Get Columbia Out of the War blog

Occupation Forces Halt Elections Throughout Iraq
By William Booth and Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, June 28, 2003; Page A20


SAMARRA, Iraq -- U.S. military commanders have ordered a halt to local elections and self-rule in provincial cities and towns across Iraq, choosing instead to install their own handpicked mayors and administrators, many of whom are former Iraqi military leaders.

The decision to deny Iraqis a direct role in selecting municipal governments is creating anger and resentment among aspiring leaders and ordinary citizens, who say the U.S.-led occupation forces are not making good on their promise to bring greater freedom and democracy to a country dominated for three decades by Saddam Hussein.

The go-slow approach to representative government in at least a dozen provincial cities is especially frustrating to younger, middle-class professionals who say they want to help their communities emerge from postwar chaos and to let, as one put it, "Iraqis make decisions for Iraq."

Once Hailed, Soldiers in Iraq Now Feel Blame at Each Step
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS


AGHDAD, Iraq, June 28 — After riding into Iraq on a wave of popular euphoria, American and British forces are unexpectedly finding themselves the brunt of criticism for everything that goes wrong these days.

"We are furious about people pointing guns at us," said Hamid Hussein, 33, pushing his broken-down Volkswagen bus to the front door of his house this morning. A United States Army Humvee was parked in the middle of his street, and a soldier in the turret ordered Mr. Hussein in English to stop where he was.

If the complaint is not about security, then it is about the lack of electricity this week in Baghdad.

"Don't talk to me about Saddam Hussein," snapped Ibrahim Aullaiwi, a 46-year-old shop owner in the poor neighborhood of New Baghdad. "The Americans are in charge of everything here. They could have brought generators in here within 24 hours."

Like Mr. Aullaiwi, many residents of Baghdad seem to ignore the fact that the electricity disruption was caused at least in part by sabotage and looting. Seething in 110-degree heat without air-conditioners, fans or refrigerators, many residents were already furious about chronic power failures over the past two months.

Whether battling saboteurs or snipers, American and British occupation leaders find that the public mood has turned critical, even though countless Iraqis remain pleased that Saddam Hussein is gone and still place considerable hope in the Americans and British to improve things.

Once Hailed, Soldiers in Iraq Now Feel Blame at Each Step
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS


AGHDAD, Iraq, June 28 — After riding into Iraq on a wave of popular euphoria, American and British forces are unexpectedly finding themselves the brunt of criticism for everything that goes wrong these days.

"We are furious about people pointing guns at us," said Hamid Hussein, 33, pushing his broken-down Volkswagen bus to the front door of his house this morning. A United States Army Humvee was parked in the middle of his street, and a soldier in the turret ordered Mr. Hussein in English to stop where he was.

If the complaint is not about security, then it is about the lack of electricity this week in Baghdad.

"Don't talk to me about Saddam Hussein," snapped Ibrahim Aullaiwi, a 46-year-old shop owner in the poor neighborhood of New Baghdad. "The Americans are in charge of everything here. They could have brought generators in here within 24 hours."

Like Mr. Aullaiwi, many residents of Baghdad seem to ignore the fact that the electricity disruption was caused at least in part by sabotage and looting. Seething in 110-degree heat without air-conditioners, fans or refrigerators, many residents were already furious about chronic power failures over the past two months.

Whether battling saboteurs or snipers, American and British occupation leaders find that the public mood has turned critical, even though countless Iraqis remain pleased that Saddam Hussein is gone and still place considerable hope in the Americans and British to improve things.

Explosion rocks Baghdad near U.S. guard post
Witnesses say two men threw grenades toward U.S. tank
Saturday, June 28, 2003 Posted: 6:09 PM EDT (2209 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two explosions were heard in Baghdad's Al Salihiya district Saturday night, according to Iraqis and U.S. soldiers near the site of the explosion.

U.S. soldiers guarding the Iraqi National Museum said the explosions came as a vehicle approached their position and sped away.

Several Iraqi witnesses near the museum said two men driving in a red Volkswagen threw grenades in an attempt to hit a U.S. Paladin Howitzer tank that was adjacent to a small office building. The men missed and instead struck the front of the building that housed a travel agency and a restaurant.

There were no reports of causalities. Neither of the stores were occupied at the time of the explosions which occurred at about 9:30 p.m. local time (1:30 p.m. EDT).

Earlier Saturday, the U.S. Central Command announced the remains of two U.S. soldiers who disappeared Wednesday north of Baghdad have been found.

The violence in Iraq seems to be on the rise
in the past few days. Previously, we would lose
an average of 1 soldier every day or every other
day - horrible but not startling. Yesterday, the British
lost 6 MP's and had 8 wounded. Today, we've lost
3 soldiers, had about 6 wounded, and 2 abducted.
This is not a sustainable situation:

U.S. Special Ops member killed in Iraq, 8 wounded
UK: The 6 British personnel killed were Royal Military Police
Thursday, June 26, 2003 Posted: 2:28 PM EDT (1828 GMT)

(CNN) -- Several incidents of hostile action were reported Thursday by U.S. military officials, the latest in a string of attacks on American forces since the end of major military action there was declared.

• A Special Operations forces member was killed and eight were injured Thursday in a "hostile fire" incident in southwest Baghdad on Thursday morning, according to U.S. Central Command. No details of that incident have been released, and names of the service members are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

• Pentagon officials confirmed that two U.S. soldiers were missing and that an extensive search was being made for them in the Baghdad area. The soldiers were traveling in a military Humvee near a checkpoint in the vicinity of Baghdad when their commanders lost contact with them late Wednesday, officials said.

U.S. officials said a search party went to the vehicle's last known location and encountered an Iraqi man acting strangely. He was being questioned. Nearby Iraqi citizens told U.S. military personnel they had seen another vehicle in the area depart along with the Humvee. Although details were sketchy, officials said they tracked the second vehicle to a building which they searched. A blood trail and civilian clothes were found but it was not clear whether they were related to the disappearance of the soldiers.

It was not clear whether the two had been traveling alone, but recent attacks on U.S. forces has led military officials to urge soldiers increase their security by traveling together in larger groups. A senior Pentagon official said there is no reason to believe the soldiers have fallen into opposition hands but there is concern about their fate.

• A U.S. military official said a coalition vehicle carrying a group including the director for rehabilitation of electricity in Iraq was struck in a rocket-propelled grenade attack Thursday, killing the driver and wounding at least two others. The attack took place on a road between Baghdad and the airport.

Capt. Sean McWilliams said two vehicles were damaged in the attack, although only an SUV was at the scene when reporters arrived. "This was an attack by a small group, designed to derail the process of moving to a democratic Iraq," he said. "But they will not succeed in this."

• A U.S. tractor-trailer was hit on the southern outskirts of Baghdad in another rocket-propelled grenade attack, a military spokesman said. Two soldiers were wounded.

• In a separate attack, a U.S. Marine died and two others were injured when their quick-reaction force assisted three Marines who were ambushed Wednesday in the central Iraqi town of Hillah, U.S. Central Command said. Hillah is about 70 miles south of Baghdad.

This is the nail in the coffin of the WMD story:

Expert Said to Tell Legislators He Was Pressed to Distort Some Evidence
By JAMES RISEN and DOUGLAS JEHL


ASHINGTON, June 24 — A top State Department expert on chemical and biological weapons told Congressional committees in closed-door hearings last week that he had been pressed to tailor his analysis on Iraq and other matters to conform with the Bush administration's views, several Congressional officials said today.

The officials described what they said was a dramatic moment at a House Intelligence Committee hearing last week when the weapons expert came forward to tell Congress he had felt such pressure.

By speaking out, they said, the senior intelligence expert, identified by several officials as Christian Westermann, became the first member of the intelligence community on active service to make this sort of admission to members of Congress.

-To paraphrase Doonesbury, Bush is guilty, guilty, guilty!

It seems as if the attacks on US-UK forces are getting
more sophisticated and more powerful. How many attacks
prior could successfully attack reinforcements in addition
to isolated units?

Six British Troops Killed in String of Iraq Attacks
Tue June 24, 2003 12:34 PM ET
By Nadim Ladki
BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Six British troops were killed and several were wounded in Iraq Tuesday in the biggest daily death toll sustained by U.S. and British forces since March 23, three days after the start of the war to topple Saddam Hussein.

British and U.S. forces came under a string of attacks on the toughest day of their battle to eliminate resistance by what they have branded as die-hard Saddam loyalists since the Iraqi leader fell on April 9.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office said British forces suffered the casualties in two separate clashes near the city of Amarah, around 120 miles north of Iraq's British-controlled second city, Basra.

"We very much regret to confirm that in one incident six British personnel have been killed," a spokesman told reporters. He could give no further details.

In a second clash, he said, British troops on patrol came under fire. One was wounded and two vehicles were destroyed.

A rapid reaction force was sent by helicopter to the scene but also came under attack on landing. Seven people were wounded, three of them seriously.

More press clips:
Blix Downgrades Prewar Assessment of Iraqi Weapons
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 22, 2003; Page A20
UNITED NATIONS -- As he nears the end of his three-year hunt for Iraq's biological and chemical weapons, Hans Blix, the United Nations' chief weapons inspector, says he suspects that Baghdad possessed little more than "debris" from a former, secret weapons program when the United States invaded the country in March.

Report Cast Doubt on Iraq-Al Qaeda Connection
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 22, 2003; Page A01
In a nationally televised address last October in which he sought to rally congressional support for a resolution authorizing war against Iraq, President Bush declared that the government of Saddam Hussein posed an immediate threat to the United States by outlining what he said was evidence pointing to its ongoing ties with al Qaeda.

A still-classified national intelligence report circulating within the Bush administration at the time, however, portrayed a far less clear picture about the link between Iraq and al Qaeda than the one presented by the president, according to U.S. intelligence analysts and congressional sources who have read the report.

Pipeline Explodes West of Baghdad; Oil Exports Resume
By Sameer N. Yacoub
The Associated Press
Sunday, June 22, 2003; 11:00 AM
HIT, Iraq (AP) - A fuel pipeline exploded and caught fire west of Baghdad, sending flames high into the sky, as Iraq returned to world oil markets Sunday with its first crude oil exports since the U.S.-led invasion.

Meanwhile, a grenade attack Sunday killed an American soldier and wounded another just outside the capital, the latest violence to plague U.S. forces, who have launched a large crackdown aimed at putting down persistent resistance.


Attacks In Iraq Traced to Network
Resistance to U.S. Is Loosely Organized
By Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, June 22, 2003; Page A01


FALLUJAH, Iraq, June 21 -- Groups of armed fighters from the Baath Party and security agencies of ousted president Saddam Hussein have organized a loose network called the Return with the aim of driving U.S. forces out of the country, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials. The officials said the group is partially responsible for the string of fatal attacks on American soldiers in recent weeks.

The intensified resistance has been reinforced by the participation of foreign fighters coming into Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, the civilian administrator of Iraq, told reporters at a conference in Jordan today. "We do see signs of outside involvement in a number of ways," he said. Bremer said that "we so far don't see signs of command and control in these attacks," adding that it appears largely to be small groups of five to 10 people.

It looks as if our soldiers have a better
grasp on what's going on in Iraq then
their leaders:

By Daniel Williams and Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 20, 2003; Page A01


BAGHDAD, June 19 -- Facing daily assaults from a well-armed resistance, U.S. troops in volatile central Iraq say they are growing frustrated and disillusioned with their role as postwar peacekeepers.

In conversations in a half-dozen towns across central Iraq, soldiers complained that they have been insufficiently equipped for peacekeeping and too thinly deployed in areas where they are under attack from fighters evidently loyal to deposed president Saddam Hussein. Others questioned whether the armed opposition to the U.S. presence in Iraq may be deeper and more organized than military commanders have acknowledged.

"What are we getting into here?" asked a sergeant with the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division who is stationed near Baqubah, a city 30 miles northeast of Baghdad. "The war is supposed to be over, but every day we hear of another soldier getting killed. Is it worth it? Saddam isn't in power anymore. The locals want us to leave. Why are we still here?"

I thought I'd share this with you, because I think it's
important to see how another president who lived
in a time of crisis viewed how we should deal with
the world:

University of Washington Speech 11/16/1961

"We cannot, as a free nation, compete with our adversaries in tactics of terror,
assassination, false promises, counterfeit mobs and crises.

We cannot, under the scrutiny of a free press and public, tell different stories to
different audiences, foreign and domestic, friendly and hostile.

We cannot abandon the slow processes of consulting with our allies to match
the swift expediencies of those who merely dictate to their satellites.

We can neither abandon nor control the international organization in which we
now cast less than one percent of the vote in the General Assembly...

In short, we must face problems which do not lend themselves to easy or quick o
r permanant solutions. And we must face the fact that the United States is neither
omnipotent nor omniscient-that we are only six percent of the world's population-
that we cannot impose our will upon the other ninety-four percent of mankind-
that we cannot right every wrong or reverse each adversity-
and that therefore there cannot be an American solution to every problem."

This might be a bit repetative, but here's a new memo:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/usinfo/press/intell.htm


snip:

The newly-disclosed DIA report, classified "secret,'' is entitled, "Iraq's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapon and Missile Program: Progress, Prospects, and Potential Vulnerabilities.'' Its existence raises more questions about the quality of U.S. intelligence before the March invasion. In one section about Iraq's chemical weapons capabilities, the report says: "No reliable information indicates whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons or where the country has or will establish its chemical agent production facility." The report cites suspicious weapons transfers and improvements on Iraq's "dual-use" chemical infrastructure. Nonetheless, says a DIA spokesman, "there was no single piece of irrefutable data that said definitely has it."

In recent days, President Bush has tempered his rhetoric about Iraq's terror weapons capabilities. "I am absolutely convinced, with time, we'll find out that they did have a weapons program," he told reporters this week. This departs from language used by his senior advisors before the war. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld perhaps was the most expansive: "There's no debate in the world as to whether they have those weapons. There's no debate in the world as to whether they're continuing to develop and acquire them. There's no debate in the world as to whether or not he's used them. There's no debate in the world as to whether or not he's consistently threatening his neighbors with them. We all know that. A trained ape knows that."

Winning hearts and minds everywhere, eh?:

LONDON (Reuters)
A majority of people around the world view President Bush unfavorably and think the United States was wrong to invade Iraq, according to a BBC poll published on Monday.

The poll, which surveyed more than 11,000 people in 11 countries, showed 57 percent of those asked had "a very unfavorable or fairly unfavorable attitude toward the American president," the British broadcaster said in a statement.

Some 56 percent felt the United States was wrong to attack Iraq, including 81 percent of Russian respondents and 63 percent of those polled in France. ---

And in eight of the 11, respondents said the United States was more dangerous than Syria, a country which Washington accuses of sponsoring terrorism.

I swear to god, when it comes to WMD's,
Bush and company become the inbred
hicks they really are:

Iraqi trailers were not mobile WMD labs: report

LONDON (AFP) Jun 15, 2003
A British inquiry into two trailers found in northern Iraq has found they are not mobile germ warfare labs, but were for the production of hydrogen to fill artillery balloons, the Observer reported Sunday.
The London-based weekly newspaper said the conclusion by biological weapons experts was an embarrassment for Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has claimed the discovery of the labs proved that Iraq retained weapons of mass destruction and justified the case for going to war against Saddam Hussein.

More news on the casualties of the war:
War may have killed 10,000 civilians, researchers say
Simon Jeffery
Friday June 13, 2003
The Guardian

At least 5,000 civilians may have been killed during the invasion of Iraq, an independent research group has claimed. As more evidence is collated, it says, the figure could reach 10,000.

Iraq Body Count (IBC), a volunteer group of British and US academics and researchers, compiled statistics on civilian casualties from media reports and estimated that between 5,000 and 7,000 civilians died in the conflict.

Its latest report compares those figures with 14 other counts, most of them taken in Iraq, which, it says, bear out its findings.

Researchers from several groups have visited hospitals and mortuaries in Iraq and interviewed relatives of the dead; some are conducting surveys in the main cities.

Three completed studies suggest that between 1,700 and 2,356 civilians died in the battle for Baghdad alone.

White House Silenced Experts
who Questioned Iraq Intel Info Six Months before War
by Jason Leopold

Six months before the United States was dead-set on invading Iraq to rid the country of its alleged weapons of mass destruction, experts in the field of nuclear science warned officials in the Bush administration that intelligence reports showing Iraq was stockpiling chemical and biological weapons was unreliable and that the country did not pose an imminent threat to its neighbors in the Middle East or the U.S.

But the dissenters were told to keep quiet by high-level administration officials in the White House because the Bush administration had already decided that military force would be used to overthrow the regime of Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein, interviews and documents have revealed.

The most vocal opponent to intelligence information supplied by the CIA to the hawks in the Bush administration about the so-called Iraqi threat to national security was David Albright, a former United Nations weapons inspector and the president and founder of the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington, D.C. based group that gathers information for the public and the White House on nuclear weapons programs.

-That's not an intelligence failure, that's lying to the American people,
and defrauding the United States Congress on a resolution of war
powers is an impeachable offense.

Weird, but good news on public opinion on Iraq:
National Public Radio Poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies (R) and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research (D). May 27-29, 2003. N=723 likely voters nationwide. MoE ± 3.6.

.
"I would like to read you a few statements about the war in Iraq. Please tell me which comes closest to your opinion: The war in Iraq was a success and WAS worth the cost in U.S. lives and dollars. The war in Iraq was a success but was NOT worth the cost in U.S. lives and dollars. The war in Iraq was NOT a success." Options were rotated
A success, worth cost 48
A success, not worth cost 33
Not a success 15
None of these (vol.) 2
Don't know 2

The Bush administration's WMD story is completely falling apart;
soldiers are dying every day; and the U.S envoy is banning political
expression in dissention to the occupation:

By Dana Priest and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, June 7, 2003; Page A01


During the weeks last fall before critical votes in Congress and the United Nations on going to war in Iraq, senior administration officials, including President Bush, expressed certainty in public that Iraq possessed chemical and biological weapons, even though U.S. intelligence agencies were reporting they had no direct evidence that such weapons existed.

In an example of the tenor of the administration's statements at the time, the president said in the Rose Garden on Sept. 26 that "the Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons. The Iraqi regime is building the facilities necessary to make more biological and chemical weapons."

But a Defense Intelligence Agency report on chemical weapons, widely distributed to administration policymakers around the time of the president's speech, stated there was "no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing or stockpiling chemical weapons or whether Iraq has or will establish its chemical agent production facilities."

By SLOBODAN LEKIC
The Associated Press
Saturday, June 7, 2003; 9:15 AM


BAGHDAD, Iraq - An American soldier was killed and four companions wounded Saturday in an attack near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit north of the capital, a military statement said.

It was at least the seventh U.S. soldier killed in attacks in Iraq over the past two weeks.

Gunmen opened fire on the troops using small arms and a rocket-propelled grenade, said the brief statement released by U.S. Central Command.

(This makes the 213th coalition to die; almost as many after declaration of victory)
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2003-06/05/article11.shtml
Additional reporting by Ayman Qenawi, IOL Staff

BAGHDAD, June 5 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - In a move that is likely to trigger an outcry from Iraqi parties, politicians and scholars as well as international human rights advocates, the U.S.-led occupation administration said Thursday, June 5, it would outlaw any "incitement" against the Anglo-American forces in Iraq even inside mosque.

The new measure, which is to "go out fairly shortly", would prohibit "incitement" to "armed insurrection", including attacks on the U.S. and British troops, an administration spokesman said.

He said the ban would be applicable even to mosques if preachers encourage attacks against the Anglo-American forces in their sermonsæ reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Lies, lies and more lies:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0606-01.htm


A U.S. Defense Department report in September 2002 found ``no reliable information'' proving that Iraq had chemical weapons, even as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was saying the country had amassed stockpiles of the banned arms.

``There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons, or whether Iraq has -- or will -- establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities,'' a report by the Defense Intelligence Agency said in a summary page obtained by Bloomberg News.

The unreleased report said Iraq ``probably'' had stockpiles of banned chemicals, a more tentative conclusion than Rumsfeld was presenting in public remarks. Iraq has ``amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons, including VX, sarin and mustard gas,'' he told Congress on Sept. 19.

The summary from the report suggests ``substantially more uncertainty than was stated by senior administration officials,'' said Kenneth Katzman, a specialist on Iraq's military for the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, who was told of the contents by Bloomberg.

-Ok, they knew they knew sh*t. They knew Chalabi was unreliable,
they knew that 90% of the weapons were gone already, and they
told the world that they knew Hussein had weapons, that he was
on the verge on making more, and that he posed an immanent threat.
This is verging on the Nixonian.

posted by Steven  # Friday, June 06, 2003