Security Incidents for 04/26/07

Photo: Iraqi Shiite men take part in a protest against the building of a wall in Adhamiyah neighborhood by U.S military on April 25, 2007 in the Sadr city Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq. Wathiq Khuzaie/AFP/Getty [Wall going up anyway. So much for "democracy" - dancewater]

Baghdad:

A roadside bomb killed two people and wounded 10 near the Shorja market in central Baghdad, police said.

Two people were killed and 11 wounded when mortar rounds landed in the Shi'ite Abu Dshir district of southern Baghdad, police said.

Two car bombs killed one person and wounded three others in Bayaa district of southwestern Baghdad, police said.

U.S. forces said they killed three insurgents during an operation in the Sadr City district of Baghdad. Residents said that three people were killed, including a pregnant woman and a 70 year-old man, and seven wounded during the strike.

At least six people were killed and another 15 wounded in a car bomb blast in the Jadriya district of southern Baghdad on Thursday, police and Interior Ministry sources said. The Interior Ministry source said the car carrying the bomb was parked on the street between Baghdad University and the Al-Hamra Hotel in the religiously mixed neighbourhood.

Around 9,00 am, an IED explosion targeted an American convoy in Al Baladiyat neighborhood north east Baghdad. The US troops closed the area and no casualties were reported.

2 civilians were killed and 10 others were wounded in an IED explosion targeted the civilians in Al Wathba intersection downtown Baghdad around 1,30 pm.

A civilian was killed and 3 others were wounded in a parked car bomb explosion 20th street in Bayaa neighborhood south west Baghdad around at 3,00 pm.

A civilian was injured when an IED exploded in Saidiyah neighborhood south Baghdad around 4,30 pm. Another IED explosion in Saidiyah caused the injury of a policeman around the same time.

A civilian was injured when gunmen opened fire randomly in Al Qadisiyah neighborhood west Baghdad around 5,00 pm.

1 civilian was killed and 2 others injured when a mortar shell hit Al Kindy street in Al Harthiyah neighborhood west Baghdad around 7,30 pm

A civilian was killed and 2 others were wounded when mortar shells hit Sab Al Boor district north of Baghdad around 7,00 pm

26 anonymous bodies were found in Baghdad today. 24 bodies were found in Karkh, the western part of Baghdad in the following neighborhoods ( 4 bodies in Saidiyah, 4 bodies in Amil, 3 bodies in Bayaa, 3 bodies in Elam, 2 bodies in Topchi, 2 bodies in Hurriyah, 2 bodies in Yarmouk, 2 bodies in Mamoun, 1 body in Harthiyah and 1 body in Risala.) 2 bodies were found in Rusafa, the eastern part of Baghdad, 1 body was found in Sadr city and 1 body was found in Nahrawan.

Diyala Prv:

A suicide car bomb attack on an Iraqi army checkpoint in northern Iraq killed at least nine soldiers Thursday, police said. The attack occurred at about 9 a.m. in Khalis, 50 miles north of Baghdad, a police officer said on condition of anonymity out of concern for his own safety. Ten Iraqi soldiers and five civilians were wounded, the officer said.

A suicide car bomb attack on an Iraqi army checkpoint in northern Iraq killed 10 soldiers Thursday

A military source in Khalis town 10 KMs north of Baquba city said that unknown insurgents assassinated today an officer in the Iraqi army in Al Ghalibiyah area, a part of Khalis town. The source didn’t mention any more details about the incident.

A military source said that 4 civilians were wounded in clashes between the residents of Al Mjedid area, a part of Khalis town, and insurgents of Al Qaida organization early morning today.

Al Madean:

A policeman was wounded on Thursday when gunmen clashed with an Iraqi police vehicle patrol in a village near al-Madaen, 37 km southeast of Baghdad, a security source said.

Mahmoudiya:

Police said they found the body of a man in the town of Mahmudiya, just south of Baghdad.

Two mortar rounds killed a woman and wounded three others when they struck a home in the town of Mahmudiya, just south of Baghdad, police said.

Basra:

Yousif al-Moussawi, the general-secretary of the Shi'ite Tharallah Islamic Party in Basra, said he had escaped unhurt from a grenade attack on his house in Basra, 550 km (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, on Wednesday. One of his guards was seriously wounded.

Taji:

Two Iraqi women and two children were believed to have been killed in a U.S. air strike aimed at al Qaeda militants north of Baghdad on Thursday, the U.S. military said. Soldiers were searching buildings near Taji, 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad, for a car bomb network with links to al Qaeda when they came under small arms fire, a military statement said. The soldiers called in an air strike and four insurgents were killed. "Additionally, coalition forces believe that two women and two children were also killed during the strike," the statement said. "The bodies were left on the site." No other details were immediately available.

Balad:

Police patrols found an unidentified woman's body in Balad town, 70 km north of Baghdad, while three people were wounded when mortar rounds were fired onto the town, a police source said on Thursday.

Tikrit:

Gunmen killed the sister-in-law and niece of Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam Hussein's cousin who was dubbed "Chemical Ali", in Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Kirkuk:

Gunmen wounded five people when they threw grenades at a cafe in the northern city of Kirkuk, 250 km (150 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Zumar:

In other violence on Thursday, two suicide bombers attacked an office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani, leader of the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq, killing three of its guards and wounding five, police said. The casualties could have been higher if guards had not opened fire on the two attackers, forcing them to detonate their explosives at least 50 yards from the office, police said. The attack occurred at about 8 a.m. in Zumar, a town that is 45 miles west of Mosul

Al Anbar Prv:

Unknown gunman on Thursday shot dead a member of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party in Falluja, 45 km west of Baghdad, a police source said.

Thanks to whisker for ALL the links above.

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

“Last Chance” For Government to Restore Order

While the Iraqi government has dismissed a recent UN human rights report exposing the failures of the US-backed Baghdad security plan, local analysts agree with its findings and say authorities should adopt immediate measures to protect the population. “It [the government] should react immediately or quit,” said Mohammed Nasser Jamil, a Baghdad-based political analyst who lectures in international relations at the University of Baghdad. “The country is falling apart and is at its worst point. It needs real recovery and meaningful plans should be put in place to save the people of this country.” Released on Wednesday, the report by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) paints a bleak picture of many aspects of life in the war-weary country. Incessant violence, ever-growing numbers of displaced people, increased targeting of minority groups and professions, rising food insecurity and widespread human rights abuses have fuelled a “rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis”, the report said. Despite the joint coalition-Iraqi security plan, ‘Operation Law and Order’, being in place since 14 February, UNAMI described the current environment in Iraq as “characterised by impunity, a breakdown in law and order”. “The government should know that militants are fleeing Baghdad to other areas of the country. It should follow a new military strategy to chase them out of Baghdad or engage with local tribes nationwide to fight these militants, if it doesn’t have enough military personnel,” Jamil said.

Death Toll Excludes Bombs

U.S. officials don't count some civilian casualties. U.S. officials who say there has been a dramatic drop in sectarian violence in Iraq since President Bush began sending more American troops into Baghdad aren't counting one of the main killers of Iraqi civilians. Car bombs and other explosive devices have killed thousands of Iraqis in the past three years, but the administration doesn't include them in the casualty counts it has been citing as evidence that the surge of additional U.S. forces is beginning to defuse tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. President Bush explained why in a television interview Tuesday. "If the standard of success is no car bombings or suicide bombings, we have just handed those who commit suicide bombings a huge victory," he told TV interviewer Charlie Rose. Others, however, say that not counting bombing victims skews the evidence of how well the Baghdad security plan is protecting the civilian population -- one of the surge's main goals. U.S. officials who say there has been a dramatic drop in sectarian violence in Iraq since President Bush began sending more American troops into Baghdad aren't counting one of the main killers of Iraqi civilians.

Car bombs and other explosive devices have killed thousands of Iraqis in the past three years, but the administration doesn't include them in the casualty counts it has been citing as evidence that the surge of additional U.S. forces is beginning to defuse tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. President Bush explained why in a television interview Tuesday. "If the standard of success is no car bombings or suicide bombings, we have just handed those who commit suicide bombings a huge victory," he told TV interviewer Charlie Rose. Others, however, say that not counting bombing victims skews the evidence of how well the Baghdad security plan is protecting the civilian population -- one of the surge's main goals.

US-Iraqi Raids Target Sadr City

A joint force of Iraqi and U.S. troops, backed by military choppers, stormed on early Thursday the Shiite Sadr city in eastern Baghdad and made some arrests in the city, local residents said. "Joint force of Iraqi and U.S. forces stormed in early Thursday neighborhoods in Sadr city," an eyewitness told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). "U.S. choppers dropped a number of bombs on these neighborhoods," he added. Another eyewitness said "the forces started a wide-scale arrest campaign and ended with the arrest of several civilians." [When they say that the death toll does not include those killed by bombs, do they mean car bombs, air bombs, or both? And how do you find “insurgents” by bombing heavily populated neighborhoods? – dancewater]

Baghdad Residents Find Little Security

Mohammed Azzawi, his brother and a friend faced a bedeviling choice as they neared their home in one of Baghdad's deadliest neighborhoods: They could take a road recently closed by U.S. troops where motorists jump the curb and drive on the sidewalk, or an open route haunted by abductions and killings. It is the sort of dilemma Iraqis encounter every day as they navigate a city with increasing numbers of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers, but still dominated by danger and uncertainty. More than two months after the United States and Iraq launched a new plan to stanch the capital's violence, life for residents has become a game of choices dictated by concrete barriers, traffic-choking checkpoints and the latest market bombing. U.S. and Iraqi officials cite trends they say indicate progress: fewer death squad killings, a rising number of suspected insurgents detained, more troops on the ground. But such data mean little to Iraqis whose lives have been upended by invasion, civil war and now the latest security clampdown. For them, the plan is only as good as the calm it can bring to their neighborhoods, streets, and families. That has been as varied as the violence itself, which on any given day might result in 100 deaths, or 10. In interviews in Sunni, Shiite, and mixed areas where U.S. and Iraqi troops are now stationed, a minority of Iraqis said the security plan had made their lives better. Most said any optimism they had felt at the start had faded in the face of continued violence and additional headaches brought about by checkpoints and road closures.

Dividing Baghdad

Al-Adhamiyah's inhabitants, worried by US media reports, decided to organise a protest march against the wall last Monday. The government reacted by declaring a curfew on that day. Speaking in Cairo, Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki said that he "objected" to the wall and gave orders to halt its construction. But senior Iraqi officers admit that other walls are being planned for Baghdad. Qasem Al-Mousawi, official spokesman for Operation Imposing Law, said that the "encirclement of some turbulent areas would give security forces a better chance of carrying out their duties. Every area that would be encircled would have one entry point and one exit point," he said. Maryim Al-Rayyes, Maliki's advisor on foreign affairs, said the Iraqi government knew about the wall. The controversy induced by the wall is a reminder that a few months ago, a plan was suggested to dig a moat around Baghdad in order to stop the infiltration of suicide and car bombers. The plan was rigorously attacked and subsequently discarded. But now, Iraqis fear that other areas such as Falluja and Haditha will eventually be declared out of bounds. Several towns are already constantly besieged, such as Yathreb, Al-Ratba and Al-Qaim.

……… A source at the Iraqi Defence Ministry said that after Al-Adhamiyah and Al-Dawra other neighbourhoods would be surrounded with walls, including the predominantly Sunni Al-Amiriya, Al-Amel and Al-Adl districts, as well as the predominantly Shia Sadr City.

US Army to Continue Baghdad Wall

The US military has said that it will continue building a concrete wall around Adhimiya, a mainly-Sunni district of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. Colonel Don Farris, of the US army, said that after briefly halting construction of the barrier, the Iraqi government had now ordered the building of the wall to continue. "We were asked to stop placing the barriers," Farris said on Thursday. "Since then, it has been communicated to me through the chain of command that the prime minister and Iraqi security officials have authorised work to continue." [Too bad the people that live there don’t want it. So much for democracy. – dancewater]

…… Col Farris said on Thursday that the intention of the wall was still to stop vehicle movement into and out of the area, rather than to prevent the passage of people on foot. "It's not a wall - if you will - the intent is that there's no limitation of pedestrian traffic," he said. [This is a flat out lie. If that were the case, there would be a foot or two between each concrete barrier. There is not. – dancewater]

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

Gates Not Enthusiastic About Al-Maliki

Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday offered a less-than-enthusiastic endorsement of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, days after expressing impatience with the Iraqi leader during his third visit to Iraq since becoming the Pentagon chief. At a news conference, Gates was asked about the viability of the new U.S. approach to establishing security in Baghdad and his assessment of al-Maliki's ability to achieve a political reconciliation among the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. "This government (of al-Maliki's) is the one we have to work with," Gates said, noting that al-Maliki is the elected leader of the Iraqi government. But Gates also said that if he did not believe al-Maliki could be successful he would not have recently urged Egypt, Jordan and other governments in the region to support al-Maliki. Gates stressed the limits of U.S. patience, saying the Bush administration will weigh Iraq's political progress in deciding this summer whether to bring home some of the U.S. troops. The U.S. troop buildup is still under way, with mixed results on security and an upward trend in U.S. combat deaths in Baghdad. A series of major attacks in Baghdad, killing hundreds of Iraqi civilians, and the double suicide attack that killed nine U.S. soldiers this week, have undermined what U.S. military officials had seen as early signs of reduced sectarian violence.

US Senate Passes Iraq War Bill Requiring Pullout

The Senate narrowly passed a $124 billion war spending bill early this afternoon after an emotional debate about the best way forward in Iraq. The vote will send the measure to President Bush, who has vowed to veto it because it would require American troops to begin withdrawing by Oct. 1. The 51-46 vote, far short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override Bush's veto, came after a morning-long debate in which supporters of the bill called it a way to make the Iraqis take responsibility for their own security, while opponents called it a blueprint for defeat.

Democrats' Timetable Allows U.S. War in Sunni Region to Go On

The language on a timetable for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq voted out of the House-Senate conference committee this week contains large loopholes that would apparently allow U.S. troops to continue carrying out military operations in Iraq's Sunni heartland indefinitely. The plan, coming from the Democratic majority in Congress, makes an exemption from a 180-day timetable for completion of "redeployment" of U.S. troops from Iraq to allow "targeted special actions limited in duration and scope to killing or capturing members of al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations of global reach." The al-Qaeda exemption, along with a second exemption allowing U.S. forces to re-enter Iraq to protect those remaining behind to train and equip Iraqi security forces and to protect other U.S. military forces, appears to approve the presence in Iraq of tens of thousands of U.S. occupation troops for many years to come.
The large loopholes in the Democratic withdrawal plan come against the background of the failure of the U.S. war against the insurgency -- including al-Qaeda -- in Anbar and other Sunni provinces and the emergence of a major war within the Sunni insurgency between non-jihadi resistance groups and al-Qaeda.

The Puppet Who Cleared the Way for Iraq's Destruction

Paul Wolfowitz must bear a large part of the responsibility that is usually laid at the door of his superior alone. Among those relishing the exposure of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz's manoeuvres on behalf of his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, in recent weeks was almost certainly the former US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld was driven from public life thanks to the catastrophe of Iraq, and for the moment at least lurks in obscurity. Wolfowitz, his deputy until 2005, contributed in almost equal measure to the debacle, yet managed to slide from the Pentagon into the presidency of a leading international institution with every chance to redeem himself. Blame for torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo, bungling over troop levels, chaos in Iraq's reconstruction, and the general meltdown in Pentagon management has all too often been laid at Rumsfeld's door alone. However, Wolfowitz was an energetic enabler of these outrages and many other notorious initiatives. To cite just one example: among the most infamous documentary testaments to Rumsfeld's place in the hierarchy of torture is the First Special Interrogation Plan for use at Guantánamo that received his approval in December 2002. It cleared the way for prolonged sleep deprivation, 20-hour interrogations, and sexual and religious humiliation, along with other favoured techniques. But as the document signed by Rumsfeld notes, the plan had earlier been reviewed and approved by "the deputy", ie Wolfowitz.

There are indications that Wolfowitz was even more hands on when it came to Abu Ghraib. At the May 2006 court martial of Sergeant Santos Cardona, who was one of the low-ranking personnel called to atone for the collective sins of the military establishment, testimony from one of the interrogators alleged that Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were in direct contact with the prison and received "nightly briefings" on the intelligence being extracted under torture. Just as Rumsfeld will forever be uniquely associated with the torture policy, the hapless former US viceroy in Iraq, Paul Bremer, is credited with the disastrous decision to disband the Iraqi army. Yet numerous sources in Baghdad and the Pentagon at the time were insistent the disbandment decree had been drafted with Wolfowitz's assent, probably as a means of removing a potential pool of support for a rival to the neoconservatives' favourite Iraqi, Ahmed Chalabi.

Rip-Off Iraq

Al-Duri, being interviewed for the first time by English-language media since taking up his post at the UN, revealed to me in early 2001, in equally shocking detail, what sanctions had done to his country and people. He claimed that the UN was a key part of the problem. Led by two countries, the US and Britain, the UN Oil for Food Programme and the "humanitarian" mission it established in Iraq was reducing Iraqis to beggary, robbing the country blind and mis-managing funds, whereas the large bulk fuelled UN-related missions and operations, with needy Iraqi families receiving next to nothing. He spoke of the manipulation of Iraq's wealth for political purposes and alleged that the UN was a tool in the hands of the US government, aimed at encouraging widespread popular dissatisfaction with Saddam's government, before the country was dragged into war. In hindsight, Al-Duri's assessment was very accurate. Promoting his new book, A Different Kind of War, von Sponeck reiterated in essence and substance Al-Duri's claims; the only difference is that von Sponeck was an insider; his numbers and stories impeccable and hardly contestable. It's no wonder that one and a half years after taking up his post in Baghdad, in 1998, he resigned. Even within such an uncongenial bureaucracy like the UN, some people still possess a living conscience; von Sponeck was and remains a man of great qualities.

By March 2003, when American forces invaded Iraq, the UN was generating $64 billion in sales of Iraqi oil, according to von Sponeck. But scandalously, only $28 billion reached the Iraqi people. If distributed evenly, each Iraqi received half a US dollar per day. According to UN figures, an individual living under one dollar per day is classified as living in "abject poverty". Even during the most destructive phases of the war with Iran, Iraq managed to provide relatively high living standards. Its hospitals were neither dilapidated nor did its oil industry lie in ruins. Only after the advent of UN sanctions in 1991 did Iraqis suffer with such appalling magnitude. Alas, the tyranny of Saddam Hussein expanded to become the tyranny of the international community as well.

Probable Propaganda: Iranians Backed Iraqi Cell That Killed Five US Soldiers: US General

Iran's Qods Force funded, armed and trained a network of secret Iraqi cells that kidnapped and killed five US soldiers in January in Karbala, the top US commander in Iraq said Thursday. General David Petraeus, however, said there was no concrete evidence that the Iranians were directly involved in the January 20 raid on a security compound by men dressed in US-style military uniforms. "There is no question that the Al-Qazhali network was connected to the Iranian Qods Force -- received money, training, arms, ammunition, and at some points in time even advice and assistance," Petraeus said. Petraeus said the evidence of Qods Force involvement emerged in interrogations of the network's captured leader and other cell members rolled up in subsequent raids over the past month. "We discovered a 22 page memorandum on a computer that detailed the planning, preparation, approval process and conduct of the operation that resulted in five of our soldiers being killed in Karbala," he said. "There are numerous documents which detail a number of different attacks on coalition forces, and our sense is that these records were kept so that they could be handed in to whoever was financing them," he said. "No question, again, that financing is taking place through the Qods Force of the Iranian Republican Guard Corps," he said. The January 20 was a strikingly bold operation in which gunmen dressed like American troops riding in SUVs penetrated Iraqi security at a provincial coordination center in Karbala. They killed a US soldier in the initial assault, and abducted four others who were later found shot to death execution-style. The sophistication of the operation immediately aroused US suspicions of Iranian involvement. But Petraeus said, "We do not have a direct link of Iranian involvement in that particular operation."

COMMENTARY

OPINION: Knee-deep blood in the land of make-believe

It’s astonishing that members of Congress are either unaware George W. Bush and Dick Cheney lied the nation into war with Iraq, or they are aware of the fact and don’t care. A Congress grounded in reality would have unequivocally acknowledged the administration’s lies long ago and taken appropriate action -- almost certainly impeachment. If we say the pre-war lies don’t matter and the country should sweep them under the rug and only focus on the best way out of Iraq, what we’re really saying is that the truth itself doesn’t matter. If we say we should look away from the fact that thousands of U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died for a lie, we’re saying the lost lives don’t matter, the war-injured and maimed don’t matter, America’s honor and integrity don’t matter. The logic-free anti-impeachment excuse is that the nation can’t handle running the country and impeachment simultaneously. John Nichols wrote in The Nation recently, “[House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi fears that impeachment would distract from the Democratic legislative agenda and provoke an electoral backlash.” However, the bottom line is the country can’t afford to let Bush and Cheney get away with deceiving us into a costly and bloody war. Decisions on a matter of this weight shouldn’t be based on fear, whether fear of an impeded agenda or threat of backlash.

Suspicion of US Found Pervasive in Islamic World

Six and a half years after U.S. President George W. Bush launched his 'global war on terror', suspicion of U.S. motives remains pervasive throughout the Islamic world, according to a new and highly detailed survey of four countries released here Tuesday.
An average of more than 75 percent of respondents across the four countries -- Egypt, Morocco and the world's two most populous Muslim nations, Indonesia and Pakistan -- said they believed that dividing and weakening the Islamic world and maintaining control over Middle East oil were key goals of U.S. foreign policy, according to the survey by the University of Maryland (UM) and WorldPublicOpinion.org (WPO). And an average of two out of three respondents named "expand(ing) the geographic borders of Israel" as a third major U.S. policy objective in the region. By contrast, less than one in four agreed that Washington wanted to create "an independent and economically viable Palestinian state", despite Bush's explicit endorsement of that goal since before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Sixty-four percent of respondents in Indonesia, Pakistan, and Morocco said another U.S. goal was to "spread Christianity in the region." The question was not asked in Egypt.

"While U.S. leaders may frame the conflict as a war on terrorism, people in the Islamic world clearly perceive the U.S. as being at war with Islam," said WorldPublicOpinion.org editor Steven Kull, who also directs the UM Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA). "There's a feeling of being under siege." Suspicion of U.S. goals was particularly high in Egypt, by far the largest recipient of U.S. aid in the Islamic world since it signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1978, and, to a somewhat lesser extent, in Morocco, another long-time U.S. ally. [I heard on NPR that a high number of the suicide attackers on US troops in Iraq come from a certain neighborhood in Morocco. – dancewater]

Video: Rap on Mission Accomplished to Mission Impossible

Lancet Study Author Interviewed

Why do you think your survey has been criticised?

These are unpleasant results, and they are associated with a war that has seriously divided the countries participating. Some people felt that we were not supporting the troops and were unpatriotic. I am not angry about that. As malicious as some of the hate mail I received is, I can see their point of view because I was in the military, in a combat unit in Korea during Vietnam. These soldiers in Iraq are volunteers, by and large, with good intentions, and they find themselves in a very difficult environment. As epidemiologists, we can produce the numbers, a good explanation for our methods and even a pretty strong statement on what they mean, but getting them accepted in policy circles and in people’s thinking takes time and is often difficult.

How did it feel to have the president attack you?

It’s not surprising to get criticism from people closely identified with the war. On the other hand, public health research often sends people to sleep so it was gratifying in an odd way to be associated with research that grabbed attention, especially heads of state.

You’ve said you will release the raw data to scientific groups who apply, “scrubbed” of the neighbourhoods where it was collected to avoid identifying the interviewees. Will this help?

I don’t know. Much of the criticism is based on unhappiness with the results. A repeat analysis won’t turn the figure from 600,000 to 60,000. Our intent is to be more transparent. We believe we will see numbers that are fairly consistent with ours. I received a lot of supportive emails from people who admired the courage of the team so I think many people already believe our figure.

Video: The Iraq Refugee Crisis Continues

Video: Child of War

Quote of the day: Amnesty International welcomed a drop in the number of executions in 2006 but urged six nations responsible for most of them -- China, Iran, Iraq, the United States, Pakistan and Sudan -- to join the global trend.