These are the archives for the week ending 7th December 2007
Bush knew in August that Iran had stopped weapons programme
President George W. Bush was told in August that Iran may have suspended its nuclear weapons programme, the White House said on Wednesday, a day after Bush said he was not given a full report on the issue.
A new intelligence estimate released on Monday said Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons programme in the fall of 2003, raising questions about whether the president was aware of that when he increased his rhetoric against Tehran. Bush for months has called Iran a threat and in October raised the spectre of World War Three if it acquired a nuclear weapon.
During a news conference on Tuesday, Bush said he was informed of the intelligence report last week, but said U.S. intelligence chief Mike McConnell told him in August there was new information on Iran.
"He didn't tell me what the information was. He did tell me it was going to take a while to analyse," Bush said.
On Wednesday, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said McConnell told Bush in August that Iran may have suspended its nuclear weapons programme and that the new information might cause the intelligence community to change its assessment on Iran.
Reuters, 6/12/07
Boomtime for British mercenaries
The British Association of Private Security Companies (BAPSC) was gathering for its annual conference in London - its second since the association was formed last year "to raise the standards of operation of its members and this emergent industry".
The security firm Aegis was there. Headed up by former Scots Guard and Sandline veteran, Tim Spicer, the company recently won a renewal of its contract with the US Department of Defence to provide security in Iraq. It meant a windfall of nearly £250,000 for Aegis, who now employ an estimated 1,500 contractors in the country.
The British government is also increasingly reliant on private security firms. In Afghanistan, the Foreign Office is spending £19.6m this year on protection provided by ArmorGroup, whose chairman is former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind.
BAPSC chief Andrew Bearpark estimated his members now employ around 10,000 contractors worldwide. Some firms are now diversifying into areas such as African landmine clearance and most still provide security in hotspots like Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr Bearpark acknowledged that while there may have been some short-term contraction in demand for his members' services in Iraq ("the bubble was bound to burst," he said) in the longer-term prospects have never looked healthier.
He said: "The British Government has ever increasing ambitions in terms of foreign policy and operations abroad. But the British military is more and more strapped. I think it is inevitable that in years to come, the private security companies will be asked to make up some of that shortfall."
BBC News, 6/12/07
US in Afghanistan 'for decades'
Senator Bob Bennett (Republican - Utah) returned from a trip to Afghanistan buoyed by his meetings with Afghan officials and members of the U.S. military, but he also warned that progress is slow - very slow.
Withdrawal of troops "is not something that is going to happen as soon as many Americans would like," he said during a news conference Wednesday at the Capitol. "We are probably talking about decades."
A poll released this week by ABC News, the BBC in England and the ARD network in Germany found that 42 percent of Afghans rate the U.S. efforts as positive; that's down from 57 percent last year and 68 percent the year before that.
Despite these findings, Bennett said he experienced "a great deal of pro-American feeling" and he expressed confidence in Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his administration.
Salt Lake Tribune, 6/12/07
War costs rise to £2 billion
MPs have asked ministers to provide more details of spending in Iraq and Afghanistan - expected to increase to nearly £2bn this year.
Defence committee chair James Arbuthnot said ministers should not take MPs' support for spending plans for granted. MPs questioned why Iraq costs were forecast to rise by 2% next year, when the number of troops were falling.
The Ministry of Defence said this was because of building and infrastructure work at the base at Basra Airport. Forecast costs of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007-8 are due to rise by 2% and 39%, respectively.
BBC News, 5/12/07
'Stable and democratic Iraq within reach'
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday the goal of a stable and democratic Iraq is within reach, during an unannounced visit to Iraq marked by a spate of car bombs that killed 23 people.
"More than ever, I believe the goal of a secure, stable and democratic Iraq is within reach," Gates said after holding a flurry of meetings with Iraqi leaders.
Just ahead of the conference in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, a powerful car bomb exploded in a busy street in a nearby suburb, killing 14 people and wounding 32.
A car bomb exploded earlier at Mosul killing a civilian soon after Gates had jetted into the northern city from Kabul, where a suicide attacker slammed a bomb-filled car into an Afghan army bus killing at least 16 people.
Gulf Daily News, Bahrain, 6/12/07
US funding to anti-Chavez students
Many of the anti-government students and their leaders do hail from such elite universities as Andres Bello, the prominent Catholic university in Caracas. And some student groups have received funding for workshops from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
U.S. documents, obtained through a freedom of information request filed by a researcher for the National Security Archive at George Washington University, show that $216,000 was provided from 2003 through this year to unnamed student groups at several universities for "conflict resolution," "democracy promotion" and other programs.
Jeremy Bigwood, the researcher, has obtained other documents in recent years showing U.S. aid for anti-Chávez groups. He said these documents show, at the very least, that the Bush administration wanted to "keep a finger on the pulse of the student movement."
Washington Post, 2/12/07
No-go zones expand in Afghanistan
Almost half of Afghanistan is now too dangerous for aid workers to operate in, a leaked UN map seen by The Times shows.
In the past two years most foreign and Afghan staff have withdrawn from the southern half of the country, abandoning or scaling back development projects in rural areas and confining themselves to the cities or the less risky north.
The pullback compounds the problems of the Government in Kabul, which has struggled to extend its authority to the regions and provinces, which are increasingly lawless or Taleban controlled.
Development has always been touted as a key factor in Western efforts to win over Afghans and bolster support for President Karzai but in the past six years little has been done on the ground in the critical south and east.
The Times, 5/12/07
Hunger to increase in Iraq
From the beginning of 2008 the quantity of national food rations delivered freely to all Iraqi families will be further reduced - from 10 to five items, due to lack of government financial support, Trade Minister Abid Falah al-Soodani said on 3 December.
Al-Soodani blamed corruption and manpower shortages in his ministry for the malfunctioning of the nationwide rations' system, the poor quality of items distributed and delays in delivering them. He said his ministry had only 30,000 employees running the rations' system for 30 million people.
Mohammed Falah Ibrahim, a food security expert at the Baghdad health directorate, said cutting items from the food rations' system would lead to hunger in many parts of Iraq.
UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs, 4/12/07
More Iraqi civilians killed
US forces opened fire on a private vehicle during an operation north of Baghdad, killing one Iraqi and wounding three others, the American military said on Tuesday.
The incident comes a week after nine civilians, including three women and a child, were reported killed by US fire on vehicles in three separate incidents.
The latest shooting occurred on Monday at Tarmiyah, about 35 miles north of Baghdad, a military statement said. US military spokesman Major Anton Alston said Monday's incident was regrettable.
Middle East Online, 4/12/07
Occupation formally extended by a year
Iraq's Cabinet has agreed to ask the United Nations to extend authorization for U.S.-led forces in Iraq through the end of next year.
The current one-year mandate expires at the end of this month (December 2007) and Iraq's chief government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, says this will be the last time the government seeks such an extension. At present, there are more than 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
Voice of America, 4/12/07
Iraq can't handle returning refugees
Iraq's government acknowledged Tuesday that it cannot handle a massive return of refugees, as the U.N. announced a $11 million relief package to help the most vulnerable Iraqi families trickling back to their war-ravaged homeland.
The return of refugees is a politically charged issue in this country, where the embattled government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is eager to point to recent military gains against al-Qaida in Iraq and other militants as evidence that Iraq is now a relatively safe place.
But the U.S. military has warned that a massive return of refugees could rekindle sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites and that some returnees have found their Baghdad homes occupied by members of the other Muslim sect.
"In reality, the ministry cannot absorb a return on that (large) scale," Iraqi Migration Minister Abdul-Samad Rahman told a news conference. "If the influx is huge, then neither the ministry nor the entire government can handle it."
Associated Press, 4/12/07
US admits Iran not building bomb...
Iran appears "less determined" to develop nuclear weapons than previously thought, US intelligence officials say. Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 but is continuing to enrich uranium, a National Intelligence Estimate assessment has concluded.
The declassified summary of the report, which draws together information from the US's 16 intelligence agencies, says with "high confidence" that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons programme in 2003 "in response to international pressure".
BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera says the estimate is in stark contrast to the alarmist and hawkish language coming from some parts of the administration. Last month Mr Bush warned that stopping Iran developing nuclear technology was vital to prevent World War III.
BBC News, 3/12/07
...but Bush keeps up war rhetoric...
Iran remains a threat to the world despite a new report saying the country may not be building nuclear weapons, the US president says.
Mr Bush said an intelligence report released on Monday was a "warning sign" and his view that a nuclear Iran would be a danger "hasn't changed".
"Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous and Iran will be dangerous if they have the know-how to make a nuclear weapon," Mr Bush told a news conference.
When asked if military action was a possibility, Mr Bush said: "The best diplomacy - effective diplomacy - is one in which all options are on the table."
BBC News, 4/12/07
...and Brown follows suit
The United States, Britain and France urged the international community to maintain pressure on Iran to stop its nuclear enrichment activities despite the new assessment.
"We think the report's conclusions justify the actions already taken by the international community to both show the extent of and try to restrict Iran's nuclear program and to increase pressure on the regime to stop its enrichment and reprocessing activities," a spokesman for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was quoted by Reuters as saying.
"It confirms we were right to be worried about Iran seeking to develop nuclear weapons and shows that the sanctions program and international pressure were having an effect," he said.
New York Times, 5/12/07
Iraqi resistance are waiting out the surge
Iraq's main Sunni-led resistance groups have scaled back their attacks on US forces in Baghdad and parts of Anbar province in a deliberate strategy aimed at regrouping, retraining, and waiting out George Bush's "surge", a key insurgent leader has told the Guardian.
US officials recently reported a 55% drop in attacks across Iraq. One explanation they give is the presence of 30,000 extra US troops deployed this summer. The other is the decision by dozens of Sunni tribal leaders to accept money and weapons from the Americans in return for confronting al-Qaida militants who attack civilians. They call their movement al-Sahwa (the Awakening).
The resistance groups are another factor in the complex equation in Iraq's Sunni areas. "We oppose al-Qaida as well as al-Sahwa," the director of the political department of the 1920 Revolution Brigades told the Guardian in Damascus in a rare interview with a western reporter.
Using the nom de guerre Dr Abdallah Suleiman Omary, he went on: "Al-Sahwa has made a deal with the US to take charge of their local areas and not hit US troops, while the resistance's purpose is to drive the occupiers out of Iraq. We are waiting in al-Sahwa areas. We disagree with them but do not fight them. We have shifted our operations to other areas".
Guardian, 3/12/07
Ashdown to become Afghan special envoy
Paddy Ashdown has been offered a new "super-job" in Afghanistan as the representative of NATO and the United Nations, a role which needs to be filled by Christmas. If he accepts, Lord Ashdown may also assume the European Union's mantle, in a three-way attempt to better co-ordinate the fragmented efforts of the international community.
Experts fear Afghanistan is sliding into chaos because the EU, the UN and NATO are not working closely enough. Gordon Brown first asked Lord Ashdown to consider the job in July, but the former Liberal Democrat leader was reluctant to accept until he won the support of the international community, particularly the US.
America, the UN, NATO and the EU have all since agreed to back Lord Ashdown, after he was championed by America's third most senior diplomat in Washington, Nicholas Burns, a NATO official in Kabul said. A senior European diplomat said the envoy's effectiveness would depend largely on America's willingness to let him represent them.
Scotsman, 3/12/07
Third world warriors fight US war
The Congressional Research Service has estimated there are 182,000 individuals working under U.S. contracts and subcontracts in Iraq.
And a federal Government Accountability Office report last year estimated that more than 48,000 of those individuals are armed. That makes America's private-for-profit security force - U.S. leaders resist the term "mercenary" - the second largest armed group in the dwindling coalition that currently occupies Iraq, well ahead of U.S. ally Great Britain.
It's unclear how many armed contractors come from third-world countries, but federal reports indicate less than a fifth are Americans. The rest are recruited from dozens of other nations, including many places like Honduras, that are not a part of the Bush Administration's so-called "coalition of the willing."
And like Honduras, many of the nations from which private security contractors are drawn are steeped in abject poverty. In these places, critics say, billion-dollar American companies can find plenty of people willing to risk their lives for wages as low as $31 a day - and who don't have a voice when things go wrong.
Salt Lake Tribune, 2/12/07
Doubts over UK strength in Iraq
The presence of only 2,500 British troops in Iraq from next spring could make it impossible for them to carry out any useful function other than to protect themselves from attack, a committee of MPs said yesterday.
The Commons Defence Committee cast doubt on the Government's plan to reduce the number of troops from 5,000 to 2,500 next year. The cutback was announced by Gordon Brown in the Commons last month.
The committee's scepticism was supported yesterday by a senior army commander who told The Times:
"There is no point in having just 2,500 troops in Iraq. The minimum you need both for force protection and for continuing with training the Iraqi security forces is around 5,000. So you either keep 5,000 there or you withdraw the lot, which is what we suggested to the Government."
The Times, 3/12/07
US says it can kidnap British citizens
America has told Britain that it can "kidnap" British citizens if they are wanted for crimes in the United States. A senior lawyer for the American government has told the Court of Appeal in London that kidnapping foreign citizens is permissible under American law because the US Supreme Court has sanctioned it.
The admission will alarm the British business community after the case of the so-called NatWest Three, bankers who were extradited to America on fraud charges. More than a dozen other British executives, including senior managers at British Airways and BAE Systems, are under investigation by the US authorities and could face criminal charges in America.
Until now it was commonly assumed that US law permitted kidnapping only in the "extraordinary rendition" of terrorist suspects. The American government has for the first time made it clear in a British court that the law applies to anyone, British or otherwise, suspected of a crime by Washington.
Sunday Times, 2/12/07
Jordan's secret CIA prison
Over the past seven years, an imposing building on the outskirts ofAmman has served as a secret holding cell for the CIA.
The building is the headquarters of the General Intelligence Department, Jordan's powerful spy and security agency. Since 2000, at the CIA's behest, at least 12 non-Jordanian terrorism suspects have been detained and interrogated in Amman, according to documents and former prisoners, human rights advocates, defense lawyers, and former US officials.
In most of the cases, the spy center served as a covert way station for CIA prisoners captured in other countries. It was a place where they could be hidden after being arrested and kept for a few days or several months before being moved on to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or CIA prisons elsewhere in the world.
The General Intelligence Department, or GID, is perhaps the CIA's most trusted partner in the Arab world. The Jordanian agency has received money, training, and equipment from the CIA for decades and even has a public English-language website.
In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, however, the GID was attractive for another reason, according to former US counterterrorism officials and Jordanian human rights advocates. Its interrogators had a reputation for persuading tight-lipped suspects to talk, even if that meant using abusive tactics that could violate US or international law.
Washington Post,2/12/07
Corruption and theft crippling Iraq
One recent independent analysis ranked Iraq the third most corrupt country in the world. Of 180 countries surveyed, only Somalia and Myanmar were worse, according to Transparency International, a Berlin-based group that publishes the index annually.
And the extent of the theft is staggering. Some American officials estimate that as much as a third of what they spend on Iraqi contracts and grants ends up unaccounted for or stolen, with a portion going to Shiite or Sunni militias.
In addition, Iraq's top anticorruption official estimated this fall - before resigning and fleeing the country after 31 of his agency's employees were killed over a three-year period - that $18 billion in Iraqi government money had been lost to various stealing schemes since 2004.
The collective filching undermines Iraq's ability to provide essential services, a key to sustaining recent security gains, according to American military commanders. It also sows a corrosive distrust of democracy and hinders reconciliation as entrenched groups in the Shiite-led government resist reforms that would cut into reliable cash flows.
New York Times, 2/12/07
Crackdown may derail Iraq political process
Iraq's main Sunni political bloc warned that a crackdown on its leader Adnan al-Dulaimi could derail the country's fledgling political process.
Dulaimi has been under effective house arrest since Friday after Iraqi forces found two primed car bombs near his offices in Baghdad. The troops detonated the bombs and later detained Dulaimi's son and dozens of his bodyguards, while Dulaimi said he himself had been put under "confinement" in his home.
His National Concord Front party, the main Sunni parliamentary bloc, said the crackdown on Dulaimi was creating political tension.
The Front, which has 44 lawmakers in the 275-member Iraqi parliament, also demanded the release of Dulaimi's son and bodyguards.
The Front pulled its six ministers out of government in early August, accusing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of failing to rein in Shiite militias and of the arbitrary arrest and detention of Sunnis.
One minister has subsequently returned and has been expelled from the party. Maliki has being trying to persuade the Sunni ministers to return without success.
Independent online 1/12/07
No plan on return of Iraqi refugees
As Iraqi refugees begin to stream back to Baghdad, American military officials say the Iraqi government has yet to develop a plan to absorb the influx and prevent it from setting off a new round of sectarian violence.
The Iraqi government lacks a mechanism to settle property disputes if former residents return to Baghdad only to find their homes occupied, the officials said.
Nor has the Iraqi government come forward with a detailed plan to provide aid, shelter and other essential services to the thousands of Iraqis who might return.
American commanders caution that if the return is not carefully managed, there is a risk of undermining the recent security gains.
"All these guys coming back are probably going to find somebody else living in their house," said Col. William Rapp, a senior aide to Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq.
"We have been asking, pleading with the government of Iraq, to come up with a policy so that it is not put upon our battalion commanders and the I.S.F. battalion commanders to figure it out on the ground," he added, referring to the American and Iraqi security force commanders.
New York Times 1/12/07
Afghanistan now more dangerous for troops than Iraq
In a stunning turnaround, Afghanistan is now a more dangerous place for U.S. troops than Iraq. The death rate for U.S. troops in Afghanistan is now nearly twice the rate for those in Iraq.
It's a good news/bad news story. On one hand, security in Iraq has dramatically improved and as a result the number of U.S. troops killed and wounded has dropped considerably.
On the other hand, the situation has deteriorated in Afghanistan. There have already been 111 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan in 2007, making this the deadliest year for U.S. troops in Afghanistan of the entire war.
"We are stagnating in Afghanistan, if not backsliding," a senior U.S. military official tells ABC News. It's also the deadliest year for non-U.S. troops, by far.
This year, 112 non-U.S. troops in the coalition have been killed, including 40 from Britain and 29 from Canada.
ABC News, 30/11/07
UK prepares troops for Kosovo
Britain yesterday offered to be the first Nato country to send extra troops to Kosovo within weeks, as the Conservatives and Balkan experts warned of a potentially violent crisis brewing.
Amid a growing sense of foreboding after the collapse of two years of negotiations between the Serb and Kosovo Albanian leaderships over the future of the contested Balkan province, the Foreign Office signalled strong support for a breakaway Kosovo.
"Long-term European stability and security demand a viable status settlement for Kosovo without delay," a spokesman said, voicing support for the supervised independence proposed by the UN envoy, Martti Ahtisaari. If more peacekeepers were needed in Kosovo, Britain would be the first to send extra forces, he said.
Guardian, 30/11/07