These are the archives for the week ending 13th January 2006
Sanctions likely against Iran
Britain, France and Germany tonight took the first step towards seeking international sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear fuel programme.
Following crisis talks with his counterparts in Berlin, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said that they had agreed to request an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board with a view to referring Tehran to the UN Security Council.
The move follows the announcement earlier this week that the Iranians were to resume work at the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, in breach of earlier assurances. Although the Iranians insist that they only intend to carry out research at Natanz, the Europeans and the United States fear Tehran is using its civil power programme as a cover for developing a nuclear bomb.
The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said impatience with Iran was growing and that Tehran was out of step with advances in democracy in the region.
Times online 12/6/05
US warns travellers to Afghanistan
The Department of State strongly warns U.S. citizens against travel to Afghanistan. There is an ongoing threat to kidnap and assassinate U.S. citizens and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) workers throughout the country. The ability of Afghan authorities to maintain order and ensure the security of citizens and visitors is limited, the statement issued by the US State Department said.
PakTribune.com, Pakistan, 11/1/06
British brigadier accuses US army of institutional racism
A senior British officer has written a scathing critique of the U.S. Army and its performance in Iraq, accusing it of cultural ignorance, moralistic self-righteousness, unproductive micromanagement and unwarranted optimism there. His publisher: the U.S. Army.
In an article published this week in the Army magazine Military Review, British Brig. Nigel Aylwin-Foster, who was deputy commander of a program to train the Iraqi military, said American officers in Iraq displayed such "cultural insensitivity" that it "arguably amounted to institutional racism" and may have spurred the growth of the insurgency.
"I think he's an insufferable British snob," said Col. Kevin Benson, commander of the Army's elite School of Advanced Military Studies.
Washington Post, 11/1/06
Greeks deny kidnapping Pakistanis for British
Greece denied on Wednesday that it illegally kidnapped and questioned 28 Pakistanis following the London suicide bombings last July, saying any arrests and interrogations made at the time were legal. Holding up two confidential documents sent by MI6, which asked Greece to investigate phone records of possible al Qaeda sympathisers in the country, Voulgarakis said thousands of people were legally questioned.
A group of 28 Pakistanis have filed a lawsuit against Greek and British security services claiming they were kidnapped, tortured and interrogated in secret locations about the bombings and their connections to Britain for up to seven days. Several intelligence officers, including a British agent, were named in a Greek newspaper article two weeks ago as those responsible for the covert operation.
Reuters, 11/1/06
The shrinking coalition
Despite the best efforts of the Bush administration, increasing numbers of countries are removing or reducing their military forces deployed to Iraq. The coalition of the willing seems to be increasingly unwilling. In all, the coalition has declined from a 2003 high of 38 nations and 50,000 troops to 28 nations and about 20,000 soldiers.
The credibility of the coalition as an example of staunch international support for the US invasion of Iraq has always been somewhat suspect, considering its members over time have including small numbers of forces from countries such as Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Tonga, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova and Mongolia, to name a few.
The withdrawals are not that militarily significant as, with the exception of Britain (which is down from an original 40,000 troop commitment to about 8,500), the other countries have not been fighting insurgents; but politically, they are the latest evidence of declining support for the US presence in Iraq. The withdrawals, however, do have operational consequences. They will increase pressure on Iraq to deploy its own military and security forces, probably including many forces that are not yet fully trained or equipped.
Asia Times, 10/1/06
Cost of war escalates
The cost of the Iraq war could top $2 trillion after factoring in long-term health care for wounded U.S. veterans, rebuilding a worn-down military and accounting for other unforeseen bills and economic losses, according to an analysis by Columbia University economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes.
The study predicts the war will last until 2010. It is billed as a detailed analysis not only of the potential costs of sustaining the operation in Iraq, but also the expenses likely to be incurred long after U.S. troops withdraw.
The estimates were based on information compiled by the Pentagon, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Congressional Budget Office.
In 2002, the White House predicted the war would cost $100 billion to $200 billion.
Detriot Free Press 10/1/06
General calls for impeachment of Blair
General Sir Michael Rose, formerly one of the top officers of the British Army and commander of United Nations forces in Bosnia, says the Prime Minister should be impeached over Iraq. In a radio 4 interview he said:
"I think he should be held to account for what he did, as from a soldier's perspective there can't be any more serious decision taken by a Prime Minister than declaring war. And then to go to war on what turns out to be false grounds, is something that no one should be allowed to walk away from"
"....The consequences of that war have been quite disastrous, both for people of Iraq and also for the West in terms of our wider interest in the war against global terror"
".....I would not have been prepared to led the army into a war which I felt was wrong and on such weak grounds. You cannot put people in harms way if you don't believe the cause is right or sufficient."
"....For the first time in my experience there has been a wide debate within the armed forces about the rights and wrongs of this war, and indeed a good deal of criticism as well"
Extracts from interview with General Rose on BBC radio 4 Today programme 5/1/06
US troops fire on journalist
US troops in Baghdad blasted their way into the home of an Iraq journalist working for the Guardian and Channel 4 and fired bullets into the room in which he was sleeping with his wire and children. Dr Ali Fadhil was hooded and taken for questioning before being freed hours later.
He is working on an investigation for Channel 4's Dispatches programme. It concerns claims that tens of millions of dollars of Iraqi funds held by the Americans and British have been misused or misappropriated.
The troops seized video tapes Dr Fadhil had shot for the programme. These have not been returned.
Guardian 9/1/06
Shias attack US for appeasing resistance
US forces have suffered one of the highest daily casualty rates at the hands of the Iraq insurgency, with 11 troops killed. Meanwhile yesterday, thousands of Shia Muslims marched in protest through Baghdad, accusing the Americans of hindering the war against insurgents in their attempt to appease the Sunni community.
The Americans are blamed for hampering the counter-insurgency - an accusation which began after the US authorities criticised abuse by Shia-controlled government forces and freed dozens of prisoners who had been mistreated in an Interior Ministry bunker. The Shia demonstrators chanted slogans against the US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Sunni leaders such as Adnan al-Dulaimi and Saleh al-Mutlaq, saying, "No no to Zalmay. No, no to terrorism" and "Yes, yes to the Interior Ministry".
Independent, 7/1/06
Force feeding at Guantanamo
New details have emerged of how the growing number of prisoners on hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay are being tied down and force-fed through tubes pushed down their nasal passages into their stomachs to keep them alive.
They routinely experience bleeding and nausea, according to a sworn statement by the camp's chief doctor. 'Experience teaches us' that such symptoms must be expected 'whenever nasogastric tubes are used,' says the affidavit of Captain John S Edmondson, commander of Guantánamo's hospital. The procedure - now standard practice at Guantánamo - 'requires that a foreign body be inserted into the body and, ideally, remain in it.'
The number of hunger strikers has almost doubled since Christmas, to 81 of the 550 detainees. Many have been held since the camp opened four years ago this month, although they not been charged with any crime, nor been allowed to see any evidence justifying their detention.
Observer, 8/1/06
Land mines menace one in five Iraqi towns
Land mines and other unexploded ordnance threaten one in every five Iraqi communities and will have to be cleaned up before the country can get back on its feet, a U.S.-based group said on Friday. A survey of 10,049 Iraqi communities conducted by the Washington-based Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation found that 2,029 were contaminated by mines and other explosive munitions, the group reported.
Iraq is among the most mine-infested countries in the world following the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, the 1991 Gulf War, the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and decades of internal conflict.
Reuters, 6/1/06
Thirty years for criticising Kurdish president
Reporters Without Borders wrote today to the president of the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq, Massoud Barzani, asking him to intervene in the case of an Austrian citizen of Kurdish origin, Kamal Sayid Qadir, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison on 19 December for libelling him in articles posted on the Internet. "This incident bodes ill for freedom of expression in Iraq's Kurdish region," the press freedom organisation wrote.
A lawyer normally based in Vienna, Qadir, 48, is accused of libelling and insulting Barzani in web articles. He has written dozens of articles for websites such as Kurdishmedia.com and Kurdistanpost.com in which he has been very critical of Barzani's policies.Qadir was arrested on 26 October by members of the Parastin, a security service operated by the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of the region's two ruling parties. He is currently held in a prison in Erbil, one of the region's main cities.
Reporters Without Borders, 5/1/06
US admits bomb hit wrong house
A bomb that killed six civilians Monday near Baiji, Iraq, missed its target by 65 feet (20 meters) and hit the wrong home, military officials said. The strike flattened a family's home, killing six of the family members and wounding three others, said a spokesman for the Salaheddin provincial governor's office. A father and daughter survived with only minor injuries, he said.
The Baiji strike was one of 58 air missions the U.S. military carried out Monday over Iraq.
CNN, 5/1/06