These are the archives for the week ending 24th November 2006
British troops to stay after handover
Britain could transfer control of the southern city of Basra to Iraqi authorities early next year, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said, but aides downplayed prospects of a rapid pullout. The announcement was one of the most precise forecasts yet of British plans for Iraq, though a Foreign Office spokesman said a more likely timetable for a substantial cut of the British military presence was a year or 18 months.
The spokesman said any such moves would depend on conditions on the ground. "I don't think you should expect a troop withdrawal as soon as that happens," he told AFP, adding: "We will keep an overwatch and help with training.
AFP, 22/11/06
Northern oil pipeline destroyed
The twin pipeline which once used to carry more than 1 million barrels of Iraqi crude oil to terminals in Turkey is no longer of any use, according to Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani. Repeated rebel attacks and lack of repairs have rendered the pipeline useless, he said.
With the twin pipeline declared dead, the country loses yet another important chunk of its oil industry infrastructure. The pipeline’s loss means that anti-U.S. rebels have finally succeeded in putting the gigantic oil fields of Kirkuk outside the reach of international markets, and denying the pro-U.S. government in Baghdad an important source of hard cash.
Azzaman, 18/11/06
Iraqis want US out
Past surveys have hinted at this result, but a new poll in Iraq makes it more stark than ever: the Iraqi people want the U.S. to exit their country. And most Iraqis now approve of attacks on U.S. forces, even though 94% express disapproval of al-Qaeda.
At one time, this was primarily a call by the Sunni minority, but now the Shiites have also come around to this view. The survey by much-respected World Public Opinion (WPO), taken in September, found that 74% of Shiites and 91% of Sunnis in Iraq want us to leave within a year. The number of Shiites making this call in Baghdad, where the U.S. may send more troops to bring order, is even higher (80%).
By a wide margin, both groups believe U.S. forces are provoking more violence than they're preventing -- and that day-to-day security would improve if we left. Support for attacks on U.S. forces now commands majority support among both Shiites and Sunnis.
The report states: "Support for attacks on U.S.-led forces has grown to a majority position—now six in ten. Support appears to be related to widespread perception, held by all ethnic groups, that the U.S. government plans to have permanent military bases in Iraq and would not withdraw its forces from Iraq even if the Iraqi government asked it to. If the U.S. were to commit to withdraw, more than half of those who approve of attacks on US troops say that their support for attacks would diminish."
Editor and Publisher, 21/11/06
US snipers foiled
More than three years after the insurgency erupted across much of Iraq, sniping — one of the methods that the military thought would be essential in its counterinsurgency operations — is proving less successful in many areas of Iraq than had been hoped, Marine officers, trainers and snipers say.
The gap between the expectations and the results has many causes, but is in part a reflection of the insurgency’s duration. With the war in its fourth year, many of the best sniping positions are already well known to the insurgents, and veteran insurgents have become more savvy and harder to kill.
In some areas of Iraq, where the insurgents are less experienced or still fight frontally, snipers have had better rates of success, including the platoon with 26 kills. But many areas, the snipers say, have become maddening places in which to hide and hunt.
“A lot of Marine battalions have rotated through these same areas for six or seven months at a time,” said Staff Sgt. Christopher D. Jones, the platoon sergeant of the Scout Sniper Platoon in the Second Battalion, Eighth Marines. “But the insurgents live here. They know almost all the best places that have been used. Before we even get here, they know where we are going to go.”
New York Times, 22/11/06
October bloodiest month so far
More Iraqi civilians were killed in October than in any month since the American invasion in 2003, a report released by the United Nations on Wednesday said, a rise that underscored the growing cost of Iraq’s deepening sectarian war.
According to the report, 3,709 Iraqis were killed in October, up slightly from the previous high in July, and an increase of about 11 percent from the number in September.
New York Times, 22/11/06
Fresh crisis in Lebanon
Lebanon lurched closer to a fresh round of sectarian bloodletting yesterday with the assassination of its industry minister, Pierre Gemayel, a member of the cuntry's most powerful Christian family and a leading opponent of Syrian influence.
The killing shook Lebanon's already beleaguered government and sent tremors across the Middle East, further complicating attempts to find a regional solution to the Iraq war. The Bush administration, under rising pressure to negotiate with Syria and Iran, yesterday hinted at the responsibility of both countries' governments, accusing them of trying to destabilise Lebanon.
George Bush called for a full investigation and pledged US support for Lebanon's government leaders and their efforts "to defend their democracy against attempts by Syria, Iran and allies, to foment instability and violence in that important country."
In Washington, the killing appeared likely to strengthen the hands of those in the administration, led by the vice-president Dick Cheney, who oppose negotiations with Syria or Iran over Iraq's future.
Mr Gemayel's killing came as Syria and Iraq restored diplomatic ties for the first time since 1982, and before a summit involving Iranian, Syrian and Iraqi leaders, to discuss Iraq's future.
Guardian 22/11/06
True cost of war hidden
Many argue that the true costs of Iraq remain skilfully concealed from the US public but cannot be deferred indefinitely. Unlike in Vietnam, where the draft lottery meant that members of the elite, such as John Kerry, the failed 2004 presidential candidate, served in uniform, the Iraq war has disproportionately drawn in people with few options beyond the military to improve their chances of escaping poverty. Much of the human cost of the war has been kept out of sight, including the return of the dead given the Bush administration's ban on the televising of bodybags.
"This is a war that is being fought by poor people while the rest of the country drives round in its SUVs barely noticing it is happening," said Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, Mr Bush's first secretary of state.
Kurt Campbell, former national security advisor to Bill Clinton, describes Iraq as a war that is being "funded by debt on a national credit card that is being financed by China". America's public debt has risen by more than a third to over $8,000bn (€6,240bn, £4,215bn) since the start of the Bush administration. China's foreign reserves, mostly held in US treasury bonds, are close to $1,000bn.
Financial Times, 21/11/06
US raids Sadr City
U.S. and Iraqi forces backed by helicopters swept into Baghdad's Sadr City Shiite slum in a dark-of-night raid Tuesday that netted seven militiamen, including one believed to know the whereabouts of an American soldier kidnapped nearly a month ago.
Angry Shiites denounced the raid and a lawmaker from the district stood outside the Imam Ali hospital, holding the body of a boy killed in the attack and vowing he would not return to parliament until all American forces were out of Iraq. Police said three Iraqis, including the boy, were killed and 15 wounded. No soldiers were hurt, the military said.
The raid came just weeks after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, had taken on the role of protector of the sprawling Sadr City district by ordering the U.S. military to lift a blockade of the slum.
Associated Press, 21/11/06
Blair's boasts, and the truth
- BLAIR'S BOAST: 4.6 million refugees have returned to Afghanistan in the last five years.
- REALITY: Many have quietly left again, uncounted. Thousands more are internally displaced.
- BOAST: 25 per cent of MPs are now women.
- REALITY: Women MPs are targeted by the Taliban and fear for their lives.
- BOAST: 37 per cent of pupils at school are girls.
- REALITY: Entire provinces now give girls no education because schools have been burnt down, teachers killed and parents intimidated.
- BOAST: 60 per cent increase in the number of health clinics.
- REALITY: Many patients have to provide their own medicine and surgical equipment to qualify for treatment.
Independent, 20/11/06
Blair: war on terror will last a generation
Tony Blair declared that Islamic terrorism would go on for at least a generation as he was urged by Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf to back a new "Marshall Plan" for Afghanistan. The Prime Minister admitted that a change of strategy by the West was needed to secure victory against Islamic extremists by winning hearts and minds in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Britain.
His remarks signalled a scaling back of expectations on the "war on terror"that launched with the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, aimed at bringing down the Taliban and destroying Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida training camps. He said: "This took a generation to grow. It will take a generation to defeat."
Independent, 20/11/06
Iraq 'in state of war'
Iraq's defence minister has declared that the country is in a "state of war" on a day in which more than 20 people were killed and 75 bodies found. Among the dead was a popular comedian who had made fun of US forces and the Iraqi government. He was shot and killed in Baghdad.
Nearly 1,500 Iraqis have been reported killed during November. "We are in a state of war and in war all measures are permissible," Abd al-Qader Jassim, Iraq's defence minister, said on Monday.
Al Jazeera, 21/11/06
Convicted murderers bargain for short sentences
Four of the U.S. soldiers on trial for the murder of a disabled Iraqi man have reached plea bargains with military prosecutors, drastically minimizing the time they will spend in jail. In June, the Pentagon announced that a group of Marines went to the home of the 52-year-old Iraqi, took him outside, shot him four times in the face, and then framed him to look like an insurgent.
Marine infantryman Lance Cpl. Tyler A. Jackson pled guilty to aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice in exchange for the court dropping charges of murder, kidnapping, and larceny. He would have faced 15 years in prison but was sentenced Thursday to just 21 months in the brig.
Navy corpsman Melson Bacos, 21, was sentenced to a year in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy. Marine Pfc. John J. Jodka III, 20, also plead guilty and was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months. The lawyer for Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate said his client plans to plead guilty to aggravated assault and obstruction of justice.
"The prosecutors are showing maturity in understanding how difficult and dangerous it is to be an American soldier in Iraq," lawyer Steve Immel told OneWorld.
OneWorld US, 18/11/06
Brain trauma a silent epidemic among occupying troops
Makeshift bombs known as improvised explosive devices are the leading cause of death and injury among U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq. The intense pressure in a blast zone can rattle the brain, as delicate and mushy as Jell-O, and result in concussions that range from severe to so mild that they are frequently undiagnosed in initial examinations.
In previous wars, 14 to 20 percent of wounded soldiers suffered traumatic brain injury, according to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center. The center, funded by the Department of Defense, estimates the numbers are much higher in Iraq. In a study conducted at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which serves more critically injured soldiers than most VA hospitals, doctors found that 62 percent of patients had sustained a brain injury.
Veterans for America, a Washington-based nonpartisan advocacy group, estimates 10 percent of all soldiers who have served in Iraq have suffered from some form of brain injury. It says the nation is unprepared to take care of a whole new generation of soldiers coming home with an anguish that cannot be readily seen.
"Brain injury is unlike other injury in that it is lifelong," said Dr. George Zitnay, who helped found the brain injury center. "You don't just put a Band-Aid on it or give a person a pill and send them home."
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 19/11/06
Iraqi police plead not to patrol
Capt. Stephanie Bagley and the military police company she commands arrived in Iraq in December 2005 brimming with optimism about taking on one of the most urgent tasks in Iraq: building a new police force.
Now, as the 21st Military Police Company approaches the end of a deployment marked by small victories and enormous disappointments, Captain Bagley is focused on a more modest goal. “I just want to get everyone home,” she said.
The company’s challenges crystallized in a moment late last month during a routine assignment. They were picking up a contingent of Iraqi policemen for a daily patrol of Dora, an especially violent neighborhood here in the capital. On these patrols, the Americans, swaddled in Kevlar from head to hips, travel in Humvees and other armored vehicles. The Iraqis, wearing only bulletproof vests, ride in soft-skinned pickup trucks and S.U.V.’s, the only vehicles they have.
The Iraqi policemen begged the Americans not to make them go out. They peeled off their clothes to reveal shrapnel scars from past attacks. They tugged the armored plates from their Kevlar vests and told the Americans they were faulty. They said they had no fuel for their vehicles. They disappeared on indefinite errands elsewhere in the compound. They said they would not patrol if it meant passing a trash pile, a common hiding place for bombs.
The Iraqis eventually gave up and climbed into two S.U.V.’s with shattered windshields and missing side windows, and the joint patrol moved out. During a lunch break, the officers tried to sneak away in their cars. Later in the day, back at her command center on a military base in southern Baghdad, Captain Bagley said the pleading and excuses were common. But she did not blame the Iraqis. “I’d never want to go out in an Iraqi police truck,” the captain said. “But we still have to convince them. We’ve been given a job to train them.”
New York Times, 18/11/06
Dutch occupiers tortured prisoners
Five days before the Netherland's general election, campaigning was rocked by reports that Dutch soldiers tortured Iraqi prisoners and their officers covered up the scandal. De Volkskrant newspaper reported on Friday that members of the Dutch contingent in Iraq -- a highly unpopular deployment at home -- had tortured dozens of Iraqi prisoners during interrogation in 2003.
It said Dutch military intelligence agents used "robust questioning tactics" and quoted a defence ministry spokesman as saying: "Things happened that were in violation of instructions." The paper said Lieutenant Admiral Luuk Kroon, the officer in charge, failed to report the incidents even though he knew about them in early November 2003.
AFP, 17/11/06
Mercenary killed in illegal border crossing
A British security guard has been killed and a Western colleague wounded in a clash with Iraqi police as they came searching for four colleagues kidnapped in the south. A police officer in the southern town of Al-Zubair said a group of six security guards crossed the border illegally and, when stopped by customs police, "clashed with them in which the Britisher was killed and an American wounded."
The officer later clarified that the nationality of the wounded guard was unclear. He said two women bystanders were also killed along with two policemen.
AFP, 17/11/06
Blair: Iraq intervention a disaster
Tony Blair conceded last night that western intervention in Iraq had been a disaster. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, the Arabic TV station, the prime minister agreed with the veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost when he suggested that intervention had "so far been pretty much of a disaster".
Mr Blair said: "It has, but you see, what I say to people is, 'why is it difficult in Iraq?' It's not difficult because of some accident in planning, it's difficult because there's a deliberate strategy - al-Qaida with Sunni insurgents on one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shia militias on the other - to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war."
Downing Street tried to downplay the apparent slip. "I think that's just the way in which he answers questions," said a spokesman. "His views on Iraq are documented in hundreds of places, and that is not one of them."
Mr Blair's remarks came hours after his trade and industry minister, Margaret Hodge, was reported to have described Iraq as his "big mistake in foreign affairs" and criticised his "moral imperialism".
Guardian, 18/11/06
Approval of war in US reaches all time low
Americans' approval of President Bush's handling of Iraq has dropped to the lowest level ever, increasing the pressure on the commander in chief to find a way out after nearly four years of war. The latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found just 31 percent approval on his handling of Iraq, days after voters registered their displeasure at the polls by defeating Republicans across the board and handing control of Congress to the Democrats.
The previous low in AP-Ipsos polling was 33 percent in both June and August. Erosion of support for Bush's Iraq policy was most pronounced among conservatives and Republican men - critical supporters who propelled Bush to the White House and a second term in 2004. A month ago, approval of the president on the issue certain to define his presidency was 36 percent.
San Jose Mercury News, 17/11/06
Occupiers search for captured mercenaries
American and British military forces scoured farmland in southern Iraq today looking for four American security contractors and their Austrian colleague, who were abducted from a supply convoy on Thursday afternoon at a checkpoint operated by men in Iraqi police uniforms, American officials said.
The highly organized ambush was the largest and most brazen kidnapping of Americans in recent memory, and it highlighted the rapid disintegration of security in southern Iraq, once thought to be under the control of British-led forces. The gunmen made off with a total of 14 kidnap victims, 19 trucks and one security vehicle, said a spokesman for the American embassy in Baghdad.
The security contractors work for Crescent Security Group, one of a constellation of Western-owned companies that reap vast revenues by protecting convoys, buildings and officials across the country.
New York Times, 17/11/06
More troops to Anbar province
About 2,200 U.S. Marines are headed from their ships in the Persian Gulf to an undisclosed location in Iraq's western Anbar province to help shore up U.S. combat power in an area riddled with insurgent violence. The move, intended as a short-term measure, underscores the seriousness of the conflict in Anbar, where the insurgency is entrenched and well-organized and where U.S. soldiers and Marines are getting killed almost daily.
The move was disclosed by Gen. John Abizaid during testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Abizaid acknowledged, when pressed during questioning by panel members, that Anbar is not under the control of U.S. or Iraqi forces. He added, however, that the security problem in Baghdad is even worse, and Anbar's problems therefore must be deemed secondary to suppressing sectarian violence in the capital.
About 30,000 U.S. troops already are in Anbar, which includes the trouble spots of Fallujah and Ramadi. The province stretches west from Baghdad to the borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
International Herald Tribune