Iraqis 'plotted to kill Allawi' BBC News
The trial has opened in Stuttgart, Germany, of three Iraqi men accused of plotting to kill then Iraqi PM Iyad Allawi on a trip there in 2004. Prosecutors say the men are members of the radical Ansar al-Islam group with links to al-Qaeda. Police say they intercepted a phone call between the men agreeing to carry out the attack when Mr Allawi appeared at a business forum in central Berlin. The men face a maximum jail term of 10 years if found guilty. Ata Abdoulaziz Rashid, 32, Mazen Ali Hussein, 24, and Rafik Mohamad Yousef, 31, are charged with conspiracy and membership of Ansar al-Islam. Their case is being heard in a high-security court specially designed for trials of Germany's militant Red Army Faction in the 1970s.

Pre-dawn raids
Police say Rafik Mohamad Yousef had made a phone call to the other defendants, described as more senior group members. They say Yousuf was then given approval for the attack and a pledge of financial help. Yousuf then allegedly inspected the site of the planned attack - a Deutsche Bank building in the German capital - on 2 December 2004, a day ahead of Mr Allawi's visit. Police then arrested the three in pre-dawn raids. Rashid and Hussein are also charged with transferring funds to Iraq and Iran on behalf of Ansar al-Islam. In January an Ansar al-Islam member was jailed for seven years in Munich for recruiting fighters and raising funds. Mr Allawi headed up the Iraq interim government in June 2004 and stepped down in April 2005.

No time to play it safe! Russ Feingold and John Kerry
Dear Friends,
We need you to stand with us -- and we need you to do it now.


In the next 24 to 48 hours, we will go to the Senate floor to press for passage of the Kerry-Feingold Amendment calling for the redeployment of U.S. combat troops out of Iraq by a deadline certain. Our country desperately needs a new vision for strengthening our national security, and it starts by redeploying U.S. forces out of Iraq so we can wage and win a more effective war on terror and give Iraqis the best chance to stand up for a stable Iraq.

Tell your Senators: support the Kerry-Feingold Amendment on Iraq
Our troops have served valiantly in Iraq. Under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, they've done their job. Now, it's time to put the future of Iraq where it belongs: in the hands of the Iraqi people and their leaders. And it's time to listen to General George Casey and acknowledge that the indefinite presence of large numbers of U.S. combat forces in Iraq will weaken chances of defeating the insurgency and weaken our ability to fight the global terrorist networks that threaten us today. In recent days, we've seen Republican leaders in the House and Senate shamelessly reject the opportunity for a genuine, meaningful debate on Iraq. They've resorted to a Karl Rove strategy of blindly endorsing President Bush's failed "stay the course" policy in Iraq and challenging the courage and patriotism of anyone who dares to point out the disastrous consequences of their failed approach. It's time for every Senator to reject the lack of wisdom in their Iraq policies and the lack of decency in their Iraq politics.

Tell your Senators: support the Kerry-Feingold Amendment on Iraq
We have to reject calls for an unquestioning, open-ended endorsement of George W. Bush's endless commitment of U.S. troops in Iraq. And we have to reject the "play it safe" conventional wisdom, inside D.C. punditry that would have Democrats stand on the sidelines without doing everything in our power to change policies that we know are deeply flawed and dangerous. We urge you to tell your Senators that it's time for a new direction. Ask them to endorse the Kerry-Feingold amendment calling for the redeployment of combat troops out of Iraq by a hard and fast deadline. Tell them to act for one simple reason: it's the right thing to do -- for Iraq, and for the United States.
Tell your Senators: support the Kerry-Feingold Amendment on Iraq

Act now to add your voice to tens of thousands of others from around the country who are actively supporting the Kerry-Feingold amendment. We'll see to it that your letter gets delivered to the Senate. This is a critical vote on the most crucial issue facing our country. It's time for every member of the Senate to send an important message that we must change course. And it's time for you to demand leadership from those you have sent to Washington to represent your views. We urge you to act immediately -- and we thank you for standing with us on this critical issue.
Sincerely,
Russ Feingold and John Kerry

Japan Pulling Its 600 Troops From Iraq Forbes
Japan's announcement Tuesday that it would immediately start pulling its ground troops from Iraq brought to a close a mission that symbolized the country's push to take a more assertive role in world affairs. Defense chief Fukushiro Nukaga ordered the withdrawal to begin Tuesday and said it would take weeks. Tokyo made clear the pullout did not signal a break with Washington; Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said the decision was made in consultation with the United States and other allies. The 600 Japanese troops were sent to Iraq in 2004 on a strictly humanitarian, non-combat mission. They were assigned to a relatively peaceful part of the country and were largely confined to base. There were no casualties among Japanese soldiers during the mission, but other Japanese citizens in Iraq were targeted by militants demanding the country withdraw its troops. Seven Japanese have been kidnapped in Iraq since the deployment, and two of them were killed. But Japan has been concerned its troops could be drawn into the fighting in Iraq. So when Britain and Australia announced Monday that they would hand over responsibility for security to Iraqi forces in southern Muthana province, where the Japanese troops are based, that apparently signaled to Tokyo it was time to go. The mission in Iraq was Japan's largest military deployment in the postwar era and the first to a war zone since 1945. Koizumi, announcing the withdrawal, said the mission in Samawah showed that Tokyo stood ready to fulfill its international obligations, and he pledged further aid Iraq. "We played a major role in reconstructing infrastructure and basic living conditions through our activities," Koizumi said. "We won the appreciation and trust of the Iraqi government and its people." The troops' top tasks were purifying water and repairing schools, but he said soldiers also patched roads and strengthened medical services. Japan is not completely withdrawing from Iraq. The government will now look at expanding air operations in the country to ferry U.S. personnel and medical supplies, officials said. The mission to Iraq was the most dramatic in a series of moves in recent years by a Japan increasingly eager to play a diplomatic and military role more commensurate with its economic might. Tokyo offered logistical maritime support for the U.S.-led attack on Afghanistan in 2002, and the Koizumi was a vocal backer of the invasion of Iraq the following year. In addition, Japan is working on a joint missile defense system with the United States, and is assuming more responsibility for its own defense under a broad realignment of the 50,000 U.S. troops based in the country. Koizumi has made clear he hoped the Iraq mission would open the door to similar deployments. The efforts have been limited by the country's 1947 pacifist constitution, which bans Japan from taking part in warfare. Koizumi got around that by passing legislation allowing only humanitarian military dispatches to relatively peaceful areas. The ruling party also wants to revise the constitution. Koizumi heads to Washington for a summit with President Bush in late June, before stepping down in September. "Japan's policy to cooperate with the United States based on the importance of the Japan-U.S. alliance has never changed and will not change," he said. The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo issued a brief statement saying Washington valued Japan's contribution to Iraqi reconstruction. The Iraqi ambassador to Japan, Ghanim Alwan al-Jumaily, also visited Koizumi to thank him for the deployment.
By JOSEPH COLEMAN
Japan pulling troops from Iraq CNN
Japan Withdraws Troops from Iraq Voice of America
International Herald Tribune - Aljazeera.net - EiTB - Times Online - all 720 related »

US soldiers' bodies found in Iraq BBC News
Two US soldiers missing in Iraq since Friday have been found dead south of Baghdad, the US military has said. The bodies were found in the Yusifiya area on Monday. An Iraqi defence ministry spokesman said the bodies had shown signs of torture. An insurgent group linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq, which claimed it abducted the men, has now said that it killed them. The missing men have been named as Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker, both from the 101st Airborne Division. Another US soldier, David Babineau, was killed in the attack on the checkpoint.

Relatives' anger
US military spokesman in Iraq, Maj Gen William Caldwell, said the bodies were found late on Monday by US troops. "We have recovered what we believe are the remains of our two missing soldiers. They will be taken back to the United States for positive verification." He said the cause of death was "undeterminable at this point". But Iraqi defence ministry spokesman Gen Abdul Aziz Mohammed said: "We found they had been tortured in a barbaric fashion." A US statement said that the bodies had been booby-trapped. It said 8,000 coalition and Iraqi forces had been carrying out a massive search for the missing men, and that one US soldier died and another 12 were injured in clashes during the search.


Relatives of the men have already reacted with grief and anger. Ken MacKenzie, uncle of Kristian Menchaca, said on US television: "Because the US government did not have a plan in place, my nephew has paid for it with his life." An internet statement posted by the Mujahideen Shura Council - a grouping of insurgents that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq - said it had abducted the men and slit their throats. The posting, which cannot be independently confirmed, said the new leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq - Abu Hamza al-Muhajir - had been "favoured by God" in being allowed to carry out a Sharia law tribunal death sentence. The former leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a US air strike near Baquba on 7 June.

Market bombs
Gen Caldwell said on Tuesday US forces had killed Zarqawi's "right-hand man" in a raid in Yusifiya on Friday, near where the US troops were abducted. The general said Iraqi Mansur Suleiman al-Mashhadani was "a key leader in al-Qaeda" and could have succeeded Zarqawi. The US also said it had killed 15 "terrorists" in an "extremely long firefight" in Bushahin, north of Baquba. The US military said its forces came under attack from gunmen on a roof and around nearby buildings. After the firefight, it said, various weapons and explosives were found. However, angry local people said the dead were all innocent poultry workers. Meanwhile, violence continued around Iraq despite Zarqawi's death and a new security clampdown involving tens of thousands of Iraqi and US troops in Baghdad:

• At least three people are killed in a car bomb in a market in Sadr City, eastern Baghdad
• Two more people are killed and 28 hurt in an explosion at a clothes market in central Baghdad
• Elsewhere, at least one elderly woman was killed along with a suicide bomber who blew himself up inside a home for the elderly in the southern city of Basra.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middlee..._Iraq__Roundup_

Baghdad - At least 40 people were killed and scores more wounded in another day of violence in Iraq Tuesday, which also saw the discovery of 18 more bodies, including those of two US soldiers missing since last week, witnesses and officials said.

Nine of the dead were killed by separate bomb attacks in Baghdad and in the southern city of Basra, security sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Two of the bombings targeted marketplaces in the Iraqi capital. Three people died and up to 81 were wounded at the Jamila market in Sadr City, while a bomb in the busy Haraj market in central Baghdad killed four persons and wounded 18 others.

In Basra, a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt killed two women and wounded four other persons in the attack near a home for the elderly, security sources said.

Basra has been witnessing an escalation of violence that prompted Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to declare a state of emergency in the city three weeks ago.

British Defence Secretary Desmond Browne had on Monday announced a new security plan in Basra similar to the one implemented by the Iraqi government last week in Baghdad, when 40,000 Iraqi and US-led coalition forces were deployed to try to boost safety in the capital.

In a separate incident, US forces killed 15 insurgents and detained three more in raids conducted near Baquba, 60 kilometres northeast of Baghdad on Tuesday.

Ground and air forces had engaged and killed 11 insurgents as the troops moved in towards the objective area north of the city, US military sources said.

One aircraft involved in the raid flew into electricity cables, and was forced to make an emergency landing. The members of the crew were uninjured, the US military said.

Three more insurgents were killed as they attempted to attack the downed aircraft, while another militant was shot dead by a US sniper. The downed aircraft was recovered before the forces returned to base.

Also Tuesday, the corpses of two missing US soldiers were discovered in Yusifiya, approximately 25 kilometres south of Baghdad, the Iraqi defence ministry said.

A ministry spokesman said the bodies had been found close to an electricity station in the city, but gave no further details.

US military spokesman Major William Caldwell, speaking at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, refused to confirm or deny that the remains of the soldiers had been recovered.

The two US troops had disappeared on Friday after insurgents attacked a checkpoint in Yusifiya.

Meanwhile police patrols elsewhere in Iraq discovered the bodies of 16 people including five Iraqi soldiers found in the city of Soweira, 45 kilometres south of Baghdad.

The five had been decapitated and their bodies bore evidence of torture, security sources said.

Eleven more bodies were also found scattered in a number of Baghdad districts. All 11 eleven corpses were found 'blindfolded, with their hands bound, and bore evidence of torture,' a security source in the city said.

Elsewhere in Iraq, 13 members of the same family were killed by a US airstrike in Dalet Abbas, close to Baquba, witnesses told dpa. The US military did not comment on the incident when contacted.

Gunmen also killed a man and his wife and wounded his two daughters in Bahraz, south of Baquba, a security source said.

In another attack, one man was killed by gunmen and another was wounded when an explosive device went off near his house west of Baquba.

Meanwhile in London, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari Tuesday held out the prospect of a further transfer of security responsibility to Iraqi forces in the south of the country.

Speaking after talks with British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett in London, Zebari said he expected British-controlled Maysan province to be the next area of the country to be handed over to domestic security forces.

His comments came a day after premier al-Maliki confirmed that local authorities would take control of neighbouring Muthanna province in the course of the next month as Japanese forces pull out.


© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

http://www.antiwar.com/jamail/?articleid=9177
June 20, 2006
Ramadi Residents Struggle to Survive

by Dahr Jamail
With Ali Fadhil

RAMADI - As the threat of a giant U.S. military operation in Ramadi lingers and sporadic clashes plague the city daily, residents struggle to cope, both inside and outside the sealed city.

A week spent in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province west of Baghdad, reveals that residents are suffering from lack of water, electricity, cooking gas, and medical supplies for the hospitals. The streets are eerily empty, and it appears that many people have now left the city, although possibly as many as 150,000 still remain in their homes, either because they are too afraid to leave or they have nowhere to go.

"We will survive anyway," Um Qassim, a middle-aged housewife with six children, told IPS. "It is Allah who gives life, and he is the only one able to take it away."

Despite the horrible conditions here, with armed resistance groups controlling vast swathes of the city, and other areas subject to frequent shooting from U.S. snipers on the rooftops of houses, she said that people should be grateful to their god whatever happens to them, adding, "Those Americans will leave."

The operation is part of a renewed crackdown on what the Pentagon says is a stronghold of the Sunni Arab resistance. As the threat of an all-out U.S. attack on the city looms, Imad al-Muhammadi with the Iraqi Red Crescent in Ramadi told IPS, "Ramadi is a lot more difficult than the Fallujah crisis because people cannot flee to Baghdad and many other cities due to the threat of sectarian death squads, so it is very difficult to provide them with safe shelter at a reasonable distance from the military operations."

Muhammadi said that many of the families who had left are facing "horrible living conditions in tents, abandoned schools, and are staying under any roof that protects them from the burning summer sun."

"There is no positive sign on the American side that shows a different solution from those of Fallujah and other cities which have been 'deleted' in order to be 'liberated,'" he added. "Civilians, as usual, are the ones living the hardships of occupation and definitely the ones dying in vain."

According to Maurizio Mascia, program manager for the Italian Consortium of Solidarity (ICS), a non-governmental group based in Amman, Jordan that provides relief to refugees in Iraq, minor clashes were reported on Monday, mainly in al-Qadisiya, al-Mala'ab, al-Andalus, al-Aramel, al-Aziziya, al-Qattana, al-Soufiya, the city center (close to Abd al-Jaleel mosque), and 30th of July.

Additionally, U.S. and Iraqi forces are reported to be attacking the eastern side of the city in an effort to push into Ramadi.

ICS reports that the number of checkpoints and the frequency of Multi-National Forces (MNF) patrols have increased since the beginning of the crisis, making it likely that both the MNF/Iraqi forces and insurgents are preparing themselves for a heightened battle.

"The population is still leaving the city, and the number of families in displacement traced in Anbar by ICS monitors is close to 3,200 now," Mascia told IPS by telephone. "The new IDPs [internally displaced persons] are mainly approaching Rutba and al-Baghdadi, while Heet remains the main destination of Ramadi IDPs." He said about 1,000 IDP families are present now in Fallujah and surrounding areas.

However, he added, "Most of the families are avoiding approaching Fallujah due to the complicated procedure enforced by MNF to enter the city." Mascia said that the number of families recorded by ICS is almost certainly low, since his group only logs families who get direct relief aid from their workers.

"The Americans, instead of attacking the city all at once like they've done in their previous operations in cities like Fallujah and al-Qa'im, are using helicopters and ground troops to attack one district at a time in Ramadi," Mascia told IPS from his office in Amman.

"Access to Ramadi is extremely difficult," he continued. "The checkpoints are set up at the two bridges and make it extremely difficult to access the city by vehicle. The only available option to avoid the checkpoints is the desert way heading to al-Ta'meem district."

"The main dangers for the population are the MNF at the checkpoints and the snipers: both usually shoot at any movement that they consider dangerous – causing many victims among civilians."

According to Mascia, services at the main hospital, as well as health clinics, is down to a "low standard due to the security situation and lack of medical supplies."

And similar to the tactics used during the U.S. assault on Fallujah in November 2004, the U.S. military continues to use loudspeakers to ask people to either hand over "insurgents" who are present in their neighborhoods, or to evacuate their homes and flee the city. ICS reports that some of the messages have specifically made reference to what happened in Fallujah.

Correspondents with the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in Baghdad recently reported on the use of snipers by the U.S. military in Ramadi: "People in Ramadi … estimate that about 70 percent of the city's population have fled in the last week, many of them holding white flags for fear of being shot at by Marine snipers."

The IPS correspondent in Ramadi also witnessed snipers shooting at civilians in the city.

"The ongoing violence between U.S. Marines and the insurgents, air strikes, and outages in the water, electricity, and phone networks have already made life untenable," adds the IWPR report. "Ramadi residents say U.S. troops regularly take over houses to fight the insurgents, and combatants on both sides have been seen using rooftops as sniper positions."

The Association of Muslim Scholars, based in Baghdad, has encouraged the residents of Heet, which is near Ramadi, to host those fleeing the city. Some more vulnerable families are also staying in mosques that are offering shelter to refugees.

An IWPR reporter in Baghdad wrote that a 17-year-old student who fled Ramadi with his parents, Ghayath Salim al-Dulaimi, said his relatives had been prevented from leaving by U.S. air strikes two days earlier.

"Our neighborhood has emptied completely – there's no one left," he told IWPR. "People are leaving in droves and there aren't any services at all. You can't get to hospital because movement is restricted."

Responding to a question about the situation in Ramadi at a June 15 news briefing, Brig. Gen. Carter Ham from the Pentagon said, "I think those who are looking for perhaps a large-scale offensive may be somewhat off the mark. And I think what we will see increasingly is the Iraqis finding ways to increasingly establish the presence of Iraqi security forces, and we'll help them do that in any way that we can."

(Inter Press Service)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle...icle1090904.ece


from The Independent & The Independent on Sunday
20 June 2006 17:03 Home > News > World > Middle East
The ugly truth about everyday life in Baghdad (by the US ambassador)
CONFIDENTIAL MEMO
FROM: US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, Baghdad
TO: Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State
SUBJECT: SNAPSHOTS FROM THE OFFICE
SENSITIVE
Published: 20 June 2006
1. Iraqi staff in the Public Affairs sector have complained that Islamist and Militia groups have been negatively affecting daily routine. Harassment over proper dress and habits is increasingly persuasive. They also report power cuts and fuel prices have diminished their quality of life.

Women's Rights

2. Two of our three female employees report stepped up harassment beginning in mid-May. One, a Shia who favors Western clothing, was advised by an unknown woman in her Baghdad neighbourhood to wear a veil and not to drive her own car. She said some groups are pushing women to cover even their face, a step not taken in Iran even at its most conservative.

3. Another, a Sunni, said people in her neighbourhood are harassing women and telling them to cover up and stop using cell phones. She said the taxi driver who brings her every day to the green zone has told her he cannot let her ride unless she wears a headcover. A female in the PAS cultural section is now wearing a full abaya after receiving direct threats.

4. The women say they cannot identify the groups pressuring them. The cautions come from other women, sometimes from men who could be Sunni or Shia, but appear conservative. Some ministries, notably the Sadrist controlled Ministry of Transportation, have been forcing females to wear the hijab at work.

Dress Code For All?

5. Staff members have reported it is now dangerous for men to wear shorts in public; they no longer allow their children to play outside in shorts. People who wear jeans in public have come under attack.

Evictions

6. One colleague beseeched us to help a neighbor who was uprooted in May from her home of 30 years, on the pretense of application of some long-disused law. The woman, who is a Fayli Kurd, says she has nowhere to go, but the courts give them no recourse to this new assertion of power. Such uprootings may be response by new Shia government authorities to similar actions against Arabs by Kurds in other parts of Iraq. (NOTE: An Arab newspaper editor told us he is preparing an extensive survey of ethnic cleansing, which he said is taking place in almost every Iraqi province, as political parties and their militias are seemingly engaged in tit-for-tat reprisals all over Iraq.)

Power Cuts and Fuel Shortages a Drain on Society

7. Temperatures in Baghdad have already reached 115 degrees. Employees all confirm that, by the last week of May, they were getting one hour of power for every six hours without. By early June, the situation had improved slightly. In Hal al-Shaab, power has recently improved from one in six to one in three hours. Other staff report similar variances. Central Baghdad neighborhood Bab al-Nu'atham has had no city power for over a month. Areas near hospitals, political party headquarters and the green zone have the best supply. One staff member reported a friend lives in a building that houses the new minister; within 24 hours of his appointment, her building had city power 24 hours a day.

8. All employees supplement city power with service contracted with neighborhood generator hookups that they pay for monthly. One employee pays 7500 Iraqi dinars (ID) per ampere to get 10 amperes per month (75,000 ID = $50/month). For this, her family gets eight hours of power per day, with service ending at 2am.

9. Fuel queues. One employee told us that he had spent 12 hours on his day off waiting to get gas. Another staff member confirmed that shortages were so dire, prices on the black market in much of Baghdad were now above 1,000 ID per liter (the official, subsidized price is 250 ID)

Kidnappings, and Threats of Worse

10. One employee informed us that his brother-in-law had been kidnapped. The man was eventually released but this caused enormous emotional distress to his family. One employee, a Sunni Kurd, received an indirect threat on her life in April. She took extended leave, and by May, relocated abroad with her family.

Security Forces Mistrusted

11. In April, employees began reporting a change in demeanor of guards at the green zone checkpoints. They seemed to be militia-like in some cases seemingly taunting. One employee asked us to get her some press credentials because the guards held her embassy badge up and proclaimed loudly to passers-by "Embassy" as she entered. Such information is a death sentence if heard by the wrong people.

Supervising Staff At High Risk

12. Employees all share a common tale: of nine employees in March, only four had family members who knew they worked at the embassy. Iraqi colleagues who are called after hours often speak in Arabic as an indication they cannot speak openly in English.

13. We cannot call employees in on weekends or holidays without blowing their "cover". A Sunni Arab female employee tells us family pressures and the inability to share details of her employment is very tough; she told her family she was in Jordon when we sent her on training to the US. Mounting criticism of the US at home among family members also makes her life difficult. She told us in mid-June that most of her family believes the US - which is widely perceived as fully controlling the country and tolerating the malaise - is punishing the population as Saddam did (but with Sunnis and very poor Shia now at the bottom of the list). Otherwise, she says, the allocation of power and security would not be so arbitrary.

14. Some of our staff do not take home their American cell phones, as it makes them a target. They use code names for friends and colleagues and contacts entered into Iraq cell phones. For at least six months, we have not been able to use any local staff for translation at on-camera press events.

15. We have begun shredding documents that show local staff surnames. In March, a few members approached us to ask what provisions would we make for them if we evacuate.

Sectarian Tensions Within Families

16. Ethnic and sectarian faultlines are becoming part of the daily media fare in the country. One Shia employee told us in late May that she can no longer watch TV news with her mother, who is Sunni, because her mother blamed all the government failings on the fact that Shia are in charge. Many of the employee's family left Iraq years ago. This month, another sister is departing for Egypt, as she imagines the future here is too bleak.

Frayed Nerves and Mistrust

17. Against this backdrop of frayed social networks, tension and moodiness have risen. A Sunni Arab female apparently insulted a Shia female by criticizing her overly liberal dress. One colleague told us he feels " defeated" by circumstances, citing the example of being unable to help his two-year-old son who has asthma and cannot sleep in the stifling heat.

18. Another employee tells us life outside the Green Zone has become " emotionally draining". He claims to attend a funeral "every evening ". He, like other local employees, is financially responsible for his immediate and extended families. He revealed that "the burden of responsibility; new stress coming from social circles who increasingly disapprove of the coalition presence, and everyday threats weigh very heavily ".

Staying Straight with Neighborhood Governments and the 'Alama'

19. Staff say they daily assess how to move safely in public. Often, if they must travel outside their neighborhoods, they adopt the clothing, language, and traits of the area. Moving inconspicuously in Sadr City requires Shia dress and a particular lingo.

20 Since Samarra, Baghdadis have honed survival skills. Vocabulary has shifted. Our staff - and our contacts - have become adept in modifying behaviour to avoid "Alasas", informants who keep an eye out for " outsiders" in neighborhoods. The Alasa mentality is becoming entrenched as Iraqi security forces fail to gain public confidence.

21. Staff report security and services are being rerouted through " local providers" whose affiliations are vague. Those who are admonishing citizens on their dress are not well known either. Personal safety depends on good relations with "neighborhood" governments, who barricade streets and ward off outsiders. People no longer trust most neighbours.

22. A resident of Shia/Christian Karrada district told us "outsiders" have moved in and control the mukhtars.

Comment

23. Although our staff retain a professional demeanor, strains are apparent. We see their personal fears are reinforcing divisive sectarian or ethnic channels. Employees are apprehensive enough that we fear they may exaggerate developments or steer us towards news that comports with their own world view. Objectivity, civility, and logic that make for a functional workplace may falter if social pressures outside the Green Zone don't abate.

(This is an edited version of the memo)

1. Iraqi staff in the Public Affairs sector have complained that Islamist and Militia groups have been negatively affecting daily routine. Harassment over proper dress and habits is increasingly persuasive. They also report power cuts and fuel prices have diminished their quality of life.

Women's Rights

2. Two of our three female employees report stepped up harassment beginning in mid-May. One, a Shia who favors Western clothing, was advised by an unknown woman in her Baghdad neighbourhood to wear a veil and not to drive her own car. She said some groups are pushing women to cover even their face, a step not taken in Iran even at its most conservative.

3. Another, a Sunni, said people in her neighbourhood are harassing women and telling them to cover up and stop using cell phones. She said the taxi driver who brings her every day to the green zone has told her he cannot let her ride unless she wears a headcover. A female in the PAS cultural section is now wearing a full abaya after receiving direct threats.

4. The women say they cannot identify the groups pressuring them. The cautions come from other women, sometimes from men who could be Sunni or Shia, but appear conservative. Some ministries, notably the Sadrist controlled Ministry of Transportation, have been forcing females to wear the hijab at work.

Dress Code For All?

5. Staff members have reported it is now dangerous for men to wear shorts in public; they no longer allow their children to play outside in shorts. People who wear jeans in public have come under attack.

Evictions

6. One colleague beseeched us to help a neighbor who was uprooted in May from her home of 30 years, on the pretense of application of some long-disused law. The woman, who is a Fayli Kurd, says she has nowhere to go, but the courts give them no recourse to this new assertion of power. Such uprootings may be response by new Shia government authorities to similar actions against Arabs by Kurds in other parts of Iraq. (NOTE: An Arab newspaper editor told us he is preparing an extensive survey of ethnic cleansing, which he said is taking place in almost every Iraqi province, as political parties and their militias are seemingly engaged in tit-for-tat reprisals all over Iraq.)

Power Cuts and Fuel Shortages a Drain on Society

7. Temperatures in Baghdad have already reached 115 degrees. Employees all confirm that, by the last week of May, they were getting one hour of power for every six hours without. By early June, the situation had improved slightly. In Hal al-Shaab, power has recently improved from one in six to one in three hours. Other staff report similar variances. Central Baghdad neighborhood Bab al-Nu'atham has had no city power for over a month. Areas near hospitals, political party headquarters and the green zone have the best supply. One staff member reported a friend lives in a building that houses the new minister; within 24 hours of his appointment, her building had city power 24 hours a day.

8. All employees supplement city power with service contracted with neighborhood generator hookups that they pay for monthly. One employee pays 7500 Iraqi dinars (ID) per ampere to get 10 amperes per month (75,000 ID = $50/month). For this, her family gets eight hours of power per day, with service ending at 2am.

9. Fuel queues. One employee told us that he had spent 12 hours on his day off waiting to get gas. Another staff member confirmed that shortages were so dire, prices on the black market in much of Baghdad were now above 1,000 ID per liter (the official, subsidized price is 250 ID)

Kidnappings, and Threats of Worse

10. One employee informed us that his brother-in-law had been kidnapped. The man was eventually released but this caused enormous emotional distress to his family. One employee, a Sunni Kurd, received an indirect threat on her life in April. She took extended leave, and by May, relocated abroad with her family.

Security Forces Mistrusted

11. In April, employees began reporting a change in demeanor of guards at the green zone checkpoints. They seemed to be militia-like in some cases seemingly taunting. One employee asked us to get her some press credentials because the guards held her embassy badge up and proclaimed loudly to passers-by "Embassy" as she entered. Such information is a death sentence if heard by the wrong people.
Supervising Staff At High Risk

12. Employees all share a common tale: of nine employees in March, only four had family members who knew they worked at the embassy. Iraqi colleagues who are called after hours often speak in Arabic as an indication they cannot speak openly in English.

13. We cannot call employees in on weekends or holidays without blowing their "cover". A Sunni Arab female employee tells us family pressures and the inability to share details of her employment is very tough; she told her family she was in Jordon when we sent her on training to the US. Mounting criticism of the US at home among family members also makes her life difficult. She told us in mid-June that most of her family believes the US - which is widely perceived as fully controlling the country and tolerating the malaise - is punishing the population as Saddam did (but with Sunnis and very poor Shia now at the bottom of the list). Otherwise, she says, the allocation of power and security would not be so arbitrary.

14. Some of our staff do not take home their American cell phones, as it makes them a target. They use code names for friends and colleagues and contacts entered into Iraq cell phones. For at least six months, we have not been able to use any local staff for translation at on-camera press events.

15. We have begun shredding documents that show local staff surnames. In March, a few members approached us to ask what provisions would we make for them if we evacuate.

Sectarian Tensions Within Families

16. Ethnic and sectarian faultlines are becoming part of the daily media fare in the country. One Shia employee told us in late May that she can no longer watch TV news with her mother, who is Sunni, because her mother blamed all the government failings on the fact that Shia are in charge. Many of the employee's family left Iraq years ago. This month, another sister is departing for Egypt, as she imagines the future here is too bleak.

Frayed Nerves and Mistrust

17. Against this backdrop of frayed social networks, tension and moodiness have risen. A Sunni Arab female apparently insulted a Shia female by criticizing her overly liberal dress. One colleague told us he feels " defeated" by circumstances, citing the example of being unable to help his two-year-old son who has asthma and cannot sleep in the stifling heat.

18. Another employee tells us life outside the Green Zone has become " emotionally draining". He claims to attend a funeral "every evening ". He, like other local employees, is financially responsible for his immediate and extended families. He revealed that "the burden of responsibility; new stress coming from social circles who increasingly disapprove of the coalition presence, and everyday threats weigh very heavily ".

Staying Straight with Neighborhood Governments and the 'Alama'

19. Staff say they daily assess how to move safely in public. Often, if they must travel outside their neighborhoods, they adopt the clothing, language, and traits of the area. Moving inconspicuously in Sadr City requires Shia dress and a particular lingo.

20 Since Samarra, Baghdadis have honed survival skills. Vocabulary has shifted. Our staff - and our contacts - have become adept in modifying behaviour to avoid "Alasas", informants who keep an eye out for " outsiders" in neighborhoods. The Alasa mentality is becoming entrenched as Iraqi security forces fail to gain public confidence.

21. Staff report security and services are being rerouted through " local providers" whose affiliations are vague. Those who are admonishing citizens on their dress are not well known either. Personal safety depends on good relations with "neighborhood" governments, who barricade streets and ward off outsiders. People no longer trust most neighbours.

22. A resident of Shia/Christian Karrada district told us "outsiders" have moved in and control the mukhtars.

Comment

23. Although our staff retain a professional demeanor, strains are apparent. We see their personal fears are reinforcing divisive sectarian or ethnic channels. Employees are apprehensive enough that we fear they may exaggerate developments or steer us towards news that comports with their own world view. Objectivity, civility, and logic that make for a functional workplace may falter if social pressures outside the Green Zone don't abate.

(This is an edited version of the memo)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle...icle1090905.ece


Leaked memo reveals plight of Iraqis
By Patrick Cockburn
Published: 20 June 2006
A leaked cable from the US embassy in Baghdad signed by the ambassador paints a grim picture of Iraq as a country disintegrating in which the real rulers are the militias, and the central government counts for nothing.

The cable, signed by the US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and sent to the State Department in Washington on 6 June, is wholly at odds with the optimistic account of developments given by President George Bush and Tony Blair in their recent visits to Iraq.

Iraqis employed by the US embassy live in fear that other Iraqis will find out who they are working for. "We have begun shredding documents printed out that show local staff surnames," the cable says. "In March a few staff approached us to ask what provisions would we make for them if we evacuate."

The US and Britain have said they would withdraw their troops as the security situation improved, though the embassy memo suggests that it was, in fact, deteriorating. Britain said yesterday that it was to pull out 170 soldiers from Muthana province in southern Iraq when the Iraqi government took over security there next month.

There are chilling details about why, even in the heavily fortified Green Zone, Iraqis employed by the US embassy are frightened. "In April, employees began reporting change in demeanour of guards at the Green Zone checkpoints," the memo says. "They seemed to be more militia-like. In some cases seemingly taunting."

The vulnerability of the US position in Baghdad is so great that the Iraqi military units guarding the perimeter of the Green Zone, the heart of US power in Iraq, are now considered untrustworthy.

An Iraqi employee asked if she could have credentials saying she was a journalist. This was because the Iraqi soldiers would hold up "her embassy badge and proclaim loudly to nearby passers-by 'Embassy' as she entered. Such information is a death sentence if overheard by the wrong people."

The memo, leaked to The Washington Post, gives a vivid and detailed account of the limited authority of the US and the Iraqi government in Baghdad. Entitled "Snapshots from the Office: Public Affairs Staff Show Strains of Social Discord" it is one of the most revealing documents ever made public, in this case involuntarily, by US authorities in Iraq. Based on the experiences of the nine-member Iraq staff of the public affairs press office in the US embassy, the cable portrays a society in a state of collapse. [Its contents should torpedo the claims by aides to Mr Bush and Mr Blair that the media is exaggerating the state of insecurity and fear in which Iraqis live.]

As Islamic militancy increases, women find it increasingly dangerous not to wear a veil in Sunni and Shia neighbourhoods. One was warned not to drive a car. Others were told to cover their faces and to stop using mobile phones. Threats against women who do not accept this second class status have escalated in the last two months. It has also become dangerous for men to wear shorts or jeans in public or for children to play outside wearing shorts.

As temperatures reach 46C (115F) "employees all confirm that by the last week of May, they were getting one hour of power for every six hours without." One area called Bab al Mu'atham in central Baghdad has received no electric power for more than a month. But a building where a new minister lived started to receive power 24-hours a day as soon as he was appointed.

The cable admits that the unpopularity of the American presence in Iraq is the reason why Iraqis working for the US dare not reveal the identity of their employer even to family. One Sunni Arab woman who was sent for training in the US told her family she was in Jordan.

The embassy reports increased sectarian tensions between Iraqi members of its staff. A Shia woman said she could no longer watch the television news with her Sunni mother because her mother blamed the Shia government for everything that went wrong.

The government of Nouri al-Maliki, greeted with such acclaim by the US and Britain, has little impact on ordinary Iraqis because real power lies with militias and local power brokers. It is they who barricade the streets at night and ward off outsiders.

A leaked cable from the US embassy in Baghdad signed by the ambassador paints a grim picture of Iraq as a country disintegrating in which the real rulers are the militias, and the central government counts for nothing.

The cable, signed by the US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and sent to the State Department in Washington on 6 June, is wholly at odds with the optimistic account of developments given by President George Bush and Tony Blair in their recent visits to Iraq.

Iraqis employed by the US embassy live in fear that other Iraqis will find out who they are working for. "We have begun shredding documents printed out that show local staff surnames," the cable says. "In March a few staff approached us to ask what provisions would we make for them if we evacuate."

The US and Britain have said they would withdraw their troops as the security situation improved, though the embassy memo suggests that it was, in fact, deteriorating. Britain said yesterday that it was to pull out 170 soldiers from Muthana province in southern Iraq when the Iraqi government took over security there next month.

There are chilling details about why, even in the heavily fortified Green Zone, Iraqis employed by the US embassy are frightened. "In April, employees began reporting change in demeanour of guards at the Green Zone checkpoints," the memo says. "They seemed to be more militia-like. In some cases seemingly taunting."

The vulnerability of the US position in Baghdad is so great that the Iraqi military units guarding the perimeter of the Green Zone, the heart of US power in Iraq, are now considered untrustworthy.

An Iraqi employee asked if she could have credentials saying she was a journalist. This was because the Iraqi soldiers would hold up "her embassy badge and proclaim loudly to nearby passers-by 'Embassy' as she entered. Such information is a death sentence if overheard by the wrong people."

The memo, leaked to The Washington Post, gives a vivid and detailed account of the limited authority of the US and the Iraqi government in Baghdad. Entitled "Snapshots from the Office: Public Affairs Staff Show Strains of Social Discord" it is one of the most revealing documents ever made public, in this case involuntarily, by US authorities in Iraq. Based on the experiences of the nine-member Iraq staff of the public affairs press office in the US embassy, the cable portrays a society in a state of collapse. [Its contents should torpedo the claims by aides to Mr Bush and Mr Blair that the media is exaggerating the state of insecurity and fear in which Iraqis live.]

As Islamic militancy increases, women find it increasingly dangerous not to wear a veil in Sunni and Shia neighbourhoods. One was warned not to drive a car. Others were told to cover their faces and to stop using mobile phones. Threats against women who do not accept this second class status have escalated in the last two months. It has also become dangerous for men to wear shorts or jeans in public or for children to play outside wearing shorts.

As temperatures reach 46C (115F) "employees all confirm that by the last week of May, they were getting one hour of power for every six hours without." One area called Bab al Mu'atham in central Baghdad has received no electric power for more than a month. But a building where a new minister lived started to receive power 24-hours a day as soon as he was appointed.

The cable admits that the unpopularity of the American presence in Iraq is the reason why Iraqis working for the US dare not reveal the identity of their employer even to family. One Sunni Arab woman who was sent for training in the US told her family she was in Jordan.

The embassy reports increased sectarian tensions between Iraqi members of its staff. A Shia woman said she could no longer watch the television news with her Sunni mother because her mother blamed the Shia government for everything that went wrong.

The government of Nouri al-Maliki, greeted with such acclaim by the US and Britain, has little impact on ordinary Iraqis because real power lies with militias and local power brokers. It is they who barricade the streets at night and ward off outsiders.

Iraq: US forces killed 15 in Baqaba:

US forces killed 15 gunmen in raids north of Baghdad on Tuesday, the US military said.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13693.htm

===
Thirteen Iraqis, including child, killed in 'US air strike':

US troops were dropped to the ground after the strike. The troops then opened fire at the two farm houses, he added.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13692.htm

===
Another 9 killed as occupation grinds on:

Iraqi police retrieved the bodies of seven people from the Tigris river on Monday in Suwayra, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. The bodies were handcuffed, blindfolded and bearing signs of torture, police added.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/GEO023350.htm

===
Car bomb kills seven in Baghdad market: police:

The bomb exploded among morning shoppers in the market in the eastern district of Jamila, a police source told Reuters.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2096512

===
Bodies of Missing GI's Recovered:

Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for killing the Soldiers, and said the successor to slain terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had "slaughtered" them, according to a Web statement that could not be authenticated.
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,101939,00.html

===
Iraqi's used for target practice?:

U.S. soldiers charged with murder in Iraq:

The three soldiers are accused of deliberately allowing three men detained during a raid on a former chemical factory to flee so they would have an excuse to shoot them, said a defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13691.htm

===
Residents Struggle to Survive, In and Out of Ramadi :

A week spent in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province west of Baghdad, reveals that residents are suffering from lack of water, electricity, cooking gas and medical supplies for the hospitals.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13700.htm

===
Japan orders withdrawal of ground troops from Iraq :

Japan ordered the withdrawal of its ground troops from Iraq Tuesday, declaring the humanitarian mission a success and ending a groundbreaking dispatch that tested the limits of its pacifist postwar constitution.
http://tinyurl.com/ft8bz

===
Australia should follow Japan out of Iraq: ALP:

LABOR has called for the immediate withdrawal of Australian troops in southern Iraq following the Japanese Government's decision to to recall its reconstruction taskforce.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...94-2702,00.html

===
Juan Cole: Dems Back Phased Withdrawal :

Senate Democrats have come up with two resolutions, with most of the coalescing around the vaguer one.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13706.htm

===

K Gajendra Singh: U.S. Dunkirk In Iraq; The Tipping Point:

The current 'coalition of the willing' in Iraq bribed or coerced into joining the invasion, is slowly melting away , leaving the 'opened Iraqi grenade ' in US - UK hands.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13697.htm

PEEKING UNDER THE CARPET - DEEPAK CHOPRA (HUFFINGTON POST, JUNE 19): We are happy to believe that a My Lai -- we can update it to Haditha -- either didn't happen or was exaggerated or rests on the shoulders of a few people who forgivably went berserk momentarily.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopr...et_b_23344.html

ARMY CHARGES SOLDIERS WITH MURDER IN IRAQ - MATT KELLEY (USA TODAY, JUNE 20)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/20...y-charges_x.htm

IN MIDST OF IRAQ WAR, A SOLDIER'S SELFLESS GIFT BACK HOME - SUE DIAZ (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, JUNE 20): The vast majority of our fighting men in Iraq today are decent human beings, doing an impossible job as best they can in circumstances worse than most of us can imagine.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0620/p09s02-coop.html

JAPAN TO WITHDRAW TROOPS FROM IRAQ (FINANCIAL TIMES, JUNE 20)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/65ea1986-001a-11db...00779e2340.html

IRAQ: EXPERT SEES FURTHER DWINDLING OF COALITION (RFE/RL, JUNE 20): RFE/RL correspondent Jeffrey Donovan discussed the state of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq with Charles Heyman, editor of the journal "The Armed Forces of the European Union."
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/...489cad03e9.html

"INSURGENCY" OR "RESISTANCE MOVEMENT," THERE'S NO END IN SIGHT TO THE VIOLENCE IN IRAQ EDWARD M. GOMEZ (WORLD VIEWS, SF GATE, JUNE 20)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...5&entry_id=6307

MAKING VICTORY RHYME WITH DEFEAT : THE MEDIA MYTHS OF ABU MUSAB AL-ZARQAWI - RICHARD MINITER AND DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS (WEEKLY STANDARD, JUNE 20): It does no one any service to pretend that Zarqawi was a minor figure or one that he is easily replaced.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/339ocdex.asp

MILITARY MUST SHARE BLAME - ERIK SWABB (BALTIMORE SUN, JUNE 20): Because of the failure of the top military leadership to institutionalize the lessons of the Vietnam War, initial U.S. forces in Iraq were not prepared to wage counterinsurgency.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines

PERMANENT WAR?: DEALING WITH REALITIES IN IRAQ AND WASHINGTON - ROBERT DREYFUSS (TOMDISPATCH, JUNE 18): ?I no longer am convinced that the US adventure in Iraq is lost. ... The only certain thing is that success -- what the president calls "victory in Iraq" -- will come at the expense of thousands more American deaths, tens of thousands more Iraqi deaths and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars.?
http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=93289

THE IRAQ CONUNDRUM - BYRON WILLIAMS (HUFFINGTON POST, JUNE 20): America has a moral and legal obligation to repair Iraq. It should be the Iraqis -- and only the Iraqis -- that determine how and what our assistance looks like.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/byron-willia...um_b_23403.html

DEMS BACK PHASED WITHDRAWAL; REPUBLICANS: STAY AND STAY, SPEND AND SPEND ? JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, JUNE 20): ?Either ... the US is a Republic among independent nations, or it is a Colonial Power intent on subjecting other peoples. If it is a Republic, it should be leaving Iraq to the Iraqis. If it is a Colonial Power, then it is doomed.?
http://www.juancole.com/ (scroll down link for item)

FINGERS IN DIKE AROUND IRAQ - TRUDY RUBIN (BALTIMORE SUN): Everything depends on whether the Iraqi dike can be shored up before the floodwaters overwhelm Baghdad - and then head toward us.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines

THE ZOOM LENS WAR: BUSH'S BAGHDAD PHOTO OP - MIKE WHITNEY (COUNTERPUNCH, JUNE 19): It?s no longer a matter of simply extracting ourselves from Iraq. Now, we?re fighting to pull what?s left of our country out of the ash heap.
http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney06192006.html

'OPERATION FORWARD TOGETHER': DEEPER INTO THE QUAGMIRE - DAHR JAMAIL (ANTIWAR.COM, JUNE 20): Each passing day only brings the people of Iraq and soldiers serving in the U.S. military deeper into the quagmire that the brutal, despicable, tortured occupation has become.
http://www.antiwar.com/jamail/?articleid=9173

NIGHTMARE SCENARIO - NICHOLAS VON HOFFMAN (NATION, JUNE 12): Another year like the last three and the deteriorating military situation will have us debating what tactics will be necessary to extract our people with a minimum of loss. We could be moving toward an American Dunkirk.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060626/howl

US Senate debates Iraq timetable BBC News
A possible timetable for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq has sparked a fierce debate in the US Senate. Democratic Party senators have put forward two proposals - a full exit by July 2007, or a phased exit starting this year but with no final deadline. But Republicans derided the proposals, saying the different options were evidence of splits within their ranks. A BBC correspondent says both sides are using Iraq to gain political ground before November's mid-term elections. The Democrats see the issue as a opportunity to gain votes and possibly wrest back control of Congress from the Republicans, the BBC's Andy Gallacher in Washington says. Opinion polls suggest the war is becoming increasingly unpopular with the American people. But the Democrats are unlikely to win a vote on withdrawal of troops in the Senate, due on Thursday, our correspondent says. "It is time to choose what is more important, a strategy to win in Iraq or a strategy for Republicans to win elections here at home," New York Democrat senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said. But dismissing the Democratic proposals, Republican Senator John McCain said: "Drawdowns must be based on conditions in country, not an arbitrary deadline rooted in our domestic politics." The US currently has 127,000 troops serving in Iraq. Earlier this week, the bodies of two US soldiers taken captive were found south of the capital Baghdad. Iraqi officials said the men had been tortured. The uncle of one of the men reacted with anger to his nephew's killing, blaming the US government for being slow to react to the soldiers' capture.

Running or jogging?
Republicans are opposed to a quick withdrawal of troops, saying it could destabilise the newly-formed Iraqi government."Withdrawing our forces prior to the Iraqis being able to defend themselves would encourage terrorism, embolden al-Qaeda and threaten American security," said Republican Senator John Warner from Virginia. The Republicans dismissed their opposition as "cut and run" and "cut and jog", depending on which proposal they were backing. Texas Republican John Cornyn said: "The policy of retreat and defeatism, and simply giving up, is not one that serves our nation well." But Democrats say President George W Bush has failed to spell out a future plan for Iraq. "We can't go on with an open-ended commitment," said former presidential candidate Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. Last week, the US House of Representatives passed a motion backing the president's handling of the Iraq war and rejecting a deadline for withdrawing US troops.

Howard warns on Iraq troops role BBC News
Australian PM John Howard says some troops in Iraq will take on what he called a "higher risk" role. About 460 Australian troops will move from Samawa in the south to Tallil, Mr Howard said. They will help to train Iraqi forces, and could, "in extreme cases", support Iraq troops in direct military action. The moves comes as the Australian military said it regretted an incident in Baghdad in which troops killed one of the Iraqi trade minister's guards. Mr Howard told parliament that the soldiers would relocate to an airbase in Tallil, approximately 80km (50 miles) southeast of their current base in Samawa, Muthana province, where they will take part in reconstruction work and training Iraqi troops. The soldiers have been guarding a Japanese contingent in Samawa, but Tokyo announced on 20 June that it is to withdraw its troops. British and Australian troops are preparing to hand over security in Muthana province to Iraqi forces.

'Back-up'
Mr Howard said the troops could also provide support in areas such as surveillance and intelligence. "Should situations develop that are beyond the capacity of the Iraqi security forces to resolve, the Iraqi government may call upon the coalition to provide them with back-up," Mr Howard said. While Australian troops would be operating in areas with a low threat level, the troops' "new role will be higher risk", he said. The announcement comes as an incident in Baghdad threatened to derail ties between the Australian military and the Iraqi leadership. On Wednesday, a security team guarding Australian diplomats reportedly mistook Trade Minister Abdul Falah al-Sudani's plainclothes guards for insurgents. One guard was shot dead and several others were wounded in the incident. "The ADF deeply regrets the injuries and loss of life that has occurred," Lt-Gen Ken Gillespie, Vice-Chief of the Australian Defence Force said in a statement. "As with all ADF incidents of this nature the matter will be formally and fully investigated." A spokesman told Reuters news agency the minister was seeking an apology and compensation. "If this does not happen he will reconsider trade agreements between the two countries," the spokesman said. About 1,400 Australian defence force personnel are serving in or near Iraq.

US marines killed in western Iraq BBC News
The US military says four marines have been killed in "enemy action" in western Iraq. Three of the marines were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Anbar province on Tuesday. The fourth died after coming under fire during "security operations" in the same province, a statement said. More than 2,500 US troops have died in Iraq since the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, most of them in attacks by anti-US insurgents.

http://www.tompaine.com/print/shameful_str...ing_on_iraq.php


Shameful Straddling On Iraq
Robert Scheer
June 21, 2006
Robert Scheer is a contributing editor to The Nation, and editor of Truthdig.com, from which this is reprinted.

Editor's Note: The Senate began debate Wednesday on an amendment to the 2007 defense authorization bill by Sens. John Kerry and Russ Feingold that would set a deadline of July 1, 2007 for troop withdrawl from Iraq. The amendment is opposed by Sens. Carl Levin and Jack Reed, who have backed a competing resolution supported by Democratic leadership that does not specify a deadline.

How do you triangulate among death, hypocrisy and stupidity? Not at all logically, which is why Hillary Clinton’s dissembling on Iraq has become a fatal embarrassment not only for her, but for anyone who hopes she can provide progressive leadership for the nation. If she has still not found the courage to reverse course on this disastrous war, why assume that as president she would behave any differently?

It is unconscionable that those who can accurately measure the true cost of the Iraq folly in wasted lives and resources—more than 2,500 Americans, tens of thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of billions of dollars—dare prefer her to potential 2008 presidential election rivals John Kerry, Al Gore, Russ Feingold and John Edwards, who have all come to speak honestly of this quagmire and our need to extricate ourselves from it.

If your priority is to support an inspiring female candidate to break America’s ultimate glass ceiling, why not draft Barbara Boxer? Not electable? Nonsense: The California senator thrashed her conservative GOP opponent in a reelection campaign that shunned the failed strategy of Democratic hacks and instead emphasized principle over opportunism. She proved her political integrity again this past week by voting alongside Kerry and Feingold to set a date for getting out of Iraq.

Not so Sen. Clinton, who seems determined to revive the Cold War liberalism that gave us the Vietnam War—which, according to Robert McNamara, the brilliant Democratic war architect who later conceded he himself didn’t believe in that enterprise, took more than 3 million lives.

“I do not think it is a smart strategy, either, for the president to continue with his open-ended commitment, which I think does not put enough pressure on the new Iraqi government,” said Clinton last week at the “Take Back America” conference. “Nor do I think it is smart strategy to set a date certain. I do not agree that that is in the best interests.”

This is pure gibberish designed to sound reasonable. The Bush administration has pressured the Iraqi government plenty, from trying to place its handpicked intelligence “assets” in power right after seizing Baghdad through the unseemly act of a sitting U.S. president dropping into Iraq last week uninvited and unannounced—a mockery of the claim that we have transferred sovereignty to the Iraqi people.

For more than three years, the United States has micromanaged everything from turning the American taxpayer-financed occupation into a grab fest for U.S. corporate war profiteers to the failed training of the country’s new security apparatus, now dominated by Shiite fanatics. Unfortunately for the great imperial Pax Americana scheme of building a pliable, secular government in Baghdad, a goal Clinton shares with the president, the Iraqi voters soundly rejected the candidates favored by the Pentagon and CIA. They chose instead the militant Shiites nurtured in the rogue nation of Iran, ever attendant to the twisted civics lessons of the ayatollahs on both sides of the border.

Predictably, the occupation by the U.S. military of a troubled Muslim nation cobbled together by European colonialists and ruled for decades by a tyrant has unleashed religious and nationalist impulses, increased the popular appeal of extremist and terror groups and destabilized the region. More clumsy “pressure” will only lead to more violent blowback, something Clinton should have known when she voted for this unjustified war in 2002.

Like Kerry, Clinton later pitifully explained that vote as a result of being “misled” by a president whom she shouldn’t have trusted for a second. Kerry, however, seems to have finally rediscovered the concern he felt as a returning combat veteran, and is outraged that young Americans again are being sent to kill and be killed in a war that makes no sense, except for companies such as Halliburton and Bechtel.

Self-proclaimed “moderate” Democrats, who defend staying in Iraq, like to pretend they are the grown-ups in the argument. In reality, they are like children who have closed their ears to avoid hearing an uncomfortable truth: The longer we’ve stayed, the worse things have gotten, and that will continue to be the case.

It is not the Iraqi government that needs to be pressured by Americans, but rather our own. Clinton needs to stop prattling on about getting the Iraqi government to do this or that wonderful thing before we can pull out.

The country needs an honest debate about the lies that led to this war and the true costs of its continuance. Presumably those Democrats who cheered Hillary last week are eager to win back at least one branch of Congress in the midterm election in order to revitalize our Constitution’s bedrock system of checks and balances and are looking to Clinton to help get them there.

But what check or balance is Sen. Clinton presenting on the most pressing issue of the day? None.

Iraq: At least 25 killed as occupation continues:

Fourteen bodies of workers in an electricity plant were found in the city morgue.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22239683.htm

===
At least 25 people found executed in Mosul

At least 25 people have been executed gangland-style in Iraq's third-largest city this week, with residents gunned down in ones and twos and bodies found scattered throughout Mosul.
http://tinyurl.com/g62qv

===
Iraqi troops find another 7 bodies after workers abducted:

Iraqi soldiers said on Thursday they had found several bodies in a violent area north of Baghdad where factory workers were abducted by gunmen a day earlier.
http://tinyurl.com/pytfb

===
Four Marines Killed In Al Anbar Province:

Three Marines were assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 and died after their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device. One Marine was assigned to 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and died after being attacked while conducting security operations.
http://tinyurl.com/hfvwz

===
U.S. Soldier Killed By Roadside Bomb:

The U.S. Soldier died at approximately 11:30 a.m., June 21, when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad.
http://tinyurl.com/lkra3

==
Fury after Australians occupation forces shoot shoot Iraqi bodyguard :

The Iraqi Trade Minister threatened today to impose a national boycott on Australian wheat and other exports after Australian soldiers mistakenly shot dead one of his bodyguards.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-2237847,00.html

===
Military says at least one of kidnapped soldiers was beheaded:

At least one and possibly both of the soldiers who were mutilated and killed in Iraq last weekend was beheaded, a U.S. military official said Wednesday.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/14869888.htm

===
Norman Solomon : Their Barbarism, and Ours :

When journalists maintain a flagrant double standard in their language -- allowing themselves appropriate moral outrage when Americans suffer but tiptoeing around what is suffered by victims of the U.S. military -- the media window on the world is tinted a dark red-white-and-blue, and the overall result is more flackery than journalism.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13727.htm

===
Al-Qaeda Group Says Kidnapped Russian Diplomats Killed:

The posting was by a group called the Mujahedeen Shura Council, SITE said on its own Web site. Two days ago the group gave the Russian government 48 hours to pull out of Chechnya and free Muslim prisoners in Russian jails
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/06/21/diplomatsslain.shtml

===
Iraqi hostages freed in raid:

Iraqi police have stormed a farm north of Baghdad and freed at least 17 people who were taken captive a day earlier in a mass kidnapping of about 85 workers and family members from a factory
http://tinyurl.com/pxwcc

===
Japan pulls ground troops from Iraq:

Expand the mission of its Air Force: However, in a sign of growing military boldness, Japan will expand the mission of its Air Self-Defence Force from its present role of providing transport between Kuwait and Samawah, southern Iraq. Japan will commit its fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to the risky task of airlifting United Nations personnel and multinational troops in and out of Baghdad
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25...2234575,00.html

===
Senate Rejects Calls on Iraq Troop Pullout :

``Withdrawal is not an option. Surrender is not a solution,'' declared Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, who characterized Democrats as defeatists wanting to abandon Iraq before the mission is complete.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/stor...5904671,00.html

Basra bomb 'kills at least four' BBC News
At least four people have been killed and 14 others injured in a bomb attack in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, Iraqi police say. A state of emergency was declared in the city last month because of rising violence and crime. Also on Friday, state TV reported the government has imposed a curfew in the capital, Baghdad, to run from 1400 to 1800 local time (1000 to 1400 GMT). Baghdad is normally under curfew from 2030 to 0600 local time. The additional curfew is part of an ongoing security operation in Baghdad that already seen more than 40,000 Iraqi and US forces deployed in the city. Police said the Basra blast occurred as people queued for fuel at a petrol station in the city, home to about 8,000 British troops. All of the dead were civilians, while two police officers were among the wounded, police said. Initial reports put the number of dead at least 10. Separately, Iraq was due to release some 500 detainees from Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad on Friday, in a gesture aimed at promoting national reconciliation. About 2,300 detainees, said to have renounced violence, have been released from the prison since the beginning of the month.

http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2006/0...0845315009.html



Furious Iraq demands apology
Date: June 23 2006


AUSTRALIA'S relations with the Iraqi Government were severely fractured yesterday with the Iraqi Trade Minister threatening to ditch all trade deals after Australian military forces opened fire on his bodyguards, killing one and injuring four others.

The botched security operation happened on Wednesday afternoon, Baghdad time, when an Australian military convoy was conducting a reconnaissance mission of the route between the minister's office and the Australian embassy in Baghdad in preparation for a meeting with an Australian trade delegation.

The Iraqi Trade Minister, Abdul Falah al-Sudany, is demanding an apology and compensation from the Howard Government.

Yesterday the vice-chief of the Defence Force, Lieutenant-General Ken Gillespie, confirmed that members of the Australian security detachment had been involved in the incident and he issued a statement saying the Defence Force "deeply regrets" the incident.

The forces are from Security Detachment 9, the unit to which Private Jake Kovco belonged before he died in a bizarre shooting incident in April.

Members of the security detachment provide protection for Australian officials in Baghdad.

An Australian military officer had warned on Monday that the forces at the Australian headquarters in Baghdad were under intense pressure because of the demands of the inquiry into Private Kovco's death.

Speaking by video link from Baghdad on Monday, counsel assisting the military board of inquiry, Colonel Michael Griffin, said Australian military personnel in Baghdad "have equally, if not more important, duties to attend to" than the inquiry. He also said that there were "heavy demands on the assets and resources" of the Baghdad headquarters.

The commanding officer of the security detachment unit and up to eight of its 110 men were caught up in the inquiry this week. The hearings were adjourned only hours before the incident.

News of the fatal shooting broke just hours before the Prime Minister, John Howard, told Parliament that Australian forces would be staying in Iraq to take on a new, possibly more dangerous mission. While the new focus will be on training Iraqi security forces, Mr Howard said, in some cases the Australian forces would provide back-up for the Iraqis in direct military operations.

However, despite delivering a long statement about Australia's new role in Iraq, neither Mr Howard, the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, nor the Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, offered a formal apology to the Iraqis.

The shooting by the Australian forces follows a series of damaging killings of civilians by US forces that have rocked the new Iraqi Government and intensified calls for troops to be withdrawn.

According to a senior defence spokesman, Gus Gilmore, a convoy of Australian troops from the security detachment travelling in three light armoured vehicles were checking the route.

The commanding officer of the soldiers who shot at the vehicle was tied up most of Monday in the Kovco inquiry giving evidence by video link from Baghdad along with three other members of the unit, including two of Kovco's room-mates.

The security detachment was conducting precinct security duty in association with a regular visit to Baghdad by Australia's senior trade commissioner to Iraq, who is based in Amman. The senior trade commissioner was not with the unit at the time.

General Gillespie said that the ADF would be formally and fully investigating the incident.

But he said: "It would be wrong to speculate on the circumstances of the incident until that investigation is complete."


Story Picture: Shattered ... the vehicle in which the guard was killed.


This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.

LINE BETWEEN WAR, MURDER TOUGH TO DRAW: PAST CASES IN IRAQ SHED LIGHT ON THE PATH AHEAD FOR NEW CONTROVERSIES - MARK SAPPENFIELD (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, JUNE 22)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0622/p01s01-usmi.html

PENTAGON CHARGES 8 IN DEATH OF IRAQI: KIDNAP AND MURDER OF CIVILIAN ALLEGED - CHARLIE SAVAGE AND BRYAN BENDER (BOSTON GLOBE, JUNE 22)
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washingt...death_of_iraqi/

BUSH'S BAGHDAD PALACE - NICHOLAS VON HOFFMAN (NATION): Among the many secrets the American government cannot keep, one of its biggest (104 acres) and most expensive ($592 million) is the American Embassy being built in Baghdad. It is a base. A permanent base.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060703/howl

JAPAN SAYS "SAYONARA" TO BUSH'S IRAQ WAR EDWARD M. GOMEZ (WORLD VIEWS, SF GATE, JUNE 21): Reaction to the news of Japan's pull-out from Iraq appears to be mixed among the country's large-circulation, national newspapers.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...5&entry_id=6362

THEIR BARBARISM, AND OURS - NORMAN SOLOMON (ANTIWAR.COM, JUNE 22): Routinely absent from the U.S. media's war coverage of Iraq is the context: an invasion and occupation fundamentally based on deception.
http://www.antiwar.com/solomon/?articleid=9187

BUSH IN WONDERLAND: IRAQ IS STILL A DISASTER, AND THREE YEARS ON, PURELY FOR DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION, THE US ADMINISTRATION IS STILL LYING ABOUT IT - RAMZY BAROUD (AL-AHRAM, JUNE 22-28)
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/800/re62.htm

HORRORS OF WAR EDITORIAL (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, JUNE 22): The rationale for the Iraq war, as well as its prediction for a quick and glorious ending of greetings as liberators, have long been discredited.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...EDGDOILN2R1.DTL

SO MANY HAVE SACRIFICED SO MUCH IN IRAQ, AND FOR WHAT? - GORDON LIVINGSTON (BALTIMORE SUN, JUNE 23): As with Vietnam, we try to avoid the obvious question: Which of our liberties are at stake in Iraq?
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines

KILLING IRAQI CHILDREN - JACOB G. HORNBERGER (FUTURE OF FREEDOM FOUNDATION, JUNE 19): All too many Americans have yet to confront the moral implications of invading and occupying Iraq.
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0606g.asp

AMERICAN LIVES, IRAQI PROPS - PIERRE TRISTAM (CANDIDE'S NOTEBOOKS, JUNE 21/COMMON DREAMS): The overwhelming majority of Americans don?t know that dozens of Iraqis go missing every day. Most don?t care.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0621-25.htm

A MILITARY DRAFT MIGHT AWAKEN US - JOAN VENNOCHI (BOSTON GLOBE, JUNE 22): Reinstate the military draft and see how quickly the United States ends its war in Iraq.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...ight_awaken_us/

AMNESTY FOR INSURGENTS WOULD WORK: IT WOULD HELP STABILIZE IRAQ AND HASTEN AN EXIT FOR U.S. TROOPS - HENRI J. BARKEY (LOS ANGELES TIMES, JUNE 23)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions

PARDON THE KILLERS? NEVER!: A GI BLASTS IRAQ'S PROPOSED AMNESTY FOR INSURGENTS WHO KILL U.S. TROOPS - LINCOLN M. LEASE (LOS ANGELES TIMES, JUNE 23)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions

THE SAVAGES REVIEW & OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, JUNE 22): The enemy we face in Iraq: Not nationalists or extremists or even fanatics, but something like a band of real-life Hannibal Lecters for whom human slaughter is both business and religious fulfillment.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1150942483...ew_and_outlooks
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

THE WAR COMES HOME RUTH CONNIFF (PROGRESSIVE, JUNE 21/COMMON DREAMS): It's time to cut our losses and bring the troops home.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0621-29.htm

'THE EXTREMIST IS NEVER ALONE' - FOUAD AJAMI (WALL STREET JOURNAL, JUNE 22): President Bush took with him to Baghdad the right message: a reaffirmation of the American commitment mixed with a reminder that Iraq's salvation lies in the hands of its new government.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1150942907...in_commentaries
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

"JUST TELL ME ONE THING, ARE YOU GLAD THAT SADDAM HUSSEIN IS OUT OF POWER?" AND I SAY, "NO.": WHY BUSH'S IRAQ IS WORSE THAN SADDAM'S - WILLIAM BLUM (COUNTERPUNCH, JUNE 21): Freedom has indeed reigned -- for the great multinationals to extract everything they can from Iraq's resources and labor without the hindrance of public interest laws, environmental regulations or worker protections.
http://www.counterpunch.org/blum06222006.html

FROM HUNGARY '56 TO IRAQ '06 - PRESIDENT BUSH STRAINS A HISTORICAL ANALOGY IN THE FRIENDLY CONFINES OF CENTRAL EUROPE ? EDITORIAL (LOS ANGELES TIMES, JUNE 23): By drawing a direct link between Hungary's quashed anti-communist rebels of 1956 and Iraq's struggling leaders of 2006, President Bush offered a troubling reminder that his administration continues to confuse the Cold War with the vastly dissimilar war on terrorism -- while refusing to acknowledge any limitations on the use of American power.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editor...ment-editorials

MISREADING A BATTLE EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, JUNE 22): The comparison by Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, of the World War II Battle of the Bulge with the war in Iraq doesn?t fit.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...ading_a_battle/

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/fe...ml?id=110008564



The Voice of Iraq
"Nobody is for a withdrawal, even a timetable," says the foreign minister.

BY ROBERT L. POLLOCK
Saturday, June 24, 2006 12:01 a.m.

NEW YORK--"That was the center of all that happened in Iraq after the war. The people who were meeting there are the new leaders of Iraq, but nobody took them seriously in those days."
So says Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. He's talking about an unassuming little hotel in central Baghdad called Burj al-Hayat, where his Kurdistan Democratic Party set up headquarters in the heady days immediately following Saddam Hussein's fall from power. And his recollection of the period is vivid enough to include the hour or two he spent with your humble correspondent in early May of 2003. Perched on bar stools, we drank only water then to combat the heat of a sweltering afternoon. And Mr. Zebari held forth expansively and optimistically about the future of Iraq.

Portly, with penetrating eyes and a kind smile, he exuded intelligence and decency. And with leaders like him waiting on the wings, it was hard to imagine that things wouldn't turn out pretty well in the months and years ahead. On the streets of Baghdad, too, there were good reasons for hope. Not only was the tyrant who had tried to wipe out Mr. Zebari's Kurdish people gone, there was also a genuine feeling of liberation in the air. The looting--always exaggerated in any case--was done, and Americans (journalists and soldiers alike) mixed freely with Iraqis at kebab stands and ice-cream shops. The main worry was not avoiding a kidnapping or roadside bomb but how to politely turn down the day's sixth invitation for tea.

But even those of us who suspected that such peace--which former U.S. regent Paul Bremer remembers as "chaos" in his recent memoir-- would be challenged by extremists have been shocked by the extent of the violence that grew and grew after the U.N. headquarters was attacked that August.
Now at least the perpetrator of that evil deed is dead. Not enough people understand that what's just happened is a "breakthrough," Mr. Zebari tells me. It shows "that Zarqawi's terror network was penetrated, that those groups are not invincible, especially through hard work and patient work. Fighting this terrorist insurgency really in the end is an intelligence operation."

"That was the difference between many of us Iraqis and our American friends," he adds, suggesting the coalition has too often preferred to try "overwhelming force." In fact, the fundamental flaw in our approach, he says, was our reluctance to let Iraqis get on with political reconciliation and their own security and intelligence efforts earlier than we did.

This time we're meeting on another sweltering day. It's only 9:30 a.m. and the thermometer is headed toward what will be a muggy 90. But we are much more comfortably ensconced in a room at the Council on Foreign Relations on East 68th Street in Manhattan. He's just addressed a breakfast meeting of the group. And the day before saw him in meetings with the U.N. secretary-general and The Wall Street Journal's editorial board, among other commitments.

Mr. Zebari has established himself as the great survivor of postwar Iraqi politics, holding his post through four governments--the Bremer period, and prime ministers Ayad Allawi, Ibrahim al-Jaafari and, now, Nouri al-Maliki. That alone bespeaks a great deal of diplomatic skill--though Mr. Zebari is hardly afraid to offend where justified. Just ask the likes of Arab League head Amr Moussa, or others with whom he has publicly tangled. But neither does Mr. Zebari seem to delight in contrarianism like his friend and longtime colleague in opposition, Ahmed Chalabi. Perhaps that's why the same criticisms of U.S. policy that would put Mr. Chalabi on President Bush's bad side starting in late 2003 never seemed to hurt Mr. Zebari's standing.

Mr. Zebari's critiques, it should be emphasized, are always offered with a liberal dose of thanks for the coalition's "sacrifice" in "a noble cause." But he also seems eager that Americans and others learn the right lessons from what's happened over the past three years. And he clearly doesn't buy the lazy journalistic trope that the main mistakes were the failure to stop the looting, disbanding the Iraqi Army, and excessive de-Baathification. Instead, he seems to think many problems could have been mitigated had Iraqis been allowed to move toward self-government much, much sooner.

"The biggest mistake, honestly, if you go back, was not entrusting the Iraqis as partners, to empower them, to see them do their part, to fill the vacuum, to have a national unity government," he says. According to Gen. Jay Garner, who briefly ruled Iraq before he was peremptorily replaced by Mr. Bremer in May 2003, that was exactly the plan. His provisional government probably would have included Kurdish leaders Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, secular Shiites Ahmed Chalabi and Ayad Allawi, religious Shiite Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, and the Sunni Adnan Pachachi. The idea was that free elections would soon follow.

But "if you read Bremer's book ["My Year in Iraq"], when he came, one of his tasks was to stop these 'exiles,' " Mr. Zebari says. "I think the biggest sin was to change the mission from liberation to occupation. That is the mother of all sins, honestly."

With his use of "exiles," Mr. Zebari is deploying--with some irony--the derogatory term many U.S. diplomats used to refer to the leading anti-Saddam opposition figures. Never mind that the term hardly fit the Kurdish leaders, who had already built what amounted to an autonomous state in Northern Iraq under cover of a U.S. "no-fly" zone. But there was an idea that the group was somehow too "unrepresentative" to serve even as a temporary government.

Where did Mr. Bremer get the idea to slow things down? I ask. "Many people collaborated. It wasn't his idea as such. There was Security Council Resolution 1483 that changed the whole thing. The Americans and British collaborated on that, relying on advice from international lawyers that one way to rebuild this country is to free it from the sanctions--from the U.N.-imposed sanctions--and sanctions can only be lifted when you have an Iraqi authority to negotiate. There isn't. And these bunch of people sitting in that hotel are not up to that job, so let's make ourselves the authority. . . . I think that was the big mistake."

Mr. Zebari is reluctant to name names. But the drivers of the anti-"exile" policy included Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Richard Armitage and former Bremer aide (and current deputy national security adviser) Meghan O'Sullivan. In the end, U.S. attempts to empower "indigenous" Iraqis proved worse than a failure. Not only were the "exiles" overwhelmingly victorious in Iraq's two elections (all three prime ministers have been "exiles"), but our attempts to "level the playing field" needlessly delayed the development of Iraq's institutions of self-government.

No doubt this has slowed security-forces development. Which brings us to the next topic: the continuing necessity of coalition forces in Iraq. Mr. Zebari's primary mission in New York, in fact, was to review the U.N. mandate of coalition forces. He tells me about a fascinating discussion among Iraqi political leaders shortly before he left for New York. He told them, he says, that the new government was perfectly within its rights to ask for the departure of foreign troops. But he says he found no takers. In fact, the loudest objection to the idea came from Adnan al-Dulaimi, who represents a Sunni community generally thought to be most hostile to the "occupiers." They know only too well that coalition troops are their best protection against shadowy Baathist thugs who would like to lay claim to the Sunni leadership mantle. "Before the Sunnis were raising the flag for a withdrawal of all occupying forces immediately, that they are the sources of all the ills. Now they are the ones asking that they should stay," Mr. Zebari says.

Intimidation "is a problem," he continues. "That is, an intimidation campaign carried out primarily by the Baathists." He also says he believes the Baathists are behind the majority of terrorist attacks: "Identifying the enemy is very important. I personally believe the incubator of this so-called 'insurgency' is the Baath Party, is the remnant of Saddam's regime. Even with Zarqawi and al Qaeda, who are very lethal. But without them [the Baathists] providing the infrastructure, the support, the intelligence, the hideouts--then the attacks would not happen."

What about the war debate here in the U.S., I ask him. Are Iraqis worried that U.S. troops will leave too soon? Does the Iraqi press pay attention when people like Congressman Jack Murtha call for troop withdrawal?
"It does. Yes, it does. This is one of things actually. The freest media in the world I think is in Iraq. Honestly. There is no censorship or restrictions or restraint whatsoever. Now you have about 15 or 16 satellite channels run by Iraqis and I don't know how many hundreds of newspapers." So "people have become more politically conscious and aware. . . . Nobody is for a withdrawal, even a timetable, for the troops."

I decide to move the topic back to Mr. Zebari's own experience on the job. How did he get it? "We were active in the Iraqi National Congress," he tells me. "I was then the person responsible for the foreign relations. It became very natural when the first government happened. I was recommended by many friends, by Ahmed [Chalabi], by Allawi, by Mr. Talabani."

What's surprised him most about the job? "We've learned many, many things. In the opposition we were struggling to open doors and to get to decision-making people in governments. Now you look from inside out it's a different world. It's much easier to work officially in a government than to work in the opposition."

Is he perplexed that international attitudes haven't been more helpful? Particularly the U.N., where he's just seen Kofi Annan? It was actually "one of the most amicable, friendly atmospheres," he tells me. "We've come a long way." But I can well remember Mr. Zebari's withering criticism of the Oil for Food program in 2003, long before the scandal ever broke. I guess he is a diplomat now, after all. And he does understand there's still a long way to go in Iraq--and that the country needs all the support it can get.

As we part ways, he offers a message for those in the international community and in the U.S. who would give up on the mission while there's still everything to play for: "There is too much at stake. Failure in Iraq means reversal of all democratic reforms throughout the region. Failure in Iraq means the power of the United States and the coalition cannot be used elsewhere in the same manner. Failure for democracy here would suggest that really these people are not used to this so its better to have one-man, one-party rule, a strong man to control this bunch of Kurds and Shia and militias and so on. Failure is a reversal of everything we've built."

Over to you, Mr. Murtha.

Mr. Pollock is a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board.


Copyright © 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Iraq PM unveils unity proposals BBC News
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has presented a national reconciliation plan to parliament aimed at stemming sectarian tensions and violence. The 24-point plan offers an amnesty to some insurgents, but not those from groups who have targeted Iraqi civilians, such as al-Qaeda. It outlines plans to disarm militias and beef up Iraqi security forces ahead of a takeover from coalition forces. Mr Maliki said the proposals would help end the suffering of the Iraqi people.

Baathist issue
But the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says there are concerns that the plan will not work as it does not seek reconciliation with those at the heart of the insurgency - the radical Islamists, many of them foreigners, who want Iraq to be the centre of a new Islamic empire. Among the key proposals of Mr Maliki's plan is a review of the treatment of Baath party members forced out of public life after the US-led invasion in 2003.Disgruntled Baathists and members of Saddam Hussein's disbanded military have long been seen as a source of funding and expertise to various strands of Iraq's insurgency. Disarming Iraq's various militias also features prominently in Mr Maliki's plan. Sectarian militias, often tied to political parties, have come to control entire neighbourhoods in Baghdad and elsewhere. In specific gestures to the disaffected Sunni community, he said amnesties would be offered to all those not guilty of serious crimes and committees would be set up to free them as soon as possible, provided they renounced violence.

Facing justice
Compensation will also be offered to former prison detainees "and those who were killed by Iraqi and American forces". A new commission is to be set up to oversee the hoped for reconciliation process with branches in all of Iraq's provinces. "The plan is open to all those who want to enter the political process to build their country and save their people as long as they did not commit crimes," Mr Maliki said. However, as he announced the long-awaited initiative Mr Maliki insisted it "should not be read as a reward for the killers and criminals or acceptance of their actions". He made it clear that there was no place in the new Iraq for the Islamic radicals and hard core Baathists who are at the centre of the insurgency. They, he said, would continue on what he called "Satan's path" and had to be confronted by all means. "There can be no agreement with them unless they face justice," he said.

Sunni reaction
The initiative received immediate endorsement from the leader of the biggest Sunni coalition in parliament, Adnan al-Dulaimi. He urged all Iraqis to join in the effort to rebuild their country, but he called for the rapid release of detainees and a halt to raids and attacks on civilians' homes. When he took power last month, Mr Maliki pledged to take control of Iraq's security situation from the US-led coalition within 18 months. Reports from the US suggest military planners are aiming to reduce the numbers of troops in Iraq over the next 12 months, but no firm decision has yet been taken. As Mr Maliki delivered his plan in parliament Japan began withdrawing its military vehicles from Iraq into Kuwait as part of its planned troop withdrawal. Last week Japan announced that it would pull out 600 troops from the southern Muthanna province, handing control to Iraqi security forces.

http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle....C_0_US-IRAQ.xml




Iraqi PM unveils reconciliation plan
Sun Jun 25, 2006 8:48 AM ET



By Mussab Al-Khairalla

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's prime minister presented a plan for national reconciliation to parliament on Sunday, but Nuri al-Maliki was short on detail on how he aims to end what he called the "ugly picture" of life in Iraq.

The plan has been the subject of intense behind-the-scenes negotiation among the fractious sectarian and ethnic parties that make up the governing coalition and the result appeared to have been an absence of much that was controversial.

In a sign of U.S. allies' eagerness to disengage their forces from Iraq, Japan began the withdrawal of its 550 troops from the south, sending out a convoy of armored vehicles.

Listing the bloodshed and disorder that has made life almost unbearable for many, the Shi'ite Islamist confirmed in office a month ago, said: "We must put an end to this ugly picture."

Eleven people were reported killed in car bombings and shootings across Iraq on Sunday in the latest attacks.

After a 15-minute address, Maliki won approval from leaders of the Sunni minority that was dominant under Saddam Hussein but insisted he would not negotiate with Saddam's Baathist followers or al Qaeda Islamists who are the mainstay of the insurgency.

"No and a thousand times no," he said. "There can be no deal with them until they have been justly punished."

He offered an "olive branch" to all those prepared to take part in building a new Iraq but, contrary to some speculation, there was no bold public call for talks with Sunni insurgents.

He did, however, promise a review of "debaathification" laws that have barred Baathists from public office and the military.

Nor was there clear new language on dealing with the party militias, mostly backers of the Shi'ite and Kurdish groups in the government. Instead, the reconciliation plan followed much of the outline of Maliki's government platform issued in May.

AMNESTY

"There will be an amnesty for those who did not take part in criminal and terrorist acts and war crimes," said Maliki, echoing calls for the U.S. military to address Sunni grievances about the 13,000 mostly Sunni men held without charge.

Maliki also said the U.S.-led foreign troops must respect human rights -- a hot issue after revelations of a U.S. military probe into the deaths of 24 civilians at Haditha in November.

Since then other cases have come to light and on Sunday the military said a soldier was charged with voluntary manslaughter.

Sunni leader Adnan al-Dulaimi told parliament after Maliki spoke: "We call on all the people of Iraq to support this initiative because it will be the first step in achieving security and stability then start building the new Iraq."

Dulaimi spoke heatedly after the session about the urgent need to disband Shi'ite militias, which Sunnis accuse of running death squads within and alongside the police.

Maliki's government program includes disbanding militias.

But in a mark of the gulf between the parties, a leading parliamentarian who supports Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said this order did not apply to Sadr's Mehdi Army, one of the most controversial groups, as it did not meet the criteria.

Before it was presented, fellow Sunni Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, the parliamentary speaker, cautioned the plan was not a "magic solution" but an attempt to "mend the cracks" in Iraqi society.

TROOPS

In the southern city of Samawa, Reuters journalists saw at least 15 transporters leave the Japanese base carrying armored personnel carriers and other vehicles. "This is the start of the pull-out," said a Japanese defense spokesman in Tokyo.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced on Tuesday that Japan would withdraw its roughly 550 soldiers, engaged in reconstruction and humanitarian work, from their base as Iraqi forces take responsibility for the province around Samawa.

U.S. officials told the New York Times on Sunday the U.S. commander in Iraq, General George Casey, briefed officials in Washington last week on a plan to cut troop levels to less than half their present level by the end of next year.

By late 2007 the number of combat brigades would fall to five or six from 14 at present, the paper said. There are 127,000 U.S. troops in Iraq at the moment and U.S. officials have said that could fall to about 100,000 by late this year.

(Additional reporting by Hamed Fadhil in Samawa and Michael Georgy, Ross Colvin, Aseel Kami, Ibon Villelabeitia and Alastair Macdonald in Baghdad)



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http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2006/0...1174072879.html



PM offers reconciliation plan for Iraq
Date: June 26 2006


THE Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, presented a national reconciliation plan to parliament yesterday to curb sectarian killings and the Sunni insurgency that has crippled postwar reconstruction.

In a sign of eagerness by US allies to disengage their forces from Iraq, Japanese transport trucks began moving armoured vehicles out of their base in southern Iraq, signalling that the promised Japanese withdrawal had begun.

Stressing the "importance of national reconciliation and dialogue", Mr Maliki spent 15 minutes enumerating 24 points of his plan after a last-minute meeting with Iraq's Speaker, one of the most prominent Sunnis in office.

Mr Maliki, a Shiite, has vowed to crush the Sunni insurgency that has killed thousands of Iraqis and to reconcile Shiites with the once-dominant Sunni minority. Their mutual distrust has deepened amid the sectarian bloodletting.

"We must put an end to this ugly picture," Mr Maliki said, saying he would crack down on supporters of Saddam Hussein but release detainees who had not committed serious crimes.

He also said he would try to improve public services in the most troubled areas and urged the US-led forces to observe human rights, a frequent complaint among the Sunni minority.

Mr Maliki said he would review previous laws barring members of Saddam's Baath party from public office.

Since taking office on May 20 Mr Maliki has sought to arrest the political drift that developed while Shiite, Sunni and minority Kurdish parties wrangled for months over posts in the Government and allowed a dangerous security vacuum to develop.

He scored a victory when the then leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a strike on June 7. But fresh violence has put pressure on him to build on that success and take the sting out of the insurgency.

Mr Maliki, a former exile, has long defended the sacking of Baath members from the army, a US-engineered policy that critics say bolstered the insurgency.

The program aims to tackle militias, which are seen as among the most destabilising forces in Iraq, but are difficult to disband because they are tied to political parties, notably the Shiites and Kurds who are the backbone of the Government.

Japan's Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, announced last week that Japan would withdraw its 550 soldiers, who were engaged in reconstruction and humanitarian work, from their base in Samawa in southern Iraq.

The mission, Japan's first in a combat zone since World War II, has been controversial at home but indicated Mr Koizumi's willingness to stand by his US ally.

"This is the start of the pull-out," a Japanese spokesman said. "We moved only supplies today - no personnel. We don't yet know officially how long the withdrawal will take to complete."

A spokesman for the British-led force said there would be more withdrawals of coalition troops from the Samawa base.

The US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, has briefed officials in Washington on plans to cut troop numbers by half by the end of next year.

Reuters

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3331





Iraq—Fool Me Twice
Col. Daniel Smith, U.S. Army (Ret.) | June 23, 2006

Editor: John Gershman, IRC



Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org


A date to remember will be the night of June 20, 2006. That's the night Congress was fooled for the second time.

Remember October 2002 and Iraq?

So much has happened since then that it seems like ancient history.

Or at least that is what the Bush administration would like to have the public think. One constant theme that emanates from the White House is that whatever mistakes might have been made in the past—e.g., the reasons given to justify going to war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq—that's behind us. It's “water under the bridge” or maybe “over the damn” —take your pick.

The latest example of trying to spin this web occurred in Vienna, Austria on June 21 during a presidential press conference following the U.S.–European Union summit. Asked why Europeans in recent opinion polls held the United States in low regard as a force for peace, Bush in effect discounted the poll results as a perceptual problem for Europeans. He had made decisions he though best for the United States and the world, and it was simply unfortunate that Europeans happened not to agree with him.

Besides, that was the past.

So it is. But so too is October 2002 when Congress voted to surrender to the president its constitutional duties with regard to declaring war by “empowering” the president to use any and all means and, at a time of his choosing, to compel Saddam Hussein to give up the weapons of mass destruction that the world “knew” he possessed. Bush pushed the button March 19, 2003, plunging the United States into a war in Iraq that has taken, conservatively, 45,000-50,000 Iraqi lives and killed 2,500 U.S. service members, 226 troops from other coalition countries, 100 journalists, and more than 350 contractors. The war has cost nearly $400 billion and will generate more than 200,000 totally disabled veterans (never able to work) for decades to come.

For a number of weeks, congressional Republicans and administration spokespersons have been setting the stage with the same poisonous “props” of rogue states, terrorism, and weapons of mass destruction they used in 2002 against Iraq. Their apparent goal is to convince the public that Iran, like Iraq, is a menace to its neighbors, to the United States, and to the world.