These are the archives for the week ending 2nd March 2007
Sunnis remain main threat to occupation
Sunni Muslim insurgents remain by far the biggest threat to American troops in Iraq, despite recent U.S. claims that Iran is providing Shiite Muslim militia groups with a new type of roadside bomb, a review of American casualty reports shows.
While U.S. military officials have held briefings to publicize their concerns about the potent bombs known as explosively formed projectiles (EFPs) or penetrators, casualty reports suggest that such weapons in the hands of Shiite militias are responsible for a relatively small number of American deaths.
U.S. officials have said that attacks with such weapons increased 150 percent in the past year. But a review of bombings by location shows that less than 10 percent of attacks that killed at least two American service members in the past 14 months were in areas where Shiite militias are dominant.
San Jose Mercury News, 28/2/07
US warns EU about CIA investigation
A senior U.S. administration official on Wednesday warned that ongoing inquiries into secret CIA activities in the European Union may undermine intelligence cooperation between the United States and European nations.
The European Parliament accused Britain, Poland, Italy and other nations in mid-February of colluding with the CIA to transport terror suspects to clandestine prisons in third countries.
John Bellinger, legal adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, called the European Parliament report ``unbalanced, inaccurate and unfair'' and called on the EU governments to challenge the suggestion that Europeans need to be concerned about secret CIA flights.
Guardian, 28/2/07
US has six months to win war
An elite team of officers advising US commander General David Petraeus in Baghdad have concluded that the US has six months to win the Iraq War, or face a Vietnam-style quagmire that could end in a hasty retreat.
The team - comprised of combat veterans who are leading experts in counter-insurgency - are in charge of leading a new strategy for Iraq. Among the obstacles still to be faced are insufficient numbers of troops on the ground and a rising insurgency.
"They know they are going to hear a lot more talk in Washington about 'Plan B' by the autumn - meaning withdrawal." said one official. "They know the next six-month period is their opportunity. And they say it's getting harder every day."
ShortNews, Germany, 1/3/07
Opposition to new oil law
Barely two days have passed since Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki hailed the country's new petroleum law as a "solid base for unity of all Iraqis" - a rare boast these days. President Bush has also trumpeted it as proof that Iraq has a viable future.
But parliamentarians and Iraq's oil unions have already begun mobilizing against the draft legislation, arguing that it is a desperate attempt by al-Maliki's government to satisfy Western demands, which could damage Iraq's economic future and speed the country's ultimate disintegration.
The law is a dramatic break from the past. Foreign oil companies will have a stake in Iraq's vast oil wealth for the first time since 1972, when Iraq nationalized the oil industry.
Time Magazine, 28/2/07
US intelligence chief predicts worse violence
The United States director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell, is warning the violence in Iraq may get much worse.
Admiral McConnell has told the Senate's armed services committee that sectarian violence in Iraq has become self-sustaining."The current security and political trends in Iraq are moving in a negative direction, particularly after the February 2006 bombing of the Mosque at Samara," he said.
He said the latest US intelligence estimate paints a grim picture of the future. "Unless efforts to reverse these conditions gain real traction during the 12 to 18-month time frame of this estimate, we assess that the security situation will continue to deteriorate at a rate comparable to the latter half of 2006."
ABC News, 28/2/07
US to talk to Iran and Syria
The United States and the Iraqi government are launching a new diplomatic initiative to invite Iran and Syria to a "neighbors meeting" on stabilizing Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today.
"We hope that all governments seize this opportunity to improve their relations with Iraq and to work for peace and stability in the region," Rice said.
The move reflects a change of approach by the Bush administration, which previously had resisted calls by members of Congress and by a bipartisan Iraq review group to include Iran and Syria in diplomatic talks on stabilizing Iraq.
Rice stressed that it was the Iraqi government inviting Iran and Syria to participate, with the United States in support.
Houston Chronicle, 27/2/07
Britain switches tactics
Britain has launched a 'reconciliation' drive to undermine support for the Taliban after Whitehall strategists concluded that a decisive military victory in Afghanistan cannot be won.
In a significant shift in tactics, senior British officials have stopped talking about winning a war. "We do not use the word 'win', one said. "We can't kill our way out of this problem".
The admission came as Des Browne, the defence secretary, announced a larger than expected 1,400 increase in British troops deployed in southern Afghanistan, with extra armour, artillery and aircraft.
It brings the total number there to 7,700, more than there are in Iraq.
Officials say the new tactics are to identify 'Talibs who are sick of fighting' and persuade them to rejoin their tribes and benefit from the human rights laws and state structures being set up in the country. Captured fighters may also be offered alternatives to incarceration, while more deals will be sought with tribal elders.
Guardian 27/2/07
Withdrawal is part of Blair's long goodbye
Prime Minister Tony Blair's announcement Wednesday that Britain would begin bringing its troops home from Iraq is less a reflection of progress there than part of Blair's choreographed departure from Downing Street, according to politicians and analysts.
"I always assumed he would want to be able to announce some limited withdrawal before he left No. 10," said former Labor Minister Tony Benn, a longtime critic of the war. "It is nothing to do with the real question. It doesn't represent any change of policy whatsoever, in my opinion, but tactically it looks good."
Blair has said he will step down sometime this summer, but many political analysts speculate that his departure may come as early as May. His approval ratings and his authority have been weakened by deep opposition to the war in Britain, and by what many Britons see as his subservience to President Bush.
Bowling Green News, Ohio, 27/2/07
Iraq vice-president survives bomb
Iraq's Shiite vice president narrowly escaped assassination Monday as a blast ripped through a government meeting hall just hours after it was searched by U.S. teams with bomb-sniffing dogs. At least 10 people were killed.
As U.S. forces sealed off the area around the municipal building, investigators grappled with the troubling question of how the bomb was smuggled into the ministry of public works a seven-story structure with crack surveillance systems from its days as offices for Saddam Hussein's feared intelligence service.
Among those killed were several ministry employees, police said. More than 25 were wounded, including the public works minister, Riyad Gharib. Abdul-Mahdi _ smothered by his bodyguards in an instant _ suffered minor leg injuries and was hospitalized for tests, his office said. He was later released.
ABC News, 27/2/07
Baghdad plan has elusive targets
American military commanders in Iraq describe the security plan they began implementing in mid-February as a rising tide: a gradual influx of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops whose extended presence in the city's violent neighborhoods will drown the militants' ability to stage bombings and sectarian killings.
But U.S. troops, Iraqi soldiers and officials, and Baghdad residents say the plan is hampered because security forces cannot identify, let alone apprehend, the elusive perpetrators of the violence. Shiite militiamen in the capital say they are keeping a low profile to wait out the security plan. U.S. commanders have noted increased insurgent violence in the Sunni-dominated belt around Baghdad and are concerned that fighters are shifting their focus outside the city.
Many people in Baghdad express deep reservations about the Iraqi security forces' ability and desire to battle their fellow citizens. U.S. soldiers say their Iraqi counterparts are swayed more by the anti-American speeches of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr than by the public appeals of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for even-handed enforcement.
Washington Post, 26/2/07
US accused of plan to bomb Iran
President George Bush has charged the Pentagon with devising an expanded bombing plan for Iran that can be carried out at 24 hours' notice.
An article in the New Yorker magazine by the investigative journalist Seymour Hersh describes the contingency bombing plan as part of a general overhaul by the Bush administration of its policy towards Iran.
It said a special planning group at the highest levels of the US military had expanded its mission from selecting potential targets connected to Iranian nuclear facilities, and had been directed to add sites that may be involved in aiding Shia militant forces in Iraq to its list.
The new strategy, intended to reverse the rise in Iranian power that has been an unintended consequence of the war in Iraq, could bring the countries much closer to open confrontation and risks igniting a regional sectarian war between Shia and Sunni Muslims, the New Yorker says.
Guardian 26/2/07
UK to increase use of mercenaries in Iraq
Ministers are negotiating multi-million-pound contracts with private security firms to cover some of the gaps created by British troop withdrawals. Days after Tony Blair revealed that he wanted to withdraw 1,600 soldiers from war-torn Basra within months, it has emerged that civil servants hope "mercenaries" can help fill the gap left behind.
The UK government has already paid out almost £160m to private security companies (PSCs) since the invasion of Iraq, for a range of services, including the protection of British officials on duty and in transit in some of the most dangerous parts of the world.
A senior official from one of the biggest PSCs already operating in Iraq last night claimed firms had been told to expect increased business opportunities in areas such as personnel protection, highway security and the training of Iraqi police and soldiers.
Scotland on Sunday, 25/2/07
US funds terror against Iran
America is secretly funding militant ethnic separatist groups in Iran in an attempt to pile pressure on the Islamic regime to give up its nuclear programme. In a move that reflects Washington's growing concern with the failure of diplomatic initiatives, CIA officials are understood to be helping opposition militias among the numerous ethnic minority groups clustered in Iran's border regions.
The operations are controversial because they involve dealing with movements that resort to terrorist methods in pursuit of their grievances against the Iranian regime. In the past year there has been a wave of unrest in ethnic minority border areas of Iran, with bombing and assassination campaigns against soldiers and government officials.
Funding for their separatist causes comes directly from the CIA's classified budget but is now "no great secret", according to one former high-ranking CIA official in Washington. Although Washington officially denies involvement in such activity, Teheran has long claimed to detect the hand of both America and Britain in attacks by guerrilla groups on its internal security forces.
Sunday Telegraph, 25/2/07
Strategic shift in US policy
In the past few months, as the situation in Iraq has deteriorated, the Bush Administration, in both its public diplomacy and its covert operations, has significantly shifted its Middle East strategy. The "redirection," as some inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia's government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria
A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.
One contradictory aspect of the new strategy is that, in Iraq, most of the insurgent violence directed at the American military has come from Sunni forces, and not from Shiites. But, from the Administration's perspective, the most profound-and unintended-strategic consequence of the Iraq war is the empowerment of Iran.
New Yorker, 25/2/07
Iraq oil to be handed to multinationals
Baghdad is under pressure from Britain and the US to pass an oil law which would hand long-term control of Iraq's energy assets to foreign multinationals, according to campaigners.
Iraqi trades unions have called for the country's oil reserves - the second-largest in the world - to be kept in public hands. But a leaked draft of the oil law would see the government sign away the right to exploit its untapped fields in so-called exploration contracts, which could then be extended for more than 30 years.
Foreign Office minister Kim Howells has admitted that the government has discussed the wording of the Iraqi law with Britain's oil giants. The law, which is being discussed by the Iraqi cabinet before being put to the parliament, says the untapped oil would remain state-owned but that contracts would be drawn up giving private sector firms the exclusive right to extract it.
'There is this fine line, that the wording is seeking to draw, that allows companies to claim that the oil is still Iraqi oil, whereas the extraction rights belong to the oil companies,' says Kamil Mahdi, an Iraqi economist at Exeter University. He criticised the US and Britain, saying: 'The whole idea of the law is due to external pressure. The law is no protection against corruption, or against weakness of government. It's not a recipe for stability.'
Observer, 25/2/07
Leading Shia's son released
Thousands of Shia Muslims have protested in the Iraqi city of Najaf about the detention of the son of a powerful Shia politician by US forces. Crowds chanted slogans of support for Ammar al-Hakim, the son of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Garver said Mr al-Hakim's convoy was stopped as it re-entered Iraq near the Mehran border crossing with Iran, 70 miles east of Baghdad. Lt Carver said Mr Hakim was arrested when people travelling in the convoy "did not co-operate with coalition forces and displayed suspicious activities".
The US said Mr Hakim was treated "with dignity and respect throughout the incident". In the wake of the incident US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad issued a rapid apology saying that Washington did not mean any disrespect to Mr Hakim or his family.
BBC News, 24/2/07
Blair's star wars plea meets cool response
Tony Blair was last night facing an embarrassing diplomatic set-back as the United States gave a cool response to his offer to base missiles from a planned "Star Wars" defence shield in Britain.
It emerged yesterday that the Prime Minister has been privately lobbying the US for several months about intercepter rockets for the proposed anti-ballistic missile system.
Britain has already signed up to play a central role in the project, agreeing in 2003 to upgrade a US radar station at Fylingdales in Yorkshire, which will act as the eyes and ears of the interceptor system.
But the Prime Minister has been pressing for a larger role, his spokeswoman said yesterday. "It is our intention at this stage that, while the US is in the decision-making process, the UK should be considered," she said, describing the missile shield as "an important step towards providing missile defence for Europe".
Downing Street refused to give details of the Prime Minister's "regular" talks with the US, but it is understood that Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, has been kept informed throughout.
But the most surprising and potentially damaging intervention came from David Johnson, the deputy US ambassador in London, who said that, while "the UK has been an active participant in our discussions", Washington has little interest in putting missiles in Britain.
The Scotsman, 24/2/07
Blair ducks bad news on Afghanistan
Tony Blair was accused of ducking bad news last night after it emerged the Defence Secretary Des Browne will announce that more than 1,000 troops are to be sent to Afghanistan.
The Prime Minister made no mention of the plan to deploy more British forces to the front line when he told MPs on Wednesday that the historic withdrawal of British forces in Iraq would begin this summer with a cut of 1,600 troops. He was seen as seeking to announce "good news" on a key legacy issue himself, leaving the Defence Secretary to announce the "bad" news on Monday.
The Government has repeatedly denied the deployment of more troops to Afghanistan is tied to the withdrawal from Iraq, but many MPs will see the two are linked. Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, is expected to add £250m to the defence budget for the reinforcements. The Government admitted in a response to the Commons select committee on defence that its budgets for Afghanistan and Iraq would be exceeded.
Independent, 24/2/07
Israel seeks US permission for Iran strike
Israel is negotiating with the United States for permission to fly over Iraq as part of a plan to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. To conduct surgical air strikes against Iran's nuclear programme, Israeli war planes would need to fly across Iraq. But to do so the Israeli military authorities in Tel Aviv need permission from the Pentagon.
A senior Israeli defence official said negotiations were now underway between the two countries for the US-led coalition in Iraq to provide an "air corridor" in the event of the Israeli government deciding on unilateral military action to prevent Teheran developing nuclear weapons.
The pace of military planning in Israel has accelerated markedly since the start of this year after Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, provided a stark intelligence assessment that Iran, given the current rate of progress being made on its uranium enrichment programme, could have enough fissile material for a nuclear warhead by 2009.
Daily Telegraph, 24/2/07
UK fears Iran strike
Tony Blair has declared himself at odds with hawks in the US Administration by saying publicly for the first time that it would be wrong to take military action against Iran. The Prime Minister's comments came hours before the UN's nuclear watchdog raised the stakes in the West's showdown with Tehran.
Senior British government sources have told The Times that they fear President Bush will seek to "settle the Iranian question through military means" next year, before the end of his second term if he concludes that diplomacy has failed. "He will not want to leave it unresolved for his successor," said one.
The Times, 23/2/07
Blair 'proud' of Iraq role
Tony Blair today said that Britain should be proud of its involvement in Iraq and denied he should take responsibility for the "very grim situation" in the country.
The prime minister, who yesterday announced the withdrawal of 1,600 of Britain's 7,100 troops in southern Iraq, dismissed suggestions that he failed to plan for the security of the country after the removal of Saddam Hussein four years ago.
He appeared to leave the door open to the possibility of sending more British troops back to Iraq if the situation deteriorated."We have the full combat capability that is there, so if we are needed to go back in in any set of circumstances, we can. The whole purpose of us being in a support role is precisely to do that," he said.
Guardian, 23/2/07
Rape allegations against security forces
A second Iraqi woman emerged Thursday accusing the nation's security forces of rape, further breaking a taboo about disclosing sexual violence and undermining public perceptions about Iraq's police and military.
The Sunni Muslim woman alleged that Shiite soldiers raided her house in the northern city of Tall Afar, interrogated her and raped her repeatedly while videotaping the attack. She also said the soldiers threatened to assault her two teenage daughters before one soldier intervened.
On Monday, a 20-year-old woman who calls herself Sabreen alleged in a television interview that she was raped by three Shiite Iraqi police officers during a weekend raid in her west Baghdad neighborhood.
The government of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki rejected Sabreen's allegations, praised the policemen and labeled her a liar and an insurgent collaborator wanted by authorities. U.S. officials said they were not aware of any arrest warrants for her.
Los Angeles Times, 23/2/07
'Son of star wars' for UK
Britain is in talks with the US over the possibility of siting part of the controversial "Son of Star Wars" missile defence system on UK soil, 10 Downing Street confirmed today.
A spokesman said talks were at the earliest stages, and that at this point Britain's intention was to be kept in consideration as the US develops its plans for the system. Poland and the Czech Republic have also expressed an interest in providing locations for elements of the system, such as silos to house missiles designed to shoot hostile weapons out of the sky.
Independent, 23/2/07