Month

Archives: September 2003

One Us Soldier Killed Nine Wounded

One US Soldier Killed, Nine WoundedIraqi guerrillas in two Sunni Arab towns west of Baghdad, Habaniya and Khalidiya, hit two separate US convoys on Monday with roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades. The…

Homeland Defense Funding Plundered For

Homeland Defense Funding Plundered for Iraq For those who believe that the Iraq War was a major detour from the War on Terror, there is excellent evidence for it if any investigative…

Rove Should Resign President Bush And

Rove should Resign: President Bush and the Wilson CaseIt has for some time struck me that despite all the phony talk about "compassionate conservatism," the Bush team has just plain mean tendencies.…

Jostling For Vacant Igc Seat Of Aqila

Jostling for the Vacant IGC seat of Aqila al-HashimiIt may seem unseemly, but political forces are already attempting to place their candidate on the IGC as a successor to Aqila al-Hashimi, assassinated…

Drafting Of Constitution And Adopting

Drafting of Constitution and Adopting it may take 18 Months or MoreThe Constitutional Preparatory Commission in Iraq, which was supposed to make its report on Tuesday recommending how the new Iraqi constitution…

One Polish Soldier Killed Four Us

One Polish Soldier Killed, Four US Troops WoundedGuerrillas in the town of Iskandariya, 45 km south of Baghdad, attacked US troops with a home made bomb on Sunday at 11 am, wounding…

Constitutional Committee In Basra

Constitutional Committee in BasraThe Preparatory Committee for Drafting the Constitution met Sunday in Basra, chaired by Salah al-Battat. Attending members were Drs. Muhammad al-Muzaffar, Mahdi Jad Mahdi, and Safa' al-Din al-Safi. Sayyid…

Kuwaitis Reject Bremers Call To Forgive

Kuwaitis Reject Bremer's Call to Forgive Iraq ReparationsKuwait's government rejected any suggestion that it cease demanding reparations from Iraq. CPA head Paul Bremer recently called on Kuwait and other Gulf states to…

Lies Damn Lies And Statistics Two

Lies, Damn Lies, and StatisticsTwo recent opinion polls, one done by the Zogby group looking at 600 residents from four Iraqi cities, and another done of 1200 residents of Baghdad, have been…

Al Zawahiri Overthow Musharraf Deputy

al-Zawahiri: Overthow Musharraf!The deputy head of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahir, issued a videotape in which he called on Pakistanis to rise up and overthrow President Pervez Musharraf. He also condemned the recent visit…

Bushs Bad News Blues For Bill

Bush's Bad News BluesFor Bill Berkowitz's fine piece, "Bush's bad news bluesAdministration cooks up new campaign 'to shine light on progress made in Iraq'" in Working for Change/ Working Assets (which quotes…

Extent Of Saddams Atrocities John

Extent of Saddam's Atrocities?John Laughland questions UK PM Tony Blair's assertion that Saddam put 300,000 Iraqis into mass graves. The figure 290,000 victims of Saddam, he says, comes from Human Rights Watch…

Two Us Soldiers Killed On Late Thursday

Two US Soldiers KilledOn late Thursday, guerrillas fired a rocket propelled grenade at military vehicles near Kirkuk, killing a soldier from the 173rd Airborne Brigade and injuring two others. In Tikrit, a…

Sadrist Militia Interferes With Burial

Sadrist Militia interferes with Burial Rites for Aqila al-HashimiAqila al-Hashimi, a Shiite member of the Interim Governing Council, was buried in Najaf on Friday after having been assassinated, probably by Baathist goons.…

Judicial Board Constituted Cpa Head

Judicial Board ConstitutedCPA head Paul Bremer signed an order creating an independent judicial council to oversee the Iraqi legal system. It will be supervised by the interim minister of justice, Hashim al-Shibli.This…

Guerrillas Wound 8 Us Soldiers Kill 8

Guerrillas wound 8 US Soldiers; Kill 8 IraqisGuerrillas wounded 8 US soldiers on Thursday, leaving one in critical and two in serious condition. Two roadside bombs blasted their convoy in or near…

Bombing Foiled In Najaf Shrine Police

Bombing Foiled in NajafThe shrine police in Najaf accosted two suspicious men carrying bags in that city in the middle of the night of Weds-Thursday. The men opened fire at a police…

Aqila Al Hashimi Dies Interim Governing

Aqila al-Hashimi DiesInterim Governing Council member Aqila al-Hashimi, a long-time official in the Iraqi foreign ministry, died of her wounds on Thursday. She had been shot on Saturday by gunmen. Most informed…

Talabanis Mosul Hq Attacked Al Qaeda

Talabani's Mosul HQ Attacked; Al-Qaeda ConnectionGunmen sprayed machine gun fire at the party offices in Mosul of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan headed by Jalal Talabani at 9 pm Thursday night Iraqi…

Edward Said Dies I Am At Conference And

Edward Said DiesI am at a conference and cannot make a long entry today, but wanted to express my condolences to the family and friends of Edward Said, among the greatest scholars…

Dozens Of Iraqis Wounded Several Killed

Dozens of Iraqis Wounded, several KilledGuerrillas detonated a roadside bomb in the Azamiya district of West Baghdad Wednesday, missing their target of a US military convoy but hitting an Iraqi bus instead.…

Wesley Clark Bush Has 7 Nation Hit List

Wesley Clark: Bush has 7-Nation Hit ListA Malaysian newspaper claims to have gotten an advance peek at statements in the new book by Wesley Clark, excerpted in Newsweek. I can't vouch for…

Governing Council Backs Off From Total

Governing Council backs off from Total Economic LiberalizationThe Interim Governing Council said Wednesday that Finance Minister Kamil al-Kaylani's remarks on Monday were merely his on opinion and did not represent the views…

Mudarrisi Criticizes Planning For New

Mudarrisi Criticizes Planning for new ConstitutionSayyid Hadi al-Mudarrisi, a major cleric of the holy shrine city of Karbala, issued a denunciation Wednesday of the process whereby preparations are being made to draft…

Aqila Al Hashimi Gravely Ill Ap Reports

Aqila al-Hashimi "Gravely IllAP reports that Interim Governing Council member Aqila al-Hashimi, wounded by machine gun fire in an assassination attempt on Saturday, has taken a turn for the worse and is…

Bush Address To Un Disappointing Us

Bush address to UN DisappointingThe US needs three things from the United Nations desperately with regard to Iraq. The first is legitimacy. It needs a UN mantle for its activities in that…

Inc Moves To Take Over Iraqi Finances

INC Moves to Take over Iraqi Finances, Economic PolicyMore on the ambitious "shock treatment" of the Iraqi economy announced Monday. Apparently Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress pushed for the plan on the…

Petroleum Smuggling British Navy

Petroleum SmugglingThe British navy intercepted 7 ships smuggling petroleum out of southern Iraq to the Persian Gulf, according to al-Zaman. Smuggling reduces the country's ability to produce electricity and the availability to…

Fao Says Millions Of Iraqis Suffer

FAO Says Millions of Iraqis Suffer HungerThe UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) issued a report on Tuesday saying that almost half of the Iraqi population…

6000 Us Troops Have Come Home Sick Or

6,000 US Troops have come home Sick or WoundedAlthough the number of troops wounded in action in Iraq is still a little less than 1200, several thousand more have fallen physically or…

Ambassador Wilson Interview By Josh

Ambassador Wilson interview by Josh Marshall, part 2Talkingpointsmemo has posted the second part of a long interview with Joe Wilson, who served in the embassy in Baghdad just before the last Gulf…

8

$8.5 Billion in US Loans to TurkeyThe US Secretary of the Treasury, John Snow, signed an agreement Monday that loans Turkey $8.5 bn. to make restitution for the damage done to the…

Muqtada Supporter Arab Turkmen Unity

Muqtada Supporter: Arab-Turkmen Unity against KurdsA radical young follower of Shiite firebrand Muqtada al-Sadr has called for an Arab-Turkmen alliance against the Kurds in Kirkuk. Abd al-Fattah al-Musawi, from a poor family…

Attacks In Mosul Baquba Iraqi

Attacks in Mosul, BaqubaIraqi eyewitnesses reported that an automobile exploded Monday in front of the police station in the northern city of Mosul, wounding a number of people. Guerrillas also mounted a…

Videotape Shows Powell Rice Knew Wmd

Videotape Shows Powell, Rice, knew WMD Claims FalseAustralian journalist John Pilger claims to have incontrovertible proof that the Bush administration knew that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction and its…

Soldier Suffers Neurological Damage

Soldier Suffers Neurological Damage from Bomb in IraqFor the story of one US soldier wounded in Iraq, which brings home some of the horror, see:http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/localstoryA13692A.htm

Abdul Aziz Al Hakim Says Drafters Of

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim Says Drafters of Constitution must be ElectedIn an interview with al-Zaman, Interim Governor Council member and head of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim,…

Israeli Investment In Iraq Prohibited

Israeli Investment in Iraq ProhibitedPlanning Minister Mahdi al-Hafez told journalists at the annual IMF/World Bank meetings in Dubai that Israel would not be allowed to take advantage of the "liberalization" of the…

Breaking News Bombing Of Un

Breaking News: Bombing of UN Headquarters in BaghdadA car drove up to the UN compound in Baghdad Monday morning, and as it was trying to enter, it exploded. It killed at least…

Us Committed To Strong Centralized Iraq

US Committed to a strong, Centralized Iraq: MuashirThe Jordanian Foreign Minister, Marwan Muashir, said Sunday that King Abdallah II was told when he was in Washington recently that the US opposes a…

Rebuilding In Iraqi South Impeded By

Rebuilding In Iraqi South Impeded by Lack of CooperationA US military spokesman complained that rebuilding in the Shiite South of Iraq was hampered by a lack of cooperation from the local populace,…

3 Us Soldiers Killed 13 Wounded

3 US Soldiers Killed, 13 WoundedGuerrillas fired mortar shells into the grounds of the Abu Ghuraib prison on Saturday night, wounding 13 US soldiers and killing two. The use of mortar fire,…

Indian Troops Again Possibility Times

Indian Troops again a Possibility?The Times of India is reporting that the Indian government, having earlier considered and ruled out a Washington request to send troops to Iraq, is now again toying…

Clarks Statements On Iraq War

Clark's Statements on the Iraq War ConsistentI really object to the spin the US press put on the statements of Wesley Clark about the Iraq war. All he said is that if…

Iraqis To Write Iraqi Constitution

Iraqis to Write Iraqi constitutionAppointed Minister of Justice, Hashim Abdel Rahman Chalabi, said in Bahrain according to al-Hayat that the new Iraqi constitution would be entirely the creation of Iraqis, and that…

Us Opens Iraqs Economy But To What Us

US Opens Iraq's Economy, but to What?The US occupying forces blatantly contravened the Fourth Geneva Convention on Monday, announcing that they were opening the Iraqi economy to foreign investment and setting low…

Ayatollah Hussein Al Sadr Close Iraqs

Ayatollah Hussein al-Sadr: Close Iraq's Borders to MischiefIn a fluff piece in al-Zaman, Shiite cleric Hussein al-Sadr, a minor member of the al-Sadr family who preaches at Kazimiya near Baghdad, said his…

Death Penalty To Return New Iraqi

Death Penalty to Return?The new Iraqi ministry of the interior (analogous to Homeland Security in the US) is pressing for the reinstatement of the death penalty in Iraq. Iyad Alawi and other…

Renewed Iraqi Monarchy Bad Idea Ive

Renewed Iraqi Monarchy a Bad IdeaI've heard rumors that the idea of imposing a member of the Hashemite monarchy on Iraq is again making the rounds in Washington. This is a very,…

Iraq And Vietnam Max Cleland Former

Iraq and VietnamMax Cleland, former Georgia senator and a decorated war hero from the Vietnam era, who lost three limbs in that war, is comparing Iraq to the Vietnam War. When he…

Three Us Troops Wounded Guerrillas

Three US Troops WoundedGuerrillas launched two separate rpg attacks on US military convoys in the Mosul region on Saturday, wounding three US soldiers. There was also an explosion in Falluja.

Three Way Summit In Berlin Ends In

Three Way Summit in Berlin Ends "in disaster"France's Jacques Chirac refused to compromise on two key issues at the Berlin summit between Britain, Germany and France. The meeting was a "public relations…

Doctors Optimistic About Aqila Al

Doctors Optimistic about Aqila al-HashimiHer physicians, who have operated once and planned a second operation, are guardedly optimistic about the prospects of Aqila Hashimi, the member of the Interim Governing Council who…

100000 Gangsters In Iraq Official With

100,000 Gangsters in IraqAn official with the international Red Cross/ Red Crescent in Amman told al-Sharq al-Awsat on Saturday that the 100,000 members of criminal gangs constituted the second largest army in…

Breaking News Aqila Al Hashimi Attacked

Breaking news: Aqila al-Hashimi Attacked, in Critical Condition Guerrillas fired rocket-propelled grenades Saturday morning at the automobilie of Aqila al-Hashimi, a prominent female member of the US-appointed Interim Governing Council. When the…

Two Us Troops Wounded Guerrillas

Two US Troops WoundedGuerrillas launched two separate attacks on passing US military vehicles near Khalidiya on Friday, wounding two Americans. The attacks led to a heavy exchange of fire that left an…

Powerful Explosion In Baghdad Nyt

Powerful Explosion in BaghdadThe NYT reports, "The violence continued in Iraq as a bomb exploded by a highway here in the capital on Friday night, with a boom that echoed through the…

Bremer Decries Iranian Actions In Iraq

Bremer Decries Iranian Actions in IraqUS civil administrator Paul Bremer gave an interview with the Daily Telegraph in which he decried what he called Iranian meddling in Iran. He said Tehran "continues…

Iraq Must Be Kept Together As Single

Iraq must be Kept together as a Single StateThe splitting up of Iraq into three countries would be unacceptable to allthe neighbors, including Turkey and Saudi Arabia, and they are powerfulenough that…

Diyala Bridge Cost Overruns More Reader

Diyala Bridge Cost OverrunsMore reader reactions to the Riverbend posting about US over-spending on construction projects in Iraq:From Nabil al-Tikriti:"Karen Magoon's websearch is insufficient proof of theinaccuracy of the riverbend blog's claim.…

Three Us Soldiers Dead Perhaps Dozen

Three US Soldiers Dead, perhaps a dozen WoundedGuerrillas throughout northern Iraq subjected American troops to a large number of deadly attacks on Thursday, killing at least three US soldiers and wounding perhaps…

Police Demonstrate In Basra Police

Police demonstrate in BasraThe police chief of Basra has been removed from office by the British. About two hundred policemen loyal to him staged a protest Thursday.

Kurdisharab Violence In Kirkuk Dozens

Kurdish/Arab Violence in KirkukDozens of armed Kurdish men in Kirkuk attacked Arab tribesmen near the city on Thursday afternoon, according to al-Hayat. The Kurds descended on the village of Hayfa, apparently intent…

Uncompetitive Halliburton Contracts

Uncompetitive Halliburton Contracts worth Billions in IraqThe contracts given last February by the US military to Halliburton for putting out petroleum fires and getting petroleum pumping again after the war were initially…

Ambassador Joe Wilson On Iraq Interview

Ambassador Joe Wilson on Iraq - Interview by Josh MarshallThe full story of Ambassador Joe Wilson's investigation of (fraudulent) claims that Iraq had signed a deal to buy uranium from Niger is…

No Smallpox Program In Iraq Either Us

No Smallpox Program in Iraq, EitherUS Secretary of State Colin Powell said in his UN presentation that Iraq had the capacity to produce smallpox, one of the reasons it had to be…

Us Soldiers Wounded Afp Reports Four

US Soldiers WoundedAFP reports "four more soldiers wounded in two separate attacks on convoys."

Us Tempts Pakistan With Aid In Return

US Tempts Pakistan with Aid, in return for Troops in IraqThe US is putting pressure on Pakistan to send up to 10,000 troops to Iraq, using foreign aid and debt relief as…

Cnn Star Says Us Media Were Intimidated

CNN Star says US Media were Intimidated by BushChristiane Amanpour said in an interview on CNBC that the US media had been intimidated into self-censorship in its coverage of the Iraq war.…

Zebari Rules Out Turkish Troops In

Zebari Rules out Turkish Troops in Iraqi Kurdish AreasIraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has categorically ruled out the deployment of Turkish troops in the Kurdish areas of Iraq. He expressed a preference…

Two Us Soldiers Wounded One Albanian

Two US Soldiers Wounded, One Albanian Killed, Iraqis woundedIn Mosul, guerrillas wounded two US soldiers on Monday. In a separate incident, they fired grenades in front of City Hall, killing one Albanian…

Iranian Pilgrims Set To Come To Iraq

Iranian Pilgrims set to come to IraqIranian television announced that Iran would open its borders next week to Iranian pilgrims who wish to visit the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in…

Cheney And Halliburton Senator Frank

Cheney and HalliburtonSenator Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) "said public records show that Cheney, former chief executive officer of Halliburton, collected $367,000 in deferred salary from the company in 2001 and 2002, and is…

Border Alerts Against Infiltrators Us

Border Alerts against InfiltratorsUS forces are attempting to patrol Iraq's huge borders with special care these days, reports al-Sharq al-Awsat. From all accounts, it appears that the US military had some sort…

No Post 1998 Nuclear Weapons Program In

No post-1998 Nuclear Weapons Program in IraqThe Iraqis never tried to revive their nuclear weapons program after the UN inspectors dismantled it, according to senior Iraqi scientists. (This is obvious, by the…

Benign Autocracy In Iraq Is Recipe For

Benign Autocracy in Iraq is a Recipe for DisasterMy entry in an email discussion of the proposal made by Ray Takeyh and Nikolas Gvosdev that "Benign Autocracy Is Answer for Iraq" in…

Us Soldier Khalidiya Police Chief

US Soldier, Khalidiya Police Chief KilledGuerillas Monday killed a 1st Armored Division soldier in central Baghdad with rpg fire as he was patrolling. In the western town of Khalidiya, three men assassinated…

High Baathist Official Held In Najaf

High Baathist official Held in Najaf BombingKareem Ghatheeth, a Baath Party "Security Director," was captured recently in Najaf by Badr Corps militiament in a firefight. They say that he is the mastermind…

New Private Television Company In Iraq

New Private Television Company in IraqIt was announced Monday that IBC, a privately owned corporation in Iraqi hands, would launch the first privately owned television network in Iraq. (Although Turkey has privately…

Turkmen Choose Leader Sami Shabak

Turkmen Choose LeaderSami Shabak, a prominent member of the governing council of the Iraq Turkmen Front, angrily resigned Monday, accusing the party of being under the influence of the Turkish government and…

Ayatollah Hussein Al Sadr Steven R

Ayatollah Hussein al-SadrSteven R. Weisman reports of the US Secretary of State in Baghdad, Colin Powell: "On Sunday evening he dined with the senior Shiite cleric in Baghdad, Saeed Hussein Al-Sadr, a…

Us Troops One Killed Three Wounded

US Troops: One Killed, Three WoundedGuerrillas killed one US paratrooper and wounded three others on Sunday near Falluja with a roadside bomb that blew the back off their humvee.

5 Members Of Interim Governing Council

5 Members of Interim Governing Council Press for PowerAhmad Chalabi, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, and three other members of the American-appointed Interim Governing Council are using the current difficulties of the Bush administration…

Constitutional Preparatory Report At

Constitutional Preparatory Report at end of SeptemberFuad Masum, head of the Preparatory Committee for the Iraqi Constitution, announced Sunday that his committee's report would be out at the end of September. The…

Iraq Petroleum Production Jumps Iraq Is

Iraq Petroleum Production JumpsIraq is back to producing 1.5 million barrels a day, up from the 800,000 typical of August. With its present equipment, Iraq could produce 3 million barrels a day,…

Najaf Police Chief Dismissed For

Najaf Police Chief Dismissed for CorruptionHaydar Mahdi Matar al-Miyali, the Governor of Najaf, announced Sunday that the city's police chief, Husayn Yasin al-Juburi, had been arrested on corruption charges. Legal action against…

Four Us Soldiers Wounded Guerrillas

Four US Soldiers WoundedGuerrillas fired a rocket propelled grenade at US troops in Mosul on Saturday, wounding three of them. Also, guerrillas near Falluja hit a humvee with explosives, wounding one US…

Case Of Missing Weapons Of Mass

The Case of the Missing Weapons of Mass DestructionJosh Marshall has an excellent piece today, Sunday, on how the British and US governments are delaying the publication of the Kay report on…

Baathist Resistance Fighters Highly

Baathist Resistance Fighters Highly Organized in IraqThe Baathist cells hitting American troops in and around Baquba are tightly knit, organized and take direction from a command cell in Diyala. This according to…

Massacre Condemned By Sunni Clerics In

"Massacre" Condemned by Sunni Clerics in FallujaAngry crowds chanted anti-American slogans in the western city of Falluja (pop. 256,000) as the security police killed in a friendly fire incident by US troops…

Al Qaeda And Pakistani Intelligence It

al-Qaeda and Pakistani IntelligenceIt has long been clear that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (military intelligence) helped create the Taliban and almost certainly was involved in al-Qaeda somehow. Just-declassified US military intelligence documents reveal…