These are the archives for the week ending 27th January 2006
More British troops for Afghanistan
The number of UK troops in Afghanistan will increase by nearly 5,000, the Defence Secretary John Reid has said. The £1 billion deployment will push the total number of troops there by July to a peak of 5,700, he told the Commons.
Mr Reid said the "potent force", which will include attack helicopters, would be there to "protect and deter". The majority will be sent to the south, to the volatile Helmand area, which Mr Reid acknowledged was a "more demanding area" than others in Afghanistan.
BBC News, 26/1/06
A fifth of Iraqis are below poverty line
The number of Iraqis living below the poverty line has increased since the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003 to one-fifth of the population, according to figures released on Wednesday.
"A study conducted by the ministry in coordination with the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations Development Programme shows that 20 percent of the population is affected by poverty," Leila Kazem, director general of the department of social affairs at the labour ministry said. "Some two million Iraqi families live under the poverty line, as defined by international criteria, which is fixed at one dollar (R6) per day per person."
"The number of people requiring social assistance by our minister is dwarfed by the large number of people in need," she said, adding that "actually only 171 000 families across the entire country receive social assistance," compared to the two million needing it.
AFP, 25/1/06
Troops stretched to breaking point
More than 70% of the US troops due to be deployed in Iraq next year will be returning for their third time. An unnamed army officer returning from Iraq said "Nobody in America is asked to sacrifice, except us"
Guardian 26/1/06
Rumsfeld denies US army 'broken'
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday strongly rejected warnings in a Pentagon-contracted study that the Iraq war risks "breaking" the U.S. Army, and he said a recent decision to scale back U.S. troop levels in Iraq did not grow out of a need to relieve the strain on American ground forces.
"Soldiers and brigades are being deployed more frequently, and for longer periods, than what the Army believes is appropriate in order to attract and retain the number of soldiers necessary," Andrew F. Krepinevich, executive director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, wrote in a November 2005 study for the Pentagon first disclosed Tuesday. "It is not clear, even to Army leaders, how long this practice can be sustained." Krepinevich concluded that "vigorous efforts should be made to enable a substantial drawdown in U.S. force levels" from Iraq, because "the Army simply cannot sustain the force levels desired to sustain the momentum needed to break the back of the insurgent movement."
The prospect of serving in Iraq contributed to a shortfall in Army recruiting of nearly 7,000 soldiers last year, Army officials have said, despite large increases in bonuses and incentives. High overall retention helped make up for the deficit, Army figures show.
Washington Post, 26/1/06
US offers India nuclear technology
Spurred by the United States, the US and Indian governments have signed commercial, scientific and military agreements in the last two years and are negotiating a controversial deal that could permit the sale of civilian nuclear technology to India. The Bush administration is eager to cultivate India as a partner in counterterrorism and, some analysts say, as a strategic counterweight to China.
One of the most important tests of the new relationship centers on the agreement signed by Bush and Singh in Washington last July that would give India access to nuclear fuel and reactors to produce electricity. U.S. officials say India is entitled to special treatment in light of its democratic values and exemplary record of preventing nuclear secrets from falling into the wrong hands.
Washington Post, 25/1/06
Soldiers feel psychological effects of war
The mental scars suffered by those who have experienced the horrors of the Iraq conflict have been exposed in a series of medical studies and legal actions. The first piece of major research charting the psychological impact of the conflict is expected to show that thousands of members of Britain's armed forces have returned with problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The relentless bombings and shootings, as well as the intrinsic doubts of being involved in this particular war, have, say medical specialists, made Iraq the most troubling combat theatre for soldiers since the Second World War.
US forces, who have faced - and continue to face - greater violence than British troops, report a higher level of trauma. More than one-fifth of US troops returning from Iraq may suffer from PTSD, according to a recent report.
Independent, 25/1/06
Hunger strikers close to death
Despite force feeding by the American military, several hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay may be close to death, according to lawyers acting for the detainees. The condition of two emaciated Yemeni hunger strikers who have been refusing solid food since August is causing particular concern. There are also fears for the life of a hospitalised Saudi prisoner.
The wife of a British resident and hunger striker, Shaker Aamer, visited the Commons last week to appeal to MPs for help. Aamer's wife, 31, who lives in London with her four children and has asked for her name to be withheld, said: "This is the time to do something. My husband is not going to last."
Sunday Times, 22/1/06
US outsourced torture
The United States flew detainees to other countries where they would be tortured and European governments probably knew about it, the head of a European investigation into the controversy said on Tuesday. But Swiss senator Dick Marty said in a preliminary report for the Council of Europe human rights watchdog that he had found no irrefutable evidence to confirm allegations that the CIA operated secret detention centres in Europe.
"There is a great deal of coherent, convergent evidence pointing to the existence of a system of 'relocation' or 'outsourcing of torture'," Marty told the 46-nation Council, based in the eastern French city of Strasbourg. He said it had been proved that "individuals have been abducted, deprived of their liberty and transported to different destinations in Europe, to be handed over to countries in which they have suffered degrading treatment and torture."
He estimated that more than 100 people had been involved in "renditions" -- delivering prisoners to jails in third countries, where they may have been mistreated or tortured. "It is highly unlikely that European governments, or at least their intelligence services, were unaware," he said.
Yahoo News, 24/1/06
Bush: "Blair could have pulled out of war"
US President George W Bush said he had given British Prime Minister Tony Blair the option of pulling out of the US-led coalition on the eve of war with Iraq. Ahead of the March 2003 invasion, amid opposition to military action and a fierce debate about a second UN Security Council resolution on Iraq, Blair "was very worried about his government," Bush said.
"So was I. "I said, 'I don't want your government to fall. And if you're worried about (that), just go ahead and pull out of the coalition so you can save your government,"' the president said.
"He said, 'I have made my commitment on behalf of the great country of Britain, and I'm not changing my mind,"'
'George,' he said, 'politics - you know, I'm not interested in politics. What I'm interested in is doing the right thing,"' said Bush.
Daily Telegraph, Australia, 24/1/06
Military jury gives reprimand for killing
A military jury in Colorado issued a reprimand last night to an Army interrogator who was convicted of negligent homicide for using an aggressive technique on an Iraqi general who died during questioning. Jurors decided not to impose any prison sentence for what originally was charged as a murder. Jurors opted for no prison time and imposed a $6,000 fine and restricted him to work, his place of worship and barracks for 60 days.
The lenient sentence for Chief Warrant Officer Lewis E. Welshofer Jr., 43, implies that jurors thought the interrogator should not face serious punishment in connection with the death of Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush, a high-ranking Saddam Hussein loyalist who was believed to have engineered insurgent attacks in northern Iraq along the Syrian border. After Mowhoush's capture in November 2003, Welshofer shoved him into a sleeping bag, wrapped him in a cord and straddled him in a last-ditch effort to get him to talk. The general stopped breathing during the session.
Washington Post, 24/1/06
Resistance attacks up by 29%
The number of attacks against coalition troops, Iraqi security forces and civilians increased 29% last year, and insurgents are increasingly targeting Iraqis, the U.S. military says. Insurgents launched 34,131 attacks last year, up from 26,496 the year before, according to U.S. military figures released Sunday.
USA Today, 22/1/06
Iraq election results
Official election results released yesterday showed that an alliance of Shi'ite religious parties will remain the largest bloc in Iraq's parliament but will have to reach out to other factions to form a coalition government in the weeks ahead. The uncertified results from parliamentary elections held Dec. 15 presented few surprises. The Shi'ite coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance, won 128 seats in the 275-member parliament, more than twice as much as any other group but well short of the two-thirds needed to form a government single-handedly.
The key questions, Iraqi politicians say, are where the Shi'ites will turn for that support, and whether they will aim for a narrow majority of groups that largely share their political and religious goals or compromise with disparate factions to form a broader government of national unity. US and Iraqi officials have said they expect weeks of freewheeling negotiation as Iraq's four major political groupings -- of Shi'ite, Sunni Arab, Kurdish, and secular parties -- stake out their positions.
Boston Globe, 21/1/06
Democracy American style
The Bush administration is spending foreign aid money to increase the popularity of the Palestinian Authority on the eve of crucial elections in which the governing party faces a serious challenge from the radical Islamic group Hamas. The approximately $2 million program is being led by a division of the U.S. Agency for International Development. But no U.S. government logos appear with the projects or events being undertaken as part of the campaign, which bears no evidence of U.S. involvement.
U.S. officials say their low profile is meant to ensure that the Palestinian Authority receives public credit for a collection of small, popular projects and events to be unveiled before Palestinians select their first parliament in a decade. Internal documents outlining the program describe the effort as "a temporary paradigm shift" in the way the aid agency operates. The plan was designed with the help of a former U.S. Army Special Forces officer who worked in postwar Afghanistan on democracy-building projects.
The plan's $2 million budget is likely more than what any Palestinian party will have spent by election day.
Washington Post, 22/1/06
The new face of the wounded
Men and women with multiple devastating injuries are the new face of the wounded, a singular legacy of the war in Iraq. Many suffered wounds that would have been fatal in earlier wars but were saved by helmets, body armor, advances in battlefield medicine and swift evacuation to hospitals. As a result, the survival rate among Americans hurt in Iraq is higher than in any previous war - seven to eight survivors for every death, compared with just two per death in World War II.
But that triumph is also an enduring hardship of the war. Survivors are coming home with grave injuries, often from roadside bombs, that will transform their lives: combinations of damaged brains and spinal cords, vision and hearing loss, disfigured faces, burns, amputations, mangled limbs, and psychological ills like depression and post-traumatic stress.
New York Times, 22/1/06
Italy pulls out
Italy will withdraw its nearly 3,000 troops from Iraq by the end of the year, the Italian defense minister said during a fiercely fought election in a country where the Iraq war is not popular. Surveys show that most Italians oppose having troops in Iraq, both because of their general opposition to the war and the belief that it makes Italy more vulnerable to a terrorist attack.
Italy has the fourth-largest contingent of troops in Iraq. While its presence is not large in numbers, the Bush administration, eager to show that Iraq is a shared burden among allies, reacted with some anger last year when Berlusconi broached a troop withdrawal.
International Herald Tribune, 20/1/06
Power cuts and freezing temperatures
Lengthy power cuts over the past two weeks due to insecurity and a decrease in oil production are seriously affecting the lives of Iraqis in the capital, Baghdad. With temperatures below zero degrees centigrade, residents of the city are currently getting fewer than eight hours of electricity per day, making them dependant on generators which require fuel that is both in short supply and prohibitively priced.
"I can't afford a generator and can't buy food because my refrigerator is constantly subject to power cuts," said Mariam Hussein, resident of Sad'r City, a major suburb of the capital. "We have less than six hours of power daily."
Reuters, 19/1/06
Government cover up on torture centres
The government is secretly trying to stifle attempts by MPs to find out what it knows about CIA "torture flights" and privately admits that people captured by British forces could have been sent illegally to interrogation centres. A hidden strategy aimed at suppressing a debate about rendition - the US practice of transporting detainees to secret centres where they are at risk of being tortured - is revealed in a briefing paper sent by the Foreign Office to No 10.
The document shows that the government has been aware of secret interrogation centres, despite ministers' denials. It admits that the government has no idea whether individuals seized by British troops in Iraq or Afghanistan have been sent to the secret centres.
Guardian, 19/1/06