Around the World, Politics of Iraq Occupation Hit Home (washingtonpost.com): "By Jefferson Morley | washingtonpost.com Staff Writer | Thursday, October 30, 2003; 10:07 AM

The Bush administration isn't the only government struggling over what to do in Iraq. The countries that have responded to U.S. appeals for help in recent months are now debating how they should follow through. ...

"It seems that not only Iraqi Kurds and Arabs, but also Washington opposes Turkish troop deployment!"
The editors question Koizumi's claim that Japanese troops will support the reconstruction effort and provide humanitarian assistance but not be involved in war.
Saudi Arabia: "The resolution of the Iranian nuclear crisis by the EU should give the US a lesson on how to solve problems in Iraq."
India: "Few countries are willing to lend a helping hand to the beleaguered Anglo-American forces,"

- posted by Editor @ 9:24 PM

Iraq: The missing billions /23.10.03: " /23.10.03

A staggering US$4 billion in oil revenues and other Iraqi funds earmarked for the reconstruction of the country has disappeared into opaque bank accounts administered by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the US-controlled body that rules Iraq. By the end of the year, if nothing changes in the way this cash is accounted for, that figure will double.
...
The fact that no independent body knows where this cash has gone is in direct violation of the UN resolution that released much of it for the rebuilding of Iraq's shattered infrastructure. The agency that is supposed to oversee these funds has not even been set up yet.

Christian Aid is calling for the full and immediate disclosure of how this money has been spent,
...
The missing billions are a combination of pre- and post-war oil revenues now controlled by the CPA, plus seized Iraqi government assets and funds vested overseas. Conservative estimates put the total at US$5 billion, of which less than US$1 billion can be accounted for. ...

- posted by Editor @ 10:47 AM

Excite - News: "U.S. Postwar Death Toll in Iraq Hits New Milestone | Oct 29, 8:26 am ET | By Alistair Lyon
...
Bush has blamed "foreign terrorists" and forces loyal to Saddam for the unrelenting violence.

"The foreign terrorists are trying to create conditions of fear and retreat because they fear a free and peaceful state in the midst of a part of the world where terror has found recruits," Bush said Tuesday.

Many Iraqis say it is the U.S. occupation that has fueled nationalist resistance and attracted foreign militants keen to wage a jihad, or holy war, against American troops.

"How many Iraqis were involved in terror attacks against U.S. targets, or in terror attacks around the world, before 2003?" asked political science professor Saad Jawad, from Baghdad University. "Was Iraq a terror base before the invasion? Look at it now."

No supporter of Saddam, Jawad said the deposed dictator had stamped hard on any suspected Islamist militants. "The U.S.-UK invasion opened our doors wide for anyone to enter Iraq."
- posted by Editor @ 5:55 AM

Veterans for Common Sense - News Article: "US Orders to Troops: 'Shoot to kill. No questions asked.' Civilians Included | Anna Badkhen | San Francisco Chronicle | ttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/10/13/MN20680.DTL
Posted 10/13/2003 10:03:00 PM
...
This is a call GIs in Iraq have to make every day. With Iraqi guerrillas mounting between 10 and 20 hit-and-run attacks on U.S. troops daily, U.S. soldiers admit that the pressure of constantly being a target has made them jumpy.

The only way to respond, they say, is by following new, merciless rules of engagement stated one night last week by Lt. Peter Katzfey in front of 299 Engineer Battalion soldiers preparing for a night patrol in Tikrit:

"Shoot to kill. No questions asked."

Major Robert Isabella, a public affairs officer of the Fourth Infantry Division based in Tikrit, elaborated. "This is war. Someone shoots from a window, we're gonna put 100 rounds in it. Somebody runs a checkpoint, we're gonna fire on that vehicle."
- posted by Editor @ 6:28 AM

Philadelphia Inquirer | 10/25/2003 | U.S. eyes quicker self-rule in Iraq: "With attacks worsening, strategy is under review. | By Jonathan S. Landay | Inquirer Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Amid increasing attacks on U.S.-led forces, the top U.S. civilian and military officials in charge of Iraq are coming to Washington for deliberations on improving security and pushing the country down the path to self-rule more rapidly, officials said yesterday.
...
Iraqis also appear to be growing more disenchanted. A new poll this week suggested that the goodwill produced by Saddam Hussein's ouster had been lost, with only 14.8 percent of Iraqis viewing U.S.-led forces as liberators, compared with nearly 43 percent of Iraqis six months ago.

The Bush administration insists the situation is far better than portrayed by the news media and opposition Democrats, with most of Iraq calm and large numbers of Iraqis cooperating in reconstruction efforts.

But two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Bremer and Abizaid were deeply concerned that the situation was worsening and believed that some policy changes were required to halt the deterioration.

- posted by Editor @ 8:48 AM

NPR : State Dept. Study Foresaw Postwar Troubles in Iraq: "Oct. 20, 2003

Officials at the State and Defense departments accuse Pentagon leaders of ignoring a pre-war report that detailed many of the problems U.S. forces were likely to face in postwar Iraq. Critics say that because the warnings in the State Department study were not heeded, American troops were under-prepared for looting and other postwar challenges. Hear NPR's Ari Shapiro."
- posted by Editor @ 6:28 AM

NPR : All Things Considered for Friday, October 24, 2003: " U.S. Bid to Arrest Militants Backfires

U.S. troops in the restive Iraqi town of Fallujah deploy a new tactic in their efforts to quell Iraqi insurgents: arresting the mothers of suspected militants. But the move prompts angry demonstrations by local tribesmen. The women have now been released. NPR's Deborah Amos reports. "
- posted by Editor @ 6:27 AM

U.S. Adopts Aggressive Tactics on Iraqi Fighters (washingtonpost.com): "U.S. Adopts Aggressive Tactics on Iraqi Fighters | Intensified Offensive Leads To Detentions, Intelligence | By Thomas E. Ricks | Washington Post Staff Writer | Monday, July 28, 2003; Page A01

BAGHDAD -- Over the past six weeks a small but intense war has been conducted in the mud-hut villages and lush palm groves along the Tigris River valley, fought with far different methods than those used in the campaign that toppled president Saddam Hussein.
...
Col. David Hogg, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, said tougher methods are being used to gather the intelligence. On Wednesday night, he said, his troops picked up the wife and daughter of an Iraqi lieutenant general. They left a note: "If you want your family released, turn yourself in." Such tactics are justified, he said, because, "It's an intelligence operation with detainees, and these people have info." They would have been released in due course, he added later.

The tactic worked. On Friday, Hogg said, the lieutenant general appeared at the front gate of the U.S. base and surrendered.
-------------------
Geneva Conventions - CONVENTION IV - Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War

(1) Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.

To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons: (a) violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture; (B) taking of hostages; (C) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment; (d) the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.
- posted by Editor @ 2:35 PM

Excite - News: "Wolfowitz Encourages Transition to Iraqi Control | Oct 24, 3:23 am ET | By Carol Giacomo

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a chief architect of the U.S. 'war on terror,' flew into Baghdad on Friday aiming to help speed transfer of control of Iraq from American forces to Iraqis.

Wolfowitz, visiting for the second time in three months amid growing concern at home about escalating attacks on American troops, said Iraqis increasingly were 'putting their lives on the line to defend their country and build a free and prosperous future.'
...
After waging a quick and successful war to oust President Saddam Hussein from power, President Bush and aides behind the U.S. war strategy -- among them Wolfowitz -- are facing sharpened criticism from those who say they exaggerated the Iraqi threat to justify an invasion and are now mismanaging the occupation.
- posted by Editor @ 9:21 AM

Excite - News: "Wealthy Donors Asked to Dig Deep for Iraq Rebuild | Oct 23, 9:20 am ET | By Alexander Smith

MADRID (Reuters) - The United Nations and Iraq's governing council appealed to wealthy nations on Thursday to dig deeper in their pockets to raise the $55 billion needed to rebuild a country torn by years of war, sanctions and neglect.
...
But a German official at the meeting said more money would not be forthcoming until Berlin could be sure its aid would be properly accounted for.

AID GROUP SAYS $4 BILLION MISSING

Britain's Christian Aid said the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) had not publicly detailed cash flows since ousting Saddam Hussein in April.

All but $1 billion of more than $5 billion of Iraqi funds had disappeared into a "financial black hole." It said the figures were a conservative estimate of oil revenues collected by the CPA since the war, prewar oil revenues from the U.N. "oil-for-food" account and seized assets of Saddam's government.

The U.S.-led CPA has denied it has failed to account for the money.

Christian Aid said failure to account for the money would fuel suspicion that funds were going to U.S. firms given contracts to rebuild the country.
- posted by Editor @ 11:54 AM

Excite News: "List of Countries Supporting Iraq Effort | Oct 23, 11:14 AM (ET) |By The Associated Press"
- posted by Editor @ 9:19 AM

Attacks on Troops on Rise, Commander Says (washingtonpost.com): "By Rajiv Chandrasekaran | Washington Post Foreign Service | Thursday, October 23, 2003; Page A27

BAGHDAD, Oct. 22 -- Attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq have increased sharply over the past two weeks, reaching a high of 35 a day, the commanding American general here said on Wednesday.

Over much of the summer, military officials had said there were between 10 and 15 attacks on U.S. soldiers most days. Since early October, however, the number of daily attacks has fluctuated between 20 and 35, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said at a news conference. "
- posted by Editor @ 7:02 AM

Iraq: Civilian Deaths Need U.S. Investigation (Human Rights Watch Press release, New York, October 21, 2003): " Report Tallies Civilian Toll in Baghdad | (New York, October 21, 2003)

The U.S. military is failing to conduct proper investigations into civilian deaths resulting from the excessive or indiscriminate use of force in Baghdad, Human Rights Watch charged in a new report released today.

The 56-page report, Hearts and Minds: Post-War Civilian Casualties in Baghdad by U.S. Forces, confirms twenty deaths in the Iraqi capital alone between May 1 and September 30. In total, Human Rights Watch collected credible reports of 94 civilian deaths in Baghdad, involving questionable legal circumstances that warrant investigation. This number does not include civilians wounded by U.S. troops. The precise number of Iraqi civilians killed by U.S. soldiers since the end of major military operations is unknown, and the U.S. military told Human Rights Watch that it keeps no statistics on civilian deaths.

�It�s a tragedy that U.S. soldiers have killed so many civilians in Baghdad,� said Joe Stork, acting executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch. �But it�s really incredible that the U.S. military does not even count these deaths. Any time U.S. forces kill an Iraqi civilian in questionable circumstances, they should investigate the incident.�

[Who else doesn't investigate civilian deaths under occupation? Israel of course. ed]
- posted by Editor @ 7:35 AM

Excite News: "Reservists Accused of Mistreating Iraqis | Oct 19, 11:51 PM (ET) | By GREG RISLING

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Eight Marine reservists accused in the mistreatment of prisoners of war in Iraq were being held at Camp Pendleton on charges ranging from negligent homicide to dereliction of duty, military officials said.
...
Two of the men were charged with negligent homicide in connection with the June death of an Iraqi who was held at a detention facility, said Marine Staff Sgt. Bill Lisbon, a spokesman at Camp Pendleton.

Lisbon said Saturday he was unsure how many of the other six reservists had been charged in connection with the death. He would not say whether the man was the 52-year-old Iraqi prisoner of war whose death at a camp run by the 1st Marine Division near Nasiriyah was reported last June.

Maj. Clark Paulus and Lance Cpl. Christian Hernandez face negligent homicide charges. The other six face lesser charges involving mistreatment of prisoners.
...
Paulus also faces two counts of dereliction of duty, one count of cruelty and maltreatment, one count of making a false official statement and one count of assault. Hernandez also faces one count of dereliction, one count of cruelty and maltreatment, and three counts of assault.

Under military directives, the Army is supposed to handle POW facilities, said Rehkopf, who is representing Lance Cpl. William Roy.

The reservists "had no training at all. They were given a 30-minute training on the Geneva convention," Rehkopf said, referring to the international accords for treatment of POWs.
- posted by Editor @ 7:11 AM

Excite - News: "UN Council Adopts Iraq Resolution Unanimously | Oct 16, 2003 12:33 pm ET | By Evelyn Leopold and Irwin Arieff

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to adopt a resolution on postwar Iraq, a victory for the United States which sought approval for its occupation of the country.
...
President Bush, under pressure over the growing cost of the Iraqi occupation in U.S. lives and money, was hoping the resolution would encourage nations to support the occupation with troops and cash. It also asks Iraqi leaders to draw up a plan by Dec. 15 for a new constitution and elections.

But Russia, Germany and France made clear no further aid or military contributions would be forthcoming.
...
In speeches after the vote, Russia, Germany and France said they backed the resolution for the sake of unity and stability in Iraq but regretted some of their key amendments had been rejected, especially setting a timetable for the end of the occupation.

"We miss the clear signal that the transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqis will be accelerated," Germany's U.N. ambassador, Gunter Pleuger, told the council.

"The role of the United Nations and in particular of the secretary-general could have been strengthened even more," he said. "And finally we would have wished for clearer guidelines also with regard to timing."
...
In a joint statement after the vote, France, Germany and Russia said, "The conditions are not created for us to envisage any military commitment and no further financial contributions beyond our present engagement."

The measure also calls on the 25-member Iraqi Governing Council to produce by Dec. 15 a timetable for drafting a constitution and holding elections, a process which could take several years. But it gives no date for a transfer of power
- posted by Editor @ 12:16 PM

CBS News | The Man Who Knew | October 17, 2003 12:03:46: 60 Minutes II Oct. 15, 2003"

“The gravity of this moment is matched by the gravity of the threat that Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction pose to the world,” said Powell. [ to the UN on Feb. 5, 2003]

At the time of Powell's speech, Thielmann [formerly in charge of nonproliferation and strategic affairs in intelligence bureau inside the State Department] says that Iraq didn't pose an imminent threat to anyone: “I think it didn't even constitute an imminent threat to its neighbors at the time we went to war.”

But Thielmann also says that he believes the decision to go to war was made first, and then the intelligence was interpreted to fit that conclusion. For example, he points to the evidence behind Powell’s charge that Iraq was importing aluminum tubes to use in a program to build nuclear weapons.
...
Houston Wood was a consultant who worked on the Oak Ridge analysis of the tubes. He watched Powell’s speech, too.

“I guess I was angry, that’s the best way to describe my emotions. I was angry at that,” says Wood, who is among the world’s authorities on uranium enrichment by centrifuge. He found the tubes couldn’t be what the CIA thought they were. They were too heavy, three times too thick and certain to leak.

Months later, Thielmann reported to Secretary Powell’s office that they were confident the tubes were not for a nuclear program. Then, about a year later, when the administration was building a case for war, the tubes were resurrected on the front page of The New York Times.

“I thought when I read that there must be some other tubes that people were talking about. I just was flabbergasted that people were still pushing that those might be centrifuges,” says Wood, who reached his conclusion back in 2001. “It didn’t make any sense to me.”
...
Allinson watched Powell’s speech in Iraq with a dozen U.N. inspectors.

What was the reaction among the in spectors as they watched the speech?

“Various people would laugh at various times because the information he was presenting was just, you know, didn't mean anything, had no meaning,” says Allinson.

And what did he and the other inspectors say when Secretary Powell finished the speech?

“They have nothing,” says Allinson.
...
But there was a good deal more in Secretary Powell’s speech that bothered the analysts. Powell claimed Saddam still had a few dozen Scud missiles.

“I wondered what he was talking about,” says Thielmann. “We did not have evidence that the Iraqis had those missiles, pure and simple.”
...
Today, Thielmann believes the decision to go to war was made -- and the intelligence was interpreted to fit that conclusion.

“There’s plenty of blame to go around. The main problem was that the senior administration officials have what I call faith-based intelligence. They knew what they wanted the intelligence to show,” says Thielmann.

“They were really blind and deaf to any kind of countervailing information the intelligence community would produce. I would assign some blame to the intelligence community, and most of the blame to the senior administration officials.”
- posted by Editor @ 12:16 PM

Bush Lied: "Bush Lied, People Died: All Hat and No Cattle
Jim Caddell, The Unrepentant Liberal, June 12, 2003

If you followed the news reports before and after the conquest of Iraq, you may have noticed a distinct difference in tone. The administration began to play down weapons of mass destruction and began emphasizing the 'liberation' of Iraq. However, after talking about WMD until the whole country was sick of hearing about them, questions were bound to be asked. The contrast between the administration's stance before and after Baghdad's fall is striking:

Before Baghdad Fell After the Fall on April 10, 2003

Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. -- Dick Cheney, August 26, 2002

Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons. -- George W. Bush, September 12, 2002

Iraq has stockpiled biological and chemical weapons, and is rebuilding the facilities used to make more of those weapons. ... We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have. -- George W. Bush, October 5, 2002

After the Fall on April 10, 2003

When there happens to be a weapon of mass destruction suspect site in an area that we occupy and if people have time, they'll look at it. --
Donald Rumsfeld, April 11, 2003

I don't think we'll discover anything, myself. I think what will happen is we'll discover people who will tell us where to go find it. It is not like a treasure hunt where you just run around looking everywhere hoping you find something. I just don't think that's going to happen. The inspectors didn't find anything, and I doubt that we will. What we will do is find the people who will tell us. -- Donald Rumsfeld, April 17, 2003

We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them. -- George W. Bush, April 24, 2003
...
During this last week several news reports have surfaced about administration officials distorting intelligence briefs to support their political agenda. A recently retired State Department analyst, Greg Thielman, said ''There is a lot of sorrow and anger at the way intelligence was misused.'' He added that he couldn't believe that Bush would use ''that stupid piece of garbage'' about Iraq buying uranium from Niger, referring to the poorly forged documents the US presented to the UN as proof of Iraq's nuclear naughtiness. It seems like every day another intelligence spook is popping up with a new complaint about how the administration misused his reports. Former CIA analyst Patrick Lang said intelligence on Iraq was ''exploited and abused and bypassed'' by the White House. Time quoted an Army intelligence officer who claimed Rumsfeld ''was deeply, almost pathologically distorting the intelligence.''
- posted by Editor @ 8:47 PM

Excite News: "Thousands of Detainees Sit, Wait in Iraq | Oct 8, 2:35 PM (ET) | By CHARLES J. HANLEY

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Six months after the United States and Britain ousted the Baath party government and took control of Iraq, an uncertain population of Iraqi detainees sits and waits behind prison walls - their numbers uncertain, their legal rights in dispute, their living conditions hidden from public view. Some are accused of common crimes, others of being security threats. They are men and women who have left uncertain families behind.

The lawyer, gone to the prison on other business, says he saw the man sitting in his long overshirt in the dust of the cellblock yard, a heavy man in his 60s, sunken, weary.

'He called to me. I went over,' Fawzi al-Musawi said. He could see the prisoner's right foot was bandaged, putrid with gangrene, apparently from a circulatory ailment.

'He asked if I could help. He said, 'They accuse me of being a Baathist. I'm not a Baathist.'' But before al-Musawi could even ask his name, an American soldier rushed up and angrily ordered the lawyer away."

"This is wrong, this is unacceptable," al-Musawi said of the encounter Oct. 1 at Abu Ghraib, the Baghdad prison that was a place of torture and executions under Saddam Hussein and is now the main U.S.-run lockup in the Iraqi capital.

Buthayna Ali, 42, said her husband disappeared while traveling to see relatives outside Baghdad during the war last April.

"I've searched for him everywhere," she said. "I don't know whether the Americans took him or not,"
- posted by Editor @ 3:20 PM

Excite News: "Analysis: Resolution Is Symbolic Victory | Oct 16, 5:34 PM (ET) | By SONYA ROSS

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States finally got what it wanted from the United Nations - a second resolution on Iraq that shows unilateralist America can work well with others.

But the victory could end up as largely symbolic. Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted Thursday he does not expect it to generate significant military help from other nations. At best, he said, the resolution might spur other countries to join in shouldering the estimated $55 billion needed for postwar reconstruction in Iraq.

'Don't see this resolution as opening the door to troops,' Powell told reporters after the vote. He said there had been no change in the number of countries thinking of contributing forces. 'Some of them said they needed the addition of a U.N. resolution to assist them in their internal deliberations,' he said
...
Russia and France - which, along with Germany and Syria, gave last-minute assent to the resolution - shot down the idea of immediate military or financial commitments. "We think that conditions today are not there for material or military aid," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said.

There is fence-sitting outside Europe too.

South Korea and Bangladesh have yet to offer soldiers. India, which had expressed a desire for a stronger U.N. mandate, said it might not send troops to Iraq now because of violence by Islamic militants in Kashmir.

Pakistan, where public sentiment against the Iraq war runs high, said it was not inclined to provide forces unless they are invited by the Iraqi people and are part of a multinational force with its own separate identity.

Instead of signaling actual offers of help, then, the turnaround in positions - especially that of the French - reflected a strong desire in Europe to avoid the acrimonious finger-pointing that broke out this year over the U.S. push for war.

Carlos Yordan, a foreign policy professor at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., said the resolution was a symbolic victory for Europeans as well because it "forces the United States to explain itself" not only to its allies, but to China and Russia, too.
- posted by Editor @ 3:00 PM

Excite - News: "U.S. Faces Criticism from Key Powers, Annan on Iraq | Oct 14, 12:39 pm ET | By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan criticized on Tuesday the new U.S.-draft resolution on Iraq for making few significant changes as France, Russia and Germany submitted amendments to speed up Iraqi self-rule.

Annan spoke to reporters as the United States told Security Council envoys to be ready to vote this week on the draft, which proposes a multinational force and a Dec. 15 date for 25-member Iraqi Governing Council to devise a timetable toward self rule, a concession to critics.

France, Germany and Russia, in six amendments obtained by Reuters, want the Governing Council, along with the United Nations and the U.S.-led occupation, to develop a more specific schedule for when Iraqis would take power.

China supports the amendments, diplomats said."
- posted by Editor @ 9:52 AM

Big lie on Iraq comes full circle: "Big lie on Iraq comes full circle | September 19, 2003 | BY ANDREW GREELEY

Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda chief (director of communications, in the current parlance), once said that if you are going to lie, you should tell a big lie. ...

There is not and never has been any evidence that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attack. None. The implication of such involvement was an attempt to deceive, a successful attempt at the big lie.

I'm not sure that the president knows it is a lie, however.

Also, the weapons of mass destruction story was never true. It now appears that Saddam panicked in 1995 when his sons-in-law defected to Jordan and revealed the truth about his weapons development. He immediately ordered the destruction of all the evidence.
...
''War on terror'' is a metaphor. It is not an actual war, like the World War or the Vietnamese or Korean wars. It is rather a struggle against fanatical Islamic terrorists, exacerbated if not caused by the conflict in Palestine.
- posted by Editor @ 6:56 AM

THE WAR IN CONTEXT:: Iraq, the War on Terrorism, and the Middle East Conflict - in Critical Perspective: "U.S. soldiers bulldoze farmers' crops | By Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, October 12, 2003

US soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from loudspeakers, have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops.

The stumps of palm trees, some 70 years old, protrude from the brown earth scoured by the bulldozers beside the road at Dhuluaya, a small town 50 miles north of Baghdad. Local women were yesterday busily bundling together the branches of the uprooted orange and lemon trees and carrying then back to their homes for firewood.

Nusayef Jassim, one of 32 farmers who saw their fruit trees destroyed, said: 'They told us that the resistance fighters hide in our farms, but this is not true. They didn't capture anything. They didn't find any weapons.'

Other farmers said that US troops had told them, over a loudspeaker in Arabic, that the fruit groves were being bulldozed to punish the farmers for not informing on the resistance which is very active in this Sunni Muslim district."
- posted by Editor @ 6:01 AM

Excite News: "World Bank Estimates Iraq Needs $55B | Oct 10, 12:02 PM (ET) | By BARRY SCHWEID

WASHINGTON (AP) - A study by the World Bank and other international organizations estimates that Iraq could handle only $5.2 billion in foreign reconstruction aid next year without problems arising.

That financial reality, though, should not discourage countries from making larger contributions that the country needs on both a short-term and long-term basis until its oil industry recovers, the report said.

Prepared jointly by the World Bank with the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund, it estimates that Iraq needs $55 billion in economic aid overall, in the next several years, to finance its reconstruction until the oil industry gets on its feet."
- posted by Editor @ 5:40 AM

Excite - News: "France, Russia Criticize U.S. Draft on Iraq Oct 3, 2003 10:02 am ET

PARIS/MOSCOW (Reuters) - France and Russia Friday joined U.N. boss Kofi Annan in criticizing a U.S. draft resolution aimed at coaxing more troops and cash from reluctant allies to help rebuild Iraq.

'Our first impression is ... this revised project does not incorporate the change in approach that we are advocating,' said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous.

"So far we are dissatisfied with the resolution proposed by our U.S. partners," he said at a forum in Moscow.

The comments by France and Russia, both of whom hold a veto on the U.N. Security Council, followed criticism of U.S. policy in postwar Iraq by U.N. Secretary-General Annan Thursday.

Annan made clear to Security Council ambassadors that the United Nations could not play a proper political role in Iraq under terms wanted by the United States, U.N. officials and diplomats said.

While not refusing outright to participate in the political process, Annan said the U.S. draft envisaged an impossible U.N. role.

It was one of the few times during his five years in the job that Annan had opposed Washington so bluntly on a crucial issue.
...
Ladsous said France's criticism of the U.S. approach in Iraq "is shared by a good number of countries, including those in the Security Council." He reiterated France did not intend to use its veto to block a new U.S. resolution.
- posted by Editor @ 4:58 AM

Excite News: "Envoys Say Weapons Report Needs Evidence Oct 3, 7:26 AM (ET) By WILLIAM J. KOLE

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Diplomats close to the U.N. nuclear agency reacted cautiously Friday to a report by the chief U.S. weapons hunter, saying only renewed international inspections will settle the question.

The diplomats also criticized the methods used by David Kay's inspection team, saying it relied too much on verbal statements by Iraqi scientists and not enough on concrete evidence.

Kay told Congress on Thursday that he has uncovered no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and only limited evidence of secret programs to develop them. His report triggered fresh complaints about the Bush administration's prewar assertions of a serious threat from Saddam Hussein.
...
"The IAEA would never give such prominence to a story based on a single source that is unsubstantiated, let alone on a source who is dead and cannot be called upon to substantiate what is in the report," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
...
Before withdrawing from Iraq in March, IAEA inspectors found Baghdad's nuclear program in disarray and unlikely to be able to support an active effort to build weapons, the agency said in a recent report to its board of governors."
- posted by Editor @ 4:49 AM