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News archives for the week ending 3rd July 2009

al-Sadr seeks full US withdrawal

The ongoing presence of U.S. troops in Iraq "shows that the (Iraqi) government and the occupation are not serious about the withdrawal," a key Shiite cleric in the country said Wednesday.

Muqtada al-Sadr made the statement on his Web site a day after U.S. forces withdrew from Iraqi cities and towns in accordance with the security agreement between the United States and Iraq. About 131,000 American troops remain in the country, on bases and in outposts outside of population centers.

"The withdrawal should include all the occupation forces: army, intelligence, militias, and security companies and others. Otherwise, the withdrawal will be uncompleted and useless," al-Sadr said.

"We want a withdrawal and stopping the interference with Iraqi political, social and economic affairs," the statement said.

CNN, 1/7/09

US starts major offensive in Afghanistan

Thousands of U.S. Marines stormed into an Afghan river valley by helicopter and land early today, launching the biggest military offensive of Barack Obama's presidency with an assault deep into Taliban territory.

Operation River Liberty, which the Marines call simply "the decisive op", is intended to seize virtually the entire lower Helmand River valley, heartland of the Taliban insurgency and the world's biggest heroin producing region.

In swiftly seizing the valley, commanders hope to accomplish within hours what NATO troops had failed to achieve over several years, and by doing so turn the tide of a stale-mated war in time for an Afghan presidential election on August 20.

Addressing Marine commanders days before the assault, Dutch Major-General Mart de Kruif compared it to the D-Day invasion that changed the course of World War Two.

"We have people out there who do not realise that progress is about to come to them," he said.

The Times, 2/7/09

US arms 'strategic partner' Ethiopia

The Obama administration is signaling its intention to keep Ethiopia as a key strategic partner, despite concerns about the country's slide toward authoritarianism. The United States is seeking to expand development assistance to the Ethiopian government.

The United States last week announced it had sent a $10-million shipment of weapons to help shore up the besieged government of Somalia, while accusing neighboring Eritrea of being behind violence aimed at undermining the Somali peace process.

Voice of America, 30/6/09

Call to end UK's military aid to Colombia

MPs from all parties are calling for an end to all UK military aid to Colombia, citing murders and human rights abuses by the country's security forces. Thousands of trade unionists and human rights activists have disappeared or been killed or jailed in Colombia.

The UK Foreign Office said it shared many of the MPs' concerns, but added: "We do not believe that isolating Colombia will help solve its problems."

Campaigners and MPs say they do not want to isolate Colombia, but to divert military aid to humanitarian work.

BBC News, 30/6/09

UK to continue anti-opium strategy

Britain will fund the destruction of opium fields in Afghanistan, despite the US condemning it as a waste of money. The British Government said destroying poppy fields was one of the pillars of its anti-opium strategy in the southern province of Helmand.

The statement was made a day after Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said destroying the crops drove poor farmers to join the Taliban insurgency. In a reversal of policy, he said the US would stop funding poppy eradication.

The Age, Australia, 30/6/09

'Iraq has so much oil'

Iraq is poised to open its coveted oil fields to foreign companies this week for the first time in nearly four decades, a politically risky move in a country eager to shake off the stigma of occupation.

Iraqi politicians and some veteran oil officials have said the deals are unduly beneficial to oil giants, which are viewed warily by many in this deeply nationalistic but cash-strapped country.

Oil executives have been following the matter with apprehension, industry analysts said, but they are eager to get a foothold in Iraq, which has the world's second-largest proven crude reserves and is seen as the only major penetrable market.

"It's something the industry really wants," said Ben Lando, editor of Iraq Oil Report, an Iraq energy news Web site. "The number of reserves around the world that they have access to is declining. And Iraq has so much oil."

Washington Post, 27/6/09

Iraqis party as occupation ends

Tens of thousands of Iraqis partied amid massive security in Baghdad on Monday to mark the imminent pull-out of US troops from urban areas and celebrate the restive nation's reclaimed sovereignty.

"Since 2003, I have never been to a party," Ahmed Ali, 20, told AFP as a large celebration got under way in Zawra Park, the largest in the capital, "but today I am coming to hear the singers I love."

Revellers had to undergo three security checks to enter the park but no one seemed to complain amid a jubilant atmosphere, where an onstage banner declared Baghdad's sovereignty and independence had been recovered.

"Today is the day that we got back our country," said Salim Mohammed, from the sprawling Shi'ite working-class district of Sadr City.

Western Australia Today, 30/6/09

US sounds out Canada on Afghanistan extension

Obama Democrats have quietly sounded out power-brokers in Ottawa looking for advice on how to convince war-weary Canadians to keep military forces in Afghanistan after 2011.

Conscious of the deep political and public opposition to extending the mission further, American officials — political and military — are struggling to understand those concerns and identify the right arguments to make to the Harper government to “keep Canadian boots on the ground,” said defence sources.

The U.S. has not formally — or even informally — requested Ottawa extend the deployment of 2,850 combat troops, trainers and aircrew in volatile and bloody Kandahar, where 120 soldiers and one diplomat have died over seven years. The questions being asked are meant to lay the groundwork for a potential request, which the administration could make late this year or in early 2010, said one source familiar with the process.

The sophisticated, below-the-radar project reflects Washington’s new approach to dealing with allies, and marks a sharp departure from the days when former U.S. president George W. Bush declared: “You’re either with us or against us in the fight against terror.”

Edmonton Sun, 28/6/09

Swat Valley victory an illusion

For the past month and a half, the Pakistani military has claimed success in retaking the Swat Valley from the Taliban, clawing back its own territory from insurgents who only a short time ago were extending their reach toward the heartland of the country.

The reassertion of control over Swat has at least temporarily denied the militants a haven they coveted inside Pakistan proper. The offensive has also won strong support from the United States, which has urged Pakistan to engage the militants. But the Taliban’s decision to scatter leaves the future of Swat, and Pakistan’s overall stability, under continued threat, military analysts and some politicians say.

Signs abound that the military’s campaign in Swat is less than decisive. The military extended its deadline for ending the campaign. Even in the areas where progress has been made, the military controls little more than urban centers and roads, say those who have fled the areas. The military has also failed to kill or capture even one top Taliban commander.

Many Taliban fighters have infiltrated the camps set up for those displaced by the fighting and are likely to return with them to Swat, said Himayatullah Mayar, the mayor of Mardan, the city where many of the refugees are staying.

“Most of the Taliban shaved their beards, and they are living here with their families,” he said.

New York Times, 27/6/09

US shifts Afghanistan drugs policy

The U.S. is shifting its strategy against Afghanistan's drug trade, phasing out funding for opium eradication while boosting efforts to fight trafficking and promote alternate crops, the U.S. envoy for Afghanistan said Saturday. The aim of the new policy: to deprive the Taliban of the tens of millions of dollars in drug revenues that are fueling its insurgency.

The U.S. envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, told the Associated Press that poppy eradication — for years a cornerstone of U.S. and U.N. drug trafficking efforts in the country — was not working and was only driving Afghan farmers into the hands of the Taliban.

The new policy calls for assisting farmers who abandon poppy cultivation. Holbrooke said the international community wasn't trying to target Afghan farmers, just the Taliban militants who buy their crops.

"The farmers are not our enemy, they're just growing a crop to make a living," he said. "It's the drug system. So the U.S. policy was driving people into the hands of the Taliban."

Associated Press, 27/6/09

Britain's lectures on morality mocked worldwide

Britain’s strictures to foreign governments are being mocked from Iran to the Turks and Caicos Islands, as world leaders seize on stories about MPs’ bloated expenses claims as evidence of moral decay in the UK.

Accounts of MPs billing the taxpayer for duck houses and moat cleaning have been lapped up around the world and have posed a problem for British diplomats who have previously been vocal in criticising corruption.

Mark Malloch-Brown, the foreign office minister, deleted sections of a speech he gave in Mozambique this month, fearing that his comments on higher standards of governance might be greeted with scorn. His fears may have been justified, judging by the apparent delight being shown by leaders in recent days over the Westminster expenses scandal.

Financial Times, 27/6/09

Miliband denies British troops have failed

Britain's foreign secretary defended the capability of British troops in Afghanistan on Thursday, saying the fact they are being reinforced by 10,000 U.S. Marines did not mean they had failed.

Britain took over responsibility for Helmand in mid-2006 and started a slow build-up of troops. But in the past three years, the security situation in the vast desert-and-mountain province has changed little, with the Taliban remaining strong and foreign troops unable to hold on to large patches of territory for very long. U.S. and British commanders have acknowledged an effective stalemate.

Partly as a result, the U.S. military, following President Barack Obama's plan to beef up forces in Afghanistan, is now deploying 10,000 Marines to the province. The goal is to reinforce British units and try to tip the balance back in NATO's favour ahead of Afghan presidential elections in August.

Reuters, 25/6/09

Maliki hails victory over the US

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has taken to calling the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq’s cities by next Tuesday a “great victory,” a repulsion of foreign occupiers he compares to the rebellion against British troops in 1920.

And the Americans are going along with it, symbolically and substantively. American commanders have hewed far more closely to the June 30 deadline for withdrawing combat forces from Iraq’s cities than expected only a few weeks ago, according to American and Iraqi officials. They have closed outposts — even in Baghdad and still-troubled Mosul in the north — that they had initially lobbied the Iraqis to keep open, having concluded, the officials said, that pressing the case would be counterproductive given the political significance that Mr. Maliki had given the deadline.

The day itself has been declared a national holiday, though it is not yet clear whether Iraq will hold the “feast and festivals” he recently promised.

New York Times, 25/6/09

Obama: solving splits is big issue in Iraq

Despite continuing violence in Iraq, President Barack Obama says he thinks the bigger challenge there is finding political agreement among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.

Obama says the security situation in Iraq is actually showing improvement, and that the level of violence is not what it once was. A series of attacks this week has claimed more than 200 lives, just days before a deadline for U.S. combat troops to leave Iraqi cities. Obama says the violence will probably continue for "some time."

He told reporters Friday that he hasn't seen the kind of "political progress" that he'd like to see among Iraq's various factions. Obama says if their disputes are resolved, there will be a further improvement in reducing violence.

Las Vegas Sun, 26/6/09