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
Monday, October 30, 2006
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
"(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
Sunday, October 29, 2006
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
"... 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
"... 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
"... 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
"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
Saturday, October 28, 2006
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
"... 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
"... 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
"... 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
"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
Friday, October 27, 2006
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
"... 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
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
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
"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
"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
Monday, October 23, 2006
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
"... 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
Sunday, October 22, 2006
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
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/
"... 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/
Saturday, October 21, 2006
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
"... 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
"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
Friday, October 20, 2006
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
"... 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
Thursday, October 19, 2006
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
"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
"... 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
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
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
"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
"... 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
Sunday, October 15, 2006
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
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
"... 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
Saturday, October 14, 2006
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
"... 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
Friday, October 13, 2006
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
"... 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
Thursday, October 12, 2006
DISPLACEMENT AND DEATH NUMBERS
"... at least 2,660 Iraqi civilians were killed in Baghdad in September, 400 more than last month’s death toll."
--Iraqi Health Ministry
"Sectarian violence and military operations have now resulted in the displacement of 315,000 people in the past eight months. One thousand people now would be displaced per day at least, and perhaps even worse is the fact that 100 people are killed every day... Between 1.2 and 1.5 million Iraqis are now taking refuge in neighboring countries, with more than 2,000 people crossing into Syria each day... and another 1.5 million Iraqis have been displaced within their own country."
--Jan Egeland, the UN Under-Secretary general for humanitarian affairs
"... almost 655,000 Iraqis have died because of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq..."
--Study by John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHBSPH)
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=11882
"... at least 2,660 Iraqi civilians were killed in Baghdad in September, 400 more than last month’s death toll."
--Iraqi Health Ministry
"Sectarian violence and military operations have now resulted in the displacement of 315,000 people in the past eight months. One thousand people now would be displaced per day at least, and perhaps even worse is the fact that 100 people are killed every day... Between 1.2 and 1.5 million Iraqis are now taking refuge in neighboring countries, with more than 2,000 people crossing into Syria each day... and another 1.5 million Iraqis have been displaced within their own country."
--Jan Egeland, the UN Under-Secretary general for humanitarian affairs
"... almost 655,000 Iraqis have died because of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq..."
--Study by John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHBSPH)
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=11882
OLD AND NEW PREDICTIONS FOR IRAQ
Here’s the old list:
Richard Engel’s Top 10 Predictions for Post-War Iraq (2003)
1. U.S. troops will pullout of most cities to bases, maintaining close contacts with Iraqi police and civil defense forces which will carryout missions for them, which the U.S. military will support with its heavy weapons, airpower and expertise.
2. Emerging militia groups will go underground, but continue to pressure political parties, politicians and businesses.
3. A de-facto Kurdish state will emerge. It will be formally connected to Iraq, but will have its own militias, business and foreign relations.
4. Arab neighbors (especially Saudi Arabia) will support (mainly covertly) Sunni Muslim groups in Iraq to battle rising Shiite power and Shiite militia groups.
5. Al-Qaida will make the Iraqi Sunni cause — the restoration of an ancient Sunni Muslim capital — a new raison d’etre.
6. Shiite religious groups will create a mini-state stretching from Baghdad's al-Kazimiya neighborhood in the north to Basra in the south.
7. Najaf will emerge as the second power center in Iraq: the Shiite spiritual/political/administrative capital.
8. Shiite Muslim groups will turn on the Americans once they are no longer "needed" to get Iraq back on its feet, or if the U.S. is seen as blocking the Shiites' rise to power.
9. Iran will support Iraqi Shiites and form brotherly relations with them, but will also resist and try to undermine their development, fearing it could rival Qum and present an alternative model to Shiite power.
10. Iraqi police/security services will resume abusing human rights and accepting bribes much the same way they did under Saddam.
Here’s the new list:
Richard Engel’s Top 10 Predictions for Post-War Iraq (October 2006)
1. Iraqis will suffer through 10 years of civil war. 250,000-500,000 people will die in the fighting.
2. There will be a succession of failed governments, few (if any) lasting their full term.
3. A strongman will emerge from the Iraqi army. He will roll back some of Iraq’s democracy in favor of "security and national unity." He will have American support, despite U.S. efforts to promote democracy in Iraq.
4. There will be severe shortages of intellectuals and professionals (doctors, professors and engineers in particular) as Iraqis continue to leave the country.
5. Kurdistan will establish border controls to maintain its independence, despite increasing Turkish misgivings.
6. The oil rich city of Kirkuk will emerge as a major flashpoint until a referendum is held to determine it will become part of Kurdistan. It will eventually become part of Kurdistan.
7. Sectarian violence/ sectarian cleansing will displace more than a million people in Iraq. Cities, neighborhoods and even streets with mixed Sunni and Shiite populations will be segregated by threats and sectarian murders.
8. Iraq will remain a united country, but under a weak federal government that is beholden to the demands of powerful, semi-autonomous regional blocks (Kurdish in the north, Sunni in the central/western Iraq, and Shiite in central/southern Iraq).
9. Muqtada al-Sadr’s movement, the Jaish al-Mahdi, will become Iraq’s Hezbollah. This Iraqi Hezbollah group will unseat the "quietest" leadership in Najaf after the death of the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in favor of a more "activist" political approach of the Shiite clergy/politicians in Lebanon and Iran.
10. Iran and the southern Iraqi bloc will form an open economic alliance to dominate the oil industry and access to the Persian Gulf. The agreement will form a Persian-Arab Shiite oil bloc.
--Richard Engel, NBC News Correspondent, Blogging Baghdad, 10/9/06
http://onthescene.msnbc.com/baghdad/2006/10/predictions_for.html#posts
Here’s the old list:
Richard Engel’s Top 10 Predictions for Post-War Iraq (2003)
1. U.S. troops will pullout of most cities to bases, maintaining close contacts with Iraqi police and civil defense forces which will carryout missions for them, which the U.S. military will support with its heavy weapons, airpower and expertise.
2. Emerging militia groups will go underground, but continue to pressure political parties, politicians and businesses.
3. A de-facto Kurdish state will emerge. It will be formally connected to Iraq, but will have its own militias, business and foreign relations.
4. Arab neighbors (especially Saudi Arabia) will support (mainly covertly) Sunni Muslim groups in Iraq to battle rising Shiite power and Shiite militia groups.
5. Al-Qaida will make the Iraqi Sunni cause — the restoration of an ancient Sunni Muslim capital — a new raison d’etre.
6. Shiite religious groups will create a mini-state stretching from Baghdad's al-Kazimiya neighborhood in the north to Basra in the south.
7. Najaf will emerge as the second power center in Iraq: the Shiite spiritual/political/administrative capital.
8. Shiite Muslim groups will turn on the Americans once they are no longer "needed" to get Iraq back on its feet, or if the U.S. is seen as blocking the Shiites' rise to power.
9. Iran will support Iraqi Shiites and form brotherly relations with them, but will also resist and try to undermine their development, fearing it could rival Qum and present an alternative model to Shiite power.
10. Iraqi police/security services will resume abusing human rights and accepting bribes much the same way they did under Saddam.
Here’s the new list:
Richard Engel’s Top 10 Predictions for Post-War Iraq (October 2006)
1. Iraqis will suffer through 10 years of civil war. 250,000-500,000 people will die in the fighting.
2. There will be a succession of failed governments, few (if any) lasting their full term.
3. A strongman will emerge from the Iraqi army. He will roll back some of Iraq’s democracy in favor of "security and national unity." He will have American support, despite U.S. efforts to promote democracy in Iraq.
4. There will be severe shortages of intellectuals and professionals (doctors, professors and engineers in particular) as Iraqis continue to leave the country.
5. Kurdistan will establish border controls to maintain its independence, despite increasing Turkish misgivings.
6. The oil rich city of Kirkuk will emerge as a major flashpoint until a referendum is held to determine it will become part of Kurdistan. It will eventually become part of Kurdistan.
7. Sectarian violence/ sectarian cleansing will displace more than a million people in Iraq. Cities, neighborhoods and even streets with mixed Sunni and Shiite populations will be segregated by threats and sectarian murders.
8. Iraq will remain a united country, but under a weak federal government that is beholden to the demands of powerful, semi-autonomous regional blocks (Kurdish in the north, Sunni in the central/western Iraq, and Shiite in central/southern Iraq).
9. Muqtada al-Sadr’s movement, the Jaish al-Mahdi, will become Iraq’s Hezbollah. This Iraqi Hezbollah group will unseat the "quietest" leadership in Najaf after the death of the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in favor of a more "activist" political approach of the Shiite clergy/politicians in Lebanon and Iran.
10. Iran and the southern Iraqi bloc will form an open economic alliance to dominate the oil industry and access to the Persian Gulf. The agreement will form a Persian-Arab Shiite oil bloc.
--Richard Engel, NBC News Correspondent, Blogging Baghdad, 10/9/06
http://onthescene.msnbc.com/baghdad/2006/10/predictions_for.html#posts
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
CURRENT LEVEL OF TROOPS TO BE IN IRAQ THROUGH 2010
"The U.S. Army has plans to keep the current level of soldiers in Iraq through 2010, Army chief of staff Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker said Wednesday, a later date than Bush administration or Pentagon officials have mentioned thus far... Schoomaker said he believes the Army will need $138.8 billion in 2008, nearly $40 billion more than its planned expenditures for the 2007 budget year..."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061011/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq
"The U.S. Army has plans to keep the current level of soldiers in Iraq through 2010, Army chief of staff Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker said Wednesday, a later date than Bush administration or Pentagon officials have mentioned thus far... Schoomaker said he believes the Army will need $138.8 billion in 2008, nearly $40 billion more than its planned expenditures for the 2007 budget year..."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061011/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq
600,000 IRAQI DEATHS SINCE INVASION
"More than 600,000 Iraqis have died by violence since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to a study released today by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. The figure is based on surveys of households throughout most of the country. It vastly exceeds estimates cited by the Iraqi government, the United Nations, aid and anti-war groups, and President Bush..."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-10-10-iraq-dead_x.htm
"More than 600,000 Iraqis have died by violence since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to a study released today by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. The figure is based on surveys of households throughout most of the country. It vastly exceeds estimates cited by the Iraqi government, the United Nations, aid and anti-war groups, and President Bush..."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-10-10-iraq-dead_x.htm
Monday, October 09, 2006
20-30% OF IRAQI OIL PIRATED BY SHIITE MILITIAS
"... The Shiite militias have developed a roaring trade in oil pirated from Iraqi oilfields and its transport up to Iraq’s borders with Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iran. There, it is flogged to waiting gangs of oil smugglers. The plunder is large-scale – between 20% and 30% of Iraq’s entire output..."
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1169
"... The Shiite militias have developed a roaring trade in oil pirated from Iraqi oilfields and its transport up to Iraq’s borders with Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iran. There, it is flogged to waiting gangs of oil smugglers. The plunder is large-scale – between 20% and 30% of Iraq’s entire output..."
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1169
BAQUBA LOSES 1,400 YEARS OF PEACE
"... Each day I wake up I don't know who is in control of my city," said a religious sheikh in Baquba... "One day it is the Americans, the next day a militia, the next day a resistance group." The new violence has ripped apart old traditions, he said. "The people of the (Diyala) province do not understand how these powers could turn it into a sectarian city from a wonderful 1,400 years of community peace and intermarriages..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35037
"... Each day I wake up I don't know who is in control of my city," said a religious sheikh in Baquba... "One day it is the Americans, the next day a militia, the next day a resistance group." The new violence has ripped apart old traditions, he said. "The people of the (Diyala) province do not understand how these powers could turn it into a sectarian city from a wonderful 1,400 years of community peace and intermarriages..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35037
U.S. CASUALTIES UP
"... Figures released by the Pentagon show that 776 soldiers were wounded in action in Iraq last month... the largest since November 2004 when US forces were involved in a major offensive to clear the city of Fallujah... other figures show that the number of attacks against US forces is continuing to rise. In July a total of 2,625 explosive devices were encountered by US forces... compared with 1,454 in January..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1009-05.htm
"... Figures released by the Pentagon show that 776 soldiers were wounded in action in Iraq last month... the largest since November 2004 when US forces were involved in a major offensive to clear the city of Fallujah... other figures show that the number of attacks against US forces is continuing to rise. In July a total of 2,625 explosive devices were encountered by US forces... compared with 1,454 in January..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1009-05.htm
Sunday, October 08, 2006
THE REALITY IN IRAQ
"... The reality in Iraq is summed up by the same American Marine officer's description of the building of the Ramadi glass factory, a story that shows just how vacuous all the stories of our "success" there are.
"The Division has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into a glass factory. It does not work. It will take millions of dollars to rehabilitate and modernise. There are supposed to be 2,500 Iraqis employed there but they have nothing to do and no more than 100 arrive on any given day to sit in their offices as new computers and furniture are delivered with our compliments... It is like walking through a fictional business that physically exists. It may be Kafka's revenge. Most rooms are empty but are still preserved as they had been under a layer of dust. Some areas hold a man at a desk in a stark room too large for him. It is like Pompeii being slowly reoccupied, as if nothing had happened. I stood on a tall mound of broken glass outside. Shards of window panes shattered in the process of manufacturing them. The windows of the city were poured and cut here once... This glass was made from sand, desert made invisible until exposed by reflection. The bright sunlight makes little impression on the pile due to a dull coating of dust but the fragments fracture further and slide beneath my feet with the sound of ruin. Walking on windows and unable to see the ground."
Could there be a more Conradian description of the failure of the American empire in Iraq?..."
--Robert Fist in The Independent (UK)
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1814843.ece
"... The reality in Iraq is summed up by the same American Marine officer's description of the building of the Ramadi glass factory, a story that shows just how vacuous all the stories of our "success" there are.
"The Division has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into a glass factory. It does not work. It will take millions of dollars to rehabilitate and modernise. There are supposed to be 2,500 Iraqis employed there but they have nothing to do and no more than 100 arrive on any given day to sit in their offices as new computers and furniture are delivered with our compliments... It is like walking through a fictional business that physically exists. It may be Kafka's revenge. Most rooms are empty but are still preserved as they had been under a layer of dust. Some areas hold a man at a desk in a stark room too large for him. It is like Pompeii being slowly reoccupied, as if nothing had happened. I stood on a tall mound of broken glass outside. Shards of window panes shattered in the process of manufacturing them. The windows of the city were poured and cut here once... This glass was made from sand, desert made invisible until exposed by reflection. The bright sunlight makes little impression on the pile due to a dull coating of dust but the fragments fracture further and slide beneath my feet with the sound of ruin. Walking on windows and unable to see the ground."
Could there be a more Conradian description of the failure of the American empire in Iraq?..."
--Robert Fist in The Independent (UK)
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1814843.ece
Saturday, October 07, 2006
THE FOUR WARS IN IRAQ - ENDING THEM REQUIRES INSURGENT AGREEMENT
"... There are at least four wars going on Iraq - the war by jihadists against US troops, the war by nationalists against US troops, the war by Sunni jihadists against Shias and the war by Shia militias against Sunnis.... if there is no political solution, then the violence will continue... can the violence be stoped without insurgent agreement? Insurgent defeat looks impossible..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5415638.stm
"... The fighting in Iraq is not a single conflict, but an overlapping set of conflicts, fought on multiple battlegrounds, with different combatants...
- In western Iraq's deserts, Sunni Arab insurgent groups... attack Iraqi government forces and the U.S. troops who back them up.
- In Baghdad and surrounding provinces, Sunni and Shiite fighters attack each other and their rivals' civilians in a burgeoning civil war that U.S. troops have tried to quell.
- In southern Iraq, the Shiites dominate. But they are divided, with rival militias fighting over oil and commerce.
- And in the north of the country, Arabs and Kurds battle for control..."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-map7oct07,0,3782980.story?coll=la-home-headlines
"... There are at least four wars going on Iraq - the war by jihadists against US troops, the war by nationalists against US troops, the war by Sunni jihadists against Shias and the war by Shia militias against Sunnis.... if there is no political solution, then the violence will continue... can the violence be stoped without insurgent agreement? Insurgent defeat looks impossible..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5415638.stm
"... The fighting in Iraq is not a single conflict, but an overlapping set of conflicts, fought on multiple battlegrounds, with different combatants...
- In western Iraq's deserts, Sunni Arab insurgent groups... attack Iraqi government forces and the U.S. troops who back them up.
- In Baghdad and surrounding provinces, Sunni and Shiite fighters attack each other and their rivals' civilians in a burgeoning civil war that U.S. troops have tried to quell.
- In southern Iraq, the Shiites dominate. But they are divided, with rival militias fighting over oil and commerce.
- And in the north of the country, Arabs and Kurds battle for control..."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-map7oct07,0,3782980.story?coll=la-home-headlines
TRENCH DEFENSE
October 7
"... the important oil city of Kirkuk has been placed under total curfew as thousands of members of the Iraqi security forces backed by US-led coalition troops comb it for insurgents. Iraqi police sources say a trench 15km (8 miles) long and two metres deep has been dug around part of the city in a bid to control access...."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5415448.stm
September 17
"Iraqi officials plan to dig a series of trenches around Baghdad in the coming weeks to seal it off and control movement into and out of the city, the New York Times reported yesterday.... "We're going to build a trench around Baghdad" -- a distance measuring about 97km (60 miles) -- "so we can control the exits and entrances so people will be searched properly," Brigadier General Abdul Karim Khalaf told the Times on Friday in an interview... US officials have approved of the plan, which has been in the works for weeks, the Times said."
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2006/09/17/2003327968
October 7
"... the important oil city of Kirkuk has been placed under total curfew as thousands of members of the Iraqi security forces backed by US-led coalition troops comb it for insurgents. Iraqi police sources say a trench 15km (8 miles) long and two metres deep has been dug around part of the city in a bid to control access...."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5415448.stm
September 17
"Iraqi officials plan to dig a series of trenches around Baghdad in the coming weeks to seal it off and control movement into and out of the city, the New York Times reported yesterday.... "We're going to build a trench around Baghdad" -- a distance measuring about 97km (60 miles) -- "so we can control the exits and entrances so people will be searched properly," Brigadier General Abdul Karim Khalaf told the Times on Friday in an interview... US officials have approved of the plan, which has been in the works for weeks, the Times said."
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2006/09/17/2003327968
Thursday, October 05, 2006
ARMY LOSING THE WAR
"... the Army is plainly losing the war. It is shorter of manpower and equipment now than when it invaded Iraq in 2003. The 3rd Infantry Division, which led the invasion of Baghdad and which has already served two tours in Iraq, has been alerted to prepare for a third tour. (It has also been told to prepare to go to the Korean peninsula if another conflict breaks out there.) But there is no equipment with which to train. What was not destroyed or worn out in Iraq was left there for the replacements. Besides the equipment shortage, the division's 2nd Brigade has only about half of the roughly 3,500 soldiers it is supposed to have.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1005/p09s02-coop.htm
"... the Army is plainly losing the war. It is shorter of manpower and equipment now than when it invaded Iraq in 2003. The 3rd Infantry Division, which led the invasion of Baghdad and which has already served two tours in Iraq, has been alerted to prepare for a third tour. (It has also been told to prepare to go to the Korean peninsula if another conflict breaks out there.) But there is no equipment with which to train. What was not destroyed or worn out in Iraq was left there for the replacements. Besides the equipment shortage, the division's 2nd Brigade has only about half of the roughly 3,500 soldiers it is supposed to have.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1005/p09s02-coop.htm
AL-QAEDA SEES AMERICAN PRESENCE IN IRAQ AS A BOON
"... a letter that has been translated and released by the US military indicates that Al Qaeda itself sees the continued American presence in Iraq as a boon for the terror network, which has recently shown signs of expanding into the Palestinian territories and North Africa..."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1006/p01s04-woiq.html
"... a letter that has been translated and released by the US military indicates that Al Qaeda itself sees the continued American presence in Iraq as a boon for the terror network, which has recently shown signs of expanding into the Palestinian territories and North Africa..."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1006/p01s04-woiq.html
SADDAM VERDICT AND SENTENCING TO INCREASE VIOLENCE
"... any death sentence against the former Iraqi president would increase violence in the strife-torn country. "It seems clear that a guilty verdict will set off catastrophic violence" and that a death sentence would be even worse... It's hard to know how many Iraqis, dozens, hundreds, thousands, will die because of the sentence..."
--Ramsey Clark, a former US attorney general who is one of Saddam Hussein's lawyers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061005/wl_mideast_afp/usiraqsaddamclark
"... any death sentence against the former Iraqi president would increase violence in the strife-torn country. "It seems clear that a guilty verdict will set off catastrophic violence" and that a death sentence would be even worse... It's hard to know how many Iraqis, dozens, hundreds, thousands, will die because of the sentence..."
--Ramsey Clark, a former US attorney general who is one of Saddam Hussein's lawyers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061005/wl_mideast_afp/usiraqsaddamclark
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
IRAQ WAR HAS ADDED THIRD TIER TO TERROR THREAT
"... we now have three tiers of threat.... (first) al-Qaeda central, the organization that answers to Osama bin Laden... The second level of threat... (are) allies of bin Laden... Kashmiri groups, some of the Afghan groups - there are various groups around the world.
"But now we have a third tier. The war in Iraq has had a transforming impact on what bin Laden has been aiming at all along, which is to find a way to transform one Muslim in a vanguard (himself) to a philosophy and a movement. And that's what we're seeing now. So the third tier is the inspiration that is flowing out from bin Laden and al-Qaeda - their words and actions. And that's what we're seeing in these cells that have been taken down in Miami, Toronto, a couple in Australia, two in London... They are not directly tied to al-Qaeda. Their activities are not directed or supported by al-Qaeda. But invariably, the men who were arrested in these cells either said they had been inspired by bin Laden and al-Qaeda..."
--Michael Scheuer, the former head of the Osama bin Laden desk at the US Central Intelligence Agency
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HJ03Aa05.html
"... we now have three tiers of threat.... (first) al-Qaeda central, the organization that answers to Osama bin Laden... The second level of threat... (are) allies of bin Laden... Kashmiri groups, some of the Afghan groups - there are various groups around the world.
"But now we have a third tier. The war in Iraq has had a transforming impact on what bin Laden has been aiming at all along, which is to find a way to transform one Muslim in a vanguard (himself) to a philosophy and a movement. And that's what we're seeing now. So the third tier is the inspiration that is flowing out from bin Laden and al-Qaeda - their words and actions. And that's what we're seeing in these cells that have been taken down in Miami, Toronto, a couple in Australia, two in London... They are not directly tied to al-Qaeda. Their activities are not directed or supported by al-Qaeda. But invariably, the men who were arrested in these cells either said they had been inspired by bin Laden and al-Qaeda..."
--Michael Scheuer, the former head of the Osama bin Laden desk at the US Central Intelligence Agency
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HJ03Aa05.html
U.S. BACKS SHIA AND SUNNI MILITIA GROUPS
October 3
"Some Sunni leaders from the troubled al-Anbar province west of Baghdad recently met away from their tribes to set up new militias... the setting up of U.S.-backed Sunni militias have brought new uncertainty to deepening chaos within Iraq...These new armed groups have received early praise from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki and U.S. officials. The United States had earlier called for the disarming of all militias for the sake of social peace and reconciliation, but that policy has clearly changed. The occupation forces now back both Shia and Sunni militias in different areas of the country..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34970
September 27
"We have to fix this militia issue. We can't have armed militias competing with Iraq's security forces. But I have to trust the prime minister to decide when it is that we do that," said Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the second-highest-ranking American military official in Baghdad..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/15623156.htm
October 3
"Some Sunni leaders from the troubled al-Anbar province west of Baghdad recently met away from their tribes to set up new militias... the setting up of U.S.-backed Sunni militias have brought new uncertainty to deepening chaos within Iraq...These new armed groups have received early praise from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki and U.S. officials. The United States had earlier called for the disarming of all militias for the sake of social peace and reconciliation, but that policy has clearly changed. The occupation forces now back both Shia and Sunni militias in different areas of the country..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34970
September 27
"We have to fix this militia issue. We can't have armed militias competing with Iraq's security forces. But I have to trust the prime minister to decide when it is that we do that," said Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the second-highest-ranking American military official in Baghdad..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/15623156.htm
Friday, September 29, 2006
TORTURE IN IRAQ IS OUT OF CONTROL, WORSE NOW THAN UNDER SADDAM
"... as far as torture is concerned now in Iraq is totally out of hand... The situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it has been in the times of Saddam Hussein... Detainees' bodies often show signs of beating using electrical cables, wounds in heads and genitals, broken legs and hands, electric and cigarette burns. Bodies found at the Baghdad mortuary often bear signs of severe torture including acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical substances. Many bodies have missing skin, broken bones, back, hands and legs, missing eyes, missing teeth and wounds caused by power drills or nails... Victims come from prisons run by US-led multinational forces as well as by the ministries of interior and defence and private militias..."
--Report by Manfred Nowak, UN chief anti-torture expert
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5368360.stm
"... as far as torture is concerned now in Iraq is totally out of hand... The situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it has been in the times of Saddam Hussein... Detainees' bodies often show signs of beating using electrical cables, wounds in heads and genitals, broken legs and hands, electric and cigarette burns. Bodies found at the Baghdad mortuary often bear signs of severe torture including acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical substances. Many bodies have missing skin, broken bones, back, hands and legs, missing eyes, missing teeth and wounds caused by power drills or nails... Victims come from prisons run by US-led multinational forces as well as by the ministries of interior and defence and private militias..."
--Report by Manfred Nowak, UN chief anti-torture expert
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5368360.stm
Thursday, September 28, 2006
IRAQI POLICE ACADEMY A DISASTER
"A $75 million project to build the largest police academy in Iraq has been so grossly mismanaged that the campus now poses health risks to recruits and might need to be partially demolished... was so poorly constructed that feces and urine rained from the ceilings in student barracks. Floors heaved inches off the ground and cracked apart. Water dripped so profusely in one room that it was dubbed "the rain forest."
"This is the most essential civil security project in the country -- and it's a failure," said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, an independent office created by Congress. "The Baghdad police academy is a disaster."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/27/AR2006092702134.html
"A $75 million project to build the largest police academy in Iraq has been so grossly mismanaged that the campus now poses health risks to recruits and might need to be partially demolished... was so poorly constructed that feces and urine rained from the ceilings in student barracks. Floors heaved inches off the ground and cracked apart. Water dripped so profusely in one room that it was dubbed "the rain forest."
"This is the most essential civil security project in the country -- and it's a failure," said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, an independent office created by Congress. "The Baghdad police academy is a disaster."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/27/AR2006092702134.html
IRAQ WAR IS TERRORISM "RECRUITING SERGEANT"
"The war in Iraq ... has acted as a recruiting sergeant for extremists across the Muslim world ... Iraq has served to radicalise an already disillusioned youth and al-Qaida has given them the will, intent, purpose and ideology to act."
--Study by British Ministry of Defense
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,,1882708,00.html
"The war in Iraq ... has acted as a recruiting sergeant for extremists across the Muslim world ... Iraq has served to radicalise an already disillusioned youth and al-Qaida has given them the will, intent, purpose and ideology to act."
--Study by British Ministry of Defense
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,,1882708,00.html
IRAQI AL-QAEDA CALLS FOR KIDNAPPING WESTERNERS
"The leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, has called for kidnapping of Westerners... "I call on every holy fighter in Iraq to strive to capture some dogs of the Christians so that we can liberate our imprisoned sheikh" ... a reference to Egyptian cleric Omar Abdul Rahman, held in the US over the 1993 World Trade Center bombing..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5389794.stm
"The leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, has called for kidnapping of Westerners... "I call on every holy fighter in Iraq to strive to capture some dogs of the Christians so that we can liberate our imprisoned sheikh" ... a reference to Egyptian cleric Omar Abdul Rahman, held in the US over the 1993 World Trade Center bombing..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5389794.stm
MAJORITY OF IRAQIS BACK ATTACKS ON U.S. TROOPS AND WANT WITHDRAWAL
"About six in 10 Iraqis say they approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces, and slightly more than that want their government to ask U.S. troops to leave within a year... Almost four in five Iraqis say the U.S. military force in Iraq provokes more violence than it prevents... About 61 percent approved of the attacks — up from 47 percent in January. A solid majority of Shiite and Sunni Arabs approved of the attacks..."
--Poll by University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes
"... two-thirds of Iraqis in Baghdad favor an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces..."
--Poll by U.S. Department of State (Baghdad embassy) using Iraqi public opinion research firm
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060927/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraqi_opinion;_ylt=AlfkmTOtfkK91wA5yPnR0r2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OTB1amhuBHNlYwNtdHM-
"Iraqis -- especially the majority Shiites -- are increasingly angry and frustrated about their situation and impatient for U.S. troops to leave... Nearly two of every three Shiites said they approved of attacks on U.S.-led forces... "
--Poll by University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34905
"About six in 10 Iraqis say they approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces, and slightly more than that want their government to ask U.S. troops to leave within a year... Almost four in five Iraqis say the U.S. military force in Iraq provokes more violence than it prevents... About 61 percent approved of the attacks — up from 47 percent in January. A solid majority of Shiite and Sunni Arabs approved of the attacks..."
--Poll by University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes
"... two-thirds of Iraqis in Baghdad favor an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces..."
--Poll by U.S. Department of State (Baghdad embassy) using Iraqi public opinion research firm
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060927/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraqi_opinion;_ylt=AlfkmTOtfkK91wA5yPnR0r2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OTB1amhuBHNlYwNtdHM-
"Iraqis -- especially the majority Shiites -- are increasingly angry and frustrated about their situation and impatient for U.S. troops to leave... Nearly two of every three Shiites said they approved of attacks on U.S.-led forces... "
--Poll by University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34905
BUSH DID WHAT JIHADISTS WANTED
"... Military pressure has had an effect on Al Qaeda, changing it from a centralized organization to more of a diffuse movement, according to the NIE. But the invasion of Iraq has allowed jihadists a "cause célèbre," the document notes. They can pose as liberators of the oppressed, increasing their appeal in the Muslim world. "The intelligence community has concluded that we did what they wanted us to do, for the reasons they wanted us to do it, and that the result they wanted has happened..."
--National Intelligence Estimate, Senate Commitee on Intelligence, released August 2006
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0928/p01s02-usfp.html
"... Military pressure has had an effect on Al Qaeda, changing it from a centralized organization to more of a diffuse movement, according to the NIE. But the invasion of Iraq has allowed jihadists a "cause célèbre," the document notes. They can pose as liberators of the oppressed, increasing their appeal in the Muslim world. "The intelligence community has concluded that we did what they wanted us to do, for the reasons they wanted us to do it, and that the result they wanted has happened..."
--National Intelligence Estimate, Senate Commitee on Intelligence, released August 2006
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0928/p01s02-usfp.html
NEW U.S. PRISON AT CAMP CROPPER REPLACES ABU GHRAIB
"... First we had those huge military bases that officials were careful never to label "permanent".... billions of dollars were poured into them and they morphed into the size of US towns with their own bus routes, sports facilities, Pizza Huts, Subways, Burger Kings, and mini-golf courses. Huge as they now are, elaborate as they now are, they are still continually being upgraded. Now... on one of them we have $60 million worth of the first "permanent US prison" in Iraq... Camp Cropper, which started out as a bunch of tents, has now become a $60 million "state-of-the-art" prison. The upgrade, on the drawing boards since 2004, was just completed and hardly a word has been written about it..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI28Ak01.html
"... First we had those huge military bases that officials were careful never to label "permanent".... billions of dollars were poured into them and they morphed into the size of US towns with their own bus routes, sports facilities, Pizza Huts, Subways, Burger Kings, and mini-golf courses. Huge as they now are, elaborate as they now are, they are still continually being upgraded. Now... on one of them we have $60 million worth of the first "permanent US prison" in Iraq... Camp Cropper, which started out as a bunch of tents, has now become a $60 million "state-of-the-art" prison. The upgrade, on the drawing boards since 2004, was just completed and hardly a word has been written about it..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI28Ak01.html
CHENEY WRONG ON CONNECTION BETWEEN SADDAM AND AL-QAEDA
"... there was "a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s... al-Qaeda sent personnel to Baghdad to get trained... the Iraqis providing bomb-making expertise and advice to the al-Qaeda organisation." It was "clearly official policy" on the part of Iraq..."
--Vice President Dick Cheney, TV interview, September 2003
"... debriefings conducted since the invasion of Iraq "indicate that Saddam issued a general order that Iraq should not deal with al-Qaeda. No post-war information suggests that the Iraqi regime attempted to facilitate a relationship with [Osama] Bin Laden. "Saddam Hussein was distrustful of al-Qaeda... refusing all requests from al-Qaeda to provide material or operational support."
--Senate Intelligence Committee, National Intelligence Estimate, August 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5329350.stm
"... there was "a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s... al-Qaeda sent personnel to Baghdad to get trained... the Iraqis providing bomb-making expertise and advice to the al-Qaeda organisation." It was "clearly official policy" on the part of Iraq..."
--Vice President Dick Cheney, TV interview, September 2003
"... debriefings conducted since the invasion of Iraq "indicate that Saddam issued a general order that Iraq should not deal with al-Qaeda. No post-war information suggests that the Iraqi regime attempted to facilitate a relationship with [Osama] Bin Laden. "Saddam Hussein was distrustful of al-Qaeda... refusing all requests from al-Qaeda to provide material or operational support."
--Senate Intelligence Committee, National Intelligence Estimate, August 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5329350.stm
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
BUSH DISTORTS TERROR REPORT -- AL-QAEDA IS NOT ACTIVELY DIRECTING TERROR
"In announcing yesterday that he would release the key judgments of a controversial National Intelligence Estimate, President Bush said he agreed with the document's conclusion "that because of our successes against the leadership of al-Qaeda, the enemy is becoming more diffuse and independent."
"But the estimate itself posits no such cause and effect. Instead... it describes the spreading "global jihadist movement" as fueled largely by forces that al-Qaeda exploits but is not actively directing..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092600530.html
"In announcing yesterday that he would release the key judgments of a controversial National Intelligence Estimate, President Bush said he agreed with the document's conclusion "that because of our successes against the leadership of al-Qaeda, the enemy is becoming more diffuse and independent."
"But the estimate itself posits no such cause and effect. Instead... it describes the spreading "global jihadist movement" as fueled largely by forces that al-Qaeda exploits but is not actively directing..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092600530.html
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
BUSH'S CHURCH IS FOR ENDING IRAQ WAR
"... Bush’s own church has called for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and is urging direct action to end the war... United Methodist Church leaders helped launch a week of protest and civil disobedience against the war in Iraq by signing a Declaration of Peace in the capital, urging President Bush to pull US troops out.."
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_060924bush.shtml
"... Bush’s own church has called for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and is urging direct action to end the war... United Methodist Church leaders helped launch a week of protest and civil disobedience against the war in Iraq by signing a Declaration of Peace in the capital, urging President Bush to pull US troops out.."
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_060924bush.shtml
U.S. MILITARY RECRUITING STANDARDS LOWERED
"... The military has... relaxed its age and education requirements for enlistment, and ... increased enlistments by individuals with "'serious criminal misconduct" in their records," and eased requirements of non-citizens -- of which there are currently about 40,000 in the armed services -- and made them eligible to citizenship after only one day of active-duty military service..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34875
"... The military has... relaxed its age and education requirements for enlistment, and ... increased enlistments by individuals with "'serious criminal misconduct" in their records," and eased requirements of non-citizens -- of which there are currently about 40,000 in the armed services -- and made them eligible to citizenship after only one day of active-duty military service..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34875
Sunday, September 24, 2006
U.S. WARRIOR CREED NOT SUITED TO MIDDLE EAST CONFLICTS
"... The Warrior Ethos was introduced in November 2003 (as) a martial creed that urges soldiers to demonstrate their fighting spirit by destroying the enemies of the United States at close quarter rather than winning the trust of local populations... It begins with the stirring vow, “I am an American soldier”, and goes on to affirm that “I will never accept defeat. I will never quit... I stand ready to deploy, engage and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat”... the Warrior Ethos’s emphasis on annihilating the enemy is inimical to the type of patient, confidence-building counter-insurgency warfare in which America is engaged in the Middle East..."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2372122,00.html
"... The Warrior Ethos was introduced in November 2003 (as) a martial creed that urges soldiers to demonstrate their fighting spirit by destroying the enemies of the United States at close quarter rather than winning the trust of local populations... It begins with the stirring vow, “I am an American soldier”, and goes on to affirm that “I will never accept defeat. I will never quit... I stand ready to deploy, engage and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat”... the Warrior Ethos’s emphasis on annihilating the enemy is inimical to the type of patient, confidence-building counter-insurgency warfare in which America is engaged in the Middle East..."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2372122,00.html
U.S. INTELLIGENCE REPORT SAYS IRAQ WAR INCREASED TERRORISM
"... the findings of a classified US intelligence paper on the effects of the Iraq war.... blames the three-year-old conflict for increasing the threat of terrorism and helping fuel Islamic radicalism worldwide... this latest finding, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, is the most comprehensive report yet, based on the considered analysis of all 16 of the US intelligence agencies..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5375064.stm
"... Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist expressed confidence US voters would not be swayed by the intelligence report. "I think the American people, when they read an article like that ... say, 'Listen, just keep me safe... that's what they want."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0924-01.htm
"... the findings of a classified US intelligence paper on the effects of the Iraq war.... blames the three-year-old conflict for increasing the threat of terrorism and helping fuel Islamic radicalism worldwide... this latest finding, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, is the most comprehensive report yet, based on the considered analysis of all 16 of the US intelligence agencies..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5375064.stm
"... Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist expressed confidence US voters would not be swayed by the intelligence report. "I think the American people, when they read an article like that ... say, 'Listen, just keep me safe... that's what they want."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0924-01.htm
Saturday, September 23, 2006
U.S. HAS LOST A GENERATION OF GOODWILL IN MUSLIM WORLD
"... the Bush administration's tactics has "lost a generation of goodwill in the Muslim world" and its Middle East democratisation programme "has all but disappeared, except for official rhetoric".
--Emile Nakhleh, who retired at the end of June as director the CIA Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0922-03.htm
"... the Bush administration's tactics has "lost a generation of goodwill in the Muslim world" and its Middle East democratisation programme "has all but disappeared, except for official rhetoric".
--Emile Nakhleh, who retired at the end of June as director the CIA Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0922-03.htm
Friday, September 22, 2006
IRAQ IN ANARCHY
"... Baghdad is now a Hobbesian world where everybody is at war with everybody else and the only protection is self-protection.
Iraq is in a state of primal anarchy... The Iraqi state and much of society have been criminalised.... Beyond the Green Zone, Iraq has descended into murderous anarchy... masked from the outside world because the country is too dangerous for journalists to report what is happening...."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1696153.ece
"... Baghdad is now a Hobbesian world where everybody is at war with everybody else and the only protection is self-protection.
Iraq is in a state of primal anarchy... The Iraqi state and much of society have been criminalised.... Beyond the Green Zone, Iraq has descended into murderous anarchy... masked from the outside world because the country is too dangerous for journalists to report what is happening...."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1696153.ece
U.S. OCCUPATION AT MERCY OF MUQTADA AL-SADR AND IRAN
"... The underlying reality in Iraq, which the Bush administration does not appear to grasp fully, is that the United States is now dependent on the sufferance of Iran and its Iraqi Shi'ite political-military allies to continue the occupation... the US military is no longer the real power in Iraq... the main threat to the occupation comes not from the Sunni insurgents but from the militant Iraqi Shi'ite forces aligned with Iran, led by Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army. The armed Shi'ite militias are now powerful enough to make it impossible for the US occupation to continue... Muqtada has both the intention and the capability to bring down the US occupation...."
"... It would be surprising if Iran were not urging Muqtada to hold off on attacking the occupation forces until after the Bush administration had either reached a broad political agreement with Tehran or had been replaced in two years by an administration that would do so..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI22Ak01.html
"... The underlying reality in Iraq, which the Bush administration does not appear to grasp fully, is that the United States is now dependent on the sufferance of Iran and its Iraqi Shi'ite political-military allies to continue the occupation... the US military is no longer the real power in Iraq... the main threat to the occupation comes not from the Sunni insurgents but from the militant Iraqi Shi'ite forces aligned with Iran, led by Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army. The armed Shi'ite militias are now powerful enough to make it impossible for the US occupation to continue... Muqtada has both the intention and the capability to bring down the US occupation...."
"... It would be surprising if Iran were not urging Muqtada to hold off on attacking the occupation forces until after the Bush administration had either reached a broad political agreement with Tehran or had been replaced in two years by an administration that would do so..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI22Ak01.html
ONLY 18,000 U.S. TROOPS ARE FIGHTING
"... 147,000 American soldiers are deployed in Iraq, the majority of them in the area around Baghdad... But the overwhelming majority of them are not out on the streets, stopping the bombings and kidnappings and murders. The total number of fighting soldiers in the American force is probably about 18,000 - quite a small number, given the area they have to cover and the size of the problem..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5371394.stm
FALLUJAH INCREASED HOSTILITY AGAINST U.S. TROOPS
"... among the five million Sunni Muslims there, about 75% now support the armed insurgency against the coalition. This compares with 14% in the first opinion poll the Defense Department carried out back in 2003. It is a catastrophic loss of support, and there is no sign whatever that it can be effectively reversed...
"The rise in hostility to the US forces is clearly linked to the onslaught against the town of Falluja in 2004....The ferocity of the attack by the US marines persuaded large numbers of Iraqi Sunnis that the Americans were their enemies. The situation in the country as a whole has never seriously improved since then, and Falluja itself has still not been entirely subdued..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5371394.stm
"... 147,000 American soldiers are deployed in Iraq, the majority of them in the area around Baghdad... But the overwhelming majority of them are not out on the streets, stopping the bombings and kidnappings and murders. The total number of fighting soldiers in the American force is probably about 18,000 - quite a small number, given the area they have to cover and the size of the problem..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5371394.stm
FALLUJAH INCREASED HOSTILITY AGAINST U.S. TROOPS
"... among the five million Sunni Muslims there, about 75% now support the armed insurgency against the coalition. This compares with 14% in the first opinion poll the Defense Department carried out back in 2003. It is a catastrophic loss of support, and there is no sign whatever that it can be effectively reversed...
"The rise in hostility to the US forces is clearly linked to the onslaught against the town of Falluja in 2004....The ferocity of the attack by the US marines persuaded large numbers of Iraqi Sunnis that the Americans were their enemies. The situation in the country as a whole has never seriously improved since then, and Falluja itself has still not been entirely subdued..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5371394.stm
Thursday, September 21, 2006
COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT OF CIVILIANS INCREASES RESISTANCE
"US forces are taking to collective punishment of civilians in several cities... Ramadi... is still living with the daily terror of its people getting killed by snipers and its infrastructure being destroyed... has been facing the worst of the American terror and destruction for more than two years... the US military was bulldozing entire blocks of buildings near the governorate to dampen resistance attacks... There are so many killings by American snipers. So many families have lost loved ones trying to visit relatives or even just stepping outside of their house... a government official... (said) "But of course most cities in al-Anbar are being constantly punished by the Americans"... Ramadi... Hit... Haditha... Fallujah... Khaldiyah... Samarra... a local tribal leader... said. "But if they think they will make us kneel by these criminal acts, they are wrong. If they increase the pressure, the resistance will increase the reaction. We see this pattern repeated so often now."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI20Ak02.html
"US forces are taking to collective punishment of civilians in several cities... Ramadi... is still living with the daily terror of its people getting killed by snipers and its infrastructure being destroyed... has been facing the worst of the American terror and destruction for more than two years... the US military was bulldozing entire blocks of buildings near the governorate to dampen resistance attacks... There are so many killings by American snipers. So many families have lost loved ones trying to visit relatives or even just stepping outside of their house... a government official... (said) "But of course most cities in al-Anbar are being constantly punished by the Americans"... Ramadi... Hit... Haditha... Fallujah... Khaldiyah... Samarra... a local tribal leader... said. "But if they think they will make us kneel by these criminal acts, they are wrong. If they increase the pressure, the resistance will increase the reaction. We see this pattern repeated so often now."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI20Ak02.html
NO U.S. TROOP REDUCTION
"The U.S. is unlikely to cut the number of its troops in Iraq until at least the middle of next year because the sectarian violence is greater than expected... the U.S. has over 140,000 troops in Iraq, up from about 131,600 in February... The precise number of U.S. troops is murky. Abizaid... (said) over 140,000. His staff later said... 142,000... (a) spokesman for Casey... said) 147,000... greater than the 143,000 troops who were in Iraq in April 2003 when Baghdad fell... of the roughly 500,000 active-duty U.S. Army troops, 390,000 are either in Iraq or Afghanistan, on their way home from there or getting ready to go back..."
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&refer=us&sid=awczI_xLyrc0
"The U.S. is unlikely to cut the number of its troops in Iraq until at least the middle of next year because the sectarian violence is greater than expected... the U.S. has over 140,000 troops in Iraq, up from about 131,600 in February... The precise number of U.S. troops is murky. Abizaid... (said) over 140,000. His staff later said... 142,000... (a) spokesman for Casey... said) 147,000... greater than the 143,000 troops who were in Iraq in April 2003 when Baghdad fell... of the roughly 500,000 active-duty U.S. Army troops, 390,000 are either in Iraq or Afghanistan, on their way home from there or getting ready to go back..."
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&refer=us&sid=awczI_xLyrc0
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
BAGHDAD SEWER PLANT CLOGGED
"...So many corpses were clogging the capital's main sewer plant last spring that authorities launched an inquiry, with U.S. technical assistance. Investigators discovered a macabre pattern: Manholes from as far as several miles away had been used as disposal sites, allowing the remains to course underground through broad concrete pipes along with the city's subterranean effluvia. "It's possible some bodies were minced by the pumping system, and we never knew about them," said Ahmed Abdil Elah, assistant general manager of the city sewage system. "There is no trace of them."
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fuj/latimes90.htm
"...So many corpses were clogging the capital's main sewer plant last spring that authorities launched an inquiry, with U.S. technical assistance. Investigators discovered a macabre pattern: Manholes from as far as several miles away had been used as disposal sites, allowing the remains to course underground through broad concrete pipes along with the city's subterranean effluvia. "It's possible some bodies were minced by the pumping system, and we never knew about them," said Ahmed Abdil Elah, assistant general manager of the city sewage system. "There is no trace of them."
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fuj/latimes90.htm
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
IRAQ THE CENTRAL RECRUITING AND TRAINING FRONT FOR TERRORISTS
"... In 2005, a CIA study reported that Iraq provided 'a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills' of Islamic terrorists. The war, which began on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, has now resulted in the worldwide growth of terrorism, according to Western intelligence agencies. Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the world's centre of lawlessness and now draws terrorists who want to train for future attacks in other countries..."
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/article_1199901.php/Lawlessness_and_terrorism_rule_Iraq_five_years_after_9_11
"... In 2005, a CIA study reported that Iraq provided 'a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills' of Islamic terrorists. The war, which began on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, has now resulted in the worldwide growth of terrorism, according to Western intelligence agencies. Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the world's centre of lawlessness and now draws terrorists who want to train for future attacks in other countries..."
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/article_1199901.php/Lawlessness_and_terrorism_rule_Iraq_five_years_after_9_11
SHIITE VISION OF A U.S.-FREE IRAQ
"... Mustafa Yaqoubi... a top deputy of Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada al-Sadr... sketched out his vision of the Iraq to come, after the Americans withdraw. First, "there will be a civil war"... No matter when the Americans withdraw, "the first year of transition, it will be worse; after that, it will gradually improve"... (then the) Shiite majority will finally be able to... usher in a Shiite religious government... (that) would be moderate and perhaps comparable in some ways to Iran's...."
".. (he said) Iraq's Shiites owe no gratitude to the Americans. "The Americans are not saving us from Saddam for the sake of the Iraqi people. They gave Saddam clearance in the 1990s to strike at the Shia people. It was in their own interest to get rid of Saddam."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/11/AR2006091101337_pf.html
"... Mustafa Yaqoubi... a top deputy of Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada al-Sadr... sketched out his vision of the Iraq to come, after the Americans withdraw. First, "there will be a civil war"... No matter when the Americans withdraw, "the first year of transition, it will be worse; after that, it will gradually improve"... (then the) Shiite majority will finally be able to... usher in a Shiite religious government... (that) would be moderate and perhaps comparable in some ways to Iran's...."
".. (he said) Iraq's Shiites owe no gratitude to the Americans. "The Americans are not saving us from Saddam for the sake of the Iraqi people. They gave Saddam clearance in the 1990s to strike at the Shia people. It was in their own interest to get rid of Saddam."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/11/AR2006091101337_pf.html
Monday, September 11, 2006
IRAQI VOTE DISSOLVED THE COUNTRY
"... In Iraq's Kurdish north, the Iraqi flag no longer flies... on public buildings... recent fighting between Iraqi government forces and the militia of Shiite powerhouse Moqtada al-Sadr... suggest a further spiraling toward at least a semiautonomous confederacy, if not a complete dissolution of the country... Iraq experts believe dissolution of the country is inevitable... "
"The voters did what we didn't have the courage to do, their voting divided Iraq... pointing to voting that was overwhelmingly along ethnic and sectarian lines. "The question now is whether [Iraq] can continue as a loose confederation - or will it officially break up?..."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0911/p02s01-usfp.html
"... In Iraq's Kurdish north, the Iraqi flag no longer flies... on public buildings... recent fighting between Iraqi government forces and the militia of Shiite powerhouse Moqtada al-Sadr... suggest a further spiraling toward at least a semiautonomous confederacy, if not a complete dissolution of the country... Iraq experts believe dissolution of the country is inevitable... "
"The voters did what we didn't have the courage to do, their voting divided Iraq... pointing to voting that was overwhelmingly along ethnic and sectarian lines. "The question now is whether [Iraq] can continue as a loose confederation - or will it officially break up?..."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0911/p02s01-usfp.html
U.S. HAS LOST CONTROL OVER 1/3 OF IRAQ
"Iraq's Anbar province (is) 'politically lost'... "We haven't been defeated militarily but we have been defeated politically – and that's where wars are won and lost." ... there are no functioning Iraqi government institutions in Anbar, leaving a vacuum that has been filled by the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq, which has become the province's most significant political force... (a) person familiar with the report said it describes Anbar as beyond repair; a third said it concludes that the United States has lost in Anbar...."
--Comments on report by Col. Pete Devlin, chief of intelligence for the Marine Corps in Iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/10/AR2006091001204.html
"The U.S. military has lost control over the volatile al-Anbar province, Iraqi police and residents say... (this) includes Fallujah, Ramadi and other towns that have seen the worst of military occupation... "We are talking about nearly a third of the area of Iraq," Ahmed Salman, a historian from Fallujah told IPS. "Al-Anbar borders Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, and the resistance there will never stop as long as there are American soldiers on the ground."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34587
"... The resistance appears to be in control of the province now. "No government official can do anything without contacting the resistance first," said a government official in Ramadi. "Even the governor used to [get] their approval for everything. When he stopped doing so, they issued a death sentence against him, and now he cannot move without American protection... the US military is working against itself.. Their actions ruin their goal because they use these huge, violent military operations which kill so many civilians, and make it impossible to calm down the people of al-Anbar."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI07Ak01.html
"Iraq's Anbar province (is) 'politically lost'... "We haven't been defeated militarily but we have been defeated politically – and that's where wars are won and lost." ... there are no functioning Iraqi government institutions in Anbar, leaving a vacuum that has been filled by the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq, which has become the province's most significant political force... (a) person familiar with the report said it describes Anbar as beyond repair; a third said it concludes that the United States has lost in Anbar...."
--Comments on report by Col. Pete Devlin, chief of intelligence for the Marine Corps in Iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/10/AR2006091001204.html
"The U.S. military has lost control over the volatile al-Anbar province, Iraqi police and residents say... (this) includes Fallujah, Ramadi and other towns that have seen the worst of military occupation... "We are talking about nearly a third of the area of Iraq," Ahmed Salman, a historian from Fallujah told IPS. "Al-Anbar borders Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, and the resistance there will never stop as long as there are American soldiers on the ground."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34587
"... The resistance appears to be in control of the province now. "No government official can do anything without contacting the resistance first," said a government official in Ramadi. "Even the governor used to [get] their approval for everything. When he stopped doing so, they issued a death sentence against him, and now he cannot move without American protection... the US military is working against itself.. Their actions ruin their goal because they use these huge, violent military operations which kill so many civilians, and make it impossible to calm down the people of al-Anbar."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI07Ak01.html
THE "LONG WAR" IS SELF-DEFEATING
"... a new narrative for the conflict was unveiled: "The Long War". War narrative does three essential things. First, it is the organizing framework for policy... Second, this "story" works as a framework... Third... the narrative then serves practically as the anointed rhetorical handbook for how the war is to be argued and described.
"The Long War is a failed narrative because it does not describe actual reality. Reality tells a story of a United States delivering change to the Muslim world, a force of creative destruction... this US-created reality only fires up the long-standing Muslim grand narrative of deliverance and restoration... telling Muslims that the US is the dark force that must be resisted.
"The Long War is thus more than a failed narrative. It is a self-defeating narrative. It has prospered only because it speaks to a highly motivated domestic audience, the conservative Republican base that remains the passionate heart of the Bush administration's war policy..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HI09Aa01.html
"... a new narrative for the conflict was unveiled: "The Long War". War narrative does three essential things. First, it is the organizing framework for policy... Second, this "story" works as a framework... Third... the narrative then serves practically as the anointed rhetorical handbook for how the war is to be argued and described.
"The Long War is a failed narrative because it does not describe actual reality. Reality tells a story of a United States delivering change to the Muslim world, a force of creative destruction... this US-created reality only fires up the long-standing Muslim grand narrative of deliverance and restoration... telling Muslims that the US is the dark force that must be resisted.
"The Long War is thus more than a failed narrative. It is a self-defeating narrative. It has prospered only because it speaks to a highly motivated domestic audience, the conservative Republican base that remains the passionate heart of the Bush administration's war policy..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HI09Aa01.html
Sunday, September 10, 2006
ARABS AND MUSLIMS ENRAGED OVER PLIGHT OF IRAQIS
"As the slaughter [in Iraq] continues, the Arab and Muslim world are increasingly enraged over the plight of the Iraqi people, with hatred toward the United States reaching new heights."
--Alon Ben-Meir, Israeli international relations professor at New York University
"... Adding to that fury... was last month's war between Israel and Hezbollah,... It succeeded not only in inflaming anti-U.S. opinion throughout the Islamic world, including, significantly, the Shia majority in Iraq..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34667
"As the slaughter [in Iraq] continues, the Arab and Muslim world are increasingly enraged over the plight of the Iraqi people, with hatred toward the United States reaching new heights."
--Alon Ben-Meir, Israeli international relations professor at New York University
"... Adding to that fury... was last month's war between Israel and Hezbollah,... It succeeded not only in inflaming anti-U.S. opinion throughout the Islamic world, including, significantly, the Shia majority in Iraq..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34667
Friday, September 08, 2006
U.S. SENATE REPORT SAYS NO SADDAM LINK TO AL-QAEDA
"There is no evidence of formal links between Iraqi ex-leader Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq prior to the 2003 war, a US Senate report says... The finding is contained in a 2005 CIA report released by the Senate's Intelligence Committee... (the report said) that the (Iraqi) government "did not have a relationship, harbour, or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi and his associates".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5328592.stm
"There is no evidence of formal links between Iraqi ex-leader Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq prior to the 2003 war, a US Senate report says... The finding is contained in a 2005 CIA report released by the Senate's Intelligence Committee... (the report said) that the (Iraqi) government "did not have a relationship, harbour, or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi and his associates".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5328592.stm
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
OCCUPATIONS FUELING ISLAMIC MILITANCY
"... during the first months of the occupation... In 2003 I drove down to Basra in southern Iraq and up to Mosul in the far north without incident. If I tried to repeat any of these journeys in Iraq... today I would certainly be killed. The rest of the Middle East is becoming more dangerous by the day..."
"The real reason of the increasing violence in the Middle East is the return to imperial control and foreign occupation half a century after the European colonial empires were broken up. This is the fuel for Islamic militancy... The attempts by America and Britain to crush Islamic militancy across the Middle East are making sure it will become stronger."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0905-07.htm
"... during the first months of the occupation... In 2003 I drove down to Basra in southern Iraq and up to Mosul in the far north without incident. If I tried to repeat any of these journeys in Iraq... today I would certainly be killed. The rest of the Middle East is becoming more dangerous by the day..."
"The real reason of the increasing violence in the Middle East is the return to imperial control and foreign occupation half a century after the European colonial empires were broken up. This is the fuel for Islamic militancy... The attempts by America and Britain to crush Islamic militancy across the Middle East are making sure it will become stronger."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0905-07.htm
WHERE SHOULD BUSH LOOK FOR FASCISM?
"...In classic terms, fascism is defined by five characteristics of governance:
- nationalist aggression;
- fusing of the state with corporate interests;
- single party rule;
- the suppression of civil liberties;
- and pervasive propaganda.
All of these inhered in the Italian, German, and Japanese governments of the 1930s and '40s. All of them would have to be present before the label "fascism" could legitimately be applied to a modern regime..."
"... By these criteria, it is doubtful that Muslims resisting military occupation of their lands, the massacre of their people, and the theft of their resources by western invaders can be considered "fascist"... If Bush, in fact, wants to protect the U.S. against the very real dangers of fascism he so lustily decries, he will need to look for it elsewhere."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0905-22.htm
"...In classic terms, fascism is defined by five characteristics of governance:
- nationalist aggression;
- fusing of the state with corporate interests;
- single party rule;
- the suppression of civil liberties;
- and pervasive propaganda.
All of these inhered in the Italian, German, and Japanese governments of the 1930s and '40s. All of them would have to be present before the label "fascism" could legitimately be applied to a modern regime..."
"... By these criteria, it is doubtful that Muslims resisting military occupation of their lands, the massacre of their people, and the theft of their resources by western invaders can be considered "fascist"... If Bush, in fact, wants to protect the U.S. against the very real dangers of fascism he so lustily decries, he will need to look for it elsewhere."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0905-22.htm
SUICIDE TERRORISM MOTIVATED BY NATIONALISM, NOT ISLAM
"Nationalism, not Islam, motivates most suicide terrorists... data from all 315 suicide terrorist campaigns from 1980 to 2003, involving 462 individuals... (found that) The major objective of 95 percent of suicide attacks is to expel foreign military forces from territory that the terrorists perceive as their homeland. There is little connection with Islamic fundamentalism or any of the world religions. The taproot of suicide terrorism is nationalism and it's ''mainly a response to foreign occupation.''
http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/anotherview/all-olson9-5sep05,0,5283521.story
"Nationalism, not Islam, motivates most suicide terrorists... data from all 315 suicide terrorist campaigns from 1980 to 2003, involving 462 individuals... (found that) The major objective of 95 percent of suicide attacks is to expel foreign military forces from territory that the terrorists perceive as their homeland. There is little connection with Islamic fundamentalism or any of the world religions. The taproot of suicide terrorism is nationalism and it's ''mainly a response to foreign occupation.''
http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/anotherview/all-olson9-5sep05,0,5283521.story
PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS SHOULD DETERMINE TROOP LEVELS, NOT GENERALS
"... Bush likes to tell reporters that U.S. troop levels in Iraq hinge on the assessments from top military commanders... take a hard look at that rhetorical scam... Civilian control of the military means that the president is accountable to citizens, not generals... it's not up to military officers to decide whether this is going to be a long war... The president's claim that key deployment decisions rest in the hands of military chiefs is not only a dodge. It's also manipulative -- shoving public discourse toward the mindset of assessing military tactics instead of ethical choices. And the claim dangerously encourages the idea that military leaders should have a major say in U.S. foreign-policy decisions. Under the Constitution, in theory, the president and Congress share that power -- derived from the consent of the governed. We must hold the president and Congress accountable."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0905-20.htm
"... Bush likes to tell reporters that U.S. troop levels in Iraq hinge on the assessments from top military commanders... take a hard look at that rhetorical scam... Civilian control of the military means that the president is accountable to citizens, not generals... it's not up to military officers to decide whether this is going to be a long war... The president's claim that key deployment decisions rest in the hands of military chiefs is not only a dodge. It's also manipulative -- shoving public discourse toward the mindset of assessing military tactics instead of ethical choices. And the claim dangerously encourages the idea that military leaders should have a major say in U.S. foreign-policy decisions. Under the Constitution, in theory, the president and Congress share that power -- derived from the consent of the governed. We must hold the president and Congress accountable."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0905-20.htm
Saturday, September 02, 2006
PENTAGON SPENDING $20 MILLION TO MONITOR TONE OF IRAQ NEW STORIES
"The U.S. command in Baghdad is seeking bidders for a two-year, $20 million public relations contract that calls for monitoring the tone of Iraq news stories filed by U.S. and foreign media..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0901-06.htm
"The U.S. command in Baghdad is seeking bidders for a two-year, $20 million public relations contract that calls for monitoring the tone of Iraq news stories filed by U.S. and foreign media..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0901-06.htm
WAR NOT A SOLUTION FOR TERRORISM
"... massive military attacks, inevitably indiscriminate, are not only morally reprehensible, but useless in achieving the stated aims of those who carry them out... The United States, in three years of war, which began with shock-and-awe bombardment and goes on with day-to-day violence and chaos, has been an utter failure in its claimed objective of bringing democracy and stability to Iraq..."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/09/02/war_is_not_a_solution_for_terrorism/
"... massive military attacks, inevitably indiscriminate, are not only morally reprehensible, but useless in achieving the stated aims of those who carry them out... The United States, in three years of war, which began with shock-and-awe bombardment and goes on with day-to-day violence and chaos, has been an utter failure in its claimed objective of bringing democracy and stability to Iraq..."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/09/02/war_is_not_a_solution_for_terrorism/
REALITY CHECK
"... Reality will force this White House to acknowledge that the misadventure in Iraq has gone horribly awry. On that day will come the admission that U.S. troops will either be forced to stay for years, perhaps decades, in order to police another country's civil war or that they will be withdrawn from harm's way.If U.S. troops remain, they will be, first and foremost, targets. And their deaths will almost certainly be in vain, as the root causes of the violence in Iraq will not be eliminated by time or by a massive U.S. troop presence..."
--Editorial, Capital Times, Madison, WI
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0902-22.htm
"... Reality will force this White House to acknowledge that the misadventure in Iraq has gone horribly awry. On that day will come the admission that U.S. troops will either be forced to stay for years, perhaps decades, in order to police another country's civil war or that they will be withdrawn from harm's way.If U.S. troops remain, they will be, first and foremost, targets. And their deaths will almost certainly be in vain, as the root causes of the violence in Iraq will not be eliminated by time or by a massive U.S. troop presence..."
--Editorial, Capital Times, Madison, WI
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0902-22.htm
Friday, September 01, 2006
GRIM REPORT ON IRAQ
"Pentagon Releases Grim Report on Iraq... Iraqi casualties soared by more than 50 percent during the roughly three-month period ending in early August, the product of spiraling sectarian clashes and a Sunni-based insurgency that remains “potent and viable”... President Bush and members of his cabinet have been trying to present a strong case in support of the war... The Pentagon distributed the report on a Friday afternoon before a long weekend, a common time for government officials to put out bad news..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/world/middleeast/01cnd-military.html?hp&ex=1157169600&en=1fe8dd0fc7c09a05&ei=5094&partner=homepage
"Pentagon Releases Grim Report on Iraq... Iraqi casualties soared by more than 50 percent during the roughly three-month period ending in early August, the product of spiraling sectarian clashes and a Sunni-based insurgency that remains “potent and viable”... President Bush and members of his cabinet have been trying to present a strong case in support of the war... The Pentagon distributed the report on a Friday afternoon before a long weekend, a common time for government officials to put out bad news..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/world/middleeast/01cnd-military.html?hp&ex=1157169600&en=1fe8dd0fc7c09a05&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Monday, August 28, 2006
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
"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
"... 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
Sunday, August 27, 2006
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
"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
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
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 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
"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
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
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
"... 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
Monday, August 21, 2006
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
"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
Sunday, August 20, 2006
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
"(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
"... 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
Friday, August 18, 2006
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
"... 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
Thursday, August 17, 2006
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
"... 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
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
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
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
"... 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
Monday, August 14, 2006
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
"... 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
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
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
"... 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
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
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
"... (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
"... 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
Saturday, August 05, 2006
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
"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
"... 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
"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
Thursday, August 03, 2006
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
"... 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
"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
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
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
"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