DAILY WAR NEWS FOR FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 2006
Photo:
Residents and relatives carry the bodies of Shiite pilgrims, during a
funeral procession, in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, March 23, 2006.
Thousands of Shiite Muslims marched through the streets of a northern
Baghdad neighborhood Thursday carrying 17 wooden coffins with the
bodies of fellow Shiites killed while returning home from a pilgrimage
to the holy city of Karbala. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
Bring 'em on: Danish soldier killed by IED near Basra.
Bring 'em on:
Iraqi troops and security forces detained 169 insurgents and seized
weapons caches in several cities, the government said. US soldier
killed in action in Baghdad.
Bring 'em on:
Update to Operation Swarmer, the air and ground assault in area north
of Samarra. "Ninety-five suspected terrorists were found and have been
detained and are being questioned," Lynch said. "We found 24 weapons
caches that included 350 mortar rounds, 116 rockets, four
surface-to-air missiles, and explosive materials for [bombs], and
terrorist training materials."
Bring 'em on:
Iraqi soldiers conducted a search Friday for suspected terrorists in
the Kirkuk area. Soldiers from the 1st and 5th battalions of the Iraqi
army’s 2nd Brigade moved through five villages in an offensive dubbed
Operation Scorpion.
Bring 'em on:
Meanwhile, soldiers of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne
Division joined Iraqi troops in a sweep of five villages outside the
city of Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad. Forty suspected insurgents
were picked up in Hawija, police said. (US forces not mentioned in
prior article. – Susan) The U.S. military announced late Thursday that
it was in the second day of an operation with Iraqi soldiers "to
disrupt anti-Iraqi forces and to find and destroy terrorist caches in
the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad." The military statement said 1,400
personnel were involved in the operation - termed Northern Lights - and
had captured "two persons of high-value interest and 16 suspected
terrorists." Two large weapons caches also were discovered, the
military said. (No mention of what was in these 'large’ weapons caches.
– Susan)
Bring 'em on:
Suicide car bomber blows up near passing US convoy in Fallujah,
wounding several soldiers. Iraqi army killed a gunman and arrested
three others in Mahaweel. Caches of weapons also reportedly found in
Mahaweel.
Bring 'em on:
Canadian military personnel have been serving in Iraq since day one. In
the words of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, it's no secret that small
numbers of Canadian military personnel are embedded with U.S. forces in
Iraq as part of regular military exchange commitments between the two
countries.
Security Incidents:
At least 56 dead in latest Iraq violence on Thursday, including a car
bombing that killed 25 people in the third major attack on a police
lockup in three days. (Another report said 58 were killed.) Police have
discovered hundreds of corpses in the past four weeks, victims of
religious militants on a rampage of revenge killings. At least 21 were
found Wednesday, including those of 16 Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad,
police said. U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch acknowledged
a spike in "ethnic-sectarian incidents," saying that civilian
casualties increased 75 percent during the period of March 11-17,
compared with the previous week. In Baghdad alone, he said, the U.S.
command recorded 58 incidents involving 134 dead during that period.
Attacks nationwide have been averaging 75 a day, a level that has been
generally sustained since August, Lynch said.
Security Incidents:
BAGHDADY - A suicide car bomber attacked an Iraqi army patrol near the
U.S. Al Asad air base and killed nine soldiers in Baghdady near the
town of Haditha, 200 km (125 miles) west of Baghdad. BAGHDAD - At least
seven people were killed and another 12 wounded when a car bomb
exploded in a market close to a Shi'ite mosque in the southwestern
district of Shurta al-Khamisa, the Interior Ministry said.
Security Incidents:
Authorities recovered 15 more corpses from the streets of Baghdad
today, the latest victims in a wave of execution-style slayings here.
At least 225 bodies -- most bound, some blindfolded and all either shot
in the head or garroted -- have been recovered in less than three
weeks. Five killed and 17 wounded by IED in front of a mosque in
Khalis. (Another report says Iraqi police claim US military forces left
the area just before the explosion. – Susan) Gunmen opened fired on a
bakery in Baghdad, killing four employees and wounding one more. As
Iraqi police rushed to the scene, a bomb planted near the shop was
detonated, killing one officer and wounding another. Two police
recruits were killed and another wounded by gunmen in Mansour
neighborhood of Baghdad. (Another source says three were killed, and
they were regular police, not recruits. –Susan)
Security Incidents: Gunmen killed three power station employees on their way to work in Taji.
Security Incidents: Mortar rounds fell on homes in south Baghdad and in Tal Afar, wounding about 10 people, mainly children.
Security Incident: Four members of a family were killed and one wounded by gunmen shooting them in their home in Mahmoudiya.
Security Incident:
Students killed in Tal Afar as security worsens. This article was
posted on 3/19/06 and reports nine students were killed. It also
reports more than 150 people killed in the city in the past few months.
In the southern port city of Basra, a Sunni was shot dead by unidentified gunmen, also on leaving a local mosque after prayers. Hostages Rescued:
Acting on a tip from a detainee, the multinational forces had stormed a
house in western Baghdad, rescuing two Canadians and a Briton who had
been held hostage by a shadowy guerrilla group for four months.
Thursday's rescue, by a force that included American and British
troops, represented one of the few times that military action in Iraq
has played a decisive role in a hostage release. (Canadian news source
says Canadian special forces were involved also. This is mentioned, but
not confirmed in this article. – Susan)
REPORTS
Progress Report: The Iraqi Insurgency After Three Years
With
the third anniversary of the worst foreign policy decision in US
history approaching, now seems like a good time to review that nation's
progress in defeating the anti-occupational forces. (video)
US Military Asserts Most of Iraq PeacefulThe
US military spokesman in Iraq asserted Thursday that major violence is
largely confined to just three of the country's 18 provinces, but
fighting there raged on with at least 58 people killed in
execution-style slayings, bombings and gunbattles. For the third
straight day, Sunni insurgents hit a major police and jail facility —
this time with a suicide car bombing that killed 25 in central Baghdad.
The attacker detonated his explosives at the entrance to the Interior
Ministry Major Crimes unit in the Karradah district, killing 10
civilians and 15 policemen, authorities said.
As insurgent
forces raised the stakes with the attacks, the U.S. military announced
late Thursday that it was in the second day of an operation with Iraqi
soldiers "to disrupt anti-Iraqi forces and to find and destroy
terrorist caches in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad. In a rundown
of recent military activity, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the U.S. military
spokesman, told reporters Thursday that most Iraqi violence was focused
in three central provinces, including Baghdad. "There is not widespread
violence across Iraq. There is not. Seventy-five percent of the attacks
still take place in Baghdad, al-Anbar or Salaheddin (provinces). And in
the other 15 provinces, they all averaged less than six attacks a day,
and 12 of those provinces averaged less than two attacks a day." He
said attacks nationwide were averaging 75 a day, a level that has been
generally sustained since last August. The three provinces he cited,
however, are home to about 9 million people, according to the Iraqi
Ministry of Planning and Development — a third of the country's
population of 27 million. (Hooray! Only a third of the total population
is in turmoil and chaos! Wonder when the Iraqis are going to thank us?
– Susan)
Sectarian Internal Migration Plagues IraqFaced
with simmering sectarian tensions and the looming prospect of a civil
war, thousands of Sunni and Shiite families are fleeing their homes and
moving to areas where their respective sects are in majority. Some 2425
Sunni families have migrated from Shiite-dominated provinces such as
Karbala, An-Najaf, Al-Qadisiyah and Babil, according to statement by
the Ministry of Migration and Emigrants, a copy of which was obtained
by IslamOnline.net. They have moved to cities such as Fallujah,
Samarra, Al-Latyfiah and Al-Mahmoudyah, where Sunnis are in majority,
added the statement.
Similarly, around 1,280 Shiite families
have relocated to the Shiite–majority provinces of Al-Samawah, Dhi Qar,
Maysan and Wasit. The government has allocated 500 million dinars
(around $338,000) in relief for these families. Many Christians have
migrated from areas, particularly Baghdad, to Christian villages in
northern Iraq over security deterioration. "Even after selling my
Baghdad house I would still needs millions of dinars to buy a similar
one in a remote Christian village," one Christian told IOL, declining
to put his name. "I would have to settle for a more humble home in an
area where jobs are a bit of a rarity," he added.
US-led Forces Round Up Whole Iraq Village in Security Sweep
The
entire adult male population of a village west of Baghdad was rounded
up in a major joint US-Iraqi operation against insurgents that netted
two "high value targets." Operation Northern Lights, which involves
more than 1,100 US soldiers and marines as well as Iraqi army units, is
targeting bomb-making cells and weapon caches in the vast rural fields
west of the capital.
"This whole area is a hotbed for
insurgents, and is a major (arms) cache and transport zone," said First
Lieutenant Caleb Singer, acting commander of Bravo Company, which had a
leading role in the search operation. The raid on the village of
Ibrahim bin Ali began at 1 am (2300 GMT Wednesday) and is expected to
last 24 hours. US troops were airlifted in to lay a cordon around the
village and then went house-to-house, rounding up men and questioning
them. In one case more than 100 detainees were taken to a nearby
school. US Colonel Jeffrey Snow acknowledged that people were being
temporarily inconvenienced but said it was worth it for the
intelligence gathered as well as detailed sweeps of the area for
weapons. (I wonder if Jeffrey Snow would feel 'temporarily
inconvenienced’ if that happened to his hometown. – Susan)
Shia Death Squads Target Iraqi Gays – US IndifferentFollowing
a death-to-gays fatwa issued last October by Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani (left), death squads of the Badr Corps have been
systematically targeting gay Iraqis for persecution and execution, gay
Iraqis say. But when they ask for help and protection from U.S.
occupying authorities in the "Green Zone," gay Iraqis are met with
indifference and derision.
"The Badr Corps is committed to the
'sexual cleansing’ of Iraq," says Ali Hili, a 33-year-old gay Iraqi
exile in London who, with some 30 other gay Iraqis who have fled to the
United Kingdom, five months ago founded the Abu Nawas Group there to
support persecuted gay Iraqis. (Abu Nawas was a great 8th century
classical poet of Arab and Persian descent who is known throughout
Middle East cultures, and is famous for his poems in praise of same-sex
love.) Said Hili, "We believe that the Badr Corps is receiving advice
from Iran on how to target gay people." In the Islamic Republic of
Iran, the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been carrying out
a lethal anti-gay pogrom against Iranian gays, notably through
entrapment by Internet -- and this tactic has recently begun to be used
by the Badr Corps in Iraq to identify and hunt down Iraqi gays.
Hili
provided information on the cases of several gay victims of the Badr
Corps, but said, ""These killings are just the ones we have been able
to get details about. They are the tip of an iceberg of
religious-motivated executions. Gay Iraqis are living in fear of
discovery and murder." (This man spoke on Democracy Now! the other day,
and they are seeking funds to help the victims in Iraq. More
information at the link. – Susan)
No Escape for Fearful Palestinians in IraqReports
of kidnappings, murder and persecution of Palestinian refugees in Iraq
have forced many to try to flee, but for most there is nowhere else to
go. Jordan's closure of its borders with Iraq on Sunday to prevent the
entry of 89 Palestinians seeking sanctuary from Iraq's carnage shows
the refugees have few options. Sheikh Ayman Mustafa, a 33-year-old
Palestinian cleric who lives in one of the rundown apartment buildings
in Baghdad that are home to thousands of refugees, said an explosion of
sectarian violence had made it too risky to stay in Iraq. "Palestinians
have been abducted and later found dead," he told Reuters. "Many
families have fled, others have come to me seeking protection." The
Palestinians, who braved bandits and insurgents along the treacherous
highway to get to the Jordanian border, may now have to turn around and
come back to Baghdad.
"This period is very difficult for the
Palestinians. They are kidnapped and killed and tortured," said a
Palestinian diplomat in Baghdad who asked not to be named. Sixty
Palestinians had been killed since the invasion, he said, before
adding: "Now we find about two to three Palestinians in the morgue
every week." Arriving in Iraq in three waves in 1948, 1967 and 1991,
Palestinians enjoyed financial support from Saddam Hussein, who
considered himself the champion of the Arab cause. Their schooling and
health care were subsidised, generating resentment among Iraqis who
paid dearly through three wars in a quarter of a century, crippling
sanctions and one of the world's most ruthless police states. These
days, the mostly Sunni Muslim Arab Palestinians sit in the rundown
Baladiyaat district of Baghdad hoping they will not get caught up in
sectarian violence which has killed hundreds of people since last
month's bombing of a Shi'ite Muslim shrine. Palestinians say Iraqis
began attacking them after a deadly car bomb in a nearby area last
year. Their anxieties grew after a popular state television show then
featured four bruised Palestinians "confessing" to the attack. "My
brother was completely innocent," said Tahir Nooreddine of one of the
suspects.
Situation Seems to Be Getting Worse
In
a bustling shopping district in a Shiite neighborhood that has been a
frequent target of terrorist attacks, grocer Duraid Mohammed Hussein
recently created a no-parking zone in front of his shop, fashioned from
red packing cord and a couple of metal stands that he prays will keep
car bombers at bay. The notion that a piece of cord could improve his
chances in an insurgent attack is illogical, Hussein acknowledged. But
the 35-year-old shopkeeper said he had to do something to ward off a
suffocating sense of vulnerability, a feeling that seems pervasive
among Iraqis these days.
"In 2003 and 2004, I thought the
violence would pass and we would be OK," Hussein said. "Now I feel as
if this will never end. The situation seems to be only getting worse."
For more than a year, Shiites and Sunnis living in neighborhoods
dominated by the other sect have reported that intimidation and
violence forced them to flee their homes. Since the shrine bombing, the
cross-exodus has accelerated. Both sects' religious and political
leaders say they have resettled hundreds of their followers who feared
for their lives. Just last week, an aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali
Sistani, the country's leading Shiite cleric, said his office had
resettled 100 families from the Sunni cities of Mahmoudiya and
Latifiyah to the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
On a recent
afternoon, Mohammed Aajil Sayeed al-Yassiri, 42, pulled up on his
scooter to an abandoned and crumbling primary school in a Shiite
neighborhood in northwestern Baghdad from which he, his wife and six
children fled last month after receiving warnings from a Sunni
neighbor. Behind the padlocked gate, his family laid dusty rugs on the
floors of one of the few classrooms that had a door that would shut.
Large sacks of rice, some pots and pans, a row of shoes and stacks of
folded clothing arrayed along the walls were the only possessions the
family brought with them.
A few days earlier, he said, officials
of the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia controlling the area around the
school, had moved 11 other families who had been squatting in the
school to the southern cities of Diwaniyah and Kut. Al-Yassiri said his
family had been told that a home in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad
might be available for them in a few days.
The Forgotten Victims of the Iraq WarIRAQ’S
children have suffered more than just successive wars and economic
sanctions. The loss of parents and family resources has boosted child
labour, homelessness and inclinations towards violence and rebellion.
They live in homes where 25 people live in a space of 40 square metres.
Even intact families may comprise parents and five children in a single
room. The increase in child labour reflects families’ dire economic
situation: Children are frequently a family’s only breadwinners, and
they work cheap. Contractors in municipal services, for example, prefer
to use children in order to cut costs. Here, a child may be used for
agricultural labour or for janitorial work. Many work in piles of
garbage, either removing them to another place or collecting empty
bottles and cans to sell. Others load and transport items in the
markets, where they must pull carts weighing 60-70kg and carry boxes
weighing 15kg in temperatures of 50°C. Two children may unload a lorry
carrying one tonne of food items.
Not surprisingly, Iraq’s child
workers suffer from a wide array of serious health problems. Children
who work in the garbage dumps are prone to skin and respiratory
problems, while those who work with paints eventually become addicted
to the intoxicants that they inhale. And all working children are
vulnerable to malnutrition, as their diet typically lacks the items
necessary to build body tissues. Nor is there any official authority to
protect children and defend their rights in case of incapacitation or
sickness. On the contrary, children are often beaten by family members
if they do not provide the daily wage expected of them, or by their
bosses when they are inattentive or make a mistake.
Indeed,
Iraqi children are exposed to beating without regard for their age and
for myriad reasons, thus growing up insecure, hostile and violent.
Moreover, they are prone to being kidnapped by criminal gangs, trained
to steal or pickpocket, or, worse, placed at the mercy of terrorists
for use in attacks. The deterioration of families’ financial situation
has also left poor children deprived of educational opportunity. For
many children, even when they do attend school, the collapse of
infrastructure, the unavailability of electricity and water, and high
temperatures in the summer are hardly conducive to successful study.
Simply put, children in Iraq have been reduced from human beings worthy
of care to tools of production and instruments of violence. We are
quite literally breeding a new generation of disorder. The writer, a
member of the Iraqi National Assembly, directs the Islamic Foundation
for Women and Children.
Rehabilitating A Fighting Force/
Iraqi Soldiers Learn How to Deal Respectfully With Residents And Make
Them Believe The Army is There To Protect, Not Oppress (See next
article – Susan)
The Iraqi army has set up a checkpoint in the
center of this small town east of Fallujah. Uniformed soldiers with
AK-47 assault rifles stand guard at the main intersection. Others load
into white Nissan pickups to relieve guards at other checkpoints on the
outskirts of town. They're dressed in desert camouflage uniforms, and
almost all wear ski masks or other covering for their faces. But the
masks can't hide their youth. Most of these young soldiers look barely
old enough to be in the army. They're fresh-faced kids, some right off
the farm, who hardly need to shave. "I came here to save my country and
help my family," said one jundi -- Arabic for soldier.
Nearly
all the Iraqi soldiers, jundi and officers, wear scarves or ski masks
when they go out on patrol to keep from being recognized. For safety's
sake, they didn't want their names published. (Which tells you a lot. –
Susan) The Iraqi army is in its infancy and experiencing growing pains.
But it is considered crucial to the question of when American troops
might finally leave this war-torn country. (Guess he missed Bush’s
speech saying he did not intend to leave Iraq. – Susan)
The
soldiers in Nasser Wa Sallem are largely Shiites from the south. In
Anbar province, they patrol a population that is mostly Sunni. The
Sunni-Shiite divide is one of the fault lines that threaten to tear the
country apart. (And apparently, those 'fault lines’ did not exist prior
to the invasion. 40% of the 'deck of cards’ were Shi’ias. – Susan) Many
Iraqi and American troops said the Iraqis in the field do pretty good
work overall. The trouble comes with the senior leadership in Baghdad,
you hear repeatedly. There is too much nepotism and corruption. People
are being given positions based on who they know, rather than what they
can do. (I take it that this refers to the current Iraqi government,
not the Bremer administration, but the same tactic applied. – Susan)
UN Rights Office Urges Iraq to Rein in Death Squads
The
United Nations has called on Iraqi authorities to rein in "death
squads" allegedly operating within security forces and said it received
regular reports of torture in detention centres. The U.N. human rights
office in Iraq also said in a report covering the first two months of
this year, insurgent activities including "terrorist acts" have
intensified since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra on Feb 22,
"resulting in hundreds of cases of killings, torture, illegal detention
and displacement". The nine-page report posted on the website
www.uniraq.org., said U.N. officials, who report to U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, had received serious
allegations about elements in the police and special forces and "their
apparent collusion with militias in carrying out human rights
violations".
The (U.N.) Human Rights Office also continues to
receive regular allegations and evidence of torture in detention
centres, particularly (those) not operated or controlled by the
Ministry of Justice," it said. It welcomed inspections underway in
places of detention under the control of the Ministry of Interior,
Ministry of Defence and special forces throughout the country,
according to the U.N. which called for those reports to be made public.
It also said military operations by multinational and Iraqi forces
especially in western Anbar province had raised concerns due to
allegations of "excessive use of force", mistreatment and theft during
raids, and demolitions of houses.
Challenge for US: Iraq’s Handling of Detainees (Brought to you by the NYT, devoid of any thought. Snark alert. – Susan)
CAMP
JUSTICE, Iraq — The blindfolded detainees in the dingy hallway line up
in groups of five for their turn to see a judge, like schoolchildren
outside the principal's office. (I don’t know of any schools that
blindfold children, do you? – Susan) Each meeting lasts a few minutes.
The judge rules whether the detainee will go free, face trial or be
held longer at this Iraqi base in northern Baghdad. But Firas Sabri
Ali, squeezed into a fetid cell just hundreds of yards from the judge's
office, has watched the inmates come and go for four months without his
name ever being called. (Just like school children again! What a
co-inky-dink! – Susan)
He is jailed, along with two brothers and
his father, solely as collateral, he says. The Iraqi forces are hunting
another brother, suspected of being an insurgent. The chief American
medic here says that he believes Mr. Ali to be innocent but that it is
up to the Iraqi police to decide whether to free him. The Iraqis
acknowledged that they were holding Mr. Ali until they captured his
brother. (There they go – imitating the US forces in Iraq again! And
they were imitating Saddam’s forces, right? – Susan)
Such is the
challenge facing the American military as it tries to train the Iraqi
security forces to respect the rule of law. (And what a challenge it
is! – Susan) Three years after the invasion of Iraq, American troops
are no longer simply teaching counterinsurgency techniques; they are
trying to school the Iraqis in battling a Sunni-led rebellion without
resorting to the tactics of a "dirty war," involving abductions,
torture and murder. (Opps, they forgot bombing! This article should be
titled "Do As We Say, Not As We Do". – Susan)
The legacy of Abu
Ghraib hampers the American military. (No! Who would have thought? Just
because Rumsfeld and Gonzales are still in power and still promoting
these policies is *NO* reason for the world to think the US is being
hypocritical! – Susan)
The Americans are pushing the
Shiite-dominated Iraqi forces to ask judges for arrest warrants,
restrain their use of force and ensure detainees' rights. (And when
they finish this, maybe they could work on that prison down in Cuba? –
Susan)
The Iraqi officers at this base, the headquarters of the
Public Order Forces, a police paramilitary division with a history of
torture and abuse, are gradually changing their behavior, American
military advisers say. Cases of detainee abuse have declined in recent
months, they say. (Sure it has! And the death squads are gone, and
peace and prosperity have broken out all over Iraq! And the prisoners
at Guantanamo are now seen justice and the American Way! – Susan)
"The
tradition in this country of a law enforcement agency that had absolute
power over people, we've got to break them of that," said Maj. Andrew
Creel, the departing joint operations officer here. "I think it'll take
years. You can't change a cultural mind-set overnight." (I think he is
talking about America, what do you think? – Susan)
But Col.
Gordon Davis Jr., the head of Camp Justice's departing advisory team,
praised the Iraqi commander here, Maj. Gen. Mehdi Sabih Hashem
al-Garawi, for showing a willingness to embrace human rights. (Can we
reassign him to the CIA? – Susan)
"I won't say he's gone 180,
but he's realized that the best way of getting information is not to
beat or abuse detainees," Colonel Davis said as he stood in the
operations room, the walls plastered with maps of Baghdad. (The CIA
NEEDS HIM. – Susan) "The current generation has been brought up with a
certain code and a certain tolerance for abuse," he said in another
interview. "They've got to be constantly worked on." (I think he is
talking about the current US government here, even though it is an
article about Iraq. – Susan)
In Fallujah, Iraqi Forces Riven by Sectarianism
If
all goes to plan, U.S.-trained Iraqi troops and police will work
together, gain the trust of volatile cities like Falluja and battle
insurgents on their own as the Americans gradually withdraw troops.
But, judging by the mood of this former rebel stronghold west of
Baghdad, that is wishful thinking. Iraqi soldiers and police, charged
with making sure al Qaeda-linked militants and Saddam Hussein loyalists
who once took over the city never return, are deeply divided, raising
questions about the prospects of stability.
This week, the
mostly Arab Sunni police staged a strike to protest what they said were
abuses committed by Shi'ite Muslim soldiers. The police have returned
to their posts, but the mistrust remains. "The soldiers attacked a
17-year-old grocer and took him away to an area where he was found dead
two hours later," said a police major, who asked not to be named. He
said the youth had been shot in the eye and his stomach ripped open.
There was no way to independently verify the account but facts rarely
matter in Iraq's chaos, where word of kidnappings and killings are all
it takes to fuel sectarian violence. (And if there is no way to
independently verify, then there is no security. What good did it do to
'liberate’ Fallujah three times? – Susan)
Saddam loyalists and
Islamist militants were crushed in a U.S. offensive on Falluja in 2004
that was designed to stabilise the city and hand it over to local
forces, but resentment towards Iraqi soldiers remains and is growing.
"The army raided my shop a few days ago and they beat and kicked me,"
said Alaa Majeed, a mobile telephone dealer. "They stole my money and
the mobiles I had left. I closed my shop because I don't want to be
robbed again." Residents say Falluja is still recovering from the 2004
U.S. air strikes, artillery and tank fire that left most of the city in
ruins. The Iraqi government and the U.S. military hoped the offensive
would deter rebels from trying to take over other towns, but Iraqi
soldiers say insurgents have crept back.
Aside from renewed
violence, residents complain of sporadic electricity, poor water
supplies and slow reconstruction. But one of their biggest problem
appears to be the Iraqi forces charged with protecting them. "As long
as Iraqi army troops are in our city we will never see any security or
feel any relief. Most attacks are carried out by them because they do
not want to see any stability here," said Fahd Saadoun, 30, a teacher.
Mosul Governor Turns to Tribal Leaders for HelpGovernor
Duraid Kashmoula has pleaded with tribal leaders in the province of
Nineveh to help him reinstate security in his troubled province. U.S.
troops have handed security of the restive city of Mosul, the
provincial center, to Iraqi forces but violence is reported to have
escalated. Last week U.S. military commanders officially withdrew from
the part of the city on the left bank of the Tigris River. Iraqi forces
now have sole responsibility for Mosul and many of smaller provincial
towns like Tal Affar. Fearing an upsurge in violence following the U.S.
withdrawal from the city, Kashmoula held a meeting with scores of
tribal leaders in the province urging them to flush out "criminals and
terrorists" from their areas. He asked the tribes "to pursue criminals
and terrorists and restrain their activities as part of a security plan
to wipe them out."
Minister Says 89 Professors Killed; Universities Suffering From Sectarian Strife
Higher
Education and Scientific Research Minister said 89 university
professors have been killed in the three years since the U.S. invasion.
It is the first time a high-ranking government official gives a figure
on number of universities professors who have been killed in the past
three years. But the minister, Sami Mudhafar, denied reports that the
killings were part of a campaign targeting mainly Iraqi intelligentsia.
He said the killings were the result of worsening security conditions
in Iraq in general. Earlier reports gave much higher figures of the
professors who have been killed.
"The announced figures on the
exact numbers of victims are considerably exaggerated. I have exact and
accurate figures and the number of university professors who have
martyred does not go beyond 89," he said in an interview. Asked whether
he had any plans to protect universities and their professors, he said:
"The state is incapable of protecting university professors because the
whole security situation is unstable and fraught with many violations."
"I
myself was target of an assassination attempt recently and the
government has failed to obtain any lead regarding the party behind
it," he added.
REPORT: US: Iraq On Own to Rebuild
The
head of the US-led program to rebuild Iraq said Thursday that the Iraqi
government can no longer count on U.S. funds and must rely on its own
revenues and other foreign aid, particularly from Gulf nations. "The
Iraqi government needs to build up its capability to do its own capital
budget investment," Daniel Speckhard, director of the U.S. Iraq
Reconstruction Management Office, told reporters.
The burden of
funding reconstruction poses an extraordinary challenge for a country
that needs tens of billions of dollars for repairing its infrastructure
at the same time it's struggling to pay its bills. Iraq's main revenue
source - oil - is hampered by insurgent attacks on production
facilities and pipelines, forcing the country to spend $6 billion a
year on oil imports. Iraq's deputy finance minister, Kamal Field
al-Basri, said it was "reasonable" for the United States to sharply cut
back its reconstruction efforts after spending about $21 billion. "We
should be very much dependent on ourselves," al-Basri said in an
interview.
Anthony Cordesman, a Middle East expert at the
Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, called
the U.S. reconstruction effort "a dismal failure. It hasn't met any of
its goals. It's left a legacy of half-built projects, built to U.S.
standards, which Iraq doesn't have the capability to maintain." (This
makes me sad. – Susan)
Benchmarks: US Iraq Casualties Stay High
Over
the past month, the average rate at which U.S. troops have been killed
in Iraq has significantly fallen, the but the rates at which they are
being wounded have dramatically increased. U.S. mainstream media
reports have focused only on the numbers being killed. But over the
past eight months, we have repeatedly emphasized in this column that
the far larger numbers of U.S. troops wounded, especially those wounded
too seriously to return to active duty, represent a far broader and
more statistically significant figure of the scale of insurgent
activity and the degree to which it is succeeding or failing to inflict
significant casualties on U.S. forces.
Oil Ministry In Crisis, Experts SayIraq’s
oil ministry, mired in corruption, is facing a serious crisis, experts
said. They said the ministry lacked "effective leadership" and the
officials in charge were only keen to attain personal gains. The
accusations come as exports have plunged to nearly half their level
before the 2003 U.S. invasion and fears that the ministry may not be
able even to pay for fuel imports. "The Iraqi oil sector currently
suffers from the absence of an effective leadership, bad
administration, retreat in output and has become a fertile ground for
corruption," said Fadhil Jalabi, an Iraqi oil expert and head of the
London-based Energy Center. Shamkhi Faraj, a senior ministry official,
agreed. "The country is ruined and these officials are working to
achieve their personal wishes," he said. Another senior official,
refusing to be named, was even blunter in his criticism, saying: "The
conditions have reached the worst stage one can imagine."
Iran Becomes Iraq’s No. 1 Trade Partner, Minister SaysIran
tops the list of countries trading with Iraq, said Industry and
Minerals Minister Osama al-Najafi. He said other neighboring countries
and states in the Arab Middle East were still reluctant to resume
normal trading with the country. Iran, he added, is pressing ahead to
expand bilateral trade paying no heed to security conditions that have
driven away other partners. Iran, he added, is now number one exporter
to Iraq and has recently provided financial incentives to set up
large-scale, heavy industries. Najafi said Iraq’s industrial sector was
in desperate need of investments. "We require $60 billion to revive our
industry," he said. He said foreign donations for the industry were
being diverted to other ministries dealing with security issues.
However, he said, some progress has been made despite the difficulties.
Fertilizer industries now meet most of the domestic demand, he said,
adding that the country’s pharmaceuticals cover 40% of local needs.
POLITICSREPORT:
Mr Rumsfeld urged Iraqi leaders to form a government that included all
of the country's religious, ethnic and political groups. "A good
government, a competent government, a government that's seen as
inclusive and seen as governing from the centre, that gets about the
task of serving the Iraqi people... I believe that that would be a good
thing for the country and would reduce the level of violence," he said.
"So
to the extent that isn't happening, obviously, the level of violence
continues and people are being killed, and that's unfortunate. And they
need to get about the task." On Sunday, Iraqi leaders formed a security
council to tackle key issues while talks on forming a new government
continued, but there has been no sign of progress since. There has been
deadlock over the post of prime minister, with the Shia-led United
Iraqi Alliance's potential coalition partners rejecting its candidate -
the incumbent - Ibrahim Jaafari. (Someone please tell Mr. Rumsfeld that
it isn’t going to make a bit of difference! – Susan)
REPORT:
In a news conference Thursday, U.S. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch blamed the
surge of attacks on insurgents intent on derailing Iraqi efforts to
form a national unity government. (So, what are they going to say when
the attacks continue after the government is formed? – Susan) Political
leaders continue to quarrel over the new government's makeup but plan
to meet Saturday to discuss their differences.
Envoy Accuses Iran of Duplicity on Iraq -- (Courtesy of the WaPo, Devoid of Any Critical Thought Process. Snark alert. - Susan)
Iran
is publicly professing its support for Iraq's stalemated political
process while its military and intelligence services back outlawed
militias and insurgent groups, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said
Thursday. (So much for getting the Iranian officials to talk to US
officials, eh? – Susan)
Iranian agents train and arm Shiite
Muslim militias such as the Mahdi Army, linked to one of Iraq's most
powerful clerics, (No, this is not true. – Susan) Khalilzad said, and
also work closely with Sunni Arab-led insurgent forces including Ansar
al-Sunna, (Even less plausible! –Susan) blamed for dozens of deadly
attacks on Iraqi and American soldiers and Shiite civilians. (Where was
that mention about the Iranians helping the Badr corps? Got to be here
somewhere, right? Nope. What a co-inky-dink! – Susan)
With
negotiations to form a government deadlocked three months after the
Dec. 15 legislative elections and Iraqis growing increasingly
impatient, Khalilzad said he was stressing to Iraqi leaders that new
authority is needed to quell instability. ("Do as I say" says
Khalilzad, not as my country does. We only dropped 30,000 bombs on your
country to quell instability, and now you are messing up all our
self-less and charitable efforts here. – Susan)
"I am the one
who's saying, 'The country is bleeding, you need to move,' " he said,
(The country is bleeding because of US authorities actions and
decisions, you dope! – Susan) adding that recent sessions with
political leaders from various sides have brought at least one
encouraging sign: The groups are now more willing to directly address
each other's concerns without using Americans as intermediaries. (If
only they could! Ha! – Susan)
Asked if Shiites, who fell short
of winning a parliamentary majority, would ever be willing to share
enough power to allow a unified government to be formed, Khalilzad
pointed to constitutional provisions that require a two-thirds vote for
many of the functions of government to be carried out. (Maybe we should
have that here in the USA? – Susan)
The Shiites "have no
alternative" but to compromise, he said. (Funny how the Bush
administration saw other "alternatives" rather than compromise on many,
many issues… but somehow, the Iraqis cannot do the same. Hey, just
watch them! These US idiots would be really funny if it weren’t for the
fact that they are killing innocent people. – Susan)
LEGAL CASES
Another Abu Ghraib Trial Leaves Top Brass Unscathed
With
the conviction of an Army dog handler, the military has now tried and
found guilty another low-ranking soldier in connection with the pattern
of abuses that first surfaced two years ago at Abu Ghraib prison in
Iraq. But once again, an attempt by defense lawyers to point a finger
of responsibility at higher-ranking officers failed in the latest case
to persuade a military jury that ultimate responsibility for the abuses
lay further up the chain of command. Some military experts said one
reason there have not been attempts to pursue charges up the military
chain of command is that the military does not have anything tantamount
to a district attorney's office.
"The real question is: Who is
the independent prosecutor who is liberated to pursue these cases?"
said Eugene Fidell, a specialist in military law. "There is no central
prosecution office run by commanders. So you don't have a D.A.
thinking, 'I'm going to follow this wherever it leads.' " To date, the
highest-ranking officer convicted in relation to the abuses is Army
Capt. Shawn Martin, who was found guilty last March of kicking
detainees and staging the mock execution of a prisoner. He was
sentenced to 45 days in prison and fined $12,000.
Smith had
faced a maximum sentence of 8 1/2 years, but on Wednesday was sentenced
to just 179 days -- slightly less than under six months -- in prison.
He will also be demoted to private, fined $2,250 and will be released
from the Army with a bad-conduct discharge after serving his sentence.
"A mere tap on the wrist for abusing prisoners gives the appearance
that once again that the United States is not serious about its
responsibility to discipline those convicted of human rights
violations," Curt Goering, Amnesty International's senior deputy
executive director for policy and programs, said in a statement.
Soldier Who Killed Iraqi Girl in 2004 Discharged; No Criminal Charges Filed
The
Army has discharged without criminal charges a Schofield Barracks
soldier who was involved in the 2004 killing of a 13-year-old girl and
wounding of her sister and mother in Iraq. A criminal investigation was
opened and evidence was reviewed before the decision by Maj. Gen.
Benjamin R. Mixon, the commanding general of the 25th Infantry
Division, to approve the discharge of Sgt. Jeffrey D. Waruch, 28,
officials said. "In this case, a review of the investigation determined
that no further evidence was likely to be found that would result in
the case going to trial," Schofield Barracks said in a statement. The
investigation found that Waruch, who was with the 1st Battalion, 27th
Infantry Regiment, did not act in a negligent or unlawful manner in the
Feb. 18, 2004 shootings and that there was insufficient evidence to
prosecute, the Army said.
……as the three ran from a roadside
bomb attack on a U.S. convoy, 13-year-old Intisar Saleh was shot in the
head from a distance of about 200 feet. Her mother was hit and lost a
leg, and Intisar's 15-year-old sister was shot in the leg. Waruch said
in a statement that he shot the three Iraqis after they ignored
repeated warnings in English and Arabic to stop, suspicious movements
were made, and one appeared to have "something long" that he believed
could have been a weapon. A review conducted by Maj. Samuel Schubert
found that two in the group of fleeing civilians were surrendering, and
that Waruch fired at one of the females because the civilians made
"sudden movements." Schubert said in his report: "Under these facts,
the soldier's certainty that he was about to be fired upon was not
reasonable," and there was no weapon. He added, "The soldier did not
observe hostile intent."
Military Doctor to Face Court Martial for Refusing to Return to IraqA
Royal Air Force doctor who refused to return for a tour of duty in Iraq
because he believes military action there is illegal will face court
martial, a judge ruled. Lawyers for Flight Lieutenant Malcolm
Kendall-Smith had argued at a pre-trial hearing that he should not face
action for disobeying orders because he believed there was no basis in
international law for attacking Iraq. But Judge-advocate Jack Bayliss
disagreed, outlining in his judgment Wednesday that the orders given to
the 37-year-old medic were lawful.
COMMENTARYOPINION: "George Bush's Trillion-Dollar War "
Call
it the trillion-dollar war. George W. Bush's war in Iraq was never
supposed to be particularly expensive. Administration types tossed out
numbers like $50 billion and $60 billion. When Lawrence Lindsey, the
president's chief economic adviser, said the war was likely to cost
$100 billion to $200 billion, he was fired. Some in the White House
tried to spread the fantasy that Iraqi oil revenues would pay for the
war. Paul Wolfowitz, the former deputy defense secretary and a
fanatical hawk, told Congress that Iraq was "a country that can really
finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon." The president and
his hot-for-war associates were as wrong about the money as they were
about the weapons of mass destruction. Now comes a study by Joseph
Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist at Columbia University, and a
colleague, Linda Bilmes of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard,
that estimates the "true costs" of the war at more than $1 trillion,
and possibly more than $2 trillion.
"Even taking a conservative
approach and assuming all U.S. troops return by 2010, we believe the
true costs exceed a trillion dollars," the authors say. The study was
released earlier this year but has not gotten much publicity. The
analysis by Professors Stiglitz and Bilmes goes beyond the immediate
costs of combat operations to include other direct and indirect costs
of the war that, in some cases, the government will have to shoulder
for many years. These costs, the study says, "include disability
payments to veterans over the course of their lifetimes, the cost of
replacing military equipment and munitions, which are being consumed at
a faster-than-normal rate, the cost of medical treatment for returning
Iraqi war veterans, particularly the more than 7,000 [service members]
with brain, spinal, amputation and other serious injuries, and the cost
of transporting returning troops back to their home bases."
The
study also notes that Defense Department expenditures that were not
directly appropriated for Iraq have grown by more than 5 percent since
the war began. But a portion of that increase has been spent "on
support for the war in Iraq, including significantly higher recruitment
costs, such as nearly doubling the number of recruiters, paying
recruitment bonuses of up to $40,000 for new enlistees and paying
special bonuses and other benefits, up to $150,000 for current Special
Forces troops that re-enlist." "Another cost to the government," the
study says, "is the interest on the money that it has borrowed to
finance the war." Among the things taken into account by the study are
some of the difficult-to-quantify but very real costs inflicted by the
war on the American economy and society, such as the effect of the war
on oil prices, and the economic loss that results from the many
thousands of Americans wounded and killed in the war. The study does
not address the substantial costs of the war borne by Iraq or by any
other countries besides the United States. In an interview, Mr.
Stiglitz said that about $560 billion, which is a little more than half
of the study's conservative estimate of the cost of the war, would have
been enough to "fix" Social Security for the next 75 years. If one were
thinking in terms of promoting democracy in the Middle East, he said,
the money being spent on the war would have been enough to finance a
"mega-mega-mega-Marshall Plan," which would have been "so much more"
effective than the invasion of Iraq.
It's not easy to explain
just how much money $1 trillion really is. Imagine a stack of bills
worth $1 million that is roughly six inches high. (Think big
denominations — a mix of $100 bills and $1,000 bills, mostly $1,000's.)
If the six-inch stack were enlarged to the point where it was worth $1
billion, it would be as tall as the Washington Monument, about 500
feet. If it were worth $1 trillion, the stack would be 95 miles high.
Ms. Bilmes said that the $1 trillion we're spending on Iraq amounts to
about $10,000 for every household in the U.S. At his press conference
on Tuesday, President Bush made it clear that whatever the cost,
American forces would not be leaving Iraq soon. When asked whether a
day would come when there were no U.S. forces in Iraq, he said that
decision would be made by future presidents and future governments of
Iraq. The meter's running. We're at a trillion dollars, and counting.
OPINION: Did US Soldiers Execute Iraqi Family? Including Children?
Another
policeman, Colonel Farouq Hussein, is quoted as saying: "all the
victims had gunshot wounds to the head". Hussein said that the bodies,
their hands bound, had been dumped in one room before the house was
destroyed. Police allegedly found spent American-issue cartridges in
the rubble. "It's a clear and perfect crime without any doubt," Hussein
reportedly said. It is clear that the objective to paint US soldiers as
cold blooded killers continues. This report is offensive and denigrates
each and everyone who wears a US uniform. (This writer does not address
why the USA would want to stay in Iraq and support such a people as he
describes here. – Susan)
Opponents of the Iraq war will stoop to even lower levels in the future.
Has
no one considered that these wounds may have been inflicted at a later
time? No one over there would ever stoop to such tactics. And here is
where I get labeled a fascist and a war mongerer. In the 'Art of War'
by Sun Tsu, he points out that if you are going to kill a warrior who
is the head of a household - then you best kill all who could seek
revenge. This is also biblical; in the Old Testament the armies of God
often would kill all the members of a household. Now, I'm not saying
this is what has happened, as I was not there.
However, it it
did happen (and that's a big IF) then the only logical solution would
be the one pointed out here. Our soldiers are brave fighting men and
women who have no personal axe to grind and are not hot-headed cold
blooded killers with a taste for blood. Our soldiers are taught to kill
no doubt, but they are also taught mercy. The way the article is
slanted would have you believe that our soldiers simply recklessly
invaded a household and murdered everyone inside with no regard. There
are no counter claims as to the occupants standing in the community. We
did not go in and blow away the local librarian and her family. (It is
unlikely this small town would have a librarian. – Susan)
This
is war people, innocents die along with the guilty and that is why it
is as ugly as it is. That's why as an American I remind my children
each day of the American blood spilled so they can play video games,
watch tv, play sports, go to school and talk on their cell phones. That
same blood spilled allows you (Americans) to critique those fighting
this war as well as me writing a response pointing it all out. (I
printed this to show you how the other side thinks. I am not sure who
did the killing in this instance – it seems unlikely to me that US
troops who handcuff an entire family and then shoot them, when just
shooting them would have the same effect – but I am certain that the US
soldiers have on occasion acted out feelings of revenge and
retribution. Now, aren’t you glad this guy is not your dad? – Susan)
OPINON: The Joy of Being Blameless
The
contrast could not have been more stark, nor the message more clear. On
the day that a court-martial imposed justice on a 24-year-old Army
sergeant for tormenting detainees at Abu Ghraib with his dog, President
Bush said once again that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whose
benighted policies and managerial incompetence led to the prisoner
abuse scandal, was doing a "fine job" and should stay at his post.
We've
seen this sorry pattern for nearly two years now, since the Abu Ghraib
horrors first shocked the world: President Bush has clung to the
fiction that the abuse of prisoners was just the work of a few rotten
apples, despite report after report after report demonstrating that it
was organized and systematic, and flowed from policies written by top
officials in his administration.
Just this week, Eric Schmitt
and Carolyn Marshall provided a bloodcurdling account in the Times of
how a Special Operations unit converted an Iraqi military base into a
torture chamber, even using prisoners as paintball targets, in its
frenzy to counter a widely predicted insurgency for which Mr. Rumsfeld
had refused to prepare. In early 2004, an 18-year-old man suspected of
selling cars to members of a terrorist network was arrested and beaten
repeatedly. Another man said he had been forced to strip, punched in
the spine until he fainted, put in front of an air-conditioner while
cold water was poured on him and kicked in the stomach until he
vomited. His crime? His father had worked for Saddam Hussein.
These
accounts are tragically familiar. The names and dates change, but the
basic pattern is the same, including the fact that this bestiality
produced little or no useful intelligence. The Bush administration
decided to go outside the law to deal with prisoners, and soldiers
carried out that policy. Those who committed these atrocities deserve
the punishment they are getting, but virtually all high-ranking
soldiers have escaped unscathed. And not a single policy maker has been
called to account.
Col. Thomas Pappas, the former intelligence
chief at Abu Ghraib, testified at the dog handler's trial that the use
of dogs had grown out of conversations he had had with military jailers
from Guantánamo Bay led by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who had been sent
to Iraq to instruct soldiers there in the interrogation techniques
refined at Gitmo under Mr. Rumsfeld's torture-is-legal policy. Colonel
Pappas said General Miller had explained how to use the "Arab fear of
dogs" to set up interrogations.
What of General Miller? He
invoked his right against self-incrimination to avoid testifying, and
Time magazine reported this week that he was exonerated by an Army
whitewash. Apparently he was not responsible for the actions of
soldiers operating under rules he put in place. About the only
high-ranking officer whose career has suffered over Abu Ghraib is Lt.
Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who was the commander in Iraq at the time.
General Sanchez should certainly take responsibility, but he was also a
victim of administration blunders.
General Sanchez was vaulted
inappropriately from head of the First Armored Division to overall
commander because Mr. Bush declared "mission accomplished": the war's
over. He was then denied the staff, soldiers and equipment he needed to
deal with the insurgency that quickly broke out and produced thousands
of prisoners. Mr. Bush has refused to hold himself or any of his top
political appointees accountable for those catastrophic errors. Indeed,
he has promoted many of them. And this is not an isolated problem. It's
just one example, among many, of how this president's men run no risk
of being blamed for anything that happens, not matter how egregious.
OPINON: In Charge, Except They’re Not
Is President Bush the leader of our government, or is he just a right-wing talk-show host?
The
question comes to mind after Bush's news conference this week in which
he sounded like someone who has no control over the government he is in
charge of. His words were those of a pundit inveighing against the
evils of bureaucrats. Obviously," said the critic in chief, "there are
some times when government bureaucracies haven't responded the way we
wanted them to, and like citizens, you know, I don't like that at all."
Yes, and if you can't do something about it, who can?
This
episode is important because it is representative of a corrosive style
of politics. Bush and many of his fellow Republicans have done a good
business over the years running against the ills of Big Government.
They are so much in the habit of trashing government that even when
they are in charge of things -- remember, Republicans have controlled
the White House and both houses of Congress for all but 18 months since
2001 -- they pretend they are not.
And when their own government
fails, they turn around and use their incompetence to argue that
government can never work anyway, so you might as well keep electing
conservatives to have less government. It's an ideological Catch-22.
Even their failures prove they are right.
OPINION: Un-American Activities
THE
MORE revelations there are of detainee abuse by US troops, the more
evident it is that the guards who mistreated prisoners at Abu Ghraib
were not just a few bad apples, as the Bush administration has
described them. A New York Times report Sunday focused on a detention
center at Baghdad airport where FBI, CIA, and civilian Department of
Defense officials complained to their superiors about the harsh
tactics, including beatings, used by military interrogators. The
public, in whose name this treatment is being inflicted, deserves to
know the findings of the Pentagon inquiry on what happened at the
airport. The public also has a right to know whether ranking officers
are being held accountable, and, if not, why not.
The military
could not ignore the Abu Ghraib abuses after soldiers who disapproved
of what happened released photos of the activities to the media. The
Bush administration then did its best to minimize Abu Ghraib as an
isolated case and the work of untrained reservists. But the Baghdad
airport center was staffed largely by highly trained Special Operations
troops, with about 1,000 p