The Iraq "Civil War" -

Robert Fisk: Seen through a Syrian lens,

'unknown Americans' are provoking civil war in Iraq

By Robert Fisk

04/29/06 "The Independent" -- - In Syria, the world appears through a glass, darkly. As dark as the smoked windows of the car which takes me to a building on the western side of Damascus where a man I have known for 15 years - we shall call him a "security source", which is the name given by American correspondents to their own powerful intelligence officers - waits with his own ferocious narrative of disaster in Iraq and dangers in the Middle East.

His is a fearful portrait of an America trapped in the bloody sands of Iraq, desperately trying to provoke a civil war around Baghdad in order to reduce its own military casualties. It is a scenario in which Saddam Hussein remains Washington's best friend, in which Syria has struck at the Iraqi insurgents with a ruthlessness that the United States wilfully ignores. And in which Syria's Interior Minister, found shot dead in his office last year, committed suicide because of his own mental instability.

The Americans, my interlocutor suspected, are trying to provoke an Iraqi civil war so that Sunni Muslim insurgents spend their energies killing their Shia co-religionists rather than soldiers of the Western occupation forces. "I swear to you that we have very good information," my source says, finger stabbing the air in front of him. "One young Iraqi man told us that he was trained by the Americans as a policeman in Baghdad and he spent 70 per cent of his time learning to drive and 30 per cent in weapons training. They said to him: 'Come back in a week.' When he went back, they gave him a mobile phone and told him to drive into a crowded area near a mosque and phone them. He waited in the car but couldn't get the right mobile signal. So he got out of the car to where he received a better signal. Then his car blew up."

Impossible, I think to myself. But then I remember how many times Iraqis in Baghdad have told me similar stories. These reports are believed even if they seem unbelievable. And I know where much of the Syrian information is gleaned: from the tens of thousands of Shia Muslim pilgrims who come to pray at the Sayda Zeinab mosque outside Damascus. These men and women come from the slums of Baghdad, Hillah and Iskandariyah as well as the cities of Najaf and Basra. Sunnis from Fallujah and Ramadi also visit Damascus to see friends and relatives and talk freely of American tactics in Iraq.

"There was another man, trained by the Americans for the police. He too was given a mobile and told to drive to an area where there was a crowd - maybe a protest - and to call them and tell them what was happening. Again, his new mobile was not working. So he went to a landline phone and called the Americans and told them: 'Here I am, in the place you sent me and I can tell you what's happening here.' And at that moment there was a big explosion in his car."

Just who these "Americans" might be, my source did not say. In the anarchic and panic-stricken world of Iraq, there are many US groups - including countless outfits supposedly working for the American military and the new Western-backed Iraqi Interior Ministry - who operate outside any laws or rules. No one can account for the murder of 191 university teachers and professors since the 2003 invasion - nor the fact that more than 50 former Iraqi fighter-bomber pilots who attacked Iran in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war have been assassinated in their home towns in Iraq in the past three years.

Amid this chaos, a colleague of my source asked me, how could Syria be expected to lessen the number of attacks on Americans inside Iraq? "It was never safe, our border," he said. "During Saddam's time, criminals and Saddam's terrorists crossed our borders to attack our government. I built a wall of earth and sand along the border at that time. But three car bombs from Saddam's agents exploded in Damascus and Tartous- I was the one who captured the criminals responsible. But we couldn't stop them."

Now, he told me, the rampart running for hundreds of miles along Syria's border with Iraq had been heightened. "I have had barbed wire put on top and up to now we have caught 1,500 non-Syrian and non-Iraqi Arabs trying to cross and we have stopped 2,700 Syrians from crossing ... Our army is there - but the Iraqi army and the Americans are not there on the other side."

Behind these grave suspicions in Damascus lies the memory of Saddam's long friendship with the United States. "Our Hafez el-Assad [the former Syrian president who died in 2000] learnt that Saddam, in his early days, met with American officials 20 times in four weeks. This convinced Assad that, in his words, 'Saddam is with the Americans'. Saddam was the biggest helper of the Americans in the Middle East (when he attacked Iran in 1980) after the fall of the Shah. And he still is! After all, he brought the Americans to Iraq!"

So I turn to a story which is more distressing for my sources: the death by shooting of Brigadier General Ghazi Kenaan, former head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon - an awesomely powerful position - and Syrian Minister of Interior when his suicide was announced by the Damascus government last year.

Widespread rumours outside Syria suggested that Kenaan was suspected by UN investigators of involvement in the murder of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in a massive car bomb in Beirut last year - and that he had been "suicided" by Syrian government agents to prevent him telling the truth.

Not so, insisted my original interlocutor. "General Ghazi was a man who believed he could give orders and anything he wanted would happen. Something happened that he could not reconcile - something that made him realise he was not all-powerful. On the day of his death, he went to his office at the Interior Ministry and then he left and went home for half an hour. Then he came back with a pistol. He left a message for his wife in which he said goodbye to her and asked her to look after their children and he said that what he was going to do was 'for the good of Syria'. Then he shot himself in the mouth."

Of Hariri's assassination, Syrian officials like to recall his relationship with the former Iraqi interim prime minister Iyad Alawi - a self-confessed former agent for the CIA and MI6 - and an alleged $20bn arms deal between the Russians and Saudi Arabia in which they claim Hariri was involved.

Hariri's Lebanese supporters continue to dismiss the Syrian argument on the grounds that Syria had identified Hariri as the joint author with his friend, French President Jacques Chirac, of the UN Security Council resolution which demanded the retreat of the Syrians from Lebanese territory.

But if the Syrians are understandably obsessed with the American occupation of Iraq, their long hatred for Saddam - something which they shared with most Iraqis - is still intact. When I asked my first "security" source what would happen to the former Iraqi dictator, he replied, banging his fist into his hand: "He will be killed. He will be killed. He will be killed."
© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12885.htm

 

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WAEL012000: 'unknown Americans' are provoking civil war in Iraq


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6/6/6

SouthAmerica: In my opinion the above article is very silly.

Why he calls it unknown Americans it is beyond my understanding – since we know who started the Iraqi civil war – Bush and his pals started the Iraq civil war when they deposed Saddam Hussein from power.

Only a Jackass would not know in advance that when Saddam Hussein was removed from power Iraq would turn into another Yugoslavia after Tito. (And I wrote about that before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003)

The Iraq civil war is demoralizing the United States in the world stage regarding its ideas and notions about nation building and imposing democracy on other people.

If anything the US army is completely lost in Iraq without knowing what to do in the middle of a nasty civil war.

The last thing the United States wanted in Iraq was a sectarian civil war in which the entire Middle East might be engulfed into chaos.

The American press as usual it is missing in action otherwise they would have been referring to Iraq as a country in the middle of a sectarian civil war. But the American mainstream press has to play along with the agenda of the US government and they have to feed to the American people “Fairy Tales” about Constitutions, and legitimate elections – it is ironic since today, Americans can’t have a legitim election even in the United States.

I am surprised that the Kurds have not taken the opportunity to declare the independence of Kurdistan in the North of Iraq – some day in the future when they are once again under the ruthless iron fist of the Sunis or the Shiites - they are going to look back to the last two years and kick themselves for the lost chance of getting their independence when they could.

The only reality in Iraq today is that Iraq is in the middle of a sectarian civil war and there is nothing the US can do about it – other than serve as target practice to all sides of the civil war. The US army went from an occupation force to the position of being just “Patsies” in the middle of a shootout of a sectarian civil war.

Who are the real enemies of the United States in Iraq today?

Everybody!!!!!!!!!!!!

The government that the US installed in Iraq has some power only in the Green Zone inside Baghdad – outside the Green Zone the name of the game is “Civil War.”

The government installed by the US in the Green Zone is completely meaningless when you consider that the foundations needed to build a civil society are being destroyed by the civil war raging outside the Green Zone and all over Iraq.

The members of the new Iraq government can play government officials for the cameras on their make believe world as long as they can – but the rest of the world are not buying it
since people know that their purpose it is only for PR and propaganda. And the Iraqi people know that there is a civil war going on outside of the Green Zone and in the rest of their country that is spiraling completely out of control.

The number of daily bombings around the country in Iraq tells the story of a civil war and the rest it is just wishful thinking and fairy tales.

Let’s be realistic here – today the US can’t help even Americans in places such as New Orleans after hurricane Katrina – and they don’t have a nasty sectarian civil war going on all over the place in New Orleans – and the US government want the American people to believe that the United States are capable of helping Iraqis in the middle of a civil war?

Today there is only one word in the English language that best describe George W. Bush and his administration – and that word is: INCOMPETENT.


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June 10, 2006

SouthAmerica: I find it mind-boggling that the American mainstream media and the American people can’t grasp a simple fact – Iraq is in the middle of a nasty sectarian civil war.

Today, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the obvious mess in Iraq – all that is required is that people use a minimum amount of their brain.

Thomas Friedman said on his New York Times column on 6/9/06 – “…Second, Al Qaeda can talk all it wants about replacing Zarqawi, but he is not so easily replaced, because he was a world-class, first-team all-star terrorist. For three years he terrorized Iraq, while eluding the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and CIA.”

About 3 weeks ago Rumsfeld and Co. , and the Pentagon spin-doctors were saying in the news what a bunch of amateurs Zarqawi and his freedom fighters were – they were discrediting Zarqawi and his group everyway they could.

Suddenly, Zarqawi has become the best terrorist ever to terrorize anybody in any place around the world. He became the “Rambo” of the terrorist world.

You have to be very naïve – maybe still believe even in Santa Claus – to believe that most of the carnage that is going on in Iraq was caused by a small group under the leadership of Zarqawi.

I wonder why Americans are so “thick” and why they can’t understand that Iraq is in the middle of a sectarian civil war – and that Zarqawi’s death means nothing to the people who are fighting their sectarian civil war in Iraq.

Zarqawi’s death just gives a chance to the US government to do what they do best these days – come out with a lot of wishful thinking and nothing else.

They announced in the news that they recovered a lot of good information about Al Qaeda and their planning and much more – this will be the source of information that will destroy the Al Qaeda network in Iraq and around the world.

Sure. Keep dreaming.

They want us to believe that Zarqawi had a bunch of files with him with all his terrorist planning – maybe with the name of everyone that belongs to his organization, with their address, phone number, type of expertise, armaments available and plan of action. Maybe he had an MBA in terrorism and had a full business plan for the Iraq sectarian civil war.

And all this information survived two 500 pounds guided missile that pulverized everything in sight in the location were they killed Zarqawi.

The US is so desperate because of the Iraq sectarian civil war that they come out with these simplistic solutions to resolve the war.

Anyway, according to the US government and the mainstream media including people such as Thomas Friedman the Iraq sectarian civil war just reached turning point # 666.

By the time the Iraq civil way does reach another major turning point - number 1,000 – maybe Americans in general will finally grasp that there is a sectarian civil war going on in Iraq; completely out of their control and American influence.

The only reason the American public is not demonstrating all over the US against the Iraq war and demanding that the US government bring its army back home immediately – it is because we don’t have the draft and nobody cares about the poor kids who are dying in Iraq or being severely wounded for life. If we had the draft and the middle class kids were in that situation then the story would have been very different.

For the few people who are going to read this posting I can tell you that the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi means nothing in the big picture of what is going on in Iraq – the Iraq sectarian civil war will continue its course without blinking an eye until the Iraqis decide it is time to end the conflict – but that is going to happen only after the US occupation forces left Iraq.

Yes, Iraq will be ruled by another strongman - maybe another Saddam Hussein – and at this point I am not sure that they will be able to keep the country together in one piece or Iraq will be divided in 3 or 4 independent countries.

Just time will tell, but in the meantime the Iraq sectarian civil war will continue right on schedule and they still have many chapters to add to that civil war - and……..



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The Washington Post
“Death Could Shake Al-Qaeda In Iraq and Around the World”
By Craig Whitlock
Saturday, June 10, 2006; Page A01

BERLIN, June 9 -- The death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi could mark a turning point for al-Qaeda and the global jihadist movement, according to terrorism analysts and intelligence officials.

Until he was killed Wednesday by U.S. forces, the Jordanian-born guerrilla served as Osama bin Laden's proxy in Iraq, attracting hundreds if not thousands of foreign fighters under the al-Qaeda banner. At the same time, Zarqawi had grown into a strategic headache for al-Qaeda's founders by demonstrating an independent streak often at odds with their goals.

Despite written pleas from bin Laden's deputy to change his tactics, Zarqawi alienated allies in the Iraqi insurgency as well as Arab public opinion by killing hundreds of Muslims with suicide bombings. Zarqawi, a Sunni Muslim, repeatedly attacked Shiite shrines and leaders in a bid to fuel an Iraqi civil war, instead of primarily fighting the U.S. military and its partners……


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June 15, 2006

SouthAmerica: It is mind-boggling to me the actual disconnect between the reality of what is happening in Iraq and what the American mainstream media and the US government are trying to convey to the American people.

Yesterday, George W. Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq to kick off his latest turning point of the Iraq war – in an effort to show “Transparency” to the American people – His latest Iraq initiative has been named “Operation Desperation.”

I just saw a reporter of the Wall Street Journal being interviewed on MSNBC program and he said Zarqawi was the leader of the insurgency in Iraq. (And this guy is a regular reporter for the Wall Street Journal a major US newspaper.)

For some reason beyond my comprehension the American mainstream media can’t grasp the difference between US forces fighting an insurgency in Iraq and the reality that Iraq has been engulfed in a nasty sectarian civil war.

No wonder the US army is so confused in Iraq they don’t know even who the enemy is – their superiors think they are fighting an united and organized insurgency – but the reality is very different Iraq is in the middle of a nasty sectarian civil war that is dividing the country in many small groups who will be fighting among themselves for power for many years to come.

George W. Bush and his advisors are becoming “Pathetic” in my opinion – George and his pals think that they are going to turn around a nasty sectarian civil war with a surprise trip to Iraq, some PR and a lot of bullshit.

No wonder George and his pals don’t have any credibility left even among the people of his own party today. Or you have to be extremely naïve or a Jackass to believe on this guy and his crew.

Below is an article published by the BBC News regarding a statement made by Ms Graffy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy of the Bush administration.

This pretty much gives anyone in a nutshell another example of the pathetic state that American diplomacy finds itself today. Where the Bush administration finds all these incompetent people?



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BBC News - Sunday, June11, 2006

Guantanamo suicides a 'PR move'

A top US official has described the suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a "good PR move to draw attention".

Colleen Graffy told the BBC the deaths were part of a strategy and "a tactic to further the jihadi cause", but taking their own lives was unnecessary.
But lawyers say the men who hanged themselves had been driven by despair.

A military investigation into the deaths is under way, amid growing calls for the centre to be moved or closed.
Speaking to the BBC's Newshour programme, Ms Graffy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, said the three men did not value their lives nor the lives of those around them.

Detainees had access to lawyers, received mail and had the ability to write to families, so had other means of making protests, she said, and it was hard to see why the men had not protested about their situation.

The men, two Saudis and a Yemeni, were found unresponsive and not breathing by guards on Saturday morning, said officials.

They were in separate cells in Camp One, the highest security section of the prison.

Despair

There have been dozens of suicide attempts since the camp was set up four years ago - but none successful until now.

Ken Roth, head of Human Rights Watch in New York, told the BBC the men had probably been driven by despair.

"These people are despairing because they are being held lawlessly," he said.
"There's no end in sight. They're not being brought before any independent judges. They're not being charged and convicted for any crime."

That view was supported by British Muslim Moazzam Begg who spent three years in Guantanamo. He said of the camp's inmates: "They're in a worse situation than convicted criminals and it's an act of desperation."

But earlier, the camp commander, Rear Adm Harris said he did not believe the men had killed themselves out of despair.

"They are smart. They are creative, they are committed," he said.

"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."


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June 15, 2006

SouthAmerica: Here is an article published by the Financial Times of London on 6/15/06 with some personal comments.



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“Bush tries to lower expectations over Iraq”
By Guy Dinmore in Washington and Roula Khalaf in London
Published: June 14, 2006
The Financial Times – UK

President George W. Bush, fresh from a surprise trip to Iraq, on Wednesday sought to lower expectations of what should be defined as success in the country while sketching out a future strategy that did not appear markedly different from the past.

Americans should not have a “zero violence expectation”, Mr Bush said in a news conference.



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I guess if less than 2,000 Iraqis die per month on the Iraq sectarian civil war that it will be counted in the USA as a big success.



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FT… Success should also be measured in terms of economic progress, the president said, mentioning production of oil and electricity, which are hovering at less than pre-war levels, mostly due to sabotage and corruption.


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George is ordering the people from FEMA to help with Iraq reconstruction since they did such a good job in New Orleans after Rita and Katrina.

George’s crew can’t contain corruption even in the US and we are supposed to believe that they will contain corruption in Iraq a place in the middle of a sectarian civil war.


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FT… According to senior officials in Baghdad, Iraq’s new government will keep the mandate of United Nations Security Council resolution 1637, which legitimises the presence of foreign troops, when it is reviewed on Thursday.



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I guess that works for both sides of the conflict including the foreign fighters.



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FT… Mr Bush on Wednesday said he had a message for the enemy: “Don’t bet on American politics forcing my hand because it’s not going to happen. I’m going to make decisions not based upon politics, but based upon what’s best for the United States of America.”



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What this clown does not get is that the American kids are dying and being severely wounded for the rest of their lives for nothing in Iraq.



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FT… A top priority, he said, was securing Baghdad. To maintain the momentum gained from the killing last week of the insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraqi and US forces on Wednesday launched in Baghdad Operation Together Forward, involving 26,000 Iraqi soldiers, 23,000 police and 7,200 coalition forces.



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After 3 years the US army can’t secure even Baghdad? Never mind the rest of the country.



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FT… Mr Bush said General George Casey, the US commander in Iraq, would work with Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister, on the important task of bringing militias and other armed groups under government control.
Iraqi officials acknowledge that defeating the insurgency requires ending sectarian killings by Shia militias that are believed to have infiltrated interior ministry and police units. Militia violence has helped insurgent groups fill their ranks with young Sunni Arab recruits.



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I can picture how they are going to do that.

First, they ask the Iraqis to take a time out from their nasty sectarian civil war.

Second, they will ask them to turn over all their armament and present themselves to the new Iraqi army/police/militia/wherever.

Third, they will try to convert all the Iraqis to become a born again Christian – maybe if they change religion then they will stop the sectarian civil war and that way they can stop that nonsense of being a Suni and Shiite stuff – an issue that the Americans don’t have a clue how the thing works anyway.

But they will be very careful during the transition period just in case if the Iraqis try to become Catholics and Protestants because they might start the shooting all over again among themselves. (We have to keep Ireland in mind.)


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FT… Mr Bush said a reconciliation process that might draw on South Africa’s experience was also part of the Iraqi government’s strategy to isolate the insurgency.



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From what I understood from the above Bush latest strategy for Iraq – they are going to isolate all Black American soldiers in Iraq – and probably half of the American soldiers fighting this war in Iraq are black – when they install in Iraq the new South African Apartheid system.

Here is what George W. Bush wants for the new Iraq:

Apartheid, social and political policy of racial segregation and discrimination enforced by white minority governments in South Africa from 1948 to 1994.

The term apartheid (from the Afrikaans word for "apartness") was coined in the 1930s and used as a political slogan of the National Party in the early 1940s, but the policy itself extends back to the beginning of white settlement in South Africa in 1652. After the primarily Afrikaner Nationalists came to power in 1948, the social custom of apartheid was systematized under law.

The implementation of the policy, later referred to as "separate development," was made possible by the Population Registration Act of 1950, which put all South Africans into three racial categories: Bantu (black African), white, or Coloured (of mixed race). A fourth category, Asian (Indians and Pakistanis), was added later. The system of apartheid was enforced by a series of laws passed in the 1950s: the Group Areas Act of 1950 assigned races to different residential and business sections in urban areas, and the Land Acts of 1954 and 1955 restricted nonwhite residence to specific areas.

These laws further restricted the already limited right of black Africans to own land, entrenching the white minority's control of over 80 percent of South African land. In addition, other laws prohibited most social contacts between the races; enforced the segregation of public facilities and the separation of educational standards; created race-specific job categories; restricted the powers of nonwhite unions; and curbed nonwhite participation in government.


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FT… But the president dismissed suggestions of an amnesty for those who had committed crimes.

Iraqi officials, however, say reconciliation steps under consideration include an amnesty for insurgents and negotiations with some leaders of armed groups.

Mr Maliki said the door was open for dialogue with “gunmen who oppose the political process and now want to go back to political activity under pledges”.


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I guess under the new system if you were not a good boy in the last 3 years then there is no amnesty for you.

One thing they are making very clear - there will be no amnesty for the suicide bombers who blow up themselves in the last 3 years.

Mr. Maliki said the door was open for dialogue for any gunmen who want to be a warlord in the new Iraq.


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June 16, 2006

SouthAmerica: If you are watching American television today, then you know that they are trying to reverse the chaos in Iraq with propaganda.

Suddenly, they are killing over 100 Al Qaeda fighters, and were able to round up another 800. Al Qaeda is being eliminated from Iraq.

And we are supposed to believe all these “Fairy Tales.”

They can’t tell the difference between a Suni, a Shiite, and an extraterrestrial being from Mars – and they want us to believe that they know who is a member of the Al Qaeda group.

The source of the latest information about what is happening to Al Qaeda is the new government of the Green Zone in Baghdad in partnership with the American PR machine – the information is targeted for the American media consumption.

It is easy to provide this kind of information – it is a piece of cake – all they have to do is go out and shoot how many Iraqis they need for their story – and they can round up any number of Iraqis that they can put their hands on – and say that they are all Al-Qaeda members – who is going to challenge them when they can’t tell the difference between a regular Iraqi Suni and a Shiite.

Suddenly, Al-Qaeda started making lists of members with a line of responsibility chart – and they started producing data about their numbers, where they are and information about their missions.

Now Al-Qaeda is becoming a centralized organization in Iraq and they are supplying all kinds of information about their organization to the US and their puppets in the Green Zone.

Anyway the new government of the Green Zone with American help are trying very hard to use a well-known technique bait-and-switch.

They want to give the impression to most people, in Iraq and the international media that Al-Qaeda is the source of all the killings that are going on in Iraq when the reality Al-Qaeda is probably playing a very minor part in the chaos in Iraq – and the real damage and source of the chaos is being done by a nasty sectarian civil war.

Can bait-and-switch calm things in Iraq?

Not in a million years.

Propaganda and all kinds of information spins has not worked for the United States in Iraq so far and the current wave of propaganda and spins such as: “we are running Al-Qaeda out of town BS” – also will not work.

The American people are clueless and at best confused – but it does not matter anyway the nasty Iraqi sectarian civil war will continue its course until occupation forces leave their country.

Why Americans can’t grasp that Iraq is in the middle of a sectarian civil war?

And there is nothing the US can do about it.

The United States opened the “Pandora Box” – now the US has to live with the results of its action.



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“Violence hits Iraq despite security plan
Friday June 16, 2006
Aljazeera.Net

A bomber has killed at least 10 people and wounded 21 in one of Baghdad's largest mosques, despite a security crackdown putting large numbers of Iraqi and US troops on the streets.

The bomber attacked the Baratha mosque barely an hour before Friday's prayers, a security source said on Friday.

The mosque, which is used by members of Iraq's Shia, had been fired at several times since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

On April 7, a triple bombing hit worshippers just as they were leaving the mosque, killing 90 and wounding 175.

Also, a mortar barrage struck a commercial area north of Baghdad on Friday, killing at least two people and wounding 16, police Lieutenant Muhammad Khayun said.

The attack occurred at 1.30pm on a street with many shops in the northern suburb of Saba Abkar, near the Taji air base.

Haditha probe completed

Also on Friday, the US military said a probe of allegations that marines killed up to 24 unarmed civilians in the town of Haditha last year has been completed and a top commander is reviewing it.

Lieutenant-General Peter Chiarelli, commander of US ground forces in Iraq, received the findings of the investigation and would either approve the findings, add his own conclusions or request more information from the investigating officer.

A separate investigation being conducted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service could lead to charges including murder.

Major-General Eldon Bargewell led the fact-finding mission looking at not only whether marines involved in the November 19 incident lied about what happened, but whether senior US Marine Corps officers sufficiently examined the veracity of the troops' account.

Security measures

Friday's violence came despite a clampdown in the capital ordered by prime minister Nuri al-Maliki since Wednesday that saw vehicles banned from the capital's streets during prayer times, and a large number of Iraqi and US soldiers out on patrol.

The crackdown, dubbed “Operation Desperation,” is one of the largest since the US-led invasion of 2003 and is directed at exploiting any power vacuum in anti-US and US backed Iraqi government fighters' ranks after the death of Iraq al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a US air raid last week.

It follows similar counter operations after the two previous prime ministers, Iyad Allawi and Ibrahim al-Jaafari, took power.

The defence ministry said 160 additional checkpoints had been set up in Baghdad and 26,000 Iraqi soldiers, 23,000 Iraqi police and 7,200 coalition troops were deployed on the streets.

The security plan includes house-to-house searches in areas suspected of harbouring insurgents as well as a crackdown on civilians carrying weapons.

End of al-Qaeda

Before the mosque bombing, the Iraqi government and its US backers said the crackdown was successful.

The US military said on Thursday it had killed 104 rebels and captured 759 in a total of 452 operations since al-Zarqawi's death.

Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser, said it was the beginning of the end of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

"We believe al-Qaeda in Iraq was taken by surprise; they did not anticipate how powerful the Iraqi security forces are and how the government is on the attack now," he said.

But outside the capital too, violence raged on Friday.

Just south of Baghdad, in an area dubbed the Triangle of Death, for the frequency of attacks, four people were killed and 10 kidnapped in separate incidents, police said.

In the city of Baquba, north of the capital, a woman and her four children were killed overnight when a bomb went off in a neighbour's house, police said.


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Note: “Operation Desperation” is a more accurate name for the latest fiasco in Iraq.


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For the ten thousandth time, somebody blowing himself up in an attempt to spark a civil war doesn’t make it a civil war. We could have 100 more people blowing themselves up all over Iraq killing 1000 people. It won’t make any difference because these Islamist fools are trying to light a wet log.

 

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Sam123: For the ten thousandth time, somebody blowing himself up in an attempt to spark a civil war doesn’t make it a civil war. We could have 100 more people blowing themselves up all over Iraq killing 1000 people. It won’t make any difference because these Islamist fools are trying to light a wet log.


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June 17, 2006

SouthAmerica: If you think that the only type of killing that is going on in Iraq between Sunis and Shiites is the result of suicide bombings then that shows that you are clueless to what is going on in Iraq.

Here is an article published in a major Egyptian newspaper, and many Arabs from around the world read these major Arab publications.

Quoting from the article: “Three years of occupation have turned Iraq into scattered cantons, divided the nation into sects and clans, squandered national wealth, dismembered the state, and turned the country into an arena for terror and vengeance.

… Anglo-American occupation authorities have abandoned Iraq to ethnic and sectarian strife. Occupation authorities are responsible for fomenting strife in the country. Occupation authorities condoned the destruction of sacred shrines across the country, and yet they blame the Iraqis.

… Faced with imminent failure in Iraq, occupation authorities want the headlines out of Iraq to speak of sectarian strife, not of the failures of the occupation.

… Occupation authorities encouraged the Iraqi defence minister to divide the militia into two categories, pro- and anti- government. The Americans control both the Iraqi interior and defence ministries. Occupation authorities have brought in 2,000 US servicemen to train Iraqi army and police personnel, in a country with a known history of military achievement. The Americans aren't in Iraq to train, but to control. Every ministry in the country -- not only the interior and defence -- is under the thumb of the Americans. Occupation authorities have divided ministries according to sectarian and ethnic allegiances. The sectarianism one sees today in the Iraqi government is the result of US actions."


When Sunis and Shiites are destroying each others sacred shrines across the country, when Suni militias kills 20 to 30 Shiites, and Shiite militias kills 20 to 30 Sunis at the time for no other reason than - because they belonged to the other religious sect – Iraq is in the middle of a religious sectarian civil war.

If you can’t grasp that then there is a problem with your I.Q. level.



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“Harvest of occupation”
AL-AHRAM - 7 June 2006

The US-led imperial project in Iraq has done everything possible to foment strife and chaos and to lay blame on Iraqis, writes Mohamed Hassan Al-Khalesi


What is the harvest of three years of occupation? The question is relevant to our people, to those who sought change and those who embraced it out of malice or ignorance. The question is relevant to a nation wondering whom to trust. The harvest of occupation is something that everyone is thinking about, including the invaders and neighbours of Iraq. Now we're a model country, a living example of tragedy and despair. Now we offer encouragement to the most depraved of governments and opposition groups. Now you get despots telling their nations that the crumbs of freedom they allow are better than the fate of Iraq. Now you get opposition movements admitting they want change but not Iraqi-style.

Who wants his country to turn into another Iraq? Who wants his nation to suffer the fate of the Iraqis? Who wants to live the fairytales of US liberation? No one does. Three years of occupation have turned Iraq into scattered cantons, divided the nation into sects and clans, squandered national wealth, dismembered the state, and turned the country into an arena for terror and vengeance. Three years of occupation have stripped Iraq of welfare and security, social fabric and infrastructure.

US troops claim licence to kill. The atrocities committed in Haditha by US marines against innocent civilans speak volumes. No official in this country, however prominent, dares to question US acts. No official wants to end the shame in which the country lives. Our officials live under the protection of foreign mercenaries. Our regime is ignorant of the most basic points of policy. Our officials have no idea how much wealth has been stolen from Iraq, or how much money has been robbed from its budget.

Anglo-American occupation authorities have abandoned Iraq to ethnic and sectarian strife. Occupation authorities are responsible for fomenting strife in the country. Occupation authorities condoned the destruction of sacred shrines across the country, and yet they blame the Iraqis. Those who follow the US media may have noticed the proliferation of news programmes discussing civil war in Iraq. One gets the impression that this is what the Americans want for this country. The media campaign sounds a bit pre-meditated, a tad pre- programmed. Civil war is what the occupation authorities, and their local collaborators, want. The aim is to blame the failure of US policy on the Iraqis.

The goal is to end Iraq as we know it. The Americans will allow Iraq to survive only if it conforms to their expectations. Otherwise, they'll encourage it to self-destruct. And the collaborators in our midst are helping the Americans implement their insidious schemes.

The Americans are running out of options and time. Occupation authorities have failed on more than one level. Patriotic groups have refused to engage in the current political game.

Some well-intentioned politicians are participating in government, but chances are that even those will get so disenchanted that they'll have to join the opposition. Occupation authorities want a semi-stable regime in power.

They want a regime that can protect itself internally but not externally. This is a contradiction yet to be resolved, if ever. The only option left for occupation authorities is to keep their forces deployed in the street until further notice.

Occupation authorities have little time left. Once the Bush administration is out of office, the days of US deployment in Iraq will be numbered. Congressional elections are nearing, to be followed by presidential elections in the not too distant future. Right now, the pro-Israeli lobby is looking for acceptable candidates, both Republicans and Democrats, who support continued deployment in Iraq -- not an easy task. This is why the occupation authorities are fomenting sectarian strife in Iraq. Faced with imminent failure in Iraq, occupation authorities want the headlines out of Iraq to speak of sectarian strife, not of the failures of the occupation.

The Americans are going to pull out of Iraq. They're going to do so not because of Iraqi casualties -- for these hardly matter -- but because of US casualties. This is why occupation authorities want to see sectarian war in Iraq, because the victims of such war would be mostly Iraqis rather than Americans. The outbreak of sectarian war in Iraq would give occupation authorities more options and time.

Those who foment sectarianism in Iraq are in fact promoting US interests. They are buying the Americans time and helping them achieve their objective. The occupation wants to see sectarian strife in Iraq. This is why its first act in this country was to disband the Iraqi army and police. This is why it maintained control of the newly established army and police.

Occupation authorities encouraged the Iraqi defence minister to divide the militia into two categories, pro- and anti- government. The Americans control both the Iraqi interior and defence ministries. Occupation authorities have brought in 2,000 US servicemen to train Iraqi army and police personnel, in a country with a known history of military achievement. The Americans aren't in Iraq to train, but to control. Every ministry in the country -- not only the interior and defence -- is under the thumb of the Americans. Occupation authorities have divided ministries according to sectarian and ethnic allegiances. The sectarianism one sees today in the Iraqi government is the result of US actions.

Occupation authorities have hired foreign mercenaries to work in this country, paying them out of the reconstruction budget. According to The Sunday Times, over 50 foreign companies specialised in hiring mercenaries have contracts in Iraq. These companies hire over 25,000 former soldiers, whose qualifications and tasks only occupation authorities know.

Under the occupation, tensions have surfaced between the Iraqi army and police services, with Sunni units turning against Shia units and vice versa. Can this be a coincidence? Iraqi mercenary units, acting outside the control of the army, attack holy shrines to foment sectarian strife. Is this by accident? My answer is no. Such actions are being encouraged by occupation authorities, who want to give the world the impression that the turmoil in Iraq is home-grown.


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June 22, 2006

SouthAmerica: According to the news story from ABC News - Bush wants Iraq to follow the footsteps of Hungary – The Iraq people should get rid off the people who are trying to impose a new system on their people through an occupation force – in the same way the Soviets were trying to impose their system on the Hungarians.

The Iraqis should kick out of their country the foreign invaders.

There are a lot of similarities between Hungary and Iraq such as their location on the world map, the ethnics mix of the population of each country, and above all their major religions.

One way to end the sectarian religious civil war in Iraq is for the Iraqi people to become Christians such as the majority of Hungarians. That really would be a major step in helping the US solve their massive problems in Iraq. (According to George W. Bush)



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Hungary

Population: 9,981,334 (July 2006 est.)


Ethnic groups: Hungarian 92.3%, Roma 1.9%, other or unknown 5.8% (2001 census)


Religions: Combined Christian Religions about 80 %
Roman Catholic 51.9%, Calvinist 15.9%, Lutheran 3%, Greek Catholic 2.6%, other or unspecified 11.1%, unaffiliated 14.5% (2001 census)


Languages: Hungarian 93.6%, other or unspecified 6.4% (2001 census)



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Iraq

Population: 26,783,383 (July 2006 est.)


Ethnic groups: Arab 75%-80%, Kurdish 15%-20%, Turkoman, Assyrian or other 5%


Religions: Muslim 97% (Shi'a 60%-65%, Sunni 32%-37%), Christian or other 3%


Languages: Arabic, Kurdish (official in Kurdish regions), Assyrian, Armenian



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“Hungary Is An Example Iraq Should Follow, Bush Says” - President Pays Homage to Hungarian Revolt
By KAREN TRAVERS
ABC News – June 22, 2006


BUDAPEST, Hungary June 22, 2006 — In a speech marking the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian revolution, President Bush reiterated the U.S. commitment in Iraq and compared the development of democracy there to Hungary's progress from communism.

Bush said the Hungarian people knew the promise of freedom because many had lived through fascism, communism or both, but now lived in a free country.

"The lesson of the Hungarian experience is clear: Liberty can be delayed, but it cannot be denied," he said.

Democratic Ideals

With a beautiful backdrop of the Danube River, Bush appealed to the Hungarians' sense of their country's history to urge patience in Iraq.

"Iraq's young democracy still faces determined enemies, people who will use violence and brutality to stop the march of freedom," he said. "Defeating these enemies will require sacrifice and continued patience, the kind of patience the good people of Hungary displayed after 1956."

"We will help them rebuild a country destroyed by a tyrant. We will help the Iraqis defeat the enemies of freedom."

The president praised Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamel al-Maliki for his commitment to what Bush called "the democratic ideals that also inspired Hungarian patriots in 1956 and 1989."

President Bush highlighted the efforts of Hungarian troops in Afghanistan and noted that they were helping to train Iraqi security forces.

"By supporting these two young democracies, you are strengthening two new allies in the war on terror, and you're bringing hope to millions of people in a vital region of the world," he said.


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June 24, 2006

SouthAmerica: Right now, the government that the US installed in the Green Zone of Baghdad is finding out that they don’t rule even in the Green Zone of Baghdad. Never mind the rest of Iraq.

At a certain point even the US mainstream media will get the point that Iraq is in the middle of a nasty religious sectarian civil war.

I don’t know how many American soldiers have to die before they grasp that fact.

It must be like hell for the American troops who are in Iraq – everybody is shooting at everybody else and they can’t figure out even who the enemies are.

It is called a civil war!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



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“Iraqis call state of emergency in Baghdad”
By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer
AP – Associated Press – June 24, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's government clamped a state of emergency on Baghdad and ordered everyone off the streets Friday after U.S. and Iraqi forces battled insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and rifles near the heavily fortified Green Zone.

The military also announced the deaths of five more U.S. troops in a particularly violent week for American forces that included the discovery of the brutalized bodies of two soldiers. Twelve U.S. service-members have died or been found dead this week.

The fierce fighting in the heart of Baghdad came despite a crackdown launched 10 days ago that put tens of thousands of U.S.-backed Iraqi troops on the streets as the new prime minister sought to restore a modicum of safety for the capital's 6 million people.

Iraqi and U.S. military forces clashed with heavily armed attackers throughout the morning Friday in the alleys and doorways along Haifa Street and within earshot of the Green Zone, which houses the U.S. and British embassies and Iraqi government headquarters.

Four Iraqi soldiers and three policemen were wounded before the area was sealed and searched house-to-house for insurgent attackers, police Lt. Maitham Abdul Razzaq said. U.S. and Iraqi forces also engaged in firefights with insurgents in the dangerous Dora neighborhood in south Baghdad.

Deadly clashes are not new to Haifa Street, a thoroughfare so dangerous that a sign at one Green Zone exit checkpoint warns drivers against using the street. But Friday's fighting was unusual in its scope and intensity, prompting Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to order everyone off all streets in the capital with just two hours notice and while Friday prayers were still in progress.

Clusters of women shrouded in black head-to-toe robes scurried along to beat the ban, and U.S. soldiers frisked men also dashing home against a backdrop of thick, black smoke rising above the white high-rise buildings of Haifa Street.

Helicopters flitted back and forth overhead.

Haifa Street was the scene of some of the heaviest resistance when U.S. forces swept into Baghdad in March 2003, and it has remained difficult to control because many residents have natural links to the Sunni-led insurgency. It is lined with tall and relatively new buildings put up by former leader Saddam Hussein to house Syrian refugees loyal to him and members of his security forces.

Defense Ministry official Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohamed Jassim initially said all Baghdad residents must be off the streets from 2 p.m. until 6 a.m. Saturday, but al-Maliki later declared the ban would end just three hours after it began.

The state of emergency, which was to continue for an indefinite period, included a renewed prohibition on carrying weapons and gave Iraqi security forces broader arrest powers, Jassim said.

"The state of emergency and curfew came in the wake of today's clashes to let the army work freely to chase militants and to avoid casualties among civilians," he said. "They will punish all those who have weapons with them and they can shoot them if they feel that they are danger."

The Shiite prime minister had already announced other tough security initiatives after taking office a month ago, when he vowed that Iraqi forces would be in charge of security nationwide within 18 months.

He declared a similar state of emergency in the increasingly volatile southern city of Basra at the beginning of June. The violence there continues, however.

A car bomb ripped through a market and nearby gas station in the predominantly Shiite city on Friday, killing at least five people and wounding 18, including two policemen, police said.

A bomb also struck a Sunni mosque in the town of Hibhib northeast of Baghdad, killing 10 worshippers and wounding 15. Al-Qaida chieftain Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was slain there in a U.S. airstrike earlier this month.

At least 19 other deaths were reported in Baghdad. The bodies of five men apparently slain after a mass factory kidnapping Wednesday were among Friday's toll. The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization linking seven insurgent groups including al-Qaida in Iraq, claimed it killed 81 workers who were "building a new American base." It was not clear if the group was referring to the factory kidnap victims, and the Internet claim could not be independently verified.

The U.S. military also reported that two Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldiers were killed Friday morning when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb southeast of the capital. Earlier in the day, a separate military statement reported that two U.S. Marines were killed during combat in the volatile Anbar province in separate attacks on Wednesday and Thursday, and a soldier died elsewhere in a non-combat incident on Wednesday.

Those death announcements came a day after the military said five other U.S. troops were killed in operations south and west of Baghdad and three days after the bodies of two American soldiers who went missing after an attack on their checkpoint were recovered.

The U.S. military said Wednesday that one and possibly both of the soldiers were tortured and beheaded, and their bodies were sent to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for DNA testing.

At least 2,517 members of the U.S. military have died since the war started more than three years ago, according to an Associated Press count.

On the political front, a key politician said the Iraqi government will present a 28-point national reconciliation plan to parliament Sunday that would grant some insurgents amnesty and ask for approval of a series of steps for Iraqis to take over security from U.S. troops.

Kurdish politician Mahmoud Othman said the plan also would include a timeline for preparing Iraqi forces to take over security from U.S. forces.

That would fit with the overall U.S.-led coalition strategy to transfer security to Iraqi forces in certain regions while withdrawing to larger regional bases to stand ready to help in case of emergency. A final stage would involve the drawdown of U.S. troops from those bases.

"There is no finite and U.N.-approved timeline for the withdrawal of foreign troops, but there is a timeline to accomplish the readiness of Iraqi security forces to take over security in the country," Othman said.

U.S. and Iraqi authorities also released 500 more detainees from American detention centers, the latest to be freed as part of al-Maliki's promise to release 2,500 by month's end as part of his reconciliation efforts.
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Associated Press Writer Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report from Baghdad.


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