Watching the Warmakers is based in Brighton, England.
Our aim is to support activists in educating themselves in the issues
which confront those struggling for peace and justice.

News archives for the week ending 11th July 2008

Britain makes torture settlement

Britain's Defense Ministry agreed on Thursday to pay compensation to the family of an Iraqi hotel receptionist who died in the custody of British troops in Basra in September 2003, and to nine other Iraqis detained with him who the ministry said suffered "substantive breaches" of their human rights.

The announcement came after two days of negotiations in London between British government lawyers and a legal team representing the father of Baha Mousa, the 26-year-old receptionist who died of injuries suffered while being questioned by British troops who stormed the Haitham hotel in Basra looking for insurgents.Lawyers for the Iraqis said the government agreed to pay nearly $6 million.

An autopsy found 93 separate wounds on Mr. Mousa's body, including fractured ribs and a broken nose. At a court-martial held in Britain that ran for six months last year, six of the seven soldiers charged in Mr. Mousa's death, including their commanding officer, Lt. Col. Jorge Mendonca, were acquitted of negligence and abuse, and of the ill treatment of the other prisoners.

One man, a corporal, who pleaded guilty in Mr. Mousa's death, was sentenced to a year in prison. The judge presiding at the court-martial accused men in the unit that held the prisoners, the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, of erecting "a wall of silence" around the case.

New York Times, 11/7/08

Nearly half of service personnel consider quitting

Nearly half of British troops regularly consider quitting the army and navy because of plummeting morale, poor equipment and low pay, a Ministry of Defence survey of more than 24,000 military personnel has found.

Some 47% of soldiers and army officers periodically considered handing in their resignation. The proportion was the same among Royal Navy personnel, while the figure was 44% in the RAF.

It is the first study of its kind to gauge joint attitudes across the army, navy and RAF and reveals alarming levels of stress and unhappiness among service personnel. The research is likely to call into question Britain's ability to sustain campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Guardian, 10/7/08

Security firms lose immunity in Iraq deal

The Iraqi armed services are likely to target widely-hated American security contractors when they lose their immunity to Iraqi law under a new agreement between the US and the Iraq.

The main American concession, during prolonged and rancorous negotiations over a Status of Forces Agreement (Sofa) that would determine the future military relationship between the US and Iraq, has been to agree to lift the immunity hitherto enjoyed by the 154,000 contractors, of whom 35,000 are private security men.

"The Iraqi forces will follow them with vigour because they are not popular in Iraq," said Ahmed Chalabi, the veteran Iraqi politician, in an interview with The Independent.

The ending of immunity will have serious consequences for the 142,000 US troops in Iraq, who are highly reliant on contractors. Mr Chalabi says it is likely that the Iraqi security forces and judiciary will go out of their way to arrest foreign security men who break Iraqi law, which they have so far flouted.

He also said that the loss of immunity of American contractors would make US intelligence operations more difficult because private companies have been used to maintain links with opponents of the Iranian regime based in Iraq, notably the Mojahedin-e Khalq. This enables the US government to deny that it has contacts with such groups.

Independent, 10/7/08

US shifts aircraft carrier from Iraq to Afghanistan

Worried about increasing insurgent attacks in Afghanistan, the U.S. military says it is sending extra air power there by shifting an aircraft carrier away from Iraq. Defense officials said Tuesday that the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln has been moved from the Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, shortening the time that the carrier's strike planes must fly to support combat in Afghanistan.

One official said the decision reflected both the worsened state of the fight in Afghanistan and improvements in Iraq. The navy routinely moves ships in and out of the Gulf, where they not only support America's two current wars but also serve as a show of force to Iran and sign of support to regional allies.

The departure of the aircraft carrier from the Gulf still leaves a number of other ships there, including the amphibious assault ship Peleliu, other amphibious ships and a couple of destroyers. There is still also "significant air power" inside Iraq, an official said.

International Herald Tribune, 8/7/08

US airstrike kills more civilians in Afghanistan

At least 20 people have been killed in a missile strike by coalition forces in east Afghanistan, local officials say.

Deh Bala district governor Hamisha Gul told AFP news agency that 22 people had been killed in the strike - 19 of them women and children - and several more wounded. He said the information had come from police and other officials investigating the incident in the remote area of Nangarhar province.

A man at a hospital in Jalalabad told AP news agency that the group was a wedding party on its way to the groom's house."They stopped in a narrow location for rest. The plane came and bombed the area," he said.

However, US military personnel have denied reports that the group were civilians. Coalition media officer Capt Christian Patterson told AFP they had received no reports of civilian casualties. "It was not a wedding party, there were no women or children present," he said.

Meanwhile Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered an investigation into a missile attack by US helicopters on Friday in which 15 people died.

BBC News, 6/7/08

Iraq and US disagree about withdrawal date

Iraq's National Security Advisor Muwafaq al-Rubaie said Tuesday that his country will reject any security pact with the United States unless a specific date for withdrawal of U.S.-led troops is set.

"Our stance in the negotiations with the Americans will be strong. We will not sign any memorandum of understanding without specifying a date for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq,"

Rubaie's new strong remarks also came a day after Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said that his country was seeking a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops as part of its negotiations with the United States on the status of U.S. forces in Iraq beyond 2008.

However, the United States immediately rebuffed Maliki's comments, saying that its talks with Iraq on future U.S.-Iraq relations will not include a date for the U.S. troops to withdraw from the Middle East country. "It is important to understand that these are not talks on a hard date for a withdrawal," White House spokesman Scot Stanzel said.

China View, 9/7/08

US - Czech missile deal against wishes of Czech public

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed Tuesday what she called a "landmark" missile defence deal with the Czech Republic that drew immediate fire from Russia. The accord permits the siting of a tracking radar station on Czech soil as part of an extended US missile shield that Washington says is necessary to ward off potential attacks by so-called "rogue" states such as Iran.

In Prague, protestors from Greenpeace who fear the missile shield will trigger a new arms race, unrolled a massive image of a target across the city's skyline ahead of Rice's arrival. Opinion polls regularly show around two-thirds of Czech opposed to hosting the US radar.

But Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg expected the deal to be ratified by parliament.

AFP, 8/7/08

Cost of British occupation of Iraq up 50%

The cost of Britain's military operations in Iraq rose by half after ministers missed their timetable for withdrawing troops, the Ministry of Defence has said. It had forecast the cost of operations in Iraq during 2007/08 would be £955 million. But in fact the final cost was £1.449 billion, the MoD told the House of Commons Defence Committee.

The admission comes as Gordon Brown prepares to tell MPs that British troop numbers in Iraq are unlikely to fall in the immediate future. Britain has 4,000 troops in southern Iraq, and despite earlier promises to cut that number to 2,500, there has been no significant withdrawal this year.

The MoD admitted that its estimates for spending "were based on earlier assumptions about the draw-down of our forces in southern Iraq," assumptions that were not met.

Daily Telegraph, 7/7/08

Britain must act to stop Iran attack

All the evidence suggests that an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear sites would be a disaster for the greater Middle East, for the world economy and for western security. It would not even benefit Israel, which is adequately protected by its own nuclear deterrent. On the contrary, by creating new links between Sunni and Shia extremism, it would worsen Israel's long-term chances of survival.

Finally, as last week's remarks by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, indicated, an attack is strongly opposed by the US military. They would bear the first brunt of Iranian reprisals, since the US would rightly be held jointly responsible by Iran, and US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are far more open to Iranian-sponsored attack than is Israel itself.

The British government can stop this nonsense. All that it needs to do is make clear to the US administration, initially in private but in public if necessary, that the consequence of an attack would be complete British military withdrawal, not only from Iraq but from Afghanistan as well.

Financial Times, 7/7/08

Iraq asks for withdrawal timetable

Iraq said for the first time today that it wanted to set a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from its territory.

US President George Bush has long resisted any set schedule for pulling his 145,000 soldiers out of Iraq, arguing that it would play into the hands of insurgents. But an emboldened Nouri al-Maliki, the Shia prime minister who last week boasted he had crushed terrorism in Iraq, suggested it was time to start setting timelines.

He rejected efforts by Mr Bush to hurry through an agreement on vital issues such as the immunity of US troops in Iraq and use of the country's airspace. Mr Bush had hoped to sign a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) by the end of July to establish the basis for a long-term presence of US troops in the country.

But the Iraqi parliament has bridled at pushing through such a binding deal with the outgoing and deeply unpopular Bush administration, saying that the negotiations have been secretive and could undermine Iraq's sovereignty. "The negotiations are continuing with the American side," Mr al-Maliki said, reflecting the desire of many MPs to wait until a new administration is in the White House, and Iraq's provincial elections are over, before making any deal.

The agreement would govern such key issues as immunity for US troops from prosecution, the use of Iraqi air space and which side takes operational control for military missions against insurgents.

Timesonline 7/6/08

154,000 veterans homeless in US

Last week, housing authorities from Boston to Northampton began issuing 245 rental assistance vouchers to chronically homeless veterans. The vouchers are part of a $72.3 million federal spending plan to give housing subsidies to 10,000 homeless vets nationwide through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a spokeswoman said.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that there are 154,000 homeless veterans nationwide. Although Vietnam-era soldiers make up the majority of the homeless veteran population, shelter operators said they are seeing a rise in homelessness among Iraq and Afghanistan war vets.

Steven Como, vice president of Soldier On, which runs veterans shelters in Northampton and Pittsfield, said the traumatic brain injuries and the post-traumatic stress disorder experienced by many young soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan is contributing to the rapid slide into homelessness.

Unemployment among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans is also three times the national average, said Vincent Perrone, president of Massachusetts Veterans Inc.

Boston Herald, 6/7/08

Maliki: Iraq no launch pad for Iran strike

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said he will not allow the country's territory to be used for an attack against Iran. As speculation grows over a possible Israeli military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, the question arises whether Israel will use Iraqi airspace to launch such an attack.

In a recent press conference, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said a possible Israeli strike against Iran was 'not under our control'.

McCormack also declined to answer what he said was a 'hypothetical question involving military planning' when it was noted that Israeli warplanes would have to pass through US-controlled Iraqi airspace to attack Iran.

The Iraqi Prime Minister has taken a strong stance against the use of Iraq as a base for an attack against Iran. In a closed-circuit video conference with US President George W. Bush on Friday, Maliki stressed that he would not permit the country's soil, airspace, or waters to be used in an attack on Iran.

PressTV, Iran, 5/7/08

Afghan war continues to escalate

The situation on the ground in Afghanistan continues to escalate. The U.S. military said Friday that airstrikes by its attack helicopters hit two vehicles carrying insurgents in eastern Afghanistan. The province's governor said 22 civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed.

This comes one day after the Pentagon decided to extend the tour of 2,200 Marines in Afghanistan after insisting for months the unit would come home on time.

The Pentagon's decision comes as violence in Afghanistan has increased markedly over recent weeks. June was the deadliest month for U.S. troops since the war began in 2001, with 28 combat fatalities.Militants killed more U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in June than in Iraq for the second straight month.

Violence has claimed more than 2,100 lives so far this year. And more than 8,000 people were killed in insurgency-related attacks in Afghanistan last year - the most since the U.S.-led war began.

Kansas City Star, 4/7/08

Obama would increase troops in Afghanistan

Barack Obama will press European NATO partners for more troops for Afghanistan and to ease operational restrictions on those already there if he is elected president, a foreign policy aide said Thursday.

"Senator Obama has been very clear that he believes that our NATO partners can and should contribute some additional forces," said Obama's foreign policy advisor Susan Rice. The Illinois senator also believes that NATO members should remove operational curbs which prevent some of their forces from operating in the hottest combat zones in Afghanistan, Rice said.

Rice also said that Obama's plans to begin withdrawals of US troops from combat operations in Iraq would permit the United States to send more soldiers to Afghanistan, and could prompt action from European partners.

AFP, 3/7/08

Election law aims to marginalise al-Sadr

The Iraqi government on Thursday ordered that campaign materials in upcoming provincial elections can only feature pictures of candidates, in an apparent attempt to keep followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr from using his image to court voters.

Shiite politicians flooded the country with posters of the country's main Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and others during elections in 2005, capitalizing on their prestige to win power.

Pictures of al-Sadr, who comes from one of Iraq's most esteemed Shiite families, line the streets of places like Baghdad's Sadr City. The powerful cleric has built a large following among disgruntled Shiites in Baghdad and southern Iraq who haven't benefited from the rise of a Shiite-led government in the country.

Al-Sadr's followers hope to use the elections to loosen the grip on power that their Shiite rivals have enjoyed since the 2005 elections, which the Sadrists boycotted.The Sadrists now believe the 2005 boycott was a major political blunder, enabling Shiite parties that have cooperated with the Americans to wield power in the oil-rich Shiite heartland.

The vote is scheduled to be held by October, but there is considerable uncertainty whether it will happen on time because parliament has not approved a new law providing for the elections.

Prescott Herald, Arizona, 3/7/08