Archive for the week ending 18th April 2008
US & Pakistan strike deal
The US has promised to consult with Pakistans's new civilian government before launching drone air attacks on suspected Islamlist militants in tribal regions. The agreement is part of a counter-terrorism strategy which will shift American support away from President Pervez Musharraf and the military in favour of civilian law-enforcement authorities.
Put together by Democratic senator Joseph Binden, the deal will be supported by an aid package worth $7bn (£3.55bn), tripling the amount of US non-military aid. Attacks by Predator drones have caused outrage in Pakistan, since Musharraf gave the US military a free hand to use them.
Guardian 17/4/08
Violence in Afghanistan on increase
While Americans' attention remains focused on Iraq, violence is escalating in Afghanistan. Several new reports have found that insurgent violence has risen sharply in the first months of this year.
A study by the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, a group funded by the European Commission, found that there were 704 insurgent attacks from January through March this year, compared with 424 during the first three months of 2007. The civilian death toll was 463 for the period, compared with 264 in the first quarter of last year.
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 15/4/08
EU to sign gas deal with Iraq
The EU has said it is just weeks away from signing an energy accord with Iraq to bring more gas and oil to Europe.
On a visit to Brussels, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said his country was close to adopting an energy law to encourage investment. EU officials said Iraq would increase oil production and offer 5bn cubic metres of gas as a gesture of goodwill.
Europe relies on Russia for a quarter of its gas and is backing a pipeline to bring supplies from the Turkish border. It is hoping that both Turkmen and Iraqi supplies will eventually flow through the Nabucco pipeline.
BBC News, 16/4/08
Blow to US policy of putting Iraqis in front line
A company of Iraqi soldiers abandoned their positions on Tuesday night in Sadr City, defying American soldiers who implored them to hold the line against Shiite militias.
The retreat left a crucial stretch of road on the front lines undefended for hours and led to a tense series of exchanges between American soldiers and about 50 Iraqi troops who were fleeing.
This episode was a blow to the American effort to push the Iraqis into the lead in the struggle to wrest control of parts of Sadr City from the Mahdi Army militia and what Americans and Iraqis say are Iranian-backed groups.
That approach was intended to build up the Iraqi military's fighting capacity and put an Iraqi face on the operation in Sadr City, which is occurring in a Baghdad bastion of support for Moktada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric.
Two weeks ago, more than 1,000 Iraqi soldiers deserted their posts during the fight against militias in Basra.
International Herald Tribune, 16/4/08
Dozens die in car bombs in Iraq
More than 70 people have been killed in blasts at three cities in Iraq, in one of the deadliest days there for weeks.
At least 53 died and another 90 were injured when explosives packed in a bus detonated outside a restaurant near a court in Baquba, north of the capital. And 13 more were killed in a suicide bombing at a kebab restaurant where policemen were eating in Ramadi, which had seen a sharp decline in violence. Three people were also killed in Mosul in the north, and another in Baghdad.
The BBC's Crispin Thorold in Baghdad says suspicion for the attacks is likely to fall on Sunni Islamist groups inspired by al-Qaeda.
AP 15/4/08
War costs would cover US health bill
With long-term estimates of the cost of the Iraq war ranging from $1 trillion to $3 trillion or more, the question naturally arises of what else the country could have done with the money.
At the low end of estimates of the cost of the war - $120 billion a year - the money would cover the projected cost of Mrs. Clinton's universal health care plan. It could pay for Mr. Obama's less inclusive health care plan and his proposal to bail out homeowners with troubled mortgages. Or for development of new renewable energy sources and a nationwide public works program. Or pay toward a long-term fix for Social Security. Or the unpaid part of the Medicare drug benefit.
The American public, by an overwhelming margin, believes that the cost of the war is worsening domestic economic problems. In a New York Times/CBS News poll completed on April 2, 67 percent of respondents said the war had contributed "a lot" to American economic problems, and 22 percent said it was contributing "some." Only 10 percent said "not much" or "not at all."
New York Times, 14/4/08
Iran - the new motivation for war in Iraq
The US rationale for war in Iraq has morphed from ousting strongman Saddam Hussein, to countering Al-Qaeda militants to its latest incarnation - facing down what officials in President George W. Bush's administration call the Iranian "threat".
"Iraq is the convergence point for two of the greatest threats to America in this new century: Al-Qaeda and Iran," Bush said last week, renewing accusations that the Islamic republic is backing Iraqi militias hostile to US forces and covertly seeking nuclear weapons.
"If we succeed in Iraq after all that Al-Qaeda and Iran have invested there, it would be a historic blow to the global terrorist movement and a severe setback for Iran," he said.
With Saddam dead and Al-Qaeda weakened - according to Bush - Iranian-financed extremists, which top US commander in Iraq David Petraeus has called "special groups," have emerged as a key reason for maintaining US troop levels in Iraq.
"Unchecked, the 'special groups' pose the greatest long-term threat to the viability of a democratic Iraq," Petraeus said last week.
However, exactly what steps the United States may take to counter this "threat" remain unclear, and depend largely on Bush's decisions in his remaining nine months in the White House. Bush told ABC News that he had no intention of attacking Iran, but vowed to protect US interests and refused to rule out the use of force altogether.
"The message to the Iranians is: we will bring you to justice if you continue to try to infiltrate, send your agents or send surrogates to bring harm to our troops and/or the Iraqi citizens," Bush said.
Asked to elaborate on this "justice," Bush replied: "It means capture or kill, is what that means."
AFP 14/4/08
Iraq invites oil contracts
Iraq will invite 35 international oil companies to bid for oil and gas service contracts soon, according to an oil ministry spokesman.
Iraq holds the world's third-largest oil reserves and needs billions of dollars of investment to overhaul energy infrastructure and boost oil and gas output after years of sanctions and war.
Oil is Iraq's main source of income, and boosting output is key to earning the cash the country needs for reconstruction. Iraq produces around 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil, a fraction of its 115 billion barrels of proven crude reserves.
Oil majors BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell and Total all qualified, according to the list. The majors have been positioning themselves for years in the hope of eventually gaining access to Iraq's abundant reserves.
Oil majors will be involved in a role as project managers of the fields, supervising work by Iraqi operating companies. Insecurity in the country stops them from sending in their own ground staff.
None of the companies that have done deals with the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq were on the list. Baghdad claims the deals were illegal and had said that it would bar companies that had signed contracts with the Kurdish region from oil deals in the rest of the country.
Political disputes between the Kurdish region and Baghdad have delayed a vital oil law from being presented to parliament for over a year. As a stop-gap measure, Iraq plans to award short-term oil extraction and service contracts to help boost production.
Business Spectator, Australia 14/4/08
US wont 'stumble' into war with Iran
The chances of the United States "stumbling" into a confrontation with Iran through skirmishes in Iraq "are very low," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.
When asked if such a scenario was inevitable the longer US troops stayed in Iraq, he said: "I think the chances of us stumbling into a confrontation with Iran are very low. "We are concerned about their activities in the south. We are concerned about the weapons that they are sending in - that they continue to send in to Iraq. "But I think that the process that's underway is headed in the right direction."
US President George W. Bush on Thursday lumped Iran with the Al-Qaeda terrorist group as "two of the greatest threats to America in this new century" and said both hoped for a US defeat in Iraq.
He warned that he would not hesitate to use force if the Islamic republic targets US interests in its strife-torn neighbour, saying it must choose either to live in peace with Iraq or continue arming and funding militants there.
"Iran makes the wrong choice, America will act to protect our interests, and our troops, and our Iraqi partners," Bush said.
Asked if his comments meant he was less concerned about Iran than the president, Gates said he believed as Bush did that Iran had a choice, whether to have a positive or negative relationship with Iraq.
AFP 13/4/08
Iraq sacks 1,300 police and soldiers
The Iraqi government has sacked 1,300 soldiers and policemen for their poor performance during clashes last month with Shi'ite militias in the south of the country, an Interior Ministry spokesman said on Sunday.
The move was an acknowledgement of failures in an offensive against the militias, which started in the southern oil hub of Basra and spread across the south and to Baghdad, triggering Iraq's worst fighting since the first half of 2007.
Iraqi officials had previously acknowledged that 1,000 soldiers failed to fight in the offensive, which was the biggest operation the government had launched without backing from large U.S. or British ground units.
The fighting, which has continued over the past week in Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, brought an end to a long trend of declining violence and raised doubts about the competence and readiness of Iraqi forces.
Reuters 13/4/08
More than 200 dead in Baghdad...
The toll from fierce fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City has risen to at least 200 dead and more than 1,000 injured, according to doctors in the besieged suburb.
The reports from Sadr City hospitals suggest far higher casualty figures than previously reported, although they cannot be independently verified.
Dr Qassem Mudalal, the director of the Imam Ali hospital, said: "There are 230 killed, I can confirm, in the hospitals of Sadr City." Other doctors claimed only a minority of the dead appeared to be militants.
The Iraqi government yesterday briefly lifted a blockade of the suburb, and allowed about 20 lorries loaded with food, blankets and medical supplies to enter the area.
"Children, women and old men have been injured and killed and there are no ambulances," said Um Ali, a housewife, by telephone from her home in Sadr City. "The hospitals have no first-aid supplies and there are so few doctors."
Sunday Times, 13/4/08
...as UK wins case to send refugees back
The United Nations last night accused the government of holding a 'sword of Damocles' over the heads of Iraqi refugees in Britain after it emerged that the Home Office had won a landmark test case giving it the power to return refugees to war-torn parts of their home country, including Basra and Baghdad.
Following the tribunal's decision, the government now has the power to remove anyone to any part of Iraq. 'We are pleased that the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal has agreed with our view and found that conditions in Iraq are such that an ordinary individual Iraqi civilian is not at serious risk from indiscriminate violence,' a spokesman for the Home Office said.
The Observer, 13/4/08
US 'undermining' Afghan trials
A report by a US-based rights group has said the United States is failing the Afghan government by contributing to violations of fair trial standards.
Human Rights First says the US is not providing adequate evidence in cases of former detainees from Guantanamo Bay being tried in Afghan courts.
It says the detainees are being put on trial with little or no evidence. The report says the US is standing by while international standards for fair trials are violated.
BBC News, 11/4/08
Top Bush aides oversaw torture sessions
According to an ABC report, top Bush aides, including Condi Rice, micromanaged the torture of terrorist suspects from the White House basement. Discussions on torture were so detailed, that some interrogation sessions were virtually choreographed by a White House advisory group, ABC's sources told reporters in a program aired on Wednesday.
The torture advisory group included then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, then-secretary of state Colin Powell, then-CIA director George Tenet and then-attorney general John Ashcroft and Vice President Dick Cheney.
At least one member of the club had some qualms. ABC reports that Ashcroft "was troubled by the discussions. He agreed with the general policy decision to allow aggressive tactics and repeatedly advised that they were legal. But he argued that senior White House advisers should not be involved in the grim details of interrogations, sources said.
"According to a top official, Ashcroft asked aloud after one meeting: 'Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.'"
PressTV, 11/4/08
US to skip cluster bomb meeting
The United States will skip a meeting in Dublin next month that aims to ban cluster bombs, officials said Friday. Instead, Washington will focus on separate United Nations talks in Geneva that will restrict - but not ban - the use of the weapon.
More than 100 countries are expected to meet May 19-30 in Dublin, where they will try to forge a final agreement on banning a weapon they consider a serious threat to civilians.
Cluster bombs are built to explode above the ground and release thousands of small bomblets primed to detonate on impact. Combat results show that 10 to 40 percent of the bomblets fail to go off on impact but can explode later, killing and maiming civilians.
Children are particularly vulnerable as they are attracted to the bright flashlight-battery sized bomblets. The United States, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Israel oppose a ban on cluster bombs, arguing that there are legitimate military uses for the weapon.
Associated Press, 11/4/08