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News archives for the week ending 30th April 2010

Obama sticks to Iraq withdrawal timetable

When President Obama approved a plan to withdraw combat forces from Iraq this summer, it was based on the assumption that a newly elected government would be in place by the time Americans headed home. Fourteen months later, that assumption is exploding but the plan remains the same.

The delay and messy aftermath of the Iraqi election mean it may be months before the next government is formed, even as tens of thousands of American troops pack to leave. Yet Mr. Obama has not had a meeting on Iraq with his full national security team in months, and the White House insists that it has no plans to revisit the withdrawal timetable.

By sticking to the deadline, Mr. Obama effectively is abandoning the thesis he adopted on the recommendation of military and civilian advisers in February 2009 that a large American military presence was needed long enough to provide stability during the post-election transition.

New York Times, 27/4/10

Iraq delays ruling on election ban

A potentially divisive ruling by an Iraqi review panel on whether to wipe out the votes of nine winning candidates from last month's election has been delayed, possibly until next week, officials said on Tuesday.

On Monday, the panel threw the Iraqi political process into turmoil after invalidating votes cast for 52 other candidates in the March 7 ballot, which produced no outright winner and left the country adrift in a political vacuum.

The decision to debar candidates with alleged links to the late Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath Party cast doubt on the slim, two-seat lead of the cross-sectarian Iraqiya alliance.

Washington Post, 27/4/10

Iraq torture was 'routine and systematic'

A New York-based human rights group says the torture of Iraqi detainees at a makeshift Baghdad prison housing mostly Sunnis was routine and systematic.

Human Rights Watch reported on its website Tuesday it interviewed 42 men who were among 300 detainees transferred from the secret Iraqi prison after its existence was revealed.

The group says the detainees were accused of abetting terrorism. It says they described horrific acts in which they were deprived of air, beaten, given electric shocks and sodomized.

Reports of the torture have outraged Iraq's Sunni minority, who see it as another example of persecution by the country's Shiite-led government.

Iraqi officials are investigating the torture claims. They say three Iraqi army officers have been arrested in the case.

Washington Post, 28/4/10

Iraq poll uncertainty threatens civilians

Continuing political uncertainty in Iraq is contributing to a rise in the number of civilian deaths, a new report by Amnesty International has warned.

The human rights group said that more than 100 civilians were killed in the first week of April alone. Many were targeted by armed groups because of their religious, ethnic or sexual identity, it said.

Seven years after the US-led invasion, "Iraqis are still living in a climate of fear", according to the report published by Amnesty.

The organisation accuses the Iraqi authorities of not doing enough to protect civilians - in particular ethnic and religious minorities, as well as women and homosexuals.

BBC News, 27/4/10

US tells Iraq to 'get this show on the road'

U.S. Ambassador Christopher R. Hill expressed deep concern Monday about how slowly Iraqi officials have moved to seat a new government, saying they need to "get this show on the road."

U.S. officials see the formation of a new government and a smooth transfer of power as crucial precursors to the scheduled drawdown of all but 50,000 troops by the end of August.

Hill's unusually blunt comments reflect growing U.S. anxiety about a process that has been slowed by a host of factors. They include the close results from the March 7 parliamentary elections, a recently ordered manual recount of the approximately 2.4 million ballots cast in Baghdad, and ongoing efforts to disqualify candidates for alleged sympathies to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.

WAshington Post, 27/4/10

Suicide bomber targets British ambassador in Yemen

The British Ambassador to Yemen escaped assassination yesterday when a suicide bomber attacked his convoy as it travelled through the capital, Sanaa.

Tim Torlot, a 52-year-old career diplomat, who has served in the Arab state since July 2007, was being driven in his armour-plated vehicle close to the British Embassy when a man thought to be an al-Qaeda militant threw himself at the convoy and detonated his explosives. The ambassador was not hurt.

The attack will heighten concerns about security in Yemen, where al-Qaeda has been gaining strength over the past year. The Yemeni Government has launched an offensive against al-Qaeda, but senior clerics have threatened to declare a jihad, or holy war, if foreign troops are deployed inside the country.

The Times, 27/4/10

Indo-Pakistan proxy war in Afghanistan

Across Afghanistan, behind the obvious battles fought for this country's soul, a shadow war is being quietly waged. It's being fought with spies and proxies, with hundreds of millions of dollars in aid money and ominous diplomatic threats.

The fight pits nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan against one another in a battle for influence that will almost certainly gain traction as the clock ticks down toward America's military withdrawal, which President Barack Obama has announced will begin next year.

The clash has already sparked bloody militant attacks, and American officials fear the region could become further destabilized. With Pakistani intelligence maintaining ties to Afghanistan's Taliban militants, India has threatened to draw Iran, Russia and other nations into the competition if an anti-Indian government comes to power in Kabul.

Washington Post, 26/4/10

Afghans will take over security in four or five years

Afghanistan's security forces will need four to five years before they are fully capable of taking over responsibility for the country's security, its Defence Ministry said on Sunday.

NATO foreign ministers agreed at a meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, last week on a plan to begin turning over responsibility for security in some provinces to Afghan troops over the course of the next year so that Western troops can begin to withdraw.

U.S. President Barack Obama says Washington will begin to withdraw its troops in mid-2011, although U.S. officials say the withdrawal will not be abrupt and its pace will be determined by the capability of Afghan forces.

"To finalise this process or to take overall security responsibility takes four to five years time," Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman Zaher Azimi said on Sunday in a statement, released in response to the Tallinn meeting.

Reuters, 25/4/10

Car bombs trigger Shiite response

A series of car bombs detonated outside Shiite mosques in Baghdad on Friday morning, killing at least 58 people and prompting influential cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to order his militia to resume protecting worshipers.

The deadliest of at least 10 blasts in the capital occurred in Sadr City, an impoverished district named after the cleric's father where thousands congregate outdoors for Friday midday prayers.

Sadr's Mahdi Army clashed repeatedly with U.S. and Iraqi forces starting in 2004, but it has been largely dormant since reaching a negotiated truce with the government in the spring of 2008. Its reactivation could once again heighten sectarian tensions in this country, trigger new clashes and complicate the political negotiations, already contentious, over the formation of a new government.

The Sadrist movement is staunchly opposed to the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq.

Washington Post, 24/4/10

China expands sea power

The Chinese military is seeking to project naval power well beyond the Chinese coast, from the oil ports of the Middle East to the shipping lanes of the Pacific, where the United States Navy has long reigned as the dominant force, military officials and analysts say.

China calls the new strategy “far sea defense,” and the speed with which it is building long-range capabilities has surprised foreign military officials. The strategy is a sharp break from the traditional, narrower doctrine of preparing for war over the self-governing island of Taiwan or defending the Chinese coast.

Now, Chinese admirals say they want warships to escort commercial vessels that are crucial to the country’s economy, from as far as the Persian Gulf to the Strait of Malacca, in Southeast Asia, and to help secure Chinese interests in the resource-rich South and East China Seas.

The naval expansion will not make China a serious rival to American naval hegemony in the near future, and there are few indications that China has aggressive intentions toward the United States or other countries.

But China, now the world’s leading exporter and a giant buyer of oil and other natural resources, is also no longer content to trust the security of sea lanes to the Americans, and its definition of its own core interests has expanded along with its economic clout.

New York Times, 23/4/10

Merkel ignores opposition to war

Faced with solid pubic opposition against the war in Afghanistan, Chancellor Angela Merkel told legislators Thursday that German troops were not yet going to withdraw from the country, but would remain there to prevent the spread of international terrorism.

“We cannot expect our soldiers to be brave if we lack the courage to do what we decided,” Mrs. Merkel said in a speech to Parliament, which was followed by a long debate about why German troops were serving there.

With two out of three Germans opposed to the war, according to a recent poll in Stern magazine, and with casualties increasing — seven soldiers were killed in the past three weeks — Mrs. Merkel had been criticized not only by her own conservative Christian Democrats, but also by the highly influential mass circulation Bild newspaper for failing to explain to the public why German troops are based in Afghanistan.

New York Times, 22/4/10

More torture allegations in Iraq

Iraqi officials are investigating claims that detainees, believed to be mostly Sunnis, were tortured at a makeshift prison in Baghdad, in a case that has outraged the country's Sunni minority, Iraqi officials said Thursday.

The deputy human rights minister, Kamil Amin, said that three army officers have been arrested in connection with the case. An Iraqi who said he was in the prison described being beaten, tortured with electric shock treatment and smothered with a plastic bag.

The case, which was first reported Monday by the Los Angeles Times, has angered the country's Sunni population who see it as another example of persecution by Iraq's Shiite-led government.

The charges come at a delicate time, as the country waits to see who will take the lead in forming the next government: a coalition with extensive Sunni support, or a Shiite-dominated bloc led by the current prime minister.

Associated Press, 22/4/10

Europe calls for less nuclear weapons...

The push to withdraw tactical weapons from Europe has gained momentum in recent weeks, with Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Norway jointly petitioning NATO to take up the issue.

Many analysts consider these weapons a dangerous relic of the cold war, expensive to safeguard and deadly if they fell into the wrong hands.

New York Times, 22/4/10

...as UK generals oppose Trident

Britain should be prepared to scrap its nuclear deterrent, a group of generals write in The Times today, pushing the future of Trident to the forefront of the election.

Field Marshal Lord Bramall, General Lord Ramsbotham, General Sir Hugh Beach and Major-General Patrick Cordingley express “deep concern” that the future of Trident has been excluded from the Strategic Defence Review that will follow the election. They caution that suppressing discussion of the issue or dismissing alternatives would be “a major strategic blunder”.

Since 2007, when the Government decided to replace Trident, the debate has shifted significantly, they write, and there is now a “growing consensus that rapid cuts in nuclear forces ... is the way to achieve international security”. 

The Times, 21/4/10

Netanyahu sticks to illegal occupation of Jerusalem...

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has again rejected US calls to halt construction in occupied East Jerusalem. He spoke as US Middle East envoy George Mitchell arrived in the region for separate talks with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

"I am saying one thing: there will be no freeze in Jerusalem," Mr Netanyahu said on Israel's Channel 2 TV.

Israel has occupied East Jerusalem since 1967. It annexed the area in 1981 and sees it as its exclusive domain. Under international law the area is occupied territory and the international community does not recognise Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem.

BBC News, 23/4/10

...as US reasserts support for Israel

President Obama and his national security adviser reasserted that the alliance with Israel is in the United States' interest.

"Let me be very clear: We have a special relationship with Israel and that will not change," Obama said in a letter this week to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. "Our countries are bound together by shared values, deep and interwoven connections, and mutual interests. Many of the same forces that threaten Israel also threaten the United States and our efforts to secure peace and stability in the Middle East. Our alliance with Israel serves our national security interests."

Speaking separately on Wednesday to the Washington Institute on Near East Policy, James Jones, the national security adviser, outlined benefits the United States derives from its relationship with Israel.

"The United States will never waiver in defense of Israel’s security," Jones said. "That is why we provide billions of dollars annually in security assistance to Israel, why we have reinvigorated our consultations to ensure Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge, and why we undertake joint military exercises, such as the Juniper Cobra ballistic missile defense exercise that involved more than 1,000 United States servicemen and women."

Jewish Telegraph Agency, 22/4/10

US can continue to use Kyrgyz air base

Kyrgyzstan's new administration and Russia have given Washington assurances that the United States will be able to continue using a crucial air base for the war effort in Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday.

"We have been given assurances by the new leadership in Kyrgyzstan that the United States will retain access to the Manas air base," Clinton told reporters on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Estonia.

The Manas base is a key refueling point for war jets flying over Afghanistan and a major hub for combat troop movement.

Associated Press, 22/4/10

NATO admits killing civilians

Western military officials on Wednesday acknowledged a case of mistaken identity in the killings of four civilians in eastern Afghanistan, the second such lethal episode in just over a week.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization had initially described two of the four occupants of a car that was fired on by troops in Khowst province Monday night as "known insurgents," and the other two as their associates.

Family members and local officials had insisted that the group, which included three teenage boys, was returning home from a sporting event. They said none of the car's occupants had links to the insurgency — and that, in fact, one was a police officer.

The Khowst episode came seven days after American troops in Kandahar province, apparently believing themselves under threat of attack, fired on a vehicle approaching a military convoy. It turned out to be a passenger bus, and four Afghans aboard were killed.

Los Angeles Times, 21/4/10

Afghanistan becomes more dangerous for contractors

U.S. government contractor deaths in Afghanistan more than doubled last year as violence and American troop levels increased. The Labor Department received at least 141 insurance claims for contractor deaths in Afghanistan last year, up from 55 in 2008, department records show. U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan doubled to 311 last year.

The increase in deaths in Afghanistan comes as tens of thousands more contractors are surging into the country while insurgent violence there spikes, said Doug Brookspresident of the International Peace Operations Association, a trade group of companies that provide security and other services in war zones.

The number of contractors for the U.S. military in Afghanistan rose by 50% last year to 107,000, according to the Pentagon's Central Command.

USA Today, 22/4/10