These are the archives for the week ending 19th November 2004
Blood money
Iraq's U.S.-backed interim government declared the Fallujah operation a success and held out the prospect of residents being able to return to the city within days, offering $100 to each family and compensation for damage to homes and businesses. Relief organizations estimated Thursday up to 250,000 Iraqis have fled Fallujah.
Daily Star - Lebanon,19/11/04
Faulty intelligence on Iran
The National Council of Resistance of Iran -- which is on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations -- revealed satellite photographs this week it said showed a hidden nuclear plant in Iran, allegations the Iranians denied. Colin Powell, en route to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Santiago, Chile, told reporters he had seen intelligence that appears to "corroborate" the resistance group's information.
David Kay, who headed President Bush's Iraq Survey Group in its search for weapons of mass destruction, questioned the origins of the information. "This intelligence seems to be based on dissident groups," he continued. "In the case of Iraq, dissident groups fed us misinformation."
CNN, 18/11/04
Privatising Iraqi agriculture
When former Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator L. Paul Bremer III left Baghdad after the so-called "transfer of sovereignty" in June 2004, he left behind the 100 orders he enacted as chief of the occupation authority in Iraq. Among them is Order 81 on "Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety." This order amends Iraq's original patent law of 1970 and unless and until it is revised or repealed by a new Iraqi government, it now has the status and force of a binding law.
For generations, small farmers in Iraq operated in an essentially unregulated, informal seed supply system. Farm-saved seed and the free innovation with and exchange of planting materials among farming communities has long been the basis of agricultural practice. This has been made illegal under the new law. The seeds that farmers are now allowed to plant - "protected" crop varieties brought into Iraq by transnational corporations in the name of agricultural reconstruction - will be the property of the corporations. The new law is presented as being necessary to ensure the supply of good quality seeds in Iraq and to facilitate Iraq's accession to the WTO. What it will actually do is facilitate the penetration of Iraqi agriculture by the likes of Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow Chemical - the corporate giants that control seed trade across the globe.
GRAIN, October 2004
Straw denies civilian deaths
The government has rejected an estimate by U.S. researchers that some 100,000 Iraqi civilians may have died as a result of the war, agreeing with an Iraqi government figure of a much smaller body count. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Wednesday that the estimate, in a report published late last month by the British medical journal The Lancet, was based on imprecise data.
The government supports an estimate from Iraq's Ministry of Health that 3,853 civilians were killed and 15,517 injured between April and October this year, Straw said in a statement. Those figures may include insurgents.
Reuters, 17/11/04
Bush hears history calling
Bush sketched out his foreign policy ambitions for a second term: confronting outlaw regimes and nuclear proliferators and breaking up terror networks. "The United States has undertaken a great calling of history to aid the forces of reform and freedom in the broader Middle East so that that region can grow in hope" he said.
Guardian, 17/11/04
No humanitarian crisis
The Iraqi government insisted last night that there was no humanitarian crisis in Falluja and no civilians had been killed.
Guardian, 17/11/04
Eyewitness account
"They kicked all the journalists out of Fallujah so they could do whatever they want," says Kassem Mohammed Ahmed, who just escaped from Fallujah three days ago, "The first thing they did is they bombed the hospitals because that is where the wounded have to go. Now we see that wounded people are in the street and the soldiers are rolling over them with tanks. This happened so many times. What you see on the TV is nothing - that is just one camera. What you cannot see is so much."
Another man, Abdul Razaq Ismail arrived from Fallujah last week. While distributing supplies to other refugees he says, "There are dead bodies on the ground and nobody can bury them. The Americans are dropping some of the bodies into the Euphrates River near Fallujah. They are pulling the bodies with tanks and leaving them at the soccer stadium."
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches 17/11/04
More prisoners executed
The US pool reporter, who broke to the world the killing of a wounded, unarmed Iraqi prisoner by a marine, further revealed that more prisoners were shot dead though they did not appear threatening in any way. NBC correspondent Kevin Sites was quoted by the Associated Press Wednesday, November 17, as saying that US Marines killed three more unarmed and wounded Iraqi prisoners in a Fallujah mosque Saturday, November 12.
Islam Online, 17/11/04
Call up resisted
The Army has encountered resistance from more than 2,000 former soldiers it has ordered back to military work, complicating its efforts to fill gaps in the regular troops. Many of these former soldiers - some of whom say they have not trained, held a gun, worn a uniform or even gone for a jog in years - object to being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan now, after they thought they were through with life on active duty.
They are seeking exemptions, filing court cases or simply failing to report for duty, moves that will be watched closely by approximately 110,000 other members of the Individual Ready Reserve, a corps of soldiers who are no longer on active duty but still are eligible for call-up. In the last few months, the Army has sent notices to more than 4,000 former soldiers informing them that they must return to active duty, but more than 1,800 of them have already requested exemptions or delays, many of which are still being considered.
And, of about 2,500 who were due to arrive on military bases for refresher training by Nov. 7, 733 had not shown up.
New York Times, 16/11/04
Mosul under seige
The American military raced Tuesday to contain a spreading insurgency, sending hundreds of soldiers and armored vehicles into the streets of Mosul to root out bands of rebels who commandeered parts of the city last week as the Americans were battling their way through Falluja. American and Iraqi troops sealed off the five bridges spanning the Tigris River and began blocking off western neighborhoods largely inhabited by Sunni Arabs.
The provincial government imposed a curfew, and the main avenues appeared deserted for much of the day, witnesses said. The loudest noises came from mortar shells exploding near the American forces and helicopters buzzing above rooftops and rows of palm trees.
Thousands of Kurdish militiamen have entered Mosul at the request of the provincial governor, a move that could increase ethnic tensions in the diverse city, which has large numbers of Kurds, Christians and Sunni Arabs.
New York Times, 17/11/04
Aid convoy turned back
An aid convoy has been forced to turn back from the beleaguered city of Falluja as more evidence emerged of a mounting humanitarian crisis on the eighth day of a US offensive to crush resistance forces. The convoy from Iraq's Red Crescent withdrew from a hospital on the edge of Falluja on Monday after failing to get permission to deliver supplies to residents inside the city, a spokeswoman said. The trucks laden with food, water and medical supplies will travel instead to villages around Falluja where tens of thousands of people have set up camp after fleeing the massive week-old offensive spearheaded by US marines, said Firdus al-Ubadi.
The International Red Cross said it was striving to gain access. "The IRC is making contacts with all the parties involved, the multinational forces, the Iraqi forces and all other parties in order to remind them of their international obligations as stated by the international humanitarian law," said the IRC's Rana Saidany. These obligations include the need for treating the wounded, evacuating them from the battle zone along with facilitating the tasks of medical teams and securing the safety of the civilian population.
Saidany added: "It is unacceptable in the 21st century to abandon the wounded stranded on the streets and bleeding to death while preventing medical teams from treating them."
Aljazeera 16/11/04
US arrest opposition politician
U.S. forces arrested a senior member of an influential Sunni political party Tuesday after a dawn raid on his Baghdad home, party officials said. Naseer Ayaef, a high-ranking member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, was taken into custody in the northwestern Jamiah neighborhood in retaliation for the party's opposition to the U.S.-led offensive on the rebel city of Fallujah, party official Ayad al-Samarrai told The Associated Press.
''This action is a kind of punishment to the (Iraqi) Islamic Party because we object to what is happening in Iraq, especially Fallujah and to the security policies adopted by the Americans and the Iraqi government,'' al-Samarrai said.
Boston Globe, 16/11/04
The price of 'success'
Everyone saw it coming, only the US forces did not: humanitarian disaster in Fallujah, and stronger resistance against US and allied occupying forces all around Iraq. The real face of the "success" of the US military assault in Fallujah is now beginning to present itself. Thousands of families remain trapped inside Fallujah with no food, clean water or medical assistance.
No one can say how many of the 1,200 "rebels" US forces claim to have killed inside Fallujah are civilians, or whether the death toll is higher. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society, which is supported by the Red Cross and the United Nations Children's Fund has called the situation in Fallujah a "big disaster".
Asia Times, 16/11/04
Oil pipeline attacked
Saboteurs blew up an oil pipeline Monday, shutting down Iraqi oil exports from the north, and set fire to a storage and pumping station in northern Iraq, offficials said. The pipeline, which connects the Kirkuk oil field with the Turkish port of Ceyhan, was hit Monday morning in the Safra area, 37 miles southwest of Kirkuk, said an official in the Northern Oil Company under condition of anonymity.
Oil exports to Turkey, the outlet for Iraq's northern fields, was halted due to the blast, he said. It will take at least a week to repair the damage, he said.
Seattle Post Intelligencer, 15/11/04
Rebel counteroffensive
A rebel counteroffensive swept through central and northern Iraq on Monday as American troops struggled to flush the remaining insurgents from the rubble-strewn streets of Falluja. Guerrillas in Baquba, Mosul, Kirkuk and Suwaira stormed police stations, set oil wells ablaze and struck at American military convoys with suicide car bombs, routing Iraqi security forces in several coordinated assaults and severely damaging parts of the country's petroleum-based economic lifeline.
New York Times, 15/11/04
Iraqi press warned on Falluja
Baghdad warned journalists last week to endorse the position that the Falluja operation has been an overwhelming success or face legal action. Reporters were "not to promote unrealistic positions or project nationalist tags on terrorist gangs of criminals and killers" the Iraqi Government said.
Guardian 15/11/04
Iran freezes uranium operations
Iran announced last night that it was freezing all operations connected with uranium enrichment in a diplomatic victory for the European Union and a move that should spare Tehran being sent to the UN security council. If the Iranians had not frozen their uranium activities by November 25, the EU troika would have backed Washington in seeking to take the crisis to the security council in New York, a move that could have entailed sanctions.
As a result of last night's agreement, the EU and Iran are scheduled to start negotiations next month on a broader pact trading EU economic and technological support to Iran if Tehran closes down its uranium enrichment facilities entirely. Observers, however, expect a strengthened and impatient Bush administration to get tougher on Iran and be less happy with European attempts to finesse a settlement to avoid a full-blown crisis.
Guardian 15/11/04
Powell resigns
Secretary of State Colin Powell has resigned but will stay on until his replacement is named as Washington makes a new push for Middle East peace, officials said on Monday. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Danforth and Bush's national security adviser Condoleezza Rice are leading candidates to replace Powell, according to Republican party and diplomatic sources.
Reuters, 15/11/04
Falluja fallout continues
U.S. warplanes, artillery and mortars attacked areas of Falluja on Monday as diehard insurgents held out to the last in the week-long battle and heavy clashes broke out in the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Baquba. Since the U.S. offensive was launched, insurgent activity has surged across the Sunni Muslim heartland of Iraq. There have been five days of violence in the northern city of Mosul and there was heavy fighting in Baquba, north of Baghdad, on Monday.
ABC News, 15/11/04
Bush purges 'liberal' CIA
The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to knowledgeable sources.
"The agency is being purged on instructions from the White House," said a former senior CIA official who maintains close ties to both the agency and to the White House. "Goss was given instructions ... to get rid of those soft leakers and liberal Democrats. The CIA is looked on by the White House as a hotbed of liberals and people who have been obstructing the president's agenda."
Newsday.com, 14/11/04
Injured Iraqi executed
A US marine has sparked world-wide revulsion after being seen shooting an injured and helpless Iraqi. The sickening scene was broadcast by Channel 4 News after a fire-fight in the rebel stronghold of Fallujah. The trigger-happy soldier had been asked to get nearer to the injured man. But instead of trying to capture him, the marine is seen leaning over a wall and cold-bloodedly shooting him. He then turns to his colleagues and says: "He's gone".
Sunday Mirror, 14/11/04
A city of wraiths
American commanders said 38 American servicemembers had been killed and 275 wounded in the Falluja assault, and the commanders estimated that 1,200 to 1,600 insurgents - about half the number thought to have been entrenched in Falluja - had been killed. But there was little evidence of dead insurgents in the streets and warrens where some of the most intense combat took place.
Solely from a military standpoint, the operation redressed a disastrous assault on Falluja last April that was called off when unconfirmed reports of large civilian casualties drove the political cost too high. This time, the Americans, with the limited participation of Iraqi security forces, pummeled a dark and mostly abandoned city defended only by a wraithlike band of insurgents who fired Kalashnikovs, mortars and rockets at the Americans and then fled into alleys and apartment blocks, only to reappear elsewhere.
New York Times, 15/11/04
Iraq has new hotspot
As Iraqi leaders Sunday trumpeted a swift victory in Fallujah, insurgents pressed their claim on the northern city of Mosul, which is fast becoming Iraq's newest front. An outbreak of rebel attacks on police stations and government buildings has paralyzed parts of the city.
Sunday, insurgents in Mosul raided two police stations and torched the governor's house. Gunbattles erupted in the main market of the northern town of Beiji and outside the Polish Embassy in Baghdad. Saboteurs set ablaze four oil wells near Kirkuk, and an oil pipeline was burning after an attack Saturday night in Taji, north of Baghdad.
Indianapolis Star, 15/11/04
Red Crescent convoy stopped from helping civilians
The Iraqi Red Crescent relief convoy with emergency supplies for residents of Falluja has not been allowed to enter the city by US forces despite repeated requests, prompting it to appeal to the United Nations. The US troops have directed the convoy into the Falluja hospital on the outskirts of the city away from the reach of the local citizens.
Abu Fahd, a member of the relief convoy told Aljazeera that "the relief convoy wants to enter Falluja city for humanitarian purposes only, to save women, children and the elderly people." "I hope the United Nations (UN) will hear our appeals," he said. "We are now in Falluja hospital, outside the city," Abu Fahd said. "There is no one in the hospital except the medical team, doing nothing," Fahd said.
The relief convoy aims to help civilians stuck in Falluja city "None of the injured residents are being allowed to come to the hospital, while those outside are not allowed to go into the city," Abu Fahd said.
Aljazeera, 14/11/04