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Iran’s Rafsanjani: U.S. made mistake in launching war on Iraq
Thu. 01 Jun 2006
Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Jun. 01 – Iran’s former President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said that the United States made a mistake in launching a war on Iraq in 2003 since it had helped to strengthen Tehran-Baghdad relations.

“America’s war on Iraq freed the Iraqi people from the evil rule of the Baathist regime and helped the strengthening of ties between the people of Iran and Iraq. This had a lot of benefit for Iran and Iraq and was in opposition to America’s objectives for the region, and the trend of future events will testify greater defeat for the occupiers and greater benefits for the people of Iraq”, Rafsanjani, who chairs the State Expediency Council, told a group of Iraqi students late Wednesday.

“If Iran and Iraq become united, the enemies will not be able to force anything against Islam in the region”, he said.

His comments were reported in the government-owned news agency Mehr.

As usual I think he got it partly right but totally screwed up his conclusion.

Yep, a BIG mistake for the reson he gave and many others. A total hallucination regarding how powerful that alliance would be, if they made an aggressive move (which sooner or later their leaders would feel compelled to do) it would make them just enough of a threat that they'd get squashed like a bug.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that Iran will not abandon its right to peaceful nuclear energy despite Western pressure, the official IRNA news agency reported.

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Military denies latest claims of deliberate killings in Iraq Seattle Times
Senior Defense Department officials pushed back Friday against the latest accusations of wrongdoing, denying accounts that US soldiers deliberately killed civilians in a March raid but acknowledging that more civilians might have died than first reported. Iraqi police and other witnesses had claimed that U.S. forces killed as many as 13 civilians in the hamlet of Ishaqi, 60 miles north of Baghdad, tying up some and shooting them in the head. Video obtained by the British Broadcasting Corp. and The Associated Press showed some bodies of victims, including several children, who apparently had been killed by gunshot wounds or shrapnel. The U.S. military initially reported four people — one insurgent and three civilians — were killed in the Ishaqi raid. But officials acknowledged Friday that eight other noncombatants had been killed, calling those casualties "collateral deaths." The new questions about the military's account came in the wake of other allegations of misconduct by U.S. troops. In one, a squad of Marines is accused of killing as many as 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Haditha. The incident is under investigation both for the soldiers' actions and for the way in which it was handled by the Marine Corps, which has been accused of a cover-up. In another incident, eight Marines could face murder charges in the death of a civilian in Hamdania in April, and other charges for possibly attempting to cover up the killing. The developments have prompted concern within the military that the public will perceive a pattern of excessive violence, lack of discipline and criminal acts. Trying to head off another controversy, military officials Friday vehemently denied that the incident at Ishaqi bore any relationship to Haditha."Nothing suggests anything happened close to Haditha," a senior Defense official said. The military acknowledges that something went wrong in Haditha, both in the killings and in the failure to quickly investigate what happened. But military officials believe Haditha was an aberration, and they took pains Friday to show they had investigated the Ishaqi raid thoroughly. A senior Pentagon official said the military's investigation — which began soon after the Ishaqi incident — showed that the civilians were killed in a crossfire between U.S. forces and members of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's organization. In a written statement, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell IV said the raid was launched against a building where a Kuwaiti-born al-Qaida cell leader, Ahmad Abdallah Muhammed Na'is Al-Utaybi, and a bomb maker, Uday Faris al-Tawafi, aka Abu Ahmed, were located. Allegations that U.S. forces executed a family during the raid, then covered it up by directing an airstrike on their house, "are absolutely false," Caldwell said. "The investigation revealed the ground force commander, while capturing and killing terrorists, operated in accordance with the rules of engagement governing our combat forces in Iraq," he said. Caldwell said U.S. troops began taking fire from a house as they arrived in the area. U.S. forces returned fire, but called in helicopters and finally an airstrike after firing from the house persisted, "ultimately eliminating the threat," he said. "The investigating officer ascertained that the ground force commander properly followed the rules of engagement as he necessarily escalated the use of force until the threat was eliminated," Caldwell said. Al-Utaybi was captured, and U.S. troops found the bodies of Abu Ahmed and three civilians, Caldwell said. The investigator concluded that as many as nine other people died in the airstrike, but a precise number couldn't be determined because the house's walls had collapsed. Caldwell said the investigation was carried out the day after claims arose that U.S. troops had killed the civilians. Iraqis interviewed immediately after the raid acknowledged that an al-Qaida member was visiting the house. They said he was visiting the house's owner, a relative who was a local schoolteacher. While accusations that U.S. troops kill civilians are fairly common in Iraq, the Ishaqi incident stood out because the claims of civilian deaths originated with Iraqi police. The police reported that U.S. troops herded at least 11 people into the house and executed them. Those killed included a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant, the police report said. But inconsistencies in those claims soon appeared. The Iraqi officer investigating the case initially claimed that each of the dead had been handcuffed and shot once in the head. But reports of the medical examinations of the bodies showed that each bore multiple wounds. Partly because of inconsistencies, an initial inquiry by U.S. military officials never developed into a formal criminal investigation, according to a defense official familiar with initial findings. "There were too many inconsistencies," said the official, who asked not to be named since those findings hadn't been released. "It didn't all add up." Relatives of the deceased said Friday that the U.S. investigation was cursory at best. They said a U.S. officer came and interviewed people once after the raid but never returned. "We do not want anything," said Adil Maruf, 27, whose sister-in-law, nephew and niece were killed in the raid. "We just want the American soldiers to be exposed. We do not want it to be repeated again."
By Los Angeles Times and Knight Ridder Newspapers.
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Iran's president defends nuclear rights CTV.ca
In the latest round of tit-for-tat between Tehran and Western nations, Iran's president vowed Friday not to give up uranium enrichment activities. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted on Iran's right to pursue nuclear technology, but did not specifically mention a proposal hammered out in Vienna yesterday by six world powers. "The efforts of some Western countries to deprive us will not bear any fruit," he said, according to the state news agency IRNA. "The reason of their opposition is not their claim of concern over nuclear weapons, but Iran's access to the technology that means opening of the way for all independent countries, especially Islamic countries to the advanced technology," he said after talks with the head of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. He also indirectly blamed Israel for the added pressure on Iran to give up its nuclear program. "Unfortunately, some who have huge arsenals of nuclear weapons and are not members of NPT, are today in the position of decision making and want to deprive us from our inalienable rights," he said. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- U.S., France, Britain, Russia and China -- as well as Germany negotiated a package Thursday aimed at getting Iran to end its enrichment activities. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iran needed to respond within weeks. "They need to make a choice," she told CNN in an interview. "The international community needs to know if negotiation is a real option." A European Union diplomat said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is waiting to deliver the package to Tehran, Reuters news agency reported. There are few specific details on the proposals included in the package. What is known is that it includes incentives and penalties to ensure compliance. A short statement issued by foreign ministers from the six powers threatens unspecified "further steps" in the Security Council -- but does not explicitly mention economic sanctions. The United States has not yet ruled out the use of force against Iran, but Russia and China are both opposed to such action. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Vienna agreement does not include such threats. "I can say unambiguously that all the agreements... rule out in any circumstances the use of military force," Lavrov told the RIA news agency. The statement also did not mention specific incentives. Earlier reports suggested the group would offer Iran help with its civilian nuclear program, a light-water nuclear reactor and a supply of atomic fuel so Iran wouldn't need to enrich uranium itself. The foreign ministers also said that if Iran returned to talks, "we would also suspend action in the Security Council," British Foreign Secretary Margaret Becket said. The proposal comes as the United States, in a major policy shift, offered to hold face-to-face talks with Iran on the condition that Tehran halt uranium activities. Iran's foreign minister welcomed talks with the U.S., but said Tehran would not halt its uranium enrichment activities. "There is no evidence proving Iran's diversion (toward nuclear weapons). Therefore, Iran is interested in continuing this path," he told state-run television. In an interview with BBC radio, U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said Iran will be able to develop a nuclear weapon in four to 10 years. "This is a matter of assessment, we don't have a clear-cut knowledge," Negroponte said. "But the estimate we have made is that some time between beginning of the next decade and the middle of the next decade they might be in a position to have a nuclear weapon."
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Troops cleared of Iraq wrongdoing BBC News
A US military investigation has found there was no misconduct by US troops over Iraqi civilian deaths in the town of Ishaqi, a spokesman says. Maj Gen William Caldwell said reports that troops "executed" a family during a raid on a house in March and tried to cover it up were "absolutely false". Questions over the 11 deaths in Ishaqi come amid a Pentagon inquiry into a bigger alleged massacre in Haditha. The US has announced extra training in moral and ethical values for troops. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has criticised coalition forces for what he describes as habitual attacks against civilians. News in the US this week has been dominated by discussion of the investigations in Iraq, the BBC's Adam Brookes reports from Washington. The Bush administration has had an exceptionally difficult time focusing public attention on what it says is the progress being made by the new Iraqi government, our correspondent says.

'Correct procedures'
A report filed by Iraqi police accused US troops of rounding up and deliberately shooting 11 people in the house in Ishaqi, including five children and four women, before blowing up the building.


Maj Gen Caldwell said the US investigation into events in Ishaqi, where the military says it was attempting to capture insurgents, had found no wrongdoing on the part of the troops. Four bodies including that of an insurgent were found after the raid while up to nine "collateral deaths" resulted from the US raid, according to the investigation. It added that a precise death toll could not be determined because of collapsed walls and debris. All the correct procedures were followed when troops came under fire as they approached the house, Maj Gen Caldwell said. "The investigation revealed the ground force commander, while capturing and killing terrorists, operated in accordance with the rules of engagement governing our combat forces in Iraq," he added. "Allegations that the troops executed a family living in this safe house, and then hid the alleged crimes by directing an air strike, are absolutely false." The outcome of the Pentagon investigation emerged a day after the BBC released video footage that appears to show the aftermath of US action in Ishaqi, about 100km (60 miles) north of Baghdad.

'Violence commonplace'
The video tape obtained by the BBC shows a number of dead adults and children at the site with what our world affairs editor John Simpson says were clearly gunshot wounds.The pictures came from a hardline Sunni group opposed to coalition forces. It has been cross-checked with other images taken at the time of events and is believed to be genuine. Other probes are being carried out into the alleged massacre at Haditha, and also into claims that an Iraqi man was deliberately killed on 26 April in Hamandiya - and that the circumstances were covered up. Seven marines and a navy sailor are being held over the claims. The Iraqi government has also launched an investigation into the alleged massacre at Haditha, where eyewitnesses claim US marines shot dead 24 civilians after a roadside bomb attack in November. Mr Maliki said he would ask the US for the investigative files into the incident. Violence against civilians was "common among many of the multinational forces", he added. Many troops had "no respect for citizens, smashing civilian cars and killing on a suspicion or a hunch", he added. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Friday that 99.9% of US forces conducted "themselves in an exemplary manner".

GIs at Ishaqi Cleared; Haditha Probe Open ABC News
Investigation Clears U.S. Troops in Deaths at Ishaqi; Probes of Killings at Haditha Continue. A military investigation into allegations that American troops intentionally killed civilians in Ishaqi, a village north of Baghdad, has cleared them of misconduct, the U.S. said Friday even though it acknowledged the deaths of up to 13 Iraqis in the March raid. Meanwhile, a lawyer representing families of some of the two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians allegedly killed by U.S. Marines in the western town of Haditha on Nov. 19 said three or four Marines carried out the shootings while 20 more waited outside the homes. He also said victims' relatives turned down a request by U.S. investigators to exhume the victims' bodies for forensic tests. The investigation of the March 15 attack in Ishaqi concluded that the U.S. troops followed normal procedures in raising the level of force as they came under attack upon approaching a building where they believed an al-Qaida terrorist was hiding, said Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a U.S military spokesman.


Caldwell also acknowledged there were "possibly up to nine collateral deaths" in addition to the four Iraqi deaths that the military announced at the time of the raid. The results of the investigation were released after questions were raised about the original U.S. report as television stations aired AP Television News footage of a row of dead children in the aftermath of the raid. The probe was part of U.S. investigations into possible misconduct by American troops in at least three separate areas of Iraq. Besides Haditha and Ishaqi, seven Marines and a Navy corpsman could face murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges in the April shooting death of an Iraqi man west of Baghdad. The military said Friday it will cooperate with the Iraqi government in its own investigation of Haditha and other incidents of alleged wrongdoing by U.S. troops. "We're going to give them whatever assistance they need as a part of this investigation," said Army Brig. Gen. Donald Campbell, the chief of staff for U.S. forces in Iraq. Campbell's pledge came a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki upbraided the U.S. military over Haditha, which he called "a horrible crime," and accused U.S. troops of habitually attacking unarmed civilians.
On Friday, White House press secretary Tony Snow said al-Maliki had told U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad that he had been misquoted. But Snow was unable to explain what al-Maliki told Khalilzad or how he had been misquoted. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld defended the training and conduct of U.S. troops and said incidents such as the alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians at Haditha shouldn't happen. "We know that 99.9 percent of our forces conduct themselves in an exemplary manner. We also know that in conflicts things that shouldn't happen, do happen," he said. "We don't expect U.S. soldiers to act that way, and they're trained not to." In Haditha, the Marines, enraged by the loss of a comrade, stormed into nearby homes in the area and allegedly shot occupants dead as well as several men in a taxi that arrived at the scene of the blast, according to U.S. lawmakers briefed by military officials. In one of the homes, Marines ordered four brothers inside a closet and shot them dead, said the Haditha lawyer, Khaled Salem Rsayef. Rsayef said he himself lost several relatives in the alleged massacre, including a sister and her husband, an aunt, an uncle and several cousins. He and his brother, Salam Salem Rsayef, spoke to The Associated Press by telephone from the Euphrates River town of 90,000 late Thursday and Friday. Despite the Iraqi government's insistence of cooperation between the U.S. and Iraqi investigations, the Rsayefs said they and other victims' families refused the request several months ago to exhume the bodies. "No way we can ever agree to that," Salam Salem Rsayef said. Under Islamic teachings, exhuming bodies is prohibited, but is allowed on case-by-case basis, sometime after a fatwa, or an edict, from a senior cleric allowing it to proceed. The Rsayef brothers met at least four times with U.S. military investigators looking into the killings. They said the meetings began in February and were held at Samarra General Hospital. The next meeting is scheduled for Sunday, the two brothers said, suggesting that the U.S. investigations are not finished. Khaled Salam Rsayef identified the four brothers killed in the closet as a car dealer, a traffic policeman, an engineer and a local government employee. He said the U.S. military did not give compensation payments to their families because the brothers were believed to be insurgents. The lawyer said his account of what happened was based on his personal observations from the rooftop of his home and windows. He said his house is several dozen yards away from the three homes raided by Marines. The killings, which he did not witness in person, were recounted to him and other members of his family the following day by survivors, he said. He said his own home shook violently when the roadside bomb went off at 7:15 a.m. and that intermittent gunfire lasted for about two hours. He could not go out of his house to see for himself, but managed to steal quick glances from his roof and from behind windows. "About 5 p.m. I emerged with my family carrying white flags," he said. "We wanted to move away from the area fearing that shooting could resume." The New York Times, in a story for Saturday editions posted on its Web site, quoted a senior Marine officer as saying that commanders learned within two days that civilians in Haditha were killed by gunfire and not a roadside bomb. But the officer, who wasn't further identified, said officials had no information suggesting the civilians had been killed deliberately and saw no reason to investigate further. The Haditha attack came four months before the nighttime raid in the village of Ishaqi, about 50 miles north of Baghdad. A U.S. ground force conducted the Ishaqi attack, said two defense officials in Washington. After being fired upon from the targeted building, the soldiers pulled back and called in airstrikes by an Air Force AC-130 gunship, which attacked and collapsed the building, they said. One of the officials said the investigation into the circumstances of the Ishaqi attack found that four people in the building were killed by U.S. forces, including two women and a child. The main target of the attack, said by U.S. intelligence to be an al-Qaida figure, ran from the building but was later captured, the official said. Caldwell said that a search found "the body of Abu Ahmed plus three noncombatants," while the "investigating officer concluded that possibly up to nine collateral deaths resulted from this engagement but could not determine the precise number due to collapsed walls and heavy debris." Local Iraqis said there were 11 dead, contending they were killed by U.S. troops before the house was leveled. The bloody aftermath of the attack was captured at the time in the footage shot by an AP Television News cameraman. The video became the focus of attention Friday when the BBC aired it in the wake of recent allegations of U.S. troops killing unarmed civilians. The footage shows at least one adult male and four of the children with deep wounds to the head that could have been caused by bullets or shrapnel. One child has an obvious entry wound to the side and the inside of the walls left standing were pocked with bullet holes. A voice on the tape said there were clear bullet wounds in two people. The video includes an unidentified man saying "children were stuck in the room, alone and surrounded." "After they handcuffed them, they shot them dead. Later, they struck the house with their planes. They wanted to hide the evidence. Even a 6-month-old infant was killed. Even the cows were killed, too," he said. Although it has been known that U.S. air power was involved in the assault on the building in Ishaqi, it was not previously reported that there was an AC-130 gunship, a devastating weapon capable of operating at night and pummeling its target with side-firing guns, including a 105mm cannon. The gunship is flown by Air Force Special Operations crews. Associated Press writers Robert Burns in Washington and Qais al-Bashir, Patrick Quinn and Mazin Yahya in Baghdad contributed to this report.
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EU pushes nuclear deal in Tehran BBC News
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has presented Iran's nuclear negotiator with proposals aimed at persuading them to halt sensitive atomic research. Iran said it would review the plans, agreed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany. The proposals have not been made public but sources say they could include giving Iran a nuclear reactor and an assured supply of enriched uranium. Tehran says it will consider incentives but refuses to halt enrichment.

'Shuttle diplomacy'
Mr Solana is due to meet Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki following talks with chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.
"NUCLEAR DIPLOMACY"

• 28 April: UN nuclear watchdog say Tehran has ignored calls to halt uranium enrichment
• Early May: UN debates draft resolution calling for halt to uranium enrichment
• Mid-May: EU countries work on proposals to try to induce Iran to curb atomic programme
• 31 May: US offers to join direct talks with Iran, in major policy shift
• 1 June: US, Russia, China and three EU states agree on package of incentives and penalties
• 6 June: EU foreign policy chief present proposals in Tehran

The EU foreign policy chief arrived in Tehran overnight, when he said the West wanted "to start a new relationship on the basis of mutual respect and trust". Shortly before Mr Solana's arrival, Mr Mottaki said they could "reach a logical agreement" if "their aim is not politicising the issue, and if they consider our demand". The foreign minister told reporters that the EU and Iran would launch a "shuttle diplomacy" to iron out differences about Iran's nuclear programme. He said he hoped Europe would not repeat its mistake of last year by formulating proposals without taking note of Iran's views, the BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran reports. The foreign minister's remarks suggest a rather positive attitude towards the proposals, but make it clear Iran wants to negotiate the details, our correspondent says.

Call for patience
The proposals were agreed by the UK, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US in Vienna last week. Western nations fear Iran is enriching uranium to make nuclear weapons, while Tehran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful energy purposes. The six powers who drew up the package say Iran should suspend its uranium enrichment programme before any negotiations can begin. But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Tehran will not abandon its right to nuclear technology under Western pressure and that demands that Iran must give up uranium enrichment are unacceptable. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters in Iran, warned on Sunday that energy flows in the region would be disrupted if the US made a "wrong move". White House spokesman Tony Snow said the threat was "theoretical", urging patience to allow Iran to study the proposals. "Let's give it time, let the Iranians take a look at what the offers are, the incentives and disincentives," he said in Washington. The US earlier warned Iran a rejection of the proposals could bring UN-imposed penalties. Last week Washington offered to join EU states in talks if Iran halted enrichment, in what was seen as a major policy change and an attempt to regain the initiative in the issue.