BBC POLL: WORLD THINKS IRAQ WAR MAKES TERROR MORE LIKELY

"People across the world overwhelmingly believe the war in Iraq has increased the likelihood of terrorist attacks worldwide, a poll for the BBC reveals. Some 60% of people in 35 countries surveyed believe this is the case, against just 12% who think terrorist attacks have become less likely...."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4755706.stm

ZOGBY POLL: WHY TROOPS THINK THE U.S. IS IN IRAQ

"... 85% said the U.S. mission is mainly “to retaliate for Saddam’s role in the 9-11 attacks,” (and) 77% said they also believe the main or a major reason for the war was “to stop Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq...”
http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0228-01.htm

DEATH SQUADS IN BAGHDAD

"Hundreds of Iraqis are being tortured to death or summarily executed every month in Baghdad alone by death squads working from the Ministry of the Interior.. . three-quarters of the corpses stacked in the city's mortuary show evidence of gunshot wounds to the head or injuries caused by drill-bits or burning cigarettes. Much of the killing, he said, was carried out by Shia Muslim groups under the control of the Ministry of the Interior..."
--John Pace, United Nations' outgoing human rights chief in Iraq
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article347806.ece

IRAQI TROOPS DOWNGRADED

Jan 4, 2006
"President Bush said Wednesday that U.S. efforts in Iraq are bearing fruit, and predicted that Iraqi forces will shoulder more of the responsibility this year and that U.S. force levels will drop...."
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/04/bush.iraq/index.html

Feb 25, 2006
"... The number of Iraqi battalions able to fight the insurgency with no US help falls from one to zero, the US military tells Congress..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4749866.stm

"The only Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support has been downgraded to a level requiring them to fight with American troops backing them up, the Pentagon said Friday..."
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/24/iraq.security/index.html

TWO IRAQI PROVINCES CUT TIES WITH COALITION FORCES

February 21, 2006
KERBALA PROVINCE SUSPENDS COOPERATION WITH U.S. OVER SEARCHES
"... The governor of Iraq's Kerbala province, Aqil al-Khazali, said on Tuesday he had suspended all cooperation with U.S. forces because U.S. security staff last week used police dogs to search government buildings..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0221-01.htm

February 15, 2006
BASRA PROVINCE CUTS TIES WITH BRITISH FORCES OVER ABUSE
"... the alleged abuse of Iraqis by British forces prompted Basra Provincial Council to sever relations with the British... Basra province... announced all government authorities suspended ties with the British military and consulate operating in the area... the decision includes ending cooperation with the British consulate in Basra..."
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,87916,00.html

U.S. GIVES UP TALKING TO SUNNI RESISTANCE

"... the Americans have given up attempting to dialogue with the Sunni Arab Resistance, preferring instead to deal with the tribes. This attempt has not gone well. The Americans paid $20 million to set up something called "tribal militias," money that appears to have simply been embezzled..."
http://www.daralhayat.com/arab_news/levant_news/02-2006/Item-20060219-8416aa01-c0a8-10ed-0118-a770f9023f10/story.html

SAMARRA FAILURE

Oct. 1, 2004 - Colin Powell... "Our troops are in serious battle today in Samarra to take that city back from the insurgents and they're having some success..."

Oct. 3, 2004 - Condoleezza Rice... "The reporting from the ground (Samarra) is that things have gone well..."

Oct. 4, 2004 - President Bush... "I don't know if you've seen any newspapers recently, but in Samarra, the Iraqi soldiers performed brilliantly."

Oct. 10, 2004 - Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld... "In Samarra over the last 48 hours... you may have to use force. And that's what happened in Samarra."

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/13880447.htm

Feb. 15, 2006 - "... U.S. Army commanders gave several reasons that the American effort to secure and rebuild Samarra has stumbled... U.S. officials don't fully understand the city's tribal structure and its connections to the insurgency... Insurgents have infiltrated and intimidated the Iraqi police and army... Samarra still has no effective city government. Several have dissolved or have been disbanded by American military leaders... Insurgent attacks have created a violent and dangerous environment in which American forces sometimes kill innocent civilians, further alienating the populace..."

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/13880446.htm

IRAQ OIL PRODUCTION ALMOST HALF THAT BEFORE OCCUPATION

"Attacks by insurgents on Iraq's oil industry cost the country $6.25 billion in lost revenue during 200... Iraq currently produces about two million barrels of oil a day... down by about 800,000 barrels from production levels before Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled in 2003..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4729178.stm

INSURGENCY UNITED AND CONFIDENT OF VICTORY

"... the predominantly Sunni insurgency in Iraq appears increasingly united and confident of victory, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG)... the report, "In Their Own Words: Reading the Iraqi Insurgency"... (says) four main groups now dominate the communications channels of the insurgency and publish regularly through a variety of media: QOM; Partisans of the Sunna Army (Jaysh Ansar al-Sunna); the Islamic Army in Iraq (al-Jaysh al-Islami fil-'Iraq); and the Islamic Front of the Iraqi Resistance (al-Jabha al-Islamiya lil-Muqawama al-'Iraqiya, or Jami). "...
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HB17Ak01.html

MORE ABU GHRAIB PHOTOS RELEASED

"The US has said images broadcast on Australian TV showing the apparent abuse of Iraqi detainees by US soldiers should not have been released... The new images show "homicide, torture and sexual humiliation"... (and) mark a "leap in seriousness" from previously released images of abuse at Abu Ghraib..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4718328.stm

More photos at this site.

MASSIVE, PERMANENT U.S. SUPER BASES IN IRAQ MEAN NO REAL WITHDRAWAL

"... Lt. Col. David Holt, the Army engineer "tasked with facilities development" in Iraq, was already speaking proudly of several billion dollars being sunk into base construction ("the numbers are staggering"). Since then, the base-building has been massive and ongoing..."
http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=59774

"... The third major mission the army's engineers are engaged in is building facilities for the bed-down of U.S. forces. "Again the numbers are staggering," Holt says. Most of work is being done through KBR. "Interesting program in the several billion dollar range..."
http://enr.construction.com/news/bizlabor/archives/031020.asp

"... a British reporter, visited another of the US "super-bases"... al-Asad Airbase. He observes... that "this stretch of desert increasingly resembles a slice of US suburbia". In addition to the requisite Subway and pizza outlets, there is a football field, a Hertz rent-a-car office, a swimming pool and a movie theater showing the latest flicks. Al-Asad is so large - such bases may cover 40-50 square kilometers - that it has two bus routes and, if not traffic lights, at least red stop signs at all intersections. There are at least four such "super-bases" in Iraq, none of which have anything to do with "withdrawal" from that country. Quite the contrary, these bases are being constructed as little American islands of eternal order in an anarchic sea. Whatever top administration officials and military commanders say - and they always deny that the US seeks "permanent" bases in Iraq - facts on the ground speak with another voice entirely. These bases practically scream "permanency".

..." US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes on the Charlie Rose Show : "Charlie Rose: ... They think we are still there for the oil, or they think the United States wants permanent bases. Does the United States want permanent bases in Iraq? Karen Hughes: We want nothing more than to bring our men and women in uniform home. As soon as possible, but not before they finish the job. Charlie Rose: And do not want to keep bases there? Karen Hughes: No, we want to bring our people home as soon as possible."

"... keep your eyes directed at our "super-bases". Until the administration blinks on them, there will be no withdrawal from Iraq. "

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HB16Ak01.html

BASRA CUTS TIES WITH BRITISH FORCES OVER ABUSE

"... the alleged abuse of Iraqis by British forces prompted Basra Provincial Council to sever relations with the British... Basra province... announced all government authorities suspended ties with the British military and consulate operating in the area... the decision includes ending cooperation with the British consulate in Basra..."
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,87916,00.html

OUTLAW WHO FOUGHT U.S. HAS DETERMINED SELECTION OF IRAQ'S LEADER

"... Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi militia has twice engaged in fierce armed conflict with U.S. troops since the 2003 invasion, was the kingmaker in the selection of Iraq's next prime minister... The astounding rise of an anti-American firebrand like al-Sadr is an indicator of how wide and complete a political defeat pro-Western forces have suffered in Iraq. Written off by most Western observers as nothing more than a rabble-rousing irritant in the first months of the U.S. occupation, al-Sadr has more than survived his confrontation with the world's only superpower: His faction was the big winner in the recent elections, now entrenched as the largest single force in the dominant Shiite coalition. So it is that the political support of a young radical, who not so long ago was considered a wanted outlaw by the occupiers, has now determined the selection of Iraq's new leader..."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/15/EDGU9GJE1O1.DTL&hw=Robert+Scheer&sn=001&sc=1000

DIFFICULT TO HAND OVER RESPONSIBILITY IN OCCUPIED IRAQ

"It's difficult to be burning villages at one end of the country by means of an (occupation) Army, and assuring people at the other end that we really have handed over responsibility to native Ministers... Long Life to the Arab Government. Give them responsibility and make them settle their own affairs and they'll do it every time a thousand times better than we can."
--Gertude Bell, senior diplomat in British-occupied Iraq, 1921
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/13823870.htm

WHY CAN'T U.S TV INTERVIEW ELECTED IRAQI POLITICIANS

"... our television news almost never talks to anyone among important Iraqi politicians... Aren't the Iraqi politicians who have come to power in the celebrated purple-thumb Iraqi elections worth talking to? Don't Americans care what they think? Or are they just a blank set of canvases on which Kansas gets to paint its own preconceptions and prejudices (a process made all the easier if real Iraqis are not allowed to speak on camera to Americans)?...

"In contrast, the much-maligned (in the US) Aljazeerah just had an excellent wide-ranging 45-minute discussion of Jaafari's election with several Iraqi observers of different persuasions. Can't we here expect to be at least as well served by our television news as the Arab world is by theirs?..."

http://www.juancole.com/2006/02/jaafari-prime-minister-2006-2010-but.html

WHY SO MANY MUSLIM SUICIDE BOMBERS?

"... Why are there so many suicide bombers in the Muslim world?... (the) explanation — one you rarely hear — is that they're blowing themselves up to fight military incursions into their lands. (In this sense, they're not that different from people throughout history who sacrificed their lives to defend territory against foreign armies.)... Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago... as director of the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism... concludes there's been a strategic goal common to nearly every act of suicide terrorism in the past 25 years: "To compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1139611812882

BUSH MISUSED IRAQ INTELLIGENCE -- also ALLIED SADDAM TO AL QAEDA

"The Bush administration disregarded the expertise of the intelligence community, politicized the intelligence process and used unrepresentative data in making the case for war... (said) Paul R. Pillar, the CIA's national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005... in an article published... in the journal Foreign Affairs...

"The biggest discrepancy between public statements by the Bush administration and judgments by the intelligence community centered on the relationship between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, he said. "The enormous attention devoted to this subject did not reflect any judgment by intelligence officials that there was or was likely to be anything like the 'alliance' the administration said existed." Rather, "the administration wanted to hitch the Iraq expedition to the 'war on terror' and the threat the American public feared most, thereby capitalizing on the country's militant post-9/11 mood," Pillar wrote."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/10/iraq.intelligence/index.html

U.S. CPA OFFICIAL STOLE OVER $2 MILLION

"... Robert Stein held a senior position in the Coalition Provisional Authority, which administered Iraq after American and allied forces invaded in 2003. In a Washington court, he admitted to ... conspiring to give out contracts worth $8 million... in return for bribes... also received gifts and sexual favours lavished on him at a special villa in Baghdad... (and) admitted to stealing more than $2 million from reconstruction funds..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4675902.stm

REBUILDING COST AND ATTACKS INCREASING

"Iraq's rebuilding is being undermined by continuing insurgent attacks and will cost more than the $56 billion forecast, US officials say. Special Inspector-General Stuart Bowen said the cost of reconstruction would be much higher... (because) less oil and electricity is being produced in Iraq now than before the US-led invasion in 2003...

"His comments came as a director of the US Government Accountability Office said attacks were not decreasing. In his testimony to the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, Joseph Christoff said newly declassified figures went against previous statements by US and Iraqi officials, who said the insurgency was abating... The charts included in the GAO's report show the number of attacks in December was almost 250% higher than in March 2004...."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4696934.stm

ISRAELI SECURITY CHIEF: SADDAM PREFERABLE TO U.S.

"The head of Israel's domestic security agency, Shin Bet, has said his country may come to regret the overthrow of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Yuval Diskin said a strong dictatorship would be preferable to the present "chaos" in Iraq, in a speech to teenage Jewish settlers in the West Bank... "I'm not sure we won't miss Saddam."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4696038.stm

SPINNING THE OCCUPATION

"Three years after invading Iraq, George Bush and Tony Blair are still dipping into the trough of deception and disinformation that launched the war: hailing non-existent progress, declaring sanctimonious satisfaction with sectarian elections and holding out the mirage of early withdrawal. In reality, the occupation and divide-and-rule tactics have spawned death squads, torture, kidnappings, chemical attacks, polluted water, depleted uranium, bombardment of civilians, probably more than 100,000 people dead and a relentless deterioration in Iraqis' daily lives...."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1704737,00.html

COST OF WAR APPROACHING KOREAN AND VIETNAM WARS

"The Bush administration has said it is planning to spend $120 billion on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars this year, bringing their total cost so far to $440 billion. The spending request... marks a 20% increase over last year, despite plans to draw down US troop levels in both war zones in the coming months... The spending on the Iraq conflict alone is now approaching the cost of the Korean war, about $330 billion in today's dollars. Meanwhile the cost of the overall "war on terror"... is already close to half a trillion dollars, and will soon equal that of the 13-year Vietnam war."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1702134,00.html

BUSH: PROVOKE SADDAM TO FIRE ON FAKE U.N. PLANE TO START WAR

"... Bush considered provoking a war with Saddam Hussein's regime by flying a United States spyplane over Iraq bearing UN colours, enticing the Iraqis to take a shot at it, according to a leaked memo of a meeting between the US President and Tony Blair..."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article342859.ece