RE: THE LATEST CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE MILITIAS!
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RE: THE LATEST CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE MILITIAS! - 7/7/2007 10:43:01 PM
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Lion of Babylon
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US-Allied Militants Battle al-Qaeda in DiyalaSunni Militants Wearing Red Ribbons Hunting Down al-Qaeda Operatives Um Al-Izam, IRAQ: Local Sunni militiamen who decided to fight Al-Qaeda conduct a search and raid operation, 07 July 2007 in Um Al-Izam southwest of the restive city of Baquba, in the Diyala Province. Iraqi and US forces are conducting a major military operation aimed at clearing the restive province from Al-Qaeda strongholds.
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RE: THE LATEST CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE MILITIAS! - 7/10/2007 1:52:38 AM
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Lion of Babylon
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First it was instant freedom, then everything was gonna be OK after the elections, then everything was gonna be fine after they increased the troops, now the time frame isnt weeks or months or years....its decades!! Excellent planning by the Americans.
US Iraq chief warns of long war
The head of US forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, has told the BBC that fighting the insurgency is a "long term endeavour" which could take decades.
Speaking to the BBC's John Simpson in Baquba, Gen Petraeus said there was evidence that the recent troops surge was producing gains on the ground.
But he warned that US forces were engaged in a "tough fight" which will get "harder before it gets easier".
His comments come as US calls for a rapid troop withdrawal gather strength.
Gen Petraeus was keen to emphasise that the ongoing unrest in Iraq is not something he expects to be resolved overnight.
"Northern Ireland, I think, taught you that very well. My counterparts in your [British] forces really understand this kind of operation... It took a long time, decades," he said.
"I don't know whether this will be decades, but the average counter insurgency is somewhere around a nine or a 10 year endeavour."
He went on to say that more important than the length of time it would take to stabilise Iraq was the number of US troops which would be required to remain in the country.
"I think the question is at what level... and really, the question is how can we gradually reduce our forces so we reduce the strain on the army, on the nation and so forth," he said.
He said everyone wanted the US forces to be able to leave, both Americans and Iraqis alike, but he said it was vital to ensure that "the gains that have been hard fought in places like Baquba and Ramadi could be sustained, maintained and even built on by Iraqi forces and Iraqi political leaders".
In the last few weeks US forces have captured two big insurgent centres, Ramadi and Baquba, which was the main stronghold of al-Qaeda.
'Surge taking hold'
Gen Petraeus attributes this success to the recent surge in combat troop numbers, under which some 30,000 extra US troops have been deployed in Iraq, saying that although much work still remains to be done "the surge is achieving progress on the ground".
"This comprehensive offensive that we have launched into al-Qaeda sanctuaries and locations where there are al-Qaeda affiliates is in fact showing effect," he said.
"In Baghdad for example, June was the lowest month for sectarian deaths in a year."
By contrast, April, May and June were the deadliest three months for US troops since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
About 3,600 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the conflict began.
Gen Petraeus insisted it was not yet possible to see the full effect the surge was having as it took until mid-June to get all of the additional troops and equipment on the ground.
"I think again we need to see where we are in September when we'll have had a couple of months of all of our forces. We are still in the first month of the surge of operations that is following now the surge of forces," he said.
Time running out
Gen Petraeus is due to return to Washington in September to report on the campaign's progress.
However, correspondents say the clock in Washington is running fast.
In recent days four Republican senators have withdrawn support for President George W Bush's Iraq strategy, adding their voice to a growing number calling for a new plan.
And this week will see a contentious debate in the US Senate over a major defence spending bill.
On Sunday the Pentagon announced that US Defence Secretary Robert Gates was cancelling a planned Latin American tour in order to focus on the upcoming clash.
According to BBC world affairs editor John Simpson, the debate is moving so fast in Washington that Gen Petraeus's efforts, which might have saved the day for the Bush administration if they had been introduced three, or even two, years ago, may well have come too late.
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RE: THE LATEST CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE MILITIAS! - 7/12/2007 10:45:02 PM
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Lion of Babylon
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Bros. This is what I dont understand. Right after Petraeus says it will take decades to rid Iraq of insurgents the house of Reps decides they want the troops out by next April. What does this mean for Iraq? Are they going to leave our country to the insurgency? What about all that lovely oil everyone wants a piece of? Are they just gonna hand it to Al Qaida and the Militias?
US House votes for troop pullout
The United States House of Representatives has voted in favour of pulling most combat troops out of Iraq by April next year.
The legislation calls for the Pentagon to begin withdrawing combat troops within four months. The vote comes despite President George W Bush's threat to veto any timetable. Correspondents say the House of Representatives, controlled by the Democrats, is hoping to pressure the Senate to approve a similar timeline. It is the third time this year the House has voted to end US military involvement in Iraq.
Two previous efforts either failed in the Senate or were vetoed by President Bush. The latest attempt would allow some US forces to stay in Iraq to train the Iraqi army and carry out counter-terrorism operations. "It is time for the president to listen to the American people and do what is necessary to protect this nation," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat.
"That means admitting his Iraq policy has failed, working with the Democrats and Republicans in Congress on crafting a new way forward in Iraq and refocusing our collective efforts on defeating al-Qaeda."
Earlier, President Bush presented an interim report on the situation in Iraq which said there had been only limited military and political progress following his decision to send troop reinforcements. The security situation in Iraq remains "complex and extremely challenging", the report said. It added that the economic picture was "uneven" and political reconciliation lagging.
Mixed results
The report said the Iraqi parliament had so far failed to adopt or even begin to debate crucial legislation for the country's oil industry. It also warned of "tough fighting" during the summer, saying al-Qaeda in Iraq was likely to "increase its tempo of attacks" before the release of the full report in September. "The report makes clear that not even the White House can conclude there has been significant progress," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat. "We have already waited too long."
But Mr Bush rejected calls for a withdrawal of US forces, saying it would be disastrous. He said troops would only be withdrawn when conditions were right, "not because pollsters say it'll be good politics".
Mr Bush said pulling troops out too soon "would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to al-Qaeda".
"It would mean increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous," he added.
The BBC's James Coomarasamy in Washington says the most eagerly-awaited reaction is yet to come - that of those wavering Republicans who could determine whether or not Congress will try and force the president's hand. Three Republicans in the Senate have broken ranks with the president and called for a phased troop withdrawal. Several others have signed on as supporters of a bipartisan bill to implement a series of changes recommended last December by the Iraqi Study Group. The Democrats will need support from the Republicans if they are to push the legislation through in a final Senate vote expected next week.
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RE: THE LATEST CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE MILITIAS! - 7/14/2007 10:27:19 PM
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Lion of Babylon
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Maliki on Fox. Or should I say Maliki the fox!
Maliki Defends "Benchmarks" Performance
In Exclusive, Fox Scores First Post-Progress Report Interview with PM
Defending the performance of his government, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki granted an exclusive interview to Fox News today, in an apparent effort to offer counterspin to the "mixed" portrayal of Iraq's progress in an interim report issued by the US government
It was Maliki's first public interview after the release of the report, which was required by Congress to verify Iraq's performance with regards to 18 "benchmarks" listed by Washington as important for reconciliation and reconstruction in Iraq.
Fox’s David MacDougall spoke with the PM Friday, saying that Maliki seemed like “a man under a lot of pressure,” describing the interview as an opportunity for the PM, who grants few interviews, to advance a positive spin on the recent Bush administration report to Congress.
On the positive side, “We now have Anbar back with cooperation of the local tribes,” in the province, the PM said, referring to progress made against al-Qa'ida-affiliated militants in the Western Iraqi province in cooperation with US-allied tribal forces.
Maliki added that “we are in the process of regaining Diyala as well,” referring to US-Iraqi security operations in the restive mixed province northeast of Baghdad.
The prime minister also suggested that Iraq should be evaluated on the delivery of basic services, saying that, “Despite all the difficulties that the ordinary citizens are facing with their basic services, we are working on tat aspect as well,” the PM told Fox.
“We are working on improving the services (and) we are working on improving the economy,” Maliki said.
When Fox’s MacDougall asked the PM about areas in which the US government report found Iraqi progress “unsatisfactory,” such as US demands that Iraq pass oil-sector regulation or roll back militia control of parts of the country, Maliki suggested that this work was still ongoing: “We are practicing our measures against militias on a daily basis,” the prime minister said, adding that he did not believe “at the time being” that Iraq was in need of a law against militias in general.
MacDougall reported that the PM was “advised by his own team” to put his views across in order to blunt some of the criticism his government was encountering in Washington in the wake of the July progress report, which was required by Congress as a condition of allocating funding to the executive branch for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
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RE: THE LATEST CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE MILITIAS! - 7/17/2007 11:14:07 PM
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Lion of Babylon
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To YS. Big Brother lives in Iraq.
BAGHDAD — The U.S. military is taking fingerprints and eye scans from thousands of Iraqi men and building an unprecedented database that helps track suspected militants
The program recently expanded to the Baghdad area after beginning in 2004 in Anbar province. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis there submitted fingerprint and iris scans — also known as biometric data — and were given ID cards to present at checkpoints
for further details
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-07-12-iraq-database_N.htm
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RE: THE LATEST CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE MILITIAS! - 7/18/2007 9:29:26 AM
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Lion of Babylon
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Women taking the lead.
Violence Leading to Gender Swap
Loss, Targeting of Men by Militias Has Women Assuming Larger Role
BAGHDAD, 18 July 2007 (IRIN) - Until 2003, Salwa Khatab Omar, had been driven around by two drivers and accompanied by at least three guards who lived in a caravan next to her house in Baghdad. She lived in some style and without many responsibilities.
Since the 2003 US-led invasion, however, Salwa, the wife of a former senior army officer, has found herself responsible for virtually everything.
"My husband can't leave the house at all for fear of being targeted like other former regime officials," said Khatab, a 51-year-old mother of four.
"Unlike before, I have to accompany my sons and daughters to their schools and colleges in addition to dealing with other household stuff," said Khatab. She said they had to leave their home and rent a house where nobody knows her husband and his background.
Iraqi men are traditionally the breadwinners, while most women take care of other duties inside the house.
Iraq's continuing violence, however, especially with threats against men, has forced some women to take on more family responsibilities - a phenomenon called "gender role swap" by some specialists.
"Our society does not respect a man who sits at home while his wife works and feeds the family," said Kholoud Nasser Muhssin, a researcher on family and children's affairs at the University of Baghdad.
"This phenomenon will definitely weaken the role of the father and reduce respect among children for their fathers in some families. It will adversely affect an already devastated society," Muhssin added.
Mainly men killed in violence
Since February 2006, when the golden dome of a revered Shia shrine north of Baghdad was blown up, Iraq's two major Muslim sects have been plunged into spiralling sectarian killings.
A study published last year by the respected UK medical journal, The Lancet, found that men accounted for 91 percent of the violence-related deaths in Iraq.
The controversial study, which was based on a survey of households in Iraq, but not on an actual body count, contended that nearly 655,000 Iraqis had died in three years of conflict in Iraq - over 10 times more than other independent estimates of the toll.
Women collect bodies of dead relatives
Two weeks ago, Fawziya Ibrahim Mohammed, a 36-year old housewife and mother of four, went through a grim experience when she had to go to downtown Baghdad to claim the bodies of her brother and two cousins from the main morgue: “Men would definitely be kidnapped and killed by Shia militia," she said.
The three were allegedly kidnapped at a checkpoint manned by Shia-dominated police commandos south of Baghdad and handed over to the al-Mahdi army, a Shia militia loyal to radical religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr who is blamed for many killings.
Their bullet-riddled bodies were found next day dumped in the street with their legs and hands tied. There were signs they had been tortured.
"They are always near the morgue to snatch Sunni men when they retrieve the bodies. We don’t want to lose any more men and that’s why I took the risk, although it was my first time to travel alone," Fawziya added.
Conversely, Shia men have stopped travelling through Sunni-dominated areas, where Sunni militants are active, in order not to be kidnapped and killed.
Last month, Abdul-Zahra Nassir Jumaa could not accompany his son's funeral procession to the southern city of Najaf, about 200km south of Baghdad, where Shias usually bury their dead.
"We sent only the women, with a Sunni driver, as they had to get through Sunni-dominated areas in southern Baghdad where Sunni militants snatch Shia men and behead them immediately," Jumaa, a 55-year old Shia father, said.
Muhssin said that - with many men fleeing the country, keeping a low profile at home, or in prison - more responsibilities would be transferred to women in the future.
"If the security situation continues to deteriorate we will see women working a taxi or truck drivers; more of them will work in shops or as technicians or mechanics."
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RE: THE LATEST CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE MILITIAS! - 7/21/2007 1:41:48 AM
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Lion of Babylon
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Another TOP insurgent captured. But will it make any diference?
US captures 'top Iraqi insurgent'
US forces say they have arrested a senior member of al-Qaeda in Iraq, the group accused of being behind some of Iraq's deadliest violence.
The man was named as Khaled Mashhadani. He was captured earlier in July in the northern city of Mosul, officials said.
US military officials said he had told interrogators Iraq's supposed al-Qaeda kingpin, Omar al-Baghdadi, was a front.
They added Mashhadani was a "conduit" between its real Egypt-born leader in Iraq and top al-Qaeda figures globally.
"Mashhadani is believed to be the most senior Iraqi in the al-Qaeda in Iraq network," said Brig Gen Kevin Bergner.
Mashhadani is said to have told interrogators that the shadowy Omar al-Baghdadi was a "fictional role" created by the Egyptian-born Abu Ayyub al-Masri. Separately, Iraqi police said two roadside bombs exploded in south-east Baghdad, killing at least six people and the US reported the deaths of two of its soldiers in an attack in west Baghdad on Tuesday.
Foreign leadership
An actor was used for audio tape speeches attributed to Baghdadi posted on the internet, Mashhadani is said to have told his interrogators.
"In his words, [Baghdadi's group] the Islamic State of Iraq is a front organisation that masks the foreign influence and leadership within al-Qaeda in Iraq," Gen Bergner said.
"Baghdadi, who has never been seen, is an actor. To make Baghdadi seem real, Masri swore allegiance to him, knowing he was fictitious," he said.
"Mashhadani confirmed that Masri and al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders he surrounds himself with are foreigners," he said.
The captured militant had been a leader of the Ansar al-Sunna group before joining the late Jordanian-born Abu Musab Zarqawi's group, al-Qaeda in Iraq, two and half years ago, Gen Bergner said. Correspondents say the announcement will be seen a US attempt to reinforce the idea of non-Iraqi control of al-Qaeda in Iraq, as Islamist insurgents come under pressure from former allies in Iraq's nationalist resistance.
"He is considered a conduit between Masri, Bin Laden and Zawahiri," Gen Bergner said, referring to the Saudi- and Egyptian-born founders of al-Qaeda, who are thought to be hiding in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
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RE: THE LATEST CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE MILITIAS! - 7/21/2007 4:52:14 AM
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Lion of Babylon
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Sistani's office speaks!!
Sistani Rep Slams Iraqi GovernmentCriticizes Lack of Security, Services, Rise of "New Dictatorships" Karbala, Jul 20, (VOI)- Representative of the top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Karbala criticized on Friday Iraqi officials for the deteriorating services and security all over the country and warned against what he described as new growing "dictatorships" during the Friday prayer today in the Shiite shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala.
"Seven months have elapsed from 2007, yet the citizen finds no improvement in the services rendered to him," Sheikh Ahmed al-Safi addressed worshippers in the Shiite sacred shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala. The Sistani's representative added "the Iraqi national budget, branded as revolutionary, reached $41 billion this year but I received reliable information that only 1% of the budget was virtually spent as it is only the officials' mode that determines the priority of implementing the suggested projects."
"In Iraq, we have a new syndrome, which has become the prevailing law, that is the official's mode," al-Safi noted.
The Friday sermon preacher also warned against what he named as "new kinds of dictatorships growing in Iraq."
"There are new dictatorships in Iraq, similar to those of the past, they want to demolish all highly qualified people. These dictatorships now have established themselves well in the governmental departments where things are adapted to the way liked by the dictator official," the Sistani's representative. Al-Safi also called upon Iraqi political blocs to unify their political tone as most of their platforms "share much in common."
The Friday preacher also considered any improvement in the security situation in Baghdad as a key to solve all problems in other provinces. "Efforts should be made to regain security in Baghdad because it would affect the security situation in Diala, Mosul and elsewhere," Sistani's representative said.
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RE: THE LATEST CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE MILITIAS! - 7/21/2007 6:33:43 AM
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Lion of Babylon
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Iraqi Army Detains 46 Near Iran Border
By KIM GAMEL
The Associated Press
Saturday, July 21, 2007; 5:55 AM
BAGHDAD -- Iraqi troops have detained 46 suspected militants and killed five others in a new operation in eastern Diyala, the army said Saturday, while a U.S. soldier was reported killed in an explosion in the volatile province.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office, meanwhile, confirmed that he had received an invitation for his Turkish counterpart to visit the country to discuss Turkey's demand that Baghdad crack down on guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq but no date has been set.
"I think that the date will be set soon," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.
In violence Saturday, a bomb left on a minibus also exploded shortly after noon in the predominantly Shiite area of Baladiyat in eastern Baghdad, killing at least five Iraqis and wounding 11, police said. A mortar attack also struck the eastern outskirts of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding four, another officer said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
U.S. and Iraqi forces have stepped up efforts in recent weeks against the violence in Diyala, particularly in the provincial capital, Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Sunni and Shiite extremists fled to the area as U.S. and Iraqi forces began an offensive in the capital.
The Iraqi army said the operation launched Wednesday in several areas and villages in eastern Diyala, which is near the Iranian border, also led to the freeing of a kidnap victim and the discovery of two car bombs and six other explosive devices, as well as the capture of 46 suspects and the killing of five others.
American and Iraqi forces were continuing operations to clear Sunni extremists from Baqouba as well. U.S. troops regained control of the western half of the city last month and launched operations into the rest of Baqouba on Tuesday. The Iraqi army statement said 13 insurgents were killed and 16 detained in the city.
The Americans said earlier this week that they have killed at least 67 al-Qaida operatives in Baqouba, arrested 253, seized 63 weapons caches and have destroyed 151 roadside bombs since last month.
A roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier in Diyala province on Friday, the American military said in a separate statement that provided no details about where the attack occurred. The death raised to at least 3,631 members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Separately, the U.S. military announced the detention of a man accused of being behind the recent increase in powerful roadside bombs Washington believes are smuggled in from Iran as well as mortar and rocket attacks against American forces east of Baghdad.
The militant leader also was suspected of intimidating Iraqis working with U.S. forces, kidnapping and killing rivals and extortion activities through his water distribution company and gas station enterprises, according to the statement. He was captured along with four other suspects in a raid by ground forces in Jisr Diyala, 12 miles southeast of the capital, it said.
The U.S. has launched several offenses in and around Baghdad to try to reduce the level of violence so that Iraq's sectarian and ethnic groups could negotiate power-sharing agreements to provide for long-term stability. Although the offensives have reduced violence in the capital somewhat, progress on the political front has been slow
U.S. military officials also have been signaling for weeks that improvements in Iraqi security forces had not lived up to expectations _ especially in the national police, which is widely believed to be infiltrated by Shiite militiamen.
On Friday, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, who commands U.S. troops south of Baghdad, said it would take until the summer of 2008 to consolidate recent gains in his area, which controls land routes into the capital from the east and south.
Last week, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, said the number of combat-ready Iraqi battalions able to fight independently has dropped from 10 to six in recent months despite an increase in U.S. training efforts.
Those grim assessments follow years of optimistic public statements from the Pentagon about the progress in Iraqi security forces and have fueled calls in the Democratic-controlled Congress to begin withdrawing from Iraq.
Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the commander of day-to-day operations in Iraq, said Thursday that he would need "at least until November" to know if improvements in Iraq represent long-term trends.
But he issued a statement Friday clarifying that the statement did not change a September timeframe for top U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus to report on progress to Congress.
For months, Republicans in particular have regarded September as pivotal. If substantial gains could not be found by then, they say President Bush would have to rethink his military strategy, which relies on 158,000 U.S. troops.
"There is no intention to push our reporting requirement beyond September. Nothing I said yesterday should be interpreted to suggest otherwise. My reference to November was simply suggesting that as we go forward beyond September, we will gain more understanding of trends," Odierno said.
The White House also said Friday it has not changed the timetable for assessing progress in Iraq.
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RE: THE LATEST CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE MILITIAS! - 7/21/2007 10:29:59 AM
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YellowSunshine
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First it was instant freedom, then everything was gonna be OK after the elections, then everything was gonna be fine after they increased the troops, now the time frame isnt weeks or months or years....its decades!! Excellent planning by the Americans. LOB's quote.
Yeppers and so IT IS.
CRAP, just plain Bloody CRAP!!!
hugs
me
_____________________________
Faith, Hope and Love, the Greatest of these is LOVE!!!
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." George Orwell
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RE: THE LATEST CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE MILITIAS! - 7/22/2007 10:34:32 PM
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Lion of Babylon
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The Kurds should just forget about Kirkuk cause they aint getting it!
Kirkuk Referendum Could Spark Powder Keg
Struggle Over Area's Oil Could Destroy Stability of the North
WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- A voter registration list of residents in Iraq's oil-rich northern disputed territories is to be completed by the end of July. It marks a long-awaited step for Iraq's Kurds, who claim the area was ripped from them by Saddam Hussein's policies.
Little noticed, however, amid the violence in the rest of Iraq, is the potential that a referendum for the disputed territories, especially Kirkuk, could be the match that ignites a powder keg. More than 10 percent of Iraq's 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves -- the third-largest in the world -- is located in the Kirkuk area. The city has been historically Kurdish, though Turkomen, Christian and Sunni and Shiite Arabs are far from strangers. Kurds felt the brunt of Hussein's northern prerogative as he gassed populations and deprived the region of investment. And, as part of his Arabization program, he forcefully displaced them with his fellow Sunnis Arabs.
Iraq's Kurds looked to the post-Hussein era to reverse that. They demanded semi-autonomy during the formation of the government and the 2005 constitution. In an oil law now stuck in negotiations, Kurds want strong regional and local control over a large segment of the oil sector. The Kurdish leadership has complained the federal government has been slow in enacting constitutional obligations to bring back to the disputed territories Kurds who were displaced, verify eligible voters and, by the end of this year, hold a referendum.
"There is still a lot of disappointment," Qubad Talabani, the son of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and the Kurdistan Regional government's representative to the United States, told United Press International earlier this month. "There is slow progress or lack of progress made in normalizing Kirkuk."
If approved in the referendum, the territories would be part of the KRG.
The KRG maintains the debate is about nothing but righting past wrongs and uniting an ethnic nation. Not all agree. Violence in the area has kicked up as of late as the referendum draws close. Sunni insurgents who have rendered useless an oil pipeline from Kirkuk to Ceyhan, Turkey, are now blamed for targeting Kirkuk's residents. The latest and deadliest was three suicide car bombings Monday that killed more than 85 and injured nearly 200; the largest was outside the Kirkuk offices of Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Attacks have also escalated in the relatively safe KRG region.
Opponents of the referendum aren't limited to inside Iraq. Looming largest is Turkey, which already has amassed troops on its border with Iraq as it continues to threaten an invasion. Turkey's bombs fell in northern Iraqi areas where Ankara claims rebel Kurdistan Workers Party bases are located. Media reports say no one was killed, but residents of the town of Zakho, Iraq, fled the violence. Turkey says the PKK, which wants a separate state, plans and executes attacks in Turkey from Iraq. The bombing came after three Turkish soldiers were killed by a landmine near Iraq's border. And it's fodder for Sunday's Turkish national election, which used anti-PKK sentiment as a steady campaign platform.
Iraq has warned against such an invasion and condemned the bombings. The United States, late to address the Turkey-Iraq beef, has appointed an envoy to focus on the PKK and is trying to mediate a lasting truce. Decision-makers in Washington have yet to move the issue of Kirkuk and other disputed territories up on their Iraq agenda despite recommendations from international reports and studies President Bush ordered. In its Dec. 6 report, The Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton, called for an "international arbitration" on the issue.
"A referendum on the future of Kirkuk ... would be explosive and should be delayed," the report recommended.
"With all sides dug in and the Kurds believing Kirkuk is a lost heirloom they are about to regain, the debate should move off outcomes to focus on a fair and acceptable process," the Brussels-based International Crisis Group recommended in an April report. "For the Kurds, that means postponing the referendum, implementing confidence-building measures and seeking a new mechanism prioritizing consensus."
The ICG blamed Washington for ignoring the Kirkuk issue while implementing the troop surge. Hold a referendum, civil war spreads to Kirkuk and Iraqi Kurdistan, the report assessed. Postpone it without a Kurd-approved deal, the government in Baghdad could implode. It recommended the United States and international allies move toward an alternative that calms Ankara's nerves and cements Kurds' power in a federal Iraq via a now stalled oil law.
Turkey fears a larger and stronger Iraqi Kurdistan would embolden its own sizeable Kurdish population to demand autonomy, as do Iran and Syria. All three, along with Iraq, could oppose any country of Kurdistan. "Thus, what the Kurds have seemingly gained, albeit largely through peaceful negotiations and skillful political horse-trading, could be lost to internal violence and external military action," the Public International Law & Policy Group wrote in a report last month. The report didn't call for the referendum to be held or stalled; rather, it recommended a nuanced political and constitutional compromise.
To Iraq's Kurds, however, questioning the referendum is a non-starter. The outcome, if it's held, is likely to be dominated by pro-KRG Kurdish voters, and the aftermath would be realized in a more robust Iraqi Kurdistan. It's a semblance of democracy in today's Iraq, but a dichotomy of reality and what President Bush promised in an April 2003 address to Iraq's citizens: "You will be free to build a better life ... free to join in the political affairs of Iraq. And all the people who make up your country -- Kurds, Shi'a, Turkomans, Sunnis, and others -- will be free of the terrible persecution that so many have endured."
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RE: THE LATEST CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE MILITIAS! - 7/24/2007 1:52:28 AM
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Lion of Babylon
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From todays edition of Al Zaman:
Az-Zaman
Az-Zaman (international edition) featured on its front page the dossier of “revenge killings” in Iraq, a process that began since the American invasion, and caused the deaths of thousands of ex-Ba'this and individuals that were considered - by the assassins - to be supportive of the ex-regime.
Az-Zaman today carried the headline: “3000 Ba'this on the assassination list of militias in Southern Iraq.” The paper said that “a state of panic” has visited the south of the country, after “the militias affiliated with religious parties” began “liquidating 3000 ex-Ba'this ... accused of killing participants in the 1991 revolt against the previous regime.”
The paper noted, with a tinge of irony, that the alleged assassinations are occurring (by militias belonging to the ruling shi'a parties) at the same time when the Iraqi parliament is debating the “justice and accountability law,” which aims at establishing a process to – legally – indict ex-Ba'this accused of committing crimes on behalf of the deposed regime.
The assassination of ex-Ba'this took several shapes in post-invasion Iraq. Many Iraqis may have carried revenge-killings against local party officials who had aggrieved them personally, many high-echelon Ba'thists (who did not flee the country) were also targeted for assassinations; but in the last years, the liquidation of Saddam’s supporters took a more systematic approach by Iraqi militias. Many reports agree that parties linked to the state used the records of the deposed regime to list, locate and systematically target those who worked for specific state organizations, namely the security services, the party establishment and the secret police.
Az-Zaman also revealed another approach used by the “vigilantes”: Arab nationals who lived in Iraq, mostly Palestinians, were met with extreme hostility by the militias who regarded them to be - collectively – Saddam supporters. As a result, the Palestinian community in Iraq was singled out for a fierce campaign of assassinations, deportations and collective punishment. The paper said that the assassinations against Palestinians are again on the rise in Baghdad, and that militias are now extracting “confessions” from victims, under torture, before their execution.
Az-Zaman alleged that such practices abound in the center and the south of the country, where militias, through the state apparatus, have an uncontested influence over these localities. Militia leaders, the paper claimed, were given high ranks in the Army and the Police, which allows them to carry out their agenda unhindered. Hundreds of assassinations were committed in Karbala, the paper added, without them being investigated by the police.
On a similar theme, al-Mada reported that the assassins of a Sistani representative in Najaf, Sheikh 'Abdallah Falk, were arrested by the police today. The killer, the paper claimed, was the guard of the victim’s house, and committed his crime for the purpose of robbing the Sheikh, who held high financial responsibilities in Sistani’s foundations.
Meanwhile, al-Quds al-'Arabi quoted an explosive statement by Muhammad al-Ya'qubi, a founder and inspirer of the Shi'a Fadhila party, in which the cleric harshly attacked the government and the Shi'a parties that support it. Al-Fadhila is a smaller party compared to its competitors on the Shi'a scene, such as the Sadrist Current and the SIIC, but Fadhila was able to attract a large section of educated Shi'as and establish a considerable base of support in Basra.
While Fadhila had ruptured its links with the government earlier this year, the latest statement by Ya'qubi went beyond criticizing the cabinet’s policies and dubbed the entire government as “illegitimate.” Al-Ya'qubi also questioned the Shi'a “credentials” of the government and attacked the “Shi'a turbans” that “legitimize” it.
In other news, Al-Sharq al-Awsat and al-Hayat said that a conference that was planned in Damascus, grouping organizations that oppose the current political process (including Ba'thists and resistance factions) was canceled today. The cancellation came at the request of the Syrian government, Reuters reported. While several Iraqi personalities and organizations had expressed their readiness to participate, several factions of the Iraqi Ba'th had protested the Syrian sponsorship, and expressed fears that the Syrian state may be planning to dominate the conference.
Despite the fall of the Saddam regime, old rivalries between the Syrian and Iraqi Ba'th parties remain entrenched, especially among the “old guard;” the Syrian government may have realized that sponsoring an Iraqi opposition conference will create new divisions, rather than unite, the current mosaic of opposition parties and factions.
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RE: THE LATEST CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE MILITIAS! - 7/26/2007 6:15:34 AM
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Lion of Babylon
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When is the world going to help?? Is it going to take another Bob Geldoff effort before the rest of the civilized world wakes up and takes notice? Actually dudes, thats not a bad idea!!  Anyone got Bobs phone number? 
Iraq neighbours seek refugee aid
An international conference has opened in Jordan aimed at finding ways to ease the burden of countries with large numbers of Iraqi refugees.
More than two million Iraqis have left their war-ravaged homeland. The UN says about 50,000 more people leave Iraq each month, mostly to Jordan and Syria which want international help to ease the burden on their services.
The UN refugee agency has called the exodus a humanitarian crisis threatening the region's stability. It says the wave of displacement sparked by the war in Iraq is the biggest in the Middle East since 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled the newly created Israel.
One refugee in Jordan, grandmother Najla Abda Karim Saleh, fled with her son and daughter. Another daughter was killed in sectarian violence - apparently by being burned alive. She told the BBC she wanted help to bring the her four grandchildren to safety in Amman, the Jordanian capital.
"I ask the big man who is in charge, who is responsible about the UN to heed my voice. I am a mother, I lost everything... we have lost [our] house, we are lost, my daughter is lost, my son [is] lost... help this family please," she wept.
Hosts over-stretched
Jordan and Syria want some assurance that the Iraqis will either eventually return to their homeland or be resettled elsewhere. Egypt and Lebanon have also received thousands of Iraqis. The UN refugee agency earlier this month doubled its annual appeal for funding to help uprooted Iraqis to $123m to boost medical care, shelter and other support.
Craig Johnstone, the UN deputy high commissioner for refugees, called for international assistance, since Syria and Jordan had few resources to cope with the influx.
"The international community, I think, has neglected the plight of the refugees from Iraq so far, but they are beginning to act," he told the BBC.
In May, Jordan said hosting the Iraqis was costing the desert kingdom about $1bn a year. It has commissioned a survey to determine the exact number of Iraqis on its territory. Syria hosts nearly 1.5 million displaced Iraqis.
Limited services
In Jordan, clinics provide free immunisation to Iraqi children, but not full health-care services. Government schools, already stretched to the maximum, only allow a small portion of Iraqi children with residency permits to attend.
Syria provides greater services to the Iraqis, but even there the UN says that only a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugee children there are able to attend school. The UN refugee agency says it hopes to find a permanent home for a total of 20,000 Iraqi exiles by the end of the year.
Although the US administration announced earlier in the year that it would allow 7,000 Iraqis into the US by the end of September, it has allowed in just 133 over the past nine months because of stringent security measures.
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RE: THE LATEST CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE MILITIAS! - 7/26/2007 10:11:33 PM
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Lion of Babylon
Posts: 1188
Score: 48
Joined: 5/9/2007
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Biggest Corruption Case of War Underway
Army Major Accused of $15 Million in Contractor Bribes for Reconstruction
A bribery case unfolding in San Antonio represents largest exposed incident of graft related to Iraq's reconstruction, and may turn out to be the biggest bribery scandal in US military history. The ongoing investigation could also lead to charges against military officers other than the one currently implicated. Army Maj. John L. Cockerham, a contract procurement officer stationed at Fort Sam Houston, stands accused taking $9.6 million in bribes and was to receive another $5.4 million for steering lucrative deals to contractors during 2004-2005 while he was stationed at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.
"This is the largest bribery case that's come out of the Iraq reconstruction experience," Stuart W. Bowen Jr., special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, told the San Antonio Express-News in an interview Wednesday.
Cockerham's wife and sister also stand accused of helping launder the money, and the Express-News reports sources who said higher ranking officers may be implicated in the case. Bowen declined to add anything to that report, saying "That's where I can't talk.... This is an ongoing investigation.... The rest of the story will be told over time as the investigation unfolds."
It was unclear how the government learned about the bribes to Cockerham, but various sources told the Express-News that the case is one in a pattern of contract-rigging and bribery cases at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, involving multiple members of the military, including some who died under mysterious circumstances as investigators closed in. The Cockerham's were arrested Monday and his sister, Carolyn Blake, on Wednesday. All have pleaded not guilty. Following the Cockerham's hearing on Monday, as he and his wife were being led out for transport to jail, John turned to the assembled media, asking that the ACLU be notified, and seeming to imply a government conspiracy was behind his arrest.
"We're suffering injustice in the name of justice," Cockerham shouted. "I guess we can thank the Department of Justice for this."
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RE: THE LATEST CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE MILITIAS! - 7/28/2007 2:35:49 PM
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Lion of Babylon
Posts: 1188
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Dudes, Whats up? Looks like this democracy thing is workin out just fine and dandy over here in I-RAQ! 
Iraqi Government Slams Sunni Bloc
Tawafuq Accused of "Blackmailing" Government, "Crippling" Parliament
Baghdad, July 26, (VOI)- The Iraqi government strongly criticized the Sunni Iraqi Accordance (Tawafuq) Front on Friday, accusing it of using threatening, pressures and blackmailing ways to cripple the work of the government and the parliament. The government considered these methods as "useless policy", Dr. Ali al-Dabagh said in a statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
"Crippling the government and the parliament's work as well as the political process will not turn Iraq back to the dictatorship period and no one of the Iraqi people would benefit from it," the government also said. The government's official Spokesman Ali al-Dabagh said in a statement on Friday received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) that "depending on foreign states will not make a unified and safe country and such acts could have grave consequences."
"Millions of Iraqis who went to the polls, challenging terrorism and terrorists, will not agree on these acts and will take a positive reaction," the spokesman said in the statement. The IAF decided on Wednesday to suspend its participation in the government, threatening to withdraw from it if its 11 demands were not met.
"The parliament is the official body which makes laws not the government and the IAF was the only one which crippled the work of the parliament to prevent discussing draft law," the spokesman said, responding to the IAF, which accused the government of weakness.
He accused also the Sunni front of ignoring the government's efforts in the national reconciliation, including the inclusion of officers of the former army in the current army and expanding the popular participation in the security and political process, considering that as a success to the reconciliation project. "The parliamentary bloc knows that the government did not include more militias in the armed forces, but it launched an attack against it and dismissed more than 14,000 policemen, suspected of having links to these militias," the official spokesman said in the statement, noting that "the IAF was the only one which demands the inclusion of the militias after the toppling of the former regime in the armed forces."
"The security file is a national issue and is being handled by a ministerial committee for the national security, chaired by the prime minister and includes the two deputy prime ministers, one of whom is the IAF's representative. The committee also includes the defense, interior, foreign and justice ministers, in addition to the head of the intelligence and chief of staff," al-Dabagh also said. Al-Dabagh also said that the Iraqi judicial system is the only body responsible for responding to those who make doubts on its independence, noting "the bloc demanded to politicize the judicial system since the case of Sabrine al-Janabi, which accused a number of Iraqi security forces of raping her, the case which flared up a wave of criticisms against the Iraqi government at the beginning of the running year last January."
The IAF had suspended its participation in the Iraqi government in protest against an arrest warrant issued by the court against Iraqi Minister of Culture Asaad al-Hashemi for his suspected involvement in the assassination of MP Mathal al-Alusi's sons two years ago. The front asked the premier to intervene and stop the judicial warrant against the minister and the prime minister refused to interfere in the independence of the judicial system, as well as other pressures to commute the judgment against those found guilty in Anfal case.
Regarding the request made by the Sunni bloc to work on the return of the displacing people, the spokesman said the Iraqi government put at the top of its priorities during Baghdad law-imposing plan to return the uprooted persons, accusing gunmen of some of the bloc's members of opening fire against the first family returned to al-Adel neighborhood. "The bloc demanded to suspend the returning of displaced families till the end of the security plan in Baghdad," he affirmed. The spokesman criticized Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, the head of the Islamic party, one of the three components of the Iraqi Accordance Front, because he did not accompany anyone outside his bloc or party during his official visits abroad.
He accused him also of sending lists, includes hundreds of members of his party and the dissolved Baath party, to appoint them in the interior and defence ministries. The IAF MP Hareth al-Ubeidi said on Thursday that the bloc suspended its participation in the government until its demands are accepted. "The demands include issuing a general amnesty in preparation of releasing all detainees and stop raids, arresting and all illegal acts," al-Ubeidi said.
"The suspense will include the Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie and the bloc's six ministers," he noted. Iraqi Accordance Front is a Sunni bloc elected to 44 seats out of the 275-member parliament in the December 2005 polls. The Front also ended its month-long boycott of the Iraqi Parliament after the return of Mahmud al-Mashhadani, a member of the bloc, to preside over the parliament's sessions.
The Sunni bloc held a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, during which it decided to suspend its participation in the government, threatening to withdraw from the government if its 11 demands were not met.
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RE: THE LATEST CRACKDOWN AGAINST THE MILITIAS! - 7/30/2007 5:18:33 PM
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Lion of Babylon
Posts: 1188
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Shouldn't this idiot be in Iraqi custody???  Why don't these 'holy warriors' ever attack Saudi or American targets in in their own country?? Instead they come through an open border to kill innocent Iraqis. Wahabi pigs!
Wounded and feeling cheated, a 'holy warrior' turns against the cause that lured him to Iraq - The Associated Press
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: The last time Ahmed al-Shayea was in the news, he was in the hospital at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, being treated for severe burns from the truck bomb he had driven into the Iraqi capital on Christmas Day 2004.
Today, he says, he has changed his mind about waging jihad, or holy war, and wants other young Muslims to know it. He wants them to see his disfigured face and fingerless hands, to hear how he was tricked into driving the truck on a fatal mission, to believe his contrition over having put his family through the agony of believing he was dead.
At 22, the new Ahmed Al-Shayea is the product of a concerted Saudi government effort to counter the ideology that nurtured the 9/11 hijackers and that has lured Saudis in droves to the Iraq insurgency. The deprogramming, similar to efforts carried out in Egypt and Yemen, is built on reason, enticements and lengthy talks with psychiatrists, Muslim clerics and sociologists.
The kingdom still has a way to go in cracking the jihadist mind set. Most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis, and Saudis make up nearly half of the foreign detainees held in Iraq, according to Mouwaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser. They number hundreds, he said this month following a visit to Saudi Arabia. Dozens more are fighting alongside al-Qaida-inspired militants at a Palestinian camp in Lebanon.
Several hundred prisoners, as well as returnees from Guantanamo, are thought to have passed through the rehabilitation program.
Al-Shayea says his change of heart began when he was visited by a cleric at al-Ha'ir Prison in Riyadh following his repatriation from Iraq.
He says he put two questions to the cleric: Was the jihad for which he traveled to Iraq religiously sanctioned? And were the edicts inciting such action correct in saying the militants should not inform their parents or government of their intentions?
No and no, came the reply.
"I realized that all along, I was wrong," al-Shayea told The Associated Press in a two-hour interview at a Riyadh hotel before returning to an Interior Ministry compound that serves as a sort of halfway house for ex-jihadists rejoining Saudi society.
"There is no jihad. We are just instruments of death," he said.
Saudi Arabia's campaign against terrorism began in earnest after al-Qaida-linked militants struck three residential expatriate compounds in Riyadh in May 2003, killing 26 people.
The government says it cracked down on charities suspected of using donations to finance terrorism, banned mosques from holding unlicensed religious sessions and warned preachers against inciting youths to jihad. Officials as well as the government-guided media began to clearly and unequivocally refer to suicide bombings as terrorism.
The Interior Ministry sponsored programs on government-run TV stations showing repentant jihadists warning youths against joining al-Qaida and clergymen trying to correct misconceptions about jihad and dealing with non-Muslims. Al-Shayea has appeared on Al-Majd, a Saudi religious TV channel.
Three years ago it set up the prison program.
"The aim is to reform the youths, to listen to them and talk to them," said Ahmed Jailan, one of the clerics. "We also try to instill a sense of hope in them by telling them they still have the chance to make up for what they lost if they follow true Islam."
The prisoners later appear before a panel of judges who decide whether they can move from prison to the Interior Ministry compound, where activities include reading, civic and religious courses, sports and family visits. They get help finding jobs and wives, and after release they get free medical care, monthly stipends and sometimes cars.
At the time he was first approached to join the insurgency, al-Shayea was already becoming a devout Muslim in his ultraconservative town of Buraida. He grew a beard, prayed five times a day and stopped listening to Arabic love songs he used to enjoy. He was 19 and jobless.
Then he was contacted by a school friend whom he doesn't identify.
"My friend started telling me about Iraq, how Muslims are getting killed there and how we should go there for jihad," said al-Shayea. "He told me there were fatwas (edicts) and DVDs issued by Saudi and Iraqi clergymen that called for jihad."
"We didn't think of jihad as something that would lead to our death. It was a fight against occupiers," said al-Shayea.
Finally, the friend told him he was going to Iraq, and invited al-Shayea to join him.
He was told to shave his beard and pack Western clothes to avoid looking like a would-be jihadist. He got a passport and an airline ticket to Syria. And he managed to save US$1,600 (€1,160) — travel fees, he was told, that would go to smugglers, weapons training and al-Qaida's coffers.
On a cool November night toward the end of the holy month of Ramadan, he donned a black T-shirt and jeans and told his parents he was going camping in the desert with his friends.
He and his friend flew to Syria, a favored transit point for Iraq-bound fighters because Syria doesn't ask visiting Arabs for visas, and its 360-mile (580-kilometer) border with Iraq is thinly policed. A network of al-Qaida operatives sheltered him in Damascus, Aleppo and the border town of Abu-Kamal, and about two weeks later he and 23 other men were smuggled into Iraq.
Four Iraqi teenagers guided them to the Iraqi border town of al-Qaim. They saw Syrian border guards in the distance who fired in the air. "They didn't try to stop us. We were already in Iraq," al-Shayea said.
At al-Qaim, the men were split into two groups. Al-Shayea said his group of 12 met an al-Qaida leader who had direct links with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida chief in Iraq who was later killed by a U.S. airstrike. He took the men's money and gave each US$100 (€72).
"Then he asked us a question: 'Those who want to carry out martyrdom (suicide) attacks, raise your hands,'" said al-Shayea. "No one did."
Al-Shayea's group then spent a week at the Sunni fundamentalist stronghold of Rawa before al-Shayea and another Saudi man were taken to Ramadi and finally Baghdad.
Al-Shayea met his new "emir," or leader, an Iraqi who told him his first assignment was to take a fuel tanker to a Baghdad neighborhood to be collected by others.
"I felt scared. I didn't know Baghdad at all, and I also didn't know how to drive heavy vehicles," he said.
Also, he says, he was never told that the truck would contain 26 tons of butane gas, rigged to explode outside the Jordanian Embassy.
"That evening, we performed the last prayer of the day and had dinner — a dish of chicken and aubergines," said al-Shayea. "The emir gave me a crude map of my route."
Two al-Qaida militants drove with al-Shayea, but then jumped out 1,000 yards (meters) from where he was supposed to park the truck and fled in a waiting car.
"I felt something bad was about to happen," he said.
The farther he drove, the more nervous he got until, 60 feet (20 meters) from the embassy, an explosion — believed triggered from afar — turned the back of the tanker into a fireball.
"I saw the fire and I started to scream and pray," he said.
"I looked around me and I saw everything had melted. My hands had turned black. I jumped from the window and started running without thinking of what I was doing."
The blast killed nine people.
Thinking he was an innocent victim and a Shiite by his fake ID card, passers-by took al-Shayea to a Shiite-run hospital. There he kept silent for several days until he finally told his doctors the truth. The world's first encounter with al-Shayea was on footage of his interrogation which was sent to Arab TV stations. Back in Buraida, his parents saw their son, face charred, head heavily bandaged, but alive. They were stunned. They had been notified he was dead and had held a wake for him. Al-Shayea said he told his interrogators where to find a senior al-Zarqawi aide in Baghdad, revealed all he knew about al-Qaida, and denounced al-Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden as killers of innocents.
He says he hasn't seen nor heard from the friend who accompanied him since they parted soon after entering Iraq.
Today, his hair has grown back, he sports a thick black beard and he can move without difficulty. He credits the medical care he received, including 30 operations, at the hospital of U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison. He says that when he was handed over to the Americans a couple of days after his interrogation at the Iraqi Interior Ministry, he was scared because he had heard about the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. "But the care with which the American officers carried me down to the car when they came to take me made me relax," said al-Shayea. "One spoke Arabic and tried to put me at ease."
After almost six months of medical care and interrogations during which al-Shayea said he was treated well, he was visited by three Saudi officers.
"They told me they were there for my sake," said al-Shayea. "They allowed me to write a letter to my parents."
They also asked him if he would tell his story publicly. He says he replied that he would have volunteered to do so even if they hadn't asked. A couple of weeks later, in mid-2005, al-Shayea was flown home. His parents were at the airport. "I took my dad in my arms, crying, and kept asking for forgiveness," he said. He spent a couple of months in the hospital and then was moved to al-Ha'ir Jail where he says he was given a TV set, newspapers and plenty of food. He also read a lot of books. One of them — which he says he would never have imagined he would read — is the Arabic classic "One Thousand and One Nights."
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