AP, By Matthew Lee, September 15

WASHINGTON - Religious freedom has sharply deteriorated in Iraq over the past year because of the insurgency and violence targeting people of specific faiths, despite the US military buildup intended to improve security, a State Department report said yesterday.

The Annual Report on International Religious Freedom found the violence is not confined to the well-known rivalry between Sunni and Shia Muslims.

"The ongoing insurgency significantly harmed the ability of all religious believers to practice their faith," said the report released by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

BBC, September 15

The purported head of al-Qaeda in Iraq has offered a reward for the murder of a Swedish cartoonist over his drawing depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

The $100,000 (£49,310) reward would be raised by 50% if Lars Vilks was "slaughtered like a lamb" said the audio message aired on the internet.

The speaker, said to be Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, threatened a new offensive during the holy month of Ramadan.

September 16, 2007
British Move Raises Fears on Iraq Supply Lines
By THOM SHANKER and STEPHEN FARRELL

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 — As British troops pull out of their last base in Basra, some military commanders and civilian government officials in the area are concerned that the transition could leave them and a major supply route to Baghdad at greater risk of attack.

The route, a lifeline that carries fuel, food, ammunition and equipment for the war, crosses desert territory that is home to rival militias and criminal gangs. In interviews, Americans stationed in the southern provinces and Pentagon planners say they are closely watching the situation there as the British pass security responsibility to local Iraqi units.

There is little talk of increasing the American troop presence along the major supply route, which links Baghdad and Kuwait and is called M.S.R. Tampa, although officials in Baghdad and Washington say other options include increased patrols by armed surveillance aircraft, attack helicopters and combat jets.

The significant attention being paid to security in southern Iraq came as the senior allied commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, announced plans in Washington this week to reduce American troop presence by five combat brigades across the country by next summer.

General Petraeus, in an interview this week, said he was confident that continued allied and Iraqi patrols along the supply routes, and a growing Iraqi security presence in the south, would guarantee protection of the desert roadways.

But the general, en route back to his headquarters in Baghdad, also said that he would stop in London, where “we are going to talk tasks” and that “among the tasks is the need to continue line-of-communications security, certainly.”

General Petraeus said the security mission in three of the four provinces in southern Iraq already had passed to Iraqi forces with no discernible impact on the supply routes. And he said bypass routes now being used allow convoys to skirt some trouble areas.

The British pulled out of their last base in central Basra on Sept. 3, and are set to cut their force to 5,200 from 5,500. The remaining British troops are now stationed at Basra International Airport, outside the city.

They are still responsible for security across Basra Province until it is transferred to the Iraqi government, a formal step toward what is known as provincial Iraqi control and that is expected to happen this year.

British commanders insist that their plans “go up to 2009,” and that even after they transfer Basra they will continue to meet all their obligations, including protection of the Tampa supply route.

Basra Province is the last of four British-administered provinces in the south to pass into Iraqi control with Muthanna, Maysan and Dhi Qar Provinces already transferred.

Maj. Mike Shearer, a British military spokesman in Basra, said that during every transfer the allied forces signed a memorandum of understanding with the province that enabled foreign troops “to maintain freedom of maneuver and the right to transit” along major supply routes.

The British-led southern coalition forces had “already gone through this process with three provinces without any concerns or issues pertaining to the M.S.R.’s,” he said.

“We do not anticipate any problems with the security of the M.S.R.’s that transit through Basra once provincial Iraqi control is achieved. We will continue to provide convoy force protection tasks just as we and our coalition partners do at the present time,” he added.

Lt. Col. Peter Sims, an Australian military engineer working on civil military operations in Basra, said in July that his unit had engaged villages to protect the Tampa route by paying residents to clear the roadside of debris that could conceal homemade bombs.

Brig. James Bashall, commander of the British First Mechanized Brigade in Basra, said in an interview in July that the goal for the transition to Iraqi control would include a long period of “overwatch,” in which, even though British troops had left the city, they would remain in a support capacity and would intervene “in a limited sense” if the Iraqis asked.

“The main effort will be supporting the Iraqi Army in terms of training, preparation and logistics,” Brigadier Bashall said. “I could see a support to the U.S. in Baghdad, because you still have the lines of communication from Kuwait up to the north. They have their own M.S.R. issue with Tampa going all the way up from the Kuwait border.”

According to officers at the American Third Army forward headquarters in Kuwait, which oversees the vast shipments of supplies flowing north into Iraq, on any given day more than 3,000 vehicles are on the road in convoys hauling food, fuel, ammunition and other equipment.

To keep the war effort going each day requires about 3.3 million gallons of fuel, the equivalent of filling the tanks of 150,000 automobiles, as well as enough food to serve 780,000 meals, according to statistics at the Third Army headquarters.

Although far more vulnerable to attack by roadside bombs and ambush, land convoys are cheaper than hauling the same volume of goods by air.

In comparison, on any day, the Third Army headquarters launches about 110 airlift missions, moving about 3,200 people and 400 pallets of supplies.

more

Boston Globe, By Bryan Bender & Farah Stockman, September 16

WASHINGTON - Despite his conclusion that Iraqi units can replace US combat troops who will return home by the end of the year, statistics produced by General David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, indicate that there are now fewer Iraqi units that can operate independently than there were at the beginning of the year.

As a result, some US and Iraqi officials are skeptical that Petraeus's plan, which gives the Iraqis more responsibility as US troops leave, can actually work.

That plan, they say, is overly optimistic and could jeopardize the fragile gains made in recent months by the "surge" of 30,000 additional troops President Bush sent to Iraq earlier this year. The officials point to the persistent lack of readiness of the Iraqi Army and national police, as well as the fear that many members of the Iraqi forces are more loyal to their sectarian factions than to their own central government.

Iraqi forces "are not ready necessarily to hold areas by themselves that have been cleared out" by American combat troops, said Kenneth Katzman, Middle East specialist at the Congressional Research Service, an arm of Congress. "Whatever gains there were from the surge, I believe they will be eroded. Once US forces are thinned out, the insurgents will regroup."

Los Angeles Times, By Josh Meyer, September 16

WASHINGTON — Secure in its haven in northwestern Pakistan, a resurgent Al Qaeda is trying to expand its network, in some cases by executing corporate-style takeovers of regional Islamic extremist groups, according to U.S. intelligence officials and counter-terrorism experts.

Though not always successful, these moves indicate a shift in strategy by the terrorist network as it seeks to broaden its reach and renew its ability to strike Western targets, including the United States, officials and experts say.

"Certainly we do see Al Qaeda trying to influence the broader movement and to control some of these affiliates in a more direct way," said a senior counter-terrorism official in the Bush administration. "The word I would use is 'co-opt' . . . as opposed to simply associating with or encouraging.

"By that I mean target selection, types of attacks, methodology, funding, all of the things that would make an affiliate suddenly a subsidiary."

The senior official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive nature of the subject matter. That person's assessment coincided with those offered by a variety of current and former government authorities and private-sector experts.

Bruce Riedel, a senior CIA counter-terrorism official until late last year, said Al Qaeda "central" stands to gain hundreds or even thousands of foot soldiers, many of whom already have been radicalized, carry European passports and don't require a visa to travel to the United States.

"I think what we are seeing is the reconstitution of their capabilities to strike targets in Western Europe and ultimately North America on a scale identical or bigger than Sept. 11," said Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

"Absolutely, we should be alarmed about this. They are creating franchises and buying franchises, offering expertise, networks, money."

DPA, September 15

Two Iraqi tribal leaders belonging to the Baquba Salvation Council have been killed in eastern Baquba, 60 kilometers north of Baghdad.

Senior tribal Sheikh Abdullah Khalil al-Obeidy and another member of the council, which also fights the terrorist network, were killed early Saturday in the area of Abu-Seida in eastern Baquba, police sources said.

The leaders were members of a newly-formed local front that set itself against armed militants with links to the al-Qaeda network in Iraq.

The front is considered a sister-group of the Anbar Salvation Council, who has also joined forces with other tribes in western and northern Iraq to fight al-Qaeda militants.

The deaths came after the head of Anbar's council Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha was murdered last Thursday.

On Saturday, the so-called Islamic State of Iraq, a notorious armed group affiliated with al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the killing of the influential Sunni tribal leader, according to local news reports citing a statement by the group.

BBC, September 15

The political movement loyal to radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has withdrawn from Iraq's governing Shia alliance.

The move deprives Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's coalition of 30 votes - leaving it in control of about half the seats in parliament.

The decision, announced at a news conference in the holy city of Najaf, comes five months after Mr Sadr pulled out his ministers from the cabinet.

The group has complained that Mr Maliki has not consulted them over decisions.

Other grievances voiced in the past by the Sadr bloc include their call - ignored by the prime minister - for a timetable for the withdrawal of US-led forces from Iraq.

Iraqi police colonel assassinated near home

* Story Highlights
* The governor and police chief in Qadisiya province were killed five weeks ago
* Bombs, gunfights leave at least 15 dead in in Baghdad, Tuz Khurmatu
* U.S. military says it arrested suspect in last week's slaying of pro-U.S. sheik
* Bloc loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr abandons Shiite political alliance

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An Iraqi police colonel was gunned down near his home in Afak on Sunday, marking the third government official killed in the Iraqi Shiite town in five weeks, an Interior Ministry official said.

Col. Karim Abdul Hussein's death comes five weeks after Qadisiya Province Gov. Khalil Jalil Hamza and Brig. Gen. Khalid Abed Hassan, the provincial police chief, were killed in a roadside bomb attack.

Afak is about 30 kilometers (18 miles) east of Diwaniya, the capital of the volatile Qadisiya province.

Also Sunday morning, a suicide bomber killed at least five people and wounded 22 others after detonating his explosive vest in a popular restaurant in Tuz Khurmatu, a predominantly Turkmen town about 170 kilometers (105 miles) north of the capital.

In western Baghdad, violence continued Sunday as clashes between gunmen and Iraqi security forces in Nisoor Square killed at least seven people and wounded 12 others -- most of them civilians, the official said.

At least two more civilians were killed and seven others wounded Sunday morning when a car bomb ripped through western Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood, the official said.

In eastern Baghdad, one person was killed and three more wounded when a mortar landed near Shaab Stadium on Sunday morning, the official said.

Suspect nabbed in sheik slaying

Coalition forces arrested a suspected al Qaeda in Iraq insurgent they say is linked to last week's assassination of a Sunni sheik who had been helping U.S. forces battle the terrorist organization in Anbar province, the U.S. military said Sunday.

Fallah Khalifa Hiyas Fayyas al-Jumayli, aka Abu Khamis, was captured Saturday during a raid on three buildings west of Balad, the military said.

"When the buildings were secure, one of the residents positively identified al-Jumayli," the military said, adding that three additional suspects also were detained.

Al-Jumayli has been linked to plots to kill Anbar's key tribal leaders who are "committed to driving al Qaeda in Iraq out," the military said.

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Karen DeYoung | September 16

WaPo - The number of foreign fighters entering Iraq from Syria has decreased noticeably in recent months, corresponding to a similar decrease in suicide bombings and other attacks by the group al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to U.S. military and intelligence officials.

"There is an early indication of a trend," said Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, in an interview. Border crossings from Syria that averaged 80 to 90 a month have fallen to "half or two-thirds of that over the last two or three months," Petraeus said.

An intelligence official said that "the Syrians do appear to be mounting a crackdown on some of the most hardened terrorists transiting through the country, particularly al-Qaeda-affiliated foreign fighters." The official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said there is also evidence that the Syrians have been stopping return crossings by foreign fighters leaving Iraq.

Other administration officials, while confirming the decrease in border crossings, said they are not yet prepared to attribute it to Syrian action, instead citing increased U.S. operations against al-Qaeda inside Iraq and stepped-up cooperation by terrorist "source" countries, such as Saudi Arabia, in prohibiting travel to Damascus. U.S. intelligence has said Saudis form the biggest group of foreigners fighting with al-Qaeda in Iraq. Petraeus also said his command is uncertain of the reason for the decrease, adding that "we're watching it on the ground."

"Ambiguously loose statements on the one hand, and euphemisms that link terrorism and fascism to Islam on the other, have created confusion and resentment on all sides." ~ Fariborz Mokhtari

Kim Gamel | September 16 | Kut

AP - American commanders in southern Iraq say Shiite sheiks are showing interest in joining forces with the U.S. military against extremists, in much the same way that Sunni clansmen in the western part of the country have worked with American forces against al-Qaida.

Sheik Majid Tahir al-Magsousi, the leader of the Migasees tribe here in Wasit province, acknowledged tribal leaders have discussed creating a brigade of young men trained by the Americans to bolster local security as well as help patrol the border with Iran.

He also said last week's assassination of Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, who spearheaded the Sunni uprising against al-Qaida in Anbar province, only made the Shiite tribal leaders more resolute.

"The death of Sheik Abu Risha will not thwart us," he said. "What matters to us is Iraq and its safety."

The movement by Shiite clan leaders offers the potential to give U.S. and Iraqi forces another tactical advantage in curbing lawlessness in Shiite areas. It also would give the Americans another resource as they beef up their presence on the border with Iran, which the military accuses of arming and training Shiite extremists.

Similar alliances with Sunni tribes in the western Anbar province helped break the grip of groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq and were widely cited in the Washington hearings as a major military success this year.

Such pacts to fill the vacuum left by Iraqi police and soldiers unable or unwilling to act against Shiite militias carry even greater potential spinoffs for Iraq's U.S.-backed leadership - but also higher risks.

"Ambiguously loose statements on the one hand, and euphemisms that link terrorism and fascism to Islam on the other, have created confusion and resentment on all sides." ~ Fariborz Mokhtari

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government said Monday that it was pulling the license of an American security firm allegedly involved in the fatal shooting of civilians during an attack on a U.S. State Department motorcade in Baghdad.
The Interior Ministry said it would prosecute any foreign contractors found to have used excessive force in the Sunday shooting. It was latest accusation against the U.S.-contracted firms that operate with little or no supervision and are widely disliked by Iraqis who resent their speeding motorcades and forceful behavior.
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said eight civilians were killed and 13 were wounded when security contractors believed to be working for Blackwater USA opened fire in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of western Baghdad.
"We have canceled the license of Blackwater and prevented them from working all over Iraqi territory. We will also refer those involved to Iraqi judicial authorities," Khalaf said.

PHILADELPHIA: An American contractor who buried secret payments from Iraqi subcontractors in a Baghdad yard was sentenced Monday to five months in prison for trying to smuggle $50,000 (€36,030) into the U.S.

Robert Grove, 63, hid stacks of $100 (€72) bills on his body and in his luggage, and lied to customs officials who questioned him as he arrived at Philadelphia International Airport in March, prosecutors said.

Grove, who says he won a Bronze Star in the first Gulf War, was working as a military contractor in Iraq. He initially told customs officials that he had won the hidden cash in a high-stakes poker game, but later admitted that it came from Iraqi subcontractors.

More at AP

-SNIP-

First problem. Blackwater does not have a license to operate in Iraq and does not need one. They have a U.S. State Department contract through Diplomatic Security. Instead of using Diplomatic Security officers or hiring new Security officers or relying on U.S. military personnel, the Bush Administration has contracted with firms like Blackwater, Triple Canopy, and others for people capable of conducting personnel security details. State Department is not about to curtail the contract with Blackwater, who is tightly wired into Washington. Plus, State Department simply does not have the bodies available to carry out the security mission.Second problem. The Iraqi government has zero power to enforce a decision to oust a firm like Blackwater. For starters, Blackwater has a bigger air force and more armored vehicles then the Iraqi Army and police put together. As Spencer Ackerman reported, Blackwater’s little bird helicopter (an aircraft normally used by U.S. special operations forces) that was firing mini guns at Iraqi targets on the ground this past weekend. I can only imagine how Americans would react if there were Russian, Chinese, Mexican, or French security firms running around the United States and getting into firefights in tough neighborhoods, such as South Central Los Angeles. We would just shrug our shoulders and say nothing. Right?

More at AFP

Monday, Sep. 17, 2007 By ADAM ZAGORIN AND BRIAN BENNETT/WASHINGTON

TIME has obtained an incident report prepared by the U.S. government describing a fire fight Sunday in Baghdad in which at least eight Iraqis were reported killed and 13 wounded. The deadly incident occurred when a convoy of U.S. personnel protected by Blackwater security contractors came under small arms fire. Blackwater returned fire, resulting in the Iraqi deaths.

The loss of life has provoked anger in Baghdad, where the Interior Ministry has suspended Blackwater's license to operate around the country.

(...)

According to the incident report, the skirmish occurred at 12:08 p.m. on Sunday when, "the motorcade was engaged with small arms fire from several locations" as it moved through a neighborhood of west Baghdad. "The team returned fire to several identified targets" before leaving the area. One vehicle engine was hit and disabled by bullets and had to be towed away. A separate convoy arriving to help was "blocked/surrounded by several Iraqi police and Iraqi national guard vehicles and armed personnel," the report says. Then an American helicopter hovered over the traffic circle, as the U.S. convoy departed without casualties. Some reports have said the helicopter also opened fire on Iraqis, but a Blackwater official told TIME that no shots were fired from the air.

Some eyewitnesses said the fighting began after an explosion detonated near the U.S. convoy, but the incident report does not reflect that...

( ... Link ... )

Pentagon pushes to continue payoffs for intel

By Richard Lardner - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Sep 18, 2007 6:38:47 EDT

The Defense Department is urging Congress to extend a counterterrorism tool that gives the Green Berets and Navy SEALs up to $25 million a year to pay for information, buy guns for allied forces and hire fighters willing to battle al-Qaida.

The House and Senate are split, however, over whether to renew that authority because of questions about how productive the tool has been for the special operations military groups.

A decision is expected in the next few weeks as lawmakers craft a military spending bill for fiscal year 2008, which begins Oct. 1.

The little-noticed authority, approved in 2004, has been popular within the special operations ranks because it relieved them of waiting for the CIA to distribute money.

That was a problem in the early days of the war in Afghanistan when commandos were working with the Northern Alliance to defeat the Taliban. There were times when a CIA officer was not immediately available to close a hastily arranged deal, according to reports following the 2001 invasion.

Adm. Eric Olson, the top officer at U.S. Special Operations Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in June that the authority is an “absolutely essential tool in the war on terrorism.”

Details remain classified, however. In a written statement to the committee, Olson did not provide specific examples of how the account has been used or say how much has been spent.

But he did say U.S. commandos have employed local forces to infiltrate hostile areas where American troops cannot openly operate.

In other cases, Olson said money from the account has bought information about terrorist activities that could not be obtained through traditional intelligence-gathering methods, such as wiretaps or spy satellites.

The tool has been effective against the Abu Sayyaf group in the Philippines, Olson said, and against “potential terrorist targets” in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and the Horn of Africa.

When the spending authority was first granted, Congress required the Pentagon to keep the defense oversight committees regularly informed about use of the provision. It also said the authority was not approval for the military to conduct covert operations.

The House agreed in May to renew the spending authority through 2010, although it wants a more complete accounting of “cost and performance,” according to its version of the 2008 defense spending bill.

Senators, however, want to know whether the results have been worth the cost, according to a Senate committee staff member, who was not authorized to speak on the record.

The Senate is considering its version of the military spending bill this week. Once it has finished, the Senate will meet with the House to resolve their differences.

The payout provision is set to expire Sept. 30, the end of the federal government’s fiscal year. It is unlikely the House and Senate will have agreed on a revised version of the plan by then, but a measure temporarily funding federal agencies will keep the program from dying.

Tom O’Connell, a former Pentagon official who three years ago urged Congress to grant the authority, said it is crucial in a war against an unconventional enemy.

“Times have changed,” O’Connell said.

CLYDE HABERMAN | September 18

NYT - On an August day when some Iraqi’s homemade bomb tore through him, Cpl. Juan Mariel Alcántara became an American. He never got to appreciate the honor.

Over all, about 21,000 noncitizens are serving in this country’s armed forces, the Defense Department says. Until death claimed him on Aug. 6, one of them was Corporal Alcántara of the United States Army.

At 22, Corporal Alcántara was old enough to have talked about going to college and maybe becoming a New York police officer, old enough to have a fiancée, old enough to have fathered a baby girl he never saw, Jaylani, 6 weeks old when he was killed. He was old enough, too, to have sought American citizenship.

Every year, thousands of noncitizen soldiers do that, through an accelerated naturalization process offered to those who put themselves in harm’s way so that the rest of us can go about our lives untouched by war.

No other war has produced anywhere near as many posthumous citizens as this one, according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Corporal Alcántara is the latest, No. 103. He is the 12th from New York, an honor roll that reflects today’s city: 10 men and 2 women born in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guyana, Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, Myanmar and Nigeria.

Maria Alcántara, the soldier’s mother, is clearly a woman of stricken soul. She holds Mr. Bush responsible for her son’s death. Corporal Alcántara’s Iraq duty was supposed to have ended on June 28, a day before his daughter was born. But his tour was extended as part of the president’s troop “surge.”

“If my son had been allowed to return, he would be alive,” Ms. Alcántara said in Spanish, “and he” — meaning the president — “is guilty.”

_{1."George Washington did not cross the Delaware for Capitalism," -Shmuley Boteach.
2.The Dems haven't punished the GOP enough, so you're going to reward the Republicans?}

Iraq Trip Report

Linda Robinson | September 17

Small Wars Journal - During a three-week trip to Iraq in late August and early September, I found the security situation improved compared to the spring and even more markedly over last year. But it was harder to determine whether there had been any change in the all-important question of Iraqi political will. The views about the Iraqi government’s true intent among those working most closely with it tend to break down into two groups. Senior U.S. military and civilian officials believe that they can painfully and haltingly nudge the Maliki government forward on reconciliation as its fears of a Sunni return to dominance are allayed. Many of them believe this option is merely the least worst option. Lower-ranking officials are more pessimistic, perhaps because they can afford to be. They tend to believe that the Shia-led government is bent on domination of Sunnis, who are now largely fighting for their survival rather than a return to power.

Behind closed doors, General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker and their subordinates are engaged in a full-court press to get more Sunnis into the government and to push Maliki ahead on reconciliation. They have achieved some success on local initiatives, though not on passage of key legislation and not enough to demonstrate unequivocally that the Maliki government has the will or ability to achieve a power-sharing agreement if given more time. Success in Iraq, if it comes, is not going to come in a big bang but rather through a series of piecemeal steps that at a minimum give the Sunni minority the ability to secure and govern the areas they inhabit, with funding from the central government. The vision is federalism, not partition. The U.S. officials hope to allay Shia fears as it becomes clear that these local concessions do not court the return of their oppressors. In the lingo of peacemakers, these are called “confidence-building measures.” It is a grinding, exhausting business, and certainly not one given to headline-making breakthroughs.

"Ambiguously loose statements on the one hand, and euphemisms that link terrorism and fascism to Islam on the other, have created confusion and resentment on all sides." ~ Fariborz Mokhtari

State Department Under Hill Scrutiny

Tuesday September 18, 2007 6:46 PM

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - A congressional committee has launched an investigation into the State Department's inspector general, alleging that he blocked fraud investigations, including potential security lapses at the newly built U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

Also under scrutiny is whether Blackwater USA, the private security firm banned this week from working in Iraq for the alleged killing of eight Iraqi civilians, was ``illegally smuggling weapons into Iraq,'' according to a letter to IG Howard J. Krongard that was obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

The investigation involves allegations that ``your strong affinity with State Department leadership and your partisan political ties have led you to halt investigations, censor reports, and refuse to cooperate with law enforcement agencies,'' Krongard was told.

Based on allegations made by a number of current and former senior investigators who worked for Krongard, the letter from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee also questioned whether he adequately investigated illegal labor trafficking allegations involving the Kuwaiti company that was building the Baghdad embassy.

Krongard's office said the inspector general was ``on travel'' Tuesday and unavailable to comment. A spokesman for the office did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Sean McCormack, the spokesman for the State Department, said he had not seen the letter from Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the panel's chairman. The letter was faxed to the department Tuesday morning, and McCormack said he could not speak to the allegations in it.

In addition to outlining a host of allegations against Krongard, the letter raises new problems for Blackwater. Although the company is not named in the letter, a senior administration official confirmed that Blackwater is the firm mentioned as being suspected of smuggling weapons into Iraq illegally.

According to a letter, a federal prosecutor asked Krongard's investigators to assist in the probe of the security contractor, but Krongard sent an e-mail to a senior staff member directing the assistance to ``stop IMMEDIATELY'' and to wait until he spoke to the prosecutor.

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[This is when I wish I had time for a diary page here. These comments are from a solid figure of the UK establishment, former soldier, former LibDem party leader and UN representative in Bosnia. Although I am at odds with his wider politics, he articulates the deep f*&k up of the War on Terror - from what is possibly the UK establishment viewpoint post-Blair, but also with real clarity]

West's strategy on terrorism all wrong, says Ashdown
The Guardian
Patrick Wintour
Wednesday September 19, 2007

The west's strategy to defeat international terrorism will be attacked today as historically illiterate and counter-productive by Paddy Ashdown, the former Liberal Democrat leader and chair of a new commission on terrorism.

In what will be seen as a wholesale rejection of the American-led war against terrorism, he will say: "Our problem is that we have chosen the wrong mindset, the wrong battlefield, the wrong weapons and the wrong strategies to win this campaign. We have chosen to fight an idea, primarily with force."

The remarks by Lord Ashdown, who has been courted by the US administration to coordinate the struggle against the Taliban in Afghanistan and is rated by Gordon Brown, add to the sense that British thinking is moving much more towards a battle of hearts and minds rather than victory by military coercion.

He will argue that the west's tactics "have strengthened the concepts of our enemies and weakened our own" and the west has "elected to fight on a battlefield of their choosing, where they are strongest and we are weakest".

He will also suggest that the threat has been exaggerated if compared with 19th-century anarchism or the bombing campaign of Irish republicanism in the 70s, two threats that had not led to the current erosion of civil liberties. Lord Ashdown is currently jointly chairing a committee of inquiry into terrorism with the former defence secretary Lord Robertson.

He will say: "The west seeks to control territory; they seek to capture minds. We have chosen language and means which unite the moderates in Islam with the fanatics, when we should be uniting with the moderates in Islam against a common enemy. We have adopted methods, or connived at their adoption, which undermine the moral force of our ideas and strengthen the prejudices of our opponents.

"We are seeking to win a battle of values by sacrificing our most precious and most potent value, our freedoms and our civil liberties. We concentrate almost all our efforts on the short-term struggle to prevent the next outrage, and almost none on the long-term task of winning the hearts and minds of moderate Islam."

He will argue: "What al-Qaida and its sister organisations are actually engaged in is a battle, not for the west, but for the soul of Islam. They kill and maim in London, New York and Madrid, in order to win in Riyadh, Cairo, Damascus and Tehran."

Western leaders, he will argue, are historically illiterate when they persist in their language and actions in portraying this as a great worldwide struggle for "our western values", inferentially against the values of the Islam and the east.

He will say that al-Qaida's best weapon is its ability to remain a deadly concept, inspiring recruits and planning operation s without any of the cumbersome and vulnerable paraphernalia of a conventional military structure."

Diplomatic convoys curtailed in Iraq

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer Tue Sep 18, 6:50 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The United States on Tuesday suspended all land travel by U.S. diplomats and other civilian officials throughout Iraq, except in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. The move follows a weekend incident involving private security guards protecting a diplomatic convoy in which a number of Iraqi civilians were killed.

In a notice sent to Americans in Iraq, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said it had taken the step to review the security of its personnel and possible increased threats to those leaving the Green Zone while accompanied by such security details.

"In light of a serious security incident involving a U.S. embassy protective detail in the Mansour District of Baghdad, the embassy has suspended official U.S. government civilian ground movements outside the International Zone (IZ) and throughout Iraq," the notice said.

"This suspension is in effect in order to assess mission security and procedures, as well as a possible increased threat to personnel traveling with security details outside the International Zone," said the notice, a copy of which was provided to The Associated Press by the State Department in Washington.

The notice did not say when the suspension would expire.

more

Baghdad revealed as bank robbery capital of the world
By Kim Sengupta in Baghdad
Published: 19 September 2007

The attack had been planned with military precision. Twelve men, masked and carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles stormed into the al-Sanik branch of the Bank of Baghdad, disarmed the guards, tied them up and then terrified the staff by firing into the ceiling. About $800,000 (£400,000) in US dollars and Iraqi dinars was grabbed before the gang drove away in three cars, untroubled by the many checkpoints in the area.

The raid was just the latest of a long and lucrative line that sees, on average, a million dollars a month being taken at gunpoint. Bank executives have been kidnapped from their homes for ransoms as high as $6mn. Amid the bombs and gunfire, there is one "industry" is doing remarkably well – Baghdad is now the bank robbery capital of the world.

Iraq holds the world record for both the first and second highest amounts taken in the history of bank robberies. Top of the league is the estimated $800m removed from the Central Bank by Saddam Hussein's son, Qusay, in the dying days of the regime as US tanks were rolling into Baghdad.

In second position is the heist, just two months ago, at the Dar al-Salam Bank at Sadoun Street in central Baghdad when three guards turned on their employers and left with $282m.

Other banks hit recently has been the al-Rafidian which lost $1.2m; the Industry Bank, which had $784,000 taken; Iraqi Trade Bank, $1.8m ; the Bank of Baghdad, $ 1.6m; al-Warka Bank, $750,000; The Middle East Investment Bank, $1.32m... the list goes on.

Four years after "liberation" and the coming of the free market, Iraq is almost entirely a cash economy with a mushrooming group of private banks and vast sums of money being moved daily across the country.

The US authorities praised the rise of the private banking sector as one of the success stories of Iraq.

But the upsurge in robberies has meant that some branches have been unable to pay customers because of lack of cash.

One thing Iraq is not short of is men with guns. The banks, and their money convoys, are easy pickings. The security forces have their hands full with the insurgency and Shia militia groups and, in any case, are themselves suspected of carrying out many of the robberies.

Firas Ali Suleiman, a driver for the Bank of Baghdad described how a van carrying $1.6m from its Hilla branch to Baghdad was ambushed. "It was a Kia van and it was not armoured, but we had four guards with the money inside," he said.

"We were stopped at a checkpoint in Audiya run by the Ministry of Interior commandos. They ordered the back door to be opened and saw the money. The guards were called out and then put in handcuffs and hooded. I could hear them talking about the money and then they took the money out. I was told to drive away and I called the manager on my mobile and told him what happened.

snip

raq's biggest heists

1: Central Bank (2003): $800m (£400m)

2: Dar al-Salam (2007): $282m

3. Iraqi Trade Bank (2007): $1.8m

4: Bank of Baghdad (2007): $1.6m

5: MEI Bank (2007): $1.32m

The Royal Treatment: Saudi Involvement in Iraq Overlooked

Dahr Jamail | September 18, 2007

www.fpif.org

Reporting on Iraqi benchmarks in mid-September, Bush and his team of Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker sought to pin some of the blame on Iran. Eschewing diplomatic language during his testimony, Crocker boldly said, "Iran plays a harmful role in Iraq." Gen. David Petraeus added that Iran is fighting a "proxy war" in Iraq by aiding Shiite extremists and providing weapons that are killing American troops.

Anyone doubting that Bush is not serious about taking on Tehran should note his words from last month: "We will confront this danger before it is too late." On September 17 the Telegraph reported that the Pentagon has already drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 2,000 targets across Iran.

The great irony is that while of these accusations towards Tehran are supported by thin evidence, plenty of evidence does exist that another of Iraq's neighbors, U.S.-ally Saudi Arabia, is supporting resistance groups in Iraq, and intends to continue to do so.
A Neighborly Mess: Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia

"Saudi Arabia has both the means and the religious responsibility to intervene [in Iraq]," wrote Nawaf Obaid, neoconservative ally and a former security advisor to the Saudi government, in a shockingly frank editorial for a Washington Post last November. He warned the Bush administration, sinking ever deeper into the quagmire of Iraq: "America must not ignore the counsel of Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States. If it does, one of the first consequences will be massive Saudi intervention to stop Iranian-backed Shiite militias from butchering Iraqi Sunnis."

Obaid's warning, in response to talk of a possible U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, noted the current Saudi political stance "I am my brothers' keeper" towards fellow Sunni Arabs in Iraq. Clearly the Saudis do not consider all Iraqis their brothers, particularly the Shia.

The editorial said, "As the economic powerhouse of the Middle East, the birthplace of Islam and the de facto leader of the world's Sunni community, constituting 85 percent of all Muslims, Saudi options are to provide Sunni military leaders (primarily members of the former Iraqi officer corps, who make up the backbone of the insurgency) with the same types of assistance -- funding, arms and logistical support -- that Iran has been giving to Shiite armed groups for years or to help establish new Sunni brigades to combat the Iranian-backed militias."

Obaid admitted that Saudi involvement in Iraq carried great risk and "...could spark a regional war but the consequences of inaction are far worse" and that his country "had pressed other members of the Gulf Co-operation Council...Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman -- to give financial support to Sunnis in Iraq."
Arming the Neighborhood

In August, the Bush administration announced new arms packages for Israel and seven Arab nations comprising military equipment worth $20 billion to Saudi Arabia, over $30 billion in military assistance to Israel, and $13 billion to Egypt."

To some extent, the arms packages are an extension of the same policies that have been in place for years in the Middle East. For example since 1998, Saudi Arabia alone has received over $15 billion in U.S. weapons.

But these sales have had little impact in the region other than arming everyone to the teeth. In her article, The Saudi Arms Deal: Congressional Opposition Grows, Rachel Stohl points out that "The United States has had little success in the past using arms sales to buy leverage in the region. "

From Washington's viewpoint the sale has two objectives: bucking up the Saudi-dominated six-member Gulf Cooperation Council and countering Iran's influence. But the sales will likely cause Iran to respond by boosting its arms caches.

A dangerous side effect of the sales is the addition of more arms into a region where each country has distinct objectives in the region and inside Iraq. The sales set the stage for Iraq to be the flashpoint for a potential proxy and/or regional war.

But most dangerously for Iraqis and U.S. troops, the sales reward a country that is providing an estimated 45% of all foreigners fighting U.S. troops and Iraqi government forces.
Destabilizing Iraq: The Saudi Role

A "clear" view of Iraq is now visible only through a blood-soaked kaleidoscope of contradictory and conflicting U.S. policies. While the Bush administration regularly lashes out at Syria and Iran for aiding militias and foreign fighters in Iraq, according to official U.S. military figures reported in the Los Angeles Times on July 15, about 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are from Saudi Arabia. Fighters from the kingdom are believed to have carried out the majority of suicide bombings in Iraq.

Who is to blame for the influx of fighters though? Gen. Mansour Turki, a spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry, however, blames forces inside of Iraq for the flow of Saudi human bombs into Iraq. If he is to be believed, "Saudis are actually being misused. Someone is helping them come to Iraq. Someone is helping them inside Iraq. Someone is recruiting them to be suicide bombers. We have no idea who these people are. We aren't getting any formal information from the Iraqi government." But Iraqis are quick to point the finger across the border. Lawmaker Sami Askari, an advisor to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Askari accuses Saudi officials of following a deliberate policy of sowing chaos in Baghdad: "The fact is that Saudi Arabia has strong intelligence resources, and it would be hard to think that they are not aware of what is going on."

Askari claims that imams at Saudi mosques regularly call for jihad against Iraq's Shi'ites and that the Saudi government had funded groups to cause chaos and bloodshed in Iraq's predominantly Shi'ite south.

But in large part this continues to be conveniently overlooked by the Bush administration so that massive arms packages can be sold to Saudi Arabia, access to the vast oil reserves continues unabated, and the Saudi royal family's long-standing connections to the Bush family remain unmentioned in mainstream circles.

There are the odd rare days, however, when the boat does get rocked.

Just days before the $20 billion arms package was handed to the Saudi monarchy, Bush administration officials voiced their anger at the "counter productive" role of Saudi Arabia in Iraq. They accused Saudi Arabia of regarding Maliki as an Iranian agent and actively working to undermine his government and for offering financial backing to various Sunni groups inside Iraq.

Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and presently the U.S. ambassador to the UN, wrote in the New York Times recently, "Several of Iraq's neighbors, not only Syria and Iran but also some friends of the United States, are pursuing destabilizing policies there."

But this is the exception rather than the rule. The cozy relationship between Washington and Riyadh continues, largely unscathed.
And Destabilizing They Are...

"Mosul is where the Saudis are the most active today because it is already primarily Sunni and there are a few Kurds," says Sureya Sayadi, a 46-year-old Kurdish American woman who lives in the Bay Area of California. Sayadi, from Kirkuk, Iraq fled to the United States with her family when the U.S. left Kurds in the lurch after encouraging them to rebel against Saddam Hussein in the aftermath of the 1991 war against Iraq.

A teacher and a medical doctor, Sayadi fills the rest of her time facilitating the work of an international NGO that assists Kurdish orphans and victims of honor killings. She is busier than ever as the number of both has escalated dramatically in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. She believes Bush administration policies "have empowered Islamist political parties whose clerics promote honor killings" and have "destroyed Iraq's judicial system and altered its laws to justify the killings." She adds, "One of our Kurdish employees has heard from the community that the Saudis are taking over parts of Kurdistan by promising people education."

In recent conversations with her NGO colleagues, Sayadi has found that within the last two years, the Saudi government has financed the construction of at least 50 mosques in Erbil and Suleimaniya alone. They are also very active on the Turkish/Iraq border and in Kirkuk and Halabja. She explains, "They go to areas where there is the most poverty and suffering, stepping in to offer services that people are not getting from the government -- health care, education, and sometimes employment -- and in the process implant[ing] their fundamentalist ideology."

Sayadi believes the Saudi monarchy is directly involved in funding "at least four new Islamic groups in Kurdistan. They are exploiting the fact that Kurds are mostly Sunni."

During the summer of 2005, members of al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Sunna cells were among several extremists arrested in Erbil, and most of them were Kurds. Prior to this, Saudi mosque-building in the area during the 1990's combined with the return of Kurdish militants who had fought against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan is believed to have led to the emergence of groups like Ansar al-Sunna. The general perception was that these men aspired to radicalize the general population by replicating the Afghan model in Kurdistan. Reinforcing this trend around that time, Saudi Arabia established links with these Kurds to counter the power of Saddam Hussein. In 1992-93 Islamist Kurdish groups worked under the Saudi based International Islamic Relief Organization and other "charities," which pumped $22 million a month into Kurdish areas. Today the Saudi names have been replaced with Kurdish names.

In the decade following the 1991 war, when Saudi "charities" constructed 1,832 new mosques, alarmed Kurdish officials instituted restrictions. Wahabi teachings followed in Saudi had been translated into Kurdish and imported into the region, accompanied by the Salafi strain, a puritanical, strict interpretation of the Koran adhered to by al-Qaeda.

In 2003, U.S. air-strikes had targeted bases of Ansar al-Islam on Iraq's northeastern border with Iran. These same radical groups, thanks in large part to Saudi backing, are now alive and flourishing in Kurdish controlled northern Iraq.

"Islamists, from Saudi Arabia, are offering money to young Kurds, visiting their schools, marrying Kurdish girls and taking them back to the kingdom." Sayadi tells me, "Kurds have always been quite secular, none of us practiced the hijab but now Kurdish women are being forced to do this. There is segregation of men and women. People in sheer desperation and hope for aid are turning more fundamentalist. The environment is ripe for fundamentalism, and Saudi influence is increasing rapidly. They are creating a hope-filled impression amongst the people that Islamic assertion is the way to resist the West.

Kurdish girls assisted by Sayadi's NGO have revealed that Saudi Islamists are pressuring Kurdish women to adopt a fundamentalist ideology in exchange for free religious studies in Kurdish universities. From her experience with Kurdish refugees in southeastern Turkey she sees that, "In both Iraq and Turkey Islamists are operating in a similar fashion, leaving no stones unturned to convert people to fundamental Islam. They are buying poor Kurds desperate for survival and feeding them ideology."

Sayadi's 35-year-old unemployed nephew Mushtaq, with a Kurdish mother and a Shi'ite Arab father, used to drive a taxi between Beji and Baghdad. "A man with a Saudi dialect called his mother, my step-sister Gailas, and ordered her to raise $2,500 to free Mushtaq. They called from his cell phone and had him appeal to his mother to give them the money. She raised the money and brought it to a suburb in Baghdad where they had instructed her to go only to find her son's burned taxi and his hacked body wrapped in his prayer rug. The men said they did it because he was Shia."

Another disturbing incident in northern Iraq this April was the stoning to death of a 17-year-old Yezidi girl, Du'a Khalil Aswad, by men from the Saudi-funded mosques.

Amnesty International condemned the killing, calling it "a so-called honor crime" in which the girl "was killed by a group of eight or nine men and in the presence of a large crowd in the town of Bashika, near Mosul because she had engaged in a relationship with a Sunni Muslim boy and had been absent from her home for one night."
Solutions?

The Middle East is floating in the violence and chaos bred by failed Bush administration policies. Generations are now being raised in occupations and/or war zones, which were caused and/or supported by Washington. Needless to say, anti-American sentiment in the region is quite likely higher than it has ever been in history.

The primary sword in the belly of the Middle East -- that of the U.S. occupation of Iraq -- must be immediately and unconditionally removed. The United States must simultaneously pay full compensation to every Iraqi who has lost a loved one or suffered damages as a result of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation.

Second to this, the massive weapons packages should be immediately canceled; there is no need to attempt to douse the raging fires in the Middle East with yet more sophisticated weaponry.

In addition, if Iran is to be sanctioned, is it not inherently hypocritical not to be sanctioning Saudi Arabia in the same way, since there is more than ample evidence indicating that fighters, funding, and most likely weapons, are pouring across its borders into Iraq?

The solution must, finally, include diplomacy and even-handed dealings amongst all of the countries in the Middle East, as opposed to the current model where countries like Israel and Saudi Arabia effectively have carte blanche to do what they may. Otherwise it is sure to fail.

Dahr Jamail has reported from inside Iraq and is a Middle East expert. He writes for Inter Press Service, The Asia Times, and is a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus.

Wednesday, 19 September 2007, 09:16 GMT 10:16 UK

Soaring prices add to Afghan misery
By Chris Morris
BBC News, Kabul

Kabul market
There is no sign of price drops for essential goods
As the residents of Kabul prepare to break their fast at the end of the day, the street markets in the centre of the city are as busy as ever. But this year, during the holy month of Ramadan, there is a real struggle to make ends meet.

The price of basic food and fuel has soared in recent months, putting enormous strain on consumers.

"At the moment, it's the biggest problem we face," said one customer, paying for several bags of vegetables at a roadside stall.

"I used to be able to buy my onions and tomatoes for 60 Afghanis. Now it's 100 Afghanis. It's suddenly got very high."

"It's the same for everything, potatoes, all the vegetables," said Omar, selling his wares from a small wooden cart. "The big businessmen are responsible. They hoard everything and push the prices up."

Surcharging

A small crowd soon gathered around us. Everyone had a story to tell.

Kabul petrol station
Few things can be bought without queuing

"Why is it so expensive?" shouted one man. "You should ask the government! Karzai doesn't care about ordinary people."

President Hamid Karzai says that he does. He convened a recent meeting at the presidential palace to deal specifically with the issue of price rises.

One cabinet minister pointed out that household gas, which should be sold at about 40 Afghanis ($0.8) per kilogram, is currently selling for 80 Afghanis.

The government has promised to identify anyone responsible for hoarding and surcharging and punish them.

But that's not much consolation for drivers buying fuel for their vehicles at a nearby petrol station.

"If the prices continue to rise," one driver said, "we'll have to get out of our cars and start walking."

He described queuing at the only state-run petrol station in Kabul - where the prices are cheaper - for three hours.

MORE

4 U.S. troops killed in Iraq

September 19, 2007

Three American soldiers were killed and three were wounded Tuesday by an explosion near their patrol in Iraq's Diyala province, the U.S. military said.

In Nineveh province, another soldier was killed Tuesday in a vehicle accident, the military said. All four of the dead were with Task Force Lightning, but their names were not released pending notification of their families.

The latest deaths brought to 3,788 the number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq theater since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, according to icasualties.org.

BBC Pope Benedict XVI refused a recent request by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss the Middle East and Iraq, Vatican sources say.

The Pope refused a request for an audience during the August holidays.

Senior Vatican sources told the BBC the Pope does not normally receive politicians on his annual holiday at the Castelgandolfo residence near Rome.

But one leading Italian newspaper said it was an evident snub by the Vatican towards the Bush administration.

Much more at the link

Army in drive against Taliban

Richard Norton-Taylor
Thursday September 20, 2007
The Guardian

Two thousand British troops, including Gurkhas backed up by armour, were last night engaged in a large-scale operation to drive out Taliban fighters from a strategic area of southern Afghanistan.

Codenamed Palk Wahel, or sledgehammer blow, it is the biggest operation involving British troops there since the early summer and the first involving the Gurkhas and Warrior armoured vehicles.

The 2nd Battalion the Mercian Regiment, formerly the Worcesters and Foresters, the Scots Guards, the Light Dragoons, the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers, Royal Marines, and a reconnaissance force are also taking part, the Ministry of Defence said. They are supported by Estonian and Danish troops, soldiers from the Afghan army, helicopters and other aircraft, it said. In all, 2,500 troops are involved.

The operation began early yesterday and is expected to last at least three days. It "will drive the Taliban from several key strongholds, providing security to allow for reconstruction and development to take place", the MoD said.

It continued: "It is crucial that the Taliban are prevented from intimidating and terrorising the local people so that they can go about their daily lives in peace."

An MoD spokeswoman said the operation was part of a wider plan to push the Taliban north, allowing for the reconstruction and development of the area and the securing of major supply routes running between larger towns.

Task Force Helmand spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Eaton said: "This operation is designed to protect areas within Helmand province where we have previously made gains."

from the September 19, 2007 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0919/p12s01-wome.html
Basra oil fuels fight to control Iraq's economic might
The province sits on as much as 20 percent of the Middle East's oil reserves.

By Sam Dagher | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Basra, Iraq

It could be an "empire," says one Shiite militia leader. For the provincial governor, Basra's future is shimmering skyscrapers. He wants the Iraqi port city to be another Arab metropolis, perhaps the next Dubai.

Many Iraqis – businessmen, criminal bosses, militia commanders, political leaders – have designs on the city, that is vitally important to Iraq's national economy.

With its oil proceeds, Basra Province provided Baghdad nearly 90 percent of its budget of $40 million this year. And there is more money to come, if Iraq fully repairs and expands its war-ravaged oil infrastructure. Basra sits on some of the world's largest untapped reserves. In fact, the bulk of Iraq's estimated 200 billion barrels in potential deposits are here.

The fight for a stake in Basra's riches is often desperate and violent. Whoever comes out on top, they will hold great sway over the country, and much influence in the Middle East. Now that British forces have left Basra city, and are preparing for a full withdrawal from Basra Province by year-end, many Basrawis worry that this fight for control of Basra's petroleum wealth will further increase, perhaps growing into an all-out war.

Militias vie for control

At the entrance to the headquarters of the South Oil Company (SOC) in Basra, a sign dating from when Saddam Hussein nationalized the oil industry in 1972 reads: "Our oil is ours."

Inside, an exasperated senior official, who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution, describes the onslaught by parties and militias intent on controlling the company by forcing their loyalists into key management positions. Some are beholden to the Ministry of Oil in Baghdad, which is controlled by the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the dominant Shiite coalition to which Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki belongs.

"There is an invasion by parties and militias … we are a mouthwatering prize," he says, adding that recently 8,000 people, most of them illiterate, were pushed on to the company's payrolls.

The power plays extend to Basra's ports, too, often contributing to anger and a sense of injustice among the province's estimated 3 million people. In the town of Abu Al-Khaseeb, south of the city, the newly rich are building palatial homes next to mud huts. The mansions often belong to those who have been able to cash in on the brisk business in the town's Abu Flous port, which is one the province's main four ports and is widely considered to be controlled by the mafialike family, Bayet Ashour, and certain militias.

"You can only work at the port if you join a militia. I thought about it, but then my two cousins who had joined were badly wounded in a clash. So now we just sit home and shut up," says resident Jalal Ali.

Last month, armed tribesmen forcefully brought oil production to a standstill at the Majnoon oil field, 38 miles north of Basra city, after the SOC refused to meet their demands for jobs in the area. An official at the company, which controls oil exploration and production throughout southern Iraq, confirmed the incident.

Many are also profiting off the oil by tapping right into the pipelines.

SOC's oil pipelines are regularly sabotaged and drilled into to steal crude and smuggle it outside Iraq, says the unnamed official at the company. Many in the province even accuse Gov. Muhammad Mosabeh Waeli's Fadhila Party, whose partisans dominate the oil protection force, of colluding with the smugglers. Mr. Waeli has vehemently denied the charges, calling them "a smear campaign orchestrated by pro-Iranian parties."

$90 billion daily

SOC, which employs more than 30,000 people, is in charge of oil production and exploration in an area of about 45,000 acres in southern Iraq. By most estimates, potential Iraqi reserves account for nearly 16 to 20 percent of Middle East reserves. "Producing at full prewar capacity, Iraq can generate about $90 million a day through exports to support its own reconstruction," says a US Army Corps of Engineers slide presentation dated July 2004. "Immense potential exists to generate prosperity, employment, and economic stability for all Iraqis."

Production at the time the presentation was made was about 2.35 million barrels per day (b.p.d.). Exactly three years later, in July 2007, it stood at 2.1 million b.p.d., of which 1.8 million b.p.d. is from the south alone. About 1.6 million b.p.d. of this oil was exported exclusively via Basra terminals.

In order to regain the estimated 3.8 million b.p.d. reached in 1990, $2 billion to $3 billion of investment would be required over three years to rehabilitate existing oil fields and infrastructure, according to Muhammad-Ali Zainy, a senior oil economist and analyst at London's Center for Global Energy Studies.

Mr. Zainy blames the state of Iraq's oil industry on insecurity, corruption, government incompetence, and unfinished work by the US company KBR (formerly Kellogg Brown and Root), which was hired after the US-led invasion to do the engineering work to ramp up production.

He says the Ministry of Oil was allocated $4 billion last year, but spent perhaps only 3 percent of it on rehabilitation.

"There is chaos now in Basra. In this environment you cannot do real work. The [central] government itself run by religious parties is not going to be able to provide the proper environment for rehabilitation of the infrastructure, let alone investment," says Zainy, who is a native of the holy Shiite city of Najaf and was once a senior official at the Ministry of Oil before defecting in 1982 to escape Mr. Hussein's regime.

The southern branch of the General Oil Products Company, which is charged with refining and distributing oil products, is also said to be now under the sway of militias, according to several officials. But that tends to provide little protection from the militia's criminal rivals.

A few months ago, 90 fuel trucks, each with a capacity of 36,000 liters, pulled up at one of the company's depots. They filled up. But it turned out they were smugglers, not legitimate fuel distributors, according to a manager at an oil products transport company.

Zainy says Baghdad has its priorities upside down. It's making a mistake by "rushing" to approve a new oil law, which would open up the sector to foreign investors, as urged by Washington. Instead, he says, Baghdad should first focus on adding value to the sector by increasing production, stamping out corruption and theft, and re-creating the Iraqi National Oil Company, which was disbanded by Hussein in 1987 as an alternative to bureaucratic meddling by the Ministry of Oil.

"The timing is wrong … they are rushing to have the oil law ratified just in order to please the American administration," he says.

In what promises to be a major challenge for the controversial bill being debated in parliament, the industry's main labor union based in Basra says it will order a general strike should the oil law pass.

"We believe one of the main reasons America invaded is oil," says the union's head, Hassan Jumaa al-Assadi. "The law does not serve the people of Iraq but the US administration. History will not be merciful to those who vote for this law."

Revitalization stalled

The struggle over power and resources – which extends to the halls of government in Baghdad – means that any prospect for Basra's riches being used to lift millions of Iraqis out of their misery and give jobs to disaffected youth remains a fiction.

"There is great deprivation and high unemployment. Plants are destroyed. The last 30 years for Basra have been 20 years of war followed by 10 years of economic deprivation," says Hamid al-Thalemi, a member of the local provincial council, who belongs to the secular party of former Iraqi premier Iyad Allawi.

Basra's infrastructure and economy suffered greatly from the impact of the devastating eight-year war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s that was followed by the Gulf War in 1990.

"The government has no economic development strategy … the government is helpless … it's a catastrophe," adds Mr. Thalemi.

MORE AT LINK

Controversial Osprey aircraft deployed to Iraq

By Dave Montgomery, McClatchy Newspapers Wed Sep 19, 7:44 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The first combat squadron of tilt-rotor V-22 Ospreys has been quietly deployed to Iraq , ushering a new form of aerial technology into 21st Century warfare.
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A Marine Corps aviation squadron and 10 Ospreys left for Iraq on Monday aboard the U.S.S. Wasp, a small Navy aircraft carrier known as an amphibious assault ship, said Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Eric Dent .

The departure from the New River Marine Corps Air Station near Jacksonville, N.C. , was made under extremely tight security with no advance notice to the news media and no ceremonial speeches by Marine Corps officials. ``It was just another workday for the squadron,'' Dent said.

Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263, nicknamed ``The Thunder Chickens,'' will be based at the Al Asad Airbase in western Iraq for at least seven months of combat operations. The Marine Corps Ospreys, known as MV-22s, will be used to ferry Marines as well as cargo throughout predominately Sunni Muslim Anbar province.

Dent, citing ``operational security,'' offered only limited details about the deployment and said he was not allowed to discuss the timetable of the trip or scheduled arrival in Iraq . The V-22s, which, in military-speak can ``self-deploy'' into war zones, could conceivably leave the Wasp en route and make the rest of the journey by air.

The deployment marks a long-sought goal after three-decades of tilt-rotor technology that began with the development and flight of Bell Helicopter's XV-15 prototype in the 1970s. Fort Worth -based Bell is manufacturing the Osprey with Boeing Helicopters of Ridley Township, Pa.

The aircraft, which flies like an airplane and lands and takes off like a helicopter, reaches speeds and distances well beyond that of traditional helicopters and is considered far more agile than the aging CH-46 ``Sea Knight'' helicopters that it s replacing.

But the Osprey's entry into combat will be under intense scrutiny after years of controversy that included delays, steadily rising costs and two fatal crashes in 2000 that nearly led to the program's cancellation.

Critics say the tilt-rotor concept is still unproven and could endanger the lives of its crewmembers in combat. Supporters say it is ideal for combat and will enable Marines to get into hot spots faster and more safely.
more

U.S. military cemetery running out of space
20 Sep 2007 15:56:10 GMT

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Sept 20 (Reuters) - A Kansas military cemetery has run out of space after the burial of another casualty of the Iraq war, officials said on Thursday.

"We are full," said Alison Kohler, spokeswoman for the Fort Riley U.S. Army post, home of the 1st Infantry Division.

U.S. Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, both Kansas Republicans, on Thursday sent a letter to William Tuerk, the under secretary for memorial affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, urging for full funding for a new cemetery for Fort Riley.

"While a new cemetery would not be completed in time to alleviate this situation immediately, it is vitally important," Roberts and Brownback, a Republican presidential candidate, said in their letter.

"We truly owe our military members a debt of gratitude and the least we can do is provide them with an honorable burial ground," the senators wrote.

Since the 2003 beginning of the war in Iraq, Fort Riley has lost 133 soldiers and airmen, though not all are buried in the Fort Riley cemetery. Sgt Joel Murray, who died Sept. 4 in Iraq, took the last available plot, said Kohler.

Fort Riley can bury bodies on top of other bodies if family members want to share a plot, said Kohler.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N20396774.htm

LA Times BAGHDAD -- -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on Wednesday demanded that the U.S. Embassy here replace the private security company Blackwater USA because of its involvement in a weekend shooting incident that reportedly left 11 Iraqis dead.

Embassy officials, who are guarded by Blackwater personnel when they venture out of the heavily protected Green Zone, rebuffed the suggestion, saying Blackwater's fate would be resolved only after an investigation was completed.

"We are waiting for the results of the investigation before taking any action," said embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo.

At a news conference, an angry Maliki said North Carolina-based Blackwater, which has nearly 1,000 employees in Iraq, was also responsible for six similar shootings since being hired by the U.S. State Department to guard its diplomats after the American-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

"This crime has inflamed contempt, hatred and anger both from the government and the Iraqi public," Maliki said. "Hence, it is important that this company's activities be frozen and the American Embassy invest in the services of another one."

Maliki reiterated that a preliminary investigation by the Iraqi government found that a Blackwater security detail had fired without provocation Sunday at a traffic circle in Baghdad's Mansour district. As of Wednesday, 11 Iraqi citizens had died as a result of the shooting, Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf said.

"This company should be punished," Maliki said. "We are not going to allow it to kill Iraqis in cold blood."

More here

Ain't gonna happen, IMOHO. What other security outfit is headed by a staunch Republican born-again "Christian" and friend of the administration?

BBC A suicide bomber has attacked a convoy of foreign soldiers in the Afghan capital Kabul, killing several people.

Police said a French soldier and several Afghans were killed in the blast. There is no confirmation from the Nato-led security force, Isaf.

The attack damaged a civilian bus and at least one vehicle caught fire.

Suicide bombings have soared in recent months. More than 3,000 people have been killed this year as Afghan and foreign forces battle Taleban fighters.

The most trenchant article on Iraq in a long while comes from the Canadian press. Ya, its that good, and disheartening. -ww

How George Bush became the new Saddam

COVER STORY: Its strategies shattered, a desperate Washington is reaching out to the late dictator's henchmen.

Patrick Graham | Sep 20, 2007 | 10:04 am EST

Maclean's - It was embarrassing putting my flak jacket on backwards and sideways, but in the darkness of the Baghdad airport car park I couldn’t see anything. “Peterik, put the flak jacket on,” the South African security contractor was saying politely, impatiently. “You know the procedure if we are attacked.”

I didn’t. He explained. One of the chase vehicles would pull up beside us and someone would drag me out of the armoured car, away from the firing. If both drivers were unconscious—nice euphemism—he said I should try to run to the nearest army checkpoint. If the checkpoint was American, things might work out if they didn’t shoot first. If it was Iraqi . . . he didn’t elaborate.

Arriving in Baghdad has always been a little weird. Under Saddam Hussein it was like going into an orderly morgue; when he ran off after the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003 put an end to his Baathist party regime, the city became a chaotic mess. I lived in Iraq for almost two years, but after three years away I wasn’t quite ready for just how deserted and worn down the place seemed in the early evening. It was as if some kind of mildew was slowly rotting away at the edges of things, breaking down the city into urban compost.

Since 2003, more than 3,775 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, while nearly 7,500 Iraqi policemen and soldiers have died. For Iraq’s civilian population, the carnage has been almost incalculable. Last year alone, the UN estimated that 34,500 civilians were killed and more than 36,000 wounded; other estimates are much higher. As the country’s ethnic divisions widen, especially between Iraq’s Arab Shia and Arab Sunni Muslims (the Kurds are the third major group), some two million people have been internally displaced, with another two million fleeing their homeland altogether. Entering Baghdad I could tell the Sunni neighbourhoods, ghettos really, by the blasts in the walls and the emptiness, courtesy of sectarian cleansing by the majority Shias. The side streets of the Shia districts seemed to have a little more life to them.

Continued

h/t to trex at FDL

Sidney Blumenthal

The Congressional testimony of the United States military commander in Iraq confirms that the "surge" is designed to serve George W Bush's domestic political ends, says Sidney Blumenthal.
17 - 09 - 2007

Open Democracy - Two years ago the Sunni sheiks leading the insurgency in Iraq's Anbar province approached the United States, offering to end the violence in exchange for a timetable establishing that US forces would withdraw from the country, a senior official at the highest level of the British government told me. Without some sort of negotiated deal that the Sunni leaders could brandish, they explained, they would not have the essential political justification for quelling the conflict. The British believed that the Sunni offer was being made in good faith and urged that it be accepted

But according to the senior British source, President Bush rejected it out of hand, still certain that he could achieve a military victory. He saw any agreement with the Sunnis as tantamount to defeat, the British official said. And yet, even as the Sunnis were rebuffed, Bush continued to invest trust in the Shi'a-dominated Iraqi government to forge a political conciliation.

more ...

Blackwater security firm resumes Baghdad work

Mark Tran and agencies
Friday September 21, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

The security firm Blackwater USA today resumed limited escorts of American personnel in the Iraqi capital after an incident in which eight civilians died, the US embassy in Iraq said.

As Blackwater guards returned to the streets of Baghdad after a three-day suspension, the Iraqi interior ministry said it planned to end immunity from prosecution for security contractors.

The interior ministry spokesman Major General Abdul-Kareem Khalaf said the ministry had drafted legislation giving it tighter control over contractors and calling for "severe punishment for those who fail to adhere to the ... guidelines".

Iraq has said it will review the status of all security firms after what it called a flagrant assault by Blackwater contractors in which at least eight people were killed while the firm was escorting a US embassy convoy through Baghdad on Sunday.

snip....

The deaths have created fresh tensions between the US and Iraq. The Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, suggested the US embassy should stop using Blackwater and said he would not allow Iraqis to be killed "in cold blood".

The US embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the decision to allow Blackwater to guard some "mission essential" trips was made after talking to Iraqi authorities.

"There isn't a lot of movement in general ... But it is likely Blackwater will support some of them," she told the Reuters news agency.

The killings angered Iraqis, who regard the tens of thousands of security contractors working in the country as mercenaries operating with little regard for Iraqis.

Mr Khalaf said the new draft law, which he expected parliament to pass soon, gave the ministry powers to prosecute the companies and to refuse or revoke contracts.

Many security firms operating in Iraq have no valid licence and a law issued by US administrators after the 2003 invasion, which granted them immunity from prosecution, has not been formally revoked.

snip...

Blackwater is the biggest of three private security firms employed by the US state department in Iraq. Private security staff who are involved in controversial incidents are often hastily withdrawn, but those involved in the Sunday shootings were still in Iraq.