These are the archives for the week ending 5th August 2005
Putting Iraqis in the front line
U.S. and British ambassadors met senior Iraqi ministers on Tuesday to discuss the transfer of security from foreign to Iraqi forces, a process that lays the groundwork for the withdrawal of foreign troops. It was the first meeting of a body dubbed the "commission for conditions-based transition", which will decide over the coming months which parts of Iraq are safe enough for Iraqi forces to take over and let foreign troops pull back.
The body, made up of Iraq's interior and defence ministers, its national security adviser, the U.S. and British ambassadors, and the top foreign military commanders, said it would make its first recommendations to Iraq's prime minister next month. In a statement, the commission said it had agreed the main consideration for any transfer of responsibility was the capacity of Iraqi forces to handle security alone.
A U.S. military report issued last month revealed that more than half of Iraq's army battalions and police units were currently incapable of operating without U.S. support.
Reuters, 2/8/05
Widespread corruption at Defense Ministry
Hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted on unnecessary and overpriced equipment for Iraq's new army at a time when the United States and its allies are struggling to get the force in shape to battle insurgents, Iraqi officials say. "Corruption is widespread at the defense ministry. One of the cases alone is worth $226 million. The investigation is still going on," said legislator Kamal al-Saaidi, a member of the independent Supreme Anti-corruption Commission.
Most of the alleged unnecessary purchases were made during the term of interim Prime Minster Ayad Allawi, who took office after occupation authorities turned over sovereignty to Iraqis on June 28, 2004. A U.S. military officer who used to work with the Defense Ministry said equipment that could have been useful was not being purchased, such as new armored vehicles or good ammunition. The U.S. official spoke on condition of anonymity because it was an internal Iraqi issue. He said there appeared to be little oversight and accountability in the procurement of equipment.
Associated Press, 2/8/05
Halliburton war profits soar
Halliburton announced on Friday that its KBR division, responsible for carrying out Pentagon contracts, experienced a 284 percent increase in operating profits during the second quarter of this year. The increase in profits was primarily due to the Pentagon's payment of "award fees" for what military officials call "good" or "very good" work done by KBR in the Middle East for America's taxpayers and the troops. Despite the scandals that plague KBR's military contracts, the Pentagon awarded $70 million in "award" fees to the company, along with four ratings of "excellent" and two ratings of "very good" for the troop logistics work under the Army's LOGCAP contract.
The Pentagon has provided preferential treatment to Halliburton on a number of occasions, including the concealment from the public of critical reports by military auditors. Audits conducted by the Pentagon's Defense Contract Audit Agency determined that KBR had $1 billion in "questioned" expenses (i.e. expenses which military auditors consider "unreasonable") and $442 million in "unsupported" expenses (i.e. expenses which military auditors have determined contain no receipt or any explanation on how the expenses were disbursed). But the top Pentagon brass ignored these audits and rewarded KBR's work anyway.
In another coup for Halliburton, a federal judge this month decided that whistleblowers may not sue U.S. companies for fraud if payment for services was made in Iraqi, not U.S., money. Halliburton was paid over $1 billion in Iraqi oil money during the first 15 months of the occupation. The judge's ruling means the False Claims Act cannot be used to offer large rewards to corporate insiders who reveal wrongdoing or overcharges for services. The law is considered America's most successful deterrent against contractor fraud, but the judge's decision will help Halliburton and other contractors avoid tough scrutiny in Iraq.
www.halliburtonwatch.org, 27/7/05
US & UK put on pressure
Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, insisted yesterday that the August 15 timetable for finalising the country's constitution would be met, despite the fact that the committee responsible for writing it is considering asking parliament for an extra 30 days to complete its work.
Mr Talabani said he would host a summit of Iraq's political leaders next week to break the deadlock and meet the deadline.
Any postponement would be a blow to US and British plans. Their representatives in Baghdad have been exerting heavy pressure behind the scenes to persuade Iraqi leaders to reach agreement.
The US's increasingly hands-on approach to the constitution has irritated some Iraqi politicians, who say the insistence on a deadline could be counterproductive.
"At this point, a bad and rushed constitution will do much more damage to the country than one which is properly considered" said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of the drafting committee. "What Iraqis really need now is electricity, water, security and jobs."
Guardian 1/8/05
Three stages of puppet government
The emerging politics of post-Saddam Iraq has gone through three phases, each corresponding with the declining fortunes of the occupation.
The first was an attempt to install a government of hand-picked emigres led by the one-time neoconservative favourite Ahmad Chalabi. This plan was dumped when it became apparent that Chalabi enjoyed almost no domestic support.
The second was the "Ba'athism lite" option under Ayad Allawi, the Shia strongman and ex-Ba'athist thought capable of reaching out to former Saddam loyalists. This failed when Allawi polled a disappointing 14% in January's election.
The third phase, and likely shape of things to come, has been the rise of the Shia Islamist bloc that now controls a majority in the Iraqi parliament. Coalition strategists are putting a brave face on this by stressing the supposedly moderate and democratic credentials of these "new Islamists". But you do not need to look very far into the past to see how unlikely this is.
Guardian, 1/8/05
Rumsfeld threatens on Iran links
Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. defense secretary, delivered a blunt message to Iraqi leaders during a visit here last week: The Iraqis would have to be more aggressive in opposing the "harmful" meddling of Iran in this country's affairs before the United States could consider regional stability assured and the way clear for American forces to go home.
It was an argument with a paradox at its heart. Regaining a semblance of stability here is a goal of both the Iraqi government and the United States. But the country's elected leadership apparently believes that Iraq's long-term welfare will depend on building a strong relationship with Iran as well as maintaining ties to the United States. As the Shiite Arab leaders who now hold sway in Baghdad see it, support from their co-religionists in Iran could be decisive in keeping Iraq from slipping further into chaos. That is clearly not the kind of stability Rumsfeld has in mind.
The Shiite leaders, though, already draw support from Iran as well as the United States in the face of the deep Sunni Arab resentment that has fed the insurgency here. Shiite political parties have historically had much stronger ties to Iran than to the United States, which, as they vividly recall, did nothing when Saddam Hussein ordered the slaughter of up to 150,000 Shiites who rebelled after the 1991 Gulf war.
International Herald Tribune, 1/8/05
Power and oil production down
Despite pouring more than $9 billion into rebuilding Iraq over the past two years, the United States has made only limited progress in key areas such as oil and power, according to new reports on U.S.-funded projects there. Congress's investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office, said in its latest report that as of May 2005, power generation in Iraq was at a lower level than before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Iraq's oil output, which U.S. officials initially said would help pay for rebuilding projects, has also dropped in the past two years, said the GAO's report on Iraq reconstruction.
Security costs are chewing up funds originally earmarked for power, water and health care, and key projects have been canceled as more funds are shifted to security. "When it's analyzed overall, it will turn out as being an expensive program in terms of what we actually got for our money," said one senior U.S. official, who asked not to be named because such a statement might be viewed as too negative by Bush administration officials.
Reuters, 31/7/05
London bombers motivated by Iraq
The five men suspected of trying to explode bombs in London on July 21 were motivated by anger over the Iraq war, not by religion, one of the men has reportedly told Italian judges following his arrest in Rome on Friday.
Osman Hussain said that "rather than praying, we had discussions about work, politics, the war in Iraq". The men watched films - "especially those in which you saw women and children killed and exterminated by the English and American soldiers, or widows, mothers and daughters who were crying".
Sydney Morning Herald, 1/8/05
Attacks on British become more sophisticated
British forces believe a new wave of guerrilla attacks in southern Iraq is being supplied and backed from Iran. The 1,000-strong Task Force Maysan, stationed south of Amara, has noticed a dramatic change in the "quality" of attacks on them this summer. Last year British troops fought daily gun battles with Shia militiamen loyal to the maverick cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr. This year the number of attacks has dropped, but the attackers appear to have had some highly professional training.
An articulated lorry recently stopped by Iraqi border police was full of rockets, grenades and launchers. The arms, and training in their use, are believed to have been provided by local militias and units of the Revolutionary Guard across the border, though not necessarily sanctioned by Tehran.
Independent, 1/8/05
Blast survivors shot by US and Iraqi troops
Some survivors of a suicide bombing targeting Iraqi army recruits were shot and wounded immediately afterward when U.S. and Iraqi soldiers opened fire at the scene, police, doctors and witnesses said Saturday. The bomber wandered into a crowd of Iraqis waiting Friday to enlist in the army and detonated his explosives, said police and witnesses to the attack in this northern town near the Syrian border.
After the blast, U.S. and Iraqi troops opened fire believing they were under attack, according to Rabiah's police chief, Col. Yahya al-Shammari. He said some of the army recruits were killed by the gunfire, although it was unclear how many because dead and wounded were taken to several hospitals across a wide area of northern Iraq. He said the death toll from the suicide attack had risen to 52 dead and 93 injured by late Saturday.
Bakersfield Californian, 30/7/05
Blair's gung-ho attitude to war
The split over the Iraq war, which ran through the Labour party, reached into Tony Blair's innermost circle, according to an updated biography of the prime minister. Key Downing Street advisers including Alastair Campbell, former director of communications, and Baroness Morgan, former director of political and government relations, are revealed to have had "private reservations" about the prime minister's strategy.
At the outbreak of war, a gung-ho attitude seemed to pervade Downing Street. According to an interview with Morgan: ". . . he (Blair) wanted big maps on the wall of the den (Blair's office) so he could follow the progress of the troops. We wouldn't let him. He really would have liked a sandpit with tanks."
Sunday Times, 31/7/05
Colombian mercenaries for hire
For hire: more than 1,000 U.S.-trained former soldiers and police officers from Colombia. Combat-hardened, experienced in fighting insurgents and ready for duty in Iraq. This eye-popping advertisement recently appeared on an Iraq jobs website, posted by an American entrepreneur who hopes to supply security forces for U.S. contractors in Iraq and elsewhere.
If hired, the Colombians would join a swelling population of heavily armed private military forces working in Iraq and other global hot spots. They also would join a growing corps of workers from the developing world who are seeking higher wages in dangerous jobs, what some critics say is a troubling result of efforts by the U.S. to "outsource" its operations in Iraq and other countries.
LA Times, 30/7/05
Top Sunni sacked
In political developments on Saturday, the Iraqi government disclosed the firing on July 24 of Adnan al-Dulaimi, a senior official who had been among the few highly-placed Sunni Arabs to encourage wider Sunni participation in the country's political process. As head of the Sunni Endowment, a government agency that oversees Sunni Arab mosques and holy sites throughout Iraq, Mr. Dulaimi had wide influence among Sunni clerics and worshipers.
Mr. Dulaimi insisted in an interview that his firing was politically motivated. "The main reason behind it was because of my activity to defend the Sunnis' rights and to urge them to get involved in the political process," he said. He also said he had rankled the Shiite-dominated government by accusing government security forces of waging a campaign of abuse and intimidation against Sunni Arab religious leaders.
Laith Kubba, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, insisted that the dismissal of Mr. Dulaimi was not politically motivated, though he did not explain the reasoning behind the decision.
New York Times, 31/7/05
Uzbekistan expels US
Uzbekistan formally evicted the United States yesterday from Karshi-Khanabad air base, known as K2. The base that has served as a hub for missions to Afghanistan since shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. If Uzbekistan follows through, as Washington expects, the United States will face several logistical problems for its operations in Afghanistan.
Scores of flights have used K2 monthly. It has been a landing base to transfer goods that then are taken by road into northern Afghanistan, particularly to Mazar-e Sharif -- with no alternative for a region difficult to reach in the winter. K2 is also a refueling base with a runway long enough for large military aircraft. The alternative is much costlier midair refueling.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld returned this week from Central Asia, where he won assurances from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan that the United States can use their bases for operations in Afghanistan. U.S. forces use Tajikistan for emergency landings and occasional refueling, but it lacks good roads into Afghanistan. Kyrgyzstan does not border Afghanistan. "We always think ahead. We'll be fine," Rumsfeld said Sunday when asked how the United States would cope with losing the base in Uzbekistan.
The eviction notice came four days before a senior State Department official was to arrive in Tashkent for talks with the government of President Islam Karimov. The relationship has been increasingly tense since bloody protests in the province of Andijan in May, the worst unrest since Uzbekistan gained independence from the Soviet Union.
Washington Post, 30/7/05
Bomb kills 25
A suicide bomber wearing a belt of explosives blew himself up among Iraqi army volunteers in a town near the Syrian border Friday, killing as many as 25 people. Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility. Police and army recruits have been a recurrent target of the Iraqi insurgency; on Friday, the U.S. military said insurgents also killed two Marines. The deaths brought to 11 the number of U.S. fatalities this week - eight of them in combat.
San Diego Union-Tribune, 29/7/05
30% of US troops suffer mental problems
Thirty percent of U.S. troops deployed to Iraq have developed stress-related mental health problems three to four months after coming home, the Army's surgeon general said. The problems include anxiety, depression, nightmares, anger and an inability to concentrate, Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley and other military medical officials said.
A smaller number of troops were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, a serious mental illness. Only 3% to 5% were diagnosed with a significant mental health issue immediately after leaving the war theater, said Col. Elspeth Ritchie, a psychiatrist.
LA Times, 29/7/05
Refusal to count civilian deaths breaches Geneva Conventions
The US-led Coalition is failing to respect the Geneva Conventions by refusing to facilitate an accurate count of civilian deaths in Iraq, states an editorial in this week's issue of The Lancet.
Last week, a dossier produced by Iraq Body Count (IBC), an organisation set up with the aim of tracking civilian deaths in Iraq, revealed that 24 865 civilians have died since the war in Iraq began. The IBC database, from which data for the dossier were drawn, lists only those deaths reported by two or more news agencies.
The Lancet comments: "IBC compiled a credible list of deaths using just news reports and computers; the fact that the Coalition, equipped with a robust and expanding medical division, has not done so is an indefensible omission--and makes a mockery of international law. The adamant refusal of the USA and its partner countries to keep count of Iraqi deaths is a stance that renders farcical the Geneva Conventions' principle that invading forces have a duty to make every effort to protect civilian lives. How can the Coalition attest that it respects this obligation if it refuses to collect data to prove it?"
Medical News Today, 29/7/05
Iraqi police accused of sysyematic torture
Iraq's new police force is facing mounting allegations of systematic abuse and torture of people in detention, as well as allegations of extra-judicial killings. The minority Sunni community in particular claims it is being targeted by the Shia-dominated police force.
According to Salman al-Faraji, a human rights activist and lawyer, the use of drills is common. "Most cases are quite similar, the same methods are used," he said. "They torture them, breaking hands and legs. They use electric drills to pierce their bodies and then the killing is carried out at close range." The list compiled by Human Rights Watch includes beating detainees with cables, hanging them from their wrists for long periods and giving electric shocks to sensitive parts of the body.
We made repeated requests for an interview with the minister of the interior or his subordinates to respond to all these allegations. But no-one would speak to us. In an earler statement the minister said he would not allow any members of the police involved in human rights violations to walk freely without being punished properly. He also promised that investigations would be swift and comprehensive. But a source inside the ministry dismissed this statement saying the promise of an investigation was "for the media only".
BBC News, 27/7/05