Month

Archives: November 2003

Massacre Of Spanish Secret Agents

Massacre of Spanish Secret AgentsGuerrillas ambushed two vehicles carrying Spanish intelligence operatives in Latifiya, a Sunni town just south of Baghdad on Saturday, killing 7 and wounding another. They used rocket propelled…

Sistani Position On New Elections

Sistani Position on New ElectionsThe office of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani affirmed Saturday in Najaf that he had reservations about the Nov. 15 plan for caucus type elections. Replying to questions from…

72 Us Troops Killed In Hostilities In

72 US troops killed in Hostilities in November72 US soldiers were killed by hostile fire in Iraq during November, the highest of any month since the major fighting started last March. And…

Sunni Walks Out Of Tourism Conference

Sunni walks out of Tourism ConferenceAFP reports that Adnan Doulami, the religious director for Sunni Muslims walked out on a tourism conference on Saturday. He was protesting the remarks of Hussein al-Shami,…

More On Sa 14 Missiles Brucer Has

More on SA-14 MissilesBruceR has further technical analysis of the SAM missile attacks on the DHL cargo plane on Nov. 22. Apparently the guerrillas thought they were hitting a military plane! He…

Bush To Sistani Good To Have You

Bush to Sistani: Good to Have you Working with UsIt turns out that President George W. Bush did meet on Thursday with four members of the Iraqi Interim Governing Council. All 24…

Two Us Troops Killed Us Kills Sisters

Two Us Troops Killed; US kills SistersGuerrillas in Mosul killed a soldier with mortar fire that hit the 101st Airborne Division HQ on Friday. On Thursday, a US soldier had been shot…

Bush Sneaks In And Out Of Baghdad W

Bush Sneaks in and Out of BaghdadW. must have envisaged his triumphal first trip to Baghdad very differently. Last spring, before the war, he was told by Ahmad Chalabi via Dick Cheney,…

Sistanis Fatwa To Americans In Meantime

Sistani's Fatwa to the AmericansIn the meantime, Bush's team at the Coalition Provisional Authority were scrambling to respond to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani's critique of their plans for Iraq. Sistani dislikes the…

Sistani Raises Objections To Latest

Sistani Raises Objections to Latest Coalition PlanAccording to al-Hayat, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq and a member of the Interim Governing Council, met with…

2 Us Troops Wounded In Mosul Italian

2 US troops wounded in Mosul; Italian Embassy in Baghdad Hit by RocketsGuerrillas fired a rocket or mortar round into the second floor of the Italian embassy in Baghdad on Wednesday. The…

Iraq War Damaging Us War On Terror

Iraq War damaging US War on TerrorWarren Strobel of Knight Ridder points out that many counter-terrorism analysts are convinced that the real war on terror is being hurt by the drain of…

Khamenei America Sinking Into Quagmire

Khamenei: 'America Sinking into Quagmire" "Iran's Supreme Jurisprudent, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a radio address that: 'The American nation should know that Iraq is America's quagmire and America is sinking deeper…

Norwegian Troops In Iraq Fear For

Norwegian troops in Iraq fear for safetyNorwegian troops appear to be surprised to find that they are not actually in a peacekeeping role in Iraq, but rather are in a combat role.…

Marshall Cheney Had Garner Fire Warrick

Marshall: Cheney had Garner Fire WarrickJosh Marshall has excellent analysis of Jay Garner's BBC interview on the failing of the US in handling post-war Iraq. He confirms what I had suspected, which…

More On Why Partitioning Iraq Is Very

More on Why Partitioning Iraq is a Very Bad IdeaJack Straw alluded to the dangers of a break-up of Iraq in a news conference in Baghdad on Wednesday, and said the only…

10 Us Soldiers Wounded Each Day Even

10 US soldiers wounded each dayEven the fall in attacks does not obscure the bad news for Ken Dilanian of Knight Ridder. He notes that hostile fire had wounded 2,076 US soldiers…

Bombs In Downtown Baghdad Two Iraqi

Bombs in downtown Baghdad; Two Iraqi Police WoundedGuerrillas fired mortars at US troops in Tikrit early on Tuesday but failed to inflict any casualties. In response, US troops wounded one assailant and…

Sa 14 Used In Attack On Dhl Plane

SA-14 used in Attack on DHL PlaneA videotape of guerrillas' attack on the DHL plane at Baghdad airport was given to a French reporter for Le Nouvel Observateur. It was seen by…

Sistanis Fatwa Trumped Bremer Rajiv

Sistani's Fatwa trumped BremerRajiv Chandrasekharan has a wonderful article in the Washington Post on the way Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani's fatwa of June 28 stymied US civil administrator Paul Bremer. .This was…

Igc Cant Let Go Some Members Of Interim

IGC Can't Let Go Some members of the Interim Governing Council, which was set to be dissolved in June on the election of a new transitional government, are now saying they don't…

Banning Al Arabiya Real Reason That Al

Banning al-ArabiyaThe real reason that al-Arabiya satellite television is being banned in Iraq is not that it showed videotapes of Saddam, but that it is a prime source of videotape of damage…

Halliburton Accused Of Gouging

Halliburton accused of GougingAccording to AFP, three Democratic leaders in Congress are charging Halliburton with gouging US taxpayers by charging $2.65 per gallon to transport gasoline from Kuwait to Iraq. Local Iraqi…

Al Hakim Us Troops Humiliation Only Un

al-Hakim: US Troops a Humiliation: Only a UN Resolution Can Authorize ThemAFP reports that the leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and member of the Interim Governing…

Muqtada Only Real Solution Is Immediate

Muqtada: The Only Real Solution is Immediate US WithdrawalJohn Daniszewski of the LA Times has an interview with Muqtada al-Sadr about the new plans for a transitional government. Like French President Jacques…

Why Breaking Up Iraq Is Very Very Bad

Why Breaking up Iraq is a Very, Very Bad Idea Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council for Foreign Affairs and a former NYT editor and columnist, argues in today's NYT…

How We Denied Democracy To Middle East

How We Denied Democracy to the Middle EastRobert Fisk's essay, "How we denied democracy to the ME," coming in response to Bush's new policy statement, is worth reading. I think it is…

Nightline On Iraq 11 24 Those Of You In

Nightline on Iraq 11-24Those of you in North America who can stay up late may want to watch Nightline tonight. It is on the Coalition Provisional Authority's about-face and plans for elections…

Shaping Iraqi Electorate Election Now

Shaping the Iraqi ElectorateThe election now envisaged by the Americans in Iraq this spring will not be a democratic, one person one vote, affair. The electorate itself will be town notables hand-picked…

Iraqizing Security Al Hayat Reports

Iraqizing SecurityAl-Hayat reports that the US is pressuring the Interim Governing Council to speed up the transfer of responsibility for security to the Iraqi Interior Ministry. Hamam Baqir Hamudi of the Supreme…

Us Arrests Newspaper Editor Us Forces

US arrests Newspaper EditorThe US forces in Mosul have arrested Dhunun Yunis, the editor in chief of a local weekly newspaper, on charges of cooperating with Baath remnants and with using the…

3 Turks 307 Other Foreign Fighters In

3 Turks, 307 other Foreign Fighters in CustodyThe Kurdish militias say they have arrested three Turks, with Turkish passports and cellphones, whom they believe responsible for recent bombings in Kirkuk that killed…

Civilian Flights In And Out Of Baghdad

Civilian Flights in and out of Baghdad Airport HaltedAs a result of the missile attack on the DHL plane this weekend, Coalition authorities have decided to halt civilian flights in and out…

Lebanons Hizbullah In Iraq Nyts James

Lebanon's Hizbullah in IraqThe NYT's James Risen has an article about the Lebanese Shiite group, Hizbullah, "infiltrating" Iraq. If one reads the article carefully, it is clear that 1) there are only…

Allegations About Iran And Al Qaeda

Allegations about Iran and al-QaedaHere we go again. Okaz, the Saudi tabloid, alleged that Saif al-Adil al-Misri, a high al-Qaeda official, ordered the recent bombings in Saudi Arabia from Tehran.The allegations that…

3 Us Soldiers Dead In Iraq Bodies

3 US soldiers Dead in Iraq, Bodies LootedTwo US soldiers driving through Mosul were attacked and driven off the road, crashing their vehicle. Either their assailants or crowds of angry youths who…

Franks Broaches Military Dictatorship

Franks broaches Military DictatorshipFriends, the Republic is in real danger. It is not the UN black helicopters that threaten it, but elements of the United States officer corps. That is, if their…

Police Stations Bombed Airplane Struck

Police Stations Bombed, Airplane struck by MissilePowerful carbombs exploded at police stations in Baquba and Khan Bani Saad, northeast of Baghdad, early Saturday morning. A DHL plane landed back at Baghdad airport…

Bomb Kills 4 Wounds 20 At Liquor Store

Bomb Kills 4, Wounds 20 at Liquor StoreAn assailant threw a bomb at liquor stores in south Baghdad on Friday, killing 4 persons and injuring 20 who happened to be in the…

Al Yawir Warns Of Lack Of Transparency

Al-Yawir warns of lack of Transparency in ElectionsMeanwhile, the leader of the Sunni Shimr tribe, Ghazi al-Yawir [Yawer] (a member of the Interim Governing Council), warned of large-scale protests at the secrecy…

Muqtada Us Is Great Satan Radical Young

Muqtada: The US is the Great SatanThe radical young Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr accused the American administration in Iraq of pressuring Friday prayers preachers to cease criticizing the occupation. He described the…

Mortar Round Lands Near Abdul Aziz Al

Mortar Round lands Near Abdul Aziz al-HakimAustralia's News.com.au reports that a dud mortar round landed near the mosque hosting preacher Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in…

Telecom Contracts Under Suspicion Of

Telecom contracts Under Suspicion of GraftThe Financial Times says that the Pentagon is investigating the interim Iraqi minister of communications and two officials of the Coalition Provisional Authority concerning charges that they…

Poor Us Military Intelligence In Iraq

Poor US Military Intelligence in IraqThe Associated Press did a story on Friday on the US military's lack of good human intelligence skills and assets in Iraq. This lack of Arabists and…

Al Hakim Faults Plan For Transition To

Al-Hakim Faults Plan for Transition to SovereigntyAbdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq and a member of the Interim Governing Council, complained this week about the…

Powerful Explosions Rip Through

Powerful Explosions Rip through Palestine, Sheraton HotelsGuerrillas fired rockets into the Palestine Hotel and the Sheraton in downtown Baghdad on Thursday. Several persons were injured. According to CNN staff, who are based…

Gunmen Trade Fire With Guards Of Japans

Gunmen trade fire with Guards of Japan's EmbassyGunmen began firing on Wednesday night near the Japanese embassy in Baghdad. The embassy guards got into a firefight with them, after which they fled.…

Khafaji Added To Igc Salma Al Khafaji

Khafaji added to IGCSalma al-Khafaji has been added to the Interim Governing Council, succeeding the slain Aqilah al-Hashimi, who was assassinated. Al-Khafaji is a Shiite woman dentist, and joins other technocrats on…

Season Of Bombs 8 People Killed In Iraq

Season of BombsThe 8 people killed in Iraq since Wednesday by various guerrilla bombings and attacks are dwarfed by the disaster in Istanbul. A US soldier was killed and two wounded by…

Vatican Denounces Islamist Attacks On

Vatican Denounces Islamist Attacks on Christian Schools in MosulRadical Muslims sprayed machine gun fire at properties of the Assyrian Antiochan church in Mosul and planted hand grenades in schools maintained by the…

Talabani Muqtada Welcome In

Talabani: Muqtada Welcome in Transitional GovernmentMuqtada al-Sadr, the heretofore radical Shiite cleric of Kufa, would be welcome in the Iraqi government, according to Interim Governing Council president Jalal Talabani. So reports Howard…

Cordesman Attacks On Americans Will

Cordesman: Attacks on Americans will continue "until the day the US leaves"CPA under Fire According to Knight-Ridder, the US will double the number of State Department personnel in Iraq to 110, including…

Supposed Al Qaeda Links With Saddam

Supposed al-Qaeda links with SaddamPeople have asked me what I thought about the memo of Undersecretary of Defense for Planning Douglas Feith detailing 50 instances of contacts between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi…

3 Us Troops Dead Guerrillas Killed Two

3 US Troops deadGuerrillas killed two American soldiers Monday in two different attacks. They ambushed on soldier while he was patrolling. They blew up a roadside bomb and killed another. A third…

Us Destroys Houses According To Jeff

US destroys HousesAccording to Jeff Wilkinson of Knight Ridder, the US military in its most recent shock and awe campaign has destroyed fifteen houses in and around Tikrit, which it said were…

Haeri Rejects Transitional Authority

Haeri rejects Transitional AuthorityThe San Francisco Chronicle's Robert Collier has pulled off a coup, landing an interview with Grand Ayatollah Kadhim al-Haeri, a leading Iraqi religious authority still resident in Qom. Al-Haeri…

Khatami Recognizes Igc According To Afp

Khatami recognizes IGCAccording to AFP, Iran's President Mohammad Khatami met with Interim Governing Council president Jalal Talabani on Monday. In a surprise announcement, Khatami said he recognized the legitimacy of the IGC…

Shiite Leaders Cautious Critical Of New

Shiite Leaders Cautious, Critical of New Plan for Iraqi GovernmentStories in the Christian Science Monitor and the Washington Post have some reaction from Shiite leaders to the new plan for moving to…

String Of Assassination Attempts In

String of Assassination Attempts in Kirkuk: IGC member Shongol Chapouk escapes; Deputy Mayor WoundedThe deputy governor of Kirkuk, Ismail Rajab al-Hadidi, was wounded along with his driver in an assassination attempt on…

Stages For New Government Precise

Stages for New GovernmentThe precise stages envisaged in the new plan for Iraqi sovereignty by June, 2003, are available at the Web site of the Coalition Provisional Authority. The Fundamental Law laying…

Cole Article On Sadr Movement Among

Cole Article on Sadr Movement among Iraqi ShiitesThose of you who have followed this site for any length of time will already know the details. But I have just brought out a…

Interview With Todd Mundt On Michigan

Interview with Todd Mundt on Michigan Public RadioVia Michigan Radio" 11/13/03Iraq Update Todd Mundt Paul Bremer is returning to Iraq with a new set of marching orders from the Bush administration. The…

Cheney Ignored British Warnings On Post

Cheney Ignored British Warnings on Post-War Instability in IraqFormer British ambassador to Washington Sir Christopher Meyer has revealed to the Guardian that the British repeatedly pressed US Vice President Dick Cheney and…

17 Us Soldiers Dead 5 Injured One

17 US soldiers Dead, 5 Injured, One MissingEyewitnesses near Mosul say that they saw a low-flying Black Hawk helicopter take ground fire and turn ablaze before trying to gain altitude and crashing…

Istanbul Synagogue Bombing Kills 22

Istanbul Synagogue Bombing Kills 22, wounds 242My money is on al-Qaeda as the culprits in the two massive car bombs that went off in Istanbul's Galata district on Saturday, the Jewish sabbath,…

4 Americans Killed In Iraq Guerrillas

4 Americans Killed in IraqGuerrillas killed two soldiers and wounded three with an explosive charge aimed at their convoy north of Baghdad on Friday. Friday morning, guerrillas launched a similar bomb attack…

Us Moves To Hand Sovereignty To Iraqis

US moves to Hand Sovereignty to Iraqis by June; Well, Sort ofWe now know what the anonymous Arab diplomat meant when he told the New York Times that he had met with…

Muqtada Al Sadr Praises New Transition

Muqtada al-Sadr Praises New Transition to an Iraqi GovernmentYoung Shiite radical Muqtada al-Sadr, in his Friday Prayers sermon at Kufa, also praised the new program, saying that any step that restored sovereignty…

Riot In Samawah Ap Reported That

Riot in SamawahAP reported that demonstrators threw rocks in downtown Samawah, protesting alleged police corruption. Iraqi police tried to deal with the rally by firing into the crowds, wounded at least one…

Fateful Us Choices In Iraq Rory

Fateful US Choices in IraqRory McCarthy, writing for the Guardian from Baghdad, has outlined the new policy options facing Paul Bremer now that his original 7-stage plan has been abandoned."Plans now being…

Blackwill Nsc Tapped To Take Over Iraq

Blackwill, NSC tapped to take over Iraq from Rumsfeld Reliable diplomatic sources in New York have told al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper that the Bush administration has decided to reduce the role of the…

New Poll Shows Public Thinks It Was

New Poll Shows Public thinks it was Misled on IraqFrom The Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland:"No Clear Consensus For or Against Decision to Go To WarSupport for…

Move To Early Turnover Of Civil

Move to Early Turnover of Civil Authority in Iraq?One outcome of Paul Bremer's frantic consultations in Washington on the rapidly deteriorating Iraq situation appears to have been a decision to move to…

Japan Pulls Out S

Japan Pulls Out; S. Korea Reduces Planned ForceThe car bombing of the Italian police station at Nasiriyah has had the results the guerrillas were aiming at. Japan has now formally announced that…

Us Army Confiscates Journalists

US Army Confiscates Journalists' VideotapeSome thirty media outlets are protesting that the US military on the ground in Iraq is interfering with their coverage of the ongoing military operations there, in contradiction…

Two Us Soldiers Dead Guerrillas Killed

Two US Soldiers deadGuerrillas killed a US soldier with a roadside bomb near Taji on Wednesday. Another soldier died of wounds incurred in a roadside bombing in Baghdad. The American military compound…

Talabani Foresees Provisional

Talabani foresees Provisional Government preceding a new ConstitutionInterim Iraqi president Jalal Talabani conceded Wednesday that it might be better to establish a provisional Iraqi government before producing a constitution. Talabani said, "I…

Us Almost Kills Ayatolah Bahr Al Ulum

US almost Kills Ayatolah Bahr al-Ulum Ayatollah Muhammad Bahr al-Ulum, a member of the US-appointed Interim Governing Council, barely avoided being killed by a US soldier on Wednesday. The soldier opened fire…

Breaking News 16 Italians 8 Iraqis Dead

Breaking News: 16 Italians, 8 Iraqis dead in Nasiriyah Police Station Attack On Wednesday guerrillas launched a well-coordinated bombing attack against an Italian military police compound in Nasiriyah, a city in the…

Armitage We Need To Bring Iraqi Sunnis

Armitage: We need to bring the Iraqi Sunnis into the Political Process Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in Cairo said that the US wishes to bring the Iraqi Sunnis back from…

Us Rule In Iraq Collapsing Us Civil

US Rule in Iraq Collapsing?US civil administrator Paul Bremer's sudden, rushed trip to Washington earlier this week signalled that the White House is considering a radical rethinking of Iraq policy. As Josh…

Medact Iraqi Health Situation

Medact: Iraqi Health Situation DeterioratingMedact, a health professionals service organization, has issued a new report on the Iraq war and its aftermath. It alleges that between 21,700 and 55,000 people have died…

Iraqi Analyst Resistance Is Nationalist

Iraqi Analyst: Resistance is Nationalist, Not ForeignAccording to al-Jazeera, Baghdad U. Political Scientist Salman al-Jumaili reports that the majority of attacks on Coalition forces in Iraq are carried out by Iraqi nationalist…

References Httpwww

Referenceshttp://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2003_11_09.html#002196http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28318-2003Nov11.htmlhttp://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,102823,00.htmlhttp://www.medact.org/tbx/pages/http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2003/s987254.htmhttp://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/61180572-880F-4712-AC8E-CCC0E16BFDBE.htm"

Further Instability In Iraq Guerrillas

Further instability in IraqGuerrillas hit a convoy at Iskandariya, killing one American soldier. Guerrillas exploded an improvised bomb along the side of the street in Basra, killing 3 civilians at least.In Mosul,…

British Fear Uprising After One Year

British Fear Uprising after One YearThe British authorities in the Iraqi south are desperately afraid that the Americans are going to dawdle around so long in creating an Iraqi government that they…

Wave Of Assassinations In Basra Dozens

Wave of Assassinations in BasraDozens of prominent Iraqis have recently been assassinated in Basra, according to az-Zaman. The paper says that a few of these may be reprisal killings of former Baath…

Hundreds Demonstrate In Sadr City

Hundreds demonstrate in Sadr City Against USAmerican troops appear accidentally to have killed a municipal leader of a neighborhood in East Baghdad whom they themselves had put in power. In response, outraged…

Islamic Party Puts Hopes In Syria

Islamic Party puts hopes in SyriaMuhsin Abdul Hamid, leader of the Islamic Party of Iraq, gave an interview to al-Hayat about his meetings in Damascus with Bashar al-Asad. A member of the…

Us Ignorance Created Quagmire In

US Ignorance Created the Quagmire in FallujahJournalist Hazim al-Amin reports in al-Hayat that Fallujah and Ramadi strike him as almost identical in most ways. The same extended clan networks dominate both cities,…

Us Clashes With Pkk In Iraq Turks

US Clashes with PKK in Iraq; Turks Complain of Lack of InfluenceTurkish Chief of Staff Hilmi Ozkok has complained that the US is showing favoritism to Iraqi Kurds. He said in an…

Israel Connections To Iraq Occupation

Israel Connections to the Iraq OccupationDelinda Hanley charges that there is a strong Israeli connection to US plans for Iraq, citing three developments. One is the Israeli demand that an oil pipeline…

Muqtadas Softer Side More Extended

Muqtada's Softer SideA more extended analysis of Muqtada al-Sadr's recent softening toward the US presence and his turn to playing ordinary politics instead of appealing to a kind of radical politics of…

Klein Not Just Troops Out Now But

Klein: Not Just "Troops Out Now" but "Contractors Out Now"Journalist Naomi Klein says, "It's too late to stop the war, but it's not too late to deny Iraq's invaders the myriad economic…

Iraq Faces Bitter Winter Without Enough

Iraq faces Bitter Winter without enough KeroseneIraq will need half a billion liters of kerosene this winter, according to a Reuters report, but only has managed to accumulate a quarter of a…

Alnasrawi Privatization Is Wrongheaded

Alnasrawi: Privatization is WrongheadedThe eminent Iraqi-born economist Abbas Alnasrawi of the University of Vermont has written a wide-ranging argument against the immediate privatization of state-owned industries by the American administration of Iraq.…

You Will All Be Following In Other News

You will all be following in other news sources the story of the downed Blackhawk helicopter and further US casualties. I’m at a conference and so I’ll just report here some items…

Sunni Fundamentalists Protest Arrests

Sunni Fundamentalists Protest arrests of Clergy500 Sunni Islamists demonstrated in the streets of Baghdad on Friday, representing the Higher Islamic Institute and other Muslim groups, and demanding the release of Sunni clergymen…

Number Of Iraqi Pilgrims To Mecca Will

Number of Iraqi Pilgrims to Mecca will DoubleThe Islamic Foundations Board of Iraq announced that it would double the number of Iraqis permitted to undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca this year. It…

Multinational Troops Hit In Iraq Polish

Multinational Troops Hit in Iraq; Polish Officer, 6 Ukrainians WoundedThe Polish military announced Friday that the multinational force under its command, which includes Bulgarians, Kazakhstanis, Spanish, Ukrainians, Dominicans, etc., patrolling the south-center…