These are the archives for the week ending 20th May 2005
Rods from God
President George Bush is expected to issue a directive in the next few weeks giving the US air force a green light for the development of space weapons, potentially triggering a new global arms race, it was reported yesterday.
The new weapons being studied range from hunter-killer satellites to orbiting weapons using lasers, radio waves, or even dense metal tubes dropped from space by a weapon known as "Rods from God" on ground targets.
Guardian, 19/5/05
'Wolf brigade' accused of murders
Iraq's leading Sunni religious organisation yesterday accused the Iraqi police and a Shia Islamist party of assassinating some 15 Sunni, including pro-insurgent clerics, in an escalation of sectarian tension. "This is state terrorism by the Ministry of Interior," said Hareth al-Dhari, secretary general of the Association of Muslim Scholars, standing before a funeral congregation at the Umm al Qura mosque alongside representatives of other Islamic groups, with the coffin of one of the killed sheikhs in front of him. Mr Dhari called for the resignation of interior minister Bayan Jaber, a Sciri member who took over the post two weeks ago, and said that the association would pull out of the political process and begin to "defend ourselves" if the killings did not stop.
Other association clerics have said Wolf Brigade commandos gunned down another sheikh, Hamid Mukhlaf al-Dulaimi, on Monday night as he was sleeping on the roof of his home. An Interior Ministry spokesman could not be reached for comment but the head of the Wolf Brigade denied they had arrested the murdered Sunni.
The Wolf Brigade, although it contains a high proportion of Sunni officers, was on the frontlines of the counterinsurgency effort in the northern city of Mosul over the winter. The police commandos, which recruit from military officers associated with Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party, are said to be among the most effective units under the Iraqi government's control but have been accused of human rights abuses.
Financial Times, 19/5/05
US military downbeat about Iraq
U.S. military commanders in Baghdad and Washington gave a sobering new assessment of the war in Iraq on Wednesday, adding to the mood of anxiety that prompted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to make a trip to Baghdad last weekend to consult with Iraq's new government. One senior officer suggested that U.S. military involvement could last "many years."
Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. officer in the Middle East, said in a briefing in Washington that one problem was the disappointing progress in developing Iraqi paramilitary police units cohesive enough to mount an effective challenge to the insurgents and allow U.S. forces to reduce their role in fighting.
Another problem cited by the senior officer in Baghdad was the new government's ban on raids on mosques, announced on Monday, which the U.S. officer said he expected to be revised after high-level discussions on Wednesday between U.S. commanders and Iraqi officials.
Minneapolis Star Tribune, 19/5/05
Thousands homeless after 'successful' US mission
Hundreds of displaced families camped in the desert close to the western Iraqi town of al-Qaim are in need of urgent supplies, according to aid agencies. US troops launched an offensive on the town, which is 320 km west of the capital, Baghdad, on 7 May, to flush out insurgents. Al-Qaim is in Anbar province and only a few kilometers from the Syrian border. Nearly 6,000 individuals are now homeless in areas surrounding the town, according to the NGO Italian Consortium of Solidarity.
Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a spokesman for the US-led Coalition force in Iraq, told IRIN that 'Operation Matador' (the code-name for the assault on al-Qaim) was a success having killed more than 125 insurgents, wounding many others and detaining 39 individuals considered to be of intelligence value. He reported that only nine marines died in the battle.
IRIN (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), 17/5/05
Banks profit
HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's biggest bank by market value, won Iraqi approval to buy a local lender as it competes with Standard Chartered Plc and Arab banks to return to the country for the first time since 1964 nationalization. The U.S. lifted restrictions on foreign participation in Iraq's banking industry following its 2003 invasion of the country, in a bid to modernize the financial services system and spur lending and business growth.
HSBC, whose profit from Middle East operations rose 25 percent to $248 million in fiscal 2004, also plans to open its first branch in Kuwait in 34 years after the government lifted restrictions on foreign participation in the banking industry. ``There are strong market conditions in the Middle East at the moment,'' Mukhtar Hussain, HSBC's Middle East and North Africa joint-head of corporate and investment banking, said in an interview in Dubai on May 5. ``High oil prices have fed into high levels of liquidity.''
Bloomberg.com, 18/5/05
British troops will occupy Iraq for years
A passing reference to Iraq in the Queen's speech disguises a growing assumption among military commanders that British forces will be deployed there for years. The speech said only that the government would "support the Iraq transitional government and transitional national assembly as they write a constitution and prepare for future elections".
The government's publicly stated position is that British troops will stay in Iraq for as long as Baghdad "needs them and wants them". Officials pointed to the Balkans where British troops have been deployed for 13 years. Iraq posed a "bigger challenge", they said.
Guardian, 18/5/05
Myanmar sanctioned
President Bush on Tuesday renewed broad sanctions against military-ruled Myanmar because of its continued repression of opposition threatens U.S. interests. Bush formally notified Congress that he was extending the sanctions for one year because Myanmar had made little progress on human rights and democracy.
"These actions and policies, including its policies of committing large scale repression of the democratic opposition in Burma, are hostile to U.S. interests and pose a continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States," Bush said in a message to Congress.
Reuters, 18/5/05
Iraq to be privatised
Iraq's Industry Ministry plans to partially privatize most of its 46 state-owned companies as part of the government's plan to establish a liberal, free-market economy. Later this year, the ministry is expected to launch a search for domestic and foreign partners in the private sector to jointly run companies in the petrochemical, cement, sugar, silk and heavy industry sectors.
Under the former regime of Saddam Hussein, only Arab countries were allowed to invest in Iraq. But the new commercial laws established by the Coalition Provisional Authority allow foreigners to own 100 percent of Iraqi businesses.
Daily Star, Lebanon, 17/5/05
Sunnis accuse security forces
Late on Monday at least eight men were found near a dam in Baghdad, their hands tied behind their backs and bullet wounds to their heads. Two of the victims were still alive, but died soon afterward, police said. The Sunni-based Association of Muslim Scholars said the two survivors told their families before they died that security force members seized them from mosques and shot them.
Defence Minister Saadoun al-Duleimi denied the accusation, saying the killings were carried out by "terrorists" wearing military uniforms. But in a gesture to the association, he said Iraqi security forces would be banned from entering places of worship and universities.
Sydney Morning Herald, 17/5/05
Uzbekistan airbase is to control oil
The airbase opened by the US at Khanabad is not essential to operations in Afghanistan, its claimed raison d'être. It has a more crucial role as the easternmost of Donald Rumsfeld's "lily pads" - air bases surrounding the "wider Middle East", by which the Pentagon means the belt of oil and gas fields stretching from the Middle East through the Caucasus and central Asia.
A key component of this strategic jigsaw fell into place this spring when US firms were contracted to build a pipeline to bring central Asia's hydrocarbons out through Afghanistan to the Arabian sea. That strategic interest explains the recent signature of the US-Afghan strategic partnership agreement, as well as Bush's strong support for Karimov.
Craig Murray, Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Guardian 16/5/05
Israeli lobby builds Iran crisis
In the run-up to its annual meeting in Washington later this month, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is urging Congress to pass legislation authorizing new sanctions against Iran. As Iran appears to move closer to resuming nuclear activities, support has been quietly building in Congress for new U.S. sanctions, including penalties that could affect multinational companies and recipients of U.S. foreign aid. The legislation would put the United States on a more confrontational course than the one pursued by President George W. Bush's administration.
More than 200 members of the House of Representatives - almost half the body - are co-sponsoring a bill that would tighten and codify existing sanctions, bar subsidiaries of U.S. companies from doing business in Iran and cut foreign aid to countries that have businesses investing in Iran.
Haaretz, Israel, 14/5/05
UN could deadlock on Iran
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned the Bush administration that the Security Council might deadlock if asked to punish Iran for its nuclear program. The United States and Britain have called for Iran to be brought before the Security Council if it carries out threats to resume efforts to make nuclear fuel.
The United States and Britain believe the fuel could be used for bombs, while Iran contends that it is to generate power. China and Russia might veto any push to sanction Iran, Annan suggested.
USA today, 15/5/05
Karzai bows to popular pressure
President Hamid Karzai insisted the Kabul government will veto US military operations after a week of hugely destructive anti-American rioting left Afghan cities and towns in flames and hospitals overflowing with casualties. The Afghan leader, installed with Washington's support in 2001 and often derided as an American puppet, seemed to be bowing to a growing mood of popular anger with American military tactics and uneasiness over how long bases will remain on Afghan soil.
The President called for the return of hundreds of Afghan prisoners held at Guantanamo, another major friction point, and promised to raise the issue with President George Bush when the two leaders meet in Washington this month. But he stressed the importance of the relationship with America which has underpinned his government.
"We know that without the strategic partnership with America, Afghanistan would not make it as a sovereign, independent nation," Mr Karzai said.
Independent, 16/5/05
Hundreds dead in Uzbekistan
Hundreds of protesters are reported to have been gunned down in bloody clashes with government forces that have ravaged eastern Uzbekistan. One human rights observer in the eastern city of Andizhan said that up to 500 people may have perished in the shootings and the gun battles that followed.
In a severe rebuke to London and Washington's approach to the region Craig Murray, Britain's former ambassador to the country, yesterday said the countries had swallowed Uzbek propaganda that sought to portray the democracy movement as a brand of Islamic extremism. "The Americans and British wouldn't do anything to help democracy in Uzbekistan," he said.
Uzbekistan provides a base for US forces engaged in anti-terrorism operations in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Independent, 15/5/05
US funds torture regime
Uzbekistan is believed to be one of the destination countries for the highly secretive 'renditions programme', whereby the CIA ships terrorist suspects to third-party countries where torture is used that cannot be employed in the US. Newspaper reports in America say dozens of suspects have been transferred to Uzbek jails.
The CIA has never officially commented on the programme. But flight logs obtained by the New York Times earlier this month show CIA-linked planes landing in Tashkent with the same serial numbers as jets used to transfer prisoners around the world.
Critics say the US double standards are evident on the State Department website, which accuses Uzbek police and security services of using 'torture as a routine investigation technique' while giving the same law enforcement services $79 million in aid in 2002. The department says officers who receive training are vetted to ensure they have not tortured anyone.
Observer, 15/5/05
Resistance more intense
Two weeks of intense insurgent violence have made it crystal clear that Iraq's parliamentary elections, hailed in late January as a triumph for democracy, haven't helped to heal the country's deep divisions. They may have made them worse.
With little social cohesion, violence has soared, fueled by anger over foreign occupation and religious differences, while a semi-sovereign, disjointed government has taken over with little ability to control or appeal to groups behind the killings. At least 400 Iraqis have died in two weeks. U.S. casualties are also up. According to Icasualties.org, a Web site that tracks Iraq coalition casualties, 46 American service members died under fire in April, and 28 have died so far in May.
San Jose Mercury, 13/5/05
State of emergency
The new interim prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, yesterday extended Iraq's state of emergency for another 30 days yesterday, effective from May 3. The emergency decree, which covers all of Iraq except the northern Kurdish-run areas, has been renewed monthly since it was first imposed Nov. 7 - hours before the Fallujah offensive. It includes a night-time curfew and gives security forces powers of arrest without warrants.
Scotsman, 14/5/05
'War on drugs' collapses in chaos
Washington's "war on drugs" in Colombia is collapsing in chaos and corruption, and the drug producers are winning. The so-called Plan Colombia, which has cost the US more than $3bn (£1.6bn) in the past five years, is being abandoned, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has announced.
Plan Colombia was designed to eradicate narcotics, control powerful left-wing guerrillas and strengthen the position of the US military in South America. The scheme was eventually expected to cost $7.5bn.
Double standards
Soldiers loyal to Uzbekistan's US-allied authoritarian leader unleashed heavy gunfire into thousands of demonstrators yesterday to put down an uprising that began with a prison raid that freed more than 2,000 inmates, including suspects on trial for alleged Islamic extremism. The death toll from a day of violence in the eastern Uzbek city was unclear. The government said 12 died, but witnesses said dozens may have been killed by the troops, who rode into the square in a truck behind an armored personnel carrier as helicopters hovered overhead. A protest leader, Kabuljon Parpiyev, said the death toll could be as high as 50.
The United States has a military air base in Uzbekistan and maintains close counterterrorism and intelligence cooperation with the Uzbek authorities, who have been praised by the Bush administration for their cooperation in the war on terrorism. Human rights groups, however, have reported widespread cases of torture and abuse by authorities.
Boston Globe, 14/5/05
More killed in Afghanistan demonstrations
Anti-American violence spread to 10 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces and into Pakistan on Thursday as four more protesters died in a third day of demonstrations and clashes with the police. Hundreds of students took part in three separate demonstrations here in the capital, where they burned an American flag, and a provincial office of CARE International was ransacked in a continuation of the most widespread protests against the American presence since the fall of the Taliban government more than three years ago.
In the most violent single incident, the police fired on hundreds of tribesmen from Khogiani, a district in eastern Afghanistan, who were trying to march in protest on Jalalabad, the town where four people died and 60 were wounded on Wednesday.
New York Times, 13/5/05
Poverty, power cuts and open sewers
The invasion of Iraq and its aftermath caused the deaths of 24,000 Iraqis, including many children, according to the most detailed survey yet of postwar life in the country. The UN report paints a picture of modern Iraq brought close to collapse despite its oil wealth. Some of the findings will come as no surprise to Iraqis, who have grown used to poverty, unemployment, power cuts, open sewers and an overwhelmed healthcare system.
The report said that unemployment was now more than 18 per cent, compared with just over 3 per cent in the 1980s. Basic services have also collapsed. Some 85 per cent of households complained of electricity cuts and 29 per cent relied on generators. Only 54 per cent of Iraqi families had clean water. Only 37 per cent were connected to a sewage network, compared with 75 per cent in the 1980s.
The report highlighted falling standards of education and healthcare, which had been among the highest in the Arab world but were now among the lowest. The number of Iraqi mothers who die in labour reached 93 in every 100,000 births, compared with 14 in Jordan and 32 in Saudi Arabia.
Times, 13/5/05
Blair backs US on Iran
As the European Union warned Iran against resuming its nuclear program, Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday that Britain would support American moves to invoke UN Security Council countermeasures "if Iran breaches its obligations and undertakings." The shift in tone seemed designed to increase pressure on Iran not to revive nuclear enrichment activities suspended since last November
International Herald Tribune, 13/5/05