U.S EMBRACED SADDAM AFTER HIS CRIME

"... the crimes for which Saddam Hussein was convicted occurred before the United States, in the form of Donald Rumsfeld, embraced him. Those crimes were well known to have occurred 15 months before Rumsfeld visited Iraq to usher in an alliance between the United States and Saddam to defeat Iran..."

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20061229_saddam_hussein_executed/

MONTHLY IRAQI DEATH TOLL = TOTAL U.S. DEATH TOLL

"... 3000 Americans dead over nearly four years? Really? That's the number of dead Iraqis in less than a month. The Americans had families? Too bad. So do we. So do the corpses in the streets and the ones waiting for identification in the morgue..."
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#116738820591750213

IRAQ TODAY

"... 2006 has been, decidedly, the worst year yet... A day in the life of the average Iraqi has been reduced to identifying corpses, avoiding car bombs and attempting to keep track of which family members have been detained, which ones have been exiled and which ones have been abducted... What does America possibly gain by damaging Iraq to this extent?... Al Qaeda? That's laughable. Bush has effectively created more terrorists in Iraq these last 4 years than Osama could have created in 10 different terrorist camps in the distant hills of Afghanistan. Our children now play games of 'sniper' and 'jihadi', pretending that one hit an American soldier between the eyes and this one overturned a Humvee.... Why make things worse by insisting on Saddam's execution now? Who gains if they hang Saddam? Iran, naturally, but who else? There is a real fear that this execution will be the final blow that will shatter Iraq..."
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#116738820591750213

SADDAM EXECUTION TO DESTABILIZE IRAQ

"Saddam Execution Set to Destabilise Iraq Further... Compared with the present scenario, many Iraqis have begun to see the Saddam days as a "golden time"... Iraqis felt proud of his policies against Iranian and American arrogance and greed. He managed to feed his people and provide them with security and basic services despite all the wars they fought, and the UN sanctions against Iraq."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36010

TRANSCRIPTS OF SADDAM EXECUTION

"... The execution took place... with a view to enraging Sunni Muslims against Shiite Muslims... as a psychological weapon, to usher in sectarian violence and division throughout the Middle East... The translated transcripts of Saddam Hussein’s last words, which had been scrupulously manipulated and distorted, were fed into the global news chain... Presented below is the Global Research translation from the Arabic original audio-video believed to have been recorded on a cell phone. Also presented for purposes of comparison are several other “translations” from the same Arabic original..."
http://www.rinf.com/columnists/news/saddam-hussein%e2%80%99s-last-words-what-the-media-has-deliberately-concealed

BASRA 2006 LIKE 2003

"... This week began with a story of British and Iraqi soldiers storming a police station that hid a secret dungeon in Basra. More than 100 men, many of them viciously tortured, were rescued from almost certain execution. It might have been a story from the final days of Baathist rule in March 2003, when British and U.S. troops entered Basra believing they were liberating the subjugated Shiite south. But it was December 2006, and the wretched men being liberated were prisoners of the new Iraqi Shiite authorities..."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/29/opinion/edsaddam.php

BAATHIST PARTY TO TARGET U.S. EVERYWHERE IF SADDAM EXECUTED

"Saddam Hussein has vowed to go the gallows as a "martyr"... Saddam’s Baath Party... threatened retaliation if the execution went ahead, warning in an internet posting that it would target US interests anywhere..."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-3-2520408-3,00.html

PRESIDENT FORD AGAINST IRAQ WAR

"Former president Gerald R. Ford said in an embargoed interview in July 2004 that the Iraq war was not justified... Ford "very strongly" disagreed with the current president's justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/27/AR2006122701558_pf.html

U.S. CONSIDERING RECRUITING IMIGRANTS FROM OVERSEAS

"... With severe manpower strains because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan... The armed forces... are considering expanding the number of noncitizens in the ranks -- including disputed proposals to open recruiting stations overseas and putting more immigrants on a faster track to US citizenship if they volunteer..."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/12/26/military_considers_recruiting_foreigners/

U.S. TO COMMIT HARI-KARI BY SURGE

"... the U.S. military is about to commit hara-kiri by "surge"... once an "all or nothing" offensive like the "surge" apparently contemplated has begun, there is no turning back. It will be "victory" over the insurgents and the Shiite militias or palpable defeat, recognizable by all in Iraq and across the world..."

"It will be a matter of win or die in the attempt... (troops) will commit every ounce of their being to "victory" and few measures will be shrunk from.... It will be total war with the likelihood of all the excesses and mass casualties that come with total war."

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1224-22.htm

IRAQ AL-QAEDA OFFERS U.S. A SAFE EXIT

"... an al-Qaeda-backed group has offered US forces safe withdrawal from Iraq within a month if they left their heavy weapons behind... (they) claimed that Washington had tried to open a channel of negotiation with (their) group through the Saudi government. But... (they) rejected the initiative (saying) "The giant has started to fall. It is looking for an escape and seeking to negotiate with all the other groups and parties..."
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/618367A6-71F9-43D8-BEC4-1D14DE93345E.htm

DOUBLE-DOWN SURGE OF 50,000 TROOPS PLANNED

"... the No 1 issue... in early January is the White House's apparent "urge to surge" as many as 50,000 new troops into Iraq for up to two years in a last-ditch effort to claim... "victory"... it represents one final effort by neo-conservatives to convince the president that, by "doubling down" on his gamble on Iraq, he can still leave the table a winner and "transform" the entire Middle East... the former chief Middle East analyst at the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency... warned that... it would likely lead to "Stalingrad on the Tigris".
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HL22Ak01.html

FALLUJAH HOSPITAL RAIDED, CLOSED

"... U.S. soldiers raided the (Fallujah General Hospital ) "as if it were a military target"... kicking open doors and blasting locked ones... Doctors and medical staff were arrested and insulted, and some were called terrorists, witnesses said. The hospital was then closed... Lt. Col. Bryan Salas, spokesperson for the Multi-National Forces in Iraq, told reporters: "Coalition forces searched the hospital to ensure that it continues to be a safe place for the citizens of Fallujah to receive the medical treatment they deserve."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35847

PLAN FOR NEW IRAQI GOVERNMENT - NATIONAL SALVATION FRONT NSF - FAILS

December 21
"Iraq's national reconciliation conference held on the weekend highlights the gap between the country's various political groups and their lack of consensus on a common basis for reconciliation..."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35902

December 4
"A number of Iraqi political groups are planning to announce a broad national front in the next few days aiming to correct the falling political process... the National Salvation Front that will be announced soon will include the National Dialogue Front, the National Iraqi List led by Allawi, the Reconciliation and Liberation Front led by Meshaan alJuburi, and the Sadr movement... the front will work to set a timetable (or time limit) for the U.S. presence in Iraq, which is an important condition that will convince the Iraqi resistance to stop fighting... the NSF will take over the current Iraqi government either by pulling out from the current parliament and creating a new government, or through holding an international conference..."
--Raed in the Middle, December 4, 2006
http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/

SCHOOLS IN IRAQ

"Two in three children in Iraq have simply stopped going to school... a mere 30 percent of Iraq's 3.5 million students are currently attending classes. This compares to roughly 75 percent of students who were attending classes the previous year... Just before the U.S.-led invasion in spring 2003, school attendance was nearly 100 percent...

"... Education today presents a quite different picture... Contracts have been handed out for refurbishment (of schools)... (but) "they just paint the walls and fix some cheap accessories to collect their cash, and go."

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35884

IRAQ OIL LOSES $700 MILLION PER MONTH, NEEDS $80 BILLION TO FIX

"... Iraq is producing about 2 million barrels per day, down from 2.6 million barrels before the war, despite having the third-largest reserves in the world. It exports about 1.7 million bpd... (but) a growing petroleum smuggling racket... is draining chances of rebuilding after nearly four years of war... With nearly its entire federal budget dependent on oil revenues, the $700 million a month the Oil Ministry estimates is lost to oil and petroleum products smuggling is a major loss... Iraq's electricity and oil infrastructure -- which also depend on each other -- need at least $80 billion to fix..."
http://www.upi.com/Energy/view.php?StoryID=20061212-081324-7320r

ISG REPORT NOT AN EXIT STRATEGY

"... the ISG report is not an "exit strategy"; it is a new plan for achieving the Bush administration's imperial goals in the Middle East... As its report states: "We agree with the goal of US policy in Iraq" ... the report essentially demands that the Iraqi government pursue policies shaped to serve "America's interest and values in the years ahead"... is more likely a threat of a coup d'etat than a withdrawal strategy - a threat that the facade of democracy would be stripped away and a "strong man" (or a government of "national salvation") installed..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HL16Ak08.html

HOSTAGES SEIZED AS SENATORS McCAIN AND LIEBERMAN VISIT GREEN ZONE

"Scores of Baghdad businessmen kidnapped by heavily-armed gang as US senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman visit Green Zone... Around 100 gunmen in police uniforms brandishing rifles and Glock pistols issued by the US military to Iraqi forces went from shop to shop Thursday, Dec. 14, stealing cash and seizing hostages. The two influential senators called for another 15-30,000 troops to be sent to Iraq..."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), Friday, December 15, 2006
http://www.debka.com/index.php

ISG BAKER REPORT REALLY ABOUT STAYING NOT WITHDRAWING

"Most striking is the report's 21st (of 79) recommendations, aimed at describing what the United States should do if the Iraqis fail to satisfactorily fulfill the many tasks that the ISG has set for them (which says:)

"If the Iraqi government does not make substantial progress toward the achievement of milestones on national reconciliation, security, and governance, the United States should reduce its political, military, or economic support for the Iraqi government."

"... this passage is more likely a threat of a coup d'état than a withdrawal strategy -- a threat that the façade of democracy would be stripped away and a "strong man" (or a government of "national salvation") installed, one that the Bush administration or the ISG believes could bring the Sunni rebellion to heel..."

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1213-30.htm


"... while the ISG would be filled with notable movers and shakers from numerous previous administrations, no one on it, nor any expert "team" advising it would represent the one point of view that a majority of Americans have by now come to support -- actual withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq on a set timeline..."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1213-29.htm

TOO LATE TO BUILD IRAQI ARMY

"... It may be too late to count on building an Iraqi army to defend and hold a unified Iraq together, and the American presence itself is a major incentive for insurgency. Iraqi soldiers fighting in the service of a puppet government will seem like puppets even to themselves, and their very association with the US occupation limits their effectiveness. They will be branded as collaborators in the pay of infidels. I am haunted by the remark Iraqi soldiers made..."We know we are bad Muslims but we need the money."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/12/12/bushs_sinking_ship_of_fools/

IRAQ WAR: $450 BILLION SPENT OFF-BUDGET

"... the almost fraudulent way in which the war is financed. The $450 billion spent so far on the Iraq and Afghanistan military operations has not come out of the regular Pentagon budget. It has been treated instead as an “emergency”—and still is, more than three years into the conflict in Iraq and two years after the government of Hamid Karzai took the reins in Afghanistan.

"The spending isn’t subject to the usual reviews by congressional committees meant to find error, waste, duplication and other budgetary funny business. The Republican-run House rarely even held hearings on these “emergency” billions before they zoomed to approval. Since no offsetting spending reductions were made—and taxes weren’t raised—the tab became part of the federal government’s long-term debt....

"Congress earlier this year demanded that Bush stop paying for the wars with emergency spending bills. The president, in one of his signing statements, effectively said he would ignore the instruction..."

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20061211_marie_cocco_fraudulently_financed_war/

THREE LESSONS FROM VIETNAM

"... Former LBJ special assistant Valenti also saw clear connections between the wars — The primary thing Valenti learned during Vietnam was as simple as it was crucial: "You cannot fight a war without public support.

"The second thing is, you cannot, no matter what mighty army you have, conquer a foreign land, you cannot win against an insurgency that springs from the population with their traditions and their religion and their culture. It has never been done in history, in Afghanistan, in Dien Bien Phu (France's defeat in Vietnam) or in the American colonies — you name it. There has never been an insurgency that didn't prevail against a mighty power.

"The third thing I learned was that if you're going to fight an enemy, you've got to know who they are. You've got to know their ancestral rhythms and their traditions, their mores, their customs."

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1165705809371

SECRET U.S. TALKS WITH INSURGENTS BREAK DOWN

"Secret talks in which senior American officials came face-to-face with some of their most bitter enemies in the Iraqi insurgency broke down after two months of meetings, rebel commanders have disclosed..."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2496369.html

IRAQ SURVEY GROUP CONFIRMS OIL GOALS

"Recommendations 62 and 63 (of the Iraq Baker Survey Group Report) confirm that control of Iraqi oil is a fundamental premise of Administration policy...
* Recommendation 62 says the US government should help draft an oil law that “creates a fiscal and legal framework for investment.”
* Recommendation 63 says the US should “assist” Iraqi leaders in privatizing the national oil industry into a “commercial enterprise” to encourage investment by the multi-national oil companies.
... this suggests that the ideological goal of the US invasion was not simply to displace Saddam Hussein but to dismantle the Arab nationalist state as a whole, opening the oil fields to private penetration..."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1208-31.htm

IRAQ STUDY GROUP SAYS BUSH ADMINISTRATION UNDERREPORTED ATTACKS IN IRAQ

"The Bush administration routinely has underreported the level of violence in Iraq in order to disguise its policy failings, the Iraq Study Group report said.

"... the tracking system was designed in a way that minimized the deaths of Iraqis. The standard for recording attacks acts a filter to keep events out of reports and databases. A murder of an Iraqi is not necessarily counted as an attack. If we cannot determine the source of a sectarian attack, that assault does not make it into the database. A roadside bomb or a rocket or mortar attack that doesn't hurt U.S. personnel doesn't count.

"... The bipartisan group called on the Pentagon and the director of the U.S. intelligence community to immediately institute a new reporting system that provides "a more accurate picture of events on the ground."

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/16179553.htm

IRAQ STUDY GROUP REPORT: THREATS WRAPPED IN MISUNDERSTANDINGS

"Iraqi politicians and analysts said... the (Iraq Study Group) report is a recipe, backed by threats and disincentives, that neither addresses nor understands the complex forces that fuel Iraq's woes... the report's authors did not grasp, or refused to acknowledge, the diverse ambitions, rivalries and weaknesses that plague the government... (It has been described) as a strategy largely to help U.S. troops return home... having the U.S. threaten to take its ball and go home if the Iraqi children do not play the game our way..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/06/AR2006120602235.html

"... The most contentious of the ISG recommendations is to put pressure on the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. It stated, "If the Iraqi government does not make substantial progress toward the achievement of milestones on national reconciliation, security and governance, the United States should reduce its political, military or economic support for the Iraqi government."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HL08Ak05.html

BAKER REPORT SETS UP EXIT

“... You could call it ‘blame and run’... The more we blame it for doing things it cannot do, the more impotent it will become. ‘Blame and run’ is self-fulfilling... blaming Baghdad for lack of progress will reduce its capacity to act even further. “The more we blame the Iraqis, the less political space Mr Maliki will have to act. He cannot be seen to be implementing a long shopping list of items out of Washington.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/4fce695e-894a-11db-a876-0000779e2340.html

"... By setting Maliki up for failure, the Baker Report is giving Bush a way out...."
http://www.progressive.org/node/4287

THE HORROR OF BUSH ADMINISTRATION POLICY IN IRAQ

"... the fundamental horror of Bush administration policy in Iraq: American troops are not quelling violence; they are creating it. Instead of entering a violent city and restoring order, they enter a relatively peaceful city and create violence... the most hostile anti-American cities like Tal Afar and Ramadi have generally been reasonably peaceful when U.S. troops are not there. They are ruled by local leaders in league with local guerilla fighters. The insurgents -- most often organized into armed militias -- provide policing functions, as well as enforcing the (usually fundamentalist) religious laws that are currently dominant in both Sunni and Shia areas of Iraq.

"These cities do not accept the sovereignty of the Iraqi government or of the American occupation, and therefore when the Americans seek to impose an outside government and root out the insurgency's military leaders, the cities explode. On hitting the streets, American troops usually seek to arrest or kill local militia leaders, while the insurgents begin to set IEDs or mount sniper attacks to prevent the U.S. from controlling the town. Because the insurgents are usually supported by many in the community and U.S. tactics are generally destructive, American military "successes" produce new insurgents, recruited to avenge the deaths of friends and relatives..."

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1206-25.htm

BUSH AND MALIKI IRRELEVANT IN IRAQ

"... both Bush and Maliki are absolutely irrelevant in Iraq. Neither one of them has any power. Maliki has no militia to speak of. Bush has militia, the American army, one of the many militias operating in Iraq. But the American Army is lost in Iraq, as it has been since it arrived. Striking at Sunnis, striking at Shias, striking at mostly innocent people. Unable to distinguish between anybody, certainly unable to wield any power, except on the immediate street corner where it’s located..."
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/27/1447216

U.S. NOT WINNING IN IRAQ

"US Defence Secretary nominee Robert Gates has told a Senate committee that the US is not winning the war in Iraq..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6209356.stm

SHIAS LOSE FAITH IN IRAQI GOVERNMENT

"The noisy demonstration that greeted Iraqi Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki on his visit to Sadr City last week... meant that the leader of a Shia-dominated government was being rejected by an angry and influential group of Shias. Maliki's heavily guarded convoy was pelted with stones and with shoes -- a grave insult in Iraq. And this happened in a Shia area..."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35697

ANNUAL COST OF WAR RISES 60% = $200 BILLION FOR 2007

"... President Bush will be asking Congress in January for $124 billion for the war. Add in the $70 billion Congress has already approved for the year and the tab nearly reaches $200 billion for the fiscal year - a 60 percent increase from the previous year. Put in perspective, spending on the Iraq War in 2007 will equal that for the U.S. departments of health, education, international affairs, and veteran's affairs combined.
The long-term financial picture is grim. Because the funds have been borrowed and we have a moral and medical obligation to care for the 20,000 wounded veterans over their lifetimes, taxpayers can expect to shell out between $1 trillion and $2 trillion over the next decade."
http://www.minutemanmedia.org/LEAVER%20112906.htm

THE BEST IRAQI ARMY DIVISION

"Iraqi army's 9th Mechanized Division... is considered Iraq's best hope for an eventual U.S. troop withdrawal... (but) Iraq's best trained and equipped division is far from having the ability to operate independently... attrition and liberal leave policies meant that only 68% of the 9th division is even on duty at any given time... (and) the division had only 65% of the weapons and other equipment that it had been allocated by the U.S... Despite efforts to get more financial support from the Iraqi Defense Ministry, the division stays operational only with help from the U.S. military, which provides everything from food to batteries... (in one battle) "Fear took over" among the Iraqis. They refused to move. We were yelling at them to move".
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-fadhil4dec04,0,2673509.story?page=2&coll=la-home-headlines

IRAQ AN OIL WAR

"... on January 26, 1998, Mr. Rumsfeld and 17 others, members of the Project for a New American Century, wrote a letter to President Clinton, urging the military overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime. If we fail to do so, they were candid in asserting, “a significant portion of the world’s supply of oil will be put at hazard.”... (In addition to Mr. Rumsfeld, 10 others of the signatories would serve in the Bush Administration: Elliott Abrams, Richard Armitage, John Bolton, Paula Dobriansky, Robert Kagan, Zalmay Khalilzad, Richard Perle, William Schneider, Jr., Robert Zoellick, and Paul Wolfowitz.)

"... In his second week in office, President Bush appointed Vice President Cheney to chair a National Energy Policy Development Group... The supersecret “Energy Task Force”... apparent to the Task Force: in the Caspian Basin, and beneath the Iraqi deserts there are 125 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, and the potential for 433 billion barrels more. Anyone controlling that much oil could break OPEC’s stranglehold overnight. By early March, 2001, the Task Force was poring over maps of the Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, tanker terminals, and oil exploration blocks..."

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1203-21.htm

DEMOCRATS WILL INCREASE FUNDING IRAQ WAR

"Once they take over both houses of Congress on January 3, the Democrats will have the responsibility to get American troops out of Iraq as soon as practicable.... Congress holds the power of the purse. The House and Senate could force the withdrawal of American troops by withholding funding for U.S. military operations in Iraq after a certain date... However, Democratic Senator Harry Reid, slated to become Senate Majority Leader, explicitly stated on November 15 that the Democrats would not cut funding for the war, a position reiterated by other Democratic leaders. Indeed... Reid has promised to increase military spending by an additional $75 billion..."
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3747

IRAQ'S PRESIDENT AND ARMY

"... Iraq has no real government or army... Iraq’s hapless “president,” Nuri al-Maliki, presides only over Baghdad’s U.S.-protected Green Zone... What western reporters and Pentagon spinners term the Iraqi Army is really a collection of Shia militias, death squads and mercenaries, many former convicts. The U.S. occupation’s extensive use of Shia death squads to fight the Sunni resistance has played a key role in igniting Iraq’s current sectarian bloodbath... So much for Iraq “democracy.” Washington may be headed towards installing a ruthless Saddam clone, either some brutal CIA “asset” or iron-fisted general..."
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Margolis_Eric/2006/12/03/2606176.html

WHEN U.S. WITHDRAWS, SAUDI ARABIA WILL PROTECT IRAQI SUNNIS

"... Riyadh will use money, weapons or oil power to prevent Iraqi Sunnis from being massacred by Iranian-backed Shiite militias... Saudi options (were listed) as being: providing assistance to Sunni military leaders – primarily ex-Baathists leading the insurgency; establishing new Sunni brigades, or strangling Iran’s funding of Iraq’s Shiites by boosting oil production and halving prices..."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), Friday, December 1, 2006
http://www.debka.com/index.php

IRAQ STUDY GROUP'S "REALIST" VIEW: U.S. NEEDS HELP OF SYRIA AND IRAN

"... Washington's position in Iraq and the region as a whole has become so weak that, without some help from Damascus and Tehran, it will be unable to stop a full-blown civil war that could well spread beyond Iraq's borders..."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35656

IRAQI MEDICAL SYSTEM COLLAPSED

"After three and a half years of occupation, Iraq's medical system has sunk to levels lower than seen during the economic sanctions imposed after the first Gulf war in 1990... of 34,000 Iraqi physicians registered prior to 2003, over half have fled the country, and that at least 2,000 have been killed... of the 180 health clinics the U.S. hoped to build by the end of 2005, only four have been completed -- and none opened.... Despite more than a billion dollars claimed to have been spent by the U.S. on Iraq's healthcare system, health needs are one of the biggest problems for Iraqis under the occupation..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35584

COALITION WITHDRAWALS

"... the 7,100-member British contingent will be scaled back "by a matter of thousands" by the end of next year... Poland, which commands a 2,000-strong multi-national division in southern Iraq, said Monday that its 880-man contingent will be out of Iraq by late 2007... Italy, once a mainstay of the coalition force with 3,000 troops in Iraq, has withdrawn all but 60 to 70 troops from the country and those will be gone by early December..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1128-04.htm

IRAQ STUDY GROUP IS IS COVER FOR COURSE CHANGE

"... the Iraq Study Group (ISG)... (is) an attempt to deflect attention from... America's failure in Iraq and to shore up the authority of the foreign policy establishment... It is engaged in damage control... The ISG will provide cover for the Bush administration to shift course in Iraq... (while avoiding) inquiring into the origins of our predicament..."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1128/p08s02-coop.html

U.S. CANNOT WIN IN ANBAR PROVINCE

"The U.S. military is no longer able to defeat a bloody insurgency in western Iraq or counter al-Qaeda's rising popularity there... as of mid-November, the problems in troubled Anbar province have not improved... Between al-Qaeda's violence, Iran's influence and an expected U.S. drawdown, "the social and political situation has deteriorated to a point" that U.S. and Iraqi troops "are no longer capable of militarily defeating the insurgency in al-Anbar..."
--Marine Corps intelligence report, Aug 2006 updated Nov 2006
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/27/AR2006112701287.html

"...the war in Anbar province... is unwinnable because al-Qaeda's grip is too strong. Despite the success of the December elections, nearly all government institutions from the village to provincial levels have disintegrated or have been thoroughly corrupted and infiltrated by al Qaeda in Iraq. It would need another US division of up to 20,000 troops to make any difference..."
--COL Peter Devlin, Marine Commander in Anbar Province
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6195088.stm

"Pentagon officials are considering a major strategic shift in Iraq, to move U.S. forces out of the dangerous Sunni-dominated al-Anbar province and join the fight to secure Baghdad... There are now 30,000 U.S. troops in al-Anbar, mainly Marines, braving some of the fiercest fighting in Iraq... In a recent intelligence assessment, top Marine in al-Anbar, Col. Peter Devlin, concluded that without a massive infusement of more troops, the battle in al-Anbar is unwinnable."
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2685559&page=1

INSURGENCY SELF-FUNDED INTERNALLY

"... the insurgency now survives off money generated from activities inside Iraq... groups responsible for many insurgent and terrorist attacks are raising $70 million to $200 million a year from illegal activities... $25 million to $100 million of that comes from oil smuggling and other criminal activity involving the state-owned oil industry... the $200 million a year estimate... amounts to less than what it costs the Pentagon, with an $8 billion monthly budget for Iraq, to sustain the American war effort here for a single day..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/world/middleeast/26insurgency.html?hp&ex=1164603600&en=b8c1fef0b3565f6a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

ADMNINSTATION SEEKS AGREEMENT WITH INSURGENTS

"... ongoing discussions (are being held) with insurgent Sunni leaders aimed at a cease-fire... (They are not) committed to bringing American troops home in the near future. Instead, they seek to reduce American casualties, check the influence of Iran, and redeploy US troops to permanent bases... The plan can only be paraphrased:
* Leaders of the organized Sunni resistance groups are seeking immediate meetings with top American generals towards the goal of a cease-fire...
* The resistance groups reject the ability of the al-Maliki government... want an interim government imposed...
* The former Baathist(s)... heading the underground resistance, would be rehired, restored and re-integrated...
* Multinational Force activities aimed at controlling militias to be expanded.
* Multi-National Force would be redeployed to control the eastern border with Iran.
* A Status of Forces agreement... permitting the presence of American troops in Iraq for as long as ten years.
* Amnesty and prisoner releases... Americans guaranteeing the end of torture...
* De-Baathification edicts... rescinded...
* American commitment to financing reconstruction...
* War-debt relief for Kuwait and other countries...."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-hayden/documents-reveal-secret-t_b_34834.html

SYRIA AND IRAN HOLD KEY TO U.S. WITHDRAWAL

"Syria and Iran... could hold the key to saving American plans in their neighbour Iraq... Washington may need the two regional allies to help stabilise Iraq in order to pull its own troops back from an increasingly unpopular commitment there... (but) Washington is only likely to secure active Iranian and Syrian co-operation by paying a high price diplomatically from two countries known for their hard bargaining...."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6144842.stm

THE POINT OF U.S. DEATHS IN IRAQ

"... (Is it that they) died to protect the country from weapons of mass destruction, to create a democracy in the midst of the Arab world, to win a victory that would enhance American credibility, to keep faith with those who had already died, to get rid of Saddam Hussein because the president said it was the right thing to do, because Iraq was the central front in the war on terror?..."

"(Or is it that they) died because of the arrogance and the ignorance of the American government, because of mistakes and blunders, because some of our leaders thought the war was a good thing, because it would take pressure off of Israel, because of Arab oil?..."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/greeley/147970,CST-EDT-GREEL24.article

AL-QAEDA U.S. AND IRAN AGREE ON PARTITION OF IRAQ

"... the majority of Iraqi leaders and analysts believe that any division plans, in addition to keeping foreign military presence in Iraq, are a perfect formula for creating a full-scale, long-lasting war between the different regions and factions... the only people who seem to be working to cut Iraq into three states are the U.S, al-Qaida and Iranian politicians. The three enemies seem to have finally found some common ground."
--Raed Jarrar, Iraq project director at Global Exchange
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-22forum22nov22,0,3920788.story

RUSSIA: SADDAM VERDICT A COVER UP, SUGGESTS NEW TRIAL

"Russian politicians and Muslim leaders... suggest that an independent, international tribunal be set up to retry the former Iraqi president... "There is a clear conflict between the fact that Iraq is called a democratic state, on the one hand, and the court rendering such undemocratic decision on the other"...
(Russia) believed an attempt to dispose of a valuable witness lay behind the decision to sentence Hussein to death. "The removal of such a valuable witness... could be a cover up by those who do not want Hussein to tell the whole truth about his time in power and about the various forms of collaboration he had with a host of different countries. This verdict raises a mass of questions, first and most serious of which is: Who benefits?"
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35492

FARMING IN IRAQ

"... the regime of Saddam Hussein... purchased crops from farmers in order to encourage them to continue planting... regardless of how bad the market was under the economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations in 1990... "the 'condemned regime' used to supply us with everything we needed. Seeds, fuel, trucks, harvest machines and anything we might need"... (but now this):
* lack of manpower... "most of our young men... not killed by... troops are in jail or missing."
* 48-percent unemployment rate...
* lack of electricity, fuel and security in the field...
* lack of... fertilisers and soil treatment...
* inflation rate has soared to nearly 70 percent...
* petrol and electricity (up) 374 percent over the last year...
* transport sector saw a 218-percent hike in prices...
In a study to be published soon by an Iraqi economics institute, over 75 percent of the vegetables and fruit consumed in Iraq are imported from Syria, Jordan and Iran."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35501

BUSH TO MEET MALIKI IN JORDAN - IRAQ TOO DANGEROUS

"... Bush will go to the Middle East for a summit with Iraq's prime minister next week... Bush will fly from Latvia to Amman, Jordan, for talks Wednesday and Thursday with al-Maliki... Jordan was selected as the site..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6232645,00.html

"... the President himself goes to the region to confer with Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister. But, in a sign of how dangerous Baghdad has become, the meeting will take place on the far safer territory of Amman, Jordan..."
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2009982.ece

"The fact that President Bush is having to meet the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki in Jordan is a sign of how desperate things have become in Iraq. It's just too dangerous for him to go there..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6195088.stm

RECORD HIGH IRAQI DEATH TOLL

"The Iraqi death toll hit a record high in October, with more than 3,700 people losing their lives... nearly 200 more than in the previous record month of July... During September and October, some 3,253 such corpses were found..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6172660.stm

"ROQUE STATE" TERM CREATED FOR TARGETS OF WAR ON TERROR

"... The US response to... (9-11) has been... a vengeful declaration of a "war on terror". This is a strategic overshoot, because terrorism is an amorphous organism that cannot be eliminated by military operations, war can only be declared on and fought between states. Thus the US was compelled to conjure up the notion of "rogue states" that gelled into an "axis of evil" allegedly linked to state-sponsored terrorism....
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HK21Ak03.html

CAR BOMBS FOUND IN GREEN ZONE

"U.S. troops blew up two cars Tuesday inside the heavily fortified Green Zone after dogs indicated explosives were inside the vehicles that were used in the motorcade of the parliament speaker... the explosives were found and detonated near the Convention Center, where parliament meets and government officials hold news conferences... It is home to the Iraqi president, government, parliament, as well as the U.S. and British embassies."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061121/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_green_zone

VICTORY IMPOSSIBLE

"Henry Kissinger... said he no longer believed a military victory was possible in the conflict. "If you mean by clear military victory an Iraqi government that can be established... that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control . . . I don’t believe that is possible."
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c2daddb2-7822-11db-be09-0000779e2340.html

PENTAGON STUDY: INCREASE TROOPS AND STAY

"... The military's study, commissioned by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace... has outlined three basic options: Send in more troops, shrink the force but stay longer, or pull out... "Go Big," "Go Long" and "Go Home".
- Go Big... has been all but rejected... not enough troops...
- Go Home... was rejected... as likely to push Iraq directly into... civil war...
- Go Long... is gaining favor... U.S. presence in Iraq... would be boosted by 20,000 to 30,000... or a short period..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/19/AR2006111901249.html

HRW SAYS SADDAM TRIAL UNFAIR

"The trial of Saddam Hussein was so flawed that its verdict is unsound, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch says.... HRW group said the trials were among the most important since the Nazi trials in Nuremberg after World War II.They "represent the first opportunity to create a historical record concerning some of the worst cases of human rights violations, and to begin the process of a methodical accounting of the policies and decisions that give rise to these events"
- Proceedings were marked by frequent outbursts by both judges and defendants.
- Three defence lawyers were murdered, three judges left the five-member panel and the original chief judge was replaced.
- Defence lawyers boycotted proceedings but HRW said court-appointed counsel that took their place lacked adequate training in international law.
- In addition, important documents were not given to defence lawyers in advance, no written transcript was kept and paperwork was lost.
- The defence was also prevented from cross-examining witnesses and the judges made asides that pre-judged Saddam Hussein...."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6163938.stm

BRAIN DRAIN PREVENTS IRAQ FROM REBUILDING ITSELF

"... The lack of viable opportunities coupled with the devastating daily violence has caused many of Iraq's engineers, doctors, lawyers, and professors to flee the country while some of those who remain have been killed. The massive "brain drain" may eventually have a chilling effect on Iraq's future ability to rebuild itself... an estimated 1.8 million people have fled to neighboring countries, mainly Syria and Jordan, since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003... 1,000 Iraqis a day are crossing over into Jordan and 2,000 a day into Syria... nearly 100,000 Iraqis are fleeing the country every month..."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1117/dailyUpdate.html

PERMANENT U.S. BASES IN IRAQ UNDISCUSSED IN PRESS

"... just after Baghdad fell, the Pentagon arrived in the Iraqi capital with plans already on the drawing board to build four massive military bases (that no official, then or now, will ever call "permanent"). Today, according to our former Secretary of Defense, we have 55 bases of every size in Iraq (down from over 100); five or six of these, including Balad Airbase, north of Baghdad, the huge base first named Camp Victory adjacent to Baghdad International Airport, and al-Asad Airbase in western Anbar province, are enormous -- big enough to be reasonable-sized American towns with multiple bus routes, neighborhoods, a range of fast-food restaurants, multiple PX's, pools, mini-golf courses and the like..."

"... these bases have, with rare exceptions, gone completely undescribed and undiscussed in our press (or on the television news). From an engineering journal, we know that before the end of 2003, several billion dollars had already been sunk into them. We know that in early 2006, the major ones, already mega-structures, were still being built up into a state of advanced permanency. Balad, for instance, already handled the levels of daily air traffic you would normally see at Chicago's ultra-busy O'Hare and in February its facilities were still being ramped up..."

http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=141003

AMERICAN ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN IRAQ

"... what have the American invasion and occupation of Iraq led to... As a start, an already badly battered Iraqi economy was turned into a looting ground for Bush administration crony corporations and thoroughly wrecked.... The Iraqi education system is in tatters; the medical system in ruins; basic social and urban services almost undeliverable; oil production barely up to pathetic prewar levels... the position of women now disastrous; child malnutrition on the rise; and well over a million Iraqis have fled their homes in a country of only 26 million people.

"In addition, national sovereignty has been destroyed; the national police system is on its last legs, its ranks well-stocked with men loyal to various murderous Shiite militias; a Sunni insurgency rages ever more violently; a Kurdish form of independence seems ever more likely ... corruption is rampant; and a central government... is now considered "the least accountable and least transparent regime in the Middle East."

http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=141003

U.S. BUILDING MASSIVE NEW AIRBASE IN NORTHERN IRAQ

"... U.S. officials in agreement with the regional Kurdish administration in northern Iraq have begun to construct a military airport in the Arbil region..."
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&trh=20061015&hn=37370

"Following hints U.S. troops may remain in Iraq for years, the United States is reportedly building a massive military base at Arbil, in Kurdish northern Iraq..."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15344.htm

U.S. TANKS KILL 35 CIVILIANS

"... U.S. tanks killed 35 civilians when they shelled several homes in the Al-Dhubat area of (Ramadi)... another 17 wounded had been brought into the hospital... "ambulances did not appear on the scene for hours because the Americans did not allow them to move... there were people buried under the rubble who were bleeding to death while there was still a chance to rescue them"... doctors confirmed the reason of death for many as severe bleeding that had gone on for several hours. Most of the doctors were unwilling to discuss too many details for fear of U.S. military reprisals... Residents of the city and relatives of the dead who were at the funeral were furious."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35515

IRAQ HEALTH CARE THEN AND NOW

"Thousands of Iraqis are dying from shortages of medicine, vital equipment and qualified doctors... hundreds of doctors have been killed and thousands have fled the country. The child mortality rate... has worsened since the U.S.-led invasion... Shiites who control the Health Ministry deliberately withhold medicines and other vital supplies... a looming ''humanitarian catastrophe'' as medicine, blood bags, oxygen, anesthetics, vaccines and intravenous fluid run out...

"The nation's health has deteriorated to a level not seen since the 1950s... Once, Iraqi health care was first-rate. Medicine and hospital care were free; doctors well-educated and respected... They were at the forefront... just before the 1991 Gulf War. Now they're looking more and more like a country in sub-Saharan Africa."

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/living/health/16016409.htm

BUSH: A LAST BIG PUSH TO WIN IN IRAQ

"... Bush has told senior advisers that the US and its allies must make "a last big push" to win the war in Iraq...(Bush's) refusal to give ground... is having a decisive impact on the policy review being conducted by the Iraq Study Group... (Bush's) Four-point strategy:
· Increase US troop levels by up to 20,000...
· Focus on regional cooperation...
· Revive reconciliation process between Sunni, Shia...
· Increased.... (funding for) training and equipment of Iraqi security forces..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1948750,00.html

NEW BUSH 4-POINT VICTORY STRATEGY FOR IRAQ WAR

"... Bush is considering "a last big push" to win the war... Bush's "refusal to give ground" is affecting the policy review being conducted by the Iraq Study Group which... is expected to issue recommendations based on a four-point "victory strategy"...
- increase U.S. forces by up to 20,000 soldiers...
- more "regional cooperation" intended to promote stability in Iraq...
- development of a political framework... (for) reconciliation among Shiite and Sunni...
- call on the U.S. Congress to appropriate funds for additional troops and... training and equipping expanded Iraqi military and police forces.
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/breakingnews/article_21250029.shtml

Q & A ON IRAQ WITHDRAWAL -- FROM DECEMBER 2005

Would the withdrawal of U.S. troops ignite a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites?
No. That civil war is already under way—in large part because of the American presence. The longer the United States stays, the more it fuels Sunni hostility toward Shiite "collaborators"...

But if American troops aren't in Baghdad, what's to stop the Sunnis from launching an assault and seizing control of the city?
Sunni forces could not mount such an assault. The preponderance of power now lies with the majority Shiites and the Kurds, and the Sunnis know this...

Wouldn't a U.S. withdrawal embolden the insurgency?
No. If the occupation were to end, so, too, would the insurgency. After all, what the resistance movement has been resisting is the occupation...

But what about the foreign jihadi element of the resistance? Wouldn't it be empowered by a U.S. withdrawal?
The foreign jihadi element—commanded by the likes of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi—is numerically insignificant; the bulk of the resistance has no connection to al-Qaeda or its offshoots...

What about the Kurds? Won't they secede if the United States leaves?
Yes, but that's going to happen anyway. All Iraqi Kurds want an independent Kurdistan. They do not feel Iraqi...

Would Iran effectively take over Iraq?
No. Iraqis are fiercely nationalist—even the country's Shiites resent Iranian meddling...

What about the goal of creating a secular democracy in Iraq that respects the rights of women and non-Muslims?
Give it up. It's not going to happen. Apart from the Kurds, who revel in their secularism, Iraqis overwhelmingly seek a Muslim state...

What can the United States do to repair Iraq?
There is no panacea. Iraq is a destroyed and fissiparous country... it might be impossible to keep Iraq from disintegrating... the best hope of avoiding this scenario is if the United States leaves...

--Nir Rosen, Atlantic Monthly, December 2005
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200512/iraq-withdrawal

OVERRIDING LESSON OF THE WAR

"... Americans remain oblivious to the overriding lesson of the war. When you interfere in the affairs of another country, not for the sake of its people, but to promote your own agenda and further your own ambitions, you set in motion events that will cause enormous suffering and that will reverberate for years to come...."
http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-nysher134974432nov13,0,35747.column

DANISH JOURNALISTS ON TRIAL FOR LEAKING IRAQ INTELLIGENCE

"The editor-in-chief and two reporters at one of Denmark's largest newspapers went on trial Monday for publishing classified intelligence reports about... Saddam Hussein's weapons program... In February and March 2004... The reports said there was no evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction during Saddam Hussein's rule – one of the main reasons behind the U.S.-led invasion in 2003..."
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20061113-0338-denmark-iraq-intelligence.html

MCCAIN: AL-SADR HAS TO BE TAKEN OUT

"Muqtada al-Sadr... has emerged as one of the most powerful forces in Iraq, commanding a large (Mahdi Army) militia and a growing political organization... Because of al-Sadr, "Al-Maliki was able to become prime minister despite the fact that other political parties had gained more seats in parliament," says Vali Nasr, author of The Shia Revival. "He is al-Sadr's prime minister."

"I believe that the Mahdi Army continues to pose a threat," Sen. John McCain said in Arizona last week. "I believe al-Sadr has to be taken out."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-11-12-al-sadr-cover_x.htm

NO NEW HOSPITALS, FEW NEW CLINICS

"... Since 2003, U.S. agencies have spent at least $493 million of Iraqi reconstruction funds on healthcare, but no new hospitals and only a few clinics have been built. With reconstruction funds running out, officials can point to few success stories beyond a child vaccination campaign. Hospitals looted in the first days after the invasion remain decrepit, without vital equipment and supplies.

"The hospital rehabilitation program has been plagued by cost overruns and complaints of shoddy but expensive work. A flagship $50-million children's hospital in the southern city of Basra, a pet project of First Lady Laura Bush, has run far behind schedule and over budget. If it is ever finished, the hospital probably will end up costing at least $40 million more than planned, not including medical equipment..."

"... The largest U.S.-funded construction program in the healthcare sector has fallen far short. A project to build 150 primary healthcare centers in Iraq was initially scaled back to 142 because of cost overruns. But only six clinics are open to the public..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-health11nov11,0,3477207.story?coll=la-home-headlines

RUMSFELD MAY FACE IRAQI DETAINEE ABUSE CHARGES IN GERMANY

"... Rumsfeld, who quit as US defence secretary this week, may face criminal charges in Germany for alleged abuses in Guantanamo Bay and Iraq... A complaint has been launched by the US-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, representing a Saudi detained in Cuba and 11 Iraqis held in Baghdad. German law allows the pursuit of cases originating anywhere in the world..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6138480.stm

GATES NOT OPEN TO CHANGE ON IRAQ

"... it is particularly troubling that President Bush, who marched this country into an unnecessary and costly war on the basis of specious and even fabricated intelligence, is turning to Mr. Gates, who has a reputation for politicizing intelligence. This suggests that the president is not open to real change with respect to Iraq; instead, he is circling the wagons with another loyal and obedient subordinate who will not question the wisdom of the pre-emptive use of military force in Iraq or the wisdom of pursuing "victory" in Iraq. In appointing Mr. Gates to head the Pentagon, Mr. Bush is running the risk of further poisoning the tense atmosphere at the Department of Defense."
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.gates10nov10,0,3393156.story

TAPE FROM AL-QAEDA TELLS BUSH TO REMAIN STEADFAST IN IRAQ

"... Abu Ayyub al-Masri... said his group was winning the war in Iraq faster than expected due to U.S. policies. He urged Bush not to withdraw U.S. forces so al-Qaida could have more opportunities to fight U.S. soldiers. "The al-Qaida army has 12,000 fighters in Iraq... We haven't had enough of your blood yet" ... and called on "the lame duck (Bush) not to hurry up in escaping the same way the defense minister did"... "They are getting ready to leave, because they are no longer capable of staying," the al-Qaida leader said, referring to U.S. forces. "Remain steadfast in the battlefield, you coward," he said, addressing Bush."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4325708.html

IRAQ SAYS 100-150,000 CIVILIANS KILLED

"Iraq's health minister says between 100,000 and 150,000 civilians have been killed in the war..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6135526.stm

MUBARAK'S WARNING ON SADDAM EXECUTION

"Carrying out this verdict will explode violence like waterfalls in Iraq... (and) will transform (Iraq) into pools of blood and lead to a deepening of the sectarian and ethnic conflicts"...
--Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak

"... many Arab leaders can see Iraq turning into a festering sore, radicalising youth across the region and creating more anti-American sentiment... many have serious reservations about his trial, held under what they consider US occupation."
--BBC's Heba Saleh in Cairo

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6134626.stm

BECHTEL QUITS -- BILLIONS DOWN THE DRAIN

"... The company has received $2.3 billion of Iraqi reconstruction funds and US taxpayer money, but is leaving without completing most of the tasks it set out to do... On every level of infrastructure measurable, the situation in Iraq is worse now than under the rule of Saddam. That includes the 12 years of economic sanctions since the first Gulf War in 1991... The average household in Iraq now gets two hours of electricity a day. There is 70% unemployment, 68% of Iraqis have no access to safe drinking water, and only 19% have sewage access. Not even oil production has matched pre-invasion levels.... of the 180 health clinics the US hoped to build by the end of 2005, only four have been completed - and none opened... A proposed $200 million project to build 142 primary-care centers ran out of cash after building just 20 clinics..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HK10Ak02.html

BILLIONS LOST TO CORRUPTION - U.S. TO STOP AUDITING

"Corruption within the Iraqi government... could amount to $4 billion a year, over 10% of the national income, with some money going to the insurgency... the US official monitoring reconstruction in Iraq has said... (However) A clause in a military spending bill signed by President George W Bush three weeks ago will terminate the work of the auditor on 1 October next year..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6131290.stm

SADDAM VERDICT TIMED TO ELECTION

"White House spokesman Tony Snow decried as "absolutely crazy" any notion that the end to Hussein's nine-month trial was timed to produce positive news on the war two days before citizens here vote... (But) Scott Horton, chair of the International Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association, who worked on Hussein's trial, said there is little doubt that the death sentence was intentionally handed down on the eve of the mid-term elections."This entire process from beginning to end is being closely superintended by the United States," he told IPS. "This whole process is funded by a 138-million-dollar grant from Congress and a large staff of people working out of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad called the 'Regimes Crime Unit'."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35386

FALLUJAH VIOLENT AGAIN

"... Two years after American troops launched a devastating ground assault... Fallujah once again is a violent place... "al-Qaida has won in Fallujah," said a police officer... With Fallujah's population estimated at 250,000 to 300,000... 5,000 to 6,000 soldiers and police officers (are needed). Iraqi troops number about 1,200 and Iraqi police... as low as 700 because of recent resignations. And only a few hundred American troops are available for security duty."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/15944717.htm

HUSSEIN WILL DIE A MARTYR DUE TO UNFAIR TRIAL

"... Hussein's defense lawyers died like flies. The first to go, Saadoun Janabi, was "arrested" last year by men claiming to be from the Shiite-controlled Interior Ministry police and later found dead in Sadr City, the Shiite stronghold in Baghdad. The second, Adel al-Zubeidi, was shot shortly afterward, whereupon another fled the country. And the chief defense lawyer, Khamis al-Obaidi, was abducted in June. He, too, was arrested by men in police uniforms, and his body was found, with both arms broken and eight bullet wounds, dumped in the same place in Sadr City. After Obaidi's murder, Hussein's lawyers withdrew from the trial... (replaced by) no legal representation other than a court-appointed lawyer who refused to be filmed or photographed... Hussein has not had a fair trial, although that, too, would certainly have found him guilty. He is the victim of a state-sponsored lynching, and so, for many people, he will die a martyr..."
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/15946295.htm

HALLIBURTON CHARGED IRAQ $8/GALLON FOR FUEL

"(Halliburton subsidiary KBR - Kellogg Brown Root) charged the Iraqi government as much as $25,000 per month for each of as many as 1,800 fuel trucks that were to deliver gasoline to Iraq after the 2003 invasion, but the trucks often spent days or weeks sitting idle on the border... The audit said the Kuwaiti government had set the price of its gasoline at $1.13 a gallon. But with the delivery charges, the effective cost of the gas was calculated to be much higher, about $8 a gallon... “For this cost you probably could have flown the fuel in... findings on how KBR came up with $1.4 billion in charges on the contract between May 2003 and March 2004 raised new questions on hundreds of millions of dollars more."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/07/world/middleeast/07contracts.html?ei=5094&en=8dbeb76997d4763f&hp=&ex=1162962000&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1162921234-j5q2oMi9Wt3gcGUflQUteQ

IRAQ THE 3RD MOST CORRUPT COUNTRY IN WORLD

"Haiti has been ranked as the most corrupt country in the world by Transparency International (TI), followed by Burma and Iraq..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6120522.stm

ARABS THINK SADDAM VERDICT WAS DELAYED FOR U.S. ELECTIONS

"... Many Sunni Muslim Arabs in Iraq and the broader Middle East have expressed suspicion about the timing of the verdict, which judges moved from Oct. 16 to two days before hotly contested midterm congressional elections in the United States. "The American president, Bush, asked for this for a political gain in the elections that will be held in the U.S. this month," said Mohammed Daini, a member of the National Dialogue Council, a Sunni political party in Iraq. U.S. officials contested the allegation..."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-saddam5nov05,0,894878.story?page=2&coll=la-home-headlines

ADMINISTRATION PUBLISHES PRE-1991 DOCUMENTS TO KEEP ALIVE MYTH OF IRAQI WMD

"... weapons specialists yesterday assailed the government's decision to publish details about Iraq's defunct weapons programs on the Internet... to try to convince the public that Saddam Hussein resumed building an atomic bomb after the 1991 Persian Gulf War... weapons specialists said the web site made it seem as though the documents were recently discovered... The documents date from before the 1991 Gulf War; when the fighting ended, Hussein's government turned over the documents to the United Nations weapons inspectors who dismantled Iraq's weapons and missile programs in the early 1990s..."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/11/04/democrats_condemn_posting_of_iraq_arms_data/

MUTUAL ANIMOSITY BETWEEN MALIKI AND U.S.

"... For U.S. and Top Iraqi, Animosity Is Mutual... Mr. Maliki said the poor security situation across Iraq was the Americans’ fault, and demanded a more rapid transfer of command authority over the war... he demanded more American money for the buildup of Iraq’s own forces, and for reconstruction of the country’s infrastructure, on top of the $38 billion the Bush administration says it has already spent on civil and military aid to Iraq since the toppling of Mr. Hussein in 2003 and the nearly $400 billion for America’s own deployments..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/04/world/middleeast/04assess.html?hp&ex=1162702800&en=0b2d2036897a3d58&ei=5094&partner=homepage

BECHTEL QUITS IRAQ -- TOO DANGEROUS

"... Bechtel Corp... says the security situation in Iraq has made it too difficult to continue operating... is leaving the country after three years of work there... Bechtel's president for infrastructure work, said... it was "heartbreaking" to see how security in Iraq had deteriorated. Bechtel employed more than 40,000 workers..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6112164.stm

U.S. TO STOP AUDITING FOR CORRUPTION IN RECONSTRUCTION

"A US government agency that has exposed corruption in Iraqi reconstruction projects will close in 2007. Washington lawmakers have reacted with shock at the discovery that an obscure clause in a military spending bill will terminate the work of the auditor. The Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction has embarrassed the US administration with its reports on corrupt practices. Critics of the government claim this is what lies behind its sudden closure..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6114132.stm

MURDEROUS U.S. ARMY

“Three U.S. armed vehicles, eight soldiers in each, are driving through a village, passing candy out to kids. Suddenly the first vehicle explodes, and there are soldiers screaming. Sixteen soldiers come out of the other vehicles, and they do what they’re told to do, which is look for running people. Never mind that the bomb was detonated by remote control [The soldiers] open up fire; [the] cameras show it was a soccer game. About ten minutes later, [the soldiers] begin dragging bodies together, and they drop weapons there. It was reported as 20 or 30 insurgents killed that day... there has never been an [American] army as violent and murderous as our army has been in Iraq.”
--Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, in Montreal lecture for interdisciplinary media and communications studies program called Media@McGill
http://www.mcgilldaily.com/view.php?aid=5450

NEW WINNING STRATEGY: UNLIMITED TIME AND SUPPORT

"Republicans Spring a New "Winning" Strategy... Since the 'stay the course' sound-bite was recently abandoned by the White House... a replacement had to be found.... asking whoever they are conversing with about the Iraq war, "Do you want us to win in Iraq?"... It's a 'when did you stop beating your dog' sort of frame. You ask the question and the person to whom you are asking it flubs the response. Or you ask the question knowing that no one wants to lose or would want to say 'I want the U.S. to lose.'"
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35335

"... Asked point-blank whether the United States is winning in Iraq, Abizaid replied: "Given unlimited time and unlimited support, we're winning the war."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0921/dailyUpdate.html?s=widep

SECURITY FIRM PULLS OUT OF IRAQ - NOT WORTH RISK

"Security company Kroll has withdrawn its bodyguard teams from Iraq and Afghanistan after it lost four workers in Iraq... Michael G. Cherkasky, president and chief executive of Kroll owner Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc., told The Associated Press that the business in the two countries wasn't worth risking the lives of their employees."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KROLL_IRAQ?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

BRIEFING CHART SHOWS IRAQ IN CHAOS


"A classified briefing... portrays Iraq as edging toward chaos, in a chart that the military is using as a barometer of civil conflict.... One significant factor in the military’s decision to move the scale toward “chaos” was the expanding activity by militias. Another reason was the limitations of Iraqi government security forces, which despite years of training and equipping by the United States, are either ineffective or, in some cases, infiltrated by the very militias they are supposed to be combating.."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/world/middleeast/01military.html?hp&ex=1162443600&en=ae294d1d13aed188&ei=5094&partner=homepage

TATTOOS USEFUL IN IRAQ

Ali Abbas decided that his upper right thigh was the best place for a tattoo because no one gets tortured there....He'd seen hundred of bodies in the city morgue and dozens of hospitals during his 18-day search for his missing uncle. He'd seen drill marks in swollen, often unrecognizable heads, slash marks across necks, bullet holes in backs, abdomens and swollen hands. He'd seen bodies that had been thrown into the river, so swollen they'd barely looked human. But by and large, the thighs had been intact.... he got a tattoo with his name, address and phone number... many Iraqis are getting ID tattoos so they won't be a nameless victim."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/15895502.htm

PENTAGON UNIT TO COUNTER "INACCURATE" NEWS STORIES

"... the Bush administration does not believe the true picture of events in Iraq has been made public... (and) has set up a new unit to better promote its message across 24-hour rolling news outlets, and particularly on the internet... The Pentagon said the move would boost its ability to counter "inaccurate" news stories and exploit new media...

"The newly-established unit will use "new media" channels to push its message and "set the record straight"..."develop messages" for the 24-hour news cycle and aim to "correct the record"... The unit would reportedly monitor media such as web logs and would also employ "surrogates", or top politicians or lobbyists who could be interviewed on TV and radio shows.... the move to set up the unit had not been prompted either by the eroding public support in the US for the Iraq war or the US mid-term elections..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6101178.stm

MISSING WEAPONS FOUND IN IRAQ

"(An audit found that) Nearly one of every 25 weapons the military bought for Iraqi security forces is missing... almost 4 percent of the semiautomatic pistols, assault rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other weapons it began supplying to Iraq since the end of 2003... The Pentagon spent $133 million on the weapons... (and) By December, the U.S. military had planned to put those weapons in the hands of 325,500 personnel."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061029/ap_on_go_ot/iraq_reconstruction_audits

"... The American military did not even take the elementary step of recording the serial numbers of nearly half a million weapons provided to Iraqis... making it impossible to track or identify any that might be in the wrong hands..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/30/world/middleeast/30reconstruct.html?hp&ex=1162270800&en=bfe1488484d2e635&ei=5094&partner=homepage

FUTURE OF IRAQ TO BE DETERMINED BY IMF OIL LAW

"... US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman landed in Baghdad this past summer, insisting that Iraqis must "pass a hydrocarbon law under which foreign companies can invest". Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani was convinced, and said the law would be passed by the end of 2006... a debt-for-oil program concocted and imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This is the point of the US invasion - a return on investment on the hundreds of billions of dollars of US taxpayers' money spent.

"The draft hydrocarbon law was reviewed by the IMF, reviewed by Bodman and reviewed by Big Oil executives... it will not be reviewed by Iraqi civil society... The real... future of Iraq will be decided in December... (by this) new oil law..."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ27Ak03.html

"... The Bush administration won't pull out of Iraq because it doesn't want to abandon... the oil.The Iraqi government is under pressure to pass a new law to open up Iraq's vast oil reserves to foreign investment and ownership. None of this is mentioned in the media's endless commentary on the war. What would wildly lucrative profits for Big Oil have to do with the U.S. involvement in Iraq?"
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1162034469856

THE BEST AND ONLY OPTION FOR IRAQ - MUSLIM FORCES UNDER A U.N. MANDATE

"... The best - and only - option for the US might be to maintain the integrity of Iraq as a single entity and look to Muslim and Arab forces to take charge of security, but with a new United Nations mandate. In other words, the future of Iraq has to be brought under the legitimacy of the UN umbrella, and with the presence of Muslim forces..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ27Ak02.html

MISTREATMENT OF LABORERS ON NEW U.S. EMBASSY

"... the new US$592 million US Embassy in Baghdad... near the Tigris River will equal Vatican City in size... As of now, only a handful of authorized State Department managers and contractors, along with First Kuwaiti workers and contractors, are officially allowed inside the project's walls. No journalist has ever been allowed access to the sprawling 42-hectare site with towering construction cranes raising their necks along the skyline... (There have been) complaints about management of the project and poor treatment of the laborers that, at times, numbered as many as 2,500... (earning) as little as $10-$30 a day.. Most are from the Philippines, India and Pakistan. Others are from Egypt and Turkey... (There is) poor sanitation, squalid living conditions and medical malpractice in the labor camps where several thousand low-paid migrant workers lived. The number of workers with injuries and ailments stunned (one US contractor). Once when 17 workers climbed the wall of the construction site to escape, a State Department official helped round them up and put them in "virtual lockdown"..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ27Ak01.html

PLAN TO DIVIDE IRAQ LOSES APPEAL

"A plan to divide Iraq into three autonomous regions... is losing support among a key constituency - residents of Iraq's largely Shiite Muslim southern provinces... the group expected to benefit most from its imposition.... The idea has always been opposed by Sunni Muslims... the Kurds continue to favor it... (but) Shiites in southern Iraq say they no longer believe a region made up largely of members of their sect will solve the problems that plague their communities... they feel abandoned by their largely Shiite central government... (which) has allowed local parties and their militias - which have proved to be stronger than the government's security forces - to control their cities."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/15856281.htm

BUSH VIEWS STAKES IN IRAQ

"... the US president began the press conference at the White House by outlining recent setbacks in Iraq.... He warned that if Iraq became a failed state, extremists could gain access to oil wealth and launch fresh attacks. If the US was not successful in Iraq, he said, extremists could use it as a base from which to try to establish a "radical empire from Spain to Indonesia".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6084902.stm

IRAQ CONNECTION TO AL-QAEDA BASED ON CONFESSION OBTAINED UNDER TORTURE

"... Iban al Shakh al Libby... an Al-Qaeda terror suspect captured by the United States, who gave evidence of links between Iraq and the terror network, confessed after being tortured... (He) claimed... a connection between ... Al-Qaeda and the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. This intelligence report made it all the way to the top, and was used by... Colin Powell as a key piece of justification ... for invading Iraq..."

"Powell claimed in a UN Security Council meeting in February 2003, weeks before a US-led coalition invaded Iraq, that the country under Saddam Hussein had provided weapons training to Al-Qaeda, saying he could "trace the story of a senior terrorist operative"... (who is now alleged to be) Libby."

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/061027/afp/061027002757int.html

CIVIL WAR TOO EASY A TERM

"... Baghdad now is convulsed by hatred, paralyzed by suspicion; fear has forced many to leave. Carnage its rhythm and despair its mantra, the capital, it seems, no longer embraces life... There was civil war-style sectarian killing... Alongside it were gangland turf battles over money, power and survival; a raft of political parties and their militias fighting a zero-sum game; a raging insurgency; the collapse of authority; social services a chimera; and no way forward for an Iraqi government ordered to act by Americans who themselves are still seen as the final arbiter and, as a result, still depriving that government of legitimacy. Civil war was perhaps too easy a term..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/27/AR2006102701487.html?nav=rss_print/outlook

IRAQI PM NOT "AMERICA'S MAN"

"I am elected by a people and a parliament... I am a friend of the United States, but I am not America's man in Iraq."
--Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, October 27, 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6094454.stm

"... White House spokesman Tony Snow insisted "there are no strains in the relationship" between Iraq and the United States..."
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=148802

BUSH IRAQ WAR DELAYING 2ND COMING OF CHRIST

"... U.S. foreign policy is delaying the second coming of Jesus Christ, according to evangelical preacher K.A. Paul (who) railed against the war in Iraq on Sunday... (saying) the Bush administration has delayed the second coming because U.S. foreign policy has blocked Christian missionaries from working in Iraq, Iran and Syria..."
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/116038288540580.xml&coll=2

IRAQ POLICY ENTERING RETREAT PHASE

"US and UK policy in Iraq is now entering its retreat phrase. Where there is no hope of victory, the necessity for victory must be asserted ever more strongly... For retreat to be tolerable it must be called victory... the spin doctors are already at work... telling the world that the occupation will have failed only through the ingratitude and uselessness of the Iraqis themselves. The rubbishing of the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, has begun..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1930684,00.html

BUSH AND BIN LADEN NEED EACH OTHER

"Bush presidency and bin Laden: Each needs other for legitimacy... al-Qaida is not much more than an assembly of rag-tag, fringe ideologies that barely have credit in the Islamic world... Al-Qaida's theology is... crude and overwhelmingly rejected by mainstream Islam's clerics -- beginning with al-Qaida's cult of violence and death. But the administration bought the delusion whole, giving Osama the disproportionate fight he wants... and elevating him to an enemy status he could never manage on his own.... Osama has only one rival accomplice: George W. Bush."
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Columnists/Essays/colESSAY102406.htm

3.1 MILLION IRAQIS DISPLACED BY TOTAL BREAKDOWN

"... Out of the population of 26 million, 1.6 million Iraqis have fled the country and a further 1.5 million are displaced within Iraq, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees... In Jordan alone there are 500,000 Iraqi refugees and a further 450,000 in Syria. In Syria alone they are arriving at the rate of 40,000 a month... Baghdad is breaking up into a dozen different cities, each under the control of its own militia... There is the total breakdown of law and order. Kidnappings are rife. Businessmen pay for the assassination of their rivals. Sunni militants kill women wearing trousers and men wearing shorts.Rival Shia militias fight pitched battles for control of oilfields. American soldiers often shoot at anything..."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1919327.ece

BUSH CONSIDERING 8 OPTIONS

1. British out now.
2. US and Coalition troops out now.
3. Phased withdrawal.
4. Talk to Iran and Syria.
5. Remove Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in favor of a strongman.
6. Break-up of Iraq
7. A US retreat to super-bases.
8. One last push.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1928058,00.html

SOMEHOW IRAQ

"... Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is...

"Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them...

"Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet..."

--Kevin Tillman, fellow soldier and brother of Pat Tillman who was killed in Afghanistan
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601019_after_pats_birthday/

A NEW IRAQ EMERGING

"... There is a new Iraq emerging before our eyes. It is an Iraq that torments Christians, that indulges in unrelenting sectarian bloodbaths, that cheers for Hezbollah, that is no more a friend to Israel than is Iran... The new Iraq is not what George W. Bush talks about. But... that's the Iraq we are in."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/20/AR2006102001363_2.html

IRAQI GOVT STOPS GIVING CIVILIAN CASUALTY FIGURES TO U.N.

"The United Nations office in Baghdad says that Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, has ordered the country’s medical authorities to stop providing the organization with monthly figures on the number of civilians killed and wounded in the conflict there.."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/21/world/middleeast/21statistics.html?_r=1&oref=login

PROPOSED COUP IS NOT THE ANSWER

"... a coup in Baghdad... might just add to the bloody unraveling of the country. The problem is... (that) "In order to mount a coup, you have to have a state. And there is no state in Iraq." Iraq is utterly anarchic, a Mad Max world of clashing paramilitaries, gangs, warlords, sectarian fighters, death squads, criminal enterprises, government-backed mafias, and several hundred thousand army men, police, Interior Ministry commandos and special units like the Facilities Protection Service that are only loosely under the control of the central government. So how would a prospective coup-maker, even with Washington's fervent backing, impose his will on all that?..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ21Ak03.html

SADDAM VERDICT DELAYED UNTIL TWO DAYS BEFORE MIDTERM ELECTIONS

"A court trying Saddam Hussein... could deliver its verdict on November 5... The U.S.-backed court was due to announce on Monday (October 16) a final date for verdicts on the ousted Iraqi leader... However, the court said it needed more time to review testimony. Court spokesman Raed Juhi said the Iraqi High Tribunal would reconvene on November 5..."
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-10-16T111814Z_01_COL554913_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-SADDAM.xml&rpc=92

"The US-backed special tribunal in Baghdad signalled Monday that it will likely delay a verdict in the first trial of Saddam Hussein to November 5... That verdict, which could send the ousted leader to the gallows, would then come, curiously enough, just two days before the midterm elections..."
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=130487

GENERAL SAYS NEW APPROACH NEEDED, 25,000 IRAQI FORCE CASUALTIES

"... Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell... said that the... crackdown in Baghdad has not succeeded in quelling violence across the capital and a new approach is needed... And General Caldwell gave a new sense of the toll the continuing violence has taken on Iraq’s young security forces. He said that roughly 25,000 soldiers and police officers had been lost to service after being killed or wounded too badly to return to duty..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/19/world/middleeast/20iraqcnd.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5094&en=27dea122a92227ce&hp&ex=1161316800&partner=homepage

BUSH AND CASEY DIFFER ON THE ENEMY IN IRAQ

"The violence is being caused by a combination of terrorists, elements of former regime criminals and sectarian militias."
--President George W Bush, news conference October 11, 2006
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-10-11-baghdad-violence_x.htm

"... groups that are working to affect [the situation in Iraq] negatively... The first, the Sunni extremists, al-Qaeda, and the Iraqis that are supporting them. Second, the Shi'ite extremists, the death squads and the more militant militias... The third group is the resistance, the Sunni insurgency that sees themselves as an honorable resistance against foreign occupation in Iraq."
--General George Casey, commander of US troops in Iraq, press briefing October 12, 2006
http://www.arcent.army.mil/media_releases/2006/october/oct12_04.asp

CHRISTIANS FLEEING IRAQ

"... Christianity took root here near the dawn of the faith 2,000 years ago, making Iraq home to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities... But since Mr. Hussein’s ouster, their status here has become increasingly uncertain... Estimates of the resulting Christian exodus vary from the tens of thousands to more than 100,000... The last Iraqi census, in 1987, counted 1.4 million Christians... the lone Christian member of the Iraqi Parliament, estimated the current Christian population at roughly 800,000... A Chaldean Catholic auxiliary bishop... told a British charity over the summer that there were just 600,000 Christians left..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/world/middleeast/17christians.html?hp&ex=1161144000&en=c060e902ed05fbb4&ei=5094&partner=homepage

BUSH SHIFTS RATIONALE FOR WAR

Initially, the rationale was specific: to stop Saddam Hussein from using... weapons of mass destruction... When no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, Bush shifted his war justification to one of liberating Iraqis... After Saddam's capture in December 2003, the rationale became helping to spread democracy... Then it was confronting terrorists in Iraq "so we do not have to face them here at home"... (Now) the justification has become far broader and includes the expansive "struggle between good and evil"..."
http://www.tbo.com/news/nationworld/MGBPR3FYATE.html

BRITISH FORCES SCALING DOWN, TO BE HALVED IN 2007.

"... British forces have detailed plans to scale down forces in southern Iraq in the next few months. Building work has already started at the British base at Basra airport, where forces will be consolidated. The main military hospital is due to move there from the Shaibah logistics base out in the desert, and Shaibah, the largest base in the British sector, would be closed next year. Smaller bases within Basra city, which attract the bulk of attacks on British forces, would be closed as control passes to the Iraqis. Commanders hope the British deployment of 7,200 would be almost halved by the end of 2007..."
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1873831.ece

SECURITY DETERIORATION IN BASRA

"... The extent of the deterioration of the security situation in the south of Iraq... is unmistakable. Eighteen months ago... the British army still patrolled in berets and without flak jackets. Today they will only emerge in heavily armoured Warrior vehicles, wearing heavy-duty helmets with protective screens across their faces, and body armour to cover their shoulders and upper arms..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1922331,00.html

U.S. WAS UNAWARE OF CONNECTION BETWEEN LEBANON AND BAGHDAD

"... The US secretaries of state and of defense were simply and unaccountably unaware that the Sadrs of Baghdad bore any relationship to the Sadrs of Lebanon. That Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki would not castigate Hezbollah and side with Israel during the conflict - and in the midst of an official visit to Washington - was viewed as shocking by Washington's political establishment, even though "Hezbollah in Iraq" is one of the parties in the current Iraqi coalition government..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ14Ak01.html