U.S. TROOPS OBSTRUCTING REPORTING IN IRAQ

"... In a letter to Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner, head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Reuters said U.S. forces were limiting the ability of independent journalists to operate... Reuters and other media organisations in Iraq had repeatedly tried to hold a dialogue with the Pentagon to establish appropriate guidelines on how to safeguard journalists. These efforts had failed "and the situation is now spiraling out of control"... By limiting the ability of the media to fully and independently cover the events in Iraq, the U.S. forces are unduly preventing U.S. citizens from receiving information..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0929-06.htm

SHIAS JOIN SUNNIS AGAINST U.S.

"American and Iraqi forces fought prolonged gun battles with followers of the radical Shia cleric Muqtada Sadr in what is seen as fresh evidence of growing Shia resistance... Sadr has formed an alliance with Sunnis to oppose the country's new constitution... In another sign of a Shia-Sunni alliance against the constitution, around 1,000 people marched through the town of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, carrying pictures of Saddam Hussein and Sadr..."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article315128.ece

IRAQI GAS 5 CENTS A GALLON, LEADS TO SMUGGLING & CORRUPTION

"... Corruption in Iraq's oil sector looms as one of the biggest threats to the country's economy, yet it largely has gone unaddressed... In testimony before the U.S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee... RAND Corp. ... said it is estimated that a third of Iraqi imports of gasoline and diesel fuel is stolen annually, which this year will cost the country roughly $2 billion...

"At the heart of the Iraqi oil sector's struggle with corruption today is the country's policy of subsidizing fuel prices... the Iraqi government continues to subsidize fuel, setting gasoline prices at about a nickel a gallon... (while) gasoline prices range from nearly $2 a gallon in Jordan and Syria and more than $5 in Turkey. The wide gap in prices has spawned bands of creative, well-connected smugglers who steal fuel imports intended for Iraqi consumption so they can be sold in Turkey, Jordan and other neighboring states..."

http://www.sltrib.com/nationworld/ci_3060789

CIA KNOWS THERE WERE NO LINKS BETWEEN SADDAM AND AL QAEDA

"Al-Qaeda did not work with Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime, two of the terrorist network's senior leaders have told the CIA, intelligence officials say. Abu Zubaydah, an al-Qaeda planner and recruiter who was captured in March 2002, told interrogators last year that such co-operation had been discussed among the group's leaders, but was rejected by Osama bin Laden. The al-Qaeda chief had vetoed the idea because he did not want to be beholden to Saddam, Zubaydah said. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, al-Qaeda's chief of operations who was captured in Pakistan on March 1, has also said in a debriefing that the group did not work with Saddam. The Bush Administration has not made these statements public..."
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/10/1055010937064.html

U.S. FORCED TO IMPORT BULLETS FROM ISRAEL

"US forces have fired so many bullets in Iraq and Afghanistan - an estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed - that American ammunition-makers cannot keep up with demand. As a result the US is having to import supplies from Israel... estimates from military officials suggest that at least 20,000 insurgents have been killed in President George Bush's "war on terror"... based on the GAO's figures, US forces had expended around six billion bullets between 2002 and 2005... using these figures it works out at around 300,000 bullets per insurgent... round that down to 250,000 so that we are underestimating."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article314944.ece

DISINTEGRATION INTO CIVIL WAR

" Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, said... Iraq was hurtling toward disintegration, a development that he said could drag the region into war... "All the dynamics are pulling the country apart... there is no dynamic now pulling the nation together... elections alone won't do it. A constitution alone won't do it."
http://nytimes.com/2005/09/23/politics/23diplo.html?hp&ex=1127534400&en=12534e77fbaab43c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

BASRA WILL NOT WORK WITH BRIT TROOPS UNTIL APOLOGY

"... authorities in Basra will not co-operate with British troops until they get an apology for a raid to free two UK soldiers... also demanded compensation for damage.. UK soldiers have described the moment when they were forced to flee their burning armoured vehicle..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4271234.stm

PERMANENT DAMAGE TO IRAQI OIL FIELDS

"... Iraqi oil executives are employing faulty pumping methods, thus risking permanent damage to underground reservoirs. For example, managers are continuing to pump oil from Iraq's main Rumailia oilfield, one of the world's largest, even though water injection systems (used to maintain underground pressure) have failed; in so doing, they are thought by experts to be causing irreversible damage to the field..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GI22Ak01.html

NO REASON TO CONTINUE FAILED OCCUPATION

"... Signalling withdrawal would, it is said, give a green light to the gangs and private militias, to revenge attacks, ethnic cleansing and even partition. That threat is no longer meaningful since these are all happening anyway...The alleged reason for occupying Iraq was to build security and democracy. We have dismantled the first and failed to construct the second. Iraq is a fiasco without parallel..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1574478,00.html

INSURGENTS INSIDE IRAQI POLICE

"... Iraq's National Security Adviser Muwafaq al-Rubaie has admitted the country's security forces have been infiltrated by insurgents... A report released by the US defence department in July said Iraq's police force was recruiting insurgents and former criminals to its ranks... It blamed poor vetting procedures and recommended that the quality of records at Iraq's interior ministry be checked."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4266304.stm

IRAQ MISSING $1 BILLION, PREVENTING U.S. WITHDRAWAL

"One billion dollars has been plundered from Iraq's defence ministry in one of the largest thefts in history... leaving the country's army to fight a savage insurgency with museum-piece weapons. The money, intended to train and equip an Iraqi army capable of bringing security to a country shattered by the US-led invasion and prolonged rebellion, was instead siphoned abroad in cash and has disappeared. "It is possibly one of the largest thefts in history," (said) Ali Allawi, Iraq's Finance Minister...

"The carefully planned theft has so weakened the army that it cannot hold Baghdad against insurgent attack without American military support, Iraqi officials say, making it difficult for the US to withdraw its 135,000- strong army from Iraq, as Washington says it wishes to do..."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article313538.ece

BRITISH WITHDRAWAL STOPPED OVER FEARS OF CIVIL WAR

"Plan to cut number of UK troops in Iraq is scrapped... and there is now no official date for the withdrawal of British soldiers... This follows growing concerns that Iraq is heading into full-scale civil war..."
http://telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/18/nirq18.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/09/18/ixportaltop.html

REBUILDING IRAQI HOSPITALS

"In April, Najaf's main maternity hospital received rare good news: an $8 million refurbishment program financed by the United States would begin immediately. But five months and millions of dollars later, the hospital administrators say they have little but frustration to show for it...

"The United States has poured more than $200 million into reconstruction projects in this city... Najaf is widely cited by the military as one of the success stories in that effort, but American officers involved in the rebuilding say that reconstruction projects here, as elsewhere in the country, are hobbled by poor planning, corrupt contractors and a lack of continuity among the rotating coalition officers charged with overseeing the spending.

"American military officers and Iraqi officials involved in the reconstruction described a pattern of failures and frustrations... a lot of money was wasted in the process... American officers say there is almost no oversight after a contractor is given the job... a third to half of the money paid to foreign contractors is spent on security and insurance..."

http://nytimes.com/2005/09/18/international/middleeast/18najaf.html?hp&ex=1127016000&en=225f37a75b7a2141&ei=5094&partner=homepage

TIME TO TALK TO AL-QAEDA

"... nonambiguous statements (have been) made by Al Qaeda as to the main reasons for its war on the United States. These have been offered consistently since 1996, notably in the August 1996 and February 1998 declarations of war and the November 2002 and October 2004 justifications for its continuation...

"Since the attacks on New York and Washington, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri have delivered, respectively, 18 and 15 messages via audio or videotape making a three-part case: The United States must end its military presence in the Middle East, its uncritical political support and military aid of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories, and its support of corrupt and coercive regimes in the Arab and Muslim world...

"Al Qaeda is an industrious, committed, and power-wielding organization waging a political, limited, and evasive war of attrition -- not a religious, open-ended, apocalyptic one. Over the past year, it has struck private and public alliances, offered truces, affected elections, and gained an international stature beyond a mere security threat.

"It has implemented a clearly articulated policy, demonstrated strategic operational flexibility, and skillfully conducted low-cost, high-impact operations (Riyadh 1995, Dhahran 1996, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam 1998, Yemen 2000, New York and Washington 2001, Bali 2002, Istanbul 2003, Madrid 2004, and London 2005)...

"Al Qaeda has been true to its word in announcing and implementing its strategy for over a decade. It is likely to be true to its word in the future and cease hostilities against the United States, and indeed bring an end to the war it declared in 1996 and in 1998, in return for some degree of satisfaction regarding its grievances. In 2002, bin Laden declared: ''Whether America escalates or deescalates this conflict, we will reply in kind."

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/09/14/time_to_talk_to_al_qaeda/

NO TIMETABLE FOR WITHDRAWAL

"Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has said that no timetable will be set for the withdrawal of US troops... "We will set no timetable for withdrawal. A timetable will help the terrorists..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4242496.stm

TAL AFAR TO BE ANOTHER FALLUJAH

"The largest US military offensive on an urban area since the attack on Fallujah last year has been underway since September 2 in the city of Tal Afar, an ancient metropolis with a predominantly Sunni Muslim, ethnic Turkish population of some 300,000. The events unfolding in Tal Afar have all the makings of another horrific crime against the Iraqi masses, paralleling the atrocities committed in Fallujah last year. In just nine days, thousands of Fallujans were killed and their bodies left to rot in the streets or to be consumed by dogs. US snipers murdered desperate civilians trying to get water for their families.
More than 60 percent of the city was reduced to rubble and over half its famous mosques bombed out. Nearly one year later, less than half of Fallujah’s 250,000 residents have been able to return, with most still living in ruined buildings and squalor..."
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=5214

1/4 OF IRAQ WATER PROJECTS NOT WORKING OR FULLY OPERATING

"... As of June, the GAO said, $52 million of the $200 million in U.S.-funded water projects that were completed and turned over to Iraqis were not working at all or were not fully operating..."
http://www.klrt.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=F5C25455-5E4B-4357-A5EE-D0BC76BDF957

GAS RATIONING

"Iraq rations fuel to ease critical shortages... vehicles with licence plates ending in an even number will only be able to drive in Baghdad and surrounding regions every other day, with vehicles holding odd-numbered licence plates being allowed in on the other days... Iraq already rations fuel by only allowing cars with odd and even number plates to fill their tanks on alternate days..."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ALI449320.htm

TROOPS FROM HURRICANE STATES WANT GO HOME

"... the US embassy in Baghdad is checking into reports that U.S. troops in Iraq, including National Guardsmen, Army and Marine Corps Reserves, and regular military troops from Louisiana and Mississippi,... are demanding to be immediately sent back home to help their families. It is not known whether the reported mutinies involve physical violence. The reports of rebellions among U.S. troops are filtering out of the Green Zone and at Baghdad International Airport from Iraqis who are working alongside their American counterparts at both locations."
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=134&contentid=2714

U.S. TO PROTECT REGIME INDEFINITELY

"... U.S. Air Force's senior officer, Gen. John Jumper, stated U.S. warplanes would remain in Iraq to fight resistance forces and protect the American-installed regime "more or less indefinitely"... While President George Bush hints at eventual troop withdrawals, the Pentagon is busy building four major, permanent air bases in Iraq that will require heavy infantry protection... Mobile U.S. ground intervention forces will remain at the four major "Fort Apache" bases guarding Iraq's major oil fields. These bases will be "ceded" to the U.S. by a compliant Iraqi regime. The U.S. Air Force will police the Pax Americana with its precision-guided munitions and armed drones..."
http://www.torontosun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Margolis_Eric/2005/09/04/1201356.html

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE AL-A'EMMAH BRIDGE DISASTER?

"... everyone can tell who’s responsible of Al-A'emmah bridge disaster. When the occupation forces, working side by side with the Iraqi governmental troops and paramilitary fighters, close all the bridges that lead to Al-Kathum Shrine in a day that everyone is expecting millions of pilgrims to come, everyone will tell you who’s responsible for the mass murder. When the A'emmah Bridge, which has been closed for the last 9 months by the occupation force, still has two feet-high concrete barriers placed in the way of pilgrims, everyone will tell you who’s responsible for the fall and death of the one thousand Iraqis. When hundreds of pilgrims fall in the river and die drowning because of the lack of emergency staff or river police boats, all of us should know who to blame. Blame the US-led occupation for killing more Iraqis."

-- Raed Jarrar, "Raed in the Middle", Friday Sept 2, 2005
http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/