EX-BRITISH BASE LOOTED BY IRAQIS

"Military base turned over to Iraqi forces is looted the next day... About 1,200 British forces withdrew on Thursday from Abu Naji, a camp near Amarah in southern Maysan province.... Hours after the British turned over a military base to Iraqi control, looters picked it clean..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15363243.htm

SECTARIAN WAR A GODSEND FOR THE ADMINISTRATION

"... The sharp increase in sectarian tensions... played blatantly into Washington's hands... when all is said and done, Washington's only trump card in Iraq is going to be the sectarian and ethnic divisions among Iraqis, which the Bush administration is exploiting in the most cynical way according to the most classical of all imperial recipes: "Divide and rule." This is what Washington's proconsuls in Baghdad, from L. Paul Bremer to Khalilzad, have tried their best to put in place and take advantage of. Seen in this light, the present flare-up in sectarian tensions is a godsend for Washington.. Iraq is caught in a vicious circle: The occupation fuels the insurgency, which stirs up the sectarian tension that Washington's proconsul strives to fan by political means, which in turn is used to justify the continuing occupation..."
--Excerpt from the Epilogue to Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy, by Noam Chomsky & Gilbert Achcar, edited with a Preface by Stephen R. Shalom, to be published by Paradigm Publishers September 15, 2006
http://www.juancole.com/2006/08/achcar-guest-editorial-situation-in.html

BUSH: IRAQ HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH 9/11

"THE PRESIDENT: ... The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East...
Q: What did Iraq have to do with that?
THE PRESIDENT: What did Iraq have to do with what?
Q: The attack on the World Trade Center?
THE PRESIDENT: Nothing... and nobody has ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack."
--Press conference, August 21, 2006
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20060821.html

IRAQ DOUBLES FUNDING TO IMPORT TURKISH OIL TO EASE SHORTAGE

"Iraq has doubled the money allocated for importing oil products in August and September to tackle the country's worst fuel shortage since Saddam Hussein's 2003 ouster... the money normally allocated by the government to buy oil products was doubled in August, to $426 million. The normally allocated amount would be doubled for September, too... the state oil agency would conclude new deals with Turkish companies to supply fuel."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4123452.html

IRAQ REFINERIES AT 1/2 PRE-WAR CAPACITY, THEN OIL WORKERS STRIKE

"Hundreds of oil company employees went on strike Tuesday for higher pay... The job action cut supplies to power stations and factories as Iraq faces its worst fuel shortage since Saddam Hussein's 2003 ouster... Iraq's three main oil refineries _ Dora, Beiji and Shuaiba _ are working at half their capacity, processing only 350,000 barrels per day compared to 700,000 barrels a day before the war..."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4133591.html

IRAQIS BEING KILLED AT 3 TIMES THE SADDAM RATE

"... Iraqis are now getting killed at a rate of 40,000 a year, more than three times the average annual kill-rate of the Saddam years..."
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Columnists/Essays/colESSAY082206.htm

PARLIAMENT MEMBERS SAY AMERICAN POLICIES FAILED

"The American policy has failed both in terms of politics and security, but the big problem is that they will not confess or admit that... top American officials spend most of their time in the heavily guarded Green Zone in Baghdad and at large military bases across the country, and don't know what's happening in the neighborhoods and provinces beyond."
-- Mahmoud Othman, Kurdish member of parliament.

"All the American policies have failed because the American analysis of the situation is wrong; it is not related to reality. The slaughtered Iraqi man on the street conveys the best explanation."
--Jalaladin al Saghir, Shiite Muslim member of parliament

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/15272800.htm

QUESTIONING U.S. MISSION IN IRAQ CIVIL WAR

"(does)... the original congressional resolution that authorized the president to invade Iraq still apply now that U.S. troops appear to be caught in the drift toward civil war. "What is the mission of the United States today ... if that situation erupts into a civil war? What is the mission of our forces?"
-- Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, questioning Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his top generals
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0820-24.htm

IRAQ CIVIL WAR TO SPREAD TERRORISM

"... By any definition, Iraq is in a state of civil war. Indeed, the only thing standing between Iraq and a descent into total Bosnia-like devastation is 135,000 U.S. troops... The war in Iraq has proved to be a disaster for the struggle against Osama bin Laden. Fighters there are receiving training, building networks and becoming further radicalized -- and the U.S. occupation is proving a dream recruiting tool for young Muslims worldwide. As bad as this is, a wide-scale civil war in Iraq could make the terrorism problem even worse. Such terrorist organizations as Hezbollah, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) were all born of civil wars..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/18/AR2006081800983.html

BUSH ADMINISTRATION CONSIDERING ALTERNATIVES TO DEMOCRACY

"... Senior administration officials... are considering alternatives other than democracy,” said one military affairs expert who received an Iraq briefing at the White House last month and agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity. “Everybody in the administration is being quite circumspec, but you can sense their own concern that this is drifting away from democracy.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/world/middleeast/17military.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

IRAQI PARLIAMENT SPEAKER SAYS U.S. OCCUPAITON DESTROYED IRAQ

"... During his June trip to Baghdad, Bush sang the praises of Dr. Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, who had been elected speaker... But when the Iraqi parliament reconvenes next month, the first item on their agenda will be firing al-Mashhadani... the end of his tenure should come as a relief to the Bush administration. "Who destroyed Iraq? Who plundered Iraq?" exploded al-Mashhadani in a recent interview. "It is none other than the blue jinn whose name is: the American Occupation."
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/08/17/mashhadani/index_np.html

CIVIL WAR DEATHS RISING

July Deaths
"... An average of more than 110 Iraqis were killed each day in July, according to... figures from the Health Ministry and the Baghdad morgue, reinforcing criticism that the Baghdad security plan started in June by the new government has failed... the country is already embroiled in a civil war, not just slipping toward one, and that the American-led forces are caught between Sunni Arab guerrillas and Shiite militias..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/16/world/middleeast/16iraq.html

June Deaths
"An average of more than 100 civilians per day were killed in Iraq last month... 14,338 civilians had died violently in Iraq in the first six months of the year... United Nations officials said they had based their figures on tallies provided by... the Ministry of Health... and Baghdad’s central morgue..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/world/middleeast/19iraq.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

BUSH CONCERNED ABOUT IRAQ NOT SUPPORTING U.S.

"... Bush made clear in a private meeting this week that he was concerned about the lack of progress in Iraq and frustrated that the new Iraqi government — and the Iraqi people — had not shown greater public support for the American mission... "
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/16/washington/16policy.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

EFFECT OF THE IRAQ OCCUPATION ON THE U.S.

"... Bush is spending more than $260 million a day occupying a hostile Iraq that had nothing to do with terrorist threats until he invaded it. He has yet to offer a real justification for this occupation, or a strategy for successfully ending it. Our troops find themselves in the midst of a civil war, wandering about between hostile factions trying to figure out why they’re there, and why nearly 2600 of their brothers and sisters in arms have died, and nearly 19,000 more have been wounded. Iraqis, for their part, grow increasingly impatient with this occupation in which more than 50,000 Iraqis have died, and their country has been plunged into chaos.

"So far, the payoff for this benighted strategy, beyond fostering a civil war, has been to increase al Qeda’s global recruiting base from a few tens of thousands to several hundred million, while simultaneously alienating the US in the international community, destroying our all-volunteer military, and cranking up the national debt to record levels..."

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0814-27.htm

DEATH TOLL FROM CIVIL WAR RISES

"... Baghdad mortuary... received 1,855 bodies in July... The figure - the highest yet - is a rise of more than 350 on June... he number of bodies delivered each month to the Baghdad mortuary has risen by almost 700 from January, when the figure was 1,068.... the real death toll in Baghdad could be even higher.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4777419.stm

WAR ON TERROR COST $430 BILLION, MOST PROJECTS CANCELLED

"... (the) "global war on terror" has cost the country at least 430 billion dollars over the past five years in military and diplomatic efforts, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO)... A report in February by the special U.S. inspector general overseeing reconstruction said so much money was being spent on security that most sewer, irrigation, and drainage projects had been canceled..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34040

SHIAS WANT TO PARTITION INTO A SOUTHERN FEDERAL REGION

"... the Shia majority in Iraq are pushing ahead for creating a federal region for themselves in the southern part of Iraq.... As more and more signs of the failure of the reconciliation plan surface, Shia groups are speeding up efforts to carve a federal region for themselves.... Sunnis see the creation of federal structures as a prelude to partitioning of the country..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34250

U.S. TROOPS CALL IT CIVIL WAR

"Army troops... cite a long list of evidence that the center of the nation is coming undone: Villages have been abandoned by Sunni and Shiite Muslims; Sunni insurgents have killed thousands of Shiites in car bombings and assassinations; Shiite militia death squads have tortured and killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Sunnis; and when night falls, neighborhoods become open battlegrounds..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15201701.htm

VIOLENCE INCREASED AFTER U.S. HANDED OVER CONTROL

"... Baghdad’s Chaos Raises Questions on U.S. Plan... as Americans handed over responsibilities to the Iraqis, violence in Baghdad increased... Each day, the bodies pile up at Baghdad’s main morgue: burned with acid, riddled with bullets, blindfolded, handcuffed, drilled with holes... To stop the slide, the United States has decided to double the number of American troops in the city, to about 14,200 from about 7,200...
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/world/middleeast/06baghdad.html?hp&ex=1154836800&en=afe6256fba601d6f&ei=5094&partner=homepage

U.S. TROOPS CHARGED WITH MURDER OF DETAINEES

"Four US soldiers charged with murdering three detainees in Iraq smiled before shooting them, a military court has heard from a fellow soldier... one of the accused threatened to kill him if he talked... "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5239676.stm

OFFICERS PUSH IRAQI KILL COUNTS

"... commanders created an atmosphere of excessive violence by encouraging "kill counts" and possibly issuing an illegal order to shoot Iraqi men... witnesses painted a picture of a brigade that operated under loose rules allowing wanton killing and tolerating violent, anti-Arab racism... officers ordered them to "engage and kill all military age men."
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fg-probes3aug03,1,2974701.story

CIVIL WAR AND PARTITION MORE LIKELY THAN DEMOCRACY

"Civil war is a more likely outcome in Iraq than democracy, Britain's outgoing ambassador in Baghdad (William Patey) has warned Tony Blair in a confidential memo... The prospect of a low intensity civil war and a de facto division of Iraq is probably more likely at this stage than a successful and substantial transition to a stable democracy."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5240808.stm

CORRUPTION AND VIOLENCE SLOW RECONSTRUCTION

"The much-touted U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq is floundering under threats from rampant corruption and deteriorating security... says Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) Stuart Bowen. Bowen's office, tasked by Congress to oversee the reconstruction efforts, released two reports on Tuesday and one on Wednesday that cited figures showing Iraq losing four billion dollars to corruption every year since the U.S. invasion of the Arab country in March 2003..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34214