These are the archives for the week ending 1st July 2005
UK trained Uzbek troops before massacre
British military advisers trained Uzbek troops in 'marksmanship' shortly before a massacre in which hundreds of people were killed.
The training was part of a larger programme funded by Britain despite concerns expressed by the Foreign Office at the time over the Uzbekistan government's human rights record.
A group of Uzbek military cadets were given a 'coaching course' in marksmanship by British soldiers in February and March this year. In May, Uzbek forces massacred up to 500 men, women and children in the town of Andijan.
Uzbek troops used military Land Rovers in the operation.
Guardian 30/6/05
Finding the weapons for war against China
The Defense Department is struggling to determine the right mix of bombers and other warplanes to fight China if it ever became necessary, President Bush's choice to become the next Air Force chief of staff said on Wednesday. Lining up such firepower would top his list of priorities if confirmed as the Air Force's top military officer, Gen. Michael Moseley said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Moseley ran the air war over Iraq that led to the ouster of President Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Retired Air Force Col. Walter Boyne, a former director of the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum, said Moseley likely was referring to the warplanes -- manned and unmanned -- needed to take out command posts, radar installations, surface-to-air missile sites, air fields and military headquarters. Many such targets are deep in China's interior.
Moseley's comments reflected U.S. concern about mounting Chinese investments in ballistic and cruise missiles that could hold forward U.S. bases at risk of attack in places like South Korea and Japan.
Boston Globe, 29/6/05
Blair parrots Bush
UK premier Tony Blair has endorsed US President George Bush's assertion that coalition troops must stay in Iraq as long as necessary to defeat terrorism. Mr Blair told the Associated Press it was "vital" the US-led coalition remained until the country stabilised. Defeating "insurgents and terrorists" there would lead to the destruction of terrorism across the globe, he said.
BBC News, 29/6/05
Pigs at the trough
A top U.S. Army procurement official said on Monday Halliburton's deals in Iraq were the worst example of contract abuse she had seen as Pentagon auditors flagged over $1 billion of potential overcharges by the Texas-based firm.
"I can unequivocally state that the abuse related to contracts awarded to KBR (Kellogg Brown and Root) represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career," said Bunny Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers' top contracting official and a procurement veteran of more than 20 years.
Halliburton's subsidiary KBR is the U.S. military's biggest contractor in Iraq and has been accused of getting lucrative work there because of its ties to Vice President Dick Cheney who headed the company from 1995-2000. Pressed by lawmakers whether she thought the Defense Secretary's office was involved in the handout and running of contracts to KBR, Greenhouse replied: "That is true."
Reuters, 27/6/05
Refugee crisis as civilians flee US troops
Iraq's health ministry is warning of a human refugee disaster as thousands of families flee the Iraqi city of al-Qaim. Iraq's deputy health minister Jalil al-Shammari is warning of starvation among the refugees who fled and continue to flee al-Qaim and surrounding areas to avoid massive U.S. military operations against suspected insurgents.
Al-Shammari said that more than 7,000 families have left several towns in al-Qaim province in Iraq's northwest. While most families have taken refuge in several towns, hundreds of families are stranded in the desert, he said. U.S. and Iraqi forces have banned ambulances and humanitarian aid from entering al-Qaim city, and most of the refugees are suffering from a shortage of food, water and medicine, al-Shammari said.
Washington Times, 28/6/05
Police shoot unemployed protesters
Iraqi police opened fire at protesters in the southern city of Samawa on Tuesday, killing at least one person and wounded three others, Dubai-based al-Arabiyah TV channel reported. About 2,000 people demonstrated in Samawa, some 280 km south of Baghdad, in protest at rejection by the local government to give them jobs in the police, the channel said.
The demonstrators threw stones at the police, who fired warning shots before opening fire at the crowd, killing at least one protester and wounding at least three others, it added.
Xinhua, China, 28/6/05
Death squads
Days after Iraq's new Shiite-led government was announced April 28, the bodies of Sunni Muslim men began turning up at the capital's central morgue after the men had been detained by people wearing Iraqi police uniforms. The Interior Ministry, which oversees the Iraqi police, denies any involvement in the killings.
But witnesses said many of the dead were apprehended by large groups of men driving white Toyota Land Cruisers with police markings. The men were wearing police commando uniforms and bulletproof vests, carrying expensive 9mm Glock pistols and using sophisticated radios, the witnesses said.
Iraqi and American officials said the killings are not being investigated systematically. ''The small numbers that we've investigated we've found to be either rumor or innuendo,'' said Steven Casteel, a senior U.S. adviser to the ministry and former Drug Enforcement Administration intelligence chief.
But in dozens of interviews with families and Iraqi officials, and a review of medical records, a Knight Ridder reporter and two correspondents found more than 30 examples of this type of killing in less than a week. They include 12 cases with specific dates, times, names and witnesses who said they might come forward if asked by law enforcement. U.S. officials, who have advisers in the Interior Ministry, have said they are aware of the abductions and killings, but that they think the killings are the work of insurgents posing as police.
San Jose Mercury News,28/6/05
Bush exaggerates support
In his speech, the president strained to make the level of international support higher and broader than in reality. He said the "international community has stepped forward with vital assistance," with 30 nations providing troops in Iraq. He also said the insurgents have failed to "force a mass withdrawal by our allies."
But the U.S.-led coalition, which once included about three dozen nations, has become a political liability for several participating countries. In the past year, more than a dozen countries have withdrawn or have announced plans to leave. Spain, one of the three original co-sponsors of the invasion, withdrew more than a year ago. Portugal, Norway, Hungary, the Philippines, New Zealand, Thailand, Honduras, the Dominican Republic and Tonga have also pulled out. Among three of the largest contributors, Ukraine and Poland have announced they will pull out by year's end, and Italy plans to begin reducing its presence this fall.
Bush also asserted that "some 40 countries and three international organizations have pledged about $34 billion in assistance for Iraqi reconstruction." But he did not say that $20 billion of that amount is from the United States, and much of it has been diverted to security or has not yet been delivered. Moreover, only about $2 billion of the remaining pledges -- made nearly two years ago -- has been delivered by the rest of the world.
Washington Post, 29/6/05
Mixed messages
Iraq's insurgency is in its "last throes"; but it is getting deadlier and could last a decade or more. There will be no timetable for U.S. troops to leave; but they will not defeat the rebels. Recent U.S. policy statements on Iraq ahead of Tuesday's keynote speech by President Bush can seem confusing.
In fact, the administration is simultaneously trying to reassure an impatient domestic electorate while acknowledging that the campaign in Iraq itself is an uphill struggle that may require long American engagement to prevent a debacle which would do lasting damage to its influence in the region.
"Of all the statistics which Washington is looking at, the one of greatest concern is that six out of 10 Americans want to get out of Iraq," said Simon Henderson, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a biographer of Saddam Hussein. "All politics is local."
Yahoo News, 27/6/05
Talks with resistance meaningless
The talks between US officials and some resistance groups revealed in the past few days probably does not mean very much for the moment. The fanatical Islamic and militant former Baathists and nationalists who make up the cutting edge of insurgency are not in the mood to compromise. They are also very fragmented. But the talks may indicate a growing sense among US military and civilian officials that they cannot win this war.
Independent, 28/6/05
'The news from Iraq is only depressing'
The "handover of power" last June was always a misnomer. Much real power remained in the hands of the US. Its 140,000 troops kept the new government in business. Mr Allawi's new cabinet members became notorious for the amount of time they spent out of the country. Safely abroad they often gave optimistic speeches predicting the imminent demise of the insurgency. Despite this the number of Iraqi military and police being killed every month has risen from 160 at the handover to 219 today.
The news now from Iraq is only depressing. All the roads leading out of the capital are cut. Iraqi security and US troops can only get through in heavily armed convoys. There is a wave of assassinations of senior Iraqi officers based on chillingly accurate intelligence. A deputy police chief of Baghdad was murdered on Sunday. A total of 52 senior Iraqi government or religious figures have been assassinated since the handover. In June 2004 insurgents killed 42 US soldiers; so far this month 75 have been killed.
Independent, 28/6/05
Abu Ghraib expanding
Faced with a ballooning prison population, U.S. commanders in Iraq are building new detention facilities at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison and Camp Bucca near the Kuwaiti border and are developing a third major prison, in northern Iraq.
The number of prisoners held by the U.S. in Iraq reached record levels this month before falling slightly. As of Saturday, the average prisoner total in June stood at 10,783, up from 7,837 in January and 5,435 in June 2004. The Army is expanding both sites and working on the third major prison, near Sulaymaniya, which would house up to 2,000 prisoners; the additions will increase the total U.S. long-term detention capability to more than 16,000 prisoners.
Los Angeles Times, 26/6/05
Profits before people
Today, commuting from post to post in Iraq is one of the deadliest tasks for soldiers. At least 73 American military personnel were killed on the roads of Iraq in May and June as insurgent attacks spiked. Last winter, 135 convoys were attacked on the Baghdad airport road alone, and even the most fully armored Humvee is no longer safe from the increasingly powerful insurgency bombs.
The Pentagon has repeatedly said no vehicle leaves camp without armor. But about half of the Army's 20,000 Humvees have improvised shielding that typically leaves the underside unprotected, while only one in six Humvees used by the Marines is armored at the highest level of protection.
The Defense Department continues to rely on just one small company in Ohio to armor Humvees. The company has received more than $1 billion in the past 18 months in military armoring contracts. And the company, O'Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt, has waged an aggressive campaign to hold onto its exclusive deal even as soaring rush orders from Iraq have been plagued by delays. The Marine Corps, for example, is still awaiting the 498 armored Humvees it sought last fall. In January, when military officials tried to speed production by buying the legal rights to the armor design so they could enlist other venders to help, O'Gara demurred, calling the move a threat to its "current and future competitive position."
When Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld visited Iraq last year to tour the Abu Ghraib prison camp, military officials did not rely on a government-issued Humvee to transport him safely on the ground. Instead, they turned to Halliburton, the oil services contractor, which lent the Pentagon a rolling fortress of steel called the Rhino Runner.
New York Times, 26/6/05
Guantanamo prisoners 'living in tropics'
The US vice-president, Dick Cheney, claimed that prisoners held by the US in Guantanamo were 'living in the tropics' and had been given everything they could possibly want.
His comments came as evidence emerged that military doctors have helped interrogators by advising them how to increase stress levels and exploit the fears of the detainees.
Mr Cheney said "They've got a brand new facility down at Guantanamo. We spent a lot of money to build it. They're very well treated there. They're living in the tropics. They're well fed. They've got everything they could possibly want." He added "There isn't any other nation in the world that would treat people who were determined to kill Americans the way we're treating these people"
The vice-president's defence of the camp followed calls from both Republicans and Democrats that it be shut down, amid concerns that persistent claims of ill-treatment of detainees is harming America's image abroad.
Guardian 25/6/05
600 reserves called up for Iraq
A further 600 reservists are to be called up to support British military operations in Iraq.
The call-up means that more than 10,000 part-time service personnel will have been deployed in Iraq since the invasion in march 2003.
Guardian 24/6/05
US pushes for punitive action against Syria
The US secretary of state, Condoleeza Rice, discussed plans for punitive action against Syria with other western foreign ministers yesterday over its alleged involvement in Iraq, Lebanon and Israel.
The US is comtemplating diplomatic rather than military action, freezing the Syrian government out of the international community.
Ms Rice used a meeting in London of foreign ministers from the Group of Eight - US, Britain, France, Canada, Japan, Germany, Italy and Russia - to mobilise international support against Syria.
She claimed Syria was failing to stop insurgents travelling over its border into Iraq. Many of the foreign insurgents in Iraq are from Saudi Arabia, and the US claims they travel to Iraq via Syria. Singling out Syria and Iran, Ms Rice said "There cannot be a blind eye to the activities of states that are supporting terrorist groups"
Guardian 24/6/05
War costs UK £5 billion
The invasion and occupation of Iraq will cost the UK more than £5bn, making it Britain's most expensive conflict since the Second World War, economists have calculated. Professor Keith Hartley, one of Britain's leading defence economists, says the bill for military operations alone in Iraq is already £1bn more than the Government has stated because ministers have failed to count the full costs of the operation. His estimates exclude the £390m spent on civil reconstruction and the undisclosed costs of spying.
Independent, 26/6/05
Ambush in Fallujah
The lethal ambush of a convoy carrying female U.S. troops in Fallujah underscored the difficulties of keeping women away from the front lines in a war where such boundaries are far from clear-cut. The suicide car bomb and ensuing small-arms fire killed at least two Marines, and four others were missing and presumed dead. At least one woman was killed and 11 of 13 wounded were female.
The ambush late Thursday also suggested Iraqi insurgents may have regained a foothold in Fallujah, which has been occupied by U.S. and Iraqi forces since they regained control of the restive city from insurgents seven months ago.
Yahoo Newa, 25/6/05
US presence fuels resistance
More than two years after Hussein's fall, Iraq's elected government must meet in a heavily fortified area called the Green Zone, and no one knows when a car bomb, bullet or indiscriminate piece of shrapnel might take his or her life. With summer just a few days old, Iraqis fear a blistering season of bombings, water shortages, power blackouts and miles-long gas lines.
As U.S. commanders wonder how to disengage from a conflict that appears increasingly unpopular at home, edgy troops grapple with an unnerving truth: Their very presence inspires the rebellion they seek to crush. "Part of the recruitment for this insurgency is fueled by the perception that we are an occupying power and have no intention of leaving," Army Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, commander of the Multinational Corps, said in a recent interview.
LA Times, 24/6/05
Recruiters targetting school students
The Pentagon yesterday released additional details about a program to compile a database of personal information on U.S. students to help bolster recruitment, saying that 12 million names currently are on file and that collection efforts have been going on for some time. David S. C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said the Pentagon's contract with a private marketing firm was simply an attempt to obtain the most accurate list possible of contact information for high school students ages 16 to 18 as well as all college students.
As enlistment has dwindled in several of the services, many parents say military recruiters have become more aggressive, often calling their homes repeatedly. Under the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act, public high school districts are obligated to provide student contact information to military recruiters or risk losing federal funds.
Washington Post, 24/6/05
US stalling on prison visits
U.N. human rights investigators on Thursday accused the United States of stalling on their request to visit foreign terror suspects at U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay. They said they had had no reply to their year-old request to probe "serious allegations of torture," arbitrary detention and violations of the right to health and due process at Guantanamo
"We deeply regret that the government of the United States has still not invited us to visit those persons arrested, detained or tried on grounds of alleged terrorism or other violations in Iraq, Afghanistan, or the Guantanamo Bay naval base," the four rights investigators said in a statement.
Reuters, 23/6/05