US Invasion of Iraq-Updates

[Ocean Breeze]

U.S.-led troops in Iraq part of problem-UK's Straw
02 Aug 2005 00:42:06 GMT

Source: Reuters

LONDON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - The presence of British and U.S. troops in Iraq is fuelling the Sunni-led insurgency which has killed hundreds of people, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in comments published on Tuesday.

In an interview with Britain's Financial Times newspaper, Straw said it was crucial Iraq's draft constitution was ready by a mid-August deadline to pave the way for a troop withdrawal.

"The more certainty you have on that (the constitution), the more you can have a programme for the draw-down of troops which is important for the Iraqis," he said.

"Because -- unlike in Afghanistan -- although we are part of the security solution there, we are also part of the problem."

The Iraqi panel drawing up the constitution has come under intense U.S. pressure to submit a draft on time.

The Iraqi government and its U.S. backers see the constitution as a key part of any democratic process and hope it can help defuse the two-year-old insurgency and allow U.S. and British troops to withdraw sooner.

U.S. General George Casey said last month he expected troop cuts after a referendum on a new constitution due in October and an election for a new leader in December.

Casey made a similar prediction earlier this year, but U.S. officials have avoided suggesting a timetable since violence worsened sharply after the new government took power in April.

Britain, Washington's main ally in the 2003 war to topple former President Saddam Hussein, has about 8,500 troops in Iraq, based mainly in the south.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Bush Lied, Soldiers Keep Dying.
1,806 U.S. Military Fatalities in Iraq (thru today)
13,189 U.S. Military Maimed in Iraq (Last DoD Update: 09-Jul-05)
26,264 Iraqis Reported Killed (thru today)

 

[Ocean Breeze]

http://www.unknownnews.org/050802a-cp.html

George Bush is a "murderer"....... ( a mass murderer at that)

 

[moghrabi]

Bush Lied, Soldiers Keep Dying.
1,806 U.S. Military Fatalities in Iraq (thru today)
13,189 U.S. Military Maimed in Iraq (Last DoD Update: 09-Jul-05)
26,264 Iraqis Reported Killed (thru today)

I think you have to add another 100,000 civilians to the 26,264 Iraqis reported dead so far.

 

[moghrabi]

http://www.unknownnews.org/050802a-cp.html

George Bush is a "murderer"....... ( a mass murderer at that)

Thank you for this post. I was reading it on some website and was about to post it myself. You said it well. A mass murderer indeed.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Bush Lied, Soldiers Keep Dying.
1,806 U.S. Military Fatalities in Iraq (thru today)
13,189 U.S. Military Maimed in Iraq (Last DoD Update: 09-Jul-05)
26,264 Iraqis Reported Killed (thru today)

I think you have to add another 100,000 civilians to the 26,264 Iraqis reported dead so far.

indeed. that last stat is not accurate and only what they can compile given the fact that no one seems to care or does not do "body counts"..

 

[Ocean Breeze]

http://www.unknownnews.org/050802a-cp.html

George Bush is a "murderer"....... ( a mass murderer at that)

Thank you for this post. I was reading it on some website and was about to post it myself. You said it well. A mass murderer indeed.

When one discards all the "political" bull crap and cuts to the chase...that is the case. Pre-meditated , showing willful intent, means , motive and opportunity....

 

[moghrabi]

Bush vows to fight on in Iraq, rejects pullout date

In the wake of the deaths of 14 U.S. Marines in Iraq, President Bush said on Wednesday the best way to honor the dead is to complete the mission and he rejected any early U.S. withdrawal.

"We're at war. We're facing an enemy that is ruthless. If we put out a (pullout) timetable the enemy would adjust their tactics. ... The timetable depends on our ability to train the Iraqis, to get the Iraqis ready to fight and then our troops will come home with the honor they have earned," Bush said in a speech.

Bush was sticking to a familiar position despite the grim news that 21 Marines have been killed in three days in Iraq, including 14 on Wednesday in the deadliest roadside bomb attack since the Iraq war began.

Those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said, "have died in a noble cause and a selfless cause."

"Their families can know that American citizens pray for them, and the families can know that will honor their loved ones' sacrifice by completing the mission, by laying the foundation for peace for generations to come," Bush said in remarks to the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Bush insisted progress was being made in Iraq and that he has a "strategy for success in Iraq" by hunting down insurgents, training Iraqis to provide for their own security and helping Iraqi political leaders write a constitution and prepare for elections.

He said U.S. troops would be pulled out "as soon as possible, but not before the mission is complete."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050803/ts_nm/iraq_bush_dc

 

[moghrabi]

He said U.S. troops would be pulled out "as soon as possible, but not before the mission is complete."

But I thought he said that "Mission Accomplished" back in 2003. Is this another one of his lies?

 

[Ocean Breeze]

14 US soldiers killed in Iraq combat

Fourteen US Marines and a civilian interpreter have been killed by a
roadside bomb in Iraq. The incident occurred during combat
operations near the town of Haditha, some 200 kilometres northwest
of Baghdad. The latest troop casualties come a day after six Marines
were killed in the same area. In further violence in Iraq, unknown
assailants have shot dead the American journalist and author Steven
Vincent. His body was found in the city of Basra. Police said gunmen
abducted Vincent and his Iraqi translator on Tuesday.

Seems he (bush) created the enemy that he is now determined to "fight" Thus he can continue to operate under the "war" shroud of rules......and take liberties as he wishes.

"mission accomplished".........was actually quite accurate, (in a perverse way). He accomplished : starting a protracted war and that in his mind defines him as "war" prez.....and ergo can operate by the new rules he sets in place. Devious. :twisted: but not civilized.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Before the War, CIA Reportedly Trained a Team of Iraqis to Aid U.S.
Dana Priest and Josh White, Washington Post Staff Writers



Wednesday, August 3, 2005 - Before the war in Iraq began, the CIA recruited and trained an Iraqi paramilitary group, code-named the Scorpions, to foment rebellion, conduct sabotage, and help CIA paramilitaries who entered Baghdad and other cities target buildings and individuals, according to three current and former intelligence officials with knowledge of the unit.

The CIA spent millions of dollars on the Scorpions, whose existence has not been previously disclosed, even giving them former Soviet Hind helicopters. But most of the unit's prewar missions -- spray-painting graffiti on walls; cutting electricity; "sowing confusion," as one said -- were delayed or canceled because of poor training or planning, said officials briefed on the unit. The speed of the invasion negated the need for most of their missions, others said.

After Baghdad fell, the CIA used the Scorpions to try to infiltrate the insurgency, to help out in interrogations, and, from time to time, to do "the dirty work," as one intelligence official put it.

In one case, members of the unit, wearing masks and carrying clubs and pipes, beat up an Iraqi general in the presence of CIA and military personnel, according to investigative documents reviewed by The Washington Post and according to several defense and intelligence officials.

Post inquiries about the case prompted the CIA to brief the House and Senate intelligence committees on the unit, said several members of Congress and two defense officials.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), chairman of the House intelligence committee, asked if he was satisfied with the information he received on the unit, said, "Yes -- if it existed." But he added: "We're not spending a lot of time going back and dissecting tactical programs."

CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Millerwise declined to comment on the unit. Defense Department spokesmen referred comments on the unit to the CIA. All former and current government officials interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the classified nature of the Scorpions.

Authorized by a presidential finding signed by President Bush in February or March 2002, the Scorpions were part of a policy of "regime change" in Iraq. The covert members, many of whom were exiles recruited by the Kurds, were trained in target identification, explosives and small arms at two secret bases in Jordan, according to one U.S. government official.

They were sent surreptitiously into Iraq before the war and were in cities such as Baghdad, Fallujah and Qaim to give the impression that a rebellion was underway and to conduct light sabotage, according to the two defense sources and the three former and current intelligence officials.

"They painted X's [for targeting] on buildings and things like that," said one former intelligence officer.

After the initial combat phase of the war, the CIA used the paramilitary units as translators and to fetch supplies and retrieve informants in an increasingly dangerous Iraq where CIA officers largely stayed within the protected Green Zone, according to the officials.

CIA control over the unit became weaker as chaos grew in Iraq. "Even though they were set up by us, they weren't well supervised," said an intelligence official.

"At some point, and it's not really clear how this happened, they started being used in interrogations . . . because they spoke the local dialect" and were caught roughing up detainees, Curtis E. Ryan, an Army investigator, told a military court in Colorado where four soldiers are charged in connection with the death of Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush in 2003.

Many of the paramilitaries did not speak English. When they entered Iraq after the invasion, because they wore civilian clothes and traveled in civilian vehicles, the Scorpion teams were often mistaken for insurgents. On a couple of occasions, U.S. soldiers unknowingly tracked the teams as insurgents and focused on their official safe houses as possible targets until they were discovered to be working with U.S. officials.

? 2005 The Washington Post Company

interesting, and would not be surprising... :evil:

 

[peapod]

What the hell!!!! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: Cut out the personal insults everyone, yur gonna get banished for a day or two if you keep it up! Now see right there :twisted: :twisted: yur making me sound just like my mother. Stop it!

I have deleted the posts, they will go in the moderator's forum...yada yada yada :roll: :roll: :roll:

Mom, yur gonna have to bring it down a notch..we cannot have different rules for the good guys and different rules for the ....ehm...others. I could never ban you for a day mom...but vannni could...so please breathe deep mom...breathe from the gonands.

Instead of bringing up something mom said way back bulldog..next time xrepport it and than it will be dealt with right away. I refuse to read all this rubbish...I am here for a good time...Xrepport .

 

[Ocean Breeze]

he Terrible Price of Occupation

After 20 US Marines were killed in Iraq in less than 48 hours and a journalist was brutally shot dead in Basra, US authorities fear a long summer of bloodshed. Meanwhile, he Bush Administration appears to want to phase out talk of a "war on terror." Plus: Does the EU really want to ban barmaids showing a little cleavage?



AP
US troop convoys have come under sustained attacks in recent days.
Fourteen US Marines were killed on Wednesday when their amphibious vehicle came under an insurgent bomb attack in Haditha, western Iraq. The attack was one of the most lethal in recent months and brought the total number of American troops killed in Haditha to 20 in just two days.

When the bomb exploded by a roadside, the force of the explosion caused the 25-ton military transporter to flip over. The 14 Marines died instantly, leaving just one survivor, who suffered serious injuries.

Six marines were killed in the same border town on August 1 when a group of US snipers was ambushed by guerrilla fighters. In a terrible irony, the snipers had been deployed to hunt down insurgents thought to be planting roadside bombs of the type which exploded yesterday.

A claim of responsibility for the attack was posted on a website by guerrilla group Ansar al Sunna, who initially claimed they had captured one soldier alive. A military spokesman denied any American soldiers had been held by insurgents and rejected claims made by the same group that some of those killed had been beheaded. "We just don't know what happened," said dismayed Brigadier General Carter Ham.

It has been a particularly difficult week for the US operation in Iraq after a freelance reporter was also killed, this time in Basra, southern Iraq. Steven Vincent was abducted with his female Iraqi translator on August 2, and his bullet-ridden body was discovered on a main road out of the city some hours later.

Shockingly, Vincent's murder may not have been a random attack, but rather a calculated response to an article he wrote for the New York Times. The journalist had controversially revealed that Basra's Iraqi police force may have become infiltrated by Shia militants and that local politics is increasingly directed by extremist Shia religious groups, including followers of the rebel cleric Moqtada al Sadr. In his article, Vincent quoted one local source who told him: "No one trusts the police. If our new ayatollahs snap their fingers, thousands of police will jump." It is possible that such comments attracted the wrong kind of attention and may have led to his brutal murder.


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The US now fears that the recent spate of killings may indicate a renewed escalation of violence in Iraq, directed against coalition targets. A report in today's New York Times, quoting US officers, suggests that insurgents are using ever more powerful bombs against US troops. Wednesday's bomb was powerful enough to flip a large military vehicle, and on July 23 a huge 500-pound bomb exploded beneath a US Humvee on the road to Baghdad airport, killing four soldiers. The bomb was of a type normally dropped by an aircraft, and may be of Russian origin.

One officer said, "Our assessment is that they [the insurgents] are probably going off to school," implying that the militants were learning new tactics to maximize the force of each detonation, possibly learning lessons from Hezbollah's attacks on military targets in Israel. Worryingly, US military commanders fear insurgents are learning how to create "shaped" charges, which concentrate the force of an explosion, increasing its devastating power -- highly effective against armoured vehicles thought previously to offer protection against bomb attacks of this kind.

The US does not appear confident that an end to these gruesome attacks is in sight. "It's not realistic to think we will stop this," Sgt. Daniel McDonnell, an explosives expert told the same newspaper. "We're fighting an enemy that goes home at night and doesn't wear uniforms. But we can get it to an acceptable level." For the families of more than 1800 US soldiers now killed in Iraq, and the many who will be killed in the coming months in Iraq, it is hard to imagine just what an "acceptable level" might be. (1:29 p.m. CET)

It's the "War," Stupid!

US President George W. Bush went on the offensive yesterday about what the US should call the global conflict with Islamic extremism. President Bush told an audience in Grapevine, Texas in no uncertain terms: "Make no mistake about it, we are at war."

The White House has, until late, been more renowned for its President's clumsy grasp of English vocabulary than for its intelligent understanding of semantics. But recent weeks have seen a battle of wills and words, after members of the administration led by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appeared to be consciously changing the tone of the battle against global terrorism.

In recent speeches and press briefings, Rumsfeld and colleagues in the Department of Defense have shied away from the post-9/11 Bush mantra of the "war on terror". Instead they have begun to deliberately employ an alternative nomenclature of a "struggle against global extremism", with an all-too-evident shift away from the term "war."

Stephen J. Hadley, the President's national security adviser, said in an interview last week that the US was involved in "more than just a military war on terror." The US, he said, needed to "offer a positive alternative," to counter "the gloomy vision" of the terrorists. General Richard B. Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the National Press Club on July 18 that he "objected to the use of the term 'war on terrorism' before, because if you call it a war, then you think of people in uniform being the solution."

A debate within the administration appears to have been kickstarted by comments such as this, with officials pointing out that the semantics of a "war on terror" might lead people to forget the important work to be done in countering Islamic extremism, increasing domestic security and building ties with the Muslim community, all of which will be carried out by non-uniformed citizens, and which will have no definite end-point, as a "war" seems to imply.

It is unclear to what extent the President lead or was involved in this debate, but after press speculation began to increase that talk or "the war on terror" was being carefully dropped, the President came out all guns blazing in defence of the old format.

During his speech on August 3, Bush used the phrase "war on terror" on five separate occasions, and he dropped in the word "war" a total of 13 times. Now, Bush is either not being briefed very well about the new description of the conflict with Islamic extremism, or there is a rift opening up between the White House and the Department of Defense.

It is Rumsfeld though who may be forced to toe the line in the end. After all, having defended his Defense Secretary to the hilt over Abu Graib and Guantanomo, Bush is one man he'd best not upset if he wants to keep his job. Besides which, as the President would no doubt agree, "war on terror" is a darned sight easier to say...(12:02 p.m. CET)

all one can conclude is that bush inc. WANTED IRAQ (and more control in the ME) real bad , the "price" be damned. :twisted:

 

[Ocean Breeze]

http://author.voanews.com/english/2005-08-05-voa16.cfm

"operation Quick Strike".

 

[Ocean Breeze]

http://harpers.org/

"where mommy and daddy went"

 

[Ocean Breeze]

They Must Have Fixed The Water...


I don't want to get anyone too excited, but it looks like the Iraqi negotiators in Baghdad hashing out a constitution just took a very large step away from the neocon nightmare and towards the reality-based community. There's not all that much I can add, sitting thousands of miles away from the dealmaking, but the analysis of one expert, the New School's Andrew Arato, makes me think that the constitional committee just turned a very major corner.

First off, it looks like the Kurds have finally given up their dream of federalism, trading it for a parliamentary system that takes electoral weight from both the Kurds and the Shi'a in order to give the Sunni a stake in future Iraq. It's a major, major breakthrough. Here's a clip:

The new rules being voted on have a very different spirit. As to the electoral rule it seems that the National Assembly, over the opposition of Allawi’s party, has already approved a PR system based on provincial districts. Such a less proportional system, bad for small parties and parties scattered all over the country would no longer be turnout dependent. Even if the insurrection and intimidation continues, the Sunni provinces would get their share of seats that would be determined in advance. Most likely they would gain most at the expense of very small parties, but the big ones, the Shi’a list and the Kurdish list would take mild losses too. Note however that in the case of the Kurds even mild losses would put them under any reasonable figure that could be used to veto a constitutional amendment. Today they have 30% of the seats and that [new] figure is ¼ or 25%.

Second, the references to the role of Islam in government have shifted in two subtle but important ways. This from the New York Times yesterday morning:

The committee is still grappling with the extent of Islam's role in the state, though the members have concurred that the religion should be "a main source of legislation," said Ahmed Asafi, a delegate and Shiite cleric from the southern city of Basra.

That language was a revision of the wording in an earlier draft, in which Islam was described as "the major source" of legislation. The new wording appeared to be a compromise between some Shiite leaders, who want to designate Islamic law as the model for governing, and some Kurds and other secular Iraqi leaders who are concerned that Islam not be used to strip women and others of basic constitutional rights.

The committee has also agreed that while Islam should be the official religion and the government should protect Iraq's holy shrines and religious heritage, the constitution should not grant political authority to the country's religious leaders, the delegates said.

What does this mean? Well, it means that the Bush administration has finally let go of a significant part of its neoconservative fantasies in regards to re-making Iraq and, significantly, let go of the preferential treatment of Allawi and Chalabi's exile parties, who will lose significant influence in this deal.

Interestingly, the new constitutional structures and the moderated role of Islam seem to be a victory for Ayatollah Sistani, who, Larry Diamond notes constantly in his book, Squandered Victory:

However, Sistani strongly opposed Khomeini's philosophy of vilayat al-faqih (rule by religious jurist) and was considered, instead, a "quietist," who believed that the most that Islamic religious authorities could do politically was to offer general advice and guidance. That was a lot more than many Americans would feel comfortable with, but it was a lot less than establishing himself as a Khomeini-style supreme leader.

Let's hope this progress holds and is strengthened over the next 10 days until the committee concludes its work.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

http://author.voanews.com/english/2005-08-07-voa12.cfm

suicide bomber kills five and injures many.

:?: Qu: We know that the USG has not time or interest in the death toll of Iraqis. (we don't do body counts........unless it is the US troops). Does anyone keep track of the Iraqi injured and maimed in Iraq?? They too are "casualties" of this invasion of choice.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20050806150235878

some pics to bring the realities of this "war" home . Maybe if more of this would be shown via the "media" , the population would develope an aversion to war itself and try it's hardest to find peaceful solutions to issues.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

A letter from Baghdad:

*************

This is Iraq under the bloodthirsty US occupation

Just an example of some of the success stories of the US gangster’s democracy and freedom in Iraq!

A normal day in US liberated Baghdad!

"Yesterday a neighbor of ours died. His children took him to the Yarmuk Hospital. There, they were stopped from entering the hospital by (the US backed pro Iranian traitor militias and US appointed Police.) Why? Because one of their elements has been transferred to the Hospital. My neighbors begged them to get in and ask a death certificate for their father to enable them to bury him the quickest possible fearing that his body might rot due to the extremely high temperature. But the (appointed US stooges) from Badr militia gangs and the Kurd Peshmargas, the US allies, went on occupying and blocking all the hospital entries. We found out that the dead stooge was of a very high value puppet. My poor neighbors, and I with them, struck with anger and sadness, now were heading to the (Legal Medicine) offices which are became 25kilometers away because of the roads blocks of many wide areas in Baghdad. There we said we might get possibly what we are looking for.

And there, things started to get even worse. We found tens of Iraqis in the heat of the scorching sun waiting to get their beloved dead bodies (!!) The late man’s children even forgot their ordeal and went on to console a family of a child assassinated by the US thugs guns. A young widower who lost his eight months pregnant wife, when she died and the fetus in her womb after being kicked by some of the US occupation soldier gangsters in the town of (Rawa). The young man was crying his pain and the pain of his parents and family abandoned there. His pregnant wife was not the only one who was killed there by the US. There were six other women who died in the last two days because they were chased from their homes and because they were forced to run terrified as they were under the US war jet bombs, their children in their arms. In the meanwhile US war jets continued for the last three days destroying Rawa's town homes on the heads of its tranquil inhabitants.

The most heart breaking was the sight of another widowed father who was screaming his anger against the occupation stooges and against the US murderers for the death of his wife who died from sadness on her three sons arrested the night before in the town of (Mussayyab). The eldest son aged 17 and the youngest 14 for no reasons or no purpose except that their age might enable them. Just imagine, enable them, can anybody believe this, to undertake actions which might serve the resistance...The bereaved father doesn't know about his wife, and the whereabouts of his children. Where the Criminal US and their stooges are detaining them, what is their fate!

Many stories, sad stories, which make you weep until there is no tear left in your eyes, and make these tears, this sadness, and this pain change into an inner revolution which turns into a stubborn resistant action and the desire to take revenge from these US assassins who caused so much destruction, so much sadness and so much pain and from the criminals (the US backed and trained Kurdish Peshmergas and the US backed pro Iranian militias of Badr) whom the US use to frighten and to murder the tranquil believers in God..

God is our rescue

Almighty God, help us! Almighty God, help us!

* Baghdad

Friday July 29 2005"

************

........and sadly "good-bye" to the America that was .

 

[Ocean Breeze]

http://www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp?id=1433

Iraqi snipers hitting at US troops..( aka the invaders)