These are the archives for the week ending 16th December 2005
Pentagon in global propaganda drive
The Pentagon is to spend $300m (£170m) planting pro-US messages in media outlets around the world, including those of its allies, without disclosing the US government as their source.
The aim is to sway foreign audiences to support US policies by targeting newspapers, web-sites, radio and television. T-shirts and bumper stickers will also be produced.
An official from the Pentagon's psychological operations unit said it would not always reveal its role in distributing pro-American messages.
Guardian 15/12/05
Memo shows existence of death squad
A document obtained by Knight Ridder appears to reveal the existence of an Interior Ministry death squad. A memo written by an Iraqi general in the ministry operations room and addressed to the minister's office says on its subject line: "Names of detainees." It lists 14 men who were taken from Iskan, a Sunni neighborhood in western Baghdad, during the early morning hours of Aug. 18. It also marks the time of their detention: 5:15 a.m. The bodies of the same 14 men were found in the town of Badrah near the Iranian border in early October.
The general who signed the Interior Ministry memo, Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf, confirmed its authenticity. But despite a heading that reads "Names of the detainees in the Iskan District," Khalaf maintained that insurgents, not Interior Ministry police, had abducted the men. It's unclear, however, why an Interior Ministry general would refer to men who'd been kidnapped by Sunni insurgents as "detainees" in an official government document, or how the general knew the exact time of the abduction.
Pressed for more details, Khalaf said: "The minister is very upset. He wants to know how such a document slipped out of the ministry."
Mississippi Sun Herald, 13/12/05
Secret prisons moved to Africa
CIA prisoners in Europe were apparently abducted and moved between countries illegally, possibly with the aid of national secret services who did not tell their governments, according to the first official report on the so-called "renditions" scandal. Dick Marty, a Swiss senator investigating allegations of secret CIA prisons for the Council of Europe, said that he did not think the US was still holding prisoners in Europe, but had probably moved them to north Africa last month.
The senator acted as British MPs and peers were told by an international lawyer that their government would break the law if it did not investigate allegations that the CIA transferred terrorist suspects via Britain to secret camps where they may have been tortured. "Credible information suggesting that foreign nationals are being transported by officials of another state, via the United Kingdom, to detention facilities for interrogation under torture, would imply a breach of the [UN torture ] convention and must be investigated," James Crawford, professor of international law at Cambridge University, told the all-party parliamentary group on extraordinary rendition.
Guardian, 14/12/05
Badr ready to take up arms
The former military wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq threatened Tuesday to take up arms against former Saddam Hussein loyalists if they make gains in Thursday's legislative elections. The blunt warning by the Badr Organization contradicted earlier remarks by the head of SCIRI, Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, in which he said his group's former militia was ready to help with election security.
"If Baathists regain power, we will take up arms against them just as we did against Saddam Hussein," warned Hadi al-Amiri, head of the Badr, that many say still wields weapons. His comment was aimed at Iyad Allawi, a former member of Saddam's ruling Baath Party who later broke with the movement and plotted a failed CIA-backed coup against the then dictator.
Daily Star, Lebanon, 14/12/05
New Iraq government may take months to form
Iraq will hold landmark parliamentary elections on Thursday, but may not get a functioning government until April, a senior US lawmaker said after attending a White House briefing on the vote. Senator Richard Lugar, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said lawmakers were warned during the briefing that installing an operational government in Iraq may take months.
"The briefers cautioned that given the multiplicity of parties and interests, solidifying a parliamentary government will not be instantaneous. They indicated that under some scenarios, the selection of ministers might not be finalized until April," Lugar said in a statement.
The meeting was attended by President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and top Senate Republicans. Among the briefers Tuesday were US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad and General George Casey, the top US commander in Iraq.
Yahoo News, 13/12/05
Moves towards breakaway in south
ine Iraqi provinces have taken yet another step to consolidate their efforts to establish a semi-independent region, a move many see as the harbinger for the disintegration of the country. On Thursday, security and police leaders in southern Iraq held a meeting in Najaf in which they publicly called for the creation of an autonomous region modeled on the Kurdish self-rule administration in the north.
The security chiefs have agreed to set up a joint deterrent force to fight what they described as a surge in "terrorist" attacks on areas dominated by Muslim Shiites. "I hope this meeting paves the way for the setting up a unified security system that will eventually lead to the holding of further meetings on how to coordinate economic, political and social matters for the creation of fully autonomous region," said Abdulhussein Abtan, Najaf's deputy governor.
Azzaman, 10/12/05
Role of women in Iraq
In some ways, the place of women in Iraq would seem to be improving. The new parliament must be 25 percent female, according to the new constitution; political parties are required to make every third candidate on their list a woman.
But the new constitution is also worrying for many. Approved in an October referendum, the charter assigns a primary role to Islam in the writing of new Iraqi law. Worse, in some eyes, it creates the right for religious sects to run "family courts" empowered to decide such family issues as marriage law, inheritance, and child custody. "We are very wary of this rising influence of religion and policies based on religion," says Nadia Al-Jadir, manager of the national Women Advocacy Program, a Baghdad-based organization that seeks to increase women's participation in all aspects of Iraqi society.
She adds that the quota for women in the national assembly may be a step forward, but not in the cases where political parties simply fill seats with weak women. "Some of them are just like dummies sitting in the parliament," she says.
Christian Science Monitor, 12/12/05
Poll shows Iraqis oppose occupation
Most Iraqis disapprove of the presence of U.S. forces in their country according to a new poll. More than two-thirds of those surveyed oppose the presence of troops from the United States and its coalition partners and less than half, 44 percent, say their country is better off now than it was before the war, according to an ABC News poll.
Yahoo News, 12/12/05
Four more secret prisons
Iraqi officials and surviving prisoners have named four additional prisons run by the Interior Ministry at which prisoners were held incognito and subjected to torture. One of the detention locations was in a basement under the Baratha mosque, which was reclaimed from Sunni control by Shi'ites after the fall of Saddam Hussein. A senior Defense Ministry official said that all prisoners held there had been moved out, to an unknown location, just after the American raid in mid-November on a secret prison in Jadriya.
Sunni political leader Saleh al-Mutlaq said yesterday that yet another prison had been discovered in the Mansour neighborhood of Baghdad, where more than 1,000 had been held.
Washington Times, 11/12/05
Israel readies attack on Iran
Israel's armed forces have been ordered by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, to be ready by the end of March for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran, military sources have revealed. Defence sources in Israel believe the end of March to be the "point of no return" after which Iran will have the technical expertise to enrich uranium in sufficient quantities to build a nuclear warhead in two to four years.
"Israel - and not only Israel - cannot accept a nuclear Iran," Sharon warned recently. "We have the ability to deal with this and we're making all the necessary preparations to be ready for such a situation." A senior White House source said the threat of a nuclear Iran was moving to the top of the international agenda and the issue now was: "What next?" That question would have to be answered in the next few months, he said.
Sunday Times, 11/12/05
Iraqis pray for daytime births
The war in Iraq is forcing fearful choices on expectant mothers. Relatively well-off women are opting for Caesarean delivery to avoid the roads at night. After curfew there's even less assurance than there is during the day that Iraqis, who have been ordered to stay in their homes after 11 p.m., won't be killed by mistake. The roads are rife with checkpoints, insurgents, and jumpy Iraqi and U.S. soldiers.
Dr. Iman Ibrahim, 38, who works at St. Raphael, a private hospital in Karrada in south-central Baghdad, said her pregnant patients are afraid. One in five requests a Caesarean to avoid the roads, and about half ask for labor to be induced during the day. Most women who can't afford Caesareans spend nights in the hospital waiting to give birth, or they induce labor a few days before their due dates. Some wait for the contractions, then call the police. Ambulances stop running at night.
Star-Telegram, Dallas, 10/12/05
Oil production down
Despite President Bush's optimism on Iraq's reconstruction, the country appears set to pump less crude in 2005 than last year's disappointing showing and far less than under Saddam Hussein. The only bright spot for Iraq's oil sector, hampered by unrelenting insurgent attacks on its infrastructure, is that near-record oil prices have softened the blow by boosting export earnings.
"The general integrity of Iraqi oil infrastructure appears to us to be heading backwards rather than forwards," London-based Barclay's Capital said in a report issued Thursday.
North County Times, California, 9/12/05
Pact against occupation and terror
A group of Shiite and Sunni parties has signed a declaration condemning terrorism, urging a timetable for the end of the US military presence, and vowing never to normalise relations with Israel. The parties to the "code of honour" included followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Sunni Iraqi Consensus Front.
The code also declared that resistance is a legitimate right and condemned "terrorism, violence, murder and kidnappings." The code is non-binding but it indicates what parties might choose to work together after the new parliament is elected next week. Officials said al-Sadr was the driving figure behind the yesterday's pact.
Associated Press, 9/12/05
Britain asks Iraq to stall Allawi theft investigation
The British government is trying to stall an investigation into the theft of more than $1.3bn (£740m) from the Iraqi Ministry of Defence, senior Iraqi officials say. The government wants to postpone the investigation to help its favoured candidate Iyad Allawi, the former prime minister, in the election on 15 December. The money disappeared during his administration.
It is possibly one of the largest thefts in history," Ali Allawi, Iraq's Finance Minister, said. "Huge amounts of money have disappeared. In return we got nothing but scraps of metal."
A former senior British adviser was quoted as saying that Tony Blair was convinced Mr Allawi "is the best hope" for Iraq. He added that Mr Blair had sent a small team of operatives to give political help to Mr Allawi. In background briefings, British officials have heavily supported the former prime minister despite evidence that government corruption was rife under his administration.
Independent, 9/12/05