminating information.

The U.S. State Department concentrated at first on the Iraqi National Congress, which the
United States has tried to build up as the main channel for aid to the Iraqi opposition.

BLOW TO INC PRESTIGE

An INC delegation arrived in Washington in early February to negotiate the grant but no
agreement has emerged.

"It's not ideological and there's no evidence of graft (by INC members). It's just a question of
whether a group like this can absorb the $25 million," said the State Department official,
who asked not to be named.

The U.S. decision to widen the net in the search for Iraqi organizations is a blow to the
credibility of the INC, which has a mixed reputation in Washington circles.

Some Republican members of Congress strongly support the opposition group but State
Department officials have tended to
make light of its competence. Iraq's neighbors have also kept their distance from the
organization, thwarting its ambitions to embark on armed opposition to the Baghdad
government.

One of its biggest weaknesses is that the two groups with a real presence in Iraq, the
autonomous Kurds in the north and the Shi'ite Muslim underground in the south, are
reluctant to throw their weight behind the INC leadership.

Boucher endorsed some aspects of the INC's work, saying it had been effective in publicizing
Baghdad's abuses.

"Supporters of the Iraqi National Congress inside Iraq have regularly passed information to
friends from relatives outside, on an ad hoc basis, which has then been reported in opposition
newspapers and broadcast media," he said.

"So we're funding a program whereby the INC trains and equips some of its supporters
inside Iraq to gather information for the outside world about conditions inside Iraq,' he
added.

Officials of the INC were not immediately available to comment on the search for other Iraqi
groups.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com