Excite - News: "
U.S. General Under Scrutiny in Iraqi Prisoner Case | Apr 29, 6:20 pm ET | By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military is weighing disciplinary action against the Army general who was in charge of a prison on the western outskirts of Baghdad where American troops were accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners, officials said on Thursday.

The CBS News program '60 Minutes II' on Wednesday aired photographs taken at the prison late last year showing American troops abusing some of the Iraqis held at the Abu Ghraib prison, a notorious center of torture and executions under toppled President Saddam Hussein's government.

The pictures showed U.S. troops smiling, posing, laughing or giving the thumbs-up sign as naked, male Iraqi prisoners were stacked in a pyramid or positioned to simulate sex acts with one another.

One Iraqi man had a slur written on his skin in English. Another was directed by Americans to stand on a box with his head covered, and wires attached to his hands, and was informed that if he fell off the box, he would be electrocuted.
- posted by Editor @ 5:18 AM

Excite News: "Disregarded Iraq Warnings Appear Prescient Apr 29, 3:42 AM (ET)| By KEN GUGGENHEIM

WASHINGTON (AP) - The warnings came not from anti-war Democrats, but from Republicans who were backing their president: Planning for a postwar Iraq was inadequate, they said. More U.S. troops would be needed. The United Nations should have a larger role.

In each case, the warning wasn't heeded. And in each case, critics now say it appears to have been on target.
Some senators say U.S. efforts in Iraq might be better off today if the Bush administration had worked more closely with Congress. They are encouraging the administration to keep that in mind as it makes plans for handing over control of Iraq on June 30.

Postwar planning was inadequate 'and I'm hopeful that's not being repeated,' said Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In February and March 2003, Lugar and Sen. Joseph Biden, the panel's top Democrat, warned that the administration had not given enough consideration to what would happen in Iraq after the fighting ended."
- posted by Editor @ 9:07 PM

Excite - News: "Spain Says Iraq Troops Home in Less Than 6 Weeks | Apr 19, 4:59 pm ET | By Juan Navarro

MADRID (Reuters) - The process of withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq has begun and will be completed in less than six weeks, Spain's new government said on Monday.

Defense Minister Jose Bono said he would not give dates for the troop pullout for security reasons. But when asked at a news conference about a reported estimate of the time needed for withdrawal, Bono said: 'Whoever said six to eight weeks was being imprudent because it will be less.'

A military plane left on Monday with troops and equipment to help carry out the withdrawal, Bono said. Originally that flight was to have been for a routine troop rotation. State television said 194 soldiers were on board.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, sworn in as Spain's prime minister on Saturday, announced on Sunday he had given orders for Spain's 1,400 troops in Iraq 'to come home in the shortest possible time and the greatest possible safety.'"
- posted by Editor @ 7:27 PM

Excite - News: "Spain Pulls Troops from Iraq, 10 U.S. Troops Killed | Apr 18, 7:32 pm ET | By Andrew Marshall

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Spain said it would withdraw its 1,400 troops in Iraq as soon as possible, dealing a major blow to the U.S.-led coalition as 10 U.S. soldiers were killed in fierce fighting against guerrillas.

President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said Sunday the United States expected other countries with troops in Iraq to reassess their position after Spain's decision."
- posted by Editor @ 7:15 PM

Iraq Council Demands Immediate Cease-Fire: "
by Hamza Hendawi

BAGHDAD, Iraq - In a split between U.S.-picked Iraqi leaders and American administrators, the Governing Council demanded an immediate cease-fire across the country Friday and a halt to military operations that punish civilians.

A Shiite member of the council also met with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose militia is battling U.S.-led forces in the south, and announced he was suspending his membership in the Iraqi Governing Council until the 'bleeding in all Iraq' ends.

Another member, Ghazi al-Yawer, threatened to quit the council over the Marines' bloody siege of the city of Fallujah, aimed at uprooting Sunni insurgents."
- posted by Editor @ 8:17 AM

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Nine killed in US convoy as Shia militias fight on: "Ceasefire brings aid to Falluja while Kut is retaken
Rory McCarthy in Baghdad | Saturday April 10, 2004 | The Guardian
...
The ferocious fighting and the huge loss of life has sparked fury among many Iraqis and has brought outright condemnation even from America's allies in Iraq.

Yesterday Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister and a member of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, condemned the Falluja battles. "These operations were a mass punishment for the people of Falluja," he told al-Arabiya television. "It was not right to punish all the people of Falluja and we consider these operations by the Americans unacceptable and illegal." ...
- posted by Editor @ 5:32 AM

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Battles rage from north to south: "Jonathan Steele in Baghdad and Ewen MacAskill | Thursday April 8, 2004 | The Guardian
...
Although the White House and Downing Street denied there was a crisis, Mr Bush was on the phone early yesterday to Mr Blair. The prime minister is to fly to New York next Thursday for talks with the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, and then to Washington for discussions with Mr Bush.

Although Mr Bush and Mr Blair are presenting a united front there are differences of approach to Iraq, and the British government is concerned that Mr Bremer repeatedly ignored the advice of the senior British representative in Iraq, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who recently retired.
- posted by Editor @ 9:04 PM