These are the archives for the week ending 14th December 07
From fascist Saddam to fascist militias
Acting Liberal Democrat leader Vincent Cable has said the "real disaster" for Prime Minister Gordon Brown is the "continuing tragedy" in Iraq. Mr Cable told MPs 40 women had been executed for "personal immorality".
He asked if 173 UK troops had died to shift power from "the fascist regime of Saddam Hussein to the terror of the fascist militias" on Basra's streets.
Mr Brown hailed progress in Iraq, saying it had democratic government and violence was down 90% in recent months.
BBC News, 12/12/07
Halliburton-KBR cover up rape
A Texas woman who claims she was raped by male colleagues working for Halliburton-KBR in Iraq is suing after the US government failed to bring charges.
Jamie Leigh Jones, 22, alleged she was attacked by several men inside Baghdad's Green Zone two years ago and then held in a shipping container for 24 hours. Her captors then threatened her if she sought medical treatment abroad.
She said she persuaded a guard to lend her a mobile phone, which she used to call her father in Texas. He then alerted their Congressman, Ted Poe, who contacted the State Department, which sent agents to rescue Miss Jones.
According to the alleged victim and her lawyer, the US authorities took no further interest in her case. It is not clear if the case has been investigated, they claimed.
Her alleged assailants may well be beneficiaries of a loophole that has in effect left American contractors in Iraq beyond US law. Created in part to prevent prosecutions by the Iraqi authorities, it has meant that armed contractors have never faced legal action for several instances of shooting dead Iraqi civilians.
Daily Telegraph, 12/12/07
Iran report 'counter-productive'for US and allies
Britain and France, President Bush's chief European allies, fear that last week's US intelligence report stating that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons programme will be "counter-productive" in securing tighter UN sanctions against the Tehran regime.
A draft Security Council resolution being discussed yesterday by officials from the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany would extend punitive measures - including travel bans and the seizure of assets - to the 15,000-strong Quds force, as well as dozens of named individuals.
The Times, 12/12/07
A tactical lull in Iraq
U.S. commentators generally are making the same mistake that they have made since the invasion of Iraq was first contemplated five years ago. They look at Iraq in over-simple terms and exaggerate the extent to which the U.S. is making the political weather and is in control of events there.
The U.S. is the most powerful single force in Iraq but by no means the only one. The shape of Iraqi politics has changed over the past year, though for reasons that have little to do with "the surge" in the 30,000 U.S. troop reinforcements -- and much to do with the battle for supremacy between the Sunni and Shiite Muslim communities.
The Sunni Arabs of Iraq turned against al-Qaida partly because it tried to monopolize power but primarily because it brought their community close to catastrophe. The Sunni war against U.S. occupation had gone surprisingly well for them since it began in 2003. It was a second war, the one against the Shiite majority led by al-Qaida, which the Sunni were losing, with disastrous results for themselves. "The Sunni people now think they cannot fight two wars -- against the occupation and the government -- at the same time," a Sunni friend in Baghdad told me last week. "We must be more realistic and accept the occupation for the moment."
This is why much of the non-al-Qaida Sunni insurgency has effectively changed sides. An important reason why al-Qaida has lost ground so swiftly is a split within its own ranks. The U.S. military -- the State Department has been very much marginalized in decision-making in Baghdad -- does not want to emphasize that many of the Sunni fighters now on the U.S. payroll, who are misleadingly called "concerned citizens," until recently belonged to al-Qaida and have the blood of a great many Iraqi civilians and U.S. soldiers on their hands.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 11/12/07
Most Americans still see war as mistake
A recent poll shows that most US citizens remain convinced the invasion of Iraq was a mistake and the war will be judged a failure.
The poll released Monday also indicted that 50 percent said this year's troop increase has not stabilized Iraq while 47 percent said it had. Fifty eight percent of the respondents said the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a mistake compared to 38 percent who thought otherwise.
Only 42 percent thought that history would judge the occupation of Iraq a success.
Press TV, 11/12/07
War! What is it good for? It's good for profits
DynCorp International Inc. has won a $49 million contract to build an army garrison in Afghanistan.
The Falls Church-based government contractor will construct 50 buildings including dormitories, dining facilities, training rooms, offices and maintenance and security structures on 160 acres in Jalalabad, near the Pakistani border. The facilities, called the Afghan National Army Garrison, will accommodate up to 4,000 Afghan troops.
Not including the garrison contract, DynCorp has about 2,500 employees in Afghanistan training police, attempting to eradicate opium poppy and carrying out other projects.
DynCorp announced the Afghanistan contract a week after it said it was awarded an Army contract worth as much as $4.6 billion for translation services in Iraq.
Washington Business Journal, 10/12/07
Justice and Accountability law a death warrant for Baathists
Hardline Baathists, the remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime, prefer to remain in the shadows in Baghdad's Sunni neighbourhoods, fearing that a new law to bring them back into public life will instead serve as their death warrants.
Without work, isolated and believing themselves to be targets of the Shiite-dominated government, the Sunni former elite have no faith in the new Justice and Accountability Law now before the parliament.
"Once I return to duty I become a known face and an easy target for militias," said Abu Ali, 54, giving a fictitious name.
"Or somebody can file a false case against me and send me to jail. There is no justice in this Justice and Accountability Law," the former communication expert said.
AFP, 9/12/07
Iraq calmer, but more divided
The U.S. troop buildup in Iraq was meant to freeze the country's civil war so political leaders could rebuild their fractured nation.
Ten months later, the country's bloodshed has dropped, but the military strategy has failed to reverse Iraq's disintegration into areas dominated by militias, tribes and parties, with a weak central government struggling to assert its influence.
In the south, Shiite Muslim militias are at war over the lucrative oil resources in the Basra region. To the west, in Anbar province, Sunni Arab tribes that once fought U.S. forces now help police the streets and control the highways to Jordan and Syria. In the north, Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens are locked in a battle for the regions around Kirkuk and Mosul. In Baghdad, blast walls partition neighborhoods policed by Sunni paramilitary groups and Shiite militias.
"Iraq is moving in the direction of a failed state, a highly decentralized situation -- totally unplanned, of course -- with competing centers of power run by warlords and militias," said Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group. "The central government has no political control whatsoever beyond Baghdad, maybe not even beyond the Green Zone."
Los Angeles Times, 10/12/07
Huge US arms deal for Gulf States
The Pentagon said Friday it has notified Congress of possible arms sales worth more than 10 billion dollars to oil-rich Gulf states and Saudi Arabia to beef up their missile and air defenses against Iran.
By far the biggest sale would be to the United Arab Emirates -- a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile defense system worth as much as nine billion dollars if all options are exercised, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DCSA) said.
The proposed sales, disclosed in notifications to Congress posted on the agency's website, come as US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is in Bahrain to press for a regional "air and missile defense umbrella" against Iran.
Middle East Online, 8/12/07
Iraq parliament suspended
Iraqi legislators suspended parliamentary sessions Thursday until Dec. 30 because of Muslim religious holidays, ending efforts to pass U.S.-backed legislation aimed at achieving national reconciliation this year.
The Sunni speaker of parliament announced the decision after days of debate over a draft bill that would allow thousands of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party to return to government jobs. The measure is among the 18 benchmarks set by the United States to encourage reconciliation.
The suspension was the latest setback to efforts by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's Shiite-dominated government to bring minority Sunnis into the political process. The 275-member parliament came under criticism over the summer for taking August off despite the lack of progress on passing the legislation, including a law aimed at ensuring equitable distribution of Iraq's oil riches.
Los Angeles Times, 7/12/07
Basra police rely on US support...
The police chief of Iraq's southern Basra province acknowledged Thursday that his forces lack the means to maintain the security in the region after a British troop withdrawal later this month.
So far, in tough situations, Gen. Jalil Khalaf said Iraqi police have had to rely on calling in "support from Baghdad" or the U.S.-led coalition.
St Louis Post-Dispatch, 7/12/07
...as British abandon women to militias...
In the past five months more than 40 women have been murdered and their bodies dumped in the street by militiamen, according to the Basra police chief. Major-General Abdul-Jalil Khalaf said that some of them had been killed alone, others gunned down with their children. One unveiled mother was murdered together with her children aged 6 and 11.
The British Army will formally hand Basra over to Iraqi control in less than two weeks, claiming that it had done all it could to stabilise the southern port city during four years in charge. Yet as a tentative stability returns to Baghdad, where even alcohol shops are starting to reopen, Britain appears to be leaving Basra ever more firmly in the hands of lawless gangs and strict morality police.
The Times, 8/12/07
...and Brown praises a job well done
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced that the Iraqi province of Basra is to be handed over to Iraqi control within two weeks.
Mr Brown flew into Basra city on Sunday for a surprise visit to British troops. Mr Brown told the troops:
"I have just talked to Prime Minister Maliki and he asked me to pass on his thanks to you for what you have done to help rebuild the democracy of Iraq."
"It's because of all the operations we have done over the past few months that the security situation has not only improved, but he is now recommending we move to provincial Iraqi control within two weeks."
BBC News, 9/12/07
UK to continue to use cluster bombs
The British government has denied it is planning to scrap a controversial cluster bomb after coming under intense criticism from anti-arms groups. Campaigners say UK defence ministry officials told them in November that they were planning to drop their defence of the M85 after being attacked for seeking exemption from a possible ban on its use.
But ahead of a conference in Vienna this week aimed at hammering out a ban on cluster bombs, a ministry spokesperson told Al Jazeera there was no change in policy. The spokesperson said instead that the possibility of banning the M85 was not even on the table at Vienna because a self-destruct mechanism provides "the relevant technology to prevent unnecessary harm".
Like other cluster munitions, the M85 disperses dozens of smaller bomblets - or submunitions - making it potentially deadly if used in civilian areas.
Britain last purchased the M85 indirectly from Israel in 2002, and more than 100,000 were used by the UK in 2003 in Iraq.
According to Landmine Action, the weapon's self-destruct mechanism is not effective, leaving thousands of submunitions that cause "indiscriminate harm" to civilians in the areas they are used.
Al Jazeera, 7/12/07
Israeli unilateral strike still an option
Senior Israeli officials warned that they were still considering a military strike against Iran, despite a fresh US intelligence report that concluded Tehran was no longer developing nuclear weapons.
Although Israel says it wants strong diplomatic pressure put on Iran, it is reluctant to rule out the threat of a unilateral attack.
Some have suggested that with Israel feeling isolated by its hardline stance on Iran it might be more inclined to launch a unilateral military strike and a comparison is frequently drawn to Israel's 1981 bombing of Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor.
However, it is widely assumed that Israel would need US approval, if not cooperation, for a bombing mission. In particular, its air force would need the US flight codes that would allow its planes to cross into Iran.
When Israel requested those codes in 1991 to attack Iraq during the first Gulf war, the United States refused and there was no Israeli strike.
Yet Israel, the only nuclear power in the region, is not shy of acting alone and has been heartened by the lack of censure over its bombing raid in northen Syria in September, which may or may not have targeted a Syrian nuclear installation.
Guardian 8/12/07
US and Iraq at odds over militias
The Baghdad neighborhood of Saidiyah is becoming the focal point of a growing battle between the U.S. military and the U.S.-backed Iraqi government over the burgeoning number of U.S.-financed armed groups known as "concerned local citizens."
U.S. officers in the neighborhood said that the Shiite Muslim-led government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki is undermining American efforts to bolster the volunteers, who are predominantly Sunni Muslims.
At the same time, U.S. soldiers acknowledged that some of the volunteers could be sympathizers of al Qaida in Iraq and other anti-government organizations.
Saidiyah, in southwest Baghdad, remains a battle zone between Sunni and Shiite forces in a capital where sectarian cleansing has turned most formerly mixed neighborhoods into either Sunni or Shiite enclaves.
McClatchy Newspapers, 7/12/07
Official: Iraq too dangerous for refugees to return
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday that security conditions in Iraq are still not good enough for massive return of refugees.
"Currently, the U.N. refugee agency is not promoting returns to Iraq. Many areas are still considered unsafe and conditions are not conducive for return," UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler told journalists in Geneva.
"There is a general lack of access to material, legal and physical safety and proper services," Spindler said.
There are more than 2.4 million Iraqis displaced inside their own country, while above 2.2 million have become refugees in other countries, particularly Syria and Jordan, the UNHCR said.
China View, 8/12/07
Poor controls on Iraq funding
A Pentagon audit of a $5.2 billion fund used to train and equip Iraqi security forces found that United States commanders used sloppy accounting and could not always show that equipment, services and construction were delivered properly, according to a report released Thursday.
The inspector general audited equipment purchases valued at nearly $1.1 billion for armored vehicles, weapons, ammunition and other items, from two sets of supply sources. Of $643.1 million in purchases from one set of suppliers, the inspector general was able to follow a paper trail for 12.9 percent of the total, or $82.9 million. Of $438.2 million from the second set, an audit trail was available for only 1 percent.
New York Times, 6/12/07
Israeli minister fears arrest in UK
Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter has cancelled a trip to Britain over concerns he could be arrested on war crimes allegations, his spokesman said on Thursday.
He cancelled the trip on the recommendation of the foreign ministry, which said it was possible that a leftist organisation could file a complaint against him that could lead to an arrest warrant, the Haaretz daily reported.
As head of Israel's Shin Beth internal intelligence agency, Dichter was involved in the 2002 Israeli attack in Gaza in which an Israeli warplane dropped a one-tonne bomb on the house of the head of Hamas's military wing, Salah Shehade, killing him, his bodyguard and 15 civilians, many of them children.
Britain allows legal investigations against foreign nationals provided that the defendant's own country is unwilling or unable to handle such complaints.
In May 2006 the Israeli army scrapped plans to send one of its generals to a course at a British military academy over fears he could be arrested on war crimes allegations.
In September 2005, a retired Israeli general, Doron Almog, refused to leave a plane at London's Heathrow airport after learning a warrant had been issued for his arrest over his time commanding troops in the Gaza Strip.
AFP, 6/12/07