Iraq

[Casey]

Shiite holy day attacks kill at least 16
Iraqi police arrest man believed to have link to terrorist leader

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- On a day when bombers in Iraq launched attacks that killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 100, Iraqi police announced the arrest of a man they say is linked to terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Iraqi police arrested Haidar Mulaqatah during a raid in the Maffaraq area of western Baquba, about 30 miles north of Baghdad in Diyala province. The area has been a frequent site for insurgent attacks against coalition troops and Iraqi security forces.

Police said they also found weapons, including mortars, and equipment used to make counterfeit identification during the raid.

The bombings -- coinciding with the celebration of Ashura, one of the holiest days on the Shiite calendar -- came a day after a flurry of similar violence that killed 31 people.

Thousands of Shiites took to the streets in Baghdad and Karbala to commemorate the day, which marks the death of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad.

The attacks are the latest examples of sectarian violence aimed at Shiites, who make up the majority of the population in Iraq. The Shiite-backed United Iraqi Alliance won a plurality of votes in the National Assembly elections held January 30.

Sunnis dominated the government under Saddam Hussein's regime, and many boycotted the assembly elections.

A flurry of attacks occurred in Baghdad, according to U.S. and Iraqi authorities, and coincided with a visit by a bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators, including John McCain of Arizona and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who have often challenged the Pentagon's planning and management of the Iraq war. (Full story)

In Adhimiya neighborhood, in northern Baghdad, three suicide bombers detonated bombs in a procession of pilgrims participating in Ashura prayers. An Iraqi policeman, two Iraqi soldiers and two civilians were killed, and 40 civilians were wounded.

Three people were killed and 38 wounded when a man rode a bicycle into a funeral tent in the al-Baya'a area of southwestern Baghdad, and detonated a bomb.

A U.S. soldier with Task Force Baghdad, three policemen and a civilian were killed in al-Khadhimiya, in central Baghdad. The U.S. military said 24 people were wounded, including a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi national guardsman, in the attack. After U.S. troops responded to a rocket-propelled grenade attack on an Iraqi police car, a suicide bomber on a nearby bus of Shiite pilgrims detonated a bomb. The number of U.S. troops who have died in the Iraq war is 1,473.

In al-Waziriya, in northern Baghdad, three people launched suicide attacks, police said. One detonated, killing an Iraqi soldier. Another bomber was killed by Iraqi soldiers, and a third was detained by the Iraqi army.

Two suicide bombers detonated near a mosque southwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Initial reports described many casualties.
Baquba bombing
An Iraqi soldier and a civilian were killed by a suicide bomber in Baquba, Iraqi police said. Five people were wounded, including an Iraqi soldier.

The blast happened just 500 yards (457 meters) from where a Unity Day event was set to be held a few hours later.

Unity Day was established by the U.S. military as an incentive to insurgents to voluntarily surrender.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/19/iraq.main/index.html

[Petronas]

If true, this may indicate that at least some of the insurgents realize that they are losing the war and are looking for a face saving way out.

Iraq rebels caught as Bush to ask Europe for aid
Published February 21, 2005

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi security killed or captured three rebels producing Websites depicting tortured hostages, as US President George W. Bush prepared to urge Europe on Monday to aid Iraq. "Now is the time for the established democracies to give tangible political, economic and security assistance to the world's newest democracy," Bush is to tell top European Union officials, according to excerpts of his speech provided by the White House. The 2003 Iraq war created a rift between Washington and a group of European countries led by European heavyweights France and Germany opposed to the conflict.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday were set to agree to help train Iraqi judges, police officers and prison wardens in a gesture of goodwill one day before a summit between European and US leaders on Tuesday. Although the final details have yet to be hammered out, 700 to 800 Iraqis could participate in the program, diplomats said. Bush arrived in Belgium, the first stop of his European tour, late on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Time magazine reported that rebel leaders had held secret talks with US officials seeking to end the deadly insurgency in which thousands of people have died since the US-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein nearly two years ago. Six more Iraqis were killed in separate incidents, police and the US military said on Sunday, after some 70 others died during the two-day Shia Ashura religious festival, which ended on Saturday.

The government said that security forces had "killed the terrorist Adel Mujtaba, known as Abu Rim, who disseminated propaganda for Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi's terrorist network". Mujtaba was the third Zarqawi propaganda chief to be killed or detained after the first and second in command, Abu Sufiyan and Hussam Abdullah Muhsin Al Dulaymi, respectively, were killed and detained, a statement said, without providing further details on the latter two. "Abu Rim specialized in creating terrorist Websites, which encouraged terrorism," it said, adding that he was killed in a raid on February 11. "He glorified the murder of innocent people and published images that included terrorists torturing hostages."

Zarqawi, who has a $25-million US bounty on his head, is believed to be behind a string of deadly attacks and kidnappings and is the frontman here for Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. Zarqawi's group is one of several in Iraq that have abducted foreigners, made videos of them pleading for their lives or being tortured or beheaded. The footage has then been displayed on Websites or sent to television stations.

The latest foreigners to be kidnapped in Iraq were freed by their abductors, Al Arabiya TV reported on Monday. The abduction of two journalists on February 15 took place as they were driving along a dangerous road from Jordan to Baghdad. Their abductors later sent a video to Al Jazeera television showing the captives flanked by gunmen who demanded that Indonesia, which opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq, explain its presence in Iraq. The hostages, Meutya Hafid, a reporter for Metro TV news channel, and cameraman Budiyanto, were being held by a previously unknown Islamist group, the Jaish Al Mujahideen, or Army of Warriors, according to Al Jazeera.

In an apparently unrelated development, the US military said that it had increased security operations in the restive western province of Anbar, of which Ramadi, near where the journalists were abducted, is the capital.

The US weekly Time reported that US officials had been in direct contact with representatives from Iraq's Sunni insurgency, to try to negotiate an end to attacks against US and Iraqi troops there. Secret contacts with insurgent leaders are being conducted mainly by US diplomats and intelligence officers, Pentagon sources told Time.

Although they have no immediate plans to halt their attacks on US troops, insurgents told the magazine that their aim is to establish a political identity to represent disenfranchised Sunnis and eventually negotiate an end to the US military's offensive in the so-called Sunni triangle.

Insurgent negotiators have told their US interlocutors that they would accept a UN peacekeeping force as the US troop presence recedes, Time wrote.

http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050221-084548-4537r

[Petronas]

Indonesian hostages released in Iraq
Hilversum, Monday 21 February 2005 17:45 UTC

Two Indonesian journalists, who were being held hostage in Iraq, have been released. The two, a reporter and cameraman from the Indonesian television station Metro TV, were kidnapped last week on their way from Jordan to Baghdad. A previously unknown Islamist group the Jaish al-Mujahedeen claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. The group says it released the two after their nationality became clear. In a statement, the kidnappers apologised to the Indonesian people. Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world; it has always strongly opposed the US invasion of Iraq.

http://www.rnw.nl/news/news.html#4327229

[Petronas]

This could be more good news. It seems the insurgents may be losing support...

Crackdown underway in Iraq
Monday, February 21, 2005

BAGHDAD - U.S. marines and Iraqi security forces launched an offensive Sunday against insurgents in troubled cities west of Baghdad after two days of carnage that left nearly 100 people dead. Sunni Muslim tribal leaders met to determine their place in a Shiite-dominated Iraqi government. As the Shiite majority prepared to take control of the country's first freely elected government, tribal chiefs representing Sunni Arabs in six provinces issued a list of demands - including participation in the government and drafting a new constitution - after previously refusing to acknowledge the vote's legitimacy.

"We made a big mistake when we didn't vote," said Sheik Hathal Younis Yahiya, 49, a representative from northern Nineveh. "Our votes were very important." He said threats from insurgents - not sectarian differences - kept most Sunnis from voting. Sunnis make up 20 per cent of Iraq's population of 26 million compared to the Shiite's 60 per cent.

Gathering in a central Baghdad hotel, about 70 tribal leaders from the provinces of Baghdad, Kirkuk, Salaheddin, Diyala, Anbar and Nineveh, tried to devise a strategy for participation in a future government. There was an air of desperation in some quarters of the smoke-filled conference room. "When we said that we are not going to take part, that didn't mean that we are not going to take part in the political process. We have to take part in the political process and draft the new constitution," said Adnan al-Duleimi, the head of Sunni Endowments in Baghdad.

Just west of the capital, U.S. marines and Iraqi security forces launched a joint operation to crack down on insurgents and terrorists in several troubled cities, the military said. The operation was underway in several Euphrates River cities in Anbar province, including Heet, Baghdad, Hadithah and the provincial capital Ramadi, where authorities imposed a nighttime curfew, the military said.

Meanwhile, a powerful Sunni organization believed to have ties with the insurgents sought Sunday to condemn the weekend attacks that left nearly 100 Iraqis dead. "We won't remain silent over those crimes which target the Iraqi people Sunnis or Shiites, Islamic or non-Islamic," Sheik Harith al-Dhari, of the Association Muslim Scholars, told a news conference. Iraqis, he said, should unite "against those who are trying to incite hatred between us." They include Iraq's leading terror mastermind, the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. In a letter to Osama bin Laden found on a captured al-Qaida courier last year, al-Zarqawi proposed starting a civil war between Iraq's Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

Shiites and their clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance, which received nearly half the election votes, were to decide in coming days on their choice for prime minister. The two main candidates so far are the former Pentagon favourite Ahmad Chalabi, a secular Shiite, and Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the interim vice-president. Chalabi last week claimed in an Associated Press interview that he had enough support among the 140 alliance delegates elected to the National Assembly to beat Jaafari. He repeated the assertion in an appearance Sunday on ABC's This Week television show with George Stephanopoulos. "I believe I have a majority of the votes on my side right now," Chalabi said.

Shiite politicians have promised not to allow Friday and Saturday's bloodshed escalate into a civil war. A radical Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, who led two bloody revolts against U.S. forces, called on Iraqis' to avoid blaming any religious group. "As for the latest attacks and the ones before, I think they are a series of attacks against the Iraqi people in general and are not targeting a specific religious group," he told Al-Jazeera television.

On Saturday, eight suicide bombers participated in a series of attacks that killed 55 people as Iraqi Shiites commemorated the 7th-century death of a leader of their Muslim sect. Similar attacks Friday killed 36 people and injured dozens. It was the second year running that violence marred Ashoura, the holiest day of the Shiite religious calendar, but the deaths were less than the 181 killed last year in twin bombings in Baghdad and the holy city of Karbala. The dead this year also included a U.S. soldier killed in a Baghdad suicide bombing. In some Baghdad neighbourhoods, barriers were erected Sunday to prevent suicide bombers from carrying out attacks against funeral tents and processions, as they did with deadly effect on Saturday.

At a funeral in the Bayaa district, near the site of a Saturday attack, 50 chairs were set up inside a tent but only 10 people showed up. Some mourners said they had no fear because they no longer cared. "I am not afraid simply because we are in Iraq living like the dead," said Abdel Zahra Farhoud, 55, a farmer. "The Wahhabi extremist groups have turned our lives to hell."

http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2005/02/21/fWorld130.raw.html

[Petronas]

EU agrees to train Iraqis
February 22, 2005

EU foreign ministers agreed today to launch a training program for about 770 Iraqi judges, investigating magistrates, senior police officers and prison staff, a diplomat said. The agreement is seen as a gesture of goodwill a day before a summit between EU leaders and US President George W. Bush, in Brussels at the start of a three-country, fence-mending visit to Europe two years after the Iraq war.

The training program, which is expected to begin this summer and will last for a year, would take place in EU states or in the region but not in Iraq, the source said. It aims to train 520 judges, investigating magistrates, police and prison officers as well as 250 investigating magistrates and senior police in criminal investigation, he added.

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=6b348f312d9f7180&cat=c08dd24cec417021

[Petronas]

‘United States in secret talks with Iraqi insurgents’
Tuesday, February 22, 2005

WASHINGTON: US diplomats and intelligence officers are conducting secret talks with Iraq’s Sunni insurgents on ways to end fighting there, Time magazine reported on Sunday, citing Pentagon and other sources. The Bush administration has said it would not negotiate with Iraqi fighters and there is no authorised dialogue but the US is having “back-channel” communications with certain insurgents, unidentified Washington and Iraqi sources told the magazine. The magazine cited a secret meeting between two members of the US military and an Iraqi negotiator, a middle-aged former member of Saddam Hussein’s regime and the senior representative of what he called the nationalist insurgency.

A US officer tried to get names of other insurgent leaders while the Iraqi complained the new Shi’ite-dominated government was being controlled by Iran, according to an account of the meeting provided by the Iraqi negotiator. “We are ready to work with you,” the Iraqi negotiator said, according to Time.

Iraqi insurgent leaders not aligned with Al Qaeda ally Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi told the magazine several nationalist groups composed of what the Pentagon calls “former regime elements” have become open to negotiating. The insurgents said their aim was to establish a political identity that can represent disenfranchised Sunnis. The White House had no immediate comment on the report. When asked about the contacts, Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a member of both the Senate foreign relations and intelligence committees, said it was important to “reach out” in Iraq. “We’ve got a very complicated and dangerous situation over there and you are going to have to reach out, you are going to have to develop some relationships and networks,” he said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

Controversial Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi said on Sunday the outcome of any negotiations between insurgents and the US military would not be binding for a new Iraqi government. “I know nothing about such negotiations. Those negotiations will in no way bind the elected government of Iraq,” he said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week.” “The issue here is not negotiating with the killers who are killing the Iraqi people.”

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_22-2-2005_pg4_3

[Casey]

Car Bomb Kills 12 in Iraq; Government in Works
Thu Feb 24, 2005 06:12 AM ET

http://wwwi.reuters.com/images/w148/2005-02-23T155807Z_01_GALAXY-DC-MDF870469_RTRIDSP_1_INTERNATIONAL-IRAQ-DC.jpg
By Luke Baker

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber attacked a police station in northern Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 12 people and highlighting the profound security challenges Iraq's new government will face once it is formed.

A man dressed in a police uniform drove his car into the police headquarters in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit and detonated the vehicle during a change of shift, police said. The attack also wounded 35, hospital officials said.

"The car came toward the station and I could see the driver was wearing our uniform," said police captain Husam Musseyif, who was wounded in the side and leg by shrapnel.

Around a dozen cars were destroyed by the explosion. Hospital officials said they expected the death toll to rise.

It was one of a series of shootings, bombings and mortar attacks around the country on Thursday that underlined just how tense Iraq's security remains more than three weeks after elections and with a new government yet to be formed.

In Kirkuk, also in northern Iraq, two Iraqi policemen were killed and two were critically wounded in a roadside bomb blast.

In Qaim, near the Syrian border in western Iraq, four Iraqi soldiers were killed when gunmen attacked their patrol. And in Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on a bakery killing a customer.

Two U.S. soldiers were killed and two wounded in separate roadside bomb blasts north of the capital, while another bomb blast near a police patrol killed three people, including two policemen, in the town of Iskandariya, south of Baghdad.

U.S. forces backed by Iraqi troops meanwhile pursued an offensive against insurgents holed up in a series of towns in the Euphrates river valley which runs toward the Syrian border. Twenty-nine suspected militants were seized.

In the United States, military investigators decided there was not enough evidence to bring formal charges against a Marine who killed an unarmed Iraqi while his unit searched a mosque in the former rebel bastion of Falluja last November, CBS reported.

DEALMAKERS OR BREAKERS?

The widespread violence -- in another incident a mortar missed a police station south of Baghdad and killed a woman at home -- came as politicians held further rounds of talks in Baghdad to try to strike a deal on forming a new government.

Two men, Islamist Shi'ite leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari and interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shi'ite, are in the running to be premier of the first democratically elected Iraqi government in more than 50 years.

Jaafari, a doctor and father of five, is the candidate of the United Iraqi Alliance, a religious Shi'ite-led coalition that won the election, scooping 48 percent of the vote, enough for 140 seats in the new 275-member National Assembly.

Allawi, the head of his own coalition, came third, winning 14 percent of votes, or 40 seats in the parliament.

Since a two-thirds majority is effectively needed in the assembly to decide the top government positions, neither Jaafari's coalition nor Allawi's has enough backing. Both therefore are bidding for the support of the Kurds.

The Kurds came second in the Jan. 30 election, clinching 75 seats in the assembly, a margin that makes them kingmakers.

They have not let on who they might ally with and are expected to use their deal-maker or breaker role to extract concessions from their future potential partners.

If they ally with the main Shi'ite alliance the pair would immediately secure two-thirds of the vote in the assembly.

If they ally with Allawi, however, they would also have to force the breakup of the Shi'ite alliance and draw nearly half their members over to their side if they are to build the needed two-thirds support in the assembly -- 182 seats.

The main obstacles to a deal between the Kurds and the religious Shi'ite alliance would appear to be differences over Iraq's political structure and the role of religion.

The Kurds are keen to see the autonomy they've enjoyed in northern Iraq for the past 14 years -- since the 1991 Gulf War -- enshrined by the creation of a federal Kurdish region, something the Shi'ite alliance is loath to back.

The Shi'ite alliance, which wants to see Islam enshrined as Iraq's religion and a main source of law, may also have to temper some of its more Islamist principles to secure the backing of the Kurds. The wrangling could take weeks.

As well as security, the main challenges facing the new government once it is formed will be reconstruction and jobs. Persistent sabotage against Iraq's oil infrastructure has robbed the country of billions of dollars in potential oil exports over the past year, Iraq's only form of foreign currency earnings.

On Thursday, oil officials said they would soon resume pumping oil through the main northern export pipeline running to Turkey following repairs after a series of sabotage attacks. The line has largely been out of commission since December. (Additional reporting by Amir Salman in Tikrit)

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7725500

[Casey]

Zarqawi lieutenant arrested
From correspondents in Baghdad
February 25, 2005

A TOP aide to al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been arrested, the Iraqi government said today.

"The terrorist Mohammed Najm Ibrahim, alias Mohammed Najm, who with one of his brothers runs a Zarqawi cell, is responsible for the beheading of several citizens and for attacks against Iraqi security forces," it said in a statement.

Ibrahim was arrested in the town of Baquba, north of Baghdad, it added, without giving the date of his arrest.

On February 21 police in Baquba announced the arrest of another member of the Zarqawi group. Iraq's most wanted man, Zarqawi is a Jordanian-born fugitive with a $US25 million ($31.83 million) US bounty on his head.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12366176%255E1702,00.html

[Petronas]

Iraq: 'We Are Very Close to Al-Zarqawi'
February 26, 2005 2:00 AM EST

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraqi interim government announced the arrest of a man it described as a key figure in the country's most feared terrorist group and expressed confidence Friday it was tightening the noose around his leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Word of the capture came as insurgents ambushed a U.S. patrol, killing three American soldiers and wounding nine. Friday's attack took place in Tarmiyah, about 20 miles north of the capital.

In Haqlaniyah, 85 miles northwest of Baghdad, residents said U.S. military vehicles equipped with loudspeakers were driving through town offering $25 million for information leading to the arrest of al-Zarqawi - thought to be one of the masterminds behind a wave of car bombings, kidnappings, and beheadings across Iraq.

"We are very close to al-Zarqawi, and I believe that there are few weeks separating us from him," Iraq's interim national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, told The Associated Press. He described the latest capture as another blow to al-Zarqawi's organization, still reeling from previous arrests and the killing of Omar Hadid, another of his senior aides, in November's assault on the city of Fallujah.

Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi, also known as Abu Qutaybah, was arrested Sunday in a raid by Iraqi security services in Annah, a Sunni triangle town 160 miles northwest of Baghdad, the government said. The government said Al-Dulaymi was a top aide to the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi, who has described himself as al-Qaida's leader in Iraq. Al-Dulaymi was responsible for finding safe houses and transportation for members of the terrorist group, according to the announcement. Also arrested in Sunday's raid was Ahmad Khalid Marad Ismail al-Rawi, identified as one of al-Zarqawi's drivers. Both have family names indicating they are from the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of Baghdad.

The announcement came a day after the government said it captured the leader of an al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist cell in Baqouba allegedly responsible for carrying out a string of beheadings in Iraq. It identified the man as Mohammed Najam Ibrahim and said his brother had also been arrested. No date was given. Baqouba is 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. None of the three names is on the list of 29 wanted by the interim Iraq government and posted recently on the U.S. Central Command Web site. That, however, does not necessarily mean their alleged positions in the terror group were insignificant.

At any rate, Iraqi authorities have been eager to promote the message that they are making headway in their fight against the insurgency. Earlier this week, state television broadcast what it said were confessions by Syrian-trained militants. Last week, police said they'd arrested two other leaders of the insurgency in Baqouba, including a top aide to al-Zarqawi named Haidar Abu Bawari.

But al-Dulaymi's role was crucial because he "filled the role of key lieutenant for the al-Zarqawi network, arranging safe houses and transportation as well as passing packages and funds to al-Zarqawi," the government said. It added that "his extensive contacts and operational ability throughout western Iraq made him a critical figure in the Zarqawi network."

According to al-Rubaie, government security services managed to infiltrate al-Zarqawi's network - a possible sign of its growing weakness. "The Iraqi security forces have managed to insert embedded policemen inside the al-Zarqawi group, and the second element is that the Iraqi people, especially those in the so-called Sunni triangle, became more cooperative in informing the police about terrorists' activities and movement - especially the foreigners," al-Rubaie said.

Confronting the violence will be the top priority of Iraq's new government, and the country came one step closer to acquiring a prime minister after Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani endorsed conservative Islamic Dawa party leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari for the job. The Iranian-born al-Sistani is the country's most powerful Shiite cleric, and his endorsement should solidify al-Jaafari's nomination by the United Iraq Alliance, which emerged the dominant political force in Jan. 30 elections.

A conservative Shiite cleric who is a member of the alliance praised the U.S.-funded state television station for broadcasting the confessions by Syrian-trained insurgents - including one of an alleged Syrian intelligence officer - who said they had carried out car bombings and beheadings around Iraq. "I praise Al-Iraqiya television for showing us these criminals," Sheik Jalal Al-Deen Al-Saghir said during a sermon at Friday prayers in the Buratha mosque in Baghdad. "I want to thank the National Guard and police who arrested them."

North of the capital, the ambush on the U.S. patrol Friday raised the American military death toll in Iraq to at least 1,489, according to an Associated Press count since the war began in March 2003. "There was a group of American soldiers walking in the road while around five Humvees were parking behind them," said Waleed Nahed, 35, who lives in the area. "I heard a very loud explosion and I saw bodies flying." The military said three U.S. soldiers were also killed Thursday in separate attacks. In Baghdad, another soldier died of "non-battle injuries," the military said, adding that it was investigating the incident.

Also in the capital, a man fired into a crowd gathered around U.S. soldiers who had cordoned off the site of a roadside bombing. The bombing killed three Iraqis, and the gunman killed two Iraqi onlookers before fleeing. An oil pipeline in northern Iraq was ablaze Saturday after saboteurs blew it up, officials said. The attack late Friday destroyed the pipeline, which connects oil fields in Dibis with Kirkuk, about 20 miles to the southeast, an official of the state-run North Oil Co. said on condition of anonymity. The official said it would take at least four days to repair the line. Elsewhere, a Polish armored vehicle crashed into an Iraqi bus, killing one Polish soldier and injuring four other troops, the U.S.-led military coalition said. There was no word on whether there were any Iraqi casualties in the crash near Diwaniyah, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad.

http://start.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20050225/42200250_3ca6_15526200502261183843787

[Casey]

Iraq announces arrest of key terrorist figure
By PATRICK QUINN
The Associated Press
02/26/2005

Insurgents ambush a U.S. patrol, killing three American soldiers and wounding nine.


BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraqi interim government announced the arrest of a man it described as a key figure in the country's most feared terrorist group and expressed confidence Friday it was closing in on his leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Word of the capture came as insurgents ambushed a U.S. patrol, killing three American soldiers and wounding nine. Friday's attack took place in Tarmiyah, about 20 miles north of the capital.

In Haqlaniyah, 85 miles northwest of Baghdad, residents said U.S. military vehicles equipped with loudspeakers were driving through town offering $25 million for information leading to the arrest of al-Zarqawi - thought to be one of the masterminds behind a wave of car bombings, kidnappings and beheadings across Iraq.

"We are very close to al-Zarqawi, and I believe that there are few weeks separating us from him," Iraq's interim national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said in an interview.

He described the latest capture as another blow to al-Zarqawi's organization, still reeling from previous arrests and the killing of Omar Hadid, another of his senior aides, in November's assault on the city of Fallujah.

Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi, also known as Abu Qutaybah, was arrested Sunday in a raid by Iraqi security services in Annah, a Sunni triangle town 160 miles northwest of Baghdad, the government said.

The government said Al-Dulaymi was a top aide to the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi, who has described himself as al-Qaida's leader in Iraq. Al-Dulaymi was responsible for finding safe houses and transportation for members of the terrorist group, according to the announcement.

Also arrested in Sunday's raid was Ahmad Khalid Marad Ismail al-Rawi, identified as one of al-Zarqawi's drivers. Both have family names indicating they are from the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of Baghdad.

The announcement was made a day after the government said it captured the leader of an al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist cell in Baqouba allegedly responsible for carrying out a string of beheadings in Iraq. It identified the man as Mohammed Najam Ibrahim and said his brother had also been arrested. No date was given. Baqouba is 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

None of the three names is on the list of 29 wanted by the interim Iraq government and posted recently on the U.S. Central Command Web site. That, however, does not necessarily mean their alleged positions in the terror group were insignificant.

At any rate, Iraqi authorities have been eager to promote the message that they are making headway in their fight against the insurgency. Earlier this week, state television broadcast what it said were confessions by Syrian-trained militants.

Last week, police said they'd arrested two other leaders of the insurgency in Baqouba, including a top aide to al-Zarqawi named Haidar Abu Bawari.

But al-Dulaymi's role was crucial because he "filled the role of key lieutenant for the al-Zarqawi network, arranging safe houses and transportation as well as passing packages and funds to al-Zarqawi," the government said.

North of the capital, the ambush on the U.S. patrol Friday raised the American military death toll in Iraq to at least 1,489, according to an Associated Press count since the war began in March 2003.

"There was a group of American soldiers walking in the road while around five Humvees were parking behind them," said Waleed Nahed, 35, who lives in the area. "I heard a very loud explosion and I saw bodies flying."

The military said three U.S. soldiers were also killed Thursday in separate attacks. Two of the soldiers were identified as Army Staff Sgt. Daniel G. Gresham, 23, of Lincoln, Ill., and Army Spc. Jacob C. Palmatier, 29, of Springfield, Ill.

Gresham was killed when an explosive detonated while he responded to an earlier explosion. He was assigned to the 797th Ordnance Company, 79th Ordnance Battalion, 52nd Ordnance, Ft. Sam Houston, Texas.

Palmatier was killed when an explosive detonated near his vehicle in Muqdadiyah, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Ga.

In Baghdad, another soldier died of "nonbattle injuries," the military said, adding that it was investigating the incident.

Also in the capital, a man fired into a crowd gathered around U.S. soldiers who had cordoned off the site of a roadside bombing. The bombing killed three Iraqis, and the gunman killed two Iraqi onlookers before fleeing.

Elsewhere, a Polish armored vehicle crashed into an Iraqi bus, killing one Polish soldier and injuring four other troops, the U.S.-led military coalition said. There was no word on whether there were any Iraqi casualties in the crash near Diwaniyah, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/world/story/AB7CAB83CCA3C90586256FB40016BE08?OpenDocument

[Casey]

Blast misses U.S. military but kills civilians
Al-Zarqawi aides arrested
Saturday, February 26, 2005 Posted: 9:18 AM EST (1418 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two Iraqi civilians were killed and a third was wounded Saturday when a suicide car bomber targeted -- but missed -- a U.S. military convoy in western Baghdad, Iraqi police said.

The explosion went off about 8:55 a.m. local time (12:55 a.m. ET) near a supermarket on the al-Adil highway road, only a few meters away from the convoy, police said. There were no U.S. casualties.

Besides the civilians killed and injured, three civilians' cars were damaged, authorities said.

Eight people were killed in attacks on Friday, a day after a string of deadly attacks targeting Iraqi police, and a Task Force Baghdad soldier died from injuries not received in battle.

In one attack, a U.S. Marine was killed in action while conducting security and stability operations in Iraq's al-Anbar province, military officials said.

The Marine was assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, authorities said early Saturday. No further information was released.

A roadside bomb exploded in the town of Tarmiya as a convoy passed, killing three Task Force Baghdad soldiers and wounding nine, a spokesman for the 3rd Infantry Division said. Tarmiya is about 20 miles north of Baghdad.

Three Iraqis were killed in two attacks in southeast Baghdad Friday, the U.S. military said.

A roadside bomb killed one of those Iraqis, the military said in a statement, and Iraqi police and Task Force Baghdad members cordoned the area.

Then, "a terrorist fired into the crowd with an unknown weapon," killing two more and wounding two, the statement said. The attacker then fled.

Also on Friday, in Iskandariya, a restive town in northern Babil province 30 miles south of Baghdad, three masked gunmen fired on a car carrying employees of the al-Hurra television network Friday morning, killing the driver, police said.

"Three masked terrorists" drove up next to the car carrying al-Hurra staff and opened fire, killing the driver instantly, police said.

Al-Hurra reporter Mohammed Sharif was wounded and was taken to a hospital in Hilla, south of Iskandariya, police said. Hilla police sent patrols to the area in an effort to capture the attackers.

It was discovered on Friday that an Iraqi journalist who was kidnapped last week was killed. The body of Raiedah Mohammed Wazan, a 40-year-old television anchorwoman in Ninevah province, was found Friday in the al-Wahda neighborhood in eastern Mosul, according to her husband. He said she had been shot in the forehead and chest. Wazan had been kidnapped last week by unknown gunmen.

Her funeral was held Friday. Saturday was to be the second day for her mourning ceremony, but family members decided to keep it small and private after they received a threat from the kidnappers.

Al-Zarqawi aides snared
The Iraqi government Friday reported the arrests of two associates of terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a raid earlier this week and a few dozen others in Mosul.

Security forces captured Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi, also known as Abu Qutaybah and a key lieutenant of al-Zarqawi, in a raid Sunday in Anah. Anah is in Al Anbar province not far from the Syrian border.

The government said Abu Qutaybah is a key associate who has "extensive contacts and operational ability" throughout western Iraq.

"Abu Qutaybah was responsible for determining who, when and how terrorist network leaders would meet with al-Zarqawi," the government said.

"Abu Qutaybah filled the role of key lieutenant for the Zarqawi network arranging safe houses and transportation as well as passing packages and funds to al-Zarqawi."

Also captured was Ahmad Khalid Marad Isma'il al-Rawi, also known as Abu Uthman. Officials said he arranged meetings for al-Zarqawi and occasionally acted as his driver.

The al-Zarqawi terror network has been responsible for suicide bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

Suspected insurgents held
In Mosul, Iraqi and U.S. forces have detained "35 individuals suspected of insurgent activity." Mosul is the largest city in northern Iraq.

"Commanders on the ground attribute the rise in insurgent detainments to the increase in information being provided by Iraqi citizens about insurgent activity, the increase in effectiveness of ISF (the Iraqi security forces), and the increase in their operations.

"ISF and MNF (multinational forces) have detained over 75 insurgents and discovered numerous large weapons caches in the last three days alone," the military said in a written statement.

Candidates vie for leadership
Iraqi political parties continue to discuss the formation of the new transitional government.

Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a prospective candidate for prime minister, said that as a secular politician, he is more qualified than a religious candidate to help shape the new government.

The United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite-led coalition that won last month's elections for the 275-member transitional National Assembly, has chosen Ibrahim al-Jaafari to be its candidate for prime minister.

Al-Jaafari, who leads the religious Dawa Party, told reporters on Friday that he had picked up the backing of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the senior Shiite cleric in Iraq. He had met with al-Sistani earlier Friday in Najaf. (Full story)

Allawi's slate of candidates won 40 seats in the elections, but he said he is putting together a coalition of backers that includes some Kurds and United Iraqi Alliance members.

"My slate plus other groups have been putting a lot of pressure and demands that we should put other names forward. And they picked me up again," he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/26/iraq.main/index.html

[keith]

Allawi Hopes to Snare Zarqawi - and Premiership in Baghdad

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

February 26, 2005, 5:23 PM (GMT+02:00)


Iyad Allawi closes in on Zarqawi


The Baghdad government’s burgeoning optimism over the prospects of very soon collaring Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda’s man in Iraq, is fed from interim prime minister Iyad Allawi office.

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources reveal he is telling his inner circle that the special anti-terror units under his direct command are closing in on their quarry. This drive is not divorced from his campaign to keep the job and it has produced a string of successes in the last ten days.

Talib al-Dulaymi, the trusted aide aka as Abu Qutaybah, who set up Zarqawi’s appointments with fellow terrorist chiefs, arranged safe houses and transport, was captured on February 20 at Anah NW of Baghdad with Ahmad Ismail al-Rawi, identified as one of Zarqawi’s drivers. In custody too are Mohammed Najam Ibrahim, described as leader of an al Qaeda-affiliated cell in Baqouba and responsible for a series of beheadings, and another top Zarqawi aide, Haidar Abu Bawari.

Iraqi government security services claim to have infiltrated the terrorist network with embedded policemen.

Allawi’s certainty that the Jordanian terror mastermind is almost within his grasp rests on certain events:

First, in the last two weeks, Iraqi security forces have quietly unearthed Zarqawi’s principal ammunition and explosive caches, partly helped by information obtained in the interrogations of the captured terrorists. Allawi believes that many of the archterrorist’s followers will turn themselves in when they see the wherewithal for fighting on and carrying out attacks is running out.

Second, Zarqawi has been sighted several times making his way through the Sunni Triangle north of Baghdad in the direction of the Iranian frontier, indicating he is on the run.

Third, Allawi recently closed a three-way deal with the most influential Iraqi Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, and the Tehran leadership for Iran to arrest him if he tries to cross the border and surrender him to Sistani in Najef. There, Zarqawi will stand trial for murdering 182 people and injuring 550 in the 2004 Ashoura massacres he orchestrated in Najef and Karbala. The Iraqi leader has not revealed how this agreement was negotiated with Tehran.

Allawi also informed his close aides he had derived encouragement from additional developments:

1. Al Qaeda’s network chiefs in Iraq have their backs to the wall but are not alone; in secret talks with Allawi, several heads of the Baathist underground guerrilla insurgency, have offered to lay down arms if Baghdad sets up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the lines of the South African forum devised by Nobel peace prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu. They want the chance to confess their crimes before the commission, repent publicly, obtain a pardon and walk free. The interim prime minister is willing to consider this option quite seriously.

2. Allawi believes a good basis for a breakthrough in negotiations with Iraq’s Sunni leaders is already in place, embodied in understandings attained by former US ambassador John Negroponte before his abrupt departure from Baghdad to take up his new appointment as director of national intelligence in Washington. DEBKAfile’s Baghdad sources reveal the three points agreed: The Sunnis will gain full partnership in the post-election government with ministerial appointments; they will sit on the commission drafting the new constitution, despite having no seats in parliament; and they will participate unreservedly in the next general elections.

3. Sunni leaders and the Baath underground recognize that a major US-Iraqi offensive on the lines of the Falujjah operation is in the works - either against Ramadi, northwest of Baghdad, where the action has begun, or Latafiya south of the capital, hotbed of a mixed bag of insurgent groups, including al Qaeda operatives.

4. According to our intelligence and counter-terror sources, Allawi has also sent a message to Syrian president Bashar Assad with a long list of top Syrian officials, politicians and army officers who are on the take in a big way from Baathist fugitives activating the insurgency in Iraq from their safe base in the country. The name of every Syrian bribe-taker is tagged with the amount he received and the payer’s identity.

The message stated that the Iraqi ambassador, Hassan Allawi (no relation), would not return to Damascus until Baathist fugitives were extradited. He also made good on his threat to have television run tapes of confessions by captured Syrian agents who were sent by their government to fight the Americans in Iraq.

Our Iraqi sources note that Allawi expects his momentum for bringing an end to violence in Iraq to take him far along the road to the prime minister’s office in Baghdad. He also thinks he can count on substantial Shiite support in the new national assembly and that the Kurds and Turkomen are in his pocket. The high card he is playing is the bid to prove he is the only Iraqi politician capable of drawing the Sunni factions in sharing power in the central government.

Copyright 2000-2005 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.debka.com/

[Petronas]

Saddam's Half-Brother Captured in Iraq
February 27, 2005 10:56 AM EST

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi security forces captured Saddam Hussein's half-brother and former adviser, government officials said Sunday, dealing a blow to an insurgency that some Iraqi officials claim the former fugitive was helping organize and fund, perhaps from Syria. The U.S. military also said two American soldiers were killed Sunday in an ambush in the capital. Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan was No. 36 on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis released by U.S. authorities after American troops invaded Iraq in March 2003, and he also was named one of the 29 most-wanted supporters of insurgents in Iraq. The United States had a $1 million bounty on his head.

Officials in interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's office, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed al-Hassan's capture but gave no details on where it took place or when. Capt. Ahmed Ismael, an intelligence officer in the Interior Ministry, said al-Hassan was detained early Sunday. In a statement, Allawi's office said the arrest "shows the determination of the Iraqi government to chase and detain all criminals who carried out massacres and whose hands are stained with the blood of the Iraqi people, then bring them to justice to face the right punishment." It was not immediately known whether U.S. troops played any role in the arrest of al-Hassan, who was the six of diamonds in the U.S.-issued deck of cards showing wanted Iraqis. The U.S. military had no comment. Al-Hassan's arrest came during a period of increased U.S. and Iraqi military activity against insurgents, who continued their campaign of violence against coalition forces and those Iraqis they believe are helping them or sympathize with them.

Two U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday and another two were wounded after apparently being ambushed in southeast Baghdad with a bomb and rifle fire, the military said. The attack raised the weekend death toll for Americans to three. The U.S. command said a Marine was killed Saturday during military operations in central Babil province. At least 1,494 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

In the northern town of Hammam Alil, 240 miles north of Baghdad, a bomb exploded inside the police headquarters, killing five people, including some police officers, said Khorshid Sultan, a coroner at the main hospital in Mosul. In Baghdad, gunmen attacked police heading to work in the western Amiriyah district, killing two of them, police said. Police also found the body of an Iraqi woman, dressed in traditional black, with a sign that said "spy" pinned to her chest.

In Latifiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, Iraqi troops found four beheaded corpses on a farm. The four people belonged to the Badr Organization, a wing of the main Shiite political group, the Supreme Council For the Islamic Revolution. They were kidnapped earlier Saturday while driving to the holy Shiite city of Najaf, Yassin said. The Badr Organization replaced the former Badr Brigade, SCIRI's armed wing, which was dissolved after a government order to disband militia groups last year.

Saddam and al-Hassan had the same mother but different fathers. Under Saddam, al-Hassan led the dreaded General Security Directorate, which was responsible for internal security, especially cracking down on political parties opposing Saddam. Al-Hassan was accused of torturing and killing political opponents while leading that body. He later became a presidential adviser, the last post he held in the former regime. The government statement said he had "killed and tortured Iraqi people" and "participated effectively in planning, supervising, and carrying out many terrorist acts in Iraq." In December, Allawi accused Syria of harboring senior officials from Saddam's ousted regime, including al-Hassan. Qassem Dawoud, Iraq's minister in charge of national security, claimed that al-Hassan was supporting insurgents in Iraq from Syria, according to remarks published last year in Kuwait's Al-Rai Al-Aam daily.

Al-Hassan's capture was the latest in a series of arrests the government hopes will deal a blow to the insurgency. "This is a great achievement for the Iraqi security forces," National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie told Dubai's al-Arabiya TV. "It is also a lesson for others to give themselves up to the Iraqi authorities."

Iraqi authorities said Saturday they were close to capturing the country's most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's mastermind in Iraq and believed to be behind much of the insurgent violence. One of al-Zarqawi's key aides and a man who served as his driver were arrested Feb. 20. The United States has placed a $25 million bounty on al-Zarqawi.

In other arrests, Iraqi National Guardsmen said they captured 15 alleged insurgents Saturday in a series of raids in Musayyib, about 50 miles southwest of Baghdad, said Defense Ministry official Capt. Sabah Yassin. The 12 Iraqis and three Syrians confessed to being members of the insurgent Ansar al-Sunnah Army, Yassin said. That group has claimed responsibility for attacking U.S. and Iraqi forces, including in a December suicide bombing that killed 22 people, mostly Americans, at a U.S. military mess tent in Mosul. Yassin said the 15 were found with weapons and CDs showing beheadings.

Saddam's two other half-brothers, Barzan and Watban, were captured in April 2003 and are expected to stand trial with Saddam at the Iraqi Special Tribunal. Both appeared before the special court in Baghdad with Saddam and a handful of others to hear preliminary accusations against them.

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20050227/422153d0_3ca6_1552620050227-933662778

[Casey]

Al Qaeda Mocks Reports of Zarqawi Aides' Arrests
Sun Feb 27, 2005 1:45 PM ET

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq dismissed Sunday reports that top aides of its leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been arrested, saying U.S.-led forces were trying to boost low morale, according to an Internet statement.

"And who knows which aide was arrested and what lies they made up. This is a hopeless attempt on their part to raise morale," said the statement by Al Qaeda Organization for Holy War in Iraq, posted on Islamist Web sites.

"We give our brothers the good news that our leaders are absolutely fine, thank God, and leading the ranks of the faithful in battle," it said.

Iraq's government said Friday it had captured Abu Qutaybah, a key lieutenant of Zarqawi -- the Jordanian militant who is al Qaeda's leader in Iraq and has been behind some of the country's worst attacks.

Baghdad says it has captured a number of Zarqawi's aides and associates in recent weeks, with several arrested in the run-up to the Jan. 30 election. It is impossible to verify what role the detainees played in Zarqawi's network.

Zarqawi is the U.S. military's most wanted man in Iraq, with a $25 million bounty offered for information leading to his death or capture.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-02-27T184500Z_01_L2743042_RTRIDST_0_INTERNATIONAL-IRAQ-QAEDA-DC.XML

[NYC]

Suicide Bomb Kills 115 Near Iraq Marketplace
Mon Feb 28, 2005 07:37 AM ET


By Haider Abbas
HILLA, Iraq (Reuters) - A suicide bomber detonated a car near a crowded marketplace south of Baghdad Monday, killing 115 people and wounding 148 in the single bloodiest attack in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The bomber rammed the car into a crowd of people queuing for government jobs outside a health center in the town of Hilla, 100 km (62 miles) south of the capital. Many of those killed were shopping at stalls across the road and caught in the blast.

Reuters television footage showed a pile of bloodied bodies outside the building. Smoke rose from the wreckage of burned-out market stalls as bystanders loaded mangled corpses on to wooden carts, usually used to carry fruit and vegetables.

Others, their limbs ripped to shreds, were piled into the back of pick-up trucks. Nearby buildings were pockmarked by shrapnel. People wept, clutched the heads in despair and shouted "God is greatest" as rescuers led the wounded away.

"The number of dead has reached 115. We are doing our utmost to treat the wounded (but) the death toll may rise," an official in Hilla's health directorate told Reuters.

He said existing patients had been moved out of hospitals to make way for the victims of the blast. More than 30 medics had rushed to the city from nearby towns to treat the wounded.

The Iraqi Red Crescent Society said it had sent emergency aid and medics to Hilla from Baghdad to help.

The toll makes the blast the single deadliest attack since the fall of Saddam in April 2003, and Monday one of the bloodiest days of the two-year insurgency.

The worst day was last March, when more than 170 people were killed in a series of suicide bombings in Baghdad and the holy city of Kerbala, just west of Hilla.

The target of the latest attack appeared to be a crowd of people waiting outside the health center to get certificates needed to apply for government jobs. Hilla residents said many of them were applying for jobs in Iraq's security forces.

Insurgents, fighting to drive U.S. troops out of Iraq and wreck the country's transition to democracy, have often targeted people looking for state jobs. They frequently attack police and army recruits but have also killed local government workers.

The carnage came as Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi acknowledged Iraq's security forces were still unable to take on the insurgency without the help of U.S.-led troops.

"Iraqis should be able to start taking over more and more security responsibilities very soon," he wrote in the Wall Street Journal. "But we will continue to need and to seek assistance for some time to come."

POLICE AND CIVILIANS KILLED Elsewhere in Iraq, another suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle in the town of Musayyib, just 18 miles from Hilla, but succeeded in killing only himself.

A hospital official said one civilian was killed and two were wounded when insurgents fought with Iraqi troops in the town of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad.

Two policemen were killed in the capital, one by a gunman and one by a roadside bomb, police sources and witnesses said.

The U.S. military said gunmen killed four people and wounded two in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul Sunday. A bombing near the town, also Sunday, killed eight people.

The military also said a U.S. soldier was shot dead in Baghdad while manning a traffic checkpoint. The death takes the number of U.S. troops killed in action in Iraq since the March 2003 war to 1,137.

Allawi's government and its American backers insist the insurgency is being defeated and have announced a series of high-profile arrests in recent weeks to support their claim.

The government was expected to give details later Monday of the capture of Saddam Hussein's half-brother, Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti, a top-level Baathist accused of directing the Iraqi insurgency from Syria.

Ibrahim, an intelligence chief and one-time adviser to Saddam, was number 36 on the U.S. military's list of the 55 most-wanted people in Iraq. His arrest was announced Sunday.

A senior government official told Reuters that Syria, under pressure due to accusations it was behind recent attacks in Israel and Lebanon, had played a role in giving Ibrahim up.

Syria has come under fire from the United States after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in Beirut nearly two weeks ago. The Lebanese opposition blamed Damascus for his death.

Iraq's U.S.-backed government has repeatedly accused Syria of abetting militants, charges Damascus denies.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7757220

[Casey]

Zarqawi rallies Iraqi rebels thanks to Al-Qaeda and the U.S.

Friday, March 04, 2005
Selim Saheb Ettaba
Agence France Presse

BAGHDAD: Jordanian Islamist Abu Musab Zarqawi has rallied the insurgency in Iraq thanks to his endorsement by Al-Qaeda and demonization by the U.S. For several months, most claims of attacks carried out by the insurgency, dominated by supporters of the former Baathist regime, have been issued by groups purportedly linked to Zarqawi's network, formerly known as Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War), Iraqi and U.S. officials said.

Zarqawi's name is a convenient tag for ousted President Saddam Hussein's Baath party and security-service veterans who want to disguise their involvement and gain popular support for their violence, the officials said.

"Baathists are no longer supported by the people in Iraq," said the Interior Ministry's intelligence chief Major General Hussein Kamal.

He said: "The Baathists have chosen to hide behind the religious Jihadi front to regain the sympathy of the people and control the minds of the ignorant. This led Zarqawi to be the front."

Kamal added: "They (the Baathists) are working with the Islamists under joint leadership to gather intelligence and wage operations," he said. "By Islamists, I mean Al-Qaeda and others existing in Iraq."

He added that the partnership was also spurred by the crackdown on insurgents by the new Iraqi security forces.

Baathists saw the Al-Qaeda brand name as a useful calling card, Kamal said.

"They are hiding behind Al-Qaeda because Al-Qaeda is the biggest enemy to the United States and to the West."

A spokesman for the U.S. Army's 42nd Infantry Division, in charge of four provinces north of Baghdad, including three of the most restless in the country, confirmed the prominence of the Baathist trend within the insurgency.

"Here in our region the vast majority of the insurgents are former regime elements," said Major Richard Goldenberg.


Kamal said: "No operation carried out by the Baathists has been claimed in the name of the Baath party. They have been using other names like the Islamic Army, Tawhid wal Jihad or the Salahaddin Brigade ... all cells linked to the Zarqawi group." Statements are often an opportunity for groups to advertise themselves, even if they are not involved in the attack.

"It is one of two things: either the insurgents are claiming to be part of Zarqawi's vast network or they will make an attack and Zarqawi will take credit for it," the U.S. military spokesman said.

A sound criterion to determine the actual involvement of foreign fighters is suicide attacks.

"The majority of suicide bombers are (non-Iraqi) Arabs," concurred General Kamal, citing specifically Saudis and Yemenis.

"I don't have an exact number of how many of Zarqawi affiliates there are (in Iraq) but I would say those who have entered the country illegally are in the hundreds. That is according to information given by Arab terrorists detained in Iraq," he said.

In a message attributed to Zarqawi and found in January 2004 in the possession of an alleged high-ranking Pakistani Al-Qaeda operative, the author lamented the lack of eagerness for martyrdom in Iraqi insurgents.

"The Iraqi brothers still favor their own security and prefer to go back to the arms of their wives, away from all fears. The members of these groups sometimes boast that none of them has been killed or been taken prisoner," the document reads.

Goldenberg acknowledged the responsibility of the U.S. in the rise of Zarqawi, for whose capture Washington is offering the same bounty as for Osama bin Laden: $25 million.

"It is a two-edged sword since you create someone who is popular. For this maybe we gave him much momentum for his publicity, but at the same time the Iraqis see him as an outsider."

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=13138

Al-Qaeda Network declares the joining of the conquerors group in Iraq under its flag
http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=943

[Casey]

Iraq Qaeda wing says still strong, vows new attacks
(Reuters)

4 March 2005

DUBAI - Al Qaeda’s wing in Iraq said that suicide attacks carried out in recent days proved the group was still strong and capable of pursuing its war against “infidels”, according to an Internet statement (http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?p=26019#post26019) posted on Friday.

“What happened ... and will happen in coming days is a response to infidel deceptions and claims that the mujahideen (holy fighters) are weaker and that their attacks have abated,” said the statement attributed to the military commander of the Al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq, Abu Aseed al-Iraqi.

In a separate Internet statement, also dated March 3, the group said its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, would soon issue a message to the faithful (http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=944).

The Jordanian militant’s group has claimed the single bloodiest attack since the fall of Saddam Hussein -- a suicide attack that killed 125 people in the town of Hilla on Monday.

It also said it was behind car bombs near Iraq’s Interior Ministry in Baghdad on Thursday that killed at least five policemen and bombings on Wednesday which killed 13 Iraqi soldiers.

“Iraq’s plains and deserts have turned into volcanoes erupting beneath the infidels and all around them,” the military commander said in the statement posted on an Islamist Web site.

“We call on all Muslims who cherish their faith to strike with the sword,” said the group which has led the insurgency against US-led forces and the Iraqi government.

Iraqi authorities say they have captured a number of Zarqawi’s aides and associates, but the group has dismissed the reports and said US-led forces wanted to boost low morale.

Zarqawi, the deputy of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Iraq, is the US military’s most wanted man in Iraq.

Washington has said it learned that bin Laden, who is held responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on US cities, had asked Zarqawi to plan attacks in the United States.

The last audio tape purporting to come from the Jordanian militant was posted on the Internet on Jan. 23 and declared war on Iraq’s parliamentary election, saying it was a plot against Sunni Muslims by Washington and its “infidel” Shi’ite Muslim allies.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2005/March/focusoniraq_March18.xml&section=focusoniraq

[Casey]

Big-name Sunnis telling rebels to stop the killing

The Associated Press

Hussein Obad weeps on the coffin of his son Mahmood, who died in the Hillah bombing earlier this week. Iraqis are tiring of the violence and increasingly direct their wrath at the insurgents. (Associated Press file photo)

BAGHDAD, Iraq - As more people lose loved ones to the relentless violence, Iraqis are becoming increasingly angry at insurgents, even staging public demonstrations condemning militants.
While it is impossible to precisely gauge public opinion, it is clear many Iraqis have grown tired of two years of insecurity, and some are directing their wrath at those behind the bombings and attacks.
''I demand that they be put in the zoo along with the other scavengers because that is where they belong,'' said Bassam Yassin, who lost his brother to an insurgent attack in Mosul. He spoke Wednesday after relatives of victims protested outside a police station in that northern city.
Iraq's majority Shiite Arabs and ethnic Kurds have long criticized the largely Sunni Arab insurgency, portraying the militants as terrorists, loyalists of Saddam Hussein's regime and foreign fighters.
But the insurgents are now also being criticized publicly by prominent Sunnis, including opponents of the U.S. presence. The anger over deaths caused by insurgents does not always translate into acceptance of U.S. troops, who are still widely blamed for the chaos in Iraq.
''The real resistance should only target the occupiers, and no normal person should consider dozens of dead people to be some kind of collateral damage while you are trying to kill somebody else,'' cleric Ahmed Abdul-Ghafur told worshippers Friday at

Um al-Qura, the main Sunni mosque in Baghdad.

Bombings and other attacks killed more than 300 Iraqis in February alone.
Groups like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq have made no secret that they hope attacks aimed at Iraq's Shiite majority will provoke Shiites into a sectarian war with Sunni Arabs, who make up the core of the insurgency. They hope such a war will mobilize the Sunni Arab community, thought to comprise 15 percent to 20 percent of Iraq's 26 million people but who dominated under Saddam's regime.
Yet the insurgents' tactics are increasingly denounced by prominent Sunnis like Abdul-Ghafur, a cleric with the influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars, and who is believed to have ties to insurgents.
''This is not the right way to drive the occupation out . . . killing Iraqis is not the way to liberation,'' he told worshippers. ''We call upon those who have power over these groups to stop massacring Iraqis.''

http://www.sltrib.com/nationworld/ci_2596725

[The 801]

Army report: U.S. lost control in Iraq three months after invasion

(Uncredited article - 801)

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, March 7, 2005
WASHINGTON – The U.S. military lost its dominance in Iraq shortly after its invasion in 2003, a study concluded.

A report by the U.S. Army official historian said the military was hampered by the failure to occupy and stabilize Iraq in 2003. As a result, the military lost its dominance by July 2003 and has yet to regain that position.

"In the two to three months of ambiguous transition, U.S. forces slowly lost the momentum and the initiative gained over an off-balanced enemy," the report said. "The United States, its Army and its coalition of the willing have been playing catch-up ever since."

The report was authored by Maj. Isaiah Wilson, the official historian of the U.S. Army for the Iraq war. Wilson also served as a war planner for the army's 101st Airborne Division until March 2004, Middle East Newsline reported. His report, not yet endorsed as official army history, has been presented to several academic conferences.


In November 2003, the military drafted a formal plan for stability and post-combat operations, Wilson said. Termed Phase-4, the plan was meant to follow such stages as preparation for combat, initial operations and combat. "There was no Phase IV plan," the report said. "While there may have been plans at the national level, and even within various agencies within the war zone, none of these plans operationalized the problem beyond regime collapse. There was no adequate operational plan for stability operations and support operations."
Other military commanders, including former Central Command chief Gen. Tommy Franks, have disputed Wilson's conclusions. They said the military entered Iraq with a stabilization plan.

The report disclosed the lack of planning by the U.S. military for the occupation of Iraq. Over the last year, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his aides have been blamed for lack of post-war planning based on their assessment that the military campaign in Iraq would be brief and quickly lead to a democratic and stable post-Saddam Hussein government.

In contrast, Wilson said army planners failed to understand or accept the prospect that Iraqis would resist the U.S. forces after the fall of the Saddam regime. He deemed the military performance in Iraq mediocre and said the army could lose the war.

"U.S. war planners, practitioners and the civilian leadership conceived of the war far too narrowly," the report said. "This overly simplistic conception of the war led to a cascading undercutting of the war effort: too few troops, too little coordination with civilian and governmental/non-governmental agencies and too little allotted time to achieve success."

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/05/breaking2453436.980555556.html

[radaghast]

Developing...

[Casey]

Developing...
Tens dead, wounded in Baghdad explosion
09.03.2005, 08.23

CAIRO, March 9 (Itar-Tass) - Tens of people have been killed and wounded in a powerful explosion near a hotel in central Baghdad on Wednesday.

According to local reports, the bomb was planted in a garbage truck and set off near a hotel accommodating officers of Iraqi police and foreign instructors who trained them.

The Iraqi Agriculture Ministry building is located not far from the explosion scene.

The U.S. military have fully blocked the area of the explosion. Ambulances have been evacuating the wounded.

According to police sources, it was a suicide bombing.

http://www.tass.ru/eng/level2.html?NewsID=1811332&PageNum=0


Claiming responsibiltiy, statement from Al Qaeda
http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?p=40312#post40312

[Casey]

Baghdad wakes up again to death and destruction
Published: 3/9/2005

by Sam Dagher

BAGHDAD - "A suicide bomber just blew himself up in Baghdad," blurted out the radio from a car stuck in traffic off Al-Andalus Square not far from a massive attack Wednesday on the agriculture ministry and a hotel.

A group of women in night gowns, some with blankets draped over their shoulders, emerged into the street, faces covered in soot.

"My son, my son!" screamed an old woman as she was comforted by the others who explained to her that he had been rushed to the hospital.

They refused to say whether he was part of the ministry's security force or just passing by when a truck bomb went off at 6:30 (0330 GMT) leaving a trail of destruction and mayhem and engulfing the sky over the capital's centre with heavy black smoke for more than an hour.

"What's the use? Nobody is hearing our voice. May those who did this burn in hell, each one of them," said another woman, who did want to be named.

Maher Moayad, 24, jumped out of bed when he heard gunfire. He lives on the second floor of a building across from the ministry on Nidal Street.

"I rushed out to the balcony and at that moment the explosion happened. I lost my balance and glass fell on me," he said, his arms cut.

"The flames and smoke were horrible; I was almost blinded."

In a carefully orchestrated attack, a garbage truck drove into the ministry parking lot after attackers, some dressed as Iraqi policemen, killed guards at two posts leading to the entrance, witnesses said.

The driver detonated his load against a low wall of concrete and sand barriers separating the parking lot from the back of the Al-Sadeer Hotel.

The blast gouged a big hole in the ground, destroyed the wall and reduced the more than two dozen pickup trucks and sports utility vehicles belonging to the ministry's security force into a pile of twisted and smouldering debris.

A ministry annex building was badly damaged and all the windows of the Sadeer, occupied by Western contractors and advisors involved in Iraq's reconstruction effort, were blown out. Curtains were left fluttering in the air.

Security guards on the hotel roof unleashed a hail of bullets for almost 15 minutes onto the parking lot right after the blast.

Newly trained Iraqi soldiers and police fired shots in the air to disperse the crowd of onlookers and anxious residents while US soldiers surveyed the destruction and snapped photographs.

The attack killed at least two guards and wounded 31, according to witnesses and medical sources.

But the toll may well be higher judging from the aftermath.

The blast shattered glass within a two-kilometre (mile) radius and an orange-coloured piece of the truck's chassis flew over the Sadeer and landed several hundred meters (yards) away.

"I am sure the hotel was the target because the ministry employees start coming at eight," said Amjad Jihad, 70, the director of Al-Firdus Hospital, a small surgical clinic not far from the blast.

Outside the Sadeer, ringed with concrete barriers, Iraqis wearing US Department of Defense badges stood guard preventing any one from getting near as a pile of rubble could be seen from a distance heaped in front.

A mortar attack near the hotel in July killed an Iraqi child.

03/09/2005 09:51 GMT

AFP and Turkish Press

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=38299

[Casey]

Militants claim chief's murder
From correspondents in Dubai
March 11, 2005

THE group of al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed the murder today of a Baghdad police chief and two colleagues, saying he was a "brutal" intelligence officer, in a statement posted on the internet.

"The Abu Bakr al-Siddik unit of the Organisation of al-Qaeda of Jihad in the Land of Two Rivers set up a roadblock ... and waited for an intelligence commander at the interior ministry," said a statement on an Islamist website.

"When the officer, who has interrogated mujahideen (fighters) with brutality, stopped and was showing his identity card, the mujahedeen riddled him with bullets, killing him on the spot," added the statement, whose veracity could not be confirmed.

The alleged target, Ahmed Obaiss, was identified by hospital sources as chief of the Salhiyah police station on the capital's west side.

Witnesses said gunmen aboard vehicles opened fire on his convoy at about 8am (4pm AEDT) as it drove through Darwish Square in the Al-Saidiyah neighbourhood.

Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for scores of deadly attacks in Iraq.

In December, al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden named the Jordanian-born Zarqawi "emir" of the terror network in Iraq. The United States has placed $US25 million ($31.5 million) bounties on both men.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12511270%255E23109,00.html

See Al-Qaeda Network
http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?p=44384#post44384

[Casey]

Iraqi police issue hotel warnings

Baghdad, Iraq, Mar. 12 (UPI) -- Iraqi authorities are warning hotel and apartment owners against harboring foreigners, especially Arabs, illegally residing in Iraq.

The Iraqi Ministry of the Interior's immigration department issued a statement Saturday urging foreigners residing illegally in Iraq to leave the country, renew their residence permits or face trial.

The measure coincided with televised confessions by Arab nationals, especially Egyptians and Sudanese, that they belonged to armed terrorist groups responsible for bombings and kidnappings. The groups involved included the Army of Sunni Partisans and the Organization of Jihad in Mesopotamia that's led by Abu Musaab Zarqawi, the suspected al-Qaida leader in Iraq.

The confessions by the Arab fighters provoked some demands that all Arabs be forced out of Iraq.

In a separate incident, the U.S. army said Saturday a Marine was killed in a Friday accident while taking part in security operations in the province of Anbar in western Iraq.

http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050312-061312-4870r.htm

[Casey]

Leaders Give Call for Calm in Mosul
Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News

BAGHDAD, 12 March 2005 — Amid fears of revenge attacks a day after a suicide bomber killed 47 Iraqis and wounded more than 80 in a packed Shiite funeral tent in Mosul, religious leaders called for calm yesterday.

Grieving families canceled a planned public funeral procession for the victims in the northern city after a mortar shell early yesterday slammed into the site of the carnage.

Sunni leaders, fearful of reprisals, urged calm in the city, Iraq’s third largest and one of its most ethnically and religiously diverse.

“It was a terrorist attack meant to spark civil war but I think the Sunnis and Shiites will not succumb,” said Nureddine Hayali, a spokesman for the Islamic Party. Iraq’s Shiite clerics also urged cool heads after the calamity.

The office of Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, the spiritual guide for Iraq’s Shiites, said he was calling for “unity and solidarity among all Iraqis despite the attacks targeting the innocent.” Sistani has consistently denounced vigilante justice against Iraq’s Sunnis, perceived as fueling the insurgency, whom the 15-million strong Shiite majority blames for many attacks carried out against it.

In some sections of Baghdad, Shiite individuals and militias have started taking action against suspected insurgents, ranging from making arrests to killing people, although the incidents are still isolated.

Shiite clerics urged the incoming Iraqi government to do more to protect the Shiites.

“Those innocents (who were killed) committed no wrongdoing other than being Shiites. The government should find a solution for that problem and we are stretching hands of help,” said Sheikh Sadreddin Kubanji during a sermon in Najaf.

Meanwhile, US military officials said they had detained a female member of the Al-Qaeda group headed by Iraq’s most wanted man, Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi.

— With input from agencies

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=60323&d=12&m=3&y=2005&pix=world.jpg&category=World

[NYC]

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Ukraine withdrew 150 servicemen from Iraq on Saturday, beginning a gradual pullout.

The Ukrainian military company that was based near Suwayrah, 25 miles south of Baghdad, left Iraq and was expected to return home by Tuesday, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said.

Earlier this month, President Viktor Yushchenko and top defense officials ordered a phased withdrawal of Ukraine's 1,650-strong contingent from the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. Ukraine has lost 17 soldiers in Iraq and the deployment is deeply unpopular among people in the former Soviet republic.

http://www.detnews.com/2005/nation/0503/13/A08-115195.htm

[NYC]

IRAQI POLICE DETAIN SIX MEMBERS OF AL-ZARQAWI GROUP. Six members of
Jama'at Al-Tawhid wa Al-Jihad fi Bilad Al-Rafidayn, the
Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group led by Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi,
were arrested in al-Want, near Karbala on 12 March, Al-Sharqiyah
television reported. Police spokesman Rahman Mashawi said the six
confessed to carrying out two car bombings, abducting two policemen,
and assassinating a member of the Badr Corps. Information from
alleged terrorists already in custody led to the detention of the
six. Meanwhile, three Afghan nationals were arrested on 12 March in
Baghdad. The satellite news channel reported that the men confessed
to being en route to join militants in the northern city of Mosul.
They were arrested at a checkpoint, after it was discovered that they
were carrying no documents and could not speak Arabic. Soldiers from
the Iraqi Army arrested a would-be Saudi suicide bomber at a
checkpoint one kilometer from the Kiwan Base north of Kirkuk on 13
March. The bomber's vehicle was packed with 100 kilograms of
explosives; he told interrogators that he had intended to detonate
the vehicle once inside the military base. KR

[Casey]

IRAQI POLICE DETAIN SIX MEMBERS OF AL-ZARQAWI GROUP.

Six members of
Jama'at Al-Tawhid wa Al-Jihad fi Bilad Al-Rafidayn, the
Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group led by Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi,
were arrested in al-Want, near Karbala on 12 March, Al-Sharqiyah
television reported. Police spokesman Rahman Mashawi said the six
confessed to carrying out two car bombings, abducting two policemen,
and assassinating a member of the Badr Corps.

Information from alleged terrorists already in custody led to the detention of the six. Meanwhile, three Afghan nationals were arrested on 12 March in
Baghdad. The satellite news channel reported that the men confessed
to being en route to join militants in the northern city of Mosul.

They were arrested at a checkpoint, after it was discovered that they
were carrying no documents and could not speak Arabic. Soldiers from
the Iraqi Army arrested a would-be Saudi suicide bomber at a
checkpoint one kilometer from the Kiwan Base north of Kirkuk on 13
March. The bomber's vehicle was packed with 100 kilograms of
explosives; he told interrogators that he had intended to detonate
the vehicle once inside the military base. KR

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2005/03/6-SWA/swa-140305.asp

[Casey]

Iraq assembly meets amid blasts


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Calling for democracy and freedom in the midst of insurgent attacks, the leaders of Iraq's interim government Wednesday challenged the country's new National Assembly to strive for "national unity."

The 275-member assembly was sworn in, even as about half a dozen explosions rattled the area around the convention center where the members were meeting, CNN's Aneesh Raman reported.

Insurgents often fire mortars into the heavily fortified Green Zone, site of the convention center. The U.S. military said it was investigating the cause of the explosions.

"Freedom and democracy are great goals we should achieve," interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi told the gathering. "We have great duties to face and stand up to."

The new government's shape was uncertain as the assembly gathered for its inaugural session, coming nearly two years after the U.S. invasion and six weeks after national elections.

Members of the United Iraqi Alliance and Kurdish leaders Tuesday reached a "memorandum of understanding" on the formation of a new government officials told CNN.

Although negotiations were continuing, both sides agreed "in principle" on all issues, according to Dawa party official Adnan Ali Al-Kadhimi.

Key among those issues is the appointment of Jalal Talabani as president, the first time a Kurd would hold such a role in the country, and of Ibrahim al-Jaafari as prime minister.

Talabani spoke to the assembly, saying the country's first freely elected parliament in 50 years must "build the new Iraqi state on democracy and freedom." He said Iraqi will never be a stable county unless national unity is built.

While insurgent attacks across Iraq have killed thousands of citizens, Talabani said the "forces of evil" won't stop Iraq's bright future.

Iraqi interim Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the Shiite and Kurdish coalitions were close to striking a deal as the assembly met.

"This meeting will be a formal meeting to demonstrate that the democratic process is moving," Zebari told CNN ahead of the session.

"We haven't finalized the final deal about the makeup and the formation of the new government, but definitely the convening of the assembly will give us all a new impetus to move faster to form the new government on the basis of inclusiveness, of representativeness," Zebari said.

"We are very confident that we will make that happen very soon."

The new assembly has key points to tackle as it convenes -- one of the many reasons the political wrangling may stretch a number of days into the session.

The coalition of the Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance and Kurdish political parties will give it the clout to set up the new government with more than two-thirds majority in the National Assembly.

Its first act of business will be to elect a president of the assembly to preside over its deliberations. Then the body will pick the presidency council -- a president and two vice presidents -- both requiring a two-thirds majority.

The presidency council will present a prime minister to the assembly, and again a two-thirds majority will be required for approval.

Zebari said he has heard the public grumbling as the process of putting the coalition together has drug on.

"We understand people's frustration, but remember ... this is a new experience in democracy," he said. "This will take time. This is coalition-building. This is the inclusion of others."

"We are very close to making a final deal."

The U.N.'s special envoy to Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, told assembly members: "We are seeing history made in front of our eyes," and he pledged the United Nations would be there to help the fledgling government in its "historic opportunity."

Interim President Ghazi al-Yawar said stakes are high, especially as the assembly begins to fashion a new Iraqi constitution for the war-torn nation.

"Either we all win or, God forbid, we all lose," he said.

[/url]Italy to withdraw troops

In Rome, Italy's center-left opposition has hailed Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's announcement that Italian troops could start pulling out of Iraq in September.

Berlusconi said the decision followed talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and that a complete pullout would depend on the state of Iraqi security forces.

"We will begin to reduce our contingent even before the end of the year, starting in September, in agreement with our allies," Berlusconi said.

Italy has about 3,000 troops in Iraq. The military's presence has been unpopular with many Italian citizens, with tensions mounting after an Italian intelligence agent was killed at a U.S. checkpoint while escorting a hostage back home. (Full story ("][url="))

[/url][url=""] ("")Iraqi, U.S. soldiers killed

A car bomb exploded at an Iraqi Army checkpoint in Baquba Wednesday morning, killing at least two Iraqi soldiers and wounding five others, U.S. and Iraqi military officials said.

The explosion happened at 8:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m. ET) at a major intersection in the northern part of the city, the officials said.

On Tuesday in Baghdad, a car bomb killed one U.S. soldier and wounded six other U.S. soldiers, one Iraqi policeman and several Iraqi civilians, the U.S. military said in a news release.

A U.S. Marine was killed in combat Monday in western Iraq's Anbar province, a military statement said. No other details were released.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/03/16/iraq.main/index.html

[Casey]

Al Qaeda claim Iraq bomb attack
swissinfo March 16, 2005 12:00 PM

Al Qaeda claim Iraq bomb attack

BAQUBA, Iraq (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber has attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint in Baquba northeast of Baghdad, killing at least three Iraqi soldiers, police say.

The Islamic militant al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack, which police said also wounded five soldiers and three civilians. The soldiers were taken to a U.S. base for treatment.

"A lion from the martyrs brigade ... carried out a heroic attack on an infidel guards checkpoint in the city of Baquba ... and inflicted great death and injuries," the group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said in a statement posted on a website used by Islamists.

Insurgents trying to overthrow Iraq's U.S.-based government are increasingly targeting checkpoints, often with suicide attacks.

URL of this story
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=5605553

[Petronas]

Shiites march in protest against Jordan
March 18, 2005, 10:45AM

BAGHDAD, Iraq — More than 2,000 Shiites marched through Baghdad today, with some breaking into the Jordanian Embassy and raising the Iraqi flag atop it, to protest the alleged involvement of a Jordanian in Iraq's single deadliest suicide bombing — a Feb. 28 attack south of Baghdad that killed 125 people.

Two years after the United States invaded Iraq, Shiite and Kurdish negotiators are nearing an agreement on forming a coalition government and will reconvene the National Assembly on March 26 to elect a president and his council, an official said. Ali al-Faisal, an alliance deputy and member of the team negotiating with the Kurds, said, "There is a preliminary agreement that the next National Assembly session is to be held on March 26 to choose the president, his two vice presidents, and the speaker." That date matches one given Thursday by Azad Jundiyan, a spokesman for Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, who said the government will be named after Kurds celebrate Norwuz, their six-day new year holiday ending March 26. The news comes amid reports some Kurds were dissatisfied by Shiite assurances concerning the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and a Kurdish militia.

Shiites have staged smaller protests in recent days after the Iraqi government Monday condemned celebrations allegedly held by the family of a Jordanian man suspected of carrying out the Feb. 28 attack in Hillah. Nearly all the victims were Shiite police and army recruits. Today's protest came just two days after an influential Shiite leader claimed during Iraq's first National Assembly meeting that Jordan allegedly was not doing enough to prevent terrorists from slipping into Iraq.

Marchers converged on the embassy after finishing Friday prayers, burning Israeli and Jordanian flags and shouting slogans against Jordan's King Abdullah II: "Take your embassy away! We do not want to see you!" and "There's no God but God, Abdullah is the enemy of God!" Three men in green camouflage, including one man wearing a black balaclava, were later seen on an embassy roof raising an Iraqi flag on a makeshift flagpole. Another flagpole with a crown that previously held the Jordanian was bare.

"We condemn the criminal act in Hilla, which was committed by the Jordanian government and the celebrations in Jordan after the deaths of those poor Iraqis in Hilla and Mosul," Muslim cleric Said Hussein al-Nouri said. Iraqi police and special forces gathered outside the embassy but failed to prevent demonstrators from reaching the building. The demonstrators later dispersed.

Jordanian government spokeswoman Asma Khader said her country condemned all terrorism and reconfirmed her government's solidarity with the Iraqi people. "The government condemns strongly any attack against the Iraqi people, in particular the hideous massacre of Hillah which killed scores of innocent people," Khader said. "We have put intensive measures to track those terrorists and there is security coordination with Iraq to protect the borders of both countries."

Last year, King Abdullah II criticized the rising Shiite power in war-ravaged Iraq, telling The Washington Post that Iran was seeking to create "a Shiite crescent" in the Middle East that would include Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The comments angered Iran and Shiite clerics in Iraq, and the king later said he was not opposed to Shiites. Shiites make up about 60 percent of Iraq's estimated population of 26 million people, while Sunni Arabs make up about 20 percent of the population. Sunnis also are believed to make up the core of the insurgency.

Arab governments have repeatedly expressed concern that the growing Shiite political power in Iraq would threaten Sunni dominance of the region. Shiites won a majority of seats in Iraq's new parliament elected after Jan. 30 elections. "In spite of the stubbornness of all Arabs — Shiites are holding their chin up!" the protesters chanted today.

In Haditha, about 130 miles northwest of Baghdad, witnesses said two blasts, believed to be caused by car bombs, hit a U.S. military convoy driving through the town. U.S. officials had no immediate comment. Near Tikrit, north of Baghdad, a coalition patrol collided Thursday with a civilian vehicle, killing three Iraqis, the military said in a statement. Elsewhere, saboteurs bombed a domestic oil pipeline linking oil field in the northern city of Kirkuk to the main refinery in Beiji, said Iraqi army officer Sa'ad Ahmed Al-Obeidi. The attack in Midhrban, 10 miles north of Beiji, sent a huge cloud of black smoke across the sky.

Although Iraqis voted Jan. 30 to elect the 275-member National Assembly, the Kurds and Shiites that emerged as the country's main power brokers have been unable to form a coalition government. The interim constitution sets no time limit for forming a government after the National Assembly convenes. But once a president and vice presidents are elected, a prime minister must be chosen within two weeks.

A deal between the alliance and a Kurdish coalition before the National Assembly convened for the first time Wednesday would have named Talabani president and conservative Islamic Dawa leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari prime minister. The deal to make Talabani president also was backed by Masoud Barzani, head of the Kurdish Democratic Party.

Lawmakers sworn in Wednesday failed to set a date to reconvene, did not elect a speaker or nominate a president and vice president — all of which they had hoped to do their first day. Instead, the session was spent reveling in the seating of Iraq's first democratic legislature in a half century. The failure to appoint top officials stemmed from the inability of Shiites, Kurds and Sunni Arabs to agree on a speaker for the new legislature, disagreement over the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk and renewed haggling over Cabinet posts.

Most of the disagreement has focused on whether to allow the Kurds' peshmerga militia to remain in Kurdistan as part of the Iraqi police and army, and on setting a timetable for Kurds to assume control of Kirkuk and permit the speedy return of nearly 100,000 refugees — conditions included in an interim law serving as a preliminary constitution. "Talabani requested for extra time to hold talks with Barzani who is, according to Talabani, not satisfied with the agreements regarding the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk and the distribution of resources and the status of the peshmerga in the Iraqi army," al-Faisal said.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/world/3091382

[Ono]

Militants Kill 5 Police Officers in Iraq

31 minutes ago Top Stories - AP
By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militants killed five police officers — including a police commissioner — on Saturday, the second anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq (news - web sites), as the insurgency pressed on with its tactic of targeting Iraqi security forces, Shiites and Kurds and focusing less on American troops.

Newly elected Shiite and Kurdish leaders marked the March 19, 2003, start of the war with a fresh promise to form a government by the end of the month, when the National Assembly convenes for only the second time, nearly two months after lawmakers were elected.

Continued....

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=3&u=/ap/20050319/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[Ono]

Mar 20, 10:04 PM EST

Iraq, Jordan Pull Envoys in Security Spat

By RAWYA RAGEH
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq and Jordan engaged in a tit-for-tat withdrawal of ambassadors Sunday in a growing dispute over Shiite Muslim claims that Jordan is failing to block terrorists from entering Iraq, while U.S. forces killed 24 insurgents in a clash south of Baghdad.

An American convoy was traveling through the Salman Pak area, 20 miles southeast of Baghdad, when it was attacked, U.S. officials said. The military returned fire and killed 24 militants. Seven militants and six soldiers were also wounded.

No further details were available about the attack or the conditions of the wounded soldiers.

The clash was among the largest involving insurgents since the Jan. 30 elections, and came on a day of bloody attacks by militants throughout the country.

Sunday's diplomatic row erupted even as a Jordanian court sentenced in absentia Iraq's most feared terrorist - who was born in Jordan - to a 15-year prison term.

As news emerged of the largely symbolic sentencing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose whereabouts are unknown, his al-Qaida in Iraq organization claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed a top anti-corruption official in northern Mosul. Al-Zarqawi already has been sentenced to death twice by Jordan.

Sunday's events capped a week of rising tensions that included a protest in which Shiite demonstrators raised the Iraqi flag over the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad and claims by the Shiite clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance that Jordan was allowing terrorists to slip into Iraq.

"Iraqis are feeling very bitter over what happened. We decided, as the Iraqi government, to recall the Iraqi ambassador from Amman to discuss this," Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told The Associated Press.

CONTINUED.........

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=WIJAN&SECTION=HOME

[Ono]

Jordan sends envoy back to Iraq

Protesters raised the Iraqi flag over the Jordanian embassy
Jordan's King Abdullah has ordered his ambassador back to Iraq, officials say.
The decision to try to resolve the diplomatic spat between the two countries followed high-level talks.

Amman recalled the envoy on Sunday following Iraqi protests over the alleged involvement of a Jordanian in a suicide bombing.

Baghdad then withdrew its ambassador to Jordan, saying it reflected the anger felt by many Iraqis at Jordan's perceived attitude to the insurgency.

Jordan said that anti-Jordanian protests outside its Baghdad embassy had made it unsafe for charge d'affaires Damai Haddad to remain.

Protests were held outside the Jordanian embassy on Friday, and an Iraqi flag was raised over the building, while Jordanian flags were burnt.

Shia Muslim groups in Iraq were angered by reports that the family of a Jordanian, Raed Mansour al-Banna, had held celebrations after he carried out a suicide bombing which killed 125 people in Hilla, south of Baghdad, on 28 February.

Nearly all the victims of that attack were Iraqis queuing up for government jobs.

Al-Banna's family have now denied that he carried out the Hilla attack, saying only that he was responsible for a suicide attack somewhere in Iraq.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4370329.stm

[Petronas]

Baghdad Shopkeepers Kill Three Militants
March 22, 2005 7:27 PM EST

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Shopkeepers and residents on one of Baghdad's main streets pulled out their own guns Tuesday and killed three insurgents when hooded men began shooting at passers-by, giving a rare victory to civilians increasingly frustrated by the violence bleeding Iraq. The clash in the capital's southern Doura neighborhood erupted when militants in three cars sprayed bullets at shoppers, Interior Ministry officials said. Three people - a man, a woman and a child - were wounded. The motive was unclear, but there have been previous attacks in the ethnically mixed neighborhood. Earlier in the day, gunmen in the same quarter killed a policeman as he drove to work, police Lt. Col. Hafidh Al-Ghrayri said.

A forceful citizen response is rare, but not unheard of in a country where conflict has become commonplace and the law allows each home to have a weapon. Early this month, police said townsmen in Wihda, 25 miles south of Baghdad, attacked a group of militants believed planning to raid the town and killed seven.

Tuesday's gunbattle came as seven-member U.S. congressional delegation paid a one-day visit to Baghdad, and the man expected to serve as the next prime minister, Shiite politician Ibrahim al-Jaafari, reportedly told the group he is in no hurry for U.S. troops to leave Iraq. Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat from California who strongly opposed the war, said al-Jaafari didn't seem as "upbeat as our people, who seem to be very excited about the quality of the Iraqi police force." "My sense was he was certainly in no rush to hand over security to his new police force," she said. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., agreed, saying that "it's too early to declare success." But Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., expressed "quiet optimism" about Iraq's future.

Iraq's current prime minister, Iyad Allawi, urged the new National Assembly to speed negotiations on forming a coalition government "so as to resume the operation of rebuilding Iraq in all fields." Seeking to seal a political deal, the Shiite clergy's spiritual leader in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was expected to meet Wednesday with Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish leader likely to become the country's next president. Elections on Jan. 30 gave the biggest bloc of seats to a Shiite alliance backed by al-Sistani, but it doesn't have enough votes to select a Cabinet on its own and is negotiating for the support of the Kurds, the second-largest group in the National Assembly.

The Kurds want an agreement to return the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk to the autonomous Kurdish region as soon as the government is installed. But an official from al-Sistani's office said ayatollah wants that issue dealt with in the constitution to be drafted by the assembly. Ousted dictator Saddam Hussein had Kurds forcibly removed from Kirkuk and the surrounding area and moved in Iraqi Arabs to strengthen his control of the oil fields.

In other violence Tuesday, Iraqi commandos backed by U.S. ground and air fire attacked an apparent insurgent training camp near Lake Tharthar in eastern Iraq, killing an undetermined number of militants and capturing 20, the U.S. military said. Seven commandos were reported dead and six wounded.

And in the northern city of Mosul, the deputy police commander, Col. Wathiq Ali, said 17 militants were killed and 14 captured late Monday after during an assassination attempt on police officials. Also in Mosul, a roadside bomb that exploded near a U.S. patrol killed four civilians. It wasn't immediately clear if the troops suffered casualties.

In the southern city of Kut, morgue officials said they had received a half dozen corpses of Iraqi army soldiers, each with bound hands and bullet-riddled heads and torsos. Six Iraqi soldiers were reported kidnapped Monday in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, police said. The insurgents, believed made up mostly of people from the Sunni Arab minority that dominated during Saddam's reign, consider Iraqi police and government officials traitors for working with U.S.-led coalition forces. The U.S. military reported that a Marine died Monday in Anbar province, which contains the flashpoint cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. No further details were given.

Seeking to mend soured relations with Jordan, Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said his nation's ambassador to Jordan would return to Amman "as soon as practically possible." The announcement came a day after King Abdullah II ordered Jordan's top diplomat in Iraq to return to Baghdad. Both countries withdrew their envoys Sunday in a dispute over the infiltration of Jordanian insurgents across their common border.

http://start.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20050322/423fa650_3ca6_15526200503221092926349

[Petronas]

Guard Unit Credits Training in Overcoming 27 Insurgents
BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 22, 2005

A Kentucky National Guard unit is being credited with responding in “textbook” fashion during an ambush here March 20, killing 27 insurgents and capturing a sizable weapons cache and valuable intelligence. The insurgent death toll is the highest in Iraq since the Fallujah operation in November 2004 and, according to Army Capt. Todd Lindner, commander of the Richmond, Ky.-based 617th Military Police Company, represents “without a doubt, one of the most significant impacts an MP company has had in this war.” Lindner credits his unit’s dogged commitment to training and unwillingness to cut corners with preparing his soldiers for the firefight along an alternative supply route about seven miles southeast of Baghdad.

Three squads from the 617th MP Company were providing security for a convoy along the supply route when it came under attack by 40 to 50 insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons. According to Lindner, the soldiers positioned themselves between the convoy and the attackers, “putting down a heavy volume of fire” and flanking the enemy, when they began receiving fire from the rear. “They were armed to the teeth, and looked like they were ready to fight for a long time,” Linder said of the insurgents.

Ultimately, the unit killed 27 of the insurgents and captured several more. After the attack, they recovered a cache of RPGs, rockets, machine guns, assault weapons, hand grenades and ammunition. Three unit soldiers were wounded, two seriously. “These guys were amazing,” Linder said of his soldiers. “This proves what we’ve been saying all along: These guys rock.”

Lindner credits training with making the vital difference in his unit’s ability to respond under fire. “We’ve been training for this mission for the last year before we got here,” he said. “Once we knew we were coming (to Iraq), we changed our training to focus specifically on this mission.” That training, he said, “absolutely made a difference” in his unit’s response during the weekend attack, sharpening its ability to maneuver while firing.

Sgt. 1st Class Marshall Ware, platoon sergeant for the squads involved, agrees the training the unit received “absolutely” made a difference during the attack. “From Day 1, there was an emphasis on training,” he said. “We trained and trained and trained.” Equally critical, he said, was the unit’s strict adherence to standards — conducting precombat inspections, making sure weapons are clean, and requiring use of body armor, Kevlar helmets and eye and hearing protection. These steps have protected his company against numerous attacks, Ware said. “You can’t completely take the risk out of what we’re doing, but you can mitigate it,” he said.

Ware, who served 10 years on active duty before becoming a full-time National Guardsman, said he came to the Guard with prejudices that its members played second string to the active force. But he said the Guard members he worked with quickly proved him wrong. “The Guard is not the same Guard it was two years ago,” he said. “They’re as good as any active duty unit.”

http://www.dod.mil/news/Mar2005/20050322_278.html

[Casey]

Iraqi, U.S. forces overrun rebel base, kill 85


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- After a two-hour firefight, Iraqi forces and U.S. helicopters captured an insurgent base north of Baghdad, killing 85 rebels, U.S. and Iraqi military officials said Wednesday.

"A previous safe haven for planning attacks has been removed," a U.S. military official said of Tuesday's battle.

Although the Iraqi military said it killed 85 insurgents during the firefight, the U.S. military said the number of rebel dead was "undetermined."

Seven Iraqi police commandos with the Ministry of Interior died in the fighting and six were wounded, the U.S. military said.

The U.S. military said it had lost no American troops in the battle.

The base included between 80 and 120 rebels at the time of the attack, some of them non-Iraqis, a U.S. military officials said.

The insurgents evacuated their positions about two hours into the battle, the officials said.

After entering the camp, Iraqi commandos found non-Iraqi passports, training publications, propaganda documents, weapons and ammunition, the U.S. military said.

The U.S. military said the camp is at a remote location about 60 miles northwest of Baghdad, near Lake Tharthar, along the border of Salaheddin and Anbar provinces. But the Iraqi Interior Ministry said the camp was in Samarra, which is east of the lake.

Iraqi forces also seized 30 boats at the camp which presumably were used at the lake, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said.

The U.S. role in the battle was primarily to provide helicopter support, the U.S. military official said. The battle "is another indication of [the insurgents'] diminished capabilities," the official said.

"This in an indication that they have been forced from major population centers and forced to operate in more remote areas," he said.

The battle follows Sunday's ambush on a U.S. convoy south of Baghdad that the U.S. military said left 26 insurgents dead.

[/url]Jordan-Iraqi tensions easing

A diplomatic huff between Jordan and Iraq which prompted them to withdraw their envoys shows signs of subsiding.

The disputeconcerned a Jordanian newspaper report that a family from Jordan celebrated a relative's role in a bombing that killed 127 people in the southern Iraqi city of Hilla last month.

That story generated angry demonstrations in Iraq and underscored concerns about the ability to stop foreign fighters from slipping into Iraq.

Citing security concerns, Jordan's King Abdullah II responded to news of the demonstrations by recalling his nation's ambassador.

The interim Iraq government then recalled its envoy from Jordan.

The king has since ordered Jordan's top envoy to Iraq to return to Baghdad. The status of Iraq's diplomat is unknown.

Tuesday, interim Iraqi Prime Minister's Ayad Allawi issued a statement calling for more investigation of the Hilla incident, and urging Jordan to investigate the reported celebrations.

Allawi also demanded an explanation from the family and the newspaper that published reports of their celebration.

The father of a Jordanian suspect has denied his son's involvement in the Hilla blast and said his son died in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Allawi said Jordan's prime minister has contacted him "expressing his sorrow" and saying investigations are forthcoming.

("]Full story[/color] ("]Other developments




U.S. Army Secretary Francis Harvey on Wednesday said the Army is having trouble meeting its recruitment goals and it's encouraging parents to steer their children toward the Army. "There is a forecast that we will not meet the monthly goal" for March and April," Harvey said at his first Pentagon news conference as the Army's top civilian official. ([url="http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/23/army.recruiting.ap/index.html))

Harvey also said Iraq is having no problems recruiting soldiers, and Iraqis appear eager to serve. The United States has trained and equipped more than 145,000 security forces, he said. "The objective is to get somewhere around 300,000" soldiers and police officers, Harvey said.

Iraqi security forces thwarted an insurgent plot to disrupt a meeting of the interim National Assembly last week in Baghdad, a spokesman for Allawi's office said on Wednesday. "Iraqi security forces captured four terrorists before they could carry out direct attacks on the International Zone," the spokesman said. The heavily guarded area also is known as the Green Zone and contains Iraqi government offices, the U.S. Embassy and American military headquarters.

Allawi urged politicians on Tuesday, including the president of the interim National Assembly, Sheikh Dhary Al-Fayadh, to help "speed up" the new government's formation. On January 30, Iraqis elected a transitional National Assembly, which met for the first time last week. Members so far have failed to reach a deal on the government's composition. A major goal of the assembly will be to create a permanent constitution on which Iraqi citizens will vote.

Seven U.S. senators -- five Democrats and two Republicans -- visited Iraq on Tuesday to speak with Iraqi politicians and observe training for Iraqi security forces. Making the visit were: Robert Bennett, R-Utah; Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee; Harry Reid, D-Nevada; Richard Durbin, D-Illinois, Barbara Boxer, D-California; Patty Murray D-Washington; and Ken Salazar D-Colorado.

Three Iraqis suspected of launching a rocket strike on coalition forces were arrested in in the northern city of Kirkuk on Tuesday, the U.S. military said. Task Force Liberty soldiers conducted the nighttime raid and said they confiscated "rocket fuses and AK-47 assault weapons."
CNN's Aneesh Raman contributed to this report.


http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/03/23/iraq.main/index.html

[Casey]

Assassination, attacks overshadow Iraq political talks
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-26 08:31

Insurgents assassinated a senior Iraqi army commander Friday and staged two suicide car bombings, killing 15 people, in violence that politicians fear may deepen if a new government is not formed soon.

Almost two months after an election, politicians from Iraq's main parties, the Shi'ite alliance and the Kurds, pursued talks to form a government but were squabbling over top cabinet posts.


http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/26/xin_53030226083489929741.jpg
Members of the Iraqi Facilities Protection Service (FPS), viewed through a shattered windshield of a vehicle, survey the damage at the scene of a firefight in the town of Rabia in northern Iraq March 25, 2005. Members of the Kurdish Peshmerga militia opened fire at nearby FPS forces after they came under a roadside bomb attack, sparking a firefight, which led to the death of five policemen and two FPS members on Thursday night in Rabia, according to police sources.[Reuters]Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a key Kurdish negotiator, said Iraq's new parliament would meet for the second time Tuesday and would name key officials in the new cabinet.

Officials had earlier hoped to strike a deal in time for parliament to meet by Sunday, but agreement has proved elusive. The Shi'ite Islamist bloc that came top in the polls and the Kurdish coalition that came second have been so far unable to agree on a new government, nearly two months after the polls.

Many Iraqis who defied insurgent violence to vote in the historic Jan. 30 elections say they are increasingly angry at the failure of politicians to agree. And as talks draw on, insurgents have continued their attacks.

Gunmen shot dead Major-General Suleiman Mohammad, who commanded a National Guard division in southern Iraq, in the New Baghdad district of the capital, and wounded two of his sons.

Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq said it killed Mohammad, according to an Internet statement. Al Qaeda Organization for Holy War in Iraq said five of the officer's bodyguards and entourage were also killed or wounded in the attack.

Suicide car bombers also mounted two attacks in Iraq, killing at least 15 people and wounding 23.

In an attack in Iskandariya, in a lawless area just south of Baghdad, a bomber blew up his car beside an Iraqi army convoy, killing four soldiers and wounding nine troops and civilians, two seriously, local police said.

A suicide bomber blew up his car at a checkpoint in the western city of Ramadi Thursday, killing 11 Iraqi commandos and wounding nine police, two U.S. soldiers and three civilians, the U.S. military said.

The Islamic Army in Iraq said it was behind the Ramadi attack in an Internet statement.

"A martyrdom-seeker of the Army broke through the first barrier set up by the American enemy and the pagan (National) Guard ... and the car exploded as it neared the second barrier," the insurgent group said in the statement.

In another violent assault, five women, four of whom worked at a U.S. military base, were found dead in a car in Baghdad. Those working for U.S. forces, including cooks, laundry staff and translators, are frequently targeted by insurgents.

TALKS STUMBLE ON

Iraqi officials said talks on forming the new government, whose overwhelming priority will be tackling the country's relentless insurgency, were moving forward, albeit slowly.

Politicians were focused on trying to resolve differences over who would take the main government portfolios.

"There is a justified point of view that says the political process is taking a long time but at the same time we don't want to be in a hurry at the expense of this country's future," Salih told Reuters.

"We have big security and economy problems and we are looking for total national unity.

"The main challenge for us is to build a country that can face terrorism and also the economic challenges," he said.

He added parliament would convene again at 11 a.m. (0800 GMT) Tuesday. Officials had previously hoped that parliament could meet by Sunday. The parliament has met once already, but with no government the meeting was purely symbolic.

One of the key issues in the talks has been the status of Kurdish peshmerga militiamen and whether they should, as the Shi'ites want, be absorbed into the Iraqi armed forces.

Thursday, the Kurdish peshmerga and local Arab police engaged in a gunbattle in northern Iraq, highlighting the deep division and suspicion between the two sides.

At least five policemen and two security guards were killed in the fight near the town of Rabia after peshmerga fighters stormed a grain silo building believing the guards there were behind a roadside bomb attack that hit their convoy.

Lieutenant-Colonel Yahia Hamid said the peshmerga had shot guards at the silo and then detained all inside. He arrived with other police to end the incident, but the peshmerga attacked the new arrivals. "I identified myself but the peshmerga wouldn't listen and started screaming at us and then gunfire broke out," he said.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/26/content_428311.htm

[Casey]

March 27, 2005 12:00 AM

Iraq al Qaeda says kills kidnapped colonel

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq says it has shot dead a senior Interior Ministry official kidnapped last month, and posted a
video of the apparent killing on the Internet.
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5632175

[Casey]

Last Update: Monday, March 28, 2005. 7:21am (AEST)
More foreign fighters entering Iraq: US general

Foreign fighters entering Iraq in recent months make up a growing percentage of insurgents battling US troops and the country's fledgling security force, according to a senior US military commander.

In an interview with CNN in Mosul, General John Abizaid - the commander of US Central Command which covers Iraq - said that while most insurgents appear to be Iraqis, "the percentage of foreign fighters over the past several months seems to have increased".

He also said the insurgents' ranks likely include "former Baathist criminals".

"It seems to be pretty well established that they tend to cross over from Syria, although we know that there have been some infiltrations from the Saudi border, there have been some from the Iranian border," General Abizaid said.

"The Syrians are not doing everything we've asked them to do," he said, adding that Syria's intelligence services are not being aggressive enough in dismantling "facilitation cells" inside Syria.

Insurgent attacks



In a separate CNN interview, George Casey, the commanding US general of the Multi-National Force in Iraq, told the news network that current insurgent assaults were running at between 50 and 60 attacks a day.

"They (insurgents) are able to maintain the level of violence between 50 and 60 attacks a day," General Casey said.

"The four provinces where the insurgency is still capable is out west, near Fallujah in Anbar province, in the Baghdad area and Saladdin, which is in the centre of the country, around Saddam's home town, and up north, in the Mosul area," he said.

General Casey said the insurgency had not been broken yet.

"What it means to me is that they're not nearly as strong or as capable as some people thought they were prior to the elections," he said.

"Since the elections, the Iraqi security forces have gotten more involved, and the Iraqi people have gotten more involved in giving us tips, telling us where insurgents are and where insurgent weapons storage sites and things like that are."

Asked for an update on the ongoing US manhunt for Iraq's most-wanted insurgent - the Al Qaeda linked Jordanian Abu Masab Al-Zarqawi - General Abizaid said Zarqawi's followers were certainly operating in western Iraq.

"I think you well understand that a big military organisation like the US military are pretty good at pressuring the (insurgent) networks, and that is what we're doing," he said.

"A single manhunt is a difficult thing. Over time, we keep finding out more and more about his organisation, we take more people out of it, and his time is running out."

- AFP

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200503/s1332344.htm

[NYC]

IRAQ CLOSES BORDER WITH IRAN. Iraqi border guards have closed the
border to Iranian pilgrims ahead of the Arba'in commemorations, Fars
News Agency reported on 28 March. Arba'in marks the 40th day after
the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein and his brother
Abbas in a battle over Islamic leadership in 680 A.D. Officials in
Khorramshahr, near the Iraqi frontier, confirmed that the border was
closed five days ago and said Iranian border guards would deal with
those who try to cross illegally.

[Casey]

Payvand's Iran News ...

3/29/05
Iraq closes border checkpoint with Iran without notice

Shalamcheh, Khuzestan prov, March 28, IRNA-Iraqi border guards closed Monday 'Shalamcheh' border checkpoint, 16 Km west of Persian Gulf city of Khorramshahr, to prevent entry of Iranian pilgrims, on the eve of an important Shia holy day.

A report from an informed source says Iraqi border guard since early Monday prevented Iranian trucks carrying goods and merchandise to enter Iraq from the border checkpoint and increased its security guards in the area.

The informed official, who asked not to be named, said the measure was taken without coordination with Iranian border officials.

The measure forced Iranian merchants and traders to send their goods to Iraq through the Arvandroud (border river) to prevent the material from rotting. It was also reported that the border checkpoint will be closed untill next Sunday.

http://www.payvand.com/news/05/mar/1217.html

[Alli]

Three Romanian journalists have been kidnapped in Baghdad, the government said Tuesday in a development that could test the resolve of President Traian Basescu, whose administration recently dispatched an extra 100 troops to Iraq.

The journalists had finished interviewing Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi hours earlier when one of them sent an ominous text message back to her newsroom: "Help, this is not a joke, we've been kidnapped."

The three were abducted Monday night near their Baghdad hotel, officials said. They were identified as reporter Marie Jeanne Ion, 32, and cameraman Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, 30, from Bucharest-based television station Prima TV, and Romania Libera reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian, 37.

An Iraqi-American businessman who acted as their guide and translator was also kidnapped, the Realitatea TV station reported. The station identified him as Mohammed Monaf and said he had studied in Romania.

One of his business partners in Romania, Ommar Hayssam, told Realitatea TV that he received two calls from the kidnappers Tuesday morning.
"There was a voice speaking in Iraqi dialect ... he asked if I know Mohammed," he said. "They say to pay ... and threatened that if we come with the army they will cut their throats." He declined to specify the amount of money demanded by the kidnappers.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1112066448685

[Petronas]

U.S. Forces in Iraq Holding American Aide to Zarqawi
Beirut, Updated 01 Apr 05, 08:58

U.S. forces in Iraq are holding a senior operative of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who has joint American-Jordanian citizenship, defense officials said Thursday. The man was captured in a raid by U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq late in 2004, said Matthew Waxman, the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs. "Weapons and bomb-making materials were in his residence at the time he was captured," Waxman said.

Waxman described the man as an associate of Zarqawi and an emissary to insurgent groups in several cities in Iraq. Zarqawi, who has declared his allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, is the most-wanted man in Iraq and is blamed for numerous bombings since the U.S.-led invasion removed Saddam Hussein from power two years ago. Defense officials also believe the captured American helped coordinate the movement of insurgents and money into Iraq, Waxman said. The officials said the man holds joint U.S.-Jordanian citizenship but declined to provide his hometown or otherwise identify him.

After his capture, a panel of three U.S. officers determined he was an enemy combatant and not entitled to prisoner-of-war status under the Geneva Convention, Waxman said. Human rights groups argue the enemy combatant classification is vague and affords fewer legal protections than prisoner-of-war status. He is still being held as a security threat but has been visited by representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

He is the first American known to be captured fighting for the insurgency in Iraq, Waxman said, and officials are considering options how to proceed with his case. The man was born in Jordan and moved to the United States and became a naturalized citizen, according to a U.S. official. He lived in several places in the country over roughly 20 years, but officials declined to say precisely when he left or when he arrived in Iraq.

http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&A4750978857F46A3C2256FD60025D5FF

[Casey]

Sunni clerics encourage Iraqis to join security forces
(AP)
2 April 2005




BAGHDAD - The call to arms came in the former Mother of All Battles mosque - built by Saddam Hussein with minarets that look like Kalashnikov assault rifles.

But in a sign of the changing times, the Sunni cleric didn’t exhort his followers to fight. He said they should help Iraq’s government secure peace.

Reading an edict during Friday prayers, Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai, a cleric in the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, said it is time for Iraqis to join the fledgling police and army.

For months, the group had warned minority Sunnis, who were dominant under Saddam, against cooperating with the security forces. But it now seems to acknowledge that the interim Iraqi government is slowing retaking control.

If heeded, the announcement could strengthen the image of the police officers and soldiers trying to take over the fight against the Sunni-led insurgency. Still, it wasn’t a full-fledged endorsement. The edict, endorsed by a group of 64 Sunni clerics and scholars, instructed enlistees to refrain from helping foreign troops against their own countrymen.

Al-Samarrai encouraged his faithful to help prevent the police and army from falling into “the hands of those who have caused chaos, destruction and violated the sanctities.”

In the central city of Samarra, an explosion Friday blew away part of a wall on top of a minaret from a 9th century mosque, scattering rubble on the stairs that spiral up the outside of one of Iraq’s most recognized landmarks.

Witnesses said two men climbed the 170-foot-tall (52-meters) minaret, then returned to the ground before the blast. The US military blamed insurgents.

It was unclear why the minaret was targeted. US troops have used it as a sniper position, and last year the terrorist group Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, flew a flag from its peak. Sgt. Brian Thomas, a spokesman for the 42nd Infantry Division, said coalition forces no longer used the minaret.

A symbol of Samarra’s past glory, the minaret is all that remains of a mosque built during the Abbasid Islamic dynasty. It is featured on Iraq’s 250-dinar bill.

Outside Samarra, Iraqi and US soldiers exchanged gunfire with insurgents during a raid. Iraqi Maj. Gen. Rashid Feleih said five insurgents were killed.

In the holy city of Karbala, Shiite Muslims packed bus stations to head home after a Shiite religious holiday whose participants had been targeted by insurgents. Many pilgrims slept on city streets after Thursday’s festival because they feared nighttime attacks on the roads home.

Special security measures remained in place in Karbala, with policemen keeping watch from rooftops and patrolling the streets.

A bomb exploded near a Sunni mosque in the northern city of Kirkuk and killed an Iraqi heading to Friday prayers, police official Sarhad Qader said. Three people were wounded.

An explosion was heard near Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone as people hurried home before the nightly curfew. US officials had no immediate information.

In Balad Ruz, 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of the capital, gunmen killed the police chief, Col. Hatim Rashid, and another officer at a police station, police Col. Mudhafar al-Jubouri said. A third officer was injured.

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who led uprisings against the US-led coalition last year, called on his supporters to stage a protest in Baghdad on April 9 to mark the second anniversary of US troops entering the capital.

Sheik Hassan al-Edhari, an official at al-Sadr’s Baghdad office, said the protesters will demand that the new Iraqi government set a timetable for withdrawing foreign troops and for trying Saddam.

Negotiations continued over who will lead the newly elected National Assembly, as Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani and Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance, talked about speeding up the formation of Iraq’s new government.

The two discussed the possibility of formally naming Talabani as Iraq’s president Sunday during a parliamentary session, said al-Hakim’s son and political adviser, Mohsen Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim.

“We’re running out of time,” he said. “The delay is not in our interest.”

Ahmad Chalabi, head of an Iraqi exile group that provided intelligence to the United States on Saddam’s weapons programs, praised a US presidential commission’s report Thursday that he said cleared his Iraq National Congress.

“We welcome this report as a vindication,” Chalabi said in a statement released on Friday. “We have consistently stated that the INC played a very small role in US intelligence reporting on Saddam’s” weapons of mass destruction.

While the report did say the INC-related sources had a “minimal impact on pre-war assessments,” it also accused two INC sources of lying to the US government about the use of mobile biological weapons factories to evade inspectors.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2005/April/focusoniraq_April5.xml&section=focusoniraq

[Petronas]

At Least 20 U.S. Troops Hurt in Mass Iraq Jail Attack
Apr. 2, 2005

Dozens of insurgents mounted a sustained attack on Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad on Saturday, detonating two suicide car bombs and firing rocket- propelled grenades before U.S. troops repelled the assault. At least 20 U.S. soldiers and 12 detainees were wounded in the carefully planned attack, which began at around 1500 GMT and lasted for around an hour, the U.S. military said.

"A group of between 40 and 60 insurgents attacked the U.S. forward operating base at Abu Ghraib," Lieutenant Colonel Guy Rudisill, spokesman for detainee affairs, told Reuters. "They detonated two VBIEDs (suicide car bombs) and also fired rocket-propelled grenades into the prison camp ... it was a sustained attack," he said. Mortars and small arms fire were also directed toward the prison, on Baghdad's western edge. "The attacks were intermittent. They would fire RPGs and then stop, then they would attack again," Rudisill said.

U.S. forces responded with heavy weapons, eventually bringing the situation under control. It was not known how many insurgents were wounded or killed in the battle. Witnesses said the second car bomb was detonated against U.S. forces as they were trying to evacuate casualties from the first. U.S. troops sealed the prison grounds. It was not believed any insurgents penetrated the perimeter.

Abu Ghraib, notorious for the U.S. prisoner abuse scandal that emerged last year, is one of three U.S.-run detention facilities in Iraq and holds around 2,000 prisoners. The jail has been attacked in the past, but the latest assault was believed to be the largest and most determined. It is also the first against the prison for some time, and comes amid recent signs that Iraq's insurgency was calming down.

The attack, and a suicide car bomb blast north of Baghdad that killed five, were reminders of the profound security challenges Iraqi leaders face as they attempt to form a government more than two months after elections were held. ...

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=635814

[Casey]

Car bombs kill U.S. soldier, Iraqi

Iraqi general also kidnapped in Baghdad


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two car bombs exploded at nearly the same time Tuesday morning in the Baghdad area, killing at least two people, including a U.S. soldier, and injuring at least six others, police and military officials said.

A bomb in an abandoned taxi struck a U.S. patrol in southern Baghdad's al-Doura neighborhood, said a spokesman for the Army's 3rd Infantry Division. A soldier was killed and four others wounded. The injured were evacuated.

In the second instance, an Iraqi civilian was killed and two others injured when a bomb in a parked car exploded while an Iraqi military convoy passed near a gas station in Amiriya, on Baghdad's western outskirts, Iraqi police said. The blast damaged nearby homes and military vehicles.

The number of American dead in the Iraq war stands at 1,542.

In other violence, an Iraqi general working for the country's Interior Ministry was kidnapped Tuesday in Baghdad, authorities said.

Gen. Jalal Mohammed Salah is the commander of a mechanized armored brigade. No further details were immediately available.

[/url]Firefight northeast of Baghdad

A battle between Iraqi and U.S. forces and insurgents left two U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi soldier dead in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, U.S. military officials said Tuesday.

The firefight began Monday afternoon when Iraqi army battalions conducting a cordon-and-search operation came under attack from insurgents.

The insurgents used small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar attacks.

Ground and air teams from the Army's 42nd Infantry Division moved in to provide support for the Iraqi forces.

The battle lasted until early evening before the insurgents abandoned their positions, a division spokesman said.

Last month, Iraqi and U.S. forces killed 85 insurgents during a battle northwest of Baghdad, near Lake Tharthar, U.S. and Iraqi military officials said. (Full story ("]Other developments




President Bush on Monday awarded the Medal of Honor -- the United States' highest honor for valor -- to an Army sergeant credited with saving the lives of scores of his fellow soldiers before being killed in an April 2003 battle near Baghdad International Airport. ([url="http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/04/04/medal.of.honor.ap/index.html"]Full story ("]Iraq's transitional National Assembly reconvenes Wednesday. The 275-member body moved toward forming a new government Sunday by electing a Sunni Muslim as speaker and a Kurd and Shiite as deputy speakers. The new speaker is Hajim al-Hassani, minister of industry in Iraq's interim government. (Full story (http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/04/03/iraq.main/index.html))

Iraqi prisoners threw rocks at U.S. troops and set tents on fire during a riot last week at an American-run prison camp in southern Iraq, the U.S. military said Monday. The disturbance took place Friday at Camp Bucca, which houses about 6,000 Iraqi prisoners, a military statement said.
CNN's Kevin Flower and Enes Dulami contributed to this report.


http://images.clickability.com/pti/spacer.gif
Find this article at:
[url]http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/04/05/iraq.main/index.html

[Casey]

Pakistan embassy official abducted in Iraq


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A militant group claimed on Sunday to have kidnapped a Pakistani working in the country's embassy in Baghdad, officials in Pakistan said, confirming the latest abduction of a foreigner in Iraq's lawless capital.

"Persons claiming to be members of Omar bin Khattab group have apparently kidnapped the official," said a Pakistani Foreign Ministry statement released in Islamabad.

The official, Malik Mohammad Javed, went missing after prayers on Saturday in Baghdad.

"Malik Javed has contacted our charge d'affaires in Baghdad informing that he is safe," the statement added.

Omar bin Khattab group has not previously been heard of or been mentioned as one of the militant organizations engaged in the kidnapping business in Iraq.

An embassy official and Iraqi police identified Javed as the Pakistani consul, but Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said he was an embassy staff member, not a diplomat.

Putting a stop to rampant kidnapping is one of the major security challenges facing Iraq's post-election government.

Insurgent groups and criminal gangs have abducted scores of foreigners in Iraq seeking to pressure foreign troops to leave or to earn ransom. Hundreds of Iraqis have also been kidnapped.

Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in its war on terror, did not back the invasion of Iraq.

Last year militants killed two Pakistani hostages after demanding that their employer, which did work for a U.S. company, halt operations in Iraq.

More than 150 foreigners have been taken hostage in Iraq in the past year. Many have been eventually released but dozens have been killed, sometimes by beheading. Iraq's human rights minister said last week that 5,000 Iraqis had been abducted.

Three journalists from staunch U.S. ally Romania and their translator, who has triple American, Romanian and Iraqi nationality, were kidnapped in Baghdad last month.

French journalist Florence Aubenas and her driver were taken hostage after leaving their Baghdad hotel in January.

Little is known about their fate since then, but Iraqi insurgents released video footage of Aubenas in March. Looking distraught and fragile, she made a desperate appeal for help. Nothing has been heard from her kidnappers since.

Video footage of the Romanian captives has also surfaced.

An Egyptian diplomat was seized by insurgents on his way home from prayers last year but was freed a few days later.

Iraqi forces are struggling to contain raging violence, including suicide bombings, shootings and kidnappings.

Gunmen killed a member of a SCIRI, Iraq's leading Shiite Muslim political party, on Sunday and seriously wounded another in a drive-by shooting in the capital.

Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq said it had kidnapped and killed a senior Iraqi police officer, according to Internet postings.

The group, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, posted a picture of an identification card bearing the name Brigadier General Basem Mohammed Kadem and designating him as head of police in the holy city of Najaf. One Iraqi soldier was killed and two seriously wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near an army checkpoint on the main road between the northern city of Kirkuk and Baghdad early on Sunday, the Iraqi army said.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=4/11/2005&Cat=4&Num=002

[Casey]

Pakistan Appeals for Release of Kidnapped Diplomat in Iraq

Islamabad, April 10(Kashar News) Pakistan on Sunday appealed the insurgents for the immediate release of Pakistani Embassy official in Iraq, while Pakistani concerns were conveyed to Iraqi Ambassador in Pakistan.

An unpopular Group “Umar-Bin-Khattab” claimed the responsibility of kidnapping Pakistani Embassy official Mohammad Javed and demanded “something” in return, which the Authorities in Islamabad decline to make public.

“Malik Mohammed Javed, Pakistani Embassy official, went missing late Saturday after he left his Baghdad home to attend prayers at a nearby mosque.” Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid confirmed in a press interaction here in Islamabad.

“An unknown person claimed to be from “Umar-Bin-Khatab” group called Pakistani Embassy in Iraq have confirmed that Mohammad Javed is in their custody,” said Sheikh Rashid while refusing to tell captors’ demand.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the previously unknown Omar bin Khattab group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. It added that Javed had contacted the Pakistani Embassy in Baghdad and told officials he had not been harmed.

In July, insurgents kidnapped and beheaded two Pakistanis Raja Azad, 49, an engineer, and Sajad Naeem, 29, a driver in Iraq. Both had been working for a Kuwaiti Al Tamimi company and belonged to Rawalakot of Pakistani Administered Kashmir.

The kidnappers calling themselves the Islamic Army in Iraq demanded that Pakistan, a predominantly Muslim nation, promise not to send troops to Iraq.

Pakistan a key ally of the United States in the war against terrorism has refused to deploy peacekeepers to Iraq and has urged its citizens to avoid travelling Iraq.

http://www.kashar.net/technews/compleat.asp?id=1577

[Alli]

U.S. Civilian Kidnapped in Iraq, Embassy Reports
BAGHDAD -- An American civilian working for a contractor on a foreign aid project in Iraq has been kidnapped, officials at the U.S. Embassy here reported Monday.

The embassy officials said they were notified of the kidnapping by U.S. military authorities. But they gave no details about the American's identity or how the kidnapping occurred. The American was working on a project in the Baghdad area, they said
more.. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A43621-2005Apr11)

[Casey]

Al Qaeda leaders caught

BAGHDAD: Four leaders of three Al Qaeda linked groups were captured in a US-Iraqi operation on Monday that netted 67 suspected insurgents in Dura district of Baghdad.

The four face charges of murder, assassination, beheadings, bombings and attacks against security forces.

The other 63 detainees are still being questioned to determine their role in violence in Dura.

Those arrested form part of the leadership of the Ansar Al Sunna group, Tawhid Wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War), and Ansar Al Islam.



http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=109310&Sn=WORL&IssueID=28024

[Casey]

Q&A: Change in Tactics for Iraqi Insurgency?
Published: April 12, 2005
From the Council on Foreign Relations, April 12, 2005
Has the Iraqi insurgency shifted tactics?

It's unclear. But in the wake of an April 2 multi-pronged assault on the Abu Ghraib prison, reportedly carried out by Abu Musab Zarqawi's al Qaeda in Iraq, and other organized attacks, some experts detect the beginnings of a trend toward larger-scale, more sophisticated attacks by the insurgency. "They have really evolved from the suicide bomb," says Ahmed Hashim, who teaches at the Naval War College. "We will probably see better organized attacks but fewer of them."

What set the Abu Ghraib attack apart from other insurgent operations?

Large numbers of insurgents and precision planning. "This is a level of sophistication greater than we've seen," says Bruce Hoffman, an insurgency specialist with the RAND Corporation. "The insurgents are demonstrating that they're not on the ropes." According to a post-attack Internet posting by Zarqawi, the attackers relied on "inside intelligence information." Lieutenant Colonel Steven A. Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman, told the Washington Post the Abu Ghraib clash was "one of the more concerted attacks we've seen," but added it was "too early to say whether this is a new trend or a new strategy."

Advertisement


What evidence supports the theory that the insurgents may be adopting new tactics?

In addition to the Abu Ghraib fight, there has been a recent string of larger-scale insurgent attacks. On April 11, about 40 insurgents attacked a U.S. Marine base near the Syrian border. U.S. forces on March 22 fought and killed 80 insurgents stationed at an encampment near Lake Tharthar. A few days earlier, an American convoy was ambushed by a group of 40 to 50 insurgents just outside Baghdad.

Some experts say these engagements are part of a pattern that has emerged over the past few years. "Insurgents are developing a strategy to see how far they can ratchet up the size of their forces before [U.S.] air power vanquishes them," says Walter P. Lang, former head of Middle East Affairs at the Defense Intelligence Agency. Insurgent leaders also have publicly confirmed a preference for large-scale operations over smaller attacks, such as the use of improvised explosive devices--car bombs or explosives buried in the road. As a Defense Department official who asked not to be named put it, "It's hard to get a whole lot of attention with roadside car bombs." The assault on the prison "showed the insurgents had the hubris and were brave enough to launch simultaneous attacks on a well-protected and heavily armed target," Hoffman says. "It also shows Zarqawi has the ability not just to stage classic terrorist acts like car and truck bombs, but also to stage force-on-force attacks, which until then had been rare in Iraq."

What happened during the Abu Ghraib attack?

At dusk on April 2, an insurgent force of 40-60, backed up by two car bombs (though only one was detonated), advanced on two flanks, firing mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades at the prison. The rebels got as far as the prison walls before the U.S. military, with the help of three Apache helicopters, responded. Within a few hours, U.S. forces secured the prison, killing one insurgent and wounding dozens. U.S. troops incurred no casualties, but 44 were wounded.

Why did the insurgents target Abu Ghraib?

"Because, like Everest, it's there," Lang says. The prison has enormous symbolic value for Iraqis. Used as a torture chamber under Saddam Hussein, Abu Ghraib made headlines during last year's prisoner-abuse scandal. Still, the insurgents' specific motives for attacking the prison remain unclear. Many terror websites linked to Zarqawi have discussed attacking it for years. There was also a letter reportedly circulating in Sunni mosques written by a woman who claimed she had been raped by U.S. soldiers during her detainment. Other news reports suggested that Zarqawi launched the offensive to free insurgent detainees. According to Kenneth Katzman, senior Middle East analyst for the Congressional Research Service, insurgent forces saw themselves "as riding to the rescue of insurgent prisoners and thought they could enhance their political standing."

What do larger-scale insurgent attacks mean for U.S. forces?

They prefer them to smaller skirmishes. Experts agree that U.S. forces historically are more comfortable fighting an insurgency that engages the enemy head on with large-scale force. "When they stand and fight us from a fairly conventional standpoint, they present us with a fairly conventional target to engage and fight," says a Department of Defense official. James S. Robbins of the American Foreign Policy Council concurs: "Terrorists and guerillas have a hard time with stand-up fights," he wrote in the National Review.

What other developments have occurred in the counter-insurgency campaign?

In recent weeks, the U.S. military has had increasing success pushing insurgents, particularly foreign fighters, out of larger cities. This forces them to congregate in rural areas that have fewer places to hide. U.S. troops have also ramped up their intelligence-gathering efforts among Iraqi citizens, who have grown increasingly disenchanted with insurgency violence, to discover where rebels are grouping. "[The Iraqis] are starting to turn in the bad guys to a degree we haven't seen yet," says the Defense Department official.

What are the insurgency's main goals?

Their primary goal remains, as General John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, put it in 2003, "to break the will of the United States of America." But the insurgency--a loose configuration of Iraqi nationalists, former Baathists, and foreign Islamists--is reportedly showing signs of strain. The large majority of the insurgency is composed of Iraqi Sunnis, many of whom are fed up with the indiscriminate violence against civilians favored by the Zarqawi faction, some experts say. These Iraqi nationalists refuse to recognize the transitional government but haven't ruled out a political settlement. Some experts say there's been muted talk of establishing a political arm for this group redolent of the Irish Republican Army's Sinn Fein. Iraq's Presidency Council has hinted it might offer clemency to Iraqi insurgents who have not targeted civilians.

The aims of the more radical foreign-born insurgents under the sway of Zarqawi are less clear. "Unless the insurgents seek merely to sow death and destruction, success will likely hinge on their ability to set the conditions for the entry of Sunni Arab oppositionists into politics, to either continue the struggle via legitimate means or subvert the Iraqi government," Michael Eisenstadt of the Washington Institute wrote in a recent policy brief.

How has the insurgency evolved?

Generally, insurgents are focusing on Iraqi security forces and not targeting U.S. forces as much as they did before the January 30 elections. Attacks on Iraqi civilians and the Iraqi army are up in recent months, according to the U.S. military. Attacks against U.S. forces have dropped 22 percent since the elections. In March, 40 American soldiers were killed, the lowest casualty rate in more than a year. Buoyed by these encouraging signs, the Pentagon is considering pulling as many as one-third of its 142,000 troops from Iraq within the next year, according to the New York Times.

But not all experts are convinced. "I think we had a relatively good month, which the U.S. military is clearly calling a trend," Katzman says. "But I think the evidence of a real hard trend is very preliminary." Jeffrey White of the Washington Institute, says the casualty numbers can be misleading because they fluctuate and are often cyclical. "Official statements suggesting that current levels of activity represent some sort of 'tipping point' or 'tipping period' should be viewed with caution," he wrote in a recent Washington Institute policy brief, adding that insurgent activity dipped last year in February and March as well.

Does this evolution follow the pattern of past insurgencies?

Partly, though as White points out, "It's not proceeding along the classical lines of what people consider a Maoist insurgency." Still, the Iraqi insurgents, many of whom are former officers in Saddam Hussein's army, are well versed and aware of which strategies worked for past insurgencies, from the Nicaraguan Sandinistas to the Vietcong, experts say. Insurgencies generally undergo three phases: the first is the organizational and recruiting phase, which is largely nonviolent; the second phase entails guerilla-style hit-and-run attacks as well as attempts by insurgents to grab and hold territory; and phase three, which may be starting in Iraq, involves larger conventional force-on-force attacks against the government in charge.

-- by Lionel Beehner, staff writer, cfr.org

http://www.nytimes.com/cfr/international/slot1_041205.html

[Trinity]

Detainees Escape From U.S. Military Camp

BAGHDAD, Iraq Apr 16, 2005 — Eleven detainees upset about their treatment by U.S. captors escaped Saturday from the military's largest detention center in Iraq by climbing through a hole in the fence, and bombings around the country killed a dozen Iraqis.

Ten of the 11 escapees were recaptured after fleeing Camp Bucca, the largest U.S. detention facility with about 6,000 prisoners, nearly two-thirds of all those in Iraq.

In the central Iraqi town of Madain, Sunni militants took about 70 Shiite males hostage and threatened to kill them unless all Shiites left the town, government officials and a Shiite political group said Saturday.

Iraqi security forces were surrounding the area, trying to contain the situation, a Defense Ministry official said.

"There were about 100 masked men, riding in cars, roaming the city. They took hostages from the Shiite youth and old men, and demanded the Shiites leave the city," said Haitham Husseini, spokesman for the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution, Iraq's largest Shiite group. "The families contacted us yesterday and they asked for our help. There is a fear now among the women and children."

Husseini said insurgents who follow the fundamentalist Muslim brand of Sunni Islam called Wahhabism were trying to spark sectarian strife in the town. But he said Shiites would not retaliate.

"Until now, we're not getting involved. We're waiting for the government to do what it has to do," Husseini said.

In a mosque in eastern Baghdad, Iraqi police arrested a cleric in the influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars. Dia'a al-Jewari was detained on suspicion of having links with insurgent groups, Iraqi police officer Hamza Lazim said.

The arrest came a day after Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai, an important Sunni cleric in the association, urged Iraq's new president to buck U.S. pressure and free thousands of suspected rebels, a sign that the religious group most often associated with Iraq's insurgency might be willing to work with the new government.

The recaptured Camp Bucca escapees were to be held by Iraqi police until they could be sent back to the facility in southeastern Iraq.

One escapee told The Associated Press the group fled through a hole in the fence.

"We decided to flee the prison because of the bad treatment and delay in investigations," 24-year-old Hussein Nima said.

The prisons have been criticized for holding detainees indefinitely.

Lt. Col. Guy Rudisill, a military spokesman, said officials confirmed that 11 prisoners were missing after discovering the hole. He denied allegations of mistreatment, saying the inmates get three meals a day, access to shower facilities, prayer rugs and a copy of the Quran.

"We provide them with every humane type of care," said Rudisill, who declined to say why the 11 were being held.

The escape came two days after a melee among prisoners left one detainee dead and injured dozens of others, the U.S. military said.

The detainee Nima said the fight was between U.S. soldiers and prisoners.

Last month, the U.S. military said guards discovered a 600-foot tunnel dug with makeshift tools leading out of Camp Bucca. The tunnel reached beyond the compound fence, with an opening hidden beneath a floorboard, but no one escaped, authorities said.

In Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, a bomb exploded Saturday inside a restaurant often used by Iraqi police, killing five policemen and two civilians and wounding one civilian, police Col. Mudhafar al-Jubouri said.

In the northern city of Kirkuk, insurgents in speeding vehicles fired on Iraqi soldiers and policemen heading to work in the northern city of Kirkuk on Saturday, killing three security force members, police said. Gunmen killed a policeman and two soldiers in separate drive-by shootings, police Brig. Sarhat Qadir said.

A suicide car bomber attacked a U.S. military convoy on the road near Baghdad's airport, killing one Iraqi civilian and wounding three others, police Capt. Talib Thamir said. There was no immediate word on any U.S. casualties.

Also, unidentified gunmen in a car shot at another vehicle in Baghdad carrying Filipino workers, wounding one, police and hospital officials said. It was unclear why the Filipinos were targeted.

Further north, in Mosul, a car bomb damaged one vehicle in a U.S. military convoy, slightly wounding six soldiers, Sgt. John H. Franzen said. The attack came as Iraqi and U.S. forces were completing two days of raids in and around Mosul that led to the detention of 27 suspected insurgents, the military said in a statement.

In his comments during Friday prayers, al-Samarrai, the leading Sunni cleric, said that if President Jalal Talabani "wants to begin a new page, he must first release those in jail. Secondly, there must be a full pardon." Al-Sammarai also urged Talabani to refuse to "obey and kneel to pressure from" Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Most of the 10,500 detainees are held by the American military, and the United States has opposed freeing prisoners or pardoning insurgents.

There have been growing calls to deal with the detained Iraqis. Outgoing interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi this week sent a message to the U.S. military commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, asking him to review the prisoners' cases.

It remains unclear how much say Talabani will have in his largely ceremonial post. Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari is putting together a Cabinet and it is not known whether the new government backs a pardon.

Al-Samarrai's comments came three days after Rumsfeld made a surprise visit to Iraq and urged the emerging government to avoid politicizing the Iraqi military.

After being sworn in as president this month, Talabani appealed to Iraqi militants to work with the newly elected leadership and suggested they could be pardoned, although he said the Iraqi government would continue to fight foreign insurgents.

While some lawmakers say Talabani was expressing his personal opinion, the president and other government officials have reached out to the Sunni minority, which was the dominant group under Saddam Hussein and is believed to be the backbone of the insurgency.

Many Sunnis, believed to make up as much as 20 percent of Iraq's estimated 26 million people, boycotted the Jan. 30 elections for the National Assembly or stayed home for fear of attacks at the polls.

Associated Press reporter Abbas Fayadh in Basra contributed to this report.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=675755&page=1

[Casey]

April 17, 2005 3:20 PM

Iraq braced for hostage rescue bid

By Thaier al-Sudani and Majid al-Hameed

NEAR MADAEN, Iraq (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iraqi troops backed by U.S. forces raided parts of a town south of Baghdad on Sunday to tryto rescue Shi'ite hostages from Sunni insurgents threatening to kill them, witnesses said.

A senior Shi'ite official in Baghdad said up to 150 hostages, including women and children, were being held since guerrillas in cars carryingrocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s entered Madaen late on Friday and seized them.

Iraq's caretaker prime minister, Iyad Allawi, blamed the kidnappings on al Qaeda's wing in Iraq, a group that has carried out many attacks inthe country, and said it was part of a plan to spread sectarian strife and provoke a Sunni-Shi'ite civil war.

"Unfortunately, evil powers are trying to disturb the peace of our country, stop progress, destroy Iraq, keep killing innocent civilians andplanning for the start of ethnic, sectarian and religious division," Allawi said in a statement.

He said some people were trying to implement "wicked plans of extremist terror" and urged Iraqis to remain calm.

Iraqis said relatives were abducted but a police official said the hostages could number as few as three, and an Internet statement issued inthe name of al Qaeda's wing in Iraq said the crisis was fabricated to justify the raid by Iraqi forces.

Despite the confusion, the crisis raised fears of deeper sectarian strife in a country struggling to form a government that balances theinterests of Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds after decades of iron-fisted rule under Saddam Hussein.

Troops armed with machineguns and assault rifles moved to the edge of Madaen, about 25 miles southeast of Baghdad, and U.S. troopscut off two bridges near the town on Sunday.

"Three brigades have been moved towards the area and this morning there were five from the Iraqi National Guard, the Ministry of Interiorand multinational forces," Kassim Daoud, the minister of state for national security, told parliament.

"Three areas where we suspected there were terrorists were raided but no one was found. There are other areas we will attack soon."

THREAT TO KILL

Sunni militant groups have carried out abductions before, once ambushing buses filled with Shi'ite soldiers and killing nearly 50 of them,part of a campaign Iraqi officials say is designed to spark a sectarian civil war.

A senior Shi'ite official has said residents of Madaen called him on Friday night saying their relatives had been kidnapped and werethreatened with death. But no group claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.

On Saturday, state-run Iraqiya television said the gunmen had threatened to start killing the 150 hostages in 24 hours.

Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq, which has claimed responsibility for many of the deadliest suicide bombings in the country, said in an Internetstatement the hostage crisis was fabricated as a pretext for raiding the town and attacking Sunni Muslims.

"The infidels fabricated the case of the hostages. They are lying," said the Sunni group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Thestatement could not be independently verified.

Distraught Iraqis who said their relatives were among those who had been abducted gathered outside Madaen.

"Where are they? Where are they?" asked Zuhra Chaloub, holding up pictures of two sons she said were abducted in Salman Pak, a Sunnirebel stronghold adjacent to Madaen.

A masked policeman with an AK-47 assault rifle stood by the crowd of about 20 men and women.

Aboud Hussein said one of his sons, a policeman, was taken from Salman Pak and two others were dragged from their cars andkidnapped on their way home from work. They did not say when the kidnappings took place.

SHI'ITES, KURDS POWERFUL

Majority Shi'ites, long oppressed under Saddam, are now the most powerful political force in Iraq along with the Kurds. Under Saddam,minority Arab Sunnis were favoured.

The crisis comes at a bad time for Iraq's squabbling leaders, who are struggling to form a government 11 weeks after elections were held atthe end of January.

"Everyone wants the government to accelerate efforts to put an end to these types of incidents," said Jawaad al-Maliki, a senior Shi'ite andmember of the Da'awa Party.

Some people in Madaen, where shops have started closing in expectation of fighting, insisted there was no hostage crisis.

"I am afraid we will pay the price for media reports which are not true. Troops are cutting off the entrance to Madaen. If they (Iraqi forces)attack we will defend ourselves," said a resident by telephone who declined to be identified.

The hostage-taking and a resurgence of violence will further pressure Iraq's new leaders to deliver on promises to improve security afterelections held in January.

Violence over the past week has raised concerns that insurgents had regrouped after a U.S. offensive crushed their main base of Falluja inNovember and millions of Iraqis defied suicide bombers to vote.

A mortar attack on a U.S. camp in the guerrilla stronghold of Ramadi killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded seven on Saturday night, themilitary said on Sunday. Insurgents also kept up a campaign of assassinations in towns across Iraq.

In the central town of Mukdadiya, gunmen killed Hussein Nadir, a Kurdish member of the local council, on Saturday night. Insurgents blew upa Shi'ite shrine in the northern town of Abu Saydah, a local official said.

Reuters

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5690536&cKey=1113737718000

[Petronas]

Fifty Bodies Found Near Baghdad - Iraqi President
Apr 20, 2005

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The bodies of 50 people, believed to be those of hostages held in a town near Baghdad earlier this week, have been found in the Tigris river south of Baghdad, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said on Wednesday. "More than 50 bodies have been brought out from the Tigris and we have the full name of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes," Talabani told reporters.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=687093

[Petronas]

Helicopter 'downed' near Baghdad
Thursday, 21 April, 2005, 17:16 GMT 18:16 UK

A commercial helicopter has crashed about 20km (12 miles) north of Baghdad, killing all 11 people on board. The Bulgarian defence ministry said the Russian-built MI-8 aircraft had been brought down by a missile attack. Those who died were six US security contractors, three Bulgarian crew members and two guards - who were reportedly from the Philippines. Insurgents have shot down several US military helicopters since the US-led invasion of Iraq.

The helicopter was owned by a Bulgarian company, Heli Air, and chartered by SkyLink, a North American company. SkyLink said it had been flying to Tikrit, north of Baghdad. TV footage showed the burning wreckage of the aircraft in a barren area.

The crash came hours after two foreign contractors were killed in a roadside bomb on the road to Baghdad airport. Three foreign contractors - an American, a Canadian and an Australian - died in an attack on the same stretch of road on Wednesday.

The same day saw Iraq's outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi escape unhurt after a suicide bomber blew up a car near his convoy in Baghdad. At least two policemen are said to have died in the blast.

Insurgents seem to have stepped up attacks amid delays in forming a new government, the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad reports. A leading insurgent group said it had shot down the helicopter, according to a statement published on the internet that could not be verified. "The Islamic Army in Iraq claims responsibility for bringing down a... cargo aircraft and killing all those on board," said the posting on a website often used by Iraqi insurgents, adding that a full statement and video would follow.

The Bulgarian defence ministry said in a statement: "The helicopter was shot by missile fire around 2pm local time (1000 GMT)." Heli Air sales manager Sotislav Bozhkov said the aircraft was hit by at least one surface-to-air missile. The six Americans who died were working for security contractor Blackwater USA, the US embassy in Baghdad said, before adding that it was too early to confirm the cause of the crash.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4468959.stm

[Bman]

Copyright 2005 Agence France Presse
Agence France Presse -- English

April 22, 2005 Friday 3:55 PM GMT



Captors of Romanian hostages in Iraq set four-day ultimatum

DUBAI April 22



The captors of three Romanian journalists in Iraq have threatened to kill them if Bucharest fails to announce the withdrawal of its troops within four days, Al-Jazeera television reported Friday airing new footage of the trio.

In the videotape, the journalists appealed to their government to "withdraw the troops from Iraq" and warned that their captors had set an "ultimatum of four days from the broadcast of this video, otherwise they will execute us", Al-Jazeera said.

Prima TV reporter Marie-Jeanne Ion and cameraman Sorin Miscoci were kidnapped on March 28 along with Romania Libera correspondent Eduard Ohanesian.

In the tape aired by the Qatar-based Arab satellite news channel, his kidnappers were named as the "Muadh ibn Jabal Brigade", a previously unknown group.

The black-and-white video showed the hostages seated on the floor with their hands tied as two gunmen stood over them, pointing a revolver and an automatic weapon at the hostages.

Ion, who is seen speaking but without her voice being heard, gave the news of the ultimatum and urged Romanians to hold demonstrations and pressure their government to accept the kidnappers' demands, an Al-Jazeera presentator said.

The journalists were reportedly snatched together with a US-Iraqi businessman, Mohamed Munaf, who had financed their assignment and served as their guide in Baghdad.

Also circled by two gunmen, he was shown on separate footage calling on US President George W. Bush to intervene and secure his release, according to the presentator.

The Romanian government has been in contact with the kidnappers of the journalists, who are alive and not being ill-treated, Romania's President Traian Basescu said on April 13.

Basescu said that despite sometimes daily contact with the kidnappers, negotiations were not taking place.

The contacts have been enough to give "proof that the journalists are alive . . . and that they are not being ill-treated," he said, adding that that "people in Romania and in Iraq" were implicated in the kidnapping.

He also said that Romanian troops in Iraq, who number some 800, would "finish their mission" within the US-led coalition.

The prosecutor's office in Bucharest said earlier this month that a Romanian-Syrian businessman arrested in the Romanian capital was "linked to the alleged kidnappers".

Surveillance of businessman Omar Hayssam has shown "links between him and people suspected of being implicated in the kidnapping", it said in a statement, which linked him to Munaf.

[Trinity]

Wave of Attacks in Iraq Kill 40 and Wound 100
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and ROBERT F. WORTH

Published: April 30, 2005


AGHDAD, Iraq, April 29 - Insurgents determined to destabilize Iraq's new government executed a devastating series of coordinated attacks on Iraqi forces on Friday, detonating 12 car bombs across greater Baghdad and striking military targets throughout Iraq. At least 40 people were killed and more than 100 others wounded.

The attacks, a direct challenge to the new Shiite-dominated government that was formed Thursday, were aimed at Iraqi police officers and national guardsmen at their bases and traveling in convoys in northern and southern Baghdad and in Madaen, 15 miles southeast of the capital. At least 23 Iraqi policemen and troops were killed. Some reports put the total death toll at as many as 50 people.

Later in the day, other car bomb attacks struck Diyarah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, killing two American soldiers, and near Taji, just north of Baghdad, where a bomber killed one American soldier and wounded two others. One American soldier was also killed and four were wounded by a homemade bomb Thursday night near Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad.

The strikes Friday morning came after a momentous and tumultuous day for the new government. After three months of delays that American officials said gave new strength to the insurgency, the dominant Shiite alliance won approval for a new cabinet - but not before angering Sunni political leaders who said they had been shortchanged.

The Shiites also pledged a housecleaning of former Baathists from the government, a move sure to drive a deeper wedge between Shiites and Sunnis, who conduct most insurgent activity. Sunni Arabs, who dominated Iraq's Baathist government under Saddam Hussein, largely boycotted elections in January.

With Friday's attacks, at least 480 Iraqi policemen and troops have been killed by insurgents in the last two months, according to tallies by Western security contractors, Iraqi officials and local news accounts.

Followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, claimed responsibility in Internet statements for a dozen attacks on Friday. The group also released an 18-minute recording said to be of Mr. Zarqawi that offered reassurances to insurgent fighters, warned Iraqis against negotiating peace with the United States and cited Pentagon data on shortfalls in American military recruiting.

In the streets, the insurgents once again turned to an increasingly common tactic: multiple bombings intended to kill not only the victims of the initial blast but also security forces and bystanders who rush to the aid of the wounded.

The strikes began just after 8 a.m. on Friday, the weekly holy day for most Iraqis, with four car bombs in the Adhamiya neighborhood, a heavily Sunni district in northern Baghdad that is home to many former Baathists. The attacks killed 7 Iraqi national guardsmen, 2 policemen and 4 civilians, and wounded 50 others, an Interior Ministry official said. Other reports said as many as 20 people had been killed there.

The first Adhamiya bomb went off next to a popular restaurant as an Iraqi convoy drove by, the police said. The blast propelled the crumpled remains of the bomber's vehicle more than 100 feet, where the police at the scene pointed to parts of the suicide bomber's body lodged in the charred wreckage.

Several pools of blood surrounded an aqua minivan in front of the destroyed restaurant. A child's stuffed animal, blackened from the blast, and women's sandals were strewn amid the bloody debris.

"It was terrible," said Muhammad Kadham, a 27-year-old worker who rushed to the scene. "Human body parts were everywhere. Ambulances have been busy carrying away the injured. It was insane." A few hours later, a car bomb aimed at a passing convoy of Iraqi National Guard troops detonated in the Ghadeer district in southern Baghdad, and 15 minutes later a second bomb struck in the same spot, killing one civilian and wounding four troops and four civilians, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/30/international/middleeast/30iraq.html

[Trinity]

Insurgents launch new attacks

BAGHDAD (AP) — Insurgents launched fresh attacks in Baghdad and northern Iraq on Saturday, killing at least 10 Iraqis and wounding more than 30, officials said, in a second day of violence aimed at shaking the country's newly formed government.
At a meeting of Iraq's neighbors in Turkey, meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the violence was "not solely the concern of the Iraqis but ours as well."

Some of the worst attacks occurred in the capital, still reeling from Friday's onslaught in which at least 17 bombs exploded in Iraq, killing 50 people, including three U.S. soldiers.

A suicide car bomb exploded Saturday near the offices of the National Dialogue Council, a coalition of 10 Sunni Arab factions that had been negotiating for a stake in Iraq's new Shiite-dominated government. The blast killed two Iraqi civilians and wounded 18, police said.

Another suicide car bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol exploded Saturday near the Mohammad Rasoul Allah Mosque in eastern Baghdad, killing two Iraqi women and a girl, and seriously wounding four soldiers, police Lt. Col. Ahmed Abboud Effait said.

Two Iraqis — a policeman and a former official in Saddam Hussein's Baath Party — also died in shootings Saturday in Baghdad, police said.

U.S. officials had hoped Iraq's new government, which was approved Thursday and takes office on Tuesday, would help dent support for the militants within the Sunni Arab minority that dominated under Saddam and is believed to be driving the insurgency.

However, the lineup of Cabinet ministers named by Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari after months of political wrangling excluded Sunnis from meaningful positions and left the key defense and oil ministries in temporary hands.

Insurgents also launched three separate attacks Saturday in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, killing three Iraqis and wounding eight, police 1st Lt. Mahmoud Arif Yahya said.

A suicide car bomb exploded near a police patrol, killing a woman who was passing by and wounding four policemen, said Dr. Abdul Sattar Ramadhan al-Khalidi at Mosul's Jimhouri Hospital.

Elsewhere in the city, a roadside bomb missed its police patrol target, killing two Iraqi civilians and wounding two others and gunmen opened fire on a separate police patrol, wounding two officers, al-Khalidi said.

Two civilian bystanders were wounded when a roadside bomb aimed at a police patrol exploded south of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, army Brig. Hamid Al-Timimi said.

An audiotape released Friday by one of America's most-wanted insurgents, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, warned President Bush there was more bloodshed to come. In Washington, an intelligence official said the tape appeared to be genuine.

"You, Bush, we will not rest until we avenge our dignity," the speaker said on the audiotape that was posted on the Internet. "We will not rest while your army is here as long as there is a pulse in our veins."

In separate statements, posted on a Web site known for its militant content, al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Iraq group claimed responsibility for two of Friday's most deadly assaults — four suicide car bombings in one Baghdad neighborhood and four more bombings in Madain, south of the capital. The claims could not be verified.

Despite Friday's bloody toll, the U.S. military maintained that attacks are diminishing overall in Iraq.

Erdogan opened a meeting of foreign ministers from Jordan, Syria, Kuwait, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, expressing concern about Iraq's new government and fear that Iraq's violence could spread to the region.

"Iraq cannot be a place where one entity prevails over the others, nor can it be a place divided up as desired," Erdogan said in Istanbul. "Such attempts will meet the reaction of the countries of the region and the international community.

Shiites make up 60% of Iraq's 26 million people. The Kurds make up 20%, and the Sunni Arabs, who largely stayed away from the elections either in boycott or for fear of attacks, are roughly 15% to 20%.

The U.S. military also said four U.S. soldiers were killed and two wounded Thursday when a Task Force Freedom convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in Tal Afar city, 90 miles east of the Syrian border, the military said in a brief statement. It did not explain why the casualties were not announced earlier.

Elsewhere, four U.S. soldiers in a convoy were wounded when their Humvee rolled into a ditch late Friday night near Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Saturday.

The names of the soldiers were being withheld pending notification of relatives. At least 1,579 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Separately, U.S. Marines operating near Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, found and destroyed two such caches, including blasting caps, mortars, an anti-aircraft rocket system and rocket-propelled grenades on Friday, the U.S. military said.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-04-30-iraq_x.htm

[Casey]

Senior official killed in Baghdad as Marine dies in explosion

http://www.albawaba.com/en/news/183297

Gunmen shot and killed a top official in Iraq's Transportation Ministry in Baghdad on Sunday, according to police.
http://manager.albawaba.com/img/new_sys/mediabank/7697_mb_file_e1361.jpg

Zoba Yass, director general of the ministry's projects, and his driver were killed in a southern district of the capital as they drove to work, a police officer and officials at the transportation and interior ministries said on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, a U.S. Marine was killed by a bomb Saturday in central Iraq, the military said. The Marine died of injuries caused by an explosion during combat operations in Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, the military said in a statement. The Marine was assigned to Regimental Combat Team-8, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force.

[Casey]

Iraq's newly appointed minister rejects post
www.chinaview.cn (http://www.chinaview.cn)
2005-05-08 19:56:23


BAGHDAD, May 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraq's newly appointed human rights minister rejected his post on Sunday, saying he was only appointed for sectarian reasons.

"Focusing on sectarian identities could lead the country to sectarian strife, therefore, I respectfully decline the post," Hashim al-Shibli told reporters in Baghdad.

Shibli was one of the four Sunni Arab ministers appointed on Sunday to join prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's cabinet.A total of seven posts in the 36-member transitional government including defense minister and one deputy prime minister were given to the minority Sunni Arabs which dominated Iraq during Saddam Hussein's rule but was sidelined with only 17 seats in the 275-seat parliament after the Jan.30 elections.

Iraq's National Assembly approved the nominations to fill six vacant portfolios on Sunday, including a deputy prime minister and ministers of defense, industry, human rights, oil and electricity.

One of the four deputy prime minister remains to be appointed. The approval virtually ended months of haggling between leading blocs over power allocation. Enditem

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-05/08/content_2930990.htm

[Petronas]

Key Aide to Al Qaeda Leader in Iraq Captured
Sunday, May 08, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. security forces captured a key associate to the Al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, FOX News has learned. A government statement said Amar al-Zubaydi, also known as Abu Abbas, was captured three days ago in Baghdad. Al-Zubaydi allegedly helped plan an attack on Abu Ghraib prison in April in which up to 60 insurgents attacked a U.S. base with homicide car bombs and rocket-propelled grenades, wounding at least 20 U.S. troops and 12 detainees. Zubaydi was also allegedly involved in a string of car bombings in Baghdad in April.

Meanwhile, coalition forces killed six terrorists in raids targeting the terror network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi near the Syrian border on Sunday, the U.S. military said. Weapons caches were found during the operations in Qaim city, and 54 terrorists were detained, the military said in a statement. It also said that Ghassan Muhammad Amin Husayn al-Rawi, a militant in al-Zarqawi's group who was captured on April 26, had provided intelligence that had helped lead to Sunday's raids.

Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian and the most wanted man in Iraq, is the leader of the terrorist group Al Qaeda in Iraq and has declared his allegiance to Usama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. Al-Zarqawi is tied to many bombings and kidnappings since the U.S.-led invasion removed Saddam Hussein from power more than two years ago. The U.S. military has said al-Rawi had helped Al Qaeda in Iraq arrange meetings and move foreign insurgents into Iraq.

U.S. forces believe they just missed capturing al-Zarqawi himself during a Feb. 20 raid in Iraq that netted two of his associates and a computer believed to belong to him. The U.S. military said Friday that coalition forces had captured or killed hundreds of al-Zarqawi followers in recent months, including 20 top lieutenants and other senior members.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C155829%2C00.html

[al-Canine]

Rebels Said to Have Pool of Bomb-Rigged Cars

By ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON, May 8 - Insurgents in Iraq are drawing on dozens of stockpiled, bomb-rigged cars and groups of foreign fighters smuggled into the country in recent weeks to carry out most of the suicide attacks that have killed about 300 people in the last 10 days, senior American officers and intelligence officials say.

Insurgents exploded 135 car bombs in April, up from 69 in March and more than in any other month in the two-year American occupation.

For the first time last month, more than 50 percent of the car-bombings were suicide attacks, some remotely detonated. The officers and officials have not drawn a single conclusion from this, but one top American general said it suggested that Iraqis were being coerced or duped into driving those missions.

Senior American officers predict that the insurgents, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant whose network has claimed responsibility for the deadliest suicide bombings, will not be able to sustain the level of attacks much longer. And the attacks have not yet dented recruiting for the American-trained Iraqi security forces.

But these officers acknowledged that the increase in suicide bombings over the last two weeks, while possibly a last-ditch effort, had won the militants important propaganda victories by gaining worldwide news media coverage. The benefits, they said, would include bolstering insurgent morale that flagged after the Jan. 30 elections, and depicting the newly formed Iraqi government as incapable of protecting its citizenry.

"When he cranks up the propaganda campaign, it means we've probably hurt him," Brig. Gen. John DeFreitas III, the senior military intelligence officer in Iraq, said of Mr. Zarqawi in a telephone interview. "It's a tool in his arsenal, and he has used it effectively."

Less than two weeks after the government of Ibrahim al-Jaafari won a parliamentary vote of approval, a snapshot of the insurgency reveals an adaptive enemy with the ability to regroup, recalibrate tactics after the setback of the elections and bide its time to strike at a politically opportune moment.

In interviews with a dozen senior military officers now in Iraq or with experience there, as well as other American officials, varying assessments emerged, underscoring the military's opaque understanding of exactly how the disparate strands of the insurgency operate and coordinate with one another.

One senior officer said the recent violence was a predictable "attempt by the enemy to show that they are still a factor, still relevant and still capable." The bombings, the officer said, "grabbed the headlines, drowned out the good news of a newly formed government, attacked the credibility and legitimacy of the new government."

Another officer, a general with extensive command experience in Iraq, acknowledged that he was not sure yet what the rash of suicide car-bombings meant: "More foreign fighters? More religious extremists? An indicator of insurgent desperation? Iraqis as suicide attackers?"

Attacks against allied forces, which dropped to about 40 a day in March and early April, now stand at 55 a day, well below the 130 a day in the prelude to the January elections, but roughly the same as last fall. Attacks against power stations, pipelines and other infrastructure have declined sharply in the last three weeks as insurgents shifted their attacks to Iraqi security forces, American officers said.

The assault last month against the Abu Ghraib prison that wounded 44 Americans and 13 Iraqi prisoners, as well as smaller strikes almost daily since then against the prison that became the epicenter of the detainee-abuse scandal, have been ineffective militarily, but successful as a means of propaganda, General DeFreitas said. "Abu Ghraib is a huge symbol for the insurgents," he said.

To help counter that, American and Iraqi officials have taken pains to announce progress in capturing insurgents. On Sunday, American military officials said soldiers had captured the planner of the Abu Ghraib attack and another wave of bombings on April 29 that killed 40 Iraqis. The man was identified as Amar Adnan Muhammad Hamzah al-Zubaydi, or Abu al-Abbas, a top aide to Mr. Zarqawi.

American officials say the insurgency is still a mix of former Baath Party loyalists, Iraqi military and security service officers, Sunni Arab militants and terrorists like Mr. Zarqawi. They claim progress against the insurgents, killing or capturing at least 20 of Mr. Zarqawi's top lieutenants, driving militants into rural areas less patrolled by the Americans and getting more tips from Iraqis on the location of guerrillas.

Foreign fighters, only a small part of the insurgency, still commit most of the suicide bombings, military officials say. Young jihadists from Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Iran continue to infiltrate Iraq's porous borders despite newly formed Iraqi border patrol units, and teams of specialists sent from the United States Department of Homeland Security to assist them.

"Fighters, arms and other supplies continue to enter Iraq from virtually all of its neighbors despite increased border security," Earl E. Sheck, the Defense Intelligence Agency's director of analysis and production, said at a hearing in Congress last week.

But some intelligence analysts say they believe that Iraqi Sunni extremists are now joining the ranks of suicide bombers in what would be a troubling new trend.

Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, the operations director for the military's Joint Staff, questioned last week whether the remote detonation of suicide bombs could mean that the drivers might be "being forced into that condition by virtue of the fact that someone has got their family, you know, 20 miles away?" A senior military officer in Iraq said it was more likely that bombing plotters were remotely detonating the explosives when their chosen driver balked at the last minute.

Senior military officials said they had been concerned for weeks about intelligence reports that insurgents were stockpiling bomb-rigged cars to be used when the new government formed. Iraqi police commandos seized about 10 vehicles rigged with explosives in the last 10 days.

There is no shortage of explosives in Iraq. Just last week, soldiers and marines destroyed a huge underground cache near Al Amiriyah in western Iraq that contained more than 800 rocket-propelled grenade rounds, 100,000 rounds of machine gun ammunition, and several thousand pounds of explosives.

Top commanders said they expected spikes and lulls in the violence through at least early next year. "It takes everything they've got to muster attacks," Maj. Gen. Stephen T. Johnson, the top Marine commander in Iraq, said in a telephone interview. "Unless the insurgents get involved in the political process, I think we'll continue to see this."

Thom Shanker contributed reporting for this article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/09/politics/09military.html?

[al-Canine]

US refocuses strategy in Iraq

Foreign fighters, Iraqi jihadists now given higher priority over 'former regime elements'.

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

A recent rise in suicide attacks that has left at least 300 people dead in the last 10 days, including eight US troops over the weekend, has US commanders rethinking their strategies in Iraq. The Washington Post reports that higher priority will be given to fighting "foreign troops and Iraqi jihadists." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/08/AR2005050800838.html


"Previously, US authorities have depicted the insurgency as being dominated largely by what the Pentagon has dubbed 'former regime elements' – a combination of onetime Baath Party loyalists and Iraqi military and security service officers intent on restoring Sunni rule. But since the Jan. 30 elections, this segment of the insurgency has appeared to pull back from the fight, at least for a while, reassessing strategies and exploring a possible political deal with the new government, senior US officers here say."

US officers in Iraq admit that the change may only be a temporary one - Sunnis may become more violent if they feel the new political process ignores them - but the rise in attacks to 70 a day over the past month is primarily being fueled by an influx of foreigners, the Post reports.

The BBC reported last Friday on how this new wave of attacks also tips the hand of the insurgency's new focus - targeting the ability of the new government to provide security.

The new US focus, as well as the weekend's heavy casualty toll, are some of the reasons the US launched a major assault in Iraq's western Anbar province, near the Syrian border, a site long believed to be a favorite point for foreign fighters to be smuggled into Iraq. More than 1,000 US troops, along with air support, are involved in the operation which may last several days.

Reuters reports that some 75 militants were killed during the initial stages of the assault. The Associated Press reports that some Marines have said "residents of one riverside town had turned off all their lights at night, apparently to warn neighboring towns of the approaching US troops." http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-05-09-syria-attack_x.htm

The Associated Press reports that the spike in fighting has caused concern in Washington. http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkyNCZmZ2Jl bDdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5NjY5MTM2NiZ5cmlyeTdmNzE3Zjd2cWVlRU V5eTI= Two senior senators, one Democratic and one Republican, said over the weekend that only about one-quarter of the 168,000 Iraqi troops currently being trained are able "or willing" to fight. The outcome of the political process will also make a difference, one way or another, according to Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan.

[indent]"Levin said if Iraqis fail to write a constitution, elect a new government and develop reliable security forces by early next year, Washington will have to rethink its commitment to Iraq. Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, agreed." [indent]

The Guardian also reports that US efforts to rebuild Iraq are "are being hampered by management failures and security problems." http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1479793,00.html

The Wall Street Journal said that a comprehensive US audit, expected to be published later today, will also highlight incidences of apparent corruption, fraud and embezzlement.

The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, is due to outline challenges facing the $18.4bn rebuilding effort. The audit also says that at least 276 civilians working on US government-funded projects have been killed in Iraq, with another 2,582 wounded, the paper reported.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that US troops have captured the "the suspected mastermind" of last month's daring daylight assault on Abu Ghraib prision in Baghdad. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/08/AR2005050800755.html Ammar Adnan Mohammed Hamza al-Zubaydi, was picked up at his home on Saturday. Iraqi and US officials describe him as a "close associate" of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

http://www.christiansciencemonitor.com/specials/sept11/dailyUpdate.html

[Alli]

Army of Ansar al-Sunnah Takes Japanese Hostage
The Army of Ansar al-Sunnah claims to have taken a Japanese man hostage. The man, Akihiko Saito, is alleged by the al Qaeda linked group to have been taken from a convoy 'during a fierce battle in Western Iraq,' in what might be a reference to earlier reports of a successful U.S. attack near the Syrian border. The group also posted a photo of Akikiko Saito's passport and promised more photos would be forthcoming.
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/saito_akihiko_passport-thumb.jpg

source (http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/080409.php)

[Petronas]

Fighters On Syrian Border Prepare For Battle
May 14, 2005 12:13 am US/Eastern

QAIM, Iraq (AP) Iraqi fighters toting machine guns and grenade launchers swaggered through the rubble-strewn streets of this town on the Syrian border Friday, setting up checkpoints and preparing to do battle despite a major U.S. offensive aimed at rooting out followers of Iraq's most-wanted militant. The remote desert region is a haven for foreign combatants who slip across the border along ancient smuggling routes and collect weapons to use in some of Iraq's deadliest attacks, according to the U.S. military. But the fighters who remain in this Sunni town some 200 miles west of Baghdad insist there are no foreigners among them. "We are all Iraqis," one gunman, his face covered with a scarf, told The Associated Press. He said the fighters were trying to prevent U.S. forces from entering the town.

The 6-day-old U.S. offensive in the area — one of the largest since insurgents were forced from Fallujah six months ago — was launched in Qaim and is aimed at supporters of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. U.S. military spokesman Capt. Jeffrey Pool said Marines have not conducted operations inside Qaim since the opening days of the campaign, known as Operation Matador, which began overnight Saturday and led to the killing of six suspected insurgents and capture of 54 in the town.

Instead, according to Pool, rival bands of insurgents are now fighting among themselves, trading mortar, gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire almost nightly. Residents acknowledge fighting in Qaim began even before the U.S. offensive, and characterized it as tribal clashes. The cause of the clashes was not immediately clear.

The U.S. offensive comes amid a surge of militant attacks that have killed at least 430 people across Iraq since April 28, when the country's first democratically elected government was announced.

Also Friday, an American soldier was killed and four others wounded when a car bomb exploded in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, the military said in a statement. At least 1,613 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The U.S. military said Friday its forces have met little resistance in the Qaim region since the first two days of the offensive, when they confronted surprisingly well-organized and well-equipped insurgents fighting from rooftops and inside sandbag bunkers in the nearby town of Obeidi. U.S. forces have set up checkpoints on the outskirts of Qaim and launched airstrikes in villages less than six miles away, but now American intelligence indicates most insurgents are either in hiding or have fled the region, Pool said.

Dozens of gunmen, however, were in plain sight Friday, guarding major intersections and checking vehicles at the entrance to the town. The streets were largely deserted, and shops and markets were closed. Thousands have fled Qaim since U.S. warplanes and helicopter gunships pounded the region earlier this week, flattening homes and other buildings. Many pitched flimsy tents along sand-blown desert highways, or moved into schools and mosques in towns further east. The Iraqi Red Crescent told the British Broadcasting Corp. it needs tents and water for the refugees.

Associated Press Television News footage showed Qaim residents on Friday clearing the heavily damaged Saghir al-Rawi Mosque, which they claimed was hit in a recent U.S. strike. "What kind of an act is that?" asked one angry resident as he pulled a copy of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, from under the rubble. But Pool said it was more likely damaged by fighting among rival groups of gunmen. Qaim's hospital was also damaged in shelling. Doctors tended to bloodied young men at a makeshift facility set up in a private home Friday. The victims said a rocket slammed into them as they were standing on a bridge over the Euphrates River, killing two and wounding six. They did not say what they were doing on the bridge.

American warplanes roared overhead and plumes of smoke rose from nearby villages, but Qaim remained calm Friday. The U.S. military confirmed two air strikes in the region, one in a cave and the other in a village west of Saadah. On Thursday, U.S. fighter jets destroyed a suspected insurgent safe house in Karabilah village, after Marines took fire from at least four gunmen in the building, the U.S. military said. It said gunmen were taking over the homes of Iraqi citizens to evade Marines.

The U.S. military has confirmed five Marine deaths so far and says about 100 insurgents have been killed in the operation. But a Washington Post reporter embedded with U.S. forces put the American death toll Thursday at seven — six of them from one squad.

The new interim prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, extended Iraq's state of emergency for another 30 days Friday, effective from May 3. The emergency decree, which covers all of Iraq except the northern Kurdish-run areas, has been renewed monthly since it was first imposed Nov. 7 — hours before the Fallujah offensive. It includes a nighttime curfew and gives security forces powers of arrest without warrants.

At least nine more Iraqis were killed and 19 wounded in a series of bombings, ambushes and other attacks Friday. They included Iraqi army Maj. Murtadha Younis Hwesh who was killed in a drive-by shooting in western Baghdad, the Defense Ministry said. Also, snipers fired on the motorcade of Interior Ministry undersecretary, Maj. Gen. Hikmat Moussa Hussein, killing one of his guards and wounding three others, police said. Hussein escaped unharmed.

Also Friday, a gunfire exchange with coalition forces in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad left five Iraqi civilians and three suspected insurgents dead. The U.S. military said insurgents in several vehicles tried to ram into a coalition convoy, then fired on the convoy with small arms. Coalition forces returned fire, destroying one vehicle and killing three insurgents, the military said in a statement. When two more vehicles approached, coalition forces took them to be hostile and again opened fire, the statement said. The military did not give the nationality of the forces involved, but said the incident was under investigation.

In another development, Iraqi security forces, with help from the Shiite Muslim Badr Brigades militia, captured an Iraqi and four Palestinians who allegedly carried out a deadly Baghdad market bombing Thursday that killed at least 17 people. The militia is the military wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and Iraq's new interior minister, Bayan Jabr, is a SCIRI member.

http://wcbs880.com/terror/terror_story_134001851.html

[1001]

Rice in surprise visit to Iraq


Sunday 15 May 2005, 13:55 Makka Time, 10:55 GMT

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has*arrived in Iraq*on a surprise visit for talks with Iraqi government leaders and US military commanders.

Rice arrived in the northern Kurdish city of Arbil on Sunday from Qatar. She had flown from Washington in utter secrecy, with only a few aides informed of the trip.
**
From Arbil, the secretary of state*flew*to nearby Salah al-Din -where she was to meet the Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani -*in a convoy of Black Hawk helicopters with Apache escorts.

"I've been looking forward for some time to an opportunity to get to Iraq," Rice told*a trio of reporters accompanying her.*

She said she wanted to discuss ways to move the political process forward in Iraq to help quell*violence that has killed more than 400 people in just over two weeks.

"The insurgency is very violent, but you defeat insurgencies not just militarily - in fact not especially militarily - you defeat them by having a political alternative that is strong," she said.

"The Iraqis are now going to have to intensify their efforts to demonstrate that in fact the political process is the answer for the Iraqi people."


Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7B55DA50-4728-4BE4-9046-E332EBF160A2.htm

[Petronas]

Operation Matador Ends, Marines Continue to Monitor Area
WASHINGTON, May 14, 2005

Operation Matador is over, Marine officials in Iraq announced today. The seven-day operation concentrated on cities near the border with Syria. Pentagon officials said many foreign fighters allied with terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slip across the porous Syrian-Iraqi border. The operation concentrated on the Euphrates River cities of Karabilah, Ramana and Ubaydi, a Marine statement said.

Nine Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2 died in the operation. Forty more were wounded. The statement said the joint-service team's Marines, soldiers and sailors "killed more than 125 terrorists, wounding many others and detaining 39 terrorists of intelligence value."

Coalition officials were concerned about the region even before fighting in Fallujah in November. The area - part of Iraq's Anbar province - is laced with smuggling routes that go back generations. Tribal loyalties extend on both sides of the border, and families often control smuggling "territory" and charge for services, said Pentagon officials. Marine officials said terrorists use the area as a staging ground for attacks against Iraqi and coalition targets in Ramadi, Fallujah, Baghdad and Mosul.

The operation began May 7, and Marines killed about 70 terrorists in the first 24-hour period. "Operation Matador confirmed existing intelligence assessments focused on this region north of the Euphrates River, including knowledge of numerous cave complexes in the nearby escarpment," the Marine statement said.

The Marines will continue to monitor the area, officials said. Servicemembers discovered numerous weapons caches containing machine guns, mortar rounds and rocket materials in towns along the Syrian border. "Six vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices and material used for making other improvised explosive devices were also found," the statement said. "Regimental Combat Team 2 started and ended this operation as planned, accomplished its mission and secured all objectives," said Maj. Gen. Richard A. Huck, 2nd Marine Division commander, quoted in the statement. "Coalition and Iraqi security forces will return again to this area in the future."

In the northern part of Iraq, soldiers of 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division's Stryker Brigade Combat Team seized a large weapons cache May 12. Soldiers found the weapons during a cordon-and-search operation southwest of Qayyarah. The cache included 16 rocket-propelled grenade rounds, a mortar round, one case of fuses, two bags of charges, one pound of C4 explosives and a case of ammunition.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/May2005/20050514_1084.html

[Petronas]

Iraqi Citizen Tips Off U.S. Soldiers on Munitions
WASHINGTON, May 13, 2005

A walk-in tip from an Iraqi citizen May 12 led Task Force Liberty soldiers to a munitions cache and to the discovery of a suspected vehicle borne improvised explosive device cache near Samarra, Iraq, military officials in Baghdad reported today. Munitions and car bomb components seized from the locations consisted of about 1,500 small-arms rounds, about 90 artillery projectiles, more than 80 mortar rounds, two SA-3 booster sections, 125 half-pound blocks of TNT, 400 pounds of PE-4 explosives, 13 anti-tank landmines, 50 electrical blasting caps, firing wire, more than 300 fuses, eight rockets, 128 rocket-propelled grenades, seven RPG launchers, 10 RPG propellant charges, 75 hand grenade detonators and various other bomb-making materials. Task Force Liberty explosive ordnance disposal personnel destroyed both caches.

In other news from Iraq, Iraqi security forces and soldiers from 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), detained 18 suspected terrorists and confiscated a number of weapons in northern Iraq May 12 and today. Iraqi army troops from the 104th Battalion, 23rd Brigade, detained two suspected terrorists in eastern Mosul today. Troops from the 22nd Battalion, 6th Brigade, Iraqi Intervention Force, and the Iraqi army's 106th Battalion, 21st Brigade, alongside U.S. soldiers from 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, detained five suspected terrorists and seized two RPG launchers and hundreds of rounds of AK-47 ammunition northwest of Mosul May 12. Soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, detained four terrorism suspects today in eastern Mosul, and soldiers from 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, detained four other suspects west of Tal Afar and three more in western Mosul. Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, recovered a weapons cache in eastern Mosul after receiving a tip from an Iraqi civilian May 12.

http://www.dod.mil/news/May2005/20050513_1062.html

[1001]

Four Car Bombings Kill Dozens Across Iraq

By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer 5 minutes ago




BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two car bombs exploded Monday near the home of a community leader outside the northern city of Mosul, killing at least 20 people and injuring another 20, Iraqi hospital and police officials said.

ADVERTISEMENT


The explosions occurred in Tal Afar, about 50 miles west of Mosul, said Khesro Goran, Mosul's deputy governor. They may have targeted Hassan Baktash, a Shiite with close ties to the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Goran said. He also is a party member.


At least 20 people were killed, said Mosul's deputy police chief, Brig. Gen. Wathiq Mohammed, and the director of Tal Afar General Hospital, Saleh Qaddo Haider. At least 20 people were injured, Mohammed said.


Earlier, a car bomb exploded at a Baghdad restaurant popular with police, killing at least seven people and wounding at least 82, and militants assassinated a top national security official. Five U.S. troops were killed by roadside bombs and a vehicle accident.


South of Baghdad, a suicide car bomb blew up outside a Shiite mosque shortly before evening prayers, killing at least 10 people and injuring another 30, authorities said. The explosion occurred at 8 p.m. in front of the Abul-Fadl Abbas mosque in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, Lt. Odai al-Zayadi said.


Dawoud al-Tai, director of the Mahmoudiya general hospital, said 10 bodies and 30 wounded people were brought to his facility.


Iraqi soldier Alaa Abdul-Mohsen said the suicide bomber attempted to drive his explosives-packed car into the mosque, but a protective sand barrier kept him away. Instead, the car rammed into an adjacent house and detonated.


U.S. and Iraqi forces detained 300 suspected insurgents in the biggest sweep in the capital to date.


The car bomb in the busy Talibia neighborhood was detonated outside the Habayibna restaurant at a time when police officers usually meet there for lunch, said police Lt. Zaid Tarek.


"All these people were killed for no reason. What wrong did they do by being policemen or soldiers?" shaken restaurant owner Mshari Hassan said shortly after the blast.


Casualties were taken to three Baghdad hospitals. Al-Kindi hospital received three dead and 54 injured, according to its admission records.


Another three dead and 13 injured were taken to Al-Sadr hospital, director Rahim al-Majidi said. At least 10 more wounded were taken to Imam Ali hospital and five to the Medical City hospital.


The hospitals did not say whether the dead included soldiers or police officers.


Earlier, two carloads of gunmen killed Maj. Gen. Wael al-Rubaei, a top national security official, and his driver in Baghdad's latest drive-by shooting.


Al-Qaida in Iraq, the group run by Jordanian terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for killing al-Rubaei in a statement posted on an Internet site used by the group. The claim's authenticity could not be verified.


Al-Rubaei's killing came a day after another senior government official, Trade Ministry auditing office chief Ali Moussa, was killed as part of an ongoing terror campaign that has killed more than 550 people in less than a month.


Since April 27, insurgents have targeted government and military officials in a campaign of assassinations and kidnappings. There have been at least 28 such incidents, including 18 assassinations, six attempted assassinations, three kidnappings and assassinations, and one kidnapping, according to an Associated Press count.


The U.S. military said Monday that three American soldiers were killed Sunday and one was injured in two separate attacks in the northern city of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Another two Task Force Liberty soldiers also were killed in separate incidents Sunday. The first was killed when his patrol was attacked with a car bomb just north of Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad. The other was killed in a vehicle accident near Kirkuk.

As of Monday, at least 1,634 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

In other violence around Iraq, a suicide bomber killed five people and injured 13 when he drove an explosives-packed pickup truck into a crowd outside a municipal council office in Tuz Khormato, 55 miles south of Kirkuk, said police commander Lt. Gen. Sarhat Qader.

Another two people were killed and two were injured in Kirkuk when a mortar round landed on a house, police Capt. Farhad Talabani said.

In the former insurgent stronghold of Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, three suicide bombers tried to attack an American military base, injuring three soldiers, the military said.

The joint offensive, dubbed Operation Squeeze Play, appeared to be winding down Monday. It involved seven Iraqi battalions backed by U.S. forces and was centered on western Baghdad's Abu Ghraib district, targeting militants suspected of attacking the U.S. detention facility there and the road linking downtown to the international airport, the military said.

"This is the largest combined operation with Iraqi security forces to date," said U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Clifford Kent. "The Iraqi Security Forces have the lead in this operation while we perform shaping and supporting roles."

Three Romanian journalists who had been held hostage in Iraq for nearly two months arrived home aboard a military plane Monday, a day after their release.

TV reporter Marie Jeanne Ion and cameraman Sorin Miscoci, and newspaper reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian were kidnapped in Baghdad on March 28 with their guide, American-Iraqi Mohammed Monaf. The four were freed Sunday.

Iraqi insurgents had demanded Romania withdraw its soldiers from Iraq. Bucharest rejected the demand. The three journalists were greeted Monday by Romania's President Traian Basescu and hundreds of journalists and friends.

Separately, Iraqi security forces captured Ismail Budair Ibrahim al-Obeidi, a "terrorist" close to al-Zarqawi's network, in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, a government statement said.

The suspect, also known as Abu Omar, planned car bomb attacks in Baghdad and rigged booby-trapped cars for foreign fighters, the statement said.

Meanwhile, aides to radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr sought to defuse tension between Sunnis and the majority Shiites after a recent series of sectarian killings. Sunnis are believed to make up the bulk of Iraq's deadly insurgency.

The senior aides met Sunday with the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars, a key Sunni group, in a bid to soothe tensions that have flared and resulted in the deaths of 10 Shiite and Sunni clerics in the past two weeks.

The association's leader, Harith al-Dhari, last week pinned the killing of several Sunnis, including clerics, on the Badr Brigades, the military wing of Iraq's largest Shiite party, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The militia denied the charge and accused the Sunni association of trying to start a civil war.

___

Associated Press reporter Alison Mutler in Bucharest, Romania, and Julie Reed of the News and Information Research Center in New York contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050523/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[Alli]

About 1,000 U.S. Troops Launch New Anti-Insurgent Offensive in Western Iraq

By Antonio Castaneda Associated Press Writer
Published: May 25, 2005
HADITHA, Iraq (AP) - About 1,000 U.S. Marines, sailors and soldiers encircled this Euphrates River city in the troubled Anbar province before dawn on Wednesday, launching the second major anti-insurgent operation in this vast western region in less than a month.
The offensives are aimed at uprooting insurgents who have killed more than 620 people since a new Iraqi government was announced on April 28. Many of those Insurgents are thought to be foreign fighters who have slipped across the border from Syria.

Syria is under intense pressure to stop foreign fighters from entering Iraq across their porous 380 mile-long border. Both the United States and Iraq, at their highest leadership levels, have been demanding Syria do more. Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said last week that he would soon visit Syria for talks with officials about repeated border infiltration.

full article (http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBY51CC59E.html)

[Petronas]

TERROR GANG: WE KILLED HOSTAGE
May 28, 2005
DUBAI

An Islamic militant group said early today that it had killed a Japanese hostage and posted footage allegedly showing his bloodied body, according to an Internet video. The Army of Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for shooting Akihiko Saito, 44, who had been missing in Iraq since May 8.

The video showed identification papers and a passport allegedly belonging to Saito, a former paratrooper and veteran of the French Foreign Legion. The video displayed the body of a dead man on his back with a bloodied face that resembled Saito.

http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/47360.htm

[Casey]

US Military Destroys Bunkers in Iraq
Agence France Presse BAGHDAD, 7 June 2005 — The US military said yesterday it had smashed two bunkers in Iraq that served as insurgent lairs, while 15 Iraqis were killed in an unyielding spate of attacks.

US forces destroyed a former Republican Guard bunker system in the Yusifiyah area southwest of the capital on Thursday following a tip-off by local residents and surveillance of the site, said a military statement.

It said the bunker, located in an area that housed a large part of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein’s former military-industrial complex, was being used by insurgents to store ammunition.

“Coalition forces engaged the complex with five high-precision smart-bombs,” it said. “Secondary detonations emanating from inside the complex” continued for about six hours after the strike, the statement added.

On Sunday, US troops destroyed another bunker system built in an abandoned rock quarry in Karmah, near the former rebel bastion of Fallujah west of Baghdad, which had been found four days earlier.

About 300 pounds of plastic explosives were used to destroy the network and the weapons stored inside, the military said, adding that 12 weapons caches were also found within an eight-kilometer radius of the bunker.

At least 15 Iraqis and one US soldier have been killed in attacks since late Sunday, according to the US military and Iraqi security sources. An Iraqi civilian was killed and two wounded in a mortar attack against an Iraqi police checkpoint in the northern city of Mosul, police said. Five civilians, including two children, died Sunday in a similar attack west of Mosul, the US military said without giving details. Two Iraqi soldiers were killed in an attack on their checkpoint near Samarra, north of Baghdad, police said.

Nine Iraqi soldiers were wounded in suicide car bomb attacks in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, north of the capital, and Haswa to the south, said Iraqi security sources. Three members of the elite Iraqi commando force were wounded in a car bombing in the capital’s southwestern Al-Amil neighborhood, said a source at the Interior Ministry.

The US soldier died Sunday after his patrol was struck by a roadside bomb near the northern oil city of Kirkuk, the US military said.

The Interior Ministry had announced Sunday the arrest in the northern city of Mosul of two senior members of the organization of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Jordanian-born Zarqawi, who has $25 million bounty on his head and is Iraq’s most wanted man, is believed to have been wounded, but the severity of his injuries is not known.

Iraq yesterday offered a reward of $50,000 for information leading to the arrest of Abu Abdullah Al-Shafi, the alleged leader of Ansar Al-Sunnah, a group tied to the Al-Qaeda terror network. “Intelligence sources believe that foreign Arabs under the direct control of Al-Shafi actively recruit and train terrorists,” a government statement said.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi court that will try Saddam Hussein yesterday contradicted government statements that the deposed leader would go on trial within two months, saying there was no fixed timetable.

“There is no precise schedule for holding the trial, in accordance with the independence of the Iraqi Special Tribunal,” it said in a statement.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=64984&d=7&m=6&y=2005&pix=world.jpg&category=World%22

[Casey]

Insurgents in Iraq go on killing spree
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-06-12 07:46

A former commando in the feared Wolf Brigade blew himself up after sneaking into the morning roll call at the unit's heavily fortified headquarters Saturday, one of a series of weekend insurgent attacks that killed at least 35 people including youngsters waiting to buy sandwiches and ice cream.

Near the Syrian border, Marine airstrikes wiped out a band of 40 heavily armed militants.

The American military said Marines ordered the four-hour bombardment near the Anbar province frontier city of Qaim after insurgents took control of a road "and were threatening Iraqi civilians,"

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-06/12/xin_53060212074263921251.jpg
U.S. air strikes killed an estimated 40 insurgents in western Iraq on June 11, 2005, the military said, but in Baghdad a suicide bomber attacked the headquarters of an elite police unit, killing three. Children look inside a car after a suicide car bomb attack in Baghdad.[Reuters]

The Marines had lost seven men to militant attacks in the province, an insurgent stronghold, since Thursday. Saturday's airstrikes, 200 miles west of Baghdad, hit insurgents suspected in the recent killing of 21 people, including three who were beheaded and believed to be from a group of missing Iraqi soldiers.

The Marines said their aircraft fired seven precision-guided missiles at insurgents who were armed with AK-47 assault rifles, medium-duty machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. No U.S. forces nor civilians were hurt in the confrontation, the military said.

In Baghdad, Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, a Shiite in charge of fighting the predominantly Sunni Arab insurgency, vowed he would never talk to anyone "who stole the smile off our children's faces," an apparent reference the deaths of the children in the killing spree that began Friday night.

Jabr said the attack against the feared Wolf Brigade, a predominantly Shiite unit, was carried out by one of its former members, whom he did not name.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack. In an Internet statement posted on a web site used by militant groups, the terrorist organization identified the suicide bomber as a Sunni seeking vengeance. The Wolf Brigade has been accused of heavy-handed targeting of Iraq's Sunni minority. The statement's authenticity couldn't be verified.

Gunmen also attacked an Interior Ministry commando convoy in western Baghdad, killing three police officers.

The weekend attacks further soured efforts by the Shiite-dominated government and Sunni leaders who are searching for a political means to end the insurgency, which sharply escalated after the April 28 announcement of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's government.

Despite Iraqi claims of success in fighting militants, at least 934 people have been killed in insurgent attacks since the government was put in place. At least one-third of the victims were killed in car bombings, many the work of suicide attackers.

Shiite and Kurdish politicians, including Iraq's president, have sought to defuse sectarian tensions by including more members of the Sunni minority in a committee to draft the country's new constitution ¡ª which requires countrywide approval. The charter must be drafted by mid-August and submitted to a referendum two months later.

"The Sunni Arabs are an essential structure of the country and they should not be marginalized. They should have a real representation in Iraq and must participate in drafting the constitution," said Mouwafak al-Rubaie, a Shiite legislator and former national security adviser.

Speaking to reporters after talks with Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in southern Najaf, al-Rubaie also said he thought Saddam Hussein could face trial before the referendum. The government last week made similar claims, but subsequently stepped back from setting a date.

"As a government we are looking forward to seeing Saddam Hussein inside the court's cage before the referendum, but there are some security and political obstacles concerning this issue," he said.

Efforts to contact insurgent groups requires that government representatives open channels of communication through Sunni leaders who have contacts with militants. So far such contacts have been limited to groups that carry out "national resistance," a phrase that is used to describe militants who only carry out attacks against U.S.-led coalition troops.

But after the weekend attacks Jabr, a reputed hard-liner, did not appear willing to accept any contacts with militants.

"We shall have channels of communication with anyone who has not been involved in killing or terrorism. We are not prepared to open channels with those who stole the smile off our children's faces and killed our sons," Jabr told a news conference.

He said a two-week old counterinsurgency campaign in Baghdad known Operation Lightning was a success and expressed confidence that the government would have full control of the country within six months.

"Operation Lightning has forced the terrorists to flee outside Baghdad," Jabr said. "Within the coming six months, God willing, we will spread security all over Iraq."

So far 1,318 suspects have been arrested in the campaign, and Jabr claimed it had played a part in dramatically reducing car bomb attacks in the capital.

Before Operation Lightning, there were an average of 12 car bombings in Baghdad each day. That number has dropped to less than two a day, he said. There have 26 bombings involving cars since the operation began on May 29, according to an Associated Press count.

The weekend's bloodshed in Baghdad began late Friday night when a car bomb exploded outside a shop selling falafel sandwiches and ice cream, a popular hangout for youngsters in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Shula. The blast ripped across a sidewalk and killed 10 people sitting or waiting for the fried chickpea sandwiches, a staple in the Middle East.

In Diyara, a town 30 miles south of Baghdad, insurgents killed at least 11 Iraqi construction workers and wounded three others when the sprayed a minibus with gunfire. Police said the victims worked on both civilian and U.S. military construction projects.

A suicide bomber drove his car into a concrete blast wall in front of the Slovakian Embassy in southeast Baghdad, injuring four people. In addition to the 35 people killed in insurgent attacks Friday night and Saturday, two Iraqi security guards were killed by U.S. forces when the men did not respond to orders to stop as they approached an American convoy in Baghdad.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-06/12/content_450631.htm

[Casey]

18 killed in Kirkuk blast

Last Updated Tue, 14 Jun 2005 05:50:51 EDT CBC News (http://www.cbc.ca/news/credit.html)


At least 18 people were killed and dozens injured when a roadside bomb exploded outside a bank in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk Tuesday. Among the fatalities were child street vendors selling various products including sugar and kitchen utensils, police said.

Around 53 people were also injured in the blast.

The bomb exploded around 9 a.m. as people stood in line waiting outside the Rafidiyan Bank, police said.

The bomb was planted outside the bank, close to a walkover bridge crossing the road.





http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/06/14/kirkuk-blast050614.html

[Ono]

They've been on one hell of a killing spree the last two weeks.

[Casey]

Security forces arrest reputed al-Qaeda suicide car bomb maker
ASSOCIATED PRESS



4:39 a.m. June 14, 2005


BAGHDAD, Iraq – Security forces have captured a reputed key member of Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist group who is accused of building and selling cars used by suicide bombers, the government said Tuesday. Jassim Hazan Hamadi al-Bazi, also known as Abu Ahmed, was arrested June 7, it said in an announcement. It added that he was part of an al-Qaeda cell run by a man identified as Hussayn Ibrahim.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq and other extremist Islamic groups have been blamed for many of the suicide car bombings, beheadings and attacks that have killed at least 1,009 people since the Shiite-led government was announced on April 28.

According to the announcement, al-Bazi built and sold remote-controlled bombs used in roadside attacks from an electronic repair shop in Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad.

It added that al-Bazi sold the bombs for about $18,000 each "and was involved in building suicide vehicle" bombs and land mines that were used in Balad and Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

One such suicide car bomb attack Monday in Samarra – and an ensuing gunbattle between insurgents and police – killed three policemen and a civilian.

The government statement said al-Bazi "was also an active weapons dealer selling missiles, guns, mortars and hand grenades. Iraqi security officials believe he is a primary suspect for providing weapons and the training for attacks against the Iraqi people, the Iraqi government and the Iraqi security forces."




http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20050614-0439-iraq-al-qaidaarrest.html

[Casey]

Algerian link is reported in car bombings in Iraq
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Wednesday, Jun. 15 2005

North African, Mideast
terror cells are joining
forces, U.S. official says


DAKAR, Senegal - Up to 20 percent of suicide car bombers in Iraq are from
Algeria, a sign of growing cooperation between Islamic extremists in northern
Africa and like-minded Iraqis, a senior U.S. military official said Tuesday.

The officer said terrorist cells in the Middle East and northern Africa were
increasingly joining forces as they face crackdowns in their own countries,
leading to a stepped-up flow of money and Islamic extremists to Iraq.

Forensic investigations have revealed that 20 percent of suicide car bombers in
Iraq are Algerian and roughly 5 percent come from Morocco and Tunisia,
according to the officer with responsibilities in Europe and Africa.

The majority of foreign bombers in Iraq are believed to come from countries in
the Persian Gulf, mainly Saudi Arabia and Yemen, U.S. officials say.

The officer said the numbers had increased but gave no specific figures. He
said increasing efforts on the part of Algerian, Moroccan and Libyan security
services to combat local terrorist cells have resulted in extremists joining
international operations. But he warned they would later return home.

The United States has reacted by funneling more money and troops into north and
northwest Africa to train and equip armies to combat the growing threat from
local terrorist and insurgent groups such as Algeria's Salafist Group for Call
and Combat, which is believed to have links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida
network and is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S.

The Algerian group was accused of involvement in kidnapping 32 European
tourists in the Sahara in 2003 and launching a raid into Mauritania this month
that left 24 people dead.

Last week, U.S. troops from the European Command - which overseas U.S military
interests in Europe and most of Africa - kicked off a two-week counterterrorism
training exercise called Flintlock involving forces from Algeria, Chad,
Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Nigeria, Tunisia and Morocco.

The officer said north African Islamic militant groups were providing some cash
to the insurgency in Iraq - about $200,000 so far, mostly funneled through
Europe to Syria and into Iraq.

Underground European networks were providing more cash, while African networks
were providing manpower - mostly unskilled militants used to drive and then
detonate car bombs that have killed thousands.

Once in the country, extremists join up with the al-Qaida-linked network of
Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Islamic militants are traveling through Turkey, into Iran and crossing into
Iraq - many times through unpoliced areas along Iraq's vast border.

Some Islamic fighters were believed to be returning to their home countries as
well - people who can plan, work communications devices, and design and set off
explosives, the officer said.

The U.S. military involvement in Africa is largely aimed at preventing
terrorists from establishing sanctuaries in the region's unpoliced deserts and
jungles, particularly those where Muslims are a majority.

Many local insurgent or terrorist groups are self-funded, he said, through
petty crime and smuggling operations. The Sahara desert's remote trade routes
have long been believed a haven for human and drug traffickers.http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/world/story/F46ED0222C8B1DB786257021001072C1?OpenDocument

[Casey]

June 15, 2005

Deadly new bombings rock Iraq
Violence in Kirkuk is worst in ethnically mixed city since war started in March 2003.

Aftermath: An Iraqi policeman removes debris from the scene of a suicide bombing in the northern town of Kirkuk. Also Tuesday, the military reported the deaths of three U.S. soldiers and a Marine. --
Yahya Ahmed / Associated Press

By Yehia Barzanji
Associated Press

KIRKUK, Iraq -- A suicide bomber struck outside a bank as elderly men and women waited to cash their pension checks Tuesday, killing 23 people and wounding nearly 100 in this oil-rich northern city that has become a flashpoint for sectarian tension.

Elsewhere, five Iraqi soldiers were killed and two wounded in a suicide car bombing at a checkpoint in Kan'an, 30 miles north of Baghdad, and the bodies of 24 men -- victims of recent insurgent ambushes in the west of the country -- were transported to a hospital in the capital.

Also Tuesday, an American soldier and Marine were killed -- the soldier when a roadside bomb hit his convoy in southern Baghdad and the Marine in combat operations near Fallujah, the military said. Two other soldiers assigned to a Marine unit died in a roadside bombing Monday in Ramadi, 60 miles west of the capital.

The violence in Kirkuk was the worst to hit the ethnically mixed city, 180 miles north of Baghdad, since the war started in March 2003. The largest previous attack was the Sept. 4 suicide car bombing outside an Iraqi police academy that killed 20 people.

A man wearing a belt packed with explosives blew himself up outside the Rafidiyan Bank just after it opened Tuesday morning, said Gen. Sherko Shakir, Kirkuk's police chief.

A crowd of street vendors and elderly men and women waiting outside the bank bore the brunt of the blast, and a pregnant woman and several children were among the victims.

Body parts were strewn for 20 yards in every direction from the blast. The bodies of several victims were found in the rubble of a nearby pedestrian overpass. Two cars were set on fire.

Al-Qaida's northern affiliate, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings in northern Iraq.


http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050615/NEWS06/506150470/1012/NEWS06

[Alli]

Gosh, I hope they don't say anything mean to the insurgents, or *gasp* give them dirty looks! We don't want to get Dick Durkin angry at the marines again!! :eek:

'Operation Spear' Launched in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq — The U.S. military launched a major combat operation Friday, sending 1,000 Marines and Iraqi soldiers to hunt for insurgents and foreign fighters in a volatile western province straddling Syria.

Operation Spear started in the pre-dawn hours in Anbar province to hunt for insurgents and foreign fighters, the military said. The area, which straddles the Syrian border, is where U.S. forces said it killed about 40 militants in airstrikes in Karabilah on June 11.

The operation came one day after Air Force Brig. Gen. Don Alston called the Syrian border the "worst problem" in terms of stemming the influx of foreign fighters to Iraq. Syria is under intense pressure from Washington and Baghdad to tighten control of its porous 380-mile border with Iraq.

more (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159858,00.html)

[Casey]

Al-Qaeda forms 'all-Iraqi' bombing unit

Zarqawi’s group creates unit of would-be suicide bombers made up exclusively of Iraqis.

DUBAI - The Al-Qaeda linked group headed by Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said Wednesday it has created a unit of would-be suicide bombers made up exclusively of Iraqis.

"A unit of martyrs named Al-Ansar, belonging to the martyr Brigades of Al-Baraa bin Malek, has been formed. All its members are Iraqis," said an Internet statement whose authenticity could not be confirmed.

The statement said the decision to form the unit came "due to strong demand from martyrdom seekers among Iraqis."

The group had announced in early June that it formed the Brigades of Al-Baraa bin Malek, naming its leader as Abu Dujana al-Ansari.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Tuesday that hundreds of foreigners are in detention in Baghdad and that he believed most of the suicide bombers behind attacks in Iraq were foreign nationals.

"They are from Yemen, from Saudi Arabia, from north Africa, Egypt, from Jordan, from Syria... We are catching them. We are trying to stop them," he said.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/iraq/?id=13829

[Casey]

Gunmen kill Iraqi judge who was to sit on constitutional committee
Frank GriffithsCanadian Press
June 22, 2005

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/cp/world/20050621/w062158a.jpg

A unidentified Kurdish man, right, sits with an injured family member at a hospital in Irbil, Iraq Monday. (AP/Yahya Ahmed)BAGHDAD (AP) - Gunmen killed a judge Wednesday in Baghdad whose name previously was on a list of Sunni Arabs joining a parliamentary committee drafting Iraq's new constitution, officials said.

Jassim al-Issawi, whose candidacy to join the 55-member committee was later dropped, was also a law professor at Baghdad University and the former editor-in-chief of Al-Siyadah newspaper, said Salih al-Mutlak, secretary general of the Sunni National Dialogue Council Al-Issawi, 51, and his son were killed in Baghdad's northwestern Shula neighbourhood, said Abdul Sattar Jawad, current editor of Al-Siyadah.

The core of a violent insurgency wracking most of Iraq is thought to be mainly composed of Sunni Arabs whose aim is to start a civil war between the minority Sunnis and the Shiite majority. Some militants have begun threatening fellow Sunnis because some of its leaders have expressed a readiness to join the political process.

"The assassination of professor Jassim al-Issawi comes within an organized campaign aiming to liquidate all Sunni figures who will play an important role in the upcoming political process," said al-Mutlak, whose council has played a major part in discussions about Sunnis participating on the constitutional committee. "Many threats were directed toward Sunni figures in order for them not to take part in the constitutional committee."

On Monday, Sunnis submitted a list of 15 candidates for the Shiite-dominated parliamentary committee drafting a new constitution, but were having second thoughts about a demand by legislators that they first win the backing of a larger Sunni group. The names of the Sunni candidates have not been announced, but al-Issawi was never on the most recent list. He was dropped in earlier negotiating rounds, officials said.

The latest snag in efforts to give Sunnis a bigger say in drafting the constitution will likely take days to resolve, further eroding the little time remaining for the charter to be drafted by mid-August. Iraq's government wants to hold a referendum on the charter ahead of December elections for a full-term government.

The new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, meanwhile, expressed horror at the violence wracking the country and said Islamic extremists and Saddam Hussein loyalists are trying to start a civil war.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who arrived from Afghanistan, said Tuesday that militants are using Iraqis as "cannon fodder" in a quest to dominate the Islamic world.

"I am horrified by the daily suffering of the Iraqi people. The terrorists attack ordinary people, teachers, doctors, newly trained police and others who are assisting the people of Iraq," Khalilzad added.

His comments followed a series of attacks by suicide bombers in Baghdad and northern Iraq on Sunday and Monday that killed dozens of people - many of them police. At least one of the attacks was claimed by Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi's "al-Qaida in Iraq."

The number of attacks blamed on Islamic extremists has escalated since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his Shiite-led government on April 28. Nearly 1,200 people have been killed since then, according to an Associated Press count based on military, police and hospital reports.

On Tuesday, al-Qaida in Iraq said it has formed a unit of potential suicide attackers who are exclusively Iraqis, an apparent bid to deflect criticism that most suicide bombers in Iraq are foreigners.

The U.S. military has said foreign fighters make up only about five per cent of the insurgents fighting the U.S. presence in Iraq. They do a disproportionate amount of killing, however, in part because they are more likely to carry out suicide bombings.

Analysts in the U.S. and elsewhere say the foreign fighters are primarily Islamic militants waging what they regard as jihad or holy war, while the much larger homegrown, mostly Sunni Arab, insurgency has tended to be motivated more by political grievance and factional rivalry.

Al-Zarqawi purportedly gave his stamp of approval last month to the killing of fellow Muslims and civilians collaborating with Iraq's Shiite-led government and the United States.

U.S. Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, commander of the Multinational Corps in Iraq, said Tuesday a group of non-Iraqis led by the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi was behind many of the spectacular bombings on civilian targets.

Wednesday's violence killed at least four people in separate attacks. A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi police patrol that included a special operations unit, killing two policeman and wounding two others in Madain, about 20 kilometres southeast of Baghdad, said police Maj. Raed Falah al-Mehamadawi said.

Separately, a group of children riding bicycles ran over a bomb planted beneath the ground east of Baqouba, killing a nine-year-old boy and injured two others - aged six and seven, Army Maj. Fadhil al-Timimi said. Baqouba is 60 kilometres northeast of Baghdad.

In the third attack, a roadside explosion meant for a U.S. military convoy killed an Iraqi civilian and wounded three others west of Ramadi, Dr. Abdullah al-Dulaimi said. There were no reports of U.S. casualties in the city, 115 kilometres west of Baghdad.



© The Canadian Press 2005
http://www.canada.com/news/world/story.html?id=6ea43d81-87cd-4ee2-8034-195c3ae6d2af

[Petronas]

Egypt becomes first Arab country to name ambassador to Iraq
Thursday, June 23, 2005

BRUSSELS: Iraq’s interim government said Wednesday that Egypt had become the first Arab country to name an ambassador to Baghdad since the Arabs vehemently opposed the US-led invasion in March 2003. The announcement was made at an international conference which diplomats said would urge all regional countries to bolster or re-establish diplomatic ties with Baghdad as well as cooperate to stop militants infiltrating Iraq. “I would like to salute Egypt” for its role “in showing regional leadership by taking the decision to appoint the first Arab ambassador we hope soon to welcome in the new Iraq,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told the conference in Brussels. He also praised the European Union, which is a co-sponsor of the conference with the United States, for deciding to open a mission in Baghdad, but urged the EU to act on the decision and set up a “fully operational office” soon.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_23-6-2005_pg4_13

[Casey]

Suspected Saudi terrorist reportedly killed in Iraq

Cleric was 24th on kingdom's most-wanted list




BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- One of Saudi Arabia's most-wanted terrorist suspects was killed recently in battle with U.S. troops in Iraq near the Syrian border, according to a statement on an Islamist Web (http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?p=238074#post238074) site Thursday.

The posting said that Abdullah al-Rashoud "responded to God's call and rushed toward paradise," being "martyred" near Qaim. It was signed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.

Al-Rashoud, a cleric, was 24th on Saudi Arabia's list of most-wanted suspected terrorists. If he is dead, then all but two of 26 on the list have been killed or captured, said Gen. Mansour Turki, a Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman.

The development comes after U.S. and Iraqi forces concluded Operation Spear this week in Karabila near Qaim.

The offensive was one of two recent operations seeking to destroy havens for insurgents and foreign fighters near the Iraqi-Syrian border in the sprawling, violence-wracked Anbar province.

About 1,000 troops -- including U.S. Marines and sailors and Iraqi soldiers -- took part in Operation Spear. (Full story (http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/06/17/iraq.main/))

U.S. Marine intelligence officer Capt. Thomas Sibley said he had no knowledge of al-Rashoud being among fighters killed in the operation.

" possible that this individual was killed either during the fighting in Operation Spear or during pre-operation airstrikes," Sibley said.

He said intelligence reports indicated a significant number of foreign fighters were among about 50 insurgents killed in Karabila. Previous airstrikes on houses in the city killed about 40 insurgents, including foreign fighters, the Marines said.

Documents found in safe houses as the Marines swept through Karabila over the weekend included Saudi, Libyan, Algerian, Sudanese and Tunisian passports, the Marines said. The passports indicated all had come through the Syrian capital of Damascus.

Al-Zarqawi's statement said al-Rashoud entered Iraq about 45 days ago "aiming to support and lift up his faith and religion."

Turki said the report of al-Rashoud's death in Iraq is evidence that the Saudi crackdown on terrorism has forced al Qaeda to try to implement its plans elsewhere.

Jordanian-born insurgent leader Al-Zarqawi pledged his allegiance to Osama bin Laden in October. The United States has put a $25 million bounty on his capture or death. He is wanted for fueling the insurgency in Iraq and in connection with the beheadings of Western hostages as well as Iraqis and other civilians.

In March 2004, Jordan sentenced al-Zarqawi in absentia to 15 years in jail for a plot to attack the country's embassy in Iraq.

It was al-Zarqawi's second such sentence in Jordan; he also was sentenced to death for killing a U.S. diplomat in Amman.

[i]CNN's Jane Arraf and Caroline Faraj contributed to this report.



http://images.clickability.com/pti/spacer.gif
Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/06/23/saudi.killed

[Casey]

Iraq Shia leader wants insurgents wiped out
Sunni scholar condemns car bombs against civilians

http://www.bahraintribune.com/Archive/June_2005/25_6_2005_e5-1.jpg




BAGHDAD: One of Iraq’s most powerful Shia leaders, Abdul Aziz Al Hakim, ruled out any dialogue yesterday with insurgents who, he said, had declared all out war on his community and “must be terminated”.

Sunni Islamists and their Baathist allies no longer seemed focused on battling US occupation or other political aims but on a sectarian fight to the death with Shias, the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) said at his fortified headquarters compound in Baghdad.
“The terrorist groups have revealed their purpose, which is creating sectarian strife, and stand in the way of the political process and building the new Iraq,” Hakim said, a day after two waves of car bombs killed more than 30 people in mainly Shia neighbourhoods of the capital.

“What is new in these attacks is that they have started targeting the Shias openly and clearly,” he said. “These terrorists must be terminated.”
Last year there were a number of major attacks on civilians in the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala and elsewhere.

Since the once-oppressed majority community took control of government two months ago, anti-Shia rhetoric from Al Qaeda’s Iraqi wing and other groups has sharpened.

Hakim, who once led SCIRI’s Badr Brigade militia against Saddam Hussein’s forces from exile in Iran, has urged Shias not to be provoked into civil war against Sunnis and said those opponents with political aims were welcome in negotiations.

The Badr movement, whose uniformed militiamen guard Hakim’s office beneath a highway bridge on the banks of the Tigris, has denied sending hit squads to kill Sunni scholars.

Ministers in the coalition government, over which Hakim has great influence without having a cabinet post of his own, have said they are in indirect talks with nationalist militants who have been fighting American troops and whose aims appear partly to be to maintain a measure of power for the Sunni minority.

But Hakim, who survived a suicide bomb attack on his compound six months ago, made clear he saw most violence now as the work of Saddam’s Baathist followers set on recovering power and groups like Al Qaeda’s Iraqi wing, led by Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, and Ansar Al Sunna.

Each of these claimed one of the latest coordinated car bomb attacks.
“Their target is not the occupation or anything else but the (Shias) in Iraq,” said Hakim.

“There is no way to open a dialogue with these terrorists. They are not a political movement and their differences with us are not political,” Hakim said, adding that he was happy to see an Iraqi constitution, currently being drafted, that reflected present, US-sponsored, interim arrangements.
These give weight to Islamic Law but do not foresee the sort of theocracy found in Iran’s Islamic Republic.

Hakim said that military force of the kind employed over the past month in Baghdad by his SCIRI ally, Interior Minister Bayan Jabor, was the only response to the attacks.

Operation Lightning, conducted by police in conjunction with US and Iraqi troops, led to the detention of 1,200 suspects, though the week’s bombings show it is some way from total success.

Hakim, who took over the movement in 2003 when his brother was killed by a bomb in Najaf, said he hoped, not least for personal reasons, that Saddam himself would soon be given a quick trial in Iraq followed by execution.
“There is no doubt Saddam deserves more than just execution,” he said. “I am among those who are going to file a complaint for killing 64 members of my family. For these crimes alone ... he deserves 64 executions.”

Meanwhile A leading Sunni Arab scholar condemned suicide car bombings against civilians in his sermon in Baghdad yesterday saying they aim to provoke a sectarian war in the violence-torn country.

“What is the purpose of blowing up a car bomb outside the Sadr office in Shuala,” questioned Sheikh Abdul Ghafur Al Samarrai from the pulpit of the Umm Al Qura Mosque in the capital.

“It is actually quiet clear: to provoke sectarian fitna,” he added referring to a threat to Islamic order.

A trio of car bombs, including one in front of an office belonging to the movement of Shiite cleader Moqtada Sadr, killed 18 people and wounded 46 on Wednesday in the capital’s predominantly Shia district of Shuala.
Four other car bombs on Thursday in the Shia section of the central Karradah district, including two in front of mosques, killed 17 and wounded 69.

Samarrai is a member of the hardline Sunni Committee of Muslim Scholars which has sanctioned armed resistance to foreign-troop presence in Iraq.
“These attacks have unmasked terrorists pretending they are waging a noble resistance,” thundered Sheikh Sadreddin Al Kubbanji in his sermon at the Imam Ali mausoleum and mosque in the central city of Najaf.
Kubbanji is a partisan of Al Hakim.

n WASHINGTON: Two US Marines were killed and three other Marines and a US sailor were also presumed killed in a powerful suicide car bomb attack on a US convoy, a US military official said yesterday.

“Two Marines were killed and we presume that the other four troops, who are missing, were killed,” said the official, who asked not to be identified.
A statement released by the US Marines said only that the three missing Marines and a sailor believed to be in the US military vehicle attacked in Fallujah on Thursday were “currently listed as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown pending a positive identification.”

The attack occurred late on Thursday in the violent city west of Baghdad that was until recently a stronghold of the insurgency in Iraq. – Agencies




http://www.bahraintribune.com/ArticleDetail.asp?CategoryId=2&ArticleId=74107

[NewsGuy]

Iraq kidnappers killed other hostages right next to me, says freed Australian
(AP)

26 June 2005

SYDNEY - An Australian engineer freed earlier this month after 47 days held hostage by insurgents in Baghdad had to listen as his captors murdered two Iraqi hostages next to him, he said on Sunday in his first television interview since being released.

Douglas Wood, 64, told Australian television’s Network Ten that his kidnappers also killed two of his Iraqi assistants and dumped their bodies at a Baghdad garbage tip.

“I feel absolutely rotten,” Wood said. “I was the ultimate cause of it.”

He said he planned to send money to the families of the dead men.

Wood, who was paid an undisclosed sum for the exclusive interview, was freed earlier this month after 47 days in captivity in a joint operation involving Iraqi and US troops in a dangerous Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad.

He said when his liberation finally came, he was terrified that the men storming into his room might be terrorists.

“The fear side of me is thinking maybe bloody Al Qaeda turned up and decided to take over and that meant cut the throat time,” he said.

Wood, an Australian who lives in Alamo, near San Francisco, with his American wife, said that during his time in captivity, the kidnappers stomped on his head and kept him handcuffed and blindfolded.

Describing the brutal slayings of the two Iraqis held with him, Wood said the first victim was knocked to the ground by their captors.

“He collapsed to the ground. His head was maybe two inches from my foot and bang, bang, bang - even a silenced gun is very consciously a gun shot in an enclosed space,” Wood said.

Just 24 hours passed before the insurgents murdered another captive.

“The next night they came in and there was a television set. They turned up the volume ... and then bang and a minute later another bang,” he said.

Asked how he felt about the slayings, Wood replied that he had thought: “When is my turn?”

Wood was abducted on April 30 when lured to what he thought was a business meeting. He had been working for more than a year in Iraq as a self-employed contractor.

He said that during his captivity he kept his mind active and attempted to stave off boredom by recalling images of past vacations, all his former girlfriends, and of buying an ice cream as a child.

“I was conscious of trying to keep myself sane by exercising my mind,” he said.

Network Ten also set up a video link so that Wood could talk to a Swede, 63-year-old Ulf Hjertstrom, who was kidnapped by insurgents on March 25 and released on May 30. The two spent part of their captivity together.

Hjertstrom said he had “put some people to work” to track down their captors.

“We will get them one by one,” he said. “These scum should be out of business.”

The show also briefly interviewed Wood’s wife Yvonne Given, who said that she kept a low profile throughout his captivity.

“I was worried again that anything I said might cause his death,” she said.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2005/June/focusoniraq_June169.xml&section=focusoniraq

[Petronas]

Inside the Mind of an Iraqi Suicide Bomber
Sunday, Jun. 26, 2005

One day soon, this somber young man plans to offer up a final prayer and then blow himself up along with as many U.S. or Iraqi soldiers as he can reach. Marwan Abu Ubeida says he has been training for months to carry out a suicide mission. He doesn't know when or where he will be ordered to climb into a bomb-laden vehicle or strap on an explosives-filled vest but says he is eager for the moment to come. While he waits, he spends much of his time rehearsing that last prayer. "First I will ask Allah to bless my mission with a high rate of casualties among the Americans," he says, speaking softly in a matter-of-fact monotone, as if dictating a shopping list. "Then I will ask him to purify my soul so I am fit to see him, and I will ask to see my mujahedin brothers who are already with him." He pauses to run the list through his mind again, then resumes: "The most important thing is that he should let me kill many Americans."

At 20, Marwan is already a battle-hardened insurgent, a jihadi foot soldier in Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi's terrorist group, al-Qaeda in Iraq. Like the bulk of insurgents, he is a Sunni Muslim from the former ruling minority community. In his hometown, Fallujah, he is known for his ferociousness in battle and deep religiosity. Marwan asked his commander to consider him for a suicide mission last fall but had to wait until the beginning of April for his name to be put on the list of volunteers. "When he finally agreed," Marwan recalls, "it was the happiest day of my life." There are, he says, scores of names on that list, and it can be months before a volunteer is assigned an operation. But at the current high rate of attacks, Marwan hopes he will be called up soon. "I can't wait," he says, rubbing his thumbs with his fingers in nervous energy. "I am ready to die now."

Among the embittered population of Iraq, it's not hard to find young men who talk the terrorist talk, boasting of their willingness to serve as human bombs. It's hard to judge the speakers' sincerity. But the latest surge of suicide operations proves there is no scarcity of volunteers to become the most lethal weapon Iraq's insurgents have. Since May 1, Iraq has witnessed at least 129 suicide attacks, accounting for several of the estimated 150 U.S. fatalities during this period, including as many as six soldiers killed in an attack of their convoy near Fallujah last week. Most of the 1,200 Iraqis killed by insurgents since May 1 have died in suicide bombings. And yet, despite the frequency and deadliness of their attacks, almost nothing is known about individual bombers. Their identities have rarely been revealed and then only posthumously, on jihadist websites or carefully edited videotapes aimed at promoting the insurgent cause and attracting fresh recruits. Among the few who have been named, most are foreigners, many from Saudi Arabia.

While some suicide bombers in Iraq have left behind videotaped testimony, Marwan is the first to tell his story before carrying out such a mission. He spoke to TIME in Baghdad on orders from his commander. The interview was the result of weeks of reporting on such insurgents in the hope of learning more about the identities and motivations of those behind the scourge of terrorism in Iraq. A jihadist group passed word that it would send one of its recruits to meet with us. Marwan was unaccompanied; we were not provided with any information about where he lives, works or trains. And out of concern for the safety of TIME's staff, no attempt was made to track his whereabouts after he left. During a three-hour interview, he talked freely of his motivations but did not divulge any specifics about a prospective strike. He seemed articulate and candid, though he insisted on being photographed wearing a mask over his face to conceal his identity and chose a pseudonym, using the common Iraqi name Marwan and a historical one, that of Abu Ubeida al-Jarrah, a 7th century general who conquered Syria for Islam. The sincerity of his desire to make himself a "martyr" was attested to by several figures-- a member of his organization, al-Qaeda in Iraq; a Baghdad-area commander of an insurgent unit that provides logistical support for al-Qaeda bombers; and a Sunni imam who is sometimes brought in to counsel bombers during their premission spiritual "purification"--whom TIME consulted through Iraqis with contacts inside the insurgency. His account provides a rare glimpse into the mind-set and preparation of one aspiring suicide bomber.

Short, scrawny, his chin covered with wispy facial hair that makes him look younger than his age, Marwan doesn't stand out in the streets of Iraq. Few would notice his one distinguishing feature: outsize hands, heavily callused from use of his favorite weapon, the Russian-made PKC machine gun. Even his distinctive Fallujah accent is not uncommon amid the din of the Iraqi capital, where suicide bombings are most frequent. According to an informant close to several insurgent groups and a U.S. official familiar with rebel operations, small and nondescript fighters like Marwan are considered ideal bombers, since they can slip into crowds without attracting attention. He came to the meeting with TIME wearing a black short-sleeved shirt hanging over black trousers--a style favored by many Shi'ite Muslims--to blend in with the majority of Iraq's population.

Homegrown bombers remain rare, but U.S. and Iraqi military officials are backing away from previous claims that suicide operations are the exclusive preserve of foreign jihadis. "I won't be surprised if there are Iraqis out there who are following the example of foreigners," says Colonel Adnan al-Juboori, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. Marwan claims he knows of 15 Iraqis who have blown themselves up this year, and he believes there are "hundreds of others" like him who are waiting for the opportunity. Last week al-Zarqawi's group announced that it had set up a separate brigade for Iraqi suicide bombers.

BIRTH OF A JIHADI Marwan's journey toward suicide murderer began just a few weeks after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Before the war, he had been one of Fallujah's privileged young men: his father's successful business earned enough--even during the difficult years when the West imposed economic sanctions on Iraq--to provide a good life for Marwan and his six brothers and four sisters. In high school, he was an average student but excelled in Koranic studies at the local mosque.

Unlike many other Sunnis in Fallujah, Marwan had little love for Saddam's Sunni-led regime. Yet once the dictator fell, he turned against the Americans. "We expected them to bring Saddam down and then leave," he says. "But they stayed and stayed." Insurgents approached disaffected Fallujis like Marwan and urged them to join the resistance against the Americans. Many signed up, including one of Marwan's older brothers. Marwan joined the insurgency in April 2003 when U.S. soldiers fired on a crowd of demonstrators at a school, killing 12 and wounding many more. Marwan, who took part in the protest, escaped unharmed, but the event proved decisive. He says that a few days later, he and a few friends collected grenades and small arms from a military site abandoned by the Iraqi army and mounted an attack on a building occupied by U.S. soldiers. "They shot back but couldn't hit any of us," he recalls. "It was my first taste of victory against the Americans."

Over the next year, Marwan says, he participated in dozens of assaults on U.S. troops who were struggling to subdue the city. Marwan says he became expert with machine guns, a skill that brought him to the attention of al-Zarqawi's group, then called Attawhid wal Jihad. Marwan's piety apparently impressed the foreign-led jihadis as well: in April 2004 he was approached by Attawhid's spiritual guide, Palestinian-born Abu Anas al-Shami. Marwan says al-Shami, reputed to be a powerful orator and motivator, had a deep impact on him. (Al-Shami was killed in a rocket attack by U.S. forces near Fallujah in late 2004.)

Like other Iraqis who have joined extremist religious groups during the insurgency, Marwan severed connections with his family when he joined up. He says he will call them once before his suicide mission to say goodbye. Even though one of his brothers fights for another insurgent group and other siblings help the rebels with money and shelter, he says they all believe he has gone too far. "My family are not happy with my choice," he says. "But they know they can't change my path."

For the deeply pious Marwan, his colleagues in Attawhid are now closer to his heart than his family or former friends. "The jihadis are more religious people," he says. "You ask them anything--anything--and they can instantly quote a relevant section from the Koran." Like them, Marwan works Koranic allusions into his speech. He has also embraced the jihadist worldview of one global Islamic state where there is, in Marwan's words, "no alcohol, no music and no Western influences." He concedes that he has not thought deeply about what life might be like in such a state; after all, he doesn't expect to live long enough to experience it. Besides, he says, he fights first for Islam, second to become a "martyr" and win acceptance into heaven, and only third for control of his country. "The first step is to remove the Americans from Iraq," he says. "After we have achieved that, we can work out the other details."

FROM WARRIOR TO "MARTYR" Marwan says waiting is the hardest aspect of a jihadi's transformation into a suicide bomber. Volunteers have to undergo a program to discipline the mind and cleanse the soul. The training, supervised by field commanders and Sunni clerics sympathetic to the insurgency, is mainly psychological and spiritual. Besides the Koran, he says, "I read about the history of jihad, about great martyrs who have gone before me. These things strengthen my will." One popular source of inspiration for suicide bombers is The Lover of Angels, by Abdullah Azzam, one of Osama bin Laden's spiritual mentors, which tells stories of jihadis who died fighting Soviet occupying troops in Afghanistan. And Marwan is listening to taped speeches that address subjects like the rewards that await warriors in heaven. In recent months, jihadist groups have also begun showing recruits lurid videos of successful suicide hits. A U.S. official in Baghdad who studies suicide terrorism says some volunteers even visit the sites of previous bombings for inspiration.

Marwan says would-be "martyrs" may use their waiting time to take care of business--paying off debts, resolving family matters, saying farewells. Some destroy any photographs of themselves; extremist Islamists regard pictures as a sign of vanity and therefore taboo. Others compile lists of the 70 people Islamic tradition says a "martyr" can guarantee a place in paradise. "I haven't got my 70 names yet--I don't think I know that many people," Marwan says, allowing himself a rare smile. Some dig graves for themselves and leave instructions on the way they should be buried--generally with simple headstones. Marwan says he won't need a grave: "If I am lucky, my body will be vaporized. There won't be anything left of me to bury."

When Marwan gets the call-up, he expects the final stage of his training to be far more rigorous. He anticipates spending his last days in near seclusion, probably holed up in a safe house with a few other bombers-to-be. For non-Iraqis, the isolation can serve a practical purpose, ensuring that they keep a low profile and avoid arousing suspicion with their foreign accents. But all the suicide candidates, he says, are expected to immerse themselves in spiritual contemplation and prayer, to free their minds of negative thoughts toward their fellow men--except Americans and their Iraqi "infidel" supporters. There will be no TV or music, says Marwan, who will have to give up his one addiction, cigarettes. In many ways, these steps mirror the self-purification that devout Muslims undergo before embarking on the pilgrimage to Mecca. "You give up your previous life," he says, "and start a new one."

According to TIME's contacts close to insurgent groups, the bombers have little or no say in planning their operations. The logistics--choosing targets, checking out the site, preparing the bomb-laden vehicles or vests--are left to field commanders and explosives specialists. It is not unusual for a bomber to be told about the details of a mission mere minutes before launching the attack. Marwan says he thought he was going on his operation when his commander sent him to meet TIME. Iraqi Interior Ministry officials claim they have evidence showing that many of the bombers are drafted involuntarily. They say their investigations of car bombings have discovered that some of the vehicles were rigged to be detonated by remote control, indicating that the drivers may not have been aware that they were about to be blown up. "In a majority of cases, you find hands chained to the steering column, so these were not volunteers," says al-Juboori, the Interior Ministry spokesman. But U.S. investigators who have looked into scores of cases believe coercion is rare. Navy Commander Fred Gaghan, head of the Combined Explosives Exploitation Cell, which has investigated more than 60 bombings in the past five months, has not found any evidence of fetters. "They don't need them, because they have plenty of volunteers who will do it willingly," he says.

Marwan says the occasional bomber may ask to be chained to the wheel to make sure he doesn't flinch at the last moment. "If you have any little doubt in your mind about your own ability to carry out the mission, you do that to make sure you don't lose your courage," he says. He scoffs at reports that some suicide bombers are intoxicated. "Those who go on these missions know that they are about to see their Creator," he says. "Do you think we would meet Allah in a state of drunkenness or drugged? It is unthinkable."

Toward the end of the cleansing period, a bomber may ask a fellow jihadi, one better versed in religious doctrine, to help with the final spiritual preparation. Marwan says he was asked to mentor a friend intent on martyrdom earlier this year. He expects his final weeks to be a period of euphoria rather than penance. "My friend was happier than I had ever seen him," Marwan says. "He felt he was close to the end of his journey to heaven." (The friend, he says, blew himself up two months ago at a checkpoint manned by Iraqi soldiers near Ramadi, capital of the turbulent Anbar province, and six were killed. "We made a pact that we would meet in heaven," Marwan says.)

"I AM A TERRORIST" Marwan seems certain he is on a "pure" path. Unlike many other insurgents, who reject the terrorist label and call themselves freedom fighters or holy warriors, Marwan embraces it. "Yes, I am a terrorist," he says. "Write that down: I admit I am a terrorist. [The Koran] says it is the duty of Muslims to bring terror to the enemy, so being a terrorist makes me a good Muslim." He quotes lines from the surah known as Al-Anfal, or the Spoils of War: "Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into the enemy of Allah and your enemy."

Then, as if embarrassed by his emotional outburst, he slumps back in his chair. He would like to understand Americans better, he says. He was arrested by U.S. patrols twice and detained for short spells, but because he speaks no English, he was unable to communicate with his captors. But this is a small regret, he says, of the kind he is determined to put out of his mind. "When you get ready for the final mission," he says almost to himself, "you can't think about the past. You only think about your future in heaven." But there is at least one aspect of the immediate future that Marwan does not want to contemplate: the collateral damage he may cause to fellow Iraqis. In the recent spate of bombings, many of the victims have been harmless bystanders. "I pray no innocent people are killed in my mission," he says. "But if some are, I know when they arrive in heaven, Allah will ask them to forgive me."

If he could choose, Marwan would like his operation to be a car bombing targeting U.S. soldiers or Iraqi security forces far from any civilians. But if he is ordered to strap on explosives and walk to his target on a downtown street, he will do so. "We don't get to choose the mission," he says. "That is up to Allah." In fact, the decision will be made by a field commander of al-Zarqawi's group. Marwan hopes he will be chosen for a high-profile hit, the dramatic, headline-grabbing kind that al-Zarqawi is said to direct personally. Although Marwan has never met the terrorist mastermind, he reveres him as a great Islamic hero.

Marwan says he doesn't think about his legacy or how others might regard him when he is gone. Unlike their Palestinian counterparts, Iraq's self-immolating terrorists are not celebrated and memorialized by family and friends. At best, Marwan might be profiled on one of the jihadist websites, but even there, his identity would be concealed to spare his family harassment by Iraqi authorities. "It doesn't matter whether people know what I did," he says. "The only person who matters is Allah--and the only question he will ask me is 'How many infidels did you kill?'"

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1077288-1,00.html

[NYer]

Red On Red

Marines See Signs Iraq Rebels Are Battling Foreign Fighters
By SABRINA TAVERNISE

KARABILA, Iraq, June 20 - Late Sunday night, American marines watching the skyline from their second-story perch in an abandoned house here saw a curious thing: in the distance, mortar and gunfire popped, but the volleys did not seem to be aimed at them.

In the dark, one spoke in hushed code words on a radio, and after a minute found the answer.

"Red on red," he said, using a military term for enemy-on-enemy fire.

Marines patrolling this desert region near the Syrian border have for months been seeing a strange new trend in the already complex Iraqi insurgency. Insurgents, they say, have been fighting each other in towns along the Euphrates from Husayba, on the border, to Qaim, farther west. The observations offer a new clue in the hidden world of the insurgency and suggest that there may have been, as American commanders suggest, a split between Islamic militants and local rebels.

A United Nations official who served in Iraq last year and who consulted widely with militant groups said in a telephone interview that there has been a split for some time.

"There is a rift," said the official, who requested anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the talks he had held. "I'm certain that the nationalist Iraqi part of the insurgency is very much fed up with the Jihadists grabbing the headlines and carrying out the sort of violence that they don't want against innocent civilians."

The nationalist insurgent groups, "are giving a lot of signals implying that there should be a settlement with the Americans," while the Jihadists have a purely ideological agenda, he added.

The insurgency is largely hidden, making such trends difficult to discern. But marines in this western outpost have noticed a change. For Matthew Orth, a Marine sniper, the difference came this spring, when his unit was conducting an operation in Husayba. Mortar shells flew over the unit, hitting a different target.

"The thought was, "They're coming for us. But then we saw they were fighting each other," he recalled during a break in Monday's operation. "We were kind of wondering what happened. We were getting mortared twice a day, and then all of a sudden it stopped."

Access for the foreign fighters is easy through the porous border with Syria, where the main crossing, Husayba, has been closed for seven months to stem their flow. "They will come from wherever we are not," said Col. Stephen Davis, the commander of the Second Regimental Combat Team of the Second Marine Division. "Clearly there are foreign fighters here and quite clearly they are coming in from Syria."

Marines have conducted several offensives in villages along the Euphrates, including one over the past few days in Karabila, to disrupt the fighters' networks. During raids on mostly empty homes, they found nine foreign passports, and of about 40 insurgents killed, at least three were foreign, marines said.

Capt. Chris Ieva, a fast-talking 31-year-old from North Brunswick, N.J., said he could tell whether an area was controlled by foreign insurgents or locals by whether families had cellphones or guns, which foreign fighters do not allow local residents to have for fear they would spy on them. Marines cited other tactics as being commonly employed by foreigners. Sophisticated body armor, for example, is one sign, as well as land mines that are a cut above average, remote-controlled local mines, and well-chosen sniper positions.

When the marines were fighting in an operation in the area in early May, five marines were killed after their tank rolled over a mine that had been set for vehicles with large distances between the treads.

In Karabila, marines picked their way through empty houses over the past four days, looking in closets and behind closed doors, into the hidden lives of insurgents who had left behind caches of weapons, medical supplies and Jihadist literature, including an inspirational guide that attempted to justify beheading by using Islamic scripture.

As the operation ended about 6 p.m. Monday, marines, successful in their mission, lined the roof of the last house they took against the backdrop of plumes of smoke. Captain Ieva said: "Will some come back? Yes. But the bigger fruit is disrupting them. We've made them uncomfortable in their own system."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/21/international/middleeast/21spear.html?pagewanted=print

[1001]

White House 'courting disaster' with Iraq policy: Kerry


http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?p=245128#post245128

[NYer]

Sunnis will nab Zarqawi when 'ready'

By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
June 29, 2005

Sunni "fence sitters" in Iraq say they would be willing to take on master terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi and rid the country of foreign saboteurs if the Shi'ite-run government's new political structure is acceptable to them, according to a senior U.S. official.
"The Iraqis will kill every foreigner who comes into their neighborhood when they're ready," said the senior official who has spent months in Iraq. "They don't want foreigners in Iraq."
The official, who has held numerous meetings with what he called "influential fence sitters," said the representatives have told him they are only tolerating foreign terrorists because they are a "pressure tool" to force the Shi'ites and the U.S. to consider Sunni political demands for more representation in the Baghdad government.
"We'll catch him when we're ready," the official quoted one Sunni as telling him, referring to Zarqawi.
The official also said the Sunnis are demanding that Shi'ite security forces cease what the Sunnis consider harassing search-and-seizure measures that target innocent Iraqis.
"We're getting a lot of bad guys," the official said. "Are non-bad guys being killed? Absolutely. ... A civil war has started to a degree."
The source agreed to a lengthy interview with The Washington Times on condition he not be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the press.
"The Sunnis are broken up into many fragmented groups," the official said. "Many don't want us to leave. Iraqi intelligence is telling us this every day."
This official's account comes as the Bush administration is putting as much emphasis on a political solution in Iraq as it is on a military one. And the political solution more and more involves enticing Sunnis to participate.
"When that process of political reconciliation reaches its zenith in December with elections, you will see that the Iraqi people are not supportive of this insurgency," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday on NBC's "Today Show." "An insurgency cannot last without the support of the population."
The official told The Times that his almost-daily discussions with Sunni representatives is not part of any special overtures, but part of routine diplomatic efforts to explore alliances in the minority Sunni community. The Sunnis ran Iraq, and generally repressed the Shi'ites, during the rule of Saddam Hussein.
The source said Miss Rice in April 2004 authorized such contacts. There is to be no negotiating with known terrorists or Zarqawi. But some Sunni contacts maintain ties to insurgents.
Miss Rice made clear yesterday that enticing Sunnis into the coalition has become a major part of the Bush strategy. She said the discussions are "in the context of Sunni outreach, outreach to Sunnis, to bring them into the political process."
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said in recent days that ultimately it will be up to the Iraqis to defeat the insurgency, through political agreements and its nascent security force that now numbers 160,000.
An administration official said this message is directed as much at the new Iraqi government as the American people. Mr. Rumsfeld wants Iraqis to realize that in the end, they will have to make democracy work, the official said.
The U.S. official told The Times that more moderate Sunnis are willing to get off the fence and start attacking foreign fighters once they believe the new Iraqi constitution, now being drafted in Baghdad, protects their interests.
The official said that right now the only way Zarqawi's terrorists can operate in Iraq is with the complicity of Sunni village leaders who provide safe houses and travel routes from Al Anbar province to Baghdad and other cities.
Once the Sunnis revoke those privileges and turn on the foreigners, the insurgency will dwindle, or disappear, the official said.
"They know who the foreigners are in their towns," the official said. "They don't want foreigners in their country any more than we do. ... Iraqis are very different than other Arabs. They are not Saudis. They are not Jordanians. They are Iraqis."
The official added, "Zarqawi can't operate in Al Anbar without Sunni participation."
The source said that in some instances, the Sunnis welcome the foreign terrorist into their homes; other times, the foreigners threaten to kill or rape their children unless they provide sanctuary.

http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050629-121335-2805r

[NYer]

US delight as Iraqi rebels turn their guns on al-Qa'eda
By Oliver Poole in Qaim
(Filed: 04/07/2005)

American troops on the Syrian border are enjoying a battle they have long waited to see - a clash between foreign al-Qa'eda fighters and Iraqi insurgents.

Tribal leaders in Husaybah are attacking followers of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terrorist who established the town as an entry point for al-Qa'eda jihadists being smuggled into the country.

The reason, the US military believes, is frustration at the heavy-handed approach of the foreigners, who have kidnapped and assassinated local leaders and imposed a strict Islamic code.

Fighting, which could be clearly heard at night over the weekend, first broke out in May when as many as 50 mortar rounds were fired across the city. But, to the surprise of the American garrison, this time it was not the target.

If a shell landed near the US base, "they'd adjust their fire and not shoot at us", Lt Col Tim Mundy said. "They shot at each other."

The trigger was the assassination of a tribal sheikh, from the Sulaiman tribe, ordered by Zarqawi for inviting senior US marines for lunch. American troops gained an insight into the measures the jihadists had imposed during recent house-to-house searches in nearby towns and villages.


Shops selling music and satellite dishes had been closed. Women were ordered to wear all-enveloping clothing and men forbidden from wearing western clothes.

Anyone considered to be aiding coalition forces was being killed or kidnapped. That included those with links to the government - seen as a US puppet - such as water or electricity officials. As a result local services had collapsed.

Captain Thomas Sibley, intelligence officer of 3rd battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, based in Qaim, said: "People here were committed supporters of the insurgency but you cannot now even get a marriage licence.

"The tribes are the only system or organisation left and they appear to have stepped in.

"In the last week our camp in the town was attacked and the attackers got ambushed on the way back by two machineguns and mortar fire. That is good news for us."

Baghdad recently warned that Iraqi insurgents, many of them nationalists rather than Islamists, and al-Qa'eda cells were working more closely together than in the past. That was brought into doubt when the bodies of three foreigners, believed to be insurgents, were discovered in Ramadi, apparently killed by Iraqis.

But the extent of the jihadist presence in Hasaybah - and therefore the subsequent tension - is unique.

Foreign fighters first started to arrive two years ago after Zarqawi bought properties to use as safe houses for arrivals before they could be funnelled east towards Baghdad and other major cities.

The police fled in November. In mid-June, al-Qa'eda units took over key buildings, including mosques and government offices. "Al-Qa'eda in Iraq" flags were raised.

The city, 240 miles north-west of Baghdad and adjacent to the insurgent centre of Qaim, is so dangerous that soldiers in the US base sleep in bunkers because of mortar and rocket attacks.

Following al-Qa'eda's seizure of the main buildings a number of residents fled. Arkan Salim, 56, who left with his wife and four children, said: "We thought they were patriotic. Now we discovered that they are sick and crazy.

"They interfered in everything, even how we raise our children. They turned the city into hell, and we cannot live in it anymore."

iraq@telegraph.co.uk
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/07/04/wirq04.xml

[The man]

The battle between the so-called insurgents and the Jihadis on the border with Syria is not only about the heavy handed approach of the FF, these Iraqis are historical smugglars and make their living smuggling goods and drugs or what ever, having the US Military stop the smugglars is dipping into the pockets of these guys and they are sick of it.

[al-Canine]

Iraq lacks women trained in security

By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published July 11, 2005

The U.S.-led coalition has not trained enough Iraqi women to operate checkpoints in Iraq, forcing the job on American female troops, such as the two Marines and sailor killed last month in a car bombing.

The coalition needs trained women to perform the culturally sensitive job of body-searching Muslim women for hidden bombs, other weapons and contraband.

Nowhere is the job more important than in al-Anbar province west of Baghdad, where U.S. Marines are fighting Iraqi insurgents and foreign terrorists led by Abu Musab Zarqawi.

"There currently are no plans to move female members of the Iraqi security force from Baghdad to [al-Anbar]," said Marine Lt. Col. David Lapan, a spokesman for Marine forces in the province. "This might be possible at some point in the future as the ISF grows in size and in ability to support and sustain operations."

Fewer than 1,000 women are deployed by the Iraqi security force, confined mainly to the Baghdad area, where the coalition set up more than 2,500 checkpoints in the past two months as part of the counterinsurgency campaign Operation Lightning.

Three women -- the first female Marines to be killed in Iraq and a female sailor -- died June 23 when their convoy was attacked by a suicide car bomber in al-Anbar.

The women were returning to camp from a shift around Fallujah as checkpoint searchers; 11 other female Marines were wounded, some severely. Officials said there is no evidence that terrorists attacked because the convoy contained a large number of women.

The female Marines were part of a support unit open to women.

The fledgling Iraqi security force numbers about 170,000 police, soldiers and other personnel -- the vast majority of them men. Col. Lapan said fewer than 100 women serve in the Ministry of Defense forces and fewer than 800 in the state-run police department.

The Marines deploy about 20 American women at any given time at checkpoints around Fallujah, a hotbed of terrorist activity until Marines and Army soldiers captured the city in November.

The lack of women in the Iraqi military adds pressure to women in the U.S. military: Although the Pentagon bans women from land combat units, the Iraq war has subjected them to more enemy fire than any other conflict. More than 30 female Army soldiers have been killed.

Insurgents are targeting base camps, convoys and military police patrols where women serve alongside men. Women have engaged, and died, in firefights.

Elaine Donnelly, who heads the Center for Military Readiness and opposes combat jobs for women, said the June 23 attack dramatized the need to train more Iraqi women.

"When President Bush spoke to the nation about the war recently, he described progress on the effort to train Iraqis to take on their own defense," Mrs. Donnelly said. "Security searches are part of that defense. If cultural sensitivities require that the job be done by women only, it would seem logical to start training female Iraqis to search female Iraqis.

"Female suicide bombers are a real threat, requiring a gender-specific answer. The anarchists will exploit any weakness they see if we fail to recognize the importance of gender in this situation."

The coalition has met with limited success in attracting more women into the Iraqi security force.

"I think it is more of a cultural issue than anything else," said Army Lt. Col. Steven A. Boylan, spokesman for Multi-National Forces Iraq. "I don't believe there are a lot of women in most Arabic countries in uniform."

The Advisor, a newsletter produced by the U.S. command that trains Iraqis, recently published a story on the first unit of female soldiers, the 2nd Female Iraqi Military Police Company.

Trained in Jordan, the company has 68 military police, not nearly enough to work the checkpoints across western, central and northern Iraq. The unit, based near Baghdad, has been attacked at least a dozen times.

"Every day when I come here, I wonder if I will get back home," the commander, who declined to be identified for fear for her life, told the newsletter.


http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050711-122346-9856r.htm

[rectar]

[QUOTE=NYer]US delight as Iraqi rebels turn their guns on al-Qa'eda/QUOTE]...hardly lol....you must live in the garment district.....

مقتل 76 عراقيا في هجمات متفرقة معظمهم بالمسيبhttp://www.aljazeera.net/mritems/images/2005/7/16/1_551231_1_34.jpgعشرات العراقيين يسقطون يوميا بين قتيل وجريح (الفرنسي&#1577
شهدت الساعات الـ24 الماضية مقتل 76 عراقيا في هجمات متفرقة, معظمهم في مدينة المسيب. كما قتل ثلاثة جنود بريطانيين.

فقد أعلنت وزارة الداخلية العراقية أن 59 شخصا على الأقل قتلوا وأصيب 85 آخرون بجروح في انفجار سيارة مفخخة مساء أمس السبت قرب مسجد شيعي في مدينة المسيب جنوب بغداد.

وتسبب الانفجار القوي باشتعال النار في منازل مجاورة وأحدث أضرارا فادحة في عدد من المحال التجارية ومقهى كان يعج بالرواد، كما ألحق أضرارا جسيمة بمسجد المدينة.

وذكر بيان الوزارة أن الانفجار الذي يعتبر الأكثر دموية منذ نحو عام, ناجم عن قنبلة زرعت في صهريج للنفط كان متوقفا في حي شعبي لا وجود لمركز شرطة فيه ولا لجنود أميركيين. ويأتي الانفجار بعد سلسلة من هجمات مماثلة الجمعة أسفرت عن مقتل 28 شخصا في 12 هجوما انتحاريا.

هجمات ومفخخات
http://www.aljazeera.net/mritems/images/2005/7/15/1_551053_1_23.jpgنيران الهجمات تأكل أجساد العراقيين (رويتر&#1586يضاف ضحايا هجوم المسيب إلى 20 قتيلا بينهم ثلاثة جنود بريطانيين سقطوا أمس في هجمات متفرقة بالعراق.


فقد قتل مسلحون شرطيين وأصابوا ثلاثة آخرين على طريق سريع يربط بين الحلة والمحاويل جنوب بغداد. وفي حادث آخر قالت الشرطة إن ثلاثة مدنيين وشرطيين عراقيين قتلوا في انفجار سيارة ملغمة بضاحية الدورة جنوبي بغداد.

وعلمت الجزيرة من مصادر صحفية أن ثمانية عراقيين قتلوا وأصيب 12 شخصا على الأقل في هجوم استهدف حسينية بمدينة الحلة جنوب بغداد. كما جرح شرطيان وأربعة مدنيين لدى محاولة الشرطة منع انتحاري كان يرتدي حزاما ناسفا من تفجير نفسه في منطقة جبلة. وفي حي القناة ببغداد أصيب مدني عراقي في انفجار مفخخة استهدفت دورية أميركية.

وفي حادث آخر أصيب جندي عراقي في انفجار مفخخة قرب مبنى تابع للجيش في منطقة الحويجة شمال بغداد، كما جرح جنديان عراقيان في سقوط قذائف على مبان عسكرية في سامراء. وأعلن مصدر في وزارة الداخلية العراقية العثور على جثتي ضابط عراقي سابق ونجله، موضحة أنه خدم إبان حكم صدام حسين.

وكانت هذه الهجمات قد بدأت بإعلان قيادة القوات البريطانية في العراق مقتل ثلاثة من جنودها وإصابة اثنين آخرين في انفجار لغم أرضي استهدف آليتهم العسكرية في منطقة العمارة جنوبي العراق. وقد تبنت جماعة مجهولة تطلق على نفسها اسم "كتائب الإمام الحسين" قتل الجنود البريطانيين.

[NYer]

[QUOTE=NYer]US delight as Iraqi rebels turn their guns on al-Qa'eda/QUOTE]...hardly lol....you must live in the garment district.....


Nope ... but thanks for playing ...

This is what empty slogans led us to...


Yesterday was the 14th of July; on the same day back in 1958 the nation that was moving towards becoming a modern and civilized nation was crushed under the tracks of a tank lead by a young officer.

Sadly, the Iraqi political spectrum is still divided over whether what happened in 1958 should be considered a good revolution or a bad coup.
One of my friends told me yesterday that he was invited for two ceremonies arranged for by two different parties; one is a sad memorial event mourning the monarchy and the other one is a festival celebrating the anniversary of the revolution!
I asked him "which one are you going attend?".
"Is that a question! Of course not the celebration. Weren't 47 years enough for us to realize the misery that coup brought upon Iraq!?" was my friend's response.

However, the reality is that for 47 years, Iraq is still suffering from the aftermath of that day when the British decided to stand by and watch allowing the military coup to take over and bring death and blood to Iraq, handing the country from tyrant to another.
With the presence of "patriotic governments" we descended from an upper developing country with considerable potentials to wreckage resting at the bottom of a deep valley that needs extraordinarily big efforts and resources to fix what had been destroyed by the outlaw tyrants.

My father tells me about the slogans of the communists and pan-nationalists at that time calling for the withdrawal of British troops and accusing the government of collaborating with the colonial west.
Unity, freedom, socialism, liberating Palestine and a dream of unifying the Arabs and bringing back the control over the oil to the people; these were the slogans of that time.

Noori Al-Sa'eed (Iraq's PM at that time) used to call those nationalists the "za'ateet" (an Iraqi term which means the ignorant children) who are good at doing nothing but to chant big empty slogans and dream of seizing power… and so it was and Noori couldn't protect himself from the "za'ateet" when they dragged his body in the streets of Baghdad in a bloody barbaric scene that marked the appearance of the concept of "revolutionary violence" in Iraq.

Now let's take a look at some material and economic factss; the construction council was dismissed after the 1958 coup; that council was comprised of the best planners of their time and the oil revenues ended up in the in the hands of dictators.
A quick look at the facts now tells us how big the catastrophe was and here I'm directing my words to the slogan holders of today whether west or east.
Iraq was an exporter of wheat and other grains but after the officers took over, the country had to import wheat from outside.
The countryside was deserted and the fields were abandoned and Baghdad became surrounded by a poverty belt formed by the immigrants from the rural areas.
Baghdad became the one and only center in Iraq with the rest of the country devastated and greatly underdeveloped.

The value of the Dinar decreased from 4 US dollars to 1/4000 US dollars in that era.
From 30 million cattle heads to only 3 million heads and from 30 million date palms to less than half of that number and one can easily notice that most of the infrastructure in Iraq was built or planned by the construction council before 1958; 90% of the railways, bridges, dams, oil producing facilities…etc.
And Iraq turned from a constitutional state with free press, a parliament and elections to a state of repression, secret police and public executions and laws that change overnight.
We lived in a state of confusion; between what the governments telling us that everything before the "revolution" was bad and after it our lives began to improve and between what the people themselves remember of those times.

The military regimes tried to forge history and used the meanest ways to do that and eliminated anyone who refused to have his memory manipulated.

An Iraqi historian who witnessed the time of the monarchy told me once that the only Olympic stadium in Iraq was gifted to Iraqis by a foreign oil investor after his contract ended and he put a sign in front of the stadium that said "this stadium is a gift from Mr. Kolbinkiyan (not sure of the spelling) to the people of Iraq".

The old man said "I told him that the sign isn't a good idea; someone will come and remove it and no one will remember your gift after a few years. And I advised him to write what's in the sign on the stones of the stadium. He answered my saying that didn't care if people remembered him or not, it's a gift and it's a symbol of my appreciation for this country".

And it happened, after one of the coups, the new authorities removed the sign and changed the name of the stadium; the "revolutionists" didn't think about building a new stadium, the only cared about changing the name of the existing one and hijacking what others had achieved.
In the same manner, they would not pave a new street; instead they would only rename it.

Today, the same scene is being replayed and the "revolutionists" are chanting the same old slogans of ridding the country of the colonial occupiers and protecting the culture and religion of the community from the evil west.

I remembered all this while I was watching TV and there were 83 assembly members announcing that they signed a document that demands the immediate withdrawal of foreign troops and there's another guy who's trying to collect a million signatures for the same reason and there are people out there in the west who share the same ideas.
At the same time, those people are preparing themselves to topple the existing administration and they claim that they're capable of securing the streets while the commanders of the organized police and army say they need a long time before they can secure the country!
But gladly we have more reasonable people than crazy opportunists in the assembly and that's why 70% of the MP's rejected that document.

Another interesting and logical voice appeared a few days ago, one of the assembly members spoke to the assembly clarifying that the issue of the presence of the multinational forces is actually a technical case rather than a political one; he emphasized that replacing one force with another and preparing qualified troops is a highly specialized process and only experts can talk about it.

In the present just like in the past we find ourselves standing between slogans and facts, between reason and ridicule and between the rational understanding of history and the chaotic ignorance that ignores history and reality.
How much time and effort was needed to stabilize Europe and stop the neo-Nazis, communists and chaotic groups from ruining everything and how many times did evil attack a new born legitimacy that looked like an easy prey?

The new democracy in Iraq needs a power to protect it from the "revolutionists" and this is a fact that we see and live in; we're not seeking a dictatorship backed by the west, we're pursuing protection for our legitimate elections.
And we need protection for more than one election, we will need protection until we're capable (not only material wise) but also knowledge wise to fail any attempt to take us back to the dark past and we need no more empty slogans; as we've had enough of them for 50 years.

Mohammed

http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/

[NYer]

Saddam's trial update.

The latest announcement from the special tribunal in charge of suing Saddam and his aides was on air a few minutes ago.
The announcement was read by 'interrogation judge' Raed Juhi who considered this announcement as the actual beginning of Saddam's trial.

Juhi stated that investigations are going on according to the schedule and the deadline will not be exceeded.
He added that investigations will be completed within the next few weeks and that will include the cases of mass murders during Al-Anfal (in Kurdistan 1988) and following the 1991 uprising and other cases concerning eliminating political opposition parties' members.
The sources for information that are adopted by the court are mainly the following:

1-Official documents that belong to the ex-regime which are more than 2,000,000 in total.
2-Testimony from witnesses, more than 7,000 in total.
3-Evidences collected from over 200 mass graves after inspecting and analyzing samples of human remains to identify dates and reasons of death.

It is time to see justice rule…and the sooner the better.

Omar

http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/

[NYer]

Iraqi police arrest Al-Qaeda's financial advisor, former army officer

BAGHDAD, July 16 (KUNA) -- Al-Qaeda's financial advisor Saad Abbas Al-Janabi and a former high-ranking army officer, affiliated with terrorists, were arrested by Iraqi police, said Sunday Iraqi authorities.

In a release, the Iraqi government said security forces, during a raid in southern Baghdad, has apprehended Al-Qaeda's financial advisor Saad Abbas Al-Janabi and two of his affiliates.

Al-Janabi, added the release, was the financial advisor of Abu Abdul-Aziz, one of Al-Qaeda's leaders, who was arrested on July 10.

In Baqoubah, a former high-ranking army officer, affiliated to the terrorists, was arrested while in possession of a letter thought to be sent from members of Al-Zarqawi's terrorist organization.

In press statements, Baqoubah's security commander Colonel Dhiya Ismail, without disclosing the prisoner's identity, said the letter praised the officer's role in assisting the terrorists and their actions.

The operation that led to arresting the officer and 61 other suspects, added Isamil, was part of Al-Shurouq's anti-terrorist operation in Baqoubah.


http://www.kuna.net.kw/home/Story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=752672

[NYer]

Chrenkoff has more good news from Iraq that the NY Times doesn't see fit to print ...

http://chrenkoff.blogspot.com/2005/07/good-news-from-iraq-part-31.html

[experiencediz]

"IRAQ"! I'm sorry but there is no good news!There is no bad news! It is just sad.

Every time Iraq is the topic Tony the Tiger: " Frosted Flakes" comes to mind,
Bush and his followers Iraqi view is "grrr-eat". No matter how things seem dire the war on terror is going "grrr-eat" and "grrr-eat" !

July 20, 2005

Mortuaries swamped as toll estimate hits 25,000
By James Hider in Baghdad and Michael Evans in London

FROM the street outside Baghdad’s main mortuary, it looks more like a bus station: dozens of minibuses line up as crowds of men stream in with empty wooden coffins, then out again bearing loaded ones on their shoulders, chanting prayers as they go.
The line of about 50 male relatives in the courtyard never seems to diminish, and the yard itself is full of empty coffins awaiting their grisly load. Murder is booming in Baghdad, and some mortuary staff say that their workload has doubled in the past month.

The latest prominent targets to be shot yesterday in Baghdad were Sheikh Mijbil al-Sheikh Issa and Dhamin Ileywi, two Sunni members of the committee that is writing the constitution. They were killed with a third Sunni, a committee adviser, as they left a restaurant after lunch.

Yesterday in London figures were published estimating that more than 25,000 civilians have been killed and 42,000 wounded in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003. A report by Iraq Body Count, an activist group, and Oxford Research Group, claimed the death toll for the 12 months to the end of March was 11,351, almost double the toll for the previous year.

About 20 per cent of the victims were women and children, according to the report, which is based on media reports, mortuary and medical witness statements, and official Iraqi ministry statements. American-led forces were blamed for 37 per cent of the deaths, “criminals” for 36 per cent and anti-occupation forces for 9 per cent. The balance could not be attributed to any single group.

Most of the killings slip by virtually unnoticed, almost routine in a country where death is so commonplace. Of the 23 people killed yesterday in scattered shootings, 13 died in an attack on a bus carrying Iraqi workers to an American army base northeast of the city. Most of the dead are brought to one of Baghdad’s main hospitals for a post-mortem examination, then taken by families for burial, mainly in the giant Shi a cemetery in Najaf to the south.

At the central mortuary, camphor is thrown into coffins to disguise the stench of death. But at Yarmouk hospital, where the aged refrigerators frequently break down, the marsh-gas reek makes even veteran mortuary workers hold their noses as they hose down the yard after bodies are collected by relatives.

Muhammed Fahmi al-Samarrai, a Sunni businessman, came to the central mortuary to pick up his younger brother Zakariah, a captain in the police who until the day before had guarded the building maintained by the United Nations in Baghdad. The young officer phoned his wife when he left work the day before, accompanied by three cousins, also police officers, acting as bodyguards because they did not trust their fellow officers. Fifteen minutes later when his wife called his mobile phone, there was no answer.

When a person vanishes in Baghdad, relatives desperately check the hospitals. If that fails, they trawl the mortuaries. Mr al-Samarrai found his brother’s body there, a bullet hole in the head and one in his chest, and scars where somebody had tortured him with an electric drill before he was put to death. He blamed police officers acting on orders of the Shia-dominated Government, hoping to purge the police of Sunni officers.

But he said he does not blame the Shia, and will not seek revenge. Instead, he accuses the Government of being in thrall to Iran — where many of the Shia parties spent decades in exile and where some built powerful militias — and Syria, which allows foreign jihadists to cross into Iraq.

Near by, Hisham Ali al- Hashimi, a Shia football player, was collecting the body of his own brother, Hussein. He had been shot 30 times in the street. His only crime, according to his brother, was to pray publicly at a Shia mosque in an area of Baghdad where sectarian revenge killings are rife.

Sectarian strife is still a taboo subject in a country where everyone knows the consequences of a full-blown civil war would be too dire to countenance.

Mortuaries swamped as toll estimate hits 25,000 (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1700874,00.html)

[NYer]

Pales in comparison to the estimated 300,000 sent to mass graves courtesy of the previous regime...

[experiencediz]

Pales in comparison to the estimated 300,000 sent to mass graves courtesy of the previous regime...

Ah! So it is a competition now if their own leader did it so can we kind of thing ,And the killings will go on? Remember those 300,000 were sent to mass graves with the blessings and courtesy of Bush Sr. I hoped and did see a shift from hard core Bushees following the London bombings. That my friend was enough to tell all that the battleground was never Iraq. I hope that the transit systems here in the US are much more protected than the subway between Baghdad and Fallujah. :)

Later

[Petronas]

Not to minimize the tragedy of the deaths of so many innocent civilians at the hands of murderous thugs... But whenever people start wailing about the security disaster in Iraq and how the evil, incompetent Americans are losing the war, we need to keep in mind that the violence largely is localized to just a portion of the country. For the country as a whole with its population of about 27 million, the number of 25,000 civilian deaths from violence since March 2003 works out to approximately 40 per 100,000 annually. That is the same as the murder rate in cities such as New Orleans, Detroit, St. Louis or Baltimore. Nothing to be proud of, but hardly complete countrywide anarchy either.

And when we weigh the benefits of removing Saddam from power, let us not forget the estimated 1,000,000 dead from the Iran-Iraq war of aggression started by Saddam. There were over 100,000 Iranian casualties alone from Iraqi use of nerve gas, which even Hitler deemed too horrible to use in WWII.

[NYer]

A bit late but somehow apropos ...

What independence means for me.

When I was a kid the word independence meant almost nothing to me. It was mainly because I rarely heard the word given any real importancein our media. The reason was that we got our independence through the cooperation between the British and the constitutional monarchy they helped establish in Iraq. That wasn't something the "nationalists" who ruled from 1958 were interested in presenting to the public in any good way.

Instead the terms that got more focus and were considered to be more worthy of sacrificing for were things like, "the revolution", "the historicalleadership" and "the holy battle against the Zionists and imperialistAmericans".

So frankly speaking I don't think I understood what independence meant, and it certainly didn't mean anything good to me when I grew up to realize all the horrors of Saddam's regime and that I was living a life that worth nothing. In fact I don't think I was living at all.

Before I opened my eyes to this "life" and what it meant, I thought I was free and that this is how things are supposed to be. I was like arobot, brainwashed to do what Saddam and his gang wanted me to do. When I realized that, the only thing that was keeping me alive in a way was my hatred to the Ba'athists and my dream of getting rid of them,and then maybe help building a better life.

At that time independence was what paved the way to those monsters to power. I, like many Iraqis started to wish we never got our independence.

When we started to have real hope that the world, led by America, might actually come to rescue us, independence was not on our mind and truly I never thought of it as that important or that good. We only wanted freedom and we were more than ready to accept any price to get it. I didn't mind being ruled by Americans. The reason for that is that the miseries and hardships we were put through by "national governments" that justified its presence as a necessity for leading and defending both the "Arab nation" and the "Muslim nation" made me reconsider all my previous beliefs. I feel grateful for that because I think it made me think out of the box and find my real identity. I was not an Arab and not a Muslim though technically I am. But I felt my real identity is humanity and I don't think I'm alone in that in Iraq.

So it was more than fine to be ruled by Americans and independence was not on my mind at all, at least not on the short term. It’s because I never thought of Americans as occupiers and only saw them as our brothers and sisters who are helping us building our country, and I still see them this way.

It was later down the road through these last two years that I started to think a bit differently. It was because of the problems in Iraq that emerged mainly from ethnic and sectarian differences. I startedto see that Iraq was never a nation. It was never united and was instead unified by force against the will of many of its components;by the British in the beginning and by the national governments later.I also saw that it was quite impractical for the Americans to keep ruling Iraq for many reasons. So, instead of being an addition to the free world and humanity in general, Iraq as a divided community that hasn't found its identity yet was becoming a burden.

Thus the need to establish Iraq as a nation, independent and united became a necessity and a human cause. This goal is still far from being achieved but we are working for it. I can see many Iraqis putting all their efforts to bring this nation to life. We have so much that brings us together despite the fact that we were never united. We have a common history, similar beliefs and traditions, we suffered together and rejoiced our freedom together and apparently we share whatever the destiny of this land would be.

Though Iraq is not exactly a nation yet, I think we are more independent than the vast majority of the countries in the region and certainly more than we ever were. It was mainly the day Iraqis wentin millions to vote for their future that marked (in my opinion) the emergence of independent Iraq. We are now the ones who decide our own fate and though there are still some Iraqis who haven't joined us, I believe they will soon. And though there will always be some external effect on Iraq (like most nations) I believe we do control our destiny. We may choose wrong, and we have at times, but it'll always be our choice and I have great faith that we'll always be able to correct ourselves.

Independence now means more freedom and more responsibilities since we can never be free if we remain too independent on others, if we can’t give as much as we get or more. Independence has come to mean true freedom for me. It’s not a bad word anymore.

And allow me, one very grateful Iraqi on this day, the 4th of July to congratulate all Americans on their independence day that I truly celebrate with them. It's not just out of gratitude but also because I believe it's more than an Independence Day for America, for by being free and independent, the American people gave so many other nations their independence, and thus I see it as an independence day for all the free around the world. Happy 4th of July America and thank you for all your help and sacrifices, not just for us Iraqis but all free people that you helped them get their freedom, and thank you for being the symbol of freedom that gives hope to all oppressed people around the world.

http://afreeiraqi.blogspot.com/

[NYer]

Lunch In Fallujah


While I was in Fallujah, I ate many meals in the homes of Fallujahns there. Contrary to what the general populace thinks, there is a major population of people in that town that love us. We made many friends and were able to capture many terrorists based off their reports. We were often invited into shops and homes for tea. This picture was taken at the home of one of the shieks in Fallujah as he prepared a huge meal for us. In Iraqi culture, when you invite guests to dinner, it’s a BIG affair. Judge for yourselves:

http://www.soldiersperspective.us/?p=474

[experiencediz]

Just because someone invited you for lunch it does not mean you are his best friend or have been accepted,it just means that one is a "guest". It is a very common thing | Ethiopia,Somalia,Kenya,India,Iran, Iraq,Saudi...|to do for a foriegner or an outsider. It does not mean that they are LIKED OR LOVED or acceptd. It is an Eat and Screw deal.

A Police State
Wednesday 13th July 2005,
By Greg Rollins

Most Iraqis dislike the police and Iraqi National Guard (ING). Many people think they are nothing but thugs with guns. The police and ING drive up and down the streets (or sidewalks) shooting into the air and blasting their sirens and horns so that people will move out of their way. They abuse their power. People tell CPT that they insult and harass people at checkpoints, and arrest and beat innocent civilians.


The other day I watched a police convoy pass on the street. You could hear the shooting from several blocks away. All the cars pulled over and waited for the convoy to pass. The first truck sped by with a gunman hanging out the window holding his Kalashnikov in one hand while he yelled. The following six trucks and vans looked the same. The shooting continued but it did not come from these vehicles, it came from the last vehicle in the convoy. The policeman hanging out the back kept shooting into the air despite the fact that all the cars were out of the way.

This is a typical scene in Iraq. While the police and ING are not the only convoys that drive this way, the people are more disturbed by them than when the U.S. military does it. Iraqis have come to expect this kind of behaviour from their occupiers, but not from their new government.

In Fallujah, people told CPT that the police and ING are worse than the U.S. army. “I would rather be arrested by the U.S. than the Iraqis,” one man said. “At least they would treat us better.” He is not the only person CPT has heard this from. People from Fallujah told CPT that whenever a car bomb goes off, the police and ING shoot first and ask questions later. Even though the Fallujah curfew starts at 10 pm, people are usually home shortly after 8 because the police and ING will harass them if they are not. A traffic cop said the police and ING even verbally and physically assault him when he directs traffic.

Recently a new fear has risen; fear of the Iraqi Special Forces (ISF). The ISF are a couple different brigades: the Wolf Brigade and Al Hussain Brigade. They are U.S. trained and work closely with the U.S. military, carrying out house raids, sweeps and major operations. People say they are brutal and that the Wolf Brigade is made up of many anti-Saddam Iranians from a militia called the Badr Brigade. An official from the Interior Ministry told CPT that approval for these Brigades’ violent behaviour goes all the way up to the U.S. Embassy. One family told CPT their three brothers were arrested by the Wolf Brigade one night and the next evening they saw the brothers on TV looking beaten and confessing to crimes they did not commit. There are also stories about people being arrested by one of these brigades and found dead at the side of the road a few days later.

The reality of all this is that Iraq is now a worse police state under the U.S. than it was under Saddam. Sure, Iraq has a government, but the U.S controls it. While many people in the U.S. believe that Iraq is on the road to an American style of democracy, many Iraqis are convinced that there is no road and there will be no democracy.


A Police State (http://www.selvesandothers.org/article10242.html)

[NYer]

Constitution Almost Ready


In Iraq, meanwhile, constitution committee chairman Hamoun Hammadi said the document would be ready to go to Parliament by August 1, ahead of the August 15 deadline, before going to a referendum on October 15.

"There has been an agreement about all the basic issues, including the basic principles, rights, duties and freedoms," he told reporters. "The only point left is that of federalism which aroused some concerns and fears."

The national assembly will then debate the draft and submit amendments in time for a final vote on August 15, marking a milestone in Iraq's political transition following the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion and the toppling of Saddam.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=16958

Life Under Saddam

No one was able to know the number of executions that were made under Saddam; people would vanish and no one would dare to inquire about their fate.

Is the situation getting worse now? Are we moving in the wrong direction?
Such questions mean nothing to me; maybe some people outside are interested in discussing them but for me?

Right now I feel much safer than before and once again I say that I don't expect people who didn't suffer what we suffered under Saddam to understand how I feel.

www.iraqthemodel.com

[experiencediz]

Sunni Arabs to Quit After Killing
Xinhua News Agency
July 21, 2005

Sunni Arabs tasked with writing Iraq's permanent constitution warned of a massive walkout and slashed the government for lack of protection on Wednesday, one day after three of their co-writers were murdered.

Adnan al-Janabi, a Sunni Arab and deputy head of the constitution committee, told reporters that Sunni Arab members have suspended their memberships in the after math of the assassination of their colleagues.

The Sunni bloc also held the Iraqi government, the National Assembly and the United Nations, responsible for failing to protect those who took high-risk jobs.

"Despite these parties announced they would back the process of writing the constitution, they did not provide security for Sunni members," Janabi lashed out at the worsening security in the violence-ravaged capital.

"That's why we decided to withdraw from the committee," he said, adding "As Sunni Arabs, we participated because we see the constitution is for all Iraqis."

Janabi revealed that there were several disputes among members over identity of an Iraqi and role of Islamic law.

On Tuesday, Salih al-Mutlak, spokesman of the Sunni National Dialogue Council, warned that the 17 Sunni Arab members of the constitutional committee would withdraw from the drafting constitution process after three of the panelists were assassinated.

Mejbil al-Sheikh Issa, Aziz Ibrahim and Dhamin Hassan al-Ubaidi, who represent the Sunni Arab among others, were gunned down before passers-by and police patrol near a restaurant in central Baghdad.

Issa and Ubaidi were picked by the council for the constitutional committee, which earlier brought 15 Sunni members and 10 advisors on board as required by the Sunni community.

Ubaidi had said that several members from both Sunni Arabs and Kurds had asked to move the committee to a safe place in northern Iraq for fear that the constitution would be shrouded with possible assassinations.

Ubaidi, a member of the constitutional committee and a representative of the Sunni Arabs, also confirmed to Xinhua one day before the killing that considerable disputes broke out among committee members.

"Major disputes are facing constitution writers over the role of Islamic law in the legal code," said Ubaidi, 49, who was dean of the College of Law in Tikrit since 1999.

Ubaidi said Shiite members were also seeking a term in the constitution, stating that decrees of their Marjiyah (Shiite leadership in Najaf) are sacred, but Sunni Arabs and Kurds frowned on the suggestion.

Sunni Arabs and Kurds threaten not to sign the article and consequently to reject the constitution in the coming referendum if Shiite members insist. The Shiites were then forced to back off, Ubaidi said.

"Several complicated issues like federalism, the role of Islamic law as basis for the legal code, identity of Iraq and distribution of wealth are the sticking points," he said.

The bloodshed and suspension have cast doubts that the committee can complete its work by the end of July, as hoped by President Jalal Talabani on Tuesday.

A draft constitution should be put up for approval by the National Assembly by Aug. 15, and submitted to a national referendum on Oct.15, with general elections to choose a fully mandated government slated for Dec.15.

Article 61 of the interim constitution says, "If necessary, and by the approval of the majority of lawmakers, the speaker may confirm, to the presidential council no later than the 1st of August, that there is a need for further time to accomplish the writing of the constitution. Thereupon, the presidential council shall extend the time needed for writing the draft only for six months."

"If the date of Aug. 1 passes with no submission of an extension, the National Assembly shall be committed to the date of August 15," lawyer Muhammed Salih al-Aswad said.

As the permanent constitution is seen as the key step in the political transition after ouster of former President Saddam Hussein in April 2003 by US-led invasion forces, Washington has pressured Baghdad officials to meet the deadline.

Sunni Arabs to Quit After Killing (http://www.china.org.cn/english/international/135561.htm)

[NYer]

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly ... Not sure I'm as optimistic as the author, but read the whole thing. As one of the commenters observed, it does appear that Iraq will adopt a constitution before the EU.



IRAQ DRAFT BILL OF RIGHTS LEAKED IN ENGLISH

The al-Mada newspaper on June 30 published what is apparently a draft version of the equivalent to the Bill Of Rights that is being worked on by a subcommittee in the Iraqi legislature. Omar from Iraq The Model first reported this on that day and provided his commentary on the document, but ultimately it was too large to translate. Nathan J. Brown of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace provides a valuable public service by translating the entire document, so a big hat tip to him. Let’s take a quick look at some of the features of this bill, as it is very promising although there are some provisions that need much deeper looking into (and others not so much). Nathan also makes thorough observations. You can read it in full here -
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/BillofRights.pdf

The first problem that strikes me hard is provisions three and four of article one, which states:

3. Any individual with another nationality (except for Israel) may obtain Iraqi nationality after a period of residency inside the borders of Iraq of not less than ten years for an Arab or twenty years for any other nationality, as long as he has good character and behavior, and has no criminal judgment against him from the Iraqi authorities during the time of his residency on the territory of the Iraqi republic.

4. An Iraqi may have more than one nationality as long as the nationality is not Israeli.

Suspicion of Israel, as we all must know, is everywhere in the Middle East. Iraq needs to strike it from their constitution, however, if in fact this is being considered. I understand that they must be suspicious of Israelis commissioned by the government to obtain citizenship and act within Iraq’s political structure, but having this anti-Israel provision is highly symbolic and permanent. It would be better to work toward good relations, and then, with regards to the constitution, set a more general precedent for Iraq citizens not born to the country. A provision could be adopted, such as in the United States, where citizens not born in Iraq cannot run for high office (though, I can’t imagine one would win anyway). Besides, they should be concerned about foreign government meddling from organizations based in Syria, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. They should take this into consideration moreso than long-standing Arab paranoia about Israel.

You will notice on many of the provisions that the phrase “in accordance with law,” or something similar, appears at the end. This means that the right is not guaranteed as absolute, but instead will be based on legislation drafted by the elected parliamentary body outside of the executive. As Nathan notes, however, this means that the law may be drafted in a way that severely limits the right, so much so that it may not even truly exist. This is something to be watched out for in the future. For an example, check out provision three of article six, in which, “Freedom of opinion, expression, publishing, printing, the press, advertising, media, meeting, peaceful demonstration, founding political parties, unions, and associations are guaranteed in accordance with the law. No one may be arrested or have his freedom restricted because of his belief, political thoughts, or religious convictions.” I can imagine that holding a certain belief and taking a certain action are two different things and will be dealt with differently in terms of legality (which makes sense, though other provisions are not so generous in restricting the suppressive potential of the law).

A probable way that such rights will be expanded or contracted by the “in accordance with law” wording will be indirectly by laws criminalizing certain acts. Article fourteen, for example, allows any citizen to participate in any civil organizations and no level of government may impede this participation except in accordance with law. This probably means that participation in organizations that promote and use violence against the government and the people will be illegal as doing so is illegal. To note, the Ba’ath party and its ideology are made illegal in the constitution.

A particularly noticeable aspect of this bill of rights is that of social services and welfare guaranteed. This is mostly given to women and children in article four, as the law considers “the family” as the most sacred body in society and the government must protect it. This means that there are protections for maternity leave, free health services for pregnant women, and much more. Pensions will also be paid to families of martyrs, victims of terrorist attacks, among other things. In “accordance with law,” I imagine this will be expanded or contracted based on how the government can afford to pay for it all. A lot of people do receive these benefits, including those simply unemployed, but article twelve stipulates that work is the right and duty of every citizen, meaning that one cannot simply sit around and collect a pension. The rest of the article makes it clear that in a time of economic distress, the state help provide jobs for those who would otherwise do this. This is definitely one of the more vague and dispersed aspects of the draft and the wording and context will need to be made more clear.

A promising sparkle of all this, however, is the promise of free and mandatory education for Iraq children. Most oil states have simply squandered their natural resources instead of investing them in the population. Article seventeen promises that natural resources are owned by the people and will be invested well. Using it for education and other such services that bring a return, as is probable, will guarantee a strong economic future for Iraq.

Back to women’s rights (and the rights of minorities), provision three of article twenty guarantees 25% representation of women throughout the government for “two stages,” at which point the selection will be open and based on ability. This is a good way to allow women to prove themselves without creating an enduring quota that could result in incompetence, though the “two stages” is not defined.

Article fifteen is also among the most interesting, as it establishes “due process” guarantees for Iraqis, including those found in our own constitution. Most government acts against individuals can only take place under the backdrop of judicial supervision. The most striking part of this article is its strong emphasis on the illegality of torture, punishment for those who use it, and the striking of an evidence obtained under torture. Article twenty-one then guarantees compensation should a government official deprive someone of these rights.

Article twenty-two brings up the issue of Islamic sharia in the context of international treaties. This is mentioned elsewhere, and as Nathan notes, there is no standard set in this document that accounts for how sharia is put into practice. It would likely be put elsewhere in the constitution, but its sheer mention is interesting In the same article, it says that non-Iraqis will enjoy all of the same human rights as long as they comply with prevailing moral values and public manners. Integration is expected in any society, but this could be lax or strict depending on what body advises on sharia. Preferably, one will not exist at all and the language specifically referring to Islamic law will be removed, though I am not too worried about it.

Provision three of article twenty-three deals with the right to bear arms, of which, “Citizens may not own, bear, buy, or sell weapons, except by a permit issued in accordance with law.” The likely situation will be that criminals and terrorists will be the ones to [hopefully] lose out, instead of the general populace who need weapons for personal defense from these same people

Overall, it is an interesting read, though I would say somewhat vague at times and certainly repetitive. The part I would most criticize would be the deferring of certain important rights to the legislature, instead of the enshrining of them as natural and absolute. Since this is just a draft, the final version will still have to be edited further, sent to the full commission, edited some more, integrated with the rest of the constitution, edited even more, and then put up for approval by the National Assembly followed by national referendum. There is less than a month for this to take place, yet the Iraqi government is assuring the world that it will be ready. Judging by this draft, and considering that I did not delve into every single detail of it, I believe they are making genuine progress toward what will be a shining example for the rest of the region.

It has certainly been one of the most mesmerizing documents I’ve read in awhile, and it takes me back to a Madisonian wonderland in my head of how hard it must have been in the shaping of our own liberal democracy. A Bill Of Rights, however, is impossible to enforce if the proper mechanisms of government are not put into place; that is, a separation of powers, an independent judiciary, a strong legislature, etc. That is yet to be seen — or leaked, for that matter, though the Iraq model is sure to inspire. If nothing else, it is a refreshing reminder of why America is encouraging and aiding in the expansion of freedom and democracy around the world. Iraq is on that path and there’s no stopping it.

http://www.publiuspundit.com/?p=1379

[NYer]

The countdown for the constitution continues.

Many statements from Iraqi officials and parliament members suggest that the work on writing the draft of the constitution will be done by the end of this month and that the CDC (constitution drafting committee) will not need to ask for an extra 6 months.
At the same time work has begun on preparing the country for the general referendum and just like the January elections, the IECI will also be responsible for making the arrangements and coordinating the process that is planned for the 15th of October of this year.

In this regard, Hussein Al-Hindawi from the IECI said that "there are 1,800 people working on the arrangements right now and this number will increase to reach 25,000 in October" to meet the needs of conducting a successful referendum.
While Ferid Ayar, chief member of the IECI said that he's "expecting no obstacles or problems like the ones we've seen in the January elections in some regions of Iraq" obviously in reference to cities like Mosul, Anbar and Samarra.

This expectation is obviously based on the fact that the most prominent Sunni parties and entities that previously boycotted the January elections (like the Islamic party and the council of Sunni endowment/property) have changed their minds recently and have declared their willingness to take part in the referendum and the next round of elections and even the hardliner association of Muslim scholars is now encouraging Sunni Arabs to take full part in the political process, yet the association itself had chosen to stay away from the political competition.

For the above reasons, the IECI is going to distribute 4,000,000 forms to update the voters' database and these shall be distributed mainly in Sunni regions where registration wasn't possible for too many voters back in January and the total number of voters is expected to increase by 2,000,000 due to the inclusion of citizens who were born in 1987 as well as to the vanishing of boycotting possibilities in some cities.

On the other hands, there are some good efforts underway to include the people in the discussion and probe their opinions while the draft is being prepared, for example the CDC is preparing itself to distribute 5,000,000 copies of the draft once it's finished so that the people can study the draft before they head to the ballots.
Humam Hammodi, the chairman of the CDC said that they received over 6,000 written suggestions from Iraqi citizens in addition to 40 suggested drafts submitted by civil society organizations and political entities as well as more than 1,500 suggestions concerning the constitution via e mail.
Hammodi thanked the Iraqi NGOs for their role in constitutional education as theses organizations held over 80 conferences, workshops and lectures in the past few weeks.

Jalal Talbani, the president said that "the teams of the CDC are working hard on the draft and they've almost finished the work and after settling a few differences in opinions, the draft will be ready by the end of July".

Now it seems that technically the process is running as desired but that's not exactly the case when it comes to the content of the draft; what I'm talking about here in particular is the subject of adopting Share'at laws as the new law of civil affairs.
This topic surfaced for the 1st time back in January 2004 when 5 or 6 GC members suggested adopting Share'at laws in dealing with affairs like marriage, inheritance, the value of women's statements in front of courts and other family-related affairs in what was known as "law 137" but it was rejected after 2 thirds of the GC members and Paul Bremer refused approving the law and we had a post about this subject at that time.

Now that religious parties make up a high percentage of the parliament, they think they can try again to pass this law in the new constitution.
Such a law would seriously compromise the rights of 60% of the population (women) so Baghdad has witnessed protests organized by secular women groups against this law in the last few days and as a response, religious parties sent their women followers to the streets in support of the law.

Now it's up to the secular and democratic elements in the parliament to confront this serious threat to the hopes of building a modern society in Iraq.
The greatest concern actually is the possibility of having the religious parties use their power and militias to exert pressure on the people (especially in the south) to support this law and that's why I'd feel more comfortable if the parliament was able to kill this law before it's fixed in the final draft.

Another voting rule that I don't agree with is that voters are going to answer by "yes" or "no" to the whole draft and I believe this is not what fits our situation best and it's going to complicate re-writing the draft if the draft is rejected in the October referendum because no onle will be able to tell which clauses were the reason behind rejecting the draft.

I would prefer to have the ability to vote on different parts separately, I understand that voting on each single clause would be complicated and time consuming but voting on groups of clauses say the bill of rights, then the election laws, then the form of governance...etc. That will provide a clearer vision on what the people want to approve and what they don't.

Anyway, as long as there will be more elections in the future, I won't freak out if I had to tolerate something I don't agree with because I will have the chance to say my word later.

Statistics from Iraqi papers Al-Sabah and Al-Mada.

- posted by Omar @ 18:23
www.iraqthemodel.blogspot.com

[NYer]

n video, Saddam slams Iraqi proceeding
Ex-dictator decries lack of legal aid, says panel under U.S. thumb

(CNN) -- In video of a legal proceeding that aired Thursday, Saddam Hussein ridiculed Iraq's new government and decried his lack of access to counsel in the war crimes cases against him.

In the footage, the former Iraqi dictator asked for his attorney and criticized his inability to see the lawyer before trial.

"By law, a lawyer should be with the defendant," Saddam said. "Is it fair that the lawyer cannot see the defendant except in court sessions?"

Critics of Saddam's regime have said the ousted leader would have the kinds of legal rights at trial that he never gave citizens during his reign.

The video footage -- first broadcast on Al-Arabiya TV but also released to CNN -- had poor audio quality but could be heard well enough to reveal an aging but confident man.

Al-Arabiya, the Dubai-based Arabic-language network, said the hearing took place July 21.

Earlier this week, the Iraqi Special Tribunal brought its first charges against the former dictator in connection with a series of executions in 1982 after an assassination attempt against him north of Baghdad. No trial date has been set.

Saddam's attorneys have said that he should not be tried for anything because he is immune to all charges under the Iraqi constitution as it was written under his rule.

He has been in custody since U.S. troops captured him in December 2003.

In the video, Saddam appeared defiant, although his voice sounded frail and a bit tired. He was bearded and wore a white shirt and gray jacket.

The official presiding over the session tried to explain to him that it was a hearing and that he was in the custody of the Iraqi government.

Saddam interrupted, asking, "Which government?"

The official attempted to answer, but Saddam said, "I am detained and this is a game. ... I am detained by the Iraqi government, which is appointed by the Americans."

Saddam continued to interrupt the session several times. At one point, the presiding official raised his voice to quiet the former ruler. When that did not work, he lifted his hand and gestured for Saddam to stop speaking.

In what appeared to be a reading of the charges, the phrase "expropriation of property belonging to Iraqi Kurds and Shiite Muslims" could be heard.

The video also showed Saddam reviewing and signing documents on his lap.

Raed Juhi, chief investigative judge of the tribunal, announced the war crimes charges against Saddam on Sunday.

On July 8, 1982, a small group attacked a convoy carrying the Iraqi leader through Dujayl, a Shiite village north of Baghdad. A series of detentions and executions in the town followed the failed assassination attempt.

According to the tribunal, 15 people were summarily executed, and some 1,500 others spent years in prison with no charges and without trial dates. Ultimately, another 143 people had "show trials" and were executed, the tribunal said.

CNN's Octavia Nasr contributed to this report.



Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/07/21/saddam.hearing/index.html

[NYer]

NEW DRAFT OF IRAQI BILL OF RIGHTS RELEASED

On July 19th I posted on a leak of the draft Iraqi bill of rights, which was published in Arabic on June 30 and translated to English on July 6. After I posted about that draft, a new one was released on July 20 and subsequently translated by Nathan Brown at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Given the three weeks of separation between these two drafts, significant and progressive changes can be seen since June 30.

You can read the full text of the new draft, accompanied by the old one, here.
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/BillofRights.pdf

One of the smallest yet significant changes is to provisions three and four of article one. As you may recall from the previous post, it excluded Israelis from candidacy for citizenship and prevented Iraqis from having dual citizenship with Israel. This was one of the most irresponsible and needless statements in the draft. You will all be happy to know that this “exception clause” has since been removed and now reads as follows:

3. a. An Iraqi may not be deprived of his nationality nor exiled or deported unless it is proven in a trial that he provided false essential information that resulted in his being granted nationality.
b. It is forbidden to try a person without citizenship; this shall be regulated by law.

4. An Iraqi is allowed to bear more than one citizenship. An Iraqi who was stripped of his citizenship after February 8, 1968 for any reason is considered Iraqi and is entitled to regain [his citizenship].

It has to be remembered that the document from June 30 and the document now are drafts. They are models for the progress being made on a whole constitution. Thankfully, this suggests that progress is indeed being made. Other commenters in the thread noted that there were no solid guarantees for property rights. This has reassuringly been remedied! The other draft simply said, “The Iraqi citizen has a complete and unconditional right to ownership in all parts of Iraq without limitation.” This new draft expands upon the concept and outlines rights with regards to eminent domain and one’s life:

b. Private ownership is protected. Nobody may be prevented from using his property except within the boundaries of law. Nobody may be deprived of something he owns except for purposes of public welfare in cases specified by law and in the manner stipulated therein and with the condition of just and prompt compensation.
c. The dignity of the individual must be honored and protected. All forms of bodily and psychological torture are forbidden. Those harmed have the right to demand compensation for the material and moral harm they suffered in accordance with law

One of the things I liked best about the first draft were the legal protections and guarantee of due process similar to those we have in America. This new draft specifies these even further, to my delight.

13. a. No one may be detained, held or searched, except by a decision from a competent judicial agency.
b. The privacy of houses is protected. It is not permitted to enter or search them except in accordance with law.
c. Abusive, harsh, and inhumane treatment is forbidden. Any evidence in a trial from any confession obtained by force, torture, or threat is not admissible for any reason.
d. Initial investigation papers are to be sent to the competent judge within 24 hours of the arrest of an accused.

16. a. The judiciary is independent. There is no power over the judiciary except the law.
b. An accused in innocent until proven guilty in a just and legal trial.
n. Doubt is interpreted in the interest of the accused.

There are many more under article sixteen, so check them out. You will recognize many provisions that provide for common protections such as double jeopordy, ex post facto, and “Miranda” rights. These are all placed under judicial supervision, and as noted above, the judicial system must constitutionally be independent.

Another concern voiced in the comments was over their equivalent of our Second Amendment, which read in the previous draft as, “Citizens are forbidden to posses, bear, buy, or sell weapons except with a permit issued in accordance with the law.” It still reads that way. We’ll have to see what happens with it, as th differences between the translation all the way to judicial interpretation may be different from how we interpret it.

A lot of the creepy stuff about the government having to intervene to uphold the morality and “social justice” of society has been taken out. I also note that one reference to “Islamic sharia” has been simply changed to “Islam.” Another instance remains, however, and there still are a few strange concepts like such. More on that in the previous post, but we’re seeing a big tone down on such language.

Lastly, this new draft tones down quite a bit on the commitments of the government toward social welfare. There is still a clause for “free health care” and the providing of education “at all levels” and social security. The draft leaves it up to parliament to draft the law the various levels of government to figure out how this is going to happen, suggesting that the drafters realize a more limited capability to dish it out than previously thought.

Overall, progress is being made. It is important to emphasize, just as with the previous draft, that this is just a draft. None of it is set it stone, though identifying more controversial and unnecessary language early on helps us to set a precedent for marking progress. By this count, the framers are doing remarkably well especially since it was only three weeks ago that the first draft was leaked. They still have a few weeks until their work is completed, sent to the commission, integratd with the rest of the constitution, and voted on; so we can probably look forward to another release ahead of the final vote.

http://www.publiuspundit.com/?p=1400

[NYer]

Iraqi parliament meets Sunni demands to end constitution boycott
www.chinaview.cn 2005-07-25 19:14:23

BAGHDAD, July 25 (Xinhuanet) -- The Iraqi parliament said in a statement on Monday that it has agreed on demands by Sunni groups to end their boycott of the constitution drafting committee.

"All of the demands presented by our brothers have been met," said the statement, signed by parliament speaker Hajemal-Hassani, following a week-long Sunni walkout triggered by the murder of three colleagues.

Earlier on Monday, a spokesman of the Iraqi Council of the National Dialogue, a Sunni body, told Xinhua that Sunni Arab members of the committee have ended their boycott.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-07/25/content_3265349.htm

[NYer]

Smaller rats are on the way to trial too.


Earlier today, Al-Arabiya TV exclusively broadcasted another hearing session for the "Iraqi Special Tribunal" and this time the judges interrogated a number of Saddam's senior aides and the questions were concentrated on a few main cases related to the massacres against Iraqis especially in the South and in Kurdistan back in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Sources from inside the tribunal declared that they're planning to put the defendants to trial within the next 4-6 weeks.
The group that was interrogated today included:

-Ali Hasan Al-Majeed (Chemical Ali) who confessed this time that he led operations against "political targets" in the south when he was in charge of the Ba'ath organizations in that region.

By the way, Ali was a sergeant before Saddam promoted him to general and appointed him minister of defense!

-Watban Ibrahim Al-Hasan (Saddam's half-brother; a cop who became a minister of interior!).
Watban

-Taha Yassin Ramadan (vice president tyrant).

-Samir Aziz Al-Najim (deputy chief of the military wing of the Ba'ath and a former assassin).

-Ahmed Hussain 'Kdhayir (secretary of the presidency).
Barazan Ibrahim Al-Hasan (Saddam's other half-brother and chief of the Mukhabarat).

www.iraqthemodel.blogspot.com

[experiencediz]

Insurgents 'joining Iraqi police'
Tuesday, 26 July, 2005


Iraq's police force is recruiting insurgents and former criminals to its ranks, according to a report released by the US defence department. It blames poor vetting procedures and recommends that the quality of records at Iraq's interior ministry be checked.

US-run training programmes, in which more than 60,000 Iraqi recruits have taken part, are only a qualified success, the Pentagon report says.

An earlier report found only 50% of battalions able to combat insurgents.

The formation of an effective police force is a key element of attempts to combat the insurgency in Iraq, in which hundreds of police officers and would-be recruits have been killed.

'Infiltration'


The report praises the work of the police during January's election, and says police officers are increasingly visible on the streets.

But it says many new recruits are illiterate, have criminal records or are physically disabled.

"Inducting criminals into the [Iraqi police] is a continual concern," the report says, quoted by AP news agency.

"Even more troubling is infiltration by intending terrorists or insurgents. There is sufficient evidence to conclude that such persons indeed are among the ranks of the [police]."

The report adds that coalition personnel are ineffective as recruiters, and focus on quantity rather than quality.

"There is a perception that training programmes have produced 'cannon fodder' - numbers of nominal policemen incapable of defending themselves, let alone the Iraqi public," it says.

Current plans are for a 135,000-strong force.

US-led forces are expected to stay in the country until Iraqi security forces are able to withstand the insurgent on their own.

Insurgents 'joining Iraqi police' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4716531.stm)

[NYer]

One way Saddam maintained control was the population of the police force with Baathists. This should have been no surprise. The other problem facing the building of a nascent government is widespread corruption ...

[NYer]

Iraqi women discuss the constitution


Day by day and as the deadline for finishing the draft of the constitution approaches, we see more hot debates and more active public activities and more interaction with this historic event that will decide the future of life on the lands of Mesopotamia and it's interesting (yet not surprising to me) that daily-life concerns couldn't stop Iraqis from engaging discussions and debates when it comes to writing the constitution.

In the latest episode of "Dostorna" (a program produced by the Iraqia TV and literally means "our constitution) an interesting debate took place among Iraqi women; they discussed constitution, Share'at and how these subjects deal with women rights and needs and the difference in view points was actually obvious between secular/liberal women and religious/conservative women.

The show was attended by an exclusively female audience and questions were directed to the main characters of the show (4 women; 2 secular and 2 religious sitting against each other to the left and right of the stage.
The debate was direct and frank and dealt with many hot topics in Iraq which included controversial topics like hijab, basic freedoms (according to civil constitutions), equality between men and women and the percentage of women's representation in the National Assembly.

Right now, there's a big argument about the "137" law (or the social affairs law) which the Islamists failed at passing once and now it seems that many Iraqi women are determined to stop the Islamists from passing this law this time and actually many of the secular women expressed their disapproval of the attitude and opinion of some female Assembly members who were accused of "acting against the interests of other women".
A female colleague told me this yesterday:

"How could female assembly members support law 137? They want a full vote in the assembly but they want other women (and themselves) to have only half a vote and be treated as half a person before law!!"

Her observation is very interesting and requires stopping at because frankly speaking, I see that some women are acting against women's interests to satisfy the parties they follow which are of course religious parties.

However, what's good here after all is that we can all share and exchange thoughts in public and without fear. We're learning democracy and practicing it at the same time and this can make our steps rather slow and confused but I believe that we have passed (forever) the times where a dictator can rule Iraq.

The people will rule from now on and although the people might make a wrong choice once, they cannot go completely corrupt.

- posted by Mohammed @ 00:10
iraqthemodel.blogspot.com

[NYer]

Iraqi minister blasts Syria

Iraq's defense minister criticized Syria on Tuesday for ignoring Iraqi demands "to stop the infiltration of terrorists."

The official, Saadoun al-Dulaimi, singled out Iraq's western neighbor as among states that are slack on stopping the flow of militants into his country.

"When the lava of the exploding volcano of Iraq overflows, it will first hit Damascus," al-Dulaimi warned during a news conference to discuss an upcoming nationwide security plan.

He said militants are coming into Iraq from Syria via three routes, with the intent of targeting the Baghdad region.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/07/26/iraq.main/index.html?section=cnn_topstories

[experiencediz]

For The Models...
Prison abuse, Drug abuse & now Gun smuggling! :add36:
When did you say the Bush trial starts? :rolleyes:

Smuggling Guns Out Of Iraq
Soldier, Uncle Plead Guilty To Smuggling Guns Out Of Iraq

Reported by: A.P.
Web produced by: Neil Relyea
Photographed by: 9News
7/26/2005 10:00:13 PM

PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) -- A Fort Campbell soldier and his uncle have pleaded guilty to charges they smuggled 18 machine guns out of Iraq and tried to sell them in the US.

Guy Brown and Nigel Brown, of Hopkinsville, face up to ten years in prison, a $250,000 fine and supervised release for up to three years.

Sentencing is set for October 25.

Another Fort Campbell soldier under indictment, Beau Uran, of Clarksville, Tennessee, is scheduled for a hearing in August.

The indictment filed last May says that while in Iraq, Nigel Brown and Uran acquired 17 Russian-made A-K-47s and a Chinese replica of the A-K.

The indictment says Nigel Brown and Uran allegedly hid the guns in oxygen tanks so they could be shipped back to Fort Campbell undetected.

In May 2004, Guy Brown sold one of the guns to an undercover A-T-F agent.

He also told the agent he had 18 guns for sale.

Nigel Brown is a sergeant with Bravo Company in the 526th Brigade Support Battalion.

Uran is a sergeant with the 584th Maintenance Company. Post officials say both soldiers continue to serve at Fort Campbell.


Soldier, Uncle Plead Guilty To Smuggling Guns Out Of Iraq (http://wcpo.com/news/2005/local/07/26/fort_campbell.html)

[pixikill]

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2005/07/27/2707_leunig_gallery__550x389.jpg

[Ono]

Gunmen massacre passengers in Baghdad bus ambush
27 July 2005

BAGHDAD: About 10 gunmen emptied their automatic rifles into a bus carrying Iraqi workers from a factory west of Baghdad overnight, killing up to 17 people, police and hospital sources said.


Police said 12 people had died in the attack on the bus, but a source at one hospital said it had received 17 bodies.

"We were on the bus going home. Two cars with about 10 insurgents opened fire on us. We don't know why: we are just workers," said Adil Zamal, being treated for multiple gunshot wounds to the back at the An Noor hospital, which received about 20 wounded patients from the attack.

"We fell to the floor. They just kept shooting and shooting until they ran out of ammunition," he said.

Al Qaeda's Iraq wing, led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is blamed for most of the violence in Iraq.

On Tuesday it released a video of two kidnapped Algerian diplomats it has vowed to kill. One of the two blindfolded men identified himself as Ali Belaroussi, Algeria's mission chief.

A statement accompanying the video said the diplomats' "confessions" would be posted soon. In another statement it vowed to kill them and said this would be "the fate of the ambassadors and the envoys of all infidel governments."

AdvertisementAdvertisementThe group earlier this month issued a similar video of Egypt's mission chief and said it killed him. The US-backed government says the violent campaign against diplomats was aimed at preventing Iraq from improving ties with its neighbours.

Several countries have reduced their presence in Baghdad due to attacks this month, and no Arab country has yet given its envoy in Baghdad the full status of ambassador.

In other violence, two police were killed by a mortar on Baghdad's southern outskirts, and three more were killed by a rocket attack in Hilla, a town further south, police said.

An aide of the radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was shot dead while stepping out of his car in Baquba north of Baghdad. A paramedic and an Iraqi woman were killed during clashes between the Iraqi army and insurgents in Mosul.

Three Ministry of Health workers were shot dead in their car in the capital's eastern New Baghdad district. Gunmen killed a Pakistani truck-driver in Tikrit, and a police officer and a child were killed by gunmen in central Basra.

Despite the spiralling violence, work resumed on Iraq's new constitution after Sunni Arabs ended a week-long boycott of the drafting committee that had threatened to scupper the process.

The Sunnis, who were added to the committee last month in a bid to win support for the charter from the minority community behind the insurgency, had stormed out after one of their members was gunned down in a drive-by shooting.

The constitution is due by August 15, but the chairman of the committee writing it has said it will be ready by the end of this month, the deadline to call for an extension if needed.

Several Iraqi and western news organisations have published leaked versions of the text, some of which contained language that women's groups have complained may allow a greater role for religious law in family issues like divorce and child custody.

But a Western diplomat who has worked closely with members of the drafting committee said it was still too early to say whether the language would be included in the final text.

"There are a lot of formulations of the text in circulation. Nothing is definitive at this stage," the diplomat said and expressed confidence that the document would be ready on time despite the brief boycott.

"Even though the Sunnis suspended their activities for a few days, it wasn't as if they stopped working on their positions."


http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3358925a12,00.html

[NYer]

IRAQ: The Arab Reformation Gets Lost in Iraq



July 27, 2005: Despite some recent spikes, the level of violent incidents has been more or less steady for the past two or three months, and is considerably lower than the levels a year or so ago. The level of violence is likely to rise over the next few weeks, as the new Iraqi constitution is currently in preparation, and is due to be presented to the public in mid-August.

Any increase in the level of attacks is likely to be aimed primarily at moderate Sunni leadership. Since accomodationists leaders of the Sunni community have decided to take part in the constitution writing process, they have naturally become targets for the rejecitonists. Even more dangerous to the moderate Sunnis are the foreign Islamists. In this regard, there is a rumor that representatives of the Sunni moderate faction met with representatives of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the principal al Qaeda leader in Iraq, in an attempt to negotiate some sort of suspension of attacks on Sunni leaders. Assuming this meeting did take place, its effects have yet to be noticed.

Al Qaeda has threatened to kill two Algerian diplomats it kidnapped last week. The remainder of the diplomatic community has greatly increased its security. The Sunni Moslem diplomats thought they had some immunity from the terrorists, because of the Iraqi Sunni Arab support that made the terrorism possible. But the split in the Iraqi Sunni Arab community has created a radical faction that is determined to push the violence to extremes in an attempt to break the government. This crew is playing with fire. The government is dominated by the majority Kurds and Shia Arabs. These groups are not going to give up power because of terrorist violence. They know what happens when the Sunni Arabs are in power, and remember the violence of the past. That violence, inflicted by many of the same Sunni Arabs behind the current terrorism, was not as spectacular (fewer explosions), but was deadlier and more personal. Saddam’s killers would get right in your face when they killed you. They wanted death to be public, so people knew that resistance to Sunni Arab rule had dire consequences. The majority of Iraqis will resist, with extreme violence is neccessary, any return to the bad old days. The terrorists don't believe that.

The terrorists continue to attack the economy, but the key infrastructure targets (power, water, oil production) are too well guarded. But the terrorists are always looking for openings. Yesterday, gunmen shot up a busload of people leaving a factory outside Baghdad, killing 17 workers. Sunni Arab terrorists continue to threaten business owners, demanding money, or cooperation in carrying out terrorist attacks. The tendency is to pay, because that is similar to the corrupt practices that pervade Iraqi society. Such corruption remains, next to the terrorism, the major obstacle to the revival of the economy.

Throughout the Arab world, corruption is a constant impediment to economic progress. One bright spot in this department is that at least Iraqis are talking about corruption, how bad it is and how important it is to stop it. But stopping corruption is another matter. When it comes to enforcing anti-corruption laws, and implementing anti-corruption practices, things start to fall apart. Rather than wallow in despair, the anti-corruption proponents believe in a coming “Arab reformation.” After centuries of bad government and poor economics, most Arabs are ready for a change. Al Qaeda offers solutions, but they solve the corruption problem with punishments out of the Koran. Arabs have seen that approach tried and failed in Afghanistan and Iran. But other solutions have yet to appear as concrete examples. And Iraqis are not sure they will be able to provide that first example of a corruption free Arab society.

http://www.strategypage.com//fyeo/qndguide/default.asp?target=IRAQ.HTM

[NYer]

Could the "Roach Motel" strategy be working?

Iraqi police say they've seized al Qaeda suspect
Wed Jul 27, 2005 7:56 PM IST

KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi commandos have captured an Egyptian said to be an associate of Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's number two, police sources said on Wednesday.

Police named the suspect as Hamdi Tantawi and said he was detained in a raid on a farmhouse near the town of Yusufiya, south of Baghdad. They said Tantawi was suspected of financing insurgent operations in the area.

They said Tantawi was believed to be a lieutenant to Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor regarded as second-in-command to Osama bin Laden in the al Qaeda network. Computers, money and weapons were also seized in the raid, the police said.

Wednesday's operation took place in an area called al-Shakhat, about 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, part of a region referred to as the "triangle of death" by U.S. troops because of the frequency of insurgent attacks.

Police said initial interrogations had revealed that Tantawi was responsible for several attacks on Iraqi soldiers, police and civilians in the area.

The U.S. military and the Iraqi government were not immediately available to comment on the arrest.

In recent months, Iraqi commandos and U.S. forces have detained many insurgents said to be senior associates of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of a group called al Qaeda in Iraq, an offshoot allied to bin Laden.

The seizure of Tantawi was believed to be one of the first captures of a member of the main al Qaeda network in Iraq.

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-07-27T194338Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-210827-1.xml

[experiencediz]

U.S. Troops Fighting and Dying for Islam, not Democracy: Islam Dominates Iraq's Draft

Associated Press

Framers of Iraq's constitution will designate Islam as the main source of legislation — a departure from the model set down by U.S. authorities during the occupation — according to a draft published Tuesday.
The draft states no law will be approved that contradicts "the rules of Islam" — a requirement that could affect women's rights and set Iraq on a course far different from the one envisioned when U.S.-led forces invaded in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.

"Islam is the official religion of the state and is the main source of legislation," reads the draft published in the government newspaper Al-Sabah. "No law that contradicts with its rules can be promulgated."

The document also grants the Shiite religious leadership in Najaf a "guiding role" in recognition of its "high national and religious symbolism."

Al-Sabah noted, however, that there were unspecified differences among the committee on the Najaf portion. Those would presumably include Kurds, Sunni Arabs and secular Shiites on the 71-member committee.

During the U.S.-run occupation, which ended June 28, 2004, key Shiite and some Sunni politicians sought to have Islam designated the main source of legislation in the interim constitution, which took effect in March 2004.

However, the U.S. governor of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, blocked the move, agreeing only that Islam would be considered "a source" — but not the only one. At the time, prominent Shiite politicians agreed to forego a public battle with Bremer and pursue the issue during the drafting of the permanent constitution.

Some women's groups fear strict interpretation of Islamic principles could erode their rights in such areas as divorce and inheritance. It could also move Iraq toward a more religiously based society than was envisioned by U.S. planners who hoped it would be a beacon of Western-style democracy in a region of one-party rule and theocratic regimes.

Members of the constitutional committee said the draft was among several and none would be final until parliament approves the charter by Aug. 15.

The drafting committee met Tuesday to discuss federalism, one of the most contentious issues, according to Sunni Arab member Mohammed Abed-Rabbou. He described the discussion as "heated" and said no agreement was reached.

Parliament speaker Hajim al-Hassani, a Sunni Arab, urged Iraqi media to refrain from publishing supposed texts unless they are released by the constitutional committee.

Sunni Arabs involved in writing the charter have complained that Shiites and Kurds are trying to steamroll their version of the draft without proper consultation and discussion.

The Sunnis agreed only Monday to resume work on the committee after they walked out to protest the assassination of two colleagues this month.

"It's very important that the constitution is produced through the participation of all Iraqis," U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters Tuesday. "This is important for ending and defeating the insurgency, for having a political compact and I want to say to the Arab Sunni community that they can count on us for such a compact."

Sunni Arab support is crucial because the charter can be scuttled if voters in three of Iraq's 18 provinces reject it by a two-thirds majority — and Sunni Arabs are a majority in four provinces. Sunni Arabs make up about 20 percent of Iraq's 27 million people but dominate areas where the insurgency is raging.

U.S. officials are eager for the Iraqis to meet the Aug. 15 deadline as a major step in building a stable constitutional government, considered key to pacifying the Sunni insurgency and enabling the U.S. and its partners to begin drawing down troop strength.

If the deadline is met, voters will decide whether to approve the charter in mid-October and if they do, another general election will take place in December.

In an Internet statement Tuesday, al-Qaida's wing in Iraq warned Iraqis not to take part in the constitutional referendum, saying democracy goes against God's law and anyone who participates would be considered an "infidel," and earmarked for death.

According to Al-Sabah, the draft constitution would declare Iraq a sovereign state with "a republican democratic federal system." However, the word "federal" appears in brackets, indicating opposition among the committee.

Sunni Arabs are suspicious that federalism, a prime goal of the Kurds, would lead to the disintegration of Iraq.

U.S. Troops Fighting and Dying for Islam,not Democracy: Islam Dominates Iraq's Draft (http://www.sierratimes.com/05/07/27/islam.htm)

[experiencediz]

Reporter Finds U.S. Sniper in Iraq Who Shot Knight Ridder Correspondent

One of the most remarkable stories of the Iraq war appears today at the online magazine Salon, written by its longtime foreign correspondent Phillip Robertson. Amazingly, he managed this month to track down the American sniper who apparently shot and killed Knight Ridder correspondent Yasser Salihee on June 24.

By Greg Mitchell

(July 27, 2005) -- One of the most remarkable stories of the Iraq war appears today at the online magazine Salon, written by its longtime foreign correspondent Phillip Robertson. Amazingly, he managed this month to track down the American sniper who apparently shot and killed Knight Ridder correspondent Yasser Salihee, 33, on June 24. The article,"The Victim and the Killer," (http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/07/27/sniper/index_np.html) chronicles this search, and lengthy exchanges between Robertson and the sniper, described only as "Joe."

E&P has covered the Salihee incident from the start, first with a news report (http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000971177), then a moving tribute (http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000972215) to him written by Knight Ridder's Baghdad chief Hannah Allam, which drew wide reader response. Salihee, a physican who had worked for KR for more than a year, was accidentally shot, on his day off, while driving his car in what seemed like a haphazard manner, wrongly suspected by American soldiers of being a suicide bomber.

Robertson, who had met Salihee, decided to search for the unidentified sniper himself. This seemed like a long shot, at best, as the U.S. military won't comment on civilian casualties in general, let alone in particular, and certainly not put any journalist in contact with a suspected shooter. But this did not stop Robertson, who has filed dozens of stories from Iraq and Afghanistan for Salon since 2001.

Steve Butler, Knight Ridder's foreign editor, who said he read Salon story today "very carefully," told E&P: "We've been talking to the military in Baghdad and they are preparing an investigation. We would like the report of that investigation to be made public. It could be that this interview with the sniper is the only record we will have."

Just about all Robertson knew at the start was that at least four rounds had been fired at Salihee on June 24, some of them perhaps warning shots (though eyewitnesses dispute this), with one of them piercing his skull and killing him instantly. Salihee left behind a wife and 2-year-old daughter, as well as grieving colleagues at Knight Ridder.

To find the shooter, Robertson requested an embed slot in western Baghdad. (Butler, the Knight Ridder editor, told E&P that "it bothers me somewhat" that Robertson was "not being totally honest... embedding with the military with the purpose of doing his own investigation into this.") Two weeks later, he was able to find the unit, part of the 256th Brigade Combat Team, that took part in the fatal shooting.

Next, from a young specialist from Louisiana, he learned the names of two snipers with the unit. "The next night, the 13th of July," he writes, "I walked into the command post after dinner and recognized one of the men the young soldier had mentioned. The man was working on a notebook computer at a big table in the front room of the command post. We struck up a conversation."

The sniper, "a tall, good-looking man," started showing him pictures on his laptop, from back home and from Iraq. Eventually, he brought up a photo of what Robertson immediately recognized as the shooting scene: a white sedan with a single bullet hole in the driver's side of the windshield. Slumped behind the wheel was his friend, Yassir Salihee.

The sniper turned nervous, said, "I really hope he was a bad guy," and added that he wasn't sure that he was one who killed him, even though he admitted firing the shot through the windshield.

The next day, "Joe" agreed to answer questions, but asked the writer not to use his full name. "I don't want someone coming after me," he said. Robertson did not tell him he'd been trying to find him for two weeks, but when he interviewed him later he revealed that he knew the victim -- but Joe still agreed to talk.

Joe described for Robertson the events of the day leading up to Salihee approaching an intersection, then making an odd maneuver around a car that was turning around.

"I was shooting to disable when he swerved around the other car," Joe told him. "He was going more than 20 miles an hour. We aren't used to seeing someone drive that fast." Joe claimed that Salihee should have seen the soldiers and stopped, even before they allegedly fired warning shots, but he never even raised his hands off the wheel in surrender.

Robertson comments: "When Joe talked about his decision to fire at Salihee, he sounded anguished, but he kept coming back to the moment when Salihee passed the first car, the moment he decided that Salihee was a bomber attacking the U.S. position."

Then he quotes two Iraqi eyewitnesses who contradict Joe's account, one claiming that Salihee was stopped, with his hands up, when shot. In the police report, Robertson notes, a diagram shows that Salihee's car was indeed pulled over to the left side of the street. Proof of which version is correct is very murky, but Robertson reveals: "The evidence suggests that Salihee might have had his hands raised. Four fingers on Salihee's right hand were missing."

Taking a broader look, however, he concludes: "The details may be murky, but in retrospect it is fairly clear what happened... The soldiers were on edge, but they seem to have followed their rules of engagement. It was a typical misunderstanding, of the sort that happens all the time in Iraq." No disciplinary action is likely. Robertson points out that a spokesman for the coalition forces told the Los Angeles Times that he did not know of a single soldier who had been punished for shooting a civilian in a traffic incident or at a checkpoint.

Robertson's story closes: "Before I left Joe at his company headquarters at Camp Victory, he said he wanted to tell the Salihee family he was sorry and that he'd never had to fire to stop a car before the 24th of June. 'If I'd seen his hands up, no way would I have fired a shot. We didn't murder him. No way was it murder,' Joe said. But there was desperation in his voice, as if he wasn't sure."

About: Knight Ridder (http://www.kri.com/about/)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greg Mitchell (gmitchell@editorandpublisher.com) is editor of E&P.

Reporter Finds U.S. Sniper in Iraq Who Shot Knight Ridder Correspondent (http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=10009987 48)

[NYer]

Journalists KIA

http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?p=284926#post284926

[experiencediz]

"We Regard Falluja As a Large Prison"
A reporter returns to the city, where violence and destruction remain part of everyday life.

David Enders

Eight months after the second invasion of Falluja, there is hardly a street that does not still feature a building pulverized during the assault. I had not been in the city since last July, when I was escorted out by three cars of mujahedeen — that's when things were still relatively nice — and though I had expected it, the destruction was still shocking.

The dome of one mosque I had previously used as a landmark was completely missing, large holes had been blown in others. Houses have been pancaked, it is hard to find a façade without the mark of at least small arms fire. As many as 80 percent of the city's 300,000-plus residents have returned, but the city has by no means returned to normal. On Sunday, the police were hard at work adding razor wire and new concrete blast barriers to the already sprawling fortifications around their main station in the center of town while US and Iraqi army patrols traversed the main street, the Iraqis firing their rifles in the air to clear traffic. Small arms chattered in the distance, followed by a response from a larger gun. The tension is palpable. Curfew begins at 10 p.m. but low-level fighting continues.

"They are killing one or two of us everyday," says an Iraqi soldier at one of the checkpoints into the city, a claim confirmed by local doctors.

I have heard Iraqis make comparisons between their occupation and the Israeli occupation of Palestine, but it wasn't until I saw families walking through the kilometer-long checkpoint, from a parking lot outside Falluja to one on the other side, that it seemed apt. Once inside, seeing the life continuing amidst the rubble, it was harder still to ignore the physical similarities.

A child jumps into the Euphrates from a one-lane bridge, the same bridge from which angry residents hung the charred and beaten bodies of four American contractors in March 2004, the same bridge that connects the center of town to Falluja General hospital, the first objective taken by the Marines in November's invasion. Doctors Ahmed and Salam, who agreed to be interviewed on the condition that their names be changed, lamented the condition of the city and its people. In the last week, they have received three civilian casualties of US fire, and say that this week has been below average — normally, says Ahmed, they see one or two dead civilians every day, and that hundreds have been killed by coalition forces since the city was taken over by the US.

"Just yesterday a middle-aged lady was brought here by coalition forces — she was killed by a single shot to the head," Ahmed says. "The coalition forces came to the hospital and took her name and all her information."

"The people of Falluja feel depressed because they can't move freely from place to place, because the coalition forces and the Iraqi national guard make new checkpoints every day, make new obstacles," says Salam. "They cannot move freely at night. There are medical cases at night that result in casualties because they cannot reach us."

At Al-Furqan Mosque, one of the city's moderate places of worship, some of the men stay after the prayers to discuss the situation. Even more than the US military, they feel the new, government, dominated by conservative Shiite parties, has laid siege to their city.

"They use their weapons to clear traffic," says Imam Abdul Majid. Some of the men cry during his sermon, when he asks god to save Falluja and Iraq. "We can say the Americans are better than them. Let me speak frankly — the new government has failed." They complain of continued raids and arrests, missing persons, harassment, he says. "Before we were oppressed by invaders. Now it's getting worse."

"Shops are broken into at night," one of the men says. "Tell me, if there is a curfew and the army and the police control the streets, who is breaking into our shops?"

The men are afraid of the Iranian influence on the new government, the government that has failed to continue sending aid, something which US-appointed prime minister Ayad Allawi's government, despite supporting November's invasion, did do.

Back at the hospital, Ahmed says he expects the fighting to continue. "Even civilian people will change to be fighters," he says. "We regard Falluja as a large prison." (People in Falluja will not talk directly about fighting, though all indications are that the new attacks are homegrown.)

The Iraqi army in Falluja, who don't mind telling a journalist that they are all from cities in the south, don't seem particularly thrilled to be here. (When the US tried recruiting Fallujis to fight in Falluja, they turned their guns on the US or turned them over to the guerillas.)

"Falluja — death," says one of them, drawing a finger across his throat, a motion that I would like to go one day in Iraq without seeing someone make.

Most of the reconstruction that has taken place since the fighting has been the often partial rebuilding of houses. Iyad Allawi's government sent 20 percent of the promised compensation.

"It costs in Iraq right now at least 50 million dinars to build a house," Salam said. "What is someone supposed to do if he only gets three million dinars? And these people, they have had to spend time out of their houses, and there is not a single family in Falluja that does not have someone killed."

I approach some of the Marines on a base inside the city, to try and find out what life is like for them. They say there is no one at the base who can speak on the record, but I pause for a minute and chat, not terribly excited about walking back outside into the thick dust and, potentially, a line of fire. They ask why I have come, I am the first journalist they have seen in four months.

"No one wants to talk about Falluja," says one of the Marines.

David Enders is a freelance journalist who has been working in Iraq for most of the last two years. His first book,Baghdad Bulletin (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0472114697/qid=1122490401/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_ur_2_1/102-9044054-9748962), is available from University of Michigan Press.

"We Regard Falluja As a Large Prison" (http://www.mojones.com/cgi-bin/print_article.pl?url=http://www.mojones.com/news/update/2005/07/falluja.html)

[NYer]

Simple Soldier shares a typical day ...

Typical day on the ground


...Things are good here. Regardless of what you hear on the news. The terrorists are losing, and losing bad. If you can’t see that, you need to open your eyes. They have resorted to such cowardly tactics as suicide bombers targeting civilians. Civilians! What did the civilians ever do to the terrorists? Nothing. But it doesn’t matter. The terrorists are only here (from other countries mind you) to create havoc. It’s not working too well. For every huge explosion you see on CNN, there were probably two dozen that were prevented by quick thinking, hard working soldiers. You don’t hear about that on the news though. You don’t hear about the 18 year old machine gunner who shot a suspicious vehicle trying to enter their convoy which turned out to be an attempted suicide bomber. This hero is not on CNN for saving the lives of fellow soldiers and Iraqi civilians alike. You don’t hear about how many lives were saved when the Iraqi army raided a small village and destroyed hundreds of would be IED’s. No, that is not news my friends. But when some pus nuts friggin terrorist blows up innocent people in the middle of a market, you are told by the media that we are losing the war and that we shouldn’t be here. Well, we should. When you work with these people daily, you see what the hard work is doing. When the kids are anxious to go to school to learn about the world around them, you realize that we should be here. I hope the trend continues, and that the terrorists run out of cowardly suicide volunteers. Can there be that many stupid people around? Iraq doesn’t have any left. Neither does Iran. These terrorists are from Syria, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, ect. I hope the people fight back. They are starting to, believe me. Yesterday we were tipped off by a man in the village about a house that had already been searched. When soldiers went back inside to search more carefully a cleverly hidden sniper rifle was found. How many people had this terrorist killed? How many would he have killed had we not been tipped off? A big thanks goes out to that civilian. That Arab wants to see his country make something of it’s self. I do too. And you know what, I think it will.

http://simplesmith.blogspot.com/2005/07/typical-day-on-ground.html

[experiencediz]

Simple Soldier shares a typical day ...

Typical day on the ground

...Things are good here. Regardless of what you hear on the news. The terrorists are losing, and losing bad. If you can’t see that, you need to open your eyes. They have resorted to such cowardly tactics as suicide bombers targeting civilians. Civilians! What did the civilians ever do to the terrorists? Nothing. But it doesn’t matter. The terrorists are only here (from other countries mind you) to create havoc. It’s not working too well...

http://simplesmith.blogspot.com/2005/07/typical-day-on-ground.html

I wonder if the above statement was used as a snyde?
I have said this before...Just like the cops here and Holywood movies the army does the same thing. There is no such thing as tactics...If a shot is heard or there is some kind of a threat there are over 150,000 soldiers who will just point to that direction with everything they got and shoot...and ask questions later...no wonder civilian death counts are high!

More on my comments here... (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/12/national/main708355.shtml)





Officials: Blast survivors hit by gunfire
By SINBAD AHMED, Associated Press Writer

Published: July 30th, 2005
Last Modified: July 30th, 2005 at 12:48 PM

RABIAH, Iraq (AP) - Some survivors of a suicide bombing targeting Iraqi army recruits were shot and wounded immediately afterward when U.S. and Iraqi soldiers opened fire at the scene, police, doctors and witnesses said Saturday.


The bomber wandered into a crowd of Iraqis waiting Friday to enlist in the army and detonated his explosives, said police and witnesses to the attack in this northern town near the Syrian border. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility in a statement posted on the Internet.

After the blast, U.S. and Iraqi troops opened fire believing they were under attack, Rabiah's police chief, Col. Yahya al-Shammari, told The Associated Press.

He said some of the army recruits were killed by the gunfire, although it was unclear how many because dead and wounded were taken to several hospitals across a wide area of northern Iraq.

He said the death toll from the suicide attack had risen to 52 dead and 93 injured by late Saturday.

The account of the shooting comes amid increased focus on the professionalism and training of the Iraqi army, with the Bush administration eager to improve Iraq's security forces so that the United States and its partners can begin withdrawing troops next year.

The Iraqi Defense Ministry said that it was unaware of any shooting in connection with the bombing at Rabiah, a town 230 miles north of Baghdad, and that all casualties resulted from the blast.

The U.S. military press office in Baghdad acknowledged receiving a query about the alleged shooting but said it had no information on it yet.

Townspeople also spoke of gunfire from U.S. and Iraqi soldiers after the blast.

"Two of my relatives were wounded with bullets," said Akram Zeidan, who lives near the blast site. He pointed to the walls that showed hundreds of bullet holes.

The police chief said Iraqi soldiers fired Russian-made PKC automatic rifles mounted on top of their trucks. Dozens of empty shell casing could be seen scattered on the ground Saturday. He said U.S. troops also took part in the shooting.

In the nearby village of Oweinat, where 14 of the wounded were being treated, a doctor showed a reporter four PKC bullets he had removed from some of the wounded. He refused to allow his name to be published, fearing government reprisal.

Officials: Blast survivors hit by gunfire (http://www.adn.com/24hour/world/story/2595243p-11044570c.html)

[NYer]

Terrorists are feeling the heat in Iraq

...But except in news reports, the war in Iraq has been going poorly for al-Qaida. Retired Gen. Jack Keane, former vice chief of staff of the Army, said in a speech July 25 that so far this year, U.S. and Iraqi security forces have killed or captured more than 50,000 insurgents, including a significant portion of the leadership. While the majority of these have to be people who were interviewed and released, that's still an impressive total.

Car bombings, al-Qaida's specialty, have fallen from (a record high of) 170 in April to 151 in May to 133 in June, with less than 100 so far in July. (Journalists describe this as a "worsening" trend.) Al-Qaida could be storing up for an offensive when the new Iraqi constitution is unveiled next month. We'll know soon enough.

The targets have shifted in emphasis from American forces to Iraqi forces to Shiite civilians to, most recently, Sunni Arabs who are cooperating with the government. This does not suggest growing capability or rising support. Nor do the increasing number of gun battles between al-Qaida and its ex-Baathist allies in the insurgency suggest harmony in the resistance.

Suicide attacks have been successful in gaining headlines, but have not slowed enlistment in the Iraqi armed forces, or prevented prominent Sunnis from taking part in the writing of the constitution.

American commanders are now talking openly about a major withdrawal of troops after the Iraqi elections scheduled for December. While this may reflect concerns about the strains the massive deployment in Iraq is placing on the Army and Marine Corps as much as an improving situation, it is doubtful these statements would be made publicly if the situation weren't in fact improving.

Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-D.C. -based think tank, has been pessimistic about Iraq. He returned from a recent visit singing a different tune:

"If current plans are successfully implemented, the total number of Iraqi military and police units that can honestly be described as trained and equipped should rise from 96,000 in September 2004, and 172,000 today to 230,000 by the end of December and 270,000 by mid-2006," he said.

Strategic Forecasting, a private American intelligence service, thinks al-Qaida is engaged in the terrorist equivalent of the Tet Offensive: "launching a series of attacks -- some significant, others mere psyops -- in an effort to turn the tide in a war it has been losing."

Clumsy mistakes made in the London bombings suggest to Strategic Forecasting that al-Qaida has suffered "a rather serious decline in the quality -- though not necessarily the quantity -- of its operational assets." A shortage of skilled labor would explain why al-Qaida is shifting assets from Iraq. But, in effect, conceding defeat in the principal theater rarely is the path to ultimate victory.

If al-Qaida is indeed shifting personnel out of Iraq, expect to hear more about Iraq as an "incubator" for terrorism. But what, pray tell, do the promoters of this theory imagine Zarqawi and his minions would have been doing these past two years if there had been no war in Iraq? Origami?

Iraq has indeed proven to be a quagmire. But not for us.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05212/545934.stm

[NYer]

More good news ...

Good news from Iraq, 1 August 2005
by Arthur Chrenkoff on August 1, 2005 10:56 AM

Note: As always, also available from "The Opinion Journal" and Chrenkoff. Thank you all - your support is what's making this project so personally worthwhile.

Monsignor Rabban al Qas, Chaldean bishop of Amadiyah and Arbil, was recently asked by a foreign interviewer whether there is any good news coming out of Iraq: "Twenty-three Iraqis are killed every day in Iraq. Nearly two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, there is no security as yet. Is there still hope in Iraq?" To which Monsignor al Qas replied:

What the media portray is true: explosions, killings, attacks. But if you see how much order, discipline, transport, displacements, and work have improved, there is a change for the better compared to one or two years ago. Now people understand there is a government, the structure of a new state. Thousands and thousands of allied and Iraqi soldiers are present. There is a constitution which is being drawn up, laws are being enacted. The presence of authority is recognised. This was not the case before. And Al-Qaeda integralists and terrorists coming from abroad seek to penetrate Iraq precisely to destroy the beginnings of this social organization.

A war for the future of Iraq is going on, no doubt about it, but not all of that war is being fought with guns and explosives. Terrorists and insurgents might be killing both soldier and civilians and sabotaging infrastructure, and the Iraqi and the Coalition security forces might in turn be hunting down the enemies of the new Iraq, but every step towards self-government, every new job created, every new school opened are a small victory against those who would want to turn Iraq's clock back three or 1300 years. Below are some of these stories that often get lost in the fog and smoke of war.

* Society
* Economy
* Reconstruction
* Humanitarian Aid
* The Coalition Troops
* Security

read the rest ...

www.windsofchange.net

[experiencediz]

Polish PM: Iraq nation-building 'failed'
Mon, Aug. 01, 2005
MATTIAS KAREN

Associated Press

TALLBERG, Sweden - Poland's prime minister said Monday that postwar nation-building efforts in Iraq have "failed totally," but expressed hope that the country's different religious groups can work together to build an independent nation.

Prime Minister Marek Belka, whose country has been a close U.S. ally since the invasion of Iraq, said the United States and its allies made a mistake by basing its postwar plan for Iraq on the same model used for Germany after World War II.

"It failed totally," Belka said at a panel discussion on nation-building at an international forum in Sweden. "Many mistakes, major mistakes, have been committed."

Poland has commanded a multinational force in Iraq since September 2003, although the force's size has shrunk from 9,500 troops to 4,000.

Belka said there were nonetheless reasons for optimism in Iraq, including the success of recent elections.

"The political process is moving on," Belka said.

However, the key for creating an independent nation in Iraq is to "reconcile the divergent interests" of the country's three major groups, the Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds, Belka said.

"There is much more of an Iraqi identity (among the groups) than you might think," he said.

Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, who also participated in the discussion, said President Bush has put in risk "the peace of the greater Middle East with this venture."

Talbott, who served in the State Department in the Clinton administration, urged the United States and Great Britain to retain their troops in Iraq to provide sufficient security until the country's armed forces are able to defend against insurgents by themselves.

But he added that next year's midterm elections in the U.S. may lead to a premature withdrawal of the troops in Iraq.

"My concern is that American domestic politics are gonna kick in on this issue next year, with midterm elections 2006," Talbott said, "and that President Bush is going to redefine what 'staying the course' means, in a way that allows him to increasingly draw down at a schedule that does not begin to leave time for the Iraqi forces to be able to provide security for that country."

Polish PM: Iraq nation-building 'failed' (http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/breaking_news/12279855.htm)

[experiencediz]

More good news ...

Good news from Iraq, 1 August 2005
by Arthur Chrenkoff on August 1, 2005 10:56 AM

Note: As always, also available from "The Opinion Journal" and Chrenkoff. Thank you all - your support is what's making this project so personally worthwhile.

Monsignor Rabban al Qas, Chaldean bishop of Amadiyah and Arbil, was recently asked by a foreign interviewer whether there is any good news coming out of Iraq: "Twenty-three Iraqis are killed every day in Iraq. Nearly two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, there is no security as yet. Is there still hope in Iraq?" To which Monsignor al Qas replied:

What the media portray is true: explosions, killings, attacks. But if you see how much order, discipline, transport, displacements, and work have improved, there is a change for the better compared to one or two years ago. Now people understand there is a government, the structure of a new state. Thousands and thousands of allied and Iraqi soldiers are present. There is a constitution which is being drawn up, laws are being enacted. The presence of authority is recognised. This was not the case before. And Al-Qaeda integralists and terrorists coming from abroad seek to penetrate Iraq precisely to destroy the beginnings of this social organization.

A war for the future of Iraq is going on, no doubt about it, but not all of that war is being fought with guns and explosives. Terrorists and insurgents might be killing both soldier and civilians and sabotaging infrastructure, and the Iraqi and the Coalition security forces might in turn be hunting down the enemies of the new Iraq, but every step towards self-government, every new job created, every new school opened are a small victory against those who would want to turn Iraq's clock back three or 1300 years. Below are some of these stories that often get lost in the fog and smoke of war.

* Society
* Economy
* Reconstruction
* Humanitarian Aid
* The Coalition Troops
* Security

read the rest ...

www.windsofchange.net

[Following is the last e-mail written by Sgt. Vic Anderson. It was written to his family Tuesday, July 26, five days before he was killed by a car bomb while serving his country in Iraq.]


Vic Anderson's last e-mail home
Vic Anderson's last e-mail home

Author: The Americus Times Recorder
Publication Date: 2005-08-02

Subject: I AM OK


HELLO EVERYBODY


WELL I GUESS EVERYONE HAS HEARD THE NEWS YES THEY WERE MY GUYS. THEY FELT NO PAIN I WAS IN THE HUMVEE ABOUT 30 FEET IN FRONT OF THEM ALL GREAT GUYS. I DO NOT LIKE MOST OF THESE IRAQIS THEY ARE ALL LIARS. MAYBE SADAMM HAD THE RIGHT IDEA ON HOW TO CONTROL THEM. THERE NOT ALL BAD OUR INTERPRITERS ARE GOOD GUYS. I DO NOT SERVE TO HELP OTHERS I SERVE BECAUSE OF THOSE GUYS TO MY LEFT AND RIGHT THEY ARE MEN OF THERE WORDS, THEY TOOK AN OATH TO DEFEND OUR COUNTRY THEY ARE WHY I CAME HERE NOT SOME IDEOLOGY. THEY STEPD UP AND DID NOT RUN AND HIDE WHEN OUR COUNTRY CALLED. WHETHER YOU BELIEVE IN THIS WAR OR NOT BELIEVE IN THEM BLESS YOU ALL. DONT MEAN TO BRING ANY ONE OF YOU DOWN JUST SAYING WHATS ON MY MIND BE GOOD


Source: Sheriff Pete Smith

Vic Anderson's last e-mail home (http://www.americustimesrecorder.com/content/1/6915/Vic+Anderson%27s+last+e-mail+homehtm)

[NYer]

A somewhat less than ugly American ...


U.S. soldier's aid to Iraqis earns him title of sheik
By Antonio Castaneda
The Associated Press

Salt Lake Tribune
QAYYARAH, Iraq - Sheik Horn floats around the room in white robe and headdress, exchanging pleasantries with dozens of village leaders.
But he is the only sheik with blonde streaks in his mustache - and the only one who attended country music star Toby Keith's recent concert in Baghdad with fellow U.S. soldiers.
Officially, he is Army Staff Sgt. Dale L. Horn, but to residents of the 37 villages and towns that he patrols he is known as the American sheik.
Sheiks, or village elders, are known as the real power in rural Iraq. And the 5-foot-6-inch Floridian's ascension to the esteemed position came through humor and the military's need to clamp down on rocket attacks.
Late last year a full-blown battle between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces had erupted, and U.S. commanders assigned a unit to stop rocket and mortar attacks that regularly hit their base. Horn, who had been trained to operate radar for a field artillery unit, was now thrust into a job that largely hinged on coaxing locals into divulging information about insurgents.
Horn, 25, a native of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., acknowledges he had little interest in the region before coming here. But a local sheik friendly to U.S. forces, Mohammed Ismail Ahmed, explained the inner workings of rural Iraqi society on one of Horn's first Humvee patrols.
Horn says he was intrigued, and started making a point of stopping by all the villages, all but one dominated by Sunni Arabs, to talk to people about their life and security problems.
Moreover, he pressed for development projects in the area: he now boasts that he helped funnel $136,000 worth of aid into the area. Part of that paid for delivery of clean water to 30 villages during the broiling summer months.
Mohammed, Horn's mentor, eventually suggested during a meeting of village leaders that Horn be named a sheik.
Some sheiks later gave him five sheep and a postage stamp of land, fulfilling some of the requirements for sheikdom. Others encouraged him to start looking for a second wife, which Horn's spouse back in Florida immediately vetoed.

http://www.sltrib.com/nationworld/ci_2904534

[experiencediz]

Insurgents In Iraq Committing War Crimes
6:17 pm PDT August 2, 2005

LONDON -- Amnesty International said insurgents in Iraq are committing war crimes when they kill civilians, take hostages and torture and kill prisoners.

The human rights group said there's "no honor nor heroism in blowing up people going to pray or murdering a terrified hostage."

Amnesty said those carrying out such acts are nothing less than criminals whose actions undermine claims their cause is legitimate.

The report also said Amnesty recognizes many Iraqis believe U.S.-led troops also have committed grave human rights violations.

In fact, the report released last week charges U.S. forces had failed to minimize risk to civilians by using cluster weapons in bombing residential areas resulting in many civilian deaths.


Group: Insurgents In Iraq Committing War Crimes (http://www.theksbwchannel.com/news/4801934/detail.html)

[experiencediz]

Oh, everything is great in Iraq
Wednesday, August 03, 2005

An American freelance journalist was found dead in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, the U.S. Embassy said Wednesday.

Police said Steven Vincent had been shot multiple times after he and his Iraqi translator were abducted at gunpoint hours earlier.

''I can confirm to you that officials in Basra have recovered the body of journalist Steven Vincent,'' said embassy spokesman Pete Mitchell. ''The U.S. Embassy is working with British military and local Iraqi officials in Basra to determine who is responsible for the death of this journalist. Our condolences go out to the family.''

Iraqi police in Basra said Vincent was abducted along with his female translator at gunpoint Tuesday evening. The translator, Nour Weidi, was seriously wounded.

Vincent and the translator were seized Tuesday afternoon by five gunmen in a police car as they left a currency exchange shop, police Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaidi said.

Vincent's body was discovered on the side of the highway south of Basra later. He had been shot in the head and multiple times in the body, al-Zaidi said.

Another murdered journalist. (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Journalist-Killed.html?hp&ex=1123128000&en=7c75125cda9adf3b&ei=5094&partner=homepage)


Another murdered journalist. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/03/ujournalist.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/08/03/ixportaltop.html)

[NYer]

Journalist-blogger murdered in Iraq

Ready as I am to bash the MSM for unbalanced reporting from the war zones, Iraq has been tough duty. Today another journalist has been murdered under circumstances that are particularly troubling. Freelance journalist (and blogger) Steven Vincent and his translator were kidnapped and then executed yesterday, in Basra, which is not a hotbed of rejectionist insurgency. Purely circumstantial evidence points to Shia extremists:

In an opinion column published July 31 in The New York Times, Vincent wrote that Basra's police force had been heavily infiltrated by members of Shiite political groups, including those loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Vincent quoted an unidentified Iraqi police lieutenant as saying that some police were behind many of the assassinations of former Baath Party members that have taken place in Basra.


http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2005/08/journalist-blogger-murdered-in-iraq.html

I'm posting his Op Ed piece in News Discussion if for no other reason, to honor his memory.

[experiencediz]

Face the truth about future of Iraq
Aug. 4, 2005 12:00 AM

It's time to face up to the kind of government Iraq will have when we leave.

The signs are already there. In short, it will look exactly like Iran.

A Shiite, conservative government will be in charge. Women's rights will not exist. Minorities will not be protected. Hard-line Muslims will be in charge. Western hostility will be the order of the day. For this we are sending our men and women to die.

We have a foreign policy that simply doesn't grasp the Middle East, yet doesn't hesitate to disdain traditional allies who tried to caution us and, understandably, won't support this madness. First, it was weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist; now it is to kill them there so they won't kill us here! Anything but the truth.

This is a failed war if the object is a secular, Western-friendly government. Common sense is in short supply in Washington. - Ruth Moyerman, Scottsdale

Ref: They are only there because we are there!(My Thoughts)
Face the truth about future of Iraq (http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0804thurlets042.html)

[experiencediz]

A little late to be news...but delivers a good point.

A VIEW OF IRAQ FROM A SOLDIER

HON. MARCY KAPTUR
OF OHIO
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
TUESDAY, JULY 19, 2005

Click here to view Rep. Kaptur's floor statement (http://recap.fednet.net/archive/Buildasx.asp?sProxy=80_hflr071905_116.wmv,80_hflr0 71905_117.wmv&sTime=00:02:41.7&eTime=00:03:26.4&duration=00:05:43.0&UserName=repkaptoh&sLocation=I&sExpire=1)
watch video

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, this evening I wish to enter into the RECORD the compelling story of one of our soldiers from Iraq.

This is a soldier who voluntarily joined our Army in February 2002; trained as an infantryman at Fort Benning, Georgia; sent to Fort Riley; participated in the opening stages of the war, fighting all the way to Baghdad where he would remain for the next year and was promoted to the rank of sergeant during his service to the United States and was honorably discharged. He is 27 years old.

His writings include this: A view of Iraq from a soldier dated this July 2005. He says, ``I am a concerned veteran of the Iraq War. I can offer some firsthand experience of the war on Iraq through the eyes of a soldier.

``My view of the situation in Iraq will differ from what the American people are being told by the Bush administration. My opinion on this matter comes from what I witnessed in Iraq personally.''

He talks about members of the Bush administration creating an image of wine and roses in terms of the aftermath of the war. And Vice President Dick Cheney said American troops would be greeted as liberators. But he goes on to say, ``I participated in the invasion, stayed in Iraq for a year afterward. What I witnessed was the total opposite of what President Bush and his administration stated to the American people. The invasion was very confusing,'' this soldier says, ``and so was the period of time I spent in Iraq afterwards. At first it did seem that all the people of Iraq were happy to be rid of Saddam Hussein, but that was only for a short period of time.

``Shortly after Saddam's regime fell, the Shiite Muslims in Iraq conducted a pilgrimage to Karbala, a pilgrimage prohibited by Saddam while he was in power. As I witnessed the Shiite pilgrimage, which was a new freedom that we provided to them, they used the pilgrimage to protest our presence in the country. I watched as they beat themselves over the head with sticks until they bled and screamed at us in anger to leave their country. Some even carried signs that read, `No Saddam, No America.'' '

``These were people that Saddam oppressed. They were his enemies. To me it seemed they hated us more than him. At that moment I knew it was going to be a long deployment. I realized that I was not being greeted as a liberator. I became overwhelmed with fear because I felt I would never be viewed that way by the Iraqi people.

``As a soldier this concerned me because if they did not view me as a liberator, then what did they view me as? I felt they viewed me as a foreign occupier of their land. That lead me to believe very early on that I was going to have a fight on my hands.

``During my year in Iraq I had many altercations with the so-called insurgency. I found the insurgency I saw to be quite different from the insurgency described to the American people by the Bush administration, the media, and the supporters of the war. There is no doubt in my mind there are foreigners from other surrounding countries in Iraq. Anyone in the Middle East who hates America now has the opportunity to kill Americans because there are roughly 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

``But the bulk of the insurgency I faced was primarily the people of Iraq who were attacking us as a reaction to what they felt was an occupation of their country. I was engaged actively in urban combat in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad. Many of the people who were attacking me were the poor people of Iraq. They were definitely not members of al Qaeda, leftover Baath party members, and they were not former members of Saddam's regime. They were just your average Iraqi civilian who wanted us out of their country.

``On October 31, 2003, the people of Abu Ghraib organized a large uprising against us. They launched a massive assault on our compound in the area. We were attacked with AK-47 machine guns, RPGs and mortars. Thousands of people took to the streets to attack us. As the riot unfolded before my eyes, I realized these were just the people who lived there. There were men, women and children participating. Some of the Iraqi protestors were even carrying pictures of Saddam Hussein.

``My battalion fought back with everything we had and eventually shut down the uprising. So while President Bush speaks of freedom and liberation of the Iraqi people, I find his statements are not credible after witnessing events such as these.

``During the violence that day, I felt so much fear throughout my entire body. I remember going home that night and praying to God, thanking him I was still alive.

``A few months earlier President Bush made the statement `Bring it on' when referring to the attacks on Americans by the insurgency. To me that felt like a personal invitation to the insurgents to attack me and my friends who desperately wanted to make it home alive.

``I did my job well in Iraq. My superiors promoted me to the rank of sergeant. I was made a rifle team leader and was put in charge of other soldiers when we carried out our missions. My time as a team leader in Iraq was temporarily interrupted when I was sent to the Green Zone in Baghdad to train the Iraqi Army. And I was more than happy to do it because we were being told in order for us to get out of Iraq completely, the Iraqi military would have to be able to take over all security operations.

``The training of the Iraqi Army became a huge concern of mine. During the time I trained them, their basic training was only one week long. We showed them some basic drill and ceremonies such as marching and saluting.''


Mr. Speaker, I will continue this Special Order later this week, and I thank this soldier so much for his courage to tell what he personally lived in Iraq.


A VIEW OF IRAQ FROM A SOLDIER (http://www.kaptur.house.gov/Speech.aspx?NewsID=1422)

[NYer]

The Sunni parties appear to be preparing for a full scale participation in the coming elections:

Arab Sunnis have already started preparing the slates with which they're going to enter the electoral competition later this year.
It’s believed that Adnan Addulaimi (the former head of the department of Sunni property) will be among the top figures on these slates.
A spokesman of the 'general conference for the Sunni' said that the conference expects a turnout of around 5 million voters among the Sunni Arabs and added that the focus now is on nominating degree carriers, tribal sheiks and clerics as well as academic female figures to be their candidates for the elections.

From Al-Sabah.

There's no doubt that lots of parties who consider themselves to be representative of the Sunni will try to win as many as possible from these anticipated 5 million votes but as far as now, there are no qualified figures that can really represent the majority of the Sunni and get their trust.

One should remember that in the January 2005 elections, most of the Sunni who participated in the elections gave their votes to Allawi (a She'at) while Sunni candidates like Adnan Bachachi (former GC member) got only a few thousand votes and this gives us the impression that Sunni have no problem in voting against their sectarian emotions in the favor of a strong leadership which is the form of leaderships they always seem to prefer.

- posted by Mohammed @ 20:53
www.iraqthemodel.blogspot.com

[NYer]

A little late to be news...but delivers a good point.

A VIEW OF IRAQ FROM A SOLDIER


Here's another view from the ground ...

Hooah!

Monday
Mosul, Iraq

The three most dangerous places in Iraq are Baghdad, Mosul, and Al Anbar province. While most of Iraq is functioning peacefully, a civil war sizzles and pops in these important areas.

The key to long term stability in Iraq is the Iraqi Security Forces, which are comprised of the Police, Army, Navy, Border Police and similar organizations. From a ground’s eye perspective, the ISF progress is remarkable. In Mosul, for instance, the ISF is fielding increasing personnel, and operations. Their success has had a few unanticipated consequences. US Army Captain Paul Carron recently reported that so many undercover police are operating in Mosul, that they have been arresting each other, sometimes accusing each other of possessing fake ID cards.

Carrying any Government ID card is serious business. Just this morning, insurgents were randomly stopping cars searching for persons carrying government identification—people carrying such ID often are killed on the spot. We watched the live feed from overhead surveillance as Iraqi police swooped in on the insurgents.

Aside from minor bungles, the police are rounding up terrorists and seizing munitions, trying to close the gap between terrorists and civilians who want to get on with their lives. The gap made itself known while I was composing this dispatch: a large explosion shook the base. Thinking another rocket had landed close by, I interrupted work for a dash to the bunker. The sound of small arms rippled the air. A soldier asked, “Do you think they are trying to breach the FOB [base]?”

“Maybe they feelin’ froggy,” answered another.

Near the edge of the base, a mushroom cloud was drifting away, and more black smoke began rising; a fire was born. The explosion had not been a nearby rocket, but a car bomb. The blast killed at least four Iraqi Policemen, and at least five civilians, including a 12 year-old kid, practically on our doorstep. The terrorists had attacked an Iraqi humanitarian convoy hauling assistance from Baghdad to Tal Afar, near the Syrian border. Such is daily life here, where progress is measured while the flesh and blood of the newly dead dries on the pavement.

But that was Tuesday—a day of fighting—and I was in the middle of only a small part. Monday's happenings I followed with my boots on.



Monday

The Iraqi Police are a main target for local terrorists who wish to squash freedom. But intelligence is the primary means to disrupting terrorists, and we knew they were planning to attack key police officers early Monday morning. So we planned to ambush the ambushers. Rolling out before sunrise, the initial fighting killed a taxi driver. The firing was brief and precise. A small amount of glass and glass-dust poofed into the air, and from what I saw, there is little doubt that the driver's death was sudden and painless.

So far as local sources can tell, the driver might have been merely caught in the confusion and he was the only person killed at that time. The event depressed the mood of some of the men, although a few took the, “Man, that’s bad, but shit happens in war,” position. I kept asking American officers throughout the day, “Was he really a bad guy?” The soldiers could have said that the dead man was a terrorist, and that they had gotten him. There is so much going on that it would have been difficult for me to know the difference without checking with the hospital and others. But instead they told me, “We think we killed the wrong man.”

I said to the commander, “You know I will write about this, don’t you?”

He answered, “Mike, you can write about the good, the bad, and the ugly. I think we made a mistake, but you were there. You saw what happened. We are still not certain that he is not a cell-member, but we have no proof that he was and my gut tells me he was innocent. I think it was a bad target.”

When he died at about 7:24 Monday morning, we knew that other known terrorists had been spooked. They were in two other cars at another known location. Within about thirty minutes, we loaded back onto the Strykers and rolled, and soon spotted a car matching the description, with two men in the front seat.

The Strykers blocked in the car, and dropped ramps so the soldiers could dismount and check the suspects. Ramps down is always an interesting moment. One time, in another Stryker Battalion in Mosul, when the ramp dropped, bad guys started shooting into the back of the vehicle.

More devastating, though, are the car bombs. People driving car bombs are known to explode without warning. But this car did not explode; instead, the terrorists tried to run the road block. This required them to squeeze between a Stryker and a building, nearly running over soldiers, who began firing at the fleeing insurgents.



The terrorist were making a run for it. I followed behind with my new camera, and actually shot photos while running.



The lack of power of the American M-4 and M-16 rifles is astonishing. So many people and cars shot-up, but they just keep going and going. For a moment, it appeared the terrorists might get away.



But our guys shot them full of holes, and the terrorists crashed into a small roadside stand. Nobody had to yell, cease fire; These soldiers have fought enough to know when to start shooting, and when to stop. The two terrorists died at 8:04, Monday morning.



The soldiers collected evidence, loaded the corpses into body bags, and were still searching for two other known terrorists. The four had moved into the area to link-up for a police-killing mission.

Within minutes, soldiers spotted the other car. The terrorists realized we were closing in, but not before soldiers were on them, disarming one of a pistol he had hidden under his dishdasha.. The two men were taken into custody without further violence.

Through “intelligence exploitation,” Deuce Four confirmed that these two detained terrorists were responsible for numerous police kidnapping and killings, and countless IED attacks. One of the captured men was intricately involved--in fact, he may have been the owner of-- the enormous weapons cache we found on 18 July. [See “The Devil’s Foyer.”]

The time was 8:35 Monday morning.
Photos at link ...
http://michaelyon.blogspot.com/2005/08/monday.html

[experiencediz]

Iraq's constitution won't solve it all
Thursday August 4, 2005

After some prodding from U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the new U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, it appears that some kind of constitution for Iraq, at least on paper, will be ready by Aug. 15.

That will give both the Bush administration and the Iraqi government the ability to say that the process of moving toward self-government is on track. It will provide formal assurance that thinking about reducing the number of U.S. troops in Iraq is at least feasible. But will it resolve any of Iraq's lingering problems of governance or simply paper over them?

Nathan Brown, on leave from the political science department at George Washington University and now with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has written four books on Arab politics and has been following the constitution-writing process closely, translating drafts as they become available. He says Iraq's problems fall into three main categories: religion, federalism and security.

* RELIGION - Iraq was formed by British imperialists after World War I with boundaries that took little account of religious and ethnic realities. Present-day Iraq is about 65 percent Shia Muslim, just under 20 percent Sunni Muslims, and almost 20 percent Kurds, who are generally Sunni in religion but differ ethnically from the Arabs who predominate elsewhere.


The Shia majority on the drafting commission has included language stipulating that Islamic law, or Sharia, will be "the source, but not the primary or only source, of law," according to Brown, but language barring laws in direct contradiction of Islamic law is likely to remain.

The unresolved question is who - parliament, a supreme constitutional court, clerics? - will decide what is a clear contradiction. This could, among other things, leave the status of women fuzzy.

And will the state or religious authorities regulate marriage?

* FEDERALISM - The federalism issue is important because the Kurds in the north have had effective semi-autonomy since 1991 and don't want to give up much of it to a central state likely to be dominated by Shiites. While the general principle of strong local government to handle many day-to-day affairs seems to have been accepted, the devil can be in the details.

Saddam Hussein reworked the boundaries of the Kurdish regions. Will they be changed to reflect where Kurds actually live? Will local governments, new regional governments or the national government control oil revenues? Will both Kurdish and Arabic be official languages? What will happen to Kirkuk, which was predominantly Kurdish before Saddam engaged in "ethnic cleansing?"

* SECURITY - As to security, civil war now seems a more pressing concern than a possible military coup. Does that suggest a strong military force controlled by a central government? If so, what would be the status of existing local militias? And what would be the relationship with U.S. forces, even if they are substantially reduced?

These problems are likely to be papered over rather than resolved. That might give the United States permission to begin withdrawal, but it is unlikely to create a peaceful society in Iraq.




Iraq's constitution won't solve it all

[NYer]

Oh heck- the US constitution doesn't solve it all either ... just look at the fallout over the Kelo decision ...

[experiencediz]

Oh heck- the US constitution doesn't solve it all either ... just look at the fallout over the Kelo decision ...

Ha!...Eh!Eh!

Lessons From the Kelo Decision (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=000&invol=04-108)


...Kelo has several important lessons for all of us. We are witnessing the destruction of any last remnants of the separation of powers doctrine, a doctrine our founders considered critical to freedom. The notion that the judicial branch of government serves as a watchdog to curb legislative and executive abuses has been entirely exposed as an illusion. Judges not only fail to defend our freedoms, they actively infringe upon them by acting as de facto legislators. Thus Kelo serves as a stark reminder that we cannot rely on judges to protect our freedoms...

July 5, 2005
Dr. Ron Paul,a Republican member of Congress from Texas (http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul259.html)


Women fear imposition of Islamic law in Iraq
August 4, 2005 5:27 PM

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON The president of the Women's Alliance for a Democratic Iraq says she's alarmed that the proposed Iraqi constitution could impose Islamic law on everyone.

Basma Fakri says that could result in forced marriages of girls as young as nine.

Fakri was joined at a Washington news conference by Zainab al-Suweij (ZAY'-nahb ahl-SWAYJ'), the woman who heads the American Islamic Congress.

Al-Suweij says Iraqis want freedom of religion, freedom of speech and other internationally recognized human rights. She adds that while Islamic law should be one of the sources of Iraq's constitution and legal system, it mustn't be the only one.

Women fear imposition of Islamic law in Iraq (http://www.kbcitv.com/x5154.xml?ParentPageID=x5155&ContentID=x51828&Layout=KBCI.xsl&AdGroupID=x5154&URL=http://localhost/apwirefeed/d8bpb4r80.xml&NewsSection=InternationalHeadlines)

[NYer]

As Paul Harvey would say ... In a minute you're going to hear ... the rest of the story ...


While most of the recent headlines understandably dwell on the violence in Iraq that has tragically claimed the lives of so many Marines the past few days, progress is still ongoing. The liberal Brookings Institute’s Iraq Index
( http://www.brookings.edu/fp/saban/iraq/index.pdf )
reports that electricity production (rated as Iraqis’ highest concern, higher even than security) is now significantly higher than prewar and close to the all-time postwar high reached last August, another 4,000 Iraqis have joined the real freedom fighters in Iraq to defend their nascent democracy, and some interesting details are leaking out now about the structure of the new democratic Iraqi government.

The committee has also settled on a government with three branches: legislative, judicial and executive.

Sounds familiar. I know I’ve heard that before somewhere…

The legislature, according to the three delegates, will be parliamentary and will consist of two chambers, a National Assembly and a Council of Provinces and Regions, both of which will be directly elected. Thamir al-Ghadban, a former oil minister and a committee member, said that the National Assembly would probably be elected in a regional system of balloting rather than a nationwide vote, and that the membership of the Council of Provinces and Regions would be proportional to the provincial populations.

I know a lot of people thought Iraq would be better off under party-slate elections, which I believe is what Germany has, and that’s how the current Iraqi legislature was elected under the interim constitution. Under that system, voting for the legislative bodies is done nationally and seats are allocated by percentage of votes received. The advantage is that voting, at least in theory, then becomes more about ideas than geography and ethnicity. On the other hand, direct election makes the people feel like they have “their representative” and tends to help rein in corruption through local accountability, which tends to be more demanding than intraparty accountability because you vote for the person not the party. In modern America we’re fortunate enough to have evolved a system that gives us the best of both worlds: we have what sometimes nearly amounts to national party-slate elections, because there are only two parties with real power, they have general intraparty agreement on how they lean on the major issues, and for the most part they aren’t region-based, but we also have direct elections and the accountability that goes with them. This wasn't always so, of course; in the old days politics was much more geographic, and winning the Presidency meant fashioning inter-regional alliances.

Which brings me to the executive branch:

The presidency will be essentially ceremonial, Mr. Ghadban said.

Obviously Iraq has had some issues with a heavy-handed executive branch, to put it mildly. But as they say, you need to fight the next battle, not the one before. A Presidency with at least some authority might have helped form inter-regional policy alliances, much the way we see Senators Kerry and Clinton "moving toward the center" in our own elections. The worry is that the directly elected legislature will become a breeding ground for regional/ethnic factionalism, with no real check from the executive branch. But I expect Iraq will muddle through as long as those in power remain committed to the democratic process.

Some other details:

Under the current draft, there will be a "higher council of the judiciary," with the duty to select judges, and a national court to resolve disputes between the central government and regional authorities.

This is interesting. Look for this to become a political hot potato over the next several years. In America’s earlier years, the judiciary, fearful of civil war, often bent over backwards to compromise between regional factions, leading to things like the Dred Scott decision and the Missouri Compromise. One wonders how the Kurds, with their militias, will react to being overruled. On the other hand, I don’t think anyone really wants civil war, so I think it’s likely it won’t ever come to use of force.

In addition, the constitutional committee has agreed to create several independent governmental institutions, including a central bank and religious endowments authorized to maintain the country's religious centers.

Central bank: good; central funding of religious centers: maybe not so good. But as long they aren’t creating an maintaining an official state religious institution (with all the nightmare possibilities that evokes), it’s probably not that big a deal for Iraq in the long run.

But what I think is maybe the most important thing is something not mentioned in the article: there are constitutionally provided “amendment periods,” I believe at two and four years. As Glenn points out often, democracy is a process, not an event. Iraqis may elect some, shall we say, regrettable officeholders their first few times at bat (expect a lot of negative Western media coverage from the likes of the NYT if/when it happens, which is probably a good thing in many ways). But the great saving grace of democracy is that it’s an iterative process: every election is a chance to refine the ideals of the nation. It took America 100 years and a Civil War to free blacks, and longer to give women the vote and treat minorities as equals. But we got it right in the end – and so will the Iraqis.

http://semirandomramblings.blogspot.com/2005/08/while-most-of-recent-headlines.html

[NYer]

Shipment of high explosives intercepted in Iraq
Most sophisticated of roadside bombs reportedly coming from Iran
By Jim Miklaszewski
Explosives' Shipment Intercepted

PENTAGON - It’s the number one killer of American troops in Iraq: roadside bombs.

The massive roadside bomb that killed 14 Marines Wednesday flipped their 37-ton vehicle on its top and blew it some 40 feet down the road.

Tonight, there’s disturbing information that some of the most sophisticated of these deadly weapons are reportedly coming from Iran.

U.S. military and intelligence officials tell NBC News that American soldiers intercepted a large shipment of high explosives, smuggled into northeastern Iraq from Iran only last week.

The officials say the shipment contained dozens of "shaped charges" manufactured recently. Shaped charges are especially lethal because they’re designed to concentrate and direct a more powerful blast into a small area.

“They’ll go right through a very heavily armored vehicle like an M1-A1 tank from one side right out the other side,” says retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey.

Military officials say there’s only one use for shaped charges — to kill American forces — and insurgents started using them in Iraq with deadly effectiveness three months ago.

Intelligence officials believe the high-explosives were shipped into Iraq by the Iranian Revolutionary guard or the terrorist group Hezbollah, but are convinced it could not have happened without the full consent of the Iranian government.

And Thursday, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld accused Iran of attempting to derail the democratic process in Iraq.

Iran’s Shiite government has also struck up a seemingly strange alliance with Sunni insurgents to try to drive the American military out of Iraq.

"They are desperate to get us out of Iraq” says Michael Ledeen, author of "The War Against the Terror Masters" and resident scholar in the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute. “If we succeed in Iraq they will be surrounded by elected governments.”

Military officials acknowledge that these explosives are only the tip of the iceberg... and predict the deadly bombings in Iraq are far from over.


URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8829929/

[NYer]

Dan Darling has more ...

Iran's shipping IEDs into Iraq
by Dan Darling at August 5, 2005 01:32 AM

During the trials of the 1998 embassy bombers, the one-time head of bin Laden's Praetorian Guard, Ali Mohammed, made a number of unusual statements that would forever change the world of counter-terrorism. Here are some of the more revealing statements made by Mohammed:

“I was aware of certain contacts between al-Qaida and al-Jihad organization, on one side, and Iran and Hizballah on the other side,” Mohamed said. “I arranged security for a meeting in the Sudan between Mughniyah, Hizballah’s chief, and bin Ladin.”

“Hizballah provided explosives training for al-Qaida and al-Jihad,” Mohamed said, adding, “Iran also used Hizballah to supply explosives that were disguised to look like rocks.” Mohamed’s statement has a ring of truth; such disguised explosives were used extensively by Hizballah against Israeli army patrols in South Lebanon. Mohamed testified that “much of this type of training is actually carried out at a training camp there, in Iran, run by the Iranian Ministry of Information and Security.”

Then there was this article from September 2002 that carried little notice but might well be worth revisiting:

U.S. intelligence has detected a suspected al-Qaida training camp in a remote area of eastern Iran along the border with Afghanistan, sources told NBC News. Overhead imagery shows what appears to be a training camp complete with a terrorist obstacle course and a rifle range, much like those al-Qaida used in Afghanistan to train for assassinations.

Why am I bringing this up? Well thanks to an e-mail I received from Tom Holsinger, we now know why the IEDs (which have long been the #1 killer of US troops in Iraq) are starting to become even more lethal:

U.S. military and intelligence officials tell NBC News that American soldiers intercepted a large shipment of high explosives, smuggled into northeastern Iraq from Iran only last week.

The officials say the shipment contained dozens of "shaped charges" manufactured recently. Shaped charges are especially lethal because they’re designed to concentrate and direct a more powerful blast into a small area.

“They’ll go right through a very heavily armored vehicle like an M1-A1 tank from one side right out the other side,” says retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey.

Military officials say there’s only one use for shaped charges — to kill American forces — and insurgents started using them in Iraq with deadly effectiveness three months ago.

Intelligence officials believe the high-explosives were shipped into Iraq by the Iranian Revolutionary guard or the terrorist group Hezbollah, but are convinced it could not have happened without the full consent of the Iranian government.

The choice of locations for the explosives shipment (northeastern Iraq) means that the intended recipients were almost certainly members of Ansar al-Islam/Ansar al-Sunnah which is, lest we forget, an al-Qaeda affiliate group. Yet another blow to the Shi'ites don't work with Sunnis mantra ...

It isn't just NBC News that's picking up on this, either. The New York Times has also picked up on this:

Bomb-making techniques used by the anti-Israeli militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon increasingly have begun appearing in roadside bombs in Iraq. A senior American commander said that bombs employing shaped charges closely match Hezbollah's homemade bombs used against Israel.

bq. "Our assessment is that they are probably going off to school," to learn how to make bombs that can destroy armored vehicles, the officer said.

So Hezbollah is likely training Iraqi insurgents on how to make IEDs, eh? I'm not terribly surprised as this tends to track with what I've been saying about the nature of Iranian cooperation with the Sunni elements of the insurgency for awhile now - there's a Newsweek story from October 2003 talking about how Ansar fighters fleeing the US invasion received safe harbor and weapons inside Iran. Something for Americans to the think about when Ahmadinejad comes to NYC shortly ...

Faster, please.
www.windsofchange.net

[experiencediz]

What Are We Doing in Iraq?
August 05, 2005


Unqualified Offerings parses the U.S. military's attitude towards hearts-and-minds in Iraq:

Famous Last Words (http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2005/08/05/4507):

"With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them." Lt. Colonel Nate Sassaman, quoted by Dexter Filkins in the NYT, December 7, 2003.

So what was the problem, do you think?

Not enough fear and violence?

Not enough money for projects?

Cockamamie theory in the first place?


And:

Famous Last Words II: (http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2005/08/05/4508)

David Clark Scott, writing in the Christian Science Monitor, November 26, 2003:

US soldiers trying to create goodwill in Fallujah echo the bitterness. "We thought we were doing something good when we built a soccer field," says Maj. Allen Vaught. "We brought in engineers, earthmovers, welded goal posts, and trucked in some smooth dirt." The next day looters took everything. "Goal posts, nets, and the good dirt. How can you help people who steal dirt?" he asks incredulously.

I am reliably assured that there are all kinds of libertarians with all kinds of views on the war in Iraq, the Global War on Terror and the global struggle against violent extremism. But it seems to me that any libertarian ought to have no trouble listing the conceptual errors in Major Vaught's plaint. Just to get you started: Collectivism: Lumping "people" who weren't involved in removing things from the soccer field in with "people" who were is sloppy thinking.... Dispersal of Information: A soccer field may not have been the most productive use of fertile topsoil for that town at that time. Fallujans may have been able to increase their utility by turning the piping and netting of the goals to other uses.... (The article offers no evidence that troops first asked locals, "Hey, how about we build you guys a soccer field?")...

A soccer field's worth of dirt is multiple dump truck loads. Somebody really wanted the stuff. And there was no functioning order enforcing the U.S. military's view of what should be what.


What Are We Doing in Iraq? (http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/08/what_are_we_doi.html)

[Ono]

U.S. Probe Rejects Iraqis' Shooting Claims

By ROBERT H. REID
Associated Press Writer
August 6, 2005, 3:00 PM EDT


BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An internal U.S. military investigation has rejected claims by Iraqis that U.S. troops opened fire on civilians after a suicide bombing attack on Iraqi army recruits in a northern town, a U.S. Army spokesman said.

Iraqi police said 52 people were killed and 93 wounded on July 29 in Rabiah, 230 miles north of Baghdad. Most were killed by a suicide bomber wearing a belt of explosives who blew himself up among Iraqi army volunteers.

The U.S. military put the casualty toll at 10 dead and 21 injured.

Iraqi police, doctors and residents said some survivors of the suicide bombing were shot after the attack when U.S. and Iraqi soldiers opened fire at the scene.

Lt. Col. A.L. Hance Sr., a spokesman for Task Force Freedom in Mosul, Iraq, said the Tiger Squadron commander "has conducted an internal investigation and finds no facts to support this claim."

He suggested witnesses may have assumed holes in the walls were from bullets but he said they "could be caused by ball bearings that are commonly used in suicide type devices." He added that "this conduct was not in character with how we train our soldiers and would be highly unusual behavior."

Task Force Freedom is the headquarters for all U.S. military forces in northern Iraq, including the units in Rabiah.

Col. Yahya al-Shammari, the Rabiah police chief, said U.S. and Iraqi soldiers opened fire after the bomb went off believing that they were under attack and that some people who survived the blast were killed in the gunfire.

He did not say specifically that U.S. soldiers killed or wounded any of the victims but told The Associated Press that "Iraq and U.S. troops opened fire" after the blast.

One doctor, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said he removed bullets fired by a weapon carried by Iraqi but not American soldiers from some of the wounded.

Al-Shammari, who blamed the Iraqi army for failing to provide adequate security, said families of four of the dead initially had planned to ask the Iraqi army for compensation but the matter was resolved "according to tribal laws." He did not elaborate.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-shooting-claims.story

[experiencediz]

Looks like they|we| got away with that one...How about this?


U.S. Probe Rejects Iraqis' Shooting Claims

By ROBERT H. REID
Associated Press Writer
August 6, 2005, 3:00 PM EDT

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An internal U.S. military investigation has rejected claims by Iraqis that U.S. troops opened fire on civilians after a suicide bombing attack on Iraqi army recruits in a northern town, a U.S. Army spokesman said.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-shooting-claims.story

Guardsmen Took 'Rent' From Iraqi Businesses
The raising of money for a 'soldiers fund' is found during an investigation of a California battalion.
By Scott Gold, Times Staff Writer

California Army National Guard troops sought unauthorized, off-the-books "rent" from Iraqi-owned businesses inside Baghdad's Green Zone to raise money for a "soldiers fund," military officials and sources within the troops' battalion said Friday.

The disclosure is the latest to emerge from a wide-ranging investigation into the conduct of the 1st Battalion of the 184th Infantry Regiment of the Guard, which is headquartered in Modesto.

Military officials had confirmed previously that the battalion's commander, Lt. Col. Patrick Frey, had been suspended and that one of the battalion's companies, based in Fullerton, had been removed from patrol duties and restricted to an Army base south of Baghdad.

According to military officials and members of the battalion, soldiers from the battalion's Bravo Company, which is based in Dublin, an East Bay suburb of San Francisco, approached several businesses earlier this year that were owned and operated by Iraqi nationals.

The businesses — a dry cleaner, a convenience store and the like — catered to U.S. soldiers and were located on the fringe of the U.S. military's operating base inside the Green Zone, the fortified hub of the Iraqi government, U.S. occupation officials, embassies and contractor headquarters. The businesses were asked to pay the soldiers "rent."

Lt. Col. Cliff Kent, spokesman for the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq, confirmed Friday that two vendors agreed to pay.

The money was used to create a "soldiers fund," said one member of the battalion, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Such funds are used by troops for a variety of purposes, such as receiving small loans to pay a bill back home or buying commemorative "challenge coins" — often specially minted to foster morale inside a unit.

Kent said the fund created from the rent money was also used to buy T-shirts, patches and a safe.

Kent declined to discuss the incident further, stating in an e-mail from Iraq: "Specific details are part of the informal investigation which is administrative in nature and protected by privacy rules."

There is considerable dispute about the financial arrangement — how much money was raised, how many soldiers were involved and how important the allegations are.

Army officials say the total amount involved was $4,000, but troops in the battalion have said the scheme raised more than $30,000. The investigation resulted in disciplinary action against one officer from the battalion's Bravo Company. Army officials declined to reveal the officer's name, and his identity could not be confirmed independently.

Army officials say they have no evidence that anyone else was involved beyond the disciplined officer. But members of the battalion, including one who has been briefed directly on the investigation, said that at least six soldiers played some role in the arrangement.

One member of the battalion said the consensus in the ranks was that "this is not the kind of thing that you do alone." Battalion members who discussed the matter did so on condition that their names not be used because they have been told by superiors not to talk about the subject with reporters.

Several soldiers have called the rental arrangement "extortion," but Army officials insist that the word is not an accurate description of the relationship between the soldiers and the vendors.

Military investigators initially received reports that the scheme had been carried out on at least two other U.S. bases in Iraq, but officials said Friday that they have concluded that the arrangement on the Green Zone operating base was an isolated case.

At least three companies in the battalion, which consists of about 680 soldiers, have been affected by the investigation into its conduct in Iraq.

The battalion's Alpha Company, a 130-soldier unit based in Fullerton, has been the subject of the most serious portion of the investigation: that soldiers allegedly mistreated or abused Iraqi detainees in March.

Military sources have said that at least some of the mistreatment involved a Taser stun gun and was captured on videotape. Eleven soldiers have been charged in connection with the alleged abuse; the Army's Criminal Investigation Division will determine whether the soldiers will face courts-martial.

Military officials have also confirmed that a leader of the battalion's Delta Company, 1st Sgt. Robert Jones, was relieved of duty recently after being accused of threatening an Iraqi detainee by, among other things, shooting at a water heater during an interrogation. Delta Company is based in Oakdale, east of Modesto.

Guardsmen Took 'Rent' From Iraqi Businesses (http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-me-guard6aug06,1,6819446.story?ctrack=1&cset=true)

[experiencediz]

And This...
With all this shit going on ,we still claim we are fighting for freedom.
The war on terror is going "grrr-eat" and "grrr-eat" !"


U.S. Probe Rejects Iraqis' Shooting Claims

By ROBERT H. REID
Associated Press Writer
August 6, 2005, 3:00 PM EDT

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An internal U.S. military investigation has rejected claims by Iraqis that U.S. troops opened fire on civilians after a suicide bombing attack on Iraqi army recruits in a northern town, a U.S. Army spokesman said.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-shooting-claims.story


Over 50 LA Soldiers Prosecuted in Iraq
Aug 5, 2005, 08:39 AM


LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) - At least 55 soldiers serving in Iraq with the Louisiana National Guard's 256th Brigade have been tried and convicted of criminal charges, many of them drug-related.

The brigade's commanding officer, John Basilica, delivered the news to reporters via teleconference from Baghdad Thursday at the brigade's Lafayette headquarters. Basilica says he doesn't consider the number especially high, because it's a small percentage of the 4,000 soldiers with the brigade.

He says the convictions came in a period beginning in May 2004, when the brigade was called up and sent to Fort Hood, Texas, for training. He says the criminal behavior has had no effect on readiness, but added that drug and alcohol use was especially disturbing because it could impair a soldier's behavior and endanger others.

An Army spokesman in Iraq didn't immediately have figures available from other National Guard brigades, making it unclear how the 256th's convictions compare to other brigades.

Soldiers are barred from possession of alcohol or any illegal drug in Iraq. But Basilica says some soldiers probably buy the contraband from civilian contractors, who aren't subject to the same oversight as soldiers. Others received drugs in the mail from the United States.

Over 50 LA Soldiers Prosecuted in Iraq (http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=3684959&nav=0aWUcydW)

[experiencediz]

And This...
With all this shit going on ,we still claim we are fighting for freedom.
The war on terror is going "grrr-eat" and "grrr-eat" !"


The war on terror is going "grrr-eat" and "grrr-eat" !"

Film Review: Fallujah 2004
Posted on Saturday, August 06 @ 17:10:57 EDT

RO Member RedSonia (http://www.ramallahonline.com/modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&username=RedSonia) submitted article.
Sonia Nettnin, Ramallah Online Columnist & film critic
The documentary “Fallujah 2004,” chronicles the death and destruction within Fallujah caused by U.S. Forces in April 2003 and April 2004.

http://www.ramallahonline.com/feature/images/Fallujah2004.jpg
"“In Fallujah, an Iraqi man tells how he lost family members and friends to the U.S. occupation. Behind him are Iraqi men who live in Fallujah.” (Photo courtesy of Director Toshikuni DOI)

Director Toshikuni DOI (http://www.geocities.jp/nofrills_web/translation/fal_doc_d/) exposes the side of the U.S. war in Iraq that Americans do not see or hear in mainstream media. Through eyewitness accounts, DOI provides a media outlet for Iraqis to express what U.S. Forces did to them. Moreover, the film investigates how the violence spawned anger toward the U.S. occupation.

On April 28, 2003, a group of approximately 100 Iraqis in Fallujah demonstrated for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, who occupied a local school in Fallujah. The city - located 60 kilometers west of Baghdad - has 300,000 people who are mostly Sunni Arab.

U.S. Forces fired at the demonstrators with machine guns and killed 17 people. An eyewitness points to bullet holes on the walls of nearby buildings.

While a man balances on wooden crutches he shows what remains of his right leg. It was cut off at the knee because of a gunshot. When the shooting began, another man was shot in his house. His brother drove to the man’s house to rescue him. Upon arrival U.S. forces shot the man’s brother dead in the street. Then they shot his second brother, who suffers from severe injuries. When an ambulance arrived at the scene, U.S. Forces shot the vehicle also.

“We experienced a massacre by U.S. Forces,” one man said. “We hate them they just kill people and we can’t accept their ways.” As a result, eight more people died in the following days.

Regardless of U.S. media reports about Fallujah, DOI’s coverage of this tragic day was the root-cause of the violence in Fallujah. Throughout the year, people experienced basic utility shortages. For example, electricity runs a few hours a day. In a country where summer temperatures exceed 50 degrees Celsius, people sleep on rooftops. Even though the country’s predominant resource is crude oil, people wait in gas lines for hours - if they can afford it.

On March 31, 2004 Iraqis killed four American contractors.

One man described how people cut the burning American bodies with shovels. DOI uses footage and photos of their desecrated bodies.

For the next 25 days, Fallujah experienced intermittent attacks. U.S. Forces bombed the northwest of Fallujah, the Julan District the worst. Building rubble surrounds the top of a mosque like a stone mote. One man points to the rubble of what was his home. He lost his two daughters: Wafa, six years-old and Zahra, four years-old.

While he holds a photograph of his late children, the camera zooms in and reveals their faces.

“Those are my daughter’s dolls,” he says as he points to a blond-haired doll covered with soot - propped against the remnants of a wall.

He shows another photograph of his late wife, Enad, 25 years-old. The bomb that dropped on their house cut off her legs and pelted shrapnel into her head. Two days later, she died.

The man’s face quivers; he holds back tears and his hands shake.

In the Al-Askarey District, one woman, Sabiha, cries uncontrollably. Every time she looks at her lap she sees her late son, Rasul, eight years-old. During the siege the family tried to escape, but a U.S. sniper shot her son in the head with two bullets. It blew off his skull and he fell into his mother’s lap.

Her daughter suffered the same death in the car. Sabiha replays the day in her mind, indicative of post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I can just pray to Allah,” she says while she dabs her eyes with her wet handkerchief.

On April 6, 2004, the third day of the siege, another house in the Julan District had 31 family members. During the attack, relatives of the homeowner sought refuge in his house because he lived in a section away from the bombing. While women chatted and their children slept, a bomb dropped on the house. It killed 30 people.

“I was the only survivor,” one man said. “I lost my whole family.”

He points to a baby bottle covered with dirt. In the rubble is a woman’s scorched scalp with long, black hair.

The director captures victim’s testimonies with extraordinary detail. DOI interviewed a range of people and he gives them the space to share their views. The translation of testimonies from Arabic to English subtitles flows smoothly. The text translation of eyewitness accounts is clear and concise.

While Iraqis tell their life accounts the director uses street maps of Fallujah, to orient viewers geographically.

I recommend this documentary to people who want to know what happened in Fallujah and how the U.S. occupation of Iraq affects the country’s people.

The film is 55 minutes in length and free of media spin.
***

When I asked Director DOI why he decided to go to Fallujah and produce this documentary, he said:

“In April 2004, three Japanese persons were kidnapped in Iraq. All media in Japan reported this issue as top news every day just as this is only one news in Iraq. But at that time, the US forces were sieging and attacking Falluja. We got some information about the damages and victims from the attacks through foreign media like BBC or CNN. I was so shocked self-centered mind of Japanese media and people. They thought the lives of the Japanese were much more valuable than the lives of Iraqis and they just count "the death" of Iraqi people by numbers. It "dehumanizes" the people in Iraq. I wanted to show those deaths by names and as life-size issues and to tell audience that each persons who were killed had had hopes and dreams for their own lives, and families and friends who grieved for their deaths. I wanted to show the audience they were human beings who had feeling just as we were. It means to "humanize" the people who were killed unreasonably and counted just by numbers.

Second reason is to ask and show the audience what is "terrorism". US president Bush emphasizes “War against terrorism" and justifies the killing innocent people in Afghanistan and Iraq. So what we should call the killing that you watched in my documentary film. Isn’t it "terrorism"? My simple definition of "terrorism" is to kill or harm innocent common people for political purposes. So the incident in Falluja was not "terrorism"? That was “terrorism by the state". We should emphasize the "state terrorism” more. We should not call it "War " nor " War against terrorism".

That is my message and reason why I produced the documentary of Falluja.”

Film Review: Fallujah 2004 (http://www.ramallahonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2263)

[experiencediz]

More here with a very good point...


Dan Darling has more ...

Iran's shipping IEDs into Iraq
by Dan Darling at August 5, 2005 01:32 AM

www.windsofchange.net


Shipment of high explosives intercepted in Iraq
Most sophisticated of roadside bombs reportedly coming from Iran
By Jim Miklaszewski
Explosives' Shipment Intercepted

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8829929/

Roadside bombs 'made in Iran'
Sun 7 Aug 2005

ERIC SCHMITT
IN WASHINGTON


MANY of the new, more sophisticated roadside bombs used to attack American and government forces in Iraq have been designed in Iran and smuggled over the border.

American commanders say the deadlier bombs could become more common as insurgent bomb makers learn the techniques to make the weapons themselves in Iraq.

But just as troubling is that the spread of the weapons seems to suggest a new and unusual area of cooperation between Iranian Shiites and Iraqi Sunnis to drive American forces out - a possibility that the commanders said they could make little sense of given the increasing violence between the sects in Iraq.

Unlike the improvised explosive devices devised from Iraq's vast stockpiles of missiles, artillery shells and other arms, the new weapons are specially designed to destroy armoured vehicles, military bomb experts say.

The bombs feature shaped charges, which penetrate armour by focusing explosive power in a single direction and by firing a metal projectile embedded in the device into the target at high speed.

Since they first began appearing about two months ago, some of these devices have been seized, including one large shipment captured last week in north-east Iraq, coming from Iran.

But one senior military officer said "tens" of the devices had been smuggled in and used against allied forces, killing or wounding several Americans throughout Iraq in the past several weeks.

"These are among the most sophisticated and most lethal devices we've seen," said the officer. "It's very serious."

Pentagon and intelligence officials say some shipments of the new explosives have contained both components and fully manufactured devices, and may have been spirited into Iraq along the porous Iranian border by the anti-Israeli terrorist group Hezbollah, or by Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

American commanders said these bombs closely matched those that Hezbollah has used against Israel.

"The devices we're seeing now have been machined," said a military official who has access to classified reporting on the insurgents' bomb-making abilities. "There is evidence of some sophistication."

American officials say they have no evidence that the Iranian government is involved. But defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the new United States ambassador in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, complained publicly this week about the Tehran government's harmful meddling in Iraqi affairs.

"There is movement across its borders of people and material used in violent acts against Iraq," Khalilzad said last week.

But some Middle East specialists discount any involvement by the Iranian government or Hezbollah, saying it would be counter to their interests to support Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgents, who have stepped up their attacks against Iraqi Shiites. These specialists suggest the arms shipments are more likely to be the work of criminals, arms traffickers or splinter insurgent groups.

"Iran's protégés are in control in Iraq, yet these weapons are going to people fighting Iran's protégés," said Kenneth Katzman, a Persian Gulf expert at the Congressional Research Service and a former Middle East analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. "That makes little sense to me."

American commanders say they first saw the use of the new explosives in the predominantly Shiite area of southern Iraq, including Basra, but their use by insurgents steadily migrated into Sunni-majority areas north and west of Baghdad. It was unclear how the transfers were taking place.

The influx of the new explosives comes as allied commanders are stepping up efforts to stop the infiltration of fighters, weapons and equipment along Iraq's porous borders with Iran and Syria.

Ten days ago, Iraqi border enforcement agents seized a major shipment of weapons, apparently small arms, that British marines in the south of Iraq suspect came from Iran.

More troubling is the broad array of roadside bombs that range from the improvised explosives made from modified 155mm artillery shells and other materials, to anti-tank mines like those that military officials say caused a blast last week that killed 14 marines and an Iraqi civilian in western Iraq.

• British troops were targeted by a suspected roadside bomb in Iraq yesterday. One soldier was injured in the third attack of the last three weeks to rock southern Iraq.

On July 30, two Britons working for a security firm were killed when a roadside bomb exploded alongside a British consulate convoy in Basra.

Two weeks earlier, on July 16, a roadside bomb in Amarah, 100 miles north of Basra, killed three British soldiers.


Roadside bombs 'made in Iran' (http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1740872005)

[Atlas]

Newsflash= Iran not friendly to the US :rolleyes:

Think they may be pissed after losing their hegemony over Lebanon after having Syria and Hizb Allah unceremoniously booted out?

Now their shoes are being squeezed on al Busheyr and nuke enrichment. And if they fuck it up, they may be fair game for overthrow, either by overt or covert means.

The mullahs are a little pissed. And in the meantime, if they start a civil war with the Sunnis in Iraq, they may find themselves on the wrong side of the much more numerous sunnis

[experiencediz]

I'm not sure whose leadership this one refers to...the message was intercepted yet the "theme" is posted on CNN.


Iraqi insurgent writes of flawed leadership
U.S. military seizes letter it says was intended for al-Zarqawi

Saturday, August 6, 2005; Posted: 4:46 p.m. EDT (20:46 GMT)

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A letter apparently written by a rebel leader to terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi decries the insurgency's leadership in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a hotspot in the war.

Security forces seized the letter last week in a raid on a safe house that netted arrests and other items. Task Force Freedom, based in Mosul, issued a copy of the letter and a statement about it Saturday.

The letter, from an insurgent named Abu Zayd, who calls himself "emir of Farming reform battalion on the west side," cited the incompetence of Mosul's emirs and the disobedience of other people in the network.

It discussed "the noticeable decrease in the attacks carried out by the mujahideen" and said that suicide bombings seem to be of more "quantity and not quality."

The letter writer said that collaboration among insurgent leaders is lacking and that "Muslim money" was being squandered on "petty expenses, cars and phones."

He also wrote that "foreign fighters endure 'deplorable' conditions, including lack of pay, housing problems and marginalization."

The letter offer solutions, including replacing the emirs, forming "new symbiotic battalions with diverse experience," and "resolving the housing problem."

"Be attentive to the jihad in Mosul and pursue its development, because the fall of Mosul in the hands of the mujahedeen is possible, and because it relieves the pressure off the other cities such as al-Qaim, Tal Afar," the letter said.

Qaim is in western Iraq near Syria, and Tal Afar is near Mosul.

Iraqi insurgent writes of flawed leadership (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/08/06/mosul.letter/index.html)

[experiencediz]

Ongoing progress in Iraq...Things are good here,Everything is going "grrr-eat" and "grrr-eat" !"


Killings of civilians by U.S. troops angers Iraqi government
Richard C. Paddock, Los Angeles Times

Sunday, August 7, 2005

Baghdad -- Three men in an unmarked sedan pulled up near the headquarters of the national police major crimes unit. The two passengers, wearing traditional Arab dishdasha gowns, stepped from the car.

At the same moment, a U.S. military convoy emerged from an underpass. Apparently believing the men were staging an ambush, the Americans fired, killing one passenger and wounding the other. The sedan's driver was hit in the head by two bullet fragments.

The soldiers drove on without stopping.

Such shootings are far from rare in Baghdad, but the driver of the car was no ordinary casualty. He was police Brig. Gen. Majeed Farraji, chief of the major crimes unit. His passengers were unarmed hitchhikers whom he was dropping off on his way to work.

"The reason they shot us is just because the Americans are reckless," the general said from his hospital bed hours after the July 6 shooting, his head wrapped in a white bandage. "Nobody punishes them or blames them."

Angered by the growing number of unarmed civilians killed by U.S. troops in recent weeks, the Iraqi government criticized the shootings and called on U. S. troops to exercise greater care.

U.S. officials repeatedly have declined requests to disclose the number of civilians killed in such incidents. Baghdad police say they have received reports that U.S. forces killed 33 unarmed civilians and injured 45 in the capital between May 1 and July 12 -- an average of nearly one fatality every two days. This does not include incidents that occurred elsewhere in the country or were not reported to the police.

The victims have included doctors, journalists, a professor -- the kind of people the United States is counting on to help build an open and democratic society.

The continued shooting of civilians is undermining efforts to convince the public that U.S. soldiers are here to help.

"Of course, the shootings will increase support for the opposition," said Farraji, 49, who was named a police general with U.S. approval. "The hatred of the Americans has increased. I myself hate them."

Among the biggest threats U.S. forces face are suicide attacks. Soldiers are exposed as they stand watch at checkpoints or ride on patrol in the turrets of their humvees. The willingness of the assailants to die makes the attacks difficult to guard against. By their nature, the bombings erode the troops' trust of the public; every civilian becomes suspect.

U.S. military officials say the troops must protect themselves by shooting the driver of any suspicious vehicle before it reaches them.

A senior U.S. military official in Baghdad, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said "making no new enemies" is one of the military's priorities. At the same time, he said, "it's still a combat zone. There are going to be times when what the soldier needs to do and what the civilian feels he should be able to do come into conflict."

Heavily armed private security contractors, who number in the tens of thousands, also are authorized by the U.S. government to use deadly force to protect themselves.

One contractor who works for the U.S. government said it was better to shoot an innocent person than to risk being killed. "I'd rather be tried by 12 than carried by six," said the contractor, who insisted that he not be identified by name because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The U.S. military says it investigates all shootings by American personnel that result in death. But U.S. Brig. Gen. Don Alston, spokesman for the multinational force in Iraq, said he was unaware of any soldier disciplined for shooting a civilian at a checkpoint or in traffic. Findings are seldom made public.

Military checkpoints -- elaborate affairs with mazes of concrete barriers, razor wire and snipers' nests -- have been set up at intersections all over Baghdad. Signs are posted in English and Arabic saying, "Deadly Force Authorized." Cars that approach too quickly risk being fired upon by troops who shoot to kill.

At times, troops set up temporary checkpoints during raids or other military operations. These can be even more dangerous for civilians because they can appear on city streets without warning.

Military convoys, usually made up of three humvees, patrol the streets. For troops, it is among the most hazardous places to be.

The military expects all vehicles to stay at least 100 yards from a convoy. When cars come too close, troops signal them to move back, sometimes by waving a little stop sign and sometimes by holding up a clenched fist. Iraqis say the fist can be easy to miss.

The U.S. rules of engagement call for "escalation of force" when a vehicle comes too close. Soldiers are trained to give hand and arm signals first, then fire warning shots and ultimately shoot to kill, the senior U.S. official said.

"Nothing in the rules of engagement takes away the right of self-defense for him and his buddies if the soldier feels threatened," he said. More than 1, 800 U.S. troops have died in the Iraq theater since the March 2003 invasion.

According to one European diplomat, the American military's emphasis on protecting its troops has made U.S. soldiers more likely to kill and injure civilians than are other members of the coalition, such as the British, who are stationed in southern Iraq.

Killings of civilians by U.S. troops angers Iraqi government (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/08/07/MNGJSE2BCB1.DTL)

[NYer]

Good News Out Of Iraq

Another success in Iraq with the capture of 6 terrorists, which is good. But even better is the fact that with these terrorists was a letter written to Zarqawi from Abu Zayd:

Abu Zayd informs in his letter to the "Sheikh" that, "This is a clarification of what has become of the situation in Mosul, and it is no secret to you the noticeable decrease in the attacks carried out by the Mujahidin, from not long ago when Mosul was in the hands of the Mujahidin…" Abu Zayd continues by listing the multiple reasons why the "Mujahidin" have been less effective recently.

Abu Zayd claims that the Mosul Emirs are incompetent; attacks lack diversity; suicide bombings are focused more on quantity and not quality; those who are in the network are disobedient; a legitimate organization in Mosul does not exist; collaboration between the Emirs is lacking; "Muslim money" is squandered on petty expenses; numerous security violations occur; "inaccurate and blurred" updates to the Sheikh are reported; and foreign fighters endure "deplorable" conditions to include lack of pay, housing problems and marginalization.

Similar complaints to the "Sheikh" regarding lack of leadership were found in a letter written by a known terrorist cell leader who fought in Fallujah. Multi-National forces found this letter, authored by Abu Asim al-Qusaymi al-Yemeni and dated Apr. 27, during a raid in Baghdad in May.

Abu Zayd proposed a few solutions to the many problems he outlined to include a warning that if focus and pursuit of development is not provided to Mosul, "…the fall of Mosul in the hands of the Mujahidin is possible, and because it relieves the pressure off the other cities such as Al-Qa’im, Tal’afar."

In recent months Multi-National Forces have captured or killed many of the key leaders of terrorism in Mosul, to include Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s most trusted military commander, Muhammed Khalaf Shakara, aka Abu Talha. Security Forces captured Abu Talha, the former Mosul Emir of Al Qaeda in Iraq, in Mosul June 14.

Abu Talha and his organization are responsible for attacks against Iraqi citizens, Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Forces. Abu Talha used improvised explosive devices and suicide bombings to suppress local citizens and was known to have assassinated local clerics, governmental officials, businessmen, and citizens who protested his intimidation tactics.

Within a month after the significant capture of Abu Talha, Security forces detained two other key terrorist leaders in Mosul, Abu Bara and Mullah Mehdi. Abu Bara served as a facilitator of suicide bombings and was affiliated with many of the cells within the Talha network. Abu Bara was a former sub-commander of Al Qaida Emir of Mosul, Abu Talha, but replaced Talha after he was captured June 14. Mullah Mehdi was a senior leader within the Talha network and the military leader of all insurgents operating in eastern Mosul.

Michael Yon has been blogging from Mosul and details all the success our troops are having in training the Iraqi's to defend themselves:

The key to long term stability in Iraq is the Iraqi Security Forces, which are comprised of the Police, Army, Navy, Border Police and similar organizations. From a ground’s eye perspective, the ISF progress is remarkable. In Mosul, for instance, the ISF is fielding increasing personnel, and operations. Their success has had a few unanticipated consequences. US Army Captain Paul Carron recently reported that so many undercover police are operating in Mosul, that they have been arresting each other, sometimes accusing each other of possessing fake ID cards.

Carrying any Government ID card is serious business. Just this morning, insurgents were randomly stopping cars searching for persons carrying government identification—people carrying such ID often are killed on the spot. We watched the live feed from overhead surveillance as Iraqi police swooped in on the insurgents.

Aside from minor bungles, the police are rounding up terrorists and seizing munitions, trying to close the gap between terrorists and civilians who want to get on with their lives.

So the above letter isn't too surprising, and corroberates an earlier letter to Zarqawi in which the same complaints were being made. Plus add in the fact that many of his trusted aide's are being captured or killed and it sure sounds as if things are going good. Not that MSM would tell you that. The Captain makes that point also:

Marginalization? I thought that the press considered this a fight against occupation? We have heard over and over again that our presence in Iraq causes all the violence, that the Iraqis have run out of patience with our troops remaining in their country, and that they support Zarqawi's goal of pushing us out. Sayd, who appears to be much closer to the issue, notes that his terrorists face marginalization and a dire shortage of shelter.

That hardly sounds like the kind of situation the media has described for us in Iraq. It does, however, sound exactly like what Donald Rumsfeld and soldiers on the ground have described for two years now. The Iraqis do not want to be occupied by anyone, but they especially do not want foreign terrorists attempting to do to the entire country what they once did to Fallujah. They want us to get rid of the Zarqawi lunatics, and to help them develop an army to keep the Islamofascists out for good.

http://floppingaces.blogspot.com/2005/08/good-news-out-of-iraq.html

[NYer]

To be taken with more than a few grains of salt ...

Osama bin Laden Looks Like Heading for Iraq

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

August 8, 2005, 11:52 PM (GMT+02:00)



Coded electronic signals bandied in recent days among al Qaeda Middle Eastern elements across secret Internet sites all carry the same message: the supreme leader, Osama bin Laden, has come out of hiding in Afghanistan and set out, or is about to set out, for Iraq. This is the sense gained from this correspondence by DEBKAfile’s exclusive counter-terror sources.

Some of the signals schedule his date of arrival as the second half of September when Ramadan is estimated to begin. His arrival in Iraq is planned to signal the launching of the biggest offensive his organization has ever launched against the US army. If these signals are a true representation of bin Laden’s plans and not a red herring, what is planned is a dramatic landmark battle in the global war on terror and the Iraqi conflict.

The signals cap a secret exchange of messages in recent weeks in which al Qaeda’s Iraq commander Abu Musab al –Zarqawi attempted to persuade bin Laden to leave Afghanistan and take command of the Ramadan offensive in Iraq. Zarqawi argued the importance of his transferring from Afghanistan to Iraq on two grounds: to boost al Qaeda’s standing as it embarks on an “offensive whose scale and importance rival the September 2001 operation.” and in the interests of his own personal safety.

Zarqawi stressed, according to our sources, that bin Laden will be safer in Iraq than in Afghanistan – an indication of Jordanian terrorist’s inflated self-confidence.

DEBKAfile and DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s experts have authenticated the messages as emanating from Zarqawi. Their secret contents have begun to leak out and set up a huge flap in al Qaeda networks, cells and affiliates in many countries and talk of “a new jihad to honor the leader.”

If bin Laden was indeed swayed by Zarqawi and aims to reach Iraq by mid-September, he has little time to lose and must already have set out on his winding secret journey, or be about to depart. One of his options would be the long way round through Pakistani and Iranian Baluchistan and across the border into Iraq.

But there is an alternative route from Pakistan which he might find easier. DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources revealed last May that al Qaeda had established a new marine base in the remote Gawatar Bay, a Persian Gulf inlet down the middle of which runs the Pakistani-Iranian border. Al Qaeda operatives are known to be active on both shores – on the Pakistani side, they use as sanctuaries the Baluchi villages strung along the River Dasht which empties into the divided bay; on the Iranian side, the move around the Baluchi port of Chah-Bahar (Bandar Beheshti).

From both these places, al Qaeda has for months been running a sea corridor of smugglers’ vessels into the southern Iraqi port of Basra. There, they clandestinely drop arms and fighters and collect injured men on the return trip for treatment in Pakistan.

Al Qaeda’s marine traffic from Baluchistan was first revealed by DEBKA-Net-Weekly 211 on June 24.

The al Qaeda leader may choose to enter Iraq by sea rather than take the long, overland route, in which case his people will have arrived at Gawatar Bay and making preparations for his journey. He would have reason to believe it is safer. Intelligence of al Qaeda’s Baluchi sea smugglers has reached the American and British naval forces operating in the northern reaches of the Persian Gulf, the Shatt al Arb, Basra and the southern Iraqi oil terminals. Yet neither has been able to put a stop to the traffic.

Bin Laden has proved himself an undercover escape artist par excellence. In the five years since he escaped the Bora Bora siege, he and his party, including his close tribe, have managed to flit from place to place undetected - even when his pursuers were close and watching out for him.

If he does indeed make it to Iraq, the public airing of his presence in the Land of the Two Rivers, would have a radical impact on the nature of the Iraq conflict. No longer a mere guerrilla campaign, it would escalate to a full-scale fight to the finish against al Qaeda in Iraq, analogous to the all-out hostilities in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden’s organization has begun referring to the Iraq conflict in these ultimate terms.

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1068

[experiencediz]

Here is a perfect example,if true, that the war in Iraq has nothing to do with freedom. Iraq is just a chess board for the dirty game Bush and Bin Laden play and enjoy. Terrorists and insurgents were not supposed to be in the original war plan but both Bush and Bin Laden seem to have found a common ground at Camp Chaos,Iraq!

OOOPS !
Osama bin Laden Looks Like Heading for Iraq
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

August 8, 2005, 11:52 PM (GMT+02:00)

Coded electronic signals bandied in recent days among al Qaeda Middle Eastern elements across secret Internet sites all carry the same message: the supreme leader, Osama bin Laden, has come out of hiding in Afghanistan and set out, or is about to set out, for Iraq. This is the sense gained from this correspondence by DEBKAfile’s exclusive counter-terror sources.

Some of the signals schedule his date of arrival as the second half of September when Ramadan is estimated to begin. His arrival in Iraq is planned to signal the launching of the biggest offensive his organization has ever launched against the US army. If these signals are a true representation of bin Laden’s plans and not a red herring, what is planned is a dramatic landmark battle in the global war on terror and the Iraqi conflict.

The signals cap a secret exchange of messages in recent weeks in which al Qaeda’s Iraq commander Abu Musab al –Zarqawi attempted to persuade bin Laden to leave Afghanistan and take command of the Ramadan offensive in Iraq. Zarqawi argued the importance of his transferring from Afghanistan to Iraq on two grounds: to boost al Qaeda’s standing as it embarks on an “offensive whose scale and importance rival the September 2001 operation.” and in the interests of his own personal safety.

Zarqawi stressed, according to our sources, that bin Laden will be safer in Iraq than in Afghanistan – an indication of Jordanian terrorist’s inflated self-confidence.

DEBKAfile and DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s experts have authenticated the messages as emanating from Zarqawi. Their secret contents have begun to leak out and set up a huge flap in al Qaeda networks, cells and affiliates in many countries and talk of “a new jihad to honor the leader.”

If bin Laden was indeed swayed by Zarqawi and aims to reach Iraq by mid-September, he has little time to lose and must already have set out on his winding secret journey, or be about to depart. One of his options would be the long way round through Pakistani and Iranian Baluchistan and across the border into Iraq.

But there is an alternative route from Pakistan which he might find easier. DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources revealed last May that al Qaeda had established a new marine base in the remote Gawatar Bay, a Persian Gulf inlet down the middle of which runs the Pakistani-Iranian border. Al Qaeda operatives are known to be active on both shores – on the Pakistani side, they use as sanctuaries the Baluchi villages strung along the River Dasht which empties into the divided bay; on the Iranian side, the move around the Baluchi port of Chah-Bahar (Bandar Beheshti).

From both these places, al Qaeda has for months been running a sea corridor of smugglers’ vessels into the southern Iraqi port of Basra. There, they clandestinely drop arms and fighters and collect injured men on the return trip for treatment in Pakistan.

Al Qaeda’s marine traffic from Baluchistan was first revealed by DEBKA-Net-Weekly 211 on June 24.

The al Qaeda leader may choose to enter Iraq by sea rather than take the long, overland route, in which case his people will have arrived at Gawatar Bay and making preparations for his journey. He would have reason to believe it is safer. Intelligence of al Qaeda’s Baluchi sea smugglers has reached the American and British naval forces operating in the northern reaches of the Persian Gulf, the Shatt al Arb, Basra and the southern Iraqi oil terminals. Yet neither has been able to put a stop to the traffic.

Bin Laden has proved himself an undercover escape artist par excellence. In the five years since he escaped the Bora Bora siege, he and his party, including his close tribe, have managed to flit from place to place undetected - even when his pursuers were close and watching out for him.

If he does indeed make it to Iraq, the public airing of his presence in the Land of the Two Rivers, would have a radical impact on the nature of the Iraq conflict. No longer a mere guerrilla campaign, it would escalate to a full-scale fight to the finish against al Qaeda in Iraq, analogous to the all-out hostilities in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden’s organization has begun referring to the Iraq conflict in these ultimate terms.

Osama bin Laden Looks Like Heading for Iraq (http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1068)

[experiencediz]

Rescued soldier: I was used
From Chris Ayres in Los Angeles

August 09, 2005

JESSICA LYNCH, the former US Army supply clerk who became a national icon after her capture and rescue during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, says she was “used” by the Pentagon to “show the war was going great”.

In an interview with Time magazine, Ms Lynch, 22, said: “I think I provided a way to boost everybody’s confidence about the war . . . I was used as a symbol. It doesn’t bother me anymore. It used to.” Ms Lynch says that her book, I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story, will “set the record straight”.

Ms Lynch said that the television movie of her life was inaccurate. Ms Lynch said that she hopes to become a teacher. In a few weeks begins classes at West Virginia University, where her tuition fees have been paid for by the state.

Ms Lynch, from Palestine, West Virginia, was a Private in the US Army when she was captured in Iraq on March 23, 2003, near al-Nasiriyah, a crossing point over the Euphrates River. She suffered two spinal fractures, nerve damage and a shattered right arm, right foot and left leg when her Humvee crashed during a firefight.

Eleven other soldiers in her unit were killed in the ambush. She was rescued from an Iraqi hospital by US forces on April 1, 2003 — the first rescue of an American prisoner of war since the Second World War.

However, accounts of Ms Lynch’s rescue were contradictory and it was claimed that the rescue was staged.


Rescued soldier: I was used (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1726992,00.html)

[experiencediz]

Arkansas soldier in Iraq records underground country hit
Caryn Rousseau, Associated Press
August 9, 2005

LITTLE ROCK, ARK. -- His boots battered, his spirits sinking, Luke Stricklin struggled to explain his experiences in Iraq to his family and friends back home who kept asking him what it was like to fight in Baghdad.

"Time calling home was precious," the soldier said. "That's the last thing you wanted to talk about. Mom always said I wasn't telling her the truth, which I wasn't. I would tell her everything was just fine. Ashley, my wife, couldn't hear me talk about it. We just talked about anything else."

He couldn't speak the words. But he could sing them. He looked at the bottom of his boots one day. The boots he'd worn 12 hours a day for 14 months became the breakthrough.

"Bottom of my boots sure are getting worn," the 22-year-old Arkansas National Guardsman wrote. "There's a lot of holes in this faded uniform. Hands are black with dirt and so is my face. Ain't ever been to hell, but it can't be any worse than this place."

Luke Stricklin poses with his guitar.Brian D SanderfordAssociated PressHe kept on writing, entering lines on his laptop computer or jotting them down in a green waterproof Army-issue notebook he was required to carry while on patrols.

The song became "American by God's Amazing Grace." By the time Stricklin came home from Iraq in March, it was on country radio stations from Albuquerque, N.M., to Jackson, Tenn. (The song can be heard at his website, www.lukestricklin.com (http://www.lukestricklin.com/).)

While writing the lyrics, Stricklin showed them to his Army buddy J.R. Shultz. The two worked out the music and decided to record the song. Stricklin grabbed his $25 guitar -- which an Iraqi boy found for him at a Baghdad street market.

"You can't expect much being over there, but it was good enough. I played the heck out of that thing while I was over there," said Stricklin, who, on top of the money spent on the guitar, gave the boy a $25 tip for finding it.

The soldiers shut themselves in Shultz's room in a bombed-out concrete building at their Baghdad camp. They set up the laptop recording software and hooked up a cheap microphone.

"I sat on a five-gallon Igloo water cooler," Stricklin said. "We called them recording stools."

With guitar on knee, Stricklin finished the song and e-mailed it home, writing, "Mom, listen to this."

His mother, Sheila Harrington, said she was excited to see a note from her son, but didn't expect his creative response to her continuous questions.

"The song started playing, and I literally broke down in tears," she said.

"It all came together, the whole scenario of it for me."

Harrington quickly forwarded the e-mail onto friends and family, but she thought her son's song deserved a larger audience and she sent a copy to the local Fort Smith radio station. It prompted dozens of requests.

Upon his return from Iraq four months ago, Stricklin started playing local shows in Fort Smith and before long was on his way to Nashville, where he recorded a studio version of the song and his self-titled debut album, due in September.

Before leaving for Iraq, Stricklin worked in an electric motor shop, but now he's trying for a full-time music career.

Internet chat rooms buzz with talk of him as a rising country star and "American by God's Amazing Grace" has been released as a single. Stricklin has made appearances on national TV and radio shows promoting it.

He hopes for a hit, but his mom is just happy for the lyrics.

"I think I know them by heart," she said. "I carried the CD with me every day and listened to it."

Arkansas soldier in Iraq records underground country hit (http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/5549592.html)

[experiencediz]

That "freedom" just keeps on spreading in "liberated" Iraq. Apparently, criminal gangs are now so "free", and "liberated", that they can force boys into the sex trade there, according to this report, from IRIN (http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48485&SelectRegion=Middle_East) News:


Iraqi boys forced into sex trade
BAGHDAD, 8 Aug 2005

BAGHDAD, 8 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - Hassan Feiraz, a 16-year-old boy, has started a desperate new life since being forced into the sex trade in Baghdad, joining a growing number of adolescents soliciting in Iraq under the threat of street gangs or the force of poverty.

"Every day I cry at night,” Feiraz said. “I’m a homosexual and was forced to work as a prostitute because one of the people I had sex with took pictures of me in bed and said that, if I didn't work for him, he was going to send the pictures to my family.”

"My life is a disaster today. I could be killed by my family to restore their honour,” he said, explaining that homosexuality was totally unacceptable in Iraq due to religious beliefs.

Following the conflict in 2003, there has been an increase in the number of commercial sex workers (CSWs) in the country, especially among teenagers, according to local officials.

This increase is attributed to economic pressure faced by families countrywide and the presence of new prostitution rings that have sprung up since the invasion. With society in turmoil and a raft of other serious issues to address, child protection has not been uppermost in the priorities of the transitional government.

The gangs use money or threats to get teenage boys to work for them, officials said.

"Many of us are working under threat, but others are there because they don’t know how to survive and found it as an easy way of getting money,” Feiraz said. “Someone should help free us from these criminals.”

AN INCREASING PROBLEM

Saeed Muhammad, a senior official in the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, said it was addressing the problem but was under-resourced.

“We have been informed about dozens of cases of male prostitution, and all of them [the boys involved] were threatened,” he said. “But we don't have the capacity to deal with them.”

Muhammad said a special commission had been set up, with help from the Ministry of Interior, to tackle the rings forcing young men into the sex trade.

According to Muhammad, unofficial information suggests there could be as many as 4,000 male commercial sex workers. There are no statistics on the number of boys caught up in the business countrywide, but officials fear that it could be in the hundreds.

Boys are said to receive the equivalent of around US $10 for each person they have sex with, with the gangs reportedly taking five times that amount.

The leader of a ring of commercial sex workers told IRIN that the livelihood they were offering Iraqi boys was “a job like any other”. He insisted that the boys were not threatened and that anyone who came to work for them could leave at any time.

“Iraqis love boys and our work is to offer pleasure to them," the ring leader, who calls himself Abu Weled (or “father of the boys”), said. “They are all gay and, in Iraq, the homosexual is something cheap and bad, but we make them feel special when working with us.”

Abu Weled’s gang also has some girls under 16 years of age soliciting for him, he said.

HOMOSEXUALS UNDER THE LAW

Under Shari’ah or Islamic law, homosexual practise is a religious crime that carries the death sentence.

The transition constitution in place in Iraq for the past two years does not address homosexuality. A new constitution is currently being drafted.

Whether or not homosexuality it illegal, it is a taboo subject in Iraq and homosexual acts are strongly condemned by Muslims. Yet, these prostitution rings suggest, there is a demand for commercial sex workers to engage in homosexual acts.

Sheikh Hussein Salah, one of the heads of the Shi’ite Muslim community in Iraq, told IRIN in Baghdad that the families of those boys engaged in homosexual practices should “kill them”, whether the situation was forced on them or they entered into it freely.

During Saddam Hussein's regime, Salah said, homosexuality was illegal and homosexual practices were punishable by death. “We hope that this will be applied under the new constitution,” he added.

Some Baghdadi families said they have stopped their children from going to school or university for fear that they would be lured into the unacceptable trade.

"If I found that my son was doing something like that, I would kill him straight away, because it is an offence to our God and a crime against our honour,” Kudaifa Abdul Lateff, father of three teenagers said. “Homosexuals are nothing more than animals.”

ECONOMIC PUSH TO PROSTITUTION

Rising unemployment, compounded by conflict, has led to the desperate search for money to survive, despite the physical, psychological and health dangers involved in commercial sex work, local officials say.

According to a survey by the Iraqi Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation released in April, 48 percent of youths in the country are unemployed, most of them discouraged by poor salaries in those jobs that are available.

“We are a poor family and my husband cannot work because he has serious epilepsy,” Um Zacarias, a mother of two child sex workers, said. “Three months ago, Abu Weled came to our house offering us money if we let our two teenage [aged 13 and 14] boys work with them.

“Thanks to him, today we have a good income. People may find it surprising, but at least we can eat now and I'm proud of them.”

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE

The Ministry of Interior, after an appeal by the Ministry of Labour, has started a new commission to search for the ring leaders and tackle families sending their children into the sex trade.

A senior interior ministry official, who preferred to remain anonymous for his own security, said that leaders of two gangs in Baghdad had been captured so far.

More than 15 boys were also being questioned, he said. Their families had not been given the real reason for their detention, in case they responded with threats or violence to the boys.

“When you hear what the teenagers have been through, you really fear for your own children,” the ministry official said. “They could fall victim any minute to these heartless gangs.”

The Ministry of Labour has also developed a programme, focusing on non-judgemental psychological counselling, to rehabilitate boys who want to return to a normal life without suffering social discrimination.

RESCUE EFFORTS

Based on information supplied by the Ministry of Labour, two small local NGOs are trying to help the child sex workers. On of them, Iraqi Peace and Better Future (IPBF), has collected the names of more than 50 teenage boys who say they cannot leave the trade because of threats. Few cases have been resolved, however.

"We have been trying to do our best in taking those unlucky boys and girls from the streets of the capital,” said Abdallah Jassim, spokesman for IPBF. “But sometimes we are stopped by the gangs, who threaten us. And the government cannot offer us special security on a daily basis."

The Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) is also waiting for approval and funding for a proposed rehabilitation project for teenagers, it said. So far it has had few donors.

Meanwhile, with few positive prospects in sight, many boys in Baghdad are living in fear, urging that someone, somewhere come up with a solution to their plight.

“I hope that one day I will live without the fear that I may find my father with a gun or a knife ready to kill me because he has discovered what I do for a living," said Youssef Hatab, a 15 year-old boy.


Focus on boys trapped in commercial sex trade (http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48485&SelectRegion=Middle_East)

[NYer]

In next door Iran, homosexuals are executed ...

[NYer]

The Anbar Campaign Revisited
By Bill Roggio

The commencement of Operation Quick Strike raises the question of whether operations in Anbar have taken a radical departure from past operations, or whether Quick Strike is the beginning of a new phase of the Anbar Campaign. Chester argues Quick Strike should be viewed separately from the spring/summer operations as the establishment of a base at Rawah and the repositioning of a Stryker Brigade from the Mosul theater is a major departure from either operations.

I disagree, for three reasons.

First, the repositioning of a Stryker Brigade was not done in haste, but requires long term planning. The Los Angeles Times indicates 1,800 U.S. troops have been moved to Rawah, and this requires significant planning, training, logistic support, intelligence as well as the proper evaluation of the situation in Mosul to be successfully executed. The decision to move to Rawah was not made in haste, but carefully considered months in advance.

Second, the movement into Rawah is but a part of the Coalitions efforts to establish a presence in the area and should not be view in isolation. Wretchard concurs that the operations are but a piece of a greater plan to uproot the insurgency in the Euphrates basin; “Visit each of Roggio's links in his enumeration of the river operations and it will be abundantly clear how every one is aimed at pruning the routes along the Euphrates and horizontally across Iraq towards the Tigris.”

Third, Rawah is not the first Coalition operation north of the Euphrates (it is however the most significant to date). During Matador and Dagger, Marines operated north of the Euphrates River. Also, Marines are based at the Haditha Dam. While it is not explicitly stated if the base is north or south of the Euphrates, it is reasonable to surmise they are operating at both sides (the Haditha Dam would be a strategic target for al Qaeda, its the destruction would cause havoc down river and further delegitimize the Iraqi and US governments).

Quick Strike must be viewed as part of the Anbar Campaign. It is likely the beginning of the second phase [of the military portion] of the Anbar Campaign, which can roughly be outlined as follows:

Phase 1 - Preparing the battlefield. A series of search & destroy and cordon and search operations designed to keep the insurgency off balance, disrupt the ratline along the Euphrates, deny the enemy complete freedom of movement and gather intelligence. Outposts were established in the cities of Hit, Haditha, Rawah, Qaim and others in preparation to support Phase 2. During Phase 1, there wasn’t much effort to fully secure cities, but to establish a presence until Iraqi troops can be brought to bear. The establishment of the base for the Stryker elements in Rawah is likely the end of Phase 1; however future bases are likely to be set up north of the river.

Phase 2 - Driving the insurgents from the towns and cities. This phase will consist of the main offensive operations designed to pressure the insurgency and systematically drive them from their bases along in the Euphrates River. The Los Angeles Times neatly summarizes Phase 2 (as well as Phase 3):

The battle plan calls for U.S. troops to launch a series of raids, secure the area and bring in Iraqi security forces. Iraqi Defense Minister Saadoun Dulaimi referred briefly to the operation after meeting Thursday with President Jalal Talabani.

"Our forces will start from the Syrian border … till we reach Ramadi, then to Fallouja," he said. "We have taken precise measures on the ground and acquired the president's approval to start the operation."

Defense Minister Dulaimi indicates the drive will start from Syria and push eastward, but the establishment of bases in Rawah, Haditha and elsewhere with the purpose of conducting offensive operations indicates the Euphrates is being segmented and the push can be conducted from multiple directions.

Phase 3 - The occupation of the Euphrates towns and cities. Iraqi forces are operating with US forces in Anbar, usually a company of Iraqi troops attached to a US battalion, but the main offensive push will come from US Marines and soldiers. The Iraqi forces will secure the towns and cities when appropriate, freeing up US forces to conduct further operations.

The availability of Iraqi troops for Phase 3 and the political will of the Iraqi government to use them are very likely the most important items that has held up the transition from Phase 1 [prepping the battlefield] to Phase 2 [the offensive]. If Chester, Wretchard and I are correct that the Coalition has begun to conduct major offensive operations in Anbar, then this means the Iraqi government has committed to the battle and Iraqi Army is coming close to [if not already] being able to contribute significant units [battalion strength or greater].

This is Zarqawi’s greatest nightmare, and he stated as such in his letter to Osama in 2004; “With the spread of the Army and police, our future is becoming frightening… If god forbid, the government is successful and takes control of the country, we just have to pack up and go elsewhere else [sic] where we can raise the flag again or die, if god chooses.”

The onslaught is coming late this summer or early fall, if it hasn't already begun. The domestic insurgents and Baathists have an out - they can lay down their arms and accept the rule of the elected Iraqi government. al Qaeda and the foreign Islamists can only fight or flee, and either option spells defeat.

http://billroggio.com/archives/2005/08/the_anbar_campa_2.php#more

[Ono]

10 Iraqi Police Killed in Insurgent Attacks in Baghdad

UPDATE: 16 dead including 10 Iraqi policemen
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/08/09/iraq.main/

By VOA News
09 August 2005

An Iraqi police officer's body lies at the scene of a police shooting on a highway
Iraqi authorities say at least 10 policemen were killed in a series of attacks across Baghdad Tuesday.

Officials say the attacks took place between 7:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. local time (0330-0500 UTC).

They say in one attack, four policemen were killed when insurgents with automatic weapons fired on a police patrol on a major highway.

Meanwhile, Iraqi political leaders are planning to hold several meetings today to try to break the deadlock over the country's draft constitution.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari is to take part in one of the meetings. Political leaders are seeking to resolve differences on federalism, national identity and the role of Islam in time to meet an August 15th deadline to present a draft constitution.

A severe sandstorm in Baghdad forced Iraqi political leaders to cancel talks on Monday.


http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-08-09-voa9.cfm

[NYer]

Mistakes Made in Training Iraqis

August 9, 2005: One of the most important battles in Iraq gets little coverage. This is the struggle to train new Iraqi police and military forces. After Saddam was overthrown, his police force and army were disbanded. This attracted a lot of criticism from people who did not know how things worked in Saddam’s Iraq. There, the police and military were recruited on the basis of loyalty to Saddam. The higher up you went in the ranks, the more thorough the background investigation. You could not afford to keep such organizations around once Saddam was gone, you had to start from scratch. The United States thought it was well prepared for this sort of thing. American troops had been training foreigners, including Arabs, for generations. The U.S. Army Special Forces, in particular, were very good at this. But the Special Forces were much in demand for counter-terrorism chores. So the Department of Defense had to improvise. This resulted in younger, and less experienced, troops being assigned to training duties. Civilians (usually former or retired military) were also brought in. Experienced trainers were put in charge, and a training program for the trainers was put together for all those assigned to work with Iraqis. The purpose of the “trainer training” was to avoid “cultural insensitivity” issues (things that would offend Iraqis because of cultural differences.) This program worked, as far as it went. But it turned out that the trainer training, and selection, missed some important items.

-- Many of the personnel selected as trainers were not among the best troops available. Some of them had not themselves been properly trained to teach combat and police skills. As a result, training sessions are sometimes one-way activities, with the trainees never being asked to display their skills. Even though the American military had adopted a highly effective "show me how you do it" training program, this very useful technique was often skipped with the Iraqis (who really needed it.)

-- The common use of profanity is a particular problem, and trainers have often "lost" a class because they used terms like "Mother Focker!" This was one aspect of the cultural sensitivity training that did not catch on as well as it should.

-- A lot of the trainees, especially officers and NCOs, were veterans of Saddam's Army. Some U.S. trainers would openly denigrate the skills of their Iraqi trainees. Worse, trainers sometimes fail to accord Iraqis the respect due their rank, causing them to lose face. This was poor training practices, not just cultural insensitivity.


-- Because of a lack of language skills, many training classes are conducted in English, with a hired translator providing running translation. While some of the translators had a military background (e.g., retired Egyptian officers, etc.), most did not. Moreover, some of the translators didn't actually speak the Iraqi dialect. Egyptian Arabic, for example, sounds to Iraqis much like an upper class British accent would to an American. So the troops often don't get things because of the use of strange pronunciation and terms. The common solution they have is to ask their buddy, so there's often a lot of side conversations going on during a training session. Hence the "Mother Focker!" from the trainer who perceives a lack of discipline.


-- In many bases the US personnel and the Iraqi personnel are pretty much living in segregated environments. Some observers have commented that the training appears to be most effective when there's a relatively high degree of integration among the troops and their trainers. A few small bases with combined mess halls, for example, reportedly have a much higher success rate and the Iraqis have much higher morale, than at larger bases where the two sides are pretty much never in contact. Living conditions are also a factor here. U.S. personnel almost always have much better quarters, bathing facilities, etc.

-- Too many trainers are no older than the Iraqi troops whom they're training. This is a cultural thing, reflecting respect for age. One commentator observed that the two most effective trainers at one base were a very senior Army Warrant and a former Egyptian colonel, both of whom were in their 40s or more, and had gray hair.

More ...
http://www.strategypage.com//fyeo/howtomakewar/default.asp?target=htwin.htm

[experiencediz]

Mistakes Made in Training Iraqis

August 9, 2005: One of the most important battles in Iraq gets little coverage. This is the struggle to train new Iraqi police and military forces. After Saddam was overthrown, his police force and army were disbanded.

More ...
http://www.strategypage.com//fyeo/howtomakewar/default.asp?target=htwin.htm

Yes, The whole thing was a mistake! (http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1545861,00.html)

Baghdad elite flees Iraq and the daily threat of death
By Thomas Harding in Baghdad
(Filed: 10/08/2005)

Quietly, in their ones and twos, the professional classes of Baghdad are slipping out of the country to avoid becoming another fatal statistic.

Iraq is losing the educated elite of doctors, lawyers, academics and businessmen who are vital to securing a stable future. There is also fear that their departure will leave a vacuum to be filled by religious extremists.

Outside the shelter of the Green Zone, home to the American and Iraqi political leadership, lawlessness has overtaken the capital.

Prof Abdul Sattar Jawad, the head of English literature at Baghdad University, will leave next month to take up a post in Jordan. Two of his colleagues left recently after being intimidated.

At his home in east Baghdad the professor answered the door with an outstretched hand. In the other hand he carried a loaded revolver "because I don't trust anybody nowadays".

While the lack of basic needs and a barely functioning infrastructure are considerable hardships, it is the daily threat of death that was the catalyst for his decision. Since the new government came to power in April there have been up to 3,000 civilian deaths, about half attributed to criminal activity.

"I love my country but I am unable to do any service for the people because it is overrun by fanatics and extremists," Prof Jawad said. "The streets are ruled by gangs, looters and goons."

Last month he resigned a position as dean of arts after "religious animals" surrounded his office and shouted "war-like slogans".

The threats have also forced him to close down two English newspapers he ran because "it now is anti-religious to have free speech, liberal minds and civilisation in this country".

Prof Jawad's wife Sarah, a former geography teacher, said she now wore a headscarf to avoid being harassed by religious extremists.

For his son Omar Jawad, a single 30-year-old lawyer working for a British company in the Green Zone, the one ambition is to leave Iraq "as quickly as possible, as soon as I find somewhere to go".

He added: "I see a lot of educated people leaving Iraq. I talked this morning to one of my friends who has a PhD in law. He has just resigned from his job and is going. You hear so many similar stories. It is more security problems than economic. Under sanctions [imposed on Saddam Hussein by the United Nations after the Gulf war] we had no problems like this."

Aside from the daily risk of kidnap, suicide bombers and drive-by shootings, his half hour journey into work is now a two-hour slog through roadblocks.

There are no land-line telephones, water has to be pumped from a well and electricity is on for only two hours a day compared with 21 under Saddam. In a country that perches on a lake of oil, the petrol queues last up to four hours.

"I am not very optimistic," Mr Jawad said. "We have this fear of civil war because when the Americans are out it will be left to the Iraqis.

"It is two years now since the war ended and we see no development."

For the past three years Mahir Mahmood, 37, has built a successful business importing cars and spares but by the autumn he will be gone because he fears his wife and four children will be held to ransom by criminals.

"I think the bombs, explosions and killings are enough for anyone to leave the country," he said. " What good has the government done for the people to make them stay?"

He has arranged an apartment for his family in Syria where he knows of half a dozen other Iraqi businessman who have already moved.

Baghdad's doctors suffer most of all. They are now authorised to carry firearms after some were killed by angry relatives of dead patients and after threats by police officers demanding immediate treatment for injured colleagues.

Dr Tariq Bahjat, who became a hospital director in Baghdad after his predecessor was killed and where a radiologist was recently shot dead, said: "No one can provide doctors with protection. I am afraid the same will happen to me; that is why I will go abroad."

A spokesman for the prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said: "It is a worry, of course, and they are going to be difficult to replace.

"Many people are getting jobs abroad and in terms of what the government can do about it? Very little."

Baghdad elite flees Iraq and the daily threat of death (http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/10/wirq10.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/08/10/ixworld.html)

[NYer]

How'd you like this guy's job?

Hizzoner the Mayor
One of the many fathers of the Iraqi atomic bomb (almost) has the job of restoring Baghdad to greatness as a world capital


By Christopher Dickey
Newsweek
Updated: 9:59 a.m. ET July 21, 2004

July 20 - The first time the new mayor of Baghdad paid an official visit to the Green Zone, just a few weeks ago, a U.S. soldier stopped him amid the blast walls and concertina wire at the gate, and told him he had to be searched. Those are the rules and the soldier was under orders. But Alaa Al-Tamimi refused: “Because I am the mayor,” he said. This was his country, this was his city, and there were limits to the indignities he’d accept just because of the American occupiers’ rules and regulations. A pat-down would be an affront to his office.

more ...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5470140/site/newsweek/

[NYer]

The Wizard War

Michael Yon's ongoing account of the battle in Mosul is worth reading. He begins with an extended James Mitchenerish description of the effects of explosive on armor and unprotected human beings as a way of setting the stage about a bomb towards which his Stryker is rolling. You keep reading wondering how it will all turn out.

Forty three Americans have died in Iraq over the last 10 days, including Pvt. 1st Class Nils G. Thompson in Mosul, but 24th infantry has killed 150 in just one neighborhood in the last 10 months. So who's ahead, we ask, but keep reading. But Yon's hasn't written his last dispatch; the unit he's with detects the bomb. The triggerman is spotted, but inexplicably not killed, even though the gunner has him in his sights. He is captured. Enemy snipers covering the IED area exchange fire with Deuce Four. Rotary wing shows up immediately. An EOD unit arrives with a robot but fail to blow up the bomb. It detonates some nights later perhaps as some of the enemy attempt to retrieve it. At least there are some car parts scattered all over the block.

Deuce Four takes the IED triggerman back to his neighborhood and Americans strike a conversation with his mom. Then they take him to the local police station, but decline to turn him over to the local cops and keep custody. A couple of nights go by. Yon ends the post just as Deuce Four are closing in on a house where they think more car bombs are being assembled.

What Yon omits is as tantalizing as what he describes. A lot is happening offstage that we are not allowed to see; we are given only glimpses. There are staged IED attacks to lure out the enemy into the sights of snipers. The are constant meetings with the Iraqi police whose subject matter is never described. Inexplicable things happen, like the the IED triggerman being taken back to his neighborhood right even while fire is being exchanged at the failed ambush site by Army officers who are certainly too busy to just shoot the breeze or idly wander around town. Bombs are left on the road and just happen to blow up when the insurgents attempt to retrieve them later. Large explosive caches are discovered in ways that are never divulged. A car bomb factory is about to be raided as Yon ends the post, in the cliff-hanger manner of the Republic Serials, and we are left not only to wonder what will happen, but how the raiders came to that very door.

(Speculation alert) We are probably going to have to wait a decade to find out how the battle of Mosul was fought out. But I think it is probable that a large role will have been played by electronic warfare in particular and information warfare in general. Both sides are trying to get inside the decision cycles of their opponents and Yon's description of the failed IED ambush at the traffic circle is a case in point. The enemy covers the IED amush site with snipers and the Americans cover the area with rotary wing. Yon is afraid mortars will hit the traffic circle but lets on that the mortars are afraid of counterbattery. So they disengage. Ambush counter ambush. The enemy makes a special target of EOD troopers but maybe the EOD guys have a few tricks up their own sleeves. The bombmakers target Americans and Americans target the bombmakers. The Americans refuse to leave the IED triggerman with the Mosul cops, after trailing him all over his neighborhood. After the raid whose outcome we'll know in the next Yon installment, that triggerman may want to change his address and maybe get some plastic surgery into the bargain. I'm going to guess that Mosul is one of those engagements which will make the word 'database' a synonym for weapon and 'cover story' equivalent in certain situations to overhead cover.

posted by wretchard
www.fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com

[NYer]

How'd you like this guy's job?

Hizzoner the Mayor


Whoops ... spoke too soon !

Mayor of Baghdad Is Deposed; Insurgents Kill 4 U.S. Troops


By JAMES GLANZ
Published: August 10, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 10 - Armed men entered Baghdad's municipal building during a blinding dust storm on Monday, deposed the city's mayor and installed a member of Iraq's most powerful Shiite militia.

http://nytimes.com/2005/08/10/international/10cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1123732800&en=3485dfe6406d9dd8&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[experiencediz]

You Go Girl!

Despite U.S. policy, women fighting and dying in Iraq
By JENNIFER LEVITZ, The Providence Journal

Published: August 10th, 2005
Last Modified: August 10th, 2005 at 10:07 AM

(SH) - She busted down doors of Iraqi arms dealers in house-to-house raids in Fallujah. She seized caches of weapons and took prisoners. She fired her machine gun from a Humvee and was shot at while wearing the uniform of the United States military. She still can't hear thunder without thinking of incoming mortar fire.


But the Department of Defense won't say Sgt. Maria Freudigmann was in combat.

Under a federal policy, only men are allowed in frontline combat on the ground; women can join "combat support" units that are supposed to be farther away from the frontline.

In Iraq, however, the distinction between the two types of duty is blurred. In this war, there's no real frontline. Violence can break out anytime, anywhere.

Women are getting shot at and are shooting back. They're getting killed. One won a Silver Star for Valor in May.

Freudigmann fought alongside the Army's 3rd Infantry Division active-duty combat troops while serving in Fallujah with the Rhode Island National Guard's 115th Military Police Company.

But still, the Pentagon doesn't call her work - or that of other female soldiers in similar jobs - combat, denying them the designation that has long been a point of pride for males.

Asked whether women are in combat in Iraq, Maj. Michael Shavers, spokesman for the Pentagon, said that Iraq is a war with an increasingly "asymmetrical battlefield" without the distinction of a clear frontline or rear.

Are women in combat?

"I'm going to stick with my original comment," he said.

Why not just say women are in combat?

"We're acknowledging that there is a reality where there is not a clear delineation between being in the frontline, engaged with the enemy, and in the rear in this current conflict," he said.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., a member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services who has traveled to Iraq five times, said the Pentagon's response is based on more "terminology than reality."

"There are insurgents hitting willy-nilly across the countryside. Women face essentially the same dangers as their male counterparts," Reed said.

Given the nature of the war, he said, "it's an artificial distinction to say that they're not in combat."

Freudigmann, 25, of North Providence, a gunner in the 115th MP unit, is sure she saw combat.

"Oh, definitely," she said.

She has pictures to prove it: her lieutenant's Humvee, its window shattered by gunfire; piles of mortar tubes and weapons she seized in pre-dawn raids in Fallujah; men lying face down in the sand, their hands tied behind their backs.

"These are prisoners we took," she said.

Her company served 87 days in Fallujah, helping combat troops fight rebels. While her two teammates were inside the unarmored Humvee, Freudigmann rode on top, in the turret, holding her M-249 machine gun.

She helped her company complete 572 raids, seize 125,000 rounds of ammunition, 60 vehicles, and 7 million in Iraqi dinars from suspected insurgents.

"Those were crazy days with a lot of raids and combat operations and females on every one of them," said Lt. Jeffrey Floyd, who was a platoon leader with the 115th. "She took fire several times and returned fire."

Saying that women are in combat contradicts the military philosophy and practice that has been in place for years. While women have always fought and died in wars, the Defense Department has deliberately kept women out of ground direct-combat jobs. This is based partly on the notion that society wouldn't accept women being taken as prisoners or coming home in body bags.

In 1994, the Pentagon adopted a policy stating that females would not be allowed in infantry, field artillery, special forces or other units that engage the enemy on the ground. Women are allowed in aviation combat and on warships.

In the first Persian Gulf war, a more conventional war, the distinction between combat and combat-support troops worked well. Support troops worked behind the frontline.

But in Iraq, the military has been less able to keep women off the frontlines for several reasons. First, the war is not traditional: the rear line is Kuwait, and the frontline is anywhere in Iraq, including highways.

Secondly, in Iraq, there are more women because after the Gulf war, the Marines and the Army opened up many more military jobs to women.

Also, to fight a guerrilla-style war, the Army has been packaging some combat-support troops with combat troops.

"By anyone's practical measure, once you're getting shot at and shooting back, you're in combat," said Lory Manning, a retired Navy captain who tracks military issues for the Women's Research and Education Institute.


Despite U.S. policy, women fighting and dying in Iraq (http://www.adn.com/24hour/world/story/2624515p-11099221c.html)

[NYer]

The South...Where to?


Abddul Aziz Al-Hakim the head of the SCIRI called to day for the formation of a federal state in the south of Iraq and Hadi Al-Amiri chief of the Badr organization (the military wing of the SCIRI) said that if the Sheat don't persist in forming this state they will regret it.
I don't really know why Amiri chose the word "regret" in addressing the people of the south, instead he could've said something like 'we would like to see a federal state in the south and we respect the people's choice about it' because I think this tone of threats to the people he's part of carries a lot of possible suspicious meanings.

I think the Islamic leaderships have realized that it's difficult to lead a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country by forcing one perspective that has a specific religious inclination and that's why they're thinking of creating a smaller state in the south which can be more loyal (or less defiant) to them and their strategic ally in Iran, not forgetting the economic advantage of this region of Iraq which possesses the largest oil reserves and Iraq's only port.
So they think that implementing an example that matches the visions of these parties in this region would be easier and safer especially with the presence of the desirable sectarian majority.

Also these parties have established strong basis for them in this region as a step in the preparation for the future federal state (or mere state) and actually right now there's nothing that can stop this plan except the other religious trend that is spreading in the south represented by Muqtada's group.
These two Sheat religious trends do not seem willing to coexist peacefully in the same place and in the past months the southern cities became an open field for a war between these parties and cities like Samawa, Najaf and Kut have witnessed continuous conflicts over power and influence.

In the mean time, the suffering of the silent majority worsens; those people who don't belong to any of the two trends are now looking for hope in the next elections which can rescue them from the control of the parties; there are no well-defined political substitutes though.
Anyway, this morning I came across the Arabic forum on the BBC and on one thread people were posting their comments about the role of religious parties and their militias (namely Badr and Mehdi army) in Basra and it was particularly interesting to read what Basrawis think.

There were around 33 comments by different commentors from Basra, 18 of the comments were against what the parties and their militias were doing in Basra, 9 were supportive of on or both of the two parties, 3 denied the problem, 2 moderately discussed the subject and think that an agreement with the militias can be reached and 1 comment was irrelevant to the subject.

I understand that forums do not necessarily reflect reality but it is always a good idea to hear what the concerned people have to say so I have chosen a bunch of these comments and translated them for you:



-"I've been working in trade between Iraq and Iran for a long time and I've seen a lot of things in my trips and with all respect to our Iranian neighbors, I can say that 80% of the troubles in Basra is caused by the Iranian intelligence. I know about Iranian officials working in Basra under cover of humanitarian organizations or trading firms.
The Iranians fear that Iraqi lands might be used by the US to attack them and that's why they're implementing the theory that says 'if there has to be a fire, let it be outside my home' and now Basra is on fire"

Karrar Murtada-Basra.

-"In Basra there's no government or law, there are parties that rule the province…"

Arkan-Basra.

-"Basra is now under full control of the religious groups like Fadheela party and Muqtada's army who care about nothing but restricting freedoms and controlling the resources"

Ahmed Al-Basri-Basra.

-"What the American hero Steven Vincent said is true. The relative security in Basra is caused by the presence of the militias which infiltrated the security forces. They're keeping security for their own sake only and the evidence is in the killings and kidnappings that were committed by people from the police.
The administration in Basra right now is more dictatorial than Saddam was; men using religion as a cover for killings and corruption".

Ammar-Basra.

-"We're tired of this; we have never tasted peace and rest in Basra.
During the war with Iran Basra was the 1st target for Iran and in the 1st gulf war Basra was the crossing point for the allied troops and it happened again in the latest war and today Basra is torn apart by Iran-affiliated militias.
When are we going to have some peace??".

Abdul Hussain Al-Musawi-Basra.

-"I'm sorry for Iraq, there's no sense of patriotism left in the ruling class and the politicians fooled the simple people when they claimed they had support from the clergy.
Badr and Sadr are fighting among them but the only loser is the poor Iraqi person.
I am Sheat but I feel ashamed of what some Sheats have done, fanaticism is growing in an ugly way and the situation is intolerable but I am optimistic about the next elections and I think Iraqis have realized the advantage of the past "appointed" government; the media was more open and there was better tolerance for the opposing opinion but now, the ruling parties do not accept any opposition because they inherited the culture of violence from the past regime and now they're treating Iraqis like Saddam did!"

Hasanain Ali-Basra.

-"Repressing freedoms has become the main policy of the parties that are hiding behind religion and are guided and controlled from Iran. I just don't know when are we going to wake up to see the Iranian flag instead of ours!".

Jawad Al-Jabiri-Basra.

-"I think the situation in Basra is relatively more stable than other parts in Iraq and this alleged competition among militias does not actually exist; it's a product of the fantasy of the media which aim at destabilizing the stable regions in Iraq".

Sabahiddin-Basra.

-"This is exaggeration! I am from Basra and I don't see what you're talking about!
Who hears you talk thinks that Basra is a torture camp.
Go to Basra and see the truth; people there spends the nights out till late hours and there's no harassment.
Mehdi Army and Badr brigade won 15 seats out of 40 in the city council so they should naturally have a big influence".

Mohammed Hasan-Basra.

-"Basra is now ruled by her own people, no more people from Tikrit can show us how to run our lives. Badr and other organizations fought Saddam and the Ba'ath and they have the right to be active inside the security forces.
Basra is a Sheat city so no wonder Sheat organizations have influence and power there.
It's strange that some people think it's forbidden for the militias to be part of the security forces in their own city!!".

Ahmed Ibrahim-Basra.

-"Greetings to the false Islamic parties, greetings to the terrorists coming from the brother Faqih country, greetings to the government of Dr. Jafari which failed at security, political and social levels; greetings to all of you, we can't stand you anymore; not you, not the Sheat and not the Sunni…".

Faiz Abdullah-Basra.

-"It's true that there are a lot of Sheats in Basra and there's no objection their involvement in the security forces but the greatest problem that threatens the future of the peaceful people lies in the militias and their loyalty that is directed to Iran rather than Iraq.
These groups that infiltrated the police force are carrying out missions for their militias after they finish their official work wearing the same uniforms of the police…".

Fadi Georges-Basra.

-"Some say that Basra is a secure place that doesn't suffer from terrorism but the truth is that Basra is suffering from social terrorism which in my opinion is the most dangerous form of terrorism because freedoms are repressed in the name of the noble Islam.
One example was what happened in the University of Basra where students were severely beaten because they were having a picnic! And female students are being forced to wear hijab especially in the university.
It's almost accurate to say that Basra is an Iranian city flying the Iraqi flag. SAVE US".

Rashedd Mohammed-Basra.

- posted by Mohammed
www.iraqthemodel.blogspot.com

[experiencediz]

"The judicial court of the Organisation of al Qaeda in Iraq ..."

What The Hell?...

Al Qaeda vows to kill Iraqis drafting constitution
12.08.05 1.00pm


DUBAI - Iraq's al Qaeda group has vowed to kill anyone involved in drafting a constitution which Washington hopes can help quell a Sunni Muslim insurgency.

"The judicial court of the Organisation of al Qaeda in Iraq has ruled that it is a duty to uphold God's law and kill those who have declared themselves God's partners in drafting this void constitution," the group said in an internet statement.

"We have decided to combat all those who write and who support this constitution ... as they are apostates."

The statement was posted on a website often used by al Qaeda. The group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said in an earlier statement that Islamic sharia law should be the only legislation to govern Iraq.

The role of Islam is one one of several major sticking points which have divided drafters of Iraq's new constitution along sectarian and ethnic lines. Some Iraqis want sharia law to be the basis of the charter which is due to be presented to parliament by August 15.

US authorities have been pushing hard for the deadline to be met, seeing the drafting of the document as the best chance for attracting Sunni Arabs, from whom the insurgency draws most of its supporters, into the political process and sapping momentum from the guerrillas fighting US and Iraqi forces.

- REUTERS




Al Qaeda vows to kill Iraqis drafting constitution (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10340454)

[Ono]

They're deranged! Absolutely deranged!

"The judicial court of the Organisation of al Qaeda in Iraq has ruled that it is a duty to uphold God's law and kill those who have declared themselves God's partners in drafting this void constitution," the group said in an internet statement.

[NYer]

Can you say "delusional"? I knew you could.

(Channeling Fred Rogers)

[NYer]

Iraq: American accused of al-Qaida ties in gv't
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON


An American accused in court papers of having ties to Osama bin Laden is now working for the Iraqi government's Foreign Ministry, US officials and a former CIA counterterror chief say.

Iraqi-born Tarik A. Hamdi was the "American contact" for one of bin Laden's front organizations and gave a satellite telephone battery to an aide to the Saudi-born al-Qaida leader in Afghanistan for a phone used by bin Laden, according to an affidavit from Customs agent David Kane.

The affidavit was unsealed this week in US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington, along with a federal indictment charging Hamdi with lying on immigration and mortgage loan applications.

Hamdi, who formerly lived in another Washington suburb in Virginia, is now working at Iraqi diplomatic offices in Turkey, said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA official who has known Hamdi for years and remains in contact with him through e-mail.

Hamdi has been under federal investigation and surveillance for several years, stemming from his work at the International Institute of Islamic Thought in northern Virginia.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1123813187357

[NYC]

Italy hastens troop reduction in Iraq-source
Sat 13 Aug 2005 5:39 AM ET
ROME, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Italy, a month ahead of schedule, has started reducing its presence in Iraq by drawing down the first 130 forces in a planned 300-troop withdrawal, a Rome-based military source said on Saturday.

The source, who declined to be named, said the decision to bring forward the September start date of the partial troop reduction was logistical and financial -- and not political.

The 130 Marines had finished their roughly 4-month tour-of-duty earlier in August, and the military opted against a costly process of replacing them for a brief one-month stint.

"It was decided not to replace them just for one month, since the reduction of around 300 men was planned starting in September," the source said.

Italy has some 3,000 troops in Iraq, the fourth largest foreign contingent there after the United States, Britain and South Korea.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi last month insisted he would not speed the withdrawal from Iraq, despite calls to speed the process -- even from allies within his government -- following the deadly bomb attacks in London.

The strong U.S. ally said Italy needed to fulfil its commitments and refused to "leave the job half done".

http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L1332415

[NYer]

August 14, 2005
More Red-on-Red
By Bill Roggio

"We have had enough of his nonsense. We don't accept that a non-Iraqi should try to enforce his control over Iraqis, regardless of their sect -- whether Sunnis, Shiites, Arabs or Kurds.''
- Sheik Ahmad Khanjar, leader of the Sunni Albu Ali clan, referring to Abu Musab al Zarqawi


Red-on-red incidents between al Qaeda and Sunni insurgents are nothing new in Anbar province. We saw numerous instances of this when al Qaeda attempted to impose its will on the Sunnis in Qaim along the Syrian border. However the Washington Post provides a new twist to the internecine warfare between the foreign jihadis and local Sunni fighters. Sunnis have taken up arms against al Qaeda to protect their Shiite neighbors [hat tip Rantburg]. In Ramadi.

Rising up against insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, Iraqi Sunni Muslims in Ramadi fought with grenade launchers and automatic weapons Saturday to defend their Shiite neighbors against a bid to drive them from the western city, Sunni leaders and Shiite residents said. The fighting came as the U.S. military announced the deaths of six American soldiers.

Dozens of Sunni members of the Dulaimi tribe stablished cordons around Shiite homes, and Sunni men battled followers of Zarqawi, a Jordanian, for an hour Saturday morning [note - Omar states this is Iraq's largest tribe]. The clashes killed five of Zarqawi's guerrillas and two tribal fighters, residents and hospital workers said. Zarqawi loyalists pulled out of two contested neighborhoods in pickup trucks stripped of license plates, witnesses said [note – to put it more plainly, al Qaeda had to run away!].

The leaders of four of Iraq's Sunni tribes had rallied their fighters in response to warnings posted in mosques by followers of Zarqawi. The postings ordered Ramadi's roughly 3,000 Shiites to leave the city of more than 200,000 in the area called the Sunni Triangle. The order to leave within 48 hours came in retaliation for alleged expulsions by Shiite militias of Sunnis living in predominantly Shiite southern Iraq.

"We have had enough of his nonsense," said Sheik Ahmad Khanjar, leader of the Albu Ali clan, referring to Zarqawi. "We don't accept that a non-Iraqi should try to enforce his control over Iraqis, regardless of their sect -- whether Sunnis, Shiites, Arabs or Kurds.''

Zarqawi is in a bind. His plan to foment civil war between Sunnis and Shiites is now being opposed by his Sunni "allies". Sunni tribes are tiring of his violence against fellow Iraqis, even against non-Sunnis. Al Qaeda must stop the election to ratify the constitution to further deny the Iraqi government legitimacy. Sunni clerics are beginning to encourage their followers to vote. Zarqawi responds by using the only tools he understands – threats, intimidation, violence.

Zarqawi's movement posted statements in Ramadi pledging to kill Sunni clerics in the west for urging Sunnis to take part in the country's next elections.

"We, al Qaeda in Iraq, announce that we will apply the religious punishment for apostasy upon whoever calls for creation of the constitution. You, preacher at the podium of prophecy, be a speaker of truth, doer of good and rallier for the rule of sharia," or Islamic law, the statement said.

In the eyes of al Qaeda, all who oppose them are infidel, even their natural allies such as Sunni preachers in Iraq who oppose the US presence. This will ultimately be Zarqawi and al Qaeda's undoing, provided the West can muster the political will to continue the fight.

http://billroggio.com/archives/2005/08/more_redonred.php

[NYer]

Wanted Al Qaeda Member Killed
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Aug. 14, 2005 – Terrorist Abu Zubair, also known as Mohammed Salah Sultan, was killed Aug. 12 by Iraqi security forces in an ambush in the northern city of Mosul, officials said today.

Zubair was a known member of al Qaeda in Iraq and a lieutenant in the operations of terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi in Mosul.

Zubair was being sought by coalition and Iraqi security forces for his involvement in a July suicide bombing attack of a police station in Mosul where five Iraqi police officers died. He was also suspected of resourcing and facilitating suicide bomber attacks against coalition, Iraqi security forces and Iraqi citizens throughout the country.

http://www.dod.mil/news/Aug2005/20050814_2422.html

[Alli]

Former Iraqi agents face trial in Yemen for targeting Western embassies Ahmed Salman Dawd al-Zubaidi, Ahmed Muthanna Jassem Ahmed Al-Aani, and Mohammed Mahdi Abderrahman Aasi al-Kanani, all Iraqi intelligence agents under the Saddam Hussein regime, entered pleas of not guilty Monday as they were arraigned before a Yemeni court for allegedly plotting to destroy the US and British [official websites] embassies in Yemen [government website]. Ali Rashed al-Saadi, a fourth suspect and the suspected ringleader, remains at large and was included in the proceedings in abstentia. The court set the next hearing for August 28, at which time the defense will be permitted arguments, while the prosecution will present evidence against the four men, including four suitcases filled with explosives, confiscated when the men were arrested.

more (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050814/wl_mideast_afp/yemenattacksiraq_050814184425)

[NYer]

Good news from Iraq, 16 August 2005
by Arthur Chrenkoff at August 16, 2005 11:13 AM

Note: As always, also available from "The Opinion Journal" and Chrenkoff. Thank you to James Taranto, Joe Katzman, and all of you dear fellow bloggers and readers, regular and irregular, for your support for the series.

Conservative activist and commentator L. Brent Bozell III recently wrote about an encounter with a veteran:

My son's friend Todd Jones just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. At a celebratory gathering at his parents' home, we chatted a while, and I asked him what he thought were the biggest problems facing the military. Without hesitating, he shot back: "The terrorists and the media."

For Bozell, this pretty much confirmed what many others, on both side of the camera, have been saying lately:

In a rare moment of balance on CBS, Army Capt. Christopher Vick echoed that sentiment: "I think it's hard for Americans to get up every day and turn on the news and see the horrible things that are going on here, because there's no focus on the good things that go on. What they see is another car bomb went off." This kind of coverage is exactly what the terrorists are seeking to achieve, believes Vick.
Mark Yost, who served in the Navy during the Reagan years, caused a stir in media circles for stating the obvious in an editorial in the St. Paul Pioneer Press: "to judge by the dispatches, all the Iraqis do is stand outside markets and government buildings waiting to be blown up."

On CNN's "Reliable Sources," host Howard Kurtz asked Frank Sesno, a former Washington bureau chief for CNN, about the Yost column. Sesno acknowledged you get more depth from print coverage, but suggested "even then, the bias is towards that which is going wrong, that which is blowing up and that which is not working." He said Americans ask: "Is anything getting rebuilt? Are they really democrats over there? How engaged are the Sunnis? Could I see an interview with any of these founding fathers and founding mothers of this new emerging country? Can you find that? You'll have a hard time doing it."

The question is not whether bad things happening in Iraq should be reported back home - they should, and there are clearly many of them; a fact that no one is denying - but whether there are some positive developments taking place that should also be receive the media's attention. Judging by the coverage, the media's answer seems to be, not very often. Whether that's because such positive developments are objectively rare, or whether it's because they are deemed not important and consequential enough, remains an open question.

But just in case the media has made a wrong judgment in this matter, here are the past two weeks' worth of under-reported and often overlooked good news stories from Iraq.

More ...
http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/007358.php

[NYer]

The Sunni respond to Al-Qaeda's threats...

Al-Qaeda is becoming even more aggressive toward Iraq as a whole and a few dyas ago Sunni leaders were added to Al-Qaeda's hit-list.
I think this reflects a lot of frustration among the jihadists leaders after armed clashes between Sunni tribes and jihadi fighters and the active Sunnis participation in the constitution writing process…now Zarqawi is talking about slitting throats again.

The response from the Sunni clerics didn't take a long time to come and ironically that response came from no less than Fallujah itself.
Here's what I read on Al-Mada (Arabic).

The Fallujah scholars council represented by its head Hamza Al-Eisawi the preacher in Al-Wahda mosque released an announcement that urged Fallujans to take their role in the referendum. The cleric explained that this is one of their duties as clerics to give advice to the people and he added that the fatwa will be read in all of the city's mosques.
It's worth mentioning that four voters registration offices have been designated in the city and the people have decided to take the responsibility of protecting these offices without interference from the multinational forces. At the same time, Fallujah is witnessing daily lectures and conferences where thinkers and leaders from the Islamic party are educating the people about the importance of participation in the referendum.

Abdul Hameed Jadoo the preacher at Al-Furqan mosque called the people to have their names registered in the offices saying that "the constitution is going to prove our identity as Iraqis"
Abbas Kareem, a former naval officer from Fallujah said "If we se a fair and balanced draft of the constitution then we're certainly going to accept it"

Dr. Suhaib Mahmood from Fallujah's general hospital said "If the draft guaranteed equal rights for all Iraqis away from sectarian discrimination we'll consider it convincing…having our say in the constitution is essential and an important turning point for us"

While lawyer Sabah Naji from Fallujah too said "We have to participate in the referendum and even if we didn't like the draft we still have the opportunity to say no"

Ahmed Hameed, an engineer in the municipal department in Fallujah said "the town is about to see a new political change that will have a big effect on the shape of the political future of Iraq…everybody here is going to participate and no one wants to miss the chance this time"



Meanwhile but in Mosul, Al-Mada paper also reported that voters registration offices in the northern city are receiving lots of people who want to add their names to the voters lists and that sources from the IECI told the paper that registration rates exceeded expectations it was also mentioned that preachers in Mosul's mosques are conducting a wide campaign to encourage people to participate in the referendum.

In Baghdad and during last Friday's prayers at the Um Al-Qura mosque (the HQ of the association of Muslim scholars) Sheikh Mahdi Al-Sumaiday declared that the association and the Islamic party as well as the department of Sunni property have all made the decision to take part in the political process.


Back to the main topic of this post;last week Zarqawi threatened to bomb, kill and behead all those who dare to show up for the referendum.
Do I need to remind Zarqawi of his previous threats and how Iraqi's responded to these threats?
In an earlier message of hatred he claimed to be defending the Sunni from the Sheat and now he's declaring all Iraqis are his enemies.

- posted by Mohammed
www.iraqthemodel.blogspot.com

[NYer]

Constitution Update

The Iraqis did not deliver their new constitution by the August 15th deadline, and the legislature allowed another week to complete the task. What’s holding up the work are the four Rs; Revenge (how much amnesty and power to give the hated Sunni Arab minority), Regionalism (how much independence the Kurds have), Religion (how much influence Islam should have on the legal system) and Resources (who gets how much of the oil money).

The Sunni Arab leadership are trying to get safeguards in the constitution that would limit the revenge the Kurds and Shia Arabs will take on the Sunni Arab community for atrocities committed during the decades of Saddam’s rule. The Sunni Arabs are also in terror of Shia Arabs not only going along with Kurdish demands for permanent autonomy, but also setting up a similar system in the south. Since 1991, when British and American troops (mainly warplanes) kept Saddams troops out of the north, the Kurds have, in effect, been independent. The Kurds have prospered and been at peace. The Shia Arabs have noticed that, and the harsh treatment the Kurds have given to any Sunni Arab gunmen foolish enough to venture into “Kurdistan.”

Religion is an issue because Islamic conservatives in the Sunni and Shia community want the law of the land to reflect conservative Islam. Most Iraqis, especially the women, do not want this, but they do want honest government (which is very rare in the Moslem world), and also note that Islamic rule in neighboring Iran has not produced honest government, and has imposed unpleasant rules on the citizens. But Iran has supported a Islamic conservative militia (the Badr Brigade) in Iraq, and these thugs have been energetic in trying to bully Iraqis to support Islamic conservatism. This is often backfiring on the street, but at the moment, many of the people putting the new constitution together are controlled by the Badr gang, and similar organizations.

And then there’s the money. The Kurds have suggested that they, and the Shia Arabs, take complete control of the oil in their areas (this would be most of the nations oil), and leave the Sunni Arabs in central Iraq with nothing. The Sunni Arabs have been monopolizing the oil money for decades, and feel this freeze out proposal is something that could be done to them by vengeful Kurds and Shia Arabs. The Kurds and Shia Arabs appear willing to compromise by accepting a larger cut of the oil.

http://www.strategypage.com//fyeo/qndguide/default.asp?target=IRAQ.HTM

[NYer]

Battle For Mosul II

The Players

There is the perception that fanatical insurgents bubble like oil from the Iraqi sands. Yet, having traveled in Iraq for nearly half a year, I have seen little real desert, and true fanatics are rare.

In an effort to be culturally sensitive and almost compulsively polite, we've mangled the meanings of words like: "martyr," and "suicide" to such a degree that we're using them to label mass murderers. While American and foreign media collectively increase the suffering of babes through their current fashion of cynicism, others seem to have a case of "parents' guilt." Unable to give the Iraqi suffering the undivided and ameliorative attention it requires, reporters instead rush at any sign of distress and hyper-focus on the negative. In the process, they create more problems than originally existed, shoveling out body counts and masquerading them as reports.

A major US magazine recently published an unsubstantiated piece about the desecration of the Islamic Holy Book by US Forces. This story led to riots and many deaths. The magazine has apologized, but too late for the people who are dead.

I have participated in so many raids, I lost count long ago. In practically every Iraqi home, I have seen the Quran. American soldiers are trained to recognize it and rarely will even touch the green tome; leaving it where it sits, in special places in many homes.

The combined pressures of an increasingly engaged Iraqi populace, coupled with an increasingly effective Coalition military response, are working to cordon and curtail the insurgency in some areas, while it flares in others. The insurgents’ tactics are backfiring in many areas; their ranks are thinning in Mosul.


The Business of Insurgency

Insurgents are in the disruption business. Bombs and bullets are their main currency. Like every enterprise, they must control costs. Distant viewers who acquire perceptions of bombs from movies or the nightly news might have a false idea that explosives are high-end items, requiring specialized technical skills and scarce raw materials. Actually, making explosive devices—such as car bombs—is simple.

In most cases, the enemy in Iraq collects munitions such as unexploded artillery shells—available by the truckload, and cheap—then rigs the shells to explode by one of several easy methods. Once loaded into a car, a switch that a clever junior high-schooler could make is added. That’s it. The bomb is ready. The size of the device is limited primarily by the capacity of the vehicle.

The Chinese first began using gunpowder a thousand years ago, and quickly realized that making a bomb and using it effectively are two different problems. They made rockets from bamboo, and invented grenades. The real challenge is making the explosions connect with a target at the right time, in the right way; meaning, there is an optimal point and moment for initiation. Achieving both of these simultaneously can be extremely difficult.

What's true for simple IEDs also holds for large car bombs against armored targets—if the timing is off, by as little as a quarter-second as the vehicle drives by… BLAM! …everyone inside the vehicle might be fine. (Note: That's exactly what the video clip linked to the title of this re-post shows.) When the timing is spot on, everyone can be killed. For armored targets, if the bomb doesn't make direct contact, or nearly direct contact, the effect is usually minor. (Unless the bomber is highly sophisticated; there are few of these in Iraq.) The enemy in Iraq is mostly relatively crude. What they lack in engineering finesse, they try to overcome with more explosives, often resulting in shattered neighborhoods.

The enemy’s operating practices for overcoming delivery and timing problems speak volumes about their predatory nature. They use human bomb delivery devices—the miss-labeled "suicide bombers"—who become organic elements of primitive weapon systems. They call these temp workers "martyrs," in a shameless exploitation of the naïveté and narcissism of certain young men. The "martyrs" allow themselves to be used as targeting and acquisition systems. More than just "allowing" they actually see the act of mass murder as the fulfillment of a glorious plan.

Particularly among fanatics, there seems to be an intentional misappropriation of meaning in the liberal misapplication of labelling words. Let's start with the BIG ones: suicide-bombers and martyrs. Suicide is a term that should evoke empathy, if not sympathy, for a lonely and despairing act. A distressed soul, harboring a crushing, agonizing lebensmude, weary of the strain of a terrestrial existence, perhaps seeking mere relief, or just an end to psychic pain, may be contemplating suicide. If this person straps a bomb to his or her chest and walks out into the solitude of the desert and detonates, they would then be properly called a "suicide bomber." But when the media reports every day on "suicide bombers," they are talking about different people.

A fanatic who straps a bomb to his chest and walks into a market crowded with women and children, then detonates a bomb that is sometimes laced with rat poison to hamper blood coagulation, is properly called a "mass murderer." There is nothing good to say about mass murderers, nor is there anything good to say about a person who encourages these murders. Calling these human bomb delivery devices "suicide bombers" is simply incorrect. They are murderers. A person or media source defending or explaining away the actions of the murderers supports them. There is no wiggle room.

Calling homicide bombers martyrs is a language offense; words are every bit as powerful as bombs, often more so. Calling murderers “martyrs” is like calling a man "customer" because he stood in line before gunning down a store clerk. There's no need to whisper. I hear the bombs every single day. Not some days, but every day. We're talking about criminals who actually volunteer and plan to deliberately murder and maim innocent people. What reservoir of feelings or sensibilities do we fear to assault by simply calling it so? When murderers describe themselves as "martyrs" it should sound to sensible ears like a rapist saying, “she was asking for it.” In other words, like the empty rationalizations of a depraved criminal.

The word martyr is derived from the word "to witness." It is used to describe a person who is killed because of a belief or principle. Given the choice to recant, martyrs chose instead to face their murderers and stand in witness to their beliefs. True martyrs do not kill themselves, but stand their ground and fight in the face of death to demonstrate the power of their convictions, sometimes dying as a result, but preferably surviving.

The only martyrs I know about in Iraq are the fathers and brothers who see a better future coming, and so they act on their beliefs and assemble outside police stations whenever recruitment notices are posted. They line up in ever increasing numbers, knowing that insurgents can also read these notices. The men stand in longer and longer lines, making ever bigger targets of themselves. Some volunteer to to earn a living. This, too, is honorable. But others take these risks because they believe that a better future is possible only if Iraqi men of principle stand up for their own values, for their country, for their families. Theses are the true martyrs, the true heroes of Iraq and of Islam. I meet these martyrs frequently. They are brave men, worthy of respect.


Enemy Forces

In Mosul, the enemy has two main faces: The Former Regime Elements (FRE), and the extremists. The extremists here in Mosul can be divided into five groups—more or less—one of which would be the local chapter claiming affiliation with the so-called Al-Queda gang.

The goals of the FRE and the extremist gangs are at stunning variance. In fact, they mostly hate each other, often kill one another, and work together only as needed. If the Coalition and new Iraqi government were not here, conveniently located as a central target, the FRE and other terrorists would almost certainly be at war with each other.

The main goal of the FRE is simple: Under the former regime, they were in charge. They want to be in charge again. In Saddam Hussein's regime, the Cynic's Golden Rule—"He who has the gold, makes the rules"—worked both ways: "He who makes the rules gets all the gold." The FRE bandits made the rules and controlled the gold. They have an understandable nostalgia for the good old days. They liked being in charge. They despise the prospect of people they once persecuted, such as the Kurds, suddenly acquiring any voice whatsoever. It’s not as if the FRE are totally disenfranchised, but more that they are no longer in complete control.

Whether or not someone might agree with the FRE, there is little dispute that these people have rational goals. Yet rational does not imply tenable in a newly democratic Iraq. This situation is not burdened with nagging grey areas where battle-scarred former combatants can work to some diplomatic compromise. This is an either/or situation. If the new democratic system takes hold, mathematics dictates that the FRE are not going to be in charge; they are outnumbered two to one. The FRE are Sunni Ba’athists while the majority of Iraq is Shia. The FRE is trying to destabilize the new government while simultaneously leveraging their position. Their primary strategy for both is to use violence against government officials and the civilians who elect them.

The FRE—being essentially rational but also essentially brutal—are simple to understand. They are serious, often deadly, but are not fanatical in the degree of their personal commitment to the cause. If they die, they will not regain control. It's a fact here on the Iraqi battleground—though seldom mentioned—that the majority of FRE insurgents are climate-sensitive. They almost never attack when it’s cold, raining or even muddy. As a rule, if conditions are such that the Little League baseball game back home would be canceled due to inclement weather, these FRE insurgents will stay home and wait for the skies to clear.

Of the two groups, the more intractable and irrational enemy wraps their rebellion in a flag of fundamentalist fervor. Although the press routinely lumps all of these similar groups under the banner "Al-Queda" (whatever that really is) there are actually five main extremist groups operating in Mosul. They have common ground. Some members seek fulfillment in apocalyptic visions of a world at war, wherein everybody except them—or even including them—dies. In other cases they see the war shaping a new world, one that is entirely Islamic. The word "extremist" is not an overstatement for them.

These extremists are irrational, dangerous, often highly emotional, and cannot be trusted with large weapons. Every day, they kill innocent people in Iraq. The FRE and most of the Iraqis tend to hate the extremists, realizing that if the Coalition were to leave, they would face the full wrath of these fanatics alone.

Friendly Forces

The friendly forces in Iraq are also an amalgamation. In Iraq as a whole, the Coalition is comprised of soldiers from many countries. But here in Mosul, the "Coalition" is almost entirely US, charged with building the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), while simultaneously keeping the insurgents at bay until the ISF can take over. Building the ISF is part of a larger plan that will allow our people to come home, without leaving a wounded Iraq victim to septic fundamentalism from within, or invasion from opportunistic neighbors.

Some definitions: The ISF includes the Iraqi Police (IP), Iraqi Army (IA), Iraqi National Guard (ING), Border Patrol (BP), and sundry other groups, each with their own initials. Every month, the ISF becomes a greater and more proximate threat to FRE and extremists groups throughout Iraq. This is borne out in a most ironic fashion; evidence of the growing competence and capability of ISF shouts from the headlines as the Iraqi government itself becomes the primary focus of insurgent attacks.

Gone are the days when the FREs and extremists in Mosul chased police from their stations and ravaged entire neighborhoods at will. Today, the ISF kills and captures enemy every day in Mosul, something that seldom makes news.

In my own dispatches I rarely mention these successes, yet I see or hear about small operations every day, collecting in ever larger pools of confidence and stability. There's no time to write about each event; this would be like trying to describe every raindrop that hits the windshield while keeping up with a fast moving storm. Eventually, a competent witness must stop taking notes, and step back to see the storm for what it is.

The next dispatch will explain how Deuce-Four has captured nearly one-hundred insurgents in the past three weeks, and how three drugged-up foreign homicide bombers were caught last night.

http://michaelyon.blogspot.com/

[NYer]

Iraqis favor Federalism ...

The majority of Iraqis prefer a federal state and a limited role for religion in the constitution; poll results showed:

A research published yesterday in Baghdad showed that a high percentage of Iraqis would prefer a federal system in the new Iraq, that's according to a poll conducted by an Iraqi NGO named "The civil Alliance For Free Elections".
The poll showed that 78% of participants support a federal state while 22% preferred a state based on a strong central government.

As to the relationship between Islam and the state; the results were 65% want Islam to be considered as a source of legislation, 26% want Islam to be the only source of legislation while 9% see that Islam should not be mentioned at all in the constitution.

From Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.

I really think that if the constitution drafting committee had listend to the people more than they listened to politicians, they would have moved with their task way faster than they've been doing. And there would have been no fear from having the constitution rejected like there is now.

- posted by Omar
www.iraqthemodel.blogspot.com

[NYer]

GEN McCAFFREY SUMMARY OF VISITS IN IRAQ

Posted on 08/18/2005 12:52:32 PM PDT by erinjohn

MEMORANDUM FOR: SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE

Subject: Trip Report - Kuwait and Iraq Saturday, 4 June through Saturday, 11 June 2005

1. PURPOSE: This memo provides feedback reference visit 4-11 June 2005 by General Barry R. McCaffrey, USA (Ret.) to Kuwait and Iraq.

2. SOURCES:

1. General George Casey, Commander, MNF-I - one-on-one discussions and Staff Briefings. 2. LTG JR Vines, Commander MNC-I - one-on-one discussions and Staff Briefings. 3. LTG Dave Petreaus, Commander, Multinational Security Transition Command - one-on-one discussions/briefings. 4. LTG Robin Brims, (UK Army), Deputy Commanding General of MNF-I - one-on-one discussions. 5. Charge d'Affairs James Jeffrey - office call one-on-one with U.S. Embassy Iraq. 6. MG Tim Donovan (USMC), Chief of Staff, MNF-I - one-on-one discussions. 7. MG Steve Johnson (USMC), Acting Commanding General, II MEF - one-on-one discussion and staff briefing. 8. BG Peter Palmer and BG John Defreitas - MNF-I Operations and Intel Briefings. 9. MG Rusty Findley (USAF) and Colonel Bill Hix - MNF-I Campaign Action Plan Brief. 10. BG Tom Bostick - Army Corps Engineers - Gulf Region Division Brief. 11. MG William Webster, Commanding General, Multi-National Division Baghdad - General Officer Briefing and 3rd ID Battle Staff briefing. 12. 2nd Brigade 3rd ID Commander and Staff Briefing - Baghdad security operations. 13. Ambassador Ahraf Oazi and UN Iraq Delegation - Lunch Meeting with Special Representative to the Secretary General of the UN in Iraq. 14. MG Robert Heine, Acting Director IRMO (US Embassy Reconstruction Program officer) - one-on-one discussion/briefings. 15. MG Hank Stratman - Political-Military-Economic Brief, US Embassy. 16. MG Eldon Bargewell, Joint Contracting - one-on-one discussions. 17. Field Visit - US Marine Infantry Battalion - Fallujah. 18. Field Visit - US Army Mechanized Infantry Battalion - vicinity Tikrit. 19. Briefing Iraqi Army Brigade Commander - Fallujah. 20. Briefing by U.S. Army Embedded Training Team - Fallujah ISF Army brigade. 21. Briefing USMC Embedded Trainer - Fallujah Police. 22. Briefing U.S. Army Captain - Embedded Training Team - ISF Army Infantry Battalion - Vicinity Tikrit. 23. Briefing Iraqi Army Colonel - ISF Training Center - vicinity Tikrit. 24. Lunch discussions - Iraqi Army Battalion XO, S3, SGM - vicinity Tikrit. 25. Live Fire Demo/Briefing - Iraqi Army Commando Battalion. 26. Demo/Briefing Iraqi Police ERU (Emergency Response Unit) - Baghdad. 27. Field Sensing Session - US Army combat division - fifteen U.S. Army Company Grade Officers. 28. Field Sensing Session - US Army combat battalion - junior Enlisted Soldiers. 29. Field Sensing Sessions - U.S. Army/Navy/Air Force/Marine Senior NCO's. 30. Discussion Sessions - two U.S. Contractor Teams (Logistics and Security) - Senior Leadership.

3. THE BOTTOM LINE - Observations from Operation Iraqi Freedom - June 2005:

1st - US Military Forces in Iraq are superb. Our Army-Marine ground combat units with supporting Air and Naval Power are characterized by quality military leadership, solid discipline, high morale, and enormous individual and unit courage. Unit effectiveness is as good as we can get. This is the most competent and battle wise force in our nation's history. They are also beautifully cared for by the chain-of-command - and they know it. (Food, A/C sleeping areas, medical care, mental health care, home leave, phone/e-mail contact with families, personal equipment, individual and unit training, targeted economic incentives in the battle area, visibility of tactical leadership, home station care for their families, access to news information, etc).

2nd - The point of the US war effort is to create legitimate and competent Iraqi national, provincial, and municipal governance. We are at a turning point in the coming six months. The momentum is now clearly with the Iraqi Government and the Coalition Security Forces. The Sunnis are coming into the political process. They will vote in December. Unlike the Balkans-the Iraqis want this to succeed. Foreign fighters are an enormously lethal threat to the Iraqi civilian population, the ISF, and Coalition Forces in that order. However, they will be an increasing political disaster for the insurgency. Over time they are actually adding to the credibility of the emerging Iraqi government. We should expect to see a dwindling number of competent, suicide capable Jihadist. Those who come to Iraq - will be rapidly killed in Iraq. The picture by next summer will be unfavorable to recruiting foreigners to die in Iraq while attacking fellow Arabs.

The initial US/UK OIF intervention took down a criminal regime and left a nation without an operational State.

The transitional Bremer-appointed Iraqi government created a weak state of warring factions.

The January 2005 Iraqi elections created the beginnings of legitimacy and have fostered a supportive political base to create the new Iraqi Security Forces.

The August Iraqi Constitutional Referendum and the December-January election and formation of a new government will build the prototype for the evolution of an effective, law-based Iraqi State with a reliable Security Force.

January thru September 2006 will be the peak period of the insurgency - and the bottom rung of the new Iraq. The positive trend lines following the January 2006 elections (if they continue) will likely permit the withdrawal of substantial US combat forces by late summer of 2006. With 250,000 Iraqi Security Forces successfully operating in support of a government which includes substantial Sunni participation - the energy will start rapidly draining out of the insurgency.

3rd - The Iraqi Security Forces are now a real and hugely significant factor. LTG Dave Petreaus has done a brilliant job with his supporting trainers.

169,000 Army and Police exist in various stages of readiness. They have uniforms, automatic weapons, body armor, some radios, some armor, light trucks, and battalion-level organization. At least 60,000 are courageous Patriots who are actively fighting. By next summer - 250,000 Iraqi troops and 10 division HQS will be the dominant security factor in Iraq.

However, much remains to be done. There is no maintenance or logistics system. There is no national command and control. Corruption is a threat factor of greater long-range danger than the armed insurgency. The Insurgents have widely infiltrated the ISF. The ISF desperately needs more effective, long-term NCO and Officer training.

Finally, the ISF absolutely must have enough helicopter air mobility (120+ Black Hawk UH 60's) - and a substantial number of armored vehicles to lower casualties and give them a competitive edge over the insurgents they will fight. (2000 up-armor Humvee's, 500 ASV's, and 2000 M113A3's with add-on armor package)

4. Top CENTCOM Vulnerabilities:

1st - Premature drawdown of US ground forces driven by dwindling US domestic political support and the progressive deterioration of Army and Marine manpower. (In particular, the expected melt-down of the Army National Guard and Army Reserve in the coming 36 months)

2nd - Alienation of the US Congress or the American people caused by Iraqi public ingratitude and corruption.

3rd - Political ineptitude of Shia civil leadership that freezes out the Sunnis and creates a civil war during our drawdown.

4th - "The other shoe" a war with North Korea, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, or Cuba that draws away US military forces and political energy.

5th - The loss or constraint of our logistics support bases in Kuwait. Clearly we need constant diplomatic attention and care to this vital Ally. If Kuwait became unstable or severely alienated to US Military objectives in the region-then our posture in Iraq would be placed in immediate fatal peril.

6th - Open intervention by Iranian intelligence or military forces to support rogue Shia Iraqi insurgency. (Assassination of Sustani-armed rebellion by Sadr)

7th - Continued under-manning and too rapid turnover in State Department inter-agency representation in Iraq.

8th - Lack of continuity in CENTCOM strategic and operational senior leadership. The CENTCOM military leadership we now have is a collective national treasure.

General Abizaid's value to the War effort based on his credibility to US Military Forces - and ability to communicate and relate to the Iraqi emergent leadership - cannot be overstated.

The combination of a three-star tactical Headquarters (LTG John Vines is the most experienced and effective operational battle leader we have produced in a generation) - and an in-country four-star strategic commander (General George Casey) has improved the situation from the overwhelmed, under-resourced Bremer-Sanchez ad hoc arrangement.

LTG Dave Petreaus has done a superb job building the ISF.

Relationships are everything in this campaign. We need to lock in our senior team for the coming 24 months.

Suggest that the three key US/Coalition military HQS of Casey-Petreaus-Vines need to stop unit rotation and go to individual replacement rotation.

The very senior US military leadership needs their families based in a Kuwait compound with periodic visits authorized. (We did this with General Abrams and his senior leaders during the final phase of Vietnam.)

5. The Enemy Threat:

1st - The Iraqi Insurgency threat is enormously more complex than Vietnam.

There we faced a single opposing ideology; known enemy leaders; a template enemy organizational structure; an external sanctuary which was vital to the insurgency to bring in fighters, ammunition, resources; and relative security in urban areas under Allied/Vietnamese Government control.

Iraq is much tougher. The enemy forces in this struggle are principally Sunni irredentists - but there is also a substantial criminal class determined to murder, rob, kidnap and create chaos.

We also face a small but violent foreign Jihadist terrorist element. These terrorists do not depend on foreign sanctuary. They can arm themselves with the incredible mass of munitions and weapons scattered from one end of Iraq to the other.

Finally, Iraq is encircled by six bordering nations - all of whom harbor ill-will for the struggling democratic Iraqi state.

2nd - On the positive side of the ledger:

High Sunni voting turnout and political participation in December will likely set the conditions for the down hill slide of the insurgency.

The insurgency can no longer mass against Coalition forces with units greater than squad level - they all get killed in short order by very aggressive US/UK combat Forces. The insurgents have been forced to principally target the weak links - the Iraqi Police and innocent civilians. This will be a counter-productive strategy in the mid-term. It has been forced on them by the effective counter-insurgency operations and information operations of Coalition forces.

Insurgents now have a reduced capability to attack Coalition forces by direct fire: 80% (+) of the attacks are carried out with standoff weapons or suicide bombings (mortars, rockets, IEDs).

Suicide IED attack is enormously effective. However, it will soon likely become a fragile tool. The Jihadists will begin to run short of human bombs. Most are killed or die while carrying out missions which are marginally effective. This must be a prime enemy vulnerability for Coalition information warfare operations.

We must continue to level with the American people. We still have a five year fight facing us in Iraq.

3rd - The Fallujah Situation:

The city has huge symbolic importance throughout the Middle East.

Unrealistic expectations were raised on how rapidly the Coalition could rebuild.

The city appears to be an angry disaster. Money doesn't rebuild infrastructure - bulldozers and workers and cement do. The Coalition needs an Iraqi/Coalition effort principally executed by military engineers - and thousands of Iraqi workers - to re-build the city. We need a "Pierre L'Enfant" of Fallujah.

Police stations are planned but barely started. The train station is mined and the trains do not function. Roads must be paved. We need to eliminate major signs of US caused war damage, etc.

6. Coalition Public Diplomacy Policy is a disaster:

1st - The US media is putting the second team in Iraq with some exceptions. Unfortunately, the situation is extremely dangerous for journalists. The working conditions for a reporter are terrible. They cannot travel independently of US military forces without risking abduction or death. In some cases, the press has degraded to reporting based on secondary sources, press briefings which they do not believe, and alarmist video of the aftermath of suicide bombings obtained from Iraqi employees of unknown reliability.

2nd - Our unbelievably competent, articulate, objective, and courageous Battalion, Brigade, and Division Commanders are not on TV. These commanders represent an Army-Marine Corps which is rated as the most trusted institution in America by every poll.

3rd - We are not aggressively providing support (transportation, security, food, return of film to an upload site, etc) to reporters to allow them to follow the course of the war.

4th - Military leaders on the ground are talking to people they trust instead of talking to all reporters who command the attention of the American people. (We need to educate and support AP, Reuters, Gannet, Hearst, the Washington Post, the New York Times, etc.)

7. SUMMARY:

a. This is the darkness before dawn in the efforts to construct a viable Iraqi state. The enterprise was badly launched - but we are now well organized and beginning to develop successful momentum. The future outcomes are largely a function of the degree to which Iraqi men and women will overcome fear and step forward to seize the leadership opportunity to create a new future.

b. We face some very difficult days in the coming 2-5 years. In my judgment, if we retain the support of the American people - we can achieve our objectives of creating a law-based Iraqi state which will be an influencing example on the entire region.

c. A successful outcome would potentially usher in a very dramatically changed environment throughout the Middle East and signal in this region the end of an era of incompetent and corrupt government which fosters frustration and violence on the part of much of the population.

d. It was an honor and a very encouraging experience to visit CENTCOM Forces in Iraq and Kuwait and see the progress achieved by the bravery and dedication of our military forces.

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Caveats: None
from: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1466103/posts

[NYer]

‘170 foreign fighters killed or captured in northern Iraq’
(AFP)

19 August 2005


WASHINGTON - US forces have killed or captured 170 foreign fighters in northwestern Iraq, most of whom are believed to have infiltrated the country from Syria, a US general said on Friday.

Major General David Rodriguez, commander of US forces in northwestern Iraq, concurred with Iraqi reports that some 150 foreign fighters a month are slipping into Iraq from neighboring countries.

“I can tell you the people that we have caught were involved in some of the suicide bombings over the last several months,” he told reporters here via video link from his base of operations in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Rodriguez said that about 70 foreign fighters have been captured in his area of operations over the past three months, and about 100 more have been killed in suicide attacks or engagements with US forces.

The general said his forces have made progress in disrupting the leadership of insurgent groups in his area since the January 30 elections.

He said 62 mid-to-higher-ranked insurgent leaders have been killed or captured since the elections, 44 of them since May.

The incidence and effectiveness of roadside explosions has decreased by 20 percent, he said. Unlike trends elsewhere in Iraq, US forces are finding that the sophistication of the bombs has also declined, he said.

Rodriguez attributed the decline in part to the disruption of the leadership of the insurgency as well as to the greater willingness of Iraqis to tip off coalition forces to the presence of bombs.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2005/August/focusoniraq_August114.xml&section=focusoniraq

[experiencediz]

US troops accused of shooting general
August 21, 2005

AN Iraqi general who commands the country's border defence force was shot and wounded while driving in Baghdad late today and accused US troops of firing on his car, police and hospital sources said.

The report could not be confirmed directly with the general; a US military spokesman said he was unaware of an incident.
Major General Ali Hamadi told doctors at Yarmouk Hospital, who treated him for a gunshot wound to the abdomen, that US forces fired on him as he was driving to a doctor's appointment.

He was later transferred to a hospital in the US-defended Green Zone government compound.

Sources at Baghdad police headquarters, which like the border security force is overseen by the interior ministry, said Hamadi is the overall commander of the Iraqi Border Police.

They too said he was shot by US troops.

A spokesman for the US force in the Iraqi capital said he was unaware of the incident and would check the report.
Iraqis daily accuse American troops of opening fire on motorists, often killing them. US commanders say soldiers, who are trained to be vigilant against suicide car bombers who approach checkpoints or convoys, take care to protect civilians.

US troops accused of shooting general (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16334476-38201,00.html)

[NYer]

In Mosul, a shaky Iraqi police force tries again
By Richard A. Oppel Jr. The New York Times
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2005

MOSUL, Iraq The Five West police station, erected over four days in July on a gravel-covered hill in the most violent part of this violent city, is little more than concertina wire, concrete barriers, gun towers and portable sheds. Police officers mill about, some in street clothes or gym shorts, sorting through Glock pistols and machine-gun belts.

It may not look like much, but garrisoning police so deep inside the insurgency's home turf would have been inconceivable a few months ago, say American officers, who credit the police with gathering intelligence leading to the capture of terror suspects even as attacks against police officers have soared.

With the Bush administration and military leaders eventually planning to draw down troops, the training of Iraqi security forces is a critical element of American strategy. Most attention has focused on the military, but the police will be at least as important.

And nowhere did the police fail quite so spectacularly as in Mosul last November, when a 5,000-man force deserted in the face of an insurgent uprising, sending the city, Iraq's second largest, into chaos.

Under heavy protection of U.S. troops, the Mosul police are rebuilding. Compared with some nastier hot spots - like Anbar Province and Tal Afar - they are further along. But the effort to resurrect the police has encountered significant sectarian, cultural and even tribal obstacles and now exemplifies a central question for American planners: Have the police force's improvements been contingent on careful and continual handholding by large numbers of American soldiers and will they evaporate when U.S. forces begin pulling out?

Many soldiers believe the police could crumble unless the American troops stay for years.

"Without that security blanket, the Iraqi police will be scared, and a scared Iraqi is a useless Iraqi," said First Sergeant Keith Utley of the First Battalion of the 24th Infantry Regiment, which patrols western Mosul.

The executive officer of one company in the battalion, First Lieutenant Dan Kearney, said Mosul could see gang-style civil war no matter when troops leave. "While we're here, it's like they have Big Brother looking over them," he says of the police. "I don't think the police are the kind of people who will stick it out."

Quite a few Iraqi officers also fear an early pullout.

"The situation would blow up again," said the Mosul police chief, Major General Ahmed Muhammad Khalif al-Jibouri, who says American forces need to stay at least five years.

One problem is that Iraqi Army units - dominated by Kurds and Shiite Arabs - believe that insurgents have widely infiltrated the police, who are mostly Sunni Arabs and largely from one tribe, the Jibouri. Many insurgents are Jibouri, according to the police and American officers.

In theory, Iraqi police officers and army leaders are supposed to work hand in hand to fight insurgents. But they speak of one another with contempt, and the army refuses to share sensitive information with the police, believing it will be leaked to terrorists.

"Their houses are next to the terrorists' houses, and they are afraid," said Colonel Nur al-Deen, commander of an Iraqi Army battalion in western Mosul.

In addition, the Iraqi police suffer from widespread corruption. A $5,000 to $10,000 bribe can spring a prisoner from jail, says the American battalion's commander, Lieutenant Colonel Erik Kurilla. Many police officers terrify residents, shooting automatic weapons wildly to clear traffic or intimidate bystanders.

The police are also known to "arrest" people to serve as day laborers and to steal money during searches, say American officers.

And much of the intelligence the police gather comes from beating information out of detainees, Iraqi and American officers say - tactics some fear could hurt Mosul in the long run.

Kurilla said the police might be ready to replace U.S. troops next year - if their improvement continues and the flow of foreign fighters is stopped.

The police now shoot back at attackers instead of fleeing, and undercover officers are arresting insurgents, he said. "There are lots of issues," he said. "But where they are now versus where they were in November is night and day."

Early in the occupation, Mosul enjoyed relative peace despite its volatile ethnic mix of two million people, mostly Sunni Arabs on the west side of the Tigris River and Kurds on the east. At the outset, the American military based an oversized division of 30,000 here, but it cut the number of troops last year by two-thirds.

As the Marines invaded Falluja in November, Mosul was seized by an insurgent revolt. More than 200 Iraqi corpses, many of them soldiers and policemen, turned up along side streets or traffic circles, their heads sawed off or riddled with bullets.

For months Mosul had no police. Then, on March 23, five dozen men showed up at a police station near the Tigris called Four West, named for its status as one of the principal stations on the west side. Kurilla e-mailed his boss with the heading: "The west Mosul police are back…..for now."

Arriving in October, Kurilla's battalion endured some of the most violent urban warfare of the war. In 10 months, the 700-soldier unit has been awarded 153 Purple Hearts and seen a dozen men die, including one killed Aug. 4 by a sniper near Four West.

It is calmer now: Attacks against troops in western Mosul fell in July to their lowest level of the year. Commerce has returned, and vegetable and finished-goods markets bustle. But attacks against the police have risen as fast as attacks against Americans have declined, doubling in two months, Kurilla said.

About two of three insurgent attacks are now directed at Iraqi police officers or soldiers, he said. Even so, violence against American troops probably will never decline much further, he said.

"It's foolish to think there will be a nirvana where American soldiers can carry flowers down the street," he says. "There will always be somebody willing to pick up an AK-47 and shoot Americans."

Much of the police force's routine is still guided by American troops, who visit western Mosul's 10 police stations up to a half-dozen times a day and supply guns, barriers, computers and other needs, while inundating the police with constant direction on tactics and strategy.

Many crucial police decisions remain with Americans. Over a few days in late July and early August, American officers engineered the promotion of a new commander at Five West, moving aside an ineffective officer. They conducted a sting operation - without the police - that captured insurgents planning to ambush police officers. They captured a mortar team that attacked Four West, again without police help. And they removed the police from a highway checkpoint into Mosul and replaced them with Kurdish Iraqi Army troops after it became obvious that the police were allowing suspicious loads into the city.

Asked for a best-case example of police effectiveness, Kurilla cited an operation one week ago: Police officers arrested two men handing out insurgent literature. One told police interrogators where to find other insurgent suspects, who were arrested by the police in a raid planned in part and backed by U.S. troops. (The police killed one man during the raid and claimed he had had a grenade. An American U.S. commander on the scene, First Lieutenant David Webb, said he was not certain the man had been armed.)

One suspect arrested identified another, who was arrested by the police and later revealed a weapons stockpile.

Almost every day Kurilla and a squad venture into the city to counsel the police. On Aug. 6 they arrived at Five West, where Major Khaled Mahmoud Mutab eagerly explained how he beat a policeman who fired his belt-fed machine gun in the air. Kurilla praised him for training men not to fire wildly but suggested it was not necessary to abuse transgressors physically .

Khaled waved a judge's order to arrest a fuel smuggler. But the suspect lived in a bad area.

"I need support and protection," he said. Kurilla said he would arrange something.

Minutes after the Americans departed, insurgents fired mortars at an Iraqi Army barracks. The Americans rushed to a mosque where the projectiles had been launched, next to the busiest market in western Mosul. But no Iraqi police officers had responded, and the mortar team had vanished.

Next the troops went to Four West, a ramshackle building pockmarked by shrapnel and bullet fire, where they met a commander, Colonel Hassan Yaseen al-Jibouri. Kurilla asked about a terror suspect who was arrested and taken to another station. "They're not going to get bribed and release him, are they?" he said jokingly.

"Maybe," responded Hassan, who did not seem to be joking.

Hassan says 90 percent of the police are Jibouris, mostly from outside Mosul, because men from other tribes "get threatened and quit."

"Don't forget, many of the terrorists are Jibouri," he said. It is "only the cowards" within the police who aid insurgents, he said.

The Americans left and discovered the corpse of a man shot in the head and dumped on the asphalt of Yarmouk traffic circle, one of the busiest intersections. No police officers had responded.

The troops demanded answers from men at a watermelon stand about 70 meters, or 240 feet, away, but they said they knew nothing. "These people live in fear," Kurilla said, clearly frustrated. "They saw something."

But frustration is common. One night in late July, American soldiers arrived at Five West to join in a raid. They found the station commander dozing. As troops went over details of the operation, a policeman who was supposed to operate a heavy machine gun walked in; he seemed to be drunk.

"Whiskey, whiskey!" he said, bringing his fingers to his mouth. The Americans suggested he stay behind.

At the target house, none of the men found were the right suspects. The police were unsure what to do, but after a few confusing minutes they arrested the brother of one suspect. Grabbing the man, a few police officers started to kick him. But the Iraqis realized that no one had brought handcuffs.

Captain Scott Cheney, a U.S. company commander, interceded to bring the operation to a close. The Iraqis decided to load a few detainees into a truck found at the home and drove back to the station.

Cheney says he believes the police will be ready to take over next year, but concedes his disappointment over that night.

"We're starting at ground zero with the police," he says.

Stacking the police force with Jibouris was an early necessity in ensuring confidence in the chain of command. Now, though, some American commanders view it as a major liability to have the police dominated not just by one ethnicity, but by one tribe - and one with so many insurgents in its ranks.

The deep and scornful sectarian divide between the Sunni Arab police and the army suggests that the two may always have trouble working together against insurgents. Many American officers also believe that the Kurds may someday attempt to seize Mosul and force many Arabs out.

The Mosul police chief is an ambitious man, formerly a general under Saddam Hussein, who has turned his force into a rare example of institutionalized Sunni Arab power in a country where almost all official levers of authority are controlled by Shiites and Kurds.

Interviewed at his well-appointed office, the chief argued that the Iraqi Army should be dismantled because it is actually controlled by Kurdistan and by Shiite-dominated Iran, where Shiites control the government.

"Half of them are Kurds and half of them are Shiites, and their loyalty is to their political parties," he said. "The real Iraqi Army - all of them are unemployed."

Grabbing hold of the Iraqi flag next to his desk, he declared that he should be president of Iraq. "I will not allow Massoud to plant another flag," he said, a reference to the Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani. "I will not let Iran lead the Iraqi Army."

A few kilometers west, Colonel Nur al-Deen, whose unit patrols the most insurgent-ridden parts of Mosul, said the police - those who aren't insurgents - are largely frightened men. Most of his troops are members of the feared Kurdish militia, the pesh merga.

"We are from Kurdistan, and we can't let them know what we're doing," he said. He also said he sees little police presence. "They are sitting inside," he said. "No one is out on patrol."

But he does agree with the police chief that a large U.S. pullout could send the city into chaos. "Every neighborhood would be fighting with each other," he said.


http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2005/08/16/news/mosul.php

[NYer]

From Al-Sabah:

The residents of Fallujah are asking the authorities to increase the number of voters' registration offices in the city as the existing ones are not enough to finish the registration process of all eligible voters before the day of the referendum planned for October 15….


Well, the way things change in Iraq can be really surprising sometimes; just try to compare between Fallujah 12 months ago and today's Fallujah!

www.iraqthemodel.blogspot.com

[experiencediz]

From Al-Sabah:

... just try to compare between Fallujah 12 months ago and today's Fallujah!

www.iraqthemodel.blogspot.com

...mean 2 weeks ago?

Fallujah in Pictures (http://crisispictures.org/2005/08/12/fallujah-in-pictures/)

[NYer]

Of far greater concern is this ...

“The Iraqi” Writes On The Iraqi Constitution

My friend, who writes under the name “The Iraqi,” has sent me an analysis of the Iraqi constitution and the Iraqi constitutional process.

As he said in an email to me a month ago, his opinions are his opinions– but hey, that’s democracy. He makes his points, and often makes them bluntly. Example: ” Federal Iraq? Fine with me, but no loopholes, no secession, one army, no lebanization, and Islam should be a source not the source.”

“Lebanization” = Lebanonization. I take that to mean fragmentation into “confessor cantons” or warlord statelets.

Yezidis may dispute his population figures, but then the first Yezidi I actually met is a close friend of his. You’ll also see that he is an Arab with a Kurdish grandparent. Keep that in mind when he comments on Kurdish politics.

Once again, The Iraqi:

The Iraqi Constitution

My Yezidi (followers of one of Iraq’s most ancient religions) friends love the way I feel about the role of religion in the Constitution, namely zilch! The statement “Islam is the official religion of the state” to me is an oxymoron; the prowess of a constitution is measured by how much it can make the tiniest minority feel equal with the largest.

This coming from an Arab Muslim excited them, at 50 000 in Northern Iraq they are 0.2% of the population.

I’m sure I’m not the only one in Iraq who thinks this way, having the bragging rights of 1st civilization and 1st law on Earth behooves us to create one worthy of this heritage.

So why am I not feeling comfortable about the status of constitution shaping debates?

For one thing, I do not like this rush to a constitution; this is being urged on an American agenda, not an Iraqi one.

Yes an elected government but it still works in a zone that is protected by non-Iraqi forces, that does not deligitimize it but it is an irony
If you read carefully the draft published by Al Sabah newspaper of July 6 you will get the feeling that it was written by liberal secular authors but later amended by shia islamists intent on indulging religion in the way a state runs its affairs, examples of conflict:

1- In one part men and women are equal, in another they are treated according to Islam
2-It gives special status to Marjiia, a term that normally apply to Shia clergymen who normally live in the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf while at the very beginning it is clear about “The people are the source of all authorities”

It took us 5 years to create our first royal constitution (a mix of British and Swiss ones) under the auspices of the British Empire in 1920’s, I once read it took 5 years to create the American one and that Gen. McArthur helped the Japanese to write theirs after WWII occupation by 7 years.
Kurds want to include the right to secede and to have their own army/militia and representatives at Iraqi embassies abroad, in Ottawa the word “Embassy of Iraq” is 1st written in Kurdish big font then below Arabic small font! and at 17% of the population I think that is too much and a recipe for forthcoming disasters, yes I’m 25% Kurdish but I do not like those aspirations neither I like the current Kurdish tribal leadership of Barzani who cooperated with Saddam to get Talabani followers (not tribal and coming from the ranks of educated kurds) out of some areas in Northern Iraq in 1996.

I think the Kurds deserve better than tickling nationalist feelings to feed the greed for power.

Shia of the SCIRI (Supreme Council of Islamic Republic of Iraq) led by Al Hakim who opposed the American intervention in Iraq are using their status as co-majority in the January 2005 elections to push for a federal Iraq that include a southern area ruled by them and give them special powers above the law and similar to the ones enjoyed by their counterparts in Iran, not all Iraqi shia support this and on August 11 2005 Dr. Attallah Muhajirani the reformist minister of education in Iran wrote an article in “Asharqalawsat” warned against falling for an expedited constitution “My Iraqi friends, be attentive to the creation and foundation of your constitution, the Iraqis have suffered too much already, it is not fair to subject them to religious tyranny which is the harshest and most ferocious kind of all.”

Sunnis are faced with this along with trying to build a coalition among themselves under the current adverse conditions. The big silent majority are trying to live day by day and hope for a better future; they lived for 50 years under temporary constitutions (AKA None) changed by will of tyrants. Federal Iraq? Fine with me, but no loopholes, no secession, one army, no lebanization, and Islam should be a source not the source

Women and men should be treated equal unequivocally, no turnaround or ambiguous articles elsewhere.

I add my humble voice to the number of respectable Iraqi intellectuals www.elaph.com who proposed a 5-year waiting period before writing a constitution, mean while we can still use the interim one.

http://austinbay.net/blog/?p=506

[experiencediz]

Women Fall Through the Cracks in Iraq
August 21, 2005

By Pepper

Now that I'm seeing more and more conversation about withdrawal and withdrawal-lite, I want one thing to happen before the United States goes anywhere. I want women to have rights in Iraq, or at the very least for the constitution to be secular, but it looks like our administration is more than willing to throw that away in favor of having their constitution gift-wrapped and topped with a red ribbon.

Yesterday, the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2005/08/20/AR2005082001202.html) reported dismaying news that women's rights will be sacrificed in favor of polishing off the constitution:

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad spent Saturday shuttling among Iraqi political leaders ... Kurds also contend that provisions in the draft would allow Islamic clerics to serve on the high court, which would interpret the constitution. That would potentially subject marriage, divorce, inheritance and other civil matters to religious law and could harm women's rights, according to the Kurdish negotiators and some women's groups.

Khalilzad supported those provisions and urged other groups to accept them, according to Kurds involved in the talks.

The good news is that, according to today's NYT report from Dexter Filkins (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/international/middleeast/21iraq.html), "A tentative agreement that would have given Islam an expanded role in the state and in family disputes appeared to unravel." Good. Let it unravel.

The bad news: Our ambassador, the one representing the United States in these delicate negotiations is endorsing this position. Who is allowing him to toss aside women's rights in favor of a quick resolution? And who is allowing him to mix church and state?

I blame Condoleezza Rice. The State Department is in charge of diplomatic relations, and our ambassador's top supervisor is letting him make these negotiations. A woman who has benefited from the struggle for women's rights is tossing those rights aside as if Iraqi women are unworthy of the rights she enjoys.

Last night, Shakespeare's Sister (http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2005/08/w-is-for-women-iraq-edition.html) spread the word that Islam might have a stronger role in the constitution than previously thought. She writes, "When all other rationales for this war were proved devoid of substance, the Right yammered about a humanitarian intervention—and so did the hawkish Left. The last time I checked, women were humans, too, and they ought not to be left with less freedom than they had before we got there."

I feel betrayed by all the women in the George W. Bush administration who have smugly stood aside and let this happen. I have felt betrayed by many of the women who have been rewarded by the administration, as they give up our rights, knowing full well that their own lives won't change. They are, as I called them in Shakespeare's Sister's comment thread, shameful sell-outs.

August 21, 2005 | Permalink

Women Fall Through the Cracks in Iraq (http://ezraklein.typepad.com/blog/2005/08/women_fall_thro.html)

[NYer]

Iraq “holding 281 foreign insurgent suspects”
(DPA)

21 August 2005


BAGHDAD - Iraq has in custody 281 foreigners suspected of involvement in insurgent activity, a spokesman for the Iraqi government said on Sunday.

“All of the foreigners currently in custody are involved in charges that are related, one way or another, to terrorism networks,” said spokesman Leith Kubba.

“Figures from the former regime, according to intelligence information, are regrouping in a neighbouring country,” Kubba said.

“They have begun funding the spreading of rumours to demoralise Iraqis, damage the image of democracy and thwart the referendum on the constitution.”

Topping the list of detainees’ nationalities were Egypt (80), followed by Syria (64) and Sudan (41). Kubba said there was also a Briton in the group.

He named a total of 14 countries, all of them Arab, except Iran, Turkey and Britain.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2005/August/focusoniraq_August127.xml&section=focusoniraq

[NYer]

Down to the wire ... and it looks like no deal ...

Iraq's constitution: the second last chance...
The latest news coming from the National Assembly and the constitution drafting committee indicate that no agreement has been reached so far and probably the different blocks are now farther from reaching an agreement than they were a week ago.
The difference now is that they already asked for an extra week chance to get over their differences but they obviously failed in doing that and asking for further time will be unjustified and even if it's legal it won't be accepted by the people.

However there are some worrisome signs that surfaced this morning and were uncovered by members from the Sheat block; they're threatening that if they don't solve the differences with other blocks, mainly the Kurdish alliance they (the Sheat block) will submit their draft to the National Assembly for approval, ignoring the other components of the Assembly and I don't want to think of the consequences of such a move.

The major remaining obstacle right now is the issue of distributing the natural resources between the central government and the provinces/federal states; ironically this particular issue was said to have been solved at least three times before and we heard in the past few weeks that a deal was reached more than once and now they come and say that they still have differences regarding this issue!

I believe the national Assembly failed in accomplishing their mission because the people who shouldered the responsibility of writing the constitution have been giving partisan interests the priority instead of the nation's interests and since partisan interests are naturally in conflict with each other, I think that reaching a dead-end is inevitable.

www.iraqthemodel.blogspot.com

[NYer]

Al-Qaida's Network in Iraq Goes (Temporarily) Silent

For the first time in weeks (if not months), Al-Qaida's Committee in Mesopotamia--led by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi--has failed to release a single claim of responsibility for ongoing operations in the Sunni Triangle in a given day. Claims for Al-Qaida attacks in Iraq have undergone a noticeable and sudden decline over the past three days, though it is unclear whether that decline is merely a temporary technical issue or evidence of a larger and more significant operational trend. It should be noted that popular websites and forums used by Al-Qaida to distribute their material are still online and active, and there has been no similar interruption in daily online digests from other militant groups such as the Ansar al-Sunnah Army and the Army of the Victorious Sect. Thus, if there is indeed a terrorist technical snafu, it is apparently one limited to Al-Qaida's organization in Iraq.

Al-Qaida sympathizers discussing Zarqawi's sudden silence have dismissed any notion that his organization or media wing in Iraq has been disabled, suggesting instead that this is merely "the calm before the storm."

Posted by Evan Kohlmann
http://counterterror.typepad.com/

[NYer]

Breaking News!
National Assembly member Bahaa Al-Aaraji just told Al-Iraqia TV that an agreement has finally been reached among the leaders of political bodies on the final draft of the constitution and that disputes over issues like federalism, distribution of resources and the role of Islam have been solved.

"All we need now is a couple of hours to reprint the document and produce enough copies to submit them to all the members of the National Assembly to get theri approval later this evening…" Al-Aaraji explained.

Till now there has been no announcement from the head of the constitution drafting committee but Al-Iraqia reporter in the green zone is confirming the news.

Update (6:45 pm local time)The Sunni member of the constitution drafting committee Hasan Zaidan (1st image) said that he didn't get to see the new document till now and added:

"It seems that the Kurds and the Sheat want to pass this draft without considering our opinion...There are other unsolved points till now and I have no idea why no one notified us of the results of the latest negotiations".

Mean while, another CDC member Ali Al-Dabbagh (2nd image) confirmed the news of the agreements and he insisted that this outcome was reached with lots of dialogue among the concerned parties.


Update (7:10 pm local time):
In a press conference that just ended in Baghdad, Jawad Al-Maliki and Jalal Addin Al-Saghir (CDC members from the United Alliance) said that the Sunni politicians still have reservations on federalism but they expected that the draft will easily get the approval of 2rds of the Assembly members.

"Frankly speaking, we cannot wait for the Sunni forever; we have a deadline to respect and if they don't agree with what was written in the draft they can say that in the referendum but we're still having talks with the Sunni politicians" said Jalal Addin (3rd image).


Regarding Islam and the constitution: it was agreed upon that no laws that are against the widely agreed upon values of Islam can be issued and no laws that are against the values of democracy and human rights can be issued.
Natural resources according to the draft will be managed in cooperation between the central government and the local administrations of the federal states/provinces.

www.iraqthemodel.blogspot.com

[NYer]

(Constitution) Update (11:55 pm local time):

"The Assembly has received the draft from the CDC but becaue there is a number of issues that still need further discussion and in accordance with clause 61-f of the TAL, voting will be postponed for another 3 days until the leaders of political blocks can reach accord on the few remaining disputed issues" said Hachim Al-Hasani chairman of the Assembly.

www.iraqthemodel.blogspot.com

[NYer]

Still working on that constitution ...

Talabani said the country's stability cannot be achieved without consensus among Iraq's Shiites, Sunnis Arabs and Kurds.

"The constitution will be to serve everybody and not only one community of the Iraqi society," he said, speaking after a meeting with parliament speaker Hajim al-Hassani. "We hope that all the pending disagreements be solved in what guarantees consensus between the three (main) communities in Iraq and in what guarantees the satisfaction and approval of our Sunni brothers in this important matter."

Sunni members of the constitutional drafting committee oppose several parts of the document, which was handed to parliament Monday. Their opposition forced parliament to delay a vote for at least three days to give Shiite and Kurdish negotiators time to win over the Sunnis.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/08/24/D8C66IR81.html

Benjamin Franklin had problems with the US Constitution in 1787 as well ... but urged adoption anyway. His words are illuminating ...
http://www.usconstitution.net/franklin.html

[NYer]

Vote on Constitution now postponed "indefinitely."
ABC Radio News ... Breaking

Update: other news services ( Sky and Reuters) reporting the opposite ... so stay tuned ...

[experiencediz]

Iraq's Shiites split violently
Moqtada al-Sadr's militia clashed with Badr fighters, revealing a Shiite divide over the new draft charter.

By Jill Carroll | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

BAGHDAD – A Shiite political battle - ostensibly over constitutional differences - erupted between two powerful militias and spread throughout Iraq Wednesday night and Thursday.
Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army locked horns with the Badr Brigade, the militia of the ruling Shiite religious party the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), signaling that the fight for control of a new Iraq goes beyond the conflict between Shiite, Sunni, and Kurd.

The fighting in southern and central Iraq, where at least nine Iraqis were killed, springs from an emerging power struggle between Mr. Sadr's movement and SCIRI.

The two groups have been at loggerheads since Sadr's militia won popular support after confronting US forces last August in the city of Najaf. The Badr forces have seen their influence rise after the SCIRI slate swept January's elections.

Politically, Sadr and the ruling Shiite parties have battled throughout the drafting of Iraq's constitution. Sadr has forcefully objected to a SCIRI-backed provision expanding federalism to give the Kurdish north and Shiite south semiautonomous status.

Just last week Sadr and imams loyal to him led protests after Friday prayers where hundreds of followers chanted, "No! No! Federalism, Yes! Yes! Unity." More demonstrations were planned for Friday to protest the lack of basic services like electricity and water.

While Iraqi officials said Monday they would finish the draft of the constitution by Thursday at midnight, by the Monitor's deadline it appeared no progress had been made.

For the fighting that broke out Wednesday night in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, Sadr blamed Badr Brigade leaders, and vice versa.

Abbas Rubaie, the political director of the Sadr movement, said Thursday that Badr Brigade members, with the help of local police and approval of the SCIRI-loyal local governor, attacked a Sadr office in Najaf, killing guards and several men inside.

Fighting cooled Thursday afternoon after Sadr issued a statement calling for calm. He thanked the government for their calls for peace, but not "the interior minister," Mr. Rubaie said, reading a statement from the cleric. The interior ministry, controlled by SCIRI, runs the police forces and is believed by many Iraqis to be dominated by the Badr Brigade.

Sadr views SCIRI and the Dawa Party, another Islamist Shiite party that shared a ticket with SCIRI in January's election, as simultaneously too loyal to Iranian and American interests.

Over the past year the Sadr movement, as they call themselves, has focused on solidifying their base by widening the social services network and organization of the Mahdi Army.

When asked if Badr was trying to rein in the power of the Mahdi Army, Rubaie was incredulous. "They can't!" he said, insisting that Mahdi Army members far outnumbered Badr forces.

Hazem al-Araji, a top adviser to Sadr, who heads the social services network, said Mahdi Army members in violent areas of Baghdad and southern Iraq still carry weapons.

But in calmer neighborhoods they mainly work guarding high ranking clerics and mosques. In the peaceful Kadhimiyah neighborhood where Mr. Araji is based, he says the Mahdi Army even works with the Iraqi police and army.

"Everywhere there is cooperation together of the Mahdi Army and [Iraqi police and army]," says Araji. "There is a liaison between us and the army and police."

Analysts have drawn parallels between Hizbullah's activities in Lebanon in the 1980s and Sadr's militia today.

"Both groups are antiestablishment, not just anti-American," says Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, an expert on Hizbullah in Lebanon and author of a book on the group. Providing social services "played a very large role in expanding Hizbullah's support base ... [but] the resistance [to Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon] more than the social services [was the reason] for their support."

Indeed, Sadr himself is often pictured in montages with Hizbullah leaders. More than 100 religious colleges have been opened by the Sadr movement to train religious leaders, and so far the Sadr movement has spent some $70,000 on payments to destitute families and families of Mahdi Army members killed last August and in an earlier clashes, Araji says. The number of families dependent on Sadr's welfare grows every month.

• Alan Enwia contributed to this report.


• Iraq's Shiites split violently (http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0826/p01s01-woiq.html)

[experiencediz]

U.S. could wind up helping Iraq turn into a second Iran
August 26, 2005

Having failed to find weapons of mass destruction or a link to 9/11, the Bush administration now justifies the war in Iraq with a narrative that goes something like this: We must help Iraqis stamp out a terrorist insurgency and build a stable, Western-style democracy. "Once Iraq is safely in the hands of the Iraqi people, with a government they elected under a new constitution, our troops will be able to come home," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in early August.

But even that distorts the reality of Iraq today, according to Peter Galbraith, a former U.S. diplomat, an expert on Saddam Hussein, and a professor at the National War College in Washington, D.C.

Writing in the New York Review of Books, Galbraith says the violence in Iraq is not a fringe insurgency but an incipient civil war waged by three large and determined ethnic factions. The result, he says, will be either sustained bloodshed or the establishment of an authoritarian Islamic religious state.

"There is, in fact, no Iraqi insurgency," Galbraith writes. "There is a Sunni Arab insurgency. Sunni fundamentalists consider the (majority) Shiites as apostates, and possibly a more dangerous enemy than even the Americans. The insurgent goal is to provoke a sectarian war, and they seem to be succeeding."

The Sunnis cannot win this civil war, Galbraith says, but neither can the Shiites fully prevail. Sunni Arabs and ethnic Kurds together represent about 40 percent of Iraq's population -- and neither is willing to submit to Shiite rule. This helps explain why Iraq's leaders have struggled so hard to reach consensus on a new national constitution.

But even if the Shiites defeat the Sunni resistance, Americans won't like the result, Galbraith says. That's because leading Shiites want to establish a fundamentalist Islamic state much like the one in neighboring Iran, now America's arch-enemy. Iraq's most influential politician, Ali al-Sistani, is himself an Iranian by birth and has close ties to Iran's fundamentalist leaders. Southern Iraq already is controlled by fundamentalist Islamic parties that have imposed an Iranian-style religious code and are busy making diplomatic overtures to Iran.

"It may be the ultimate irony that the United States, which, among other reasons, invaded Iraq to help bring liberal democracy to the Middle East, will play a decisive role in establishing its second Shiite Islamic state," Galbraith concludes.

Dave Hage of the editorial staff is at dhage@startribune.com (mailto:dhage@startribune.com).

•U.S. could wind up helping Iraq turn into a second Iran (http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5579542.html)

[experiencediz]

Al-Qaida's Network in Iraq Goes (Temporarily) Silent

For the first time in weeks (if not months), Al-Qaida's Committee in Mesopotamia--led by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi--has failed to release a single claim of responsibility for ongoing operations in the Sunni Triangle in a given day...

...Al-Qaida sympathizers discussing Zarqawi's sudden silence have dismissed any notion that his organization or media wing in Iraq has been disabled, suggesting instead that this is merely "the calm before the storm."

Posted by Evan Kohlmann
http://counterterror.typepad.com/

It is not that simple
Zarqawi did not go to Iraq to defend Saddam, He is there or "was",to mess up the US plan or prove it wrong,if there was any. *insurgency!*, For him that may have come to an end and go international or he may be preping for an all out offensive to gain support from sympathizers since US support as we know has been down everywhere.

Jordan says al-Zarqawi group behind rocket attack

AMMAN (AFP) - Jordan said an al-Qaeda-linked group headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, was behind a rocket attack targetting US warships in the Red Sea port of Aqaba last week.
"The investigation revealed that the terrorist group that led the Aqaba attack is linked to the Al-Qaeda branch of the terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," Interior Minister Awni Yervas said after a cabinet meeting late Tuesday.

Al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda Organisation in the Land of Two Rivers, which is behind many of the deadliest attacks in Iraq, had claimed in an Internet statement on Tuesday that it was behind the rocket strike.

It was believed to be the first time since the insurgency in Iraq began that al-Zarqawi's group claimed an attack outside the country.

However, the Jordanian-born Islamist fugitive, who has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head, was condemned to death last year in his home country for the October 2002 murder of a US diplomat in Amman.

He is also being tried in absentia for plotting chemical attacks on US and Jordanian targets in Amman and Iraq in 2004. The kingdom, regarded as one of the most stable countries in the Middle East, has broken up a number of al-Qaeda linked networks suspected of plotting attacks against US and other Western targets.

Jordan said on Monday it had arrested a Syrian national it suspects was the mastermind behind the attack and named three others allegedly involved who fled to Iraq.

"The four terrorists are linked to al-Zarqawi's terrorist group. All those involved in the attack will be brought to court as soon as the investigation is completed," Yervas said.

•Jordan says al-Zarqawi group behind rocket attack (http://www.brunet.bn/news/bb/thu/aug25w14.htm)

This is interesting...

Strategy to cut off Zarqawi’s Horn of Africa escape route
Thursday 25 August 2005 18:30.

The Australian

Aug 25, 2005 (London) — Britain and the US are training border guards in the Horn of Africa in the belief that al-Qa’ida’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, may seek sanctuary there if forced to flee Iraq.

Major-General Douglas Lute, director of operations for US Central Command, which is responsible for Iraq and Afghanistan, said that once Iraq was stabilised, Zarqawi might head for the Horn of Africa to find a "safe haven". He listed Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia as "ungoverned spaces" where Zarqawi might seek sanctuary to run his terrorist operations.

US specialist teams, supported by British counterparts, are training border guards and working with Customs and immigration officials in the region, hoping they will be ready to spot Zarqawi and other

al-Qa’ida leaders.

Major-General Lute said: "We call this the long war — the fight against al-Qa’ida and its affiliates. Even though al-Qa’ida is not state-based or sponsored, its leaders still require physical sanctuary — they still need somewhere to live."

Zarqawi would have little option but to leave once the country was politically stable. "We think he might move to the Horn of Africa," Major-General Lute said. "It’s a vast space, which causes us concern."

•Strategy to cut off Zarqawi’s Horn of Africa escape route (http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=11266)


And here is a preview of what awaits in Africa

•Islamic Province Segregates Public Transportation by Sex (http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=9236)

[NYer]

Meanwhile ...

Concessions Urged on Iraq Constitution

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Associated Press Writer




BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- President Bush urged Shiites to make concessions to Sunni Arabs on two key points - federalism and Saddam Hussein's Baath Party - to win their support for Iraq's constitution, a Shiite official said Friday following a third extension of the deadline to approve the charter.

U.S. officials have also appealed to the country's powerful Shiite clergy, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to help resolve the standoff, said Ali al-Adeeb, a Shiite member of the committee drafting the charter.

http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=NYNYP&SECTION=HOME

[NYer]

Sunni Says No Deal Reached on Constitution

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A top Sunni Arab negotiator said Saturday that no agreement has been reached on the draft constitution and called on Iraqis to reject it in an Oct. 15 referendum. A government spokesman indicated talks were hopelessly deadlocked and said "this is the end of the road."

The Sunni negotiator, Saleh al-Mutlaq, made the statement on Al-Jazeera television after Sunnis studied compromise proposals offered by the Shiites on federalism and purges of former members of
Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.

"The issue of division through federalism is on the table," al-Mutlaq said. "The Iraqi people have to give their word now and reject the constitution because this constitution is the beginning of the division of the country and the beginning of creating disturbance in the country."

Asked about Shiite offers, he replied: "We are still far from what we need and what the people need."

A Shiite negotiator, Khaled al-Attiyah, said a "consensus" had been reached on the charter and an amended version would be sent to parliament Saturday. Asked about that, al-Mutlaq said simply: "Let them."

That suggested the Shiites and their Kurdish allies might be prepared to send the document to the assembly without Sunni concurrence.

"This is the end of the road," Government spokesman Laith Kubba told Al-Arabiya television. "In the end, we will put this constitution to the people to decide."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050826/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_050826193516;_ylt=Ar.MvhFcIuqJ.V_EiNxLAqRX6GM A;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[NYer]

U.S. Destroys Alleged Terror Lair
Friday, August 26, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. warplanes launched multiple airstrikes Friday against a suspected "terrorist safe house" in the western Anbar province (search), destroying the building where up to 50 militants were believed to be hiding, the U.S. military said.

Coalition ground forces were alerted by local residents that a number of members of the terror group Al Qaeda in Iraq had gathered in an abandoned building northeast of Husaybah, near the Syrian border about 200 miles west of Baghdad.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,167109,00.html

[experiencediz]

This could be more good news. It seems the insurgents may be losing support...

Crackdown underway in Iraq
Monday, February 21, 2005

http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2005/02/21/fWorld130.raw.html

Insurgents may be losing support but guess who is gaining support?

Pro-Saddam march

BAGHDAD, Aug 26: Thousands marched in adoring praise of Iraq’s deposed leader Saddam Hussein on Friday, offering a stark display of the loss of power and leadership felt by some of Iraq’s Sunnis.

Drawing inspiration from the Baath party strongman, who now languishes in jail awaiting trial, marchers in Baquba, 65kms northeast of Baghdad, danced and chanted his name and condemned plans by the Shia and Kurdish-led government to push through draft constitution to create a federal Iraq.

They accused the Shia leaders in government of kowtowing to Iran and the United States, which backs the government with some 140,000 troops.

“Bush, Bush, listen well; We all love Saddam Hussein!” crowds chanted. “We reject the American and Iranian constitution” and “No to a constitution that breaks up Iraq,” their placards read.

For Sunnis, the draft’s vision of a federal state is a prelude to dismembering a country whose unity they believe had its most loyal defenders in Saddam and his Baath party.

Located in central Iraq, they have traditionally considered themselves the backbone of the Iraqi state though they are outnumbered by Shias.—Reuters

•Pro-Saddam march (http://www.dawn.com/2005/08/27/int10.htm)

[al-Canine]

Al Qaeda in Iraq issues virulent manifesto

Group calls for violence, destruction of 'American empire'

(CNN) -- Laying out its ideology in a broad manifesto, the group al Qaeda in Iraq -- which has been behind many of the worst attacks, beheadings and kidnappings in Iraq -- says the insurgency is in better shape than the United States acknowledges and vows to continue the insurgency and "destroy the American empire."

"Every now and then, the schoolboys of the Pentagon and the adolescents of the Black House keep blasting our ears with talks of pure arrogance and conviction saying, 'We will not leave Iraq until we accomplish our mission.' This desperate catchphrase that they keep repeating is used to make the public believe that the mujahedeens are in bad shape, as if they are begging the Americans, saying, 'Please Americans, leave Iraq,' " the group says in an e-book, an extensive document on the Internet.

"We vow by the name of God that we are determined to destroy the American empire," it says.

The book, filled with calls for violence and hate for all but "true Muslims" -- a group that it says does not include Shiites -- surfaced on an Islamic Web site this week.

In the past, al Qaeda in Iraq has expressed itself through statements claiming responsibility for attacks and an on-line magazine. The e-book offers links to three issues of the magazine.

Al Qaeda in Iraq also has given justifications for violence through audio comments from its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The e-book includes numerous sections totaling dozens of pages, covering such topics as how the Quran justifies beheadings and why democracy is wrong.

The document does not list an author. It refers to al-Zarqawi in the third person, possibly indicating he did not write it.

The United States and the Iraqi government call the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi the most wanted terrorist in the country. The United States has posted a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture.

While part of the document seems to have been written relatively recently, another part refers to to the government of Ayad Allawi, who had been interim leader in Iraq.

No date was given for the document.

Repeatedly, the book calls on Muslims to launch attacks against foreign forces in Iraq and people who cooperate with them.

"The basics of our faith revolve around not harming true Muslims and not shedding one single drop of Muslim blood because one drop of true Muslim blood shed amounts to the demise of this whole world. So why do we carry out operations in Iraq against the Americans and their aides in the (Iraqi) army and police? First, to please God, who orders us to carry on this jihad and to force the occupiers to pull out of the land," it says, vowing to "spread the light of justice and glory all over the world."

It cites "the glory that shines from our brothers, local and foreign fighters who left their countries, spouses and children and are sacrificing their blood for you to protect you and protect your families and honor, your women and children, forcing the occupiers to pull out of your country."

The document calls on Iraqi troops and police to turn their backs on the new elected government.

"You who betrayed Muslims and in humiliation became one of many collaborators, a servant under the command of the cross, we ask you to return to your Islamic instinct or cutting your neck will be your only punishment for your treason against your religion and your people."

It adds this warning: "Repent or else."

The group says its "doctrine and mission are clear and they can be summarized as our agreement to believe in and fight for the religion of God. We believe that those who follow these beliefs and the provisions of faith are true Muslims and anyone who denounces any of these beliefs and conditions is an infidel even if he still claims to be a Muslim."

It calls the Shiite faith "a confession of polytheism and rejectionism."

The document warns there will be no end to the insurgency. "The call for jihad goes on until doomsday, whether there is an imam calling for it or not."

The central image of the e-book is the group's logo -- a globe with an open book, presumably the Quran. Coming out of the center of the Quran are a spear, a Kalashnikov rifle, a hand with the pointer finger sticking up -- a symbol of unity -- and a banner reading, "There is no God but God; Mohammed is the messenger of God."

CNN's Octavia Nasr contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/08/26/alqaeda.book/index.html

[NYer]

Pro-Saddam march


Democracy in action ... unlike during Saddam's tenure. Even the KKK marched in Skokie, IL.

And speaking of Democracy ...

Iraq speaker: "deal in principle" on constitution
Aug 26 8:26 PM US/Eastern


By Mariam Karouny and Alastair Macdonald

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi leaders have reached a deal in principle on a draft constitution, parliament's speaker said on Saturday, but no accord was clinched yet and a final decision would be clear only on Sunday.

One Shi'ite faction in the government called it a historic day, but delegates from Iraq's Sunni minority could not be reached for comment and had been making deeply pessimistic statements hours before on the chances of an accord.

Speaker Hajim al-Hassani said negotiators from the Shi'ite majority had proposed amendments to an existing draft to meet the demands of Sunni Arabs, who dominated under Saddam Hussein.

Sunni leaders had yet to give a definite response, said Hassani, himself a Sunni, but the amendments did deal with those issues troubling the minority.

"There is a deal in principle," Hassani said. "Today we had a response from the Shi'ites. Tomorrow the Sunnis are going to meet and we expect a response on Sunday."

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/08/27/MTFH33056_2005-08-27_00-34-09_SCH643974.html

[experiencediz]

Democracy in action ... unlike during Saddam's tenure. Even the KKK marched in Skokie, IL.

And speaking of Democracy ...



No,it isn't democracy ,it is a chaos!

The supreme victory for the rapist is proof that his victim "enjoyed" it. Though he may force his way into her property, demolish her home, murder her loved ones, pillage her belongings, though he may terrify and humiliate her, beat and batter her, break her bones and tear her flesh, spill her blood, wound her organs and lay waste to her very soul, if, in the midst of the rape, between tears and shrieks of agony, if his victim should, for a moment, for some reason, any reason, if she should smile, or, better yet, orgasm, the rapist is redeemed; he is even (in his mind) heroic. (http://www.comlinks.com/polintel/pi040807.htm)

So is the rapist less guilty because the victim smiled?

Bottom Line: Divide and con-stitution
SEATTLE, Aug. 27 (UPI)
By GREGORY FOSSEDAL

The problems with Iraq's constitutional approval process are multiple and complex. Happily, the answer is relatively simple. Whether Iraq's or America's leaders can figure this out, and turn the country's lemon of a constitutional process into lemonade, is what investors need to watch closely.

Loser take all

In structural terms, the Iraqi constitution process and debate resemble closely the vote on the EU constitution earlier this year. No, actually, Iraq is in worse shape.

The Iraqi constitution was drafted secretly by elites with one eye on the people, another eye on U.S. elites and support, and still another eye on factional disputes and their own survival. Yes, that's three eyes. When, after much well-intended dealing among power-brokers, it is approved for submission, it will go to the people in the coming days as an all-or-nothing, take-it-or-leave-it proposition.

No further editing allowed.

Leaders from across the spectrum will, as they did in Europe, try to massage its ambiguities one way in front of one audience, and another way in front of a different group. Iraq's voters will listen, take note of the contradictory rhetoric and hopeful promises that the same elites will smooth things over later -- and be highly suspicious. All the more so given that, at times, the debate will be joined by American political leaders, whose pleadings will be well-intended, but, to Iraqis, suspect.

If this process didn't work for Europe, a group of advanced nations with much recent experience in democracy, and a strong desire to unify, why would we expect it to work better for Iraq?

Popular sovereignty
A much better approach would be to put the basic structure of the document before the people for a yes-or-no vote -- but at the same time, pose the most divisive issues in separate ballot questions.
1. Should Islam be "a" major source of Iraq's law, "the" major source, or not mentioned at all?

2. Should federalism take form a, or form b?

3. Should Iraq's oil be owned by the central government directly, or the regional governments, or should it be divided up equally in voucherized share between every Iraqi who registers to vote?

4. Should U.S. troops leave immediately, in 12 months, or when the Iraqi legislature tells them to?

0f course, the danger of this approach is, there could be confusion, or the need for runoff voting in the event of multiple submissions. But this is not an insoluble problem. Iraq could do worse than to have lots and lots of votes.

And, one must ask, where confusion, violence, or delays are posed as a disadvantage: Compared to what?

Iraqi and American politicians have imposed much confusion, and many delays, in the process of bringing a constitution to the table. They will now encourage Iraqis, as one American observer puts it, to "embrace a certain ambiguity" in the constitution and "let matters get sorted out by Iraq's courts." Iraqis are to be forgiven if they are nervous about trusting the future of their country's basic governance compact to the tender mercies of lawyers and judges.

The history of constitutional votes and referenda suggests that if Iraqis are unhappy with any of the key points in the constitution -- or nervous about the contradictory importunings -- they will tend to vote no. Many will vote no (as they did in France) even if they like large parts of the draft or its goals, but are unhappy with the general state of affairs in Iraq, or concerned about the difficulty of changing the constitution in the future, or even for the simple reason that they want the U.S. to get out of the country.

It would be better, if one wants them to vote yes on the overall design, to let them decide for themselves on the key controversial points.

Furthermore, there's a fundamental question few have dared to give voice to. What if they vote no?

Iraqi and U.S. political leaders will, probably, handle this question the same way Jacques Chirac did in France: A no vote will be an unmitigated disaster; we have no backup plan. As the example of France suggests, this approach will not win support, it will raise concern.

Debating the debate
Perhaps most troublesome of all, none of the major players in the debate -- the Bush Administration, Democratic (and some Republican) critics in Congress, and even Iraq's leaders themselves -- appears to have hit on such a means to defuse matters through a direct, populist, trust-the-people approach. In fact, most of them are hypnotized by debating whether or when to set a pullout date for U.S. troops, or how to fight the insurgency.
The Bush Administration, its critics, and the Iraqis all disagree about these substantive questions, and make important points. Strikingly, though, they all agree that some elite body should make these decisions.

•Bottom Line: Divide and con-stitution (http://about.upi.com/products/upi_scitech/UPI-20050827-015244-2549R)

[NYer]

Quite a segue from Democracy to Rape ... Meanwhile near the Syrian border, More "Red on Red."

Pro-government and pro-Zarqawi Sunnis fight it out in Qaim

Two Sunni Arab tribes, one loyal to al Qaeda and the other to the government, clashed in western Iraq, killing at least 20 people and wounding scores, clerics and hospital officials in the town said on Saturday.

The tribes fought months ago and violent confrontations erupted again on Friday and Saturday near Qaim, where U.S. Marines launched several offensives to root out insurgents from May to July.

Clerics in the town say members of the Karabilah tribe -- allied to al Qaeda -- attacked homes of the rival Albu-Mehel tribe -- many of whom are members of Iraq's new security forces in their province of Anbar.

Witnesses from the town said the tribes were involved in intense firefights and mortar attacks in the streets. The U.S military confirmed that two tribes were fighting but had no information on casualties.

Sheikh Nuri al-Rawi, the preacher of the town's main mosque, was wounded when gunmen shot him twice outside his mosque, his aide said.

Hospital officials say they have received 20 bodies in the past day but that the death toll is likely to be much higher as tribes often perform quick burials and the hospital is in the control of al Qaeda -- leaving Albu-Mehel to send their casualties elsewhere.
Posted by Dan Darling

http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=127907&D=2005-08-27&HC=1
From Reuters
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KHA743074.htm

[NYer]

Bill Roggio links the Air Strikes against the Zarqawi safe house with the Red on Red activity as part of a larger development ...

Qaim: A Tale of Two Tribes
By Bill Roggio

The battle for control over the Syrian border region in the vicinity of Qaim continues. Jack Kelly points us to a press release from the Marine Corps on an airstrike on an al Qaeda safehouse in the contested town of Husaybah. The fact that terrorists are operating in Husaybah is no surprise, and neither should the fact that the residents of Husaybah were critical in pointing out the location of the terrorist.

At approximately 4:40 p.m. (local) Coalition Forces conducted multiple air strikes against a known terrorist safe house in the western Al Anbar province border town of Husaybah., Multiple calls from Iraqi citizens in Husaybah alerted Marines to a large number of Al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists, associated with Abu Mus’ab Al-Zarqawi gathering in an abandoned building northeast of the city. Iraqi citizens reported that approximately 50 terrorists were in the building at the time of the air strike. The terrorists were using their position to attack the residents of the city with small-arms fire.

Marine F-18D ‘Hornets’ destroyed the building using a combination of precision-guided bombs and rockets.

For the past five months, Marines based at Husaybah have reported an escalation in fighting between AQIZ terrorists and local tribes. Reports indicate that AQIZ terrorists have been attempting to wrestle control of the city from the hands of its citizens. Local leaders and sheikhs in western Al Anbar are resisting AQIZ’s murder and intimidation campaign.

Captain Pool, the author of the press release, states to Mr. Kelly; "I see this as further signs of regular Iraqi citizens getting fed up with the terrorists." We have seen several examples of this in Qaim and elsewhere along the Euphrates River.

Reuters reports there are active street battles being fought between the tribes that support the government and those who support al Qaeda (note: this further degrades the meme that the majority of Sunnis in Anbar are insurgent/al Qaeda friendly).

Clerics in the town say members of the Karabilah tribe -- allied to al Qaeda -- attacked homes of the rival Albu-Mehel tribe -- many of whom are members of Iraq's new security forces in their province of Anbar.

Witnesses from the town said the tribes were involved in intense firefights and mortar attacks in the streets. The U.S military confirmed that two tribes were fighting but had no information on casualties.

The Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reports that the air strikes in Qaim are directly related to the tribal fighting; "US warplanes interfered to bomb the gunmen's locations in Al-Qaem." Coordinated air strikes require a certain degree of cooperation. If correct, this indicates there are stronger ties forming between US forces and the anti-al Qaeda tribes in region.

The insurgency's area of operations is already shrinking to the Sunni dominated areas of Iraq. Just as the Taliban has struggled to gain any ground against the combined Afghani and Coalition forces in Afghanistan, the local Iraqi tribes in Anbar coupled with US military might to fight against al Qaeda would prove to be a formidable obstacle for the insurgency to overcome. Add the arriving Iraqi Army units that can allow US troops to operate more freely, and a military victory for the insurgency is highly unlikely. Their only hope is for America to lose its will to fight.

http://billroggio.com/

[experiencediz]

Iraqi activist taken up by Bush recants her views
By Andrew Buncombe
Published: 28 August 2005

She was the Iraqi activist who became a symbol of the possibility of a brighter future for Iraq.

Back in February, with blue ink on her finger symbolising the recent Iraqi election in which she had just voted, Safia Taleb al-Souhail was invited to sit with the first lady, Laura Bush, and listen to the President claim in his state of the union address that success was being achieved in Iraq. Her picture went round the world after she turned to hug Janet Norwood, a Texas woman whose son had been killed in Iraq.

But now it appears Ms Souhail, an anti-Saddam activist who became Iraq's ambassador to Egypt, may be having second thoughts about the "success" she celebrated with a two-fingered victory sign.

Having seen the negotiations for the country's constitution fall into disarray and the prospect of a secular constitution severely undermined, she expressed her concerns last week.

"When we came back from exile, we thought we were going to improve rights and the position of women. But look what has happened: we have lost all the gains we made over the past 30 years. It's a big disappointment. Human rights should not be linked to Islamic sharia law at all. They should be listed separately in the constitution."

Although, in practice, many Iraqis end up having recourse to religious authorities or informal tribal law, the idea of a united civil code is central to the modern state, she said.

Ms Souhail, whose actions during Mr Bush's February address were noted by Billmon.Org, a political website, added: "This will lead to creating religious courts. But we should be giving priority to the law."

Mr Bush claimed last week that women's rights were not being threatened by the negotiations in Baghdad.

"There is not, as I understand it, the way the constitution is written, is that women have got rights, inherent rights recognised in the constitution, and that the constitution talks about, you know, not 'the religion' but 'a religion'," he said.

"Twenty-five per cent of the assembly is going to be women, which is embedded in the constitution."

•Iraqi activist taken up by Bush recants her views (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article308604.ece)

[experiencediz]

Time To Choose
BY SOLI OZEL

SABAH- While a new order is being established in Iraq, the possible political picture is also being shaped. A unified Iraq based on the absolute domination of Sunni Arabs is a non-starter. If the constitution is accepted, a federalism will be formed in which founding units have great autonomy. In this federal structure, Shiite Arabs will have more domination and the political structure of the country will reflect Shiite parties’ concept of fundamentalist administration. But if the constitution isn’t accepted, Iraq might break apart. A civil war might rage on until everybody loses his power, including the Sunni Arabs’ support from surrounding countries. The US’ war in Iraq destroyed the power structure which reflected the sectarian/ethnic distribution of power in the Middle East. Sunni Arabs’ domination over those who are neither Sunni nor Arab is over, and ethnic and sectarian identities are very important in today’s Arab politics. The language of struggles for political power and the ways of finding allies spring from these differences. Up to now the Arab state system could control the separations and differences within itself, but now its old methods are losing power. A federal Iraq is a great threat to the Arab state system.

In addition, Iran’s domination over Iran will rise, whether Iraq’s future is federalism or separation. There will be no power to balance Iran in the region. Those who argue that the US is trying to establish a Kurdish state, without referring to a source or presenting an analysis based on international relations, are ignoring this fact. It’s quite hard to think that the US will be the midwife of a development which will boost Iran’s power and make it unrivaled in the Gulf region. These developments create certain difficult choices for Turkey. Up to now Ankara has preferred a Baghdad-centered Iraq where Sunni Arabs can administer Kurds with pressure. Therefore, our governments said nothing about massacres of Iraq’s Turkmen. As there will be no such Iraq and the Sunni-Arab political power structure can’t continue with the old model, Turkey should find a new position. No matter what the Iraqi constitution says, religious Shiite parties will shape Iraq into an Islamic republic and its policies will be close to those of Iran. In such a situation, Turkey might prefer to live with a friendly fundamentalist Shiite state in the south. The other preference is establishing a political axis with Kurds who are secular, but whose plan to establish a federal or independent state isn’t welcomed by the state or most of the nation in Turkey. Kurds’ respect for Turkmen’s rights and their lack of territorial ambitions is the precondition for this arrangement. Which choice is settled on depends on the results of discussions within Turkey concerning the Kurdish issue.

•Time To Choose (http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=67283)

[NYer]

Iraq's constitution: the final discussions...
Dr. Sallama Al-Khafaji (Assembly member from the SCIRI) announced 5 minutes ago on Al-Iraqia TV that many of the disputed points that were delaying the completion of the constitution have been solved and that the word "Party" (which the Sunni CDC members had objections on) was omitted from the clause that deals with deba'athification and now the clause refers to the Saddamist Ba'ath without calling it a "party"!

Dr. Khafaji said that further delays are not expected and voting will take place later today.
She said that everyone is awaiting Mr. Hachim Al-Hasani to decide the time for the voting session as he is the chairman of the National Assembly.

Update: (1:00 pm local time).

Montasir Al-Imara (Assembly member) confirmed that voting on the draft will take place in the coming few hours but also said "There are 153 clauses in the draft and naturally these clauses won't satisfy all Sunnis as Sunnis or all Kurds as Kurds but it's a project for a nation that looks at everyone's interests. The draft concentrated on equality among all Iraqis and there will be no 2nd degree citizens".

Update: (1:10 pm local time).

Baha Al-Araji (CDC member) said a few minutes ago that the latest modified version of the draft has been signed by the majority of the CDC members who are present today.

He pointed out that some federalism-related points will be shifted to the next National Assembly for discussion and approval.

Update: (2:10 pm local time).

Hussein Falluji (Sunni CDC member) told Al-Arabiya TV that the committee of the "marginalized" (in reference to the Sunni politicians) is holding a separate meeting right now for the purpose of preparing an announcemnet to clarify the "challenges and pressures" they were subjected to:

We did not have sectarian or partisan demands; all we care about is the unity of Iraq...we're arranging for a large campaign now to tell the people the truth about what happened. After all, it's all up to the people to decide since the people are the source of authority and sovereignty. All we asked for was to be given more time because we were expected to deal with all of Iraq's chronic problems in a matter of only two months!

We've got nothing to do now but to look forward to the next step; that is the referendum.



Update: (2:55 pm local time).

The voting session of the National Assembly has just started.
Humam Hammodi made a short introductory speech where he pointed out that this constittution is "not a holy text" and that amendmendts can follow in the future.

A representatives of each political, ethnic, religious faction will be reading a part of the draft in front of the National Assembly.

- posted by Omar @ 12:38
www.iraqthemodel.blogspot.com

[NYer]

More Constitution updates from Omar

Update: (3:35 pm local time).

While the draft is still being read, Salih Al-Mutlaq confirmed again that none of the 15 Sunni members of the CDC have signed the draft.

Al-Mutlaq also highlighted the American role in bridging the gap between the different parties involved in the process but he put the blame on the other parties (the Sheat and the Kurds) for focusing on "their narrow partisan and sectarian" interests.

Our only difference we had with the Americans was about setting a rigid timetable for completing the process.
[..]
We'll be calling all the powers that didn't participate in the last elections for a conference where we will be declaring our objections on the draft...



Al-Mutlaq also explained that their objections are limited to a few points and that they agree with large parts of constitution and he stressed that they (the Sunni parties) will fully participate in the future phases of the political process.
He also called on the people who are not satidfied with the darft to avoid violence and keep practicing their normal daily activities and express thier opinion in peace.

It's worth mentioning that Hachim Al-Hasani (chairman of the Assembly) is not present at the current session.

Update (4:10 pm local time).

The whole draft has been read, now the session is over and tomorrow will be a special session dedicated to making an "elections law".

- posted by Omar @ 12:38
www.iraqthemodel.blogspot.com

[experiencediz]

Iraq delegates reject 'US' constitution
From correspondents in Baghdad
August 28, 2005

A SUNNI Arab delegate on the committee drafting Iraq's constitution said all his colleagues on the panel objected to a draft presented to parliament overnight and would campaign against it in an October referendum.

"We have not agreed on this constitution. We have objections which are the same as we had from day one," Hussein al-Falluji said, saying he was speaking for all Sunni delegates and denying suggestions the group was split.
"If there is no forging of the results, I believe the people will say "No" to the American constitution," he said, in reference to an expected referendum in October.

"This is an American constitution and we will not accept it no matter what," he said.

"We have not agreed on this constitution. We have objections which are the same as we had from day one," Hussein al-Falluji said, saying he was speaking for all Sunni delegates and denying suggestions the group was split.
"If there is no forging of the results, I believe the people will say "No" to the American constitution," he said, in reference to an expected referendum in October.

"This is an American constitution and we will not accept it no matter what," he said.

• Iraq delegates reject 'US' constitution (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16416217-38201,00.html)

[NYer]

Iraq delegates reject 'US' constitution

You may wish to retitle this one Committee of Sunnis reject constitution...

Committee signs Iraq's draft constitution

Sunday, August 28, 2005; Posted: 10:59 a.m. EDT (14:59 GMT)


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's constitutional committee approved a final draft of the Iraqi constitution and put it before the National Assembly on Sunday, despite the rejection of Sunni Arab leaders.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/08/28/iraq.constitution/index.html

Otherwise, you're spot on ... I do get a chuckle that the Sunnis have asked for the intervention of the Arab League ... As if the Arab League has much experience with democracy. Welcome to the new world of Iraqi politics.

[experiencediz]

You may wish to retitle this one Committee of Sunnis reject constitution...

Committee signs Iraq's draft constitution

Sunday, August 28, 2005; Posted: 10:59 a.m. EDT (14:59 GMT)


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's constitutional committee approved a final draft of the Iraqi constitution and put it before the National Assembly on Sunday, despite the rejection of Sunni Arab leaders.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/08/28/iraq.constitution/index.html

Otherwise, you're spot on ... I do get a chuckle that the Sunnis have asked for the intervention of the Arab League ... As if the Arab League has much experience with democracy. Welcome to the new world of Iraqi politics.


It Is Not Politix! :) When an endangered species is eating an endangered plant! (http://www.coastalpost.com/05/08/14.html)

[NYer]

I'll leave that one alone *smile*. But Sam from the Hammorabi blog won't...

Iraq Constitution


It is not an easy task to write a constitution for any country with homogenous culture and the task even harder if the society is various. In Iraq the job is much harder because of the complexity of the Iraqi society and the negative outcomes of the dictator regime policies on the country for the last 30 years.

The most affected people from the carnage of the previously Sunni dominated regimes especially Saddam's regime are the Shiites and the Kurds. The Kurds achieved a lot of freedom and progress during the last 14 years when they had international protection from the control of Saddam's regime. They now would like to strengthen such an independent in the new constitution.

The Shiites, however, stayed after the liberation of Kuwait under the iron fist of Saddam regime. The Shiites exposed during the last few years into mass killing, mass deportations, imprisonments for no cause but being a Shia, and tortures. The tortures include different ways like tongue cutting, hands chopping, body mincing, ears mutilations, eyes plugging, nailing the head with screws and many others. The Shiites therefore would like to see a constitution which prevents in future any other dictator who may control power in the name of the Arabism and Palestine and with the help of the barbaric agents from these to create another state of fear.

From this the Kurds and Shiites agreed on most of the points in the constitution.

The Sunni from whom the terrorists emerged to kill the Iraqis are proving by this that they can do the same things to control power and will not hesitate to repeat the same tortures and killing and ethnic cleansing again. Only few days ago the Sunnis in Diyala (120 KM North East Baghdad) went in the street in support of the previous regime with Saddam's pictures. These are the same people who killed and will not hesitate to kill the Shiites and Kurds again. The Sunnis refused until now to give any concessions about the 3 points that they are hardly moved away from. These are the complete rejection of the proposed federalism, the wealth of the oil and the Shariah law as the main law of the country. The Sunnis therefore want to keep open doors for them to control power by force in the future and they want to keep the oil as it was before in their hands. For this they reject and try to hamper any democratic process in the country.

The solution therefore is to submit the draft of the constitution into voting in the National Assembly and if it is passed to go into voting as soon as possible.

posted by hammorabi
www.hammorabi.blogspot.com

[experiencediz]

And here it comes...

Sunnis Swarm Tikrit to Protest Iraqi Charter
Monday, August 29, 2005
AP

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Thousands of Sunni demonstrators rallied in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit on Monday to denounce Iraq's new constitution a day after negotiators finished the new charter without the endorsement of Sunni Arabs.

Sunni leaders have urged their community to defeat the charter in a nationwide referendum on Oct. 15, saying it had been rammed through the drafting committee by the dominant Shiite Arab and Kurdish alliance.

The absence of Sunni endorsement, after more than two months of intensive negotiations, raised fears of more violence and set the stage for a bitter political fight ahead of the referendum. A political battle threatened to sharpen communal divisions at a time when relations among the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds appear to be worsening.

In Tikrit, at least 2,000 protesters assembled near the office of the Association of Muslims Scholars — a hardline Sunni clerical group opposed to the U.S. occupation — carrying Iraqi flags and portraits of the former dictator.

"We sacrifice our souls and blood for you, Saddam," chanted the demonstrators. They carried pictures of Shiite clerics Muqtada Al-Sadir and Jawad Al-Khalisi who have joined the Sunnis in opposing the constitutional draft.

Sheik Yahya Ibrahim Al-Batawi, an organizer of the protest, read a statement denouncing the "Jewish constitution," saying its goal was to divide Iraq along sectarian and ethnic lines.

Sunni negotiators delivered their rejection in a joint statement Sunday shortly after the draft was submitted to parliament. They branded the final version as "illegitimate" and asked the Arab League and the United Nations to intervene.

"I think if this constitution passes as it is, it will worsen everything in the country," said Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni negotiator.

President Bush expressed disappointment that the Sunnis did not sign on but pinned his hopes on the referendum.

But the depth of disillusionment over the charter in the Sunni establishment extended beyond the 15 negotiators, who were appointed to the constitutional committee in June under U.S. pressure.

The country's Sunni vice president, Ghazi al-Yawer, did not show up at a Sunday ceremony marking the completion of the document. When President Jalal Talabani said that al-Yawer was ill, senior government officials including Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi howled with laughter.

"I hope that our people will accept it despite some flaws," said Talabani, a Kurd.

Parliament speaker Hajim al-Hassani, a Sunni, said he thought the final document contained "too much religion" and too little protection of women's' rights.

Despite last-minute concessions from the majority Shiites and Kurds, the Sunnis said the document threatened the unity of Iraq and its place in the Arab world.

Ibrahim al-Shammari, spokesman of a leading insurgent group, the Islamic Army in Iraq, said on Al-Jazeera television that the constitution "drafted under the supervision of the occupiers" would divide Iraq and benefit Israel.

Major deal-breaker issues included federalism, Iraq's identity in the Arab world and references to Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated Baath Party.

Sunnis fear federalism would lead to the breakup of the country into a Kurdish north and Shiite south, deprive Sunnis of Iraq's vast oil wealth concentrated at the opposite ends of the country, and open the door to Iranian influence in the Shiite south. Sunnis also wanted no reference to Saddam's party, fearing that would lead to widespread purges of Sunnis from government jobs.

Although Sunnis account for only 20 percent of Iraq's estimated 27 million people, they still can derail the constitution in the referendum due to a concession made to the Kurds in the 2004 interim constitution. If two-thirds of voters in any three provinces reject the charter, the constitution will be defeated. Sunnis have the majority in at least four provinces.

Defeat of the constitution would force new elections for a parliament that would begin the drafting process from scratch. If the constitution is approved, elections for a fully constitutional parliament will be in December.

Communal tensions have risen since the Shiite-dominated government was announced April 28. Both Shiites and Sunnis accuse the other of assassinating members of the rival sect. Shiites and Kurds dominate the government security services, while most insurgents are believed to be Sunnis.

In other developments on Monday:

— Two rockets slammed into the parking lot of the Oil Ministry building wounding an employee and damaging several vehicles, police said. Only one missile exploded; the other failed to detonate.

— Unidentified gunmen shot and killed Brig. Gen. Numan Salman Faris, director of the district rapid response force in Baghdad's Azamiyah district.

•Sunnis Swarm Tikrit to Protest Iraqi Charter (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,167314,00.html)

[NYer]

Sistani emabrrasses the governement.
The differences between the Sheat clergy and the parties that used its name during the elections are deepening and this appeared clearly after Sistani that he's not going to accept having his name or that of the clergy used for any future electoral campaign.

The clergy's negative attitude towards Sheat ruling parties increased after more seeing criticism coming from the people in the Sheat regions to the worsening situation in their cities which is attributed to the failure of the local administrations in running the affairs of the cities; the peak of the crisis came when Sheat-Shaet conflicts started in Najaf and a few other cities. I was even told by some Najafi friends that the conflict pushed Sistani to rufuse any meetings with government officials.

Today the differences reached the peak when Sistani dropped a bomb by rejecting federalism and thus rejecting the constitution of the Kurdish-Sheat alliance putting the current ruling parties in a difficult position.
Sistani in his statement said "The Sunnis are your family. Stay by their side this time so that they stay by your side in the coming times…"

This development reflects a critical turn in the relationship between the Sheat clergy and the government, and the ruling politicians will be faced again by the danger of having clerics interfering with politics but this time, the Sheat alliance which insisted onmentioning the clergy in the introduction of the constitution will certainly realize this danger and they will be left before a hard choice as they have put all their weight on the balance of the clergy and if the latter lets them down the consequences will be catastrophic for those politicians.

The persistence of some politicians to discuss all matters with the clergy in all topics gave the clerics more and more confidence in their role and in a country like Iraq, abolishing the influence of clerics is extremely difficult but still, depending on them is even more dangerous.

Will Sheat politicians absorb the lesson this time and what's their reaction going to be like? Will they try to appease the clergy and regain its support? Or are they going to act independently and count on their own decisions that are deigned to please the people not the clerics?

It is better to have these differences solved right now and prevent them from becoming time-bombs embedded in the constitution; of course this will make the situation a bit harder but our road wasn't easy at all in the last 35 years so why fear a few more difficulties!?
The clergy with all its power and influence hardly got 50% of the votes for its endorsed slate (when the Sunni didn't vote) so I think unity among liberal and secular power can grant them a good chunk of the votes in the coming elections and that will be sufficient to put the clerics and the clergy-dependent parties back in their actual size.

- posted by Mohammed @ 15:03
www.iraqthemodel.blogspot.com

[experiencediz]

How to Win in Iraq
By Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/future/interviews/krepinevich.html).
From Foreign Affairs, September/October 2005

Because they lack a coherent strategy, U.S. forces in Iraq have failed to defeat the insurgency or improve security. Winning will require a new approach to counterinsurgency, one that focuses on providing security to Iraqis rather than hunting down insurgents. And it will take at least a decade.



•How to Win in Iraq (http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20050901faessay84508/andrew-f-krepinevich-jr/how-to-win-in-iraq.html?mode=print)

[experiencediz]

Sunnis woo Sadr to defeat Iraq charter
Sunni Arabs are preparing for national conference to generate public support against crafted constitution.

By Jay Deshmukh - BAGHDAD

Iraq's agitated Sunni Arabs are going all out to win the support of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in defeating the newly-drafted constitution during the October referendum, a top Sunni leader said Tuesday.

"We would like to cooperate with Moqtada al-Sadr and very soon we will start negotiations with him," Saleh al-Motlag, a top Sunni negotiator said.

Sunni Arabs aiming to defeat the charter politically are preparing for a national conference to generate public support against the Shiite-Kurdish crafted constitution.

Motlag said the Sunni leaders, whose opinions went unheeded during the drafting of the constitution, will try to bring together all groups opposing the constitution.

"It is not just about the Sunnis anymore. It is about all those who do not want Iraq to break, including the Shiites," Motlag said.

He said the Sunnis are making attempts to identify and engage with any political leaders who are against federalism -- the main bone of contention during tortuous negotiations that for weeks dogged the drafting of the constitution.

"Once we have these people together, we will go for the conference which should be very soon," Motlag added.

Sadr, a young firebrand cleric who led one of post-war Iraq's fiercest rebellions against US-led forces, has refused to accept any constitution drafted under the coalition occupation.

He recently expressed his opposition to federalism in Iraq even as more senior Shiite leaders pressed for semi-autonomous regions in central and southern Iraq similar to the Kurdish northern regions.

The Sadr camp was still undecided over its next move.

"Nothing is decided yet," said a member of Sadr's movement in Baghdad.

"There are several opinions but as of now we have decided to focus on registering our names to participate in the referendum. The final decision will be taken by Sadr later."

Sadr, a fundamentalist Shiite, enjoys wide support among the disaffected, younger generation of Shiites. He commands a militia which numbers in the thousands, and around 20 or so members of Iraq's parliament are said to be political allies of his movement.

On Friday, thousands of his supporters in Baghdad's Sadr City, a Shiite stronghold, marched after weekly prayers denounced the charter.

In June he called on Iraqis to reject federalism, saying it aims "at planting divisions and conflicts."

Moqtada's staunch opposition to the presence of foreign troops in Iraq brings him closer to the Sunni clergy than his fellow Shiites in the government.

Thousands of people, especially Sunnis, have been registering their names with electoral offices in a bid to shoot down the charter on October 15, referendum day.

Iraq's interim rules stipulate that the charter will fail if two-thirds of the people in any three provinces vote against it. The disenchanted Sunni Arabs form a majority in at least three provinces.


•Sunnis woo Sadr to defeat Iraq charter (http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=14400)

[experiencediz]

Coming Soon...To Every Town In Iraq...
They're doing fine! :rolleyes:

Heavy Fighting Erupts in Western Iraq
August 30th, 2005 @ 3:52am
By SAMEER N. YACOUB
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Heavy fighting broke out in western Iraq between pro and anti-government tribes Tuesday, leaving at least 35 people dead from both sides, hospital officials said.

The outcome could affect the ease with which foreign extremists move in and out of the border area.

The clashes between the pro-government Bumahl tribe and the pro-insurgent Karabila tribe began after 2 a.m. in the western city of Qaim near the Syrian border, said the officials at the Qaim General Hospital. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from insurgents.

The officials said 20 members of the Bumahl tribe and 15 from Karabila were killed in the clashes. He said dozens were also wounded.

Recent fighting in Qaim, 200 miles west of Baghdad, has left several people killed and wounded.

•Heavy Fighting Erupts in Western Iraq (http://www.620ktar.com/?nid=46&sid=72594)

[NYer]

This was reported earlier ... some feel that episodes of "Red on Red" demonstrate an increasing dissatisfaction for the activities of Zarqawi and his ilk.

Also ...
Don't force civil war on us

It appears that those who want desperately to see a civil war in Iraq have a hard time agreeing on the scenario.

Rory Carroll, Peter Beaumont and Paul Harris write in the Guardian that "It is not Vietnam that officials are looking to for their model of a worst-case scenario in Iraq, but to the fratricide of Lebanon's civil war."

While civil war is a serious possibility, Iraq is not there yet. In order to have a war like Lebanon's, the population must hate each other. Naturally, the reporters managed to find a guy who fits the description in Baghdad:

"Exasperated by yet another rumour about consensus, one Sunni, Hussein al-Falluji, said it was quite simple: 'They hate us and we hate them.'"

Of course the guy is real. It is easy to find someone who will say what those who are itching to see civil war want to hear. But it might be easier to find what a New York Times reporter recently found:

"In spite of the obvious sectarian divides among the country's political parties, and a sectarian tinge to some of the country's violence, a random sampling of ordinary Iraqis here and in several other cities this week revealed that sentiment about the constitution often does not hew to any such divisions. In fact, many Iraqis say, religious allegiances rarely intrude on everyday life: Shiites marry Sunnis, Muslims shop alongside Christians, everyone waits in the same long lines to get gas and suffers the same power and water shortages."

Still, those who need to see civil war to prove that Bush is wrong continue with their bizarre comparisons, most often to Vietnam.

Lewis M. Simons, who hung out briefly in the Green Zone and decided he really knows Iraq, writes in the Washington Post:

"In the Baghdad of 2005, as in the Saigon of four decades ago, my government tells me that by staying the course, we'll cut out a vicious tumor metastasizing through the body of Western democracy."

His expert opinion is based on a Green Zone dweller:

"One of the most senior diplomats at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad told me that what he and his colleagues believed, and what kept them awake at night, was that if the United States is serious about establishing democracy in Iraq, and attempts to do so under current policies, it would take two generations of our soldiers fighting there. That's 40 years."

What does this top diplomat know about Iraq? He has nice showers and can switch lights on and run air conditioners because he has generators and backup generators. He has no idea what Iraqis go through. The U.S. sent Scandanavian experts (Bremer) and Latin American experts (Negroponte) and plenty of others who maybe visited Egypt's pyramids once in their youth. They look down at Iraqis from their high perch. And the Iraqis they work with present an even deeper issue. Someone who does have a clue, Ghaith Abdul Ahad writes in the Guardian:

"A few weeks ago, a Kurdish parliamentarian told me, as we stood in the middle of the Iraqi parliament in the green zone, that 'we [politicians] don't know what's happening in the streets outside and the people outside don't care about what are we doing here because of the violence they are suffering from'."

Now that's really problematic. If these politicians are out of touch, how can they possibly come up with a constitution that the people would vote for? No wonder they come up with something iffy.

It sounds as though this document might be in serious trouble. Don't be surprised if secular Iraqis, countless women and Sadr supporters join the Sunnis and vote against the charter Oct. 15. If they do, it won't be because they hate the Americans. It will be because they don't want to see the breakup of Iraq. And at least the secular and the women don't want a theocracy.

What those who are itching to see a civil war miss is this: We are working to disappoint you. While some thugs are ready to fight, most Iraqis want to see change at the voting booths. You're wrong. We Iraqis don't hate each other.

posted by IraqiPundit at 8:34 AM
www.iraqpundit.blogspot.com

[experiencediz]

U.S. alters Iraq constitution stance; airstrikes launched
By wire services
Published August 31, 2005

BAGHDAD - In a dramatic shift, the U.S. ambassador raised the possibility Tuesday of further changes to Iraq's draft constitution, signaling that the Bush administration has not given up its campaign to push through a charter that will be broadly accepted.

Also Tuesday, U.S. warplanes struck three suspected al-Qaida targets near the Syrian border, killing what the U.S. military called a known terrorist. Iraqi officials said 45 people died, most in fighting between an Iraqi tribe that supports the foreign fighters and another that opposes them.

The nation's Sunni Arabs had demanded revisions in the constitution, finalized last weekend by the Shiite-Kurdish majority over Sunni objections. A Shiite leader said only minor editing would be accepted, because the draft was ready for an Oct. 15 referendum.

But Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters he believed "a final, final draft has not yet been, or the edits have not been, presented yet" - a hint to Shiites and Kurds that Washington wants another bid to accommodate the Sunnis.

The U.S. airstrikes began about 6:20 a.m. in a cluster of towns near Qaim along the Syrian border 200 miles northwest of Baghdad, a U.S. statement said.

•U.S. alters Iraq constitution stance; airstrikes launched (http://www.sptimes.com/2005/08/31/Worldandnation/US_alters_Iraq_consti.shtml)

[experiencediz]

This was reported earlier ... some feel that episodes of "Red on Red" demonstrate an increasing dissatisfaction for the activities of Zarqawi and his ilk.

Also ...
Don't force civil war on us

It appears that those who want desperately to see a civil war in Iraq have a hard time agreeing on the scenario...

posted by IraqiPundit at 8:34 AM
www.iraqpundit.blogspot.com

Another Embarrassment for Bush
By Robert Scheer, AlterNet. Posted August 31, 2005.

Who lost Iraq?

Someday, as a fragmented Iraq spirals further into religious madness, terrorism and civil war, there will be a bipartisan inquiry into this blundering intrusion into another people's history. The crucial question will be why a "preemptive" American invasion -- which has led to the deaths of nearly 2,000 Americans, roughly 10 times as many Iraqis, the expenditure of about $200 billion and incalculable damage to the United States' global reputation -- has had exactly the opposite effect predicted by its neoconservative sponsors.

No amount of crowing over a fig leaf Iraqi constitution by President Bush can hide the fact that the region's autocrats, theocrats and terrorists are stronger than ever.

"The U.S. now has to recognize that [it] overthrew Saddam Hussein to replace him with a pro-Iranian state," said regional expert Peter W. Galbraith, the former U.S. ambassador to Croatia and an advisor to the Iraqi Kurds. And, he could have added, a pro-Iranian state that will be repressive and unstable.

Think this is an exaggeration? Consider that arguably the most powerful Shiite political party and militia in today's Iraq, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and its affiliated paramilitary force, the Badr Brigade, was not only based in Iran but was set up by Washington's old arch-foe, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. It also fought on the side of Iran in the Iran-Iraq war and was recognized by Tehran as the government in exile of Iraq.

Or that former exile Ahmad Chalabi is now one of Iraq's deputy prime ministers. The consummate political operator managed to maintain ties to Iran while gaining the devoted support of Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon, charming and manipulating Beltway policymakers and leading U.S. journalists into believing that Iraq was armed with weapons of mass destruction.

Chalabi is thrilled with the draft constitution, which, if passed, will probably exponentially increase tension and violence between Sunnis and Shiites. "It is an excellent document," said Chalabi, who has been accused by U.S. intelligence of being a spy for Iran, where he keeps a vacation home.

What an absurd outcome for a war designed to create a compliant, unified and stable client state that would be pro-American, laissez-faire capitalist and unallied with the hated Iran. Of course, Bush tells us again, this is "progress" and an "inspiration." Yet his relentless spinning of manure into silk has worn thin on the American public and sent his approval ratings tumbling.

Even supporters of the war are starting to realize that rather than strengthening the United States' position in the world, the invasion and occupation have led to abject humiliation: from the Abu Ghraib scandal, to the guerrilla insurgency exposing the limits of military power, to an election in which "our guy" -- Iyad Allawi -- was defeated by radicals and religious extremists.

In a new low, the U.S. president felt obliged to call and plead with the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, Abdelaziz Hakim, to make concessions to gain Sunni support. Even worse, he was summarily rebuffed. Nevertheless, Bush had no choice but to eat crow and like it.

"This is a document of which the Iraqis, and the rest of the world, can be proud," he said Sunday, through what must have been gritted teeth. After all, this document includes such democratic gems as "Islam is the official religion of the state and is a basic source of legislation," and "No law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam," as well as socialist-style pronouncements that work and a decent standard of living are a right guaranteed by the state. But the fact is, it could establish Khomeini's ghost as the patron saint of Iraq and Bush would have little choice but to endorse it.

Even many in his own party are rebelling. "I think our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think the further destabilization will occur," said Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel last week, one of a growing number of Republicans who get that "we should start figuring out how we get out of there."

Not that our "what-me-worry?" president is the least bit troubled by all this adverse blowback from the huge, unnecessary gamble he took in invading the heart of the Arab and Muslim worlds. "What is important is that the Iraqis are now addressing these issues through debate and discussion, not at the barrel of a gun," Bush said.

Wrong again. It was the barrel of a gun that midwifed the new Iraq, which threatens to combine the instability of Lebanon with the religious fanaticism of Iran.

Robert Scheer is the co-author of The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq (http://www.alternet.org/fivelies/).

•Another Embarrassment for Bush (http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/24797/)

[experiencediz]

This was reported earlier ... some feel that episodes of "Red on Red" demonstrate an increasing dissatisfaction for the activities of Zarqawi and his ilk.

Also ...
Don't force civil war on us

It appears that those who want desperately to see a civil war in Iraq have a hard time agreeing on the scenario...
You're wrong. We Iraqis don't hate each other.
posted by IraqiPundit at 8:34 AM
www.iraqpundit.blogspot.com
Then , What is this? Love? Freedom?...Democracy?... (http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showpost.php?p=328301&postcount=1) :rolleyes:

[NYer]

Hopefully, growing pains ... The US had Shay's Rebellion, The Whiskey Rebellion, and Aaron Burr's abortive coup conspiracy ... In Iraq, the signal to noise ratio overwhelmingly favors noise.

Battle at the Border
By Bill Roggio

"We decided, either we force them out of the city or kill them."
- Sheikh Muhammed Mahallawi, leader of the Albu Mahal tribe, on fighting al Qaeda

Further details emerge on the fighting in Western Anbar between pro-government and pro al Qaeda tribes. The Washington Post’s Ellen Knickmeyer and Omar Fekeiki report that of the 56 thought to be killed Tuesday, the majority are very likely to be al Qaeda; “Forty-two of them wore the black training-suits and athletic shoes favored by Zarqawi's fighters.” Al Qaeda has openly admitted to 17 of its members killed.

US forces are often accused of cultural insensitivity to the Arab and Tribal culture, but al Qaeda’s brutal tactics against the local population inevitably backfires.

The clashes came after insurgents kidnapped and killed 31 men belonging to the Albu Mahal tribe because they had joined the Iraqi security forces, said Sheikh Muhammed Mahallawi, one of the tribe's leaders. "We decided, either we force them out of the city or kill them," with the support of U.S. bombardment, Mahallawi said. His tribe also had asked local residents not to aid or house Zarqawi's fighters, he said. Some of the local people refused the request, in a show of support for Zarqawi, he said.

al Qaeda’s actions in Qaim have forced the Albu Mahal tribe to choose sides. The co-opting of the Albu Mahal tribe in the Qaim region is a remarkable story that is virtually being ignored by the media (the Washington Post buried it on page A18).

Support of the local population is key to waging a successful counterinsurgency campaign. The active opposition to al Qaeda by a significant element of the local Sunni population in the most violent and untamed region in Iraq is comparable to battalions of American or Iraq Army units. Without local support, al Qaeda cannot thrive.

al Qaeda is fighting hard to maintain its lines of communication along the Euphrates River, and the Qaim region is vital to keeping the ratline open, as it sits on the Syrian border. Combat in Qaim, the Coalition occupation of the vital Sunni cities of Ramadi, Hit and Fallujah, as well as the establishment of bases in Rawah and at Haditha Dam, are placing pressure on the insurgency, forcing them to commit resources to fight in what used to be their safe havens.

Progress, while slow, is being obtained without a strong US/Iraqi presence in the region. This bodes well for the time when the focus shifts to deploying significant numbers of Iraqi security forces in Anbar.

www.billroggio.com

[experiencediz]

Hopefully, growing pains ... The US had Shay's Rebellion, The Whiskey Rebellion, and Aaron Burr's abortive coup conspiracy ... In Iraq, the signal to noise ratio overwhelmingly favors noise.

Battle at the Border
By Bill Roggio

"We decided, either we force them out of the city or kill them."
- Sheikh Muhammed Mahallawi, leader of the Albu Mahal tribe, on fighting al Qaeda

www.billroggio.com

Well here is what I was afraid of...Zaire...Ethiopia...Eritrea...the leaders today were once rebels and terrorists (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4176844.stm).

And this is how their story begun...and they are in bed with the US and the Brits.

Al Qaida captures Iraqi town
Sep. 5, 2005 at 8:42PM

Residents say Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's foreign-led al-Qaida in Iraq has taken control of a key western town at the Syrian border.
Witnesses told the Washington Post a sign newly posted at the entrance of Qaim declared, "Welcome to the Islamic Kingdom of Qaim." A statement posted in mosques described Qaim as an "Islamic kingdom liberated from the occupation."

Witnesses said al-Zarqawi's fighters were killing officials and civilians seen as government-allied or anti-Islamic.

Al-Zarqawi's fighters had shot to death nine men in public executions in the city center since the weekend, said Sheikh Nawaf al-Mahallawi, a leader of a Sunni Arab tribe that had battled the foreign fighters.

Dozens of families were fleeing Qaim daily, al-Mahallawi said.
Qaim, within a few miles of the Syrian border, has been a major stronghold for insurgents ferrying fighters, weapons and money from Syria into the rest of Iraq along a network of Euphrates River towns.

U.S. Marine spokesman Capt. Jeffrey Pool in Ramadi, capital of the western province, said Marines in the area of Qaim had no word of any unusual activity.

•Al Qaida captures Iraqi town (http://www.washtimes.com/upi/20050905-082245-8570r.htm)

[NYer]

Operation Restoring Rights in Tal Afar
By Bill Roggio

The battle of Tal Afar intensifies. Operation Restoring Rights is easily the largest since Fallujah, based on both the size of the assault force - five to six battalions, about 5,000 U.S. and Iraqi infantry - and the scope of the objective. Tal Afar is a city of over 150,000, ranking it just behind Fallujah in size. In the past three days of fighting, over 200 insurgents have been killed, with minor casualties to the coalition forces (two American and four Iraqi troops lightly wounded). The terrorist casualty count easily outstrips that encountered during the fighting last May in Operation Matador.

Yet Tal Afar is unlike Fallujah, according to Khasro Goran, the deputy governor of Nineveh province; "The whole city is not under the control of the insurgents, its only some pockets." The estimate is that by the time of the current offensive, the Coalition reduce the insurgent presence to less than fifty percent.

A partial Coalition presence allows for some degree of local intelligence. The operation in Tal Afar has been well planned in advance. The preparation includes:

· Berms were constructed to ring the city starting in July.
· Checkpoints on roadways leading to Tal Afar were established weeks prior.
· Two battalions of Iraqi troops from the 3rd Division were moved to the region at the end of August, some by airlift.
· Concertina wire (razor wire, the modern day equivalent of barbed wire) and other obstacles have been assembled around insurgent dominated Sarai neighborhood.
· A camp was established to screen citizens and identify insurgents.

There is a clear purpose. The offensive is not designed to merely clear the city of insurgents, but also to defeat them. Col. H.R. McMaster, commander of the Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, is explicit about the desire to surround the insurgents and force them to fight and not flee; "The idea is to trap them in Sarai or force them toward our checkpoints to the south. We don't want them to slip out."

As seen elsewhere throughout Iraq, the terrorists continue to use mosques at fighting positions. The high number of dead insurgent indicates the initial cordon was successful, although it is possible the enemy chose to stand ground and fight. The difficult parts of the operation will be conducting the urban assault, particularly on the Sarai district as it appears to be the insurgent's holdout, and maintaining a tight cordon around the city to prevent the enemy from escaping. (Note: the BBC has a decent primer presentation on urban warfare).

The intriguing question will not answered after the battle ends. Will the Coalition remain in Tal Afar in force? If the occupation of Hit, Ramadi and Fallujah are any indicators, the answer will be yes. This will tell us if progress is being made with Iraq's Army, and if future operations will be conducted with the same goals: to kill or capture the enemy in town and to deny them the opportunity to reestablish a base of operations.

http://billroggio.com/

[NYer]

Someone You Should Know ...


Sunni rescuer hailed as Iraq hero

Abdul Hafez's story has been extolled in the Iraqi press
A Sunni teenager who died while saving Shia victims of last week's Baghdad stampede has been praised as a "martyr" by Iraqi politicians.

Witnesses say Othman Abdul Hafez drowned as he tried to pull yet another Shia pilgrim from the River Tigris, having saved up to seven others.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4214926.stm

[NYer]

Capture near Syrian border ties Zark to 7/7 ...

Terrorist had plans for London attacks

By Pam Hess
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Published September 7, 2005

MOSUL, Iraq -- A terrorist captured near the Syrian border last month had a computer "thumb drive" that contained planning information about the July 7 suicide bombings in London, according to a U.S. military officer.
Col. Robert Brown, commander of the 1st Brigade 25th Infantry Division in Mosul, said that the man was captured north of Qaim in western Iraq and that authorities had connected him to the al Qaeda terrorist network.
It is the first evidence of a link between the London bombs and terrorists in Iraq, but fits with other evidence of a growing presence in Iraq by al Qaeda, which has taken responsibility for the British attacks.
Qaim, a Euphrates River border town, fell under the control of fighters claiming allegiance to Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization Monday, according to tribal members, officials, residents and others quoted yesterday by the Associated Press.
The sources said members of the group led by terror chief Abu Musab Zarqawi had killed U.S. collaborators and imposed strict Islamic law, posting a sign at an entrance to the town declaring, "Welcome to the Islamic Republic of Qaim."
Col. Brown declined to discuss the specific nature of the information on the thumb drive -- a miniature data storage device that plugs into a computer's USB port -- but said it indicated al Qaeda involvement in the attacks on London's bus and subway system.
"I don't think anyone's done a good enough job explaining" the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda, he said.
The Arabic language satellite channel Al Jazeera last week aired parts of a videotape in which al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, took responsibility for the blasts, thought to have used a potent but easily manufactured homemade explosive called TATP.
The same video carried a recorded statement by one of the four British Muslims who killed themselves and 52 others in the near-simultaneous attacks. The London bomber also cited his admiration for Zarqawi.
Bashar al-Naher, an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, told The Washington Times that he had not heard about the Mosul discovery but said, "This does not surprise me. We are noting a pattern of involvement by [Iraqi hard-liners] in terrorist plots abroad."
The U.S. Central Command estimates that about 100 to 150 "foreign fighters" enter Iraq each month. These men are responsible for the great majority of suicide bombs, the most devastating weapon the insurgents and terrorists have in their arsenal.
Most such attacks are coordinated by Zarqawi's group, which calls itself al Qaeda in Iraq. Zarqawi claims allegiance to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but little is known about the level of direct cooperation between the groups.


Shaun Waterman of United Press International and Paul Martin of The Washington Times contributed to this report.

http://washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20050906-102658-7545r

[experiencediz]

Is the US military preparing another massacre in Tal Afar?
The largest US military offensive on an urban area since the attack on Fallujah last year has been underway since September 2 in the city of Tal Afar, an ancient metropolis with a predominantly Sunni Muslim, ethnic Turkish population of some 300,000.
by: James Cogan on: 8th Sep, 05

Situated in the north of Iraq along the Euphrates River and just 40 kilometres from the Syrian border, Tal Afar has been largely outside the control of the occupation forces since the 2003 invasion. In September 2004, the US military carried out a major operation to impose its authority over Tal Afar, but was forced to withdraw by November in order to redeploy troops to the heavy fighting in Fallujah and Mosul. In the 10 months since, Tal Afar has become one of the centres for the anti-occupation guerilla struggle in the north.
A US officer told the Washington Post: “The September operation basically made people angry, which the insurgents were able to take advantage of. [It] had the opposite effect than was intended. We created a power vacuum and they filled it.”

The details of what is taking place in Tal Afar since last Friday are shrouded in secrecy. The few available reports indicate, however, that at least 5,000 US and Iraqi government troops have sealed off the old centre of the city—an area known as Sarai—and are preparing for an assault against an estimated 400 to 500 resistance fighters who are said to be entrenched in the narrow streets of the district.

The US push into the city was preceded by airstrikes and artillery shelling, and spearheaded by Abram battle tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles. The Al Jazeerah website reported on Monday that at least four mosques have been bombed. F-16s destroyed alleged “insurgent safe-houses” with 500 and 1,000-pound bombs. The Iraqi newspaper Azzaman reported: “Eyewitnesses, refusing to be named, spoke of ‘scores of casualties’ due to indiscriminate bombing.”

The numbers of dead and wounded are unknown. Colonel H.R. McMaster, the commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment that is leading the operation, told the Washington Post on the weekend that as many as 200 “insurgents” had been killed in the first three days of fighting.

The events unfolding in Tal Afar have all the makings of another horrific crime against the Iraqi masses, paralleling the atrocities committed in Fallujah last year. In just nine days, thousands of Fallujans were killed and their bodies left to rot in the streets or to be consumed by dogs. US snipers murdered desperate civilians trying to get water for their families.

More than 60 percent of the city was reduced to rubble and over half its famous mosques bombed out. Nearly one year later, less than half of Fallujah’s 250,000 residents have been able to return, with most still living in ruined buildings and squalor.

As was the case in Fallujah, a significant proportion of the people included in the body count in Tal Afar will actually be civilians killed by bombing, gunned down by the occupation forces or caught in crossfire. As US and Iraqi troops passed through suburban areas this week, they smashed into houses with sledge hammers or explosives, searching for guerillas. Buildings where Iraqis fired back were laid waste by heavy machine-gun and tank fire.

Thousands of civilians have fled from the city and nearby towns and villages into the desert toward Mosul, 70 kilometres to the east. Sunni political parties are erecting camps to house the refugees, whose numbers may exceed 100,000.

Thousands more Tal Afar residents, however, are trapped inside Sarai by the cordon of tanks and barbed wire that has been flung up around the district to prevent resistance fighters escaping. On the outskirts of the city, US forces have constructed an 80-mile network of earth barriers, or berms, to stop vehicles getting out across country. Colonel McMaster told the Washington Post: “The idea is to trap them in Sarai or force them toward our checkpoints to the south. We don’t want them to slip out.”

The operation against the city is part of the broader offensive that has been waged by the US military since the formation of the Iraqi government in April. Far from the armed resistance to the occupation subsiding following the formation of a US puppet regime, millions of Iraqis remain bitterly opposed to the American presence in the country and are sympathetic to the insurgency.

The US response has been indiscriminate violence. Hundreds of civilians have been killed or maimed in bombing raids or sweep-and-search operations through cities, towns and villages over the past several months. Thousands of men have been rounded up and thrown into US-run prison camps. In advance of the October 15 referendum on a draft constitution that has been rejected by Sunni, ethnic Turkomen and major Shiite organisations, the political repression against areas under their influence is being stepped up.

All indications are that the US military is preparing a full-scale assault on Tal Afar in the next few days, regardless of how many civilians are killed as a result. On Sunday night, helicopters dropped leaflets over the area, giving all noncombatants until Tuesday afternoon to flee the area via southern roads that lead into areas that are under the clear control of the occupation forces. US troops are physically preventing any civilians leaving via the north toward Mosul, where the majority of the population is opposed to the Baghdad government.

In one of the few on-the-spot accounts coming out of the area, the Washington Post reported yesterday that many civilians have refused to leave to south due to fear of what the Iraqi government forces will do to them. Many of the government troops in the area are former militiamen for the Shiite fundamentalist parties and Kurdish nationalist parties that dominate the Baghdad regime. Sunni- and Turkomen-based political and religious organisations have accused the US-backed security forces of sectarian killings, arbitrary detentions and torture in cities such as Baghdad, Basra and Mosul.

An elderly man declared: “I would rather die from American bombs in my home with my family than walk south. People are saying the Shiites will kill you or kidnap you. That is a disgrace.”

The Washington Post recounted that about 1,000 men, women and children who had assembled at a US checkpoint turned around and went back into Sarai on Tuesday rather than risk getting on American trucks that might deliver them into the hands of the government forces.

The chilling conclusion of the article read: “About 3 p.m., Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Hickey, the squadron commander, arrived to make a final plea. ‘I am trying to help you to get out of a very dangerous situation. You are going to be in danger if you stay here, I am telling you. Please, this is your last chance.’ As he turned away from the crowd, one family emerged, with nine adults carrying baggage and eight children in tow. ‘Anyone else?’, Hickey asked, beckoning. ‘Okay, then we will save these people’, he said, and walked away.”

Significant parts of Tal Afar are already reported to be in ruin. Electricity and phone services have been cut off and hospitals are breaking down. The Iraqi Human Rights Centre has issued an urgent appeal to the Iraqi government to stop the assault and allow rescue teams to access the area to deliver food, water and medical supplies and evacuate the wounded.

As well as inflaming northern Iraq, the attack on Tal Afar risks further destabilising the surrounding region. Last September, the Turkish government, under pressure from mass domestic opposition to the US invasion of Iraq, threatened to break off all cooperation with the occupation of Iraq unless the attack on ethnic Turks in Tal Afar was ended. This week, a Turkish government spokesman declared that Ankara had “reiterated our sensitivity about the operation” and “asked US authorities to pay the maximum attention to avoid civilian casualties”.

Instead, with US and Iraqi troops poised to storm into the old city, a massacre appears to be looming.

At the same time, the American military is intensifying its aerial bombardment of Qaim, a city south of Tal Afar and also on the Euphrates River and close to the Syrian border. Airstrikes last week, which killed at least 56 people, have been justified with claims that the area has fallen under the control of Islamic extremists linked to Al Qaeda. The organisation Doctors for Iraq announced that a medical clinic was bombed and that electricity had been cut to the main hospital.

US marine aircraft have carried out more strikes over the past three days, bombing two main bridges over the Euphrates and destroying houses allegedly occupied by insurgents. With as many as 7,000 American and Iraqi government troops reported to be in the vicinity, a bloodbath in Tal Afar may be followed quickly by an offensive against Qaim.

•Is the US military preparing another massacre in Tal Afar? (http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=5214)
•Tal Afar Panicking Residents Flee US Fire (http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2005-09/06/article04.shtml)
•Iraqi Military: 200 Insurgents Arrested (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iraq)

[NYer]

Balance, Daniel San ...

...The military had warned in leaflets dropped by helicopter and messages played over loudspeaker Tuesday morning that it would soon raid the insurgent-controlled neighborhood of Sarai, east of the city center, and asked civilians to evacuate through checkpoints in the southern part of town.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/06/AR2005090601633_pf.html

... If the residents of the Saria neighborhood cannot be convinced to leave the impending combat zone, and the Coalition decides to conduct the assault, the fighting will be bloody indeed. Al Qaeda is notorious for using civilians as human shields and fighting from homes with civilians present to increase the propaganda value and destroy the image of the U.S. military and government.

While the assault on Fallujah last fall has been portrayed by many antiwar activists and elements of the foreign and domestic media as an abuse of U.S. power, the residents of Tal Afar (and no doubt elsewhere in Iraq) fear an assault of this nature, thus proving that direct force still has its place in modern war.

"To Fallujah" has now become a verb for Iraqis, Hickey explained later, synonymous with the violent leveling of a recalcitrant city. In mid July, in fact, Baghdad ominously announced that there would be a "solution" to the Tall 'Afar "problem" within 10 days. Three dozen men from Tall 'Afar and Mosul went to Baghdad to meet with the government to circumvent "a Fallujah."

www.billroggio.com

"... You don’t know the horrible aspects of war. I’ve been through two wars and I know. I’ve seen cities and homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is hell! "

William Tecumseh Sherman
http://www.mi5th.org/warishell.htm

[Casey]

08/09/2005 16:19:01 News from Al-Mendhar - www.almendhar.com

Peshmerga Forces Arrest Two "Al Qaeda" and "Ansar Al Sonna Groups in Erbil

Erbil – A top Kurdish official announced that the security forces under the Kurdistani Democratic Party have arrested two armed groups in the city of Erbil. The two groups have confessed their involvement in a number of attacks and explosions in the city, in which a great number of police affiliates and civilians were victimized.

In a press conference in Birmam Summer resort (25 km north of Erbil), Masrour Barzani, son of the president of Kurdistan region Masud Barzani and the official of the Kurdistani national security authority, said that the first group consists of six members of Al Qaeda Organization and the second group includes three members of Ansar Al Sunna organization. The two groups were working independently. Barzani accused the members of the two groups of assassinating and attempting to assassinate a number of the Kurdish security officials, in addition to attacking a camp of the Korean forces, which are based in the west of Erbil city.

As regards the identity of the members of the two groups, the Kurdish security official only said that the group, which is affiliated with Ansar Al Sunna, consists of two men and a woman, who planned for executing the suicide attack in front of the Kurdistani Democratic party branch in Erbil, which was used as a registration office for the volunteers in the police forces last May. The attack has resulted in the death of approximately 70 persons of volunteers and citizens.

Barzani accused the group, which belongs to Al Qaeda Organization of planning and executing the explosion in front of Erbil Traffic Police Department last June, which has led to the death and injury of tens of police affiliates. The official of the Kurdistani National Security Administration ahs promised to transmit the confessions of the two groups on TV soon.

Al Sharq Al Awsat

http://www.almendhar.com/english_5997/news.aspx

[Jake]

These guys (Pesh Murgas) may well be our strongest allies in the Middle East.

And they are a formidable force as well.

[NYer]

More on Tal Afar ...


Iraqi Military Reports Arrest of 200 Insurgents in Tal Afar, Mostly Foreign Fighters
Associated Press JACOB SILBERBERG, Associated Press Writer


TAL AFAR,Iraq -- U.S. and Iraqi forces have encircled the insurgent stronghold of Tal Afar, and Iraqi authorities on Thursday announced the arrest of 200 suspected insurgents there _ most of them foreign fighters.

The Iraqi military said 150 of those arrested Wednesday in this town near the Syrian border were Arabs from Syria, Sudan, Yemen and Jordan.

The joint forces have reported heavy battles on the outskirts of the city and several deadly bombings that have mainly killed civilians. Iraqi authorities reported most of the civilian population had fled the city, which is 260 miles north of Baghdad and about 35 miles from the Syrian border.

"Our forces arrested 150 non-Iraqi Arabs yesterday in addition to 50 Iraqi terrorists with fake documents as they were trying to flee the city with the (civilian) families," said Iraqi army Capt. Mohammed Ahmed.

"We ordered the families to evacuate the Sunni neighborhood of Sarai, which is believed to be the main stronghold of the insurgents," Ahmed said

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/08/AR2005090800259.html

[experiencediz]

Tal Afar Residents Send Out SOS

MOSUL, September 9, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Residents of the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar has sent out an SOS to the international community to interfere with the US occupation authorities to stop their continuing bombing of their devastated city, revealing a terrible humanitarian situation (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4228934.stm).

"US and Iraqi forces are still besieging Tal Afar amid ongoing intensive bombing, ordering residents of Hassan Kawi and Sarray neighborhoods to evacuate immediately," a Tal Afar tribal leader told IOL over the phone Thursday, September 8.

"The Americans are seemingly bombing the city with chemical weapons," he said, adding Tal Afar residents are speaking of suffocations and other health problems upon exposure to any hit area.

Residents told IOL over the phone that they saw an ambulance driver trying to evacuate 10 corpses on a Hassan Kawi street. When he tried to move them to the morgue, US forces refused and ordered him to speed away.

US and Iraqi troops have been besieging the city since Saturday, September 3, and were reportedly gearing up for a large-scale offensive.

Evacuation

In a press conference Wednesday, September 7, Major General Mohammed Ahmed Khalaf Jaboury, Police Chief of Nynwa Province – of which Tal Afar is a major city – said security forces question evacuees running out of the city and any 18-year-old or above male fails to answer any question is detained.

"We ordered the families to evacuate the Sunni neighbourhood of Saray, which is believed to be the main stronghold of the insurgents," Jaboury added.

Residents are forced to evacuate the city whether onboard US helicopters or using their own cars. Those who try to get out on their own have to pass through checkpoints set and manned by the Shiite Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq {SCIRI) 's Badr militia.

Reporting stealing their possessions and other abuses by the Shiite militia, most remaining residents are forced to board US helicopters.

Those who are still in the city are gathering up in one of two refugee camps set up on the suburbs of Tal Afar, where they face serious shortages of clean water, food and medicine.

The Fresh US and Iraqi offensive into Tal Afar has sent 90 percent of its population into panicky flight, while the rest are sending impassioned SOS messages as they were trapped inside homes by imposed curfews.

"The current offensive is another episode of Iraqi government violations of an already reached agreement with residents to end rebellion in the city peacefully", said Hazem Kallash, deputy chairman of Iraq's Kurdistan Front.

Fallujah Scenario

Clashes between US and Iraqi forces on one side and resistance elements on the other are not the first to take place in the city, raising fears a major offensive similar to the devastating one on Fallujah, which was turned into a ghost city, was under in Tal Afar.

In August of 2004, Tal Afar was the scene of a deadly US offensive that killed hundreds of its residents and displaced thousands.

The United States sees Tal Afar, near the Syrian border, as a conduit for "foreign fighters and military equipment" coming into Iraq to help resistance fighters fighting the occupying US forces and the Shiite-Kurdish-dominated Iraqi government.

•Tal Afar Residents Send Out SOS (http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2005-09/09/article01.shtml)

[NYer]

The Battle for the Border IV
By Bill Roggio



Qaim

In the region of Qaim, the U.S. focuses on local intelligence and airpower to target al Qaeda leaders and fighters, and disrupt their operations. Within the last twenty four hours, two more air strikes are conducted in the region, and two leaders of al Qaeda are killed.

Abu Mohammad, the leader of a bomb making cell, has been killed during an air strike on a terrorist safe house in Husaybah. According to CENTCOM, Mohammad was well connected in the region, and reported directly to Abu Islam, al Qaeda’s former “Emir of Husaybah”. Abu Islam was killed in an air strike last week in Qaim, along with forty-seven other terrorists.

Abu Ali, “a senior al-Qaeda agent in charge of helping foreign fighters enter the country from Syria” was also killed near Husaybah during an air strike. Ali was an import leader of al Qaeda. His reach extended outside of Iraq to Saudi Arabia and Syria, and he was responsible for helping foreign terrorists get established in the cities and towns along the western branch of the Euphrates River. Ali also was an associate of Abu Talha, the former leader of al Qaeda in Mosul, who was arrested in June.

Tal Afar

In Tal Afar, two hundred terrorists are bagged while attempting to escape the cordon placed around the city. One hundred and fifty of them are foreigners from Syria, Sudan, Yemen and Jordan. U.S. and Iraqi forces are engaged in combat at the city outskirts.

Iraqi Army Soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division detained six individuals suspected of terrorist activity during a cordon and search in Tal Afar. Suspects are in custody with no ISF injuries reported. Soldiers from 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment killed four terrorists who they observed with weapons on a building preparing an ambush in Tal Afar Wednesday. Soldiers from 2/3 ACR killed three more terrorists after receiving small arms fire in Tal Afar today.

According to Major General Rick Lynch, the battle for Tal Afar will be lengthy and conducted on the Coalition’s timeline; “over the next several weeks -- we're not specifying any time -- specific military operations to target the insurgency in Tal Afar.” The evacuation of the civilian population is a likely the reason for delaying the offensive. Gathering intelligence from those who do not wish to see their homes destroyed or their neighbors who chose to stay behind killed is another reason for the delay. As we are seeing in the Qaim region, actionable intelligence is quite valuable.

MG Lynch also confirms that Tal Afar is not part of a search and destroy operation, but is indeed a clear and hold operation. “We have now sufficient assets available between the coalition forces and Iraqi security forces ... to leave behind a robust security presence so the insurgents cannot return.”

The speculation is now over. The Coalition has officially entered Phase II of the Anbar Campaign, where U.S. forces, with Iraqi Army assistance, provide the push to eject the insurgents from the cities in Western Iraq.

Once the insurgents lose Tal Afar, their vital northern hub along the ratline from Syria will be seriously disrupted. This makes the need to maintain a presence in Qaim all the more important, and the fighting there all the more intense.

http://billroggio.com/

[experiencediz]

Outages & Shutdowns are direct results of unplanned war,Things are done by impulse in Iraq or for propaganda.

Baghdad airport reopens after dispute over bill
Ellen Knickmeyer and Naseer Nouri, Washington Post
September 10, 2005

BAGHDAD -- A standoff over a multimillion-dollar security bill owed by the Iraqi government shut down Baghdad's international airport Friday and severed Iraq's safest route to the outside world, highlighting disarray in the country's administration and spurring U.S. troops to step in to maintain security.

However, the company, Global Strategies Group, a British firm, announced early today that it had agreed to reopen the airport this morning after a promise by the government to pay half the amount owed.

The dispute concerned $36 million owed Global for running the airport's security. The $4.5 million monthly contract was signed by Iraq's previous government and had gone unpaid since January as the current government tries to renegotiate it, Iraqi officials confirmed. Global shut down airport operations for 48 hours in June in a dispute over the same contract.

On Friday, Global's security contractors maintained their posts around the airport but turned back would-be travelers -- shutting down travel without actually leaving unguarded either the airport road, which was one of Iraq's most-bombed routes until U.S. military stepped up its presence there, and the airport, which insurgents have not managed to hit.

"Make a U-turn. There are no flights today," a Global guard at a sandbagged, concrete-walled checkpoint told one traveler, a police officer with luggage in the back of the car and a ticket in hand for a training seminar in neighboring Jordan.

"Why?" the traveler asked, demanding to know when he could fly. "We don't know," the guard answered. "We just need you to turn around."

The news caught more than travelers by surprise; top Iraqi Transportation Ministry officials, when called at midmorning for comment on the closing, said they had not known about it.

By late afternoon, U.S. troops had set up their own checkpoint by parking Humvees across the airport road and stopping each vehicle to check for IDs. Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman, said the Iraqi government had asked the Americans to step in.

Acting Transportation Minister Esmat Amer vowed to send Iraqi troops to force reopening of the airport. The ministry dispatched its police, only to call them back after they reached the American checkpoint. "We did not want to create a confrontation," Amer said. Interior Ministry officials also briefly appeared at the checkpoint, guards said.

Government officials tried to put a brave face on things by saying throughout the day that the airport would reopen imminently and normal traffic resume.

Ease demands

Security contractors ease the demands on both the rebuilding Iraqi security forces and the 140,000 U.S. troops.

In Washington, meanwhile, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Friday that if Iraqis can control the country's main cities and roads there would be no need for American forces to remain for more than two years. Talabani, who will meet with President Bush next week prior to the U.N. summit in New York, stressed that Iraq still needs U.S. forces to fight against terrorism. He warned that a quick withdrawal of American and multinational forces "could lead to the victory of the terrorists in Iraq and create grave threats to the region, the United States and the civilized world."

The Associated Press and New York Times contributed to this report.

•Baghdad airport reopens after dispute over bill (http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/5606709.html)

[NYer]

Chemical Weapons Alert!

Al-Arabiya TV has breaking news about the operations in Tal-Afar saying that Al-Qaeda in Iraq is threatening to use chemical weapons!!
No details so far.

Update:

Al-Arabiya says that the announcement was posted on a website that belongs to a "militant group calling themselves the army of the victorious sect".
The terrorists threatened to "use nonconventional and chemical weapons against Iraqi and American troops if they don't withdraw from Tal-Afar".

It's worth mentioning that this terror group was mentioned in the news for the 1st time after they claimed responsibility for the mortar attacks on the shrine of Imam Kadhum on the same day of the tragic stampede on the Aima bridge in Baghdad.

http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/

[experiencediz]

Militants offer bounty for Iraqi PM

An Iraqi militant group has offered up to $US100,000 for killing Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and top officials who launched an offensive on rebels in a northern town, an Internet statement says.

The Islamic Army in Iraq, among several insurgent groups fighting US troops and Iraqi forces, says Mr Jaafari and the defence and interior ministers should die for the fighting in Tal Afar.

"The leadership of the army has issued orders to all the mujahideen to intensify their attacks ... to avenge the mass extermination occurring in Tal Afar," the statement said, which was not dated but bore the group's logo.

The statement could not be immediately verified.

It put a $US100,000 price on Mr Jaafari, $US50,000 for Interior Minister Bayan Jabor and $US30,000 for Defence Minister Saadoun Dulaimi.

About 10,000 US and Iraqi troops are hunting rebels and foreign fighters in Tal Afar, a city of 200,000 near the Syrian border.

Mr Jaafari said on Friday he had given the go-ahead for the assault after days of deadly clashes failed to dislodge the rebels.

Inhabitants were told to leave before the all-out offensive started. The men who remained behind faced arrest.

On Sunday, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, accused the US army of using poison gas on the town to "finish off the mujahideen".

A third Al Qaeda-linked group threatened to retaliate against US forces with chemical weapons.

An Internet statement posted in the name of the Jaish al-Taefa al-Mansura, or Army of the Victorious Community, warned of reprisal attacks using "non-conventional and chemical weapons ... developed by the mujahedeen ... unless the armed onslaught against the city of Tal Afar stops within 24 hours".

None of the Internet postings' authenticity could be verified.

US troops rounded up all men of fighting age in Sunni neighbourhoods where the rebels had held sway, after issuing an ultimatum for male residents to leave last Tuesday.

Dozens of handcuffed detainees, some blindfolded, were gathered near the town's grain silos as US soldiers brought them one-by-one infront of masked locals for screening.

"They (the rebels) went into hiding, avoiding us. That's why there is no fighting... They are not putting a fight," US Colonel Greg Reilly told AFP, adding that about 150 had been detained.

Meanwhile, Iraqi rebels launched a rocket attack overnight on the US consulate in the southern city of Basra.

Four 107-millimetre Chinese-built rockets slammed into ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's former Basra palace, which houses both the US and the British consulates, a Western diplomat says.

"There were no casualties or injuries, and no significant structural damage," the US embassy says.

The attack was the latest in a series of attacks which have increased tension in an area that has remained relatively free of the deadly insurgency engulfing much of the rest of the country.

On Sunday, a British serviceman was killed and three injured in a bomb attack in Basra, six days after two more British soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing near the city.

- AFP/Reuters

•Militants offer bounty for Iraqi PM (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1458657.htm)

[experiencediz]

Also , Al Qaeda in Iraq on it's final stage| Whatever that means...

"Your enemy is now witnessing his worst days on the land of Iraq, seeking to get out of it but he can't find the way out; trying to get out of the swamp through the oppressive constitution," the speaker said.

"Be aware and keep your fingers on the triggers. The final and decisive battle is approaching and we are determined to uproot them and make them taste the horrors of the battle," he added.

• ...be ready for a "final" battle (http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/11/D8CICTMG0.html)

[NYer]

Zark urged his fighters to prepare for a "final" battle.No doubt Zark will be behind his men during this final battle ...Way behind.

[NYer]

Militants offer bounty for Iraqi PM

Reuters once again calls Terrorists "militants."

[experiencediz]

Reuters once again calls Terrorists "militants."

I'm not sure why that would be wrong?
•Militant (http://www.britannica.com/search?query=militant&submit=Find&source=MWTEXT)

[experiencediz]

and another thing . . .
September 13, 2005

I was in my apartment with my wife. Our eyes met and silently, in that locked gaze, we said goodbye. Just yards down the street, dozens of mortar bombs were smashing into our local police station. I was convinced that we would not escape this time. In Baghdad, we are used to almost everything — bullets barely make us look up; explosions are more common than thunder. But during the four-hour attack on my street, I vowed to God that if I got out alive, I would donate a whole sheep to the poor of my home town.
The blast blew out the windows and smashed the hall door. My wife and I hid in an inner room, clutching each other under blankets to protect us from flying glass. We hardly ever go out together now, to avoid the danger that even the smallest trip presents. But in Baghdad, there is nowhere to hide. The bombs have become so frequent and random that they destroy houses, shops and schools. I tell my wife to stay at home, unless I take her to the doctor’s for a check-up: she is in her sixth month of pregnancy and I am terrified that she would suffer a miscarriage during the attack.



In eight months of marriage, we have been out to lunch together once. But the restaurant had a huge glass window, and I spent the meal worrying that a blast could blow it in on us. There is no nightlife in Baghdad. Everyone stays at home watching TV, if there is electricity, which is not often. Even if somebody falls sick, you think twice about taking them to hospital after dark: you could be shot by US forces and Iraqi police enforcing the midnight to 5am curfew. Even before the curfew, few people venture out after dusk.

Everyone here has stories of close brushes with bombs. Last September, I was driving across a flyover in a friend’s car when a US army patrol passed underneath the bridge. One of the Humvees hit a roadside bomb. We thought we had hit the bomb ourselves. Asphalt and debris rained down on the roof of our car. We stopped down the road, laughing hysterically out of shock and fear, hardly able to believe we were still alive.

Working for a UK newspaper, I have to watch every step I take. When I leave home, I walk at least 50m from my front door to see if I am being followed, before hailing a taxi. Even then, I cannot speak in English if a journalist calls me: I could be kidnapped or killed for speaking the language of the “occupiers”. Two years ago, when the bombings and assassinations started in earnest, people here could not believe that Iraqis were behind the attacks. Everyone blamed the Americans or Mossad agents. Many of the attacks are carried out by foreign jihadists, but many are also the work of Iraqis. It has taken a long time to sink in that Iraqis could do this to each other: the bombings, beheadings, people being shot dead in their shops, in their own homes.

My wife and I are from southern Iraq. We talk of returning there if a civil war breaks out. But life there is hard, with little electricity or water. We will go there so our baby can be born safely, so that if my wife goes into labour at night I can take her to the hospital. I worry about my child’s future. I pray that he or she won’t have to see the things I have seen.


ALI HUSAIN

•and another thing . . . (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7-1776959,00.html)

[Petronas]

156 insurgents killed in Tal Afar operation
Tuesday, September 13, 2005

TAL AFAR: Iraq closed its border with Syria on Sunday to stop what it calls foreign fighters entering the country, as a US-backed military operation to wipe out suspected terrorists in the city of Tal Afar continued. Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said on Sunday he was also imposing an overnight curfew in the northwestern region of Rabiah, on the main road from the Syrian border to the northern city of Mosul, near Tal Afar.

About 5,000 Iraqi soldiers, backed by a 3,500-strong American armoured force, reported 156 insurgents killed and 246 captured in Tal Afar. Defence Minister Saadoun Dulaimi said five government soldiers were killed and three wounded. The force discovered a big bomb factory, 18 weapons caches and a tunnel network in the ancient Sarai neighbourhood of Tal Afar. “The terrorists had seen it coming (and prepared) tunnel complexes to be used as escape routes,” Maj Gen Rick Lynch told reporters in Baghdad.

Local residents said the vicinity of Tal Afar was quiet early on Sunday. The Iraqi Red Crescent warned the humanitarian situation in the town was “critical” and reported a mass exodus of between 5,000 and 7,000 families.

Lynch said operations in Tal Afar were part of a much larger, countrywide plan to destroy insurgent and Al Qaeda bases. Dulaimi said that after the assault on Tal Afar, government forces were ready to strike insurgents in four other towns, Ramadi, Samarra, Rawa and Qaim.

An Internet statement in the name of an Al Qaeda linked group threatened to retaliate against US forces with chemical weapons if the operation did not end within 24 hours but its authenticity could not be verified. Iraq’s Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi denounced the Tal Afar operation, saying US and Iraqi forces would inevitably taste defeat, in an audio tape attributed to him on an Internet site on Sunday.

The US military said it had also launched a joint operation with Iraqi security forces against a suspected Al Qaeda “safe haven” in the desert town of Rutbah on the main highway to Jordan. In other violence, a British soldier was killed and two wounded in a bombing in Basra, and a US soldier died and two were wounded when a bomb went off near a patrol outside Samarra.

In Baghdad, the director of police training at the Interior Ministry was gunned down in front of his home as he waited for a ride to work. Three women were killed and 13 other Iraqis wounded in a series of attacks in and north of Baghdad. In northern Iraq, the US military said it had killed Al Qaeda’s regional commander for Mosul.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_12-9-2005_pg7_1

[experiencediz]

Guy is licking a** already! (http://trojancondoms.com/product_info/index.asp)
Here is the latest in KY jelly products (http://www.k-y.com/products.jsp)

President Talabani: 'The Great Leader, Mr. George W. Bush'
By NewsWires
MichNews.com (http://www.michnews.com/)
Sep 13, 2005

President Talabani: "In the name of Iraqi people, I say to you, Mr. President, and to the glorious American people, thank you, thank you. Thank you, because you liberated us from the worst kind of dictatorship. Our people suffered too much from this worst kind of dictatorship. ... We agree with Mr. President Bush that democracy is the solution to the problems of the Middle East. Mr. President, you are a visionary, great statesman. We salute you. We are grateful to you. We will never forget what you have done for our people."

---------

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you all. It's an honor to welcome the first democratically elected President of Iraq to the White House. I'm proud to stand with a brave leader of the Iraqi people, a friend of the United States, and a testament to the power of human freedom.

Mr. President, thank you for your leadership; thank you for your courage.

President Talabani has dedicated his life to the cause of liberty in Iraq. As a lawyer, a journalist, and a political leader in Northern Iraq, he stood up to a brutal dictator, because he believes that every Iraqi deserves the be free. The dictator destroyed Kurdish villages, ordered poison gas attacks on a Kurdish city, and violently repressed other religious and ethnic groups. For President Talibani and his fellow citizens, the day Saddam was removed from power was a day of deliverance. And America will always be proud that we led the armies of liberation.

In the past two years, the Iraqi people have made their vision of their future clear. This past January, more than 8 million Iraqis defied the car bombers and the assassins and voted in free elections. It is an inspiring act of unity when 80 percent of the elected National Assembly chose the President, a member of Iraq's Kurdish minority, to lead the free nation.

In our meeting today, I congratulated the President on his election, and I thanked him for his leadership on Iraq's draft constitution. The draft constitution is an historic milestone. It protects fundamental freedoms, including religion, assembly, conscience and expression. It calls for a federal system of government, which is essential to preserving the unity of a diverse nation like Iraq. It declares that all Iraqis are equal before the law, without regard to gender, ethnicity, and religion.

The Iraqi people can be proud of the draft constitution, and when an election to ratify that constitution is held next month, they will have a chance to vote their conscience at the polls.

As the Iraqi people continue on the path to democracy, the enemies of freedom remain brutal and determined. The killers in Iraq are the followers of the same ideology as those who attacked America four years ago. Their vision is for an Iraq that looks like Afghanistan under the Taliban; a society where freedom is crushed, girls are denied schooling, and terrorists have a safe haven to plot attacks on America and other free people.

To impose their hateful vision, our enemies know they must drive America out of Iraq before the Iraqi people can secure their own freedom. They believe we will retreat in the face of violence, so they're committing acts of staggering brutality, murdering Iraqi children receiving candy, or hospital workers treating the wounded. We have no doubt that our enemies will continue to kill. Yet we also know they cannot achieve their aims unless we lose our resolve.

Today, Mr. President, I pledge that we will not waver. And I appreciate your same pledge. Iraq will take its place among the world's democracies. The enemies of freedom will be defeated.

President Talabani and I discussed our strategy for the months ahead. America will stand with the Iraqi people as they move forward with the democratic process. We're seeing hopeful developments in places like Fallujah and Ramadi and Mosul, where Iraqis are registering to vote, many for the first time -- well, obviously, for the first time.

At the same time, American troops will stay on the offensive, alongside Iraqi security forces, to hunt down our common enemies. At this hour, American and Iraqi forces are conducting joint operations to rout out terrorists and insurgents in Tall Afar. Our objective is to defeat the enemies of a free Iraq, and we're working to prepare more Iraqi forces to join the fight. As Iraqis stand up, Americans will stand down. And when the mission is complete, our troops will come home, with the honor they have earned.

Tomorrow, President Talabani and I will take our seats at the United Nations in New York. The session will mark the first time in a half-century that Iraq is represented by a freely elected government.

Securing freedom in Iraq has required great sacrifice, Mr. President. You know that better than anybody. And there's going to be difficult days ahead. Yet I have no doubt about the impact of a democratic Iraq on the rest of the world. As Iraq becomes a federal, unified democracy, people throughout the broader Middle East will demand their own liberty. The Middle East will become more peaceful, and America and the world become more secure.

We're proud to call you, friend, Mr. President, and proud to have you as an ally in the war on terror. On behalf of the American people, I want to thank you for Iraq's generous pledge of aid to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Welcome to the United States.

PRESIDENT TALABANI: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President, for your kind remarks. It is honor for me to stand here today as a representative of free Iraq. It is an honor to present the world's youngest democracy.

In the name of Iraqi people, I say to you, Mr. President, and to the glorious American people, thank you, thank you. Thank you, because you liberated us from the worst kind of dictatorship. Our people suffered too much from this worst kind of dictatorship. The -- (inaudible)

-- was hundred thousand of Iraqi innocent children and women, young and old men. Thank you, and thanks to the United States, there are now 15 million Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq liberated by your courageous leadership and decision to liberate us, Mr. President.

We agree with Mr. President Bush that democracy is the solution to the problems of the Middle East. Mr. President, you are a visionary, great statesman. We salute you. We are grateful to you. We will never forget what you have done for our people.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, sir.

PRESIDENT TALABANI: We have had a good discussion with Mr. President. We are partners. We are proud to say openly and to repeat it that we are partners of the United States of America in fighting against tyranny, terrorism, and for democracy. It is something we are not shy to say and will repeat it everywhere, here and in Iraq, and the United Nations and everywhere.

Iraq is America's ally in the war against terrorism. Our soldiers are now fighting side-by-side with your brave soldiers, now and every day. We have captured many senior elements of al Qaeda. We killed many of them, and we have also many of them in our prisons.

With your support, we could create a society enjoying democracy for the first time, obviously. Now Iraq is a free country. We have all kinds of democracy, all kinds of freedom of expression of parties, groups, civil society, organizations -- that we can say that our democracy is unique in the Middle East.

Our strategy is solvent. We build democracy and defend democracy. We talk about how we could improve our tactics. There is progress in security in our country. The number of the -- (inaudible) -- reduced; the traces which were under the full control of the terrorists are now liberated, and they're now registering their names for the new election.

In the areas which were known that there was any of al Qaeda now became the area of Iraq. And two important signals appeared in that area -- the people started to -- (inaudible) -- and to fight terrorists. Now we have Iraqi Arab tribes, Sunni tribes fighting terrorism and al Qaeda. We have also people who are in -- (inaudible) -- who are cooperating with Iraqi forces, and with American forces against terrorism. It is a good signal that our people start to understand that terrorism is the enemy of Iraqi people before becoming enemy of Americans. They are killing our civilians, or innocent children. They are destroying our mosques -- church, everywhere, regardless of what may happen to the people.

And we are now progressing gradually. Last year, for example -- (inaudible) -- a year ago, Najaf was a battlefield. Najaf is a holy city of Shiites, the Vatican of the Shiites. Now Najaf is being rebuilt, is free, and ruled by the elected committee, elected government.

There are still important security challenges we are neglecting. But we are fighting al Qaeda. Now our fight in Tall Afar proved that the enemy is going to be weakened and low morale. The fighting in Tall Afar was easy to defeat the terrorists and to liberate the town.

The so-called jihadists want to impose oppression and dictatorship and worst kind of society on our people. For that they are not only -- so they are not only the enemy of Iraq, but they are the enemy of humanity, the enemy of real Islam, and the enemy of all Middle East peoples. Together with our American friends and partners, we will defeat them.

Today, American and international presence in Iraq is vital. The American and international presence in Iraq is vital for democracy in Iraq and in the Middle East, and also for prevent foreign interference in the internal affairs of Iraq.

We will set no timetable for withdrawal, Mr. President. A timetable will help the terrorists, will encourage them that they could defeat a superpower of the world and the Iraqi people. We hope that by the end of 2006, our security forces are up to the level of taking responsibility from many American troops with complete agreement with Americans. We don't want to do anything without the agreement with the Americans because we don't want to give any signal to the terrorists that our will to defeat them is weakened, or they can defeat us.

We are proud that one day will come -- as soon as possible, of course, we hope -- that American troops can proudly return home, and we tell them, thank you, dear friends, and you are faithful to friendship. Of course, we are sorry for the sacrifices of American people in Iraq, but I think a great people like America has a mission in the history -- they have sacrificed hundreds of thousands of their sons in the war -- first world war, second world war, and in liberating people in Afghanistan, Kurdistan. And the great leader, Mr. George W. Bush is continuing the same mission of the American people. We are grateful. We are grateful for American generosity, and we honor -- we honor -- sacrifices of America in Iraq -- and everywhere, not only in Iraq.

We also need our neighbors, at least some of them, to stop attacking Iraqi democracy. We want them to join us in fighting against terrorism. We want our Arab brothers -- (inaudible) -- media, at least the official media, to support terrorism. We want them to stand with us against terrorism, because terrorism is the enemy of all Arab and Muslim countries in the world.

But we will proceed, and we will remember those who helped us in our struggle to establish a democracy in Iraq. And you are first those people who supported us for this noble mission.

There is, in Iraq, political progress. We are talking taking the gun out of Iraqi politics, for the first time. Iraqis will have -- speak in peaceful dialogue, not with arms. The majority of Iraqis are committed to political process. Iraq is a diverse country. They are mostly settling -- (inaudible) -- peacefully.

We have agreed a draft constitution. Of course, it is not perfect document, but I think it is one of the best constitutions in the Middle East. Of course, we didn't solve all problems, we have some problems. We are still suffering from many problems. But we are achieving progress on all fields -- economic, trade, education, political life. And we hope that we will remain having the support of the United States, and yourself, Mr. President, and other friends in Arab world and in Europe.

It is true we are a young democracy, but our draft constitution has a bill of rights, ensures the equality of all Iraqis -- regardless of their gender, creed, religion, or ethnicity. It enshrines the separation of powers, and involves many checks and balances on the exercise of power. It is the best constitution in the entire region, as we claim. We hope it will be correct.

We are reaching out to some other Iraqi citizens who were not able to participate in the election -- I mean our Arab Sunni brothers. We tried to be involved with them in the process. When the result of the election was announced, the two main lists of alliance -- the Kurdistan Alliance and the United Front of Iraq Shiite Alliance -- we got 238 votes, and the Assembly was 275. But, nevertheless, we tried to bring our Sunni Arabs to the government, to participate. We elected a vice president, an Arab Sunni; two deputy prime ministers; the Speaker of the House is a Sunni; and six ministers, among them, two main posts, the Minister of Defense and Minister of Industry.

It means that we are anxious to have all Iraqis united, and to solve all our problems through dialogue. We are calling all Iraqis to come to participate in the democratic process and to say what they want, and they are free to decide the government -- decide the President of Iraq, the Prime Minister, the ministers, and they are able to say what they want through democratic process, they can say their -- and demands.

This, of course, constitution is not perfect, but it can be amended in the future, if the Iraqi people want this. But now, compared with others, we are proud to have such a kind of constitution. Some of our brothers, Sunni Arabs, are under the threat of terrorism. We will try our best to liberate them from terrorism and from the violence.

To those in America, in other countries, still ask of war of liberation in Iraq, if it was right -- the right decision. I say, please, please, come to Iraq, to visit the mass graves, to see what happened to the Iraqi people, and to see what now is going on in Iraq. To those who talk of stability, I say, Saddam imposed the stability of the mass graves. To the terrorists, I say, you will never win; freedom will win in Iraq.

Thank you, Mr. President.

•President Talabani: 'The Great Leader, Mr. George W. Bush' (http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_9471.shtml)