These are the archives for the week ending 9th February 2007
US keeps Iraqis out
The US government last month stopped accepting all but the latest version of Iraqi passports, effectively barring hundreds -- potentially thousands -- of Iraqis with valid US visas from entering the United States, including some students at Boston-area universities.
The move has stranded Iraqi families around the world and made it more difficult for countless others to flee the chaos-ridden country, according to Iraqi officials.
In January, the United States said it would no longer accept most previously issued Iraqi passports because they were too easily forged. Instead, Iraqis entering the United States have to have newly issued, electronically readable passports. But none of Iraq's 50 embassies around the world has the machines required to produce the new passports.
Boston Globe, 7/2/07
US Iran policy humiliates Iraq government
The sense of anarchy in Baghdad has been increased by the government's admission that one of its own security agencies kidnapped Jalal Sharafi, an Iranian diplomat.
Iran has accused the Ministry of Defence - heavily influenced by the US - of orchestrating the kidnapping using a commando unit. Four of the alleged kidnappers were arrested at the time.
The new US policy of detaining Iranians is humiliating for the Iraqi government. When US forces raided a long-established Iranian office in the Kurdish capital of Arbil in January, Kurdish officials say the first they knew about it was when eight US helicopters from the US base at Balad suddenly flew over the city.
Independent, 8/2/07
Arabs protest forced relocation
Arabs in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk protested against a decision Monday by a government committee to relocate them to their places of origin in central and southern Iraq.
Mohammed Khalil, a leading member of Arab Republican Union (ARU), an organization representing Arabs living in oil-rich Kirkuk, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur: "We refuse these new decisions and consider them a form of forced migration."
Kirkuk is the centre of northern Iraq's oil industry. It is an ethnically mixed city where Kurds, Arabs, Turkuman and Christians have been living together for centuries.
The Kurdish parties are pushing to make Kirkuk part of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. The ARU has called for a peaceful demonstration in protest at the committee's decisions on Tuesday.
Jurnalo, Germany, 5/2/07
US launches new Africa command
The US president has approved plans to create a US military command for Africa, a move that reflects increasing US strategic interests in the continent.
"This new command will strengthen our security cooperation with Africa and create new opportunities to bolster the capabilities of our partners in Africa," Bush said.
"Africa Command will enhance our efforts to bring peace and security to the people of Africa and promote our common goals of development, health, education, democracy and economic growth in Africa."
Bush's decision comes as Washington grows increasingly concerned about growing "Islamist militancy" in parts of Africa. The US is also concerned at Chinese attempts to gain greater control over the continent's natural resources.
The US, the world's biggest energy consumer, also hopes the Gulf of Guinea region in West Africa will provide up to a quarter of its oil imports within a decade.
Al Jazeera, 7/2/07
Anti war vote fails in Senate
A resolution opposing President George W Bush's decision to send extra troops to Iraq has failed to advance in the US Senate, dealing a blow to war critics. The measure needed 60 votes before the 100-member Senate could begin debate, but it got 49, with 47 voting against.
Several Republicans supported the resolution, but there were not enough to block the efforts of White House loyalists in the Senate to prevent it from coming to a vote.
BBC News, 6/2/07
Cuts on poor to pay for war
President George Bush is proposing to slash medical care for the poor and elderly to meet the soaring cost of the Iraq war. Mr Bush's $2.9 trillion (£1.5 trillion) budget, sent to Congress yesterday, includes $100bn extra for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for this year, on top of $70bn already allocated by Congress and $141.7bn next year.
He is planning an 11.3% increase for the Pentagon. Spending on the Iraq war is destined to top the total cost of the 13-year war in Vietnam.
The huge rise in military spending is paid for by a squeeze on domestic programmes, including $66bn in cuts over five years to Medicare, the healthcare scheme for the elderly, and $12bn from the Medicaid healthcare scheme for the poor.
Guardian, 6/2/07
UK's Irish counter gang now in Iraq
Deep inside the heart of the "Green Zone", the heavily fortified administrative compound in Baghdad, lies one of the most carefully guarded secrets of the war in Iraq. It is a cell from a small and anonymous British Army unit that goes by the deliberately meaningless name of the Joint Support Group (JSG), and it has proved to be one of the Coalition's most effective and deadly weapons in the fight against terror.
Its members - servicemen and women of all ranks recruited from all three of the Armed Forces - are trained to turn hardened terrorists into coalition spies using methods developed on the mean streets of Ulster during the Troubles.
Information obtained by the unit is understood to have inspired one of the most successful operations carried out by Task Force Black, in November 2005, when SAS snipers shot dead three suicide bombers. The killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq up until his death in June last year, followed intelligence obtained by the JSG, as did the rescue of the kidnapped peace campaigner, Norman Kember.
During the Troubles, the JSG operated under the cover name of the Force Research Unit (FRU), which between the early 1980s and the late 1990s managed to penetrate the very heart of the IRA. The unit was renamed following the Stevens Inquiry into allegations of collusion between the security forces and protestant paramilitary groups, and, until relatively recently continued to work exclusively in Northern Ireland.
The Telegraph, 5/2/07
US can't prove Iran link
Bush administration officials acknowledged Friday that they had yet to compile evidence strong enough to back up publicly their claims that Iran is fomenting violence against U.S. troops in Iraq.
Administration officials have long complained that Iran was supplying Shiite Muslim militants with lethal explosives and other materiel used to kill U.S. military personnel. But despite several pledges to make the evidence public, the administration has twice postponed the release - most recently, a briefing by military officials scheduled for last Tuesday in Baghdad.
"The truth is, quite frankly, we thought the briefing overstated, and we sent it back to get it narrowed and focused on the facts," national security advisor Stephen J. Hadley said Friday.
Los Angeles Times, 3/2/07
Scottish Labour Party: Don't mention the war
Scots Labour Party members have been banned from discussing the Iraq war, the future of Britain's nuclear arsenal or any other "non-Scottish" issues in the run-up to the Holyrood elections.
A letter from Lesley Quinn, the general secretary of the Scottish Labour Party, was issued to branches last month, requesting that members only debate issues relating directly to the election.
It has already led to one branch in the west of Scotland being forced to ditch a formal debate on the replacement of the UK's Trident weapons, prompting fury from party members who believe open discussion is being barred.
Critics last night accused the party of "control freakery" and said it smacked of growing panic in the party that it was losing voters because of the unpopularity of its nationwide policies.
Quinn's letter comes with some Labour MSPs admitting they are suffering from the constant deluge of bad headlines from south of the Border centring on the cash-for-honours affair and foreign policy.
Scotland on Sunday, 4/2/07
US pilots change tactics in Iraq
The U.S. command has ordered changes in flight operations after four helicopters were shot down in the last two weeks, the chief military spokesman said Sunday, acknowledging for the first time that the aircraft were lost to hostile fire.
The crashes, which began Jan. 20, follow insurgent claims that they have received new stocks of anti-aircraft weapons - and a recent boast by Sunni militants that "God has granted new ways" to threaten U.S. aircraft.
Edmonton Sun, 4/2/07
Kosovo and Iran key UN debates
The majority Albanian province of Kosovo was put on the path to independent statehood yesterday by an international blueprint that redraws the map of the Balkans and effectively strips Serbia of sovereignty.
The unveiling of the Kosovo independence plan sets the scene for months of diplomatic clashes at the UN between Russia and the west.
Two of the hottest issues on the agenda - Kosovo's status and Iran's suspect nuclear programme - will land on the desk of the security council simultaneously at the end of the month.
Russia is digging in its heels on both disputes, threatening to veto resolutions needed to kickstart Kosovo independence and step up pressure on Iran through tougher sanctions because Tehran refuses to stop enriching uranium. The Americans are increasingly exasperated by Moscow's stalling tactics and may seek to by pass the UN on both issues if Russia refuses to yield.
Guardian 3/2/07
Peace deal fails
British strategy in Afghanistan suffered a blow when the Taliban overran a town in northern Helmand where a controversial peace deal had been signed.
Hundreds of insurgents stormed into Musa Qala on Thursday night, disarming the local police, burning government buildings and threatening elders, officials and residents said.
The Taliban offensive appeared to catch troops off guard just two days before Britain hands control of Nato forces in Afghanistan to an American, General Dan McNeill.
British commanders always insisted that the Musa Qala deal, which was brokered between the provincial governor and local elders last September, was risky. After a summer of fighting that claimed several British fatalities, British forces and the Taliban agred to withdraw from the town centre. In return, elders said they would guarantee security through a locally recruited tribal police force.
US generals and some western diplomats vehemently opposed the Muasa Qala pact, painting it as a sop to a resurgent Taliban. The agreement also split the Taliban leadership. Yesterday it became clear whichfaction won the argument.
Guardian 3/2/07
Bomb kills 132
A suicide bomber driving a truck loaded with a ton of explosives hidden beneath cooking oil, canned food and bags of flour obliterated a Baghdad food market, killing at least 132 people in one of the most fearsome attacks in the capital since the US invasion in 2003.
The explosion on Saturday was the deadliest attack in the capital since a series of car bombs and mortars killed at least 215 people in the Shi'ite district of Sadr City on November. 23.
It was fifth major bombing in less than a month targeting predominantly Shi'ite districts in Baghdad and a provincial city to the south. This one levelled about 30 shops and 40 houses, witnesses said.
The Age, Australia, 4/2/07
Turkey could launch cross border attack
A large scale 90 page Iraq situation report revealed on last Friday has reflected the U.S Secretary of Defense Robert Gates's worries for a possible Turkish cross border attack to Iraq.
The report which was prepared by American intelligence experts mentions America's risk on Turkey. The report said "Kurds are systematically taking control of Kirkuk. Their aim is to seize the majority of people and lands in order to win the referendum. Meanwhile Arabs are carrying on resistance to impede Kurdish control in these lands. Possible tension would increase violence. Controlling Kirkuk would strengthen Kurds for autonomy which would direct Turks for a cross border attack"
Sabah, Turkey, 4/2/07
Britain broke rules on underage soldiers
Britain broke a United Nations treaty banning the use of child soldiers by sending underage troops - including 17-year-old girls - to Iraq, it has been revealed.
The Ministry of Defence has admitted that army commanders were put under pressure by successive deployments to Iraq and as a result broke international rules by sending soldiers who had not yet reached their 18th birthday.
The forces - and the army in particular - are stepping up their recruitment work among the young as they struggle to maintain their numbers. Last year, over 14,000 people left the army and only 12,000 joined.
Teenagers are by far the largest recruiting group for the military. Last year, 2,760 new recruits to the three armed services were aged 16, and 3,415 were 17. By contrast, there were only 980 recruits aged 23 and 160 aged 28.
The Scotsman, 3/2/07
Mercenaries are second largest military force in Iraq
Between 30,000 and 50,000 mercenaries are working in Iraq, making them the second largest military force there after the occupying United States.
The case of Iraq "is a new manifestation of the use of mercenaries that has caughts the US by surprise", Spain's Jose Luis Gomez del Prado -- a member of the UN working group on mercenaries -- said Friday during a visit to Peru
Gomez del Prado told a news conference thousands of Peruvians, Chileans, Colombians, Hondurans and Ecuadorans had been contracted to work as mercenaries in Iraq, thanks to an array of legal loopholes.
The trend has caused widespread public concern in Peru. Rights workers have voiced concern that people are being hired to work as security guards in Iraq but are then given military training and asked to perform "previously unforseen tasks" which draw them into full combat.
AFP, 3/2/07
More British troops to Afghanistan
Around 800 more troops are to be deployed to the Helmand province of Afghanistan by the end of the summer, Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, has announced.
British soldiers have faced fierce resistance from Taliban militia in Helmand, where the bulk of the UK's 46 fatalities in Afghanistan have been suffered.
Britain's presence in the Afghan capital Kabul is to be reduced by around 500 personnel as the UK hands over command of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force to the US this weekend. The result will be an increase of approximately 300 in the overall British commitment to the country, which currently stands at 6,000.
The announcement follows lengthy discussions within Nato over which countries will supply troops to meet a shortfall identified by commanders on the ground in southern Afghanistan.
Daily Telegraph, 2/1/07
US destroying houses in Baghdad
U.S. Army engineers have torn down houses and surrounded the newly cleared space with razor wire atop concrete blast walls for neighborhood bases, the first outward signs of the coming Baghdad security crackdown.
American and Iraqi commanders are pulling together a force that numbers - on paper at least - about 90,000 troops for what many see as a last-chance drive to curb the debilitating violence that has turned Baghdad into a battleground.
In the past eight months, two joint U.S.-Iraqi security missions have failed to rout gunmen, bombers, suicide attackers and the death squads that haunt Baghdad's streets after dark. The U.S. military blamed Iraq's Shiite-dominated government for its inability to muster sufficient troops.
Seattle Times, 2/1/07
50,000 more US troops for Iraq
President George W Bush's plan to add 21,500 troops in Iraq could actually result in an increased US military force in Iraq of up to 48,000 troops, a congressional report has concluded.
The nonpartisan congressional budget office said that when non-combat support troops are taken into account, the actual number of additional troops deployed in Iraq could reach between 35,000 and 48,000.
The CBO said the administration's "surge" in troops could cost between 20 billion to 27 billion dollars over the first 12 months of the deployment.
Zee News, India, 2/2/07
S