These are the archives for the week ending 3rd November 2006
Increasing attacks on occupiers
October's death toll, the highest for American forces in nearly two years, came during a period without conventional battles or catastrophic helicopter crashes. Rather, the 103 troops killed in Baghdad and across Iraq were victims of a steady onslaught of assaults, primarily by their longtime nemeses, Sunni Arab insurgents.
The number of attacks on American forces increased in October to unprecedented levels, U.S. military officials said. "There has been a much more considered effort to specifically target coalition and Iraqi security forces," Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the spokesman for U.S.-led forces in Iraq, told reporters in Baghdad as the month wore on. "There has been a steady increase in the number of attacks specifically against security forces."
Los Angeles Times, 1/11/06
Iraq has cost UK more than £4 billion
Britain's participation in the invasion of Iraq and its continuing military presence in the country has cost more than £4bn, according to Ministry of Defence figures. Operations by the armed forces in south-eastern Iraq cost taxpayers £958m in the last financial year, comparedwith £910m in 2004-05. The previous year, which included the immediate aftermath of the invasion, cost £1.3bn. The figure for 2002-03 was £847m. The total cost reached £4,026m by the end of March.
Treasury figures released at the time of the budget last March showed the total allocated to the special reserve for Britain's extra "international obligations" amounts to more than £6.4bn. Most of this money has come from the reserves rather than the main defence budget.
Guardian, 1/11/06
Resistance to deadlines weakening
Growing numbers of American military officers have begun to privately question a key tenet of U.S. strategy in Iraq - that setting a hard deadline for troop reductions would strengthen the insurgency and undermine efforts to create a stable state. The Iraqi government's refusal to take certain measures to reduce sectarian tensions between Sunni Arabs and the nation's Shiite Muslim majority has led these officers to conclude that Iraqis will not make difficult decisions unless they are pushed. herefore, they say, the advantages of deadlines may outweigh the drawbacks.
"Deadlines could help ensure that the Iraqi leaders recognize the imperative of coming to grips with the tough decisions they've got to make for there to be progress in the political arena," said a senior Army officer who has served in Iraq. He asked that his name not be used because he did not want to publicly disagree with the stated policy of the president.
Former Pentagon official Kurt Campbell said more officers are calling for deadlines after concluding that the indefinite presence of U.S. forces enables the Shiite-run Iraqi government to avoid making compromises. "There is a new belief that the biggest problem that we face is that our forces are the sand in the gears creating problems," said Campbell, coauthor of a book on national security policy. "We are making things worse by giving the Iraqis a false sense of security at the governing level."
Los Angeles Times, 31/10/06
Sadr city blockade lifted
Exploiting Republican vulnerability in the Nov. 7 elections, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki flexed his political muscle Tuesday and won U.S. agreement to lift military blockades on Sadr City and another Shiite enclave where an American soldier was abducted.
U.S. forces, who had set up the checkpoints in Baghdad last week as part of an unsuccessful search for the soldier, drove away in Humvees and armored personnel carriers at the 5 p.m. deadline set by al-Maliki.
Their departure set off celebrations among civilians and armed men in Sadr City, the sprawling Shiite district controlled by the Mahdi Army militia loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Small groups of men and children danced in circles chanting slogans praising and declaring victory for al-Sadr, whose political support is crucial to the prime minister's governing coalition.
Associated Press, 31/10/06
Security firms profiting in Iraq
The annual revenue of private UK security firms soared from £320m in 2003 to more than £1.8bn in 2004 due to Iraqi contracts, War on Want says in a report, and more than 48,000 staff of mainly British and US firms are operating in the country.
Combat support, training, intelligence, strategic and post-conflict planning is being provided by hundreds of firms working in more than 50 countries.
War on Want points to the "inherent interest in ongoing conflict" given the profit motive behind all corporate adventures.
There is also a "revolving door" with former military figures and defence ministers in top jobs in the firms. Field Marshall Lord Inge, former chief of the defence staff, is chairman of Aegis, the security firm run by the former Scots Guards colonel Tim Spicer. Its board includes the former Tory defence minister Nicolas Soames.
Aegis's turnover increased from more than £500,000 in 2003 to £62m last year, largely due to operations in Iraq.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a former Tory foreign secretary, is a director of British-based ArmorGroup, which has secured contracts in Basra.
It is estimated that, up to 2004, British security firms received a total of more than £1.8bn in Iraqi contracts, but there is no UK legislation covering their activities.
John Hilary, director at War on Want said "The occupation of Iraq has allowed British mercenaries to reap huge profits".
Guardian 30/10/06
Iraqi police will never be free of militia influence
The signs of the militias are everywhere at the Sholeh police station. Posters celebrating Moqtada al-Sadr, head of the Mahdi Army militia, dot the building's walls. The police chief sometimes remarks that Shiite militias should wipe out all Sunnis. Visitors to this violent neighborhood in the Iraqi capital whisper that nearly all the police officers have split loyalties.
And then one rainy night this month, the Sholeh police set up an ambush and killed Army Cpl. Kenny F. Stanton Jr., a 20-year-old budding journalist, his unit said. At the time, Stanton and other members of the unit had been trailing a group of Sholeh police escorting known Mahdi Army members.
"How can we expect ordinary Iraqis to trust the police when we don't even trust them not to kill our own men?" asked Capt. Alexander Shaw, head of the police transition team of the 372nd Military Police Battalion, a Washington-based unit charged with overseeing training of all Iraqi police in western Baghdad. "To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure we're ever going to have police here that are free of the militia influence."
Washington Post, 31/10/06
British evacuate Basra consulate
Most of the staff at the British consulate in the southern Iraqi city of Basra will be evacuated early this week due to safety concerns. A Foreign Office spokesman told AFP that some staff were moving from the Basra palace compound to the airport following a decision taken at the weekend. "It's in response to an increased threat from mortar and rocket attacks in the compound," she said Monday. "We're hoping it's temporary and are keeping this decision under review."
She did not have figures for how many staff were involved but said that the consul-general would stay in the compound. But according to the Daily Telegraph, there are about 200 staff at the heavily-fortified consulate building, including bodyguards and Gurkhas. Some 12 of them are full-time staff. Some have already been evacuated by helicopter, and more are expected to go this week, it said.
AFP, 31/10/06
Official: Blair's policy fuels terror
Downing St was last night forced to distance itself from leaked government documents that suggest Tony Blair's policy on Iraq and Afghanistan has increased the terror threat to Britain.
The Prime Minister has always insisted that the UK's foreign policy has not exacerbated the risk of terrorist attacks. However, the papers put before a cabinet committee on security earlier this month, and circulated to ministers and security chiefs, argue that actions overseas must in future be designed to reduce the threat of terrorism "especially that in or directed against the UK".
They note that, in an ideal world, "the Muslim would not perceive the UK and its foreign policies as hostile". The papers demand a "significant reduction in the number and intensity of the regional conflicts that fuel terror activity".
The Herald, Scotland, 30/10/06
Afghanistan policy 'cuckoo'
General Charles Guthrie, a former chief of the defense staff, has described the deployment of soldiers in Afghanistan as "cuckoo." "Anyone who thought this was going to be a picnic in Afghanistan ....to launch the British army in with the numbers there are, while we're still going in Iraq, is cuckoo," he told The Observer.
Lord Guthrie, who was one of Blair's most trusted commanders before he quit in 2001, also cast doubt on Blair's claim that he would produce all the extra helicopters and other resources the army needed.
Guthrie's comments follow those of General Sir Richard Dannatt, the chief of the General Staff, who called this month for troops to be withdrawn from Iraq "sometime soon" because they were contributing to Britain's security problems.
AFP, 29/10/08
Women's rights activist killed
Gunmen broke into the house of an Iraqi women's rights campaigner and shot her dead in front of her three children, police have said. Human rights activists say the lives of women in Iraqi society have worsened dramatically since the US-led invasion of March 2003, amid a general break down in law and order and the rise of conservative Islamist militias.
Captain Imad Khudhir of the Kirkuk police said Saturday 38-year-old Halima Ahmed Hussein al-Juburi was killed late on Friday by 10 unidentified attackers who broke into her home in the northern town of Hawijah. "We do not know the motive behind the crime," he said.
Juburi was the head of the Human Rights organisation of Maternity and Childhood in Hawijah, a lawless town in an area plagued by violent Sunni insurgent groups.
AFP, 28/10/06
14,000 weapons missing
The Pentagon cannot account for 14,030 weapons - almost 4 percent of the semiautomatic pistols, assault rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other weapons it began supplying to Iraq since the end of 2003, according to a report from the office of the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.
The Pentagon spent $133 million on the weapons, and "the capacity of the Iraqi government to provide national security and public order is partly contingent on arming the Iraqi security forces, under the ministries of defense and interior," the report notes.
Associated Press, 29/10/06
US kill family of six in Ramadi
A family of six has been killed during fighting in the Iraqi town of Ramadi, a hospital doctor said, as US forces battled to regain control of an area claimed by Al-Qaeda-led insurgents. Local people blamed an American air strike for Friday's deaths, but a US military statement said there had been fierce fighting in the town and that rebel weapons had also damaged at least one building.
"Six members of one family were killed when US planes bombed their place, a nursery school they were using as a house in 17th of July Street in the centre of the city last night," said Dr. Kamal al-Hadithi of Ramadi Hospital.
Five US soldiers were killed there on Wednesday in what a military spokesman called a struggle to "take back" the town. "After coming under attack in Ramadi on Friday, coalition forces returned fire in several separate instances. There were no coalition casualties ... No civilian casualties were reported," the military said Saturday.
AFP, 28/10/06
UK troops 'locked down' by suicide bombers
British forces in southern Afghanistan are experiencing periods of lockdown in two key areas, halting patrols to avoid suicide bombings by the Taliban. A senior officer called the security threat "critical".
Lt-Col Andy Price, military spokesman of the British task force in Helmand province, said troops had been staying off the streets of the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, and the town of Gereshk, because "suicide bombers are walking around, looking for us", waiting for a convoy or patrol to go past.
Independent on Sunday, 29/10/06
British army's 'critical weaknesses'
The British Army suffers from "critical weaknesses" to the point that, it is "almost impossible" to fulfil commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a Ministry of Defence briefing document. The Army is so stretched from having to fight on two fronts that 40 per cent of army divisions report they are suffering from "serious or critical" problems.
Manning shortages mean that soldiers are having to go on to tours of duty before they are properly rested or trained. And there are such serious problems recruiting for key military professions that colleagues in the field are having to forgo leave and extend their tours.
The official memo, given to MPs on the House of Commons defence committee, details the extent of pressure the military is under. MPs say it is threatening its ability to fight insurgents in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Independent on Sunday, 29/10/06
Torture victim linked Al-Qaeda to Iraq and WMD
Misinformation gathered through the use of torture helped make the case for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and that type of event has created a crisis of public confidence in Western intelligence services, says former White House counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke. Clarke criticized the use of torture in intelligence gathering - including torture contracted out to other countries such as Syria and Egypt - while giving a talk Thursday in Ottawa at the annual conference of the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies.
He told Canadian intelligence professionals from CSIS and other agencies that an intelligence source suggested a link between al-Qaeda, Iraq and weapons of mass destruction because he thought mentioning those three things together in a single sentence might stop the torture.
Clarke said it is now well known that there is no link between the three, but he may well have made that link himself under the circumstances.
"I don't know about you, but I'm sure if I were tortured, I think I would come to the same conclusion — that the way to stop the torture would be to say whatever they want, and I would try to imagine what it is that they want."
Clarke resigned in 2003 from his post as special advisor to U.S. President George W. Bush on national security, cyber-security and counter-terrorism.
Radio Canada, 27/10/06
US and puppet PM patch up differences
After a tense week in U.S.-Iraqi relations, the prime minister and the U.S. ambassador issued a rare joint statement Friday in which Iraq reaffirmed its commitment to a "good and strong" relationship with the United States.
The statement also said that Iraq "made clear the issues that must be resolved with timelines for them to take positive steps forward." Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had issued several public statements this week declaring that the United States had no right to impose "timetables" on his government. That contradicted Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad's assertion that the al-Maliki government had already agreed to set timelines for curbing violence and solving other problems.
There also was rampant speculation in Baghdad that the United States was preparing to dump al-Maliki, who was the compromise candidate for prime minister from among the dominant Shiite Muslims in parliament. His government has been in power five months. In an apparent bid to squelch the speculation, the statement said, "The United States will continue to stand by the Iraqi government."
Associated Press, 27/10/06
NATO kills scores of civilians
Nato forces in Afghanistan have killed scores of civilians in a single operation, bombing them in their own homes as they celebrated the end of Ramadan. Nato commanders were facing serious questions yesterday as the Afghan government said it had confirmed that at least 40 civilians were killed in Nato bombing raids in Panjwayi district, near Kandahar. Nato said its own initial investigation found that only 12 "non-combatants" were killed, but it had no explanation for the discrepancy with the government's figures.
Local Afghan officials said they believed as many as 85 civilians died - which would make the incident the worst single atrocity committed by Western forces in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban.
Independent, 27/10/06
Iraq PM outlines differences with US
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki continued his open dispute with American officials Thursday, blaming the United States-led coalition for Iraq's chaos and faulting its military strategy. His sharp comments, in an interview with Reuters, came as the White House and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld sought to play down the idea of a growing rift between the United States and the Iraq government.
According to a partial transcript of the interview distributed by Reuters, al-Maliki said he thought that Iraqi troops, left to their own devices, could re-establish order in Iraq in six months, not the 12 to 18 months that top U.S. commander Gen. William Casey had predicted Tuesday.
Al-Maliki offered a different set of priorities for fighting violence than U.S. officials, who've said the greatest threat to Iraq comes from death squads aligned with Shiite Muslim militias. In recounting a meeting with the head of one of those militias, cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, al-Maliki said he and al-Sadr agreed "that the efforts for all political groups should be focused on the most dangerous challenge, which is al-Qaida and the Saddam Baathists." Both those groups are made up primarily of Sunni Muslims.
San Jose Mercury News, 26/10/06
From Iraq to Afghanistan
The number of British troops in Iraq may be halved early next year if apparent military successes in the country continue at their current rate, The Daily Telegraph reported. Citing senior British army officers and a senior American defence official, the newspaper said that the plan is contingent on Operation Sinbad, a several-month long attempt announced about a month ago to restore security and rebuild the troubled southern port city of Basra, continuing to succeed.
"If Operation Sinbad goes as well as it has done, then we can expect to substantially decrease our force by February at the earliest," the newspaper quoted an unnamed senior British official based in Basra as saying. "There is a real sense that we are just short of that tipping point. If we can just push it over the edge everything will fall in a particular way."
The newspaper also said that an unidentified senior American defence department official in Washington had said that British officials had told their US counterparts that they wanted to withdraw the majority of their troops in Iraq within a year so they could concentrate their attention on Afghanistan.
AFP, 26/10/06