These are the archives for the week ending 21st July 2007
Nobody is safe
The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq's bi-monthly report on human rights paints a picture of Iraqi society dissolving under the stress of cumulative violence.
Nobody is safe. A tennis coach and two players were shot dead in Baghdad for wearing shorts. Militias threaten the families of homosexuals 'stating they will begin killing family members unless men are handed over or killed by the family'.
Sectarian differences are behind most killings. Assassinations are often carried out by the security forces themselves. On 3 June, for instance, 50 police cars surrounded the al-Arab mosque in Basra and killed 10 of the 20 people inside.
Many Iraqis have fled the country, mostly to Jordan and Syria, to avoid the violence. Syria now has 351,000 and Jordan 450,000 of these refugees, including 40 percent of all Iraqi professionals, according to the US committee for Refugees and Immigrants.
Medical care for the wounded is declining because so many doctors have left the country. The ministry says 106 doctors and 164 nurses have been killed. Doctors in Baghdad hospitals complain that even the operating theatres are not safe because soldiers or militia men will order them to stop an operation half way through.
Independent 20/7/06
Iraqi government condemns Israel
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq on Wednesday forcefully denounced the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, marking a sharp break with President George W. Bush's position and highlighting the growing power of a Shiite Muslim identity across the Middle East.
His stance is noteworthy because it is a significant split with American policy toward Israel. It has been the Americans' hope that Iraq would become Bush's staunchest ally among Arab nations. The Americans arranged a series of elections that ended up putting Shiite parties in power, and the White House helped boost Maliki by pushing last spring for the ouster of the prime minister at the time, Ibrahim al-Jaafari. Maliki relies on the presence of 134,000 American troops in Iraq to stave off the insurgency led by Sunni Arabs, who ruled over the majority Shiite Arabs for decades.
The resentment of the Iraqi government toward Israel calls into question one of the rationales among some conservatives for the American invasion of Iraq - that an American-backed democratic state here would inevitably become an ally of Israel and, by doing so, catalyze a change of attitude across the rest of the Arab world.
The Israeli assault is bringing to the fore one of the unintended consequences of the American war here - the potential for what many analysts call a Shiite crescent stretching from Iran to Iraq to Lebanon. It is a phenomenon that could rewrite the political map of the Middle East, with Sunni Arab countries drawing together to oppose Shiite dominance. The lukewarm responses from Sunni countries during the Lebanon conflict, in contrast to the statements from Maliki and other Shiite leaders, are the latest manifestation of the divide.
International Herald Tribune, 19/7/06
Blair supports Bush's green light to Israel
Tony Blair yesterday swung behind the US position that Israel need not end the bombing until Hizbullah hands over captured prisoners and ends it rocket attacks.
During a Commons statement, he resisted backbench demands that he call for a ceasefire. Echoing the US position, he told MPs: "Of course we all want violence to stop and stop immediately, but we recognise the only realistic way to achieve such a ceasefire is to address the underlying reasons why this violence has broken out"
After Mr Blair spoke, British officials privately acknowledged the US had given Israel a green light to continue bombing Lebanon until it believes Hizbullah's infrastructure has been destroyed.
Guardian 19/7/06
Blair accuses Iran over weapons
British Prime Minister Tony Blair tonight directly accused Iran of supplying weapons to attack British troops in Basra. In a statement on the latest Middle East crisis, the premier said Iran was giving the same weapons to Hezbollah to wage their war against Israel as those that were used in Iraq.
Blair, speaking in the House of Commons after returning from the G8 summit in St Petersburg told MPs: "Hezbollah is supported by Iran and Syria, by the former in weapons, weapons incidentally very similar if not identical to those used against British troops in Basra, by the latter in many different ways and by both financially."
Kuwait News Agency, 18/7/06
US wants new oil law for Iraq
The United States urged Iraq to adopt a new hydrocarbon law that would enable US and other foreign companies to invest in the war-torn country's oil sector.
Iraq, which has had decades of socialist economy, must "pass a new law, a new hydrocarbon law under which international companies will be able to make investments in Iraq," said US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman during a visit to Baghdad.
AFP, 18/7/06
Nearly 6,000 dead in 2 months
Nearly 6,000 civilians were killed in Iraq during the two months of May and June, according to a report prepared by UN Assistance Mission for Iraq. "A total of 5,818 civilians were reportedly killed and at least 5,762 wounded during May and June 2006," the human rights report said Tuesday.
It said "killings, kidnappings and torture remain widespread in Iraq and the number of civilians killed continues to grow", adding that 244 women and 71 children were killed during these two months. Most of the victims were killed in Baghdad.
It said professionals from the judiciary, health and education facalties were particularly targeted in the violence. The UN document said that the Iraqi health ministry had acknowledged that at least 50,000 people have been killed since 2003 and some 150,000 people displaced from their homes because of the violence.
AFP, 18/7/06
US gives $210m of aviation fuel to Israel
The US remains entirely complicit in its role as Israel's main strategic ally. In the midst of last Friday's onslaught, in which Israeli bombers killed dozens of Lebanese civilians, the Pentagon announced the export of $210m of aviation fuel to help Israel "keep peace and security in the region".
Guardian 17/7/06
US pushes privitisation in Iraq
The US commerce secretary and his Iraqi counterpart signed an agreement to enhance commercial relations and improve Iraq's investment climate as the massive American reconstruction program draws to an end. Carlos Gutierrez visited Baghdad and declared his support for Iraq's attempts to open up its economy -- though his delegation's vision of the future direction of the Iraqi economy appeared to be more ambitious than that of the Iraqis.
"It's important that the government of Iraq carry through on promising liberalization and reform measures recently undertaken," said Gutierrez in a speech before assembled Iraqi government officials and business leaders as he laid out his support for Iraq's economic efforts.
US Undersecretary for International Trade Franklin Lavin said the most important thing right now was to get the necessary legal measures in place and then start privatizing the many public sector industries. "There are 59 state-owned enterprises that they have to do something with," he told AFP, adding that they would be looking at the next six to 12 months closely.
AFP, 17/7/06
Bush's real agenda
It is only now, nearly five years after Sept. 11, that the full picture of the Bush administration's response to the terror attacks is becoming clear. Much of it, we can see now, had far less to do with fighting Osama bin Laden than with expanding presidential power. Over and over again, the same pattern emerges: Given a choice between following the rules or carving out some unprecedented executive power, the White House always shrugged off the legal constraints. Even when the only challenge was to get required approval from an ever-cooperative Congress, the president and his staff preferred to go it alone.
While no one questions the determination of the White House to fight terrorism, the methods this administration has used to do it have been shaped by another, perverse determination: never to consult, never to ask and always to fight against any constraint on the executive branch. One result has been a frayed democratic fabric in a country founded on a constitutional system of checks and balances. Another has been a less effective war on terror.
New York Times, 16/7/06
GIs were killed as revenge for rape
On March 12, a 15-year-old Iraqi girl was raped, and she and her father, mother and sister were gunned down in their home. Three months later, three U.S. soldiers were slain by insurgents. One was shot and two others were kidnapped and killed and their bodies mutilated in what a group linked to al-Qaeda declared was retribution for the attack on the Iraqi family.
Army investigators deny the claims and say there is no connection between the incidents, though military spokesmen did not respond to questions last week about why they believe that. Whether or not the episodes are connected, it is clear that the soldiers themselves were connected, bound by their experiences in combat. Members of the same unit, many of them were friends with one another.
The alleged rape and homicides came to light, investigators said, only when some of the soldiers underwent a "combat stress debriefing" prompted by the deaths of the three soldiers. The soldiers were all members of 1st Platoon, B Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, assigned to the 101st Airborne Division.
Some family members said they believe there must be some connection between the two incidents. "There's nine guys on a squad," said Nancy Hess, mother of Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, 21, who is one of the five charged in the crimes. "Three of them were killed. Six of them are being charged."
Washington Post, 16/7/06
British soldier killed in Basra
A British soldier was killed and another injured in Iraq yesterday during an early morning raid to seize suspected terrorists in the southern city of Basra. The soldiers were hit by small arms fire during the operation in the north of the city, supported by helicopters and armoured Warrior vehicles.
The death brings to 114 the number of British service personnel killed in Iraq since the start of hostilities.
Scotsman, 17/6/06
'Closer to the beginning than the end' of Iraq war
It seemed like a routine question, one that military leaders involved in prosecuting the war in Iraq must ask themselves with some regularity: Is the U.S. winning? But for Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff known for his straight-shooting bluntness, it proved a hard one to answer.
During a Capitol Hill briefing for an audience mostly of congressional aides, Schoomaker paused for more than 10 seconds after he was asked the question - lips pursed and brow furrowed - before venturing: "I think I would answer that by telling you I don't think we're losing."
It was a small but telling window into the thinking of the Army's top uniformed officer and one of the military's most important commanders: Despite the progress being made by the new Iraqi government and the continuing improvement of local security forces, the outcome in Iraq, in many ways, is growing more uncertain by the day.
"The challenge . is becoming more complex, and it's going to continue to be," Schoomaker mused. "That's why I'll tell you I think we're closer to the beginning than we are to the end of all this."
Los Angeles Times, 16/7/06
Israeli attacks are part of overall strategy
Israel, with U.S. support, intends to resist calls for a cease-fire and continue a longer-term strategy of punishing Hezbollah, which is likely to include several weeks of precision bombing in Lebanon, according to senior Israeli and U.S. officials. For Israel, the goal is to eliminate Hezbollah as a security threat -- or altogether, the sources said. A senior Israeli official confirmed that Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah is a target, on the calculation that the Shiite movement would be far less dynamic without him.
For the United States, the broader goal is to strangle the axis of Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria and Iran, which the Bush administration believes is pooling resources to change the strategic playing field in the Middle East, U.S. officials say.
Whatever the outrage on the Arab streets, Washington believes it has strong behind-the-scenes support among key Arab leaders also nervous about the populist militants -- with a tacit agreement that the timing is right to strike.
Washington Post, 16/7/06
Britain urged to ban arms trade with Israel
Campaigners have demanded that Britain impose a ban on arms sales to Israel after figures showed that the Government licensed £23m worth of weaponry to be shipped to the country in the past year.
They warned that British arms sales to Tel Aviv broke the Government's pledge not to stock the arsenals of countries where there is a risk of regional instability or conflict. Figures released by the Department of Trade and Industry showed that arms sales to Israel worth £2m were approved between January and March. Equipment included components for naval guns, military helicopters, submarines and electronic equipment. Components for airborne radars were also included.
Independent 15/7/06
White supremacists target US army
In its latest report, the Southern Poverty Law Centre says racist extremists by the thousands have infiltrated the military, largely because the services, desperate to meet recruitment quotas during an unpopular war, have gotten lax about standards adopted a decade ago to keep out and weed out extremists.
The SPLC's Web site reproduced excerpts from a Neo-Nazi Alliance publication that instruct "white supremacists wanting to enlist in the armed forces to enhance their skills." "Light infantry is the branch of choice," it said, "because the coming race war, and the ethnic cleansing to follow, will be very much an infantryman's war.... When you go to the Army recruiter, tell him you want infantry and accept nothing else." Potential recruits are urged to lie and "endure ... a constant barrage of equal opportunity drivel."
Cincinnati Enquirer, 15/7/06
US renews Kyrgyzstan base
The United States and Kyrgyzstan signed an agreement on Friday to allow American and coalition military aircraft to continue using a Kyrgyz air base to support operations in Afghanistan, government officials said. The Kyrgyz government had threatened to evict American and coalition airplanes - mostly refueling and transport craft - from the base, at Manas, if the United States did not sign an agreement to pay higher rent and service fees.
An official statement issued in Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic, announcing the resolution of the issue did not say how much the United States would pay for continued use of the base. Access to the airfield became more important after neighboring Uzbekistan last July ordered the United States to leave a base there that had been a hub for operations in Afghanistan.
An official statement issued in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, after the talks on Friday said the United States had contributed more than $850 million to support democracy, economic development, aid projects and security in the Kyrgyz Republic since its independence from the Soviet Union.
New York Times, 15/7/06
Iraq army struggles to hold Sunni troops
Their televised graduation was supposed to be a moment of national celebration: A class of 1,000 Sunni Arab soldiers emerging from basic training would show Iraqis that the country's worsening religious divide was not afflicting the national army. Two months later, only about 300 of them have reported for duty, U.S. officials say.
The evaporation of the class underscores the struggling U.S. and Iraqi effort to increase recruitment from the disgruntled Sunni Arab minority, which forms the backbone of the insurgency. The success or failure of the effort holds broad ramifications, especially as U.S. forces begin to hand control of troublesome Sunni cities and neighborhoods to Iraqi soldiers, most of whom are now Shiites and Kurds.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 14/7/06
Iraq war costs each American $1,000
The Iraq war is set to overtake Korea and Vietnam as the second most expensive overseas military operation in US history, with spending expected to top the $500 billion mark by the end of the decade.
According to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), $291 billion (£109 billion) has been allocated for the war, the equivalent of $1,000 for every man, woman and child in the US.
Times, 15/7/06