Suicide bombers kill 40 at Baghdad mosque Yahoo! NEWS
A suicide bomber inside a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad and another outside blew themselves up killing at least 40 people on Friday, police said. The blasts also wounded 45 people. The mosque in northern Baghdad belonged to SCIRI, the most powerful party inside Iraq's ruling Shi'ite Alliance. The attack came a day after a car bomb exploded near a Shi'ite shrine in the southern city of Najaf, killing at least 13 people. Sectarian tensions have been running high since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine on February 22 touched off reprisals and pushed Iraq to the brink of a sectarian civil war. And a deadlock over the new Iraqi government four months after elections has left a political vacuum that has raised fears it will play into the hands of Arab Sunni insurgents and fuel communal tensions. U.S. and Iraqi officials say spectacular suicide bombings in Iraq are part of a campaign by al Qaeda militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to draw majority Shi'ites into a full-blown sectarian conflict.
Full Version: Iraq News Volume 10
Common Ground Common Sense > Issues that Affect Our Lives > Foreign Policy and National Defense > Foreign Policy & National Defense Issues Archive
Mosque Explosion Kills 52 in Iraq 1 hour, 9 minutes ago
Suicide attackers wearing women's robes blew themselves up Friday in a Shiite mosque in northern Baghdad, killing at least 52 people and wounding more than 160, police said. It was the second major attack against Shiite targets in as many days.
Elsewhere in the capital, a U.S. service member died Friday of wounds suffered while on patrol in western Baghdad, the military said.
The violence came as U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad warned that Iraq faces the possibility of sectarian civil war if efforts to build a national unity government do not succeed, and that such a conflict could affect the entire Middle East.
Police Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi said the blasts were caused by two suicide attackers wearing black abayas at the Buratha mosque, which is affiliated with the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the main Shiite party.
Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer, the preacher at the mosque and one of the country's leading politicians, said there were three assailants. One came through the women's security checkpoint and blew up first, he said. Another raced into the mosque's courtyard while a third came to his office before detonating themselves, said al-Sagheer, who was not injured.
He accused Sunni politicians and clerics of waging "a campaign of distortions and lies against the Buratha mosque, claiming that it includes Sunni prisoners and mass graves of Sunnis."
"Shiites are the ones who are targeted as part of this dirty sectarian war waged against them as the world watches silently," he told Al-Arabiya television.
The attack occurred as worshippers were leaving after Friday prayers, the main weekly religious service. Earlier Friday, the Interior Ministry cautioned people in Baghdad to avoid crowds near mosques and markets due to a car bomb threat.
A prominent Shiite politician, Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer, was among the worshippers but police said he was unhurt.
Rescuers carried the bodies from the mosque compound on makeshift wooden wheelbarrows and loaded them on the backs of pickup trucks. The Baghdad city council urged Iraqis to donate blood for those wounded.
On Thursday, a car bomb exploded about 300 yards from the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf, the most sacred shrine in Iraq for Shiite Muslims. Ten people were killed, police said.
The attack Friday was likely to increase tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, already at a high level following the Feb. 22 blast at a Shiite shrine in Samarra and reprisal killings. That bombing triggered a war of reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics.
"This explosion is trying to provoke Iraqis to sectarian sedition through bombing the mosques," said Salah Abdul-Razzaq, a Baghdad city council member.
The Interior Ministry, which oversees police, said it had received intelligence that insurgents were preparing to set off seven car bombs in Baghdad. Al-Mohammedawi said the alert would remain until the bombs were discovered and deactivated.
Security forces were searching the city, with orders to protect holy sites and be on the lookout for suspicious cars, the statement said, urging citizens to "be cautious, and to avoid gatherings or crowds while leaving markets, mosques and churches."
The statement also warned that legal measures would be taken against "any security official who fails to take the necessary procedures to foil any terrorist attack in his area." The Shiite-dominated ministry faces accusations of militia infiltration in its ranks.
Other car bombs were possibly heading to some southern Iraqi provinces as well, the statement said, putting security forces in the south on high alert.
The death of the U.S. service member raised to at least 2,347 the number of American forces who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The U.S. military said the victim's patrol had come under small arms fire but provided no further details.
Khalilzad, meanwhile, told the British Broadcasting Corp. that political contacts among Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders were improving, but that within the general population, "polarization along sectarian lines" was intensifying — in part due to the role of armed militias.
He warned that "a sectarian war in Iraq" could draw in neighboring countries, "affecting the entire region."
"That's a possibility if we don't do everything we can to make this country work," Khalilzad said. "What's happening here has huge implications for the region and the world."
He said the best way to prevent such a conflict was to form a government including representatives of all groups. That effort has stalled over Sunni and Kurdish opposition to the Shiite candidate to lead the government, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
Khalilzad avoided any criticism of al-Jaafari. He said many competent Iraqis were capable of leading the government and the current prime minister "certainly is one of them."
Khalilzad said the international community must do everything possible "to make this country work" because failure "would have the most serious consequences for the Iraqis, for sure, but also for the region and for the world."
Rising sectarian tensions — worsened by armed, religiously based militias and death squads — have emerged as a significant threat to U.S. efforts to form a stable society in Iraq.
Last month, Khalilzad said that "more Iraqis are dying today from the militia violence than from the terrorists," meaning Sunni-dominated insurgents.
In the BBC interview, Khalilzad cited the role of armed militias in sharpening sectarian tensions, including armed groups associated with Shiite political parties and Sunni insurgents.
"What I was saying to the Iraqis is that for the success of Iraq, this problem of unauthorized military formations have to be dealt with," he said, adding U.S. officials were working with the Iraqis to develop a plan for curbing militias and would insist that it be implemented.
Khalilzad also confirmed the Americans had been meeting with groups linked to the insurgency and said he believed those contacts were responsible for a decline in the number of attacks against U.S. and coalition forces. Last month, they suffered their lowest monthly death toll in Iraq since February 2005, although the casualty rate has increased somewhat in the first week of April.
He would not specify the groups but said they did not include Saddam Hussein loyalists or "terrorists," presumably excluding extremists of al-Qaida in Iraq or the Ansar al-Sunnah Army.
U.S. officials have in the past confirmed contacts with people who claimed to have links with the insurgents. It was unclear whether these contacts included insurgent commanders or simply intermediaries who support the war against coalition forces.
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Questions or Comments
Privacy Policy -Terms of Service - Copyright/IP Policy - Ad Feedback
Suicide attackers wearing women's robes blew themselves up Friday in a Shiite mosque in northern Baghdad, killing at least 52 people and wounding more than 160, police said. It was the second major attack against Shiite targets in as many days.
Elsewhere in the capital, a U.S. service member died Friday of wounds suffered while on patrol in western Baghdad, the military said.
The violence came as U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad warned that Iraq faces the possibility of sectarian civil war if efforts to build a national unity government do not succeed, and that such a conflict could affect the entire Middle East.
Police Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi said the blasts were caused by two suicide attackers wearing black abayas at the Buratha mosque, which is affiliated with the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the main Shiite party.
Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer, the preacher at the mosque and one of the country's leading politicians, said there were three assailants. One came through the women's security checkpoint and blew up first, he said. Another raced into the mosque's courtyard while a third came to his office before detonating themselves, said al-Sagheer, who was not injured.
He accused Sunni politicians and clerics of waging "a campaign of distortions and lies against the Buratha mosque, claiming that it includes Sunni prisoners and mass graves of Sunnis."
"Shiites are the ones who are targeted as part of this dirty sectarian war waged against them as the world watches silently," he told Al-Arabiya television.
The attack occurred as worshippers were leaving after Friday prayers, the main weekly religious service. Earlier Friday, the Interior Ministry cautioned people in Baghdad to avoid crowds near mosques and markets due to a car bomb threat.
A prominent Shiite politician, Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer, was among the worshippers but police said he was unhurt.
Rescuers carried the bodies from the mosque compound on makeshift wooden wheelbarrows and loaded them on the backs of pickup trucks. The Baghdad city council urged Iraqis to donate blood for those wounded.
On Thursday, a car bomb exploded about 300 yards from the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf, the most sacred shrine in Iraq for Shiite Muslims. Ten people were killed, police said.
The attack Friday was likely to increase tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, already at a high level following the Feb. 22 blast at a Shiite shrine in Samarra and reprisal killings. That bombing triggered a war of reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics.
"This explosion is trying to provoke Iraqis to sectarian sedition through bombing the mosques," said Salah Abdul-Razzaq, a Baghdad city council member.
The Interior Ministry, which oversees police, said it had received intelligence that insurgents were preparing to set off seven car bombs in Baghdad. Al-Mohammedawi said the alert would remain until the bombs were discovered and deactivated.
Security forces were searching the city, with orders to protect holy sites and be on the lookout for suspicious cars, the statement said, urging citizens to "be cautious, and to avoid gatherings or crowds while leaving markets, mosques and churches."
The statement also warned that legal measures would be taken against "any security official who fails to take the necessary procedures to foil any terrorist attack in his area." The Shiite-dominated ministry faces accusations of militia infiltration in its ranks.
Other car bombs were possibly heading to some southern Iraqi provinces as well, the statement said, putting security forces in the south on high alert.
The death of the U.S. service member raised to at least 2,347 the number of American forces who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The U.S. military said the victim's patrol had come under small arms fire but provided no further details.
Khalilzad, meanwhile, told the British Broadcasting Corp. that political contacts among Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders were improving, but that within the general population, "polarization along sectarian lines" was intensifying — in part due to the role of armed militias.
He warned that "a sectarian war in Iraq" could draw in neighboring countries, "affecting the entire region."
"That's a possibility if we don't do everything we can to make this country work," Khalilzad said. "What's happening here has huge implications for the region and the world."
He said the best way to prevent such a conflict was to form a government including representatives of all groups. That effort has stalled over Sunni and Kurdish opposition to the Shiite candidate to lead the government, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
Khalilzad avoided any criticism of al-Jaafari. He said many competent Iraqis were capable of leading the government and the current prime minister "certainly is one of them."
Khalilzad said the international community must do everything possible "to make this country work" because failure "would have the most serious consequences for the Iraqis, for sure, but also for the region and for the world."
Rising sectarian tensions — worsened by armed, religiously based militias and death squads — have emerged as a significant threat to U.S. efforts to form a stable society in Iraq.
Last month, Khalilzad said that "more Iraqis are dying today from the militia violence than from the terrorists," meaning Sunni-dominated insurgents.
In the BBC interview, Khalilzad cited the role of armed militias in sharpening sectarian tensions, including armed groups associated with Shiite political parties and Sunni insurgents.
"What I was saying to the Iraqis is that for the success of Iraq, this problem of unauthorized military formations have to be dealt with," he said, adding U.S. officials were working with the Iraqis to develop a plan for curbing militias and would insist that it be implemented.
Khalilzad also confirmed the Americans had been meeting with groups linked to the insurgency and said he believed those contacts were responsible for a decline in the number of attacks against U.S. and coalition forces. Last month, they suffered their lowest monthly death toll in Iraq since February 2005, although the casualty rate has increased somewhat in the first week of April.
He would not specify the groups but said they did not include Saddam Hussein loyalists or "terrorists," presumably excluding extremists of al-Qaida in Iraq or the Ansar al-Sunnah Army.
U.S. officials have in the past confirmed contacts with people who claimed to have links with the insurgents. It was unclear whether these contacts included insurgent commanders or simply intermediaries who support the war against coalition forces.
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Questions or Comments
Privacy Policy -Terms of Service - Copyright/IP Policy - Ad Feedback
Critics line up to accuse Bush of hypocrisy Sydney Morning Herald
By Michael Gawenda, Herald Correspondent in Washington. SENIOR Democrats have described as "breathtaking" testimony that President George Bush personally authorised the leaking of classified pre-Iraq war intelligence to a reporter. Democrats lined up to accuse Mr Bush of hypocrisy - and worse - after the revelation that the Vice-President, Dick Cheney's former chief-of-staff, Lewis Libby, told a grand jury that he was authorised by the President, through Mr Cheney, in July 2003 to disclose key portions of a sensitive assessment in a bid to discredit former ambassador Joseph Wilson, a persistent critic of Mr Bush and the Iraq war. "If the disclosure is true, it's breathtaking," said Jane Harman, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. "The President is revealed as the leaker-in-chief." Senator Charles Schumer said the revelation showed that the attempt to discredit critics and to distort intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was a project run "at the top levels of the White House". In court papers cited by the Government on Wednesday, Libby said Mr Cheney had told him that President Bush had authorised the disclosure of information in a secret National Intelligence Estimate to The New York Times reporter Judith Miller. Miller spent 85 days in jail for contempt of court last year for refusing the identify the White House official who had told her that Mr Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was an CIA agent. She named Libby to the grand jury investigating the Plame leak after Libby released her from the confidentiality agreement. Miller, who had reported extensively about Iraq's supposed weapons program before the war, resigned from The New York Times last November. There is no suggestion in Libby's testimony that either Mr Cheney or Mr Bush authorised the leaking of Ms Plame's name, but the fact that the President had given Libby the green light to leak classified information to the media in order to discredit Mr Wilson, is at the very least, highly embarrassing. Libby, who has been charged with perjury and obstruction of justice following an investigation by the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, into the leaking of Ms Plame's identity in July 2003, said that Mr Cheney had told him to reveal the information in order to discredit Ms Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson. Mr Wilson, a former US Ambassador in Africa during the Clinton presidency, had accused the Bush Administration of using bogus intelligence on Saddam Hussein's alleged attempts to buy African uranium in order to justify going to war in Iraq. According to Libby's grand jury testimony, Mr Bush wanted him to leak to Miller parts of the classified intelligence document that suggested that Saddam had been trying to buy uranium from Niger, a claim that Mr Bush made during his state of the union address in January 2003. When Ms Plame was named as a CIA agent by conservative columnist Robert Novak, Mr Bush said that he was concerned about possible leaks and that if anyone in the Administration had leaked classified information to the media, that person would be fired. The political fall-out from the revelation that Mr Bush authorised leaks of intelligence reports is likely to be significant for a president whose approval rating is already at record low. The White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, refused to comment on Libby's testimony, saying that Mr Bush was aware that Mr Fitzgerald's investigation was "ongoing". Libby's trial is scheduled for January next year but it is unlikely that Mr Bush will be able to stick to the no-comment position on this issue for the next nine months.
Bush touts job gains, ignores leak questions Chicago Tribune
White House Declines to Counter Leak Claim Forbes
Houston Chronicle - Washington Post - New York Times - Reuters.uk - all 1,191 related »
By Michael Gawenda, Herald Correspondent in Washington. SENIOR Democrats have described as "breathtaking" testimony that President George Bush personally authorised the leaking of classified pre-Iraq war intelligence to a reporter. Democrats lined up to accuse Mr Bush of hypocrisy - and worse - after the revelation that the Vice-President, Dick Cheney's former chief-of-staff, Lewis Libby, told a grand jury that he was authorised by the President, through Mr Cheney, in July 2003 to disclose key portions of a sensitive assessment in a bid to discredit former ambassador Joseph Wilson, a persistent critic of Mr Bush and the Iraq war. "If the disclosure is true, it's breathtaking," said Jane Harman, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. "The President is revealed as the leaker-in-chief." Senator Charles Schumer said the revelation showed that the attempt to discredit critics and to distort intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was a project run "at the top levels of the White House". In court papers cited by the Government on Wednesday, Libby said Mr Cheney had told him that President Bush had authorised the disclosure of information in a secret National Intelligence Estimate to The New York Times reporter Judith Miller. Miller spent 85 days in jail for contempt of court last year for refusing the identify the White House official who had told her that Mr Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was an CIA agent. She named Libby to the grand jury investigating the Plame leak after Libby released her from the confidentiality agreement. Miller, who had reported extensively about Iraq's supposed weapons program before the war, resigned from The New York Times last November. There is no suggestion in Libby's testimony that either Mr Cheney or Mr Bush authorised the leaking of Ms Plame's name, but the fact that the President had given Libby the green light to leak classified information to the media in order to discredit Mr Wilson, is at the very least, highly embarrassing. Libby, who has been charged with perjury and obstruction of justice following an investigation by the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, into the leaking of Ms Plame's identity in July 2003, said that Mr Cheney had told him to reveal the information in order to discredit Ms Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson. Mr Wilson, a former US Ambassador in Africa during the Clinton presidency, had accused the Bush Administration of using bogus intelligence on Saddam Hussein's alleged attempts to buy African uranium in order to justify going to war in Iraq. According to Libby's grand jury testimony, Mr Bush wanted him to leak to Miller parts of the classified intelligence document that suggested that Saddam had been trying to buy uranium from Niger, a claim that Mr Bush made during his state of the union address in January 2003. When Ms Plame was named as a CIA agent by conservative columnist Robert Novak, Mr Bush said that he was concerned about possible leaks and that if anyone in the Administration had leaked classified information to the media, that person would be fired. The political fall-out from the revelation that Mr Bush authorised leaks of intelligence reports is likely to be significant for a president whose approval rating is already at record low. The White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, refused to comment on Libby's testimony, saying that Mr Bush was aware that Mr Fitzgerald's investigation was "ongoing". Libby's trial is scheduled for January next year but it is unlikely that Mr Bush will be able to stick to the no-comment position on this issue for the next nine months.
Bush touts job gains, ignores leak questions Chicago Tribune
White House Declines to Counter Leak Claim Forbes
Houston Chronicle - Washington Post - New York Times - Reuters.uk - all 1,191 related »
Blasts at Baghdad Shiite Mosque Kill Scores
By Omar Fekeiki and Ellen Knickmeyer
BAGHDAD, April 7 -- Explosions tore through at least one Shiite Muslim mosque in Baghdad on Friday as hundreds of worshipers were at prayer. Police reports of the death toll in the first hours after the blast ranged from 40 to more than 60.
To view the entire article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...er=emailarticle
By Omar Fekeiki and Ellen Knickmeyer
BAGHDAD, April 7 -- Explosions tore through at least one Shiite Muslim mosque in Baghdad on Friday as hundreds of worshipers were at prayer. Police reports of the death toll in the first hours after the blast ranged from 40 to more than 60.
To view the entire article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...er=emailarticle
Mosque attack blast kills 79:
THREE suicide bombers, two of them disguised as women, killed at least 79 people and wounded 164 as worshippers left a popular Baghdad Shiite mosque after weekly Friday prayers overnight.
http://tinyurl.com/kkoeu
===
10 Killed In Continuing Violence:
Police found two unidentified bodies riddled with bullets in Baghdad's Adhamiyah neighbourhood.
http://www.iribnews.ir/Full_en.asp?news_id=210746
===
4 More Bodies Found:
Police discovered the bodies of three members of the security forces, including an Iraqi soldier and a lieutenant-colonel. The bodies were found with their hands cut off. The decapitated body of man wearing a man in an military uniform was found in the town of al-Shahaimiya,
http://tinyurl.com/gwczu
===
Three US troops killed in Iraq:
The US military announced Friday the death of three of its troops across Iraq over the past 24 hours.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=117848
===
Marine killed in al Anbar Province :
A Marine assigned to 2/28 Brigade Combat Team died from enemy action while operating in al Anbar Province April 6.
http://tinyurl.com/fvl8y
===
Narrow escape from Iraq ambush caught on video:
CTV has obtained dramatic video of a dangerous ambush in Iraq that shows a bullet from an insurgent flying through the windshield of a truck.
http://tinyurl.com/z5jek
===
Iraq faces up to militia problems :
The US authorities in Iraq are trying to step up pressure on Iraqi politicians to tackle the power of armed militia groups, increasingly seen as one of the main sources of instability and violence.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4868956.stm
===
US Efforts to Oust Jaafari May Backfire:
Efforts by the United States to split the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) and deny interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari his claim to head the next government could well prove counter-productive to long-term U.S. objectives in both Iraq and the larger region, according to some specialists here.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32803
===
In Notification of Army Deaths, More Pain :
After Neil Santorello heard the news that his son, a tank commander, had been killed in Iraq, from the officer in his living room, he walked out his front door and removed the American flag from its pole. Then, in tears, he tore down the yellow ribbons from his tree.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12641.htm
===
Iraq: Victims of Violence :
I went to work with those afflicted by the Bosnian war because I felt compelled to understand the nature of ‘evil’. Why are people so very horribly violent towards other people and, especially, towards innocent people?
http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2006/04/...f-violence.html
===
Robert Fisk on Iraq, Palestine and the Failure of the U.S. Corporate Media :
We speak with one of the most experienced war correspondents in the world today, Robert Fisk - chief Middle East correspondent of the London Independent - about Iraq, Palestinian and Israeli elections, the corporate media and much more
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/07/144219
===
U-S ambassador warns of threat of sectarian war to entire Middle East :
The U-S ambassador to Iraq says a conflict that could affect the entire Middle East might emerge if efforts to build an Iraqi government don't succeed.
http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4741267
THREE suicide bombers, two of them disguised as women, killed at least 79 people and wounded 164 as worshippers left a popular Baghdad Shiite mosque after weekly Friday prayers overnight.
http://tinyurl.com/kkoeu
===
10 Killed In Continuing Violence:
Police found two unidentified bodies riddled with bullets in Baghdad's Adhamiyah neighbourhood.
http://www.iribnews.ir/Full_en.asp?news_id=210746
===
4 More Bodies Found:
Police discovered the bodies of three members of the security forces, including an Iraqi soldier and a lieutenant-colonel. The bodies were found with their hands cut off. The decapitated body of man wearing a man in an military uniform was found in the town of al-Shahaimiya,
http://tinyurl.com/gwczu
===
Three US troops killed in Iraq:
The US military announced Friday the death of three of its troops across Iraq over the past 24 hours.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=117848
===
Marine killed in al Anbar Province :
A Marine assigned to 2/28 Brigade Combat Team died from enemy action while operating in al Anbar Province April 6.
http://tinyurl.com/fvl8y
===
Narrow escape from Iraq ambush caught on video:
CTV has obtained dramatic video of a dangerous ambush in Iraq that shows a bullet from an insurgent flying through the windshield of a truck.
http://tinyurl.com/z5jek
===
Iraq faces up to militia problems :
The US authorities in Iraq are trying to step up pressure on Iraqi politicians to tackle the power of armed militia groups, increasingly seen as one of the main sources of instability and violence.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4868956.stm
===
US Efforts to Oust Jaafari May Backfire:
Efforts by the United States to split the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) and deny interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari his claim to head the next government could well prove counter-productive to long-term U.S. objectives in both Iraq and the larger region, according to some specialists here.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32803
===
In Notification of Army Deaths, More Pain :
After Neil Santorello heard the news that his son, a tank commander, had been killed in Iraq, from the officer in his living room, he walked out his front door and removed the American flag from its pole. Then, in tears, he tore down the yellow ribbons from his tree.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12641.htm
===
Iraq: Victims of Violence :
I went to work with those afflicted by the Bosnian war because I felt compelled to understand the nature of ‘evil’. Why are people so very horribly violent towards other people and, especially, towards innocent people?
http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2006/04/...f-violence.html
===
Robert Fisk on Iraq, Palestine and the Failure of the U.S. Corporate Media :
We speak with one of the most experienced war correspondents in the world today, Robert Fisk - chief Middle East correspondent of the London Independent - about Iraq, Palestinian and Israeli elections, the corporate media and much more
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/07/144219
===
U-S ambassador warns of threat of sectarian war to entire Middle East :
The U-S ambassador to Iraq says a conflict that could affect the entire Middle East might emerge if efforts to build an Iraqi government don't succeed.
http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4741267
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=8825
US Efforts to Oust Jaafari May Backfire
by Jim Lobe
Efforts by the United States to split the Shi'ite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) and deny interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari his claim to head the next government could well prove counter-productive to long-term U.S. objectives in both Iraq and the larger region, according to some specialists here.
Not only has heavy-handed U.S. intervention in negotiations to create a new government deepened divisions among the various factions, they say, but efforts to marginalize Jaafari – epitomized by secretary of state Condoleezza Rice's snub during her trip with British Foreign Minister Jack Straw to Baghdad earlier this week – risk empowering groups that are much more closely tied to neighboring Iran.
Those groups – notably the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) – are also the two that are most opposed to amending the constitution to accommodate the demands of the Sunni minority for a stronger federal government that would assure an equitable distribution of the country's oil revenues.
Both groups favor a weak federal system in which the Kurdish north and the Shi'ite south, the two centres of Iraq's oil wealth, would enjoy maximum autonomy.
If they come to dominate a new government, current trends moving the country toward outright civil war are likely to intensify, as could conflict among the Shi'ite militias themselves, according to these experts.
"If the Shi'ite center collapses, then massive internecine violence, Kurdish secessions, and a Shi'ite dictatorship seem likely," according to an article published in the Wall Street Journal Monday by Reuel Marc Gerecht, an Iraq specialist and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
Indeed, a related Journal editorial, published Wednesday, noted that PUK leader and Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, appears "to have struck a deal with SCIRI to acquiesce in a Kurdish takeover of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk" – a move that Iraq experts have long warned would plunge the country into civil war.
Gerecht is not alone in warning against current U.S. efforts to sideline Jaafari, who narrowly defeated SCIRI's Abdel Abdul Mehdi as the UIA's candidate for prime minister in mid-February. The UIA, a coalition that includes SCIRI, Jaafari's Da'wa party, followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, and several smaller Shi'ite factions, has by far the largest bloc in the new 275-seat national assembly that was elected last December.
Helena Cobban, an independent Middle East specialist and columnist for the Christian Science Monitor who, unlike Gerecht, strongly opposed the U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation, also believes that Washington's eagerness to oust Jaafari by splitting the UIA undermines its professed interests in averting civil war, preserving Iraq's unity, and, most of all, keeping Iran at bay.
"SCIRI and Talabani are both really tight with the mullahs in Tehran – much more so than Jaafari and (his) Da'wa (party) and Moqtada," Cobban told IPS. "My view is that (U.S. ambassador Zalmay) Khalilzad has been spun for an absolute sucker by Talabani and the Iranians."
Moreover, she said, Washington also bears heavy responsibility for the ongoing impasse in forming the government, an impasse that has not only exacerbated sectarian conflict throughout the country, but one the administration has tried to blame on Jaafari, as a way of pressing him to step aside.
Its campaign against him began almost as soon as he won the UIA's nomination and has intensified in recent weeks, culminating in Rice's visit, according to Cobban.
But U.S. interference has largely backfired – by delaying formation of the government, fueling the impression among Shi'ites, who constitute roughly 60 percent of Iraq's population, that Washington is conspiring deprive them of their victory in the December elections, and strengthening Sadr, the most anti-American and nationalist of all the Shi'ite factions.
Washington opposes Jaafari less for his perceived ineffectiveness as interim prime minister than for his close ties with – indeed, growing dependence on – Sadr, whose 15,000-man Mahdi Army militia dominates Sadr City in Baghdad, battled U.S. troops in 2004, and was responsible for many of the attacks on Sunnis that followed the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra six weeks ago.
Sadr's spokesman, Fatah al-Sheikh, told Newsweek that, in exchange for Sadr's support within the UIA, Jaafari promised to demand a clear timetable for the withdrawal of all U.S. forces if he succeeded in becoming prime minister.
In order to prevent this from happening, Khalilzad has forged a de facto alliance with Talabani and SCIRI which, according to some experts, made clear to Khalilzad from the outset that, despite its commitment to UAI unity, it wanted the premiership for itself.
Their candidate is Mehdi, whose support for free-market economics and Western mien and education have made him a favorite in Washington for some time. But, as Gerecht noted this week, "Mehdi isn't SCIRI."
In addition to their common views on federalism, both PUK and SCIRI have close long-standing ties with Tehran which provided them with shelter and material support during Saddam Hussein's reign. Indeed, SCIRI's militia, the Badr Brigades, were trained and equipped by Iran's Revolutionary Guard and are widely believed to be most responsive to Tehran's wishes of all of the Shi'ite armed groups in Iraq.
Significantly, Tehran gave credit to SCIRI last month for its agreement to engage in direct talks with Washington about cooperation on stabilizing Iraq, a move that not only ended a three-year hiatus in direct contacts between the two countries, but that has also spurred fears among Sunni-led governments in the Gulf, as well as the Sunni community in Iraq, that Washington is preparing to strike a deal with Tehran at their expense.
"That the Bush administration would welcome SCIRI-backed Iranian-U.S. talks in Baghdad is bizarre," according Gerecht. "We should want to underscore and oppose all of SCIRI's Iranian flirtations."
Ironically, the strongest bulwark against Iranian influence in the majority Shi'ite community, according to analysts here, is Sadr, whose Iraqi nationalism has appealed even to Sunnis with whom he has at times made common cause. Moreover, his opposition to the kind of weak federal structure favored by the Kurds and SCIRI also crosses sectarian lines. And, while U.S. officials have depicted him as a "divisive and sectarian presence in Iraqi politics," according to Cobban, "SCIRI is far, far more divisive, sectarian, and violent."
So far, however, Washington's efforts to split the UIA and oust Jaafari as its candidate have failed, a fact that both Gerecht and Cobban credit to the still-dominant influence over the Shi'ite community of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani who reportedly ignored a U.S. appeal to weigh in against Jaafari and who has repeatedly called for the coalition to maintain its unity.
While Mehdi called for Jaafari to step aside earlier this week, SCIRI's leader, Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim, has remained silent lest he be seen as defying Sistani. "I think Sistani is sitting there in Najaf very quietly holding the reins," said Cobban.
(Inter Press Service)
US Efforts to Oust Jaafari May Backfire
by Jim Lobe
Efforts by the United States to split the Shi'ite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) and deny interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari his claim to head the next government could well prove counter-productive to long-term U.S. objectives in both Iraq and the larger region, according to some specialists here.
Not only has heavy-handed U.S. intervention in negotiations to create a new government deepened divisions among the various factions, they say, but efforts to marginalize Jaafari – epitomized by secretary of state Condoleezza Rice's snub during her trip with British Foreign Minister Jack Straw to Baghdad earlier this week – risk empowering groups that are much more closely tied to neighboring Iran.
Those groups – notably the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) – are also the two that are most opposed to amending the constitution to accommodate the demands of the Sunni minority for a stronger federal government that would assure an equitable distribution of the country's oil revenues.
Both groups favor a weak federal system in which the Kurdish north and the Shi'ite south, the two centres of Iraq's oil wealth, would enjoy maximum autonomy.
If they come to dominate a new government, current trends moving the country toward outright civil war are likely to intensify, as could conflict among the Shi'ite militias themselves, according to these experts.
"If the Shi'ite center collapses, then massive internecine violence, Kurdish secessions, and a Shi'ite dictatorship seem likely," according to an article published in the Wall Street Journal Monday by Reuel Marc Gerecht, an Iraq specialist and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
Indeed, a related Journal editorial, published Wednesday, noted that PUK leader and Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, appears "to have struck a deal with SCIRI to acquiesce in a Kurdish takeover of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk" – a move that Iraq experts have long warned would plunge the country into civil war.
Gerecht is not alone in warning against current U.S. efforts to sideline Jaafari, who narrowly defeated SCIRI's Abdel Abdul Mehdi as the UIA's candidate for prime minister in mid-February. The UIA, a coalition that includes SCIRI, Jaafari's Da'wa party, followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, and several smaller Shi'ite factions, has by far the largest bloc in the new 275-seat national assembly that was elected last December.
Helena Cobban, an independent Middle East specialist and columnist for the Christian Science Monitor who, unlike Gerecht, strongly opposed the U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation, also believes that Washington's eagerness to oust Jaafari by splitting the UIA undermines its professed interests in averting civil war, preserving Iraq's unity, and, most of all, keeping Iran at bay.
"SCIRI and Talabani are both really tight with the mullahs in Tehran – much more so than Jaafari and (his) Da'wa (party) and Moqtada," Cobban told IPS. "My view is that (U.S. ambassador Zalmay) Khalilzad has been spun for an absolute sucker by Talabani and the Iranians."
Moreover, she said, Washington also bears heavy responsibility for the ongoing impasse in forming the government, an impasse that has not only exacerbated sectarian conflict throughout the country, but one the administration has tried to blame on Jaafari, as a way of pressing him to step aside.
Its campaign against him began almost as soon as he won the UIA's nomination and has intensified in recent weeks, culminating in Rice's visit, according to Cobban.
But U.S. interference has largely backfired – by delaying formation of the government, fueling the impression among Shi'ites, who constitute roughly 60 percent of Iraq's population, that Washington is conspiring deprive them of their victory in the December elections, and strengthening Sadr, the most anti-American and nationalist of all the Shi'ite factions.
Washington opposes Jaafari less for his perceived ineffectiveness as interim prime minister than for his close ties with – indeed, growing dependence on – Sadr, whose 15,000-man Mahdi Army militia dominates Sadr City in Baghdad, battled U.S. troops in 2004, and was responsible for many of the attacks on Sunnis that followed the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra six weeks ago.
Sadr's spokesman, Fatah al-Sheikh, told Newsweek that, in exchange for Sadr's support within the UIA, Jaafari promised to demand a clear timetable for the withdrawal of all U.S. forces if he succeeded in becoming prime minister.
In order to prevent this from happening, Khalilzad has forged a de facto alliance with Talabani and SCIRI which, according to some experts, made clear to Khalilzad from the outset that, despite its commitment to UAI unity, it wanted the premiership for itself.
Their candidate is Mehdi, whose support for free-market economics and Western mien and education have made him a favorite in Washington for some time. But, as Gerecht noted this week, "Mehdi isn't SCIRI."
In addition to their common views on federalism, both PUK and SCIRI have close long-standing ties with Tehran which provided them with shelter and material support during Saddam Hussein's reign. Indeed, SCIRI's militia, the Badr Brigades, were trained and equipped by Iran's Revolutionary Guard and are widely believed to be most responsive to Tehran's wishes of all of the Shi'ite armed groups in Iraq.
Significantly, Tehran gave credit to SCIRI last month for its agreement to engage in direct talks with Washington about cooperation on stabilizing Iraq, a move that not only ended a three-year hiatus in direct contacts between the two countries, but that has also spurred fears among Sunni-led governments in the Gulf, as well as the Sunni community in Iraq, that Washington is preparing to strike a deal with Tehran at their expense.
"That the Bush administration would welcome SCIRI-backed Iranian-U.S. talks in Baghdad is bizarre," according Gerecht. "We should want to underscore and oppose all of SCIRI's Iranian flirtations."
Ironically, the strongest bulwark against Iranian influence in the majority Shi'ite community, according to analysts here, is Sadr, whose Iraqi nationalism has appealed even to Sunnis with whom he has at times made common cause. Moreover, his opposition to the kind of weak federal structure favored by the Kurds and SCIRI also crosses sectarian lines. And, while U.S. officials have depicted him as a "divisive and sectarian presence in Iraqi politics," according to Cobban, "SCIRI is far, far more divisive, sectarian, and violent."
So far, however, Washington's efforts to split the UIA and oust Jaafari as its candidate have failed, a fact that both Gerecht and Cobban credit to the still-dominant influence over the Shi'ite community of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani who reportedly ignored a U.S. appeal to weigh in against Jaafari and who has repeatedly called for the coalition to maintain its unity.
While Mehdi called for Jaafari to step aside earlier this week, SCIRI's leader, Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim, has remained silent lest he be seen as defying Sistani. "I think Sistani is sitting there in Najaf very quietly holding the reins," said Cobban.
(Inter Press Service)
http://www.nationalreview.com/script/print...00604070518.asp
April 07, 2006, 5:18 a.m.
Standing Firm
Iraq’s emerging generation of leaders need U.S. support.
By Ali Al-Zahid
Almost three years have passed since the liberation of Baghdad, three years full of work, full of struggle for a new Iraq. Like many others, I have seen my whole life change in these three years — plans cancelled, priorities reordered, friends lost. We have given up many things which once seemed important.
When I watched the toppling of Saddam's statue in Firdos Square, the meaning of all the work against the dictatorship was made clear. The moment was made all the more joyful by the presence of my parents. Once more we were proud to be Iraqis, and once more we were proud of America, which, after letting us down in 1991, had finally kept its promise.
Thinking back to the time before the liberation of Iraq, I remember a meeting where we dissidents were discussing the possibilities for a new Iraq. It was a vision of a democratic Iraq, respectful of human rights, which could be a new home for all Iraqis, including the millions who had been driven out of the country. We knew it would not be easy to rebuild our nation, but we could not have expected what we were actually to be confronted with. We knew from many who had been able to flee in the last few years that Iraq was in bad shape and its people were exhausted, but it was inconceivable that society was as defunct and dysfunctional as it turned out to be.
Today the world is discussing why there was no plan for reconstruction. But such criticisms should be honest: Could anyone have imagined back then that the enemies of the new Iraq would blow themselves up in marketplaces, in front of schools, at funerals — almost anywhere — killing dozens, along with themselves, each time? Could anyone have expected that people transporting flour would have their heads cut off on live television? Could anyone have expected that Baghdad's water supply would be attacked on a daily basis? Or that the wives of policemen and military personnel would be raped and afterwards butchered?
Many mistakes have been made in these three years. The political parties in Iraq and their representatives demonstrate on a regular basis that they are incapable of uniting the country and leading it. Neither have our American partners been able to keep from making major mistakes. To be sure, the new Iraq is awash in corruption and suicide bombings. Nonetheless would I immediately reaffirm the decision to liberate Iraq with the troops of the Coalition. There is a major difference between Iraq before April 9, 2003, and Iraq today — now there is hope, there is the determination to win this war. We continue to believe in this new Iraq because we know that, despite the problems, Iraq is developing, and that despite the madness, there is progress. The Iraqi people are beginning to understand that they have rights in the new Iraq, and they are starting to demand them as well. They understand that they are no longer slaves to political powers, but that politicians are supposed to serve them.
World opinion says that this war was illegal because the Coalition found no weapons of mass destruction. What have been found, however, are heaps of bodies, buried in mass graves, which would not have been discovered otherwise. Five-hundred thousand people — men, women and children — had been executed or buried alive. Saddam Hussein and many of his henchmen were captured alive and, in contrast to the way they treated people, are being treated humanely. Saddam Hussein's 35-year war against the population of Iraq cost over two million people their lives, and this campaign is not over yet. Now, however, we are no longer alone in this war. We have the United States on our side. We know that we can win this struggle. Our greatest worry is that we will run out of partners in the middle of the final, pivotal push.
It may be that world opinion is pessimistic about Iraq, but millions of Iraqis are optimistic. They support the new Iraq, because there is one thing our enemies — al Qaida and the former henchmen of the old regime — have yet to understand: This new Iraq no longer depends only on a few individuals. This new Iraq is a mass movement, and the seeds of democracy are slowly starting to sprout. It may be that the present Iraqi politicians are not the right ones, but a new generation is coming which loves and understands democracy. It is this generation which is becoming more and more active — and more confident about taking on responsibility, demanding that the torch be passed. For, although our present political leaders did a lot of work in their 35 years of opposition, it is time to make room for those who are guided by the vision of a new Iraq.
This new generation is now able to mobilize itself. Because we believe in this project, none of us has left himself an easy way out. If the U.S. turns its back on us and drops the Iraq project, it is dropping us too. If we are dropped, it is the end of the concept of a democratic Middle East — and the end of the idea, anywhere in the world, that the U.S. will stand by its friends in bitter, hard times.
The future of the Middle East will be decided in Iraq. The way America is perceived in the future will be determined in Iraq. The choice is between supporting this new generation a few years longer, and winning a grateful long-term ally, or betraying this generation of Iraqis which believes in, and risks its life every day for, the American dream of democracy.
— Ali Al-Zahid is a member of the new Iraquna think tank. Born in 1978, he was imprisoned in 1982 after his father made critical statements against the Baath regime.
April 07, 2006, 5:18 a.m.
Standing Firm
Iraq’s emerging generation of leaders need U.S. support.
By Ali Al-Zahid
Almost three years have passed since the liberation of Baghdad, three years full of work, full of struggle for a new Iraq. Like many others, I have seen my whole life change in these three years — plans cancelled, priorities reordered, friends lost. We have given up many things which once seemed important.
When I watched the toppling of Saddam's statue in Firdos Square, the meaning of all the work against the dictatorship was made clear. The moment was made all the more joyful by the presence of my parents. Once more we were proud to be Iraqis, and once more we were proud of America, which, after letting us down in 1991, had finally kept its promise.
Thinking back to the time before the liberation of Iraq, I remember a meeting where we dissidents were discussing the possibilities for a new Iraq. It was a vision of a democratic Iraq, respectful of human rights, which could be a new home for all Iraqis, including the millions who had been driven out of the country. We knew it would not be easy to rebuild our nation, but we could not have expected what we were actually to be confronted with. We knew from many who had been able to flee in the last few years that Iraq was in bad shape and its people were exhausted, but it was inconceivable that society was as defunct and dysfunctional as it turned out to be.
Today the world is discussing why there was no plan for reconstruction. But such criticisms should be honest: Could anyone have imagined back then that the enemies of the new Iraq would blow themselves up in marketplaces, in front of schools, at funerals — almost anywhere — killing dozens, along with themselves, each time? Could anyone have expected that people transporting flour would have their heads cut off on live television? Could anyone have expected that Baghdad's water supply would be attacked on a daily basis? Or that the wives of policemen and military personnel would be raped and afterwards butchered?
Many mistakes have been made in these three years. The political parties in Iraq and their representatives demonstrate on a regular basis that they are incapable of uniting the country and leading it. Neither have our American partners been able to keep from making major mistakes. To be sure, the new Iraq is awash in corruption and suicide bombings. Nonetheless would I immediately reaffirm the decision to liberate Iraq with the troops of the Coalition. There is a major difference between Iraq before April 9, 2003, and Iraq today — now there is hope, there is the determination to win this war. We continue to believe in this new Iraq because we know that, despite the problems, Iraq is developing, and that despite the madness, there is progress. The Iraqi people are beginning to understand that they have rights in the new Iraq, and they are starting to demand them as well. They understand that they are no longer slaves to political powers, but that politicians are supposed to serve them.
World opinion says that this war was illegal because the Coalition found no weapons of mass destruction. What have been found, however, are heaps of bodies, buried in mass graves, which would not have been discovered otherwise. Five-hundred thousand people — men, women and children — had been executed or buried alive. Saddam Hussein and many of his henchmen were captured alive and, in contrast to the way they treated people, are being treated humanely. Saddam Hussein's 35-year war against the population of Iraq cost over two million people their lives, and this campaign is not over yet. Now, however, we are no longer alone in this war. We have the United States on our side. We know that we can win this struggle. Our greatest worry is that we will run out of partners in the middle of the final, pivotal push.
It may be that world opinion is pessimistic about Iraq, but millions of Iraqis are optimistic. They support the new Iraq, because there is one thing our enemies — al Qaida and the former henchmen of the old regime — have yet to understand: This new Iraq no longer depends only on a few individuals. This new Iraq is a mass movement, and the seeds of democracy are slowly starting to sprout. It may be that the present Iraqi politicians are not the right ones, but a new generation is coming which loves and understands democracy. It is this generation which is becoming more and more active — and more confident about taking on responsibility, demanding that the torch be passed. For, although our present political leaders did a lot of work in their 35 years of opposition, it is time to make room for those who are guided by the vision of a new Iraq.
This new generation is now able to mobilize itself. Because we believe in this project, none of us has left himself an easy way out. If the U.S. turns its back on us and drops the Iraq project, it is dropping us too. If we are dropped, it is the end of the concept of a democratic Middle East — and the end of the idea, anywhere in the world, that the U.S. will stand by its friends in bitter, hard times.
The future of the Middle East will be decided in Iraq. The way America is perceived in the future will be determined in Iraq. The choice is between supporting this new generation a few years longer, and winning a grateful long-term ally, or betraying this generation of Iraqis which believes in, and risks its life every day for, the American dream of democracy.
— Ali Al-Zahid is a member of the new Iraquna think tank. Born in 1978, he was imprisoned in 1982 after his father made critical statements against the Baath regime.
http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?Stor...07-011839-8799r
Analysis: The Saudi view of Iraq's war
By Claude Salhani
UPI International Editor
Published April 7, 2006
WASHINGTON -- "United States policy in Iraq is widening sectarian divisions to the point of effectively handing the country to Iran," commented Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal while on an official visit to Washington on September 20, 2005. "We fought a war together to keep Iran out of Iraq, now we are handing the whole country over to Iran without reason... Iraq is disintegrating."
A new report by Nawaf Obaid, an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, reveals some chilling realities about the U.S. intervention in Iraq and explores a Saudi view of the ramifications of the war.
The study draws on the views of certain officials in Iraq and in neighboring governments which have a stake in a unified and stable Iraq. The report was complied through dozens of interviews with current military and intelligence officials throughout the region, and numerous conversations with Iranian officials. For political and security reasons, the names of these officials and officers were withheld from the report.
Obaid, the Saudi author of the report, stresses that "it is also important to note that the purpose of this report is not to criticize U.S. policy in Iraq." Rather, the intent is to provide value to the Saudi government as an independent assessment of the current situation in Iraq "and the possibility of large-scale civil war." The report is outlined in a 50-page document titled "Meeting the Challenge of a Fragmented Iraq: A Saudi Perspective."
The potential of a civil war breaking out is growing daily, warns the report, "and Saudi Arabia has an enormous stake in preparing for such a calamity." The U.S. invasion of Iraq, three years ago last March, "opened a Pandora's Box of deep-rooted sectarian tensions as well as rival communal interests." The invasion meant to oust Saddam Hussein and find his alleged weapons of mass destruction, "ignited a tinderbox of violence brought on by an insurgency that is proving difficult to contain and even harder to eradicate," writes Obaid.
Of the plethora of challenges facing Iraq today, security is the most urgent. As the report states, Iraq "has seen no respite from violence, which has targeted U.S. and Iraqi forces and terrorized civilians with almost daily bombings, drive-by shootings, kidnappings and assassinations. A civil war may well be inevitable. Such a development would have the gravest implications for the entire region, especially Saudi Arabia, which shares its longest international border with Iraq."
One of the great fears of Saudi rulers is preserving the integrity of Iraq, and particularly "safeguarding the rights of Sunnis in a country dominated by Shiites," the report said. The importance that Iran, ruled by a Shiite theocracy, does not dominate Iraq, and in the process the Sunni minority, is a matter of immense concern to Saudi Arabia.
The report elucidates that despite the recent Iraqi elections which it hails as "a milestone in the country's move towards democracy," the officials interviewed by the author said "they have done little to foster a sense of unity among Kurds, Sunnis, and Shiites." Instead, the elections have accentuated the communal differences with the vast majority of Iraqis voting along communal lines. Four months after election day, Iraqi leaders are still unable to resolve the stalemate.
One of the issues concerns the Kurds, who since the previous Gulf war in 1990-91 have "enjoyed the privileges of living in a semi-autonomous state." Their area, which came under the protection of the U.S. military, prospered while the rest of Iraq foundered. The Kurds are therefore "unlikely to be willing partners in a government that, when fully functional, might offer them considerably less."
Iran's interference in Iraqi affairs "further complicates the situation," as Tehran continues to try and influence Iraq's political process, as for example by giving support to the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, says Obaid. Tehran's influence is "significant," with the majority of Iraq's Shiite political and religious parties being heavily influenced by Iran.
"Iranian levers of influence include a broad network of informants, military and logistical support of armed groups, and social welfare campaigns," writes Obaid.
The Sunnis, who have been the dominant power in Iraq despite being a minority, are having a hard time coming to grips with the new political reality in the country. And last, but by no means least, the insurgency, the foreign fighters and the jihadists "continue to remain a seriously destabilizing force."
With the security situation in Iraq deteriorating by the day and civil war rapidly becoming a reality, the CSIS report makes the following recommendations:
-- Develop a Comprehensive Strategy for a Worst-Case Scenario
-- Better Communicate the Situation to the U.S.
-- Counter Meddling by Iran
-- Extend a State Invitation to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani
-- Forgive Most of Iraq's Debt
-- Appoint an Ambassador to Iraq and Arrange State Visit
-- Create Permanent Border Security Committee
-- Provide Guidance for the Elimination of Militants
Civil war in Iraq would have "catastrophic consequences for the region, and present grave challenges to Saudi national security.
"It is vital for the Saudi leadership to prepare a comprehensive and cohesive national strategy to confront all the potential ramifications of civil war in Iraq," Obaid stresses. "This strategy must embrace economic, political, and religious factors, and present concrete plans for a response to each of the challenges a disintegrated Iraq would pose to the kingdom's security." He recommends embracing "both overt and covert components," for maximum effectiveness.
"U.S. missteps began in Iraq with disbanding of the Iraqi army, continued with its failure to establish lines of communication with tribal leaders, and ended with its gross miscalculations regarding the nature and resiliency of the insurgency."
Finally, the report states that "these failures -- along with mounting casualties -- have led to increased domestic pressure for the U.S. to end its mission." It warns that such a move "would precipitate a civil war and an immediate disintegration of the state."
Analysis: The Saudi view of Iraq's war
By Claude Salhani
UPI International Editor
Published April 7, 2006
WASHINGTON -- "United States policy in Iraq is widening sectarian divisions to the point of effectively handing the country to Iran," commented Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal while on an official visit to Washington on September 20, 2005. "We fought a war together to keep Iran out of Iraq, now we are handing the whole country over to Iran without reason... Iraq is disintegrating."
A new report by Nawaf Obaid, an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, reveals some chilling realities about the U.S. intervention in Iraq and explores a Saudi view of the ramifications of the war.
The study draws on the views of certain officials in Iraq and in neighboring governments which have a stake in a unified and stable Iraq. The report was complied through dozens of interviews with current military and intelligence officials throughout the region, and numerous conversations with Iranian officials. For political and security reasons, the names of these officials and officers were withheld from the report.
Obaid, the Saudi author of the report, stresses that "it is also important to note that the purpose of this report is not to criticize U.S. policy in Iraq." Rather, the intent is to provide value to the Saudi government as an independent assessment of the current situation in Iraq "and the possibility of large-scale civil war." The report is outlined in a 50-page document titled "Meeting the Challenge of a Fragmented Iraq: A Saudi Perspective."
The potential of a civil war breaking out is growing daily, warns the report, "and Saudi Arabia has an enormous stake in preparing for such a calamity." The U.S. invasion of Iraq, three years ago last March, "opened a Pandora's Box of deep-rooted sectarian tensions as well as rival communal interests." The invasion meant to oust Saddam Hussein and find his alleged weapons of mass destruction, "ignited a tinderbox of violence brought on by an insurgency that is proving difficult to contain and even harder to eradicate," writes Obaid.
Of the plethora of challenges facing Iraq today, security is the most urgent. As the report states, Iraq "has seen no respite from violence, which has targeted U.S. and Iraqi forces and terrorized civilians with almost daily bombings, drive-by shootings, kidnappings and assassinations. A civil war may well be inevitable. Such a development would have the gravest implications for the entire region, especially Saudi Arabia, which shares its longest international border with Iraq."
One of the great fears of Saudi rulers is preserving the integrity of Iraq, and particularly "safeguarding the rights of Sunnis in a country dominated by Shiites," the report said. The importance that Iran, ruled by a Shiite theocracy, does not dominate Iraq, and in the process the Sunni minority, is a matter of immense concern to Saudi Arabia.
The report elucidates that despite the recent Iraqi elections which it hails as "a milestone in the country's move towards democracy," the officials interviewed by the author said "they have done little to foster a sense of unity among Kurds, Sunnis, and Shiites." Instead, the elections have accentuated the communal differences with the vast majority of Iraqis voting along communal lines. Four months after election day, Iraqi leaders are still unable to resolve the stalemate.
One of the issues concerns the Kurds, who since the previous Gulf war in 1990-91 have "enjoyed the privileges of living in a semi-autonomous state." Their area, which came under the protection of the U.S. military, prospered while the rest of Iraq foundered. The Kurds are therefore "unlikely to be willing partners in a government that, when fully functional, might offer them considerably less."
Iran's interference in Iraqi affairs "further complicates the situation," as Tehran continues to try and influence Iraq's political process, as for example by giving support to the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, says Obaid. Tehran's influence is "significant," with the majority of Iraq's Shiite political and religious parties being heavily influenced by Iran.
"Iranian levers of influence include a broad network of informants, military and logistical support of armed groups, and social welfare campaigns," writes Obaid.
The Sunnis, who have been the dominant power in Iraq despite being a minority, are having a hard time coming to grips with the new political reality in the country. And last, but by no means least, the insurgency, the foreign fighters and the jihadists "continue to remain a seriously destabilizing force."
With the security situation in Iraq deteriorating by the day and civil war rapidly becoming a reality, the CSIS report makes the following recommendations:
-- Develop a Comprehensive Strategy for a Worst-Case Scenario
-- Better Communicate the Situation to the U.S.
-- Counter Meddling by Iran
-- Extend a State Invitation to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani
-- Forgive Most of Iraq's Debt
-- Appoint an Ambassador to Iraq and Arrange State Visit
-- Create Permanent Border Security Committee
-- Provide Guidance for the Elimination of Militants
Civil war in Iraq would have "catastrophic consequences for the region, and present grave challenges to Saudi national security.
"It is vital for the Saudi leadership to prepare a comprehensive and cohesive national strategy to confront all the potential ramifications of civil war in Iraq," Obaid stresses. "This strategy must embrace economic, political, and religious factors, and present concrete plans for a response to each of the challenges a disintegrated Iraq would pose to the kingdom's security." He recommends embracing "both overt and covert components," for maximum effectiveness.
"U.S. missteps began in Iraq with disbanding of the Iraqi army, continued with its failure to establish lines of communication with tribal leaders, and ended with its gross miscalculations regarding the nature and resiliency of the insurgency."
Finally, the report states that "these failures -- along with mounting casualties -- have led to increased domestic pressure for the U.S. to end its mission." It warns that such a move "would precipitate a civil war and an immediate disintegration of the state."
Iraqis mourn victims of attack on mosque:
The death toll in the brazen attack rose to 85, the Health Ministry said.
http://tinyurl.com/obrht
===
11 bodies found :
In the southern holy city of Karbala, seven bullet-riddled bodies were received by the local hospital on Saturday. Four other bodies were found by police late Friday near Tikrit.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060408/wl_mi..._afp/iraqunrest
===
At least 10 killed in continuing violence:
Six Shi'ite pilgrims were killed and sixteen wounded when a car bomb exploded near a Shi'ite shrine in the town of Musayib about 55 km (34 miles) south of Baghdad
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/RAS839202.htm
===
Two Iraqi Soldiers Killed in Western Iraq :
Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and three others wounded in fierce battle between insurgents and Iraqi security forces in western Iraq on Saturday, witnesses said.
http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/706/2006/04/08/421@74812.htm
===
U.S. Marine reported shot by Iraqi soldier:
An Iraqi soldier allegedly shot and killed a U.S. Marine at a base near the Syrian border, the U.S. military said Friday.
http://tinyurl.com/oha2n
===
Iraqi official: 'It's civil war':
A senior official in the Iraqi government has for the first time admitted the country is in a state of civil war.
http://www.itv.com/news/world_467275.html
===
Iraq three years on: Don't look away :
And don't believe all that our leaders tell us about democracy. Three years after the toppling of Saddam, Iraq is a bloody mess. Yesterday 70 people were killed in an attack on a Baghdad mosque. Patrick Cockburn reports on three years of broken promises in a blighted land
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle...ticle356466.ece
===
Time Running Out for Rebuilding of Iraq :
The ambitions of 2003, when President Bush spoke of making Iraq's infrastructure ``the best in the region,'' have given way to the shortfalls of 2006, in electricity and water supply, sanitation, health facilities and oil production.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/stor...5743067,00.html
===
BBC Video Report: US veterans against War in Iraq :
Garett Reppenhagen's experience in Iraq - where he served for a year - has changed his mind on the occupation and has led him to leave the US Army.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12653.htm
===
Wisconsin voters want U.S. troops out of Iraq:
On Tuesday, folks in 34 cities and towns across Wisconsin cast their votes on referendums calling for immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops. The referendums passed in 24 out of 32 communities.
http://progressive.org/mag_wx040506
The death toll in the brazen attack rose to 85, the Health Ministry said.
http://tinyurl.com/obrht
===
11 bodies found :
In the southern holy city of Karbala, seven bullet-riddled bodies were received by the local hospital on Saturday. Four other bodies were found by police late Friday near Tikrit.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060408/wl_mi..._afp/iraqunrest
===
At least 10 killed in continuing violence:
Six Shi'ite pilgrims were killed and sixteen wounded when a car bomb exploded near a Shi'ite shrine in the town of Musayib about 55 km (34 miles) south of Baghdad
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/RAS839202.htm
===
Two Iraqi Soldiers Killed in Western Iraq :
Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and three others wounded in fierce battle between insurgents and Iraqi security forces in western Iraq on Saturday, witnesses said.
http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/706/2006/04/08/421@74812.htm
===
U.S. Marine reported shot by Iraqi soldier:
An Iraqi soldier allegedly shot and killed a U.S. Marine at a base near the Syrian border, the U.S. military said Friday.
http://tinyurl.com/oha2n
===
Iraqi official: 'It's civil war':
A senior official in the Iraqi government has for the first time admitted the country is in a state of civil war.
http://www.itv.com/news/world_467275.html
===
Iraq three years on: Don't look away :
And don't believe all that our leaders tell us about democracy. Three years after the toppling of Saddam, Iraq is a bloody mess. Yesterday 70 people were killed in an attack on a Baghdad mosque. Patrick Cockburn reports on three years of broken promises in a blighted land
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle...ticle356466.ece
===
Time Running Out for Rebuilding of Iraq :
The ambitions of 2003, when President Bush spoke of making Iraq's infrastructure ``the best in the region,'' have given way to the shortfalls of 2006, in electricity and water supply, sanitation, health facilities and oil production.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/stor...5743067,00.html
===
BBC Video Report: US veterans against War in Iraq :
Garett Reppenhagen's experience in Iraq - where he served for a year - has changed his mind on the occupation and has led him to leave the US Army.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12653.htm
===
Wisconsin voters want U.S. troops out of Iraq:
On Tuesday, folks in 34 cities and towns across Wisconsin cast their votes on referendums calling for immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops. The referendums passed in 24 out of 32 communities.
http://progressive.org/mag_wx040506
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1611868.htm
Official admits Iraq is in state of civil war
A senior official in the Iraqi government has for the first time said Iraq is in a state of civil war.
The deputy interior minister, Hussein Ali Kamal, was speaking a day after suicide bombers killed at least 70 people at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad.
A further 160 were injured when three suicide bombers struck the Bharatha mosque.
Abdullah Haziz Akim, the leader of Iraq's largest Shiite political grouping told a gathering of his supporters the aim of the attacks was to stop efforts to form a government of national unity.
But he said everyone had to work together, including Iraq's Sunnis to try to unify the country.
Sunni extremists are being blamed for the attack and there is still real fear some Shiite groups will launch reprisals against the minority Sunni community
- BBC
Official admits Iraq is in state of civil war
A senior official in the Iraqi government has for the first time said Iraq is in a state of civil war.
The deputy interior minister, Hussein Ali Kamal, was speaking a day after suicide bombers killed at least 70 people at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad.
A further 160 were injured when three suicide bombers struck the Bharatha mosque.
Abdullah Haziz Akim, the leader of Iraq's largest Shiite political grouping told a gathering of his supporters the aim of the attacks was to stop efforts to form a government of national unity.
But he said everyone had to work together, including Iraq's Sunnis to try to unify the country.
Sunni extremists are being blamed for the attack and there is still real fear some Shiite groups will launch reprisals against the minority Sunni community
- BBC
Senior Republican to Bush: say "exactly what happened" Yahoo! NEWS
A leading Republican urged President George W. Bush on Sunday to "tell the American people exactly what happened" in a leak of information aimed at countering criticism of his reasons for taking America to war in Iraq. The president, whose popularity is slumping, is on the defensive because of a prosecutor's disclosure that Bush authorized a former top official, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to share intelligence data on Iraq in 2003 with a reporter to defend his decision to invade Iraq. Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Fox News Sunday that "there's been enough of a showing here with what's been filed of record in court that the president of the United States owes a specific explanation to the American people. "The president has the authority to declassify information. So in a technical sense, if he looked at it, he could say this is declassified, and make a disclosure of it," said Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, speaking from Cartagena, Colombia. White House spokesman Scott McClellan has insisted that Bush had the authority to declassify intelligence and rejected charges from Democrats that he did so selectively for political purposes. But Specter urged Bush to address the topic himself. "I think that it is necessary for the president and the vice president to tell the American people exactly what happened," he said. "There has to be a detailed explanation precisely as to what Vice President (Dick) Cheney did, what the president said to him, and an explanation from the president as to what he said so that it can be evaluated," said Specter. "The president has justifiably criticized the Congress for leaking and, of course, the White House has leaked." The case is rooted in an investigation in which Libby, Cheney's former top aide, is accused of obstruction of justice and perjury in an investigation designed to discover who leaked the identity of then-CIA officer Valerie Plame. According to court papers made public last week, Libby testified to a federal grand jury that Cheney had told him Bush authorized him to give secret information to a New York Times reporter. Plame's husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson, said the administration leaked his wife's identity in retaliation for his assertion that the president knowingly gave the American people information about Iraq's alleged nuclear program that U.S. intelligence services knew was untrue. Wilson, speaking on ABC television's "This Week," called on Bush to release transcripts of Bush and Cheney's testimony to the prosecutor. "It seems to me it is long past time for the White House to come clean on all of this," he said. Inspectors who scoured Iraq after the U.S. invasion failed to find any signs of a nuclear program.
By Diane Bartz
A leading Republican urged President George W. Bush on Sunday to "tell the American people exactly what happened" in a leak of information aimed at countering criticism of his reasons for taking America to war in Iraq. The president, whose popularity is slumping, is on the defensive because of a prosecutor's disclosure that Bush authorized a former top official, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to share intelligence data on Iraq in 2003 with a reporter to defend his decision to invade Iraq. Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Fox News Sunday that "there's been enough of a showing here with what's been filed of record in court that the president of the United States owes a specific explanation to the American people. "The president has the authority to declassify information. So in a technical sense, if he looked at it, he could say this is declassified, and make a disclosure of it," said Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, speaking from Cartagena, Colombia. White House spokesman Scott McClellan has insisted that Bush had the authority to declassify intelligence and rejected charges from Democrats that he did so selectively for political purposes. But Specter urged Bush to address the topic himself. "I think that it is necessary for the president and the vice president to tell the American people exactly what happened," he said. "There has to be a detailed explanation precisely as to what Vice President (Dick) Cheney did, what the president said to him, and an explanation from the president as to what he said so that it can be evaluated," said Specter. "The president has justifiably criticized the Congress for leaking and, of course, the White House has leaked." The case is rooted in an investigation in which Libby, Cheney's former top aide, is accused of obstruction of justice and perjury in an investigation designed to discover who leaked the identity of then-CIA officer Valerie Plame. According to court papers made public last week, Libby testified to a federal grand jury that Cheney had told him Bush authorized him to give secret information to a New York Times reporter. Plame's husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson, said the administration leaked his wife's identity in retaliation for his assertion that the president knowingly gave the American people information about Iraq's alleged nuclear program that U.S. intelligence services knew was untrue. Wilson, speaking on ABC television's "This Week," called on Bush to release transcripts of Bush and Cheney's testimony to the prosecutor. "It seems to me it is long past time for the White House to come clean on all of this," he said. Inspectors who scoured Iraq after the U.S. invasion failed to find any signs of a nuclear program.
By Diane Bartz
Iraq parliament could convene soon Yahoo! NEWS
Iraq's acting speaker of parliament said on Sunday he would call on the assembly to convene in the next few days, raising the possibility that political deadlock over a new prime minister may be broken. "The Iraqi people are impatiently waiting for this issue to be resolved. When the parliament convenes it will be possible to start the steps to form a national unity government," Adnan Pachachi told a news conference. His announcement was the first public sign of a possible step forward for Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni leaders who are struggling to form a unity government they hope can avert sectarian civil war. The United States and Britain are pinning their hopes on a national unity government to defuse an Arab Sunni insurgency and ease sectarian bloodshed still plaguing Iraq on the third anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. Pachachi did not say whether the assembly would vote on a prime minister and there was no suggestion that Ibrahim al- Jaafari would finally agree to widespread calls for him to step aside as the main Shi'ite Alliance's nominee. But some politicians believe taking the prime minister issue to parliament for a vote is the only way to break the impasse. The problem is that Jaafari's ruling Shi'ite Alliance, which is already deeply divided, risks an internal crisis if it agrees to a vote in parliament. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw conceded that there was a "high level of slaughter" in Iraq but said the country had not descended into civil war. Speaking to BBC television, he reiterated his concern over the political paralysis. "It's very frustrating because the leaders are taking far too long to form this government which we've elected, well the parliament was elected, on December 15th, almost four months ago," he told BBC television. Straw's comments came after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak offered a grim assessment of Iraq, saying that civil war had started. The Iraqi government criticized Mubarak on Sunday. "It's a stab in their patriotism and civilization (Iraq's Shi'ites) even if it was unintended," Jaafari said, reading from a government statement.
MUBARAK CAUSES TENSIONS
Mubarak said in his comments, broadcast on al Arabiya satellite channel Saturday, that Shi'ites in Arab states were more loyal to Iran than their own countries, echoing accusations by Iraqi Sunnis about their Shi'ite leaders in their country. Prime Minister Jaafari, a Shi'ite, said his government had instructed the Iraqi foreign minister to seek clarification from Egypt on the remarks. The diplomatic tensions came after three consecutive days of bombings on Shi'ite targets killed about 100 people in Iraq, which is 60 percent Shi'ite. Sectarian violence has been on the rise since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in February touched off reprisals and pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war. Progress on the political front rests in the hands of the Shi'ite Allliance, whose leaders were in talks on Sunday on how they will proceed on the issue of Jaafari. As the biggest bloc in parliament, the Alliance has the constitutional right to nominate a prime minister. It needs a simple majority to push through its candidate. Jaafari won the nomination by one vote and he now faces public pressure from senior Alliance officials to step aside. "The chances of Jaafari staying are getting slim," said a senior Alliance source. But not all Alliance officials support that view, underscoring the bloc's divisions. Any further indecision could undermine plans to hold the parliament session soon. If that happens, Iraqis can only look forward to political stalemate as their country counts more bodies on their streets, victims of sectarian killings showing signs of torture. After looking back over the three years since U.S. troops captured Baghdad, Sunni politician Saleh al-Mutlak had a grim view of the future. We are at the edge of sectarian war. Many groups are pushing toward this war," he said.
By Michael Georgy
Iraq's acting speaker of parliament said on Sunday he would call on the assembly to convene in the next few days, raising the possibility that political deadlock over a new prime minister may be broken. "The Iraqi people are impatiently waiting for this issue to be resolved. When the parliament convenes it will be possible to start the steps to form a national unity government," Adnan Pachachi told a news conference. His announcement was the first public sign of a possible step forward for Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni leaders who are struggling to form a unity government they hope can avert sectarian civil war. The United States and Britain are pinning their hopes on a national unity government to defuse an Arab Sunni insurgency and ease sectarian bloodshed still plaguing Iraq on the third anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. Pachachi did not say whether the assembly would vote on a prime minister and there was no suggestion that Ibrahim al- Jaafari would finally agree to widespread calls for him to step aside as the main Shi'ite Alliance's nominee. But some politicians believe taking the prime minister issue to parliament for a vote is the only way to break the impasse. The problem is that Jaafari's ruling Shi'ite Alliance, which is already deeply divided, risks an internal crisis if it agrees to a vote in parliament. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw conceded that there was a "high level of slaughter" in Iraq but said the country had not descended into civil war. Speaking to BBC television, he reiterated his concern over the political paralysis. "It's very frustrating because the leaders are taking far too long to form this government which we've elected, well the parliament was elected, on December 15th, almost four months ago," he told BBC television. Straw's comments came after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak offered a grim assessment of Iraq, saying that civil war had started. The Iraqi government criticized Mubarak on Sunday. "It's a stab in their patriotism and civilization (Iraq's Shi'ites) even if it was unintended," Jaafari said, reading from a government statement.
MUBARAK CAUSES TENSIONS
Mubarak said in his comments, broadcast on al Arabiya satellite channel Saturday, that Shi'ites in Arab states were more loyal to Iran than their own countries, echoing accusations by Iraqi Sunnis about their Shi'ite leaders in their country. Prime Minister Jaafari, a Shi'ite, said his government had instructed the Iraqi foreign minister to seek clarification from Egypt on the remarks. The diplomatic tensions came after three consecutive days of bombings on Shi'ite targets killed about 100 people in Iraq, which is 60 percent Shi'ite. Sectarian violence has been on the rise since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in February touched off reprisals and pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war. Progress on the political front rests in the hands of the Shi'ite Allliance, whose leaders were in talks on Sunday on how they will proceed on the issue of Jaafari. As the biggest bloc in parliament, the Alliance has the constitutional right to nominate a prime minister. It needs a simple majority to push through its candidate. Jaafari won the nomination by one vote and he now faces public pressure from senior Alliance officials to step aside. "The chances of Jaafari staying are getting slim," said a senior Alliance source. But not all Alliance officials support that view, underscoring the bloc's divisions. Any further indecision could undermine plans to hold the parliament session soon. If that happens, Iraqis can only look forward to political stalemate as their country counts more bodies on their streets, victims of sectarian killings showing signs of torture. After looking back over the three years since U.S. troops captured Baghdad, Sunni politician Saleh al-Mutlak had a grim view of the future. We are at the edge of sectarian war. Many groups are pushing toward this war," he said.
By Michael Georgy
More Violence Marks Holiday in Iraq Yahoo! NEWS
Five roadside bombs killed at least three people in Iraq on Sunday — the three-year anniversary of the Baghdad's fall to U.S. forces. Iraq police and soldiers bolstered security in the capital to prevent attacks on "Freedom Day." The holiday marks the April 9, 2003 event in which a huge crowd of Iraqis cheered as U.S. Marines hauled down the statue of Saddam Hussein on Firdous Square, marking the collapse of his regime. American troops killed eight suspected insurgents in a pre-dawn raid north of the capital. Drivers in the capital were stopped and searched by Iraqi forces at extra checkpoints in the city. Most Iraqis welcomed the end of Saddam's regime, but the insurgency, militias, rising sectarian violence, electricity shortages and political vacuum have all sapped much of the enthusiasm generated by the collapse of dictatorship. "Iraqis are pleased and displeased," said Qassim Hassan, a soldier. "They are pleased because they got rid of tyranny and dictatorship, but they are displeased because they went from bad to worse. The Iraqi street is seething between sadness and terrorism." Even U.S. officials acknowledged the mixed nature of the Iraq war's current stage. "Despite much progress, much work remains," U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Gen. George W. Casey, Jr. said in a joint statement. "The legitimate security forces must quell sectarian violence. Population centers must be secure to allow Iraq's new institutions to take root and businesses to flourish. Finally, the people must be able to trust their leadership." Efforts to form a new government have reached a deadlock over the nomination of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari for a new term. Shiite politicians met Sunday to discuss the impasse, but made no decision to replace al-Jaafari as their nominee, officials said. Instead, representatives from the seven factions of the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite bloc, formed a three member committee better ascertain the reasons for Sunni and Kurdish opposition to al-Jaafari, said Shiite official Ridha Jawad Taqi. The Shiite alliance will meet again Monday to review the committee's findings, he said. Sunni and Kurdish leaders blame al-Jaafari for failing to curb rising sectarian violence. A Sunni politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq, suggested that Shiites pick an independent candidate for prime minister, one who does not come from one of the major political parties. Until a new government is in place, the violence is not expected to decrease and the U.S. government is unlikely to begin troop withdrawal. In a pre-dawn raid Sunday, clashes erupted when U.S. forces surrounded a suspected safehouse and nearby tent on the northern outskirts of Baghdad. After being fired upon, troops gunned down five suspected insurgents, and three others were killed in an air strike. Bombs and weapons were found inside the house, a U.S. statement said. Sunday's roadside bombs killed at least two civilians and a policeman. One targeting an Iraqi army patrol killed a passer-by in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of the capital, and another bomb meant for police killed a civilian when it exploded at Maysaloun Square in eastern Baghdad. Other bombings around Baghdad killed a policeman and wounded about a dozen others, police said. One of the attacks targeted police near a Sunni mosque in the western neighborhood of Ghazaliyah, wounding at least three people, police said. Another targeted a convoy of American military police, but there were no casualties, the U.S. military said. Police discovered four bodies, handcuffed and at least one shot in the head, in the Dora district of southern Baghdad. In Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, a man allegedly making a bomb was killed when it accidentally exploded inside a house, police said. Police arrested six others in the house after hearing the explosion, police Maj. Karim al-Tamimi said. In Najaf, officials raised the death toll from last week's car bombing of the Imam Ali mosque to 13. Three Iraqis wounded in the bombing died Saturday, said Dr. Issa Mohammed, director of the morgue at Najaf General Hospital. An insurgent umbrella organization called the Mujahedeen Shura Council claimed responsibility for a Saturday attack against the Anbar provincial government headquarters in Ramadi, 75 miles west of Baghdad. U.S. officers said it was the strongest attack in six weeks, though there were no American casualties. The "Freedom Day" holiday appeared to draw little public attention. The Iraqi Islamic Party, a the biggest Sunni party, issued a statement rejecting the day, saying it was "an anniversary of occupying Iraq, not liberating it." But some Iraqis embraced the memory of Hussein's statue coming to the ground. "This is a dear day — we got rid of the dictatorship," said Fadhil Abul-Sebah. "It doesn't mark the fall of Baghdad, it marks the fall of Saddam ... and the regime, because Baghdad will never fall."
By VANESSA ARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer
Five roadside bombs killed at least three people in Iraq on Sunday — the three-year anniversary of the Baghdad's fall to U.S. forces. Iraq police and soldiers bolstered security in the capital to prevent attacks on "Freedom Day." The holiday marks the April 9, 2003 event in which a huge crowd of Iraqis cheered as U.S. Marines hauled down the statue of Saddam Hussein on Firdous Square, marking the collapse of his regime. American troops killed eight suspected insurgents in a pre-dawn raid north of the capital. Drivers in the capital were stopped and searched by Iraqi forces at extra checkpoints in the city. Most Iraqis welcomed the end of Saddam's regime, but the insurgency, militias, rising sectarian violence, electricity shortages and political vacuum have all sapped much of the enthusiasm generated by the collapse of dictatorship. "Iraqis are pleased and displeased," said Qassim Hassan, a soldier. "They are pleased because they got rid of tyranny and dictatorship, but they are displeased because they went from bad to worse. The Iraqi street is seething between sadness and terrorism." Even U.S. officials acknowledged the mixed nature of the Iraq war's current stage. "Despite much progress, much work remains," U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Gen. George W. Casey, Jr. said in a joint statement. "The legitimate security forces must quell sectarian violence. Population centers must be secure to allow Iraq's new institutions to take root and businesses to flourish. Finally, the people must be able to trust their leadership." Efforts to form a new government have reached a deadlock over the nomination of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari for a new term. Shiite politicians met Sunday to discuss the impasse, but made no decision to replace al-Jaafari as their nominee, officials said. Instead, representatives from the seven factions of the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite bloc, formed a three member committee better ascertain the reasons for Sunni and Kurdish opposition to al-Jaafari, said Shiite official Ridha Jawad Taqi. The Shiite alliance will meet again Monday to review the committee's findings, he said. Sunni and Kurdish leaders blame al-Jaafari for failing to curb rising sectarian violence. A Sunni politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq, suggested that Shiites pick an independent candidate for prime minister, one who does not come from one of the major political parties. Until a new government is in place, the violence is not expected to decrease and the U.S. government is unlikely to begin troop withdrawal. In a pre-dawn raid Sunday, clashes erupted when U.S. forces surrounded a suspected safehouse and nearby tent on the northern outskirts of Baghdad. After being fired upon, troops gunned down five suspected insurgents, and three others were killed in an air strike. Bombs and weapons were found inside the house, a U.S. statement said. Sunday's roadside bombs killed at least two civilians and a policeman. One targeting an Iraqi army patrol killed a passer-by in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of the capital, and another bomb meant for police killed a civilian when it exploded at Maysaloun Square in eastern Baghdad. Other bombings around Baghdad killed a policeman and wounded about a dozen others, police said. One of the attacks targeted police near a Sunni mosque in the western neighborhood of Ghazaliyah, wounding at least three people, police said. Another targeted a convoy of American military police, but there were no casualties, the U.S. military said. Police discovered four bodies, handcuffed and at least one shot in the head, in the Dora district of southern Baghdad. In Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, a man allegedly making a bomb was killed when it accidentally exploded inside a house, police said. Police arrested six others in the house after hearing the explosion, police Maj. Karim al-Tamimi said. In Najaf, officials raised the death toll from last week's car bombing of the Imam Ali mosque to 13. Three Iraqis wounded in the bombing died Saturday, said Dr. Issa Mohammed, director of the morgue at Najaf General Hospital. An insurgent umbrella organization called the Mujahedeen Shura Council claimed responsibility for a Saturday attack against the Anbar provincial government headquarters in Ramadi, 75 miles west of Baghdad. U.S. officers said it was the strongest attack in six weeks, though there were no American casualties. The "Freedom Day" holiday appeared to draw little public attention. The Iraqi Islamic Party, a the biggest Sunni party, issued a statement rejecting the day, saying it was "an anniversary of occupying Iraq, not liberating it." But some Iraqis embraced the memory of Hussein's statue coming to the ground. "This is a dear day — we got rid of the dictatorship," said Fadhil Abul-Sebah. "It doesn't mark the fall of Baghdad, it marks the fall of Saddam ... and the regime, because Baghdad will never fall."
By VANESSA ARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer
Specter: Bush, Cheney Should Explain Roles Yahoo! NEWS
President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should speak publicly about their involvement in the CIA leak case so people can understand what happened, a leading Republican senator said Sunday. "We ought to get to the bottom of it so it can be evaluated, again, by the American people," said Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In a federal court filing last week, the prosecutor in the case said Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, testified before a grand jury that he was authorized by Bush, through Cheney, to leak information from a classified document that detailed intelligence agencies' conclusions about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. A lawyer knowledgeable about the case said Saturday that Bush declassified sensitive intelligence in 2003 and authorized its public disclosure to rebut Iraq war critics, but he did not specifically direct that Libby be the one to disseminate the information. "I think that it is necessary for the president and vice president to tell the American people exactly what happened," Specter told "Fox News Sunday." "I do say that there's been enough of a showing here with what's been filed of record in court that the president of the United States owes a specific explanation to the American people ... about exactly what he did," Specter said. Libby faces trial, likely in January, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to the grand jury and investigators about what he told reporters about CIA officer Valerie Plame. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald did not say in the filing that Cheney authorized Libby to leak Plame's identity, and Bush is not accused of doing anything illegal. "The president may be entirely in the clear, and it may turn out that he had the authority to make the disclosures which were made," Specter said. But, he added, "it was not the right way to go about it because we ought not to have leaks in government." The investigation is looking into whether Plame's identify was disclosed to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, an Iraq war critic. Wilson had accused the administration of twisting prewar intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who ran against Bush for president in 2004, said it was wrong for Bush to declassify information selectively "in order to buttress phony arguments to go to war " and to attack people politically. "This was not a declassification in order to really educate America. This was a declassification in order to mislead America," Kerry said on "Meet the Press" on NBC. "I think it's a disgrace." Wilson said Sunday that Bush and Cheney should release transcripts of their interviews with Fitzgerald. "It seems to me that first and foremost, the White House needs to come clean on this matter," Wilson said on ABC's "This Week." "My own view of this is that the White House owes the American people and particularly our service people who have been sent into war, an apology for having misrepresented the facts." The lawyer knowledgeable about the case said Bush instructed Cheney to "get it out" and left the details about disseminating the intelligence to him. The lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case for the White House, said Cheney chose Libby and communicated the president's wishes to his then-top aide. It is not known when the conversation between Bush and Cheney took place. The White House has declined to provide the date when the president used his authority to declassify the portions of the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate. "There has to be a detailed explanation as to precisely what Vice President Cheney did, what the president said to him and an explanation by the president as to what he said," Specter said.
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should speak publicly about their involvement in the CIA leak case so people can understand what happened, a leading Republican senator said Sunday. "We ought to get to the bottom of it so it can be evaluated, again, by the American people," said Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In a federal court filing last week, the prosecutor in the case said Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, testified before a grand jury that he was authorized by Bush, through Cheney, to leak information from a classified document that detailed intelligence agencies' conclusions about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. A lawyer knowledgeable about the case said Saturday that Bush declassified sensitive intelligence in 2003 and authorized its public disclosure to rebut Iraq war critics, but he did not specifically direct that Libby be the one to disseminate the information. "I think that it is necessary for the president and vice president to tell the American people exactly what happened," Specter told "Fox News Sunday." "I do say that there's been enough of a showing here with what's been filed of record in court that the president of the United States owes a specific explanation to the American people ... about exactly what he did," Specter said. Libby faces trial, likely in January, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to the grand jury and investigators about what he told reporters about CIA officer Valerie Plame. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald did not say in the filing that Cheney authorized Libby to leak Plame's identity, and Bush is not accused of doing anything illegal. "The president may be entirely in the clear, and it may turn out that he had the authority to make the disclosures which were made," Specter said. But, he added, "it was not the right way to go about it because we ought not to have leaks in government." The investigation is looking into whether Plame's identify was disclosed to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, an Iraq war critic. Wilson had accused the administration of twisting prewar intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who ran against Bush for president in 2004, said it was wrong for Bush to declassify information selectively "in order to buttress phony arguments to go to war " and to attack people politically. "This was not a declassification in order to really educate America. This was a declassification in order to mislead America," Kerry said on "Meet the Press" on NBC. "I think it's a disgrace." Wilson said Sunday that Bush and Cheney should release transcripts of their interviews with Fitzgerald. "It seems to me that first and foremost, the White House needs to come clean on this matter," Wilson said on ABC's "This Week." "My own view of this is that the White House owes the American people and particularly our service people who have been sent into war, an apology for having misrepresented the facts." The lawyer knowledgeable about the case said Bush instructed Cheney to "get it out" and left the details about disseminating the intelligence to him. The lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case for the White House, said Cheney chose Libby and communicated the president's wishes to his then-top aide. It is not known when the conversation between Bush and Cheney took place. The White House has declined to provide the date when the president used his authority to declassify the portions of the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate. "There has to be a detailed explanation as to precisely what Vice President Cheney did, what the president said to him and an explanation by the president as to what he said," Specter said.
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
VIEWPOINT: A MULTILATERAL TRANSITION IN IRAQ - SHERIF HAMDY (MIDDLE EAST TIMES, APRIL 7): A multilateral framework in Iraq could provide badly needed expansion in the possibilities of action. If the US gives up some of its powers over decision-making and becomes an equal partner with surrounding countries and international mediators, it will earn the right to delegate responsibilities to those parties. This is the kind of policy change that public diplomacy experts are calling for to provide them substance to work with in order to improve the US's image abroad.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php...07-035742-1931r
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php...07-035742-1931r
IRAQI WOMEN ARGUE, BUT AGREE ON THEIR SPECIAL ROLE - HOWARD LAFRANCHI (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, APRIL 7): The Global Peace Initiative's "women's summit" was a first for bringing a cross section of Iraqi women to meet with American women. Organizers say it wasn't easy -- first, because of visa issues. But difficulties also stemmed from the desire to include a broad spectrum of Iraqi women -- with a result that reveals the divisions in a torn country.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0407/p01s04-woiq.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0407/p01s04-woiq.html
IN SUPPORT OF IRAQI SHI'ITES ? EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, APRIL 7): As Americans try to make sense of the byzantine sectarian situation and the future American military role in Iraq, we need to understand this: If we withdraw right now, we will betray Iraqi Shi'ites who right now view American power as a force for good in their country.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20060406-083649-4343r.htm
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20060406-083649-4343r.htm
THE WAY WE LIVE NOW: DISUNITIES - NOAH FELDMAN (NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 9): All the parties have a stake in avoiding the further destabilization that would accompany U.S. withdrawal in the next couple of years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/magazine/09wwln_lede.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/magazine/09wwln_lede.html
TOMGRAM: ROBERT DREYFUSS ON THE "D" WORD IN IRAQ (TOMDISPATCH, APRIL 6): Iraq has become a Mad Max world. The chaos of the present moment will certainly get worse, new Iraqi government or not. Can the United States persist in Iraq? Or is it time to cut our losses? Time to cut and run?
http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=74912
http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=74912
DOWNHILL IN IRAQ TAKI (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, APRIL 10): Iraq is already fighting a civil war, and the strongest militias will prevail. Imprisoned in its green zones as puppets of the Pentagon, the present Iraqi government hasn?t got a chance. Give a date for withdrawal, and stick to it, George.
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_04_10/taki.html
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_04_10/taki.html
IRAQ'S TRANSFORMATION - RAMI G. KHOURI (TOMPAINE. COM, APRIL): The absent realism and excess romanticism in the Anglo-American policy in Iraq result in a broadly psychedelic, occasionally imbecilic, foreign policy. Condoleezza Rice should be given a fulltime, serious job in the sports world -- commissioner of the National Football League has been suggested, analyst-commentator for ESPN television would also work -- and she should leave the task of politically rearranging the Middle East to its own people.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/04/0...nsformation.php
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/04/0...nsformation.php
A DIFFERENT MODEL FOR IRAQ: FORGET THE VIETNAM ANALOGIES. KOREA'S A BETTER PARALLEL - ROBERT KILLEBREW (WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 9): A young Iraqi man may someday turn to an American visiting Baghdad and say, as a young Korean man in Seoul said to me, "When you get home and meet a veteran of the war here, tell them we remember what they did for us. We will never forget."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6040701963.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6040701963.html
(OUR IRAQI LIBERATORS): LET US KNOW PRAISE OIL - MICKEY Z. (COUNTERPUNCH, APRIL 7-9): I say it's never too early to start planning the predestined Iraq War veteran's memorial. Why wait till the bombs start dropping on Iran or Venezuela or North Korea or Colombia? The whole mood will be blown by then. But, let's face it: time is of the essence. So, for now, maybe we can just extend the oily-black wall they constructed for the Vietnam vets.?
http://www.counterpunch.org/mickey04072006.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/mickey04072006.html
- One Iraqi Dictator Replaced By A Thousand
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/One_Iraqi_...A_Thousand.html
Amman, Jordan (UPI) Apr 10, 2006 - Keeping in line with dark Iraqi humor, a popular Iraqi joke says: "Our one tyrant is gone, but now there are a thousand new dictators."
- Fronts Keep Multiplying In Iraq
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Fronts_Kee...ng_In_Iraq.html
- Wolfowitz Says World Bank Has Role In Rebuilding Iraq
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Wolfowitz_...lding_Iraq.html
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/One_Iraqi_...A_Thousand.html
Amman, Jordan (UPI) Apr 10, 2006 - Keeping in line with dark Iraqi humor, a popular Iraqi joke says: "Our one tyrant is gone, but now there are a thousand new dictators."
- Fronts Keep Multiplying In Iraq
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Fronts_Kee...ng_In_Iraq.html
- Wolfowitz Says World Bank Has Role In Rebuilding Iraq
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Wolfowitz_...lding_Iraq.html
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/EC4...70C747823D0.htm
Iraqi Sunnis, Kurds reject Jaafari
Monday 10 April 2006, 14:29 Makka Time, 11:29 GMT
The US says political deadlock is fuelling violence in Iraq
Iraqi Sunni and Kurdish leaders have officially rejected the possibility of Ibrahim al-Jaafari remaining as prime minister in the next governmment.
Al-Jaafari's Shia party, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), had made another attempt save their embattled candidate by setting up a committee to talk to Sunni and Kurdish groups.
"We have sent a letter to our Shia brothers explaining that our position remains the same - that of rejecting Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's candidacy," said Dhafir al-Ani, of the Sunni-led National Concord Front.
Mahmud Othman, a Kurdish member of the Iraqi parliament, said his group had again rejected al-Jaafari's candidacy.
Al-Jaafari has faced opposition from within the UIA, with Adel Abdel Mahdi, the Iraqi vice-president, saying he should resign.
"After we formally hear from the other lists, like the Iraqiya, which will also refuse to work with al-Jaafari, then we will today sit down in the Alliance and decide," said a senior UIA source.
Although the alliance has the largest number of seats in parliament, it falls short of an overall majority. Shia leaders need the Kurds and Sunnis to form a unity government.
Deadlock
Sunni and Kurdish groups accuse the prime minister of monopolising power and failing to lead the country adequately.
The US and Britain have urged al-Jaafari to step aside to break the deadlock over the formation of a government, believing that the political vacuum there is fuelling ongoing violence.
More than 100 Shias have been killed in a week during a series of bombings, some attacking religious sites.
Triple bombings killed 90 worshippers at a popular Baghdad mosque after Friday prayers, and 12 people died in a series of attacks on Sunday.
Agencies
Iraqi Sunnis, Kurds reject Jaafari
Monday 10 April 2006, 14:29 Makka Time, 11:29 GMT
The US says political deadlock is fuelling violence in Iraq
Iraqi Sunni and Kurdish leaders have officially rejected the possibility of Ibrahim al-Jaafari remaining as prime minister in the next governmment.
Al-Jaafari's Shia party, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), had made another attempt save their embattled candidate by setting up a committee to talk to Sunni and Kurdish groups.
"We have sent a letter to our Shia brothers explaining that our position remains the same - that of rejecting Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's candidacy," said Dhafir al-Ani, of the Sunni-led National Concord Front.
Mahmud Othman, a Kurdish member of the Iraqi parliament, said his group had again rejected al-Jaafari's candidacy.
Al-Jaafari has faced opposition from within the UIA, with Adel Abdel Mahdi, the Iraqi vice-president, saying he should resign.
"After we formally hear from the other lists, like the Iraqiya, which will also refuse to work with al-Jaafari, then we will today sit down in the Alliance and decide," said a senior UIA source.
Although the alliance has the largest number of seats in parliament, it falls short of an overall majority. Shia leaders need the Kurds and Sunnis to form a unity government.
Deadlock
Sunni and Kurdish groups accuse the prime minister of monopolising power and failing to lead the country adequately.
The US and Britain have urged al-Jaafari to step aside to break the deadlock over the formation of a government, believing that the political vacuum there is fuelling ongoing violence.
More than 100 Shias have been killed in a week during a series of bombings, some attacking religious sites.
Triple bombings killed 90 worshippers at a popular Baghdad mosque after Friday prayers, and 12 people died in a series of attacks on Sunday.
Agencies
Bush acknowledges declassifying Iraq intelligence Yahoo! NEWS
President George W. Bush acknowledged on Monday he ordered the declassification of parts of a prewar intelligence report on Iraq to respond to critics who alleged he manipulated intelligence to justify the war. Bush offered his first comment on a prosecutor's disclosure last week that he authorized Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to declassify Iraq intelligence. The disclosure prompted a firestorm of criticism from Democrats who charged Bush was a hypocrite who denounces leaks of information while becoming the "leaker-in-chief." A Republican ally, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, urged Bush on Sunday to "tell the American people exactly what happened." At issue is the administration's release in July 2003 of parts of an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate that alleged Iraq under Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and was trying to develop a nuclear weapon. Bush said he declassified parts of the document to answer questions raised about why the United States invaded Iraq. "I wanted people to see what some of those statements were based on. I wanted people to see the truth. I thought it made sense for people to see the truth. That's why I declassified the document," he said. Bush, answering questions from an audience after a speech in Washington, would not comment on the allegation that he authorized Libby to release the information to reporters. But a senior administration official said Bush did not designate Libby or anyone else to release the information, trying to distance Bush from any tactical decisions made on how to release the information. The White House release of the parts of the National Intelligence Estimate came in response to charges from former ambassador Joe Wilson that Bush had manipulated intelligence to justify the war. Wilson later accused the White House of leaking the identity of his wife, who was then a CIA officer, Valerie Plame, to retaliate against him. Libby is accused of obstruction of justice and perjury in an investigation designed to discover who leaked Plame's name. White House officials have stressed that Bush was well within his legal authority to declassify the document. The new controversy erupted as Bush seeks to rebound from weak poll numbers and tries to bolster sagging American support for the Iraq war. Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday" that Bush owed "a specific explanation to the American people" of what happened. "The president has the authority to declassify information. So in a technical sense, if he looked at it, he could say this is declassified, and make a disclosure of it," he said. Wilson, speaking on ABC's "This Week," called on Bush to release transcripts of his and Cheney's testimony to the prosecutor. "It seems to me it is long past time for the White House to come clean on all of this," he said.
By Steve Holland
President George W. Bush acknowledged on Monday he ordered the declassification of parts of a prewar intelligence report on Iraq to respond to critics who alleged he manipulated intelligence to justify the war. Bush offered his first comment on a prosecutor's disclosure last week that he authorized Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to declassify Iraq intelligence. The disclosure prompted a firestorm of criticism from Democrats who charged Bush was a hypocrite who denounces leaks of information while becoming the "leaker-in-chief." A Republican ally, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, urged Bush on Sunday to "tell the American people exactly what happened." At issue is the administration's release in July 2003 of parts of an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate that alleged Iraq under Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and was trying to develop a nuclear weapon. Bush said he declassified parts of the document to answer questions raised about why the United States invaded Iraq. "I wanted people to see what some of those statements were based on. I wanted people to see the truth. I thought it made sense for people to see the truth. That's why I declassified the document," he said. Bush, answering questions from an audience after a speech in Washington, would not comment on the allegation that he authorized Libby to release the information to reporters. But a senior administration official said Bush did not designate Libby or anyone else to release the information, trying to distance Bush from any tactical decisions made on how to release the information. The White House release of the parts of the National Intelligence Estimate came in response to charges from former ambassador Joe Wilson that Bush had manipulated intelligence to justify the war. Wilson later accused the White House of leaking the identity of his wife, who was then a CIA officer, Valerie Plame, to retaliate against him. Libby is accused of obstruction of justice and perjury in an investigation designed to discover who leaked Plame's name. White House officials have stressed that Bush was well within his legal authority to declassify the document. The new controversy erupted as Bush seeks to rebound from weak poll numbers and tries to bolster sagging American support for the Iraq war. Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday" that Bush owed "a specific explanation to the American people" of what happened. "The president has the authority to declassify information. So in a technical sense, if he looked at it, he could say this is declassified, and make a disclosure of it," he said. Wilson, speaking on ABC's "This Week," called on Bush to release transcripts of his and Cheney's testimony to the prosecutor. "It seems to me it is long past time for the White House to come clean on all of this," he said.
By Steve Holland
Iraq Shias put off decision on PM BBC NEWS
The main Shia alliance in Iraq has postponed a meeting to decide whether to replace Ibrahim Jaafari as its candidate for prime minister. The United Iraqi Alliance said the meeting would take place on Tuesday. Earlier, Sunni Arab and Kurdish groups re-affirmed their opposition to Mr Jaafari remaining in his post. They have argued that Mr Jaafari is not a sufficiently neutral or non-sectarian figure to lead what is expected to be a government of national unity. A United Iraqi Alliance official told the BBC the alliance was due to receive a report from the three-member committee that has been sounding out the strength of opposition among other parties to Mr Jaafari.
Determined to stay
Many hope a government that unites the majority Shia bloc and the smaller Sunni and Kurdish groups will be best placed to tackle a recent rise in sectarian violence. The Iraqi Shias' spiritual figurehead, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has joined other Shia figures in pushing for the speedy formation of such a government. But Mr Jaafari, who is the interim prime minister and commands considerable support among some Shia factions, has said he is determined to remain in office. Correspondents say the Shia alliance will have to decide if it will stick with Mr Jaafari - thereby most probably prolonging the current deadlock - or whether it will nominate someone else from its ranks.
'More names needed'
The Kurdish leader and Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, said on Sunday that opposition to Mr Jaafari was unlikely to soften.
Many hope a political deal will help to end the violence
"I think the majority of other groups, or all the other groups, are rejecting Dr Jaafari as prime minister," he told the BBC. Iraq's main bloc of Sunni parties affirmed on Monday that it too rejects Mr Jaafari. A spokesman for the group said it will ask the Shia alliance "to present names for other candidates". Kurdish and Sunni politicians have accused Mr Jaafari of monopolising power and exploiting sectarian tensions. Under Iraq's constitution, the prime minister has to be drawn from the ranks of the group that won the most seats in elections. Though they are the largest group, the Shia alliance still needs the support of other parties to govern.
Dispute over 'civil war'
Mr Jaafari appeared before reporters on Sunday to dismiss suggestions made by Egypt's Hosni Mubarak to al-Arabiya TV that a civil war "was on the doorstep". However, Iraq's leaders themselves appear to be divided on the issue. Speaking a day after suicide bombings in a Baghdad mosque left 90 dead, the deputy interior minister told the BBC on Saturday the country had been in a state of undeclared civil conflict for a year or more. Sectarian tensions have been high since the bombing of a Shia shrine in Samarra in February. The US military has said 1,313 Iraqi civilians were victims of sectarian violence in March. Some analysts believe the real figure is much higher, as many bodies are never found.
The main Shia alliance in Iraq has postponed a meeting to decide whether to replace Ibrahim Jaafari as its candidate for prime minister. The United Iraqi Alliance said the meeting would take place on Tuesday. Earlier, Sunni Arab and Kurdish groups re-affirmed their opposition to Mr Jaafari remaining in his post. They have argued that Mr Jaafari is not a sufficiently neutral or non-sectarian figure to lead what is expected to be a government of national unity. A United Iraqi Alliance official told the BBC the alliance was due to receive a report from the three-member committee that has been sounding out the strength of opposition among other parties to Mr Jaafari.
QUOTE("Jalal Talabani @ Iraqi president")
I think the majority of other groups, or all the other groups, are rejecting Dr Jaafari as prime minister
Iraq warnings come true
Iraq not in civil war - Straw
The issue is impeding the creation of a government, three months after polls. BBC Baghdad correspondent Mike Wooldridge says the Shia parties have also come under growing pressure from the United States to drop their support for Mr Jaafari. Even some top Shia clerics are pushing for a swift solution amid warnings Iraq is approaching civil war.Iraq warnings come true
Iraq not in civil war - Straw
Determined to stay
Many hope a government that unites the majority Shia bloc and the smaller Sunni and Kurdish groups will be best placed to tackle a recent rise in sectarian violence. The Iraqi Shias' spiritual figurehead, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has joined other Shia figures in pushing for the speedy formation of such a government. But Mr Jaafari, who is the interim prime minister and commands considerable support among some Shia factions, has said he is determined to remain in office. Correspondents say the Shia alliance will have to decide if it will stick with Mr Jaafari - thereby most probably prolonging the current deadlock - or whether it will nominate someone else from its ranks.
'More names needed'
The Kurdish leader and Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, said on Sunday that opposition to Mr Jaafari was unlikely to soften.
Many hope a political deal will help to end the violence
"I think the majority of other groups, or all the other groups, are rejecting Dr Jaafari as prime minister," he told the BBC. Iraq's main bloc of Sunni parties affirmed on Monday that it too rejects Mr Jaafari. A spokesman for the group said it will ask the Shia alliance "to present names for other candidates". Kurdish and Sunni politicians have accused Mr Jaafari of monopolising power and exploiting sectarian tensions. Under Iraq's constitution, the prime minister has to be drawn from the ranks of the group that won the most seats in elections. Though they are the largest group, the Shia alliance still needs the support of other parties to govern.
Dispute over 'civil war'
Mr Jaafari appeared before reporters on Sunday to dismiss suggestions made by Egypt's Hosni Mubarak to al-Arabiya TV that a civil war "was on the doorstep". However, Iraq's leaders themselves appear to be divided on the issue. Speaking a day after suicide bombings in a Baghdad mosque left 90 dead, the deputy interior minister told the BBC on Saturday the country had been in a state of undeclared civil conflict for a year or more. Sectarian tensions have been high since the bombing of a Shia shrine in Samarra in February. The US military has said 1,313 Iraqi civilians were victims of sectarian violence in March. Some analysts believe the real figure is much higher, as many bodies are never found.
- Bush Administration Blinded By Iraqi Illusions
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Bush_Admin..._Illusions.html
New York (UPI) Apr 11, 2006 - Tragically, the Bush administration has been engaged in a deadly game in Iraq from the day of the invasion more than three years ago. It has broken Iraq into pieces and now is trying, hopelessly, to recast it in its own image.
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Bush_Admin..._Illusions.html
New York (UPI) Apr 11, 2006 - Tragically, the Bush administration has been engaged in a deadly game in Iraq from the day of the invasion more than three years ago. It has broken Iraq into pieces and now is trying, hopelessly, to recast it in its own image.
Bush confirms intelligence leak Kentucky.com
President Bush acknowledged yesterday that he authorized the selective declassification of portions of a highly classified intelligence report in an effort to rebut critics who said the White House had manipulated intelligence to justify going to war against Iraq. The president also called reports that the White House is weighing military action to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons "wild speculation." The Washington Post and the New Yorker magazine reported over the weekend that such planning was under way. U.S. military, diplomatic and intelligence officials have told Knight Ridder that plans for possible air attacks are being updated because they might be needed if Russia and China prevent the United Nations from imposing tough sanctions on Iran. "I know here in Washington prevention means force. It doesn't mean force necessarily. In this case, it means diplomacy," Bush told students at Johns Hopkins University. "I read the articles in the newspapers this weekend. What you're reading is wild speculation." The president's comments were his first public remarks on assertions made last week by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that Bush had authorized I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, at the time Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide, to disclose selected portions of a classified National Intelligence Estimate to a New York Times reporter. Bush didn't say whether he'd intended that the declassified information be shared with a reporter. But he said he thought that the information, much of which turned out to be inaccurate, needed to get out in public to battle critics who were suggesting that the White House had manipulated intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs to help make its case for war against Iraq. "I will say this, that after we liberated Iraq, there was questions in people's minds about the basis on which I made statements, in other words, going into Iraq," Bush told students at Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies. "And so I decided to declassify the NIE for a reason ... I thought it was important for people to get a better sense for why I was saying what I was saying in my speeches." Bush authorized the release shortly after former Ambassador Joseph Wilson wrote an article that appeared on July 6, 2003, in The New York Times charging that the administration's claim that Hussein was trying to obtain uranium from Niger was false. In a court filing last week, Fitzgerald said Libby had told a federal grand jury that he had a conversation with former New York Times reporter Judith Miller on July 8, 2003, "only after the Vice President advised the defendant that the President specifically had authorized defendant to disclose certain information in the NIE." Libby's conversation with Miller came under scrutiny as part of Fitzgerald's investigation into who leaked information that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was an undercover CIA officer after her name appeared in an article by syndicated columnist Robert Novak. No one has been charged with revealing Plame's name. Libby is charged with five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI about the case. If convicted, he could face up to 30 years in prison and a $1.25 million fine. The disclosure that Bush and Cheney had authorized Libby to talk about the intelligence estimate has raised new questions about the administration's candor about what it knew about Iraq's weapons programs. By the time Libby disclosed portions of the estimate, the Niger allegation already had been largely discredited, and much of the other classified information that administration officials revealed about Iraq was wrong, exaggerated or disputed. Bush also didn't directly address a question about the contention in Fitzgerald's filing that some documents the prosecution had given to Libby for Libby's defense "could be characterized as reflecting a plan to discredit, punish, or seek revenge against Mr. Wilson." The contention appears at least twice in the 39-page filing. Wilson has accused the White House of leaking Plame's identity to retaliate against him for criticizing the administration's Niger uranium claim. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said he couldn't comment on whether there was an effort to discredit Wilson and Plame, citing Fitzgerald's ongoing investigation.
By William Douglas, KNIGHT RIDDER WASHINGTON BUREAU
Hillary Calls Bush's Intel Leak Nixonesque TIME
Bush defends declassification of prewar report USA Today
Detroit Free Press - Austin American-Statesman (subscription) - All Headline News - Washington Times - all 1,165 related »
President Bush acknowledged yesterday that he authorized the selective declassification of portions of a highly classified intelligence report in an effort to rebut critics who said the White House had manipulated intelligence to justify going to war against Iraq. The president also called reports that the White House is weighing military action to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons "wild speculation." The Washington Post and the New Yorker magazine reported over the weekend that such planning was under way. U.S. military, diplomatic and intelligence officials have told Knight Ridder that plans for possible air attacks are being updated because they might be needed if Russia and China prevent the United Nations from imposing tough sanctions on Iran. "I know here in Washington prevention means force. It doesn't mean force necessarily. In this case, it means diplomacy," Bush told students at Johns Hopkins University. "I read the articles in the newspapers this weekend. What you're reading is wild speculation." The president's comments were his first public remarks on assertions made last week by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that Bush had authorized I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, at the time Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide, to disclose selected portions of a classified National Intelligence Estimate to a New York Times reporter. Bush didn't say whether he'd intended that the declassified information be shared with a reporter. But he said he thought that the information, much of which turned out to be inaccurate, needed to get out in public to battle critics who were suggesting that the White House had manipulated intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs to help make its case for war against Iraq. "I will say this, that after we liberated Iraq, there was questions in people's minds about the basis on which I made statements, in other words, going into Iraq," Bush told students at Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies. "And so I decided to declassify the NIE for a reason ... I thought it was important for people to get a better sense for why I was saying what I was saying in my speeches." Bush authorized the release shortly after former Ambassador Joseph Wilson wrote an article that appeared on July 6, 2003, in The New York Times charging that the administration's claim that Hussein was trying to obtain uranium from Niger was false. In a court filing last week, Fitzgerald said Libby had told a federal grand jury that he had a conversation with former New York Times reporter Judith Miller on July 8, 2003, "only after the Vice President advised the defendant that the President specifically had authorized defendant to disclose certain information in the NIE." Libby's conversation with Miller came under scrutiny as part of Fitzgerald's investigation into who leaked information that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was an undercover CIA officer after her name appeared in an article by syndicated columnist Robert Novak. No one has been charged with revealing Plame's name. Libby is charged with five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI about the case. If convicted, he could face up to 30 years in prison and a $1.25 million fine. The disclosure that Bush and Cheney had authorized Libby to talk about the intelligence estimate has raised new questions about the administration's candor about what it knew about Iraq's weapons programs. By the time Libby disclosed portions of the estimate, the Niger allegation already had been largely discredited, and much of the other classified information that administration officials revealed about Iraq was wrong, exaggerated or disputed. Bush also didn't directly address a question about the contention in Fitzgerald's filing that some documents the prosecution had given to Libby for Libby's defense "could be characterized as reflecting a plan to discredit, punish, or seek revenge against Mr. Wilson." The contention appears at least twice in the 39-page filing. Wilson has accused the White House of leaking Plame's identity to retaliate against him for criticizing the administration's Niger uranium claim. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said he couldn't comment on whether there was an effort to discredit Wilson and Plame, citing Fitzgerald's ongoing investigation.
By William Douglas, KNIGHT RIDDER WASHINGTON BUREAU
Hillary Calls Bush's Intel Leak Nixonesque TIME
Bush defends declassification of prewar report USA Today
Detroit Free Press - Austin American-Statesman (subscription) - All Headline News - Washington Times - all 1,165 related »
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1157
US-Iranian Iraq Dialogue Fails Before Starting
DEBKAfile Exclusive Update of DEBKA-Net-Weekly 249 Report
April 11, 2006, 3:50 PM (GMT+02:00)
Little explanation – or even speculation - has been forthcoming for the abrupt decision by US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad to call off the Baghdad talks he was due to lead for Washington with an Iranian delegation on Saturday, April 8.
Had it taken place, this would have been the first meaningful diplomatic encounter between the US and the Islamic Republic in 25 years.
All Khalilzad said diplomatically: “We do not want to give the impression that the United States is sitting with Iran to decide about the Iraqi government. The Iraqis will decide that.”
He knows as well as anyone that an Iraqi government is nowhere near realization – and exactly why it is stalled four months after Iraq’s general election: the insurmountable hurdle of the Shiite prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari’s refusal to step aside as stipulated by Kurdish and Sunni politicians.
Jaafari egged on by Tehran remains immovable.
This would partly explain why the Americans more or less stood the Iranians up. Most delegation members had arrived from Tehran by Saturday, barring the three leaders. They were held back as an Iranian exercise in mystification, to conceal their identity until the last minute and then spring them as a surprise.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly 249 reported on April 7 Tehran had confronted Washington last week with an earlier surprise: a demand to put the nominee for the next Iraqi prime minister at the top of the Baghdad agenda. This departed sharply from the parameters laid down for the talks by President George W. Bush and Khalilzad. It was a device to give Iran equal say in determining the political situation in Baghdad and pushing the American side into a corner where nothing could be settled without calling on Tehran for help.
The Bush administration was meant thereby to swallow a new reality – diplomatically if not publicly - that Iran’s leverage in Baghdad now rivaled that of America’s military and political leadership, boosted by its political and intelligence penetration of Iraq.
At the preliminary conversations held near Zurich in the third week of March (DNW 247 of March 24: US-Iran Talks on Iraq Have Begun), the gap between the two positions instead of narrowing widened out to a chasm. Tehran flexed its muscles in Baghdad by stiffening prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari’s resistance to stepping down, thereby derailing all efforts to form the Iraqi unity government and undoing the carefully calibrated steps the Americans took to accomplish this objective.
On April 2, Washington tried to cut through this Gordian knot with the surprise joint arrival in Baghdad of US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and UK foreign secretary Jack Straw. But Jaafari was unmoved by their appeals to step aside. He dismissed the two officials’ visit as ill-timed, counter-productive and “naked intervention.”
DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources report that after this fiasco, the Bush administration’s options boiled down to two: to break off the talks with Iran or to keep them going on Tehran’s terms.
Confronted with the urgency of a government to be installed in Baghdad, the first step in a process that would make a US troop withdrawal possible, the Americans at first bit the bullet and settled for the second option. But Khalilzad then backed away, realizing that the Iranians were simply using the talks to maneuver for high ground against the United States and not seeking to ease the Iraqi crisis.
DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources claimed that it was Tehran which stood Washington up over the talks – not the Americans. At the same time, finding out who pulled the rug is less important than the fact that a rare chance to bring the United States and Iran together for dialogue on a cardinal issue has slipped away in the foreseeable future.
US-Iranian Iraq Dialogue Fails Before Starting
DEBKAfile Exclusive Update of DEBKA-Net-Weekly 249 Report
April 11, 2006, 3:50 PM (GMT+02:00)
Little explanation – or even speculation - has been forthcoming for the abrupt decision by US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad to call off the Baghdad talks he was due to lead for Washington with an Iranian delegation on Saturday, April 8.
Had it taken place, this would have been the first meaningful diplomatic encounter between the US and the Islamic Republic in 25 years.
All Khalilzad said diplomatically: “We do not want to give the impression that the United States is sitting with Iran to decide about the Iraqi government. The Iraqis will decide that.”
He knows as well as anyone that an Iraqi government is nowhere near realization – and exactly why it is stalled four months after Iraq’s general election: the insurmountable hurdle of the Shiite prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari’s refusal to step aside as stipulated by Kurdish and Sunni politicians.
Jaafari egged on by Tehran remains immovable.
This would partly explain why the Americans more or less stood the Iranians up. Most delegation members had arrived from Tehran by Saturday, barring the three leaders. They were held back as an Iranian exercise in mystification, to conceal their identity until the last minute and then spring them as a surprise.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly 249 reported on April 7 Tehran had confronted Washington last week with an earlier surprise: a demand to put the nominee for the next Iraqi prime minister at the top of the Baghdad agenda. This departed sharply from the parameters laid down for the talks by President George W. Bush and Khalilzad. It was a device to give Iran equal say in determining the political situation in Baghdad and pushing the American side into a corner where nothing could be settled without calling on Tehran for help.
The Bush administration was meant thereby to swallow a new reality – diplomatically if not publicly - that Iran’s leverage in Baghdad now rivaled that of America’s military and political leadership, boosted by its political and intelligence penetration of Iraq.
At the preliminary conversations held near Zurich in the third week of March (DNW 247 of March 24: US-Iran Talks on Iraq Have Begun), the gap between the two positions instead of narrowing widened out to a chasm. Tehran flexed its muscles in Baghdad by stiffening prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari’s resistance to stepping down, thereby derailing all efforts to form the Iraqi unity government and undoing the carefully calibrated steps the Americans took to accomplish this objective.
On April 2, Washington tried to cut through this Gordian knot with the surprise joint arrival in Baghdad of US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and UK foreign secretary Jack Straw. But Jaafari was unmoved by their appeals to step aside. He dismissed the two officials’ visit as ill-timed, counter-productive and “naked intervention.”
DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources report that after this fiasco, the Bush administration’s options boiled down to two: to break off the talks with Iran or to keep them going on Tehran’s terms.
Confronted with the urgency of a government to be installed in Baghdad, the first step in a process that would make a US troop withdrawal possible, the Americans at first bit the bullet and settled for the second option. But Khalilzad then backed away, realizing that the Iranians were simply using the talks to maneuver for high ground against the United States and not seeking to ease the Iraqi crisis.
DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources claimed that it was Tehran which stood Washington up over the talks – not the Americans. At the same time, finding out who pulled the rug is less important than the fact that a rare chance to bring the United States and Iran together for dialogue on a cardinal issue has slipped away in the foreseeable future.
18 killed as Iraqi politician warns of 'river of blood':
Police reported the discovery of the bodies of 11 men aged between 20 and 30 in Mussayeb city, 60 kilometres south of Baghdad.
http://tinyurl.com/fxw94
===
Baghdad car bomb kills 5:
A car bomb that exploded near a Baghdad restaurant frequented by police killed at least five people on Tuesday, including three policemen
http://tinyurl.com/fu7w8
===
Five U.S. Soldiers Die in Iraq:
Three Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers died after a roadside bomb exploded near the vehicle they were riding in north of Baghdad today, military officials reported.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr2006/20060411_4784.html
===
Beheaded Bodies Found:
The bodies of four Iraqi soldiers who had been beheaded were found in Jurf al-Sahkar, 80 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. In the capital, a bomb attack on a small bus killed three people and wounded four in Sadr City,
http://tinyurl.com/g4hnx
===
Three Iraqi army recruits shot dead by terrorists in Mosul:
The bodies of two Iraqi civilians were also found in the city, police reports said.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/Home/Story.aspx?Lan...=en&DSNO=850315
===
Video: Civilians killed in Falluja clashes :
Three civilians were killed in clashes between Interior Ministry forces and insurgents on the main road of the former rebel stronghold of Falluja west of Baghdad on Monday (April 10) Interior Ministry sources said.
http://tinyurl.com/kx69p
===
Political turmoil leaves Iraq adrift:
Gunmen waving their weapons out the windows of unmarked cars are the most distinct sign of what it's like to live without a government. They've been roaming the streets freely in the four months since Iraqis elected a Parliament.
http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/06/04/11/...r_a3iraq001.cfm
===
Shiites Fail to Solve Al-Jaafari Dispute :
Shiite politicians failed Tuesday to resolve the deadlock over their candidate for prime minister, which is blocking formation of a new government. A bomb exploded on a minibus in a Shiite area, killing three people and underscoring Iraq's grave security crisis.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/3786445.html
===
Health workers decry lack of medical supplies:
Doctors in Anbar governorate, particularly those in the city of Ramadi some 100km west of the capital, are urging the government to tackle the issue of the lack of medicines and essential surgical materials available in local hospitals.
http://tinyurl.com/nps97
===
Situation in Iraq could not be worse:
A cruel and bloody civil war has started in Iraq, a country that President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair promised to free from fear and establish democracy. I have been visiting Iraq since 1978, but for the first time, I am becoming convinced that the country will not survive.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12688.htm
===
Standing Firm in Face of the Occupation:
Sheikh Hasan al-Zarqani, foreign spokesperson for the Sadr Tendency
http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article....iclenumber=9716
===
A 4 Minute Video: No Bravery:
A nation blind to their disgrace
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article11799.htm
===
Blood Fruit: The Blowback Harvest Begins :
This is just the very beginning, the first, faint echoes of the coming whirlwind of blowback that will hit the United States and Britain as a result of the monstrous and murderous folly in Iraq.
http://tinyurl.com/k5lrj
===
Patrick J. Buchanan: Coming to terms with a failed policy in the Middle East:
With the Gallup Poll showing 51 percent of Americans want all U.S. troops out of Iraq by year's end, John Kerry has made his move.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews...on/14307296.htm
===
Noam Chomsky: U.S. follows footsteps of 'failed states':
One of the hardest tasks that anyone can undertake, and among the most important, is to look honestly in the mirror. If we allow ourselves to do so, we should have little difficulty in finding the characteristics of "failed states" right at home.
http://tinyurl.com/fl42z
Police reported the discovery of the bodies of 11 men aged between 20 and 30 in Mussayeb city, 60 kilometres south of Baghdad.
http://tinyurl.com/fxw94
===
Baghdad car bomb kills 5:
A car bomb that exploded near a Baghdad restaurant frequented by police killed at least five people on Tuesday, including three policemen
http://tinyurl.com/fu7w8
===
Five U.S. Soldiers Die in Iraq:
Three Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers died after a roadside bomb exploded near the vehicle they were riding in north of Baghdad today, military officials reported.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr2006/20060411_4784.html
===
Beheaded Bodies Found:
The bodies of four Iraqi soldiers who had been beheaded were found in Jurf al-Sahkar, 80 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. In the capital, a bomb attack on a small bus killed three people and wounded four in Sadr City,
http://tinyurl.com/g4hnx
===
Three Iraqi army recruits shot dead by terrorists in Mosul:
The bodies of two Iraqi civilians were also found in the city, police reports said.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/Home/Story.aspx?Lan...=en&DSNO=850315
===
Video: Civilians killed in Falluja clashes :
Three civilians were killed in clashes between Interior Ministry forces and insurgents on the main road of the former rebel stronghold of Falluja west of Baghdad on Monday (April 10) Interior Ministry sources said.
http://tinyurl.com/kx69p
===
Political turmoil leaves Iraq adrift:
Gunmen waving their weapons out the windows of unmarked cars are the most distinct sign of what it's like to live without a government. They've been roaming the streets freely in the four months since Iraqis elected a Parliament.
http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/06/04/11/...r_a3iraq001.cfm
===
Shiites Fail to Solve Al-Jaafari Dispute :
Shiite politicians failed Tuesday to resolve the deadlock over their candidate for prime minister, which is blocking formation of a new government. A bomb exploded on a minibus in a Shiite area, killing three people and underscoring Iraq's grave security crisis.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/3786445.html
===
Health workers decry lack of medical supplies:
Doctors in Anbar governorate, particularly those in the city of Ramadi some 100km west of the capital, are urging the government to tackle the issue of the lack of medicines and essential surgical materials available in local hospitals.
http://tinyurl.com/nps97
===
Situation in Iraq could not be worse:
A cruel and bloody civil war has started in Iraq, a country that President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair promised to free from fear and establish democracy. I have been visiting Iraq since 1978, but for the first time, I am becoming convinced that the country will not survive.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12688.htm
===
Standing Firm in Face of the Occupation:
Sheikh Hasan al-Zarqani, foreign spokesperson for the Sadr Tendency
http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article....iclenumber=9716
===
A 4 Minute Video: No Bravery:
A nation blind to their disgrace
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article11799.htm
===
Blood Fruit: The Blowback Harvest Begins :
This is just the very beginning, the first, faint echoes of the coming whirlwind of blowback that will hit the United States and Britain as a result of the monstrous and murderous folly in Iraq.
http://tinyurl.com/k5lrj
===
Patrick J. Buchanan: Coming to terms with a failed policy in the Middle East:
With the Gallup Poll showing 51 percent of Americans want all U.S. troops out of Iraq by year's end, John Kerry has made his move.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews...on/14307296.htm
===
Noam Chomsky: U.S. follows footsteps of 'failed states':
One of the hardest tasks that anyone can undertake, and among the most important, is to look honestly in the mirror. If we allow ourselves to do so, we should have little difficulty in finding the characteristics of "failed states" right at home.
http://tinyurl.com/fl42z
- Who Are The Players In Iraq
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Who_Are_Th...rs_In_Iraq.html
Washington (UPI) Apr 12, 2006 - Nawaf Obaid, an adjunct fellow at The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, recently released a comprehensive study of the situation in Iraq titled "Meeting the Challenge of a Fragmented Iraq: A Saudi Perspective." The author of the report offers invaluable background on the various players and political parties elbowing for power in post-Saddam Iraq. The following are extracts of his report.
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Who_Are_Th...rs_In_Iraq.html
Washington (UPI) Apr 12, 2006 - Nawaf Obaid, an adjunct fellow at The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, recently released a comprehensive study of the situation in Iraq titled "Meeting the Challenge of a Fragmented Iraq: A Saudi Perspective." The author of the report offers invaluable background on the various players and political parties elbowing for power in post-Saddam Iraq. The following are extracts of his report.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HD12Ak01.html
Yown without law, much less order
By Iason Athanasiadis
BAQOUBA, Iraq - It was 9 o'clock on a balmy spring evening when an informant called an intelligence tip in to the Joint Coordination and Control (JCC) office at the US outpost in central Baqouba. He had information of an imminent terrorist attack: a silver Korean minibus operated by insurgents would be exploded the next day inside the town.
It was the kind of news that should cause at least a flurry of activity. But in a country where jaded local and American law-enforcement officers watch car bombs going off daily, the information was merely radioed in to headquarters and presumably forgotten about. By the end of the next day, the minibus had yet to explode. Perhaps the tip-off was misinformation, perhaps the threat was neutralized. But the small victory was lost amid the flood of terrorist activity coursing across the troubled province of Diyala throughout the day.
"Right now, it's chaos," said Dr Thaer Kudier, one of the locals working as an interpreter and problem-solver for the Americans in Baqouba. "There's no law, there are no restraints. So there's raping, stealing, killings, carjackings. They [former Ba'athists involved in the insurgency] are exploiting the circumstances for revenge."
This is the situation into which the fledgling Iraqi police are expected to step and impose order. According to US-supplied statistics, 2,000 officers in the new police force used to work in the Saddam Hussein-era police, with another 6,000 fresh recruits holding no Ba'athist affiliation.
Most entrants are sent to US-run police academies in the stable northern Iraqi city of Soleymaniyeh or the Jordanian capital Amman. There they receive 10 weeks of training before returning to Iraq to assume their duties. A SWAT (special weapons and tactics) school in Baghdad was discontinued this summer by the State Department because of lack of funding.
"We're just standing back and saying we're here if they need us, but after August they'll be in control of their own destiny," said Major Michael Humphreys, a public affairs officer at Camp Warhorse outside Baqouba.
That is when the province could collapse into vicious civil war. Now is a transitional time for the oil-rich, mixed Sunni-Shi'ite Diyala province that borders Iran, and the US presence is possibly the only thing stopping the different sectarian groups from openly fighting each other. Increasingly, responsibility is being handing over to the Iraqi army and police in a process the US hopes will culminate in its withdrawing into well-fortified, strategically placed bases. But in the organizational rethinking currently under way, quick responses are not in vogue, and cooperation is minimal between the longer-established Iraqi army and the weak and often infiltrated police forces, which the army holds in contempt.
The US Army's continuing inability to find credible Iraqi partners to which it can hand over swaths of civil-strife-racked countryside, villages and towns is causing the Pentagon increasing concern. In two weeks spent inside a network of US military bases - from the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk to the troubled capital and finally Diyala, the second-most-violent province in Iraq - it became clear that the Pentagon is anxious to retreat inside several sprawling bases and away from the mounting chaos gripping central Iraq.
Minimizing the number of dead US soldiers even as tens of thousands of troops are slated to be sent home in the run-up to mid-term US elections at the end of this year is similarly calculated to allay the domestic political pressure on the administration of President George W Bush to disengage from Iraq.
"They [the people of Diyala] understand that we're going to leave some time," said Lieutenant-Colonel William Benson, the commander of the US detachment in central Baqouba. "What's allowed us to draw down is that the Iraqi army and police have stepped up. Especially the Iraqi army has realized that it can beat the insurgents and now have them on the run."
The attrition rate for the Iraqi police is formidable. As US casualties decrease, attacks targeting Iraqi government employees are on the rise. The US Army does not keep track of Iraqi deaths, but a high-ranking official expressed frustration at the large number of policemen killed almost daily in drive-by shootings and car bombs targeting police stations and their homes. Each death means 10 weeks of expensive training lost.
"We're setting up tracking mechanisms ... [that] allow us to see when their numbers need to get replenished after a particularly high period of attrition," said Major Harvinder Singh. "I feel bad for them because they're the main target now over us."
This has been the objective all along: to turn the country over to the Iraqis while maintaining a number of semi-permanent bases on Iraqi soil that will allow the Pentagon to maintain a strategic overview of the region. Already, the sprawling Camp Victory in Baghdad and Camp Speicher in Tikrit have a semi-permanent feel, with the bases in Kirkuk, al-Asad and Balad not far behind.
Most US officials interviewed claimed marked improvement in the conduct of the Iraqi police but admitted that they would be unable to maintain order effectively should the US pull out tomorrow. Two platoons of US military police in Baqouba and another in the nearby town of Muqtadiyah will be pulled out by the end of the year, giving Iraqi police free rein to conduct raids and round up suspects, with only advisory teams to back them up. US officials fear that these teams will not be enough to counter the effect of infiltration and sectarian animosity.
"If the coalition is there on these joint raids, there's more trust from the locals that they won't be mistreated," said Benson. "The Iraqi police have a long way to go."
While monthly police salaries have risen from the meager $30 offered under Saddam to an eminently respectable $400, corruption is still widespread, and there is growing evidence that the insurgents active in Diyala province have penetrated the ranks of the police.
"The defense and military institutions have been so successfully penetrated that whenever the Americans decide to mount an operation, news reaches the people cooperating with the insurgents and they take precautions," said an Iraqi translator at Camp Warhorse who called himself "George".
"We've now got a second power running things here, alongside the existing government."
The brother of Diyala's police chief was arrested by Interior Ministry officials after the attack on the Muqtadiyah police station amid talk that he had been leading one of the branches of the insurgency.
Iraqi security officials in Diyala province interviewed for this article said that a number of suspicious actions had preceded the attack, including the removal of roof-mounted machine-guns and the reduction of police personnel on duty. Both actions were carried out by command of the chief of the police station who is suspected of links to insurgents.
Diyala's command center is ground zero for gauging the rampant violence sweeping through the town outside. Phones ring every few minutes to report another abduction, drive-by shooting, suspected roadside bomb or detonated car-bomb. On March 30 alone, 25 incidents were reported, including a bicycle bomb, several kidnappings and drive-by shootings, three roadside bomb explosions and the discovery and defusing of several more. The next day there were only 10 incidents, a low for the troubled area, but they included the potentially inflammatory killing of one Sunni sheikh and the abduction of another.
With several of the current police officials being known former Ba'athists who have family or tribal links to the insurgency, the obvious question remains why the US military tolerates them. For Specialist Boscher, the duty sergeant at the command center, the answer is simple.
"Sometimes you have to hold them even closer."
Iason Athanasiadis is an Iran-based correspondent.
(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing .)
Yown without law, much less order
By Iason Athanasiadis
BAQOUBA, Iraq - It was 9 o'clock on a balmy spring evening when an informant called an intelligence tip in to the Joint Coordination and Control (JCC) office at the US outpost in central Baqouba. He had information of an imminent terrorist attack: a silver Korean minibus operated by insurgents would be exploded the next day inside the town.
It was the kind of news that should cause at least a flurry of activity. But in a country where jaded local and American law-enforcement officers watch car bombs going off daily, the information was merely radioed in to headquarters and presumably forgotten about. By the end of the next day, the minibus had yet to explode. Perhaps the tip-off was misinformation, perhaps the threat was neutralized. But the small victory was lost amid the flood of terrorist activity coursing across the troubled province of Diyala throughout the day.
"Right now, it's chaos," said Dr Thaer Kudier, one of the locals working as an interpreter and problem-solver for the Americans in Baqouba. "There's no law, there are no restraints. So there's raping, stealing, killings, carjackings. They [former Ba'athists involved in the insurgency] are exploiting the circumstances for revenge."
This is the situation into which the fledgling Iraqi police are expected to step and impose order. According to US-supplied statistics, 2,000 officers in the new police force used to work in the Saddam Hussein-era police, with another 6,000 fresh recruits holding no Ba'athist affiliation.
Most entrants are sent to US-run police academies in the stable northern Iraqi city of Soleymaniyeh or the Jordanian capital Amman. There they receive 10 weeks of training before returning to Iraq to assume their duties. A SWAT (special weapons and tactics) school in Baghdad was discontinued this summer by the State Department because of lack of funding.
"We're just standing back and saying we're here if they need us, but after August they'll be in control of their own destiny," said Major Michael Humphreys, a public affairs officer at Camp Warhorse outside Baqouba.
That is when the province could collapse into vicious civil war. Now is a transitional time for the oil-rich, mixed Sunni-Shi'ite Diyala province that borders Iran, and the US presence is possibly the only thing stopping the different sectarian groups from openly fighting each other. Increasingly, responsibility is being handing over to the Iraqi army and police in a process the US hopes will culminate in its withdrawing into well-fortified, strategically placed bases. But in the organizational rethinking currently under way, quick responses are not in vogue, and cooperation is minimal between the longer-established Iraqi army and the weak and often infiltrated police forces, which the army holds in contempt.
The US Army's continuing inability to find credible Iraqi partners to which it can hand over swaths of civil-strife-racked countryside, villages and towns is causing the Pentagon increasing concern. In two weeks spent inside a network of US military bases - from the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk to the troubled capital and finally Diyala, the second-most-violent province in Iraq - it became clear that the Pentagon is anxious to retreat inside several sprawling bases and away from the mounting chaos gripping central Iraq.
Minimizing the number of dead US soldiers even as tens of thousands of troops are slated to be sent home in the run-up to mid-term US elections at the end of this year is similarly calculated to allay the domestic political pressure on the administration of President George W Bush to disengage from Iraq.
"They [the people of Diyala] understand that we're going to leave some time," said Lieutenant-Colonel William Benson, the commander of the US detachment in central Baqouba. "What's allowed us to draw down is that the Iraqi army and police have stepped up. Especially the Iraqi army has realized that it can beat the insurgents and now have them on the run."
The attrition rate for the Iraqi police is formidable. As US casualties decrease, attacks targeting Iraqi government employees are on the rise. The US Army does not keep track of Iraqi deaths, but a high-ranking official expressed frustration at the large number of policemen killed almost daily in drive-by shootings and car bombs targeting police stations and their homes. Each death means 10 weeks of expensive training lost.
"We're setting up tracking mechanisms ... [that] allow us to see when their numbers need to get replenished after a particularly high period of attrition," said Major Harvinder Singh. "I feel bad for them because they're the main target now over us."
This has been the objective all along: to turn the country over to the Iraqis while maintaining a number of semi-permanent bases on Iraqi soil that will allow the Pentagon to maintain a strategic overview of the region. Already, the sprawling Camp Victory in Baghdad and Camp Speicher in Tikrit have a semi-permanent feel, with the bases in Kirkuk, al-Asad and Balad not far behind.
Most US officials interviewed claimed marked improvement in the conduct of the Iraqi police but admitted that they would be unable to maintain order effectively should the US pull out tomorrow. Two platoons of US military police in Baqouba and another in the nearby town of Muqtadiyah will be pulled out by the end of the year, giving Iraqi police free rein to conduct raids and round up suspects, with only advisory teams to back them up. US officials fear that these teams will not be enough to counter the effect of infiltration and sectarian animosity.
"If the coalition is there on these joint raids, there's more trust from the locals that they won't be mistreated," said Benson. "The Iraqi police have a long way to go."
While monthly police salaries have risen from the meager $30 offered under Saddam to an eminently respectable $400, corruption is still widespread, and there is growing evidence that the insurgents active in Diyala province have penetrated the ranks of the police.
"The defense and military institutions have been so successfully penetrated that whenever the Americans decide to mount an operation, news reaches the people cooperating with the insurgents and they take precautions," said an Iraqi translator at Camp Warhorse who called himself "George".
"We've now got a second power running things here, alongside the existing government."
The brother of Diyala's police chief was arrested by Interior Ministry officials after the attack on the Muqtadiyah police station amid talk that he had been leading one of the branches of the insurgency.
Iraqi security officials in Diyala province interviewed for this article said that a number of suspicious actions had preceded the attack, including the removal of roof-mounted machine-guns and the reduction of police personnel on duty. Both actions were carried out by command of the chief of the police station who is suspected of links to insurgents.
Diyala's command center is ground zero for gauging the rampant violence sweeping through the town outside. Phones ring every few minutes to report another abduction, drive-by shooting, suspected roadside bomb or detonated car-bomb. On March 30 alone, 25 incidents were reported, including a bicycle bomb, several kidnappings and drive-by shootings, three roadside bomb explosions and the discovery and defusing of several more. The next day there were only 10 incidents, a low for the troubled area, but they included the potentially inflammatory killing of one Sunni sheikh and the abduction of another.
With several of the current police officials being known former Ba'athists who have family or tribal links to the insurgency, the obvious question remains why the US military tolerates them. For Specialist Boscher, the duty sergeant at the command center, the answer is simple.
"Sometimes you have to hold them even closer."
Iason Athanasiadis is an Iran-based correspondent.
(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing .)
3 U.S. Soldiers Among 51 Killed In Latest Violence:
A car bomb exploded outside a Shi'ite mosque in the northern Iraqi town of Howaydir, killing at least 23 people and wounding 50, police said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KHA233346.htm
===
New Italian PM to Pull Iraq Troops:
Romano Prodi, the leader of the Union coalition, which won the latest elections in Italy, said on Wednesday that he will withdraw the Italian troops from Iraq when he takes office, claiming there was no justification for the US-led invasion of the Arab country.
http://tinyurl.com/o3foq
===
Blair isolated on Iraq conflict as Berlusconi bows out :
The defeat of Silvio Berlusconi has left Tony Blair isolated in Europe as the last political leader supporting the war in Iraq.
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article357234.ece
===
SOS over Iraqi scientists:
Since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, an alarming number of the country's leading academics have been killed. A human rights organisation puts the number at about a thousand and has a documented list of 105 cases. These professors, it says, were not random casualties - they were assassinated.
http://tinyurl.com/pp64w
===
Infant mortality in Basra is up by 30% :
"The mortality of children in Basra has increased by nearly 30 percent compared to the Saddam Hussein era," Dr Haydar Salah, a paediatrician at the Basra Children's Hospital, pointed out. "Children are dying daily, and no one is doing anything to help them."
http://tinyurl.com/fywwc
===
In case you missed it:
"We Think the Price Is Worth It":
Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it? Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12701.htm
===
Truth about Iraq's mobile weapons factories ignored, experts say:
"We have found the weapons of mass destruction," Bush trumpeted. - But even as Mr Bush spoke, US intelligence officials had evidence that it was not true. A mission to Iraq - not made public until now - had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before Mr Bush's statement.
http://tinyurl.com/jsytf
A car bomb exploded outside a Shi'ite mosque in the northern Iraqi town of Howaydir, killing at least 23 people and wounding 50, police said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KHA233346.htm
===
New Italian PM to Pull Iraq Troops:
Romano Prodi, the leader of the Union coalition, which won the latest elections in Italy, said on Wednesday that he will withdraw the Italian troops from Iraq when he takes office, claiming there was no justification for the US-led invasion of the Arab country.
http://tinyurl.com/o3foq
===
Blair isolated on Iraq conflict as Berlusconi bows out :
The defeat of Silvio Berlusconi has left Tony Blair isolated in Europe as the last political leader supporting the war in Iraq.
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article357234.ece
===
SOS over Iraqi scientists:
Since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, an alarming number of the country's leading academics have been killed. A human rights organisation puts the number at about a thousand and has a documented list of 105 cases. These professors, it says, were not random casualties - they were assassinated.
http://tinyurl.com/pp64w
===
Infant mortality in Basra is up by 30% :
"The mortality of children in Basra has increased by nearly 30 percent compared to the Saddam Hussein era," Dr Haydar Salah, a paediatrician at the Basra Children's Hospital, pointed out. "Children are dying daily, and no one is doing anything to help them."
http://tinyurl.com/fywwc
===
In case you missed it:
"We Think the Price Is Worth It":
Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it? Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12701.htm
===
Truth about Iraq's mobile weapons factories ignored, experts say:
"We have found the weapons of mass destruction," Bush trumpeted. - But even as Mr Bush spoke, US intelligence officials had evidence that it was not true. A mission to Iraq - not made public until now - had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before Mr Bush's statement.
http://tinyurl.com/jsytf
U.S., Iraqi Troops Find Weapons Caches; Insurgents Detained
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 11, 2006 – U.S. and Iraqi forces discovered multiple weapons caches and detained five suspected insurgents over the past week, U.S. military officials in Baghdad announced today.
Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers unearthed a significant weapons cache over a three-day period on an island on the Euphrates River.
Beginning April 5, soldiers from 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, discovered a weapons that contained 82 mm rounds, 120 mm rounds, rocket-propelled grenade rounds and launcher, hand grenades, 55-gallon drums of TNT, 55-gallon sacks of nitrate, bundles of detonation chord, AK-47 rounds, 1,500 meters of command wire, a mortar sight, a receiver, a 107 mm rocket, 18 mm anti-aircraft rounds, 125 mm aerial bombs, anti-tank grenades, 60 mm mortars, 82 mm mortars, sticks of dynamite, mortar primers, hand grenades, cylindrical containers and boosters.
In a separate incident, soldiers from the Iraqi Emergency Services Unit combined efforts with Bastogne soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division to detain five suspected insurgents April 9 during a sequential cordon-and-search operation of four homes in Kirkuk.
Numerous weapons and cell phones, along with dozens of false identification cards, were uncovered. All five suspects were taken to a U.S. military compound for questioning.
In another combined effort, Iraqi soldiers from the 5th Strategic Infrastructure Brigade notified Bastogne soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, of a suspected weapons cache. After receiving the information, the Bastogne soldiers escorted an explosive ordnance disposal unit to the site to investigate and destroy the cache.
This cache included rocket-propelled grenades, 122 mm rounds, 73 mm projectiles, 60 mm mortars, 40 mm projectiles, 100 mm mortars, a 105 mm mortar, 82 mm rounds, smoke grenades, small-arms rounds and fuses.
(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq news releases.)
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr2006/20060411_4788.html
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 11, 2006 – U.S. and Iraqi forces discovered multiple weapons caches and detained five suspected insurgents over the past week, U.S. military officials in Baghdad announced today.
Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers unearthed a significant weapons cache over a three-day period on an island on the Euphrates River.
Beginning April 5, soldiers from 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, discovered a weapons that contained 82 mm rounds, 120 mm rounds, rocket-propelled grenade rounds and launcher, hand grenades, 55-gallon drums of TNT, 55-gallon sacks of nitrate, bundles of detonation chord, AK-47 rounds, 1,500 meters of command wire, a mortar sight, a receiver, a 107 mm rocket, 18 mm anti-aircraft rounds, 125 mm aerial bombs, anti-tank grenades, 60 mm mortars, 82 mm mortars, sticks of dynamite, mortar primers, hand grenades, cylindrical containers and boosters.
In a separate incident, soldiers from the Iraqi Emergency Services Unit combined efforts with Bastogne soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division to detain five suspected insurgents April 9 during a sequential cordon-and-search operation of four homes in Kirkuk.
Numerous weapons and cell phones, along with dozens of false identification cards, were uncovered. All five suspects were taken to a U.S. military compound for questioning.
In another combined effort, Iraqi soldiers from the 5th Strategic Infrastructure Brigade notified Bastogne soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, of a suspected weapons cache. After receiving the information, the Bastogne soldiers escorted an explosive ordnance disposal unit to the site to investigate and destroy the cache.
This cache included rocket-propelled grenades, 122 mm rounds, 73 mm projectiles, 60 mm mortars, 40 mm projectiles, 100 mm mortars, a 105 mm mortar, 82 mm rounds, smoke grenades, small-arms rounds and fuses.
(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq news releases.)
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr2006/20060411_4788.html
- Cruel April In Iraq
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Cruel_April_In_Iraq.html
Washington (UPI) Apr 13, 2006 - April is turning out to be a cruel month for U.S. soldiers in Iraq. But the bad news should have come as no surprise. As the New York Times reported Wednesday, the rates at which Sunni insurgents are killing U.S. troops soared over the past month. As of Wednesday, April 12, 33 U.S. service members have been killed in Iraq since the beginning of the month.
- Iraq Study Group Kicks Off
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iraq_Study..._Kicks_Off.html
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Cruel_April_In_Iraq.html
Washington (UPI) Apr 13, 2006 - April is turning out to be a cruel month for U.S. soldiers in Iraq. But the bad news should have come as no surprise. As the New York Times reported Wednesday, the rates at which Sunni insurgents are killing U.S. troops soared over the past month. As of Wednesday, April 12, 33 U.S. service members have been killed in Iraq since the beginning of the month.
- Iraq Study Group Kicks Off
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iraq_Study..._Kicks_Off.html
At least 13 die in Iraq car bomb blast:
A car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in northern Baghdad Thursday killing at least 13 people
http://www.washtimes.com/upi/20060413-030409-8610r.htm
===
5 Bodies Found In Falluja:
Police said they found the bodies of five men with multiple gunshot wounds in the city of Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/GEO251087.htm
===
Two Iraqi civilians killed; health official abducted in Kirkuk:
Two Iraqi civilians were killed on Thursday by unknown gunmen in Hawijah district west of Kirkuk, northern Iraq.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/Home/Story.aspx?Lan...=en&DSNO=850944
===
Saddam family member killed:
He was Jamal Kamel Hassan, 36, the brother-in-law of two of Saddam's daughters. He was "taken hostage in Iraq and his captors demanded a million dollar ransom," a relative said.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18811224-23109,00.html
===
U.S. Soldier Killed:
A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier was killed at approximately 11:30 a.m. when his vehicle was struck by an improvised-explosive device southwest of Baghdad April 13
http://tinyurl.com/kdbmq
===
14 Killed as Shiites ask: Why convene Iraq parliament?:
A top Shiite lawmaker said Thursday that names of selections for top posts in the new Iraqi government must be agreed upon before parliament can meet next week, casting doubt on whether the legislature will convene as announced.
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/14328188.htm
===
Dahr Jamail and Jeff Pfluege: Learning to Count:
The Dead in Iraq: The lead author of the Lancet report, Les Roberts, reported more recently on February 8, 2006, that there may be as many as 300,000 Iraqi civilian deaths.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12728.htm
===
Now Powell tells us:
THE PRESIDENT played the scoundrel -- even the best of his minions went along with the lies -- and when a former ambassador dared to tell the truth, the White House initiated what Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald calls "a plan to discredit, punish or seek revenge against Mr. Wilson." That is the important story line.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...EDGNSGUB1N1.DTL
===
Evelyn Pringle: About Iraq - Not So Fast Colin Powell :
The time to come clean has long passed. In fact, the window of truth-telling time for you ended when the first US soldier was killed in Iraq.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12729.htm
===
In case you missed it:
Video: Iraq No Threat :
Both Colin Powell, US Secretary of State, and Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's closest adviser, made clear before September 11 2001 that Saddam Hussein was no threat - to America, Europe or the Middle East.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6456.htm
===
Retired US Iraq general demands Rumsfeld resign:
A recently retired two-star general who just a year ago commanded a U.S. Army division in Iraq on Wednesday joined a small but growing list of former senior officers to call on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign.
http://tinyurl.com/fyqku
===
Rumsfeld rebuts critics, backs Iraq policy :
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his top military leader on Tuesday issued their strongest rebuttal to date of recent comments by retired generals criticizing Iraq war planning and calling on Rumsfeld to resign
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/20...-rebuttal_x.htm
===
Terrorist "Chief" Is U.S. Spin:
TERROR mastermind Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi is a largely fictitious bogeyman invented to help an American propaganda war in Iraq, it was claimed last night. Senior US military and intelligence officers admitted they have "overstated" the importance of the Jordanian-born al-Qaeda chief.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12726.htm
A car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in northern Baghdad Thursday killing at least 13 people
http://www.washtimes.com/upi/20060413-030409-8610r.htm
===
5 Bodies Found In Falluja:
Police said they found the bodies of five men with multiple gunshot wounds in the city of Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/GEO251087.htm
===
Two Iraqi civilians killed; health official abducted in Kirkuk:
Two Iraqi civilians were killed on Thursday by unknown gunmen in Hawijah district west of Kirkuk, northern Iraq.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/Home/Story.aspx?Lan...=en&DSNO=850944
===
Saddam family member killed:
He was Jamal Kamel Hassan, 36, the brother-in-law of two of Saddam's daughters. He was "taken hostage in Iraq and his captors demanded a million dollar ransom," a relative said.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18811224-23109,00.html
===
U.S. Soldier Killed:
A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier was killed at approximately 11:30 a.m. when his vehicle was struck by an improvised-explosive device southwest of Baghdad April 13
http://tinyurl.com/kdbmq
===
14 Killed as Shiites ask: Why convene Iraq parliament?:
A top Shiite lawmaker said Thursday that names of selections for top posts in the new Iraqi government must be agreed upon before parliament can meet next week, casting doubt on whether the legislature will convene as announced.
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/14328188.htm
===
Dahr Jamail and Jeff Pfluege: Learning to Count:
The Dead in Iraq: The lead author of the Lancet report, Les Roberts, reported more recently on February 8, 2006, that there may be as many as 300,000 Iraqi civilian deaths.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12728.htm
===
Now Powell tells us:
THE PRESIDENT played the scoundrel -- even the best of his minions went along with the lies -- and when a former ambassador dared to tell the truth, the White House initiated what Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald calls "a plan to discredit, punish or seek revenge against Mr. Wilson." That is the important story line.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...EDGNSGUB1N1.DTL
===
Evelyn Pringle: About Iraq - Not So Fast Colin Powell :
The time to come clean has long passed. In fact, the window of truth-telling time for you ended when the first US soldier was killed in Iraq.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12729.htm
===
In case you missed it:
Video: Iraq No Threat :
Both Colin Powell, US Secretary of State, and Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's closest adviser, made clear before September 11 2001 that Saddam Hussein was no threat - to America, Europe or the Middle East.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6456.htm
===
Retired US Iraq general demands Rumsfeld resign:
A recently retired two-star general who just a year ago commanded a U.S. Army division in Iraq on Wednesday joined a small but growing list of former senior officers to call on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign.
http://tinyurl.com/fyqku
===
Rumsfeld rebuts critics, backs Iraq policy :
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his top military leader on Tuesday issued their strongest rebuttal to date of recent comments by retired generals criticizing Iraq war planning and calling on Rumsfeld to resign
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/20...-rebuttal_x.htm
===
Terrorist "Chief" Is U.S. Spin:
TERROR mastermind Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi is a largely fictitious bogeyman invented to help an American propaganda war in Iraq, it was claimed last night. Senior US military and intelligence officers admitted they have "overstated" the importance of the Jordanian-born al-Qaeda chief.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12726.htm
http://www.antiwar.com/jamail/?articleid=8850
April 14, 2006
Learning to Count:
The Dead in Iraq
by Dahr Jamail
With Jeff Pflueger
"I would say 30,000, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis."
– George W. Bush, Dec. 12, 2005, Philadelphia, Penn.
Does it count?
How many Iraqis have died as the result of the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of their country remains an unresolved question in the antiwar movement. It is a question the pro-war camp avoids. Yet what more important question is there?
The above quote made by the "compassionate conservative" shows a disturbing trend in the corporate media and among the spokespersons of the current powers that be to camouflage the true cost of the illegal occupation of Iraq – the cost in blood paid by Iraqis. It is a trend that ensures that the enormity of the atrocity goes unnoticed.
Mr. Bush has cited a figure that is obviously taken from the popular antiwar Web site Iraq Body Count (IBC), which proudly refers to its work on its home page as "The worldwide update of reported civilian deaths in the Iraq war and occupation." This project estimates a minimum and maximum death count, which as of April 12 had the minimum number of Iraqi dead at 34,030 and the maximum at 38,164. We shall provide a brief description of their biased and flawed methodology after looking at the true level of casualties in Iraq.
We begin with a more accurate number provided by the British medical journal The Lancet on Oct. 29, 2004. The published results of their survey "Mortality Before and After the 2003 Invasion of Iraq: Cluster Sample Survey" stated, "Making conservative assumptions, we think about 100,000 excess deaths, or more, have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths, and air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most violent deaths." The report also added that "Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children," and that "Eighty-four percent of the deaths were reported to be caused by the actions of Coalition forces."
The report, whose findings have been strongly criticized, not surprisingly, by pro-war camps as well as, surprisingly, by researchers at Iraq Body Count, has been backed by established, credible sources.
Not long after The Lancet released these findings, on Nov. 19, 2004, the Financial Times wrote:
"This survey technique has been criticized as flawed, but the sampling method has been used by the same team in Darfur in Sudan and in the eastern Congo and produced credible results. An official at the World Health Organization said the Iraqi study 'is very much in the league that the other studies are in.'"
The lead author of The Lancet report, Les Roberts, reported more recently on Feb. 8, 2006, that there may be as many as 300,000 Iraqi civilian deaths. One of the world's top epidemiologists and a lecturer at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Roberts has also worked for the World Health Organization and the International Rescue Committee.
Further underscoring these results from The Lancet report were comments made by Bradley Woodruff, a medical epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education on Jan. 27, 2005: "Les has used, and consistently uses, the best possible methodology." The article continues,
"Indeed, the United Nations and the State Department have cited mortality numbers compiled by Mr. Roberts on previous conflicts as fact – and have acted on those results. [He] has studied mortality caused by war since 1992, having done surveys in locations including Bosnia, Congo, and Rwanda. His three surveys in Congo for the International Rescue Committee, a nongovernmental humanitarian organization, in which he used methods akin to those of his Iraq study, received a great deal of attention. 'Tony Blair and Colin Powell have quoted those results time and time again without any question as to the precision or validity,' he says."
In an interview on Democracy Now! on Dec. 14, 2005, Roberts, when discussing why the figure from his report was too low, stated that it excluded Fallujah so as not to skew the survey, and said,
"And so, those who attacked us did not attack us for our methods. In fact, I think, if you read the reviews in the Wall Street Journal or The Economist, of what we did, the scientific community is quite soundly behind our approach. The criticism is of the imprecision. But realize the imprecision is: Was it 100,000 or was it 200,000? The question wasn't: Was it only 30 or 40 [thousand]? There's no chance it could have been only 30 or 40 [thousand]."
The staggering level of violence and death one of these authors has seen on the ground in Iraq certainly backs Roberts' statements and those of other journalists, like veteran Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk, who writes for the Independent. In an article on Dec. 30, 2005, Fisk wrote:
"We do not even know – are not allowed to know – how many of them have died. We know that 1,100 Iraqis died by violence in Baghdad in July alone. … But how many died in the other cities of Iraq, in Mosul and Kirkuk and Irbil, and in Amara and Fallujah and Ramadi and Najaf and Kerbala and Basra? Three thousand in July? Or four thousand? And if those projections are accurate, we are talking about 36,000 or 48,000 over the year – which makes that project
April 14, 2006
Learning to Count:
The Dead in Iraq
by Dahr Jamail
With Jeff Pflueger
"I would say 30,000, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis."
– George W. Bush, Dec. 12, 2005, Philadelphia, Penn.
Does it count?
How many Iraqis have died as the result of the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of their country remains an unresolved question in the antiwar movement. It is a question the pro-war camp avoids. Yet what more important question is there?
The above quote made by the "compassionate conservative" shows a disturbing trend in the corporate media and among the spokespersons of the current powers that be to camouflage the true cost of the illegal occupation of Iraq – the cost in blood paid by Iraqis. It is a trend that ensures that the enormity of the atrocity goes unnoticed.
Mr. Bush has cited a figure that is obviously taken from the popular antiwar Web site Iraq Body Count (IBC), which proudly refers to its work on its home page as "The worldwide update of reported civilian deaths in the Iraq war and occupation." This project estimates a minimum and maximum death count, which as of April 12 had the minimum number of Iraqi dead at 34,030 and the maximum at 38,164. We shall provide a brief description of their biased and flawed methodology after looking at the true level of casualties in Iraq.
We begin with a more accurate number provided by the British medical journal The Lancet on Oct. 29, 2004. The published results of their survey "Mortality Before and After the 2003 Invasion of Iraq: Cluster Sample Survey" stated, "Making conservative assumptions, we think about 100,000 excess deaths, or more, have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths, and air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most violent deaths." The report also added that "Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children," and that "Eighty-four percent of the deaths were reported to be caused by the actions of Coalition forces."
The report, whose findings have been strongly criticized, not surprisingly, by pro-war camps as well as, surprisingly, by researchers at Iraq Body Count, has been backed by established, credible sources.
Not long after The Lancet released these findings, on Nov. 19, 2004, the Financial Times wrote:
"This survey technique has been criticized as flawed, but the sampling method has been used by the same team in Darfur in Sudan and in the eastern Congo and produced credible results. An official at the World Health Organization said the Iraqi study 'is very much in the league that the other studies are in.'"
The lead author of The Lancet report, Les Roberts, reported more recently on Feb. 8, 2006, that there may be as many as 300,000 Iraqi civilian deaths. One of the world's top epidemiologists and a lecturer at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Roberts has also worked for the World Health Organization and the International Rescue Committee.
Further underscoring these results from The Lancet report were comments made by Bradley Woodruff, a medical epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education on Jan. 27, 2005: "Les has used, and consistently uses, the best possible methodology." The article continues,
"Indeed, the United Nations and the State Department have cited mortality numbers compiled by Mr. Roberts on previous conflicts as fact – and have acted on those results. [He] has studied mortality caused by war since 1992, having done surveys in locations including Bosnia, Congo, and Rwanda. His three surveys in Congo for the International Rescue Committee, a nongovernmental humanitarian organization, in which he used methods akin to those of his Iraq study, received a great deal of attention. 'Tony Blair and Colin Powell have quoted those results time and time again without any question as to the precision or validity,' he says."
In an interview on Democracy Now! on Dec. 14, 2005, Roberts, when discussing why the figure from his report was too low, stated that it excluded Fallujah so as not to skew the survey, and said,
"And so, those who attacked us did not attack us for our methods. In fact, I think, if you read the reviews in the Wall Street Journal or The Economist, of what we did, the scientific community is quite soundly behind our approach. The criticism is of the imprecision. But realize the imprecision is: Was it 100,000 or was it 200,000? The question wasn't: Was it only 30 or 40 [thousand]? There's no chance it could have been only 30 or 40 [thousand]."
The staggering level of violence and death one of these authors has seen on the ground in Iraq certainly backs Roberts' statements and those of other journalists, like veteran Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk, who writes for the Independent. In an article on Dec. 30, 2005, Fisk wrote:
"We do not even know – are not allowed to know – how many of them have died. We know that 1,100 Iraqis died by violence in Baghdad in July alone. … But how many died in the other cities of Iraq, in Mosul and Kirkuk and Irbil, and in Amara and Fallujah and Ramadi and Najaf and Kerbala and Basra? Three thousand in July? Or four thousand? And if those projections are accurate, we are talking about 36,000 or 48,000 over the year – which makes that project