Iraq Daily News

US hands over Tariq Aziz, other detainees

2010-07-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

Iraq's deputy justice minister says U.S. authorities have handed over 55 members of Saddam Hussein's former regime, including the longtime international face of the regime, Tariq Aziz.

Wednesday's announcement comes a day before U.S. authorities are to depart Camp Cropper, the last American-run detention facility in Iraq.

Iraq's deputy justice minister Busho Ibrahim tells The Associated Press the handover has taken place over the last three days.

U.S. authorities confirmed Wednesday that they had handed over some detainees but would not give any identities.

Britain rushed to invade Iraq

2010-07-14T16:53:00.002-07:00

A former British diplomat says government did not tried hard enough to find an alternative to the military action to deal with Iraq's former dictator Saddam Hussein.

Carne Ross, who served as first secretary at the UK's mission to UN between 1997 and 2002, told the Iraq war inquiry on Monday that Britain's pre-invasion containment policy ruled that the government considers sanctions and other measures before leaping to a military solution.

He said no "significant intelligence" backed up the claims that Iraq was armed with weapons of mass destruction but officials opposing a military campaign there were "very beleaguered".

Ross resigned from the Diplomatic Service in 2004 to protest the invasion of Iraq citing serious blunders by the British government in the use of the intelligence and its failure to use possible diplomatic options.

At the inquiry session, Ross made it clear that those who supported the use of economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure and controlling of no-fly zones in Iraq in 2001 were "under pressure".

He said though making sanctions work was "politically difficult" it was "doable" but Washington and London offered "very little senior support" to the UN mission in that regard.

Ross added Saddam regime's illegal oil exports through Turkey and Syria could be hindered to pressure Iraq by cutting its vital income but that was an "available option to us, as a government, that we never took".

"It is astonishing to me that neither the US nor UK did anything about Saddam's illegal bank accounts which we knew to exist in Jordan" he said, "It was far less effort than any subsequent military effort was made to topple Saddam".

Also on the threats posed by Saddam, Ross said "we continued to believe Iraq was certainly pursuing WMD [weapons of mass destruction] programmes […] but we had no significant intelligence".

He said the intelligence documents prepared by the government to justify its attack on Iraq "converted" the "uncertain and patchy" looks of the reports into a "positive" base for military action.

US wants greater effort from Iraq to form government

2010-07-14T16:53:00.000-07:00

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday urged Iraqis on all sides to make greater efforts to overcome differences and end a four-month stalemate in forming a government.

"More is needed from everyone involved," Clinton said after talks with her Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari, saying she shared "a sense of urgency."

"We urge the leaders of Iraq to reach a agreement and to put their personal interest behind the national interest," she said.

"I reiterated the US has no preference about the outcome... but we are concerned about the delay," the top US diplomat said.

For his part, Zebari said the delay was being taken seriously and that despite "some delays, eventually a government will emerge."

"We are doing our best to do that, in order to avoid any constitutional, governmental vacuum."

Iraqi politicians on Monday extended an inaugural parliamentary session by two weeks to give rival blocs more time to form a government, more than four months after the elections.

The parliament, the second democratically elected chamber since the 2003 fall of dictator Saddam Hussein, met briefly for the first time on June 14 after the March 7 general election.

Under the conflict-wracked country's new constitution, there was a one-month deadline from that date for members to reconvene.

But deadlock over who will become Iraq's new prime minister has stalled efforts to form a government.

"Anything the US can do, we stand ready to do in order to encourage the government formation as soon as possible," Clinton said.

Eager to see a peaceful resolution before it begins withdrawing troops in September, Washington has sought to break the political deadlock.

In early July, US Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Iraq to urge politicians to put aside personal ambitions and form a government representative of all Iraqis.

Oil smuggling to Iran embarrassment for Iraq

2010-07-13T11:35:00.000-07:00

The smuggling of tens of thousands of gallons a day of crude oil and refined fuels from northern Iraq to Iran, in violation of new U.S. sanctions, is stoking tensions between Iraq's central government and its Kurdish provincial counterparts.

The reports about the oil smuggling surfaced just over a week after the U.S. imposed new sanctions barring the export of refined fuels to Iran. They also arise at a time when Kurdish help may be needed to form the next government as politicians in Baghdad have been deadlocked since the March 7 election.

Iraqi officials quickly vowed to do something about the practice. The smuggling is an embarrassment for Baghdad and the Kurds — both U.S. allies — not only because of the sanctions but also because of Iraqis' perception that politicians are profiting on the trade while the public suffers from fuel shortages.

Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said Tuesday the cabinet had decided to summon representatives of the Kurdish regional government to discuss the smuggling issue and "to put an end to it, as it harms Iraq's national and economic interests."

"This matter is unacceptable and strange," al-Shahristani told reporters after the cabinet meeting. It is "illogical to export refined products to neighboring countries while Iraq imports refined products such as gasoline."

Days earlier, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said an urgent meeting would be held with Kurdish officials.

The Kurds, however, appeared resistant. One Kurdish government official told The Associated Press he doubted any meeting would take place, noting "the government's mandate is over." He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue.

Kurdish officials acknowledged that some refined fuel from their region was being exported legally, but denied that any crude was being smuggled into Iran.

Kurdish Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami insisted the source of the smuggling problem was not the Kurds. According to the Kurdish news agency, Hawrami said oil from two major refineries in central Iraq is being shipped to Iran and "the Iraqi government's raising of this issue now has a political objective of covering up the unofficial sale of crude oil from southern Iraq."

In a statement this week, the Kurdish regional government blamed Baghdad's policy of selling heavily discounted fuel to private distributors for the Iraqi public, which it said creates "incentives" for the buyers to smuggle it abroad. It acknowledged some of that smuggling may go through Kurdistan and said it is "committed to working with the federal government to eliminate permanently all such profiteering of fuel oil."

An Associated Press reporter who visited the area several weeks ago saw hundreds of fuel tankers lined up at an official crossing on a narrow mountain road at Haj Omran, a Kurdish resort town on the border with Iran. One driver, Nouri Ahmed, said he was to transport his shipment down to the Iranian port of Bandar Imam, where it is unloaded and moved to a tanker in the Gulf.

"I don't know where it goes" from there, Ahmed said.

The oil smuggling is far from new. For several years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, it was one of the preferred ways for insurgents to fund their operations. As security improved, private individuals and political groups picked up on the lucrative practice. Analysts say that smuggling of oil has been going on in the Kurdish north since the early 1990s.

But the issue is in the limelight now after President Barack Obama this month signed the new sanctions, which punish entities involved in exporting refined fuel products to Iran. Iran is a major exporter of crude oil, but it sorely lacks refineries, making it heavily reliant on imports of gasoline and other refined fuels. The U.S. move aims to put extra pressure on Iran over its nuclear program after four rounds of U.N. financial sanctions.

"If Iran had not been placed under international sanctions, the smuggling would have continued without a single comment," Bassem al-Sheik, the editor-in-chief of Ad-Dustour newspaper wrote Monday. He said the Kurdistan government's silence on smuggling for so long was likely because the Kurdish political groups were benefiting from the proceeds.

U.S. officials in Iraq said smuggling had long been an issue, even before the new sanctions were approved. But as major oil companies grow increasingly reluctant to sell refined products to Iran, new players had been stepping up.

"We're concerned about this, and we're reviewing these developments," said Nolan Barkhouse, a U.S. embassy spokesman in Baghdad.

Oil has long been a source of tensions between the central government in Baghdad and the government in the autonomous Kurdish region in the north. The two sides have been at odds over just how much control the Kurds — who sit on more than a third of Iraq's 115 billion barrels in proven crude reserves — should have over the oil in their territory.

Several years ago, Baghdad deemed illegal the unilateral oil deals signed by the Kurds with foreign companies following Saddam Hussein's ouster.

While the Baghdad government struck a deal in June 2009 with the Kurds to allow exports to resume through the pipeline that runs from Kirkuk to Ceyhan, Turkey, the agreement was short-lived, with exports halted three months later over a dispute over payments to foreign companies operating there.

Exports through the line have yet to resume with any consistency, raising the question of what becomes of production from the Taq Taq and Tawke fields that feed it. Taq Taq is operated by China's state-owned Sinopec Group and Turkey's Genel Enerji, and Tawke by the independent Norwegian oil company DNO.

Tawke's production in May — the latest available — stood at about 4,800 barrels per day, far shy of the field's 50,000 barrel per day capacity. Of that production, 80 barrels per day go to power the company's operations at Tawke, according to company figures. The rest is split between DNO's local refinery and the small refineries in the region, said DNO spokesman Tom Bratlie.

While DNO doesn't keep track of what happens to the oil once it's sold, "all deliveries are subject to approval by the local government," Bratlie said. He said oil refined by DNO is distributed by the local government.

The smuggling seems less a matter of helping Iran than of turning a profit.

"It's physically impossible for the oil being smuggled to be more than a drop in the bucket for Iranian needs," Samuel Ciszuk, Mideast energy analyst with IHS Global Insight said.

El-Tablawy is based in Baghdad and Barzanji in Sulaimaniyah; AP writer Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report from Baghdad and Ian MacDougall from Oslo, Norway.

At least 11 dead in Iraq attacks

2010-07-13T11:34:00.003-07:00

At least 11 people were killed in bomb and gun attacks in Iraq on Tuesday, including three by a device which blew up in a mock coffin during a demonstration, security officials said.

Dozens of people took part in the protest in Khales, 65 kilometres (40 miles) north of Baghdad, to demand stiff penalties for the perpetrators of anti-Shiite attacks in the city, the local security operations command said.

The demonstrators were carrying a mock coffin when a booby-trapped device exploded inside the box, killing three people and wounding seven, an official at the centre told AFP.

Sectarian tensions remain high in Khales, a city which in 2006-2007 was a battleground between Sunni insurgents of Al-Qaeda and Shiite militias.

At the end of May, a car bombing in a Khales marketplace killed 30 people, two months after another 42 people perished in a double bomb attack near a coffeeshop and a restaurant.

In Yusifiyah, 25 kilometres (15 miles) south of Baghdad, gunmen on Tuesday killed a leader of the Sahwa militia, which has sided with US forces against Al-Qaeda, and four family members in their home, an interior ministry official said.

In the capital itself, two bombs exploded near a petrol station in the central district of Muhandicin, killing two and wounding five others, the capital's police said.

And a man was killed in the western city of Fallujah when a "sticky bomb" attached to his car blew up, a local police official said.

Although overall levels of violence in Iraq have fallen markedly since their peak in 2006 and 2007, deadly attacks against civilians and security forces take place on a daily basis.

Iraq has only a caretaker government more than four months after a general election in which no clear winner emerged.

Non-military options over Iraq neglected says diplomat

2010-07-13T11:34:00.001-07:00

Dealing with Saddam Hussein through sanctions and other methods was a "very available" alternative to military action, a former UK diplomat has said.

Carne Ross, who resigned over the war, told the Iraq inquiry that the UK did not work hard enough to make its pre-2003 policy of containment work.

Officials trying to argue for this approach felt "very beleaguered".

There was no "significant intelligence" to back up beliefs Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, he added.

The Iraq inquiry is continuing to examine the background to the UK's participation in the 2003 invasion, the build-up to the war and its aftermath.

Mr Ross was first secretary at the UK's mission to the UN between 1997 and 2002.

In this role, he played an important role in liaising with UN weapons inspectors in Iraq and Security Council members as they sought to get Saddam Hussein to comply with his disarmament obligations.

Mr Ross resigned from the Diplomatic Service in 2004 in protest over Iraq policy and told the Butler inquiry into the use of intelligence by the British government in 2004 that he believed serious policy mistakes had been made.

He told the Chilcot inquiry on Monday that the policy of trying to contain Saddam Hussein by a combination of economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure and policing of no-fly zones in Iraq, was "under pressure" in 2001.

Enforcement of sanctions was "politically difficult", because of concerns they were not adequately targeted and were being widely breached by the regime, but it was "doable", he said.

However, UN officials received "very little senior support" from London and Washington in their efforts to make the sanctions regime more effective.

During the period, Saddam Hussein's regime was being "sustained" by revenues from illegal oil exports through Turkey and Syria but the international community did little to clamp down on this.

"That was an available option to us, as a government, that we never took," he said.'Not justified'

Other methods of undermining the regime and preventing the momentum towards a military confrontation were neglected, he suggested.

"It is astonishing to me that neither the US nor UK did anything about Saddam's illegal bank accounts which we knew to exist in Jordan.

"That was not brain surgery to attack all those bank accounts. It was far less effort than any subsequent military effort was made to topple Saddam."

Asked about the threat posed by Iraq, Mr Ross said there was no evidence that it was "substantially rearming" in the years before the invasion.

"We continued to believe Iraq was certainly pursuing WMD programmes and there was a widespread belief that Iraq probably possessed some WMD of some kind.

"But we had no significant intelligence, in the time I worked at the UK mission, of significant holdings of WMD."

Criticising the September 2002 dossier on Iraq's weapons capability, he said the "uncertain and patchy" picture suggested by intelligence reports had been "converted" into the appearance of "positive" knowledge of a threat.

"Whick I think is a process that is not justified," he said.

He also criticised what he said was a document on Iraq's weapons capability circulated to Labour MPs in March 2002 - which suggested Saddam could develop a "crude" nuclear device within five years if arms programmes went unchecked.

This was contrary to the government's position on the issue, he said, while the assertion was not corrected despite efforts by a senior foreign official to draw attention to it.

Amid threat, U.S. heightens security at its Iraq bases

2010-07-13T11:32:00.003-07:00

The U.S. military has beefed up security at some of its bases after a threat that an Iranian-backed militant group was planning to attack, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq said Tuesday.

Men from Kataib Hezbollah, a Shiite group that U.S. officials say is trained and funded by Iran'sRevolutionary Guard Corps, crossed into Iran for training and returned to conduct attacks just as U.S. troop levels plummet over the summer, Gen. Ray Odierno said. By September, only 50,000 U.S. troops will remain in Iraq.

"In the last couple weeks there's been an increased threat," Odierno said in a briefing to reporters. "We've increased our security on some of our bases. We've also increased activity with the Iraqi Security Forces. This is another attempt by Iran and others to influence the U.S. role here inside Iraq."

So far the threat has not manifested, he said.

Odierno said the Iranian-backed militant groups seem focused primarily on attacking U.S. troops, and don't pose a long-term threat to the Iraqi government.

The Kataib Hezbollah group is plotting to use powerful rocket-propelled bombs called Improvised Rocket-Assisted Munitions, or IRAMs, Odierno said. The short-range projectiles are propane tanks packed with explosives and launched with 107 mm rockets, often off the back of pickup trucks.

In the past seven years there have been a total of 16 attacks on U.S. bases with IRAMS, including five in the past year, the U.S. officials said. With the U.S. military moving from smaller bases to larger, more densely populated bases as part of the ongoing drawdown, the IRAMs could be particularly lethal.

"There is a very consistent threat from Iranian surrogates operating in Iraq," Odierno said. "Whether it's connected directly to the Iranian government? We can argue about that. But it's clearly connected to" the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran has been an influential and sometimes nefarious neighbor to Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003. Iraqi officials often fly to neighboring Tehran for consultation, and the Islamic republic is a top trade partner for Iraq.

U.S. officials say Iran still funnels weaponry to Shiite militia groups in Iraq, although it does so much less frequently than it did in years past. Overall, Iran is pursuing more of a "soft power" approach in Iraq, Odierno said, trying to exert influence through economic investment and political pressure so as not to alienate the Iraqi people.

"The Iranian-supported surrogates have always been a larger threat to U.S. forces" than to Iraqi security forces," Odierno said. "They target specifically U.S. forces. In my mind they are not a threat to the government of Iraq or the formation of the government of Iraq."

Odierno reaffirmed that the U.S. troop withdrawal remains on track even though Iraq has yet to form a new government, more than four months after the national election. There are currently about 74,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. At the height of the U.S. military surge there were more than 165,000.

Iraq doesn't need more troops now, Odierno said; it needs political and economic support.

"For us it's about eliminating the environment that allows extremism to exist. We haven't eliminated that environment. That environment will get eliminated through economic and political progress," Odierno said. "We're not leaving tomorrow. We're going to have 50,000 American soldiers on the ground here. . . . We're not abandoning Iraq. We're changing our commitment from military-dominated to one that is civilian-led."

Iraq parliament session delayed over govt impasse

2010-07-13T11:32:00.001-07:00

Iraq on Monday delayed a parliament session scheduled for this week as the political impasse over who will lead the country drags into its fifth month.

The deadlock comes as U.S. forces are pulling out of the country even as politicians seem unable to compromise over the formation of their future government following inconclusive national elections.

"There are still differences in points of views, so it is impossible to enter the parliament hall," said acting parliament speaker Fouad Massoum, warning that the next session could be delayed for days, if not weeks.

Elections on March 7 did not give any party enough seats to form a majority in the 325-member parliament. For the past several months, the major coalitions have been engaged in intense negotiations to win enough allies to form a government.

The alliance in early May of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's coalition and another Shiite bloc backed by Iran seemed to indicate the process was picking up speed with their super-coalition only four seats shy of a governing majority.

But even that alliance is showing cracks as many of the al-Maliki's putative allies are virulently opposed to the prime minister keeping his job.

Massoum said the fact that the parliament was not meeting this week is a violation of the constitution, but he said that nothing can be done. Massoum did not clarify what he meant by the violation but one article of the constitution indicates that the new president should elected within 30 days of the new parliament first meeting.

Meanwhile, Iraq has issued arrest warrants for 39 members of an Iranian opposition group who have lived in a camp northeast of Baghdad since Saddam Hussein's reign.

The development comes just days after American soldiers shut down their base near Camp Ashraf as part of the U.S. troop drawdown.

The presence of the Iranian group, which fought alongside Saddam during his 1980s war with Iran, has long irritated Iraq's Shiite-led government.

A senior Iraqi judiciary official said on Monday that the wanted members of the group — known as The People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran — are suspected of committing crimes while helping Saddam crush the 1991 Shiite revolt.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Iraqi court seeks arrest of Iranian exiles

2010-07-13T11:31:00.001-07:00

An Iraqi court ordered the arrest of 39 members of an exiled Iranian opposition group, accusing them of crimes against humanity in helping Saddam Hussein to crush a revolt almost two decades ago, a judge said Sunday.

The 39 are members of the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI), a guerrilla movement opposed to the Iranian government. It sided with the toppled Iraqi dictator, a Sunni Muslim, during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s but has denied helping Saddam to crack down on long-oppressed majority Shi'ites and ethnic Kurds.

Iran, Iraq and the United States consider the PMOI a terrorist organization and the now Shi'ite-led Iraqi government has been trying to get it to vacate a base north of Baghdad where around 3,500 of its members have lived for 20 years.

"An arrest warrant has been issued against 39 leaders and members of the organization including the PMOI's head Massoud Rajavi, due to evidence that confirms they committed crimes against humanity," said Judge Mohammed Abdul-Sahib, a spokesman of the Iraqi High Tribunal.

Rajavi's wife Maryam, leader of the French-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the PMOI's political wing, was also included in the warrant, Abdul Sahib added.

"The 39 Iranian suspects were involved with the former Iraqi security forces in suppressing the 1991 (Shi'ite) uprising against the former Iraqi regime and the killing of Iraqi citizens," he said.

The PMOI began as an Islamist leftist group opposed to Iran's late Shah, but fell out with Shi'ite clerics who took power after the 1979 revolution. Mujahideen guerrillas carried out attacks against Iranian targets. Iran executed a large number of PMOI prisoners at the end of the Iran-Iraq war.

Last year, Iraq said it wanted the Iranian opposition exiles based at Camp Ashraf north of Baghdad to leave the country. Iraqi forces took over responsibility for the camp on January 1, 2009 from U.S. troops, who had been guarding it.

Violence erupted there last year when Iraqi security forces tried to enter the camp. At least seven exiles were killed.

Mahdi Uqbaai, a spokesman of the PMOI, said the court was pressured by the government to order the arrests.

"This is a politically motivated decision and it's the last gift presented from the government of (Prime Minister) Nuri al-Maliki to the Iranian government," said Uqbaai.

The Iraqi High Tribunal was set up after the 2003 invasion to prosecute crimes against humanity and genocide committed during Saddam's rule. Any case against the PMOI would be its first against foreigners for Saddam-era crimes.

Police Targeted in Iraq Attacks

2010-07-13T11:30:00.002-07:00

Gunmen in Iraq attacked a local police chief's convoy Saturday, wounding him and two others.

The police chief was traveling near Mosul when militants fired on the motorcade.

The attack sparked a clash between police and militants that left one officer dead and at least one other person wounded.

Another policeman was killed and at least two others wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol outside Fallujah.

US troops killed in Iraq and Kuwait

2010-07-13T11:30:00.000-07:00

Army Capt. Michael P. Cassidy

The last time Michael Cassidy was home on leave — two weeks in the middle of his deployment to Iraq — he took the daughters who his wife said were the "apples of his eyes" to the Carowinds theme park in South Carolina.

"Of course, I had a lot of errands for him to run and things to fix around the house," said Cassidy's wife, Johanna. "We just enjoyed being together."

It was extra special for his daughters, 10-year-old Catherine and 9-year-old Amber.

"He loved being a dad. He did everything for these children," Johanna Cassidy said.

The Army Captain died June 17 in Mosul, Iraq, of injuries not related to combat. He was assigned to Fort Stewart.

He started life as a computer specialist and later went to Sherman College in South Carolina to become a chiropractor. But then he joined the National Guard as a medic, and he decided to make it a career after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Others who served with Cassidy remembered him in an online memorial as a consummate soldier.

"He was such a shining light, someone who knew where he wanted to go and never waivered," said Amber Gloria, who had served with Cassidy in 2005.

___

Army Spc. Jacob P. Dohrenwend

While serving as an Army specialist in Iraq, Jake Dohrenwend sometimes used his money to buy items for Iraqi children.

"He always tried to lift the spirits of those around him, even in the worst of circumstances," said his mother, Shannon Abernathy.

Dohrenwend, a Milford, Ohio, native, enlisted in 2008, the same year he graduated from Milford High School. He kept in touch with one of his teachers, Allison Willson, and sent her a letter from Iraq in October after receiving a package from her.

"I'm just doing my part and serving the country I love," he wrote. "I'm thankful for the praise and the care packages, but it's really unnecessary because I would do this job even if no one knew or cared."

Dohrenwend, 20, died June 21 in Balad, Iraq, from injuries unrelated to combat. His death is under investigation. He was assigned to Fort Riley.

He also leaves behind his father, Jim Dohrenwend.

Dohrenwend left a message for friends and family to be read in the event of his death.

"I do not regret dying for a second," he wrote. "I only regret we did not have more time. This isn't really a good-bye, but a temporary distance between us."

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Army Pfc. Bryant J. Haynes

Bryant "B.J." Haynes didn't write much on his Myspace profile. He let the pictures do the talking.

First on the list is his pit bull terrier, Flesh. Then come the photos of an athletic football player. In one, he's nearly upside down as he takes a hard tackle "for the team," as his caption puts it.

He's among a sea of red jerseys walking out of a giant animal's mouth onto the football field, "ready for whatever."

"He was a very selfless player who loved his teammates and his school," said John Carr, who coached Haynes at Ouachita Parish High School. Haynes had played for Carr as a wide receiver.

Haynes, 21, of Epps, La., was killed in a vehicle rollover June 26 in Al Diwaniyah, Iraq. He was based with the Army National Guard in Alexandria, La.

Haynes left his school and football team before graduating because he wanted to get his GED and serve in the military.

"He was a loving young man," said his stepfather, Tony Collins. "He was caring and respectable."

Haynes is survived by his mother, Linda Toney Collins; his father, Fredrick Nichols; fiancee, Lakeidra Taylor; and nine brothers and four sisters.

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Army Sgt. Israel O'Bryan

Israel "Izzy" O'Bryan found love in the military.

Not necessarily with his career, but with the woman he wound up marrying — Brenna — who had been a soldier in the same brigade as O'Bryan. They had a son together, 1-year-old Turner.

His dedication to his family is evident on his Facebook page: "My life revolves around benefiting my family in any way that I can even if I have to do something that I hate."

O'Bryan, 24, of Newbern, Tenn., was killed by a suicide bomber June 11 in Jalula, Iraq. He was assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

An obituary published online said O'Bryan graduated from Dyer County High School in Tennessee and attended the University of Tennessee-Martin for a time. He enlisted in the Army in 2006.

The obituary says he was active in boxing, soccer and baseball and also "enjoyed a good shopping day!"

While his Facebook page indicates how seriously he took his duty to his wife and daughter, it also suggests a sense of humor. One of the quotes he posted reads, "Nobody worries about rearranging the seats on the Titanic."

Among others surviving O'Bryan are his mother, father, stepmother and stepfather.

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Army Spc. Christopher W. Opat

Christopher Opat wasn't afraid to break a sweat, even as a youngster.

"He was always a really, really hard worker," said his brother, Jason Opat. "He would pick rock and bale hay when he was a kid."

He was a gentle person with an adventurous spirit and enjoyed pulling a good prank on his brothers every now and then, relatives said.

The military said only that the 29-year-old Iowan died June 15 in Baquah, Iraq, of injuries from a non-combat incident that was under investigation.

His hometown was listed as Spencer, in northwestern Iowa, but his family said he grew up on a farm near Lime Springs, in the northeastern part of the state. He was assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, served three years in Germany and had been deployed twice.

He had joined the Army to serve his country and to get money for school, Jason Opat said.

Christopher Opat graduated in 1999 from Crestwood High School in the northern Iowa town of Cresco and went on to earn an associate's degree in construction at Iowa Lakes Community College.

Survivors include his parents, Leslie Opat Sr. and Mary Katherine Opat, two other brothers and two sisters.

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Army Sgt. Steve M. Theobald

Steve Theobald was remembered as a great leader that one soldier called the kind of officer he wanted to have with him on a deployment.

"He knew how to instill confidence in any soldier and I would have gone anywhere with him," Army Spc. David B. Emigh, who first met Theobald during training in Indiana, wrote in an online message board. "I hated that I was sent to Afghanistan and he stayed in Kuwait. 'Theo' will be missed by us all."

Theobald, 53, of Goose Creek, S.C., was killed June 4 near Kuwait City, Kuwait, in a vehicle roll-over. He was based in Livingston, Ala. The military is investigating what caused the crash.

Theobald was a highly decorated soldier who graduated from several military schools, according to the Summerville (S.C.) Journal Scene.

He first enlisted in the military in 1975 and served for three years. He then joined the Army Reserve in 1984 and had served ever since. He was on his second tour overseas, having served from 2003-2004 in Iraq.

He was born in Pensacola but lived in South Carolina with his wife and three children.

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Army Spc. William C. Yauch

William Yauch was an outgoing guy who loved life and his country, relatives said.

"He very much loved the U.S. Army and was doing what he believed in and wanted to be doing," said his stepmother, Debbie Yauch.

The 23-year-old from Batesville, Ark., died June 11 in Jalula, Iraq, of wounds from a vehicle-borne explosive device. He was assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Debbie Yauch said her stepson was scheduled to come home in less than two months.

"Chris," as he was known, is being remembered for how he enjoyed a good game of paint ball, his passion for riding his motorcycle and his love of tinkering with his car.

"He was a friendly young man, pleasant to be around, just an all-around good guy," said principal David Campbell of Batesville High School, where Yauch graduated in 2005.

He enlisted in the Army in 2007 and married his wife, Mallory Rhodes, in February of the following year.

Other survivors include his mother and stepfather, Lucretia and Dennis Robertson; his father, Kurt Yauch; and four stepsisters, Jenny, Rachel, Barbara and Brenda.

Iraq says to discuss oil smuggling to Iran with Kurd authorities

2010-07-13T11:29:00.000-07:00

The Iraqi government has called for urgent talks with the Kurdistan Regional Government to discuss the growing trade in crude oil and oil products from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in defiance of US sanctions, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Sunday.

Dabbagh spoke on Dubai-based al-Arabiya television in response to a report carried by the Saudi-owned channel about the rise in smuggling of fuel by tanker truck across the border between Iraq and Iran.

"We will be contacting the Kurdish authorities to work together to put a stop to this phenomenon," Dabbagh said, adding that footage shown by the Dubai-based network of oil tanker trucks waiting to cross into Iran "was clear evidence" that smuggling was taking place. He said the Iraqi government would call for immediate contact with the KRG to discuss the issue.

It was not immediately known what volumes of crude oil produced in Kurdish-controlled areas and refined product produced in illegal topping plants in Iraqi Kurdistan were making their way into Iran. However, Al-Arabiya showed footage of long lines of tanker trucks waiting to cross into Iran from the border post of Haj Umran, one of three border crossings it said were used in the smuggling operation.

Some of the crude oil was being taken to Iran's Abadan refinery, which lies close to the border with Iran, Al-Arabiya said.

Dabbagh said the government was trying to obtain details about the smuggling, which he said has been a phenomenon in the past because refined product prices in neighboring countries were higher than Iraqi prices, which are heavily subsidized.

Iraqi Kurdistan currently has only two oil producing fields, Tawke and Taq Taq, which are believed to have a combined capacity of 60,000 b/d. Exports from the two fields began on June 1 last year but were halted three months later in a dispute between the KRG and the Baghdad government over payment to the foreign contractors.

Norwegian independent DNO is operator of the Tawke field, while a Turkish-Chinese consortium is developing the Taq Taq field. Both fields are producing below capacity with no sign of a resumption of exports despite announcements that the Iraqi government had agreed to repay the foreign operators' costs.

The New York Times reported July 8 that hundreds of millions of dollars in crude oil and refined products were being smuggled over the Kurdish mountains into Iran every year without Iraqi government approval.

It said the stream of tankers into Iran continued without interruption during an Iranian military campaign last month against Iranian Kurdish separatists operating at the border.

Hundreds of tankers, each with a capacity of at least 226 barrels of crude oil and refined products, enter Iran every day from Penjwin and two other border posts in Iraqi Kurdistan, the newspaper quoted Kurdish officials as saying. The Times quoted some tanker truck drivers as saying that while much of the refined product is used in Iran, which sorely lacks refinery capacity, the crude oil is trucked all the way down to the Persian Gulf ports of Bandar Bushehr, Bandar Imam Khomeini and Bandar Abbas, where it is emptied into reservoirs or loaded onto ships.

It quoted Kurdish energy minister Ashti Hawrami as saying that the trade is supported by an estimated 70 mini-refineries or topping plants dotted around the Kurdistan region, many of which are unlicensed.

The provision of refined products to Iran is a breach of recently passed US sanctions, which prohibit any company or party from supplying refined oil products to Iran as part of an effort to force Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

The KRG's official spokesman, in a statement posted on the KRG's website on Sunday, referred to inaccuracies in the New York Times article with regard to the refining of crude oil in Kurdistan. He did, however, concede that some oil and refined products were finding their way across the border.

"The [Kurdish] region's refineries provide essential fuels to Iraqi domestic and international markets," he said. "The KRG is proud of its growing oil and gas sector and the KRG's free trade policies."

The KRG has licensed three refineries in regions under its control, all of which were issued in accordance with the Iraqi constitution and the Kurdistan region's oil and gas law of 2007, he added.

"Surplus from some refined products from Kurdistan's refineries is available for export. The KRG conducts open and competitive tendering for the export sale of petroleum products," he said.

The major sources of refined products are the large refineries in other parts of Iraq, including Baiji, near Baghdad, and Daura, in the Salahiddeen governorate. Some of that product may well be exported through the Kurdistan Region.

"In other parts of Iraq, fuel oil is sold to the local private sector by Federal agencies at a significant discount to the international price. This discount is intended to stimulate the local economy. Unfortunately, this creates incentives for the buyers to engage in cross-border trade," the spokesman said.

"The KRG is aware of the fact that profiteers in fuel oil refined outside Kurdistan have exploited Kurdistan's international borders," he said, adding the KRG, with the active support of Kurdish president Masoud Barzani, was "instituting a series of measures to ensure full compliance with the Iraqi Constitution and international law, and in this regard the KRG is committed to working with the Federal Government to eliminate permanently all such profiteering in fuel oil, not only in the KRG but also along the entirety of Iraq's international borders."

Although Iran and Iraq are oil-producing members of OPEC, the oil and gas industries in both countries face huge challenges as a result of wars and sanctions. Iran turned a blind eye to illicit Iraqi oil exports while Iraq was under UN sanctions for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, when sanctions-busting tankers would smuggle crude oil through the Persian Gulf.

Iran too faces constraints in developing its oil and gas resources and the expansion and upgrade of its refineries because of a lack of sufficient foreign investment, due largely to UN and US sanctions that have squeezed its financial sector and prevented large inflows of foreign funds into Iran.

Iran, like Iraq, is a net importer of oil products to meet domestic consumption, which is high because of subsidies that apply to most refined products.

Turkey Bombs Kurdish Targets in Iraq

2010-07-10T12:04:00.000-07:00

Iraqi officials say Turkish warplanes have bombed targets in the Kurdish autonomous region of northern Iraq, wounding one civilian.

The officials say Turkey bombed the village of Sidakan near the Iranian border Saturday.

There was no immediate confirmation of the strike from the Turkish military.

Clashes between Turks and Kurds have increased since the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, called off a yearlong cease-fire in June. The group cited repeated Turkish military attacks for ending the truce.

The PKK is fighting for Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Turkey, and has bases in northern Iraq.

'Tough talking' general picked to oversee Iraq, Afghan wars

2010-07-10T12:03:00.000-07:00

A controversial and leading U.S. general is in line to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis -- if he wins presidential and Senate approval -- will move from being the outgoing commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command to leading the U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Southwest Asia, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. The command also monitors Iran.

He would take over the post left open by the departure of Gen. David Petraeus, who was asked to take over command of the war in Afghanistan.

Mattis was an effective leader in the Marine Corps, in the eyes of the Pentagon, while commanding troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Known for his straight talk and hard-core leadership of Marines in the 2004 battle of Falluja, Iraq, Mattis is considered a dark-horse pick by many in the halls of the Pentagon.

His blunt talk has gotten him in trouble: In 2005 he said, "It's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them," referring to Afghan fighters.

Asked if the general would be an effective leader for the Central Command region with the shadow of the comments still lingering, Gates said Thursday, "Appropriate action was taken at the time. I think that the subsequent five years have demonstrated that the lesson was learned."

"Obviously, in the wake of the Rolling Stone interview, we discussed this kind of thing. And I have every confidence that General Mattis will respond to questions and speak publicly about the matters for which he is responsible in an entirely appropriate way," Gates said.

The Rolling Stone interview led to the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then the commander in Afghanistan, because of negative comments about Obama administration officials made by him and his aides.

Mattis' comment in 2005 was made when the then-three-star general was in a panel discussion before an audience.

"Actually, it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot," he said, prompting laughter from some military members in the audience. "It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up there with you. I like brawling," he said.

"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil," he said. "You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

The commandant of the Marine Corps at the time, Gen. Michael Hagee, counseled Mattis about the remarks but defended him publicly, calling him "one of this country's bravest and most experienced military leaders."

"While I understand that some people may take issue with the comments made by him, I also know he intended to reflect the unfortunate and harsh realities of war," he said in a written statement. "Lt. Gen. Mattis often speaks with a great deal of candor."

Mattis also was the commanding general overseeing the case of the now-infamous slayings of civilians by Marines in Haditha, Iraq.

Some 24 civilians were killed on November 19, 2005, in what a human rights group and military prosecutors said was a house-to-house rampage by Marines after a roadside bomb killed one of their comrades.

Eight Marines were charged, and all but one were cleared, some of them by Mattis.

Mattis also was the overseeing authority in the murder case involving eight Marines found guilty of taking part in a plot to drag an Iraqi man from his home, kill him and then make it look like the man was an insurgent. That incident occurred near the western Iraqi town of Hamdania in April 2006.

Mattis later cut the sentences of at least two of the Marines involved in the plot.

Mattis had been preparing to retire after finishing his latest command, Gates said.

"General Mattis is one of our military's outstanding combat leaders and strategic thinkers, bringing an essential mix of experience, judgment and perspective to this important post," Gates said.

"General Mattis has proven to be one of the military's most innovative and iconoclastic thinkers. His insights into the nature of warfare in the 21st century have influenced my own views about how the armed forces must be shaped and postured for the future."

Australian troops under intense pressure of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq

2010-07-10T12:02:00.002-07:00

Australian troops have revealed the intense pressure of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, Australia's media reported on Saturday.

The troops have criticized the Defense organization and their allied counterparts as the troops detailed the hidden trauma of life on the front line.

According to The Australian, in descriptions of overworked pilots addicted to Stilnox and other prescription drugs, an underground trade in illicit substances and sex, complaints about a lack of support, poor leadership and the constant fear of death, troops have provided a raw and disturbing account of Australia's involvement in the Middle East.

The Weekend Australian has obtained an extraordinary selection of transcripts from 120 serving and former troops from the two Iraq offensives, dating back to the early 1990s, and the ongoing Afghanistan war in which they reveal the threats faced on deployment, not only from the enemy, but also from within.

"Their frank and often disheartening comments, made in a supposedly confidential environment for researchers preparing Australia's largest-ever Defense health study, were so controversial that Defense has removed the transcripts from a research website and threatened reprisals over the apparent breach of information security," The Australian wrote.

Defense on Friday night vowed to investigate many of the allegations raised by the focus groups, but insisted some of the members' concerns were dated and had already been addressed. The study itself was being conducted with a view to improving overall support and health-care.

"Some of the comments raised serious issues of concern, and Defense will look into those and take appropriate action," the department said in a statement.

The focus groups confirmed revelations in The Weekend Australian that specialist members of the defense force, such as pilots, were struggling to maintain the operational tempo.

Several members of the focus groups, mainly medics and air force personnel, highlighted the challenge of repeat deployments and, for some, working constant night cycles.

Aircrew expressed concerns about their use of prescription drugs and one Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) medic said crewmen had become dependent or even addicted.

BP spill won't affect Iraq projects: oil minister

2010-07-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

Iraq's oil minister said on Saturday he sees no impact from the massive oil spill at a BP (BP.L: Quote) well in the Gulf of Mexico on Iraq's current or future projects to develop its giant oilfields.

BP has promised to pay damages to those hurt by the worst oil spill in U.S. history and has committed to a $20 billion fund for clean-up and other costs stemming from the spill. Its costs to date have topped $3 billion and the company's financial woes have triggered takeover speculation.

BP had said it would invest around $15 billion to develop Iraq's largest oilfield at Rumaila, where BP and its partner, China's CNPC, plan to boost output to 2.85 million barrels per day from around 1.066 million bpd.

"We don't see that the problem BP is facing would ever affect its work in Iraq, whether now or in the future," Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani told Reuters on Saturday.

"We are totally comfortable with the performance of BP in developing Rumaila," he said. "The pace of work (in Rumaila) is continuing quickly and according to the plan we agreed on with the company."

On Wednesday, BP boss Tony Hayward met with an Abu Dhabi state investment fund, part of a quest for cash to ward off takeovers and help pay for the oil spill. [ID:nLDE6660B7]

Shahristani also said Iraq's Oil Ministry is moving ahead with legal procedures to set up a joint venture, named Basra Gas Co, with Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote) and Japan's Mitsubishi (8058.T: Quote) to capture gas being flared at southern oilfields.

He said he could not comment on when the final contract for the multibillion-dollar deal would be signed after the cabinet approved it last month. [ID:nRAS932746] "Now we are taking the required legal procedures to set up the joint company, I don't know how long these procedures would take and I can't specify when we would sign the final contract," the minister said.

Baghdad takes aim at stray dogs

2010-07-10T12:00:00.001-07:00

Baghdad officials said Saturday that 58,000 stray dogs have been killed in and around the Iraqi capital over the past three months as part of a campaign to curb an increasing number of strays blamed for attacks on residents.

A statement released from the Baghdad provincial government said 20 teams, made up of police shooters and veterinarians, had been moving around Baghdad and the outer-lying regions daily looking for and putting down the strays. The operation, which was first announced in 2008, truly took off in April after funds were allocated.

The surge in strays — estimated by provincial officials to have reached 1.25 million — is ironically linked to what officials say is an improvement in some elements of daily life in Baghdad, a city that for seven years has been struggling to return to normalcy after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

Officials with the provincial veterinary directorate said the dogs are eating more and having bigger litters.

Figures for the number of attacks by packs of stray dogs were not available Saturday, the last day of the weekend in Iraq.

But officials said resident complaints have increased steadily in tandem with the rise in the stray population. In the capital, dogs have attacked children, in some cases killing them.

Efforts since the campaign was first announced in 2008 met with limited success because of a lack of funding and follow-through. There are not believed to be any dog shelters in Baghdad.

The teams begin their work daily at 6 a.m., and coordinate with relevant security forces in the area — ostensibly to ensure that their presence does not draw retaliatory fire by security forces who may mistake them for insurgents.

Provincial officials said before the teams move into an area, residents are also notified, and warned to not pick up meat they find on the ground because it could be the poisoned food used to lure and kill the dogs.

Under Saddam Hussein's regime, stray dogs were routinely shot. But their numbers grew steadily following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion when a host of more serious security issues sidelined efforts to deal with the dogs.

Muted reaction to celebrated Lebanese Ayatollah Fadlallah's death

2010-07-09T16:01:00.001-07:00

Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah was mourned by hundreds of thousands in Lebanon this week, but in Iraq's Shiite holy city of Najaf, where Fadlallah was born, the influential cleric received a chilly reception. No banners or open displays of mourning were seen as clergy in Najaf expressed discomfort over the ayatollah's legacy.

They faulted his relatively liberal religious teachings. In particular, some cited his defense of women's rights. Clergy also criticized Fadlallah's promotion of an activist role for clergy, far away from the more traditional school of noninterference advocated in Najaf.

"First of all ... Fadlallah belongs to the movement ... that interferes in politics, contrary to the classical or conservative schools that consider Najaf as a headquarters," said Sheik Nima Abbadi, a teacher of political sciences at the Hawza, Najaf's loose confederation of religious schools.

Abbadi said clergy in Najaf considered Fadlallah to be closer to the interventionist spirit of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran's Islamic Republic.

Najaf's clergy appeared bothered by Fadlallah’s more liberal decrees for men and women in Islam.

"He allows people to shave their beards, and women to beat their husbands," one cleric said, on condition of anonymity.

The disavowals of Fadlallah could also stem from the healthy completion among clergy. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most senior cleric in Iraq, while associated with a hands-off approach to politics, has himself provided guidance to Iraq's democracy since 2003.

Fadlallah's ties to the founders of Iraq's Dawa Party could also have played a factor in Najaf's cool reception to him. Iraq's Shiite elite are divided over who should be the country's next prime minister, and the celebration of a cleric, considered an early Dawa Party member, may have proven unpopular in Najaf. Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, the current leader of the Dawa Party, follows Fadlallah's religious teachings. On Thursday, Maliki's office announced that the prime minister had gone to Beirut to pay his respects.

Latest Baghdad bomb blasts kill 7

2010-07-09T16:00:00.003-07:00

Bomb blasts across the capital killed at least seven people yesterday, the last day of a Shi’ite religious pilgrimage. In addition, four pilgrims walking back from the ceremony were sprayed with gunfire outside the northern city of Kirkuk. One died; three were injured.

The bloody morning follows a series of blasts Wednesday that killed at least 50 people and wounded more than 250 in the city and surrounding areas. The most deadly was a suicide bombing in the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiyah that killed more than 28 and wounded at least 136 people. Casualties in the attacks rose overnight, police said.

No one has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks.

More than 4 million people had gathered yesterday in the city to commemorate the death of the revered Shi’ite figure Imam Moussa al-Kadhim. Pilgrims had walked from across the country to reach the Shi’ite shrine, despite attacks in the previous days.

Also yesterday, four people were killed and five were injured in bomb attacks on officers’ homes in western Ramad, and a farmer was killed in a bomb attack in Kirkuk, police said.

Iraqi Parliament to Convene

2010-07-09T16:00:00.001-07:00

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari says parliament will convene on July 13, which will mark only the second time lawmakers have met since the inconclusive national elections in March.

Zebari announced the meeting at a Thursday news conference in Irbil, the capital of the autonomous region of Kurdistan.

The announcement comes a day after bombings targeting Shi'ite pilgrims killed at least 50 people in Baghdad. Iraqi officials say at least 12 people were killed in similar attacks in the capital, Thursday.

Insurgents have intensified attacks across Iraq in recent weeks in an apparent attempt to exploit a political stalemate that resulted from the country's inconclusive elections in March.

No political group emerged from the election with enough parliamentary seats to form a majority. An alliance led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi won the most seats - two more than a coalition led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

However, Mr. Maliki has insisted he should run the government. His coalition has teamed up with the third-place Iraqi National Alliance.

Parliament convened briefly on June 14. Acting Speaker Fouad Massoum then adjourned the session, saying a speaker and a president for parliament would be chosen at a later date.

Attacks in Iraq kill at least 41, most of them pilgrims

2010-07-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

The relentless violence intensified Wednesday evening, with at least 41 people killed by bomb attacks in the capital, an Interior Ministry official said. Another 174 people were wounded, the official said. The vast majority of the victims were Shiite pilgrims.

In the latest attacks, which occurred despite heightened security, a roadside bomb detonated in western Baghdad Wednesday evening, killing at least six pilgrims and wounding 30 others.

Another bombing, in central Baghdad's Haifa street, wounded nine pilgrims on Wednesday evening.

A suicide bomber struck at pilgrims in northern Baghdad's predominantly Sunni Adhamiya district as they were walking toward neighboring Kadhimiya, where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims had gathered to mark the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Musa al-Kadhim. Twenty-eight were killed and 81 were wounded, the official said.

Two roadside bombs left at least five pilgrims dead and 36 wounded in eastern Baghdad's mostly Shiite districts of New Baghdad and al-Fudhailiya, the official said.

A roadside bomb targeting pilgrims exploded in al-Bayaa, in southeastern Baghdad, wounding at least six. In central Baghdad, another five pilgrims were wounded in a roadside bomb blast.

Earlier Wednesday, soldiers at an army checkpoint west of Baghdad fired upon a vehicle driven by a suicide attacker when he refused to stop, Interior Ministry officials told CNN. The vehicle exploded, leaving one civilian dead and four Iraqi army soldiers and police wounded. It was unclear whether the attacker detonated the bomb or if shots fired at the vehicle triggered the explosion.

In another incident, a roadside bomb targeting an army patrol exploded in the Al-Jamia neighborhood of western Baghdad, wounding three soldiers.

A bomb attached to a police officer's car went off Wednesday as he was driving in the Dora neighborhood in southern Baghdad. The officer was killed, officials said.

The attacks came a day after bombings left at least nine dead and 43 wounded. Pilgrims have been targeted since Friday.

The capital is under tight security for the pilgrimage, with many roads blocked and a ban on motorcycles and bicycles in place.

Security measures include: Vehicles to transport pilgrims; thousands of deployed troops; security cameras in and around the shrine; aerial surveillance; and 500 personnel to combat the threat of female suicide bombers.

The Kadhimiya shrine is one of the holiest to Shiite Muslims around the world. The imam died more than 1,200 years ago.

At least 7 killed in Baghdad on last day of Shiite holiday

2010-07-08T10:28:00.002-07:00

At least seven people were killed by bombs across the Iraqi capital Thursday, the last day of a Shiite religious pilgrimage. In addition, four pilgrims walking back from the ceremony were sprayed with gunfire outside the northern city of Kirkuk. One died; three were injured.

The bloody morning follows a series of blasts on Wednesday that killed more than 50 people and wounded more than 250 in the city and surrounding areas. The most deadly was a suicide bombing in the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiyah that killed more than 28 and wounded at least 136 people. Casualties in the attacks rose overnight, police said.

No one has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks in the past few days.

On Thursday, more than 4 million people had gathered in the city to commemorate the death of the revered Shiite figure Imam Moussa al-Kadhim. Pilgrims had walked from all across the country to reach the Shiite shrine, despite attacks in the previous days. The attackers hit as tens of thousands of security forces patrolled the streets and most roads were blocked to allow pedestrians.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who was visitingLebanon on Thursday, condemned the blasts in Baghdad of the past two days, the Associated Press reported.

"Those who benefit from such acts are the enemies of humanity, the enemies of democracy," he said.

Militants have struck a heavy blow against the Shiite community in a bid to destabilize the nation in the midst of political uncertainty. The attacks come as Iraqi politicians remain deadlocked on the formation of a new government, four months after national elections.

Violence has dropped significantly since the height of the sectarian fighting that erupted in 2006, but some worry it will increase as the U.S. military draws down to 50,000 troops in the country by Sept. 1.

Also Thursday, four people were killed and five were injured in bomb attacks on officers' homes in western Ramadi; the dead included a woman and child. A farmer also was killed in a bomb attack in Kirkuk, police said.

Shiite pilgrims stream into Baghdad

2010-07-08T10:28:00.000-07:00

Tens of thousands of Shiite worshippers streamed into the Iraqi capital on Wednesday amid heightened security for a major pilgrimage, a day after six people were killed in a string of attacks.

Around 25 people were also wounded in Tuesday's mortar and bomb attacks as they travelled to the mausoleum of Musa Kadhim, the seventh of the 12 revered imams in Shiite Islam, in Kadhimiyah, a district named in his honour.

Hundreds of tents have been erected to feed people as they pour into the city for the event, which reaches a climax on Wednesday night and early Thursday. The mausoleum has previously been targeted by bombers.

Traffic was banned on Tuesday on several bridges spanning the Tigris River, increasing already bad congestion in the capital, where traffic control is already complicated by hundreds of security checkpoints.

"Everything is going very well today," Major General Qassim Atta, a Baghdad security forces spokesman, told AFP, referring to special safety measures such as road closures put in place to protect worshippers.

"We continue to organise transport for pilgrims and air surveillance for their benefit," he said.

"The movement of motorcycles, bicycles and carts is banned throughout the city until further notice," Atta added, to reduce the risk of small vehicle-borne attacks.

The Shiite majority in Iraq have been a main target of Sunni armed groups in the wake of the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

The shrine of Imam Musa Kadhim has not been spared. In April 2009, two female suicide bombers detonated their payloads near the shrine, killing 65 people, including 20 Iranian pilgrims, and wounding 120 others.

The threat of violence did not dent the enthusiasm of worshippers who spoke to AFP, some of whom were planning to pray for a breakthrough to the political hiatus that has blocked a new government taking office after elections.

"I will pray at the mausoleum for (Prime Minister Nuri) al-Maliki and (Iyad) Allawi to find an agreement so that our situation gets better," said Umm Amir, 40, who was wearing a black abaya and had travelled from Mahmudiyah, 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of Baghdad.

"Because our lives are very difficult," she said, accompanied by her neighbour Umm Sajjad on the journey and carrying a plastic bad filled with water and an orange for sustenance.

Hamid Taleb, 47, an unemployed man travelling with friends and relatives from Babil, a majority Shiite city south of Baghdad, said nothing would stop him from making the annual journey.

"Even in the time of Saddam I came across the fields despite it being forbidden to travel to attend," he said.

"I would make the pilgrimage whatever the situation is."

Al-Qaida in Iraq Confirms Death of 2 Leaders

2010-04-25T18:19:00.001-07:00

Al-Qaida in Iraq has confirmed that two of its leaders were killed one week ago in a joint operation by U.S. and Iraqi forces.

A statement posted Sunday on Islamist websites says Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi were attending a meeting when U.S. and Iraqi troops engaged them in a battle and launched an air strike.

The statement quotes a senior figure in the Islamic State of Iraq militant group as saying the two al-Qaida commanders were steadfast in the pursuit of jihad, or holy war. The militant also urges the group's followers to keep fighting and transform the leaders' blood into "light and fire."

U.S. and Iraqi officials say Masri and Baghdadi were killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi raid on a hideout near the northern city of Tikrit on April 18.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called the deaths a "potentially devastating blow" to al-Qaida in Iraq.

Militants carried out a wave of bombings Friday in apparent retaliation for the raid, killing at least 69 people in Shi'ite areas of Baghdad and other parts of Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki blamed the bombings on al-Qaida in Iraq, a Sunni Muslim group. No group has claimed responsibility.

Iraq bombings raise specter of Shiite militia

2010-04-25T18:18:00.001-07:00

In offering to help Iraqi security forces to fight insurgents after a wave of deadly bombings in the capital, an anti-American Shiite cleric is sending a clear signal to the government: If you don't protect us, we'll protect ourselves.

Muqtada al-Sadr's statement raised the fearful specter that he might be considering reactivating his once-powerful militia known as the Mahdi Army, a move that would play into al-Qaida in Iraq's efforts to spark sectarian war.

Al-Sadr's aides, however, insisted on Saturday that the cleric wasn't threatening to send armed men onto the streets but was offering to help the government forces, who have been widely criticized for failing to protect the people as U.S. troops pull back.

The move comes as al-Sadr seeks to consolidate political power among Iraq's Shiites after a strong showing by his followers in March 7 parliamentary elections. The cleric, a staunch opponent of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, has emerged as a power broker who could play a key role in deciding the country's next leader.

Hours after bombs targeting Shiite mosques around Baghdad killed dozens of worshippers on Friday, al-Sadr urged his followers to remain calm and to do nothing to prompt U.S. forces to remain in Iraq any longer than their planned withdrawal deadline at the end of 2011.

But he added that he was prepared to provide "hundreds of believers" to join the Iraqi army and police to defend "their shrines, mosques, prayers, markets, houses and their towns."

He did not directly mention the Mahdi Army, which fought pitched battles with American forces and was blamed in some of the country's worst sectarian bloodshed before it was routed by U.S.-Iraqi offensives in 2008.

Senior al-Sadr aide Hazim al-Araji said Saturday that the cleric wants to "integrate the believers, and here I mean Mahdi Army people, in the security forces through official ways."

Sadrist lawmaker Hakim al-Zamili also emphasized that al-Sadr's statement was not meant to supplant the Iraqi military.

"This cooperation does not mean that Mahdi army would go back with arms to the streets or participating in any violent act. It is only a call for cooperation with the army and police," he said.

An Iraqi government spokesman did not return calls seeking comment Saturday. But al-Maliki's senior aide Ali al-Adeeb expressed doubt that the government would accept al-Sadr's offer.

"The government might ask the help of individual citizens, not from armed groups," al-Adeeb said. "Such integration might aggravate the situation and provoke the other sect that would demand to do the same."

Violence continued Saturday, as bombs hidden in three plastic bags exploded simultaneously in a billiard hall in a religiously mixed neighborhood in western Baghdad, killing 13 people and wounding 25, according to police and hospital officials.

Al-Sadr, who is widely believed to be based in Iran, has re-emerged as a prominent politician after announcing in 2008 that he was transforming his militia into a social welfare body with a few guerrilla cells to attack U.S. troops if the Pentagon refused to leave Iraq.

His bloc, which was part of a hard-line Shiite religious coalition, won 39 seats in the 325-member parliament, making him a sought-after ally as al-Maliki and secular rival Ayad Allawi jockey for the necessary majority support to govern.

The protracted wrangling has raised fears the political vacuum may allow sectarian violence that peaked after the 2006 bombing of a revered Shiite mosque in Samarra to rekindle. U.S. and Iraqi officials have credited Shiites so far for resisting retaliation.

Al-Sadr's offer may well be a political feint. His relationship with al-Maliki has been bitter at best since 2008 and his followers have frequently criticized the prime minister for failing to prevent bombings.

In offering his help — and expecting it to be rebuffed — al-Sadr can describe the militia as needed protection the next time his followers are attacked, according to Brett McGurk, an expert at the Council on Foreign Relations and former U.S. National Security Council official.

That, in turn, is exactly what the Sunni-dominated al-Qaida in Iraq wants: a loose-trigger Shiite adversary who might be easily goaded into sectarian fighting.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the Friday attacks that killed 72, most near Shiite mosques or places of worship, but al-Maliki and other officials blamed al-Qaida in Iraq. The bombings were widely seen as payback for the killings last weekend of two top al-Qaida in Iraq leaders — and the smug cries of victory by Iraqi and U.S. officials.

"Government officials should direct their full attention to combating terrorism rather than showing up on television all the time to boast about their achievements," said Baghdad political analyst Hadi Jalo. He called the killings of the terror leaders "of little significance because al-Qaida is always able to produce figures to lead and continue."

For his part, al-Maliki has been put in the uncomfortable position of having to woo al-Sadr and the support of his followers. But al-Maliki also can't afford to give al-Sadr carte blanche, and unleashing the Mahdi Army would be seen as a hostile step against Sunnis.

"We know from the bitter experiences of the past that any further integration of militiamen in the official security forces will definitely have a negative impact," said Mohammed Aqbal, a lawmaker with the Sunni Accordance Front.

On the streets of Baghdad's main Shiite enclave, Sadr City, where weeping crowds marched in funeral processions for victims of Friday's bombings, the idea of remobilizing the Mahdi Army for protection had some support.

"They can provide security. The government cannot," said Najim Abdul Hussein, who works near one of the explosion sites. "There is no stability."

2 Iraq tours, a tailspin _ and a tragic end

2010-04-25T18:17:00.001-07:00

Coleman Bean went to Iraq twice, but his father remembers a stark difference in his son's two parting messages.

Before his first tour, his father recalls, his son said if anything happened to him, he wanted to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Before his second, four years later, he said he didn't want that any longer.

"He still was very patriotic, he believed in duty," Greg Bean says. "But he had sort of lost his commitment to what we were doing over there. His first tour ... had changed him."

Bean enlisted in the Army six days before the 9/11 attacks. He parachuted into Iraq in the first chaotic weeks of the war. When he returned a year later, he offered PG-rated, sanitized versions of his experiences.

"We got glimpses," the elder Bean says. "He didn't give us a lot of details."

Only later on, the elder Bean says, did he learn from Coleman's friends and Army buddies that his son was among those who'd witnessed a horrifying bus explosion across the street from a safe house in Iraq where he and other soldiers had holed up. Several Iraqis, including children, burned to death before their eyes.

There also was the shooting death of an Iraqi child riding in a car that inexplicably ran a roadblock. "Several shots were fired," the elder Bean says. "There was no way to know who killed the child."

Bean spent the remainder of his tour in Fort Polk, La., training soldiers about to deploy to Iraq. When his hitch ended in 2005, he came home to New Jersey.

He started displaying classic post-traumatic stress symptoms.

"He had trouble with his temper, he was drinking too much, he had trouble focusing, trouble sleeping," his father says. He worked as a bartender and a bouncer; he also considered college. Nothing clicked.

Bean's worried parents encouraged him to seek help.

In 2007, Bean went to a veterans hospital in New Jersey, which resulted in a PTSD diagnosis and a recommendation he enter a residential program or have outpatient counseling. But his father says when officials realized he was still active duty, they said he was under the Army's care and they couldn't help.

Bean didn't get any treatment and was ordered back for a second tour that summer. He was part of the Individual Ready Reserve, one of thousands of soldiers who no longer report to bases but who may be deployed to fill vacancies.

"He was scared, worried, apprehensive as the time got closer," his father recalls.

He offered his son an out.

"I'm a child of the '60s," the elder Bean says. "I said, 'We'll jump in a car and go to Canada. You don't have to go. We'll do whatever it takes.' He said, 'I signed up for it, I trained for it. I've got to go. ... If I don't, someone else will have to.' In the end, he believed he had an obligation. He sucked it up and went back."

Bean's second tour seemed to go better. He was promoted to sergeant. He helped guard convoys, and though that was dangerous, he was living on a base, a far more secure arrangement than his first deployment.

Bean had a positive attitude when he returned and talked about going back to college. But within months, the same troubling patterns emerged. He started drinking heavily, lost his temper, couldn't sleep and suffered panic attacks.

"We kick ourselves at this point," his father now says. "We probably should have been proactive. But he was a grown man with two combat tours. He didn't have to do exactly what mom and dad said."

It was only later, his father says, that he and his wife discovered confidential counseling programs that are appealing to soldiers who are reluctant to identify themselves and seek help in the federal bureaucracy.

On the first weekend of September 2008, Bean got drunk with friends, wrecked his Jeep Cherokee car and was arrested for driving under the influence. Bean was taken to a hospital, then rode home in a cab.

He had to break into his apartment because he didn't have his keys.

He also broke into his locked gun case.

Bean didn't call anyone or leave a note before he turned the gun on himself.

On Sept. 6, 2008 — seven years and one day after he enlisted — Sgt. Coleman Bean died. He was just 25.

6 killed by blasts in western Baghdad

2010-04-25T18:16:00.002-07:00

Iraqi police say six people were killed when three bombs hidden in plastic bags exploded in western Baghdad.

The officials say another 19 people were wounded in the blasts.

The bombings struck late Saturday in an area where young people were playing billiards in a mixed, Sunni-Shiite neighborhood.

The blasts came one day after a series of bombings focused in Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad killed more than 70 people, raising fears that insurgent groups are trying to re-ignite sectarian violence.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Iraq factory explosion kills 5, cause unknown

2010-04-25T18:16:00.000-07:00

Police and hospital officials say an explosion at an iron factory on the outskirts of a northern Iraqi city has killed five workers and wounded 15.

Police Chief Abdul-Khaliq Talaat said the cause of the Sunday explosion just outside the city of Irbil was not immediately known.

Irbil is located in Iraq's self-rule Kurdish region about 217 miles (350 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

An Irbil hospital worker confirmed the deaths.

An al-Qaida front group in Iraq declared in a statement posted on the Internet Sunday that its two top figures have been killed.

The statement by the Islamic State of Iraq provided the first confirmation from the terror network of the April 19 claim by the Iraqi and U.S. governments that the two men were killed in a joint operation while hiding at a safe house near the city of Tikrit, north of Baghdad.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has described the death Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri as a "potentially devastating blow" to al-Qaida in Iraq. Their deaths also have provided Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki with a boost in his efforts to keep his job after his coalition finished second in parliamentary elections held March 7.

Sunday's statement said the death of al-Baghdadi and al-Masri would not affect the group's operations in Iraq after new members have joined the group recently. It also poured lavish praise on the two men.

"After a long journey filled with sacrifices and fighting falsehood and its representatives, two knights have dismounted to join the group of martyrs," the statement said. "We announce that the Muslim nation has lost two of the leaders of jihad, and two of its men, who are only known as heroes on the path of jihad."

The statement was posted two days after bombings mostly targeting Shiite places of worship killed 72 people in Iraq's bloodiest day so far this year. The bombings were seen as an apparent backlash by the Sunni-led insurgency after the slaying of the two al-Qaida leaders.

Nobody claimed responsibility for Friday's attacks, but Iraqi officials were quick to blame al-Qaida, which often targets Shiite mosques and religious processions in a bid to stoke new sectarian bloodshed.

Al-Maliki said the insurgents were fighting back after the deaths of their two leaders.

Car bomb hits police patrol in Baghdad, 5 wounded

2010-02-11T08:03:00.000-08:00

A car bomb went off near a police patrol in western Baghdad on Wednesday and wounded five people, an Interior Ministry source said.

The attack took place shortly before sunset when a booby- trapped car parked near the intersection of Adel neighborhood exploded, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The blast damaged one of the patrol's police vehicles, wounding two policemen aboard, along with several nearby civilian cars, the source said, adding that three civilians were also wounded by the blast.

Sporadic attacks are still common in Iraq as part of recent deterioration in security which shaped a setback to the efforts of the Iraqi government to restore normalcy in the country just a few weeks before the March general elections.

Thousands of Secret Documents Are 'Core' of U.K. Iraq Inquiry

2010-02-11T08:02:00.002-08:00

Tens of thousands of secret documents form the core of the ongoing inquiry into the Iraq war, its chairman revealed on Monday—far more than previously thought.
The inquiry also hinted that such documents showed British officials knew George Bush intended to invade Iraq even if they complied with the U.N. weapons inspections.

In a statement marking the end of a month of public testimonies by senior decision-makers broadcast live on the Web, inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcott said that secret documents allowed the panel to see what really went on.

“They allow us to shine a bright light into seldom-seen corners of the government machine, revealing what really went on behind the scenes, before, during, and after the Iraq conflict,” said Sir John.

The inquiry team will examine the documents over the next few months said Sir John, allowing the panel “to see where the evidence joins together and where there are gaps.”

After the examination of the documents, more of which he emphasized were still being received every week, the inquiry team would be in a position to decide who else to interview.

“We have no reason to believe that any material is being deliberately withheld,” said Sir John, emphasizing that access to documents is unrestricted.

The statement by Sir John followed the second quizzing of the foreign secretary at the time of the Iraq invasion, Jack Straw.
One exchange hinted that the panel had access to secret documents revealing that George Bush planned to attack Iraq even if Iraq complied with inspectors and was in compliance with crucial U.N. resolution 1441.

Sir Lawrence Freedman had asked Mr. Straw, “Was there any point where [Colin] Powell said to you that, even if Iraq complied, President Bush had already made a decision that he intended to go to war?”

When Mr. Straw said this was not the case, “to the best of my recollection,” and talked more broadly around the question, Sir Lawrence pressed him a few times on the issue.

Sir Lawrence Freedman said, "I was going to suggest you might want to look through your conversations and check."

“I will go through the records, because I think you are trying to tell me something,” said Mr. Straw.

Mr. Straw also said he had no recollection of Claire Short’s accusation that she had been “jeered at” by members of the Cabinet when she challenged the legality of the invasion. “This was a very serious Cabinet meeting. People weren't, as I recall, anyway, going off with that kind of behavior. We all understood the gravity of the decision,” she said. Short resigned as International Development secretary two months after the invasion of Iraq, and has been an outspoken critic of Mr. Blair and the Iraq war.

Mr. Straw had denied that the Cabinet discussion on the attorney general's advice on the legality of invasion had been blocked, and said that there was no way the members of Cabinet could be unaware of the finely balanced nature of the legal argument, given its wide attention in the media.

He said that Cabinet comprised strong-minded people.

"None of them were wilting violets; their judgment was that it was not necessary to go into the process by which Peter Goldsmith came to his view. I don't recall Cabinet as a whole receiving legal advice on the matter," said Mr Straw. "All [the Cabinet] wanted to know was: is it lawful or is it not lawful?" What was required in the end was "essentially a yes or no decision" from the attorney general, he added.

Mr. Straw stoutly defended his decision not to act on the advice of the Foreign Office legal adviser, Sir Michael Wood. “The legal advice he offered, frankly, was contradictory and I think I was entitled to raise that,” he said.

Sir John said that the inquiry hoped to meet with veterans from the Iraq war later this year, as well as with more top officials from the Bush administration.

Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair told Fox news on Monday that the succession of probes into the invasion reflected our human inability to agree or disagree.

"There's always got to be a scandal as to why you hold your view. There's got to be some conspiracy behind it, some great deceit that's gone on, and people just find it hard to understand that it's possible for people to have different points of view and hold them … for genuine reasons. There's a continual desire to sort of uncover some great conspiracy, when actually there's a decision at the heart of it."

US frees Iraqi photographer held for 17 months

2010-02-11T08:02:00.001-08:00

Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed, who worked for Reuters, was arrested in September 2008 in a dawn raid on his home.
The US said the photographer was a "security threat", but all evidence against him was classified secret.
An Iraqi court had ruled in December 2008 that there was no case against him and that he must be released, but the US military refused.
"How can I describe my feelings? This is like being born again." Mr Jassam told Reuters.
According to Reuters, the US accusations were based on his "activities with insurgents".
"The term 'insurgents' in Iraq generally refers to Sunni Islamist groups, like al-Qaeda. Jassam is a Shia Muslim," the news agency said.
The US military has detained a number of Iraqi journalists working for international news organisations, but none have been convicted.
It has been criticised by press freedom organisations such as Reporters Without Borders.

Iraq and Afghanistan wearing down the military, MPs warn

2010-02-11T08:01:00.000-08:00

Conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are leaving the armed forces ill equipped to undertake any new operations, MPs have warned.

Britain's forces need a period of "effective recuperation" after operating at a rate well above official planning assumptions, a report by the Commons defence committee says today. "The MoD was unable to tell us how long it would take before the armed forces return to satisfactory levels of readiness", it says.

It describes how RAF pilots are unable to train because aircraft are tied up on operations, the navy has too many commitments and major exercises are having to be cancelled.

The report quotes Lieutenant General Sir Graeme Lamb, a senior commander, as saying that his fellow senior officers believed the army needed to expand from about 102,000 troops to 112,000 to meet demand.

The MPs say current defence planning assumptions – that the forces are supposed to be resourced to maintain one enduring medium-scale operation and one small-scale operation – are "out of step with what is happening in reality". The army has suffered particularly, working at "full stretch" with training exercises cancelled and the time between tours of duty cut. "Given the high tempo of operations over the last eight years it is not surprising that some senior army officers think there needs to be a bigger army."

The MPs point out that the other armed services are also affected. The navy has seen essential equipment – such as the replacement for the Type 23 frigate – delayed and the report questions whether it can continue with its commitments around the world. The RAF has a shortage of aircraft for routine training because of the number of its fighter jets and helicopters committed on operations overseas.

The report warns that any cuts in an emergency "stringency budget" after the next election could make the strategic defence review (SDR), promised by all the main parties, undeliverable.

"The thinking of easier times – when public spending on health, education and social security was increased by much more than that on defence – must not be allowed to continue into these troubled times," the report says.

Meanwhile the defence secretary, Bob Ainsworth, has told the committee that the plan to renew the Trident nuclear missile project will be excluded from the SDR due to be set up after the general election.

The shadow defence secretary, Liam Fox, said the report "exposes the damage that has been done across the armed forces by Labour's refusal to hold a proper review for over a decade".

"It is clear that radical reform is needed to ensure that our armed forces are best configured to defend British interests and that our procurement programme gets our troops what they need, when they need it," he said.

General Sir Richard Dannatt, the former head of the army, said war in Iraq and Afghanistan had taken its toll on troops and echoed Lamb's call for a boost to land forces.

"There is quite a strong argument to say that our land forces are not large enough, particularly units that may have done two or three tours in Iraq and are now on a second or third tour in Afghanistan," he told GMTV. "Inevitably and sadly we have taken a number of casualties and people are tired. So those units need to be stronger. If they were 10% or 15% stronger they would be more resilient to casualties and if people become ill or injured."

Iraq oil pipeline sabotaged

2010-02-11T07:59:00.001-08:00

A pipeline carrying crude oil to a refinery in Baghdad has been sabotaged only days after going back online following years of being the target of attack, the oil minister said on Wednesday.
"Yesterday (Tuesday) evening, criminals sabotaged the pipeline with a bomb at Rashidiya, north of the capital," Hussein al-Shahristani said.
The attack "interrupted transport, causing a reduction in refining at the Dora station from 100,000 barrels a day to 70,000 barrels," he added.
"Ministry teams are working to repair it, and we hope it will be able to function again in a few days."

Iraq expels 250 former Blackwater guards

2010-02-11T07:58:00.002-08:00

The Iraqi interior minister said on Thursday he had expelled 250 ex-employees of the American security firm Blackwater, whose guards were charged with killing unarmed civilians in Baghdad.
"We have sent an order to 250 former Blackwater employees, who today are working with other security companies in Iraq, to leave the country in seven days and we have confiscated their residence permits," said Jawad Bolani.
"All of those concerned were notified four days ago and so they have three days to leave. This decision was made in connection with the crime that took place at Nisur Square."
Bolani was referring to an incident at the busy Baghdad square in September 2007, when five guards employed by Blackwater were accused of killing 14 unarmed Iraqis in a gun and grenade attack, and wounding 18 others.
The case has become a running sore among the Iraqi population and uproar was sparked last year when a US judge dismissed charges against the guards, ruling that US prosecutors violated their rights by using incriminating statements they had made under immunity during a State Department probe.
US Vice President Joe Biden, during a trip to Baghdad last month, expressed his "personal regret" at the incident and said the American government would appeal the case.
The Baghdad government maintains that 17 people were killed by the guards, who were part of a convoy of armoured vehicles.
Blackwater Worldwide changed its name to Xe Services in February 2009, following what the company said was a switch of business focus.
However, critics suggested that the rebranding was an effort to polish an image tarnished by an alleged culture of lawlessness and lack of accountability among Blackwater staff.
In December, the New York Times reported that Blackwater took part in Central Intelligence Agency "snatch and grab" missions to capture or kill insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The North Carolina-based firm lost its contract to provide security for US embassy diplomats in Baghdad in May 2009 after Iraqis and critics repeatedly accused it of adopting a cowboy mentality to duties in the country.
Only days earlier the Iraqi government said it was considering lodging its own complaint against Blackwater to seek compensation for the families of the victims.
The admissibility of such a case, however, was doubted because all of the families except one had previously agreed damages from Xe, according to a lawyer injured in the incident.
The lawyer, Hassan Jabbar Salman, said the families of those killed were offered 100,000 dollars (73,000 euros) and those wounded received between 20,000 and 50,000 dollars from the US security firm.

American soldier dies in Iraq

2010-02-11T07:58:00.001-08:00

The U.S. military says an American soldier has died in Iraq of injuries unrelated to combat.

A military statement says the soldier from United States Forces-Iraq died on Wednesday. The name of the soldier is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Thursday's statement also says the incident is under investigation. It provided no further details.

The death raises to at least 4,376 the number of U.S. military personnel who have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. That's according to an Associated Press count.

Iraqi Who Worked for Reuters Is Freed by U.S.

2010-02-11T07:57:00.002-08:00

An Iraqi freelance photographer who worked for Reuters has been released by the United States military after 17 months in detention in Iraq, the news agency reported Wednesday. The Iraqi, Ibrahim Jassam, was reunited with his family after his release.

“How can I describe my feelings?” Mr. Jassam told Reuters by telephone. “This is like being born again.”

Mr. Jassam was detained in September 2008 during a raid by Iraqi and United States forces on his home in the town of Mahmudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, Reuters reported. The Iraqi Central Criminal Court ruled in December 2008 that there was insufficient evidence to hold him. But the United States military refused to release him, saying it was not bound by the ruling because intelligence reports indicated that he was a security threat.

Reuters has said it asked about the evidence against Mr. Jassam but was told it was classified. “I am very pleased his long incarceration without charge is finally over,” David Schlesinger, the editor in chief of Reuters, said in a statement. “I wish the process to release a man who had no specific accusations against him had been swifter.” The United States military confirmed Mr. Jassam’s release but refused to provide any information about his case.

“The intelligence evidence that we have on him remains classified,” said Lt. Col. Patricia Johnson, spokeswoman for United States military detainee operations in Iraq.

Under a United States-Iraq security pact, the American military is required to hand over thousands of detainees to Iraq. About 6,000 detainees in United States custody are still waiting to be turned over to the Iraqi authorities. Since the United States-led invasion of 2003, the military has detained a number of Iraqi journalists working for international news organizations. None has been convicted in an Iraqi court.

In April 2008, the military freed Bilal Hussein, an Associated Press photographer who was part of a team that received a 2005 Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography from Iraq. He was freed after a little more than two years in detention.

Iraq seeks return of $900 mln paid for French jets

2010-02-11T07:57:00.001-08:00

Iraq is seeking the return of 651 million euros ($898 million) paid by Saddam Hussein's government for French Mirage fighters that were never delivered because of sanctions, a government spokesman said on Thursday.

Ali al-Dabbagh said talks with France's Dassault Aviation (AVMD.PA) and the French defence ministry for the return of the funds were positive, and Iraq was separately eyeing a possible purchase of an unspecified number of Mirage jets from Dassault.

"We want these funds returned. Simultaneously, we are in negotiations with the French for (the purchase of) Mirage F1s," Dabbagh said, adding that Iraq had not yet decided whether to buy jets from France or the United States.

An Iraqi committee was formed two months ago to negotiate the return of the deposit for jets ordered under Saddam, and Iraq expects the issue to be resolved this year, Dabbagh said.

Sanctions imposed on Iraq shortly after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990 prohibited arms sales to Baghdad, forcing the abandonment of its deal with Dassault for the fighter jets.

In Northern Iraq, a Vote Seems Likely to Split

2010-02-09T11:09:00.001-08:00

There was a hope, not long ago, that democracy would mean peace and stability for Nineveh, a place where cultures and armies have clashed since biblical times. Instead, democracy is hardening divisions — of people, of resources, of land — in ways that threaten the future of Iraq itself.

Last year’s election of a new provincial governor and council spawned political deadlock, inflamed by ethnic tensions. A boycott by a third of the council’s new members since last summer has crippled the government’s work at a time when Iraqis were promised that the elections would improve it.

Basic services remain meager, the economy feeble. The violence, though diminishing, is relentless, ravaging a crossroads of peoples and faiths in the plains where Arab Iraq meets the Kurdish mountains.

“This is the democracy the Americans brought,” said Hussein Mahmoud Ahmed, a Shabak, a member of a small minority group that occupies the plains.

It is a sentiment increasingly heard across Iraq as the country prepares to elect a new Parliament on March 7. The vote — only the country’s third since the American invasion in 2003 — is considered crucial to forging a unified, functioning democratic state. Here in Nineveh Province, though, as elsewhere, it is highlighting Iraq’s alarming fragmentation.

Lebanon is a model Iraqis often cite, a democracy that produces gridlock among ethnic and sectarian parties as divided before elections as after them, resulting in an ever tense political paralysis. Bosnia is another. When it comes to land and borders, disputed between the Arabs and the Kurdish regional government, the divisions are as intractable as those of Israelis and Palestinians.

When the federal government started to build a textile factory in Mr. Ahmed’s village, Bartallah, in a part of Nineveh controlled by the Kurds, the Kurdish regional government halted the project lest it create jobs for workers loyal to Mosul, the largely Arab provincial capital.

In Qaraqosh, the ownership of land is so fraught politically that the community council created a “black book” to register the name of any Christian who sold property to “an outsider.”

“We are living as doves among wolves,” said Staifo Jamil, a leader of a community council that represents Qaraqosh, a Christian town that lives in such fear that it mustered its own irregular militia to stand watch.

Iraq’s democracy is still young, and compared with those of other countries in the region, it remains the most competitive, if not exactly robust. Voter apathy and disillusionment, however, are already taking root. The election, delayed for months by bickering in Baghdad, has become a contest not of ideas as much as for advantage in the way the vote itself will be conducted and the parliamentary seats distributed.

The murky process to disqualify candidates with ties to Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party knocked out at least 10 candidates allied with the governor, Atheel al-Nujaifi, a Sunni who sought to restore Arab dominance in a still divided province. Among them was the mayor of Mosul, Zuhar al-Araji, who once worked closely with the American military.

Nineveh remains split, as it has since 2003, between Arab- and Kurdish-controlled regions. The tensions are so high that the American military this month joined troops from both sides to police the line of control along a series of new checkpoints.

Politicians on both sides on the line complain of restrictions when they campaign on the opposite side: harassment of candidates, pressure on parties, violence. When Mr. Nujaifi recently crossed the unofficial boundary on his way to Tall Kayf, his convoy was pelted with stones and tomatoes and briefly held up by Kurdish troops, the pesh merga. On Sunday evening a woman running with a secular coalition that includes Mr. Nujaifi and a former prime minister, Ayad al-Allawi, was shot to death outside her home in Mosul.

Mr. Nujaifi’s election last year raised hopes that the post-2003 disenfranchisement of Sunnis in Nineveh, which once fueled the insurgency, was coming to an end, and some measure of reconciliation would result.

That it has not is one reason that few interviewed here expressed hope that the coming election would result in anything better.

“Nothing is going to happen,” said Saleh Hassan Ali al-Jubouri, the mayor of Ash Shura, a town on the Arab side of the Tigris River not far from the ancient ruins of Kalhu, or Nimrud.

“We know which part belongs to the Kurds and which part to Nineveh,” he said, when asked how the results in March might affect the territorial dispute that has cleaved the province. He repeated, with evident disdain, “Nothing is going to happen.”

What is striking is how faithfully Iraqis expect to vote by identity, despite campaign appeals to national unity.

Issues — basic services, economic development, security — all seem to stem from identity as much as politics. “First ethnicity, second political party,” was how the leading Kurdish official here, Khasro Goran, put it.

The new Parliament will include 31 members from Nineveh, and Mr. Goran expects the main national Kurdish coalition to win 10 seats — based not on polls, but on the estimated percentage of Kurds in the province. Nineveh’s small minority communities — Yazidis, Shabaks and Christians — have dedicated parliamentary seats reserved for their representatives.

Mr. Goran, who has led the boycott of the provincial council, blames the governor and his party for the increasing bitterness, saying stability in Nineveh will come only with respect for minority parties, like his.

He also acknowledged that Nineveh’s border with the three officially recognized Kurdish provinces to the north is enmeshed in the impasse between the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and that of the Kurdish regional president, Massoud Barzani, over the extent of Iraq’s federalism. That, as much as the local disputes, has perpetuated Mr. Goran’s boycott. Becoming the loyal opposition in Nineveh might imply recognition of Mosul’s political authority over the whole region.

“Some of the problems are local, but others are Iraqi,” Mr. Goran said in the Kurdish regional capital, Erbil, referring to the disputes that plague Nineveh. “And we have to pay the price.”

Khalis Isho, a candidate from Qaraqosh vying to win one of the Christian seats in Parliament, said that the country’s political leaders had failed — failed to embrace democratic values of rights and representative government, failed to learn that elections are only one part of democracy.

“I don’t believe we will reduce the activities of the terrorists until the thinking in Iraq generally and in Mosul in particular improves,” he said, “until they understand that peace in Mosul means peaceful coexistence.”

Remote Iraq post outfitted with golf clubs

2010-02-09T11:04:00.001-08:00

The soldiers serving at Joint Security Station Aqur Quf had a problem: They had a hitting mat and tens of thousands of golf balls, but only two clubs.
Thanks to the kindness of News Tribune readers, that’s not a problem anymore.

The donors are people such as Zoeanne Hondle of Tacoma, who sent numerous clubs and a hard-top bag. Vic Peterson of Tacoma shipped clubs including a Callaway Big Bertha, plus a note saying his distance record with the driver was 325 yards.

The newspaper ran a story Dec. 23 about the small outpost in western Baghdad province where soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord take a break from the grind of their yearlong deployment by teeing off from the roof of the motor pool building.

But these Stryker soldiers from the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division had only two clubs, and both were woefully short.

Dozens of readers responded and shipped sets of clubs – old ones, new ones, cheap ones and expensive ones. They did it at their own expense so the soldiers could take golf swings in style.

“They’re great,” said Sgt. Christopher Bergevine, who works in the motor pool at Aqur Quf and is one of the outpost’s regular duffers.

The gifts also have become a tool of international relations. When the first batch of clubs arrived in early January, two Iraqi army officers appeared and received a crash course from their Lewis-McChord counterparts.

It all started shortly after the soldiers came to Aqur Quf in September. They discovered a shipping container with 50,000 golf balls and two clubs – the latter of which appear designed for shorter people. But they set up the driving mat and sent balls over the wire as a stress reliever.

“Sometimes the guys in the guard tower will radio the (tactical operations center),” Spc. Clois Seely told The News Tribune in December. “They’ll tell them, ‘The mechanics are throwing things at us again.’”

New shipments of clubs first arrived last month at the 4th Brigade public affairs office, a cozy room made even cozier by boxes of golf gear. Four full sets have already been sent to the soldiers at Aqur Quf, with additional sets distributed to the brigade’s other battalions across Baghdad province.

Boxes arrive almost daily. Brigade commander Col. John Norris plans to send thank-you notes and a certificate of appreciation to those who donated.

Thirteen boxes sat in the corner of the public affairs office Jan. 18, when Capt. Chris Ophardt and Spc. Luisito Brooks ripped into the packages to see what had arrived.

The first three boxes were from Zoeanne Hondle of Tacoma, who sent irons, woods, drivers and that hard-top bag. Vic Peterson mailed woods and irons, in addition to that long-yardage Big Bertha driver.

William Barton of Tacoma mailed a box of drivers. Gail Deason of Lakewood mailed irons and wooden drivers, including the not-often-seen 21/2- and 41/2-wood clubs.

Other boxes – donations from concerned readers in Tacoma, Lakewood, Bonney Lake, Steilacoom, Fox Island and elsewhere – still awaited opening.

South London groups slam Iraq inquiry

2010-02-08T18:53:00.000-08:00

THE Iraq War inquiry is “powerless and pointless”, according to South London campaign groups.
Anti-war protesters have hit out at the Chilcot Enquiry because it doesn’t have the power to charge former Prime Minister Tony Blair as a war criminal.
Colin Wilson, of Stop the War Lambeth, said: “This inquiry is completely pointless.
"It has absolutely no power to challenge Blair on the terms in which he should be tried.
“Tony Blair should face legal proceeding at the International Court in The Hague.
"He has broken international law and therefore should be tried as a war criminal.”
The Chilcott Inquiry was launched last July 30 to identify lessons that can be learned from the Iraq conflict.
A report of the findings will be published this summer and its content debated in Parliament.
Campaigners also disputed Blair’s claim that the world was safer without Saddam Hussein.
Wandsworth Stop The War chairman John Clossick, who heckled Blair as he left the inquiry held at the QEII Conference Centre in London last Friday, said: “Blair said that if we had not removed Saddam in 2003 the world would be much more dangerous.
“But the Iraq War has turned virtually every country in the Middle East into a hot bed of terrorist activity.
“It has made it easy for militant groups to recruit young Muslims.
“Blair and Bush have increased the threat of global terrorism.”
But Mr Blair was unrepentant after being summoned last week, telling the inquiry panel he was right to go to war.
He said: “I have not a regret for removing Saddam Hussein. I think he was a monster.
"I think he threatened not just a region but the world.”
Prime Minster Gordon Brown is due to give evidence at the inquiry next month.

A Well-Written War, Told in the First Person

2010-02-08T18:52:00.002-08:00

Brian Turner was focused on staying alive, not poetry, when he served as an infantry team leader in Iraq. But he quickly saw that his experience — “a year of complete boredom punctuated by these very intense moments” — lent itself to the tautness of verse.

The result was a collection called “Here, Bullet,” with a title poem inspired by Mr. Turner’s realization during combat patrols that he was bait to lure the enemy.

If a body is what you want,

then here is bone and gristle and flesh,

... because here, Bullet,

here is where the world ends, every time.

“Poetry was the perfect vehicle,” said Mr. Turner, who had a master’s in fine arts from the University of Oregon before joining the Army. “The page was the place where I could think about what had happened.”

Mr. Turner is a literal foot soldier in what might be called the well-written war: a recent outpouring of memoirs, fiction, poetry, blogs and even some readable military reports by combatants in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Soldier-writers have long produced American literature, from Ulysses S. Grant’s memoirs about the Civil War to Norman Mailer’s World War II novel, “The Naked and the Dead,” to Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” about Vietnam.

The current group is different. As part of a modern all-volunteer force, they explore the timeless theme of the futility of war — but wars that they for the most part support. The books, many written as rites of passage by members of a highly educated young officer corps, are filled with gore, inept commanders and anguish over men lost in combat, but not questions about the conflicts themselves. “They look at war as an aspect of glory, of finding honor,” said Mr. O’Brien, who was drafted for Vietnam in 1968 out of Macalester College in St. Paul. “It’s almost an old-fashioned, Victorian way of looking at war.”

The writers say one goal is to explain the complexities of the wars — Afghan and Iraqi politics, technology, the counterinsurgency doctrine of protecting local populations rather than just killing bad guys — to a wider audience. Their efforts, embraced by top commanders, have even bled into military reports that stand out for their accessible prose.

“The importance of good official writing is so critical in reaching a broader audience to get people to understand what we’re trying to do,” said Capt. Matt Pottinger, a Marine and former reporter for The Wall Street Journal who is a co-author of the report “Fixing Intel,” an indictment of American intelligence-gathering efforts in Afghanistan released last month. “Even formal military doctrine is well served by a colloquial style of writing.”

The report, overseen by the top military intelligence officer in Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, is an anecdote-rich argument against intelligence officers who pursue secrets about insurgents but ignore data for winning the war right in front of them — local economics, village politics and tribal power brokers. The report compares the American war in Afghanistan to a political campaign, “albeit a violent one,” and observes, “To paraphrase former Speaker of the House Thomas P. ‘Tip’ O’Neill’s famous quote, ‘all counterinsurgency is local.’ ”

Another report, an unreleased Army history about the battle of Wanat in July 2008 — the “Black Hawk Down” of Afghanistan — unfolds in stiffer prose but builds a strong narrative. Written by Douglas R. Cubbison, a military historian at the Army’s Combat Studies Institute at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., the draft report lays bare the failures of an American unit to engage the local population in a village in eastern Afghanistan — “these people, they disgust me,” one soldier is quoted as saying — and graphically tells the story of the firefight that killed nine Americans.

Most of the writing by combatants has been memoirs that bear witness to battles of their own. Craig M. Mullaney, a former Ranger and Army captain, writes in “The Unforgiving Minute” of a 2003 ambush on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border that killed one of his men, Pfc. Evan W. O’Neill.

“Small-caliber rounds dented the Humvees around me, but it was strangely silent, as if someone had pressed the mute button. ... All I could remember were those eyes, glacial-blue, like my brother’s. There’s no way O’Neill’s dead. This wasn’t a game or an exercise or a movie; these were real soldiers with real blood and real families waiting back home. What had I done wrong?”

Mr. Mullaney, who has left the Army and is now a Pentagon official handling policy for Central Asia, said he wrote his book in part as catharsis, and as a way of telling Private O’Neill’s parents what had happened to their son. “I had a lot of ghosts I was still wrestling with,” he said. “I thought by writing I could make some sense of this jumble of experiences and memories and doubts and fears.”

Nathaniel C. Fick, a former Marine officer who wrote of taking heavy fire during the 2003 invasion of Iraq in “One Bullet Away,” had his own troubles coming home. Mr. Fick, now the chief executive of the Center for a New American Security, a military research group in Washington, also appears in Evan Wright‘s book (and the HBO miniseries) “Generation Kill,” based on Mr. Wright’s experience as a Rolling Stone reporter embedded with Mr. Fick’s platoon.

Mr. Fick, a Dartmouth graduate who applied to graduate school after leaving the Marines, describes getting a call from an admissions officer.

“ ‘Mr. Fick, we read your application and liked it very much. But a member of our committee read Evan Wright’s story about your platoon in Rolling Stone. You’re quoted as saying, “The bad news is, we won’t get much sleep tonight; the good news is, we get to kill people.” ’ She paused, as if waiting for me to disavow the quote. I was silent, and she went on .... ‘Could you please explain your quote for me?’ ...

“ ‘You mean, will I climb your clock tower and pick people off with a hunting rifle?’

“It was her turn to be silent.

“ ‘No, I will not. Do I feel compelled to explain myself to you? I don’t.’ ”

Other books started as soldier blogs, at least before commanders shut them, among them “My War” by Colby Buzzell, a former machine gunner in Iraq. Another soldier’s blog, shut by the Army in 2008 but to be published as a book in April, is “Kaboom: Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War,” by Matt Gallagher, a former Army officer in Iraq.

There are far fewer books by women, but one of them, “Love My Rifle More than You” by Kayla Williams, an Arabic-speaking former sergeant in a military intelligence company, is particularly critical of the military. (Ms. Williams writes of how she was instructed to verbally humiliate a naked Iraqi prisoner in Mosul.)

So far there are relatively few novels, although “The Mullah’s Storm” by Tom Young, a flight engineer in the Air National Guard, is to be published in the fall. The story is about a soldier shot down in Afghanistan.

Mr. O’Brien, whose own memoir, “If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home,” was published in 1973, said that the dearth of novels did not surprise him. His first war novel, “Going After Cacciato,” was not published until 1978. “The Things They Carried” was published in 1990. Soldiers need more time to explore “what happened inside,” Mr. O’Brien said — suggesting that the flow of their war books will not stop anytime soon.

Iraqi PM: Appeals panel can review election law

2010-02-08T18:52:00.001-08:00

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's prime minister says he accepts an appeals panel's jurisdiction over a ban on candidates from March 7 parliamentary elections for their suspected ties to Saddam Hussein's regime.

The seven-member panel is combing through a list of candidates barred from the election.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had pushed for the ban, and his decision Monday to leave the candidates' appeals in the court rather than let parliament rule on the issue in an emergency session is seen as a concession.

The issue has threatened to hurt the credibility of a vote officials hope could be a milestone in the country's democratic evolution.

The ban initially affected about 450 candidates, but most were replaced by their parties or dropped out.

Iraq - Foreign Minister Receives Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Baghdad

2010-02-08T18:51:00.000-08:00

His Excellency Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari received in his office this afternoon 7th .Feb.2010 Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Baghdad Ms. Bronislava Tomasova , and conveyed the appreciation of Czech Deputy Prime Minister – Foreign Minister Jan Kohout for the hospitality by the Iraqi Government during his last visit to Baghdad in October and the results of this visit .

Minister Zebari pointed to the importance of developing bilateral relations between the two countries, stressing on the importance of participation of the Observers in the elections which will be held in Iraq, the Ambassador expressed her country’s intention to send Observers in the European Mission to supervise the elections in several Iraqi Cities. Also sent a formal invitation from Czech Foreign Minister to his Excellency to visit Czech Republic at a date to be agreed later and also expressed the readiness of the Czech Foreign Ministry to hold a course to develop Diplomatic expertise for the Ministry’s Staff.

Marines quietly wrap up ops in Iraq

2010-02-08T18:50:00.000-08:00

By mid-February, Marines will be out of Iraq.

After almost seven years of bloodshed, 850 Marines killed in action and a pedigree of hard-won victories that toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime, propped up a new government and quelled a tenacious insurgency, Col. Scott Aiken’s boots will be among the very last in the sand.

But before he can step on a flight home, Aiken must lead Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force – Responsible Drawdown and coordinate shipment of thousands of pieces of remaining equipment and Marines out of Iraq.

In late January, Maj. Gen. Richard Tryon, the Marine commander in Iraq, transferred authority over Anbar province to the Army’s 1st Armored Division, which also oversees Baghdad. The ceremony in Ramadi leaves the Corps without an area of operations in Iraq and marks an official end to the Corps’ large-scale commitment in the country.

All remaining U.S. combat troops are slated to withdraw from Iraq by August, President Obama said during his State of the Union address Jan. 27. The only Marines who will continue to operate there include a handful of embedded trainers, the Marine Security Guard detachment at the U.S. embassy and limited administrative staff in Baghdad.

With combat operations in Iraq over for the Corps, the mission is now a logistical one. As of Feb. 3, about 900 Marines and just a few thousand pieces of equipment remained, and those numbers continue to plummet daily.

“Getting people to go home is the easy part,” Aiken said. “But getting them to go home correctly takes a little more finessing. You only have one time to do it right.”

Aiken, an infantry officer who has commanded the II Marine Expeditionary Force Forward Headquarters Group in Iraq for almost a year, describes the process as something more complicated than bubble wrap, boxes and moving trucks. In a three-pronged approach, equipment must be accounted for and shipped to various locations. Personnel must be logged, scheduled for flights and tracked as they ship out. And facilities at Al Asad Air Base must be cleaned and prepped for the airmen and soldiers who will take over.

Adding to the job’s complexity, equipment ranging from behemoth trucks to minuscule radio components must be rated as “in need of repair” or “suitable for use” and directed to the U.S. or Afghanistan. So far, almost 16 million pounds of gear have been flown to Afghanistan. About 25 percent of what still remains may also be flown there as Marines intensify their fight against the Taliban.

Still, Aiken said he is confident he will meet his February deadline.

The number of personnel will drop off by the hundreds “as flights come and go,” he said by phone from Al Asad Air Base on Jan. 22. “It has been surprisingly smooth so far, and we’ve been hitting the deadlines right on.”

In fact, the number of Marines left in Iraq could drop to just 600 by early February, he predicted.

That’s a drop in the bucket compared to the more than 20,000 Marines who operated in Anbar province during that war’s most violent years. Mayhem reigned there from 2004 to 2007 when Marines clashed with insurgents regularly, highlighted by epic battles in Fallujah and Ramadi.

Now, just one infantry unit remains. Third Battalion, 24th Marines, a Reserve battalion based in St. Louis, Mo., arrived in September primarily to conduct convoy security, guard border crossings and train Iraqi troops. They have not fired a shot in anger since arriving and have been hit by only one improvised explosive device, which caused no injuries.

When the last piece of gear has been packed and properly labeled, Aiken’s unit will be the last to leave the country, something he called a privilege.

“For me, I would say that it is definitely an honor to be among the last few out. I’m proud of our efforts since we’ve been in Iraq,” he said, citing security improvements since his first deployment to the country in 2005 as commander of 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines.

“We have lost fine Marines and sailors out here, but given the people of western Iraq a fine chance to carry on here.”

Blast Strikes Shiite Pilgrims in Iraq

2010-02-05T15:18:00.002-08:00

At least two explosions tore through crowds marching to the burial place of Shiite Islam’s most revered martyr Friday in the culmination of ritual mourning that has drawn millions to the holy city of Karbala in one of the world’s largest pilgrimages. At least 27 people were killed and dozens more were wounded.

There was a sense of fatalism to the attacks, one of dozens this week on pilgrims that the Shiite-led government grimly predicted but was powerless to stop. The killings have underlined the meaning of the pilgrimage: a religious ceremony to commemorate Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad whose death in the battlefield in Karbala in 680 gave Shiite Muslims an ethos of suffering, martyrdom and resistance.

“They think these explosions can stop us from marching,” said Muhaned Shaker, a 27-year-old pilgrim, “but if I die today in an explosion that will be a gift from God.”

Interior Ministry officials said a suicide car bomb had detonated at the Peace Bridge a few miles east of the city, tearing through a crowd so tight that people were standing shoulder to shoulder. Moments later, a mortar shell exploded nearby, killing and wounding more pilgrims as they frantically fled the scene. In the chaotic aftermath, officials said the crowds rendered rescuers almost helpless to treat the wounded.

The attacks came amid a stubborn crisis over the disqualifications of hundreds of candidates from Iraq’s parliamentary elections in March for ties to the Baath Party of former President Saddam Hussein.

An appeals court decided Wednesday to delay their appeals until after the vote, effectively restoring their candidacies. But since then, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and other Shiite leaders have called the court’s decision illegal and insisted that the disqualifications go forward, casting politics into more tumult.

The dispute has taken a personal turn, with Mr. Maliki complaining in a statement late Thursday of intervention in the crisis by the United States ambassador, Christopher R. Hill. He said his government would not allow Mr. Hill “to exceed his diplomatic duties.”

Philip Frayne, an American Embassy spokesman, defended Mr. Hill’s role as appropriate. “Ambassador Hill has been doing what any diplomat normally does, offering his government’s views on issues that could affect American interests,” Mr. Frayne said. “That is not going beyond the bounds of acceptable diplomacy.”

American officials and the United Nations have played a crucial role in trying to solve the complicated dispute over the candidacies.

The issue of Baathists has become incendiary in the campaign for the March 7 vote, with religious Shiite candidates competing with one another in proving their anti-Baathist credentials to a constituency that suffered dearly under Mr. Hussein’s rule. Iraqi law has also proved unhelpful in ending the dispute, as there is no precedence for resolving who has the final say on candidate disqualifications.

In the attacks near Karbala, the Interior Ministry said 27 people were killed and 75 wounded. Officials in Karbala put the toll at 40 killed and more than 150 wounded, although they acknowledged the difficulty in determining precise numbers amid the chaos.

Friday was the observance of Arbaeen, the 40th day after Imam Hussein’s death. Banned under Mr. Hussein’s government, the pilgrimage has flourished in the years since the American-led invasion in 2003. This year, city officials estimated that 10 million people journeyed to the gold-domed shrine in Karbala. Security officials put the number higher, at 11 million, and clerics insisted it was even more.

By custom, pilgrims walk to the shrine, carrying green, red and black flags and sometimes traveling hundreds of miles over days. Occasionally, pilgrims choose to walk barefoot. The sheer numbers have given the region around Karbala a cinematic quality, as people clamber through date groves and surge through the streets in one of the world’s largest voluntary movements of people.

Along the way, volunteers have set up tents for the weary, offering a dish known as hareesa, a stew of lamb and beans, bananas, oranges, cakes, cookies, tea, juice and soda. According to tradition, residents open their houses to travelers to rest and sleep.

Security officials have banned most vehicles from the city, and witnesses reported that crowds were lined up for miles beyond Karbala’s three entrances.

United States military officials said as of Thursday, insurgents had carried out 35 attacks against pilgrims, fewer than the 54 last year and far below the more than 180 in 2007. But as in past bombings, survivors directed their anger at the police and soldiers for failing to stop the attacks and blamed the election crisis for diverting politicians’ attention.

“The explosions are just for the elections so they can say that this party or that party failed to protect the people,” said one pilgrim, Abbas Nasser. “We know the game.”

About 30,000 troops and police officers have been deployed to protect the pilgrims, who in past years have been the object of attacks by insurgents bent on sowing sectarian strife. On Monday, a female suicide bomber with explosives hidden under her garment killed at least 38 people on the outskirts of Baghdad, many of them marching to Karbala. Another bombing Wednesday, just miles from the shrine, killed at least 20 people.

Election Panel Puts Off Start of Iraq Parliament Races

2010-02-05T15:18:00.001-08:00

Iraq’s independent elections commission announced Thursday that the parliamentary elections campaign, scheduled to start Sunday, would be postponed for five days, as confusion reigned over an appeals court decision that overturned a ban on hundreds of candidates.

The campaign for the March 7 elections will now begin Feb. 12, said Qassim al-Obudi, a spokesman for the elections commission, to give officials time to try to determine which candidates are eligible to be on the ballots.

The decision appeared to deepen Iraq’s political crisis, as the speaker of Parliament called an emergency session to debate the court ruling and election officials appealed to Iraq’s Supreme Court for guidance.

Iraqi officials said some lawmakers had even begun discussing the possibility of postponing the elections until the candidates’ eligibility was resolved. That may prove problematic; the election has long been viewed as a milestone in the United States’ plans to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by the end of August.

The tumult followed the appeals court decision on Wednesday, which effectively allowed more than 500 candidates who were disqualified last month by a government commission to take part in the election. They had been accused of promoting the Baath Party of former President Saddam Hussein.

Technically, the court decided that the candidates’ status should be determined after the election, in what could be the makings of another crisis. “This doesn’t solve the crisis; it postpones it indefinitely,” said Hadi al-Ameri, a leading Shiite lawmaker who has tried to help mediate the dispute.

Many Iraqi politicians, along with foreign diplomats, have been pushing for a resolution to the dispute, saying the elections could lack credibility if hundreds of candidates were excluded.

Confusion over the appeals court’s decision led Faraj al-Haidari, the head of the Independent High Electoral Commission, to question whether it was binding.

“We sent the Supreme Court an urgent letter asking if we have to adhere to the appeals court decision,” Mr. Haidari said in an interview. “The appeals court neither found them guilty nor declared them innocent, which puts it in contradiction with the electoral law.”

Ali al-Dabbagh, a spokesman for the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, declared the ruling “illegal and unconstitutional.”

The latest escalation in the dispute over who is permitted to run in the elections has unsettled the political landscape. Iraqi law remains untested and perhaps bereft of mechanisms to reach a solution just a month before the vote.

“I know what is happening today, but no one knows what’s going to happen tomorrow,” said Omar al-Mashhadani, a spokesman for Parliament’s speaker, Ayad al-Samarrai.

Mr. Maliki has requested an emergency session of Parliament on Sunday, Iraqi state television reported. Mr. Samarrai agreed to call the session, and in turn asked for an emergency meeting of Iraq’s leadership on Friday or Saturday.

Reactions to the court’s decision to overturn the ban on candidates predictably broke along political and sectarian lines on Thursday.

Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, whose main ally, Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni leader, was among those barred, warned about the possibility that some candidates might still be disqualified. “The country will go into severe turmoil, I’m sure. It will cause a backlash,” he said in an interview.

Many critics of the ban viewed it as an attempt to marginalize secular and Sunni opponents of Iraq’s religious Shiite parties, including Mr. Maliki’s. Some leaders and voters had threatened to boycott the elections if officials went ahead with the ban, recalling the election in 2005, when many Sunnis refused to vote.

Religious Shiite leaders accused the appeals court of buckling to what they described as outside pressure, in particular from the United States.

Allowing the candidates to run in the elections “is a badge of shame on the forehead of the government,” Moktada al-Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric, said in a statement. “I am hopeful that the Iraqi people will not allow their return and their participation in a political process thought to be democratic.”

Iraqi legal experts defended the court’s decision to postpone the determinations of the candidates’ eligibility, calling it constitutional, and said election officials should respect the ruling. “The appeals court didn’t find the candidates who were included in the procedures innocent yet,” said Tariq Harb, a prominent lawyer. “It just delayed its decision.”

But Mr. Ameri, the Shiite lawmaker, said the ruling, by postponing decisions on eligibility until after the elections, could deepen the political crisis. Like others, he wondered whether lawmakers could actually be unseated after they had won elections, and, if so, what branch of the government would unseat them.

Iraq war means a new batallion of lost souls bunkered down in suburban homes

2010-02-05T15:17:00.000-08:00

ANGUS Sim draws deep breaths. He warns, as he tells his story, that he is becoming worked up.

He looks like most modern young warriors, built strongly and emblazoned with heavy ink. He shifts between tears and rage.

For Sim, the quiet streets of Sunbury, in Melbourne's northern outskirts, may as well be filled with hidden home-made bombs, snipers and trucks being prepared for suicide bomb missions.

Sim, 24, returned from Iraq in June 2005 after serving with the Brisbane-based infantry battalion, 6RAR.

He was involved in four incidents that would separately, and cumulatively, damage him profoundly.

His energy has nowhere to evaporate. Time bomb or loose cannon, take your pick.

Sim doesn't like people much. "I got back to Sunbury after Iraq," he said. "I had a girlfriend and I broke up with her. It turned nasty. I got called a 'psycho from Iraq' and this sort of stuff. People don't understand. But the Australian people need to understand."

Sim likes his memories even less. The need for hyper-vigilance after being assigned to the security detachment, or SecDet, guarding Australian embassy staff within Baghdad's red zone - the uncontrolled, dangerous part of that city - stays with him.

Sim has post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition the military once regarded with scepticism.

PTSD sufferers were seen as bludgers looking for compo.

The military now accepts the reality of PTSD.

But who could blame the public for not understanding Sim's pain? This Government, like the previous one, has kept a tight leash on all information from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defence drip-feeds abbreviated information about Australians wounded or killed in conflict, and has even less to say on the mentally damaged.

Just like Vietnam, a new battalion of lost souls is bunkered down in suburban homes, haunted by intrusive images of carnage.

The Federal Government claims it is trying harder with mental health issues and has promised $83 million over the next four years to implement the recommendations of Prof David Dunt, who last year produced two Australian Defence Force reports on improving mental health.

BUT they have done nothing to help the Australian public cushion the landing for returning soldiers.

Public knowledge of Iraq and Afghanistan has been mostly limited to wives and babies kissing camouflaged homecoming soldiers.

Sim doesn't like it. Most soldiers don't.

They feel their service is undervalued.

Sim has an inbuilt bull detection meter. It's set to maximum. "I'm safe, but I got a short fuse and a bad temper," he said. "People just annoy me. On Anzac Day a few years ago, there was this guy at the pub telling me he was SAS. I questioned him and his story didn't add up.

"I finished my beer and slammed the glass into his face. He was lying. He was showing no respect. And I'd do it again."

These days, Sim has almost totally withdrawn.

He feels safer indoors and knows he is less of a threat to others there. "I don't really go out much any more," he said.

"I stay around here. I might as well be in jail. I avoid situations, I suppose."

It's hard to believe these are the comments of a man who, at 24, should be just starting out on his working life. He feels Australia did the right thing in going to Iraq, but says his country used him, then threw him out without preparing him for normal life.

"My debrief from Iraq was with one psychiatrist, for half an hour, in Iraq," he said. "I had some real dramas. I hit the drugs pretty hard. I'd never touched them in my life. I was 19. The last year I was in the army I was doing drugs every weekend. You name it - speed, ice, ecstasy, acid.

"I went off the rails. It just took me away from everything. It was just a way of dealing with it. Not the right way, I know. And I was drinking a fair bit, too.

"It's just disappointing. I hate this country now. Well, I don't hate it, but f------ hell, we're soldiers going over to do a bit of good for the world. We didn't just look for terrorists. We were trying to bring some peace to Iraq.

"And I think we achieved that. We helped them get their first election up."

Sim is discharged, classified TPI - totally and permanently incapacitated.

He likes cooking for his fiancee, Jess, and he likes his widescreen TV.

NOT much else. "I'm always on guard, high strung and on edge. If I'm in bed and Jess comes home, I'll wake up ready to kill her," he said.

"We hooked up a year ago. We fight - had a doozy the other night. But she's good, she's caring. She understands, as much as she can."

The sense around Australia's veteran community is that PTSD numbers from Iraq and Afghanistan are creeping above 10 per cent, though delayed onset means that number will only grow.

We know now why those who served in World Wars I and II rarely talked about their wars. They couldn't talk about them. Many were undiagnosed PTSD sufferers.

On January 19, 2005, a truck laden with explosives attempted to ram the Australian embassy compound. Sim was blown out of his bed, but, like the other Australian soldiers guarding the vicinity, he was unhurt.

Several Iraqi civilians were killed. The bomb was followed by a secondary device and sniper fire.

"That woke us up and told us we were in Baghdad," said Sim. His detachment became renowned for the number of events it faced in the first half of 2005.

A WEEK after the embassy attack, Sim and others stopped a vehicle. "This bloke, a civilian, was pissed and staggering around," he said. "We looked in his van and he had drums in the back. We didn't take any risks, we shot him.

"One of my mates did, shot him four times.

"Turned out it was only some barrels of petrol, no detonators. It was silly of him the way he was acting. His missus was all upset."

Now it's Sim, recounting this story, who's upset.

The next day, Australia Day, an Australian light-armoured vehicle was hit by a suicide car bomber on the road to the airport.

Sim's detachment arrived at the scene minutes later.

"I don't now how no one died. One guy had serious facial wounds, he lost his nose. We skull-dragged the vehicles back to the nearest base, which was American, and I had to clean the vehicles of (the suicide bomber's) body pieces.

"There was skin all over our vehicles. I found a bit of his spine and had to pull his foot out of the exhaust system. I got all the flesh, put it in the bin. A few of our boys were sent to (hospital in) Germany."

By then, everyone in SecDet was on edge. The next incident affected Sim more than the others.

"These civilians were driving up the road," he said. "We had night-vision goggles. They didn't stop. One of the boys opened fire with a burst of machinegun. One bullet hit a female passenger in the head. She was sitting in the front seat.

"A little kid in the back got hit with glass in his eye, lost his eye. It was just a family. That just plays on me. It wasn't me who shot him. We donated a heap of money to try and fix his eyesight, but he ended up losing his eye. The mum didn't die. I think she had brain damage. We went to hospital to see them, tried to do the right thing."

SIM'S mental health care on return was two weeks' stress leave.

"The help was crap," he says. "I just said to myself, 'I'll deal with this.' I dealt with it until I couldn't deal with it any more. I have bad days, bad months, still.

"It's not as bad as when I tried to keep it all in. I thought I was going crazy. And in a way I was.

"The biggest kick in the a--- was when we got back, the way we were handled.

"We should have gone straight into a debriefing program. If you want help, you should be able to get it."

The Department of Veterans' Affairs pays for Sim's medication and psychiatric help, but only after he was admitted to hospital for suicide attempts.

He wants it known he is only speaking out so other soldiers might benefit.

An estimated 36,000 Australians have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

John Vincent, of the Totally and Permanently Incapacitated Veterans Association says 30 per cent of those who serve in conflicts will develop some form of PTSD.

Clinton 'heartened' by Iraq move to reinstate candidates

2010-02-05T15:16:00.000-08:00

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday she is "heartened" by an Iraqi decision to reinstate Sunni candidates and urged all parties to do nothing to undermine the legitimacy of elections.
"We were heartened by the decision earlier this week to reverse the deletion of the 500 names from the list for the upcoming election," Clinton told reporters.
An appeals panel ruled Wednesday in Baghdad that more than 500 candidates barred from Iraq's March 7 general election could stand after all. They were allegedly linked to former dictator Saddam Hussein.
But Iraq's premier Nuri al-Maliki convened parliament for Sunday to debate what his government branded an "illegal" decision to reinstate candidates with alleged links to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
The chief US diplomat said she wanted to make sure the election is free and fair.
"We do very much encourage all the parties ...in Iraq to ensure that nothing is done that undermines the legitimacy of this election," Clinton said.
Clinton's spokesman Philip Crowley on Thursday gave a similar reaction to the latest developments in Baghdad.

At last! Have they finally found a 'weapon of mass destruction' in Iraq?

2010-02-05T15:15:00.000-08:00

They have been searching in Iraq for the past nine years, 10 months and 15 days.

Today, the hard work finally paid off as soldiers found one of those elusive ‘weapons of mass destruction’ that Saddam Hussein was supposed to have been hiding.

So is it all round to Tony Blair's house for celebratory drinks?

Unfortunately the discovery came just a few days late for the former prime minister, who could have used the extraordinary find as proof he was right about Iraq all along during the Chilcot Inquiry.

But from the looks of the rocket, it would appear unlikely it could be deployed anywhere in 45 minutes, let alone be fired at the UK, as a certain dossier led us to believe.

The bomb is thought to have been buried by Saddam Hussein's regime before the UK and U.S. invasion of Iraq started in 2003.

Iraqi guards were as surprised as the rest of us to discover the 'missile' during an operation in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib suburb.

It is not yet known whether the seven-metre rocket is armed with a warhead.

Iraq's voters show faith in Maliki regime

2009-03-04T08:50:00.002-08:00

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has finished first in provincial elections, strengthening the central government and weakening the religious parties that dominated after the fall of Saddam Hussein. But Iraqis still voted along sectarian or ethnic lines with Mr Maliki's successes all coming in Shia-dominated provinces.

The election commission announced yesterday that the premier's "State of Law" coalition had won 38 per cent of the votes cast in Baghdad and 37 per cent in Basra, Iraq's two largest cities. It also finished first in seven other provinces south of Baghdad. Among the Sunni Arabs, nationalist and secular parties did well.

Mr Maliki will be able to claim that his policy of strengthening the central government, which saw him confront at different times last year the Shia militia of the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the US government and the Kurds, has been endorsed by voters. The elections to the powerful provincial councils in 14 out of 18 provinces are seen as a preview for the parliamentary elections in December.

The Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), which had been the largest Shia party, did badly, winning fewer votes than Sadr followers in Baghdad and 11.6 per cent of the vote in Basra because its rulers were seen as failing.

The Prime Minister did well in part because Iraqis see security improving compared with the Sunni-Shia civil war of 2005-7 when, at its worst, 3,000 people died every month. In January this number fell to 199, the lowest figure since the US invasion. But in a sign that Iraq remains one of the most violent countries in the world, a bomber blew himself up yesterday in the Kurdish town of Khanaqin, Diyala province, killing at least 16 people.

The election so far has had two contradictory effects: it has reinforced the popular mandate of the government; but it has also heightened the political temperature in provinces such as Diyala, where control is contested by Sunni, Shia and Kurds. "The terrorists want to destroy the happiness of the Kurds over their election victory in Khanaqin," said Salahudin Kokha, a Kurdish leader.

There are also heightened tensions in the Sunni Anbar province where US troops were asked to stand by in case of trouble. A leader of the Awakening Council, the movement of tribal leaders and former insurgents who turned against al-Qa'ida and allied themselves with the US, said the vote had been stolen by Sunni rivals.

The elections have also led to important changes in the northern province of Nineveh which is contested between Sunni Arabs and Kurds and has remained very violent. The council had a Kurdish majority because of a Sunni boycott in 2005. But in Saturday's poll the Sunni al-Hadba bloc won 48.4 percent of the votes.

The voting shows that Mr Maliki and his Dawa party are stronger but the significance can be exaggerated. Although he fought a secular campaign, on important decisions Mr Maliki does not generally act without seeking the opinion of the Shia Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

The election has also been painted as a setback for Iranian influence but Mr Maliki is still going to keep close relations with Tehran while remaining on good terms with the US. One test of the success of the election will be how far the results are accepted by the losers.

UN chief visits Iraq after peaceful local vote

2009-03-04T08:50:00.001-08:00

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was in Baghdad for talks with Iraqi officials on Friday, almost a week after the country held its most peaceful election since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, officials said.

Ban's unannounced visit followed a trip to Afghanistan, another battlefield in the U.S. war on terrorism launched by former President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks, and to India and Pakistan.

Ban was expected to meet Iraqi officials to discuss last Saturday's provincial election and other issues as Iraq begins to emerge from years of sectarian bloodshed and insurgency unleashed by the invasion.

The United Nations operates under heavy security and maintains a relatively low profile in Iraq, a legacy of the truck bomb that destroyed its Baghdad headquarters in August 2003, killing then U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and other U.N. workers.

But it played a big role in helping to organise the Jan. 31 regional elections, which did not witness a single major militant attack anywhere in the country.

Preliminary results released on Thursday showed that allies of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki scored spectacular gains across Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim south.

Elsewhere in the country, once dominant Sunni Arabs who boycotted Iraq's last local polls in 2005 regained political power in areas where their exclusion from local politics had fuelled resentment and a lingering insurgency.

Turkish warplanes strike PKK targets in N Iraq

2009-03-04T08:49:00.001-08:00

Turkish General Staff said on Friday that air strikes have been waged against targets of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) based in northern Iraq during the last two days, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

General Staff Communication Department Chief Gen. Metin Gurak was quoted as saying at a weekly press briefing in capital Ankara on Friday that Turkish warplanes hit PKK targets in Hakurk region during Feb. 4-5.

Necessary precautions were taken as usual during the air operation to avoid any harm to civilians, he added.

He said two PKK members were captured and one PKK member surrendered to Turkish Security Forces during the counter-terrorism activities carried out by Turkish Armed Forces since Jan. 30.

The Turkish forces take tougher actions against the PKK after the country's legislature extended on Oct. 8 the government's mandate to launch cross-border operations against the rebels in northern Iraq.

The PKK took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Some 40,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.

US to be 'more aggressive' with Iraq on political reform

2009-03-04T08:48:00.001-08:00

Vice President Joe Biden said Friday that the United States would have to be "more aggressive" in prodding Iraq's government on forging political reform.

Biden said before heading off to Munich on the first overseas trip by a key player in the Obama administration that last week's provincial elections in Iraq had shown that progress was being made but more needed to be done.

He said Iraq's leaders had not "gotten their political arrangements together yet."

"Our administration is going to have to be very deeply involved not only keeping the commitment that we've made drawing down our troops in an orderly fashion consistent with what we said."

He said the administration would have to be "much more aggressive ... forcing them to deal with those issues."

Three Iraqi policemen killed in S Iraq

2009-01-30T11:06:00.002-08:00

Three Iraqi policemen were killed by a collected bomb in a southern city, sources with Iraqi police said on Friday.

The Iraqi police found a group of explosive devices in different parts of Diwaniyah city, 180 kilometers south of Baghdad Thursday. While being transported to a car to the U.S. base, one of the explosive devices exploded, killing 3 policemen and wounding 16 others, the source added.

The explosion occurred at the headquarter of the Diwaniyah police.

Some of the wounded were seriously affected and shifted to the nearest hospital, according to the source.

Iraq encouraged by US reassurances, minister says

2009-01-30T11:06:00.001-08:00

Iraq's foreign minister has told The Associated Press his government is very encouraged by reassurances from the Obama administration that there will be no quick withdrawal of U.S. forces.

Hoshyar Zebari says it is "very, very critical" that American troops remain in Iraq in 2009 as the nation begins holding a series of elections, starting with provincial voting Saturday.

He said Friday that Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had both delivered the message that there would be no quick disengagement, rapid U.S. military pullout or irresponsible decisions regarding Iraq. He said this was very encouraging.

Tens of Thousands Vote Early in Iraq

2009-01-29T09:58:00.000-08:00

Tens of thousands of policemen and soldiers, doctors at hospitals, prisoners clad in orange jumpsuits and residents forced from contested towns cast early ballots Wednesday in provincial elections that will redraw Iraq's political landscape.

Regular voting is scheduled for Saturday to choose the equivalent of state legislatures in 14 of the country's 18 provinces. But early voting was allowed for certain groups, in particular the security forces, which will be deployed as part of a security clampdown. On election day, the government has ordered a nighttime curfew, the closing of Iraq's borders and airport, and a ban on traffic in towns and cities.

There was scattered violence Wednesday. Assailants gunned down two policemen in Tuz Khurmatu, 40 miles south of the disputed city of Kirkuk, and a bombing killed a policeman in the northern city of Mosul. But attacks so far have been relatively few compared with the onslaught that preceded Iraq's elections in 2005. Sunni Arabs largely boycotted that vote, delivering disproportionate power to Shiite Arabs and Kurds in some provinces.

Casting his vote at Nidhal High School for Girls, Lt. Gen. Hussein al-Awadi praised the quieter climate this time and suggested that sectarian tensions -- the Sunni and Shiite conflict that racked Baghdad in 2006 and 2007 -- had subsided.

"Today, these feelings have vanished," he said, his finger stained blue to prevent multiple voting. "Stability is apparent this time, and that was our ambition."

The three predominantly Kurdish provinces, part of an autonomous region in the north, will hold elections later this year. Voting in the province around Kirkuk, a city riven by competing ethnic claims, was delayed indefinitely.

In the 14 other provinces, where about 14,400 candidates are vying for 440 seats on the councils, the elections could bring a new alignment in almost each locale.

The Dawa party of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose popularity has been bolstered by the decline in violence, is seeking to chip away at the power of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, which controls four of the nine predominantly Shiite southern provinces. Followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric whose men have fought rival Shiites, the army and the U.S. military, are backing lists of nominally independent candidates.

"What makes us happy is the preparations we are seeing today -- a slap in the face of those who are betting that Iraqis will not go to the ballot boxes because they are despairing," Maliki said during a televised election rally in the southern city of Amarah.

In predominantly Sunni regions, secular and tribal forces have sought to end the near-monopoly on power of the Iraqi Islamic Party, one of the few Sunni parties to take part in the 2005 elections. In two provinces, sectarian and ethnic leadership may actually shift. In Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, Sunni Arabs expect to take a majority of seats on a council dominated by Shiites and Kurds. They expect to win another majority in Nineveh province, around the city of Mosul, where Kurds now control 31 of 37 seats.

Signs of potential conflict emerged Wednesday, too.

In Fallujah, about 35 miles west of Baghdad, some residents stocked up on food, worrying that the victory of candidates campaigning under the umbrella of U.S.-backed tribes that defeated insurgents in 2007 might inspire reprisal attacks by insurgents or rivals in the Islamic Party.

More than 25,000 Kurds, displaced under the government of Saddam Hussein, were allowed to vote in Nineveh. Election officials said the number was far short of the 100,000 who demanded the right to vote.

"There is concern that these lists will be manipulated and exploited," said Ahmad Awwad, a candidate for al-Hadba-a, a Sunni Arab party in the province.

Iraqi's Shiite political parties vie for power in south

2009-01-29T09:57:00.003-08:00

n Najaf, the heart of Shiite Muslim Iraq, pedestrians linger on the sidewalks of a busy bazaar, men smoke fruit-flavored shisha tobacco in cafes, and a new first-class hotel with sparkling marble floors and dripping chandeliers is almost full. The battered capital of Baghdad seems much farther than 100 miles away.

Beneath this veneer of calm, however, an uneasy power struggle among southern Iraq's Shiite majority has emerged. In simple terms, the political battle can be understood in near opposites: nationalism vs. federalism, status quo vs. change, secularism vs. religion.

The Shiite parties that are vying for several hundred seats in Saturday's provincial elections are the State of Law coalition, affiliated with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his Dawa party, and its opponent, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. Candidates from two party slates backed by the populist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr also have entered the race.

The splintering among Shiite parties in this crucial vote points to the kind of Iraq - fractured, very likely - that U.S. troops could leave behind as they withdraw in the coming years.

"It will be a turning point in deciding the political map of Iraq," said Zuhair al-Hakim, a spokesman for the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.

A few years ago, Najaf, one of the holiest sites for Shiites because of its gilded Imam Ali shrine, was the site of fierce battles between U.S. and Iraqi forces and militiamen from Sadr's Mahdi Army. For now, at least, the bloodletting has stopped.

Signs of the election season are everywhere. Candidate banners flap above the streets and posters paper storefront walls. Little boys toss campaign cards through open windows as cars idle in checkpoint traffic.

On Saturday, the head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq made a campaign stop at a soccer stadium, speaking to several thousand jubilant supporters. Shielded by a glass cage and flanked by dozens of armed guards, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim urged voters to cast their ballots, pick competent candidates and pitch in to monitor the polls.

"We want to develop the public services," he said. "We want to change Najaf into an international city."

Founded by exiles in Iran in 1982, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq has called for creating a semiautonomous region in the south, not unlike Kurdistan in the north. Such power would enable the party to seize control of the region's rich oil reserves and religious sites.

"Having regions and federalism will strengthen local economies, bring more job opportunities and protect the provinces from coups and dictatorships," Hakim said.

Najaf and surrounding areas long have been strongholds of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, but the State of Law coalition is proving to be a formidable opponent. Polls point to a rise in Maliki's popularity stemming from his administration's military clampdown on sectarian strife and the security forces agreement with the U.S. that he helped hammer out. That deal, which took effect Jan. 1, secured the transfer of power from American to Iraqi troops.

Maliki's party is pressing for a strong central government, as well as a more pragmatic approach to government. Now that security has improved, it maintains, Iraq can start building itself.

"We put the train on the rails, which is the most important thing," said Majeed Mustafa Zani, a leader in the State of Law coalition and a professor of Islamic economics. "Because this mission (of building Iraq) is so big, it takes more time."

Critics charge that Maliki shows signs of a strongman in the making. Besides setting up military forces that report directly to him, Maliki has established tribal councils in the south that help enforce security in neighborhoods. Maliki's opponents are angered further by the flood of government money to the councils, which are supporting his provincial candidates.

Artwork dedicated to shoe thrower

2009-01-29T09:57:00.001-08:00

BAGHDAD (AP) — When an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at George W. Bush last month at a Baghdad press conference, the attack spawned a flood of Web quips, political satire and street rallies across the Arab world.

Now, it's inspired a work of art.

A sofa-sized shoe statue was formally unveiled to the public Thursday in Tikrit, the hometown of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Baghdad-based artist Laith al-Amari described his fiberglass-and-copper work as a homage to the pride of the Iraqi people.

The statue also has inscribed a poem honoring Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist. Al-Zeidi was charged with assaulting a foreign leader, but the trial was postponed after his lawyer sought to reduce the charges.

Iraq to deny licence to US Blackwater guards

2009-01-29T09:55:00.000-08:00

Iraq will not renew the licence of Blackwater Worldwide, the private security firm accused of killing Iraqi civilians while protecting U.S. diplomats, U.S. and Iraqi officials said on Thursday.

"The operating permission for the firm Blackwater will not be renewed. Its chance is zero," said Alaa al-Taie, head of the press department at the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

"It is not acceptable to Iraqis and there are legal points against it, like killing Iraqis with their weapons."

A U.S. embassy official confirmed that the embassy had been informed that the licence would not be renewed, and said it was working on finding a new arrangement to cover its security.

"We don't have specifics about dates. We are working with the government of Iraq and our contractors to address the implications of this decision," the official said.

Blackwater employs hundreds of heavily-armed guards with a fleet of armoured vehicles and helicopters to protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq. The firm boasts that no American officials have been killed while under its protection.

But Iraqi officials have been furious with the firm since a September 2007 shooting in which Blackwater guards opened fire in traffic, killing at least 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians.

One Blackwater guard has pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to voluntary manslaughter and attempt to commit manslaughter over that incident, and is cooperating with U.S. prosecutors.

Five others are awaiting trial next year on manslaughter charges. The firm denies wrongdoing and says its staff were responding to a perceived threat.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki branded the incident a "massacre" and complained when the U.S. State Department subsequently renewed Blackwater's contract.

U.S. forces who occupied Iraq after the 2003 invasion granted their Western security contractors blanket immunity from Iraqi law. But that was revoked at the beginning of this year, and security contractors can now be prosecuted in Iraq.

Petraeus will never declare victory in Iraq

2008-09-16T11:16:00.001-07:00

The general in charge of American soldiers in Iraq has given a mixed assessment of progress in the country.

General David Petraeus says that while the country is in better shape than it was at the start of last year it still faces serious problems.

General Petraeus has overseen the so-called "surge" of American combat troops into Iraq and he is about to leave to take on a more senior role leading US Central Command.

He says the fabric of Iraqi society was being torn apart by "horrific" violence and he would never declare victory there.

"This is not the sort of struggle where you take a hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade... it's not war with a simple slogan," he said.

However, as security has improved American combat troops could be moved out of a number of major cities, including Baghdad.

When asked whether US troops could withdraw from Iraqi cities by the middle of next year, he said that would be "doable".

The outgoing commander told the BBC that Al Qaeda's battle in Iraq is "going poorly", despite the group's claims to be doing well.

But General Petraeus also says there are still "many storm clouds on the horizon that could develop into real problems".

He is about to become the head of the US Central Command, a post that will also oversee Afghanistan, where American troops are now being sent in greater numbers.

Iraq Rejects No-Bid Contracts

2008-09-16T11:14:00.000-07:00

The Iraqi government has decided to scrap plans to award no-bid short-term advisory and technical support contracts to a handful of Western oil companies, Iraqi officials said this week.

The companies -- including Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, France's Total and British Petroleum -- are expected to submit bids in coming weeks for deals that the Iraqi government hopes will boost exploration and output in its oil fields, which have been hampered by years of war. Industry analysts said the short-term contracts could have helped companies win more lucrative exploration and development deals.

The Iraqi government informed the companies about its decision this month, said Assem Jihad, a spokesman for Iraq's Oil Ministry.

He said the ministry decided to end the talks because they had dragged on for too long. But he said Iraq looks forward to working with those companies in the future.

"We don't have a negative attitude toward any company," he said. "The ministry decided that due to the delay, it was better to cancel this idea."

The oil companies were not surprised by the Iraqi decision, given the political sensitivities raised by the issue, according to an executive at one of the five companies. Speaking on the condition that he not be identified further, the executive said the deals had become less attractive because Iraqi officials had shortened the proposed length of the contracts from two years to one in response to criticism.

China's national oil company last month became the first company to sign a major oil deal with Iraq since the war began in 2003. The 20-year deal with China's National Petroleum Corp., which revives a similar contract negotiated while Saddam Hussein was in power, is expected to increase output in one of Iraq's largest oil fields.
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This week, Iraqi officials announced that they intend to sign a contract with Shell to capture and make use of natural gas that is now burned off during oil production in southern Iraq. The deal, which could be worth as much as $4 billion, has been approved by Iraq's parliament and could be signed as early as next week, Jihad said.

According to the proposed agreement, Iraq would keep 51 percent of the proceeds, and Shell would keep the rest.

Iraq is enormously attractive to oil companies, as the price of the resource has soared and oil-rich countries such as Venezuela and Russia have increasingly nationalized their oil industries. But violence and political turmoil -- Iraqi lawmakers have yet to agree on a hydrocarbon law-- have given oil executives pause.

How George W Bush stared down his generals in Iraq

2008-09-16T11:13:00.000-07:00

George W Bush trusted his generals in the early years of the Iraq War. But in 2006, he smelled failure with their main goals of Arabisation and troop withdrawals, and set in train an eventual escalation, bypassing the usual chain of command. So far, the US President appears to have been right. Bob Woodward reveals how the surge came about and why it has been succeeding, as Bush faces his last months in office

HALFWAY through the sixth year of his US presidency and more than three years into the Iraq War, George W. Bush stood on a veranda of the American embassy compound in Baghdad. He had flown through the night for a surprise visit to the new Iraqi Prime Minister. It was June 13, 2006. With so much at stake in Iraq, where success or failure had become the core of his legacy, Bush had been anxious to meet the man he had, in many ways, been waiting for since the invasion.

It was now evening. A hazy sunset had descended over the sweltering, violent capital. The President stepped aside for a private conversation with US Army General George W. Casey Jr, the 57-year-old commander of the 150,000 U.S. forces in the country. A 5-foot-8 (173cm), four-star general with wire-rim glasses, closely cropped graying hair and a soft voice, Casey had been the commander in Iraq for two years.

As American military units rotated in and out, rarely serving more than a year, Casey had remained the one constant, seeing it all, trying to understand - and end - this maddening war in this maddening land.

Recently, there had been some positive news in Iraq. A week earlier, US forces had killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the man Osama bin Laden had declared the “Prince of Al-Qa'ida in Iraq” and the terrorist organisation's in-country operational commander. And the previous month, after three elections and months of delay, Nouri al-Maliki finally had taken office as the country's first permanent Prime Minister. Now, in the warm Baghdad dusk, the President and the general lit thin cigars.

“We have to win,” Bush insisted, repeating his public and private mantra. Casey had heard the President's line dozens of times. “I'm with you,” he replied. “I understand that. But to win, we have to draw down. We have to bring our force levels down to ones that are sustainable both for them and for us.”

Casey felt that the Iraqis, a proud people and resistant to the Western occupation, needed to take over. The large, visible US force was ultimately a sign of disrespect. Worse, the prolonged occupation was making the Iraqis dependent. Each time additional US troops arrived, they soon seemed indispensable. The Iraqis needed to take back their country and their self-respect, so central to Arab culture. They needed to fight their own war and run their own government; they were doing neither.

Casey studied Bush's face, now wrinkled and showing its 59 years, the right eye slightly more closed than the left under graying, full eyebrows.

The general had pushed for a drawdown for two years. And while the President had always approved the strategy, he no longer seemed to buy Casey's argument. “I know I've got work to do to convince you of that,” the general said, “but I firmly believe that.”

Bush looked sceptical. “I need to do a better job explaining to you” why winning means getting out, Casey said. “You do,” Bush replied.

Casey had long concluded that one big problem with the war was the President himself. He later told a colleague in private that he had the impression that Bush reflected the “radical wing of the Republican Party that kept saying, ‘Kill the bastards! Kill the bastards! And you'll succeed.’” Since the beginning, the President had viewed the war in conventional terms, repeatedly asking how many of the various enemies had been captured or killed.

The real battle, Casey believed, was to prepare the Iraqis to protect and govern themselves.

This is an edited extract from The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008, by Bob Woodward, published by Simon & Schuster,price to come. Read the full extract in The Weekend Australian tomorrow. (Petraeus, officially commanding general, Multi-National Force - Iraq, later this month assumes a promotion as commander of the US Central Command, which includes the Middle East and Central Asia.)

Bush considering 8,000 troop cuts in Iraq

2008-09-10T15:24:00.000-07:00

The top U.S. general in Iraq is recommending nearly 8,000 troop cuts in Iraq because of the improving situation there, a source close to the process has told CNN.

President Bush is considering Gen. David Petraeus' recommendation, which the official said is for a reduction of "well over 7,500 personnel," with the number including combat and support troops.

Some units would leave Iraq over the next five months as they complete their missions. But the first possible significant reduction -- an army brigade combat team -- would leave without replacement early next year, said the official, and that would free a brigade to be rotated to Afghanistan instead of Iraq.

Petraeus gave his recommendation to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, who have passed it and other recommendations along to the president.

A reduction in U.S. troops in Iraq would free up personnel for deployment to Afghanistan, a move urged by many commanders. The Taliban has stepped up its fight in that country, posing a challenge for the 33,000 U.S. troops deployed there.

The White House will not comment on the details of the Iraq recommendations. Spokeswoman Dana Perino said only that Bush "has received the assessment and recommendation from the Pentagon and he is considering his options."

The president is expected to make an announcement on troop levels next week, the same time Gates and Mullen are to testify before the House Armed Services Committee about Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are 146,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

Iraq and the United States are working to seal a security agreement that would set down a framework to withdraw troops.

In deciding on troop cuts, officials must weigh the need for sufficient U.S. military presence to help Iraq build its army and the significant sentiment there for U.S. and coalition troops to withdraw swiftly.

U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have been looking at a proposal calling for a complete U.S. military withdrawal by the end of 2011, and a deadline of June 30, 2009, to end the presence of U.S. troops in cities and towns.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell confirmed that Gates and Mullen made their recommendations to Bush on Wednesday, but gave no details.

"I can tell you that all these leaders are fundamentally in agreement on how we should proceed in Iraq," he said of Gates, Mullen, Petraeus, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and acting Central Command chief Gen. Martin Dempsey.

"Of course, now it is up to the commander-in-chief to decide the way ahead," Morrell said.

Officials said senior military leaders agree that the soonest troop levels could be significantly reduced would be early in 2009, when a 3,500-strong brigade from the 10th Mountain Division is scheduled to deploy to Iraq to replace a brigade leaving in mid-January.

Pentagon officials say that would free another brigade combat team to arrive in Afghanistan in mid-February.

The Army has identified units that could be available for Afghanistan, but it would take two to three months from the time the decision is made to assemble all the weaponry and equipment they need and ship them and the troops to Afghanistan, two Army officials told CNN.

The officials said the troops would not need extensive additional training to switch from Iraq to Afghanistan, especially those earmarked to train Afghan forces.

The increase in fighting in Afghanistan contrasts with the dramatic drop in violence across Iraq, where U.S. military is confident that it will continue to make strides.

The military transferred security control to Iraqis this week in the country's Anbar province, a Sunni Arab region once dominated by insurgents and now a bastion of the Awakening Councils, or Sons of Iraq, U.S.-backed groups that help with some security duties.

The military said it plans to transfer management of the Awakening Councils to the Iraqi government next month.

"The government of Iraq and coalition forces have agreed in principle to transfer all 100,000 Sons of Iraq," Maj. John Hall told CNN. "The transfer will start with the Baghdad province, with the other provinces following at a later date."

Under the security agreement still being negotiated, the Iraqi government could ask Americans to extend the tentative deadlines if it sees the necessity of doing so. A joint Iraqi-U.S. committee would then help define the duration and number of forces that would be needed and regularly assess the security situation on the ground.

Fury in Iraq as Bob Woodward claims US spied on Nouri al-Maliki

2008-09-10T15:21:00.000-07:00

Iraq is demanding an explanation from the United States after allegations that US intelligence agencies have been spying on Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister and other government officials.

If the claims, made in a new book by veteran investigative reporter Bob Woodward, prove to be true they will “cast a shadow” over relations between Baghdad and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other US intelligence services, an Iraqi government spokesman said yesterday.

“If it is true, if it is a fact, it reflects that there is no trust and it reflects also that the institutions in the United States are used to spy on their friends and their enemies in the same way,” Dr Ali al-Dabbagh told The Times.

“If it is true it casts a shadow on the future relations with such institutions,” he said. “We will raise this with the American side and we will ask for an explanation.”

The comments came in response to excerpts from Mr Woodward's latest book, which claimed that US intelligence agencies “know everything” Mr al-Maliki says.

It also alleges that they have been spying on his staff and others within the Iraqi Government at a time when both sides were working together to defeat the bloody insurgency that consumed Iraq in 2006 and early 2007.

A US embassy spokeswoman in Baghdad declined to comment on the revelations in The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006-2008.

The book, due to be published on Monday, also claims that a “surge” last year of almost 30,000 additional US troops into Baghdad and the surrounding area was not the primary reason behind a drop in the violence in recent months.

Instead, it alludes to “groundbreaking” new covert techniques that enabled US military and intelligence officials to pinpoint and kill key insurgent leaders, including senior members of al-Qaeda in Iraq. It declines to give more details, however, to avoid revealing state secrets.

Mr Woodward's book, his fourth on President Bush's handling of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, portrays the rifts that plagued the Bush Administration as the troop surge policy was devised against a backdrop of escalating bloodshed.

He writes that top generals staged a “near revolt” in late 2006, fearing that their advice was not reaching the President.

General David Petraeus, the current top military commander in Iraq, is portrayed in a positive light. However, as the man who implemented Mr Bush's new policy on the ground, his predecessor, General George Casey, is seen as falling out of favour with the President.

Away from the political and military wranglings in Washington, the book describes the development of a close working relationship between Mr Bush and the Iraqi Prime Minister, with the American President encouraging Mr al-Maliki to take decisive action against sectarianism.

Mr Woodward, an associate editor at The Washington Post, wrote that one official with knowledge of the surveillance activities recognised the sensitivity of the issue and then asked, “Would it be better if we didn't?”.

A senior aide to Mr al-Maliki expressed regret at the spying allegations if they were valid.

“If it's correct I feel sorry because the relation between Iraq and the United States should be on a level of trust and of co-operation rather than of spying and a lack of trust,” Sadiq alRikabi told The Times.

The aide said that he would not be able to tell if his whole office was full of bugging devices, adding: “I am not a professional in that field.”

It is unclear what damage the spying allegations will do to relations between Iraq and the United States if proved to be true.

At present, Mr al-Maliki's offices as well as other key government buildings are just down the road from the US Embassy inside the fortified green zone in Baghdad.

US advisers work side by side with their Iraqi counterparts at various Iraqi ministries, while US, British and other coalition officials attend weekly top-level security meetings with the Iraqi leader and other senior government officials.

Mr al-Maliki, who was sworn in as Prime Minister in May 2006, has led Iraq through some of its most turbulent postwar months and, more recently, a dramatic drop in the violence.

He was seen initially by the Bush Administration as weak and ineffective as daily bombings and sectarian killings raged across the country at the hands of Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda and the Shia al-Mahdi Army. But that image changed thanks in part to the surge.

Boosting his secular credentials, the Shia Prime Minister, 58, has also headed crackdowns on Shia militants in the southern city of Basra as well as the Baghdad slum of Sadr City, while attacking al-Qaeda strongholds in the north.

The words of Woodward

— Bob Woodward's career as a journalist began badly. In a trial fortnight at The Washington Post in 1970 he wrote 17 stories and had none published

— He unearthed the Watergate scandal after only nine months at The Washington Post, while working night shifts. He was assigned to cover the story along with a younger but more experienced reporter, Carl Bernstein.

— Much of their information came from one of Woodward's contacts, named Deep Throat.

— He was later revealed, although not by Woodward, to be W. Mark Felt Sr, an FBI agent

— Through the years he has accumulated some critics: one dubbed him a “mindless Sir Edmund Hillary: he climbs for the detail because it is there, gettable by him, even if it tells us nothing”.

— In the late 1980s his reputation suffered a blow with claims that he had faked or exaggerated a deathbed interview with William Casey, a former Director of the CIA

—More recently he has built a formidable reputation on the strength and depth of his contacts. High ranking officials in the White House and the security services talk to him in depth on and off the record. He has written 15 books

Iraq politician Ahmad Chalabi survives assassination attempt

2008-09-10T15:20:00.000-07:00

A suicide bomber tried to assassinate politician Ahmad Chalabi on Friday night, killing six of his guards when he rammed his car into the Shiite Muslim politician's speeding convoy, Chalabi's spokesman said.

Chalabi, who has survived at least three previous attempts on his life, was returning to his home in the west Baghdad district of Mansour when the bomber in a sport utility vehicle struck, spokesman Iyad Kadhim Sabti said. At least 17 people were wounded, including nine of Chalabi's guards, police said. Chalabi was unharmed.

It was not clear who was behind the attack, Sabti added. The blast, not far from the politician's compound, was heard across the capital.

Chalabi, a former exile who returned to Iraq during the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, travels around Baghdad regularly in heavily protected convoys. Until last month, he headed a committee on public services for the capital, and had served during parts of 2005 and 2006 as deputy prime minister and acting oil minister.

A longtime darling of Washington neoconservatives in and out of the Bush administration, Chalabi provided much of the faulty intelligence on the late dictator Saddam Hussein's weapons program that President Bush used to justify the invasion. His relationship with the White House faltered after U.S. forces failed to find any evidence that Hussein had an active nuclear, chemical or biological weapons program and the information Chalabi supplied was discredited.

Chalabi ran for election on his own slate in Iraq's last national balloting but failed to win a seat in parliament. He has managed to remain a player in Iraq's political arena because of his chairmanship of the country's de-Baathification commission, which purged members of Hussein's regime from state jobs, and his ability to juggle disparate alliances. Chalabi has forged relationships with anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's populist movement, as well as some members of the largely Sunni Arab, U.S.-funded Sons of Iraq paramilitary program.

Despite a drop in violence in the last year, assassination attempts targeting civil servants and prominent individuals continue to occur routinely in Baghdad. Earlier Friday, gunmen with silencers killed a civilian advisor to the Defense Ministry, Abdul Amir Hassan Abbas, as he drove through east Baghdad, police said.

Also Friday, the government said it would question U.S. officials about allegations, in a new book by Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, that America has been spying on Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.

"If it is true, if it is a fact, it reflects that there is no trust and it reflects also that the institutions in the United States are used to spy on their friends and their enemies in the same way," government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said in an e-mailed statement.

He warned that the news could imperil future relations with the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies. "We will raise this with the American side and we will ask for an explanation," he said.

The allegations were first reported by the Washington Post on Friday in an article about Woodward's book, "The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006-2008."

Allegations of spying by U.S. rattle Iraq

2008-09-10T15:19:00.001-07:00

The Iraqi government reacted sharply Friday to published allegations that the U.S. spied on Iraq's prime minister, warning that future ties with the United States could be in jeopardy if the report were true.

The allegations appear in a new book, The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006-2008, by journalist Bob Woodward, who writes that the United States spied extensively on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, his staff and other government officials.

The report emerged as the two governments are in delicate negotiations over the future of American troops in Iraq. Those talks have already extended past their July 31 deadline and have drawn sharp criticism from Iraqis who want an end to the U.S. presence.

Critics may well use the allegation to step up pressure on the government not to sign a deal or hold out for the most favorable terms.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Baghdad will raise the allegations with the U.S. and ask for an explanation.

But if true, he warned, it shows a lack of trust.

"It reflects also that the institutions in the United States are used to spy on their friends and their enemies in the same way," al-Dabbagh said in a statement.

"If it is true, it casts a shadow on the future relations with such institutions," al-Dabbagh added, referring to the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies.

In Washington, the White House declined to directly comment on the allegations.

Instead, spokeswoman Dana Perino said official channels of communication between the two governments happen daily.

"We have a good idea of what Prime Minister Maliki is thinking because he tells us, very frankly and very candidly, as often as we can," Perino said.

Despite the Iraqi government's sharp public criticism, a top aide to al-Maliki was more measured in his response.

"If this is true, then we feel sorry about that. We look upon the Americans as our partners. There's nothing of real value that would require the Americans to spy on us. On top of that, we have nothing to hide from the Americans to make them have to spy on us," the aide told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Other Iraqi officials expressed dismay about spying allegations.

"If it is true, it is very dangerous and we will condemn it because how can a friend spy on you? This is unacceptable for us," said Mahmoud Othman, a prominent Kurdish lawmaker.

Ex-Saddam general shot dead in Baghdad

2008-09-10T15:17:00.002-07:00

A former Iraqi general under Saddam Hussein turned defence ministry advisor was shot dead in broad daylight in central Baghdad on Friday security sources said.

Gunmen assaulted Abdelamir Hassan Abbas as he was driving his car in the neighbourhood of Zayona, pumping bullets into him with a silenced firearm, the security official with the interior ministry said.

"They killed him immediately," he added. The incident was confirmed by Iraqi military sources. Abbas, a Shiite brigadier general in executed dictator Saddam Hussein's army, went to work as a civilian consultant for Iraq's defence ministry several months ago.

Excuse us for eavesdropping, Prime Minister Maliki

2008-09-10T15:17:00.001-07:00

Sometimes, Baghdad's Green Zone, the walled-off axis of American and Iraqi power, is akin to a spy novel. Concertina wire, endless soot-stained gray concrete walls, the speeding convoys of armored vehicles give the enclave a conspiratorial atmosphere. According to legend, key words like Al Qaeda or the Mahdi Army in a phone conversation ensure that your call will be monitored by some intelligence agency somewhere. On one occasion, a western official cautioned that a U.S. advisor to an Iraqi minister wasn’t advising his client, but spying on him.

The latest episode in Baghdad’s annals of cloak-and-dagger escapades came Friday with a Washington Post report that the U.S. government had been spying on Prime Minister Nouri Maliki. The information comes from a new book, "The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006-2008," by famed journalist and Washington insider Bob Woodward. “We know everything he [Maliki] says,” one source bragged to Woodward, according to the Post.

The allegations were mentioned in January 2007 by Newsweek magazine. Then the magazine quoted unnamed White House officials as saying that Maliki’s conversations had been monitored because the United States wanted to make sure the prime minister was not saying one thing to them and another thing in private.

The magazine reported that the spying had reassured U.S. officials about Maliki.

However, the Iraqi government found nothing comforting in Woodward’s latest opus. "If it is true, if it is a fact, it reflects that there is no trust and it reflects also that the institutions in the United States are used to spy on their friends and their enemies in the same way," said Ali Dabbagh, the Iraqi government’s spokesman, in an e-mailed statement.

He warned that the news could imperil future relations with the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies. “We will raise this with the American side and we will ask for an explanation," he said.

Others took a more blasé approach, as if they expected the Americans would be listening in on Iraqi officials. Sheik Jalaluddin Saghir, a senior Shiite politician, thought it might “make things turbid” between the two countries. Other than that, he said, “It’s not a surprise.”

US soldier dies in Baghdad

2008-09-10T15:15:00.000-07:00

The US military has confirmed the death of one American combat soldier of injuries sustained in a non-combat related incident in Baghdad.

The US military central command in Iraq said the soldier died on Friday but failed to offer any further details.

According to an AFP count, his death brings to 4,155 the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.

Gen. Petraeus recommends delay in Iraq troop cuts

2008-09-09T08:02:00.000-07:00

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus has recommended that President Bush postpone sharp troop cuts in Iraq until next year, delaying a large-scale shift of combat forces to Afghanistan and reflecting concerns that widespread violence could return to Iraq.

Under the recommendation, the current level of about 140,000 troops would remain in Iraq through the end of Bush's presidency in January. Then, a combat brigade of about 3,500 troops would be removed by February, a senior Pentagon official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the recommendation has not been made public.

The move would represent a compromise between Petraeus and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, comprising the uniformed heads of the Army, Marines, Navy and Air Force. The Joint Chiefs had hoped for a sharper cut -- of up to 10,000 troops -- by the end of the year. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, had pushed to keep 140,000 troops, or 15 combat brigades and support personnel, until next June.

"It is a compromise solution," said a military official, describing internal discussions on condition of anonymity. "It is about balancing risks and requirements."

Any further changes would be decided by the next administration, military officials said.

The recommendation contrasts with Petraeus' statements before Congress in May, when he predicted an autumn troop reduction, even if a small one. The warning against deep cutbacks also comes amid a sharp debate in the presidential campaign, in which Republican John McCain has praised Bush's troop strategy and Democrat Barack Obama has said he would withdraw troops to send more forces to Afghanistan.

Pentagon officials emphasized that the recommendations have not been accepted by President Bush. But over the last 18 months, Bush has deferred to Petraeus, who has accepted the compromise. The White House said Bush is considering the advice.

Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, declined to discuss the specifics of the recommendation but said it bridged divisions among military leaders.

"I can tell you that all these leaders are fundamentally in agreement on how we should proceed in Iraq," Morrell said in a statement. "They came to agreement after serious and lengthy discussions about the dramatic security gains in Iraq, the threats that still exist there and the uncertainties that remain."

In recent months, Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has stressed the importance of increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan to counter a growing threat by extremists.

But because of the strains of combat on the armed forces, plans to boost the number of troops in Afghanistan have depended on reducing the size of the force in Iraq.

One source of the strain, the 2007 troop buildup ordered by Bush, came to an end in July, when the last of 21,500 additional combat troops left. Throughout the year, as the troop buildup was ending, the number of forces in Iraq gradually declined.

But Petraeus requested a halt in the troop cuts over the summer while officials assessed conditions.

Among other troop recommendations, the Pentagon has asked Bush to send a Marine battalion -- about 1,000 troops -- to Afghanistan in November. They would replace 3,200 Marines who were sent to Iraq earlier this year and are due to leave.

The troop changes would mean that before next spring, when fighting is expected to intensify, an additional brigade along with the Marine battalion would bolster the U.S. force in Afghanistan by about 1,300 troops. Including the current Marine units, there now are about 34,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Petraeus' insistence on keeping a larger troop presence in Iraq would prevent a larger shift sought by the Joint Chiefs. Commanders in Afghanistan have requested three additional brigades. And members of the Joint Chiefs had hoped to be able to send at least one brigade by the end of the year.

However, Petraeus has worried over the departure of other nations from the U.S.-led Iraq coalition, including the reduction in forces by Britain and the abrupt recall last month of 2,000 Georgian troops.

White House officials declined to comment on the Petraeus recommendation. Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates are expected to testify before Congress about the recommendation next Wednesday. An announcement by Bush is expected shortly afterward.

White House spied on Iraq's leader, Bob Woodward says in book

2008-09-09T08:01:00.000-07:00

The Bush administration has conducted an extensive spying operation on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, his staff and others in his government, according to a new book by Washington Post editor and author Bob Woodward.

"We know everything he says," according to one of multiple sources Woodward cites about the practice in "The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008," scheduled for publication by Simon & Schuster on Monday.

The book also says the U.S. troop "surge" of 2007, in which President Bush sent nearly 30,000 additional U.S. forces to Iraq, was not the primary factor behind the steep drop in violence there during the last 16 months.

Rather, Woodward reports, "groundbreaking" covert techniques, beginning in 2007, enabled U.S. military and intelligence officials to locate and kill insurgent leaders and key individuals in extremist groups.

Woodward does not disclose the code names of the covert programs or provide much detail about them, saying in the book that White House and other officials cited national security concerns in asking him to withhold specifics.

Overall, Woodward writes, four factors combined to reduce the violence: the covert operations; the influx of troops; the agreement by militant cleric Muqtada Sadr to rein in his powerful Mahdi Army militia; and the so-called Anbar Awakening, in which tens of thousands of Sunnis turned against the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq and allied with U.S. forces.

The 487-page book is Woodward's fourth to examine the inner debates of the Bush administration and its handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The book is based on more than 150 interviews with the president's national security team, senior deputies and other key players in the intelligence, diplomatic and military communities. Woodward conducted two on-the-record interviews with Bush in May.

It portrays an administration split by dissent as the situation in Iraq deteriorated during the summer and early fall of 2006. Publicly, Bush said U.S. forces were "winning"; privately, he came to believe that the military's long-term strategy of training Iraqi security forces and handing over responsibility to the new Iraqi government was failing.

In October 2006, the book says, Bush asked Stephen Hadley, his national security advisor, to lead a closely guarded review of the Iraq war. That first assessment did not include anyone from the military, however, and proceeded secretly because of White House fears that news coverage of a review might damage Republican chances in the midterm congressional elections.

According to Woodward, the president maintained an odd detachment from the reviews of war policy during this period, turning much of the process over to Hadley. "Let's cut to the chase," Bush told Woodward. "Hadley drove a lot of this."

Responding to a question about how the White House settled on a troop surge of five brigades after the military leadership in Washington had reluctantly said it could provide two, Bush said: "OK, I don't know this. I'm not in these meetings, you'll be happy to hear, because I got other things to do."

The book presents an evolving picture of the president's decision making. On the one hand, it portrays Bush as detached, tentative and slow to react to the escalating violence in Iraq; on the other, after he decided that a surge was required, he is shown acting with focus and determination to move ahead with his plan in the face of strong resistance from his top military advisors.

No time to ignore Iraq

2008-09-04T22:43:00.000-07:00

In a land that seems increasingly far away, 140,000 U.S. troops still labor – fortunately with less risk to life and limb than during some previous time periods. And, with a tentative agreement between the U.S. and the Iraqi prime minister to have most troops out of Iraq by the end of 2011, perhaps we’re even within sight of a close to this particularly misbegotten chapter in American history.

And yet. As with all things Iraqi so far anyway, powder kegs remain. The much vaunted Sunni Awakening seems to be somewhat less than pleasing to the ruling Shiites, who apparently now want some of the Sunni leaders arrested and tried for their previous ties to Al Qaeda in Iraq. Provincial elections – scheduled for December, last I saw a report on them – may prove problematic or may get postponed again. Who runs Kirkuk is not resolved. Whether Muqtada al-Sadr chooses to fight or stick to politics is another great unknown. Meanwhile, lots of Iraqis remain refugees.

I would hope that whoever becomes president in January will be able to approach Iraq with a lot of flexibility. I am not enamored of Barack Obama’s call for a specific timetable (although he has plenty of asterisks attached to it), nor do I think much of John McCain’s almost sole emphasis on “victory.” I would mostly like to see an Iraq that is stable and secure for all of its people; that may mean we have to keep a sort of peace-keeping force there for a long time – perhaps even longer than the majority Shiites want. We may also have to acknowledge that most of the time, Iraq is going to be very friendly with Iran. How a president walks this tightrope, I don’t know, except that a huge emphasis on diplomacy would seem to be in order.

Meanwhile, Gen. Petraeus calls the current relative calm tenuous: “It’s not durable yet. It’s not self-sustaining,” he told the New York Times.

I personally can live with an extended, and extensive, troop presence in Iraq as long as it means Iraq is getting safer day by day for its citizens (and our soldiers). I don’t want our troops used to baby-sit a civil war, though, or worse, be on one side or the other of sectarian bloodbaths. Yet there is some room for hope, which certainly didn’t exist two years ago, that we may finally be on something close to the right course. It sort of reaffirms the saying that we as a country usually end up doing the right thing -- after we’ve tried everything else.

Former Iraq minister sentenced to death

2008-09-04T22:42:00.000-07:00

A former Iraqi cabinet minister has been sentenced to death for ordering the murder of a Sunni politician's two sons.

Assad Kamal al-Hashemi, also a Sunni, resigned as culture minister and went into hiding last year when he was first charged in the February 2005 attack on parliamentary candidate Mithal al-Alusi. Al-Alusi's two sons were killed in the attack.

The Central Criminal Court of Iraq handed down a guilty verdict and death sentence in absentia for al-Hashemi on Wednesday, according to a court official.

Sunni members of the cabinet suspended their participation in Iraq's government last summer after al-Hashemi was accused in the plot. They cited the prosecution of al-Hashemi as one reason, calling it an attempt by the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to marginalize the Sunni bloc.

Al-Hashemi was part of the General Conference of the Iraqi People, which is part of the Iraqi Accord Front, the country's largest Sunni bloc. It rejoined the cabinet last month. He was an imam at a Baghdad mosque at the time of the killings.

Two people who planned and carried out the attack confessed that they took orders from al-Hashemi, an Iraqi government official has said. The arrest warrant naming al-Hashemi was issued specifically for the killings of al-Alusi's sons, not the failed attempt against al-Alusi.

Al-Alusi was a leading figure in the secular Iraqi National Congress Party but was expelled after visiting Israel. He was elected to Parliament as the head of his own group, the Iraqi Democratic National Party, which holds one seat.

On Saturday, an assistant to the minister of culture was killed. The assistant, Kamel Shiyah, died when militants opened fire on his vehicle, according to an Interior Ministry official. Shiyah's guard was injured in the shooting and taken to a hospital.

Gunmen Kill a Top Official in Baghdad

2008-09-04T22:41:00.000-07:00

Kamal Shyaa Abdullah was warned to drive in a guarded convoy when he traveled through the streets of Baghdad — he was a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Culture and was soon to become a deputy minister. But he disliked all the fuss of bodyguards and extra cars, and he refused protection.

On Saturday, Mr. Abdullah, 54, was killed by gunmen as he and his driver headed down the highway toward a public garden where they had planned to relax in the hottest hours of the afternoon.

Akil al-Mendlawi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Culture, said that Mr. Abdullah, a well-known scholar and a member of the Communist Party, had become friends with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki when both men were in exile in Syria.

Mr. Abdullah’s promotion to deputy minister had been approved, and Mr. Maliki was expected to sign papers confirming his appointment within days.

Violence also erupted on Saturday in the city of Kirkuk, where a suicide bombing killed at least five people and wounded at least seven, including Abdul Kareem Ahmed al-Obaydi, a prominent member of the American-backed Sunni forces known as Awakening Councils.

The bomber detonated an explosives-filled vest inside an automobile dealership in a southern area of the city, according to Maj. Salih al-Lihabi of the Kirkuk police.

Mr. Obaydi, the leader of the Awakening movement in Diyala Province, his son and two bodyguards were killed when the bomb exploded, a few minutes after 7 p.m.

The suicide bombing is the second in Kirkuk since last weekend.

In Baghdad, American military officials released Ahmed Nouri Raziak, 38, an Iraqi photographer working for The Associated Press who had been held in jail for almost three months.

Maj. John C. Hall, an American military spokesman, said that Mr. Raziak had been believed to be a security risk, but was released when “after review, he was determined not to pose a risk.”

Kathleen Carroll, executive editor of The A.P., said in a statement that the news agency “will be seeking more specific information about why he was picked up and held and about his experience during his incarceration.”

Also in Baghdad on Saturday, officials at the Justice Ministry said that a court had issued a death sentence for Asad al-Hashimi, a former culture minister who was convicted for the 2005 murders of two sons of a well-known politician.

Mr. Hashimi, a member of one of the parties in Tawafiq, the largest Sunni bloc in Parliament, has been a fugitive since last year.

Polygamist braves war zone for wives

2008-09-04T22:40:00.000-07:00

Having two wives at the same time makes life complicated, as many a polygamist can attest. But having two wives in a war zone can be particularly problematic, as Walid Karim has found out to his peril.

Islamic and Iraqi law permit a man to marry up to four times, but the husband is supposed to do so only on condition that he treat his spouses equally. It's an injunction most men are obliged to observe, if not by law then because their dueling wives insist.

In common with others in his situation, Karim, 37, alternates the nights he spends with his wives — one night with his first one and their three children in the house he provides for her in Sadr City, the next with the second one and their one child across the city in the neighborhood of Bayaa, and so on.

Fierce fighting
When he awoke one morning earlier this year with his second wife to find out that fierce fighting had broken out around the home of his first wife, he called to say he wouldn't be able to make it that night. But she begged him, insisting it was her turn.

"I had to go because she was afraid, and the children needed me," Karim said.

The next morning he awoke with his first wife to find that the violence had worsened and a curfew had been imposed on the entire city. But the tears of his second wife left him with no choice but to venture out, on foot because vehicles were banned.

For the next three weeks, as mortar shells rained down on Baghdad and fighting raged in Sadr City, he shuttled in and out of the war zone between his families, dodging bullets and militia fighters in fulfillment of his responsibilities.

"It was so difficult," he recalled at the CD shop he runs in central Baghdad. "It would be the end of the world with my first wife if I didn't make it to see her, and it's the same with the second one.

"There weren't any taxis so I had to walk, and because there was fighting on the main streets of Sadr City, I had to use the back alleys. It would take me half an hour (to leave Sadr City) and sometimes this half-hour felt like a whole year."

Marital peace
Baghdad is now calmer, and Karim's marital problems have eased, too. His wives have stopped calling each other to hurl insults.

He said he married his first wife in 1996 in a match arranged by a close friend, but after a few years he found that although he liked her, he did not love her. So in 2002 he married again, to the fury of his first wife. "She got used to it," he said.

Though having them live on different sides of the city can be inconvenient, the two wives have never met and Karim hopes to keep it that way.

"We have a saying that if your two wives quarrel with each other, it's better for the husband," he said. "If two women agree with each other about a man, it's his end."

US Marines refuse to testify in Iraq prisoner death trial

2008-09-04T11:39:00.000-07:00

Two US Marines facing murder charges in connection with the deaths of Iraqi prisoners in Fallujah in 2004 were declared in contempt of court Friday after refusing to testify against a former comrade on trial.

Lawyers for Jermaine Nelson and Ryan Weemer said the Marines would not give crucial evidence for the prosecution against Jose Nazario, despite assurances their testimony would not be used against them in their military trials.

Nelson and Weemer are both charged with unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty for their roles in the killing of four unarmed Iraqis taken prisoner during fierce fighting in Fallujah four years ago.

Nazario, 28, is being prosecuted in a US Federal Court on charges of voluntary manslaughter, assault with a dangerous weapon and discharging a firearm. It is the first time a military veteran has been tried by a civilian jury for actions that occurred during combat.

Nelson's lawyer Joseph Low and Weemer's counsel Christopher Johnson told Judge Stephen Larson that neither soldier would give evidence against Nazario.

The refusal to testify came despite Larson informing lawyers that the military prosecutor overseeing their courts martial at Camp Pendleton had said in a letter that Nelson and Weemer's testimony would not be used against them.

"There is no doubt in my mind as a matter of law, nothing that is said in this courtroom could be used in Camp Pendleton. Period," Larson said.

However Low said lawyers were skeptical that the letter would carry enough protection, noting that it had not been signed by the Marines' top commander.

"Why is it the one person who could sign it won't do it?" Low asked the judge. "It's suspicious, sir."

Both Weemer and Nelson were jailed earlier this year for contempt after refusing to testify against Nazario during a grand jury hearing.

However Larson declined to jail the two men on Friday, instead ordering them to return to court on September 29 to begin contempt proceedings.

On Thursday, prosecutors told the jury that Nazario had ignored clear rules about how to treat prisoners and ordered the execution-style killing of four "unarmed, submissive, docile" detainees during a house search.

Nazario is alleged to have shot dead two of the captives himself before ordering subordinates Weemer and Nelson to kill the others.

The case came to light after Weemer, 25, underwent a background screening for a job in the US Secret Service in 2006, and gave details of the incident after being asked if had ever taken part in an unjustified killing.

The revelation triggered an investigation by the US Naval Criminal Intelligence Service which saw Nazario's squad mates questioned.

However without Weemer's testimony to the events in Fallujah, the prosecution's case appears to have been weakened.

"This is the 'no' case -- no bodies, no evidence, no identification of alleged victims, no witnesses," defense lawyer Joe Preis told AFP on Friday.

Asked what effect Nelson and Weemer's refusal to testify would have on the trial, Preis replied: "It's our position that it has no impact on this no case. (But) It doesn't hurt us for sure."

Iraq seeks breakup of U.S.-funded Sunni fighters

2008-09-04T11:32:00.002-07:00

An emboldened Iraqi government has launched an aggressive campaign to disband a U.S.-funded force of Sunni Arab fighters that has been key to Iraq's fragile peace, arresting prominent members and sending others into hiding or exile as their former patrons in the American military reluctantly stand by.

The Shiite Muslim-led government has long distrusted the fighters, many of whom are former insurgents. Senior Shiite politicians label some of the members murderers, and warn that there is no long-term obligation to employ them after their units are disbanded.

"The ones in Baghdad and Diyala province just changed their T-shirts. There are large numbers who were really Al Qaeda. We have to really look hard for those elements without blood on their hands," said Haidar Abadi, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party.

Amid fears that the Sunnis' treatment could rekindle Iraq's insurgency, the Americans are caught between their wish to support the fighters and their stronger ties to Maliki's government, which has challenged the Sunni paramilitaries in recent months as it grows increasingly confident about its fledgling army.

"We want to have our cake and eat it too, support Maliki and the Sons of Iraq. . . . Maliki wants to make that as hard for us as possible. He wants us to choose him," said Stephen Biddle, a Council on Foreign Relations defense expert who has served as an advisor on strategy to Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq. "What it looks like we are getting is a Maliki government that won't behave itself and wants to crush the Sons of Iraq."

The chief U.S. military spokesman here denied Maliki was targeting the Sons of Iraq, or that the Americans were tilting toward the government at the expense of the Sunni fighters.

"Just last week, the prime minister gave his personal commitment to the program," Brig. Gen. David Perkins said. "They are well aware of the sacrifices the Sons of Iraq have made, that they were a critical element in bringing the security situation under control and that it is in their strategic advantage to assimilate them peacefully and orderly into Iraqi society."

Maliki has grown powerful after successful military operations in spring against Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's militia in southern Iraq and Baghdad. His transformation has provided the Americans a partner they can work with as they look for a way to hand over the reins in Iraq, the long-term U.S. goal here.

A Western advisor to the Iraqi government said the U.S. military couldn't stop the Iraqi security forces now even if it wanted to -- they are larger in size and have their own chain of command.

The Iraqi government first challenged the U.S. military over the Sons of Iraq program in the spring -- basically freezing the activities of the Iraqi reconciliation committee charged with integrating the 99,000 fighters into the security forces and civilian jobs, according to a Shiite advisor to the government.

In July, Maliki informed the Americans that he wanted the entire program handed over to him as soon as possible, said Mohammed Salman, the head of the committee. In response, the U.S. military has drafted plans to dissolve the group by next summer, integrating 20% of its members into the police and finding the rest such jobs as mechanics, electricians and carpenters. The Americans want to slash the Sons of Iraq to 60,000 by the end of the year.

"Our goal is that by June 2009, the Sons of Iraq are out of business," said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Kulmayer, who is charged with the Sunni paramilitary file.

Just over 9,000 of the Sunni fighters have been hired into the security forces so far. And the government has warned that any program to provide the majority of the fighters job training once their paramilitary units are disbanded will be temporary.

"We have the same problems around the country. We can't just create a program to pay some people and not others," said Abadi, the lawmaker.

Such comments raise concerns in U.S. military circles that the men will be pushed back to joining dwindling militant groups such as Al Qaeda in Iraq.

"If the government of Iraq doesn't decide to employ all of them, you have jobless rates that skyrocket," said a U.S. intelligence analyst who, like some others who spoke for this report, did so on condition of anonymity. "I don't know what will happen."

Many of the fighters are now on the run. The Iraqi military has mostly dismantled the group in the Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib, once a hub for militant attacks, and it has arrested Sunni fighters in Baqubah, 35 miles northeast of the capital. Influential Sunni paramilitary leaders, from the Baghdad and Baqubah areas, have gone into hiding or are in exile.

In the past, U.S. commanders had deflected arrest warrants for key fighters, but there has been an apparent shift. "We don't have a 'get out of jail free' card for the Sons of Iraq. There is law and order in this country, and we respect the Iraqi government," Kulmayer said.

The men feel increasingly vulnerable -- they have been attacked by Al Qaeda and Shiite militias and subjected to Iraqi army raids. Since January, 462 of them have been killed in attacks by militants. If disbanded, their leaders warn, the men could revolt, but the Sons of Iraq are holding out hope that local elections, still without a date, will improve their lot.

"In the event that the U.S. military and government don't live up to their promises, it could turn back to a violent form of resistance," said a leader, Abu Abed, from the north Baghdad neighborhood of Adhamiya. "Every action breeds a reaction."

In Abu Ghraib, there are no Sons of Iraq on the street in the Nasr Salam district, only Iraqi army checkpoints. Soldiers with sunglasses and Kalashnikov rifles stand by concrete barriers with graffiti identifying them as the Muthanna Brigade, a force feared by the local Sunni population. Asked about the Sons of Iraq, locals and an Iraqi army officer say the movement doesn't exist there anymore.

Until May, Abu Azzam, a former stockbroker and onetime Islamic Army insurgent leader, headed the 700-man Sons of Iraq branch in the district. He fled the area in May when the Americans informed him that the Muthanna Brigade was taking security responsibility there.

He says the brigade raided his members' houses and detained up to 10 leaders. His foot soldiers fled. Some haven't seen their families in more than a month. He is stunned about what happened. But the former insurgent has plotted his next move, establishing a political party called Dignity, which he hopes will turn the tables on his opponents in the still-to-be-scheduled elections.

"We have to get rid of the Iranian influence in Iraq and rebuild the democratic state," he said, baring his suspicions about the current government, dominated by religious parties.

Abu Azzam suspects that some of his fighters have already gone back to war, but he doesn't believe the violence will return to its previous levels. Still, the fact that his old allies are on the lam has him worried. "Anyone who feels disappointed will go back," he said. "Definitely, he will go to the resistance. He will go back to violence."

While some have fled their posts, other leaders of the Sons of Iraq are behind bars. Mullah Shihab Safi, the commander of the Sons of Iraq in Baqubah, turned himself in to the government Aug. 15. He had gone into hiding when the Iraqi army launched an offensive in Baqubah in late July and sent soldiers to arrest not only Al Qaeda members but also Sons of Iraq leaders.

The Iraqi army shut down most of the group's checkpoints there, raided its members' homes and closed all but one of its offices. Then, last week, Maliki announced that gunmen could apply for amnesty. Safi decided to take the government up on its offer. He showed up at the local government's headquarters, accompanied by a tribal sheik to vouch for him, and submitted his application. At least 13 Sunni fighters remain in jail, Safi said.

The Sunni commander has accepted the situation -- if only because his options are limited. "We feel this is a political game to embarrass and expel us," he said. "We are just dealing with the matter because we have no choice."

He hints that some could restart the fight against the Americans and the Iraqi government if things continue to deteriorate. Like most, he has his eyes on elections as a way for his group to gain power -- yet even that target seems elusive after parliament failed to pass an election law this summer.

"We don't know what our stance will be if other things happen from the security forces, the Iraqi government or the Americans," Safi said. He recognizes that things have changed with his U.S. allies. "The Americans have made their compromises. They want the Iraqi central government authority to prevail, so they can withdraw to their bases."

Withdrawing from Iraq

2008-09-04T11:32:00.001-07:00

Quietly and hesitatingly, the U.S. and Iraqi governments have reached a tentative agreement to send U.S. combat troops home by the end of 2011. The lack of fanfare is in part because of the gantlet of Iraqi politicians the deal must pass through before becoming official -- three different Iraqi leadership groups and the parliament will all get a chance at changing the details. The Bush administration has also downplayed the significance of the deal, saying it would merely set "aspirational goals" for troop withdrawals, not deadlines.

Nevertheless, even a tentative agreement is a welcome development because it brings the two countries that much closer to ending more than five years of U.S. occupation. The draft calls for U.S. troops to depart from Iraqi cities by mid-2009 and the rest of the country 2 1/2 years later, with a relatively small contingent remaining to advise and train Iraqi security forces. The withdrawal dates would be subject to change if conditions took a turn for the worse, although that decision would reportedly be left to the Iraqi government, not the next American president.

As we've learned from the ebb and flow of the war in Afghanistan, our entanglement in Iraq may not end when the last combat troops leave. The Iraqi government still hasn't achieved the political reconciliation that's critical to long-term stability, with impasses remaining over provincial elections, reforming the constitution and dividing the nation’s oil revenue. But there's also the prospect that ending the occupation will improve chances for peace by giving insurgents one less recruiting tool and rallying point. In addition, as we've seen in the last year, Iraqi forces are increasingly able to defeat militants without U.S. troops in the lead. The Iraqi military isn't uniformly competent, but its skill is improving as its peacekeeping responsibilities increase.

By insisting that the deal wouldn't impose a timetable for withdrawal, the Bush administration may be playing semantic games to reduce the impact on the contest between Republican presidential candidate John McCain (a vocal opponent of timetables) and Democratic contender Barack Obama (a longtime proponent). Each is already claiming credit for the deal: McCain contends that the troop surge he championed made the tentative pact possible, while Obama argues that the Iraqis and the Bush administration were following his lead in setting a withdrawal date. Either way, as long as the deal holds, the Iraq war will drift further into the background of a campaign that had already moved on to other issues, including the slumping economy and stubbornly high gas prices. Voters would be wrong to assume that America's job in Iraq is done, but an agreement even on "aspirational goals" will help speed the work.

U.S. and Iraq close to a troop withdrawal deal

2008-09-04T11:23:00.002-07:00

American and Iraqi officials are close to a draft agreement to see U.S. forces conditionally withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011, though both sides warned Thursday that political hurdles to a final settlement remain.

The current version of the deal would set a conditional time frame for U.S. forces to withdraw from Iraqi cities by next June and for combat troops to leave the country two years later.

But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki in Baghdad's fortress-like Green Zone, downplayed expectations that approval of an agreement was imminent.

"We'll have agreement when we have agreement," Rice told reporters, addressing speculation that a deal was near.

Rice and Maliki huddled for 2 1/2 hours, trying to iron out differences in the pact, which would govern the presence of U.S. forces here after their United Nations mandate expires in December.

Iraq's foreign minister warned that Iraqi politicians must still approve any deal, cautioning that previous drafts had been touted as complete, only for one side or the other to find fault.

"We've been through this before, but we've never been this close," Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told The Times.

Zebari said the draft would be reviewed by the prime minister and other top government leaders tonight or during the weekend.

If senior leaders endorse the deal, it would go before the political council for national security and then to parliament for a final vote, Zebari said. In the past, items endorsed by senior leaders, including a national oil law, have never been voted on in parliament or have been delayed for months.

An aide to Maliki said that the differences with the U.S. were minor and that they hoped to close the deal before the end of the year.

"They tried to resolve some issues," the aide said. "They tried to find some compromise formula to some points. It's too early to say they reached an agreement on all issues."

A senior member of Maliki's ruling coalition, Shiite lawmaker Sheik Jalaluddin Saghir, said the sides had still not agreed on all the issues.

"I believe they are struggling," he said. "It is thorny, but there is a little progress."

U.S. and Iraqi officials had aimed to reach a deal by the end of July.

Saghir said that the Americans wanted their forces to stay one year more than the Iraqis wanted. Maliki has publicly favored a withdrawal of U.S. troops by the end of 2010, a timeline for withdrawal that roughly corresponds with that proposed by Sen. Barack Obama.

The Bush administration and Sen. John McCain have voiced opposition to rigid deadlines, although the White House has acknowledged a willingness to OK a "general time horizon" for Iraqi forces to take full control of security and for U.S. troop strength to be reduced if conditions remain relatively stable.

Negotiators have also been debating whether noncombat units would stay after the withdrawal date, Saghir said. The Americans believe that Iraq will need U.S. military advisors, air support and special forces after most troops leave the country.

The two sides also are still bargaining over whether American soldiers can be tried in Iraqi courts, Saghir said.

Maliki's bottom line remains unknown. Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said the danger for the prime minister is being seen by the public as endorsing an agreement that the Americans want.

"He is reluctant to pass it because he cares about his own popularity with the population. He tells his people and party that it should be one way. Maybe he tells Rice another thing," Othman said.

Populist anti-American sentiment that has influenced the negotiations was on display Thursday as radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr's followers denounced Rice's visit and held demonstrations. The head of Sadr's political office, Liwa Sumaysim, warned that the movement would never accept any conditional timeline for a troop withdrawal.

In the Shiite shrine city of Najaf, several hundred demonstrators shouted, "No, no to the agreement. . . . Down with Zionism," and carried a banner that read, "We denounce the visit of mistress of evil Condoleezza Rice to Iraq."

Also Thursday, unknown gunmen in three or four GMC sport utility vehicles opened fire near central Baghdad's Bab al Sharji market, killing one civilian. A police official said they were private security contractors, but another disagreed.

Foreign security contractors' immunity from Iraqi courts has been one of the more contentious issues for the Iraqi government in negotiating a long-term agreement with the Americans.

Rice visits Baghdad to press for security deal

2008-09-04T11:23:00.001-07:00

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Iraqi leaders Thursday to agree quickly to a U.S.-Iraq security deal that outlines the withdrawal of American troops.

Flying into Baghdad on an unannounced trip, Rice said the two sides were nearing an agreement after months of painstaking negotiations but stressed there were still unresolved issues, including when U.S. soldiers will leave and what their operations will consist of until then.

"The negotiators have taken this very, very far," she told reporters aboard her plane. "But there is no reason to believe that there is an agreement yet."

"There are still issues concerning exactly how our forces operate," Rice said, adding that "the agreement rests on aspirational timelines."

Her comments dampened speculation that agreement might be reached while she is in Baghdad on a several-hour visit, her first to Iraq since March, after U.S. and Iraqi officials said Wednesday that a draft document was done and awaiting approval from political leaders.

Rice said it was "very premature" to conclude the agreement had been finalized. The United States had hoped to seal the deal, which will replace the U.N. mandate for international forces in Iraq that expires Dec. 31, by the end of last month.

Rice declined to talk about specific gaps, but U.S. officials said more work is needed to reach agreements on a timeline for U.S. troop withdrawals, immunity for U.S. troops and the handling of Iraqi prisoners.

One senior official said Rice would be pushing Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki hard to accept.

"Ultimately the prime minister has to make the call on moving forward," Rice said. She described her visit as "a chance for me to meet with the prime minister and see what we can do from Washington to get to closure."

One official close to al-Maliki said Wednesday that he objected to parts of the text, including the immunity provision. Another Iraqi official said al-Maliki had gone through the text personally and made notes with objections to some undisclosed points. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Iraqi and American officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday that negotiators had completed a draft agreement that extends the legal basis for U.S. troops to remain in Iraq beyond the end of this year, while calling for them to move out of Iraqi cities as soon as June 30.

A senior U.S. military official in Washington said the deal is acceptable to the U.S. side, subject to formal approval by President Bush. It also requires approval by Iraqi leaders, and some members of Iraq's Cabinet oppose some provisions.

Also completed is a companion draft document, known as a strategic framework agreement, spelling out in broad terms the political, security and economic relationships between Iraq and the United States, the senior military official said. The official discussed the draft accords on condition that he not be identified by name because the deals have not been publicly announced and are not final.

In addition to spelling out that U.S. troops would move out of Iraqi cities by next summer, the Iraqi government has pushed for a specific date — most likely the end of 2011 — by which all U.S. forces would depart the country. In the meantime, the U.S. troops would be positioned on bases in other parts of the country to make them less visible while still being able to assist Iraqi forces as needed.

There are now about 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

U.S. officials have resisted committing firmly to a specific date for a final pullout, insisting that it would be wiser to set a target linked to the attainment of certain agreed-upon goals. These goals would reflect not only security improvements but also progress on the political and economic fronts.

It was not clear Wednesday how that has been settled in the draft security accord, which the two governments are referring to as a memorandum of understanding. The draft agreement must be approved by the Iraqi parliament, which is in recess until early next month.

Late Wednesday a second senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the two sides have come up with a draft agreement that addresses the issue of the timing of future U.S. troop withdrawals, but the official would not say whether the two sides had agreed on 2011 for a final pullout. The official suggested there would be a series of timelines set, linked to conditions on the ground, and that the draft worked out by the negotiators required more talks at higher levels of the two governments.

An Iraqi official who was involved in the protracted negotiations said a compromise had been worked out on the contentious issue of whether to provide U.S. troops immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law, but he did not give details. In Washington, the senior military official said the draft agreement reflects the U.S. position that the United States must retain exclusive legal jurisdiction over its troops in Iraq.

2011 is U.S. target date for troops' pullout from Iraq

2008-09-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

The United States has agreed to remove combat troops from Iraqi cities by next June and from the rest of the country by the end of 2011 if conditions in Iraq remain relatively stable, according to Iraqi and American officials involved in negotiating a security accord.

The withdrawal timetable, which Bush administration officials called "aspirational goals" rather than fixed dates, are contained in the draft of an agreement that still must be approved by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders before it goes before Iraq's Parliament. It has the support of the Bush administration, American and Iraqi officials said.

American officials stressed repeatedly that meeting the timetables depended on the security situation in Iraq, where sectarian killings and attacks on American troops have dropped over the past year. Iraqi officials, who have pushed for an even tighter target for the U.S. to end its military operations, could also end up rejecting the draft agreement.

Even so, the accord indicates that the Bush administration is prepared to commit the U.S. to ending most combat operations in Iraq in less than a year, a much shorter time frame than seemed possible a few months ago.

Iraq's Shiite-dominated government demanded a withdrawal timetable as the price of legalizing the American military presence in the country after the expiration of the U.N. mandate Dec. 31.

In an interview by telephone in Baghdad, Mohammad Hamoud, the chief Iraqi negotiator, said that the draft contained two dates: June 30, 2009, for the withdrawal of American forces from "cities and villages" and Dec. 31, 2011, for combat troops to leave the country altogether.

Mr. Hamoud said the draft specified that meeting the timetable, particularly the goal of full withdrawal by 2011, depended on the security situation. He said that at the end of 2011 the Iraqi government "will review the security situation in the country and if necessary will ask the American side for certain forces for training or supporting the Iraqi Security Forces."

The numbers of troops would be determined by a joint American and Iraqi committee to be formed at the outset of the agreement in January, he said. This panel would decide on the number and role of the remaining forces and would supervise military activity.

Another senior Iraqi Cabinet minister, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement is not final, described the 2011 target as "prospective" and said it reflected Iraqi hopes that American troops could end their presence in the country by that time. He said the ability to carry it out depended on Iraqi forces being "able to control the situation."

Even if the goal of withdrawing combat troops by 2011 is realized, the accord leaves open the possibility that American military trainers and support forces could remain in Iraq after that time. It is unclear whether the accord provides for semipermanent military bases in the country, and what role the U.S. would play in providing air and naval support for Iraq.

Iraqi and U.S. officials said several difficult issues remain, including whether U.S. troops will be subject to Iraqi law if accused of committing crimes.

The question of immunity for U.S. troops and Defense Department personnel from Iraqi legal jurisdiction – demanded by Washington and rejected by Baghdad – remained unresolved. Troop immunity, one U.S. official said, "is the red line for us." Officials said they were still discussing language that would make the distinction between on- and off-duty activities, with provisions allowing for some measure of Iraqi legal jurisdiction over soldiers accused of committing crimes while off-duty.

The fragile nature of security gains over the past year was evident in the secrecy surrounding Condoleezza Rice's one-day visit here, which was not announced until her arrival from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. U.S. negotiators hoped that her participation in direct talks with Mr. al-Maliki and visits with the Shiite and Sunni vice presidents would help finish the immunity and timeline discussions.

"It's a chance for me to sit with the prime minister and really get a sense of if there is anything else we need to do from Washington to get to closure" on the Iraq security accord, Dr. Rice said.

Steps to accord

Even though it appears that Iraq and the United States are close to a detailed agreement governing the U.S. withdrawal, there are several political steps to close the deal.

•Today, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's executive council will examine the parts of the text that negotiators have agreed to, as well as proposals to deal with immunity and other issues.

•The next step is consideration by a larger council of representatives from the leading political blocs.

•Then the agreement will be submitted to parliament, which is in summer recess until Sept. 9. The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when all business slows amid fasting, also falls in September.

•A change in U.S. policy could come when a new president takes office in January. Presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona has said he will continue current policy. His Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, has said he will begin an immediate withdrawal of U.S. combat forces, to be completed within 16 months.

Iraq Withdrawal Thoughts

2008-09-03T20:40:00.000-07:00

.If the Journal is right and we're about to sign an agreement to withdraw combat troops from Iraq, what does it mean domestically? For starters, I assume that the agreement allows for some kind of long-term "residual force," and I also assume there will be a bit of weasel wording about the withdrawal depending on conditions on the ground. Still, a document that commits both sides to pulling out troops from the cities by next summer and completing the rest of the withdrawal by 2011 is a big-time game changer. Here are a few miscellaneous thoughts:

This is very good news for Democrats. It means that our eventual withdrawal from Iraq will not only be a bipartisan action, it will have been the creation of a Republican president. This is going to make it almost impossible for conservatives to ramp up any kind of serious stab-in-the-back narrative against anti-war liberals.
Basic Obama spin: "I'm glad to see that President Bush has finally come around to my view etc. etc." This ought to be a big win for him: he visits Iraq, meets with Nouri al-Maliki, gets Maliki's endorsement for a near-term troop withdrawal, and then gets to applaud as President Bush signs on.
Looking ahead, it's also a big win for Obama if he wins in November. Instead of a bruising congressional battle on withdrawal starting in January, he can just continue along the path Bush has set out. At most he'll tweak it a bit, which he can do on his own and without expending a lot of political capital.
This is also good news for Dems in conservative districts, since it eliminates a campaign issue that potentially hurts them.
Basic McCain spin: "It's good news that Iraq is now secure enough that we can envision bringing our troops home." He'll also talk about how the surge deserves all the credit and he'll claim that 2011 is a totally different thing than Obama's plan to withdraw by 2010. This isn't great spin, but it's probably the best he's got.
Outside of spin alley, the news for McCain is mixed. It takes Iraq largely off the table as a partisan campaign issue, which might be good (the public supports withdrawal, so it's been an Achilles heel for him) or might be bad (it takes the spotlight off foreign affairs, which he considers his strong suit). Overall, though, it's got to be a negative for a guy who just a few months ago was talking about staying in Iraq for a hundred years.
I wonder what McCain's initial reaction to this is going to be? When rumors of an agreement like this were being floated last month, he insisted that he had talked to Maliki personally and he knew that Maliki didn't really want a timetable for withdrawal. Looks like he was wrong about that. Is he going to stick to that line, or, like Jerry Brown after Prop 13 passed in 1978, is he suddenly going to become withdrawal's greatest advocate?

Thursday should be interesting. At least it gives us something to talk about other than Obama's VP selection, anyway.

Grooming a female suicide bomber

2008-09-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

From the jail cell she was sharing with her mother, sister and 1-year-old son, the young widow watched with a sardonic expression as the boy weaved unsteadily toward a visiting American soldier and lifted his arms to be carried.

"Aboud," she called out to the toddler, "tell them to release me."

The police say the matriarch, Ikran, used her two daughters, Asma and Ilaf, to recruit their girlfriends to blow themselves up in the name of the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq. Even though the women were terrified of the masked men who took over their neighborhood, they said they'd never do such a thing -- "Life is a gift from God."

Although it remains far from clear whether the women committed the crimes of which they were accused, the tale they shared from their barren cell offers a peek into the violent and claustrophobic world in which women are groomed to become suicide bombers.

As violence levels have plunged across Iraq, the number of attacks carried out by female suicide bombers has increased -- a potent threat that is especially difficult to counter. The gowns favored by devout Muslim women easily conceal explosives, and it is culturally unacceptable for the men who make up the bulk of the Iraqi security forces to frisk them.

Although such attacks are not new to Iraq, they were relatively rare until last year, when eight female bombers struck. This year, the number has jumped to 30, according to U.S. military records. In one particularly bloody day late last month, four women blew themselves up in Baghdad and in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing at least 44 people.

More women have carried out suicide bombings here in Diyala province than anywhere else in Iraq -- 15 this year alone. Iraqi commanders believe the Sunni Arab insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq has established networks in the province designed specifically to recruit women.

The ethnically and religiously mixed province east of Baghdad has long been a center of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which formed alliances here with Sunni tribesmen and nationalist political groups against Shiite militants. This is a world in which few women are educated, loyalty to family and tribe are paramount, and fear permeates relations with outsiders.

Al Qaeda in Iraq leaders, known as emirs, managed to recruit entire clans to their cause by marrying into the families here. The women forced into these marriages are often passed around among emirs, said Saja Quadouri, who sits on the provincial council's security committee and is its only female member.

"They will get married to more than one man and get pregnant without knowing who the father is," she said. "Eventually, due to despair, hopelessness and fear, they get exploited to commit such crimes, as they become unwanted by society."

Other women are persuaded to perform a suicide mission to avenge the loss of a father, husband or brother, said a U.S. intelligence analyst, who asked not to be identified for security reasons. In tribal societies, the loss of male relatives typically leaves women without protection or means of survival.

Asma's marriage collapsed shortly before her husband died in a shootout; she says she does not know who killed him. Her father has spent the last three years in a U.S. detention facility on terrorism charges.

Squatting on a bed mat, Ikran, 50, described how the masked gunmen took over their neighborhood on the west side of Baqubah shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led regime in 2003. She asked that the family be identified by their first names only, to avoid shaming the tribe.

"People say they were displaced families from other neighborhoods who came to our area and tried to control it," said Ikran, a formidable woman in a somber black robe and green head scarf. "The first thing they did was kill several people and leave the bodies in the traffic circle, so everyone would see."

The militants cruised the neighborhood in search of young men to stand at checkpoints and turned up at schools, where they provided instruction at gunpoint on their extreme interpretation of Islam.

"They told the whole school that we must cover our faces and . . . wear gloves," said Ikran's younger daughter, Ilaf. The pretty teen with henna-tinted fingernails said she dropped out of class because she was terrified by their frequent visits. Just 15, she is engaged to marry a neighbor's son.

In the womb-like safety of the cell, Ikran scoffed at the militants' strictures and lit up a cigarette, which they would have regarded as sacrilege. But she said she never dared cross the militants in public.

"We were afraid of them," Ikran said. "Sometimes they would ask us, 'Are we good?' Of course we said yes. Otherwise we would have been killed."

When U.S. forces arrested Ikran's husband, Dawoud, on terrorism charges three years ago, she said the family retreated behind closed doors and rarely ventured outside their home.

"We can't think why anyone would accuse us," she said. "Iraqis will do anything for money."

Iraqi investigators conceded that the evidence against them was thin. Police found no explosives during the July 23 raid, and there was no residue on the women's hands.

All the police found was a wad of insurgent propaganda stashed in the roof of an outside toilet, including appeals to kill U.S. and Iraqi forces signed by the Islamic State of Iraq, a self-styled caliphate established by the militants. There was also a list of women's names and telephone numbers, and a letter written by Asma to her father, in which she speaks of being reunited in the next life.

Police suggested that the women may have been seeking revenge for their men or may have been motivated by financial pressure to work for the insurgency.

When Asma, 27, returned to her mother four months pregnant, it was a humiliation for the family as well as a financial blow. Ikran has struggled to make ends meet since her husband, a Health Ministry employee, was detained at Camp Bucca. The government gives her half his salary, and there were times when she couldn't collect the money because of the fighting.

Days after their arrest, the women were brought one by one before an investigative judge to determine whether there were grounds to prosecute them.

Asma trembled slightly as she confronted the judge in a dingy police office, where the sharp smell of urine mingled with a sickly perfume.

"Do you work for the Al Qaeda people?" he asked. "Did you help any fighters or armed groups?"

"No," she replied. "I didn't do anything wrong."

She said she didn't know how the fliers had gotten into the outhouse, that the names on the list were just friends, and that her letter had nothing to do with the insurgency.

When Ilaf began repeating the same answers, the judge cut the session short and dictated a statement to a clerk for the girl to sign.

"I don't want to waste time," he said. He remanded the women into custody pending further investigation; they were released Aug. 7.

The women's true intentions may never be known. But when asked what she thought of the women who carry out suicide attacks, Ikran responded firmly: "God gave us life. Who are we to take it away?"

Iraq, China Discuss $1.2 Billion Oil Deal

2008-09-03T20:36:00.001-07:00

Iraq's oil minister will be in China later this month to complete a $1.2-billion oil deal. A news report on Reuters says this is the first big international deal since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The agreement that Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani is working on with Chinese officials covers development in the Ahdab oil field, South of Baghdad.

Surging oil demand from China and India's fast-growing economies are a key reason oil prices have risen over the past several years.

Iraq has the world's third largest oil reserves, but currently exports only about two million barrels of oil per day. Many oil companies would like to develop Iraq's oil fields to boost production.

A news story in the New York Times says oil producing nations like Iraq are driving harder bargains with foreign companies, offering them a set price for development work rather than a share of the oil.

Data from the Bloomberg financial news service show Iraq supplies around five percent of China's oil.

McCain: Iraq victory in sight

2008-09-03T20:35:00.000-07:00

Republican John McCain again insisted victory in Iraq “is finally in sight.” So why, asked Democrat Barack Obama, does his presidential opponent still oppose a timetable for withdrawing American forces.

The argument over the unpopular war — a key issue separating the candidates — flared again Monday after McCain spoke to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention, a friendly audience given his service as a Navy fighter pilot and prisoner of war in North Vietnam.

Overshadowing the back and forth this week is the mounting speculation about who Obama will choose to be his vice presidential running mate. An announcement is expected within days. Obama is believed to have narrowed the field to Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. His vanquished rival, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, also remained a possibility.

The Iraq war, the top election issue before the presidential contest began, has given way to voter concerns over a stumbling economy that shows no signs of rebounding as Democrats head into their national convention next week. Republicans gather to nominate McCain the following week.

McCain, a four-term Arizona senator, said the victory he envisioned still could be “squandered by hasty withdrawal and arbitrary timelines. And this is one of many problems in the shifting positions of my opponent, Sen. Obama.”

Obama issued a sharp retort, questioning McCain’s sincerity in support of Iraqi sovereignty — one of the Bush administration’s goals in the war McCain heavily promoted in the months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

“It is hard to understand how Sen. McCain can at once proclaim his support for the sovereign government of Iraq, and then stubbornly defy their expressed support for a timeline to remove our combat brigades from their country,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

“John McCain is intent on spending $10 billion a month on an open-ended war, while Barack Obama thinks we should bring this war to a responsible end and invest in our pressing needs here at home.”

McCain insists U.S. troop withdrawals be dependent on conditions on the ground in Iraq. Obama, with agreement of the Baghdad government, says American forces should be gone in 2010.

Obama, who has been put on the defensive by a series of attacks on his character, experience and readiness for the presidency, has been responding to the McCain accusations blow for blow.

The Illinois senator has sought to defang McCain’s attempt to make the 2008 presidential contest a referendum on Obama while trying to duck his associations with the unpopular President Bush.

In a bid to counter McCain claims about Obama’s thin resume and short national political profile, the freshman Illinois senator was widely expected to reach for a fellow Democrat with solid foreign affairs and security credentials when he finally names a vice presidential running mate this week.

Among the possible choices is Biden, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee who undertook a weekend trip to Russian-occupied Georgia. Biden, who challenged Obama in the Democratic primaries, has been in the Senate since 1972 and is one of its foreign policy deans.

Other top contenders for the No. 2 spot on Obama’s ticket, both with far less heft than Biden, are Bayh, a middle-of-the-road Indiana senator with an extensive Democratic pedigree, and Kaine, who leads a Republican-leaning state Obama needs to put in his column on Nov. 4.

McCain, also, needs to name a running mate.

Last week, he floated the name of former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, who could help in the big industrial state but would face heavy opposition from the Republican base, which is hotly at odds with Ridge’s support for abortion rights. Other top contenders for McCain include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

One Protest, 52 Arrests and a $2 Million Payout

2008-09-03T20:34:00.000-07:00

The city has agreed to pay $2,007,000 to end a lawsuit brought by 52 people who were swept up in a mass arrest along a Midtown sidewalk during a protest against the invasion of Iraq.

They were charged with blocking pedestrians, but videotapes show that at their most annoying, they might have slowed a few people carrying coffee into work. Public order did not seem to be in unusual danger that morning — certainly nothing that called for rounding up 52 people, or spending millions of dollars.

Only two people were tried; they were acquitted, and charges against the other 50 were dismissed.

The arrests were made on April 7, 2003, during the opening days of the invasion of Iraq and right after the city persuaded the Republican Party to hold its 2004 convention in New York. The people arrested said their rights to free speech had been abused, and sued the city and the police.

Now, five years later, the $2 million settlement is only part of the bonfire of legal expenses. And only some of the costs from this episode involve money.

Of the $2 million paid to the people who were arrested, $1,057,000 is for legal fees and expenses owed to their lawyers. The Law Department could not provide an estimate on Tuesday of how much it spent on the defense, said Laura Postiglione, a spokesman for Michael A. Cardozo, the city’s chief lawyer.

Just about every Tuesday and Thursday for over a year, witnesses were deposed under oath, part of the pretrial process in civil cases, according to Sarah Netburn, a lawyer with the firm Emery Celli Brinkerhoff Abady, which, along with the Center for Constitutional Rights, represented many of the people arrested that morning. The deposition transcripts cost over $100,000, said Matthew Brinkerhoff, another lawyer for the plaintiffs.

Among those deposed were 55 police officers and their supervisors. Between preparation and testimony, many would have lost two days of regular police work.

The city had five lawyers handling the case over the last four years, along with a special appellate team. A conservative estimate is that the city spent $1 million on the defense, including the salaries and benefits of police officers and lawyers, before running up the white flag.

“Although defendants believe that they would ultimately have prevailed at a trial, the costs of going forward weighed in favor of a settlement at this time,” said Susan Halatyn, a city lawyer.

But why were the arrests made in the first place?

That morning, two groups gathered on West 56th Street, outside the offices of an affiliate of the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm that has holdings in defense industries and employs many world figures, including the first President Bush.

One group of about 10 people planned to commit civil disobedience by sitting in front of the building, on the south side of 56th Street. The other group, of about 100 people, stood on the north side of the street, chanting.

Sarah Kunstler, 31, a lawyer, a filmmaker and the daughter of the renowned lawyer, said she had gone to see if there were possibilities of making a film about war protests. “I found out I could get arrested for absolutely no reason,” Ms. Kunstler said.

A film editor, Ahmad Shirazi, 70, said he was in the group on the north side of the street and had just finished speaking with reporters for the BBC when he saw officers beginning to mass.

“All of a sudden, from the Fifth Avenue side, a huge number of police officers entered 56th Street,” Mr. Shirazi said. “The protest was on the south side of the street. We were standing on the north side of the street. They came directly to us, they were in riot gear, and they surrounded us. They made a semicircle around us, shoulder to shoulder, with their batons.”

“Then they started arresting us, one by one. At that point, I got emotional — I could not believe in my country, in my city, I could get arrested for doing absolutely nothing and standing on the sidewalk,” Mr. Shirazi added.

Are there any lessons from the day? The Law Department said the $2 million payout did not mean the police had done anything wrong. “This settlement was reached without any admission of liability on behalf of the city and the individual defendants,” said Ms. Halatyn, the city lawyer.

The Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on the settlement.

Mr. Shirazi said that as he was being handcuffed for the first time in his life, he told the officer that the plastic cuffs were squeezing him. “He said, ‘You should have thought about that before you came out this morning.’ It was like a dagger in my heart, that a police officer of my city would come up with anything like that.”

Iraq may put six Blackwater guards on trial

2008-08-27T17:49:00.001-07:00

Iraq yesterday said it reserves the right to try six guards working for private security firm Blackwater USA for their alleged role in the killing of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad last year.

"There is information that half a dozen Blackwater guards who have been accused of shooting and killing 17 Iraqis are to be tried in Washington," government spokesman said.

"The Iraqi government stresses its rights and that Blackwater guards have committed crimes against Iraqi victims. The government reserves the right to prosecute them," he said.

On September 16, the Blackwater guards shot dead 17 Iraqi civilians while escorting an American diplomatic convoy through Baghdad.

Blackwater says its guards were acting in self-defence.

Spokesman' commment came after the Washington Post reported that six Blackwater guards had received "target letters" from the US Justice Department in a probe of the shootings.

Such letters are often considered a prelude to indictment, the report said, adding the guards were former US military personnel.

The report said any charges against the guards would likely be brought under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which has previously been used to prosecute only the cases referred to the Justice Department by the Pentagon for crimes committed by military personnel and contractors overseas.

Despite strong opposition, the US Department of State earlier this year renewed a contract with Blackwater to protect American officials in Iraq.

Foreign security companies at present are not subject to Iraq law, but at the same time are not governed by US military tribunals, effectively allowing them to operate with impunity.

Meanwhile, more than three million Shi'ites marked the annual pilgrimage to Karbala amid tight security and attacks on the way to the holy city that killed dozens of people.

Turkish fighter planes hit a Kurdistan Workers Party guerilla base in northern Iraq, the army said yesterday.

It gave no details of casualties but said the operation was successful and the group of guerillas, hiding in a cave, was preparing for an attack against Turkey.

Border guard sources in Iraq could not immediately confirm Turkish strikes. Residents in border area reported seeing warplanes but no shelling.

Working the 'Road of Hell' With Iraq's Army

2008-08-27T17:48:00.000-07:00

Over 24 hours, I learned that in this place, your next step could easily be your last.

So there I was, with a colleague, staring at the gaping hole in the wall. On the other side was the school -- rigged with explosives, we were told.

In such situations, a moment can seem like eternity -- more so when you have watched a man dying in front of you or when you have come close to meeting death yourself. I had experienced both, less than 24 hours earlier.

The day before, I was walking on a dusty, rugged strip that local villagers called the Road of Hell. I was with Washington Post photographer Andrea Bruce and our Iraqi translator, Zaid Sabah. We were embedded with the Iraqi army and had arrived with Gen. Ali Ghaidan, their top commander in Diyala province. The road was clogged with U.S. and Iraqi vehicles. The bomb sweepers were working. The sun was burning like a furnace.

Gen. Ghaidan and his entourage walked up and down the road. Then he left, leaving us with the Iraqi army's 1st Division, 3rd Battalion. Less than a half hour later, the explosions began. There was the detonated one, near where Ghaidan stood. Maj. Adil Muhammed, the head bomb sweeper, found it and quickly disposed of it.

Then there was the blast nobody expected. An American armored bulldozer had run over an anti-tank mine in a stretch of road that was supposedly clear. Minutes earlier, I had walked by that spot a couple of times, contemplating whether to interview the American soldier seated inside the bulldozer. I didn't.

When the explosion happened, Zaid and I were about 30 feet away. Andrea was inside a Humvee on the other side of the bulldozer. My first thought was that Andrea had been hit, and later Maj. Muhammed informed us that he and his men had thought the same. I ran toward the black column of smoke as injured Iraqi soldiers emerged. Fortunately, Andrea was unharmed.

"We saw a piece of tire fly into the air, and we thought she was killed," said Sgt. Hassan Shegas, 31, another bomb sweeper.

About an hour later, a white flatbed truck drove fast across the barren plains, bouncing like a boat on the high seas, heading toward the road. In the bed was Nazar Ayed, an Iraqi soldier in his 20s. A sniper had shot him.

When the truck reached the tangle of vehicles on the road, Ayed was motionless. His feet were yellow from a lack of blood. His comrades thought he was dead and left him on the stretcher. Ten minutes later, someone noticed that his heart was faintly beating and informed the Americans.

As Muhammed and other Iraqis watched, a group of U.S. soldiers quickly huddled around Ayed, struggling to revive him. They inserted an IV into his arms and closed his wound. Their leader, 1st Lt. Jeffery Wright, was not satisfied. The tall, wide shouldered Georgia native urged his men to focus on keeping Ayed breathing.

Two U.S. Blackhawk helicopters landed in a patch of sand and shrubs. Iraqi and American soldiers carried Ayed on a stretcher to the lead aircraft, then walked backed in silence, covered in dust. He died later.

At the wall of the school, these memories were speeding through my mind, mingling with concern of the unknown. Andrea was there, too, motionless.

A few minutes earlier, the last remaining residents of this wisp of a village that looked like a Spaghetti Western set had told us that they had seen insurgents walk into the school carrying explosives. Muhammed and Shegas had hopped over a wall a few feet away, instead of rushing through the opening. We thought surely that was a sign the school had been mined.

But then an Iraqi soldier ran through the opening and made his way to the school buildings. Then Zaid did the same. As he walked, he looked back at us.

Motionless, we stared at him. I wanted to reach out and pull Zaid back. But then he smiled.

"Come on, don't you want to do your reporting?" Zaid asked me.

Andrea and I looked at each other, our pride taking over.

We stepped into the compound.

15 killed in bombing at Sunni mosque in Baghdad

2008-08-27T17:47:00.000-07:00

The plaza in front of Baghdad's famous Abu Hanifa mosque in the Adhamiyah district has lately been a place of joyous celebration and worship. On Sunday evening it was a scene of terror, as a suicide bomber struck a crowded street in front of the mosque.

Police and witnesses said the blast killed 15 people and wounded 29 others. Among the dead was Faruq Abdul Sattar, a deputy commander of Adhamiyah's Sunni Awakening Council, the U.S.-backed local force that guards the neighborhood, which is a Sunni stronghold.

Witnesses said the bomber, a man, may have been riding a motorcycle that was parked about 65 feet from a traffic light on the street.

Sattar, a popular figure in the neighborhood who was known by the nickname Abu Omar, was standing on the median that divided the street with a group of other Awakening Council members when the bomb went off, witnesses said.

"Abu Omar is gone! Abu Omar is gone!" many in the crowd shouted when Omar's torn body was identified by a silver ring he wore on his right hand and the distinctive green pattern of his uniform.

An Awakening Council official confirmed that the explosives were detonated by a male suicide bomber. The victims included other Awakening Council members and some civilians.

Adhamiyah, once the site of fierce fighting between insurgents and American and Iraqi forces, has been quieter in recent months. Last spring, thousands of people, drawn by the reduced levels of violence, gathered at the Abu Hanifa mosque for the first time in years to celebrate the Prophet Muhammad's birthday.

Also Sunday, The Washington Post reported that half a dozen Blackwater Worldwide security guards have gotten target letters from the Justice Department in a probe of shootings in Baghdad last year that killed 17 Iraqis.

The Post described the six guards as former U.S. military personnel but did not identify them by name.

Attributing its information to three sources close to the case, the Post said that any charges would be brought against the six guards under a federal law used to prosecute cases referred to the Justice Department by the Pentagon for crimes committed by military personnel and contractors overseas.

British troops to leave Iraq in nine months

2008-08-27T17:27:00.000-07:00

MOST of the British troops serving in Iraq will be withdrawn in the next nine months, senior defence sources have disclosed.

Only a few hundred will remain after May next year, effectively ending Britain's involvement in the country after six years of fighting.

The Ministry of Defence insisted the move was backed by the United States, which it said was "intimately involved" in discussions about the withdrawal.

More than 4000 British troops are in southern Iraq despite pledges from Prime Minister Gordon Brown that numbers would have been reduced by now.

Mr Brown has been careful over the past few months not to specify a time for a withdrawal, but sources have given the clearest indication yet that Britain's involvement is poised to end.

The Iraqis are close to a deal with the Americans, which could mean US soldiers leave within three years, starting next northern summer.

Major General Barney White-Spunner, who has just finished a six-month tour in charge of the British force in southern Iraq, said Mr Brown's hope for a "fundamental mission change" in Iraq would be able to "take place next year".

Senior sources said it was now "fairly clear" that there would be a "pretty major reduction in troops" in Iraq early next year.

"We have achieved what we set out to achieve in Iraq," an official military source said. "So it is possible to envisage a mission next year which is in the early hundreds."

However, many soldiers are likely to be redeployed quickly to Afghanistan where fighting has intensified.

The precise details of the remaining number of troops, who will be based at Basra airport, is still to be agreed with the Iraqi Government, although detailed talks are believed to have been held with the country's Foreign Minister in London earlier this month.

The Ministry of Defence refused to be drawn on numbers. A spokesman said: "Although it is hoped that the UK military presence in Iraq will decrease significantly in the future, it is still too early to discuss the size and shape of a reduced UK force's footprint."

On Thursday, the Ministry of Defence announced the death of a soldier after his convoy was attacked by a suicide bomber. This took the British death toll in Iraq to 115.

At least 19 Shiite pilgrims heading to the holy city of Karbala for a religious festival were among 27 people killed in a spate of bomb blasts across Iraq.

In the deadliest of the attacks on Thursday, as many as 18 were killed in a suicide bombing among a crowd of pilgrims heading to the city, police Lieutenant Kazem al-Khafaji in Babil province said. He said the attack by two women suicide bombers also wounded at least 75 people.

There were contradictory reports, however, about the bombing in Iskandiriyah, 60 kilometres south of the capital, with the US military saying it believed only one woman was behind the deadly attack.

Bomb in Baghdad strikes Shiite pilgrims, kills 3

2008-08-27T17:26:00.000-07:00

Iraqi police and hospital officials say a car bombing targeting Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad has killed three people and wounded nine others.

The officials say the parked car exploded at about 9 a.m. Saturday near minibuses assembled to pick up pilgrims in the city's mainly Shiite district of Shaab.

The officials gave the casualty toll for the bombing on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.

Several bombings in recent days have targeted Shiites heading to Karbala for a major religious festival. U.S. and Iraqi troops have stepped up security measures for the pilgrimage but the hundreds of thousands of travelers remain vulnerable on the road.

raq clings to a rickety calm between war and peace

2008-07-31T02:21:00.002-07:00

The departure this month of the last of the 28,500 extra troops sent in a U.S. military buildup leaves Iraq in a rickety calm, an in-between space that is not quite war and not quite peace where ethnic and sectarian tensions bubble beneath the surface.

Politicians and U.S. officials hail the remarkable turnaround from open civil war that left 3,700 Iraqis dead during the worst month in the fall of 2006, compared with June's toll of 490, according to Pentagon estimates.

Signs abound that normal life is starting to return. Revelers can idle away the hours at several neighborhood joints in Baghdad where the tables are buried in beers and a man can bring a girlfriend dolled up in a nice dress.

Despite the gains, the political horizon is clouded: Shiite Muslim parties are locked in dangerous rivalries across central and southern Iraq. Kurds and Arabs in the north compete for land with no resolution in sight. U.S.-backed Sunni Arab fighters who turned on the group Al Qaeda in Iraq could return to the insurgency if the government does not deliver jobs and a chance to join the political process.

Bombings, assassinations and kidnappings still occur almost daily. And those out enjoying Baghdad's night life feel safe only because they are staying inside their own districts in a city transformed into a patchwork of enclaves after years of sectarian violence.

Whether the quiet endures hinges on many factors, including the results of yet-unscheduled provincial and national elections and whether Iraq's religious and ethnic factions can find a fair power-sharing formula.

The country is bedeviled by the question: What happens as the U.S. military vacates outposts in Baghdad neighborhoods, where it has stood as a buffer and occasional arbiter between Sunnis and Shiites and even arrested police and army commanders suspected of sectarian agendas?

The same question is being posed in the United States. Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, acknowledged Sunday that he had failed to anticipate how much violence would decrease this year in Iraq, and stressed the importance of compromise among Iraqi politicians. His likely Republican rival, John McCain, touted his early support for sending extra troops to Iraq.

Stephen Biddle, a Council on Foreign Relations defense expert who advised Army Gen. David H. Petraeus at the start of the troop buildup early last year, has cautioned that Iraq resembles splintered states such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, where an international force is still in place 13 years after the conflict ended.

In April testimony to the Senate, Biddle warned: "A substantial outside presence will be needed for many years to come to keep such a peace. If U.S. withdrawals leave us unable to provide the needed outside presence, the result would be a rapid return to 2006-scale violence, or worse."

From Mosul in the north to Basra in the south and Baghdad itself, Iraqis are adjusting to a reality far safer than what came before, but nonetheless a perilous one. People tread carefully. They know no one has been declared victor in the battles that will decide Iraq's future.

The militias and the cops

Abdul sits before a checkered red-and-white tablecloth. Even at the height of the civil war, he never shut his Karada restaurant. During religious holidays, he covered wine glasses with napkins, so as not to offend the Shiite militias in the Baghdad neighborhood.

Fighters with the Mahdi Army militia loyal to cleric Muqtada Sadr would come by and threaten Abdul, warning him to close his shop.

Then they offered a second option: Pay us $500 and a case of beer.

But that was nothing compared with the shady policemen who frequented his establishment.

His troubles started in late August when men dressed in camouflage uniforms drove up in the GMC trucks associated with the Interior Ministry national police, a force seen as a proxy for Shiite militias who ran secret prisons and killed with impunity. They told him he needed to raise $50,000 or deliver them a shipment of handguns.

Abdul was convinced one of his customers, an official at the Interior Ministry, had put them up to it. The officer had always refused to pay for food or drinks.

At first, Abdul -- who, like other Iraqis interviewed for this report, was afraid to give his full name -- went into hiding. By fall, Baghdad was less violent and he thought he could find some elements in the police to support him. He stood up to the men. It worked. Afterward, the Interior Ministry official still came to eat in the restaurant, but he paid his bill.

"He is my enemy, but now he fears me," Abdul says. The official even tips. Abdul does not dare to throw him out and remains polite. "These men are gangsters. They are dangerous."

He has no illusions about the future. "There will be more troubles," he says and glances at the mirror with its view of the street for unwelcome visitors.

Sadr City

Kadim Mohammed, an employee at the Education Ministry, watches thousands pray on a Friday outside the nondescript stucco offices of Sadr's movement. He's living on the front line of the battle among Iraq's Shiite political factions. The government has erected concrete barriers partitioning Sadr City and sent army officers in to man checkpoints in this Baghdad district of 3 million people.

Mohammed gazes at the Iraqi army trucks just down the road from the prayer gathering. Black flags flutter for the dead. Cars clog up at the checkpoints surrounding the walls. Millions of dollars have been promised to Sadr City, but nothing has materialized since clashes ended in May between the Mahdi Army and the U.S.-backed government forces.

Mohammed expects the worst with elections to come. He watches the prayer-goers shake their fists and denounce the Americans, and he spots posters of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki in a beret, fashioned after those worn by the late Saddam Hussein.

Sadr has declared a cease-fire for his fighters, but they are volatile.

Death threats have cropped up on walls against those collaborating with the Iraqi government. Some residents have derisively taken to calling the district Rafah -- a city in the Gaza Strip walled off from the world.

Mosul

In the northern city of Mosul, Khalaf Mahmood doesn't know who is his enemy and who his friend. He feels trapped between Sunni Arab militants and Kurdish security forces in the contest to shape the boundaries between Iraqi Kurdistan and the rest of the country.

Mahmood, a Sunni Arab professor of fine arts, lost his 14-year-old nephew in June, seven months after his own brother died in a mortar attack. The boy had been playing on the street one night when a group of men grabbed him and shot him 30 times.

"He was just a child. He was even scared of guns," Mahmood says. Rumors spread that Kurdish fighters were behind the shooting, but Mahmood says he doesn't know who wanted to kill a teenager obsessed with soccer.

Mahmood says he just wants to paint impressionistic landscapes and portraits of women. But such ambitions seem fanciful in Nineveh province. A ballyhooed campaign launched in May to rout Al Qaeda in Iraq has failed to calm the city, and the province's population is polarized along ethnic lines.

"Innocent people are being killed because of false accusations and feuds among young people and some families," Mahmood says.

The painter defends the Kurds as good people, but then grows angry over the Kurdish-dominated army units and the presence of Kurdish peshmerga fighters throughout Mosul and the surrounding suburbs. "The situation will get better if the Kurds withdraw. Then everything will be settled," he says.

Sunni paramilitaries

Graffiti in Adhamiya are reminders that the Sunni district of Baghdad was once the lair of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Now, the members of a U.S.-backed Sunni paramilitary group patrol the riverside neighborhood's winding alleys and 19th century buildings.

Their leader, Abu Abed, sits in his dark office on a nondescript street. More than a dozen young men, sprawled out in his waiting room, lean Kalashnikovs against the wall. Abu Abed reminds all who listen that he calmed the neighborhood but the government has not rewarded him. He says only 160 of his 800 men have been hired into the national police.

Abu Abed says his group wants to participate in local elections. It has refused to be affiliated with any of the established Sunni political parties in Iraq.

He is honest about his movement's flaws, that his men are prone to gunfights. U.S. officers have compared them to the Sopranos, and one Iraqi living in Adhamiya has called them "the best of the worst."

If unemployment continues and his men are not given jobs, he warns, Al Qaeda in Iraq will make a comeback.

Already, militants are trying to kill his men. Three died in a bombing Thursday. "They are penetrating our base and threatening us. The support from the government is cut, we are weaker," he says.

"Terrorists and militias depend on poverty," he says. "If Adhamiya gets no support, they will return."

Basra

Abu Ali's barbershop stays open till late in the evening in the southern port of Basra. Four months ago, cutting hair was a treacherous business as the city lived under the rule of armed gangs affiliated with Shiite religious parties. Now, after a spring Iraqi army offensive prompted a return to law and order, Abu Ali cuts hair freely, not worried that fanatics might be on the prowl for barbers with a fondness for Western coiffure.

"The climate of fear is broken, and people are not afraid of the gunmen any more," he says.

As Abu Ali labors in his cologne-scented shop, army officers and fighters from the Mahdi Army are not so sure Basra's worst times are behind it.

They warn that many of the worst militants, from splinter factions of the Mahdi Army, had escaped to Iran and were likely to come back more dangerous.

But Abu Ali is happy. He adorns his shop with pictures of fashionable models. He wants his country to move on. "God," he says, "has given us the ability to forget."

Parsons, Military Wasted Millions in Iraq, Inspector Bowen Says

2008-07-31T02:21:00.001-07:00

Parsons Corp., one of the largest construction contractors in Iraq, and the Pentagon wasted millions of U.S. tax dollars because of poor oversight and building practices, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction said in a new report.

Parsons completed only about one-third of the construction contracts required to build border forts, prisons, correctional facilities and courthouses under a contract worth as much as $900 million, the report said. Parsons received $333 million for individual construction jobs, or task orders, including $142 million for contracts that were eventually canceled.

The Parsons contract ``entailed the most waste of tax dollars'' of the reviews of Iraq reconstruction contracts conducted so far, Inspector General Stuart Bowen said in a statement e-mailed in response to questions about his report. A Parsons spokeswoman said the company did the best it could under difficult conditions.

The audit is the latest to look at Parsons as part of a congressionally mandated review of projects by specific U.S. contractors paid in part from $50 billion of U.S. taxpayer reconstruction funds in the aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to oust Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The Parsons contract was closed out in August 2006.

Auditors ``identified significant weaknesses in the U.S. government's oversight of the contract,'' Bowen said in his report, released today. ``These weaknesses created an environment that was conducive to waste and inefficiency, as evidenced by the large number of project terminations and cancellations.''

66 Percent Canceled

The audit says 34 percent of the jobs were completed and 66 percent were canceled. The canceled jobs accounted for 43 percent, or $142 million, of what the government paid out on the contract.

The review identified ``multiple instances in which contracts were later awarded'' to other contractors to fix Parsons' work, Bowen wrote in the report.

Bowen's previous audits accused Parsons of sloppy construction and poor management of its Iraqi subcontractors, including $186 million to build public health clinics, $72.5 million for a police academy in Baghdad and $3 million to renovate the Iraqi Security Forces Civil Defense headquarters.

In the latest review, the files examined by Bowen's auditors indicated cases where the U.S. military didn't cite reasons for the cancellations, or referred to concerns over slow progress or ``general dissatisfaction'' with Parsons' performance.

Completed Work

Bowen did say said that, in general, the projects Parsons completed ``resulted in material improvements in Iraqi security and justice infrastructure, including new or reconstructed border control facilities, courts, fire stations and military academies.''

Erin Kuhlman, a spokeswoman for closely held Pasadena, California-based Parsons, noted that portion of Bowen's report.

``Although we certainly would have wished for a better work environment and a better outcome in some cases, we did our best under extraordinarily difficult circumstances,'' she said. ``Had security conditions been more stable, we would have accomplished even more.''

Still, Bowen wrote, some of the projects canceled ``had significant construction deficiencies, some of which were not corrected by Parsons.''

Corrections Facility

One example is $40 million spent on the partly completed Kahn Bani Sa'ad Corrections facility. The U.S. terminated Parsons' role in June 2006 because it failed to complete its work on schedule, after paying the company $31 million.

A second contractor was hired and paid $9 million to fix ``defective work'' and finish the project, but that job was terminated in June 2007 by the U.S., citing security concerns.

The facility was transferred to the Iraqi government in August 2007, which has no plans to use it, Bowen wrote. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it had many ``construction deficiencies,'' according to the report.

``At this point, the entire amount disbursed for this project may ultimately be wasted because the government of Iraq currently has no plans for completing or using this facility,'' Bowen wrote.

Kuhlman said the Kahn Bani project was a ``uniquely difficult assignment'' because the facility was in a region ``plagued by violent sectarian warfare, particularly in the months that Parsons was on the project.'' she said.

One of Parsons' subcontractors was shot and killed there, she said.

Why is the IOC Punishing Iraq?

2008-07-27T03:44:00.000-07:00

A few days after the fall of Saddam Hussein, I got a chilling insight into the brutality of his rule, in the most unexpected place — the compound of the Iraqi sports ministry. In one corner of a sprawling complex of offices and official residences, behind walls emblazoned with the universal symbol of the Olympic Games, was that most medieval of torture devices: an iron maiden.

It was nearly eight feet tall and looked like a cast-iron coffin. At first, I thought it was somebody's grotesque idea of a joke — a gag gift, perhaps, for Uday Hussein, Saddam's psychopath son and head of Iraqi's sports administration. But when I opened it, I realized its purpose was deadly serious.

There were dozens of sharp spikes, all pointing inward. They were designed to perforate skin and flesh of anybody locked inside, but not deep enough to puncture any vital organs. That way, the torturers could inflict maximum pain on their victim without actually killing him. The spikes still bore the distinctive reddish-brown flakes of dried blood.

The iron maiden confirmed some of the ghastly stories I'd heard about Uday's treatment of Iraqi sportsmen, especially the national soccer team. When they lost a game, they routinely received beatings and an imaginative range of punishments — like being made to kick concrete balls, or forced to run shoeless over shards of glass. Later, I would meet a coach who had spent two terrifying hours in the iron maiden — his torso was riddled with scars from the spikes.

Needless to say, torture didn't make the Iraqi soccer team play better. But once freed from Uday's depravity, the team flourished. At the Athens Olympics in 2004, they went all the way to the semi-finals, losing the bronze medal game by a single goal to the mighty Italians. They had been the Cinderella team of the Games, and like their proud countrymen, I celebrated the team's success. Three years later, as their country was being torn apart by a bloody sectarian war between Shi'ites and Sunnis, the team (comprising of players from both sects) won the Asia Cup, leading to incredible scenes of jubilation on Baghdad's streets. The ghost of Uday Hussein and memories of his torture devices seemed to have been well and truly exorcized.

But more recently, as the team's form has dipped, some painful memories have returned. Iraqi sports officials no longer torture players for poor results, but they seem to have inherited Uday's penchant for dishing out summary, collective punishment. Last month, when the team failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, the Iraqi Football Federation disbanded the entire squad — players, coaches, and support staff.

Now it turns out that even if the team had qualified, they may not have gone to Beijing anyway — because the International Olympic Committee has banned Iraq from the Games. The reason: in May, the Iraqi government disbanded the country's Olympics Committee and replaced it with new appointees. The government said the old committee has failed to hold proper organizational elections, but many in Baghdad suspect a sectarian motive. They point out that the sports minister, is a a Shi'ite, whereas the country's sports administration had traditionally been in Sunni hands.

The IOC, deeming this as political interference in sporting matters, gave the Iraqi government a deadline in which to reinstate the old committee. Baghdad refused to back down, and now the seven Iraqis who had qualified for the Games — two rowers, an archer, a discus thrower, a sprinter, a weightlifter and a judoka — have been told to unpack their bags.

They're not the only ones suffering the consequences of political wrangling, though. The ban amounts to collective punishment for all Iraqis. The IOC's protestations that it had no choice but to impose its rules are plainly disingenuous. For one thing, Iraq is hardly the only country where politicians meddle with sport. The Games are, after all, being held in China! For another, if the IOC was perfectly happy to let Iraq participate in previous Games when Uday was running Iraq sports. Perhaps locking a football player in an iron maiden doesn't qualify under the IOC's definition of "political interference," but that's a distinction that will be lost on most Iraqis.

In Iraq, car bomb wounds local Sunni politician

2008-07-27T03:43:00.000-07:00

Police say a car bomb attack wounded a member of a Sunni political party and his son and killed two of his bodyguards.

Police say unknown gunmen also opened fire on the house of Zaki Obaid Fayadh, head of the local branch of the Iraqi Islamic party, in Fallujah about 40 miles west of Baghdad. Sunday's explosion occurred in Fayadh's garage.

Police say it appears that the bomb was planted under a car.

The party is led by Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi

Obama's Iraq problem lies in believing his own myths

2008-07-27T03:42:00.000-07:00

BARACK Obama concedes that America's troops have contributed to improvements on the ground in Iraq, but he still stands by his vote against the surge.

Why not just admit that he was wrong?

Come on, senator, this is a lot easier than changing churches. Say: "As a proud American, I'm delighted that the surge has worked so we can move forward with my timetable for withdrawal. Look, if I'd known how successful it was going to be, I would have voted for it. At the time it didn't seem like a good bet, but prognosticators go broke in wartime."

See, that wasn't so bad.

Instead, Obama says that even knowing what he now knows, he still would have voted against the surge. Really? Even knowing that without the surge, he couldn't have safely visited Iraq?

Obama insists that, hypothetically, his own plan might have worked better than the surge: "We don't know what would have happened if I, if the plan that I put forward in January 2007, to put more pressure on the Iraqis to arrive at a political reconciliation, to begin a phased withdrawal, what would have happened had we pursued that strategy."

But we do know. Or at least we can wager with some confidence that had we withdrawn within 14 months, as Obama was proposing at the time — before Sunni Arabs, once the insurgency's backbone, felt sufficiently secure to turn against the jihadists — Iraq today would be in bloody chaos, al-Qaida victorious and the U.S. further diminished in the Arab world.

Obama voted against the surge, he said then, because he was convinced that inserting 20,000 more troops into Iraq was likely to make things worse, not better. Now trying to justify that miscall, he says he couldn't have anticipated the Sunni Awakening.

Wait. Obama could anticipate that the war in Iraq would go badly. He could anticipate that the surge wouldn't work. But he couldn't anticipate that the Sunnis would turn on al-Qaida?

Actually, Obama had more information at his fingertips in assessing the probability of the surge's success than he did for any of his other predictions, including assurance from commanders on the ground that local tribal leaders were showing a willingness to take on al-Qaida.

Most Americans, including many in Congress who approved the Iraq invasion, say that if they'd known then what they know now, they wouldn't have supported the war. Why is it so hard for Obama, knowing what he knows now, to say that he should have supported the surge?

To review Obama's statements on the surge since it began is to understand why: pride.

Over and over again — even after Gen. David Petraeus reported in late 2007 that the surge was working — Obama said: It's not working. It won't work. It's a mistake. He essentially was betting his presidential hopes on the surge's failure.

But the surge did work — and the mistake is Obama's.

Most Americans would have little trouble forgiving Obama for not believing the surge would be effective. It was a gamble, as are all strategies in war. Even with reports on the ground that locals seemed increasingly willing to rise up, there was reason enough by 2007 to doubt the wisdom of America's commander in chief.

It is less easy to forgive the kind of wrongheaded stubbornness now on display. As recently as July 14, Obama wrote in a New York Times op-ed that "the same factors that led me to oppose the surge still hold true." He mentioned the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, money spent in Iraq and said that the surge had failed to produce "political accommodation."

Fine. But the larger, more important point is that the surge was necessary and successful. Those facts outweigh all other considerations past and present. Moreover, a recent U.S. Embassy report stated that 15 of 18 benchmarks set by Congress for Iraq are being met in a "satisfactory" fashion.

Obama has fallen to pride in part because he has bought his own myth. By staking his future on a past of supernatural vision, he has made it difficult to admit human fault. The magic isn't working anymore. And Obama, the visionary one, can't even see what everyone else sees: He was wrong.

Charges dropped against Marine sniper in Iraq shootings

2008-07-27T03:26:00.000-07:00

The Marine Corps on Thursday dropped all charges against a Camp Pendleton sniper accused of wrongly shooting two men he thought were planting roadside bombs in Iraq.

Sgt. John Winnick II, 24, of San Diego, had been charged with involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and dereliction of duty in connection with the June 17, 2007, incident near Lake Tharthar in western Iraq.

Prosecutors contended Winnick had violated the rules of engagement by shooting too hastily at a truck driver carrying a satchel and his three passengers. The four men got out at an intersection where roadside bombs previously had been planted.

Winnick and several other snipers had been staking out the crossroads.

All four men were wounded, two fatally, but no bomb-making materials were found.

Winnick said he believed he was protecting his fellow Marines from insurgent bombers.

Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, followed the advice of the pretrial hearing officer in dismissing the charges.

Olympic officials bar Iraq from Beijing Games

2008-07-27T03:25:00.001-07:00

Four years after its athletes received a huge ovation at the first Olympics after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq was told Thursday that its seven-member team would not be allowed to compete in Beijing because of a dispute with the International Olympic Committee.

Olympic officials informed Iraq that it was barring the team because the government had dismissed the country's Olympic committee and appointed a new body chaired by its youth and sports minister.

The IOC action two weeks before the Games' opening ceremony came after it had threatened in June to bar Iraq from participating.

Iraqi officials have charged that the IOC was misrepresenting their efforts to rebuild the country's executive Olympic body after a mass kidnapping two years ago. They said the new panel was appointed because after the kidnapping, the executive committee had been beset by corruption and a shortage of members.

"I am deeply saddened for the Iraqi athletes who did nothing wrong," said Anita DeFrantz, the senior American member of the IOC. "It is hard to understand how a government in today's world could purposely deny them their opportunity by fiat."

IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies laid out hope that last-minute talks could save the day. "If there can be some movement and if a resolution can be found, that's still an open door," she told CNN. She estimated that Iraq had about a week to salvage the situation.

None of the seven Iraqi athletes, who were to compete in track and field, rowing, archery and weightlifting, were considered medal contenders. The track and field athletes, both sprinters, stand the best chance of still being able to compete because the deadline for entries in that sport comes after the Aug. 8 opening ceremony, according to the IOC.

While the IOC accused Iraq's government of meddling in sports, Baghdad accused the IOC of failing to meet with Iraqi officials and of being under the thrall of favorites dating back to 2004, when the first post-Hussein Olympic committee was set up under the sponsorship of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority.

"It was an unfair decision against the Iraqi Olympic movement and Iraqi sports," said Basil Adel Mehdi, an advisor to the minister of youth and sports. "It is a punishment against Iraqi athletes."

The dispute is in part a legacy of Iraq's civil conflict. More than 30 employees of the Iraqi Olympic organization were kidnapped by about 60 men dressed in Iraqi government security uniforms in July 2006. The chairman and three others on the 11-member national committee were never found. At the time, some sports observers suggested the abduction might have been linked to internal power struggles.

Star athletes in soccer, wrestling and martial arts also have been killed since 2006.

After the abductions, the committee dwindled from 11 members to three. In May 2007, the government made its first attempt to fill the empty slots, adding three more members, Mehdi said. A year later, the government disbanded that committee and appointed a new, temporary body.

Mehdi, who is the brother of Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi, said that the old executive committee had been beset by corruption and that former members of Hussein's Baath Party had continued to exert influence there. He accused former Baathists of playing a role in sabotaging Iraq's relations with the IOC.

Mehdi accused the IOC of ignoring Iraqi government explanations and being evasive about planning a meeting to settle the dispute. In turn, the IOC says the Iraqi government did not respond to invitations to meet with Olympic officials in Lausanne, Switzerland, after they were warned in June.

The predominance of Shiites in the Ministry of Youth and Sports had fanned concerns that sectarian issues were at play in the case. Mehdi denied that. He said that the original executive body was appointed in 2004 under the U.S. occupation, and that it had been meant to serve for just one year before new elections. But instead of holding elections, committee members decided to extend their terms to five years.

Iraq participated in its first Olympics in 1948. It has won one medal, in 1960, a weightlifting bronze by Abdul Wahid Aziz.

But perhaps Iraq's greatest Olympic moment was in 2004 in Athens, where the men's soccer team reached the semifinals before finishing fourth. The soccer team failed to qualify for this Olympics.

There had been some question about whether Iraq would be allowed to attend the Athens Games, as well. The Iraqi Olympic committee was suspended by the IOC on May 17, 2003, but it restructured at that time and was reinstated Feb. 27, 2004. The delegation of Iraqi athletes was well received in Athens, getting one of the largest ovations during the opening ceremony.