Iraq war bill deletes US military base prohibition
Fri Jun 9, 2006 7:04 PM ET

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Republicans killed a provision in an Iraq war funding bill that would have put the United States on record against the permanent basing of U.S. military facilities in that country, a lawmaker and congressional aides said on Friday.

The $94.5 billion emergency spending bill, which includes $65.8 billion to continue waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is expected to be approved by Congress next week and sent to President George W. Bush for signing into law.

As originally passed by the House of Representatives, the Pentagon would have been prohibited from spending any of the funds for entering into a military basing rights agreement with Iraq.

A similar amendment passed by the Senate said the Pentagon could not use the next round of war funding to "establish permanent United States military bases in Iraq, or to exercise United States control over the oil infrastructure or oil resources of Iraq."

The Bush administration has said it does not want to place any artificial timelines on a U.S. presence in Iraq and that it wants to begin withdrawing troops when Iraqi security forces are better able to protect the country. But it has not ruled out permanent bases in Iraq.

While the Pentagon does not necessarily plan to use any of the emergency funds to establish a permanent military presence in Iraq, congressional Democrats wanted Congress to be on record against such a long-term military arrangement.

Doing so, they argued, could help overcome Middle East fears that the United States intended to control the region militarily, at least in part to oversee foreign oil reserves.

"The perception that the U.S. intends to occupy Iraq indefinitely is fueling the insurgency and making our troops more vulnerable," said Rep. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat who won House approval of her amendment on permanent bases.

"The House and Senate went on record opposing permanent bases, but now the Republicans are trying to sneak them back in the middle of the night," Lee said.

Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, authored the Senate language.

Senate aides said Republican staffers removed the provisions from the bills before House and Senate negotiators convened this week in a late-night work session to write a compromise spending bill.

Wisconsin Rep. David Obey, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, tried to reinsert the language, but it was opposed by Rep. Jim Kolbe, the Arizona Republican responsible for foreign affairs portions of the spending bill.

Next week, the House is scheduled to have a wide-ranging debate about the Iraq war at which time Democrats are likely to raise this issue again.


© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.


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No Permanent Bases: Passed Both Houses, Removed in Conference Committee
Submitted by davidswanson on Fri, 2006-06-09 05:20. Congress
By David Swanson

When the House and the Senate pass similar but not identical bills, they create a conference committee to work out the differences. When they both passed amendments to the "emergency supplemental" spending bill stipulating that none of the money could be used to build permanent bases in Iraq, the conference committee, behind closed doors this week, resolved that non-difference by deleting it.

This would appear to be a blatant violation of the rules of Congress and an unconstitutional voiding of the will of the people as expressed by their Representatives and Senators. But it can't appear that way to a people that knows nothing about it. And it does not appear that way at all to the journalists who inform the public of its government's doings. Even the minority members of the conference committee and the leaders of the minority party in Congress seem entirely comfortable with this course of events, although Congresswoman Barbara Lee has denounced the Republicans for it.

The House was the first to pass the "no permanent bases" amendment, back in March. Only one media outlet in the nation reported on the matter, the San Francisco Chronicle, which wrote:

"Lee's amendment, which would bar the use of any funds in the new spending bill to establish permanent bases, passed on a voice vote, with no one speaking in opposition. President Bush and some top administration officials have said the U.S. military has no interest in permanent bases, the prospect of which is among the causes of anti-American unrest in Iraq. Leaders of the Republican majority also may have chosen to avoid a debate and recorded vote on Lee's proposal because they didn't want to go on record endorsing a permanent military presence in Iraq when polls show Americans oppose the war. Opponents also may try to strike the amendment when leaders of the House and Senate reconcile their bill for final passage. 'In adopting this amendment, we can take the target off our troops' backs by sending a strong and immediate signal to the Iraqi people, the insurgents and the international community that the United States has no designs on Iraq,' Lee said on the House floor."

In response to this, I wrote at the time:

"That's quite a story: an issue so touchy that the majority party goes against its own wishes in order to avoid going on record, and a reporter, with his editor's approval, anticipates that they will likely reverse that position behind closed doors. Won't that be an even bigger story! Well, no. Not if no one has heard about this one. And not if no one has even heard that bases are being built or that Iraqis are killing Americans because of it."

Then the Senate did the same thing. They passed "no permanent bases" on a voice vote with no opposition. And the media was silent. Everyone knew what was coming, but nobody felt the public should hear about it.

Now the newspapers are full of stories about things the conference committee did yesterday. None of the stories that I've seen mention the removal of the language about permanent bases. Instead, most of the articles focus on the idea that the conference committee saw its job as reducing spending. It stripped out money for American farmers and other useful spending.

But what would those farmers think if they knew the committee had spent their money on multi-billion-dollar permanent military bases in somebody else's country, bases never explicitly authorized by Congress, bases built as part of an ongoing occupation never authorized by Congress? Would the farmers be dangerously overcome with joy to learn that? Is that the reason they must not be told?

If nobody knows and nobody cares, I guess it can't be treason.

Here are two people who would be interested to hear your opinion on the topic: Senator Thad Cochran (202-224-5054) and Congressman Jerry Lewis (202-225-5861), the pair of Republicans in charge of the conference committee. Feel free to give them a call and tell them what you think.

Oh, and one other public servant would love to hear from you. The public has been demanding for many months that Congress at least hold an open debate on the Iraq War, a lengthy debate allowing Congress Members from both sides of the aisle to introduce amendments and have them voted on. Instead, House Majority Leader John Boehner (202-225-6205) has announced that he'll allow a short debate next week, with no amendments allowed, and discussion limited to a phony bill the Republicans slapped together in secret this week on a napkin.

OK, I admit I don't know if it was on a napkin. But I guarantee it will sound like it when you read it.

My advice for next week, if you want to keep some sanity, is to ignore the House and watch the Senate, where Senator Russ Feingold will introduce an amendment on the floor requiring that all US troops in Iraq be "redeployed" by December 31.

Get C-Span and watch it, because the media will not tell you about it. They will not tell you for two reasons. First, Feingold is running for president, and the warmongers have already deemed him unacceptable. Second, Senator Hillary Clinton will vote against the amendment, and the warmongers have already deemed her the appropriate peace candidate to lose the 2008 election.




http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/11672

New York Times


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June 11, 2006
Iraq Decides It Still Needs U.S.-Led Military Presence
By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON, June 10 — The new government of Iraq has decided to postpone any demand for negotiations to establish a more formal legal basis for the presence of American and other foreign troops on its soil, Iraqi and American officials said this week.

Instead, these officials said, Iraq will allow the current United Nations mandate to remain in effect beyond a deadline next Thursday for a review of Security Council Resolution 1637, which provides legal authority for the American-led military coalition to continue its combat operations.

"I've just finished speaking with my foreign minister, who intends to be in New York for the review, and it will not be a point at which we terminate," Samir al-Sumaidaie, Iraq's new ambassador to the United States, said Friday. The new government led by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is the first full-term government to take power in Iraq since the American invasion more than three years ago.

Iraq has the right to unilaterally end the United Nations troops mandate at any time, as spelled out in the resolution approved unanimously by the Security Council last Nov. 8.

But Mr. Sumaidaie said the new government's "policy at the moment is that Iraq still needs the presence of the multinational force."

The United Nations mandate for Iraq differs from the agreements on which the United States usually relies as the legal basis for the presence of its troops in allied countries. In most cases, these arrangements are detailed in formal, bilateral treaties — called Status of Forces Agreements — with nations where it bases troops and conducts exercises.

Much of the language in those agreements details mundane rights and responsibilities — how to share construction costs or the required compensation for smashing through an orchard, for example.

But the agreements also include specific legal protections for American troops, often extending beyond those offered by a local government to its population. Such agreements have in the past become a source of anger among residents in instances where civilians were killed during military exercises or when American military personnel were accused of violent crimes.

American commanders in Iraq have said they hope to retain control over their military operations for as long as possible under the new sovereign government. At the same time, Iraqi officials have expressed mounting concerns over the deaths of civilians during coalition counterinsurgency operations, most recently after reports that marines in western Iraq killed two dozen civilian noncombatants in Haditha last fall.

"We are fighting a war, and it is difficult to fight a war under a Status of Forces Agreement," a senior Bush administration official said on Friday. "The main issue that we put into the SOFA protections is for military personnel carrying out their duties, which in Iraq would occur 100 percent of the time."

The administration official said the new Iraqi government, which only Thursday was able to fill top positions in its national security ministries, had expressed eagerness for the coalition military to remain under the current mandate.

"There is a great deal of support, obviously, and enhanced by what happened yesterday, for our continued presence," the official said, referring to the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist leader, which was announced Thursday. The American official agreed to discuss the high-level negotiations with the Iraqi government only after being promised anonymity.

A number of resolutions and other agreements provide legal authority for coalition forces to operate in Iraq. Under the most recent one, 1637, Iraq acknowledged that multinational forces were in the country at its request.

The resolution required that the mandate for those forces be reviewed by next Thursday, but also provided that Iraq could terminate the mandate at any time.

New York Times


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 11, 2006
The Mark of Z
Most Wanted Now: War-Weary Sunnis
By JOHN F. BURNS
BAGHDAD, Iraq


IN the war's first year, American commanders made so much of his role in the worsening insurgency that they developed their own wry, self-mocking way of referring to him. He was "the Z word," the villain-for-all-occasions, the default to turn to whenever American commanders looked for causes and patterns in a conflict that, at the time, they had only begun to figure their way through.

He was the devil's pimpernel — now in Falluja, now in Baghdad, now in Mosul. He moved undetected across a map that was an obstacle course of checkpoints and curfews and roadside explosions and traffic back-ups behind American military convoys — enough to make a nervous wreck of the most placid traveler, let alone a man sharing with Osama bin Laden the grim distinction of a $25-million American bounty on his head.

A suicide bomb here, a beheading there, an assassination somewhere else — scores of them across Iraq, American intelligence concluded — were the work of a sullen-faced, heavyset Jordanian by the adopted name of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. In swoops by American and British special forces, dozens of his aides were killed and captured, their faces posted on colored charts distributed at news briefings in Baghdad under the heading, "AQIZ Degradation," denoting, wishfully, the breakup of Al Qaeda in Iraq (Zarqawi), the killing machine he led.

So often did American generals predict his demise, and in the face of such ceaseless bad news, that one day last year the credibility gap at the American command's weekly press briefings led to one of the war's best-remembered exchanges. The spokesman, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, had produced yet another handsome chart, arresting in its array of named silhouetted figures inside red-framed boxes, like head-and-shoulders targets on a shooting range.

These were the men of Mr. Zarqawi's network, dead or detained. If accurate, the chart seemed to portend just what Gen. Lynch said, big trouble for Al Qaeda. So the general, a Texan who allies a liking for Jack Daniels and Harley-Davidsons to a distaste for vapid thinking, was not pleased when a reporter asked how it was possible for so many Qaeda loyalists to be eliminated, and for the group's killing to be unabated.

At the time, Qaeda violence had prompted American commanders to identify Mr. Zarqawi and the Qaeda network — not the secular insurgents spawned by the toppling of Saddam Hussein — as their principal enemy. "Ma'am," the general said, advancing on the questioner, "the reason Al Qaeda is continuing to spread its terror across Iraq is because Abu Musab al-Zarqawi" — here he paused, as if savoring the self-parody and signalling the futility of any answer — "just...ain't...payin'...attention."

On Wednesday, Mr. Zarqawi's attentions were fatally elsewhere when a United States Air Force F-16 wheeled in the evening sky above Hibhib, 35 miles north of Baghdad, and dropped two 500-pound bombs on a safe house where he was meeting with his "spiritual adviser," Sheik Abd al-Rahman.

Now, with him dead, the question is whether the hoped-for degradation of the Qaeda network will materialize, and begin to break the effectiveness of terrorist groups under his leadership. If so, there will be another question: whether such a decline might help the Americans reach out to potentially more moderate Sunnis and convince them there is a place for them in the American vision for Iraq. Will it, most importantly, reduce assassinations — for example, those that have targeted Sunni politicians who try to bring insurgents into the political process?

Mr. Zarqawi's network lost no time in vowing to carry on. And from the experience of the war so far, it seems at least an even bet that an octopus-like Qaeda network, seemingly able to grow new tentacles to replace those it loses, will continue to bedevil the Americans, fed by a generation of young Muslim men from the Middle East, North Africa and Asia who are ready to travel down the chain of mosques and safehouses that ends, often, with a suicide bombing in Iraq.

Still, Mr. Zarqawi, like Mr. bin Laden, was no ordinary leader. His brutality was allied to an organizing genius, a personal, if fiendish, charisma and, until last week, a Houdini-like ability to survive. It is an amalgam that has produced many of history's worst tyrants, and American commanders are banking on there being no Qaeda heir quite so pathologically equipped for the task.

As American forces fanned out last week on raids against other Qaeda targets in the Baghdad area, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top American commander, was working on a long-range plan. His strategy in the past year has been to concentrate on the Zarqawi militants, seeing them and their plans for an Islamic caliphate in Iraq as the gravest threat to the American enterprise here. For him, Mr. Zarqawi's death was a vindication of a strategy that has had its detractors among American officers in Iraq and in the Pentagon.

Although smaller in numbers than the secularist, Sunni Arab insurgency that seeks to restore Sunni minority rule, the Qaeda-linked groups have been responsible for most of the "spectacular" attacks on mosques and marketplaces and other densely-populated targets.

General Casey and fellow American commanders see these as the root cause of Iraqis' disillusionment with the democratic institutions America is trying to build. Now, they hope, something has changed. By going after the Qaeda groups, and concentrating on renewed efforts to build security in Baghdad, General Casey hopes to foster an atmosphere in which the new government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki can begin to govern effectively and rally public support.

But even if the Qaeda network crumbles, the Americans and their Iraqi allies will still confront the challenge of the homegrown insurgency. The Casey plan assumes that a core of the Sunni Arab groups, those fighting for the restoration of Mr. Hussein or of Baathist rule, will have to be defeated, eventually. That, he believes, will be easier for the new Iraqi forces, and any remaing Americans, if Islamic militants are defeated first.

The plan sees negotiations as the key to dealing with the largest group among the "former regime elements," who account for most of the 50,000 or more insurgents — Iraqi nationalists opposed to American involvement here, tribal leaders who see their status threatened by Western-style democracy, and Sunnis who remain unreconciled to Shiite majority rule.

In the Casey plan, developed with Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador, the hope has been that opening talks with the Sunni insurgents will become easier. Earlier this year, for example, militants gunned down the brother and sister of Tariq al-Hashemi, a former officer in Mr. Hussein's army and now a vice-president whom the Americans see as one of the best hopes for an accommodation with moderate elements of the Sunni rebels.

Similar hopes now rest on the new defense minister, Abdul Qadr Mohammed Jassim, who was a general in the Hussein army but was dismissed in 1994 and jailed for his opposition to the Kuwait invasion. Hopes that he might help the Maliki government build bridges to the Sunni insurgents rose when he and the Shiite nominees to head two other security ministries, interior and national security, won sweeping approval from the new parliament less than an hour after Mr. Zarqawi's death was announced. Mr. Jassim has said he will do all he can to speed reconciliation with the insurgents.

But the darker possibility is that even moderates in the Sunni insurgency will remain opposed to Shiite rule, even when mitigated by power-sharing arrangements of the kind built into the Maliki government, with its 40-man cabinet composed of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds in proportion to their seats in Parliament. If so, the insurgent groups that now effectively control much of Anbar province, to the west of Baghdad, as well as other stretches of the so-called Sunni Triangle, are likely to fight on, maintaining alliances with the Qaeda terrorist groups, and risk locking the Americans into an intractable war.

Business as usual in Iraq’s insurgency

Al-Zarqawi has gone – but his influence was nothing compared to that of the various groups of Iraq’s home-grown insurgents … and they show no sign of letting up

Al-Zarqawi is dead, long live those who follow him. That was the sober analysis facing the coalition forces in Iraq as they faced up to life without their most-wanted jihadist. By any standards the execution of al-Zarqawi was a stunning success. On an operational level it removed a man who has been a major bugbear to the US-led coalition; on a psychological level it is bound to be disheartening to the foreign fighters who had flocked to his side to an answer al-Qaeda’s call for martyrs. Not only was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi taken out with clinical precision but it is clear he was betrayed by his own people.
But as far as the Iraqi insurgency is concerned it will be a case of business as usual. The foreign fighters serving under the al-Qaeda label only accounted for small numbers of insurgents – according to US commanders the majority are disaffected Ba’ath Party members and hardline members of Saddam Hussein’s armed forces or disaffected Shias operating with Iranian support in the south. According to coalition security sources, the Iraqi insurgency is composed of at least a dozen major guerrilla organisations each of which contains several cells, the exact number changing as a result of circumstances and the outcome of operations. Below them are countless smaller groupings with changing names and changing personnel.

Even before last week’s events it was clear that al-Zarqawi’s influence was waning, with some reports claiming that he had been sidelined by insurgency groups because he had become too much of a magnet for the security forces. His name still carried considerable appeal but his ability to act was lessening, leaving security experts to claim that he was a busted flush.

“Maybe on the psychological level it will help, but realistically, on the ground, it doesn’t change a thing,” said Nawaf al-Obeid, a security adviser to the Saudi Arabian government. “This pales in comparison to the real insurgency, which comes from the Iraqis themselves.”

One statistic says it all. During the past three years US and British forces have enjoyed some unsung success in their low-intensity war against Iraqi insurgents. After the battle for Fallujah in November last year a number of insurgency cells were broken and their members killed in firefights with US soldiers. But the successes were quickly negated by the Iraqis’ ability to regroup. Senior commanders say it was quickly established that it took a maximum of seven weeks for the cells to reappear and be ready to renew operations.

That capacity to continue the armed struggle and to resist destruction makes it unlikely that there will be any major troop withdrawals before 2007. Containing a counter-insurgency war of the kind being waged in Iraq requires troops on the ground, not least because there is the added complication of sectarian enmity which the Iraqi security forces seem unable to stop.

“Although this does not necessarily mean that Iraq is on an irreversible course towards civil war, as much of the media has speculated, there is no reason to suppose that this type of violence will abate in the short term,” claims Amyas Godfrey, who heads the UK Armed Forces Programme at the Royal United Services Institute. “We have learned that much from the Balkans.

In common with other analysts, Godfrey supports the “long war” theory – the idea that the war against terrorism could last as long as the Hundred Years War between England and France which, in fact, lasted 116 years. Earlier this year the Pentagon released its Quadrennial Defence Review (QDR) which went out of its way to underline the belief that the US and its allies are in for a long slog in the war against terrorism. Its main argument was that while there will be successes like last week’s eradication of the threat posed by al-Zarqawi, no-one should expect easy victories in Iraq or elsewhere. Instead, according to the authors of QDR, the fighting would be characterised by “complex operations involving the US military, other government agencies and international partners operating simultaneously by multiple countries around the world”.

For Iraq that means more of the same, and while matters will improve as the fledgling administration gets into harness – last week’s long-awaited filling of the ministerial posts involving defence and security were more significant than the killing of al-Zarqawi – there is still a long way to go before the insurgency is finally defeated. Quite apart from the fact that an average of 1000 Iraqis are being killed every month, the violence shows no sign of abating and there are worrying signs that many Iraqis are becoming inured to the killing and the destruction. A senior British Army officer put the situation into context when he admitted that, while al-Zarqawi’s death was to be applauded, the battle continued.

“I’d like to claim that it was a major hit, but it wasn’t, it was merely a dent. There are still far too many people out there killing each other because they belong to one racial or religious group and their victims don’t. Stop that and you stop the violence, but it’s one hell of a tall order.”

Ba’athists
Sunni Arabs, dominated by Ba’athist and Former Regime Loyalists (FRL), comprise the core of the insurgency.
These include former members of the ruling Ba’ath Party from the period of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. Many belonged to the Fedayeen Saddam, which already had a history of violence, or were members of the security services, such as the Mukhabarat.

Ba’athist/FRL and Sunni Arab networks are probably collaborating, providing funds and guidance across family, tribal, religious and peer group lines. According to Newsweek of July 21, 2003, two months before the war began, the Mukhabarat, or Iraqi secret police, issued instructions “to do what’s necessary after the fall of the Iraqi leadership to the American-British-Zionist Coalition forces”. The Ba’athists are said to be especially strong in the Sunni provinces of Baghdad, Babel, Salahuddin, Diyala, Nineveh and Tamim. US forces have faced their greatest challenges in areas of central Iraq which had a strong tradition of military service.

Commentators have also blamed much of the violence on the decision by former US governor Paul Bremer to disband the Iraqi army in 2003, without disarming it.

Iraqi nationalists
Mainly Sunni, the Iraqi Nationalists are opposed to the presence of coalition forces and oppose the new administration in Iraq. Among them are large numbers of former Republican Guard officers, so they have the benefit of being trained, and have been behind most of the attacks on coalition forces. All are anti-Shia.
A significant percentage of the foot soldiers of these groups, however, are nationalist Iraqis who simply want the occupation to end, and who are also likely to be getting paid to fight.

This nationalist grouping also includes the National Front for the Liberation of Iraq, which includes 10 resistance groups. It was formed days after the occupation of Iraq in April 2003, and consists of nationalists and Islamists. Its activities are concentrated in Irbil and Kirkuk in northern Iraq; in Fallujah, Samarra and Tikrit in central Iraq; in Basra and Babil governorates in the south; and in Diyali governorate in the east.

Some analysts have suggested that fighters from the nationalist ranks are less likely to target Iraqi civilians or engage in suicide bombings. These insurgents, like the Ba’athists, may be using foreign jihadis as cannon fodder to fight US forces.

the mahdi army
Supporters of the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the Mahdi Army is mostly made up of young people from the poorer areas of the larger cities, notably the slum district of Sadr City in Baghdad, named after al-Sadr’s father, a revered cleric murdered by Saddam Hussein’s security forces.
The Mahdi Army has been involved in a number of confrontations with US forces. Mahdi fighters armed with light weapons clashed with US soldiers in April 2004 after taking over police stations in Shia neighbourhoods across Iraq. Al-Sadr again mobilised his gunmen in August 2004. The fighting climaxed in the holy city of Najaf – the Shia equivalent of Vatican City – with US soldiers laying siege to hundreds of Mahdi fighters who had sought cover in the shrine of Imam Ali.

The intervention of top Shia cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani led to a truce and the withdrawal of al-Sadr’s fighters from the shrine.

Al-Sadr varies his stance towards the Baghdad leadership, sometimes offering it his tacit support, at other times urging his followers to oppose it.

The Mahdi Army take their name from a historic imam who, according to Shia tradition, will reappear among the faithful. Most members of the Mahdi Army are ultra-conservative and oppose the Western presence in Iraq. It has 32 seats in parliament.

communists and others
A split in the Iraqi Communist Party saw the emergence of the so-called “patriotic communists” who have combined with other left-wing elements in a loose coalition.
There are also a number of groups which oppose the Western presence but advocate non-violent means to meet their goals. The best known of these is the National Foundation Congress. Founded by Sheikh Jawad al-Khalisi, it includes a broad range of religious, ethnic and political currents united by their opposition to the occupation.

Although it does not reject armed insurgency – which it regards as any nation’s right – it favours non-violent politics and criticises the formation of militia groups.

Another “group” contributing to the Iraq insurgency, as happens in any war of this kind, are the criminal elements who simply take advantage of the lack of order and have been responsible for many of the kidnappings.

Overall, research indicates that the greatest support for the insurgency in Iraq lies in al-Anbar province, a vast area extending from the Syrian border to the western outskirts of Baghdad.

This is attributed to a lack of opportunities for members of the old regime, lack of employment, tribal customs, suspicion of outsiders and the religious conservatism of the area.

11 June 2006
©2006 newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights reserved

Grisly Iraq Tape Signals Rebel Violence not Over
--------------------

By Associated Press

June 10 2006, 1:16 PM PDT

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Insurgents signaled the fight is still on after Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi's death, posting an Internet video Saturday showing the beheading of
three alleged Shiite death squad members in revenge for killing Sunnis.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...-home-headlines


Visit latimes.com at http://www.latimes.com

Iraq Insurgents Post New Beheading Video
--------------------

By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writer

June 10 2006, 7:27 PM PDT

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Insurgents signaled the fight is still on after Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi's death, posting an Internet video Saturday showing the beheading of
three alleged Shiite death squad members in revenge for killing Sunnis.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wi...,0,509675.story

Visit latimes.com at http://www.latimes.com

British Troops, Insurgents Battle in Iraq Forbes
Insurgents set a fire in a vegetable market to lure British soldiers into a gunbattle Sunday that left five civilians dead and more than a dozen hurt by the crossfire, Iraqi police said. The fighting was part of a string of violent incidents Sunday amid a government stalemate and threats of continued violence from insurgents after the death of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Police Capt. Hussein Karim said insurgents started the blaze in the market in south Amarah, 180 miles southeast of Baghdad, to draw the troops into an ambush. The British Defense Ministry offered a different account, saying soldiers were sent to search the suspected launch site of a rocket attack and came under small-arms fire. The ministry said there were reports of "a small number of terrorist casualties," but full details of the incident remained unclear. It could not confirm that civilians were among the dead and wounded. Meanwhile, Iraq's national security adviser said he believed the number of coalition forces would drop below 100,000 by year's end. Mouwafak al-Rubaie also said the majority of coalition forces would leave before mid-2008. "The more our Iraqi security forces, our police, our army, the more they grow in number, in training and are ready and able to perform and to protect our people, then the less we need of the multinational forces," al-Rubaie told CNN's "Late Edition." "The overwhelming majority of the multinational forces will leave probably before ... the middle of 2008." The top U.S. commander in Iraq said Sunday he does not plan to ask President Bush for more troops during meetings this week, but he declined to say whether he would suggest a reduction of his forces. "I constantly evaluate the situation," Gen. George Casey said. "And if I think I need more, I'll ask more. If I think I need less, I'll tell the president that I need less." White House officials have played down expectations of troop cutback announcements coming from the president's summit on Iraq. Roadside bombs struck two Iraqi police patrols in separate attacks in north and south Baghdad, killing two people, at least one of them a police officer, and wounding 11. At least nine other violent deaths were reported around the country. Al-Qaida in Iraq vowed Sunday to carry out "major attacks," insisting in a Web statement that it was still powerful after the death of al-Zarqawi. Insurgents Saturday posted an Internet video of the beheading of three alleged Shiite death squad members. The attacks since the Thursday announcement of al-Zarqawi's death have been far from the mass bloodshed promised by his supporters. The government had imposed partial driving bans in Baghdad and Baqouba, which resulted in a slight drop in violence. An average of about 19 people a day were killed around Iraq in the past three days. Continuing an already monthlong delay, the Iraqi parliament postponed its session to allow the main political blocs more time to agree on the exact powers of the Sunni Arab parliament speaker. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met with party representatives Saturday but failed to break the deadlock. Fellow Sunni insurgent groups sent condolences for al-Zarqawi in Internet messages Saturday and warned Sunnis not to cooperate with the Iraqi government, an apparent call for unity after U.S. forces killed the terror leader in a targeted airstrike Wednesday. The Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi was the defining face of Iraq's insurgency. His tirades against the nation's majority Shiites and calls for the once-dominant minority Sunni Arabs to rise up and kill them were accompanied by the killings of thousands of Shiites in attacks. Iraqi and U.S. leaders acknowledged that al-Zarqawi's killing was not likely to stop the insurgency, now in its fourth year. But they hoped it would rob his supporters of an iconic figure around which they rallied. Saturday's grisly video was the first known footage of insurgent beheadings posted in months and was clearly designed to quash hopes that the Sunni-dominated insurgency might end attacks on Shiites. In other violence Sunday:

• Drive-by gunmen fired on a civilian car, killing the driver, police said.
• Police in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora found four unidentified bodies, all of which had been tortured and shot.
• Baghdad police said they separately found the body of a Health Ministry security guard who appeared to have been shot in the head after being tortured and the corpse of a taxi driver who was reported kidnapped yesterday in Dora.
• Unidentified gunmen in Mosul shot and killed a former Iraqi Army officer, police said. The assailants were in a speeding car and killed Ali Ahmed Abdullah with a machine gun as he was walking in one of the city's commercial centers.
• A roadside bomb in western Mosul killed one bystander and injured six others, police Col. Abdul-Karim Ahmed said.

Associated Press reporters Sinan Salaheddin and Qais al-Bashir contributed to this report.
By RYAN LENZ
Al Qaeda Vows 'Major Attacks' CBS News
Intelligence pays off: Al-Qaeda in Iraq penetration led to Zarqawi, official says USA Today
Center for Research on Globalization - Chicago Tribune - ABC News - Newsweek - all 3,208 related »

At least 17 killed in continuing violence:

A car bomb killed six people and wounded 42 others in Baghdad's central Karrada district, police said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/GEO117259.htm


Five dead following Iraqi gunbattle:

Insurgents set a fire in a vegetable market to lure British soldiers into a gunbattle Sunday that left five civilians dead and more than a dozen hurt by the crossfire, Iraqi police said.
http://tinyurl.com/s23m7


Iraq Insurgents Post New Beheading Video:

Insurgents signaled the fight is still on after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death, posting an Internet video Saturday showing the beheading of three alleged Shiite death squad members in revenge for killing Sunnis.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireSt...TC-RSSFeeds0312

Bomb Kills U.S. Soldier in Northern Iraq :

A roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier and wounded another in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said Saturday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/stor...5877240,00.html


Another Fallujah?

Fearful citizens flee from Ramadi:

U.S. and Iraqi forces cordoned off the city Saturday and were asking civilians to evacuate, residents and Iraqi officials said. Airstrikes on several residential areas picked up, and troops used loudspeakers to warn civilians of a fierce impending attack, Ramadi police Capt. Tahseen Aldulaimi said.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nati...3_ramadi11.html


How Iraq's ghost of death was cornered:

“We saw the bodies of two women that had been flung away from the blast. Both were dead. Another body was totally destroyed and in pieces, and then we heard a moan coming from another part of the house.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13574.htm


Baghdad Burning: Iraqi Girl Blog:

Zarqawi...

The timing is extremely suspicious: just when people were getting really fed up with the useless Iraqi government, Zarqawi is killed and Maliki is hailed the victorious leader of the occupied world! (And no- Iraqis aren't celebrating in the streets- worries over electricity, water, death squads, tests, corpses and extremists in high places prevail right now.)
http://tinyurl.com/hwc7q


William Bowles: Pulling corpses out of the hat :

“The Zarqawi PSYOP program is the most successful information campaign to date.” — Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the U.S. military’s chief spokesman
http://williambowles.info/ini/2006/0606/ini-0422.html


Eric S. Margolis: So is Iraq free now?:

Contrary to erroneous reports promoted by the US government, Zarqawi’s so-called ‘Al Qaeda in Iraq’ was not really a part of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda movement, and he was not the leader of the anti-US resistance in Iraq.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13576.htm

Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers deserting:

Erratic pay, inadequate food and poor living conditions are driving several hundred Iraqi soldiers out of the army every month.
http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read/18314

THE THREAT OF CIVIL WAR IN IRAQ - ROGER OWEN (BOSTON GLOBE, JUNE 11): Public opinion polls show more Iraqis feel they are better off if the British and Americans stay rather than if they go. This makes the efforts of the American military to prosecute those who have killed innocent Iraqi civilians more important.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...il_war_in_iraq/

U.S. SEEKING NEW STRATEGY FOR BUTTRESSING IRAQ'S GOVERNMENT - DAVID E. SANGER AND JAMES GLANZ (NEW YORK TIMES, JUNE 11): Administration officials say they are not trying to reinvent the reconstruction, but rather relaunch it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/world/mi...t/11summit.html

BEAT THE PRESS: BEFORE THE IRAQ WAR, DID A BULLYING WHITE HOUSE COW THE U.S. MEDIA? [REVIEW OF LAPDOGS: HOW THE PRESS ROLLED OVER FOR BUSH BY ERIC BOEHLERT?] - MICHAEL GETLER (WASHINGTON POST, JUNE 11): The performance of the press during the Bush years, especially in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, is so important that all serious attempts to assess it are worthy of attention.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6060801346.html

READY FOR REVIEW: THE BEST WAR EVER SPIN OF THE DAY (CENTER FOR MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY, JUNE 5): Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber have finished writing The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies and the Mess in Iraq. It is their sixth book together for the Center and a sequel to their 2003 bestseller "Weapons of Mass Deception."
http://www.prwatch.org/node/4866

THE CAMERAS THEY CARRIED: THREE SOLDIERS FILM THEIR EXPERIENCES IN IRAQ FOR A NEW DOCUMENTARY, THE WAR TAPES - SUDHIR MURALIDHAR (AMERICAN PROSPECT, JUNE 9): The War Tapes are prime examples of how George W. Bush?s Iraq adventure has been particularly damaging for the men and women forced to carry it out.
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?sectio...articleId=11629

IRAQ'S PENTAGON PAPERS: THIS UNJUSTIFIED WAR IS WAITING FOR ITS WHISTLE-BLOWER, SAYS THE LEAKER OF VIETNAM'S SECRET HISTORY - DANIEL ELLSBERG (LOS ANGELES TIMES, JUNE 11): We must force Congress and this president, or their successors if necessary, to act upon the moral proposition that the U.S. must stop killing men, women and children in Iraq, and must not begin to do so in Iran.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions

Al-Qaeda in Iraq names new head BBC News
Al-Qaeda in Iraq has named a successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, days after he was killed in a US air strike. Abu Hamza al-Muhajir is "knowledgeable" and has a history of fighting a holy war, said an internet message on a site used by Islamic militants. But observers say little is known about him - the name could be a pseudonym. The news came as US military officials said Zarqawi had died from injuries consistent with the results of a bomb. Questions had arisen over how he had died after the Americans revealed he had still been alive following the bombing of a safe house by US planes on Wednesday. In other developments:

• The US military in Iraq says its aircraft killed nine people in an attack on a "terrorist cell", but witnesses say the dead are civilians
• At least 10 people are killed and many more injured in two car bomb attacks on markets in Baghdad
• US President George W Bush is holding two days of discussions with military officials and diplomats for what his advisers say is a crucial reassessment of the war in Iraq.

Pseudonym
The statement from al-Qaeda in Iraq said its council had "unanimously agreed" on the choice.Muhajir is "a good brother, has a history in jihad [holy war] and is knowledgeable", the message said. "We ask God that he... continue what Sheikh Abu Musab began," it added. Muhajir was not among the names al-Qaeda analysts had expected as a probable successor, and is believed to be a pseudonym. Analysts say the name al-Muhajir - which is Arabic for immigrant - suggests he is not Iraqi. The group has been quick to declare their operations will continue despite the loss of their exceptionally violent leader, the BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner says. Zarqawi was accused of leading the rash of kidnappings and beheadings of foreign workers. Our correspondent says military analysts will be now watching to see if al-Qaeda in Iraq continues its campaign against Shia Muslims - or focuses its attacks more narrowly to broaden support among Iraqis.

Zarqawi autopsy
Zarqawi and five others were killed after US planes dropped two 500lb (230kg) bombs on a safe house near the city of Baquba on Wednesday.


Giving the first details of Zarqawi's autopsy, US military doctor Steve Jones told reporters the cause of death was a blast injury to the lungs. DNA analysis had confirmed the corpse was Zarqawi's and it bore "no evidence of beating or any firearm injuries", he added. Major General William Caldwell said they administered medical help to the mortally wounded Zarqawi, who had taken nearly an hour to die after the strike. US military officials have denied widely reported eyewitness allegations suggesting Zarqawi had been beaten by US soldiers before his death. The US had earlier announced Zarqawi did not survive the air strike, which they said came after tip-offs from his organisation.

Act now: Senate vote on Iraq hours away! John Kerry
Dear Friends,
No American leader can remain silent on Iraq. The outcome of what is now a civil war in Iraq cannot be determined by American military force. It has to be solved by Iraqis brought together to hammer out their differences. Period. It is time for Iraqis to stand up for Iraq.


Our soldiers are fighting and dying in the third war in Iraq -- not the war for mythical weapons of mass destruction or the war President Bush said had to be fought against armies of foreign jihadists, but an escalating civil war between Sunni and Shia. Meanwhile, dissent and debate are being stifled here at home. It's time to act -- and this week, perhaps as early as tomorrow, every U.S. Senator will have that chance. In the next 24 hours, it is likely that the Senate will vote on my amendment which calls for the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq by the end of this year. For months, you and I have been pressing for this step. We've made it clear that we needed to set deadlines in Iraq -- and with the formation of an Iraqi unity government and the killing of Al-Zarqawi, this is a moment of truth in Iraq. Now a critical vote is at hand. Our brave soldiers have done their work. It's time to put the future of Iraq in the hands of the Iraqi people.

Urge your Senators to support withdrawal of combat troops by the end of 2006
I don't know how many Senators will stand with me on this vote. But, I do know this: pushing the Iraqi government to coordinate with us on withdrawal of U.S. combat troops and pressing for the convening of a Dayton-like summit to reach a comprehensive political agreement for Iraq is the right thing to do. And we can't stop working for that outcome until we make it a reality. Every Senator that chooses to stand with us will add momentum to our call for an end to the misguided and self-defeating policies of the Bush administration.

Urge your Senators to support withdrawal of combat troops by the end of 2006
Changing America's course in Iraq is one of the toughest political challenges you and I have ever taken on. But, we won't relent until we get the job done -- and we have to make the most of every opportunity to make ourselves heard. I will be making myself heard on the floor of the United States Senate -- loudly and clearly. You can make our call for a dramatic change in direction even louder and clearer. Please don't hesitate before acting.
Sincerely,

John Kerry

Iraq tops agenda for Bush cabinet BBC News
US President George W Bush has begun talks with his cabinet members and top military and political advisers to consider the path ahead in Iraq. The two-day meeting is taking place at the presidential retreat at Camp David. Senior US military commanders and new Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki will be joining in via a video link. They are discussing how best to deploy the US resources in Iraq and how to achieve the goal of an Iraq that can govern itself and defend itself. President Bush is meeting his secretaries of defence and state, his national security advisor and his top military commanders at the mountain retreat in Maryland. The challenges they must address are legion, the BBC's Adam Brookes in Washington says:

• the intractable insurgency
• the slow pace of reconstruction
• the growth of sectarian violence
• when US troops might start leaving Iraq

But our correspondent adds that the talks are being held in a rare mood of optimism. Last week saw the killing of the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and the appointment of ministers in the Iraqi government for defence, security and the interior. Now the Bush administration sees these developments as real progress and is fervently hoping that they will buttress the credibility of Iraq's new government, our correspondent says.

Bush Makes Surprise Iraq Visit for Talks With Maliki Bloomberg
President George W. Bush landed in Baghdad this morning on a surprise visit to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and bolster his newly formed government amid continuing sectarian violence. Air Force One touched down at 4:11 pm local time after a swift, spiraling descent to Baghdad International Airport meant to avoid anti-aircraft fire. Bush then traveled in an armed Black Hawk helicopter for the six-minute journey to the heavily fortified Green Zone of Baghdad for his discussions with Maliki at the U.S. embassy. While in Baghdad, Bush also will participate in a video teleconference with his own advisers back in the U.S. and visit with U.S. troops. It was his second such visit to Iraq, and his departure from the U.S. was kept under wraps for security. Bush made the trip as he and his advisers are trying to capitalize on two positive developments for his strategy: Maliki's completion of his cabinet with the appointments of ministers for defense, security and interior, and the U.S. air strike last week that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq. The events have brought mixed results for the president, according to two recent polls.

Public Reaction
A USA Today/Gallup Organization poll taken in the days following Zarqawi's death showed Bush's approval rating at 38 percent, two percentage points higher than a month ago. A separate survey by CBS News found that half of Americans say the level of violence in Iraq will be unchanged by Zarqawi's demise and 30 percent believe his death will provoke more attacks. Bush's approval rating in the CBS poll fell to 33 percent, a 2 percentage point decline. Both results for approval ratings are within the margins of error for the polls. "People who are opposed to the war already and think it has cost too much in blood and treasure are unlikely to change their minds,'' John Mueller, an Ohio State University professor who has written about how wars affect presidencies, said in an interview yesterday. ``The war, and his response to terrorism, are the defining events of this presidency.'' Bush's arrival in Iraq's capital recalls his trip to Baghdad on Nov. 27, 2003, where he addressed U.S. soldiers on the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. As was the case for that visit, Bush traveled to Iraq under a cloak of secrecy, departing the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, for Andrews Air Force Base Monday evening.

Under Wraps
White House Counselor Dan Bartlett said that among the president's Cabinet only Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld knew of Bush's trip. A group of no more than six people -- none of whom Bartlett would identify -- were involved in the early stages of planning. Maliki himself did not know Bush was coming; Bartlett said that U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad planned on telling him as the two drove together to the embassy. "Good to see you,'' Maliki said when Bush walked into the Republican Palace, which serves as the temporary U.S. embassy. "Thanks for having me,'' the president responded. Bartlett said the trip has substantive as well as symbolic value, and that Bush was eager to meet Maliki so he can forge more of a relationship "than you can get over the telephone.'' "We are committed to the success of this new government,'' Bartlett said.

Iraq Debate
The meetings were part of a two-day focus on Iraq by the administration. Bush convened Cabinet members and military officials yesterday at Camp David to get their assessments and recommendations. A driving force in the U.S. debate on Iraq is the question of how soon the administration can begin drawing down its forces there, which now number about 133,000. Other nations contribute 16,000 troops to the coalition. Republicans in Congress were planning several debates and votes on Iraq, including a House resolution intended to turn back efforts by some Democrats to set a date for the U.S. to withdraw its forces. Three years and three months into the war, Iraq is still too unstable for the U.S. to contemplate a significant drawdown, according to experts such as Judith Yaphe, an Iraq expert at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington. "We're going to continue to have a force there, certainly through the next year and beyond,'' Yaphe said yesterday. "We're never going to be completely out of Iraq.''

Insurgents and Economy
Other indicators illustrate how far Iraq has yet to go. Iraqi deaths average roughly 50 per day and almost 4,800 Iraqi police and military personnel have been killed in the past three years, according to the Brookings Institution's compilation of Iraq statistics. There were 90 attacks by insurgents each day on average in May. Getting the economy jump started also has proven difficult because of the insurgency. There were 313 attacks on Iraqi oil and gas installations from the invasion through May 20. Crude oil production was 1.935 million barrels per day in May, according to Bloomberg estimates, short of the pre-war peak of 2.5 million barrels per day. Crude oil exports average between 1.7 and 2.5 million barrels per day pre-war; in May they were 1.48 million according to the Brookings Index. The shortage in oil revenue and the soaring costs have forced the administration to request $65.8 billion in supplemental funding this year for Iraq operations.
Bush Makes Surprise Visit to Baghdad KSBI 52
75,000 Forces to Be Deployed in Baghdad Forbes
United Press International - BBC News - ABC News - Financial Times - all 415 related »

At least 34 people killed as occupation continues:

U.S. forces killed seven "militants". Two children were also been killed.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBA228362.htm


Eight killed in Iraq suicide attack:

A suicide car bomber slammed into a security checkpoint outside Baqouba, killing at least eight people and wounding four others, police said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1637943.cms


No Slowdown in Iraq's Violence:

Over the weekend, 83 bodies were delivered to the Baghdad morgue. The figure is high even by the grim standards of a venue that has seen thousands of corpses this year.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5478162


US 'planning to keep 50,000 troops in Iraq for many years':

America plans to retain a garrison of 50,000 troops, one tenth of its entire army, in Iraq for years to come, according to US media reports.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13580.htm


Questions Remain About Zarqawi's Final Minutes:

The U.S. denies accounts saying that the terrorist was beaten by American troops before he died, but confirms that a child was among the dead.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13581.htm

Déjà vu in Ramadi

"Come and see the blood in the streets." Pablo Neruda, ‘Selected Poems’

By Mike Whitney

We’ve seen this before. An Iraqi city is surrounded by troops and armored vehicles; the artillery is wheeled into place, the roads are blocked, a giant wall of sand is piled up around the perimeter, and everything goes silent before the final onslaught.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13605.htm


Support The Troops

By Sheila Samples

When torture, murder and war crimes committed by Americans in places such as Guantanamo, Haditha, Abu Ghrab, Ishaqi and Fallujah, as well as in Afghanistan, comes to light, Bush and his criminal defense department initially try to conceal the atrocities. If forced to investigate themselves, they find no wrongdoing. When all else fails, Bush comes out, blames the troops and says the few bad apples will be brought to justice.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13604.htm


Last Letters Home

Voices of American Troops From The Battlefields Of Iraq

Click here to watch: Windows Media
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13609.htm


Cure the Disease

By Cindy Sheehan

I fully endorse and advocate an investigation into the lies, treason, and crimes against humanity that BushCo. are perpetrating on the world. Justice needs to be served. However, and this is an important point: even if we rid our government of every neo-con cyst that is festering on our democracy, what we get in replacement will still be corrupt and the change will be meaningless unless the disease that is affecting our democracy is healed.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13612.htm


Young People of America…… Rise Up and Rebel!

By Doug Soderstrom, Ph.D.

Young men fresh out of high school, frustrated by life, with nothing better to do than to sign up as mercenaries ready and willing to kill for their country, yet, as always, afraid to die and angry as hell as a result of buddies (comrades-in-arms) having been killed.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13610.htm


Bombs kill at least 22 in Kirkuk:

A coordinated wave of suicide attacks and remote-controlled bombs rocked the contested northern oil city of Kirkuk on Tuesday, leaving at least 22 people dead and wounding 43.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1796681,00.html


At least 13 killed in continuing violence:

Police found 6 bodies, showing signs of torture, in different parts of Baghdad, police sources said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DAH334637.htm


Iraqi 'error' triggers US raid: 2 children among 9 dead:

Local residents accused the Americans of targeting civilians and a man wearing a white dishdasha held up the charred body of a toddler whose head had been blown in half.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13595.htm


US test fire kills three Iraqis :

The US military has admitted that three Iraqi civilians killed in an explosion on Friday died because of an artillery training exercise that went wrong.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5047098.stm


75,000 Forces to Be Deployed in Baghdad :

Security officials said tens of thousands of Iraqi and multinational forces would deploy Wednesday throughout Baghdad, securing roads, launching raids against insurgent hideouts and calling in airstrikes if necessary.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/13/...D8I7C4400.shtml


Oil, Politics and Bloodshed Corrupt an Iraqi City:

This once-quiet city of riverside promenades was among the most receptive to the American invasion. Now, three years later, it is being pulled apart by Shiite political parties that want to control the region and its biggest prize, oil. But in today's Iraq, politics and power flow from the guns of militias, and negotiating has been a bloody process.
http://tinyurl.com/f5h9j


American Accomplice of Terrorist Linked to Death Squads in Iraq:

US Army Colonel James Steele, who was involved in the Iran-Contras scandal along with international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles at his command, is now an advisor to death squads in Iraq.
http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu/idioma/ingles/20...escuadrones.htm


US costs for Iraq war top $320bn :

America has spent more on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan than on all its foreign wars up to 1939, following the passage of a bill allowing $66bn (£35.8bn) in new funding for the Pentagon.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1796754,00.html

Iraq implements new security plan BBC News
Tough new security measures have been put in place in Baghdad in an effort to win back control of the city's streets. Some 40,000 Iraqi and US troops have been put on the streets. Measures include a strict overnight curfew and a vehicle ban on Fridays during prayers. The steps came into force just after dawn, a day after President Bush flew into Baghdad and met PM Nouri Maliki. Fears are high that al-Qaeda in Iraq is preparing new attacks after the killing of their leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi's successor, named as Abu Hamza al-Mujahid, has reportedly vowed to defeat "crusaders and Shias" in Iraq.

Getting a grip
The new security measures will be the strictest imposed on Baghdad since the US-led invasion in 2003. The nightly evening curfew will now begin at 2030, not 2300 as it did before, and run until 0600 the next morning. Extra troops were posted throughout Baghdad early on Wednesday, setting up new checkpoints to secure road travel in and around the city. Residents said they had already noticed the difference, with more vehicles being stopped and searched and long queues building up as a result. So far, it is mainly Iraqi rather than American troops visible on the streets. That is how the Americans want it, says our Baghdad correspondent Andrew North, as they are keen to see the Iraqi authorities take over full responsibility for security as quickly as possible. Insurgents are to be targeted by snap raids, with the majority of resources deployed to the most dangerous areas of Baghdad. Officials sounded optimistic about the changes: "The terrorists cannot face such power," said Gen Mahdi al-Gharrawi, head of the interior ministry forces. The new Iraqi prime minister is keen to demonstrate that he can get a grip on security in Baghdad, our correspondent says. But the question among Iraqis is whether this is just a show of force or whether it can make a dent in the daily bombings and shootings that claim at least 20 to 30 lives in the capital every day.

Determination
Mr Bush's surprise visit to Baghdad on Tuesday gave Mr Maliki just five minutes' warning that the US president was in town. "Iraq's future is in your hands," Mr Bush told the Iraqi prime minister. The US president had been chairing talks in the US on future policy in Iraq and had been due to speak to Mr Maliki via videophone. Instead Mr Bush personally congratulated him on the appointment of ministers in the Iraqi government for defence, security and the interior. Mr Bush told reporters afterwards that Iraq would continue to receive Washington's support. "When America gives its word, it will keep its word," he said. "It's in our interest that Iraq succeeds." For his part, Mr Maliki said he hoped the suffering of Iraq would come to an end and all foreign troops would return home. He travelled to Baghdad amid the same exceptional security and secrecy that surrounded his trip to meet US troops in November 2003. Most foreign leaders have made their visits to Iraq unannounced because of the security threats.

Act now: Senate vote on Iraq hours away! John Kerry
Dear Friends,
No American leader can remain silent on Iraq. The outcome of what is now a civil war in Iraq cannot be determined by American military force. It has to be solved by Iraqis brought together to hammer out their differences. Period. It is time for Iraqis to stand up for Iraq.


Our soldiers are fighting and dying in the third war in Iraq -- not the war for mythical weapons of mass destruction or the war President Bush said had to be fought against armies of foreign jihadists, but an escalating civil war between Sunni and Shia. Meanwhile, dissent and debate are being stifled here at home. It's time to act -- and this week, perhaps as early as tomorrow, every U.S. Senator will have that chance. In the next 24 hours, it is likely that the Senate will vote on my amendment which calls for the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq by the end of this year. For months, you and I have been pressing for this step. We've made it clear that we needed to set deadlines in Iraq -- and with the formation of an Iraqi unity government and the killing of Al-Zarqawi, this is a moment of truth in Iraq. Now a critical vote is at hand. Our brave soldiers have done their work. It's time to put the future of Iraq in the hands of the Iraqi people.

Urge your Senators to support withdrawal of combat troops by the end of 2006
I don't know how many Senators will stand with me on this vote. But, I do know this: pushing the Iraqi government to coordinate with us on withdrawal of U.S. combat troops and pressing for the convening of a Dayton-like summit to reach a comprehensive political agreement for Iraq is the right thing to do. And we can't stop working for that outcome until we make it a reality. Every Senator that chooses to stand with us will add momentum to our call for an end to the misguided and self-defeating policies of the Bush administration.

Urge your Senators to support withdrawal of combat troops by the end of 2006
Changing America's course in Iraq is one of the toughest political challenges you and I have ever taken on. But, we won't relent until we get the job done -- and we have to make the most of every opportunity to make ourselves heard. I will be making myself heard on the floor of the United States Senate -- loudly and clearly. You can make our call for a dramatic change in direction even louder and clearer. Please don't hesitate before acting.
Sincerely,

John Kerry

US 'biggest global peace threat' BBC News
People in European and Muslim countries see US policy in Iraq as a bigger threat to world peace than Iran's nuclear programme, a survey has shown. The survey by the Pew Research Group also found support for US President George W Bush and his "war on terror" had dropped dramatically worldwide. Goodwill created by US aid for nations hit by the 2004 tsunami had also faded since last year, the survey found. The survey questioned 17,000 people in 15 countries, including the US. The latest in a series of annual polls by the Pew Global Attitudes Project interviewed respondents between 31 March and 14 May 2006. Its release coincides with a surprise visit by President George W Bush to Baghdad in an effort to shore up support for US policy in the region.

'Fading goodwill'
The latest survey shows the worldwide reputation of the US continues to suffer over its prosecution of the "war on terror". Sharp declines in the public perception of the US were particularly apparent in India, Spain and Turkey. Goodwill towards the US had fallen from 71% to 56% in India, from 41% to 23% in Spain and from 23% to 12% in Turkey. A majority of people in 10 of the 14 countries outside the US surveyed said the war in Iraq had made the world a more dangerous place. Some 60% of people in the UK, which is the US biggest ally, felt the Iraq war had made the world less secure, while some 30% said it had made the world safer. According to the survey:

• Worldwide support for the "war on terror" has remained the same or declined
• European confidence in Mr Bush has sunk even lower than it was last year
• A majority of people in most countries feel the US will not achieve its goals in the "war on terror"

The survey also found little remaining evidence of the goodwill the US had earned over its aid for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. In Indonesia, a major recipient of US tsunami aid, favourable opinions of the US had fallen from 38% in 2005 to 30% this year. "Last year we saw some good news in countries like Russia and India," Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Centre, told the Associated Press news agency. "That good news being wiped away is a measure of how difficult a problem this is for the United States."

Muslim differences
According to the survey, people in the US and Europe have grown increasingly concerned in the last year over Iran's nuclear programme. The US has accused Iran of seeking to build a nuclear bomb - but Iran says its nuclear programme has a purely civilian objective. Almost half of the Americans surveyed, 46%, viewed the current government in Iran as a "great danger" to stability in the Middle East and to world peace - a figure that has risen from 26% in 2003. In Germany, Spain, France and the UK, the percentage of people who regard Iran as a great danger is roughly three times greater than it was three years ago. However, the poll showed public opinion in predominantly Muslim countries was far less troubled by Tehran's nuclear programme. Muslim people also appeared less concerned than Europeans and Americans by the victory of the Hamas militant group in Palestinian elections earlier this year. The survey found concern over bird flu was largely confined to Asia, while two-thirds of people surveyed in each country said they were worried by global warming. Concern over the greenhouse effect was highest in India and Japan and lowest in the US and China. The survey interviewed people in China, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Spain, Turkey and the US. Its margin of error was two to six percentage points.

Iraq implements new security plan BBC News
Tough new security measures have been put in place in Baghdad in an effort to win back control of the city's streets. Some 40,000 Iraqi and US troops were put on the streets just after dawn, a day after President Bush flew into Baghdad and met PM Nouri Maliki. Mr Maliki later said he was willing to talk to some insurgents, as long as they did not have blood on their hands. Meanwhile violence continued, with clashes breaking out between gunmen and security forces in the city's north.No casualties were reported in the clashes, in the mainly Sunni Adhamiya district, which officials said lasted about half an hour. A car bomb also exploded in northern Baghdad, killing at least two people and injuring 10, police said. A second car bomb exploded in another northern area, but no-one died. Fears are high that al-Qaeda in Iraq is preparing new attacks after the killing of their leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi's successor, named as Abu Hamza al-Mujahid, has reportedly vowed to defeat "crusaders and Shias" in Iraq.

Difference noticed
But Mr Maliki said that although he would not negotiate with killers of innocent people, dialogue was possible with some rebel groups. "The national reconciliation initiative holds the possibility of having dialogues with rebels who are opposed to the political process and want to rejoin it with guarantees," he said.


"If their hands are not stained with blood we will open the door to them for a dialogue." The new security measures will be the strictest imposed on Baghdad since the US-led invasion in 2003. The nightly evening curfew will now begin at 2030, not 2300 as it did before, and run until 0600 the next morning. Extra troops were posted throughout Baghdad early on Wednesday, setting up new checkpoints to secure road travel in and around the city. Residents said they had already noticed the difference, with more vehicles being stopped and searched and long queues building up as a result. But the BBC's Hugh Sykes in Baghdad says checkpoints and patrols provide easy targets for car bombers, and ordering a suicide car bomber to pull over could prompt him to detonate, thereby helping him to achieve his objective. Insurgents are to be targeted by snap raids, with the majority of resources deployed to the most dangerous areas of Baghdad.

Five minutes
Officials sounded optimistic about the changes: "The terrorists cannot face such power," said Gen Mahdi al-Gharrawi, head of the interior ministry forces. But the question among Iraqis is whether this is just a show of force or whether it can make a dent in the daily bombings and shootings that claim at least 20 to 30 lives in the capital every day. Mr Bush's surprise visit to Baghdad on Tuesday gave Mr Maliki just five minutes' warning that the US president was in town. The US president had been chairing talks in the US on future policy in Iraq and had been due to speak to Mr Maliki via videophone. Instead Mr Bush personally congratulated him on the appointment of ministers in the Iraqi government for defence, security and the interior.

Analysis: Bush's timely Iraq visit World Peace Herald
Riding the wave of his victory over the capture and elimination of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, President George W. Bush paid a surprise visit to Baghdad Tuesday afternoon. The president met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, spent a few minutes with some U.S. troops and quickly got out of Dodge. In total, the president will have spent no more than five hours on Iraqi soil. But for him, his image and his approval ratings, every minute that poured through the hourglass was worth more than its weight in gold. Tuesday's surprise and very hush-hush visit to Iraq is a far cry from the president's first trip to the war zone on May 1, 2003, when dressed in a fighter pilot's attire, Bush made a triumphant entrance, landing in a jet fighter aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. The huge banner that hung on the carrier's flight deck read: "Mission Accomplished," and the president declared "major combat operations over," a pronouncement that came back to haunt him as the fighting in Iraq escalated in intensity and the number of American casualties grew daily. This time President Bush arrived aboard Air Force One at 4:11 pm, Baghdad time. To avoid anti-aircraft fire the presidential aircraft had to engage in a spiraling maneuver over Baghdad International Airport, from where Bush was taken in a Black Hawk helicopter to the heavily defended Green Zone compound where the Iraqi government, the U.S. Embassy, as well as many foreign legations are located. Travel time between Baghdad International Airport and the fortified Green Zone by helicopter is only six minutes; yet it could well have been six million light years, because in between those two heavily secured areas -- the airport and the Green Zone -- lies the real Iraq. This is the Iraq Bush will never get to see. This is the part of Iraq where average Iraqis strive to survive on their ever-devaluating dinars, where improvised explosive devices explode everyday claiming American and Iraqi lives. It is in this stretch of untamed territory that the Islamist resistance operates; it is also here that many people are kidnapped and killed. And it is this part of Iraq that President Bush will not be visiting. This is the president's second trip to an insecure Iraq carried out in utmost secrecy for reasons of security. In 2003 the president also undertook a secret visit to Iraq to celebrate Thanksgiving with U.S. troops. As was the case during the 2003 Thanksgiving visit, Bush traveled to Iraq in total secrecy. And in both cases he left from the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, for Andrews Air Force Base Monday evening. The White House Press Pool who traveled with the president to Camp David were not told of the departure and his public schedule had him conducting the second of two days of meetings on Iraq at the retreat. The reason for the president's trip, besides trying to win back badly needed percentage points as the president saw his popularity falling, was also to encourage the newly formed Iraqi government to keep moving forward. He sought to edge on the prime minister with decisions that will hopefully unite the country and prevent the sectarian violence currently ripping the country apart from plunging into the trap of an all out civil war. Bush's visit was timely, as Prime Minister Maliki has finally filled the three top positions in his cabinet: the ministries of defense, security and the interior. Zarqawi's death has helped Bush's approval ratings, putting him at 38 percent, two full points higher than he was a month ago. Bush would like to continue building on that success and pump up his approval ratings before the next elections in November. Additionally, Bush and his military advisers would like to gradually start handing the security of Iraq back to the Iraqis, allowing for an eventual withdrawal of American troops, first out of the cities to remote barracks from where they could be placed in a standby mode to help Iraqi forces as needed. And at some point, ideally, to rebase all American troops either back in the United States or in Europe. The United States still maintains about 160,000 troops in Iraq -- by far the largest contingent. Other countries such as Britain, Japan and Italy jointly contribute 16,000 troops. In a perfect world all foreign forces would ultimately be pulled out of Iraq. But, alas, we live in a far from perfect world.
Bush makes Baghdad visit Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (subscription)
Bush Holds News Conference CBS News
Times Online - Indianapolis Star - CNN - KBTV4.tv - all 2,107 related »

GUNMEN KILL IRAQI JOURNALIST IN FALLUJAH AP (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, JUNE
14): Gunmen killed an Iraqi journalist working for a newspaper accused by
insurgents of publishing U.S. propaganda in the western city of Fallujah, police
said Wednesday.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...&sn=001&sc=1000

FOR JOURNALISTS, IRAQ IS A CONTINUING DANGER - LIZ HALLORAN (U.S. NEWS &
WORLD REPORT, JUNE 12)
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles...2mediatakes.htm

TOO SOON TO CHEER IN BAGHDAD EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, JUNE 14): After too many photo-ops aimed at giving Mr. Bush and his fellow Republicans a
short-term lift in the domestic opinion polls at election time, Americans hunger
more than ever for a realistic game plan for Iraq and some real progress.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/14/opinion/14wed1.html

BUSH IN BAGHDAD - PATRICK MARTIN (WORLD SOCIALIST WEBSITE, JUNE 14): No amount of ?spin? can alter the sense of something degrading and even ludicrous in the spectacle of an American president stealing into a foreign capital,
spending five hours on the ground in a series of stage-managed and largely
meaningless public appearances, and then flying off under cover of darkness,
never having left the safety of the fortified Green Zone in downtown Baghdad.
www.wsws.org

RECLAIMING IRAQ PART 1: MEDIA SHOCK AND AWE BAGNEWSNOTES (JUNE 13): I couldn't help getting a jump on the major PR assault the White House unleashed on Baghdad this morning. By now, you probably know that Bush stealthily dropped in on Prime Minister Maliki as part of the Administration's much ballyhooed re-re-re-re-re-re-launch of its Iraqi campaign.?
http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/20..._shock_and.html

FLAK-CATCHERS [PHOTO] (PRINCESS SPARKLE PONY'S PHOTO BLOG, JUNE 13): White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, left, and White House Counselor Dan Barlett, ride in a military helicopter wearing helmets and flak jackets for a trip from Baghdad International Airport to U.S. Embassy in the Green Zone Tuesday, June 13, 2006 in Baghdad, Iraq.
http://sparklepony.blogspot.com/2006/06/flak-catchers.html

BUSH IN BAGHDAD REVIEW & OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, JUNE 14): The last week has been the best for Free Iraq in a long time, with the killing of Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, the completion of the new government, and now Mr. Bush's
visit.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1150250847...ew_and_outlooks
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

BUSH'S BAGHDAD VISIT EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, JUNE 14): PRESIDENT BUSH'S surprise visit yesterday to Baghdad for a face-to-face meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was valuable for the supportive signal it sent to
Iraq's embattled government.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial..._baghdad_visit/

AL-ZARQAWI IS DEAD, BUT WILL HIS INFLUENCE LIVE ON? EDWARD M. GOMEZ (SF
GATE, JUNE 12)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...5&entry_id=6009

PROBABLY A PLUS FOR THE INSURGENCY IVAN ELAND (ANTIWAR.COM, JUNE 13): The death of the sadistic sociopath Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shouldn't bring a tear to anyone's eye, but it is primarily a short-lived public relations triumph for the Bush administration that may mask an actual victory for the Sunni insurgency.
http://www.antiwar.com/eland/?articleid=9130

THIS UNGUARDED MAN WAS IRAQ'S MOST POTENT TERRORIST?: THE US ALREADY MISSES ZARQAWI - PATRICK COCKBURN (COUNTERPUNCH, JUNE 12): The manner in which Zarqawi died confirms the belief that his military and political importance was always deliberately exaggerated by the US.
http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick06122006.html

WAS THERE A LEGAL BASIS FOR HIS ASSASSINATION?: THE STORY BEHIND ZARQAWI'S DEATH - JENNIFER VAN BERGEN (COUNTERPUNCH, JUNE 12): While everything we think we know about Zarqawi shows that he was a violent terrorist, it is not so clear that a military solution was the internationally legal one, or that the killing was justifiable under either international or domestic laws.
http://www.counterpunch.org/vanbergen06132006.html

THE IRAQ WAR AS A TROPHY PHOTO - DAVID SWANSON (TOMDISPATCH, JUNE 13): The U.S. military killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, took a photo of his dead head, blew it up to enormous proportions, and displayed it in a frame at a press
conference. The image would fit perfectly in a collection of war trophy photos.
http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=91318

SIGNS OF SUCCESS IN IRAQ - JEFF JACOBY (BOSTON GLOBE, JUNE 14): Important and welcome as Zarqawi's assassination was, it didn't put a dent in the
quagmire-of-the-week mindset that depicts the war as a fiasco wrapped in a
scandal inside a failure.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...uccess_in_iraq/

ZARQAWI IS DEAD. WHAT NOW? BRET STEPHENS (WALL STREET JOURNAL, JUNE 13): With Zarqawi?s death the nature of the insurgency will change, perhaps
radically, and likely to America's advantage.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1150156716...ured_stories_hs
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

ZARQAWI CONNECTIONS EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, JUNE 13): While the full extent of Zarqawi's connections with Baghdad are still a matter of debate, it is
false to assert, as AP and others have done since Zarqawi's death, that talk
about the connection is little more than "myth-making" on the part of the Bush
administration.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20060612-093253-7816r.htm

A STRATEGIC GAME ON IRAQ - EHSAN AHRARI (ASIA TIMES, JUNE 14): As long as the top decision-makers are the same people, no serious discussion can bring
about an end to the maelstrom in Iraq.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HF14Ak02.html

NO PROMISE TO LEAVE IRAQ EDITORIAL (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, JUNE 13): Unfortunately, the Bush administration is unwilling to put a policy commitment
behind its promises to eventually leave Iraq.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...EDGDOILME21.DTL

TO TELL THE TRUTH - HARLAN ULLMAN (WASHINGTON TIMES, JUNE 14): A dialogue with the American public regarding Iraq is essential. And outreach to friends and allies in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and elsewhere is necessary.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20060613-095038-6517r.htm

THE TIPPING POINT IN BUSH'S PRESIDENCY: THE US WILL MOST REMEMBER BUSH FOR HOW HE SHAPES THE OUTCOME OF THE IRAQ WAR - JOHN HUGHES (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, JUNE 14): Stability in Iraq triggering movement toward some kind of democracy in the Middle East would be the achievement for which the Bush presidency would best be remembered.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0614/p09s01-cojh.html

Iraqi troops, insurgents clash in Baghdad's Sunni bastion:

Clashes broke out between insurgents and Iraqi troops in Baghdad's Sunni
neighborhood of Adhamiyah Wednesday amid a massive security crackdown on the
capital ordered by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read/18956


Baghdad's unwelcome visitor:

For the Iraqi prime minister, just beginning the arduous task of establishing
legitimacy for his national-unity government, Bush's trip is not likely to help
at all.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HF15Ak02.html


Greg Palast: Keeping Iraq's Oil In the Ground:

Did the U.S. invade Iraq to tap its oil reserves or to make sure they stayed
under the sand?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13625.htm


Do mention the war:

The Dem insiders think they can just breeze their way to victory in November by
only talking about middle-class utopia -- even as an 800-pound gorilla named
Baghdad is doing the macarena up on stage right behind the podium.
http://www.attytood.com/archives/003514.html

Al Qaeda in Internal Power Struggle in Iraq AINA
An Egyptian associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claims to have succeeded him as the new leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, even though an Islamic Web site said Monday that another man was in power. Brig. Gen. Carter Ham said at a Pentagon news conference on Wednesday that Abu al-Masri, whose name surfaced shortly after reports of Zarqawi's death became widespread as a successor, had claimed to be in charge of Al Qaeda in Iraq. "This individual said he is the successor for the leadership of Al Qaeda in Iraq," Ham said. "I think we'll have the intelligence effort in theater try to make that assessment if he is in fact exercising the leadership role in Al Qaeda in Iraq." With several names emerging on Web sites and elsewhere, Ham said it's not clear whether they all refer to the same person. "There is an individual who has claimed to be the successor to Zarqawi in Iraq," Ham said. "We have a variety of intelligence capabilities that will try to determine if there is an individual or individuals who are trying to step forward or exercise control." An Islamic Web site Monday said a man named Abu Hamza al-Muhajer had been named to replace Zarqawi. A U.S. counterterrorism official said it's possible that this name could be an alias for al-Masri but said "we don't know for sure. "It's not entirely clear whether this is a deliberate attempt to confuse or whether this is a name put out there as a placeholder of sorts. It is possible that this name could be the same person," the official said. Zarqawi, the former leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed one week ago in a U.S. airstrike.
Egyptian terrorist replaces al-Zarqawi Toronto Star
What was slain Al-Qaeda Iraq chief Zarqawi doing in Lucknow? Times of India
USA Today - China Daily - Tampa Bay's 10 - Quad City Times - all 1,142 related »

Zarqawi death sparks US crackdown BBC News
The US says coalition forces in Iraq have carried out more than 450 raids since the death last week of al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The US said 104 insurgents were killed and 759 "anti-Iraqi elements" captured. Iraq says documents seized after the killing of Zarqawi yielded vital leads and that this may be the "beginning of the end" of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The US says it has identified the new al-Qaeda head as Abu Ayyub al-Masri and that he will continue the fight. He had previously been named on an al-Qaeda website as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, but the US believes it is the same man and has released a picture of him. The Pentagon also announced that the killing of a marine had brought the death toll of US forces in Iraq to 2,500.

'Upper hand'
A US military spokesman in Baghdad, Major General William Caldwell, said raids following Zarqawi's killing in an air strike near Baquba, north of Baghdad, had taken place across Iraq. In addition to Iraqi insurgents killed or captured, Gen Caldwell said 28 significant arms caches had been found by US and Iraqi forces. "Removing the personal threat of Zarqawi disrupted other al-Qaeda network, forcing the terrorists to reshuffle their leadership, dislodging them from their quarters," Gen Caldwell said. He said Iraqi security forces could now start "to establish the foundation for unity, security and prosperity for the people of Iraq". Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, said the killing of Zarqawi marked the "beginning of the end" of al-Qaeda in Iraq. He said documents seized after the raid that killed Zarqawi had given coalition forces "the upper hand". Mr Rubaie said a pocket hard-drive, a laptop and documents were found in the debris after the strike. The documents and records revealed the names and whereabouts of other al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders, he said, and that the subsequent raids had yielded more information. "The government is on the attack now," Mr Rubaie said. One of the documents showed that Zarqawi was planning to try to start a war between the US and Iran by carrying out attacks - falsely attributed to Iran - on US interests, the prime minister's office said. However, Gen Caldwell indicated information leading to the latest anti-insurgency raids had "come off some kind of computer asset that was at a safe location" prior to the Zarqawi strike. Iraq and coalition forces have also this week begun to implement tough new security measures in Baghdad amid fears al-Qaeda might seek to avenge Zarqawi's killing. Tens of thousands of Iraqi and US security forces have been deployed across the capital. Citizens have been stopped and frisked at checkpoints as police enforce a ban on weapons, causing long delays on the roads. In other developments in Iraq:

• Gunmen kill 10 people in an ambush in Baquba - the victims are apparently dragged from a bus taking them to work and shot dead at the roadside
• Four worshippers are shot dead and 15 hurt as gunmen storm a Sunni mosque in the city of Tikrit
• Several hundred prisoners are released as part of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's national reconciliation plan, under which 2,500 will be freed in all
• A senior official in the Iraqi province of Karbala is arrested in a joint US-Iraqi operation - local police allege links with "terrorism"

In Washington on Thursday, the US Congress approved $65.8bn for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since the 9/11 attacks, the US has now spent or allocated $438bn on its "war on terror", with more than 70% spent in Iraq.

US death toll in Iraq hits 2,500 BBC News
The number of US troops killed in Iraq has reached 2,500 with the death of a marine, the Pentagon has announced. It did not identify the 2,500th casualty, in line with US policy not to release details until 24 hours after the family has been informed. A Pentagon statement said 1,972 of those who died were killed in action. The campaign group Iraq Body Count estimates that the number of civilians killed since the outset of the conflict ranges between 38,355 and 42,747. It makes its calculation on the basis of media reports, and believes it to be a conservative estimate. Other reports put the number of civilian casualties much higher. Thousands of Iraqi security forces, military personnel from other countries, and Iraqi and foreign insurgents have also died.

'Tremendous sacrifice'
Between November 2005 and March 2006, the number of US military fatalities fell month-by-month, as insurgents seemed to focus attacks on Iraqi security forces and civilians. However, they jumped back above the average for April and May. The Pentagon put the blame on a recent surge in rebel violence. Polls in the US suggest opposition to America's presence in Iraq has grown - while support for President George Bush's handling of the war has fallen. The Pentagon notes that the death rate for US troops is much lower than those in the Vietnam or Korean wars, to which Iraq has sometimes been compared. In each of those conflicts more than 50,000 US troops died. "It's important to remember that there is a mission, and there is a greater good which sometimes necessitates tremendous sacrifice," said the US army's Brig Gen Carter Ham. "Rather than focus on an aggregate number, I think it's more important for us to remember that there are individuals in that aggregate number... to whom we should be very, very grateful, and to their families." The US Senate on Thursday approved $65.8bn for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, following a similar vote in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. Since the 9/11 attacks, the US has now spent or allocated $438bn on its "war on terror", with more than 70% spent in Iraq.

US Military Elevating Stature of Zarqawi's Successor Los Angeles Times
The US military today released new information about Abu Musab Zarqawi's successor, quickly elevating the stature of the Egyptian militant whom is said in Internet postings to be the new head of Al Qaeda in Iraq. The U.S. military also announced today that the number of American military deaths in Iraq has reached 2,500, though the 24 killed so far this month has been relatively low. Calm prevailed throughout much of Baghdad, which is under a new security plan and a 9 p.m. curfew. But violence exploded throughout much of the country, including the murder of 10 relatives of a Sunni Arab politician who uncovered prisoner abuse in Baqubah, the assassination of a Basra city official, and a roadside bombing that killed three civilians near Hilla. At a press briefing in the Iraqi capital, the U.S. military showed reporters a previously classified picture of the Egyptian-born militant man who goes by the name Abu Ayyub Masri or Sheik Abu Hamza Muhajer, wearing traditional Arab headdress. "It's important for the people of Iraq to know who this is," said Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, spokesman for U.S.-led forces in Iraq. Caldwell said U.S. officials debated for days before deciding to release the photo and a brief biographical sketch of the alleged insurgent leader. They worried that bolstering his media profile would play into his hands. "Our intention is not to glorify him," Caldwell said. But by making Masri or Muhajer, whose two names mean "Egyptian" and "immigrant" in Arabic, the U.S. continues painting Iraq's Sunni Arab rebellion as driven by outsiders, even though foreign fighters make up a small portion of guerrillas fighting Americans and the Iraqi government. "He has absolutely no ties to this country," Caldwell said. U.S. military officials today also provided details of the June 7 bombing of Zarqawi's safe house near Baqubah. According to a timeline provided by the military, two men in a motor vehicle — possibly informants deep inside Zarqawi's network — departed the house just minutes before U.S. forces began verifying there were no friendly forces in the area and ordering the airstrike. Caldwell said Zarqawi, who lived for nearly an hour after the bombing, spit up a pint-and-a-half of blood while being treated, a sign that he had suffered massive internal injuries by the force of the bombing. Caldwell said the bombing badly damaged Zarqawi's network, throwing its leadership into disarray and forcing them to abandon trusted safe houses, but that the organization was expected to "reset" under new leadership. "They've been very resilient," he said. Masri began his journey in Islamist circles in 1982 as a disciple of Ayman Zawahiri, the Egyptian physician now a deputy to Osama bin Laden, said Caldwell, citing information held by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's spy agency. Masri went to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan in 1999, where he trained at Bin Laden's Farouk camp, and met Zarqawi. After the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, Masri made his way to Iraq, where he reunited with Zarqawi and became his trusted deputy. During the first year of the insurgency, Masri helped draw other insurgent groups into Al Qaeda's fold and worked with Zarqawi's deputies in Fallouja, providing suicide bombers and car bombs to other parts of the country, the military said. After U.S. Marines overran Fallouja in November 2004, Masri became Al Qaeda emir, or prince, of southern Iraq. In addition to depicting the insurgents in a negative light, U.S. and Iraqi officials have tried to get Iraqis to lay down their weapons by periodically touting reconciliation plans with some insurgents. But the scheduled announcement of a new reconciliation plan was scuttled today under unusual circumstances. Prime Minister Jawad Maliki, after inviting reporters to his office in the Green Zone, failed to show up. At first, aides distributed two-page communiqués titled "National Reconciliation," then insisted on taking the documents back and canceled the press conference without explanation. In other violence today, Interior Ministry officials in Baqubah said 10 tribal relatives of lawmaker Mohammad Daini were pulled off a bus, and shot dead near Baqubah. Daini had videotaped prisoners alleging torture and corruption in a local jail and sent the footage to Arab television stations. Police also discovered seven unidentified bodies, with bullet wounds and signs of torture, in various parts of Baghdad. Local police in Khalidiya, west of Baghdad, reported clashes between insurgents and U.S. troops after a roadside bomb targeted a passing convoy.
By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writer
US Identifies Successor to Zarqawi New York Times
What was slain Al-Qaeda Iraq chief Zarqawi doing in Lucknow? Times of India
NEWS.com.au - Xinhua - All Headline News - News24 - all 1,051 related »

Iraq: 24 Killed as occupation continues:

Gunmen shot dead at least 10 labourers as they were heading to work in the city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, a police source said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBA523293.htm


Gunmen shoot dead 4 worshippers:

Unknown gunmen shot dead four worshippers and wounded 14 others in a pre-dawn attack on Thursday at a Sunni mosque in a town near Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, a local police source said.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200606/1...615_274319.html


4 Contractors With Ala. Co. Killed in Iraq :

Four civilians working for an Alabama-based military operation in Iraq were killed by a roadside bomb, the Army said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/stor...5888923,00.html


Bomb blast and flames :

Nothing prepared me for the scene unfolding on the wide, two-laned road in Baghdad’s northern Qahira district, a mixed Sunni and Shi’ite area of the capital.
http://tinyurl.com/eaeah


Pentagon says U.S. military deaths in Iraq hit 2,500 :

In addition, the Pentagon said 18,490 U.S. troops have been wounded in the war, which began in March 2003 with a U.S.-led invasion to topple President Saddam Hussein. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed.
http://tinyurl.com/zoanm


Iraqi Govt. plan to pardon rebels who killed Americans:

Reconciliation could include an amnesty for those "who weren't involved in the shedding of Iraqi blood," al-Maliki said at a Baghdad news conference. "Also, it includes talks with the armed men who opposed the political process and now want to turn back to political activity."
http://internationalreporter.com/news/read.php?id=1710


Security firm cleared by US army :

The US military launched an inquiry after a video showing an Aegis Defence Services contractor firing at civilian cars in Iraq was shown on the internet.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5080970.stm


In case you missed it:

Under the Aegis:

Channel 4 Video Report: "We don't know whether it was an innocent civilian or whether that was an insurgent - we don't know, because we never stop".
http://www.channel4.com/player/playerwindo...=4089&vert=news


House members draw party lines in debate on Iraq:

Nearly four years after it authorized the use of force in Iraq, the House on today will embark on its first extended debate on the war, with Republican leaders daring Democrats to vote against a nonbinding resolution to hold firm on Iraq and the war on terrorism.
http://tinyurl.com/zvkee


Senate Rejects U.S. Troop Pullout in Iraq :

The vote was 93-6 to shelve the proposal, which would have allowed ``only forces that are critical to completing the missio