These are the archives for the week ending
Official: NATO killed too many civilians
NATO said Wednesday that it killed too many Afghan civilians during fighting last year against resurgent Taliban militants, but that the Western alliance was working to change that in 2007.
The acknowledgment came one day after President Hamid Karzai's latest plea for foreign forces to use maximum caution following the deaths of two civilians, reportedly involving NATO troops.
"The single thing that we have done wrong and we are striving extremely hard to improve on (in 2007) is killing innocent civilians," Brig. Richard E. Nugee, the chief spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, told a news conference.
NATO forces were accused of killing dozens of civilians last year in air strikes, battles and other shootings, prompting Karzai to issue several pleas for international forces to use greater caution in their operations.
Karzai last month broke down in tears during a speech in which he recounted stories of children maimed by bombings. "We can't prevent the terrorists from coming from Pakistan, and we can't prevent the coalition from bombing the terrorists, and our children are dying because of this," he said.
Boston Globe 4/1/07
US backed invasion of Somalia a recipe for disaster
There were essentially two reasonable choices to be made about Somalia prior to Ethiopia's devastating invasion last month and what looks like the temporary rout of the Islamist alliance that had taken charge of the south and centre of the country.
One was to do nothing and let the Islamists, grouped in the Union of Islamic Courts, get on with it. In the six months they were in control, after all, they provided the first, rough semblance of order since the 1991 collapse of the dictatorship of Mohammed Siad Barre plunged the country into a long night of anarchy and warlordism.
The second, complementary option was to see whether it was possible to do business with the Islamists, whose legitimacy among Somalis was certainly no less than that of the largely theoretical but internationally recognised transitional government Ethiopia claims to have intervened to support.
What we have instead is an invasion, backed by the US, behind a government with no apparent social base. If the Ethiopians stay they risk uniting much of Somalia against them. If they go, as they say they soon will, they will leave a political vacuum, with Somalia's well-armed clans scrabbling over the carcass of the country. Eventually, it will almost certainly be the more disciplined but now radicalised Islamists that end up holding the ring.
We are, in short, looking at yet another geopolitical disaster, which could spread fighting across the Horn of Africa, a region at the crossroads of the Middle East and Africa that is already blighted by floods and drought, famine and desertification, with a long history of conflict.
Financial Times, 4/1/07
Democrats on offensive
It is regarding policy on Iraq where Mr Bush could face his most bruising battles from Democrats, as well as moderate Republicans who have grown increasingly skittish about the prospect of fighting the 2008 elections in the shadow of a historically unpopular president and the war in Iraq.
Now they have a share of power in Congress, Democrats too are reluctant to be saddled with responsibility for the war.
In its first weeks, Congress could be asked to support a White House proposal that would allow the Pentagon to suspend the present restrictions on the call-up of Nation Guard and reservist troops in order to free up the forces who could be sent to Iraq for a temporary surge.
Guardian 3/1/07
Iraq arms deal
The Iraqi government has placed a $1.5 billion order with the United States for additional military equipment. They are buying an additional 300 armored personnel carriers, 600 additional up-armored Humvees, several UH-2 advanced helicopters. They will also buy more armored wheeled vehicles for moving troops, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said in Baghdad Wednesday.
UPI, 3/1/07
Security collapses in Iraqi province
Security has collapsed in Diyala province, which now ranks as one of Iraq's most troubled regions. Insurgent attacks have more than doubled in the last year. Violence has devastated the provincial police force and brought reconstruction to a virtual standstill.
Assassinations have claimed the lives of mayors, tribal chieftains, police officials and judges, including a Shiite Muslim member of the provincial council who was killed Tuesday. Many government officials here sleep on cots in their offices because driving home is too dangerous. And Iraqi security forces have been implicated in so many abuses that the U.S. commander here recently gave his Iraqi counterpart an angry lecture, likening the Iraqi troops to an "undisciplined rabble."
U.S. and Iraqi officials interviewed in recent days blamed the sharp downturn on a combination of U.S. neglect and abuses by the Iraqi army. U.S. troops largely disengaged from security here for weeks at a time, they say, handing the reins to Iraqi forces who proved to be abusive and ineffective.
Los Angeles Times, 3/1/07
Maliki does not want second term
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he has no interest in a second term and wished he could be done before the end of his current term, in which rampant sectarian violence has defied hopes for unity. Asked whether he would accept a second term, Maliki said in an interview published on Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal: "Impossible."
"I wish it could be done with even before the end of this term. I would like to serve my people from outside the circle of senior officials, maybe through the parliament, or through working directly with the people," Maliki said.
Reuters, 2/1/07
US rejects Iraqi refugees
With thousands of Iraqis desperately fleeing this country every day, advocates for refugees, and even some American officials, say there is an urgent need to allow more Iraqi refugees into the United States. Until recently the Bush administration had planned to resettle just 500 Iraqis this year, a mere fraction of the tens of thousands of Iraqis who are now believed to be fleeing their country each month.
"We're not even meeting our basic obligation to the Iraqis who've been imperiled because they worked for the U.S. government," said Kirk W. Johnson, who worked for the United States Agency for International Development in Falluja in 2005. "We could not have functioned without their hard work, and it's shameful that we've nothing to offer them in their bleakest hour."
International Herald Tribune, 1/1/07
6 Iraqis killed in US raid on Sunni politician
Six Iraqis were killed in the raid on the offices of top Sunni politician, Saleh Al Mutlaq.
The US military and Iraqi police said they suspected the offices were being used as an Al Qaida safe house.
Al Mutlaq is a senior member of the National Dialogue Front, which holds 11 of the 275 seats in Iraq's parliament.
Gulf News 2/1/07
'Dodgy dossier' boss honoured
John Scarlett, the head of MI6 who oversaw the production of the so-called "dodgy dossier" which claimed Saddam Hussein could deploy chemical weapons within 45 minutes, receives a knighthood in today's honours list. Sir John becomes a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, an upgrade on his existing CMG.
Guardian, 30/1/07
Eritrea accuses US over Somalia
Eritrea accused the United States on Monday of being behind the war in Somalia.
Diplomats across east Africa agree that Washington almost certainly gave tacit approval for Ethiopia to provide the forces which allowed Somalia's weak interim government to roll into the capital Mogadishu and send the hardline Islamists packing.
Washington has accused Eritrea of providing arms and men to the Islamists. The government in Asmara denies that. "There is a misrepresentation in the media. This war is between the Americans and the Somali people," Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu told Reuters by telephone.
"External forces are trying to impose their liking on the Somali people ... The issue is the geopolitical interest of the superpowers versus the choice of the Somalis," he said.
The Islamists brought a semblance of normality to a country in chaos since 1991 when they seized Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia six months ago and imposed strict sharia law.
But they fled the capital on Thursday and melted away from their last bastion around the southern port town of Kismayu on Monday following nearly two weeks of ground and air offensives by government troops backed by Ethiopian tanks, troops and jets.
Eritrea's arch-foe Ethiopia says hundreds of Eritreans were killed on the battlefield. Asmara accuses it of faking Eritrean identity cards in a "futile ploy" to provide evidence.
The two nations fought a 1998-2000 border war that killed 70,000 people and tensions between them remain high.
Reuters 1/1/07
'A rush to failure'
A US adviser involved in the talks on a new strategy in Iraq said: "There is recognition that the present strategy is not working. But alternative options are limited."
The source said there was a general disillusionment in the US administration with the Shia Muslim-dominated government led by the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, which is increasingly viewed as condoning - or at least failing to act against - sectarian killing.
"It would have been easier to implement a new strategy in 2005. It gets harder every day. We have painted ourselves into a corner with this [Iraqi] government," the source said.
A senior US military source identified the core of the problem as the US pursuit of democratic government ahead of security and economic reconstruction. What Washington had ended up with was an Iraqi government that shared different objectives from America: establishing the dominance of the Shia rather than fostering reconciliation and unity.
He said the view of the US military in Iraq is that the police force was so riddled with sectarianism that the only possible course was to disband it and start again; it was also rife in the Iraqi army, a trend encouraged by the Iraqi government.
"We are still in charge. The Iraqi government is a facade," the military source said.
"How can our strategy be to accelerate the handover to this government and the Iraq army. This is a rush to failure."
The British government privately shares the US administration's disappointment with Mr Maliki.
Guardian 1/1/07
Saddam's death followed by bombings and demonstrations
At least 80 Iraqis died in bombings and other attacks Saturday as they prepared to celebrate Islam's biggest holiday, their first without Saddam Hussein. The bombings came hours after Saddam was hanged in Baghdad for ordering the killings of 148 Shiites in Dujail in 1982. Despite concerns about a spike in unrest, Saturday's violence was not unusually high for Iraq, nor did it appear to be in retaliation for the execution.
Mostly peaceful demonstrations were held in several towns across Iraq, with hundreds of people marching in the streets carrying Iraqi flags and banners. Despite the curfew, gunmen in Tikrit paraded with Saddam's picture and fired their weapons into the air, calling for vengeance.
In the northern city of Mosul, however, a demonstration condemning Saddam's execution erupted into clashes, and Iraqi soldiers killed two civilians, police said.
Associated Press, 31/12/06
US death toll reaches 3,000...
The death of a Texan soldier in Baghdad brings the total number of US troops killed in Iraq to 3,000, independent groups tracking casualties have said. The US Defence Department confirmed that the soldier was killed by small arms fire in the capital last week. The announcement came on the final day of 2006 and as the US military reached the end of the deadliest month for its troops in Iraq for two years.
BBC News, 31/12/06
...and Bush to send 20,000 more?
The Bush administration is considering an increase in troop levels in Iraq of 17,000 to 20,000, Pentagon officials said Thursday. The option was among those discussed in Crawford, Tex., on Thursday as President Bush met there with his national security team, and it has emerged as a likely course as he considers a strategy shift in Iraq, the officials said.
Most of the additional troops would probably be employed in and around Baghdad. With the continuing high levels of violence there, senior officials increasingly say additional American forces will be needed as soon as possible to clear neighborhoods and to conduct other combat operations to regain control of the capital, rather than primarily to train Iraqi forces.
Any plan to add to American forces in Baghdad would have to be negotiated with the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, which has expressed interest in using Iraqi forces, not American ones, to assert more control over the capital.
New York Times, 29/12/06
American public abandons Bush
The American public has abandoned President Bush on the Iraq war and is looking to Congress for a way out that includes a timetable for withdrawing American troops, according to a Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll. The national survey shows a disaffected public that has grown sourer about the conflict since September, with only about one in seven believing Mr. Bush's claim that America is winning in Iraq.
More than half of Americans want to set a schedule to withdraw all troops, a significant change from September, when 44% said America should stay as long as it takes."There is a new level of discontent" over the war, said Susan Pinkus, the Times polling director. "It's hurting the economy, and it's hurting other issues. This is all the president can concentrate on."
New York Sun, 13/12/06
Another $100 billion dollars for war
President George W. Bush will soon seek about $100 billion in additional emergency funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report on Wednesday by Democratic staffers for two key panels in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Senior Democrats, who take control of both houses of Congress next year, have indicated they would support additional funds for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, even though many want a phased withdrawal to begin in 2007.
The $100 billion, if submitted and approved by Congress next year, would be in addition to the record $447 billion the Pentagon is receiving this fiscal year for all military operations.
Reuters, 13/12/06
Shiite plan for Baghdad
Iraq has presented the United States with a plan that calls for Iraqi troops to assume primary responsibility for security in Baghdad early next year. American troops would be shifted to the periphery of the capital.
The plan is consistent with the administration's desire for the Iraqis to take more responsibility for controlling the violence there, and it may reduce American casualties. But the Americans do not want to become complicit in sectarian violence. The Shiite-led government has been slow to act against militias that are forcing Sunnis from entire swaths of northern and eastern Baghdad, most recently from the neighborhoods of Huriya, Zayuna and Ghadier.
Because some of its forces, especially the police, are infiltrated by militias and have been implicated in attacks on Sunnis, American commanders - and Sunni politicians - fear that given a free hand, government forces might be used to cleanse the city of Sunnis.
New York Times, 12/12/06
Saudis would back Sunnis
Saudi Arabia has told the Bush administration that it might provide financial backing to Iraqi Sunnis in a war against Iraqi Shiites if the US withdraws from Iraq, The New York Times reported, citing American and Arab diplomats. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia delivered that message to Dick Cheney during the US vice-president's brief visit last month to Riyadh citing the officials it did not name.
Until now Saudi officials have promised Washington that they would refrain from aiding Iraq's Sunni insurgency. But that pledge holds only as long as the US remains in Iraq.
Trade Arabia, 13/12/06
Children suffer under occupation
Children in Iraq are some of the most deprived in the Middle East, according to a report released by the United Nations children's agency (Unicef) on Monday. According to the Iraqi Ministry of Health, in years since the US-led occupation of the country began in 2003, children have become more vulnerable to diseases as Iraq's infrastructure has deteriorated, the economy has collapsed and supplies are limited.
"Thousands of children are displaced nowadays without medical support. Diarrhoea and dehydration have become common diseases among them and with a lack of medicine, what could be considered acute before is chronic today," Ahmed Waleed, media officer at the Ministry of Health, said. "The numbers presented by UNICEF show the critical condition the health system is in today in Iraq."
Middle East Online, 12/12/06
Blair rejects Iran involvement
British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday called Iran a "major threat" to Middle East stability and said there was little prospect of engaging Tehran in efforts to end bloodshed in Iraq. An American bipartisan panel, the Iraq Study Group, recently proposed engaging Iran and Syria to help stem violence in Iraq. But U.S. President George W. Bush has shown no sign of changing his administration's policy of isolating the two states.
"I don't think there's any point us hiding the fact that Iran poses a major strategic threat for the cohesion of the entire region," Blair told a news conference.
The Star, Lebanon, 13/12/06
Children die in US seige
At least eight children have died and seven women have had miscarriages in the town of al-Sinya which invading U.S. troops have put under siege for more than 50 days. Sinya is close to Baiji, one of the scores of anti-U.S. strongholds in the country. The town's nearly 50,000 inhabitants are now without running water and food supplies are running dangerously low.
The siege is fuelling anger among the inhabitants of the Province of Saladdeen and in Tikreet, the provincial capital, there have been several demonstrations denouncing U.S. troops.
Azzaman, Iraq, 12/10/06
Iraq's president condemns US strategy
President Jalal Talabani said Sunday that the American program to train Iraq's security forces had been a repeated failure and he denounced a plan to increase the number of American advisers working with the Iraqi Army, saying it would subvert the country's sovereignty. Mr. Talabani's remarks amounted to an extraordinarily harsh denunciation of a central American strategy in Iraq as well as a major recommendation of the report issued last week by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group.
American commanders have poured more than $12 billion into training and equipping Iraq's security forces and have tied a withdrawal of American troops to success in these efforts. But Mr. Talabani ridiculed them. "What have they done so far in training the army and the police?" he said. "What they have done is move from failure to failure."
New York Times, 10/12/06
Talks aim to remove Maliki and sideline al-Sadr
Major partners in Iraq's governing coalition are in behind-the-scenes talks to oust Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki amid discontent over his failure to quell raging violence, according to lawmakers involved. The talks are aimed at forming a new parliamentary bloc that would seek to replace the current government and that would likely exclude supporters of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is a vehement opponent of the U.S. military presence.
The new alliance would be led by senior Shiite politician Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, who met with President Bush last week. Al-Hakim, however, was not expected to be the next prime minister because he prefers the role of powerbroker, staying above the grinding day-to-day running of the country. A key figure in the proposed alliance, Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, left for Washington on Sunday for a meeting with Bush at least three weeks ahead of schedule.
Associated Press, 10/12/06
CIA undermine British in Afghanistan
British intelligence officers and military commanders have accused the US of undermining British policies in Iraq and Afghanistan, after the sacking of a key British ally in the Afghan province of Helmand.
British sources have blamed pressure from the CIA for President Hamid Karzai's decision to dismiss Mohammed Daud as governor of Helmand, the southern province where Britain deployed some 4,000 troops this year. Governor Daud was appointed in mid-year to replace a man the British accused of involvement in opium trafficking, but on Thursday Mr Karzai summoned him to Kabul and sacked him, along with his deputy.
"The Americans knew Daud was a main British ally," one official told The Independent on Sunday, "yet they deliberately undermined him and told Karzai to sack him." The official said the Defence Secretary, Des Browne, was "tearing his hair out".
Independent, 10/12/06
Troops get free rein in search
In pursuit of a missing soldier, U.S. and Iraqi special forces units have staged dozens of operations in Shiite Muslim neighborhoods that once were ruled off-limits by the Shiite-dominated government.
"We have carte blanche at this point," said a high-ranking U.S. commander. "Whereas before we had to tippy-toe around these areas, now we can go in there as we like to search for our missing soldier."
U.S. Army Spc. Ahmed Qusai Taei, 41, an Iraqi-American immigrant, disappeared Oct. 23 while making an unauthorized visit to relatives in Baghdad.
Baltimore Sun, 8/12/06
US blockades Haditha
U.S. and Iraqi troops have sealed off the city of Haditha in Anbar province, in the heartland of the Sunni insurgency, and have warned residents to keep off the streets and stay indoors, officials and residents said on Friday. The U.S. military said troops were manning checkpoints and building a sand berm to crack down on insurgents in Haditha and in neighbouring Barwana. It said U.S. troops were protecting "the population and good citizens of Haditha".
But residents in Haditha, which is at the centre of a U.S. military investigation into the deaths of two dozen civilians in November 2005 by U.S. Marines, said electricity has been cut off and that no food is being allowed into the city. Schools have been forced to close, they said.
Reuters, 8/12/06
Blair's attempts to influence US a 'sad business'
Britain tried to stop the US disbanding the army in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, Europe Minister Geoff Hoon has said. Mr Hoon says British ministers "lost the argument".
Last month, Kendall Myers, a senior analyst at the US State Department, said Britain's relationship with America was "one-sided" and Prime Minister Tony Blair was routinely ignored by President George Bush. He described Britain's attempts to influence US policy as a "sad business".
BBC, 9/12/06
Rice dismisses diplomacy
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday all but rejected the idea of talks with Iran about quelling the violence in Iraq unless Tehran first acts to rein in its suspected nuclear weapons program.
Rice defended President George W. Bush's push to bring democracy to the Middle East -- an idea conspicuously absent from the panel's recommendations -- saying it would remain a "centerpiece" of U.S. foreign policy. While saying she saw "an opening" for progress on Israeli-Palestinian peace, Rice did not endorse the panel's call for new diplomatic push for a "comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace."
Reuters, 8/12/06
Blair threatens 'alternative approach' to Sudan
Britain and other countries will have to consider "alternative approaches" if Sudan's government and rebels do not make rapid progress towards ending the Darfur crisis, Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Saturday.
Britain would continue to support the process agreed at talks in Addis Ababa and Abuja, he said. "But if rapid progress is not made, we will need to consider alternative approaches, with international partners. The government of Sudan must prove it is taking its responsibilities seriously," he said.
Washington's special envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios has set a January 1 deadline for Khartoum to make progress on Darfur or have the United States and others resort to what he called "Plan B."
Reuters, 9/12/06
US have only 6 fluent Arabic speakers
Among the 1,000 people who work in the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, only 33 are Arabic speakers and only six speak the language fluently, according to the Iraq Study Group report released on Wednesday.
"All of our efforts in Iraq, military and civilian, are handicapped by Americans' lack of knowledge of language and cultural understanding," the bipartisan panel said in its report.
"In a conflict that demands effective and efficient communication with Iraqis, we are often at a disadvantage."
The report, written by five Republicans and five Democrats, recommended the U.S. government give "the highest possible priority to professional language proficiency and cultural training" for officials headed to Iraq.
Reuters 9/12/06
Sunnis condemn US air-strike
Iraq's influential Association of Muslim Scholars and the country's largest Sunni Arab political party on Saturday condemned a deadly U.S. military attack they say killed civilians.
Separately, a suicide car bomb struck near a Shiite shrine, killing eight people.
The U.S. command said Friday's raid and air-strike killed 20 insurgents, but the association and the Iraqi Islamic Party joined a village mayor who alleged that the attack killed at least 19 civilians, including women and children.
On Saturday, about 1,000 residents of al-Ishaqi village in the volatile province of Salahuddin held a funeral for the 19 dead, shouting slogans such as "Down with the occupiers," "Long live the resistance," and "There is no God but Allah."
ABC News international 9/12/06
71% of Americans disapprove of war policy
More Americans than ever say President Bush is doing a pitiful job with the war, and an almost equally overwhelming number of people think Iraq won't turn out to be a stable democracy, a new poll showed Friday.
A whopping 71 percent of Americans disapprove of Bush's handling of the war, while only 27 percent say he's done a good job, according to the AP-Ipsos poll.
Just nine percent of Americans believe the U.S. will end up with a clear-cut victory in Iraq, the poll indicated, while 63 percent said they don't think the country will become a stable democracy.
The public opinion was so lousy that even Bush's go-to issue - the economy - took a hit in the latest poll. His oversight of the economy sank to a 38 percent approval rating from last month's 43 percent.
The Mercury News 9/12/06
Oil companies desperate to open up Iraq
As it strains to contain the sectarian bloodshed and ease the departure of its own troops from Iraq, the US has been exerting pressure on Iraqi leaders to pass a hydrocarbons law that would more fairly regulate the distribution of oil revenues and close some of the sectarian rifts. Political squabbles have overshadowed what could be the historic aspect of the legislation: although the previous regime had moved towards opening up the sector, in order to encourage oil companies to break United Nations sanctions, the law is expected finally to reverse the 1972 nationalisation of the industry.
According to drafts now circulating, it would allow various forms of foreign partnership, possibly including production-sharing agreements. Such contracts are preferred by oil companies, allowing them to hedge the risk of cost overruns and giving them greater scope for gain if oil prices rise.
From a global perspective, Iraq's oil is becoming increasingly important to overall supply as demand accelerates, from China in particular, and output from fields in the US, Europe and parts of Asia slows with their advancing age. Big oil companies have enjoyed record profits from their global operations in the past two to three years. But a trend towards resource nationalism has seen governments, such as in Venezuela and Russia, wresting control of important fields away from foreign operators. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Mexico, which own the world's three biggest individual oilfields, have kept their doors shut.
The big groups are therefore seeking to prepare for the day when they will be able to enter Iraq, trying to create closer relationships with Iraqi officials and to gain information about oilfields in ways that do not require visits to the country.
Financial Times, 7/12/06
Bush meets Blair and rejects diplomacy
President Bush moved quickly on Thursday to distance himself from the central recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group: pulling back all combat brigades over the next 15 months and direct talks with Iran and Syria.
One day after the independent panel rocked Washington with its bleak assessment of conditions in Iraq, Mr. Bush met at the White House with his closest ally in the war, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain. With Mr. Blair by his side, the president said he needed to be "flexible and realistic" in considering troop movements, and made clear he would impose preconditions for talking to Iran and Syria that neither side is willing to accept.
New York Times, 7/12/06