These are the archives for the week ending 16th November 2007
Oil disputes
Iraq warned on Thursday that foreign oil companies which signed deals with the autonomous Kurdish regional government will be barred from doing business in the country and from exporting oil.
Last week, the Kurdish authorities signed seven production-sharing contracts with a number of foreign oil companies in defiance of the Iraqi central government and before approving a controversial federal oil law.
The Kurdish government's minister for natural resources, Ashti Hawrami, said last week that with the signing of the latest contracts, 20 international oil companies are now working in the region.
But Shahristani warned that foreign firms which sign contracts with the Kurds risk being blacklisted by Iraq.
The Iraqi hydrocarbons law is stalled before parliament due to bitter differences between warring political factions over the sharing of lucrative revenues from the crude, the third-largest proven reserves in the world.
The bill opens up the long state-dominated oil and gas sector to foreign investment and assures that receipts will be shared equally between Iraq's 18 provinces, a measure Washington regards as key to unite the rival communities.
AFP 15/11/07
Torture widespread in Afghanistan
Reports of torture, ill-treatment and arbitrary arrest are so widespread in detention centres run by Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security that Amnesty International wants NATO troops in Afghanistan to stop handing prisoners over to authorities there.
In a report released today, the human rights monitor says scores of Afghan detainees are being held incommunicado, without access to lawyers, families or courts.
They "have been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, including being whipped, exposed to extreme cold and deprived of food," it adds.
The report cites the case of one man, identified only as "AB," who said he was detained after an Afghan security forces raid in Kandahar province in December, 2005.
He said he was taken to a cell where the "walls were covered with blood." "I was beaten on my back and especially my kidneys with a metal cable," AB said.
"After some 50 to 60 cable blows, I fell unconscious, but then when I came to, they were still beating me?[Later] a metal bar was placed under my chained arms and knees and I was hung from the hook on the ceiling and they continued to beat me. I was hung in this position for maybe one hour and lost consciousness."
National Post, Canada, 13/11/07
Murdoch: Australia should keep troops in Afghanistan
Global media tycoon Rupert Murdoch has urged Australia to keep its troops in Iraq, saying victory is almost in sight there and in Afghanistan.
The Australian-born, US-based News Corp. chairman made the call during a visit to Adelaide for an annual shareholders' meeting.
"On the ground in Iraq and in Afghanistan, we are at the point of saying, 'You have almost won it, you see this out,'" he said.
AFP, 14/11/07
Bill Clinton: More US troops needed in Afghanistan
The "tough going" in Afghanistan that's claimed 71 Canadian soldiers has been compounded by the failure of the United States to send more of its soldiers into the war-torn country, but Canada must stand by the mission all the same, former U.S. president Bill Clinton said Tuesday.
"I promised myself ... I would never come to Canada without thanking you for what I know is often unpopular, which is the participation of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan," Mr. Clinton said.
"I know it's tough going and the United States has made it worse, in my opinion, by not sending enough forces there of our own because of our preoccupation with Iraq, but you did a good thing."
Globe and Mail, Canada, 14/11/07
Miliband: Brown in favour of war
Foreign Secretary David Miliband says Gordon Brown's foreign policy of "hard-headed internationalism" would not have opposed the Iraq war.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband says Gordon Brown's foreign policy of "hard-headed internationalism" would not have opposed the Iraq war.
"If we pose the choice of either you favour democracy or you favour security, in other words, either you favour aid programmes or you favour military action, you don't get it right."
"We have to use both. We have got to make sure we get progress for economic governance, political reform and security right."
"I think that's the heart of the message the prime minister was putting across."
BBC News, 13/11/07
UK will lead tough Iran strategy says Brown
Gordon Brown declared last night that Britain "will lead" the international campaign to stop Iran's nuclear programme, calling for new sanctions on oil and gas investments in the Islamic republic if it fails to comply with UN resolutions.
In his first set-piece foreign policy speech, the prime minister described his approach as "hard-headed internationalism" and said that if Iran continued to ignore UN security council demands to suspend uranium enrichment, Britain would call for tighter sanctions.
Brown's initiative is almost certain to be rejected by Russia and China, who are currently resisting more modest UN sanctions.
Britain has little direct investment in the Iranian oil and gas industry, although BP and Shell have been interested in fresh ventures in the country, while the US has also been putting private pressure on British banks to scale down their operations in Iran.
Guardian 13/11/07
..and defends interventionism & the US
Brown described his foreign policy as "hard-headed internationalism". Defending interventionism, the prime minister said:
"We now rightly recognise our responsibility to protect behind borders where there are crimes against humanity. But if we are to honour that responsibility to protect we urgently need a new framework to assist reconstruction."
In an assertion of the importance of soft power, alongside military intervention, Brown said:
"In future security council peacekeeping resolutions and UN envoys should make stabilisation, reconstruction and development an equal priority."
He also said Britain was not loosening its ties with the US despite the departure of Tony Blair, George Bush's great personal confidante.
"It is no secret that I am a lifelong admirer of America. I have no truck with anti-Americanism in Britain or elsewhere in Europe and I believe that our ties with America founded on values we share constitute our most important bilateral relationship," Brown said.
Guardian 13/11/07
Preparing for war from space
While wrestling with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon is preparing weapons to fight the next battle from space, according to information in the 621-page, House-Senate conference report on the fiscal 2008 defense appropriations bill.
The $459 billion bill, which awaits President Bush's signature, provides $100 million for a new "prompt global strike" program that could deliver a conventional, precision-guided warhead anywhere in the world within two hours. It takes funds away from development of a conventional warhead for the Navy's submarine-launched Trident Intercontinental Ballistic Missile and from an Air Force plan for the Common Aero Vehicle.
Washington Post, 12/11/07
Hidden costs double price of wars
The economic costs to the United States of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so far total approximately $1.5 trillion, according to a new study by congressional Democrats that estimates the conflicts' "hidden costs"-- including higher oil prices, the expense of treating wounded veterans and interest payments on the money borrowed to pay for the wars.
That amount is nearly double the $804 billion the White House has spent or requested to wage these wars through 2008, according to the Democratic staff of Congress's Joint Economic Committee.
Its report, titled "The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War," estimates that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have thus far cost the average U.S. family of four more than $20,000.
Washington Post, 13/11/07
Britain has longest detention without charge
Police in Britain can hold terrorism suspects without charge for longer than in any other comparable democracy, according to a study by human rights organisation Liberty. Britain's 28-day limit already far exceeds other democracies and the government is considering doubling it.
Liberty staff interviewed terrorism specialists and lawyers in 15 countries. Their research found that in the U.S. the detention limit is two days, in France it is six, Italy four and in Turkey suspects can be held for 7-1/2 days.
In Spain, where 191 people died in the 2004 Madrid train bombings, there is a five-day detention limit. The closest any country comes to Britain's month-long limit is Australia with 12 days.
Reuters, 12/11/07
Fighting for citizenship
Sixty U.S. service members from countries including Cuba, Ethiopia, the Philippines and Vietnam became American citizens on Monday during a ceremony in Afghanistan. A day earlier, more than 150 American soldiers in Iraq were sworn in as U.S. citizens during a ceremony at the Balad Air Base in Balad, north of Baghdad.
Citizenship is not a requirement to join the U.S. military, but serving in the armed forces is a way to qualify for citizenship, said spokesman Maj. Chris Belcher. More than 20,000 service members have become U.S. citizens since 2002.
Associated Press, 12/11/07
NATO hands Afghan prisoners to torturers
NATO forces may be breaching their own operating rules by handing detainees to Afghan security services despite reports that they torture their prisoners, the human rights group Amnesty International said.
The fact that reports of torture and mistreatment are now widely circulated makes the NATO-led force complicit when it hands over detainees, the group said. "Such transfers should be suspended until effective safeguards are in place," said Claudio Cordone, the group's senior research director.
New York Times, 13/11/07
Bush signals confidence in Musharraf
US President George W. Bush praised Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf as a strong ally against terrorism and said he had no reason to doubt his pledges to return to democratic rule.
Bush's remarks amounted to his strongest-yet show of support for Musharraf since the embattled Pakistani leader declared a state of emergency.
Asked whether he believed Musharraf's pledges to hold elections by February 2008 and quit as army chief if confirmed as president, Bush replied: "I take a person for his word" until they prove unreliable.
The process, as understood in Washington, would mean that Pakistan's supreme court confirms Musharraf as president; he quits as army chief; and he takes office as president, US officials said. But Washington worries about what happens if the court refuses to certify Musharraf's victory.
For now, Bush predicted that the United States "will continue to have good collaboration with the leadership in Pakistan" because Washington needs help in the war on terrorism that heavily targets Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
After the September 11, 2001 terrorist strikes on the United States, he added, Musharraf "made a decision, and the decision was to stand with the United States against the extremists inside Pakistan."
"In other words, he was given an option: Are you with us, or are you not with us? And he made a clear decision to be with us, and he's acted on that," the US president said.
AFP 11/11/07
US tacit approval of Turkish strikes
After talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, President George W Bush pledged to provide Ankara with "real-time" intelligence on rebel movements, calling the PKK a "common enemy."
Analysts say a large-scale Turkish incursion into northern Iraq is unlikely, but see Bush's promises of intelligence support as tacit US approval for limited Turkish strikes on PKK targets.
Ankara said Tuesday that it retains the military option in northern Iraq, where the PKK has long taken refuge.
Pakistan Daily Times 11/11/07
Forced postings to Iraq 'may be necessary'
Four days before a deadline for Foreign Service officers to volunteer to go to Iraq or face the prospect of being ordered there, the State Department notified employees yesterday that "about half" of 48 open assignments there for next year have been filled.
"This reduces but does not eliminate the possibility that directed assignments may be necessary," Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte wrote in an e-mailed update. With 26 positions still open, however, it appeared increasingly unlikely that they will all be filled.
Both Negroponte and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have made clear in recent days that they intend to proceed with a mandatory call-up if spots remain unstaffed. "If I need somebody to serve in Iraq, they have to serve there," Rice said in an interview on Friday.
The plan to order diplomats to take posts in Iraq if enough volunteers cannot be found - the first time forced assignments have been contemplated since the Vietnam War - has been controversial within and outside the service.
Washington Post 11/11/07
Deadliest year for US in Afghanistan and Iraq
Six U.S. troops were killed when insurgents ambushed their foot patrol in the high mountains of eastern Afghanistan, officials said Saturday.
The attack, the most lethal against American forces this year, made 2007 the deadliest for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion. The six deaths brings the total number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this year to at least 101, according to a count by the AP. That makes this year the deadliest for Americans here since the 2001 invasion.
The death toll mirrors the situation in Iraq, where U.S. military deaths this month surpassed 850, a record high since the 2003 invasion there.
Associated Press, 10/11/07
Bush: "If you lived in Iraq you'd be saying, god, I love freedom"
QUESTION: Can France, for instance, help to get out of the Iraqi quagmire? And President Bush, where do you stand on Iraq and your domestic debate on Iraq? Do you have a timetable for withdrawing troops?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I don't -- you know, "quagmire" is an interesting word. If you lived in Iraq and had lived under a tyranny, you'd be saying, god, I love freedom -- because that's what's happened. And there are killers and radicals and murderers who kill the innocent to stop the advance of freedom. But freedom is happening in Iraq. And we're making progress.
George Bush, Press conference, 7/11/07
US planning attack on Shiite city of Diwaniyah
Iraqi and US forces are planning a military assault to take control of the central Shiite city of Diwaniyah, half of which is in the grip of militants, a top Iraqi official said Tuesday.
"A widespread security operation will be launched soon in Diwaniyah with multinational forces to restore state control over the city," said Sheikh Hussain al-Khalidi, head of the provincial council of Qadisiyah, the province of which Diwaniyah is the capital.
Diwaniyah, 110 miles south of Baghdad, is witnessing a raging Shiite turf war between fighters loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and powerful politician Abdel Aziz al-Hakim. Khalidi said the assault is necessary because gunmen have controlled half of the city for the past year.
"The operation will be strong and fast. I appeal to the people of Diwaniyah to be patient as there could be some difficulties caused by the military operation. Our intent is to bring stability," Khalidi told AFP.
AFP, 8/11/07
500 detainees freed, 25,800 to go
U.S. and Iraqi authorities freed 500 prisoners Thursday from a detention system strained to the limit by thousands of new suspects taken in campaigns to secure Baghdad and surrounding areas.
The prisoner release - in an event organized by the U.S. military - was intended to highlight the progress in regaining control of former extremist strongholds since the arrival of 30,000 additional U.S. troops earlier this year.
But it also did little to relieve pressures on the compounds holding 25,800 Iraqis. U.S. officials worry the overcrowded detention camps are sapping resources and will overwhelm Iraq's struggling justice system.
Sunni leaders also complain that their community has been heavily targeted by Iraq's Shiite-dominated security forces - claiming that nearly 90 percent of the detainees are Sunni.
Associated Press, 8/11/07