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Iraq News, Iraqi News, Iraq capital: Baghdad |
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Iraq Archive GlobalSecurity.org "Confrontation With Iraq - Background." ... "Under UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 687 (April 1991), which set out the cease-fire terms for ending the Gulf War, Iraq is obliged to: (a) accept the destruction, removal, or rendering harmless of all its - nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, and ballistic missiles with a range over 150 kilometers; and - research, development, and manufacturing facilities associated with the above; and (b) undertake not to develop such weapons in the future. The United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) oversees these processes. Iraq must give full cooperation, in particular immediate, unrestricted access to any site UNSCOM needs to inspect." ... As part of GlobalSecurity.org's "Target Iraq," director John Pike provides a succinct summary of relevant facts regarding Iraq's actions following its invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent Gulf War, also included is a brief timeline from 1991 - 1998/12/16, a map of the "no fly zone", and a list of "US Military Operations in Southwest Asia." -By John Pike -GlobalSecurity.org |
IRAQ News:
"Kerry: McCain's Judgment Is Dangerous." ... "[Massachusetts Democratic Senator] Sen. John Kerry believes that the presumptive Republican nominee for president is adhering to the [Republican President] Bush Administration orthodoxy in ways that call into question his carefully-nurtured image as a political maverick." ... ""John McCain has changed in profound and fundamental ways that I find personally really surprising, and frankly upsetting," the Democratic Senator from Massachusetts said on CBS' Face The Nation." ... ""This is a different John McCain. This is not the Senator John McCain; this is want-to-be president John McCain." ... ""And the result is that John McCain has flip-flopped on more issues than I was even ever accused possibly of thinking about! I mean, this is extraordinary what he's done: He's changed on taxes; he's now in favor of the Bush tax cut. If you like the Bush economy, if you like the Bush tax cut and what it's done to our economy, making wealthier people wealthier and the average middle class struggle harder, then John McCain is going to give you a third term of George Bush and Karl Rove." ... ""If you like what has happened to oil prices, John McCain is going to continue that policy. If you like what you see about health care, John McCain has no health care plan." ... ""I would have at least expected the John McCain that I knew back then to realize what almost every person in the Pentagon has admitted. There are very few who walk around and say, 'Going into Iraq was the right thing to do, and we should have done it, or do it again if I have the chance.' John McCain does." ... ""I'm challenging Senator McCain's judgment," Kerry said, "that says, 'There's no violent history between Sunni and Shia.' That's wrong. His judgment that says, 'This is going to increase the stability of the Middle East.' It hasn't, it's made it less stable. The judgment that says, quote, 'This will be the best thing for America and the world in a long time. It's the worst thing that we've done in a long time. And he's turned his [focus] away from Afghanistan and al Qaeda and made America less safe. That's dangerous for our country."" -FaceTheNation -CBSNews "Former Nato commander questions value of McCain's military experience." ... "A top supporter of [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama has questioned the value of Republican [2008 Election Presidential Candidate] John McCain's military experience, suggesting it did not qualify him to be president." ... "Former Nato [NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization] commander Wesley Clark described Mr McCain as "untested and untried", lacking the executive experience needed to lead the country." ... ""He [McCain] has been a voice on the Senate armed services committee. And he has travelled all over the world. But he hasn't held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the navy that he commanded - that wasn't a wartime squadron," Mr Clark said. "I don't think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president."" ... "Mr Obama hopes to beef up his foreign-policy credentials with a visit to Iraq and Afghanistan later this year. His campaign announced at the weekend that the Democratic candidate would go to the Middle East and Europe next month. Mr Obama will visit Israel, Jordan, Germany, France and Britain, but does not apparently plan to stop in Ireland, where he has ancestral roots in Co Offaly [Ireland, Irish county in the Province of Leinster]." ... ""This trip will be an important opportunity for me to assess the situation in countries that are critical to American national security and to consult with some of our closest friends and allies about the common challenges we face," Mr Obama said." -By Denis Staunton -IrishTimes.com "Now That We’ve ‘Won,’ Let’s Come Home." ... "The Iraq war’s defenders like to bash the press for pushing the bad news and ignoring the good. Maybe they’ll be happy to hear that the bad news doesn’t rate anymore. When a bomb killed at least 51 Iraqis at a Baghdad market on Tuesday, ending an extended run of relative calm, only one of the three network newscasts (NBC’s) even bothered to mention it." ... "The only problem is that no news from Iraq isn’t good news — it’s no news. The night of the Baghdad bombing the CBS war correspondent Lara Logan appeared as Jon Stewart’s guest on “The Daily Show” to lament the vanishing television coverage and the even steeper falloff in viewer interest. “Tell me the last time you saw the body of a dead American soldier,” she said. After pointing out that more soldiers died in Afghanistan than Iraq last month, she asked, “Who’s paying attention to that?”" ... "Should voters tune in, they’ll also discover that the [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain policy is nonsensical on its face. If “we are winning” and the surge is a “success,” then what is the rationale for keeping American forces bogged down there while the Taliban regroups ominously in Afghanistan? Why, if this is victory, does Mr. McCain keep threatening that “chaos and genocide” will follow our departure? And why should we take the word of a prophet who failed to anticipate the chaos and ethnic cleansing that would greet our occupation?" ... "Vanished into the memory hole are such earlier examples of the McCain Iraq wisdom as “the end is very much in sight” (April 9, 2003) and “there’s not a history of clashes that are violent between Sunnis and Shiites” (later that same month)." -By Frank Rich -NYTimes [Note: there is a very long history of violent clashes between the Sunnis and Shiites.] "General who probed Abu Ghraib says [Republican President] Bush officials committed war crimes." ... "The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison accused the [Republican President] Bush administration Wednesday of committing "war crimes" and called for those responsible to be held to account." ... "The remarks by [Major General] Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who's now retired, came in a new report that found that [United States] U.S. personnel tortured and abused detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using beatings, electrical shocks, sexual humiliation and other cruel practices." ... ""After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes," Taguba wrote. "The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."" ... "Taguba, whose 2004 investigation documented chilling abuses at Abu Ghraib, is thought to be the most senior official to have accused the administration of war crimes. "The commander in chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture," he wrote." ... "The group Physicians for Human Rights, which compiled the new report, described it as the most in-depth medical and psychological examination of former detainees to date." ... "Also this week, a probe by the Senate Armed Services Committee revealed how senior Pentagon officials pushed for harsher interrogation methods over the objections of top military lawyers. Those methods later surfaced in Afghanistan and Iraq." -By Warren P. Strobel -McClatchyDC.com "Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by the US." ... "About: Broken Laws, Broken Lives shows the human consequences of harsh and unlawful US interrogation practices. This landmark report reveals the excruciating pain and continued suffering of men who, never charged with any crime, endured torture at US detention facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay [Cuba]. Based on internationally accepted standards for clinical assessment of torture claims, the report documents practices used to bring about long-lasting pain, terror, humiliation, and shame for months on end." -Physicians for Human Rights -BrokenLives.info [NOTE: On the day MSNBC's Meet the Press television political journalist Tim Russert died, MSNBC published this interview with Tim Russert:] "Vigilance needed on campaign claims: Big issues, not smears, need to be the focus." ... "Msnbc: Tim, www.fightthesmears.com is a web site launched by the [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama campaign to combat potentially damaging rumor about the candidate and his wife, Michelle. Is this necessary? How big of a problem is this really?" ... "Tim Russert: It’s amazing how much the Internet has changed our lives. People get emails that make accusations without foundation and they are circulated around the country within seconds and suddenly become topics of conversations around water coolers or in lunchrooms." ... "I remember being in Indianapolis [Indiana's capital] covering the Indiana primary and a man came up to me and said he wasn’t going to vote for [Illinois] Senator Obama because he was very concerned about the comments made by Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor. I said, “That’s interesting. As a reporter, I’m curious what comments particularly bothered you?” He said, “Well, I can’t think of any that come to mind, but I also read on the Internet that he’s a Muslim.” And I said, “Now wait a minute. You can’t have both. You can’t be offended by his Christian minister and then say he’s a Muslim. You’ve got to pick one.”" ... "But that just underscores what we’re dealing with in this modern era." ... "Now I’m told there’s a counter organization with a very similar name that is going to be positioned and posted to spread the rumors, so that people that go to the Internet to get clarification will go to the wrong web site and get confused." ... "It’s a virus. You have bloggers on both sides, liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats all trying to utilize this vehicle without any kind of fact checking and without any kind of editorial control." ... "Msnbc: Given the way people use the Internet, do you wonder if there are going to be some things said or done during the course of this campaign that will be very unsettling?" ... "Russert: That’s what we have to be conscious of and vigilant against, particularly at the end of the campaign as things are put out there. We’ve already had a few fake videos with different words dubbed in and people say, “This must be true because I saw it on the Internet.”" ... "What we hope to do in this campaign is recognize there are big differences on big issues between John McCain and Barack Obama – the war in Iraq, Iran, Social Security, taxes. You don’t need to get into this other stuff. If it does surface, then I think the mainstream media has an obligation not to just instinctively put it out there without vetting it. Or, if it is something that is manufactured as a virus, report on that – who did it and why. But sometimes it’s very hard to trace it back to its original source." -MSNBC "McCain’s remark sparks an uproar." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain triggered a tempest over Iraq on Wednesday, saying it was "not too important" to set a timetable for American troop withdrawals from Iraq." ... "The presumptive Republican presidential nominee was asked on NBC's "Today" show if he had an estimate for when [United States] U.S. troops might leave Iraq." ... ""No, but that's not too important," he replied. "What's important is casualties in Iraq. . . . Americans are in South Korea. Americans are in Japan. American troops are in Germany. That's all fine. . . . The key to it is, we don't want any more Americans in harm's way."" ... "[Delaware Democratic Senator Joseph Biden:]" ... ""Sen. McCain's comment is evidence that he is totally out of touch with the needs of our troops and the national security needs of our nation," said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del. [Democratic-Delaware]). "I think many of our brave soldiers and their families would disagree that it's 'not too important' when they come home."" ... "[Nevada Democratic Senator and] Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev. [Democratic-Nevada]) joined in. "McCain's statement today that withdrawing troops doesn't matter is a crystal-clear indicator that he just doesn't get the grave national security consequences of staying the course," Reid said in a statement. "Osama bin Laden is freely plotting attacks, our efforts in Afghanistan are undermanned, and our military readiness has been dangerously diminished."" -By John McCormick with contributions by Mike Dorning and Mark Silva -ChicagoTribune via -LAtimes "Clarke On Iraq War Architects: ‘We Shouldn’t Let These People Back Into Polite Society’." ... "Noting that “prominent Democrats” had ruled out impeachment, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann asked former counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke on his show last night, what “remedy” there could be for the lies and misinformation highlighted in the new Senate Intelligence Committee reports on the Bush administration’s misuse of pre-war Iraq intelligence." ... "“Someone should have to pay in some way for the decisions that they made to mislead the American people,” said Clarke. He suggested that “some sort of truth and reconciliation commission” might be appropriate because, he said, we can’t “let these people back into polite society”:" "CLARKE: Well, there may be some other kind of remedy. There may be some sort of truth and reconciliation commission process that’s been tried in other countries, South Africa, Salvador and what not, where if you come forward and admit that you were in error or admit that you lied, admit that you did something, then you’re forgiven. Otherwise, you are censured in some way.""Unfortunately, as Clarke hints, most of the architects of the Iraq war are still fully embraced by “polite society.”" ... "Some, like [Republicans] President Bush and Vice President Cheney, are still working in the White House. But for many of those who left, “the neocon welfare system” has been generous:" "- Last fall, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was named a “distinguished visiting fellow” at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he focuses on “issues pertaining to ideology and terror.”""Despite their re-emergence into “polite society,” these war architects have largely refused to admit that they lied. In fact, some, like former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Doug Feith, insist that the American people only feel misled about Iraq because “they misremember a lot."" -ThinkProgress.org "Senate committee: Bush knew Iraq claims weren't true." ... "[Republicans] President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other top officials promoted the invasion of Iraq with public statements that weren't supported by intelligence or that concealed differences among intelligence agencies, the Senate Intelligence Committee said on Thursday in a report that was delayed by bitter partisan infighting." ... "A second report found that a special office set up under then-secretary of defense Donald H. Rumsfeld conducted "sensitive intelligence activities" that were inappropriate "without the knowledge of the Intelligence Community or the State Department." That report revealed that Pentagon counterintelligence officials suspected that Iran might have tried to use the group to influence administration policymakers." ... "The Senate report, the first official examination of whether top officials knew that their public statements were unsubstantiated when they made them, reviewed five speeches by Bush, Cheney and former Secretary of State Colin Powell between August 2002 and February 2003. It also dissected key statements made by them and other top officials, including Rumsfeld and then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice." ... "The committee found that the administration's warnings that former dictator Saddam Hussein was in league with Osama bin Laden, a highly inflammatory assertion in the wake of the [September] Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaida attacks, weren't substantiated by U.S. intelligence reports. In fact, it said, [United State] U.S. intelligence agencies were telling the White House that while there'd been sporadic contacts over a decade, there was no operational cooperation between Iraq and al Qaida, the report said." ... "The administration's repeated statements "suggesting that Iraq and al Qaida had a partnership, or that Iraq had provided al Qaida with weapons training, were not substantiated by intelligence," it said." ... "Contentions by Bush and Cheney that Saddam had to be removed because he could give terrorists weapons of mass destruction to strike the United States were "contradicted by available intelligence information" that found that the late Iraqi dictator was unlikely to make such transfers, the report said." ... "Cheney's assertions that Mohammad Atta, the chief Sept. 11 hijacker, had met months before the attack with an Iraqi intelligence officer in the Czech capital, Prague [Czech Republic], were also unsubstantiated, the inquiry found." ... "The committee said that Bush and Cheney "failed to reflect concerns and uncertainties" expressed in intelligence analyses that questioned administration assertions that Iraqis would welcome U.S. troops as liberators and warned that American forces could face violent resistance." ... "Statements by Bush, Cheney and other top officials that Saddam had stockpiled chemical and biological weapons in violation of U.N. resolutions were "generally substantiated" by what turned out to be erroneous U.S. intelligence analyses, the report said." ... "However, while intelligence reports "generally substantiated" their claims that Iraq had secretly restarted a nuclear weapons program, the committee said, Bush and other officials failed to disclose that the State Department disputed that finding." ... "The administration's statements also failed to disclose that the Energy Department joined the State Department in rejecting allegations that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa, the report said." ... "The reports released Thursday brought to an end a lengthy investigation into how U.S. intelligence appeared to be so wrong in the run-up to the Iraq war." -By Jonathan S. Landay with contributions by Nancy A. Youssef and Mark Seibel -McClatchyDC.com [PDF] - "Senate Intelligence Iraq Phase II Report (Phase 2 a): REPORT on Whether Public Statements Regarding Iraq by U.S. Government Officials Were Substantiated by Intelligence Information." [PDF] - "Senate Intelligence Iraq Phase II Report (Phase 2 b): REPORT on Intelligence Activities Relating to Iraq Conducted by the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group and the Office of Special Plans Within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy." [PDF] - "Phase I Senate report on Iraq Intelligence." "Did Iranian agents dupe Pentagon officials?" ... "Defense Department counterintelligence investigators suspected that Iranian exiles who provided dubious intelligence on Iraq and Iran to a small group of Pentagon officials might have "been used as agents of a foreign intelligence service ... to reach into and influence the highest levels of the [United States] U.S. government," a Senate Intelligence Committee report said Thursday." ... "A top aide to [Republican President Bush's] then-secretary of defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, however, shut down the 2003 investigation into the Pentagon officials' activities after only a month, and the Defense Department's top brass never followed up on the investigators' recommendation for a more thorough investigation, the Senate report said." ... "The revelation raises questions about whether Iran may have used a small cabal of officials in the Pentagon and in [Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney's office to feed bogus intelligence on Iraq and Iran to senior policymakers in the [Republican President] Bush administration who were eager to oust the Iraqi dictator." ... "Iran, which was a mortal enemy of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and fought a bloody eight-year war with Iraq during his reign, has been the primary beneficiary of U.S. policy in Iraq, where Iranian-backed groups now run much of the government and the security forces." ... "The aborted counterintelligence investigation probed some Pentagon officials' contacts with Iranian exile Manucher Ghorbanifar, whom the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] had labeled a "fabricator" in 1984. Those contacts were brokered by an American civilian, Michael Ledeen, a former Pentagon and National Security Council consultant and a leading advocate of invading Iraq and overthrowing Iran's Islamic regime." ... "Stephen Cambone, then the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, shut down the counterintelligence investigation after only a month, the Senate report said." ... "The Senate committee also found that Pentagon officials concealed the contacts with Ghorbanifar from the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department. Pentagon officials also provided Senate investigators with an inaccurate account of events and, with support from two unnamed officials in Cheney's office, continued meeting with Ghorbanifar after contact with him was officially ordered to stop." ... "The first meetings with Ghorbanifar, which were disclosed in August 2003 by the Long Island, N.Y. [New York], newspaper Newsday, took place in Rome [Italy's capital] in December 2001. They were attended by two Pentagon Iran experts, Harold Rhode and Larry Franklin; by an Italian military intelligence official, and by Ledeen." -By John Walcott -McClatchyDC.com "Revealed: Secret plan to keep Iraq under US control: [Republican President] Bush wants 50 military bases, control of Iraqi airspace and legal immunity for all American soldiers and contractors." ... "A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad [Iraq's capital] would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the [United States] US presidential [2008] election in November." ... "The terms of the impending deal, details of which have been leaked to The Independent, are likely to have an explosive political effect in Iraq. Iraqi officials fear that the accord, under which US troops would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law, will destabilise Iraq's position in the Middle East and lay the basis for unending conflict in their country." ... "But the accord also threatens to provoke a political crisis in the US. President Bush wants to push it through by the end of next month so he can declare a military victory and claim his 2003 invasion has been vindicated. But by perpetuating the US presence in Iraq, the long-term settlement would undercut pledges by the [2008 Election] Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama, to withdraw US troops if he is elected president in November." ... "The timing of the agreement would also boost the Republican [2008 Election Presidential] candidate, John McCain, who has claimed the United States is on the verge of victory in Iraq – a victory that he says Mr Obama would throw away by a premature military withdrawal." ... "America currently has 151,000 troops in Iraq and, even after projected withdrawals next month, troop levels will stand at more than 142,000 – 10 000 more than when the military "surge" began in January 2007. Under the terms of the new treaty, the Americans would retain the long-term use of more than 50 bases in Iraq. American negotiators are also demanding immunity from Iraqi law for US troops and contractors, and a free hand to carry out arrests and conduct military activities in Iraq without consulting the Baghdad government." ... "The precise nature of the American demands has been kept secret until now. The leaks are certain to generate an angry backlash in Iraq. "It is a terrible breach of our sovereignty," said one Iraqi politician, adding that if the security deal was signed it would delegitimise the government in Baghdad which will be seen as an American pawn." ... "The US has repeatedly denied it wants permanent bases in Iraq but one Iraqi source said: "This is just a tactical subterfuge." Washington also wants control of Iraqi airspace below 29,000ft and the right to pursue its "war on terror" in Iraq, giving it the authority to arrest anybody it wants and to launch military campaigns without consultation." ... "Mr Bush is determined to force the Iraqi government to sign the so-called "strategic alliance" without modifications, by the end of next month." -By Patrick Cockburn -Independent.co.uk "Lt. Gen Sanchez: [Republican President] Bush Administration Guilty of "Gross Incompetence and Dereliction of Duty"." ... "In [retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez's book] "Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story," [General] Gen. Sanchez goes into detail about various military blunders that led to where we are today." ... "In one excerpt, published by TIME, Sanchez explains why there were inadequate troop levels in Iraq for a time:" [From retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez's book, "Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story:]"In an excerpt published on NPR's website, Sanchez writes[:]" [From retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez's book, "Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story:]"And regarding Abu Ghraib, Sanchez writes -- according to Eli Lake of the New York Sun -- that the [United States] U.S. was torturing prisoners." ... "A remarkable admission." [From retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez's book, "Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story:]-By Jake Tapper -ABCNEWS.com "Both McCain, Obama exaggerating Iran's nuclear program." ... "The presumptive Republican nominee for president and the leading contender for the Democratic nomination are exaggerating what's known about Iran's nuclear program as they duel over how best to deal with Tehran." ... "[2008 Election Presidential Candidates and Senators] Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz. [Republican-Arizona], and Barack Obama, D-Ill. [Democratic-Illinois], say that Iran is developing nuclear weapons." ... "The U.S. intelligence community, however, thinks that Iran halted an effort to build a nuclear warhead in mid-2003, and the [United Nations] U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency, which is investigating the program, has found no evidence to date of an active Iranian nuclear-weapons project." ... "The candidates' comments raise questions about how carefully the two have studied the public record on what's become a major campaign issue and is one of the most difficult foreign-policy challenges likely to confront the next president." ... "The issue is also significant because the [Republican President] Bush administration inflated assessments of the Iraqi nuclear threat and the possibility that former dictator Saddam Hussein could pass nuclear weapons to terrorists as it sought to whip up public support for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq." ... "Iran has been expanding an industrial-scale uranium enrichment program in defiance of U.N. Security Council demands that it be suspended. Enrichment is the process that produces low-enriched uranium fuel for nuclear generating stations and highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons." ... "Iran, whose known enrichment facilities are under IAEA monitoring, says it's making low-enriched uranium reactor fuel and has no intention of developing weapons. Few experts, however, think that Iran has come clean about all its nuclear activities." -By Jonathan S. Landay -McClatchyDC.com |