These are the archives for the week ending 11th January 2008
Doubts grow over Iranian boat threat
Doubts intensified last night over the nature of an alleged aggressive confrontation by Iranian patrol boats and American warships in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, after Pentagon officials admitted that they could not confirm that a threat to blow up the US ships had been made directly by the Iranian crews involved in the incident.
The Pentagon has said that it recorded the film and the sound separately, and then stitched them together - a dubious piece of editing even before it became known that the source of the voice could not, with certainty, be linked to the Iranian patrol boats.
A post on the New York Times news blog yesterday from a former naval officer with experience of these waters said that the radio frequency used in the Strait of Hormuz was regularly polluted with interfering chatter, somewhat like CB radio.
"My first thought was that the 'explode' comment might not have come from one of the Iranian craft, but some loser monitoring the events at a shore facility."
Guardian, 11/1/08
Pressure grows on Maliki
A new movement to oust Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is gathering force in Baghdad. And although the United States is counseling against this change of government, a senior U.S. official in the Iraqi capital says it's a moment of "breakthrough or breakdown" for Maliki's regime.
The new push against Maliki comes from Kurdish leaders, who, U.S. and Iraqi sources told me, sent him an ultimatum in late December.
The Kurds are upset that Maliki hasn't delivered on promises they say he made to them last summer, when he was trying to stave off an earlier attempted putsch. Maliki pledged then that his government would pass an oil law and a regional-powers law, and that it would conduct a referendum on the future of Kirkuk. None of these promises has been fulfilled, and the Kurds are angry.
The strongest anti-Maliki voice is Massoud Barzani, the dominant political leader in Kurdistan. Barzani agreed to back Maliki last summer after a personal telephone call from President Bush. Now, fuming about Turkish attacks across the border last month and the delay on Kirkuk, Barzani is on the warpath.
Although U.S. officials are counseling against removing Maliki, they agree that the prime minister must govern more effectively and inclusively in coming months -- or suffer the "breakdown" described by the senior U.S. official. "Clearly there is a sense among the Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites that the government isn't doing what it's supposed to do," he explained.
The anti-Maliki forces would like to replace him with Adel Abdul Mahdi, one of Iraq's vice presidents and a leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, headed by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim.
The biggest obstacle to removing Maliki is the Shiite religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who is said to be frustrated with Maliki's poor performance but wary of dividing the Shiite alliance.
"Najaf [Sistani's headquarters] is unhappy," said one top Iraqi leader. But the senior U.S. official said he was "certain" that Sistani had not yet blessed any change of government.
Washington Post, 9/1/08
W.H.O. believes 151,000 civilians dead in Iraq
The World Health Organization on Wednesday waded into the controversial subject of Iraqi civilian deaths, publishing a study that estimated that the number of deaths from the start of the war through June 2006 was at least twice as high as the oft-cited Iraq Body Count.
The Iraq Body Count, a nongovernmental group based in Britain that bases its numbers on news media accounts, put the number of civilians dead at 47,668 during the same period of time as the World Health Organization study. President Bush in the past used a number that was similar to one put forward at the time by the Iraq Body Count.
But another study, by Johns Hopkins, which has come under criticism for its methodology, cited an estimate of about 600,000 dead between the war's start, in March 2003, and July 2006.
The World Health Organization said its study, based on interviews with families, indicated with a 95 percent degree of statistical certainty that between 104,000 and 223,000 civilians had died. It based its estimate of 151,000 deaths on that range.
New York Times, 10/1/08
Awakening Councils in limbo
The U.S. troop surge in Iraq has been a qualified success -- a 60 percent drop in attacks, fewer bodies found on the streets, something approaching normalcy returning to the neighborhoods of Baghdad. And there's one surprising group that has played a large role in making this happen -- the Awakening Councils.
Most Awakening Council members are Sunni Muslims, and the group includes many who had been fighting as insurgents against Americans and have now turned their guns on al Qaeda.
The Americans pay members of the Awakening Councils $300 a month, but this is temporary and the increasingly frustrated fighters have one demand: permanent jobs. A demand that has yet to be met.
The government said that at best 20 percent would be incorporated into the Iraqi police and army. Yet even for that minority of fighters, the process of screening, acceptance and training is tortuously slow, and there have been accusations that the Shiite-led government is deliberately taking its time delivering on promises of government security jobs.
The Americans worry that without long-term employment, the Awakening Council members will lose faith in the security plan and return to their old ways.
The Awakening Councils are in limbo. The way these groups will be integrated into the military and political infrastructure is a critical test of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government, and of the hopes for Iraqi political reconciliation as a whole.
ABC News, 9/1/08
Bribes free top Taleban leader
A Taleban commander in Afghanistan responsible for leading attacks on British troops says he has been freed from prison after paying a bribe.
Mullah Sorkh Naqaibullah told the BBC he paid $15,000 (£7,500) to the Afghan authorities to win his freedom. It was the third time that the leader, known as the "Red Mullah", had been captured and released, he said.
Mullah Naqaibullah operates in Helmand province, where there is a large concentration of British troops.
BBC News, 8/1/08
Sexual assaults on Iraq contract workers
A Florida senator wants to know whether sexual assaults of employees of contractors in Iraq are widespread, but says he is getting few answers from the administration.
Senator Bill Nelson began asking about the problem after a constituent told him she was sexually assaulted in June 2005 while working for contractor KBR/Halliburton in Iraq. Her allegations followed allegations by a Texas woman, Jamie Leigh Jones, that she was raped and held against her will for a day by co-workers in Iraq while working for KBR in July 2005.
Jones' attorney and Rep. Ted Poe, R-Houston, said last month that 13 women had come forward with similar cases.
Houston Chronicle, 8/1/08
Afghan civilians killed 'needlessly'
A former member of an elite Marine combat unit that operated last year in eastern Afghanistan testified Tuesday that his comrades appeared to have needlessly killed civilians after their convoy was attacked by a suicide car bomb.
Nathaniel Travers, a former Marine intelligence sergeant assigned to the 30-man Special Operations convoy that was patrolling on March 4 last year, testified in a military court here that a few marines fired at civilians and other unarmed noncombatants after the suicide bomber struck.
No marines have been charged with a crime in the episode. The hearing was held to determine whether troops had violated the laws of war.
New York Times, 9/1/08
US diplomats oppose Iraq policy
Nearly half of U.S. diplomats unwilling to volunteer to work in Iraq say one reason for their refusal is they don't agree with Bush administration's policies in the country, according to a survey released Tuesday.
Security concerns and separation from family ranked as the top reasons for not wanting to serve in Iraq. But 48 percent cited "disagreement" with administration policy as a factor in their opposition, said the survey conducted by the American Foreign Service Association, the union that represents U.S. diplomats.
In addition, nearly 70 percent of U.S. diplomats oppose forced assignments to Iraq, a prospect that sparked a storm of controversy last year when the State Department announced it might have to require such tours under penalty of dismissal in the largest diplomatic call-up to a war zone since Vietnam.
The results suggest the State Department is facing a far more serious revolt over Iraq among its ranks than previously thought, and call into question its ability to fully staff diplomatic missions in Iraq, as well as those in Afghanistan and other dangerous posts deemed critical to the administration's foreign policy goals.
Associated Press 8/1/08
Iraqi who shot US troops 'had links with militants'...
An Iraqi soldier allegedly turned on US soldiers during a joint operation in northern Iraq, shooting dead two decorated American servicemen and wounding another three, the US military and Iraqi officials said yesterday.
Initial results of an Iraqi investigation indicated the suspect might have had links to militants, an Iraqi army officer said.
Canberra Times, 7/1/08
...or was defending pregnant woman
On Dec. 26, an Iraqi soldier opened fire on U.S. soldiers accompanying him during a joint military patrol in the northern Iraqi city Mosul. He killed the U.S. captain and another sergeant, and wounded three others, including an Iraqi interpreter.
Col. Hazim al-Juboory, uncle of the attacker Kaissar Saady al-Juboory, told IPS that his nephew at first watched the U.S. soldiers beat up an Iraqi woman. When he asked them to stop, they refused, so he opened fire.
The Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni organisation, issued a statement saying the Iraqi soldier had shot the U.S. soldiers after he saw them beat up a pregnant woman.
The story was first reported on al-Rafidain satellite channel. That started Iraqis from all over the country talking about "the hero" who sacrificed his life for Iraqi honour.
IPS News, 7/1/08
US - Iran tensions in Strait of Hormuz
Five Iranian speedboats harassed three US navy ships at the weekend, approaching them and radioing a threat to blow them up, US officials say.
The incident happened in the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route. The US said their ships were about to open fire when the Iranian boats withdrew.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the Iranian action "provocative and dangerous".
BBC News, 7/1/08
Army glamorising war to recruit the young
Potential recruits to the armed forces are given a misleading picture of military life, including the physical risks and ethical dilemmas involved, according to a report published today. They are not always told that once they enlist, they have to stay in the forces for years, it says.
Britain is the only European country which recruits youngsters into the armed forces from the age of 16, though they cannot be deployed on operations until they are 18. The Ministry of Defence, which last night criticised the report, says this is the only way it can compete in the battle to attract school-leavers.
However, today's report says the armed forces draw non-officer recruits mainly from among young people with "low educational attainment and living in poor communities".
More than £2bn is invested each year in recruiting and training about 20,000 new personnel to replace those who leave, it adds. "The primary target groups for armed forces marketing are children and adolescents," it says.
Guardian, 7/1/08
Hundreds held in Afghanistan's Guantanamo
As the Bush administration struggles for a way to close the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a similar effort to scale down a larger and more secretive American detention center in Afghanistan has been troubled by political, legal and security problems, officials say.
The American detention center, established at the Bagram military base as a temporary screening site after the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, is now teeming with some 630 prisoners - more than twice the 275 being held at Guantánamo.
Meanwhile, the treatment of some prisoners on the Bagram base has prompted a strong complaint to the Pentagon from the International Committee of the Red Cross, the only outside group allowed in the detention center.
In a confidential memorandum last summer, the Red Cross said dozens of prisoners had been held incommunicado for weeks or even months in a previously undisclosed warren of isolation cells at Bagram, two American officials said.
The Red Cross said the prisoners were kept from its inspectors and sometimes subjected to cruel treatment in violation of the Geneva Conventions, one of the officials said.
New York Times, 7/1/08
Unemployment threat to recovery in Iraq
Years of political turmoil, U.S.-imposed sanctions and war have devastated Iraq's workforce. Hundreds of thousands of skilled professionals have left the country. Businesses have closed. Insurgents and thugs have targeted professors, doctors and business people, killing them, abducting them or driving them out of their jobs and out of Iraq.
Even as sectarian violence subsides, the options are limited for those who remain. Shiite Muslims, who say they were held back from good jobs under Saddam Hussein's Sunni Muslim-led regime, complain that corruption and violence now limit their opportunities.
Sunni Arabs say they are discriminated against as payback for Hussein's past mistreatment of Shiites, who now dominate the government.
Iraq's government estimates unemployment at 17.6 percent and underemployment at 38 percent, but those are considered conservative figures.
The problem is seen as one of the major threats to the country's long-term recovery. To make matters more precarious, about 60 percent of the population is under 30 years of age - and many young people are ripe for recruitment into criminal life if the money is right.
San Francisco Chronicle 6/1/08
US looking to profit from Pakistan crisis...
President Bush's senior national-security advisers are debating whether to expand the authority of the CIA and the military to conduct far more aggressive covert operations in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
The Bush administration has not formally presented any new options to Musharraf, who gave up his military role last month, or to his successor as the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The White House thinks Kayani will be more sympathetic to the American position than Musharraf. Kayani was an aide to Bhutto early in his career and later led the Pakistani intelligence service.
New options for expanded covert operations include loosening the reins of the CIA to strike selected targets in Pakistan, in some cases using intelligence provided by Pakistani sources, officials said.
Most counterterrorism operations in Pakistan have to be conducted by the CIA. In Afghanistan, where military operations are under way, including with NATO forces, the military can take the lead. If the CIA were given broader authority, it could call for help from the military or deputize some Special Operations forces to act under authority of the agency.
Critics said more direct American military action would be ineffective, anger the Pakistani Army and boost support for militants. American diplomats in South Asia also have issued strong warnings against expanded direct American action, officials said.
Hasan Askari Rizvi, a leading Pakistani military and political analyst, said raids by American troops would spark a powerful popular backlash against Musharraf and the United States. In the wake of American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, many Pakistanis suspect the United States is trying to dominate Pakistan as well, he said. He said such raids would be seen as a vote of no confidence in the Pakistani military in general, including Kayani.
New York Times, 6/1/08
...but Pakistan reacts angrily
Pakistan reacted angrily Sunday to reports that US President George W. Bush is considering covert military operations in the country's volatile tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
"It is not up to the US administration, it is Pakistan's government who is responsible for this country," chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP.
"There are no overt or covert US operations inside Pakistan. Such reports are baseless and we reject them."
AFP, 6/1/08
UN to feed a million displaced Iraqis
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has launched a $126-million year-long emergency operation to feed more than one million displaced Iraqis, unable to meet their basic needs due to the violence.
"We hope that the food assistance we provide can help avert a much bigger crisis," WFP Iraq Country Director Stefano Porretti said. "We are facing a growing humanitarian crisis as a result of the continuing violence in Iraq. An increasing number of displaced people cannot meet their food needs and therefore require more help."
Some 750,000 of the most vulnerable Iraqis displaced within the country will benefit from the programme as also more than 360,000 others who have fled to Syria.
Times of India, 5/1/08
Israel to brief Bush on Iran attack plans
Israeli security officials are to brief President George W Bush on their latest intelligence about Iran's nuclear programme - and how it could be destroyed - when he begins a tour of the Middle East in Jerusalem this week.
Ehud Barak, the defence minister, is said to want to convince him that an Israeli military strike against uranium enrichment facilities in Iran would be feasible if diplomatic efforts failed to halt nuclear operations. A range of military options has been prepared.
Israeli security officials believe the only way to prevent uranium enrichment to military grade is to destroy Iranian installations. Many Israelis are eager to know whether America would give their country the green light to attack, as it did last September when Israel struck a mysterious nuclear site in Syria.
Sunday Times, 6/1/08
Iraqis forced to sell their children
Abu Muhammad, a Baghdad resident, found it difficult to let go of his daughter's hand but he had already convinced himself that selling her to a family outside Iraq would provide her with a better future.
In 2006, Abu Muhammad and his family were forced to leave their home in Adhamiya, a district of Baghdad, after militia fighting claimed the streets in his once tranquil neighbourhood.
By mid-2007, conditions for his family had become desperate and his children, once healthy and bubbling with life, had become gaunt and lethargic.
It was then that a translator and a Swedish couple claiming to be part of an international NGO arrived in the makeshift refugee camp.
He gave the translator all personal documents and after a week the couple came with new documents for Abu Muhammad to sign, authorising the adoption and to pick up his daughter. Abu Muhammad, who received $10,000, believes he is now damned by God, but he says his inner turmoil is allayed somewhat by his belief that Fatima will have a better life than many in Iraq.
Local officials and aid workers have expressed concern over the alarming rate at which children are disappearing countrywide in Iraq's current unstable environment.
Omar Khalif, vice-president of the Iraqi Families Association (IFA), an NGO established in 2004 to register cases of those missing and trafficked, said that at least two children are sold by their parents every week. Another four are reported missing every week.
According to police investigations and an independent IFA study, Iraqi children are being sold to families in many European countries - particularly the Netherlands and Sweden - Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
He said there are fears children are being trafficked for the sex trade and the organ transplant black market.
Al Jazeera, 4/1/08
Afghan food shortage may lead to famine
Afghanistan faces "very serious" food shortages that may lead to a famine, according to Afghan Commerce and Industry Minister Mohammad Amin Farhang.
Farhang is appealing to the international community to help his country acquire 400,000 tons of wheat. The food, which would cost the Afghan people $80 million at market prices, is needed to help them survive the tough winter, the minister said.
Current shortages have been caused by sharp increases in the global price of grain and a lack of storage capacity, while turmoil in neighboring Pakistan has disrupted the shipment of supplies across the border Farhang said.
Bloomberg.com, 4/1/08
Iraq open for oil business
Iraq has set a January 31 deadline for international oil firms to register to compete for tenders to help develop the world's third-largest oil reserves, the Ministry of Oil said yesterday.
The development indicates Iraq wants to press ahead in bringing the companies in to help boost output, analysts said. Big oil firms such as Royal Dutch Shell and Total have been positioning for years to gain access.
Oil companies that have signed deals with Iraq's largely autonomous northern Kurdistan region have angered Baghdad, which has threatened to blacklist them and declared the deals illegal.
The deadline to register means, in effect, that Iraq is following through on the threat, said Mohammad-Ali Zainy, senior energy analyst at the Centre for Global Energy Studies.
"Obviously, any one of those that has contracted with the KRG is not going to be able to participate, which means practically those companies are being blacklisted," he said.
New Zealand Herald, 4/1/08
Rival Shiites hold peace talks
Representatives of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr met Thursday with officials from his chief rival's party in an effort to cement a tenuous peace agreement the two signed in October after violent clashes between their followers.
It was at least the second formal overture al-Sadr has made to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim and his Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the largest Shiite political party, in less than a week.
Peace between the two - who each control powerful militias - is seen as key to preventing the outbreak of widespread fighting in oil-rich southern Iraq, where the British military recently handed over responsibility for security to Iraq's government in Basra, the last province it controlled.
Guardian, 3/1/08