These are the archives for the week ending 22nd July 2005
Draft constitution restricts women's rights
A working draft of Iraq's new constitution would cede a strong role to Islamic law and could sharply curb women's rights, particularly in personal matters like divorce and family inheritance. The document's writers are also debating whether to drop or phase out a measure enshrined in the interim constitution, co-written last year by the Americans, requiring that women make up at least a quarter of the parliament.
One of the critical passages is in Article 14 of the chapter, a sweeping measure that would require court cases dealing with matters like marriage, divorce and inheritance to be judged according to the law practiced by the family's sect or religion. Under that measure, Shiite women in Iraq, no matter what their age, generally could not marry without their families' permission. Under some interpretations of Shariah, men could attain a divorce simply by stating their intention three times in their wives' presence.
Article 14 would replace a body of Iraqi law that has for decades been considered one of the most progressive in the Middle East in protecting the rights of women, giving them the freedom to choose a husband and requiring divorce cases to be decided by a judge.
New York Times, 20/7/05
War could cost US $700 billion
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost American taxpayers more than $314 billion so far and the Bush's administration's open- ended commitment has rightly raised concerns, even among war supporters. At the rate the United States is spending to fund the war efforts, the military campaigns could become the most expensive operations in the past 60 years, far exceeding the costs of the Korean and Vietnam wars.
One nonpartisan Washington think tank estimates that the cost of the war in Iraq could exceed $700 billion -- a remarkable sum considering that polls show a majority of American believe that the war wasn't worth starting and feel that they are no safer today than they were before Sept. 11, 2001.
San Francisco Chronicle, 19/7/05
US supports India's nuclear program
The US has promised to help India develop its nuclear energy program in a major policy backflip that could undermine international support for the UN's nuclear non-proliferation treaty. In a joint statement with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Washington, US President George W.Bush said India was a responsible nuclear state that deserved access to the latest technologies. This was despite the fact it was a nuclear weapons state that refused to sign the treaty.
It was only in May that the US went into a major UN conference on nuclear non-proliferation demanding the treaty be amended to prevent signatory nations such as Iran from adapting nuclear technologies obtained under the treaty for weapons purposes.
The Australian, 20/7/05
Invaders responsible for most civilian deaths
A report by the UK-based group Iraq Body Count (IBC), in combination with the Oxford Research Group, says it aims to remove some of the uncertainty around civilian casualties. The report - A Dossier on Civilian Casualties in Iraq, 2003-2005 - provides a grim catalogue of death and injury.
A total of 24,865 civilians were reported killed in the first two years of the conflict, beginning with the invasion, almost 20% of them women or children. This means approximately one in every 1,000 Iraqis has been killed since March 2003. The report's assertion that 37% of deaths were caused by the US-led forces may cause dismay among Western governments, especially as only 9% are attributed to insurgents. But even if another 11% attributed to "unknown agents" is included in the second figure, the report says coalition forces are still the main cause of death.
BBC News, 19/7/05
US forces spread east
The Army is conducting joint military exercises this month in Bulgaria and Romania as a key test of Pentagon plans to develop Eastern European bases as staging areas for fighting in the Middle East. Beginning Tuesday, 1,500 U.S. troops, some of them bound for Iraq, will join 400 Romanian soldiers in urban warfare training. The port and military air base at Constanta on the Black Sea also are part of the exercise, just as they are expected to play a role in future U.S. deployments. In neighboring Bulgaria to the south, 700 U.S. and Bulgarian troops are conducting armored warfare training.
Both nations, once part of the Soviet Union's bloc of Cold War military allies and now recent additions to the NATO alliance, are negotiating with the Pentagon over permanent U.S. basing rights, said Romania's president and Bulgaria's ambassador to the United States. Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, the U.S. military commander in Europe, called the joint exercises and potential bases part of an "eastward shift in the center of gravity" for U.S. military policy. They're part of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's plan to shift troops closer to potential trouble spots in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. The establishment of U.S. bases also would show the world the nations are a safe place for business, said Timothy Kane of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington.
Navy Times, USA, 18/7/05
Reconstruction aid mainly spent on security to foreign firms
Iraq's planning minister slammed the massive shortfall in donations pledged by foreign countries to rebuild his war-scarred state, telling a global reconstruction conference here on Monday that most of the money trickling in has been spent on security.
Salih said Iraq's raging insurgency was proof that Iraq needed more money, particularly through foreign investments, and insisted that the bulk of the money received to date has been spent on improving security conditions of foreign firms operating in the country.
Jerusalem Post, 18/7/05
Britons believe bombings linked to Iraq
Two-thirds of Britons think the July 7 bombings in London were linked to Prime Minister Tony Blair's support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, according to a poll published on Tuesday. The ICM survey found 33 percent of Britons believe Blair bears "a lot" of responsibility for the London bombings and a further 31 percent "a little".
Blair has rejected any link between Iraq and the blasts which killed 56 people and wounded hundreds more on three underground trains and a bus in central London. In a meeting with Muslim leaders today Blair will say that these extremists will use any argument, from western colonialism to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, to try to justify their violence.
Reuters, 19/7/05
Iraq war 'made Britain target'
Tony Blair's role as George Bush's partner in the war on terror has put Britain at greater risk of attack, a respected think-tank warned today. The Royal Institute of International Affairs, known as Chatham House, said that Britain's support for the US did not mean it was an equal partner but a "pillion passenger compelled to leave the steering to the ally in the driving seat".
The think-tank concluded that "the UK is at particular risk because it is the closest ally of the United States, has deployed armed forces in the military campaigns ... in Afghanistan and in Iraq, and has taken a leading role in international intelligence, police and judicial co-operation against al-Qa'ida and in efforts to suppress its finances," it said.
Independent, 18/7/05
Strike presses for greater autonomy for south
Workers at Iraq's South Oil Company are holding a one-day strike to demand a bigger share of the country's oil revenues for the region. The southern city of Basra and the region around it produce most of Iraq's crude exports. Provincial governor Mohammad al-Waili, who called the strike, has called for the province to be allowed to keep more of the oil revenues.
Iraq currently exports about 1.4 million barrels of crude oil a day. Of that, more than 80% comes through the south of the country, with the remainder flowing out through a pipeline into Turkey to the north. The export income amounts to some $17bn a year. Too little of that makes its way back to the south, the provincial governor's party says, leaving the province short of money to improve living standards.
BBC News, 17/7/05
Privatising Iraq
Iraq wants to launch a privatization program that would end state monopolies over industry, an Iraqi official said Sunday on the eve of an international meeting to assess reconstruction activities.
Adel Karim, a deputy minister for industrial development, said Iraq wants to sell cement, brick and pharmaceutical factories as a first step. He declined to discuss details or say if the oil sector may also be considered, but he conceded that deteriorating security could hamper the plan.
Forbes Business, 17/7/05
Blair blocks envoys book
A controversial fly-on-the wall account of the Iraq war by one of Britain's most senior former diplomats has been blocked by Downing Street and the Foreign Office.
Publication of The Costs of War by Sir Jeremy Greenstock, UK ambassador to the UN during the build-up to the 2003 war and the Prime Minister's special envoy to Iraq in its aftermath, has been halted.
In an extract seen by The Observer, Greenstock describes the American decision to go to war as 'politically illegitimate' and says that UN negotiations 'never rose over the level of awkward diversion for the US administration'.
Although he admits that 'honourable decisions' were made to remove the threat of Saddam, the opportunities of the post-conflict period were 'dissipated in poor policy analysis and narrow-minded execution'.
The decision to block the book until Greenstock removes substantial passages will be interpreted as an attempt by ministers to avoid further embarrassing disclosures over the conduct of the war and its aftermath from a highly credible source.
Observer 17/7/05
3 British soldiers killed
A roadside bomb killed three British soldiers and wounded two in the southern city of Amarah early yesterday morning. The deaths bring to 92 the total number of British soldiers killed in Iraq since the invasion of 2003. The 8,500-strong British force has ceded substantial day-to-day control of the four southern provinces where it is based to the Shia militias.
Independent, 17/7/05
Wave of bombings
Suicide bombings continued in force here and in nearby locations over the weekend, with a devastating attack killing at least 70 people south of the capital as well as four explosions in the city area that led to 19 deaths. The bombings have killed well more than 100 people in a week and severely challenged the U.S. command.
Some 15 suicide bombers struck within slightly more than 48 hours in the capital and along the highway heading south - a region that Al Qaeda has declared it would use to seize control of Baghdad.
New York Times, 18/7/05
13 tortured to death
Iraqi security forces stormed several houses in Baghdad early yesterday and detained 13 people, including a Sunni cleric, before torturing and killing most of them, a member of an influential Sunni group said. One of the dead was a Shi'ite Muslim and the rest were Sunnis.The incident is the second within four days that has claimed lives of members of the Sunni Arab minority at the hands of police forces.
According to Sheik Hassan Sabri Salman, a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, dozens of members of an Interior Ministry commando brigade stormed several houses in Baghdad's northern neighbourhoods of Sabaa Abkar, Kuwaiti and Al Rabie before dawn yesterday and detained Sunni cleric Dia Mohammed Al Janabi as well as 12 others. Salman said the men were taken to an apartment in the nearby neighbourhood of Habibiyah "where they were locked in a small room and tortured before being executed."
He added that the 12 bodies, including that of the cleric, were found in a street in the Shi'ite neighbourhood of Sadr City. "We don't know the fate of the 13th," Sheikh Hassan said. Later in the day, the families of the dead collected the bodies from the Baghdad coroner's office and buried them, the cleric and witnesses said.
Gulf Daily News, 14/7/05
An army of ghosts
A tidal wave of corruption may ensure the Iraqi army and police will be too few and too poorly armed to replace American and British forces fighting anti-government insurgents. That could frustrate plans in Washington and London to reduce their forces in Iraq.
The Iraqi armed forces are full of "ghost battalions" in which officers pocket the pay of soldiers who never existed or have gone home. "I know of at least one unit which was meant to be 2,200 but the real figure was only 300 men," said a veteran Iraqi politician and member of parliament, Mahmoud Othman. "The US talks about 150,000 Iraqis in the security forces but I doubt if there are more than 40,000."
Independent, 14/7/05
Suicide bombs kill at least 22
A spate of suicide attacks in Baghdad continued today, the Muslim day of rest, as insurgents detonated at least eight suicide car bombs around the city, all aimed at American and Iraqi security forces, leaving at least 22 people dead and scores wounded, officials said.
One car bomber managed to detonate his explosives near the headquarters of President Jalal Talbani, killing at least two presidential guards, officials said. It was unclear whether Mr. Talbani was in the building at the time.
New York Times, 15/7/05