2007.09.14 ORB: More than 1,000,000 Iraqis murdered [cached] In the week in which General Patraeus reports back to US Congress on the impact the recent surge is having in Iraq, a new poll reveals that more than 1,000,000 Iraqi citizens have been murdered since the invasion took place in 2003.
2007.04.11 Divide and rule - America's plan for Baghdad [cached] (Robert Fisk) a new counter-insurgency strategy to carve up the city into sealed areas. The tactic failed in Vietnam. So what chance does it have in Iraq?
2007.03.31 Call that humiliation? [cached] (Terry Jones) No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings. These Iranians clearly are a very uncivilised bunch
2007.01.24 'There is no war on terror' [cached] "London is not a battlefield. Those innocents who were murdered on July 7 2005 were not victims of war. And the men who killed them were not, as in their vanity they claimed on their ludicrous videos, 'soldiers'. They were deluded, narcissistic inadequates. They were criminals. They were fantasists. We need to be very clear about this. On the streets of London, there is no such thing as a 'war on terror', just as there can be no such thing as a 'war on drugs'."
2006.11.19 Operation Comeback [cached] (Joshua Muravchik) Neoconservatives have the president's ear, but they also have lots of baggage. To stay relevant, they must admit mistakes, embrace public diplomacy, and start making the case for bombing Iran.
2006.11.13 In New Middle East, Tests for an Old Friendship [cached] (Steven Erlanger) Excelent example of how an apparently fair article completely whitewashes Israeli policies - there is no occupation, no Palestinian deaths, but terror terrorism and terrorists abound.
2006.11.03 Neo Culpa [cached] (David Rose) As Iraq slips further into chaos, the war's neoconservative boosters have turned sharply on the Bush administration, charging that their grand designs have been undermined by White House incompetence. In a series of exclusive interviews, Richard Perle, Kenneth Adelman, David Frum, and others play the blame game with shocking frankness. Target No. 1: the president himself.
2006.09.21 Iraq torture 'worse after Saddam' [cached] Torture may be worse now in Iraq than under former leader Saddam Hussein, the UN's chief anti-torture expert says.
2006.08.27 Nasrallah sorry for scale of war [cached] Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has said he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to such a war.
2006.08.27 Illusion and Reality [cached] (Flynt Leverett) The violence in the Middle East shows the negative consequences of the administration's contempt for engagement. But the tough talk has failed.
2006.08.16 Hezbollah Balks At Withdrawal From the South [cached] Thousands of Lebanese families again filled the roads leading south, heeding a call from Hezbollah that they return immediately to their often-shattered villages. Leaflets dropped by Israeli aircraft warned them to stay away, but cars loaded with children and household belongings streamed down the coastal road.
2006.08.15 Israel warns foes despite truce [cached] However he [Olmert] added that the group's leaders would "not be left alone". "We will continue pursuing them anywhere, all the time and we do not intend to apologise or ask anyone's permission," he added.
2006.08.14 IDF general: Troops lacking food can steal from Lebanese stores [cached] "If our fighters deep in Lebanese territory are left without food our water, I believe they can break into local Lebanese stores to solve that problem," Brigadier General Avi Mizrahi, the head of the Israel Defense Forces logistics branch, said Monday.
2006.08.12 U.S. assures Israel it will not be forced to withdraw from Shaba [cached] Rice said the broadened IDF offensive in Lebanon, which was ordered Friday a few hours before the cease-fire resolution was adopted at the UN, had been anticipated and was normal. "I understand that this is going on," she said. "My understanding is that this is part of the normal operations that were contemplated. When the cease-fire - the cessation of hostilities - comes into being, Israel will stop." A senior government source said that Israel would not be obligated to withdraw from Shaba Farms, even if Annan's investigation determines that they belong to Lebanon.
2006.08.12 Text: UN Lebanon resolution [cached] Resolution 1701, passed unanimously by the UN Security Council aimed at ending the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
2006.08.12 Put an end to the aggression [cached] (Fouad Siniora) Britain and Europe must take a lead in halting Israel's wanton destruction of my country
2006.08.12 Is anyone awake to the wake-up call in London? [cached] (Rami G. Khouri) The issue is not whether Israel has a right to defend itself - of course it does, as does every sovereign state and group of human beings anywhere - but rather that Israel tries to defend itself by ignoring its own role in provoking the battle, and by treating Arabs like sub-species of animals who can be beaten, killed, displaced and humiliated year after year.
2006.08.09 Special Report: Israel's Ongoing Attack on the Gaza Strip [cached] (Palestinian Monitoring Group) Since 27 June 2006, Israel has waged a massive military offensive against the Gaza Strip, causing high numbers of civilian casualties and widespread destruction of public and private property.1 From 08:00 27 June -- 08:00 08 August, Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip resulted in the deaths of 170 Palestinians, including 138 civilians (some 25 per cent of whom were children), 14 security officers, and 15 armed Palestinians. An additional 506 Palestinians were injured. During this period, the Israeli military carried out 768 attacks on the Gaza Strip, including 190 air attacks by Israeli F16s, UAVs and helicopters. The Israeli military fired over 3,500 artillery and other shells into the Gaza Strip and Israeli military aircraft, including F16s, carried out 380 air patrols.
2006.08.09 End This Tragedy Now [cached] (Fouad Siniora) Israel Must Be Made to Respect International Law
2006.08.08 Toll of a war that shames the world [cached] It is 28 days since Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers, prompting a ground and air assault on Lebanon by the Israeli army. In that time, 932 people have been killed in Lebanon, with 75 missing, presumed dead.
2006.08.08 Then and now: Requiem for Baghdad [cached] (Patrick Cockburn) Baghdad was never the prettiest of places. But in the 1970s it sure had life. People flocked to its cafes and markets. The wide boulevards teemed with traffic. Books and paintings proclaimed the wealth of Iraq's cultural heritage. Patrick Cockburn, who witnessed it all, remembers the city that seduced him - and wonders if the great metropolis on the banks of the Tigris can ever rise again
2006.08.07 UN general warns against 'Iraq situation' [cached] Any attempt to deploy international troops to disarm Hizbullah by force would turn Lebanon into another Iraq, according to the head of Unifil, the UN's monitoring mission in Lebanon.
2006.08.07 Troops 'took turns' to rape Iraqi [cached] A US military hearing has examined testimony of how three soldiers took it in turns to try to rape an Iraqi girl aged 14 in Mahmudiya in March.
2006.08.07 Leaders of U.S. and Lebanon in Rift on Truce Deal [cached] The Israeli Army issued a statement describing Houla as a "Hezbollah stronghold," and saying that civilians had been warned away repeatedly. "Responsibility for any harm to Lebanese civilians lies with the Hezbollah terrorist organization which operates from within the civilian population," it said.
2006.08.06 Where the shepherds tend guns by night [cached] (Peter Beaumont) In this border village, many civilians flee the Israeli bombardment. But others, compelled by a mix of religion and patriotism, have joined the fight
2006.08.06 Lebanon rejects draft U.N. resolution [cached] Lebanon rejects a draft U.N. Security Council resolution to end 26 days of fighting because it would allow Israeli forces to remain on Lebanese soil, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said on Sunday. Slamming the French-U.S. draft as biased, Berri said it ignored a seven-point plan presented by Lebanon that calls for an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the return of all displaced civilians among other things. "Lebanon, and all of Lebanon, rejects any resolution that is outside these seven points," said Berri, who has been negotiating on behalf of Hizbollah guerrillas.
2006.08.05 Full text: Draft UN Lebanon resolution [cached] The full text of a UN Security Council draft resolution aimed at ending the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
2006.08.04 Why doesn't Israel work for peace? [cached] (Silvia Tennenbaum) Holocaust victims would decry the slaughter of innocent children during attacks on Hezbollah
2006.08.04 Nice one, George [cached] (Terry Jones) Those of us who support Armageddon have naturally been greatly cheered by way the US president has embraced our cause.
2006.08.04 IDF drops leaflets over Beirut warning of upcoming strike [cached] "If you bomb our capital Beirut, we will bomb the capital of your usurping entity... We will bomb Tel Aviv," Nasrallah said. "Anytime you decide to stop your campaign against our cities, villages, civilians and infrastructure, we will not fire rockets on any Israeli settlement or city,"
2006.08.04 Hezbollah Leader Says Attacks Are Justified [cached] Note the propaganda aspect of half sentence and lies (compare to next article) "The Islamic resistance will hit Tel Aviv, and it is capable of doing that with God's help," Sheik Nasrallah said Sheik Nasrallah, referring to Israel as the "Zionist enemy" and to cities and towns as settlements
2006.08.03 Jordanian king 'enraged by war' [cached] King Abdullah of Jordan has publicly criticised the United States and Israel over the fighting in Lebanon.
2006.08.03 An Appeal for Leadership [cached] (Abdullah Gul) foreign minister and deputy prime minister of Turkey Why Hasn't the World's Lone Superpower Stopped This Tragedy?
2006.07.31 White flags, not a legitimate target [cached] (Peter Bouckaert) Human Rights Watch: Israel must take responsibility for the dreadful human toll in Lebanon, says Peter Bouckaert in Beirut
2006.07.31 Unhitch us from the Bush chariot [cached] (Stephen Wall) Sir Stephen Wall, a former top foreign policy adviser to Tony Blair, calls on the Prime Minister to take a stand, and points out the damage his silence is doing to Britain's reputation
2006.07.31 Israel Halts Bombing After Deadly Strike [cached] (Steven Erlanger, Hassan M. Fattah) Brig. Gen. Amir Eshel said it was at least possible that the explosion was caused by munitions stored inside the building. "It is possible that various things were stored inside the house, things that ultimately caused an explosion," General Eshel said. "Perhaps things we were unable to blow up in the strike, that could have been left behind. I say this very carefully, but at the current time I haven't got the slightest clue what could explain this time difference."
2006.07.31 How can the children of the holocaust mete out the same racist rage? [cached] civilians, mostly children - it also tore open the wounds of the recent past. The atrocity immediately conjured images of another massacre committed in the same village a little over 10 years ago, on April 18, 1996, when during "Operation Grapes of Wrath" the Israelis slaughtered 106 civilians who had taken refuge at a United Nations compound. Although that massacre, which is commemorated in Lebanon every year, went unpunished, the Lebanese have long vowed that they will never forget it. Now that fresh images of the broken bodies of the women and children of Qana are being shown on our television screens, the idea of forgetting has become all the more unthinkable. These images have stirred the anger and outrage of even the most moderate Lebanese, proving that Israeli brutality - not Hizbullah - has become Israel's own worst enemy. Israel's unabashed butchery in Qana has only demonstrated to many of those who were on the fence that there is indeed a legitimate need for resistance.
2006.07.31 Empire: war and propaganda [cached] (John Pilger) The US role in supporting Israel's military assault on Lebanon falls into a pattern of imperial tyranny, where history is rewritten to suit America's needs while Europe stands cravenly by. John Pilger provides a personal assessment from Washington
2006.07.30 Under fire in Beirut [cached] (Robert Fisk) In his second weekly dispatch from the front line, our veteran war reporter confesses he was so scared after one attack that he could not put pen to paper
2006.07.30 Rice Abandons Middle East Negotiations [cached] "There is no place on this sad morning for any discussion other than an immediate and unconditional ceasefire as well as an international investigation into the Israeli massacres in Lebanon now," Siniora told a news conference in Beirut. She also said this kind of warfare is "extremely difficult" and that it "unfortunately has awful consequences sometimes." Rice denied that U.S. resistance to a ceasefire now was in any way responsible for the ongoing violence and death.
2006.07.30 Dozens killed in Lebanon air raid [cached] More than 54 civilians, at least 34 of them children, have been killed in a town in south Lebanon in the deadliest Israeli strike of the conflict so far. Qana was the site of an Israeli bombing of a UN base in 1996 that killed more than 100 people sheltering there during Israel's "Grapes of Wrath" offensive, which was also aimed at destroying Hezbollah.
2006.07.30 Cabinet in open revolt over Blair's Israel policy [cached] Jack Straw said he agreed with the Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells that it was 'very difficult to understand the kind of military tactics used by Israel', adding: 'These are not surgical strikes but have instead caused death and misery amongst innocent civilians.' Straw said he was worried that 'a continuation of such tactics by Israel could destabilise the already fragile Lebanese nation'.
2006.07.30 Analysis: A second Qana Massacre? [cached] The southern Lebanese town of Qana is known for two events in history, and there could soon be a third as news comes in of rising civilian casualties from an Israeli air strike there.
2006.07.29 Saying no to being a 'disposable animal' [cached] (Rami G. Khouri) he striking results showed 87 percent of all Lebanese supported Hizbullah's military response to the Israeli attacks (including, notably, 89 percent of Sunnis and 80 percent of Christians). Most Arabs ignore their regimes and applaud or support those who actively resist Anglo-American-Israeli aggression. The face of Arab public opinion will continue to change in these directions, until legitimate grievances are redressed and people throughout the Arab world feel they are treated like dignified human beings rather than disposable animals.
2006.07.29 Returning to Old Approach, U.S. Faces Risky Path Ahead [cached] But now, analysts said, the administration is effectively back endorsing all-out force again, in defiance of allies, as part of its policy of trying to rid the Middle East of militants and radicals, or the "drain the swamp" policy.
2006.07.28 You're all targets, Israel tells Lebanese in South [cached] (Haim Ramon, Israel's justice minister) "Everyone in southern Lebanon is a terrorist and is connected to Hizbollah. Our great advantage vis-a-vis Hizbollah is our firepower, not in face-to-face combat."
2006.07.28 Washington risks a wider conflict [cached] (Jim Muir) In the second of a two-part series on how this conflict compares with previous ones, he examines Washington's changing role.
2006.07.28 President Saniora address to the Rome conference [cached] Lebanese government ceasefire proposal 1) An undertaking to release the Lebanese and Israeli prisoners and detainees through the ICRC. 2) The withdrawal of the Israeli army behind the Blue Line, and the return of the displaced to their villages. 3) A commitment from the Security Council to place the Shebaa Farms area and the Kfarshouba Hills under UN jurisdiction until border delineation and Lebanese sovereignty over them are fully settled. While in UN custody, the area will be accessible to Lebanese property owners there. Further, Israel surrenders all remaining landmine maps in South Lebanon to the UN. 4) The Lebanese government extends its authority over its territory through its own legitimate armed forces, such that there will be no weapons or authority other than that of the Lebanese state as stipulated in the Taef national reconciliation document. 5) The UN international force, operating in South Lebanon, is supplemented and enhanced in numbers, equipment, mandate and scope of operation, as needed, in order to undertake urgent humanitarian and relief work and guarantee stability and security in the south so that those who fled their homes can return. 6) The UN, in cooperation with the relevant parties, undertakes the necessary measures to once again put into effect the Armistice Agreement signed by Lebanon and Israel in 1949, and to insure adherence to the provisions of that agreement, as well as to explore possible amendments to or development of said provisions, as necessary. 7) The international community commits to support Lebanon on all levels, and to assist it in facing the tremendous burden resulting from the human, social and economic tragedy which has afflicted the country, especially in the areas of relief, reconstruction and rebuilding of the national economy.
2006.07.28 Only Hizbullah can defend against an Israeli invasion [cached] (Jonathan Steele) Jacques Chirac has rightly said a Nato force is out of the question since the alliance is seen as "the armed wing of the west". Even without this association, any force would risk being seen as Israel's instrument. Israel's plan seems to be either to use foreigners to do its work or, if that fails, to turn south Lebanon into a giant Rafah - the city in Gaza where it demolished hundreds of homes and created a free-fire zone in which anything that moved was shot.
2006.07.28 History repeats with a vengeance [cached] (Jim Muir) In the first of a two-part series, he looks at how this round of violence compares with - and was born of - previous conflicts.
2006.07.27 US rejects weapon flight concerns [cached] The White House has dismissed UK concerns about the use of Prestwick Airport, in Scotland, by US planes carrying bombs to Israel.
2006.07.27 Israel says world backs offensive [cached] "We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world... to continue the operation," Justice Minister Haim Ramon said. He said that in order to prevent casualties among Israeli soldiers battling Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, villages should be flattened by the Israeli air force before ground troops move in. "All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah," Mr Ramon said.
2006.07.27 Ex-aide slams Britain over Lebanon [cached] Sir Stephen Wall, who until last year was the Prime Minister's European adviser, warned that Mr Blair's reluctance to call for a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel was unjustifiable. But the overriding reason for Britain's loss of moral authority is Blair's conviction that he has to hitch the UK to the chariot of the US President. Could the Prime Minister really not speak up for the simple proposition that the slaughter of innocent people in Lebanon, the destruction of their country and the ruin of half a million lives were wrong and should stop immediately? 'What kind of ceasefire?' Blair asks. One that stopped the horror, even for 24 hours, would be a start.
2006.07.26 Making Enemies [cached] (Michael Hirsh) Hamas and Hizbullah should not be confused with Al Qaeda. Bush's insistence on doing so shows his failure to understand his foes.
2006.07.26 Israel troops 'ignored' UN plea [cached] UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon contacted Israeli troops 10 times before an Israeli bomb killed four of them, an initial UN report says.
2006.07.26 In Lebanon's Crisis, a Chance for U.S. to Broaden the Stakes [cached] "There are also other measures that also might be taken that could deal with those countries who don't have the same sense of responsibility about the future of Lebanon," Welch said. No doubt he means actions will be taken against Israel. April fools.
2006.07.26 "Children of a lesser God" [cached] Siniora asked "what future other than one of fear, frustration, financial ruin and fanaticism can stem from the rubble?" "Is the value of human life less than in Lebanon than that of citizens elsewhere? Are we children of a lesser God? Is an Israeli teardrop worth more than a drop of Lebanese blood?" "Can the international community continue to stand by while such callous retribution by the state of Israel is inflicted upon us?" "Is this what is called legitimate self-defence?"
2006.07.25 Morality is not on our side [cached] There's practically a holy consensus right now that the war in the North is a just war and that morality is on our side. The bitter truth must be said: this holy consensus is based on short-range selective memory, an introverted worldview, and double standards.
2006.07.22 U.S. Speeds Up Bomb Delivery for the Israelis [cached] The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said Friday.
2006.06.18 From the Embassy, a Grim Report [cached] (Zalmay Khalilzad) From the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, a stark compendium of its local employees' daily hardships and pressing fears
2006.06.15 Iraq Amnesty Plan May Cover Attacks On U.S. Military [cached] (Ellen Knickmeyer and Jonathan Finer) Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Wednesday proposed a limited amnesty to help end the Sunni Arab insurgency as part of a national reconciliation plan that Maliki said would be released within days. The plan is likely to include pardons for those who had attacked only U.S. troops, a top adviser said. Asked about clemency for those who attacked U.S. troops, he said: "That's an area where we can see a green line. There's some sort of preliminary understanding between us and the MNF-I," the U.S.-led Multi-National Force-Iraq, "that there is a patriotic feeling among the Iraqi youth and the belief that those attacks are legitimate acts of resistance and defending their homeland. These people will be pardoned definitely, I believe."
2006.06.14 Top Sunni asked Bush for pullout timeline [cached] Iraq's vice president has asked President Bush for a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq, the Iraqi president's office said. "I supported him in this," President Jalal Talabani said in a statement released Wednesday.
2006.06.14 Lost in translation [cached] (Jonathan Steele) Experts confirm that Iran's president did not call for Israel to be 'wiped off the map'. Reports that he did serve to strengthen western hawks.
2006.06.12 Probing a Bloodbath [cached] (Evan Thomas, Scott Johnson) The Marines were well prepared for war, but not for insurgency. Did some of them snap - and slaughter innocent civilians in cold blood?
2006.06.11 Suicides 'acts of war' [cached] (Rear Admiral Harry Harris, commander Guantanamo) Commenting on the suicide of 3 prisoners in Guantanamo, held with no charges for some 4 years "They have no regard for life, either ours or their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us."
2006.06.05 Army Manual to Skip Geneva Detainee Rule [cached] (Julian E. Barnes) The Pentagon's move to omit a ban on prisoner humiliation from the basic guide to soldier conduct faces strong State Dept. opposition.
2006.06.04 US confronts brutal culture among its finest sons [cached] (Paul Harris, Peter Beaumont, Mohammed al-Ubeidy) In the wake of the Haditha massacre come further allegations of outlaw killings in Iraq. They add to growing unease about US military culture that fails to distinguish civilian from insurgent
2006.05.29 Bloody Scenes Haunt a Marine [cached] (Rone Tempest) Member of a unit under investigation recalls a day in Iraq that claimed a buddy and civilians
2006.03.13 The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy [cached] (John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt) In this paper, John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago's Department of Political Science and Stephen M.Walt of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government contend that the centerpiece of U.S. Middle East policy is its intimate relationship with Israel. The authors argue that although often justified as reflecting shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives, the U.S. commitment to Israel is due primarily to the activities of the "Israel Lobby." This paper goes on to describe the various activities that pro-Israel groups have undertaken in order to shift U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction.
2006.02.26 'We Do Not Wish to Throw Them Into the Sea' [cached] Since Hamas won control of parliament in the recent Palestinian elections, policymakers in Washington and Jerusalem have been faced with a dilemma: how to deal with a democratically elected government that is also on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations. Last week, Newsweek-Washington Post's Lally Weymouth interviewed Hamas's new prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, by phone in his home in the refugee camp where he lives with his wife and 12 children in Gaza.
2006.02.24 Exit without a strategy [cached] (Sami Ramadani) The popular response to Iraq's latest atrocities has been to blame the occupation, not rival sects
2006.02.19 As the Hamas team laughs [cached] (Gideon Levy) Everyone agreed on the need to impose an economic siege on the Palestinian Authority, and Weissglas, as usual, provided the punch line: "It's like an appointment with a dietician. The Palestinians will get a lot thinner, but won't die," the advisor joked, and the participants reportedly rolled with laughter.
2006.02.16 Salon exclusive: The Abu Ghraib files [cached] Never-published photos, and an internal Army report, show more Iraqi prisoner abuse -- evidence the government is fighting to hide.
2006.02.14 U.S. and Israelis Are Said to Talk of Hamas Ouster [cached] (Steven Erlanger) The United States and Israel are discussing ways to destabilize the Palestinian government so that newly elected Hamas officials will fail and elections will be called again, according to Israeli officials and Western diplomats.
2006.02.10 Intelligence, Policy,and the War in Iraq [cached] (Paul R. Pillar) During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, writes the intelligence community's former senior analyst for the Middle East, the Bush administration disregarded the community's expertise, politicized the intelligence process, and selected unrepresentative raw intelligence to make its public case.
2006.02.07 Brothers in arms - Israel's secret pact with Pretoria [cached] (Chris McGreal) During the second world war the future South African prime minister John Vorster was interned as a Nazi sympathiser. Three decades later he was being feted in Jerusalem. In the second part of his remarkable special report, Chris McGreal investigates the clandestine alliance between Israel and the apartheid regime, cemented with the ultimate gift of friendship - A-bomb technology
2006.02.06 Worlds apart [cached] (Chris McGreal) Israelis have always been horrified at the idea of parallels between their country, a democracy risen from the ashes of genocide, and the racist system that ruled the old South Africa. Yet even within Israel itself, accusations persist that the web of controls affecting every aspect of Palestinian life bears a disturbing resemblance to apartheid.
2006.02.01 Hamas and political reform in the middle east [cached] (David Mepham) The lesson of Palestine's election is that the international community should become more serious and sophisticated about political reform in the middle east, says David Mepham of the Institute of Public Policy Research.
2006.01.08 The Real Choice in Iraq [cached] (Zbigniew Brzezinski) Finally, Democratic leaders should stop equivocating while carping. Those who want to lead in 2008 are particularly unwilling to state clearly that ending the war soon is both desirable and feasible. They fear being labeled as unpatriotic. Yet defining a practical alternative would provide a politically effective rebuttal to those who mindlessly seek an unattainable "victory." America needs a real choice regarding its tragic misadventure in Iraq.
2005.12.19 The nadir of occupation [cached] (Salim Lone) Last week's election does little to heal the wounds that are splitting Iraq up into violent fiefdoms
2005.12.18 Here's my plan to end the red-blue rift [cached] (Dave Barry) Do we truly believe that ALL red-state residents are ignorant racist fascist knuckle-dragging NASCAR-obsessed cousin-marrying road-kill-eating tobacco-juice-dribbling gun-fondling religious fanatic rednecks; or that ALL blue-state residents are godless unpatriotic pierced-nose Volvo-driving France-loving left-wing Communist latte-sucking tofu-chomping holistic-wacko neurotic vegan weenie perverts?
2005.12.16 Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts [cached] (James Risen, Eric Lichtblau) Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the National Security Agency has spied on hundreds of people inside the U.S.
2005.12.16 Blood and betrayal [cached] (Gary Kamiya) After four years of the badly botched "war on terror," are we ready to hear the hard words of Robert Fisk -- a gutsy war correspondent who says the West has wronged the Middle East?
2005.12.12 National Survey of Iraq. November 2005 [cached] From today's perspective and all things considered, was it absolutely right, somewhat right, somewhat wrong or absolutely wrong that US-led coalition forces invaded Iraq in Spring 2003? right=46%, wrong=50% Do you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose the presence of Coalition Forces in Iraq? support=32%, oppose=64%
2005.12.11 A Nation's Politics Can Evolve [cached] (Rami G. Khouri) The neocon-driven American fantasy strategy in Iraq brought together a peculiarly American form of intellectual terrorism and an unprecedented and deadly combination of exported arrogance and ordnance. Announcing the imminent end of this strategic atrocity is probably the only feasible way to bring Iraq back to normal -- and perhaps also to bring America back to normal.
2005.12.09 Qaeda-Iraq Link U.S. Cited Is Tied to Coercion Claim [cached] (Douglas Jehl) The Bush administration based a crucial prewar assertion about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda on detailed statements made by a prisoner while in Egyptian custody who later said he had fabricated them to escape harsh treatment, according to current and former government officials. The officials said the captive, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, provided his most specific and elaborate accounts about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda only after he was secretly handed over to Egypt by the United States in January 2002, in a process known as rendition.
2005.12.05 Why does Sharon need Peres? [cached] It is worth taking note of the new terminology in Peres' political lexicon: He makes do with saying that Sharon will build "an infrastructure for peace." This is not exactly a peace agreement, but something similar, such as a separation fence built along a route determined by the stronger side, based on the map of the "settlement blocs." If the Palestinians behave nicely, the Kadima government will even consider letting them call the Swiss cheese that remains in their hands a "temporary state."
2005.12.05 Full text: Rice defends US policy [cached] (Condoleezza Rice) US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has defended the use of "rendition" to transport terror suspects between countries, but refused to address claims that the CIA runs secret prisons abroad.
2005.12.04 Do These Two Have Anything in Common? [cached] (Zbigniew Brzezinski) President Bush has equated Islamic radicalism with communism. Is the comparison sound? Is it wise?
2005.11.30 Cheney 'may be guilty of war crime' [cached] (Julian Borger) Vice-president accused of backing torture. Claims on BBC by former insider add to Bush's woes
2005.11.29 Transcript of Wilkerson interview [cached] (Lawrence Wilkerson) Col Lawrence Wilkerson, the chief of staff to former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, was interviewed by Carolyn Quinn for the BBC's R4 Today programme. Here is a transcript of the interview.
2005.11.29 Our Troops Must Stay [cached] (Joe Lieberman) America can't abandon 27 million Iraqis to 10,000 terrorists.
2005.11.29 Cheney accused on prisoner abuse [cached] A top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell has launched a stinging attack on US Vice-President Dick Cheney over abuse of prisoners by US troops.
2005.11.28 Up in the Air [cached] (Seymour M. Hersh) Where is the Iraq war headed next?
2005.11.27 The leak that revealed Bush's deep obsession with al-Jazeera [cached] The US president planned to bomb the Qatar-based channel - that was the remarkable claim made in a top-secret memo. Why is the world's most powerful man so worried about a TV station?
2005.11.27 No more evasions [cached] (Menzies Campbell) We deserve the whole truth about the lead up to this disastrous war
2005.11.25 Secret EU report launches scathing attack on Israel [cached] European governments should consider direct intervention in an attempt to curb the systematic measures being undertaken by Israel to increase its control and population in the historically - and legally - Arab eastern sector of Jerusalem, a highly sensitive EU report concludes.
2005.11.25 EU accuses Israel over Jerusalem [cached] A confidential report written for European Union foreign ministers has criticised Israel's policy on East Jerusalem
2005.11.23 US Intelligence Classified White Phosphorus as 'Chemical Weapon' [cached] "When Saddam used WP it was a chemical weapon," said Mr Ranucci, "but when the Americans use it, it's a conventional weapon. The injuries it inflicts, however, are just as terrible however you describe it."
2005.11.20 Take bad intel, twist it, and run with it [cached] (David Wise) An administration eager to attack Iraq tapped a pipeline of bad information. Now the White House and the CIA are trying to avoid blame.
2005.11.20 How U.S. Fell Under the Spell of 'Curveball' [cached] (Bob Drogin, John Goetz) The Iraqi informant's German handlers say they had told U.S. officials that his information was 'not proven,' and were shocked when President Bush and Colin L. Powell used it in key prewar speeches.
2005.11.18 'Cheney is vice president for torture' [cached] Former CIA director Admiral Stansfield: On Dick Cheney he said "I'm embarrassed the United States has a vice president for torture."
2005.11.16 US used white phosphorus in Iraq [cached] US troops used white phosphorus as a weapon in last year's offensive in the Iraqi city of Falluja, the US has said.
2005.11.10 Did the U.S. Use "Illegal" Weapons in Fallujah? [cached] State department denials... November 10, 2005 note: We have learned that some of the information we were provided in the above paragraph is incorrect. White phosphorous shells, which produce smoke, were used in Fallujah not for illumination but for screening purposes, i.e., obscuring troop movements and, according to an article, "The Fight for Fallujah," in the March-April 2005 issue of Field Artillery magazine, "as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes ..." The article states that U.S. forces used white phosphorous rounds to flush out enemy fighters so that they could then be killed with high explosive rounds.
2005.10.30 U.S. Quietly Issues Estimate of Iraqi Civilian Casualties [cached] "They have begun to realize that when you focus only on the U.S. it gives the impression that the U.S. doesn't care about Iraqis," said Anthony H. Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research group in Washington. "In these kinds of political battles you need to count your allies, not just yourself."
2005.10.28 All the vice president's men [cached] (Juan Cole) The ideologues in Cheney's inner circle drummed up a war. Now their zealotry is blowing up in their faces.
2005.10.27 'We don't need al-Qaida' [cached] (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad) Abu Theeb is the leader of a band of Sunni insurgents that preys on US targets north of Baghdad. Last week he openly defied al-Qaida in Iraq by actively supporting the referendum. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad spent five days with him - and uncovered evidence of a growing split in the insurgency
2005.10.26 Vice President for Torture [cached] As for Mr. Cheney: He will be remembered as the vice president who campaigned for torture
2005.10.25 Iraqis vote for new constitution [cached] Iraqis have passed their country's new constitution according to official results from the referendum which opposition leaders have dismissed.
2005.10.24 The Republican Rift [cached] Jeffrey Goldberg discusses Scowcroft and the divide within the Republican party over Iraq
2005.10.24 Scowcroft speaks out in New Yorker [cached] (Brent Scowcroft) The following are extracts from former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft comments in the article "Breaking Ranks: What Turned Brent Scowcroft Against the Bush Administration?" by Jeffrey Goldberg in the Oct. 31 edition of The New Yorker which was on published Monday.
2005.10.24 Breaking Ranks [cached] (Jeffrey Goldberg) What turned Brent Scowcroft against the Bush Administration?
2005.10.23 Secret MoD poll: Iraqis support attacks on British troops [cached] The poll, undertaken for the Ministry of Defence and seen by The Sunday Telegraph, shows that up to 65 per cent of Iraqi citizens support attacks and fewer than one per cent think Allied military involvement is helping to improve security in their country.
2005.10.19 Vote Figures for Crucial Province Don't Add Up [cached] (Gareth Porter) The early vote totals from Nineveh province, which suggested an overwhelming majority in favour of Iraq's draft constitution that assured its passage by national referendum, now appear to have been highly misleading.
2005.10.19 Transcript: Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson [cached] (Lawrence Wilkerson) But the case that I saw for 4 plus years was a case that I have never seen in my studies of aberration, bastardizations, [UI], changes to the national security [UI] process. What I saw was a cabal between the Vice President of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the Secretary of Defense and [UI] on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made.
2005.10.06 Iraq backs down after UN condemns voting changes [cached] Iraq's parliament yesterday bowed to pressure from the United States and United Nations and reversed its decision to change voting rules for next week's referendum on a constitution.
2005.10.03 Sunni anger at Iraq vote change [cached] Sunni Arabs have reacted angrily to a decision by Iraq's Shia-dominated parliament making it harder to reject the new constitution in 12 days' time.
2005.10.02 Something stinks in America [cached] (Will Hutton) As a leading Republican prepares to face corruption charges, the fallout will be felt as far afield as Westminster
2005.10.01 Magazine ad "unleashes hell" for Boeing and Bell [cached] "It descends from the heavens. Ironically it unleashes hell," reads the ad, which ran this week in the National Journal and earlier in the Armed Forces Journal. The ad also stated: "Consider it a gift from above."
2005.09.29 Turks Challenge Hughes On Iraq [cached] A group of Turkish women's rights activists confronted Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes on Wednesday with emotional and heated complaints about the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, turning a session designed to highlight the empowering of women into a raw display of the anger at U.S. policy in the region.
2005.09.28 The coup that wasn't [cached] (Scott Ritter) Scott Ritter was the former US marine captain tasked with finding Saddam Hussein's weapons. Now, in this first detailed account, he reveals how the CIA plotted to use a UN weapons inspection to overthrow the Iraqi regime - and how fiasco turned to tragedy when it failed
2005.09.26 'How can you establish a free media in such fear and anarchy?' [cached] (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad) Last week Fakher Haidar al-Tamimi became the 36th Iraqi journalist to be killed since the start of the war. His friend Ghaith Abdul-Ahad explains how, in the postwar carnage, his fellow countrymen have become the softest targets
2005.09.22 'My family think I'm crazy to come back to this disaster' [cached] (Ali Fadhil) After his award-winning reporting on the assault on Fallujah, Ali Fadhil went to study in America. But just three months later he was back in Iraq, where he found a country that had changed almost beyond recognition
2005.09.19 U.S. Claims Success in Iraq Despite Onslaught [cached] (Ellen Knickmeyer) Body Counts Now Cited as Benchmarks U.S. claims great gains against Zarqawi fighters amid deadliest insurgent attacks to date.
2005.09.19 How Bush Blew It [cached] (Evan Thomas) Bureaucratic timidity. Bad phone lines. And a failure of imagination. Why the government was so slow to respond to catastrophe.
2005.09.18 This is a mess of our own making [cached] (Tim Collins) Tim Collins told his troops this was a war of liberation, not conquest. Now he says that he was naive to believe it
2005.09.13 Beyond Good and Evil [cached] (Christopher Dickey) What Bush could have learned after 9/11 and should learn after Katrina
2005.09.12 On Iraq, Short Memories [cached] (Robert Kagan) Support for the Iraqi war was widespread and justified two years ago, something that many supporters seem to have forgotten.
2005.09.11 Taking Stock of the Forever War [cached] (Mark Danner) A terrorist leader four years ago, Osama bin Laden is now an ideology as well - and a viral movement.Terrorist attacks worldwide are on the rise. Iraq could well end up a "failed" state. Maybe it's time to stop fighting on their terms.
2005.09.11 Lost at Tora Bora [cached] (Mary Anne Weaver) In December 2001, Osama bin Laden was cornered in a mountainous region along the Afghan-Pakistani border. Why wasn't he captured? And why can't he be apprehended now?
2005.09.11 Living Too Much in the Bubble? [cached] (Mike Allen) A bungled initial response to Katrina exposed the perils of a rigid, insular White House. Inside Bush's plan to show he isn't isolated
2005.09.11 A betrayal of the people [cached] (Mary Riddell) After events in Iraq and New Orleans, never again will we be so trusting of our political leaders
2005.09.10 Security Contractors in Iraq Under Scrutiny After Shootings [cached] (Jonathan Finer) Recent shootings of Iraqi civilians are drawing increasing concern from Iraqi officials and U.S. commanders who say they undermine relations between foreign military forces and Iraqi civilians.
2005.09.05 Christopher Hitchens' last battle [cached] (Juan Cole) The British hawk gives 10 reasons why Americans should be proud of the Iraq war. He goes 0 for 10.
2005.09.05 A War to Be Proud Of [cached] (Christopher Hitchens) The case for overthrowing Saddam was unimpeachable. Why, then, is the administration tongue-tied?
2005.09.05 A Failure of Leadership [cached] (Bob Herbert) Mr. Bush's performance last week will rank as one of the worst ever by a president during a dire national emergency. What we witnessed, as clearly as the overwhelming agony of the city of New Orleans, was the dangerous incompetence and the staggering indifference to human suffering of the president and his administration.
2005.09.04 Political Science [cached] (Daniel Smith) Is the Bush administration anti-science? Or is it scientists critical of the president who have forgotten that science and politics don't mix?
2005.09.03 The Two Americas [cached] (Marjorie Cohn) Last September, a Category 5 hurricane battered the small island of Cuba with 160-mile-per-hour winds. More than 1.5 million Cubans were evacuated to higher ground ahead of the storm. Although the hurricane destroyed 20,000 houses, no one died.
2005.09.02 Mayor to feds: 'Get off your asses' [cached] audio New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin blasted the slow pace of federal and state relief efforts in an expletive-laced interview with local radio station WWL-AM.
2005.09.02 Mayor to feds: 'Get off your asses' [cached] New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin blasted the slow pace of federal and state relief efforts in an expletive-laced interview with local radio station WWL-AM.
2005.09.01 Kenneth Clarke's speech [cached] (Kenneth Clarke) The Conservative leadership candidate's speech to the Foreign Press Association on terrorism and security
2005.09.01 Can Democracy Stop Terrorism? [cached] (F. Gregory Gause III) The Bush administration contends that the push for democracy in the Muslim world will improve U.S. security. But this premise is faulty: there is no evidence that democracy reduces terrorism. Indeed, a democratic Middle East would probably result in Islamist governments unwilling to cooperate with Washington.
2005.08.31 The Iraq Quagmire: The Mounting Costs of War and the Case for Bringing Home the Troops [cached] (Phyllis Bennis, Erik Leaver) "The Iraq Quagmire" is the most comprehensive accounting of the mounting costs and consequences of the Iraq War on the United States, Iraq, and the world. Among its major findings are stark figures that quantify the continuing of costs since the Iraqi elections, a period that the Bush administration claimed would be characterized by a reduction in the human and economic costs.
2005.08.30 How to stop civil war [cached] (George Monbiot) Nicaragua and South Africa, not the US, should be the inspiration for the people framing Iraq's constitution
2005.08.28 Iraq takes yet another step closer to civil war [cached] 'The Sunnis made the tactical decision to negotiate for as much as they could get out of the document and then walk out to protect their own positions within their community,' said one diplomat. 'It is a dangerous tactic. It will take a lot of patching up.'
2005.08.28 How to Win in Iraq [cached] (Andrew F. Krepinevich, JR) Because they lack a coherent strategy, U.S. forces in Iraq have failed to defeat the insurgency or improve security. Winning will require a new approach to counterinsurgency, one that focuses on providing security to Iraqis rather than hunting down insurgents. And it will take at least a decade.
2005.08.28 Fiddling while Baghdad burns [cached] (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad) Iraqis need time and patience to come up with the right constitution. First we must stop the civil war.
2005.08.27 The War's Momentum [cached] But it is dispiriting, and damaging to the chances for success, that President Bush still refuses to speak honestly to the country about the challenges the United States now faces, or how he intends to address them. In two major speeches on national security this week, Mr. Bush simply repeated the misleading description of Iraq he offered during his national television address in June, conflating the war with the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and describing the enemy as terrorists akin to al Qaeda.
2005.08.26 The Iraqi constitution: DOA? [cached] (Juan Cole) Angry and marginalized, Sunnis are threatening to torpedo Iraq's constitution. Disaster looms, and the Bush administration's blunders are largely to blame.
2005.08.25 Two fingers to America [cached] (Richard Gott) He's a friend of Fidel Castro, a fierce critic of the war in Iraq, and wants to spread revolutionary fervour throughout South America. Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, has long been a thorn in the side of the US - a fact highlighted this week when televangelist Pat Robertson called for his assassination. Richard Gott on a man at war with the White House
2005.08.25 Constitution Sparks Debate on Viability [cached] But Iraq under Saddam Hussein and his predecessors also had a "perfectly fine constitution" that had "no bearing on the conduct of the state," said Kenneth M. Pollack, a former Bush and Clinton administration staffer now at the Brookings Institution Saban Center.
2005.08.25 Israel's West Bank barrier 'could destroy peace hopes' [cached] The army has started issuing land expropriation orders for construction of the barrier along a route which would cut 25 km (15 miles) into the West Bank, bring significant tracts of Palestinian land within the Israeli side of the barrier, and link the settlement with Jerusalem.
2005.08.24 The Road After Gaza [cached] (Robert Malley, Aaron D. Miller) The bottom line: Moving fast will hurt Sharon's standing; moving slowly will undercut Abbas's. Neither man is prone to political suicide.
2005.08.24 Regime Change By Assassin? Easier Said Than Done [cached] And the Iraq war began, you might recall, with a U.S. airstrike on a bunker where Saddam Hussein and his sons were believed to be hiding. It might have been a hit, though it was also the start of a war.
2005.08.24 Regime Change By Assassin? Easier Said Than Done [cached] (Lynne Duke) So Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition, thinks the United States should assassinate Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president.
2005.08.24 Palestinians can play the Israeli game [cached] (Ahmad Samih Khalidi) . If the essence of unilateralism is the ability to act free from mutual constraints and obligations, then the Palestinians could benefit from Israeli unilateral acts by absorbing whatever territories are vacated, developing their means of self-rule and building up their capabilities without the shackles of Israeli pre-conditions. This would entail no concessions on vital rights or points of principle.
2005.08.24 End the Charade of America's 'Terrorism Experts' [cached] (Rami G. Khouri) For reasons that we must try to understand, the mainstream American media mostly offers a deadly combination of two recurring themes: First is the Bush administration's increasingly less credible mantras about needing to stay the course and fight the terrorists 'over there' before they attack Kansas City, Omaha and Laredo with atomic bombs; and, second is the mishmash of speculation and imagination that masquerades as fact and serious analysis from so-called "terrorism experts".
2005.08.24 Diplomats in disarray over Iran [cached] It looks increasingly clear that traces of enriched uranium found by IAEA inspectors on centrifuge parts in Iran were contamination from their supplier.
2005.08.24 Beacon of hope fades [cached] When the US and Britain begin to pull out troops from Iraq next year, as they hope, George Bush will do everything he can to ensure his three-year Iraq adventure is not portrayed as a total failure.
2005.08.24 US dismisses Iran nuclear report [cached] The US has criticised an independent investigation which found no evidence that Iran was working on a secret nuclear weapons programme.
2005.08.22 Under US noses, brutal insurgents rule Sunni citadel [cached] A three-hour drive north from Baghdad, under the nose of an American base, it is a miniature Taliban-like state. Insurgents decide who lives and dies, which salaries get paid, what people wear, what they watch and listen to.
2005.08.22 Millions embezzled at Iraqi ministry [cached] British officials are seriously concerned about the level of corruption in the Iraqi defence ministry, after the embezzlement of vast amounts of money earmarked for the country's security forces.
2005.08.21 There was no reason for a quiet evacuation [cached] (Baruch Kimmerling) We are witnessing these days the largest show ever produced in Israel and perhaps the entire world. Large army forces, conscripts and reservists, and a substantial part of the police have been mobilized to dismantle a few settlements numbering about 7,000 residents, plus a cast of several thousand backup players who are now starring in the lead roles of the absurd theater being broadcast nonstop and live on all the television channels in Israel and the world.
2005.08.21 The Breaking Point [cached] (Peter Maass) In the past several years, the gap between demand and supply, once considerable, has steadily narrowed, and today is almost negligible. The consequences of an actual shortfall of supply would be immense. If consumption begins to exceed production by even a small amount, the price of a barrel of oil could soar to triple-digit levels. This, in turn, could bring on a global recession, a result of exorbitant prices for transport fuels and for products that rely on petrochemicals -- which is to say, almost every product on the market.
2005.08.21 Militias on the Rise Across Iraq [cached] (Anthony Shadid, Steve Fainaru) Shiite and Kurdish militias, often operating as part of Iraqi government security forces, have carried out a wave of abductions, assassinations and other acts of intimidation, consolidating their control over territory across northern and southern Iraq and deepening the country's divide along ethnic and sectarian lines, according to political leaders, families of the victims, human rights activists and Iraqi officials.
2005.08.19 The settlers' retreat was the theatre of the cynical [cached] (Jonathan Steele) Sharon wanted the world's media to see the protracted agony of the settlers, so as to make the (spurious) point that if it is hard to get 8,500 to leave Gaza, getting 400,000 to withdraw from the West Bank and east Jerusalem will be impossible. However sincere the settlers' grief is at leaving their homes, for the organisers of the retreat it was theatre of the cynical.
2005.08.18 The risk of a third intifada [cached] (Marwan Bishara) Once the media circus is over, Israel's melodramatic withdrawal from the Gaza Strip should be judged by how it improves Palestinian lives and the chances of a just and peaceful resolution of the conflict.
2005.08.18 End the occupation, not our dreams [cached] (Mustafa Barghouthi) A historic moment is taking shape, one that could signal the beginning of the end of Israel's history of occupation. For the first time, the Zionist dream of a Greater Israel is hitting up against reality, demonstrated in the long-overdue retreat from the Gaza Strip.
2005.08.18 Blood Runs Red, Not Blue [cached] (Bob Herbert) If the war in Iraq is worth fighting - if it's a noble venture, as the hawks insist it is - then it's worth fighting with the children of the privileged classes. They should be added to the combat mix. If it's not worth their blood, then we should bring the other troops home. If Mr. Bush's war in Iraq is worth dying for, then the children of the privileged should be doing some of the dying.
2005.08.17 Israel's withdrawal is both historic and deceptive [cached] (Rami G. Khouri) Politically, the Israeli evacuation from the Gaza Strip that started Monday is significant, and potentially historic. Morally, for the Israeli government and the settler-colonists, it is a pile of garbage, deception and lies. Sorting out the significant from the merely sinful in this situation is useful for discerning whether or not better days lie ahead.
2005.08.17 Chewing on meaningless words [cached] (Haifa Zangana) The battle over the constitution is regarded by most Iraqi women, confined to their homes by the occupation, as an irrelevance
2005.08.14 U.S. Lowers Sights On What Can Be Achieved in Iraq [cached] The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad.
2005.08.01 Spy's Notes on Iraqi Aims Were Shelved, Suit Says [cached] The Central Intelligence Agency was told by an informant in the spring of 2001 that Iraq had abandoned a major element of its nuclear weapons program, but the agency did not share the information with other agencies or with senior policy makers, a former C.I.A. officer has charged.
2005.08.01 Even when we leave Iraq, we face years of blowback [cached] (David Clark) The invasion of Iraq has frequently been described as the biggest diplomatic blunder since Suez. This already looks like a considerable understatement. On a worst-case scenario that now seems possible, it could very well come to be seen as one of the greatest foreign-policy own goals of all time.
2005.07.29 The Truth About Abu Ghraib [cached] The administration probably will spend the next month trying to quell this rebellion of conscience and good sense. The nation would be better served if President Bush instead accepted, at last, the truth about Abu Ghraib.
2005.07.29 Security Costs Slow Iraq Reconstruction [cached] Efforts to rebuild water, electricity and health networks in Iraq are being shortchanged by higher-than-expected costs to provide security and by generous financial awards to contractors, according to a series of reports by government investigators released yesterday.
2005.07.28 US failures 'fuel Iraq militants' [cached] A prestigious US political research body has accused the US government of giving impetus to Iraq's insurgency through a lack of post-war planning.
2005.07.28 Oil and Blood [cached] (Bob Herbert) The Bush administration has no plans to bring the troops home from this misguided war.
2005.07.28 Army General Advised Using Dogs at Abu Ghraib, Officer Testifies [cached] Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller told top officers during an advisory visit to Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison that they needed to get military working dogs for use in interrogations, and he advocated procedures then in use at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to court testimony yesterday.
2005.07.27 Military's Opposition to Harsh Interrogation Is Outlined [cached] The documents include one written by the deputy judge advocate general of the Air Force, Maj. Gen. Jack L. Rives, advising the task force that several of the "more extreme interrogation techniques, on their face, amount to violations of domestic criminal law" as well as military law.
2005.07.27 Iraqi PM urges speedy withdrawal of US troops [cached] Iraq's prime minister today called for a speedy withdrawal of US troops, and the top US commander in the country said he believed a "fairly substantial" pull-out could take place next spring and summer.
2005.07.27 In the Wake of War: Improving U.S. Post-Conflict Capabilities [cached] (Samuel R. Berger, Brent Scowcroft) Council on Foreign Relations "In Iraq, pre-war inattention to post-war requirements--or simply misjudgments about them--left the United States ill-equipped to address public security, governance, and economic demands in the immediate aftermath of the conflict, seriously undermining key U.S. foreign policy goals and giving early impetus to the insurgency."
2005.07.24 Iraq: This is Now an Unwinnable Conflict [cached] (Patrick Cockburn) The war in Iraq is now joining the Boer War in 1899 and the Suez crisis in 1956 as ill-considered ventures that have done Britain more harm than good. It has demonstrably strengthened al-Qa'ida by providing it with a large pool of activists and sympathizers across the Muslim world it did not possess before the invasion of 2003. The war, which started out as a demonstration of US strength as the world's only superpower, has turned into a demonstration of weakness. Its 135,000-strong army does not control much of Iraq.
2005.07.19 Iraq's catalogue of death [cached] More than 1,700 US and dozens of other coalition troops are known to have died. But the figures for civilian dead had never been more than rough estimates, ranging wildly from 10,000 to 100,000.
2005.07.18 Security, Terrorism and the UK [cached] A key problem for the UK in preventing terrorism in Britain is the government's position as 'pillion passenger' to the United States' war on terror. Formulating counter-terrorism policy in this way has left the 'ally in the driving seat' to do the steering. This is one of the key findings of Security, Terrorism and the UK, a new, long-planned briefing paper to be published on Monday 18 July by Chatham House and the Economic & Social Research Council.
2005.07.18 Get Out the Vote [cached] (Seymour M. Hersh) Did Washington try to manipulate Iraq's election?
2005.07.18 Bush tried to aid Iraqi parties [cached] President George Bush approved a plan to channel covert aid to Iraqi parties and candidates in the run-up to the January elections
2005.07.15 Military Lawyers Fought Policy on Interrogations [cached] At a Senate hearing yesterday, the judge advocate generals (JAGs) for the Army, Air Force and Marines said they expressed their concerns as the policy was being hashed out at the Pentagon in March and April 2003
2005.07.13 Ten Iraqis suffocate in police lorry [cached] The men are alleged to have died after being arrested by Iraqi anti-terrorist special forces on Sunday as they visited relatives at a hospital in the mainly Shia neighbourhood of Shula in north-western Baghdad.
2005.07.11 Blair's blowback [cached] (Gary Younge) Of course those who backed the Iraq war refute any link with the London bombs - they are in the deepest denial
2005.07.07 So, Mr Bremer, where did all the money go? [cached] At the end of the Iraq war, vast sums of money were made available to the US-led provisional authorities, headed by Paul Bremer, to spend on rebuilding the country. By the time Bremer left the post eight months later, $8.8bn of that money had disappeared
2005.07.05 A fiction as powerful as WMD [cached] (Sami Ramadani) It is not withdrawal that threatens Iraq with civil war, but occupation
2005.07.03 UK aid funds Iraqi torture units [cached] (Peter Beaumont, Martin Bright) British and American aid intended for Iraq's hard-pressed police service is being diverted to paramilitary commando units accused of widespread human rights abuses, including torture and extra-judicial killings.
2005.07.03 Revealed: grim world of new Iraqi torture camps [cached] Secret torture chambers, the brutal interrogation of prisoners, murders by paramilitaries with links to powerful ministries... Foreign affairs editor Peter Beaumont in Baghdad uncovers a grim trail of abuse carried out by forces loyal to the new Iraqi government
2005.07.03 Revealed: grim world of new Iraqi torture camps [cached] (Peter Beaumont) Secret torture chambers, the brutal interrogation of prisoners, murders by paramilitaries with links to powerful ministries... Foreign affairs editor Peter Beaumont in Baghdad uncovers a grim trail of abuse carried out by forces loyal to the new Iraqi government
2005.07.01 The President's Speech on Iraq: Truth versus Spin [cached] (Anthony H. Cordesman) Key parts of his speech, however, were driven by spin, rather than a frank effort to warn the American people of the sacrifices necessary to win and the risks involved. The end result was to mislead in ways that can come back to haunt the Administration and reduce longer-term public support.
2005.06.30 The sobering of America [cached] (Timothy Garton Ash) US foreign policy is getting better - and that's partly because Iraq has got worse
2005.06.30 No solution and no apology as president runs out of ideas [cached] (Simon Tisdall) Like a recidivist incapable of going straight, Mr Bush plunged back into the scaremongering rhetoric of last autumn's election campaign and once again deliberately conflated the Iraq war with the 9/11 terror attacks.
2005.06.29 Arrested Development [cached] (Arlie Hochschild) Under international law, the line between childhood and maturity is 18. In communications with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the Pentagon has lowered the cutoff to 16. For this reason among others, we don't know exactly how many Iraqi children are in American custody. But before the transfer of sovereignty from the Coalition Provisional Authority to an Iraqi interim government a year ago, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported registering 107 detainees under 18 during visits to six prisons controlled by coalition troops. Some detainees were as young as 8.
2005.06.28 US faces prison ship allegations [cached] The United Nations says it has learned of serious allegations that the US is secretly detaining terrorism suspects, notably on American military ships.
2005.06.27 US accused over Muslim detentions [cached] The US indefinitely detained some 70 Muslim men after the 11 September attacks on baseless accusations of terrorist links, US rights bodies say.
2005.06.26 Italians hunt covert CIA snatch squad [cached] Italy and the United States were embroiled in a growing diplomatic row today over the CIA's alleged kidnapping of a terror suspect, as other countries also began investigations into America's role in the disappearance of their citizens.
2005.06.26 Italians Detail Lavish CIA Operation [cached] For 19 American intelligence operatives assigned to apprehend a radical Islamic preacher in Milan two years ago, the mission was equal parts James Bond and taxpayer-financed Italian holiday, according to an Italian investigation of the man's disappearance.
2005.06.24 Not a rosy picture in Iraq, says general [cached] The most senior American commander in the Middle East yesterday directly contradicted Vice-President Dick Cheney's claim that the Iraqi insurgency was in its "last throes", telling a highly charged Senate hearing that there were more foreign fighters in Iraq now than there were six months ago.
2005.06.24 Interrogators Cite Doctors' Aid at Guantanamo [cached] Former interrogators at Guantanamo Bay say military doctors there helped them conduct and refine coercive interrogations of detainees in hopes of making them more cooperative and willing to provide information
2005.06.22 Iraq May Be Prime Place For Training of Militants, C.I.A. Report Concludes [cached] (Douglas Jehl) New classified CIA assessment says Iraq may prove even more effective training ground for Islamic extremists than Afghanistan was under Taliban, serving as real-world laboratory for urban combat; makes clear that war will likely produce dangerous legacy, dispersing Iraqi and foreign fighters to other countries; similar warnings by CIA Dir Porter Goss also quoted
2005.06.20 Is Bush Backfiring? [cached] Bush's increasing insistence that things are going well in Iraq has been accompanied by a dramatic loss of support for the war.
2005.06.10 Building Iraq's Army: Mission Improbable [cached] Journey with U.S. and Iraqi troops reveals a seemingly unbridgeable divide hindering efforts to rebuild the country's security forces.
2005.06.09 The revenge of Baghdad Bob [cached] (Juan Cole) Bush's ludicrous statements about Iraq are increasingly reminiscent of the propaganda spouted by the former spokesman for the Iraqi regime -- except that they're not funny.
2005.06.09 Marines 'beat US workers' in Iraq [cached] A group of American security guards in Iraq have alleged they were beaten, stripped and threatened with a snarling dog by US marines when they were detained after an alleged shooting incident outside Falluja last month.
2005.06.09 Global spending on arms tops $1 trillion [cached] Once again, America was by far the greatest spender on arms. In 2004, it spent $455bn, an increase from 2003 of 12 per cent, fuelled largely by the investment in President George Bush's "war on terror". America's foreign aid spending is around 4.1 per cent of its arms bill. Britain, the second largest arms spender, spent $47bn - a tenth of the US total.
2005.06.09 Ex-oil lobbyist watered down US climate research [cached] A former oil industry lobbyist edited the Bush administration's official policy papers on climate change to play down the link between greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, it was reported yesterday.
2005.06.08 U.S. Drops Opposition to IAEA Chief [cached] Larry Wilkerson, who was chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, told the foreign relations committee that Bolton was out of bounds in his efforts against ElBaradei. Wilkerson said Bolton went "out of his way to bad-mouth him, to make sure that everybody knew that the maximum power of the United States would be brought to bear against them if he were brought back in."
2005.06.08 Bush Aide Softened Greenhouse Gas Links to Global Warming [cached] A White House official who once led the oil industry's fight against limits on greenhouse gases has repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions and global warming, according to internal documents.
2005.06.05 Yavin discovered the darkness [cached] (Gideon Levy) Nonetheless, while watching the emotions aroused in Yavin by what he witnesses in the territories, the question inevitably arises: Where was he until now? Where were he and his colleagues, the television broadcasters, the military reporters and community development correspondents, the defense commentators and diplomatic experts while the outrage was created - the nightmare that Yavin is now discovering. Where were they when the settlements plundered and exploited land, when the settlers abused their neighbors, when apartheid roads were paved for Jews only and when the Palestinians were imprisoned in their communities because of the settlers?
2005.06.05 Bush's Outlook On Iraq Debated [cached] President Bush's portrayal of a wilting insurgency in Iraq at a time of escalating violence and insecurity throughout the country is reviving the debate over the administration's Iraq strategy and the accuracy of its upbeat claims.
2005.06.04 US lowers standards in army numbers crisis [cached] The US military has stopped battalion commanders from dismissing new recruits for drug abuse, alcohol, poor fitness and pregnancy in an attempt to halt the rising attrition rate in an army under growing strain as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
2005.06.04 Sadr urges Iraq to emulate European Union and reject federalism [cached] Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on Iraqis to emulate the European Union and reject federalism, which he said would divide the country. Speaking on behalf of Sadr, Sheikh Salah al-Ubaidi told Muslim faithful in Kufa, south of Baghdad, that in Europe: "You can find a unified constitution under way, a unified currency and a united continental market despite the fact that they are different nations."
2005.06.04 Ravaged 'Venice of the east' seeks to regain status as tourist magnet [cached] Basra declared itself open to foreign visitors this week but instructed them to be vigilant, dress like locals and hire armed escorts. "Then there is a 70% to 80% chance you will be OK," beamed Abdul Razuqi, the head of the tourism office in Iraq's second city.
2005.06.04 Pentagon Details Abuse Of Koran [cached] The U.S. military released new details yesterday about five confirmed cases of U.S. personnel mishandling the Koran at the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, acknowledging that soldiers and interrogators kicked the Muslim holy book, got copies wet, stood on a Koran during an interrogation and inadvertently sprayed urine on another copy.
2005.06.04 Bolton Said to Orchestrate Unlawful Firing [cached] John R. Bolton flew to Europe in 2002 to confront the head of a global arms-control agency and demand he resign, then orchestrated the firing of the unwilling diplomat in a move a U.N. tribunal has since judged unlawful, according to officials involved.
2005.06.03 Tigris tales [cached] Make no mistake - in today's Iraq, it's all too easy to find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time
2005.06.03 Iraq's other resistance [cached] Last week Basra saw its first conference on the threat of privatisation, bringing together oil workers, academics and international civil-society groups. The event debated an issue about which Iraqis are passionate: the ownership and control of Iraq's oil reserves.
2005.06.03 Iraq's Operation Lightening arrests more than 700 [cached] At least 30 people were killed in a wave of violence that swept northern Iraq, while the government said more than 700 insurgents had been arrested in its Operation Lightning dragnet in the capital.
2005.06.03 Iraq weapons material 'missing' [cached] Equipment and material that could be used to make biological or chemical weapons have been removed from 109 Iraqi sites, UN weapons inspectors say.
2005.06.02 Venezuela seeks return of 'terrorist' [cached] Venezuela is to formally seek the extradition from the US of Luis Posada, who is wanted for trial in connection with the bombing of a Cuban airliner nearly 30 years ago. It is a request which will present the Bush administration with adiplomatic dilemma.
2005.06.02 U.S. warns Iraq's neighbors not to treat Zarqawi [cached] U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned that any country that takes in Abu Musab al-Zarqawi will be viewed by the United States as associating with Al-Qaeda. Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, is believed to have been wounded, but the severity of his wounds was not immediately known, General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a news conference with Rumsfeld. Separately, an Interior Ministry official said 151 police were killed in May, compared with 86 in April, up 75 percent.
2005.06.02 Poisoned melons fell Iraqi troops [cached] Several Iraqi soldiers were treated in hospital in northern Iraq after eating intentionally poisoned watermelons, the US military said yesterday.
2005.06.02 Man held over toxic Iraq melons [cached] A man has been arrested for allegedly targeting Iraqi security forces with poisoned watermelons, US military officials in northern Iraq say.
2005.06.02 Iraq abuse soldiers have sentences cut [cached] Two British soldiers convicted in February for their part in the abuse of Iraqis have had their sentences cut after a military hearing behind closed doors.
2005.06.02 Insurgency Through Iraqi Eyes [cached] As Iraqi insurgents have mounted bloody suicide attacks on civilians in recent weeks, the Iraqi press has become preoccupied with the specter of "sectarian conflict" -- and the difference between U.S. and Iraqi news coverage has become clearer.
2005.06.01 Ya'alon: Israel can defend itself even if it leaves Golan Heights [cached] In a first-ever interview to an Arabic-language daily, outgoing Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Moshe Ya'alon said Tuesday that Israel could defend itself even after an eventual withdrawal from the Golan Heights.
2005.06.01 Ya'alon: After pullout, Israel will face another war of terror [cached] "If there is an Israeli commitment to another move, we will gain another period of quiet," he said. "If not, there will be an eruption ... Terrorist attacks of all types: shooting, bombs, suicide bombers, mortars, Qassam rockets." Without an additional withdrawal, "there is a high probability of a second war of terror," which will begin in the West Bank.
2005.06.01 UN veteran fired over oil scandal [cached] United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has sacked a senior official accused of serious misconduct over Iraq's oil-for-food programme.
2005.06.01 Top Israeli news anchor attacks occupation [cached] Revered anchor of Israel's Channel One causes controversy by personalised documentary concluding that occupation of Palestinian land is crime.
2005.06.01 The Other Bomb Drops [cached] It was a huge air assault: Approximately 100 US and British planes flew from Kuwait into Iraqi airspace. At least seven types of aircraft were part of this massive operation, including US F-15 Strike Eagles and Royal Air Force Tornado ground-attack planes. They dropped precision-guided munitions on Saddam Hussein's major western air-defense facility, clearing the path for Special Forces helicopters that lay in wait in Jordan. Earlier attacks had been carried out against Iraqi command and control centers, radar detection systems, Revolutionary Guard units, communication centers and mobile air-defense systems. The Pentagon's goal was clear: Destroy Iraq's ability to resist. This was war.
2005.06.01 Suicide bomber strikes Baghdad checkpoint [cached] The violence in Iraq continued today as a suicide bomber attacked a key checkpoint outside Baghdad's main airport, injuring at least seven Iraqis.
2005.06.01 Saddam trial 'within two months' [cached] Iraq's new president, Jalal Talabani, said today that he hoped the country's toppled dictator Saddam Hussein could go on trial within the next two months.
2005.06.01 Saddam to face trial 'within two months' [cached] Saddam Hussein could go on trial for crimes against humanity within two months, far earlier than expected, Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, said, while Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari vowed to beef up security in the war-weary country. In New York, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Syria was a key transit route for "foreign terrorists" as well as remnants of the Saddam Hussein regime and urged Damascus to do more to stop this.
2005.06.01 Iraqi FM concerned over US troops [cached] Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari says he is worried that the US may pull its troops out before local forces are able to maintain security.
2005.06.01 Attention: Dan Halutz [cached] (Uzi Benziman) Unfortunately, statistics on the results of Israel's targeted killing policy do not give it a clear moral edge. From November 2000 to April 2003, Israel conducted 175 targeted killings that killed 235 people and wounded 310. Of those killed, only 156 were defined as the targets of the strikes; of those wounded, only five were so defined. This result raises the question of whether Israel made sufficient efforts and took sufficient risks to prevent harm to innocent Palestinians. Moreover, official rhetoric demonstrated apathy to the tragic results: Israel's official spokesman announced that he slept well at night after Palestinian civilians are hit, and that the only thing he felt was "a slight bump to the wing of the plane as a result of dropping the bomb."
2005.06.01 'I knew what I had right away' [cached] Last year, Kevin Sites filmed a marine shooting an apparently unarmed insurgent in Falluja. He tells Dan Glaister the truth of what he saw and how what followed changed his life
2005.05.31 US and Iraqis join to stem abuse [cached] US insistence on breeding adherence to the law and detainee rights is further complicated by prisoner mistreatment scandals by US guards at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and in Afghanistan. The US military reportedly tallied more than 100 allegations of such abuse between September 2004 and February 2005. Since then, at least 28 more have been counted. The problem prompted Gen. George Casey, commander of US forces in Iraq, to issue a letter in April to US advisers to Iraqi troops. "It is very important that we never turn a blind eye to abuses, thinking that what Iraqis do with their own detainees is 'Iraqi business,' " General Casey wrote in an extract first published by The Washington Post.
2005.05.31 The lie about liberty [cached] Uzbekistan has shown former Soviet states that the west tolerates the repression of peaceful protest in return for oil.
2005.05.31 Salute to US troops from those at home [cached] The change in attitude suggests a shift, as Americans increasingly separate the men and women in combat from their own opinions about the rightness of the mission, with antiwar protesters even donating Kevlar body armor to soldiers in Iraq.
2005.05.31 Saddam trial 'within two months' [cached] Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has said he expects the trial of Saddam Hussein for alleged crimes against humanity to begin within two months.
2005.05.31 C.I.A. Expanding Terror Battle Under Guise of Charter Flights [cached] (Scott Shane, Stephen Grey and Margot Williams) Behind a cover of front companies and shell corporations, the C.I.A. has rapidly expanded its air operations as it has pursued and questioned terrorist suspects.
2005.05.31 Basra out of control, says chief of police [cached] The chief of police in Basra admitted yesterday that he had effectively lost control of three-quarters of his officers and that sectarian militias had infiltrated the force and were using their posts to assassinate opponents.
2005.05.31 Abducted Iraq governor found dead [cached] The kidnapped governor of Iraq's Anbar province has been found dead along with his suspected captors after a clash with US forces.
2005.05.31 'Tank girl' army accused of torture [cached] Guardian and Human Rights Watch find evidence of abuse by Iranian revolutionaries under US protection. The Mujahideen are a 4000-strong anti-Iranian dissident army, currently under US protection in a camp in Iraq. They have a vociferous public relations campaign in Britain and the backing of some Washington neo-conservatives.
2005.05.30 U.S. to indict two senior AIPAC officials under Espionage Act [cached] At the meeting, in a mall near the Pentagon, Franklin told Weissman that Iranian agents were trying to capture Israeli civilians working in the Kurdish area in northern Iraq. Around the same time there had been conflicting reports in Washington about an Israeli presence in Kurdish Iraq. Journalist Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker had written that Israelis were operating there, but Israel - and the Americans - denied it.
2005.05.30 Iraq bombers hit security forces [cached] At least 27 people have been killed in a dual suicide bomb attack in the mainly Shia town of Hilla, 95km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, officials say.
2005.05.30 Fresh talks aim to avoid religious war [cached] A weekend meeting between senior figures from the Sunni Association of Muslim Clerics and the Shia Badr Brigades - the militia of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the biggest Shia party - sought to ease tensions caused by the killing of at least 14 Sunni clerics in the past month.
2005.05.27 Pressure builds on Iraq insurgency [cached] But it is under increasing pressure from numerous US offensives in western Iraq, the loss of two-dozen top lieutenants, and intelligence from Zarqawi's captured computer. Iraq's budding government is also tightening its grip, announcing Thursday that it would launch a new offensive with 40,000 troops and set up 600 checkpoints in Baghdad.
2005.05.27 Pentagon Confirms Koran Incidents. 'Mishandling' Cases Preceded Guidelines Established in 2003 [cached] Pentagon officials said yesterday that investigators have identified five incidents of military guards and an interrogator "mishandling" the Koran at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but characterized the episodes as minor and said most occurred before specific rules on the treatment of Muslim holy items were issued.
2005.05.27 Our man in the territories [cached] No one knew until now what veteran television journalist Haim Yavin thought about the news he has been announcing for more than three decades, and he is so nonpartisan that one wondered whether he had an opinion of his own at all. Now, at 72, he is coming out of the closet: "Since 1967 we have been brutal conquerors, occupiers, suppressing another people," he says in "Yoman Masa" ("Diary of a Journey"), which he filmed in the West Bank.
2005.05.27 Iraq's tensions spill onto campus [cached] Up to 50 professors have been killed, UN reports. But rebuilding includes 4,000 new staff at 20 universities.
2005.05.27 Iraq unveils huge Baghdad offensive [cached] Iraq's government will pour tens of thousands of Iraqi troops into Baghdad in an unprecedented operation to seal off the city and hunt insurgents who have begun a fresh wave of violence.
2005.05.26 Zarqawi 'replaced by deputy' [cached] Speculation over the fate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the insurgent leader in Iraq, grew today as a statement on a militant website said a deputy had been appointed to take over his duties.
2005.05.26 US helicopter shot down in Iraq [cached] A US helicopter has crashed in Iraq, after coming under small arms fire, the US military has said.
2005.05.26 The U.S. removes the nuclear brakes [cached] Under the cloak of secrecy imparted by use of military code names, the American administration has been taking a big - and dangerous - step that will lead to the transformation of the nuclear bomb into a legitimate weapon for waging war.
2005.05.26 Iraqi government announces crackdown [cached] Speculation over fate of wounded insurgent leader in Iraq grows as statement on militant website says deputy appointed to take over his duties.
2005.05.26 Iraq to launch huge Baghdad raids [cached] More than 40,000 Iraqi soldiers are to be deployed in Baghdad in a massive operation to hunt down insurgents, the Iraqi defence minister has announced.
2005.05.26 Iraq backs Zarqawi wounded claim [cached] Reports that al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been wounded are true, the country's interior minister has said.
2005.05.26 FBI memo reignites Qur'an furore [cached] Further allegations that US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay flushed copies of the Qur'an down a toilet emerge.
2005.05.26 Analysis: Zarqawi's insurgency [cached] Reports and rumours continue to circulate about the condition and whereabouts of the Jordanian-born insurgent leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
2005.05.26 Amnesty says U.S. leads global attack on rights [cached] London-based Amnesty cited the pictures last year of abuse of detainees at Iraq's U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison, which it said were never adequately investigated, and the detention without trial of "enemy combatants" at the U.S. Naval base in Cuba.
2005.05.26 A violent street finds calm [cached] US and Iraqi officers hope "Haifa" will serve as a template for spreading government control across Iraq and undercutting the insurgency. But they say it will take years to bring enough Iraqi troops up to the level of Delta Company, 1st Battalion 1st Iraqi Army Brigade, that now walks freely in Haifa.
2005.05.26 US marine cleared of Iraq killing [cached] The US Marine Corps has dismissed charges against a marine accused of murdering suspected Iraqi insurgents.
2005.05.25 Zarqawi wounded, website says [cached] The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been wounded, according to a statement published on the internet today.
2005.05.25 Zarqawi reported wounded in Iraq [cached] Al-Qaeda's group in Iraq said its leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been wounded but that would only serve as an inspiration to step up its attacks against "the enemy of God."
2005.05.25 Amnesty slams Israel 'war crimes' [cached] Amnesty International has accused Israel of committing war crimes in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
2005.05.25 Amnesty accuses US over 'torture' [cached] Governments around the world betrayed their commitment to human rights in 2004, Amnesty International says.
2005.05.25 AI Report: USA [cached] A February report by the ICRC on abuses by Coalition forces in Iraq, which in some cases were judged to be "tantamount to torture", was also leaked as was the report of an investigation by US Army Major General Antonio Taguba. The Taguba report had found "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" against detainees in Abu Ghraib prison between October and December 2003. It had also found that US agents in Abu Ghraib had hidden a number of detainees from the ICRC, referred to as "ghost detainees". It was later revealed that one of these detainees had died in custody, one of several such deaths that were revealed during the year where torture or ill-treatment was thought to be a contributory factor.
2005.05.25 AI Report: Summary [cached] US President George W. Bush has repeatedly asserted that the USA was founded upon and is dedicated to the cause of human dignity. It was a theme of his speech to the UN General Assembly in September 2004. Yet during his first term of office, the USA proved to be far from the global human rights champion it proclaimed itself to be.
2005.05.25 AI Report: Israel and the Occupied Territories [cached] The Israeli army killed more than 700 Palestinians, including some 150 children. Most were killed unlawfully - in reckless shooting, shelling and air strikes in civilian residential areas; in extrajudicial executions; and as a result of excessive use of force. Palestinian armed groups killed 109 Israelis - 67 of them civilians and including eight children - in suicide bombings, shootings and mortar attacks.
2005.05.25 AI Report: Iraq [cached] US-led forces in Iraq committed gross human rights violations, including unlawful killings and arbitrary detention, and evidence emerged of torture and ill-treatment. Thousands of Iraqi civilians were killed during armed clashes between US-led forces and Iraqi security forces on the one side, and Iraqi armed groups on the other.
2005.05.24 Zarqawi reported wounded in Iraq [cached] Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the man blamed for some of the bloodiest insurgent attacks in Iraq, has been wounded, according to a militant website.
2005.05.24 Pelosi Delivers Speech to American Israel Public Affairs Committee [cached] (Nancy Pelosi) "There are those who contend that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. This is absolute nonsense. In truth, the history of the conflict is not over occupation, and never has been: it is over the fundamental right of Israel to exist."
2005.05.24 Pelosi Delivers Speech to American Israel Public Affairs Committee [cached] (Nancy Pelosi) "There are those who contend that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. This is absolute nonsense. In truth, the history of the conflict is not over occupation, and never has been: it is over the fundamental right of Israel to exist."
2005.05.24 A restraint of liberty [cached] (George Monbiot) Faced with a choice between market freedom and human life, governments have chosen to preserve the former
2005.05.24 A base for the corruption of democracy [cached] (Scott Ritter) As the honeymoon period of the much-hyped 30 January elections in Iraq comes to an end amid the explosions of car bombs and continuous US military action, the harsh reality that these elections have failed to produce a government capable of governing, let alone govern in a fashion that resembles any notion of what a democracy should look like, comes crashing home.
2005.05.23 US military to build four giant new bases in Iraq [cached] US military commanders are planning to pull back their troops from Iraq's towns and cities and redeploy them in four giant bases in a strategy they say is a prelude to eventual withdrawal.
2005.05.23 Officers to be investigated over Iraqi's death [cached] Lawyers acting for the family of the Iraqi hotel receptionist who died in the custody of British soldiers welcome reports that the army is to investigate the role allegedly played by senior officers.
2005.05.22 UN inspector paints bleak picture of Saddam's jail [cached] Barton, who gave an exclusive interview to The Observer, decided to speak out to highlight what he believes is the unjust detention of scientists at the Baghdad jail.
2005.05.22 Top Iraq trade official shot dead [cached] A senior Iraqi trade ministry official has been shot dead in Baghdad, the latest in a series of assassinations of government figures, police have said.
2005.05.22 Romanian hostages freed in Iraq [cached] Three Romanian journalists kidnapped in Iraq in March have been freed, the Romanian government has announced.
2005.05.22 Officer drawn into Iraq jail death probe [cached] A senior British Army officer has been warned he is under investigation over events that lead to the death in custody of an Iraqi civilian.
2005.05.22 Inside secret Saddam prison [cached] Illicit humiliating pictures of the jailed ex-dictator have focused attention on the Baathist regime's fate. Peter Beaumont , Paul Harris and Antony Barnett report on how they shook America and the world
2005.05.22 Head of Iraq Reconstruction Says Unexpected Security Costs Eating Into Budget [cached] The head of the U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq said Saturday that as much as 16 percent of the $21 billion reconstruction budget would be spent on providing security for its projects and workers -- roughly double the original estimate.
2005.05.22 Commanders Plan Eventual Consolidation of U.S. Bases in Iraq [cached] U.S. military commanders have prepared plans to consolidate American troops in Iraq into four large air bases as they look ahead to giving up more than 100 other bases now occupied by international forces, officers said.
2005.05.22 Afghan leader heads for Bush showdown [cached] Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai was last night on his way to the US, promising to confront George Bush over the growing scandal about American abuse of Afghan prisoners.
2005.05.21 US probes Saddam's prison photos [cached] The US is holding an inquiry into how photos of a half-naked Saddam Hussein were leaked to a UK newspaper, which has now printed more pictures of him.
2005.05.21 Iraqi PM to visit Syria to demand border crackdown [cached] Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced Friday that he will soon visit neighboring Syria to demand a crackdown against foreign insurgents crossing into the country and information on whether the government has any ties to the gunmen. Jaafari, on his first visit abroad since taking office a month ago, also pledged that his new government would pursue any foreign bank accounts held by former President Saddam Hussein and his allies and demand the return of the money to Iraq.
2005.05.21 Iraq agrees to Iran request for more Saddam charges [cached] Iraq has acceded to Iranian calls for additional war crimes charges against Saddam Hussein and his top aides in connection with the 1980-88 war between the two countries, the Foreign Ministry said Friday. The news came as sectarian tensions in the country worsened, with Baghdad's main Sunni mosques closing for three days to protest against what clerics said were killings of clerics by a Shiite militia.
2005.05.21 In the belly of the beast [cached] (Scott Ritter) Regardless of how one views his politics, the citizens of Britain can be proud of George Galloway.
2005.05.21 Attacks 'delay' Iraq rebuilding [cached] Too much money earmarked for rebuilding Iraq is being diverted to tackle security demands, the US official in charge of post-war reconstruction says.
2005.05.21 Angry Sunnis shut Baghdad mosques [cached] Sunni mosques in Baghdad have been closed to worshippers as part of a three-day protest against a recent series of killings of Sunni Muslims.
2005.05.20 Where torture and terror rule [cached] The slaughter of civilians by Uzbek troops has exposed to the world President Islam Karimov's war on his own people. Travelling across the country, Justin Marozzi heard the voices of fear everywhere
2005.05.20 The Secret Way to War [cached] (Mark Danner) As Americans watch their young men and women fighting in the third year of a bloody counterinsurgency war in Iraq, they are left to ponder "the unanswered question" of what would have happened if the United Nations weapons inspectors had been allowed to complete their work. Thanks to a formerly secret memorandum published by the London Sunday Times on May 1, during the run-up to the British elections, we now have a partial answer to that question.
2005.05.20 Iraq asks neighbors to stop infiltration of terrorists [cached] Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari called on his country's neighbors to help prevent the infiltration of foreign terrorists into Iraq as a series of attacks around the country killed at least a dozen Iraqis and two American soldiers. His appeal came one day after a top U.S. military official said that the leaders of Iraq's most notorious terrorist group recently held a secret meeting in neighboring Syria, where they plotted the recent wave of insurgent violence that has killed hundreds of people. The official called Syria "a major disruptive force" in the region and a corridor for foreign Islamist militants infiltrating into Iraq to fight U.S. forces.
2005.05.20 Iraq PM's symbolic trip to Turkey [cached] There are at first glance a good number of reasons why Turkey should not be the first place for the new Iraqi prime minister - and a sizeable chunk of his ministerial team - to visit.
2005.05.20 Iraq PM makes first foreign trip [cached] Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari has been holding talks in Turkey, on his first official foreign trip since the new government was formed.
2005.05.20 British Memo on U.S. Plans for Iraq War Fuels Critics [cached] (Douglas Jehl) Critics of the Bush administration are portraying a British government memo as evidence that the president was intent on war with Iraq earlier than acknowledged.
2005.05.20 A Divided Iraq [cached] The dream of a new Iraq will ebb away unless leaders of the ruling Shiite and Kurdish coalition reach out to their Sunni neighbors.
2005.05.19 The lies that led to war [cached] (Juan Cole) A leaked British memo, and other documents, make it clear that Bush intended all along to invade Iraq -- and lied about it to the American people. The full gravity of his offense has not yet sunk in.
2005.05.18 Why federalism in Iraq is inconsistent [cached] Three major structural and ideological features of a federated Iraq seem to have been lost on the assembly: a) the participants fail to understand the nature of federalism, b) if the make up of Iraq should be reconsidered, then why not the Arab world as a whole? And c) a federated Iraq perpetuates the occupation.
2005.05.18 Two possible futures for Iraq's struggle [cached] Beneath the day-to-day challenges that face Iraq, faint outlines are beginning to emerge of how the country might look after several key actions are taken over coming months - and depending on how Iraqis respond to them.
2005.05.18 Little light shed on Iraq pullou [cached] A passing reference to Iraq in the Queen's speech disguises a growing assumption among military commanders that British forces will be deployed there for years.
2005.05.18 Is the U.S. retarding Arab reform? [cached] Two related and important issues that are widely debated these days among analysts, citizens and foreign military invaders of the Middle East are: Why has the pace of democratic reform been so inconsistent over the years, and what is the impact of the new American policy of promoting reforms in this region? It is critically important that the political debate, and the related diplomatic and cultural negotiations between Arabs, Americans and Europeans over these issues, be conducted with much more honesty than was the case, for example, with the thin debate over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before that country was attacked.
2005.05.18 Iraq and Iran hail new era in relations [cached] Baghdad and Tehran pledged to turn the page on nearly a quarter of a century of war and bitter rivalry during a visit to Iraq by Iran's foreign minister, who said his country will help to stop insurgents crossing into its neighbor's territory. Speaking at a joint news conference, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said: "I have no doubt this visit will open up significant new horizons for cooperation between the two countries."
2005.05.17 US 'backed illegal Iraqi oil deals' [cached] Report claims blind eye was turned to sanctions busting by American firms In fact, the Senate report found that US oil purchases accounted for 52% of the kickbacks paid to the regime in return for sales of cheap oil - more than the rest of the world put together.
2005.05.17 Rice warns Syria to close its borders to terrorists [cached] U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sharply criticized Syria on Monday for what she called unwillingness to close its borders to terrorists she said are to blame for some of the violence in Iraq. "Their unwillingness to deal with the crossings of their border into Iraq is frustrating the will of the Iraqi people," and leading to the deaths of innocent Iraqis, Rice said en route home from a surprise trip to see Iraq's new leaders.
2005.05.17 Iraq draws up plan to privatize state-owned firms [cached] Iraq's Industry Ministry plans to partially privatize most of its 46 state-owned companies as part of the government's plan to establish a liberal, free-market economy. Later this year, the ministry is expected to launch a search for domestic and foreign partners in the private sector to jointly run companies in the petrochemical.
2005.05.17 Iraq clerics killed 'to provoke' [cached] At least three Iraqi clerics have been killed in a rising wave of violence that observers say seems to be aimed at sparking sectarian conflict.
2005.05.17 In quotes: Galloway showdown [cached] "I have met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is that Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps the better to target those guns."
2005.05.17 HSBC in talks to buy Iraqi bank [cached] Global banking giant HSBC is in talks to buy a majority stake in Iraqi bank Dar Es Salaam Investment bank.
2005.05.17 Galloway takes on US oil accusers [cached] British MP George Galloway has told US senators who accused him of profiting from Iraq oil dealings their claims were the "mother of all smokescreens".
2005.05.17 Explosive showdown in Senate [cached] George Galloway had vowed to give US senators "both barrels" and after sitting - coiled - through an hour-and-half of testimony against him, he unloaded all his ammunition.
2005.05.17 Dueling views on Army size: Congress vs. Rumsfeld [cached] Wednesday Congress will again take up what, in many ways, is the most fundamental military question of the Iraq war and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's tumultuous tenure: Is the Army big enough to do its job?
2005.05.17 Democrats tie BayOil to Iraq's purchase of bombs [cached] Houston's BayOil played a key role in helping Saddam Hussein's government purchase cluster bombs during Iraq's bloody war with Iran, Democrats on a Senate panel contend.
2005.05.17 Abu Ghraib soldier found guilty [cached] A US military court has found Army reservist Sabrina Harman guilty of abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.
2005.05.17 US 'ignored Iraq oil smuggling' [cached] The US turned a blind eye to the former Iraq regime's $8bn trade in smuggled oil, a new US Senate report says.
2005.05.16 Rice pushes role for Iraq Sunnis [cached] US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has stressed the importance of Sunni Arabs being more involved in drafting Iraq's new constitution.
2005.05.16 Rice pleads for patience during visit to Iraq [cached] The US secretary of state has made a surprise visit to Iraq, urging Iraqis to be patient with their government as it struggles to beat the insurgency, and stressing a political rather than purely military solution.
2005.05.15 Secret emails, missing weapons [cached] In an exclusive interview, a former arms inspector tells Antony Barnett that, a year after the Kelly affair, a spy chief tried to 'sex up' his Iraq report.
2005.05.15 Not Just A Last Resort? A Global Strike Plan, With a Nuclear Option. [cached] (William Arkin) The events of 9/11 shifted the focus of planning. There was no war plan for Afghanistan on the shelf, not even a generic one. In Afghanistan, the synergy of conventional bombing and special operations surprised everyone. But most important, weapons of mass destruction became the American government focus. It is not surprising, then, that barely three months after that earth-shattering event, the Pentagon's quadrennial Nuclear Posture Review assigned the military and Stratcom the task of providing greater flexibility in nuclear attack options against Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Syria and China.
2005.05.15 Medals for journalists? Yes please [cached] The Observer's Paul Harris explains why he is happy to collect a gong for 'serving' with the British forces in Iraq as an embedded reporter
2005.05.15 MI6 boss 'tried to sex up' Iraq study [cached] Head of MI6 accused by the body charged with finding weapons of mass destruction after Saddam Hussein was toppled.
2005.05.14 US army cuts tour of duty as recruitment declines [cached] The US Army has begun offering 15-month active duty tours rather than the usual four-year enlistment as it struggles to halt a growing crisis in recruitment caused by the rising number of casualties in Iraq.
2005.05.14 Iraq rebels 'flushed out by US' [cached] The US has said its forces have cleared an area in north-west Iraq of insurgents following a week-long operation codenamed Matador.
2005.05.14 Four killed in Iraq suicide blast [cached] At least four people have died in a suicide car bomb attack targeting a police convoy in central Baghdad.
2005.05.14 Agents and Ambassadors [cached] Too bad John Bolton wasn't at the U.N. back when it was enriching Saddam.
2005.05.13 Rebuff for Bush on UN envoy [cached] Republican senator attacks outspoken hawk's track record and warns US has to improve image abroad
2005.05.13 Pasqua raps US Iraq 'obsession' [cached] Former French minister Charles Pasqua says he has been falsely named in the Iraq oil scandal as part of a US bid to discredit President Jacques Chirac.
2005.05.13 Iraqi living standards 'plummet' [cached] Living conditions for Iraqis have plunged over the past 25 years with many households struggling to fulfil basic needs, an Iraqi-UN report says.
2005.05.13 Afghanistan riddled with drug ties [cached] The involvement of local as well as high-level government officials in the opium trade is frustrating efforts to eradicate poppy fields.
2005.05.13 'Thousands' flee fighting in Iraq [cached] Thousands of Iraqis have fled fighting between US troops and insurgents in the west of the country, aid workers say.
2005.05.12 The veneer of fraternity [cached] (Sidney Blumenthal) Tony Blair is not the first British prime minister to embrace a US president's mendacity, but he could well be the last
2005.05.12 Politics in a bloody mist [cached] Even by Iraqi standards, yesterday was a terrible day. At least 71 people lost their lives in several suicide bombings, outside Kirkuk in the north, in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit and in Baghdad.
2005.05.12 Lawless Iraq is 'key drug route' [cached] Drug smugglers exploiting internal chaos in Iraq have turned the country into a transit route for Afghan heroin, an influential drug agency says.
2005.05.12 Galloway faces renewed claims over Saddam oil [cached] George Galloway faces allegations from the US Senate over whether he benefited from the Iraq oil-for-food programme run under Saddam Hussein.
2005.05.12 Galloway accepts Washington call [cached] British MP George Galloway says he is ready to face down US senators who claim he received oil rights from Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
2005.05.12 Baghdad shaken by fresh attacks [cached] A car bomb exploded in a market in eastern Baghdad, killing at least 12 people, as a relentless anti-US insurgency swept through the country.
2005.05.12 Abu Ghraib US colonel reprimanded [cached] A top US commander at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq - where detainees were abused by American guards - has been reprimanded and fined $8,000
2005.05.11 The Lost Palestinians [cached] (Hussein Agha, Robert Malley) Barring an unforeseen development, Palestinians will vote in their second post-Arafat national elections this summer. Unlike the presidential balloting, in which the election of Abu Mazen was entirely predictable, the elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council are clouded in uncertainty.
2005.05.11 Suicide bombs cause Iraq carnage [cached] Suicide bombers have set off a wave of blasts in Iraq, killing at least 71 people and injuring more than 100 in the bloodiest day since February.
2005.05.11 Riots over US Koran 'desecration' [cached] The unrest follows a report in the American magazine, Newsweek, that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had placed copies of the Koran on toilets in order to put pressure on Muslim prisoners.
2005.05.11 King of Jordan to pardon Iraq's deputy PM over $300m bank fraud [cached] King Abdullah of Jordan has agreed to pardon Ahmed Chalabi, the controversial Iraqi political leader, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for fraud after his bank collapsed with $300m in missing deposits in 1989.
2005.05.11 Dozens die in Iraqi suicide bombings [cached] The most deadly of the attacks took place in Hawija, 150 miles north of the capital, where at least 30 people were killed and 35 wounded outside a police and army recruitment centre. Police said a man with explosives hidden under his clothes set them off while standing in a queue of job applicants. Further south in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, at least 27 were killed and 75 injured when a suicide car bomb exploded near a police station, police said.
2005.05.10 US urged to find Cuban suspect [cached] The Bush administration was under pressure yesterday to track down a Cuban exile and former CIA agent implicated in a series of terrorist attacks.
2005.05.10 US claims success in Iraq border offensive [cached] The announcement of the offensive came as US forces and Iraqi authorities tried to wrest the propaganda initiative from insurgents who have unleashed a wave of attacks in Iraqi cities in an attempt to destabilise the government of Ibrahim al-Jaafari, which took office last month.
2005.05.10 One step ahead of the US military [cached] So US forces have launched a major offensive in the west to root out insurgent safe havens and supply routes. But the real response, it seems, is a high-profile abduction, which grabs attention and therefore scores a propaganda victory of sorts.
2005.05.10 New model army cuts its teeth [cached] The Pentagon has admitted that only a third of the hastily built 155,000-strong force can mount serious counter-insurgency operations. With just eight weeks' basic training soldiers tend to fire wildly upon hearing a bomb. It is one reason they are not allowed to ride with US military personnel. Police can be even less disciplined and are accused of seeking bribes from motorists and detainees. Up to a quarter do not show up for work. An interior ministry spokesman, Sabah Kadim, said 35,000 police were not working "for a variety of reasons".
2005.05.10 Iraq rebels kidnap province chief [cached] Insurgents have abducted the governor of one of Iraq's most dangerous provinces and called for an end to US operations close to the Syrian border. Raja Nawaf, governor of the western province of Anbar, was seized at a roadblock between the town of Qaim and the provincial capital, Ramadi. The kidnappers demanded the withdrawal of US troops from Qaim, where the US says it has killed 100 insurgents.
2005.05.10 Bomb blasts hits central Baghdad [cached] More than 300 people are believed to have died in violence this month. As of Monday, 1,224 members of the US military have died as a result of hostile action, according to the US defence department.
2005.05.09 US forces 'kill Iraq insurgents' [cached] The US military in Iraq says it has killed 75 insurgents, including foreign fighters, in a desert region close to the border with Syria.
2005.05.09 U.S. Officers In Iraq Put Priority on Extremists [cached] Senior U.S. commanders say their view of the Iraqi insurgency has begun to shift, with higher priority being given to combating foreign fighters and Iraqi jihadists.
2005.05.09 Soldier lifts lid on Guantanamo 'abuse' [cached] A former US soldier who worked on interrogations at Guantanamo Bay has written a damning expose of the brutal, degrading treatment he says was meted out to prisoners there.
2005.05.09 Japanese national seized in Iraq [cached] Islamic militants say they have seized a Japanese man working for a security firm in Iraq and have posted pictures of his identity card on a website.
2005.05.09 Iraq's New Government [cached] Obviously the new government has to find a way to make Sunnis a part of the political process. But the bitter-end Baathists want to topple the government, not join it. They can't be appeased. Some level of de-Baathification remains a priority for at least the 80% of Iraqis who are Kurdish and Shiite (and many honest Sunnis as well). But Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi told us last week by phone that there will not be any wholesale purges in the security forces or government.
2005.05.09 Former ministers flee as Iraq begins corruption inquiry [cached] (Patrick Cockburn) Former Iraqi ministers are fleeing the country because of reports that the new administration may prevent them going abroad while accusations of corruption are being investigated.
2005.05.09 Australian Muslim to aid hostage [cached] One of Australia's most senior Muslim leaders is heading to Iraq to attempt to secure the release of an Australian held by militants for more than a week.
2005.05.08 Iraq fills crucial cabinet post [cached] Moments after the vote, however, Hashim al-Shible, a Sunni Arab, turned down the post of human rights minister. Mr Shible told the BBC that he had not been consulted about his last-minute nomination and that he did not want to take on a post purely on the basis of his ethnicity.
2005.05.06 Afraid to tell the truth [cached] (Joe Conason) A secret memo publicized in Britain confirms the lies on which Bush based his Iraq policy. Why has it received so little notice in the U.S. press?
2005.05.05 They were lining up to join Iraq's police - but in the queue was a suicide bomber [cached] Irbil, 217 miles north of Baghdad, is home to the Kurdish regional government, which presides over the safest part of Iraq. But its proximity to the insurgency stronghold of Mosul makes it difficult to secure, according to a Kurdish security source. He said the original target may have been a scheduled meeting between the two main Kurdish parties which was postponed yesterday.
2005.05.05 Suspected al-Qaida number three captured after gunbattle in Pakistan [cached] Some analysts have questioned whether Libbi's importance has been overplayed to mask the failure of US and Pakistani forces to find Bin Laden. They say he is not on the FBI's list of the world's most wanted terrorists. "He looks like a middle-ranking al-Qaida individual who had some links with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed," Sajjan Gohel, of the London-based Asia-Pacific Foundation, told the BBC.
2005.05.05 IDF suspends officer after Palestinian boys killed [cached] Oudai A'asi, 14, and his 15-year-old cousin Kamal A'asi, both from the West Bank village of Beit Lakia, were shot dead while throwing stones along with dozens of other protesters at a separation fence work site next to a village north of Highway 443.
2005.05.05 Bush tries to cool Italian row over Iraq killing [cached] "It is clear that in the Calipari affair there are two differ ent versions of events and it is obvious that one of them is totally unfounded," Roberto Calderoli, Italy's reforms minister, said. When pressed by reporters, he said the American version was "clearly a lie". A member of the populist Northern League, Mr Calderoli is among the cabinet's more outspoken members. But his comments echoed widespread fury in Italy over the US's refusal to accept any blame.
2005.05.05 Al Qaeda's No. 3 a major capture [cached] Meanwhile, hundreds of local and foreign militants have been killed by Pakistan's security forces in the tribal belt during the past year. And Pakistan has handed over some 700 suspected Al Qaeda militants to the US, most of whom have been captured in cities and towns rather than the remote, mountainous region bordering Afghanistan.
2005.05.05 Abu Ghraib guilty plea thrown out [cached] A US judge declared a mistrial yesterday in the case against Private Lynndie England, accused of abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib, saying he was not convinced by her guilty plea.
2005.05.04 US soldier forced to change plea [cached] He said her plea rested on the assumption that she knew what she was doing was wrong - but that other testimony contradicted this.
2005.05.04 Suicide bomber hits Iraqi Kurds [cached] Around 60 people have been killed and up to 150 wounded in a suicide bombing at a police recruitment centre in the Kurdish city of Irbil in northern Iraq.
2005.05.04 Saddam nephew seized near Tikrit [cached] Formerly the head of the intelligence service, he was number 36 on a US list of the 55 most-wanted members of the ousted regime.
2005.05.04 Perhaps the neocons got it right in the Middle East [cached] The most powerful reason for remaining cautious about Iraq must be doubt - shared by many US officers - about whether the country is sustainable as a unitary state. It is hard to believe that the Sunnis will quickly reconcile themselves to Shia supremacy, or that the Shias now leading the government will forswear payback for decades of subjection. The Kurds will do their own thing in their own region. Only fear of American wrath and Turkish intervention can dissuade them from breakaway. Yet it still seems reasonable to question the optimism currently prevailing among Washington's neocons, because this remains founded upon a woefully simplistic vision. It is true that, in some chronic, unstable regions, some bad governments - those of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein - have been removed by the Americans. But the fragile advantages gained will be lost, unless Washington can match its boldness in the deployment of military power with a new sensitivity to alien cultures, matched by far more subtle political skills.
2005.05.04 Partial Iraqi Cabinet takes power [cached] Jaafari explained that several candidates were being considered for the defense post and predicted that Sunni Arabs would agree on a name "in two or three days." Vice President Ghazi al-Yawar, who complained of under-representation after the line-up was approved by Parliament, did not attend Tuesday's ceremony. The Sunni Arabs fear a government dominated by Shiites and Kurds - two communities oppressed by Saddam Hussein's regime - would pursue an aggressive agenda to remove them from the country's institutions and security forces.
2005.05.04 Old brutality among new Iraqi forces [cached] The Iraqi Association to Defend Journalists is investigating several cases in which security forces allegedly beat or intimidated Iraqi journalists. And in a report issued in January, Human Rights Watch said that torture and abuse by Iraqi authorities had become "routine and commonplace."
2005.05.04 Nuclear double standards [cached] (Simon Tisdall) Mr Bolton helped to scrap the Clinton administration's 1994 "agreed framework" that froze North Korea's weapons-related plutonium reprocessing programme. The framework was imperfect - but nothing remotely adequate replaced it.
2005.05.04 New Iraq PM fails to fill cabinet [cached] Seven posts in Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari's government - including the defence and oil ministries - remain empty amid partisan haggling.
2005.05.04 Iraqi ministers sworn in [cached] The administration inherited a heavy legacy, the prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, told the national assembly in Baghdad. "We are afflicted by corruption, lack of services, unemployment and mass graves."
2005.05.04 Fighting mad [cached] Dave Corrigan was proud to be a British soldier serving in Iraq. Then he was wounded and his nightmare began. He tells Ed Vulliamy why, as the only war casualty in Tony Blair's constituency, he'll be voting against the PM - and why his old comrades should all be brought home
2005.05.04 Colombia arrests two US soldiers [cached] Colombia has arrested two US soldiers on suspicion of trafficking weapons to right-wing paramilitary groups.
2005.05.04 'Bring me the head of Bin Laden' [cached] The CIA sent a team to Afghanistan days after 9/11 with orders to kill Osama Bin Laden and bring back his head, a former agent has revealed.
2005.05.03 US military jets missing in Iraq [cached] In a brief statement, the US military said the two Marine Corps aircraft were flying in support of operations when contact was lost.
2005.05.03 Tigris Tales: Two years ago Shia and Sunni lived happily alongside each other. Now they are divided by fear and hatred [cached] No, I didn't know that. Two years ago, the day after Saddam's statue was toppled in Baghdad, I was quoted by a Guardian journalist as saying: "There is no line dividing the Sunni and Shia in Iraq." But two years later, these lines are getting deeper every day. With every car bomb targeting Shia mosques, with every slaying of a Shia pilgrim passing through Sunni land, with every Sunni man killed or arrested by mistake because he looked like an insurgent, the lines become enshrined in our politics and in our daily life.
2005.05.03 Italy cites stress as factor in US killing of agent [cached] In their report, Italian investigators said there were no warning signs on the unlit highway six miles from Baghdad airport to let motorists, including their agent, know that they were approaching a military roadblock.
2005.05.03 Italian report queries US claims [cached] The report blames the troops' stress and inexperience, and says the US authorities should have signalled that there was a checkpoint on the road.
2005.05.03 Iran slams US over nuclear stance [cached] Iran has escalated its war of words with the US over Tehran's nuclear programme, calling Washington's arsenal a major threat to global peace.
2005.05.03 Eight dead in Baghdad car-bomb attacks [cached] Violence has exacerbated sectarian tensions since Shiites and Kurds became the dominant groups in Iraq, while the Sunnis who dominated under Saddam Hussein were marginalized by the election. Iraqi officials and ordinary citizens play down sectarian troubles, but the carnage has raised fears of civil war in Iraq, an oil producer that has watched violence destroy its economy.
2005.05.03 Despite hardships of war, many soldiers reenlist [cached] In a normal year, the Army National Guard expects 18 percent of its soldiers to leave because of retirement, injury, and death, or because they do not reenlist. This year, the attrition rate is only 18.9 percent. Meanwhile, reenlistment rates for the Army and Marines are either exceeding goals or are within a few percentage points of them. Some data even show that reenlistment rates are higher for units deployed overseas than for those that have remained at home.
2005.05.03 Dereliction of duty regarding Iraq [cached] (Scott Ritter) In the months that have passed since Iraq's much-hyped democratic elections, one word keeps creeping into my mind as I assess the tragic events unfolding in Mesopotamia today: Vietnam.
2005.05.03 Clash at Iraq checkpoint kills 15 [cached] Clashes in the Iraqi city of Ramadi have left 12 insurgents, two Iraqi civilians and one Iraqi soldier dead, the US military says.
2005.05.03 Bomb kills British soldier on Iraq patrol [cached] Ms Toward last night blamed the prime minister for her husband's death. Speaking on the ITV News Channel, she said Mr Blair had deprived her three children of their father. "He sent the troops over and he should not have done it. If it was not for that, their dad would have been here today."
2005.05.03 Blair faces Iraq families' anger [cached] Relatives of troops killed in Iraq say they intend to take legal action to force a public inquiry into the war. But Tony Blair has ruled that out.
2005.05.03 Abu Ghraib abuse soldier admits indecent act [cached] Under the agreement, she can expect to receive no more than 30 months in prison. However, her defence team is hoping to secure an even lighter sentence from the jury by arguing that she has a history of learning disabilities and mental illness, and that she was under the corrupting influence of her then boyfriend, Graner.
2005.05.03 Sunni question dogs new Iraqi cabinet [cached] But the failure so far to satisfy and fully include the Sunnis is the most damaging flaw in the new government's claim to be comprehensive and all-embracing. The outgoing President, and now Vice-President, Ghazi Yawer, who acted as broker for his fellow Sunnis, was clearly unhappy and did not regard the current formation as a national unity government.
2005.05.02 Pentagon Says Iraq Effort Limits Ability to Fight Other Conflicts [cached] The concentration of American troops and weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan limits the Pentagon's ability to deal with other potential armed conflicts, the military's highest ranking officer reported to Congress on Monday. The officer, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, informed Congress in a classified report that major combat operations elsewhere in the world, should they be necessary, would probably be more protracted and produce higher American and foreign civilian casualties because of the commitment of Pentagon resources in Iraq and Afghanistan.
2005.05.02 Papers reveal commitment to war [cached] Minutes from a Downing Street meeting reveal that Tony Blair backed regime change in Iraq at a meeting in July 2002, nine months before the war. Meeting intelligence and military chiefs, Mr Blair discussed military options, having already committed himself to supporting President Bush's plans to oust Saddam
2005.05.02 New Iraq leaders face violent surge [cached] A burst of weekend attacks in Baghdad following the formation of Iraq's government killed at least 80 people
2005.05.02 Iraq car bomb attacks 'kill 16' [cached] At least 16 people have died and 23 more hurt in a series of car bombs in two Iraqi cities, officials say.
2005.05.02 In the role of the rottweiler [cached] There are many reasons for this change - and first and foremost, the increased American involvement in the region and Iraq's transformation into a U.S. protectorate. Israel understands that it must not stand in the way of President George W. Bush, who is striving to shape a new Middle East. U.S. success in this regard is in Israel's interests. Nevertheless, it is difficult not to be impressed by the change in the thinking when one hears Israel Defense Forces generals admiringly quoting UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's statements on the dismantling of Hezbollah's military capabilities. The UN is no longer the target of disdain.
2005.05.02 From 'Gook' to 'Raghead' [cached] (Bob Herbert) "Guys in my unit, particularly the younger guys, would drive by in their Humvee and shatter bottles over the heads of Iraqi civilians passing by. They'd keep a bunch of empty Coke bottles in the Humvee to break over people's heads."
2005.05.02 Attorney general subject of Bar complaint [cached] The attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, faces a possible Bar Council disciplinary hearing over his advice on the legality of war against Iraq, after the council's conduct committee decided to consult a constitutional law expert on whether it has jurisdiction to deal with complaints that he breached the Bar's code.
2005.05.01 U.S. Recruits a Rough Ally to Be a Jailer [cached] Now there is growing evidence that the United States has sent terror suspects to Uzbekistan for detention and interrogation, even as Uzbekistan's treatment of its own prisoners continues to earn it admonishments from around the world, including from the State Department.
2005.05.01 The secret Downing Street memo [cached] The Prime Minister said that it would make a big difference politically and legally if Saddam refused to allow in the UN inspectors. Regime change and WMD were linked in the sense that it was the regime that was producing the WMD. There were different strategies for dealing with Libya and Iran. If the political context were right, people would support regime change. The two key issues were whether the military plan worked and whether we had the political strategy to give the military plan the space to work.
2005.05.01 The Way of the Commandos [cached] The campaign against the insurgency in Iraq is increasingly being waged by an elite regiment of Sunni-led fighters. Their leader is a former general in Saddam Hussein's army, their American adviser is a veteran of the Central American campaigns of the 1980's and they sometimes play by the rules of the old Iraq.
2005.05.01 PM fears 'mud will stick' as lead narrows [cached] Blair warned against a protest vote for the Lib Dems. 'There will be people who feel very, very strongly over Iraq, but if they vote Liberal Democrat in a seat where the Conservatives are second, it's not the policy on Iraq that would change - it's the policy on the economy, on the health service, on schools, on the minimum wage, the things they want to remain.'
2005.05.01 Italy media reveals Iraq details [cached] Italian media have published classified sections of an official US military inquiry into the accidental killing of an Italian agent in Baghdad.
2005.05.01 Iraq, the secret US visit, and an angry military chief [cached] Goldsmith also met William 'Jim' Haynes, who is Defence Secretary's Donald Rumsfeld's chief legal adviser, and John Bellinger, legal adviser to Condoleezza Rice, then the National Security Adviser. This group of lawyers is as renowned for fearsome intellect as it is for hard-line conservative politics. Bellinger is alleged to have said: 'We had trouble with your Attorney; we got there eventually.' From copies of Goldsmith's legal advice to the Prime Minister published last week, it is clear that these meetings had a pivotal role in shaping Goldsmith's view that there was a 'reasonable case' for war.
2005.05.01 Eleven die as Iraq attacks stay at peak [cached] At least five car bombs exploded in Baghdad yesterday, US military spokesman Greg Kaufman said. They included a suicide attack targeting a joint US military and Iraqi police patrol, killing one Iraqi and wounding seven, including four policemen.
2005.05.01 British military chief reveals new legal fears over Iraq war [cached] The man who led Britain's armed forces into Iraq has said that Tony Blair and the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, will join British soldiers in the dock if the military are ever prosecuted for war crimes in Iraq.
2005.05.01 Bombing of Iraqi Kurds kills 25 [cached] The bombing is reported to have targeted a Kurdish funeral in the northern town of Talafar, near Mosul.
2005.05.01 Blair planned Iraq war from start [cached] AS a civil service briefing paper specifically prepared for the July meeting reveals, Blair had made his fundamental decision on Saddam when he met President George W Bush in Crawford, Texas, in April 2002. "When the prime minister discussed Iraq with President Bush at Crawford in April," states the paper, "he said that the UK would support military action to bring about regime change."
2005.05.01 Blair hit by new leak of secret war plan [cached] A SECRET document from the heart of government reveals today that Tony Blair privately committed Britain to war with Iraq and then set out to lure Saddam Hussein into providing the legal justification.
2005.05.01 As casualties soar, America's women face reality of front line [cached] The ground war in Iraq has made the historical tradition of not having women in combat unworkable. A total of 35 US servicewomen have now died in Iraq and 271 have been injured. It is a small percentage of the 1,500 US service personnel fatalities and the 11,600 wounded, but these women are being killed and injured under enemy fire.
2005.05.00 The Fight for Fallujah [cached] White Phosphorous. WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition. We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE. We fired "shake and bake" missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out.
2005.04.30 War images released [cached] American presidents have been concerned about the effects on public morale of such images since the Vietnam war. But the Bush administration has been especially vigilant in enforcing regulations on the release of images. On the eve of the war, the Pentagon banned cameras from homecoming ceremonies for returning war dead.
2005.04.30 US and Italy clash over shooting [cached] Relations between the Bush administration and one of its closest European allies came under renewed strain last night when US and Italian investigators said they had failed to agree on the verdict of an inquiry into the shooting of an Italian intelligence agent by American soldiers in Iraq.
2005.04.30 Sudan becomes US ally in 'war on terror' [cached] In the Middle East and Africa, Sudan's agents have penetrated networks that would not normally be accessible to America, one former US intelligence official told the Guardian. Some of that cooperation has spilled over into the war in Iraq: Sudan is credited with detaining foreign militants on their way to join anti-American fighters there.
2005.04.30 Italy agent death was 'accident' [cached] The US military has confirmed that it will not discipline soldiers who shot dead an Italian agent in Iraq as he escorted a freed hostage to safety.
2005.04.30 Hundreds found in Iraq mass grave [cached] Experts have examined a mass grave containing what are believed to be the bodies of some 1,500 Kurds, mostly women and children, in southern Iraq.
2005.04.30 Car bombs kill 31 in Iraq after Cabinet formation [cached] Nearly a third of the 275-member National Assembly stayed away from Thursday's vote, underscoring the myriad ethnic and religious divisions that have hampered the formation of a government since landmark parliamentary elections on January 30.
2005.04.30 Blair concerned over Iraq effect [cached] Iraq looks set to dominate the final day of the last weekend of the campaign, with former Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce telling the BBC that he remains satisfied that he had unequivocal "top legal cover" for his forces when they went to war in 2003. He said that he had been seeking legal assurances since February, and that after the failure to secure a second UN resolution, it was "imperative to have something I could show my troops, for their peace of mind and their families' peace of mind".
2005.04.30 Abu Ghraib woman makes plea deal [cached] Private Lynndie England, 22, has agreed to a plea deal that will reduce her maximum jail sentence to 11 years.
2005.04.30 A turbulent beginning [cached] The slow pace of political change is crippling the ability of the government to tackle the insurgency and the larger wave of criminal violence that have made too many yearn for safer pre-war days. According to a new report for the International Institute of Strategic Studies, 20,000-50,000 insurgents organised into some 75 units still pose a formidable challenge to the understrength Iraqi army and police. Most are homegrown Ba'ath loyalists or those who combine nationalism and Islamism. Only a handful are foreign Sunni "jihadists" such as the notorious Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
2005.04.30 17 bombs greet new Iraqi cabinet [cached] Four bombs exploded in quick succession in the capital's Azamiyah district, two targeting Iraqi security force patrols and two targeting the interior ministry and its commando brigade. Some of the car bombs were reportedly driven by suicide bombers, but this could not be immediately confirmed. A photographer with the news agency AFP saw the remains of a hand chained to the steering wheel of a burned out car.
2005.04.29 Ten days that made a legal case for war [cached] (Ewen MacAskill, Richard Norton-Taylor) What is clear is that the full cabinet had not seen the attorney's full legal opinion of March 7, with all the caveats. This was despite an express requirement in the ministerial code that the whole cabinet should receive the "complete text" of advice from the government's law officers.
2005.04.29 Outsourcing the occupation [cached] Israel is the key to understanding United States President George W. Bush's strategy in Iraq. This is not because it had any influence on the decision-making process that led to the second Gulf War, but rather because the current administration adopted the model of "democratic occupation" - as former MK Tamar Gozansky of Hadash called it not long ago - that Israel developed in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
2005.04.29 Outsourcing the occupation [cached] Israel is the key to understanding United States President George W. Bush's strategy in Iraq. This is not because it had any influence on the decision-making process that led to the second Gulf War, but rather because the current administration adopted the model of "democratic occupation" - as former MK Tamar Gozansky of Hadash called it not long ago - that Israel developed in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
2005.04.29 Official Pariah Sudan Valuable to America's War on Terrorism [cached] The Sudanese government, an unlikely ally in the U.S. fight against terror, remains on the most recent U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. At the same time, however, it has been providing access to terrorism suspects and sharing intelligence data with the United States.
2005.04.29 Iraqi cabinet approval ends deadlock [cached] (Jonathan Steele) The interim national assembly endorsed a list drawn up by the prime minister, Ibrahim al- Jaafari, made up mainly of Shias and Kurds but excluding all members of the party of the outgoing prime minister, Ayad Allawi.
2005.04.29 Iraqi Parliament backs partial Cabinet [cached] No permanent ministers were named for the oil, defense, electricity, industry and human rights portfolios, while two deputy prime minister posts were left vacant. Jaafari will be acting defense minister and Ahmad Chalabi acting oil minister. Seven ministries went to women. Chalabi promised no abrupt changes at the ministry. "My focus will be stability," he told Reuters.
2005.04.29 Ex-CIA chief eats humble pie [cached] (Suzanne Goldenberg) A chastened former CIA director, George Tenet, says he regrets telling the White House that it was a "slam dunk" that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, an assertion that provided the Bush administration with its prime justification for the war. Seven months after the weapons inspectors of the Iraq Survey Group concluded that Saddam Hussein did not have a lethal weapons cache on the eve of the invasion, Mr Tenet admitted: "Those were the two dumbest words I ever said."
2005.04.29 'It raises concerns of the greatest constitutional significance' [cached] When the government consistently gave assurances that it would act only in compliance with international law, I think that most people took that to mean that the use of force would be in accordance with international law (the best view), not that it might be (a plausible view). No wonder the attorney general was not confident that a merely reasonable view might not stand up in court or even to the less formal public and parliamentary scrutiny to which he also refers. And no wonder that the chief of the defence staff required some more assurance than that there was a chance that the resort to force would be lawful.
2005.04.29 Iraq car bombs kill at least 29 [cached] At least 29 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in a wave of car bomb attacks targeting Iraqi security forces in and around Baghdad.
2005.04.28 Text: summary of attorney's advice Analysis by Anthony Lester QC [cached] pdf Yesterday the Guardian obtained a copy of the summary of the previously secret advice on the war in Iraq. This is reproduced in full below. Alongside is a point-by-point analysis of the document by Anthony Lester QC, a leading human rights lawyer and Liberal Democrat peer
2005.04.28 Revealed: the government's secret legal advice on Iraq war [cached] Attorney general feared court challenge. Weapons evidence was crucial. Warnings never given to cabinet Tony Blair was told by the government's most senior law officer in a confidential minute less than two weeks before the war that British participation in the American-led invasion of Iraq could be declared illegal.
2005.04.28 Profile: Ahmed Chalabi [cached] He has always denied being sidelined, but the first public sign of a possible rift between the Pentagon and Mr Chalabi came in mid-May. American officials announced then that the monthly payment of more than $300,000 to Mr Chalabi's party, the Iraqi National Congress, was to be stopped.
2005.04.28 Opposition demands Iraq answers [cached] Michael Howard said: "It is now obvious from this legal advice that on March 7 2003 the attorney general raised specific reservations about the legality of war in Iraq." Peter Brierley, whose 29-year-old son, Lance Corporal Shaun Brierley, died in an accident shortly after the war began, joined the ranks of those calling for the prime minister's resignation. He told Channel 4 News: "[The advice] seems to say that going to war was illegal and I can't see that Tony Blair has any choice now but to stand down."
2005.04.28 Iraqi MPs approve partial cabinet [cached] Seven posts were left vacant, including oil and defence Among the names on the new list is Shia politician Ahmed Chalabi, a one-time US favourite who fell from grace.
2005.04.28 Iraq insurgency gathers pace [cached] According to state department statistics released by Democratic congressman, Henry Waxman, the US government recorded 650 significant terrorist attacks last year, more than three times more than the 175 in 2003. About 60 people - Iraqis, Americans and others - are injured or killed each day.
2005.04.28 In New Manual, Army Limits Tactics in Interrogation [cached] The new manual, the first revision in 13 years, will specifically prohibit practices like stripping prisoners, keeping them in stressful positions for a long time, imposing dietary restrictions, employing police dogs to intimidate prisoners and using sleep deprivation as a tool to get them to talk, the officials said.
2005.04.28 In Iraq, an Echo of Algiers [cached] (George F. Will) The Algerian insurgency was fueled by the most potent "ism" of a century of isms -- nationalism. In contrast, one of the strange, almost surreal, aspects of the Iraqi insurgency is its lack of ideological content. Most of the insurgents are "FREs" -- former regime elements -- who simply want to return to power.
2005.04.28 Global Terrorism Statistics Released [cached] The numbers were provided instead by the government's new clearinghouse for terrorism-related information, the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), and included statistics documenting a sharp surge in significant terrorist acts from 175 incidents that killed 625 in 2003 to 651 such attacks that killed 1,907 in 2004.
2005.04.28 Democracy in the dark [cached] This is a leader (analysis) The documents reveal the kind of balanced legal advice that it is Lord Goldsmith's job to supply to the government. He reports, as the Butler inquiry has previously said, that arguments can be made on both sides as to whether, on its own, a breach of 1441 can be held to justify war. The safest course, he says, would be to obtain a second and more explicit resolution. Without that second resolution, the argument for war based on 1441 alone would "only be sustainable if there are strong factual grounds for concluding that Iraq has failed to take the final opportunity". Great care would be needed in proving that was the case, particularly because of what Hans Blix and his inspectors were reporting. A court might find that 1441 was an inadequate basis for war. In any event, there would be no legal grounds for saying that a veto by France (or anyone else) of any second resolution could be classed as unreasonable - and thus as an implicit legal sanction for action under 1441 itself.
2005.04.28 Blix insists there was no firm weapons evidence [cached] The head of the United Nations weapons inspectors in the run-up to the Iraq war, Hans Blix, last night undercut one of the main grounds offered by the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, in his legal advice to Tony Blair.
2005.04.28 Abu Ghraib Accountability [cached] The freedom is messy argument Yes, there were abuses in Iraq beyond what was pictured at Abu Ghraib, but abuses happen in war and in civilian prisons too. No evidence has been produced to support allegations that the abuses were "systematic" or that they were inspired or condoned by superiors up the chain of command. As Mr. Schlesinger also noted, by any statistical measure--such as the rate of reported abuse incidents per detainee--treatment of detainees in the overall war on terror has been exemplary. In short, the so-called "torture narrative" that was so hyped by the media last year was entirely false.
2005.04.28 Now there's no chance of moving on [cached] Another opinion piece Finally, it becomes clear that Blair handled this document the same way he handled the intelligence on Iraq: by stripping out the caveats. The version of the legal advice that Goldsmith presented to the cabinet and parliament was much less ambiguous than the one Blair had seen himself. Despite all that, this revelation is unlikely to sink Labour's campaign. For one thing, this election cannot be a straight referendum on the war, because the main opposition party supported military action. That fact is always bound to reduce the political traction of any Iraq story. Labour can justly argue that a change in government would hardly make, or have made, a difference: when it comes to Iraq, the Tories would have done the same thing.
2005.04.28 Blair tries to move on from Iraq [cached] The published advice shows that the attorney general told Tony Blair on 7 March 2003 a second UN resolution was the safest legal course.
2005.04.27 US at least seizes Zarqawi's laptop [cached] In today's Internet world even a brutal terror figure apparently carries his life on a personal electronic device. A February raid by a covert US military unit came so close to Zarqawi that he fled from the vehicle in which he was traveling on foot, leaving his computer behind, say government sources. On the hard drive was everything from information about Zarqawi's medical condition to pictures of himself, kept in a file labeled "My Pictures."
2005.04.27 U.S. Figures Show Sharp Global Rise In Terrorism [cached] The number of serious international terrorist incidents more than tripled last year, according to U.S. government figures, a sharp upswing in deadly attacks that the State Department has decided not to make public in its annual report on terrorism due to Congress this week. Overall, the number of what the U.S. government considers "significant" attacks grew to about 655 last year, up from the record of around 175 in 2003, according to congressional aides who were briefed on statistics covering incidents including the bloody school seizure in Russia and violence related to the disputed Indian territory of Kashmir. Terrorist incidents in Iraq also dramatically increased, from 22 attacks to 198, or nine times the previous year's total -- a sensitive subset of the tally, given the Bush administration's assertion that the situation there had stabilized significantly after the U.S. handover of political authority to an interim Iraqi government last summer.
2005.04.27 This is our Guernica [cached] (Jonathan Steele and Dahr Jamail) One thing is certain: the attack on Falluja has done nothing to still the insurgency against the US-British occupation nor produced the death of al-Zarqawi - any more than the invasion of Afghanistan achieved the capture or death of Osama bin Laden. Thousands of bereaved and homeless Falluja families have a new reason to hate the US and its allies.
2005.04.27 Pentagon Plays Down New Rise in Iraq Violence [cached] Top Pentagon officials yesterday acknowledged a recent jump in insurgent violence in Iraq but described the escalation as nowhere near the peak levels of the past year and disputed suggestions that it represents a lack of progress.
2005.04.27 Israeli settlers poisoning our sheep, say West Bank farmers [cached] The poisoning here and in Umm Faggara and Kharruba came to light after a series of violent attacks over the past year by masked men on international volunteers accompanying shepherds and protecting Palestinian children walking to and from school in Tuwani from the outlying village of Tuba. The last, on 16 February, left a Italian human rights activist, Johannes Steger, with a fractured jaw, a torn retina and amnesia.
2005.04.27 Israel to purchase American-made 'bunker-buster' bombs [cached] The Pentagon notified Congress on Tuesday of a proposed sale to Israel of 100 guided bunker-busting bombs, a weapon which would significantly upgrade the Israel Air Force's offensive operational capability and one which analysts said could prompt concerns about a unilateral Israeli strike against Iran. In a notice required by law for government-to-government military sales, the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Israel had requested the sale of the Lockheed Martin Corp. GBU-28s, worth as much as $30 million.
2005.04.27 Iraqi woman MP killed in Baghdad [cached] Lamia Abed Khadouri, a member of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's coalition, is the first MP killed since elections at the end of January.
2005.04.27 Iraq finally completes Cabinet proposal [cached] Iraq's prime minister-designate on Tuesday proposed a 36-member Cabinet - including three deputy premiers from the country's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions. Ibrahim al-Jaafari discussed his proposal Tuesday with President Jalal Talabani, said the premier's spokesman, Abdel-Razak al-Kadhi.
2005.04.27 Iraq PM finalises government plan [cached] Iraq's new prime minister has submitted his new government for approval, ending months of political deadlock.
2005.04.27 Interrogators 'botched hunt for Iraq's WMD' [cached] The report says that in many cases the wrong people were detained, and subjected to questioning by "inexperienced and uninformed" interrogators. It estimates that 105 scientists and officials suspected of involvement in WMD programmes are still in detention. The addendum finds no evidence to support a theory raised by the vice-president, Dick Cheney, and still circulating in rightwing circles, that Iraqi WMD were smuggled to Syria before the invasion. Mr Duelfer adds that the deteriorating security situation made it impossible for the ISG to carry out further investigation.
2005.04.27 Families prepare Iraq war indictment [cached] Families of British soldiers killed in Iraq are preparing a legal case against the prime minister, following the leaking of the attorney general's pre-war advice, it was revealed tonight.
2005.04.27 Cabinet list may end Iraq deadlock [cached] Iraq's political deadlock appeared to have been broken last night when the prime minister-designate, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, submitted a draft list of cabinet ministers to President Jalal Talabani.
2005.04.27 US 'conceals high terror figures' [cached] Data withheld from an annual report on terrorism by the US state department show a sharp increase in attacks in 2004, a top Democratic lawmaker says.
2005.04.26 Toughest commute in Iraq? The six miles to the airport. [cached] "All aircraft come only for Americans," Samson says. "So ... for people going and coming from the airport, because everyone knows they work for the Americans" they're a target. "Everyone working for the Americans must be killed, this is what they think."
2005.04.26 The prime minister is a war criminal [cached] Like Chamberlain in the 30s, Blair is an appeaser of a dangerous global power. He should be in prison, not standing for election
2005.04.26 Iraqi insurgency 'undiminished' [cached] The most senior officer in the US armed forces, General Richard Myers, says Iraqi insurgents have lost none of their capacity to stage attacks. The chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff said there were 50 to 60 attacks a day, the same level as one year ago.
2005.04.26 Iraq anger could let in Tories - PM [cached] Speaking to the Guardian on Iraq, Mr Blair pleads: "I've heard the message loud and clear; I know the concern out there." He adds: "I accept that it's been very divisive and I'm sorry because I like to try and bring people together, but sometimes things happen where it's difficult ei ther way. I've come to the conclusion that for those people who are opposed to the war, the more I put my point of view, the more it simply irritates them."
2005.04.26 Exclusive: Labour MP defects to Lib Dems over Iraq [cached] Writing in The Independent, Mr Sedgemore says: "I voted against the war on Iraq and it becomes clearer every day that Blair decided to go to war after meeting Bush on his Texas ranch in 2002. After that, he lied to persuade the country to support him."
2005.04.25 email [cached] The foreign contractors, troops and diplomats who call it home savour the relative safety and a couple of discreet pubs, but complain about cabin fever. Hungry for dispatches from the real world, they quiz visitors about "out there" and fantasise about entering it. The 10,000 Iraqis who also live in the zone need passes to enter and must negotiate several checkpoints, as if they are in quarantine.
2005.04.25 US troops cleared over shooting [cached] US military investigators have cleared American soldiers of any wrongdoing over the death of an Italian agent, who was shot at a checkpoint in Baghdad.
2005.04.25 US 'presses Iraq on government' [cached] Washington is pressing Iraq's leaders to end weeks of political deadlock and form a new government as soon as possible, US officials say.
2005.04.25 UN investigator who exposed US army abuse forced out of his job [cached] The UN's top human rights investigator in Afghanistan has been forced out under American pressure just days after he presented a report criticising the US military for detaining suspects without trial and holding them in secret prisons. The UN eliminated Mr Bassiouni's job last week after Washington had pressed for his mandate to be changed so that it would no longer cover the US military.
2005.04.25 Opposition goes on Iraq offensive [cached] -- It was the UN's job, not that of individual states, to decide if Iraq was in breach of UN resolutions; --The use of UN resolution 1441 to justify war might be deficient because it did not include the phrase "all necessary" to enforce it; -- A second UN resolution was needed in 2003 to make the looming war legal; -- Earlier UN resolutions against Saddam could not easily be revived to justify the invasion; -- The UN weapons inspectors were still doing their work and had found no banned weapons; -- The US position on legality did not apply to Britain because Congress had voted President George Bush special war-making powers.
2005.04.25 Israel /Occupied Territories: Poisoning of Palestinian fields condemned [cached] (Amnesty International) Amnesty International calls on the Israeli authorities to investigate recent incidents of poisoning of Palestinian fields and the increasingly frequent attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian villagers in the West Bank.
2005.04.25 Iraqis killed in market attacks [cached] At least 16 people have been killed in twin bombings in a market near a mosque in a Shia area of Baghdad, police say.
2005.04.25 Can Iraq damage Blair further? [cached] Tony Blair must have long ago abandoned any hope that he could draw a line under his decision to go to war on Iraq.
2005.04.25 Call to punish parties over Iraq [cached] Every Labour and Conservative candidate should be held to account by voters over the Iraq war, Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has argued.
2005.04.25 Amnesty: West Bank farms poisoned [cached] Amnesty International has called on Israel to investigate the deliberate contamination of Palestinian farmland - allegedly by Jewish settlers.
2005.04.25 A government at bay over Iraq war legality [cached] Sensing that the tide could swing against Mr Blair, the Liberal Democrats today publish anti-war advertisements depicting Tony Blair and George Bush smiling together with the message: "Never again".
2005.04.24 U.S.: Investigate Rumsfeld, Tenet for Torture [cached] The United States should name a special prosecutor to investigate the culpability of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and ex-CIA Director George Tenet in cases of detainee torture and abuse, Human Rights Watch said in releasing a new report today.
2005.04.24 U.S. Monitors Fault British Security Company With Iraq Contract [cached] A British security company with a $292 million American contract to protect aid officials and contractors in Iraq failed to ensure weapons training for its agents and did not properly assess Iraqi guards for loyalty, United States federal monitors reported Friday.
2005.04.24 Top US officers cleared of Abu Ghraib abuse [cached] That has led to accusations that the investigation, carried out by the army's inspector-general, is a whitewash that has let ordinary soldiers carry the blame while letting off their commanding officers. The only officer recommended for punishment is Brigadier-General Janis Karpinksi, who was in charge of Abu Ghraib at the time. She is expected to receive a reprimand for dereliction of duty.
2005.04.24 Proof Blair was told war could be ruled illegal [cached] The Iraq war has erupted as a major Election issue after legal advice warning Tony Blair that the conflict breached international law was sensationally leaked. The Government's refusal to disclose the advice has been one of the most controversial issues since the war ended, but The Mail on Sunday can now reveal for the first time exactly what counsel Mr Blair received.
2005.04.24 Judgment day at last on Iraq [cached] The war is an election issue - whether Blair likes it or not, writes the Lib Dem deputy leader The Prime Minister and the President denied the UN weapons inspectors the time and resources they needed to finish the job. Military action was neither proportionate nor the last resort. Regime change was as illegal in 2003 under Article 2 of the UN charter as it would have been in the Gulf War of 1991. As a result, thousands of people, mostly civilians, have died, billions of pounds have been spent and the terrorist threat has got worse.
2005.04.24 Iraq returns as an election issue [cached] The Liberal Democrat leader, Charles Kennedy, demanded that Tony Blair publish the attorney general's advise following a report in today's Mail on Sunday that he had warned that military intervention could be in breach of international law.
2005.04.24 Iraq police die in suicide blasts [cached] A double suicide bomb attack on a police academy in the city of Tikrit in northern Iraq has killed six people and wounded about 30, police say.
2005.04.24 Insurgent Violence Escalates In Iraq [cached] Violence is escalating sharply in Iraq after a period of relative calm that followed the January elections. Bombings, ambushes and kidnappings targeting Iraqis and foreigners, both troops and civilians, have surged this month while the new Iraqi government is caught up in power struggles over cabinet positions.
2005.04.24 Demand for Rumsfeld abuse inquiry [cached] The US should name a special prosecutor to look at Donald Rumsfeld's possible role in the abuse of US military prisoners, a human rights group says.
2005.04.24 Convoys targeted in Iraq attacks [cached] At least 10 people were killed when US and Iraqi convoys were attacked by insurgents near Baghdad, officials say.
2005.04.24 Blair blow as secret war doubts revealed [cached] The 13 pages of legal advice that Goldsmith drew up on 7 March, according to a report in today's Mail on Sunday, warned that Blair could be in breach of international law for six reasons ranging from the lack of a second United Nations resolution to UN inspector Hans Blix's continuing search for weapons. The full legal document, apparently disclosed to the newspaper, is understood not to have been seen by the Cabinet.
2005.04.24 'The prize is enormous - we must not let it slip' [cached] (Ayad Allawi) We are now entering the endgame in Iraq's journey towards full democracy. The prize is enormous - a peaceful and prosperous future for Iraq, and a huge step forward for world peace and stability.
2005.04.23 Top brass cleared over Iraq abuse [cached] "What this decision unfortunately continues is a pattern of exoneration and indeed promotion for many of the individuals at the heart of the torture scandal," said Amnesty International spokesman Alistair Hodgett.
2005.04.23 Kurds' Leaders Said to Attempt to Block Shiite [cached] ome leading Kurdish political figures are trying to stall the formation of a new Iraqi government in an effort to force out Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Shiite chosen two weeks ago as prime minister, Iraqi and Western officials said.
2005.04.23 US holds Iraq helicopter suspects [cached] The US military says it has detained six Iraqi men suspected of shooting down a commercial helicopter earlier this week.
2005.04.21 Iraq's murky corpse mystery [cached] In a country where things often turn out to be different from the way they at first seem, the retrieval of around 60 corpses from the Tigris River near al-Suwayra, south of Baghdad, is one of the murkiest and most complex stories to hit the headlines in recent months.
2005.04.21 In a warped reality [cached] (Gary Younge) Two years on, the occupiers justify the war by embracing the irrelevant and ignoring the inconvenient
2005.04.20 United States: trade in torture [cached] This is a story of private jets flying out of Germany, of kidnappings on European streets, and of torture. It has a cast of lawyers, spies, suspected terrorists, innocent bystanders and an ex-CIA boss who believes that 'human rights is a very flexible concept'.
2005.04.20 Palestine US exhibit stirs controversy [cached] A unique art exhibition showcasing the works of 23 Palestinian artists is facing uncertain times in the United States, with major museums refusing to play host.
2005.04.20 Insurgents in Iraq increasingly target top government officials and military recruits [cached] In a chilling raid underlining insecurity in post-Saddam Iraq, several men in army uniforms late Monday forced their way into the southern Baghdad home of Major General Adnan Faush Farawni, a senior adviser to the Defense Ministry. Both he and his son, Captain Alladin Farawni, who worked in intelligence, were shot dead. Iraq's National Assembly briefly delayed its session Tuesday to protest the alleged mistreatment of a legislator by a soldier at a U.S. checkpoint outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, where parliament meets. Before the legislative session resumed, lawmaker Salam al-Maliki read a statement from the assembly to reporters demanding an apology from the U.S. Embassy and the prosecution of the U.S. soldier who allegedly had mistreated Sheikh.
2005.04.20 Dangerous democracy [cached] (David Hirst) The extent to which Bush is contributing to the winds of change now blowing across the world's last monolithically tyrannical region is passionately debated by the Arabs, perplexingly confronted, as they feel themselves to be, by two Americas, the new missionary one of Bush's second term and the old unrepentant superpower. The US as a promoter of democracy is a far from new idea. But the scope, fervour and lofty expectations Bush has invested in it are new. Yet, at the same time, never has imperial America, with which the missionary one is inextricably intertwined, been as rampant and detested as it is today.
2005.04.19 Increased Security In Fallujah Slows Efforts to Rebuild [cached] Nearly all of the city's estimated 250,000 residents fled before the fighting started, and about 90,000 have returned to find wide swaths of the town in ruin. More than half of Fallujah's 39,000 homes were damaged, and about 10,000 of those were destroyed or left structurally unsound to live in, U.S. officials say. Limited food and fuel supplies mean higher prices and lines that can reach 100 cars at government gas stations.
2005.04.18 Iraq militias 'could beat rebels' [cached] Iraq's new president has said the insurgency could be ended immediately if the authorities made use of Kurdish, Shia Muslim and other militias.
2005.04.17 150 hostages and 19 deaths leave US claims of Iraqi 'peace' in tatters [cached] (Patrick Cockburn) Ironically, one reason why Washington can persuade the outside world that its venture in Iraq is finally coming right is that it is too dangerous for reporters to travel outside Baghdad or stray far from their hotels in the capital.
2005.04.16 U.S. and Islam: Clashing or talking democracy? [cached] The first was the importance of democratic reform as the appropriate antidote to the Middle East's distorted political cultures and modern legacy of violence and terror. The second was the centrality and urgency of resolving the Palestine problem and the wider Arab-Israeli conflict as an essential element in promoting stability and socio-economic progress throughout the Middle East - and also for enhancing prospects of good relations between the U.S. and other Islamic societies further afield. The third - personified by the debate on Iran's nuclear capabilities and Hizbullah's weapons - was the issue of the behavior of Islamist regimes or groups in a world increasingly ruled by law and democracy, and whether norms of behavior would be applied evenhandedly to all countries, including Iran, Israel and others.
2005.04.16 Security vs. Rebuilding: Kurdish Town Loses Out [cached] According to embassy figures, as of March 30 there were 249 water and sewage projects - 185 in progress and 64 completed - financed by the Congressionally approved money across Iraq. A total of 92 projects have been canceled because of the shift of money to security, the embassy said.
2005.04.16 Detainees Escape From U.S. Military Camp [cached] In the central Iraqi town of Madain, Sunni militants took about 70 Shiite males hostage and threatened to kill them unless all Shiites left the town, government officials and a Shiite political group said Saturday. Most of the 10,500 detainees are held by the American military, and the United States has opposed freeing prisoners or pardoning insurgents.
2005.04.16 Bombs rock Iraq as top Sunni cleric calls for amnesty [cached] AFP Bomb attacks across Iraq killed at least four people as inmates rioted in a U.S.-run prison and an official warned that a new government was at least a week away from formation. After a surge in violence in the capital that followed a relative post-election lull, influential Sunni cleric Sheikh Abdel-Ghafour al-Samarrai urged President Jalal Talabani to honor his offer of amnesty to insurgents. In other unrest, a Kurdish television journalist was shot dead in the northern ethnically divided oil city of Kirkuk, police said.
2005.04.16 Annan says US and UK allowed Iraqi oil scam [cached] (Suzanne Goldenberg) It is also widely acknowledged that the Iraqi regime earned far more from sanctions-busting - up to $11bn - than from bribes from oil companies working under the oil-for-food programme, which earned Saddam's officials an estimated $2bn to $4bn. Mr Annan's comments were seen as evidence of his growing frustration at Washington, where the Republicans have used the scandal to attack the UN.
2005.04.15 US and UK blamed for oil scandal [cached] The US and Britain are partly to blame for the scandal enveloping the UN oil-for-food programme, Secretary General Kofi Annan has said.
2005.04.15 Row deepens over UN oil scandal [cached] The US and the UK have rejected allegations by UN chief Kofi Annan that they turned a blind eye to oil smuggling by Saddam Hussein's regime. "The bulk of the money that Saddam [Hussein] made came out of smuggling outside the oil-for-food programme, and it was on the American and British watch," Mr Annan said.
2005.04.15 Q&A: Oil-for-food scandal [cached] Mr Annan has also alleged that that the US and UK turned a blind eye to oil smuggling by Saddam Hussein's regime, something they reject. The UN chief suggested London and Washington had inadequately policed UN sanctions against Iraq, enabling the regime to earn huge amounts in illegal deals.
2005.04.15 Four dead in fresh Iraq bombings [cached] American and Iraqi officials had reported something of a downturn in insurgent attacks over the past couple of months. But the BBC correspondent in Baghdad, Jim Muir, says the impression in recent days is that the tempo may be starting to pick up once again.
2005.04.15 Another bloody day in Iraq as bombs kill 15 [cached] The twin blasts killed at least 15 people, including several children, five rubbish collectors and one policeman, and wounded dozens. A bad day in Baghdad but far from its worst and not enough to dent US optimism that things are getting better.
2005.04.14 US faces new claims of jail abuse [cached] The Pentagon was yesterday confronted with new allegations of torture at Guantanamo Bay, from a Bosnian inmate who said he was beaten so severely his face was left partially paralysed.
2005.04.14 Man of many colours [cached] Not always popular but adept at survival, Ahmed Chalabi talks to Mohamed Al-Anwar in Baghdad
2005.04.14 London and Washington used plot to strengthen Iraq war push [cached] Claims that a terrorist cell was planning a lethal ricin attack in Britain were used by the British and American governments in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. The ricin claims were seized on most strikingly by Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, in his dramatic but now discredited speech on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction programme to the UN security council on February 5 2003, five weeks before the invasion.
2005.04.14 Iraq's Security Forces: 150,000 or Bust? [cached] (Anthony H. Cordesman, Arleigh A. Burke) Center for Strategic and International Studies There are some good reasons to be positive about the situation in Iraq. They are not the ones President Bush quotes yesterday. The Multinational Command in Iraq reported that there were some 152,617 men in the Iraqi military, security, and police forces on April 6, 2005. The bad news is that such head counts say nothing about combat power, and are meaningless in terms of comparisons to us troop numbers
2005.04.13 Don't be fooled by the spin on Iraq [cached] (Jonathan Steele) From last autumn's disastrous attack on Falluja to the huge increase in detention without trial, the casualties go on rising. After an amnesty last summer, the numbers of "security detainees" have gone up again and reached a record 17,000. The key issue, now as it has been since 2003, is for the occupation to end quickly. Only this will reduce the resistance and give Iraqis a chance to live normally. In a new line of spin - which some commentators have taken to mean that the US is preparing for a pullout - US commanders claim the rate of insurgent attacks is down. The figures are not independently monitored. Even if true, they may be temporary. Thirdly, they fly in the face of evidence that suggests the US is failing. Most of western Iraq is out of US control. The city of Mosul could explode at any moment. Ramadi is practically a no-go area.
2005.04.12 Let them eat bombs [cached] (Terry Jones) A report to the UN human rights commission in Geneva has concluded that Iraqi children were actually better off under Saddam Hussein than they are now. This, of course, comes as a bitter blow for all those of us who, like George Bush and Tony Blair, honestly believe that children thrive best when we drop bombs on them from a great height, destroy their cities and blow up hospitals, schools and power stations.
2005.04.08 Thorny issues loom for Iraq leaders [cached] Kurds dropped their immediate demand that the oil-rich city of Kirkuk be added to their autonomous section of Iraq, and Shiite Arabs said they wouldn't insist on dismantling the Kurds' peshmerga militia.
2005.04.08 Hezbollah hints at disarmament [cached] Hezbollah has signalled that it may be ready to disarm if Israel withdraws from a disputed strip of land near the Lebanese-Israeli border.
2005.04.07 Hizbollah hints at disarmament compromise [cached] In an interview the Financial Times, Sheikh Naim Qassim, deputy head of the party, said Hizbollah would be ready for talks with other Lebanese groups on the future of its fighters, but after the dispute over Shebaa Farms, a small strip of land near the Lebanese-Israeli border, was settled.
2005.04.07 US legal legacy for Iraqi economy [cached] Orders 37 and 49 slash top tax rates from 45% to 15% - one of the lowest rates in the world. Order 54 erases all duties on imports to Iraq. Order 39 allows 100% foreign ownership of Iraqi companies except in the oil, gas and banking sectors.
2005.04.06 Iraq two years on: Endgame or unending war? [cached] Two years after the fall of Baghdad, it is an open question as to whether an endgame to the insurgency is under way or whether Iraq faces a war that will drag on for years.
2005.04.05 Iraq child hunger report denied [cached] US and UK officials have denied reports that increasing numbers of children in Iraq are facing chronic food shortages and malnourishment.
2005.04.04 Iraqi Assembly Selects Speaker, Ending Impasse [cached] An American-educated Sunni Muslim won the first-to-be-filled post of parliament speaker in Iraq's new government on Sunday, breaking a serious impasse and launching a Shiite, Kurd and Sunni unity government more than two months after historic national elections.
2005.04.04 Follow the Money [cached] By many accounts, Custer Battles was a nightmare contractor in Iraq. The company's two principals, Mike Battles and Scott Custer, overcharged occupation authorities by millions of dollars, according to a complaint from two former employees. The firm double-billed for salaries and repainted the Iraqi Airways forklifts they found at Baghdad airport - which Custer Battles was contracted to secure - then leased them back to the U.S. government, the complaint says.
2005.04.02 Violence ruins Iraq mosque as leaders feud over Cabinet [cached] "Foreign troops are hated by Iraqis. ... I'm happy to see Iraqi police and soldiers controlling the situation in my country," said Sheikh Abdel-Ghafur al-Samarrai, one of the signatories and a senior member of the Committee of Muslim Scholars, which boycotted the elections.
2005.04.02 Panel Seeks Intelligence Culpability [cached] Commission says incoming director of national intelligence should take action against those responsible for failures to accurately assess prewar Iraq's weapons programs.
2005.04.02 An Old U.S. Foe Rises Again in Iraq [cached] (Anthony Shadid) Moqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army, twice subdued by the U.S. military last year, is now openly displaying its strength in parts of the south.
2005.04.01 US forces 'holding Zarqawi aide' [cached] US troops in Iraq are holding a top aide to the most wanted rebel there, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, US officials say.
2005.04.00 Digging In [cached] (Joshua Hammer) If the U.S. government doesn't plan to occupy Iraq for any longer than necessary, why is it spending billions of dollars to build "enduring" bases?
2005.03.31 US captain guilty of Iraq killing [cached] A military court has found a US army captain guilty of killing a wounded Iraqi man in central Iraq last year.
2005.03.31 The neocon revolution [cached] (Martin Jacques) US unilateralism was a means of breaking the old order. Now it is building new alliances.
2005.03.31 Iraq blast near shrine kills five [cached] Five people, including two Iraqi soldiers, have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in northern Iraq.
2005.03.31 Iraq WMD report to lay blame on CIA [cached] A final analysis of the intelligence fiasco over Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction will focus blame on the CIA.
2005.03.31 For Iraqis, a Ritual to Savor [cached] (Anthony Shadid) On Holy Day, Shiites Salve Uncertainty by Serving Traditional Dish to Thousands
2005.03.30 US memo shows Iraq jail methods [cached] The top US general in Iraq authorised interrogation techniques including the use of dogs, stress positions and disorientation, a memo has shown.
2005.03.30 Two months on, still no Iraqi government [cached] Iraq's parliament, which has again failed to choose a government, is looking like a poor advertisement for democracy, two months after its election. Unless agreement is reached soon, an opportunity to quench the still-raging insurgency may be missed
2005.03.30 Delay Possible on Iraq Charter as Talks Falter [cached] Political leaders said that the delay in forming a new government would probably force them to postpone by half a year the writing of a permanent constitution.
2005.03.30 Children 'starving' in new Iraq [cached] Increasing numbers of children in Iraq do not have enough food to eat and more than a quarter are chronically undernourished, a UN report says.
2005.03.30 US detainee death toll 'hits 108' [cached] At least 108 people have died in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to figures compiled by the Associated Press news agency.
2005.03.29 Political chaos stokes Iraqi fears [cached] The members of Iraq's newly elected National Assembly have gathered in the capital Baghdad - but deadlock persists over the formation of a new government.
2005.03.28 Iraq realities refuse to fade away [cached] In the latest of his weekly columns for the BBC News website, John Simpson looks at how the decision to go to war with Iraq still dogs the British prime minister.
2005.03.16 Democracy -- by George? [cached] (Juan Cole) President Bush and his supporters are taking credit for spreading freedom across the Middle East. Here's why they're wrong.
2005.03.16 Iraq 'facing corruption threat' [cached] The reconstruction of post-war Iraq is in danger of becoming "the biggest corruption scandal in history", Transparency International has warned.
2005.03.07 So much for illusions [cached] (Haifa Zangana) Despite the election, ordinary Iraqis face a daily struggle to survive attacks, kidnappings and killings
2004.12.22 Quiet, or I'll call democracy. [cached] Iraqi women were long the most liberated in the Middle East. Occupation has confined them to their homes
2004.12.16 Different targets, same tactics [cached] (Sidney Blumenthal) Bush's slash and smear campaign is trying to bring all disparate elements under US control
2004.12.0 Dirty Warriors [cached] How South African hit men, Serbian paramilitaries, and other human rights violators became guns for hire for military contractors in Iraq
2004.12.02 You call this liberation [cached] (Sidney Blumenthal) Pentagon experts have made a discovery: Muslims do not hate America's freedoms, but its policies
2004.12.02 Suffer the little children [cached] (Gideon Levy) In the present intifada, 323 Palestinian children under the age of 14 have been killed by IDF fire. Three recent examples from Nablus
2004.11.26 Smoking while Iraq burns [cached] (Naomi Klein) Its idolisation of 'the face of Falluja' shows how numb the US is to everyone's pain but its own
2004.11.21 Powell 'pushed out' by Bush for seeking to rein in Israel [cached] Colin Powell, the outgoing US secretary of state, was given his marching orders after telling President George W Bush that he wanted greater power to confront Israel over the stalled Middle East peace process.
2004.11.17 Don't learn from the Americans [cached] The method employed by the Americans calls for using warplanes and artillery in urban areas. This did not start in Falluja. The American armored division that was deployed in Baghdad used the same method. The Americans found themselves in trouble after failing to quell the insurgents in several cities as the date of Iraqi elections drew nearer. Their answer: using an "iron fist" in populated areas. When the Russians did this in Chechnya, President Clinton sharply criticized them.
2004.11.14 The final battle [cached] Peter Beaumont says that American troops feared they would have to fight a bitter street conflict at the start of the invasion. Now civilians are paying the price in Falluja
2004.11.12 Violence Grips Iraq as Fallujah Battle Rages [cached] Waves of devastating violence swept through Iraq yesterday with US forces still mired in streetfighting in their attempt to capture the rebel stronghold of Fallujah.
2004.11.07 No Carrots, All Stick [cached] (Dilip Hiro) Blinkered Bush Set to Blunder Again in Iraq -- and Iran
2004.11.07 Fixing the problem of Falluja [cached] Colonel Brandl: "But the enemy has got a face. He's called Satan. He lives in Falluja. And we're going to destroy him."
2004.10.27 The Real Reasons Why Iran is the Next Target: The Emerging Euro-denominated International Oil Marker [cached] (William Clark) The Iranians are about to commit an "offense" far greater than Saddam Hussein's conversion to the euro of Iraq's oil exports in the fall of 2000. Numerous articles have revealed Pentagon planning for operations against Iran as early as 2005. While the publicly stated reasons will be over Iran's nuclear ambitions, there are unspoken macroeconomic drivers explaining the Real Reasons regarding the 2nd stage of petrodollar warfare - Iran's upcoming euro-based oil Bourse.
2004.10.24 Why America Has Waged a Losing Battle on Fallouja [cached] Marines were on the verge of taking the city in April when politics intervened. U.S. misjudgment, disagreement and shifting strategy ended up fanning the flames of the Iraqi insurgency.
2004.10.17 Without a Doubt [cached] (Ron Suskind) The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''
2004.10.15 The making of the terror myth [cached] Since September 11 Britain has been warned of the 'inevitability' of catastrophic terrorist attack. But has the danger been exaggerated? A major new TV documentary claims that the perceived threat is a politically driven fantasy - and al-Qaida a dark illusion.
2004.10.06 Top PM aide: Gaza plan aims to freeze the peace process [cached] The peace process is the evacuation of settlements, it's the return of refugees, it's the partition of Jerusalem. And all that has now been frozen.... what I effectively agreed to with the Americans was that part of the settlements would not be dealt with at all, and the rest will not be dealt with until the Palestinians turn into Finns.
2004.10.06 Iraq Survey Group Report [cached] ISG report Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq's WMD
2004.10.03 How the White House Embraced Disputed Iraqi Arms Intelligence [cached] Bush administration brushed aside doubts of its foremost nuclear experts in leadup to war with Iraq when it embraced theory that high-strength aluminum tubes being acquired by Iraq were part of Saddam Hussein's program to develop nuclear weapons; Vice Pres Dick Cheney would go on to argue 'with absolute certainty' that tubes were intended for uranium centrifuge despite considerable evidence supporting alternative theory that they were in fact rocket parts
2004.10.02 Paradise cleansed [cached] (John Pilger) Our deportation of the people of Diego Garcia is a crime that cannot stand
2004.10.01 What Went Wrong in Iraq [cached] (Larry Diamond) Foreign Affairs report Although the early U.S. blunders in the occupation of Iraq are well known, their consequences are just now becoming clear. The Bush administration was never willing to commit the resources necessary to secure the country and did not make the most of the resources it had. U.S. officials did get a number of things right, but they never understood-or even listened to-the country they were seeking to rebuild. As a result, the democratic future of Iraq now hangs in the balance.
2004.09.24 More Iraqi civilians killed by U.S. forces than by insurgents, data shows [cached] Operations by U.S. and multinational forces and Iraqi police are killing twice as many Iraqis - most of them civilians - as attacks by insurgents, according to statistics compiled by the Iraqi Health Ministry and obtained exclusively by Knight Ridder. According to the ministry, the interim Iraqi government recorded 3,487 Iraqi deaths in 15 of the country's 18 provinces from April 5 - when the ministry began compiling the data - until Sept. 19. Of those, 328 were women and children. Another 13,726 Iraqis were injured, the ministry said.
2004.09.22 Forgotten casualties [cached] Mentally scarred by experiences in Iraq, returning US soldiers say the military isn't giving them the help they deserve, writes Lynn Harris
2004.09.17 Newspapers accused of misusing word 'terrorist' [cached] Last week, the Citizen inserted the word "terrorist" seven times into an Associated Press story on the Iraqi city of Fallujah, where Iraqi insurgents have been battling U.S.-led occupation forces.
2004.09.14 'He's just sleeping, I kept telling myself' [cached] (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad) On Sunday, 13 Iraqis were killed and dozens injured in Baghdad when US helicopters fired on a crowd of unarmed civilians. G2 columnist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, who was injured in the attack, describes the scene of carnage - and reveals just how lucky he was to walk away
2004.09.12 One man's resistance: 'Why I turned against America' [cached] Jason Burke in Baghdad reports on the confused psychology of the Iraqi resistance and meets a Sunni guerrilla who welcomed the Americans at first but is now happy to have black GIs in his sights
2004.08.12 War? What war? [cached] The level of violence in Iraq has been escalating since the handover of sovereignty in June, but Americans are being exposed to less reporting and analysis about it
2004.07.28 The real reasons Bush went to war [cached] WMD was the rationale for invading Iraq. But what was really driving the US were fears over oil and the future of the dollar
