IRAQ OIL SITUATION

"... average exports in November fell to 1.21 million barrels a day – the lowest level since at least November 2003 – and down from 1.24 million barrels per day last month. An (Oil) ministry spokesman... said the country was facing an oil supply crisis. "Production in the north, centre and south is about to suffocate..."
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-12-30T210241Z_01_KRA056976_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAQ.xml&archived=False

"... An official of the Oil Ministry in Baghdad... (said) “We do not know the exact quantity of oil we are exporting, we do not exactly know the prices we are selling it for, and we do not know where the oil revenue is going to.”
http://www.juancole.com/2005/12/iraq-petroleum-production-suffocating.html

MOST OPTIMISTIC SCENARIO - 20,000 ON 4 PERMANENT BASES

"A senior U.S. military commander, familiar with strategic plans, told me today there are two possible longish-term scenarios for Iraq... Optimistic scenario: In three years, the U.S. will be down to 20,000 troops. Their main mission will be to provide Iraqi forces with training, intelligence, logistics support, close air support, and lift. The forces would mainly be stationed at four "enduring bases," which the commander said would likely be: Talil, Taji, Balad and one of the bases around the Baghdad Airport."
--Richard Engel, NBC, Blogging Baghdad - The Untold Story, 29 Dec 2005
http://onthescene.msnbc.com/baghdad/2005/12/us_troops_are_s.html

U.S. PRISONS IN IRAQ EXPANDING

"U.S. forces are working to complete a major expansion of detention facilities in Iraq as a growing prisoner population nears 15,000... The military earlier in the year launched a $51 million expansion of detention facilities to accommodate a growing population... The biggest is Camp Bucca near Umm Qasr in the south, holding 8,011 detainees. Abu Ghraib, notorious also as a torture center under deposed President Saddam Hussein, holds 4,648. Fort Suse, at a Russian-built former military barracks near Sulaimaniya in northern Iraq, holds 1,347. Camp Cropper near Baghdad airport, holds 124 detainees, including many "high-value" prisoners. A further 542 are held at smaller facilities... Existing facilities are strained, with the population at 123 percent of "optimal capacity..."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N286539.htm

KURDISH IRAQI SOLDIERS WELCOME CIVIL WAR AND END OF IRAQ

"... Iraqi army soldiers in northern Iraq - who are overwhelmingly Kurdish - made clear that many soldiers think that a civil war is coming... "I see Iraq gradually becoming three regions that will one day become independent," said Jafar Mustafir, a close adviser to Iraq's Kurdish interim president, Jalal Talabani, and the deputy head of Peshmerga for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two major Kurdish parties. "I see us moving toward the end of Iraq."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/13495281.htm

"Kurdish leaders have inserted more than 10,000 of their militia members into Iraqi army divisions in northern Iraq to lay the groundwork to swarm south, seize the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and possibly half of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, and secure the borders of an independent Kurdistan... Many said they wouldn't hesitate to kill their Iraqi army comrades, especially Arabs..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/13495329.htm

SOLDIER BLOGGERS

"In a development that is worrying US military commanders in Iraq, a growing number of US soldiers - 200 at the last count - have set up their own blogs, or internet diaries, and are updating them from the battlefield..."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/us-military-worried-by-soldiers-blogs/2005/12/27/1135445571736.html

MOST PROBABLE SCENARIO FOR IRAQ

"... the most probable scenario for 2006 and beyond is a fragile central government in Baghdad bombarded by an intractable guerrilla movement - a chaotic and sectarian hornets' nest breeding one, 10, 100 mini (or maxi) al-Qaeda leaders able to convulse the Middle East..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GL23Ak01.html

ARAB MEDIA COVERAGE OF IRAQ WAR IS BETTER THAN U.S.

"In the past three years, covering the Anglo-American led war in Iraq and its messy aftermath, I've made it a point to regularly watch Arab, European and American television services in order to compare their coverage. On the basis of what I have witnessed during the past 1,000 days... the overall coverage of Iraq on the mainstream Arab satellite services has been more comprehensive, balanced and accurate than the coverage of any mainstream American cable or broadcast television service."
--Rami Khoury, the editor of The Daily Star of Lebanon and a former Nieman Fellow in journalism at Harvard Unversity
http://search.csmonitor.com/2005/1227/dailyUpdate.html


PENTAGON DISSEMINATES SOME FALSE INFORMATION

"... Retired Air Force Col. Sam Gardiner, in a lengthy 2003 study, cited 50 stories in U.S. publications based on information that the Pentagon disseminated even though it knew that the information was false. "It's a culture that believes that it's OK to manipulate the story," Gardiner said. "It goes all the way from the senior leaders down to the battalion commanders."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0512110416dec11,1,3760766.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

SHIITES MAY ASK U.S. TROOPS TO WITHDRAW

"... If... (Shia) leaders feel they have to choose between relying on U.S. military protection and the security of their regime (by controlling the Ministry of Interior police), they are likely to choose the latter. They could counter U.S. pressures by warning they will demand a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops... The implication of calling for a relatively rapid U.S. withdrawal would be that the Shiite leaders would turn to Iran for overt financial and even military assistance... The Bush administration's strategy of pressure on Shiite leaders over the issue of control over state security organs thus has the potential to spin out of control and cause another policy disaster in Iraq and the entire Middle East."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31576

U.S. ALLOWS HUMAN TRAFFICKING BY CONTRACTORS

"... Middle Eastern firms working under American subcontracts in Iraq, and a chain of human brokers beneath them, engage in the kind of abuses condemned elsewhere by the U.S. government as human trafficking. KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary, relies on more than 200 subcontractors to carry out a multibillion-dollar U.S. Army contract for privatization of military support operations in the war zone.the Defense Department has yet to adopt a policy to bar human trafficking..."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0512270176dec27,1,2117782.story

SADDAM TRIAL NOT A FARCE

"... Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin is a quiet, polite, highly intelligent man, who wants the world to see that he dispenses a very different kind of justice from Saddam's own courts... The chief judge has been remarkably lenient to Saddam and his half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, and they have taken advantage of this... But does this mean, as some people in the Western media are starting to say, that the trial is descending into farce?... If the judge treated Saddam more roughly, he would seem like a martyr. The fact that he does not is a sign of success, not of failure."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4556268.stm

PROMINENT ELECTED SUNNI CANDIDATES DISQUALIFIED

"An Iraqi court has ruled that some of the most prominent Sunni Muslims who were elected to parliament last week won't be allowed to serve because officials suspect that they were high-ranking members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party... The ruling is likely to dampen Bush administration hopes that the election would bring more of the disaffected Sunni minority into Iraq's political process and undermine Sunni support for the insurgency. Instead, the decision is likely to stoke fears of widening sectarian divisions in a nation already in danger of descending into civil war... the ruling would agitate already frustrated Sunnis who are questioning the validity of the elections...."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/13476434.htm

IRAQ AND IRAN BUILDING TIES

"... Baghdad is keen strengthening mutual ties in all areas with Tehran... The Iraqi foreign ministry is planing to dispatch a special delegation to Tehran to discuss issues outstanding between the two nations... Iran has agreed to Iraq's proposals for opening a coordination office in Tehran... The two nations have been striving to forge closer trade ties..."
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-17/0512246904234417.htm

U.S. IS NOT BETTER OFF WITHOUT SADDAM

"We're better off now without Saddam." That is not true. The fall of Saddam led to the rise of al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers; and even Allawi admitted that human rights in Iraq now are no better than under Saddam. Not to mention that there is no reconstruction, unemployment is at 70%, and a country which in the late 1980s had one of the highest standards of living in the Arab world has been razed to a sub-Saharan level."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GL23Ak01.html

IRAQ DISINTEGRATING

"Iraq is disintegrating... the parliamentary election last week shows the country is dividing between Shia, Sunni and Kurdish regions... Religious fundamentalists now have the upper hand. The secular and nationalist candidate backed by the US and Britain was humiliatingly defeated... The election marks the final shipwreck of American and British hopes of establishing a pro-Western secular democracy in a united Iraq..."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article334476.ece

SUNNIS REJECT ELECTION RESULTS

"Sunni leaders dismiss election results (as rigged)... fueling fears about civil war... many fear that Sunnis will depend on the insurgency to achieve their political aims, not the parliament, pushing the nation toward civil war, not consensus, and threatening U.S. plans to withdraw some troops..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/13451275.htm

AL QAEDA GIVEN A NEW BASE IN IRAQ

"... Bush proclaims his war without end in Iraq the central front in a new cold war, never acknowledging that he has handed Al Qaeda terrorists a new home base.... Under Bush's watch, we not only suffered the September 11 terrorist attacks while he snoozed, but he has failed to capture the perpetrator of those attacks and has given Al Qaeda a powerful base in Iraq from which to terrorize."
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051128/scheer1116

WHY MARGINALIZING THE SUNNIS WILL NOT END THE INSURGENCY

"... A recurring theme in the history of war is that most of the killing typically occurs long after rational calculation would call for the surrender of the losing side. ... If one or more of the parties knows that peace implies the end of its existence, there exists no motive to return to peace. That explains why the majority of casualties in such wars are suffered long after all hope of victory has disappeared..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GL20Ak02.html

PRE-EMPTIVE WAR ONLY A PART OF IMPERIAL POWER

"... he can authorize preemptive wars, spying on American citizens without court orders, incarcerating American citizens as "enemy combatants" without any constitutional protections, and torturing whomever he wants... All of this is, of course, is within the law as he... define(s) it. As one of the White House insiders said: "We are an Empire. We make our own reality."
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1219-31.htm

ARABS SEE IRAQ AS A POLICE STATE

"... Bush keeps making that the political developments in Iraq will influence the rest of the Middle East is ridiculous to anyone who actually talks to anyone from the region. Arabs mostly believe that Iraq is laboring under an oppressive foreign military occupation.... American Imperial "democracy" strikes most Arabs as paternalistic and hypocritical, masking a police state of a sort they are all too familiar with..."
--Juan Cole, Informed Comment, December 18, 2005
http://www.juancole.com/2005/12/parties-jockey-for-power-in-wake-of.html

IRAQ WAR WAS WRONG

"... Bush admitted Wednesday, "It is true that much of the intelligence (on which his administration invaded Iraq) turned out to be wrong."... If the United States invaded Iraq based on false intelligence, the attack itself was wrong, and Bush should admit this. In the war that began on a false premise, at least 30,000 Iraqi civilians are believed to have been killed, and more than 2,000 U.S. troops have died..."
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200512170149.html

BULGARIA AND UKRAIN WITHDRAW

"Bulgaria has ended military operations in Iraq and has begun withdrawing its troops... The Bulgarian withdrawal coincides with the departure of the remaining Ukrainian forces in Iraq, due to be completed by the end of December..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4536040.stm

U.S. EMBRACES INSURGENTS - NOW CALLED NATIONALISTS

"... the image of the insurgents has been transformed from "anti-Iraqi forces" to "nationalists"... (the) administration has quietly renounced the goal of defeating the non-al-Qaeda, Sunni-armed organizations there... The administration is evidently preparing for serious negotiations with the Sunni insurgents, whom it has started referring to as "nationalists"...."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GL17Ak02.html

ANY WITHDRAWAL DUE TO ELECTIONS WILL BE ON TERMS UNFAVORABLE TO BUSH

"... (Americans are) hoping that these elections are a milestone on the way to withdrawing US troops from Iraq. I cannot imagine why anyone thinks that. The Iraqi "government" is a failed state. Virtually no order it gives has any likelihood of being implemented. It has no army to speak of and cannot control the country. Its parliamentarians are attacked and sometimes killed with impunity. Its oil pipelines are routinely bombed, depriving it of desperately needed income. It faces a powerful guerrilla movement that is wholly uninterested in the results of elections and just wants to overthrow the new order. Elections are unlikely to change any of this...

"The only way in which these elections may lead to a US withdrawal is that they will ensconce parliamentarians who want the US out on a short timetable. Virtually all the Sunnis who come in will push for that result... and so will the members of the Sadr Movement, now a key component of the Shiite religious United Iraqi Alliance. That is, these elections lead to a US withdrawal on terms unfavorable to the Bush administration..."

--Juan Cole in Informed Comment, 15 Dec 2005
http://www.juancole.com/2005/12/high-turnout-expected-as-iraqis-go-to.html

DRAW-DOWN TO SUBSTITUTE AERIAL OCCUPATION FOR TROOPS

"... A broad overview of the types of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft the U.S. military is employing in Iraq gives an idea of the scope of the air war currently underway and the sort of destructive power available on an everyday basis. It can also offer hints of what we might expect in an air-power intensified draw-down future.

"While this is in no way an inclusive list, fixed-wing aircraft include the F-14D Tomcat and F/A 18 fighter jets which are being used by the Navy and Marines. The F-18 fires the laser-guided, 630 pound Maverick Missile (at a cost of $141,442 per shot, by the way). In addition, both the F-14 and F/A 18 fire a 20mm hydraulically operated gatling gun which emits between 4,000 and 6,000 rounds per minute at a range of "several thousand yards."

"The Air Force is using F-15 Eagle and F-16 Falcon fighter jets, along with AF MQ-1 Predator drones which are armed with Hellfire missiles. AV-8 Harrier fighter jets have also been used in Iraq as have AC-130 gunships, especially in urban battles like the fighting for Fallujah last year. These planes are capable of circling targets for long periods while raining thousands of rounds of ammunition per minute down from above. Then there is the A-10 Warthog military jet which is used as ground support, as it is capable of firing 4,200 armor piercing 30mm rounds per minute.

"At this point, bombs used commonly range in explosive power from 250-2,000 pounds, with cluster bombs, the MK-77 500 pound fire bomb (napalm) and the infamous White Phosphorous also having been employed at various moments. The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bomb, ranging from 250-2,000 pounds, was used extensively during the most recent military operation against Fallujah. The 2,000 pound variety, for example, has the capacity to blast a crater in a concrete street 70 feet in diameter and 30 feet deep. This size of bomb has a blast radius of 110 feet within which a human being will die, while fragmentation from the bomb casing can achieve velocities up to 9,000 feet per second and reach areas over 3,000 feet away from the detonation site.

"The U.S. military is also using a wide variety of helicopters offensively in Iraq. These include the Apache, Kiowa, Black Hawk, Cobra, Pave Low, Chinook, and Iroquois...."

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1214-23.htm

IRAN BENEFITTED FROM INVASION OF IRAQ

"... One country... has benefited greatly from the US-led invasion. Iran, increasingly radical, now knows that the United States lacks both the military strength and the political will to attack it. And the new, democratic, predominantly Shia Iraq has become its closest ally. None of this is what... (the neocons) in Washington expected back in 2002.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4527908.stm

DOOMED TO FAIL

"... no amount of feel good stories disguise the fact that the American project is doomed to fail because the premise itself is flawed - a semblance of democracy as the offspring of an illegal invasion and foreign occupation.."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GL15Ak03.html

IRAQI FORCES MISTREATING PRISONERS AGAIN

"... On Nov. 15, soldiers with the Third Infantry Division, charged with controlling Baghdad, entered a (Ministry of Interior) bunker in central Baghdad and found 169 malnourished prisoners, some of them tortured. Most of those prisoners were Sunni Arabs... (on) Dec. 12 American and Iraqi forces raiding an Iraqi government detention center... in Baghdad discovered more than 600 prisoners packed into a cramped space, 13 of them mistreated so badly they had to be taken to a hospital... The detention center... is run by a commando unit from the Interior Ministry, which oversees the country's police forces, said the senior American official, Lt. Col. Guy Rudisill, a spokesman for the American detention system in Iraq".
http://nytimes.com/2005/12/12/international/middleeast/12iraq.html?hp&ex=1134450000&en=1c5afa302c14e8ec&ei=5094&partner=homepage

"... 12 of the 13 men in hospital had suffered torture, including electric shocks and the loss of finger nails.... "Two of them showed me their nails, and they were gone..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4520714.stm

QAEDA-IRAQ LINK OBTAINED BY FOREIGN TORTURE, RECANTED

"The Bush administration based a crucial prewar assertion about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda on detailed statements made by a prisoner while in Egyptian custody who later said he had fabricated them to escape harsh treatment... The fact that Mr. Libi recanted after the American invasion of Iraq and that intelligence based on his remarks was withdrawn by the C.I.A. in March 2004 has been public for more than a year. But American officials had not previously acknowledged either that (Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi) made the false statements in foreign custody or that Mr. Libi contended that his statements had been coerced."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1209-07.htm

BAGHDAD - THE UNTOLD STORY - BY NBC

"Blogging Baghdad aims to provide a dynamic look at the story behind the story of covering the news in Iraq. Online entries – from text to video blogs – will detail the realities of daily life for ordinary Iraqis, American troops and the media living and working in a 24 hour war zone. Regular contributors include NBC News correspondent Richard Engel, as well as other producers and staff on assignment in Iraq."
http://www.baghdadblog.msnbc.com/

U.S. BLAMED FOR FUNDAMENTALIST SHI'ITE DEATH SQUADS

"... Iraqis are coming to fear those bands of men in masks who seem to operate with the Iraqi police... such killing is the work of death squads operating with the Iran-backed Shi'ite forces that dominate the government, and therefore the police... The "death squads" as they have come to be called are getting more active with just a week to go before the December 15 election... "

"... the men... were members of the Shi'ite Badr Organization, a militia affiliated with Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI)... the Americans have helped bring in new Iran-backed terror. "So many of us are against Iraq being controlled by these fundamental Islamic Iranian loyalists like al-Hakim... Now we are seeing the suffering and ultimate dictatorship they have brought us here with the help of the Americans."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GL09Ak03.html

CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES EVANGELIZING IN IRAQ?

"... the Iraqi constitution says that Islam is the religion of state, that the civil parliament cannot pass legislation that contradicts the laws of Islam; and it allows ayatollahs to be put on court benches... Bush implied to his evangelical supporters that they would have a free mission field in Iraq (which they wanted to use then to evangelize the rest of the Muslim world). Any evangelical missionary who shows up in Iraq today may as well just go straight to the studio to record his hostage tape..."
http://www.juancole.com/2005/12/dean-v.html

RUMSFELD'S HANDSHAKE DEAL WITH SADDAM VS CURRENT TRIAL

"... A photo of Donald Rumsfeld shaking Saddam's hand on Dec. 20, 1983, is easily available... (but) the initial trial of Saddam and co-defendants is focusing on grisly crimes that occurred the year before Rumsfeld gripped his hand... the methodical torture and murders in Dujail that have been front-paged this week in coverage of the former dictator's trial; they occurred 17 months before Rumsfeld arrived in Baghdad..."
"... The picture has been notably absent from the array of historic images that U.S. media outlets are providing to viewers and readers in coverage of the Saddam Hussein trial. And journalistic mention of Rumsfeld's key role in aiding the Iraqi tyrant has been similarly absent..."
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1208-34.htm

U.S. MILITARY BUYS IRAQI TV STATION AND NEWSPAPER TO RUN PRO-US REPORTS

"... One unnamed military official told reporters that Baghdad's "Information Operations Task Force" has bought an Iraqi television station and newspaper, which have been running pro-US reports. He would not reveal which ones for fear of insurgent attacks. How unnerving for the increasingly suspicious Iraqi readers..."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/just-a-change-of-masters-for-iraq-press/2005/12/07/1133829660308.html

BUSH CREATED A THEOCRACY ALLIED TO IRAN

"... The real winners of the January 2005 elections were the Shiite religious parties... the Shiite parties swept to power throughout the south... Shiite militias proliferated and established themselves... (in the) constitution... the Shiites inserted a provision that no legislation could be passed by parliament that contravened the established laws of Islam, and made provisions for Muslim clerics to be appointed to the judiciary... Baghdad (moved) closer to Tehran, seeking warm relations with the clerical rulers of Iran. Shiite power now dominated the eastern stretches of the Middle East. The Bush administration trumpeted its bestowal of democracy in the region, but most Middle Eastern observers saw only the installation of a new Shiite power... Bush has inadvertently strengthened Iran, giving it a new, religious Shiite ally in the Gulf region."
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/how_bush_created_a_theocracy_in_iraq

DEFINITION OF TERRORISM

"... terrorism is only the privatization of war... terrorists are the free marketers of war. They believe that the legitimate use of violence is not the sole prerogative of the State."
--Indian writer and human rights advocate Arundhati Roy in the 2004 City of Sydney Peace Prize Lecture titled Peace and The New Corporate Liberation Theology
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bigidea/stories/s1232956.htm

INVASION OF IRAQ A SIGN OF THINGS TO COME

"... The invasion of Iraq will surely go down in history as one of the most cowardly wars ever fought. It was a war in which a band of rich nations, armed with enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world several times over, rounded on a poor nation, falsely accused it of having nuclear weapons, used the United Nations to force it to disarm, then invaded it, occupied it and are now in the process of selling it... it is a sign of things to come. Iraq marks the beginning of a new cycle. It offers us an opportunity to watch the Corporate-Military cabal that has come to be known as 'Empire' at work. In the new Iraq the gloves are off."
--Indian writer and human rights advocate Arundhati Roy in the 2004 City of Sydney Peace Prize Lecture titled Peace and The New Corporate Liberation Theology
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bigidea/stories/s1232956.htm

ANOTHER AL-QAEDA NO. 3 MAN KILLED

"... it is faintly perplexing to learn that yet another chap described as "al Qaida's number three" has been killed in Pakistan. How many number threes is that now? In May, US authorities announced they had captured "al Qaida number three" Abu Faraj al Libbi, while, three years ago, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was nabbed whilst apparently toiling in this same rank. Now it seems the similarly important Abu Hamza Rabia has been killed in Pakistan... each time a number three is captured or killed, another operative steps up to take his place. In which case, you'd have to think whoever is currently number four will today be gripped by a certain reluctance to take on this seemingly accursed promotion. Talk about dead men's shoes..."
hhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1659295,00.htmlere

US ARMY SAYS MAJORITY OF FIGHTERS ARE IRAQI, NOT FOREIGN

"Iraqis, rather than foreign fighters, now form the vast majority of the insurgents who are waging a ferocious guerrilla war against United States forces in Sunni western Iraq, American commanders have revealed. Their conclusion... contradicts the White House message that outsiders are the principal enemy in Iraq..."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/12/04/wirq04.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/12/04/ixportal.html

U.S. IS ABUSING ITS UN MANDATE IN IRAQ

"... John Pace, human rights chief for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), said... the US military is abusing its United Nations mandate in Iraq by detaining thousands of people without due process of law... the system, including the pattern, duration and conditions of detention, were "not consistent with what is foreseen in (UN Mandate Resolution) 1546" and complained of a "total breakdown" in individuals' rights..."
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/america-abusing-mandate-in-iraq/2005/12/05/1133631201911.html

UN SAYS SADDAM TRIAL WILL NOT BE FAIR

"The UN said yesterday said that Saddam Hussein's trial would never satisfy international standards because of ongoing violence and flaws in Iraq's legal system..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1657953,00.html

TRAINING OF IRAQI FORCES SUFFER SETBACK

"The training of Iraqi security forces has suffered a big "setback" in the last six months, with the army and other forces being increasingly used to settle scores and make other political gains, Iraqi Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer said... Al-Yawer disputed contentions by U.S. officials, including President Bush, that the training of security forces was gathering speed, resulting in more professional troops..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1205-08.htm

STATE DEPT REMOVING AMERICAN REPRESENTATIVES ABROAD WHO ARE CRITICAL OF IRAQ POLICY

" The State Department has been using political litmus tests to screen private American citizens before they can be sent overseas to represent the United States, weeding out critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy... The effort, known as the "U.S. Speakers/Specialist Program," is part of a public diplomacy effort to change negative foreign opinions of the United States. It's overseen by Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/13314542.htm

INSURGENTS NOT THREE GROUPS

"... The Bush administration has long maintained... that the insurgency comprises three elements: disaffected Sunni Arabs, or "rejectionists"; former Hussein government loyalists; and foreign-born terrorists affiliated with Al Qaeda.

"... (but) the single most important fact about the insurgency is that it consists not of a few groups but of dozens, possibly as many as 100. And it is not, as often depicted, a coherent organization whose members dutifully carry out orders from above but a far-flung collection of smaller groups that often act on their own or come together for a single attack... Each is believed to have its own leader and is free to act on its own.

"... American and Iraqi officials agree on the essential structure of the Iraqi insurgency: it is horizontal as opposed to hierarchical, and ad hoc as opposed to unified. There is no center of gravity, no leadership, no hierarchy; they are more a constellation than an organization. They have adopted a structure that assures their longevity."

http://nytimes.com/2005/12/02/international/middleeast/02insurgency.html?ei=5094&en=7ce4d7d46d02679b&hp=&ex=1133586000&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1133529659-NaW5n2BRS214YiTYosqQCg

TROOP WITHDRAWALS ERODING COALITION

"... The coalition has steadily unraveled as the death toll rises and angry publics clamor for troops to leave... Two of America's allies in Iraq are withdrawing forces this month and a half-dozen others are debating possible pullouts or reductions... Bulgaria and Ukraine will begin withdrawing their combined 1,250 troops by mid-December. If Australia, Britain, Italy, Japan, Poland and South Korea reduce or recall their personnel, more than half of the non-American forces in Iraq could be gone by next summer... "
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5452396,00.html

KURDS MAKE OIL DEAL WITH NORWAY SEPARATE FROM BAGHDAD GOVERNMENT

"The Kurdistan Democratic Party, which controls a portion of... northern Iraq, last year quietly signed a deal with Norway's DNO to drill for oil... the first involving new exploration in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003... In Baghdad, political leaders on Wednesday reacted to the deal with astonishment. "We need to figure out if this is allowed in the constitution," said Adnan Ali Kadhimi, an advisor to Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari... "This is unprecedented," said Alaa Makki, a leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni Arab group. "It's like they are an independent country. This is Iraqi oil and should be shared with all the Iraqi partners."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-oildeal1dec01,0,4057840.story?coll=la-home-headlines