US envoy bows out with warning to Iraqis: 'Our patience is wearing thin'

· Ambassador calls for national reconciliation
· Khalilzad admits talks with insurgent groups

Michael Howard in Baghdad
Tuesday March 27, 2007
The Guardian

The outgoing US ambassador to Iraq yesterday delivered a blunt farewell message to Iraq's leadership, saying the Bush administration's patience was wearing thin and urging them to stem the bloodshed.

Zalmay Khalilzad, who is due to leave today after 21 months in Iraq, said that despite encouraging results from the US-Iraqi security plan, which had reduced attacks by 25% in its first six weeks, "there is a lot more that needs to be done."

He said: "Success requires Iraq and Iraqi leaders to make the compromises necessary to reduce the sources of violence."

Mr Khalilzad also confirmed reports that US and Iraqi officials were talking to insurgent groups and tribes in the volatile Sunni areas in an attempt to draw them away from violence and isolate foreign jihadi groups such as al-Qaida.

At a final news conference in Baghdad, the Afghan-born diplomat warned of the growing pressure in the US to commit to a timetable for a withdrawal of troops.

"I know that we are an impatient people, and I constantly signal to the Iraqi leaders that our patience, or the patience of the American people, is running out," said Mr Khalilzad, who has been nominated by Presdient Bush to succeed John Bolton as America's envoy to the UN.

He insisted, however, that the country was heading in the right direction and success was still "possible". He said Iraq's government must expedite the passage of the new hydrocarbons law that would provide a fair distribution of oil revenues among ethnic and sectarian groups.

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Five US soldiers killed as Iraq violence ploughs on
Posted: 26 March 2007 2306 hrs

BAGHDAD : Attacks swept across Iraq on Monday with six Iraqis and five US soldiers declared dead amid reports that the outgoing US ambassador held talks with Sunni rebel groups in a bid to curb the insurgency.

Four of the Americans were killed in a roadside bombing on Sunday in the troubled province of Diyala, where the local US commander has said his troops are battling Al-Qaeda, Sunni, Shiite and even Kurdish renegades.

Two troops were also wounded in the attack, while another soldier died in northwest Baghdad on the same day in another roadside bombing - the biggest single killer of US forces in Iraq.

The latest deaths brought to 3,234 the military's losses in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.

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anything with Gordon's name attached i take with a HUGE bucket of salt - he is a bush administration stenographer - he and judy miller did ENORMOUS damage with their pre - invasion bullshit WMD stories.

Germans face 6,000 Taliban fighters

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 27 (UPI) -- German troops in Afghanistan, so far largely spared from terrorist attacks, will be targeted by the Taliban, one of the group's leaders told a magazine.

Mullah Obaidullah, a senior Taliban official and deputy to the elusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar, said the 3,000 German soldiers stationed in Kabul and the northern provinces will be attacked by a wave of Taliban fighters. No nation will be spared, he added.

"Not the Germans, not the British, not the Canadians and certainly not the Americans. We will kill them all," Obaidullah was quoted by the Berlin-based Cicero magazine as saying. Some "6,000 young warriors will sacrifice themselves for Allah in the struggle," he added.

Germany has so far led the provincial reconstruction teams in the north, and their soft approach with the general population has led to a rather stable security situation there. So far, the Bundeswehr troops in Afghanistan have flown the German flag on all their vehicles, virtually protecting them up till now.

Yet several recent incidents have unsettled German officials. Earlier this month a German aid worker was ambushed and killed in northern Afghanistan, and in late February a German woman and her son were kidnapped in Iraq by a group who threatened to execute the pair if Berlin did not withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

Iraq to allow Saddam regime officials back into government jobs

· Law reaches out to sacked Ba'ath party members
· Hopes new bill will help to quell Sunni insurgency

Michael Howard in Baghdad
Wednesday March 28, 2007
The Guardian

Former members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party who lost their jobs in the wake of the 2003 invasion will be allowed to take up posts in the government and security forces under a new law designed to foster reconciliation between Iraq's Shia and Sunni Arabs.

The US has been putting intense pressure on the Shia-led government to meet a series of benchmarks designed to bring Iraq's once all-powerful Sunni Arabs back into the fold and take the sting out of the insurgency, which is raging in many Sunni areas of the capital and beyond.

Leading Sunni figures hope the bill will also encourage the return to Iraq of thousands of Sunnis who have fled abroad since 2003. Under the new legislation, which will be sent to parliament by Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, a Sunni Kurd, and prime minister Nuri al Maliki, a Shia Arab, those who do not find new employment will be eligible for state pensions.

The bill covers Ba'ath party members who served in Saddam's civil service and military organisations. But it excludes Ba'athists who have been charged with or are wanted for crimes committed under the former regime. According to the law, there would be a three-month challenge period after which former Ba'ath party loyalists would be immune from legal punishment for their actions under Saddam.

Saleh al Mutlaq, a leading Sunni politician who has links to the former Ba'ath party, said he backed the new law. "It is a belated opportunity to correct the mistakes made by Paul Bremer," he said. In May 2003, the US administrator Paul Bremer sacked the army and all civil servants and officials above the Ba'ath party's lowest levels. Critics of this so-called de-Ba'athification process say it has been one of the main factors in Iraq's current turmoil.

"You have to understand how much we feared the Ba'ath party," said one government official, a Shia, who had supported Mr Bremer's measures in 2003. But, he acknowledged: "The wholesale removal of the pillars of Iraq's administrative and security structures paralysed institutions and created half a million discontented and jobless people, many of them Sunni."

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Shiite Cops Reportedly Rampage Vs. Sunnis

Wednesday March 28, 2007 2:16 PM
AP Photo BAG107
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD (AP) - Shiite militants and police enraged by massive truck bombings in the northwestern town of Tal Afar went on a revenge spree against Sunni residents there Wednesday, killing as many as 60 people, officials said.

The gunmen began roaming Sunni neighborhoods in the city, shooting at residents and homes, according to police and a local Sunni politician.

Ali al-Talafari, a Sunni member of the local Turkomen Front Party, said the Iraqi army had arrested 18 policemen accused of being involved after they were identified by the Sunni families targeted. But he said the attackers included Shiite militiamen.

He said more than 60 Sunnis had been killed, but a senior hospital official in Tal Afar put the death toll at 45, with four wounded.

The hospital official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, said the victims were men between the ages of 15 and 60, and they were killed with a shot to the back of the head.

Police said earlier dozens of Sunnis were killed or wounded, but they had no precise figures, and communications problems made it difficult to reach them for an update. The shooting continued for more than two hours, the officials said.

Army troops later moved into the Sunni areas to stop the violence and a curfew was slapped on the entire town, according to Wathiq al-Hamdani, the provincial police chief and his head of operations, Brig. Abdul-Karim al-Jibouri.

``The situation is under control now,'' said al-Hamdani. ``The local Tal Afar police have been confined to their bases and policemen from Mosul are moving there to replace them.''

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Afghanistan: 'Two feet and a lot of skin'

They stream into Afghanistan from Pakistan on foot, on bicycles and on motorcycles with only one thing on their minds: to blow themselves up, and as many others as they can in the process. They've been dubbed Osama bin Laden's "bastard children", and US soldiers are trained to spot them (a shifty look is a dead give-away). But not one has been caught alive. - Philip Smucker (Mar 28, '07)

Dozens of Iraqi, American soldiers wounded in suicide attack

By Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, March 29, 2007

FALLUJAH, Iraq — Dozens of Iraqi and American soldiers were wounded or sickened Wednesday morning in a complex attack on the Fallujah Government Center.

Iraqi police and army soldiers thwarted two suicide bombers driving trucks containing chlorine in an attempt at striking the facility in the heart of downtown Fallujah, U.S. military officials said.

The coordinated attack began at 6:33 a.m. near the compound with mortar fire, followed by the two truck bombs and small-arms fire, said Marine 1st Lt. Barry Edwards, a spokesman for U.S. Marine Regimental Combat Team 6.

Iraqi police fired on both of the trucks, causing them to detonate near the entrance of the compound, according to a Multi National Force-West public affairs news release.

Several Iraqi soldiers and U.S. forces were wounded by shrapnel, Edwards said. Dozens of others were treated for exposure to chlorine after complaining of symptoms such as difficulty breathing, nausea, skin irritation and vomiting. In all, the wounded and those treated for exposure to chlorine included 53 Iraqi soldiers, four Iraqi police, 14 U.S. servicemembers, and one civilian, Edwards said.

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Acting surgeon general concerned about morale

By Hope Yen - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Mar 28, 2007 14:48:44 EDT

The Army’s new acting surgeon general said Tuesday she is concerned about long-term morale because the military lacks money to hire enough nurses and mental health specialists to treat thousands of troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“When the original plans were made, we did not take into consideration we could be in a long war,” said Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock. She became surgeon general earlier this month after Kevin Kiley was forced to resign in a scandal over poor treatment of war-wounded at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

“We have not been able to do the hiring,” Pollock told a House Armed Services subcommittee.

She testified at the first of two congressional hearings Tuesday on veterans care during which lawmakers expressed impatience with the Bush administration’s efforts. They said years of communication gaps between the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments have yet to be fixed.

Testimony from officials from the two departments highlighted the difficulties that lie ahead for the Bush administration in fixing problems following reports of shoddy outpatient treatment and bureaucratic delays at Walter Reed, one of the Army’s premier facilities for treating the injured.

Since the disclosures last month, three high-level Pentagon officials have been forced to step down. Some Democrats also have questioned whether VA Secretary Jim Nicholson, a former Republican National Committee chairman, is up to the job of revitalizing the veterans care system.

Bush has appointed a presidential commission to study the problems and a slew of reviews are underway by the Pentagon, VA and several congressional committees. But troops and veterans say many of the issues are well known and have long been in need of response.

Among the complaints are the difficulties troops and veterans have in navigating the health care system, including moving from military hospitals to the VA’s vast network of 1,400 clinics and treatment facilities, which provide supplementary care and rehabilitation to 5.8 million veterans.

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Thursday, 29 March 2007, 18:08 GMT 19:08 UK

Multiple bombs target Iraqi Shia

A series of deadly bomb attacks has killed more than 100 people in Shia areas of Baghdad and the town of Khalis, to the north of the capital.

At least 60 people were killed and 25 injured in a suspected double suicide bombing in a popular Baghdad market.

Earlier, more than 40 people died and 80 were injured in three co-ordinated blasts in the town of Khalis.

The attacks came despite a major security operation in Baghdad aimed at reducing the level of violence.

The Baghdad attack, at a market in the north-eastern al-Shaab district, occurred at about 1830 (1530GMT).

The Associated Press says that the al-Shaab area was one of the first places US and Iraqi forces concentrated their efforts to root out Shia militias under the current security plan.

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More Than 100 Are Killed in Iraq as a Wave of Sectarian Attacks Shows No Sign of Letting Up

New York Times, Kirk Semple, March 30

BAGHDAD, March 29 — More than 100 people were killed Thursday in a series of attacks around Iraq that included two suicide bombings that struck crowded markets during the week’s busiest shopping hours, the authorities said.

The attacks extended an extraordinary surge of sectarian violence in Iraq this week, including a series of bombings and reprisals in the northern city of Tal Afar in which more than 140 people were killed in two days.

On Thursday, officials said 18 police officers in Tal Afar suspected of participating in the massacre of Sunni Arab residents in reprisal for the bombing of a Shiite neighborhood had been freed after being detained for only a few hours.

At a time when the Shiite-dominated central government has been under intense pressure to rein in Shiite militias and death squads, the releases are sure to bring even more outrage from Sunni Arabs.

OPINION

Last updated March 29, 2007 4:54 p.m. PT
Iraq War: Blogging 'progress'

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

Every so often, it becomes clear just how little credit a country's government gives its population.

And then there's President Bush's Wednesday speech to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. El Presidente broached the subject of the war in Iraq, and how things are going quite well there, really. Straight from the transcript: "I want to share with you how two Iraqi bloggers -- they have bloggers in Baghdad, just like we've got here -- (laughter) -- 'Displaced families are returning home, marketplaces are seeing more activity ... We hope the governments of Baghdad and America do not lose their resolve.' "

So if two anonymous bloggers in Baghdad (who, it seems, we should be surprised even exist) say the city is safer, then that must be the case.

But it gets better. Later the same day, a White House deputy press secretary deflected questions on the identity of the bloggers, diminishing their importance by referring to their blog as one of "many different inputs," adding that, "Blogs are new for all of us." No, they're not, and neither are Iraqi bloggers -- does anyone remember Salam Pax?

And -- even better yet! -- The New York Times reported Thursday that the two unnamed bloggers Bush quoted are brothers -- both dentists -- who met with the president in the Oval Office on Dec. 9, 2004. They do know that people can look things up on this crazy new thing called the Internet, right?

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/309584_bloged.html

from the March 30, 2007 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0330/p01s03-woiq.html

Patrolling Baghdad's Dora neighborhood, where 'gators' lurk

The predominantly Sunni Arab district has become a byword for lawlessness and mayhem.

By Sam Dagher | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

BAGHDAD

In the heart of Dora's main market, amid the smashed-up and bullet- riddled facades of the Juburi butchery, the Nineva pickle shop, and the Saudi poultry store, and inside what was once the Hope X-ray clinic, lies combat outpost Gator.

The word "swamp" is scrawled in green and black marker on the window of the outpost's command room.

"Alligators live in swamps," jokes Sgt. Maj. Doug Maddi of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment.

Swamp may not be a far-fetched metaphor for Dora. The predominantly Sunni Arab district in southern Baghdad has, over the past few years, become a byword for lawlessness and mayhem for Baghdadis.

The US military touts its success in reducing the level of violence in the area, which is home to the capital's main oil refinery and power plant and sits at the crossroads of several major highways. Given how bad the situation was before US intervention in Dora, some of the soldiers could be forgiven for being optimistic. Since troops began aggressively patrolling the Dora market in December and setting up several garrisons, including Gator, two weeks ago, some merchants have returned to the market.

But all signs indicate that it may be too late to reverse the dynamic on the ground and bring peace to this troubled, yet strategic, corner of Baghdad.

Dora, which was traditionally popular with government employees during Saddam Hussein's regime, began its descent in early 2004 as attacks escalated on police stations and public infrastructure. Two churches were bombed in August 2004, driving out most of the tiny, but once thriving, Christian community.

The following year saw the start of a local campaign to drive out the Shiites. Sunni militants stepped up attacks against Shiite pilgrims passing through Dora on their way to shrines in Najaf and Karbala further south. Sectarian killing reached an apex last year, and now most Shiites have been squeezed into the Abu Dsheir neighborhood south of Dora.

Sunni residents who hold government or municipal functions, or who are believed to be assisting Iraqi and US forces, have not been spared from the killings and kidnappings. Most have fled to Jordan and Syria.

A no-go neighborhood

"I am here to work with you to clean up the takfeer in the area," Col. Ricky Gibbs, commander of the 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, to which Sergeant Major Maddi's unit is attached, tells his Iraqi counterparts at a joint security station not far from the Gator outpost. The Iraqis smile.

Takfeer is the generic Arabic word for a hard-line brand of Sunni Islam whose followers excommunicate all those they deem to be nonbelievers.

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Radical Cleric Blames U.S. for Iraq Woes

Friday March 30, 2007 8:01 PM
By BUSHRA JUHI

BAGHDAD (AP) - The radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr issued a scathing attack on the United States on Friday, following one of the country's bloodiest days, blaming Washington for Iraq's troubles and calling for a mass demonstration April 9 - the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.

As al-Sadr's remarks were read in a mosque, Shiites in Baghdad loaded wooden coffins into vans and shoveled broken glass and other debris into wheelbarrows in the aftermath of a double suicide bombing at a marketplace. At least 181 people were killed or found dead Thursday as Sunni insurgents apparently stepped up their campaign of bombings to derail the seven-week-old security sweep in Baghdad.

Violence has increasingly erupted outside the capital in recent weeks, as insurgent fighters take their fight to regions where U.S. and Iraqi forces are thinly deployed.

``There is a race between the government and the terrorists who are trying to make people reach the level of despair,'' said Sami al-Askari, an aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. ``But the government is doing its best to defeat terrorists and it definitely will not be affected by these bombings.''

The U.S. military and its diplomats have voiced cautious optimism about the sweep that began Feb. 14 and emphasized that the full American surge force would not be in place until June.

But sectarian tensions also were heightened earlier this week by a devastating bombing followed by a shooting rampage by Shiite militiamen and police seeking revenge in Tal Afar.

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, said the carnage showed al-Qaida was continuing to display ``their total disregard for human life, carrying out barbaric actions against innocent Iraqi citizens in an effort to reignite sectarian violence and to undermine recent Iraqi and coalition successes in improving security in Baghdad.''

Al-Sadr's statement was his first since March 14, when he urged his supporters to resist U.S. forces in Iraq through peaceful means. Al-Sadr has been said by U.S. and Iraqi officials to be in neighboring Iran, but his aides insist he is still in Iraq.

The latest statement was read to worshippers during Friday prayers at a mosque in Kufa, a Shiite holy city south of Baghdad where al-Sadr frequently led the ritual.

``I renew my call for the occupier (the United States) to leave our land,'' he said in the statement, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. ``The departure of the occupier will mean stability for Iraq, victory for Islam and peace and defeat for terrorism and infidels.''

Al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militiamen fought U.S. troops in 2004 but have generally cooperated with an ongoing U.S.-Iraqi security push in Baghdad, blamed the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq for the rising violence, lack of services and sectarian bloodshed.

``You, oppressed people of Iraq, let the entire world hear your voice that you reject occupation, destruction and terrorism,'' he said in calling for the April 9 demonstration.

``Fly Iraqi flags atop homes, apartment buildings and government departments to show the sovereignty and independence of Iraq, and that you reject the presence of American flags and those of other nations occupying our beloved Iraq. Keep them there until they leave our land,'' he said.
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Mitchell: Petraeus Held Closed-Door Strategy Meeting With Republican Caucus »

This morning on the Chris Matthews Show, NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell revealed that Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, met “very recently” with the Senate Republican caucus to discuss their strategy on Iraq legislation.

“Petraeus went to the Republican caucus and told them, I will have real progress to you by August,” Mitchell said. The Republicans claim they told him that after August, they will end their support for the war. “They have told him at a caucus meeting as very, very recently, that if there isn’t progress by August — and real progress means not a day of violence and a day of sanity — that they will pull the plug.”

watch it and more

Bob Weber | Edmonton

CP - The commander of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan says his troops aren’t likely to face another summer of pitched battle against hundreds of Taliban.

Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant suggested Thursday that NATO troops will have to fight smarter — using both intelligence and development assistance — as insurgents may well turn to tactics such as kidnapping.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Canadian Press, Grant also compared the difficulty Afghanistan and Pakistan have policing their Taliban-friendly border areas to the trouble Canada had on the Kanesatake reserve during the Oka crisis in 1990 when a land claims standoff saw one police officer killed.

"There is a tribal structure there that’s been in place for a long time," said Grant, who is on leave in Edmonton. "And for the federal government to come in and try and regulate it, Pakistan has the same challenges that we had during the Oka crisis."

Last spring and summer, Canadian troops fought the biggest battles they’d seen since the Korean War to try to hold villages in the Panjwaii and Zhari districts from Taliban fighters massed in the hundreds. That’s not likely to happen again, said Grant.

"The Taliban have learned that they cannot take NATO and (the International Security and Assistance Force) on head-to-head," he said.

"I think they believed . . . you hit them hard enough and they would run. They’ve learned you can’t do that."

Without large military buildups to fight, NATO will focus on Taliban leadership, Grant said.

"We’re trying to focus on the decision-makers and either capture them or kill them."

"Political Islam is a dream or a nightmare, but not a sociological reality." - Olivier Roy, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah

Six U.S. soldiers killed by roadside bombs in Iraq
T

BAGHDAD, April 1 (Reuters) - Six U.S. soldiers were killed in roadside bombings southwest of Baghdad over the weekend, marking one of the deadliest periods for American troops since a new security crackdown was launched in the Iraqi capital.

The U.S. military said in a statement on Sunday that two soldiers were killed by an explosion during a patrol on Saturday. Four more were killed when another roadside bomb detonated on Sunday near a unit responding to the first attack.

A U.S. military spokeswoman said the first attack happened late on Saturday, and that the second unit had responded early on Sunday.

The statement did not say precisely where the attack took place, although

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is a powerful read that few in the blogosphere(including HP itself) have linked to, the Huffington Post's Eat the Press rightly complains.

I couldn't find a link on the Agonist on a quick scan, but sometimes the search is all in the keywords - so apologies if I missed a quote or a link.

Stars and Stripes, By Sandra Jontz, April 2

BAGHDAD — A short-term prognosis of the security situation in Baghdad could provide a grim view, but a realistic one, U.S. Rear Adm. Mark Fox, a spokesman for Multi-National Force — Iraq, said Sunday during a news briefing.

“We expect to see a high level of violence over the next month,” he told a gathering of mostly Iraqi media representatives attending an update of Operation Fardh al-Qanoon, or Operation Enforcing the Law.

The recent spate of bombings and attacks in the capital serve only to further drive the Iraqi-led operation, said Iraqi Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta al-Moussawi, an operation spokesman.

“These will not deter us from carrying out missions,” said al-Moussawi, who sat alongside Fox. “It only made us more determined to carry out peace and stability.

“We need time, patience and sacrifices,” al-Moussawi said through a translator.

Be sure to read todays and yestrdays post.There is a lot happening in Iraq politics.

http://www.juancole.com/