These are the archives for the week ending 16th September 2005
Hundreds detained in Tal Afar
A masked teenager in an Iraqi army uniform walked slowly through a crowd of 400 detainees captured Monday, studying each face and rendering his verdict with a simple hand gesture, like a Roman emperor deciding the fate of gladiators. A thumb pointed down meant the suspect was not thought to be an insurgent and would be released by U.S. soldiers. A thumb pointed up meant a man would be removed from the concertina wire-encased pen, handcuffed with tape or plastic ties and taken by truck to a military base to be interrogated.
Capt. Noah Hanners, leader of one US Platoon, said the quality of the informants has varied widely. "Some seem to say what they think you want to hear," he said. "Others give us information that pans out."
Another soldier, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he said he would be punished by commanders for his criticism, had a more negative view of the sources' performance. "We almost never get anything good from them," he said. "I think they just pick people from another tribe or people who owe them money or something."
Washington Post, 13/9/05
Police criticise arms fair
One of the world's biggest arms fairs opens in London tomorrow amid strong opposition from Scotland Yard and human rights campaigners.
The biennial Defence Systems and Equipment International in Docklands has provoked an angry response from senior officers concerned about the resources needed to police the event at a time when they are under pressure from the threat of terrorist attacks.
Campaigners are angry that countries whose human rights records have been criticised by British ministers, including China, have been invited. China is subject to a European Union arms embargo.
Steve House, an assistant commissioner responsible for security at the arms fair, said taxpayers should not have to foot the bill. "It is denuding London of policing at a time of unprecedented demand" he said. "The defence industry makes huge profits. I think we should be getting some money from the people exhibiting inside the centre. At the moment the taxpayers are having to pay. I don't think it looks right or is right".
The previous arms fair, two years ago, cost more than £4m in a police operation involving about 4,000 officers.
Guardian 12/9/05
Internment fuels resistance
The U.S.-led dragnet for insurgents catches the harmless much more often than the dangerous, according to military figures, helping breed resentment among Iraqis who often languish in prison for months before the system sets them free. Nearly 75 percent of all detainees arrested are freed because there is not enough evidence that they pose a threat, the Army says.
Many --- about half --- are freed within days of their arrests by the units or divisions that captured them. But thousands of others are sent to prisons, like the notorious Abu Ghraib facility near Baghdad, where they wait an average of six months before their release, according to 1st Lt. Kristy Miller, spokeswoman for the military's detention system in Iraq.
From the launch of the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 through early last month, 42,228 Iraqi detainees had been sent into the system, and most had been released. As of Friday, there were 12,184 in detention.
U.S. officials assert that Iraq is the main front in the fight against terrorism. But the wide sweep for suspects in Iraq --- carried out with what critics say is faulty intelligence and ignorance about local culture --- helps produces anti-American rage and political controversy.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11/9/05
Afghan opium thriving
The home secretary, Charles Clarke, admitted yesterday that Britain and the EU faced "a difficult and complicated struggle" in containing Afghanistan's opium economy.
Britain promised this week to put a further £46m into efforts to develop alternative livelihood for Afghan opium farmers. Afghanistan produces 95% of the heroin used in Britain, and Tony Blair agreed to lead the international effort to curb production.
The extra funds announced yesterday will mean that Britain will spend £270m on the effort to curb opium production. Half the money will be spent on law enforcement, including the use of British troops to help curb smuggling, but the thrust of the strategy has been to try to develop alternative livelihoods for opium farmers.
Guardian 10/9/05
Mercenaries 'run loose' in Iraq
Private security companies pervade Iraq's dusty highways, their distinctive sport-utility vehicles packed with men waving rifles to clear traffic in their path. Theirs are among the most dangerous jobs in the country: escorting convoys, guarding dignitaries and protecting infrastructure from insurgent attacks. But their activities have drawn scrutiny both here and in Washington after allegations of indiscriminate shootings and other recklessness have given rise to charges of inadequate oversight.
"These guys run loose in this country and do stupid stuff. There's no authority over them, so you can't come down on them hard when they escalate force," said Brig. Gen. Karl R. Horst, deputy commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, which is responsible for security in and around Baghdad. "They shoot people, and someone else has to deal with the aftermath. It happens all over the place."
Employees of private security firms are immune from prosecution in Iraq, under an order adopted into law last year by Iraq's interim government. The most severe punishment that can be applied to them is revocation of their license and dismissal from their job, U.S. officials said. Their heavy presence stems in large part from the Pentagon's attempts to keep troop numbers down by privatizing jobs that would once have been performed by American forces.
Washington Post, 10/9/05
Iraq rebuilding under threat
Key rebuilding projects in Iraq are grinding to a halt because American money is running out and security has diverted funds intended for electricity, water and sanitation.
Plans to overhaul the country's infrastructure have been downsized, postponed or abandoned because the $24bn (£31bn) budget approved by Congress has been dwarfed by the scale of the task.
"We have scaled back our projects in many areas", James Jeffrey, a senior state department adviser on Iraq, said. "We do not have the money".
Water and sanitation have been particularly badly hit. According to a report published this week by Government Accountability Office, the investigative branch of Congress, $2.6bn has been spent on water projects, half the original budget, after the rest was diverted to security and other uses.
A quarter of the $200m-worth of completed US-funded water projects handed over the Iraqi authorities no longer worked properly because of "looting, unreliable electricity or inadequate Iraqi staff and supplies" the report found.
Guardian 9/9/05
Blair backs nuclear cooperation with India
Tony Blair has endorsed George Bush's decision to extend nuclear technology cooperation with India in order to help it meet its growing energy needs.
In July the White House was criticised for agreeing to sell nuclear components to India as part of Washington's global partnership initiative to extend its reach in Asia. But India is not a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and the five acknowledge military nuclear powers are obliged to restrict any help they give for civil nuclear programmes in such countries.
Mr Bush was accused of giving de facto recognition to India as the world's sixth such power."
Guardian 9/9/05
Hunger strikers pledge to die
More than 200 detainees in Guantanamo Bay are in their fifth week of a hunger strike.
Statements from prisoners in the camp which were declassified by the US government on Wednesday reveal that the men are starving themselves in protest at the conditions in the camp and at their alleged maltreatment - including desecration of the Qur'an - by American guards.
Mr Stafford Smith, who represents 40 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, eight of whom are British residents, said many men had been starving themselves for more than four weeks and the situation was desperate.
In another declassified statement, Omar Degayes, from Brighton, said: "In July, some people took no water for many days. I was part of the strike and I am again this time. Some people were taken to hospital, and put on drip feeds, but they pulled the needles out, as they preferred to die."
Guardian, 9/9/05
Tal Afar residents send out SOS
Residents of the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar has sent out an SOS to the international community to interfere with the US occupation authorities to stop their continuing bombing of their devastated city, revealing a terrible humanitarian situation.
"US and Iraqi forces are still besieging Tal Afar amid ongoing intensive bombing, ordering residents of Hassan Kawi and Sarray neighborhoods to evacuate immediately," a Tal Afar tribal leader told IOL over the phone Thursday, September 8. "The Americans are seemingly bombing the city with chemical weapons," he said, adding Tal Afar residents are speaking of suffocations and other health problems upon exposure to any hit area.
Residents told IOL over the phone that they saw an ambulance driver trying to evacuate 10 corpses on a Hassan Kawi street. When he tried to move them to the morgue, US forces refused and ordered him to speed away. US and Iraqi troops have been besieging the city since Saturday, September 3, and were reportedly gearing up for a large-scale offensive.
Islam Online, 9/9/05
British security firm closes airport
The Iraqi government ordered its troops to reopen Baghdad airport yesterday after a British security company charged with protecting it, closed it, claiming it had not been paid for seven months. Iraqi government officials reacted furiously to the action by the Global Strategies Group, saying it was an attack on Iraq's sovereignty.
American soldiers joined security men from Global at the first checkpoint at the entrance to the airport and were blocking Interior Ministry troops, who had been sent to reopen the facility. The Iraqi soldiers eventually withdrew late yesterday. The US Army, which has its headquarters at the airport, rejected Iraqi Transport Ministry plans to protect the airport, saying it needed to work with people it knew.
The action by the British company may bring to a head growing hostility between the Iraqi government and foreign security firms employing 20,000 men in the country. Some are paid £750 a day. US officials say security eats up 22 per cent of reconstruction contracts.
Independent, 10/9/05
UN raises alarm on death squads
The United Nations raised the alarm on Thursday about mounting violence in Iraq blamed on pro-government militias and urged the authorities to look into reports of systematic torture in police stations. In a bi-monthly human rights report, released on a day when 14 more victims of "extrajudicial executions" were found near Baghdad, the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq also said "mass arrests" by U.S. and Iraqi forces, and long detentions without charge, could damage support for the new political system.
"Corpses appear regularly in and around Baghdad and other areas. Most bear signs of torture and appear to be victims of extrajudicial executions," it said, noting incidents reported after arrests by "forces linked to the Ministry of Interior".
Reuters, 8/9/05