These are the archives for the week ending 2nd February 2007
Shell defies US pressure
Shell has signed an important deal to help Iran develop a major gas field, ignoring growing pressure from George Bush to isolate the country for being part of what he alleges is an "axis of evil".
The move is a bold one by Shell because its arch-rival BP has declared itself unwilling to invest in Iran at a time when the international political climate surrounding the country is so forbidding.
Washington has increased pressure on non-US companies in the past year not to invest in Iran and some analysts believe it could be hard for oil companies to maintain operations in both Iran and the United States, where Shell and its Spanish partner Repsol both have fields.
Fadel Gheit, oil analyst with the Oppenheimer & Co brokerage in New York, said Shell was right to proceed in Iran. "This is very positive for the company because those that get in at an early stage will be rewarded. They are clearly willing to ignore Bush because he is coming to the end of his presidency and when he goes everything could change."
Guardian, 29/1/07
Iran's 'unhealthy' disregard for US power
Citing Iranian involvement with Iraqi militias and Tehran's nuclear ambitions, the Bush administration has shifted to offense in its confrontation with Iran — building up the U.S. military in the Persian Gulf and promising more aggressive moves against Iranian operatives in Iraq and Lebanon.
The behind-the-scenes struggle between the two nations could explode into open warfare over a single misstep, analysts and U.S. military officials warn. Iran expert Ray Takeyh said the risks are all the greater because Tehran has an "unhealthy" disregard for American power, which "enhances the prospect of a miscalculation."
Prof. Gary Sick, a leading authority on Iran, believes the U.S. is seeking to divert world attention from the crisis in Iraq and organize a coalition of Israel and conservative Sunni Arab states to confront Iran.
"I see this as a very dangerous long-term policy because it promotes the idea that Sunnis and Shiites should be distrustful of each other, and I think that could come back and bite us later on," he said.
Yahoo News, 31/1/07
Najaf 'battle' was massacre
There are growing suspicions in Iraq that the official story of the battle outside Najaf between a messianic Iraqi cult and the Iraqi security forces supported by the US, in which 263 people were killed and 210 wounded, is a fabrication. The heavy casualties may be evidence of an unpremeditated massacre.
A picture is beginning to emerge of a clash between an Iraqi Shia tribe on a pilgrimage to Najaf and an Iraqi army checkpoint that led the US to intervene with devastating effect. The involvement of Ahmed al-Hassani (also known as Abu Kamar), who believed himself to be the coming Mahdi, or Messiah, appears to have been accidental.
The incident reportedly began when a procession of 200 pilgrims was on its way, on foot, to celebrate Ashura in Najaf. Heading the procession was the chief of the tribe, Hajj Sa'ad Sa'ad Nayif al-Hatemi, and his wife driving in their 1982 Super Toyota sedan because they could not walk. When they reached an Iraqi army checkpoint it opened fire, killing Mr Hatemi, his wife and his driver, Jabar Ridha al-Hatemi. The tribe, fully armed because they were travelling at night, then assaulted the checkpoint to avenge their fallen chief.
Meanwhile, the soldiers and police at the checkpoint called up their commanders saying they were under attack from al-Qai'da with advanced weapons. Reinforcements poured into the area and surrounded the Hawatim tribe in the nearby orchards. The tribesmen tried - in vain - to get their attackers to cease fire.
American helicopters then arrived and dropped leaflets saying: "To the terrorists, surrender before we bomb the area." The tribesmen went on firing and a US helicopter was hit and crashed killing two crewmen. The tribesmen say they do not know if they hit it or if it was brought down by friendly fire. The US aircraft launched an intense aerial bombardment in which 120 tribesmen and local residents were killed by 4am on Monday.
This account cannot be substantiated and is drawn from the Healing Iraq website and the authoritative Baghdad daily Azzaman. But it would explain the disparity between the government casualties - less than 25 by one account - and the great number of their opponents killed and wounded. The Iraqi authorities have sealed the site and are not letting reporters talk to the wounded.
Independent, 31/1/07
US will end British ceasefire
The British model for a new approach to defusing the Taliban insurgency has unfolded recently in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province.
Following bitter clashes last summer between British and Taliban forces, the Musa Qala tribal council, acting with British approval and backed by Helmand's governor, Mohammed Daud, negotiated a cease-fire in early September that led to a 15-point peace agreement.
The accord provided for an end to the Taliban offensive, the withdrawal of British forces and the creation of a local militia that would replace the ineffectual central government police and army units in the district. After peace prevailed for 35 days, the British pulled out on Oct. 17.
Peace still prevails. Nevertheless, Karzai, under intense U.S. pressure, fired Daud and appointed a new governor who disowned the accord as a sellout to the Taliban.
The British commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan stands by the agreement, but U.S. spokesmen say that his American successor will order British forces to resume fighting in Musa Qala when he takes over shortly.
Washington Post, 30/1/07
"They are killing our children"
Bombing and strafing attacks on suspected Taliban hideouts killed at least 4,643 Afghan civilian noncombatants from October 2001 to Oct. 1, 2006, according to an exhaustive study by University of New Hampshire economist Marc W. Herold.
The result has been the steady growth of anti-American sentiment focused on the U.S.-backed regime of President Hamid Karzai.
"The cruelty is too much," Karzai declared last month. In tears, Karzai said that the coalition forces are "killing our children. We can't prevent the terrorists from coming from Pakistan, we can't stop the coalition from bombing the terrorists, and our children are dying because of this."
Washington Post, 30/1/07
US navy will search ships bound for Iran...
A US Navy strike group led by the assault ship USS Bataan steamed through the Suez Canal on Tuesday on its way to join the buildup of American forces in the Middle East. The seven-vessel Bataan group includes 2,200 US Marines and sailors, helicopters and Harrier fighter jets, the Navy said in Bahrain.
The US Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, will be overseeing around 50 warships in the Mideast after the arrival of the Bataan and an American aircraft carrier group in February, said US Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown. The United States has not had two carriers in the Mideast since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The Bataan is on a routine six-month deployment to the region to conduct "maritime security operations" which includes boarding and searching ships suspected of carrying terrorists or nuclear components to Iran, the Navy said.
Jerusalem Post, 31/1/07
...as air force prepares for more aggressive role
The Air Force is preparing for an expanded role in Iraq that could include aggressive new tactics designed to deter Iranian assistance to Iraqi militants, senior Pentagon officials said.
The efforts could include more forceful patrols by Air Force and Navy fighter planes along the Iran-Iraq border to counter the smuggling of bomb supplies from Iran, a senior Pentagon official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing future military plans.
Such missions also could position the Air Force to strike suspected bomb suppliers inside Iraq to deter Iranian agents that U.S. officials say are assisting Iraqi militias, outside military experts said. The heightened role of U.S. air power in the volatile region is the latest sign of tension between President Bush and Iran's leaders.
Los Angeles Times, 30/1/07
Iraqi cult attacked
Iraqi officials said Monday that U.S.-backed Iraqi troops had targeted a messianic cult called “Soldiers of Heaven” in a weekend battle that left 200 fighters dead, including the group's leader, near the Shiite holy city of Najaf. A military commander said hundreds of gunmen planned to disguise themselves as pilgrims and kill clerics on the holiest day of the Shiite calendar.
The Iraqi government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said the raid on Sunday in date-palm orchards on the city's outskirts was aimed against the fringe Shiite cult that some Iraqi officials said had links to Saddam Hussein loyalists and foreign fighters.
Officials said the group, which included families, was hoping the violence it planned would force the return of the “hidden imam,” a 9th-century Shiite saint who Shiites believe will come again to bring peace and justice to the world.
Globe and Mail, Canada, 29/1/07
China builds Africa links
Chinese President Hu Jintao left for an eight-nation tour of Africa on Tuesday, in a visit underscoring China's growing influence in the continent and its voracious appetite for energy to fuel its booming economy.
Hu's 12-day journey will take him to Cameroon, Liberia, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Seychelles and Sudan, where Hu has been pressured by the U.N. to use China's leverage as a big oil customer to resolve the crisis in the Darfur region.
Key themes of the trip will include boosting business ties and following through on promises of aid, including debt-relief and poverty alleviation. Trade between China and Africa has soared fourfold this decade, to US$40 billion in 2005. Beijing has also become a major supplier of aid, last year announcing US$10 billion in assistance from 2006 to 2009.
International Herald Tribune, 29/1/07
Big anti-war demo in US
With the war raging in Iraq, America's anti-war movement delivered one of its greatest shows of strength since the invasion in March 2003, when tens of thousands converged on Washington at the weekend to protest against George Bush's decision to send 21,500 more troops to Baghdad and western Anbar province.
For the first time since the beginning of the war the demonstration also included a sizeable contingent of active duty soldiers as well as veterans of the fighting in Iraq.
Guardian 29/1/07
Corruption in Afghanistan...
Corrupt police and tribal leaders are stealing vast quantities of reconstruction aid that is intended to improve the lives of ordinary Afghans and turn them away from the Taliban. In some cases, all the aid earmarked for an area has ended up in the wrong hands.
Defence officials in the United States and Britain estimate that up to half of all aid in Afghanistan is failing to reach the right people. Nato forces in the south of the country say some Afghan police are guilty of corruption and will steal aid if it is handed out.
Tribal and mosque elders have also been accused of seizing goods, including building materials and fuel, and selling them in markets. A Pentagon official said thousands of cars and trucks intended for use by the Afghan police had been sold instead.
Nato commanders in southern Afghanistan are deeply concerned at the level of corruption but have resolved to press ahead with reconstruction projects in the hope of winning over the local population and improving security.
Sunday Telegraph, 28/1/07
...and fraud in US
From high-dollar fraud to bribery conspiracy and bid-rigging, the U.S. Army has opened 50 criminal investigations involving battlefield contractors in the war in Iraq and anti- terrorism efforts.
Senior contracting officials, government employees, residents of other countries and, in some cases, U.S. military personnel have been implicated in millions of dollars of fraud allegations.
"All of these involve operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait," said Chris Grey, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, or CID.
International Herald Tribune, 28/1/07
African oil is US 'strategic national interest'
The U.S. air strikes targeting al-Qaeda-linked terrorists in southern Somalia has caught many by surprise. It shouldn't. Pentagon architects are already providing arms and expertise to a host of African "partners" to shore up porous national borders, with grander designs in the works for a new Africa Command to anchor counter-terror operations and protect at-risk oil interests.
Starting in mid-2005, Congress earmarked $500 million for an overt counter-terror program to tame what military officials have called the "Wild West" of Saharan Africa.
A recent swell of political instability has also accelerated Defense Department efforts to establish an Africa Command to encompass ongoing projects and streamline policy.
Nigeria is the fifth-largest supplier of oil to the United States, but pipeline attacks could have severe ramifications on international oil prices stretched thin by Middle East violence and Asian demand. Energy officials say the Gulf of Guinea will produce 25 percent of U.S. crude by 2010, placing the region ahead of Saudi Arabia. The Bush administration has thus designated West African oil as a “strategic national interest.” This means defense by force if necessary.
Middle East Online, 27/1/07
Blair to set up propaganda unit
Tony Blair is planning to set up a “propaganda unit” in Whitehall to help sway Muslim hearts and minds in the battle with Al-Qaeda. A “joint information unit”, to be based in the Cabinet Office or the Home Office, will seek to counter disinformation issued by Islamic terrorists.
The unit will be modelled on the “public information office” set up by the British Army as part of the campaign to defeat the IRA in Northern Ireland.
Sunday Times, 28/1/07
Privatising the oil
Iraq is in negotiations with Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. to build a new $3 billion petrochemical facility, and is in talks with several other Western companies over industrial projects.
In an interview Thursday, Iraq's minister for industry and minerals Fowzi Hariri said the discussions with Chevron and Exxon began this week in Washington and are at an early stage.
Over the next several years, the minister said Iraq would look to privatize all of state-owned industry, which number around 60 companies. He also said Asian companies were keen to enter discussions with the Iraqi government over industrial contracts.
Houston Chronicle, 25/1/07
US troops authorised to kill Iranian agents
President Bush has authorised US forces in Iraq to kill or capture Iranian agents as part of a campaign aimed at countering Tehran’s influence in the Middle East.
The new rules of engagement, authorising US forces to kill or capture any member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard or intelligence agents working with militia, were approved by Mr Bush last autumn.
The more robust approach is part of a strategy aimed at curbing Tehran’s influence, and weakening its resolve to push ahead on its nuclear programme. The Washing to Post said the administration had bee pressing military commanders to use lethal force against Iranian agents although some, including the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, were concerned about triggering a wider confrontation between US and Iranian forces.
Over the past few months the Bush administration has grown increasingly concerned that Tehran was exploiting the chaos in Iraq to its own advantage, and fuelling sectarian violence by arming and training Shia militias. The US Central Command estimate there are 150 Iranian agents active in Iraq.
Guardian 27/1/07
“Different faces of the same threat..”
In his state of the Union address this week President Bush in effect redefined the very nature of the war on terror from a fight against the Sunni militants of al-Qaida to all Islamist extremists, no matter their sect. “The Shia and Sunni extremists are different faces of the same totalitarian threat” he said “They want to kill Americans, kill democracy in the Middle East and gain the weapons to kill on an even more horrific scale”
Guardian 27/1/07
Europe resists more involvement in Afghanistan
Europe appeared last night to be resisting pressure from Washington to pour more money and troops into Afghanistan in expectation of a major campaign in the spring.
The European commission said it planned to put $600m (ÂŁ395m) into Afghanistan over the next four years. It spent $1bn in the past four years. The money is largely for civil reconstruction projects, with around a quarter of it targeted at eradicating opium poppy cultivation.
The commission funds are a fraction of the overall sums spent by Europe on Afghanistan. Since the Taliban regime was overthrown by the Americans in 2001 the EU and members states have spent $3.7bn more than was initially pledged.
As well as pressing for more money, the Americans are looking to European Nato members “to share more of the burden” in the military missions in Afghanistan, with Nato planning a major spring offensive against a resurgent Taliban. There are fears the insurgents are also planning a big campaign.
Guardian 27/1/07
US troops killed in sophisticated attack
In perhaps the boldest and most sophisticated attack in four years of warfare, gunmen speaking English, wearing U.S. military uniforms and carrying American weapons abducted four U.S. soldiers last week at the provincial headquarters in the Shiite holy city of Karbala and then shot them to death.
The U.S. military confirmed that three of the soldiers were dead and one was mortally wounded with a gunshot to the head when they were found in a neighboring province, about 25 miles from the compound where they were captured. A fifth soldier was killed in the initial attack on the compound.
The new account contradicted a U.S. military statement on Jan. 20, the day of the raid on an Iraqi governor's office, that five soldiers were killed "repelling" the attack.
St Petersburg Times, Tampa, 27/1/07
Cameron: attack on Iran possible
A pre-emptive military strike against Iran involving British troops could be launched under a Conservative government after David Cameron yesterday refused to rule out the use of force against the Gulf state.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos the Tory leader criticised the stance of Jack Straw, the former foreign secretary, who in the past has said that military action against Iran would be "unthinkable".
"I don't think it was right of Jack Straw to say what he said. I think in these matters it is not right to declare all your hand in advance. It's right not to take things entirely off the table."
Daily Telegraph,
Blair: world must stay committed to Iraq
Making his third and last appearance at the annual World Economic Forum here as Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair says he has come because it is important for the world to act collectively to tackle problems - and he does not mind the criticism at home.
In an interview with The Associated Press, he highlighted themes he would like to be remembered for: Africa, climate change and world trade. And he warned that the world must not shirk from its commitment to achieve success in Iraq, nor be discouraged by the "terrible pictures" it sees of violence in the country.
He backed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government in Iraq and President Bush's immediate plans to increase troops there. He said he believes the Iraqi prime minister can meet the benchmarks the United States has set.
Associated Press, 26/1/07
Israel tries to cut off Tehran from world markets
Israel is launching a campaign to isolate Iran economically and to soften up world opinion for the option of a military strike aimed at crippling or delaying Tehran's uranium enrichment programme
Pressure will be applied to major US pension funds to stop investment in about 70 companies that trade directly with Iran, and to international banks that trade with its oil sector, cutting off the country's access to hard currency. The aim is to isolate Tehran from the world markets in a campaign similar to that against South Africa at the height of apartheid.
Guardian 26/1/07
Splits in Iraq parliament
Iraq’s Shiite prime minister and Sunni lawmakers hurled insults at one another during a raucous session of Parliament on Thursday, with the prime minister threatening a Sunni lawmaker with arrest and the Sunni speaker of Parliament threatening to quit.
The uproar revolved around the new Baghdad security plan, but it came as the prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, is under increasing pressure to demonstrate even-handedness. President Bush’s new strategy for Iraq hinges in large measure on the Iraqi government’s ability to rein in both Shiite and Sunni militants.
American military officers say they have seen evidence in the past of the Maliki government using its influence with Iraq’s security forces to further a sectarian agenda, turning a blind eye to Shiite militia death squads while cracking down on Sunni insurgents.
New York Times, 25/1/07
Escalation in Afghanistan
After the bloodiest year in Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion, the Bush administration is preparing a series of new military, economic and political initiatives aimed partly at preempting an expected offensive this spring by Taliban insurgents, according to senior U.S. officials.
Even as it trumpeted a change of course in Iraq this month, the White House has completed a review of U.S. policy in Afghanistan. It will ask Congress for $7 billion to $8 billion in new funds for security, reconstruction and other projects in Afghanistan as part of the upcoming budget package, officials said.
The U.S. military said yesterday that about 3,500 soldiers in the Army's 10th Mountain Division will have their tours in Afghanistan extended by four months, as part of an effort to beef up U.S. troop strength.
Washington Post, 25/1/07
Green zone under attack
Car bomb blast rocked Karrada district in Baghdad close to a Green Zone entrance, killing 25 and leaving about 50 injured, according to Iraqi police reports.
The explosion took place just twenty minutes after mortar attacks hit areas inside the Green Zone, behind the American Embassy. The US embassy declined to comment if there were any casualties caused by the attacks, but alarm calls over loud speakers warned residents in the Green Zone area to take cover.
Middle East Online, 25/1/07