News & Views 11/01/07

Photo: Iraqis check out winter hats printed with their national flag at a shop in central Baghdad. The number of Iraqis killed in insurgent and sectarian attacks rose in October, according to government figures obtained on Thursday, in a blow to a nine-month-old US troop surge policy.(AFP/Sabah Arar)

REPORTS – LIFE IN IRAQ

Iraq’s Little-Known Humanitarian Crisis

It is said that Iraq is the world’s best-known conflict but the least well-known humanitarian crisis. In the United States, where public attention span is low but the capacity for denial high, Iraq’s daily carnage no longer commands headlines. American public discourse long ago shifted to the domestic political implications of Iraq for George W. Bush et al. Those who do think of Iraq think mostly of the murderous sectarianism of the Sunnis and Shiites. If Muslims are killing each other, there’s not much America can do, Iraq being another Yugoslavia - once the iron grip of Saddam Hussein or Josip Tito was gone, all the old animosities re-emerged. But in Iraq, there was no such suppressed hatred. Shiites and Sunnis had always lived in harmony. Inter-marriage was common. The bombed-out Shiite shrine in Samara was in a Sunni neighbourhood. The more apt parallel is with the 1947 partition of British India that precipitated a mass migration and a massacre among Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs who had lived in harmony for centuries. When the state abrogates its most basic role of maintaining social order, anti-social forces and criminals can send scared people into a frenzy of primitive behaviour.

What’s happening in Iraq is the direct result of American war-mongering and criminal incompetence. Since the 2003 U.S. invasion, between 75,000 and 1.2 million Iraqis have been killed (depending on who’s counting). This is in addition to the 1 million Iraqis, half of them children under 5, who died slow deaths during the 1991-2003 U.S.-led United Nations economic sanctions (a UNESCO estimate). More than 4 million Iraqis have been displaced. Half have fled to Syria, Jordan, Egypt and elsewhere. This is the largest forced migration of people in the Middle East since 1948, according to UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency. Nearly 8 million Iraqis - one in three - are in need of humanitarian aid. Nearly half the internally displaced people do not have access to the Public Distribution System of ration cards and permits. Only a third of Iraqis can access safe drinking water. The health system is collapsing. The drug distribution system has broken down. The sewage system has collapsed and only a fifth of Iraqis have access to a functional sanitary system.

US Helicopter Opens Fire in Iraq

U.S. helicopters opened fire after a ground patrol came under attack southeast of Baghdad on Wednesday, and Iraqi police said three officers were killed and one wounded in the strike. The fighting occurred near Salman Pak, a predominantly Sunni area that has been the subject of a U.S. military campaign aimed at routing insurgents from rural strongholds and disrupting the flow of weapons to the capital. Ground forces called for air support after coming under small-arms fire near the city, some 15 miles southeast of Baghdad, a U.S. military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information hasn't been formally released.

At least 887 Iraqis killed in October

At least 887 Iraqis were killed in Iraq in October, ministry data showed on Thursday, slightly higher than September which saw a total of 840 people killed across the nation. Earlier, AFP reported that 554 Iraqis were killed last month and another 333 bodies were found across the country, many of them of people killed in previous months. A security official with access to the data, however, said these bodies were of people also killed in October, taking the overall death toll for the month to 887. The October death toll is marginally higher than the 840 reported in September which was nevertheless half the August toll of 1,770. The bloodshed that broke out in Iraq after an attack on Shiite Al-Askari shrine in the central city of Samarra in February last year peaked in January this year with 1,992 deaths reported by the three ministries.

Baghdad's security situation more complex despite violence drop- paper

Baghdad's security picture has become more complex, despite the relative calm dominating the capital and a recent drop in civilian casualties, sectarian attacks and war-related violence, according to a report released by the Los Angeles Times on Thursday. "Iraq's civilian body count in October was less than half than that at its height in January, reflecting both the tactical successes of this year's U.S. troop buildup and the lasting impact of waves of sectarian death squad killings, car bombings, and neighborhood purges," the report said. Quoting U.S. military commanders, the newspaper said that the situation in Baghdad is "more complicated… because those seeking to cleanse their neighborhoods of rival religious sects have largely succeeded." Crediting a U.S. troop buildup, which reached highest levels in June, with the drop in sectarian attacks, others believe that the decision to deploy 28,500 extra troops in Iraq "has made a difference by allowing them to send soldiers to live on the fault lines between Sunni Arab and Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad, and to conduct sweeping offensives in provinces east and south of the capital against strongholds of Shiite Muslim militias and Sunni militants linked to foreign insurgents."

October 2007: Civilian casualties drop, Iraqi forces' fatalities rise

Iraqi civilian casualties significantly dropped in October 2007, a month in which U.S. casualties also declined and Iraqi security forces' fatalities increased, according to joint statistics by the Iraqi ministries of interior, health, and defense. "A total of 758 civilians were killed in October, down from 844 in September 2007," according to official figures received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). U.S. casualties also declined. Tallies of U.S. deaths reported 36 fatalities in October, compared to 66 in September. October's total is the lowest since March 2006, when only 33 U.S. troops were reported dead. "Casualties among Iraqi police forces rose from 62 to 117 but dropped among army personnel from 16 to 13 during the same period," official figures read. Regarding the number of detainees held in Iraqi prisons, reports said that 1,427 were arrested in October, down from 1,514 in September.

Shelling by Turkey Leads Many to Flee

The last three women left this tiny hamlet on Monday, carrying no more than their clothes and prayers. They joined 250 villagers who fled in the past two weeks, locking their homes and their yellow church and driving away on a desolate road scarred by war. Only 11 men remain, their lands separated from Turkey by a thin, emerald river winding through a fertile valley. For several months now, Turkish forces have been shelling this rugged terrain from mountain bases, including a massive one perched above Deshtetek, in an effort to root out Kurdish guerrillas. An immense Turkish flag, its white crescent and star gleaming in the sun, is painted on the mountainside. During the rule of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, Deshtetek's community of Chaldean Christians was driven from here, their ancestral homeland, to Mosul and Baghdad. Two years ago, they came back to this remote edge of northern Iraq to escape religious persecution and sectarian violence. Now, as the shelling from Turkey intensifies, a familiar dread has returned to their lives. "This is our fate," said Zaito Warda Michael, 75, Deshtetek's mayor. "We have to flee all the time." Along Iraq's border with Turkey, Kurds are caught in the crosshairs of a long-simmering conflict between Turkey and the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK, which threatens to open a new front in the Iraq war. Several thousand civilians have fled their homes, propelled as much by the shelling as fear of the unknown. The pace of their departures picked up after Turkey's parliament two weeks ago voted to authorize the military to invade. Turkish attacks, including aerial bombings, have burned scores of fields and orchards, the villagers' main source of income and food. But the campaign has done little to stop the guerrillas. On Monday, it took a half-hour's drive from Deshtetek, through these forbidding mountains, to run into four fighters, wearing grenade belts and clutching rifles, heading into Turkey. Their outpost was less than a mile from a border checkpoint operated by the Kurdish regional government, the semiautonomous body that administers northern Iraq.

REPORTS – IRAQI MILITIAS, POLITICIANS, POWER BROKERS

Building of Iraqi barracks threatens heritage site

The construction of a large police barracks close to the Great Mosque of Samarra and its famed spiral minaret is imperilling another of Iraq's precious historical sites, Unesco and senior archaeologists have warned. Work on the building and a training centre for 1,500 Iraqi policemen is continuing in Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, despite the addition this summer of the ninth-century remains of the capital of the Abbasid dynasty to Unesco's list of endangered world heritage sites. There are fears that the police compound will prove an irresistible target for insurgents, and that the construction and operation of the barracks will damage the Samarra Archaeological City, one of the country's largest and most valuable historical areas, the Art Newspaper reported in its November issue. Unesco officials said the dire security situation in Samarra had prevented them from taking any measures to secure and protect the site. Neither Unesco's office for Iraq, which is currently based in Amman, nor Iraq's board of state antiquities and heritage, had been consulted about the location of the new police building.

Iraq Asks For Iran's Help In Calming Kurdish Crisis

Iraqi officials asked for Iran's help on Wednesday in negotiating a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Turkey over Kurdish guerrillas who have been using northern Iraq as a base to stage raids on Turkish troops across the border. Tensions between Iraq and Turkey over the issue threaten to overshadow other topics at a regional meeting that starts Thursday in Istanbul, which Iraq hoped would focus on its internal security. The United States, which will participate in the meeting, said Wednesday that it has stepped up the amount of intelligence it shares with Turkey on the Kurdish rebels, known as the P.K.K. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq met with the Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, on Wednesday and asked him to intervene on Iraq's behalf at the meeting. "The prime minister asked the Islamic Republic to present their full support to Iraq during the Istanbul meeting and also to participate in solving the border crisis between Turkey and the P.K.K.," a statement from Maliki's office said. Iran has been sympathetic to Turkey's position, because Kurdish guerrillas have also been attacking Iran, but it has loyalties to Iraq which, like Iran, has a Shiite-majority government. Iran has also worked closely with the Kurdish leadership in Iraq.

REPORTS – US/UK/OTHERS IN IRAQ

US General: Fewer Roadside Bombs in Iraq

Last month there were 30 attacks involving what the military calls ``explosively formed projectiles'' (EFPs) and 23 more were found unexploded for a total of 53, said Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno. That compares with 99 in July, 78 in August and 52 in September, he told Pentagon reporters via videoconference from Iraq. EFPs fire a slug of molten metal capable of penetrating armored vehicles and so are more deadly than other roadside bombs. Officials charge that they have been supplied by neighboring Iran along with training, funding and other support for Iraq's Shiite militants. Odierno was asked if declining violence in general among Shiites could be partly due to a reported pledge made to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to help cut off funding to extremists. ``In terms of Iran, it's hard to tell whether that has slowed down or not,'' Odierno said. He said troops found a huge cache of EFPs a week ago, but believe it may have been brought into Iraq around January, before the agreement.

US troop fatalities plunge following 'surge strategy'

Pentagon claims the downward trend shows that its 'surge' strategy in Iraq is working. The death toll for US combat troops in Iraq dropped sharply to 27 last month, the lowest monthly total since March last year. The figure is part of a downward trend that appears to confirm Pentagon claims that its "surge" strategy is working. The month's last US fatalities were three soldiers killed on Tuesday when a bomb exploded as they patrolled southeast Baghdad. The drop in US fatalities, mirrored by an apparent reduction in sectarian killings, is attributed by US commanders to the extra 30,000 US troops sent to Iraq this year to bring the total of US troops to 154,000. Other factors cited include: the building of walls round Baghdad neighbourhoods that have restricted insurgents' movements; the increasing use of local sheiks and their militias to fight insurgents; and measures such as introducing proper ID checks, including biometric testing. [They left out the payments to Sunni insurgents. I think of them as “bribes” and if it reduces the violence, I am all for it. – dancewater]

Pentagon Sharing Intel With Turkey on PKK

The Bush administration has admitted to sharing key military intelligence with Turkey that could be used for a full-scale assault on Kurdish rebels in Northern Iraq. Turkey has deployed an estimated one hundred thousand troops on its Iraq border in what it calls an attempt to stop Kurdish rebel attacks. On Wednesday, the Pentagon said it’s assisted Turkey with spy planes and information on Kurdish positions. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heads to the region tomorrow. On Wednesday, State department spokesperson Sean McCormack denied U.S. backing of a Turkish attack.

HISTORY

Iraq war: too much weight on intelligence, says ex-MI6 chief

The head of MI6 at the time of the invasion of Iraq said last night that the government placed too much weight on intelligence claims to help persuade opponents in parliament to support the war. Sir Richard Dearlove said Iraq demonstrated the dangers when "policy was built round intelligence and little else or when it was used for the primary justification for government action". Policy was "over-dependent on intelligence particularly when it was presented to parliament", he said. There was a fear that what he called "other factors" might otherwise "carry the day with political opponents of the war". The episode had "highly undesirable consequences for the intelligence community". Sir Richard also admitted that claims by neo-con elements in the Bush administration that there were links between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein were not true. "You know as well as I know there was no connection between 9/11 and Iraq," he said. Though Sir Richard's admissions reflect those made by others since the invasion of Iraq, and notably in Lord Butler's report on the use of intelligence, it is the first time he has commented publicly on the affair. He was speaking at the London School of Economics on the subject of Intelligence and the Media at a meeting sponsored by the Polis think tank.

COMMENTARY

US troops 'in the Middle East for next 50 years'

US troops could be in the Middle East for another 50 years, according to the longest serving commander of the Qatar-based US Central Command. General John Abazaid, who retired in May, said the "strategic situation" in the region - the rise of extremism and the global dependence on oil - would necessitate a long-term presence. "Over time, we will have to shift the burden of the military fight from our forces directly to regional forces, and we will have to play an indirect role. "But we shouldn't assume for even a minute that in the next 25 to 50 years the American military might be able to come home, relax and take it easy." Gen Abazaid, who delivered the comments yesterday at Carnegie Mellon University, said the US would also need to reduced its dependence on imported energy. "I'm not saying this is a war for oil, but I am saying that oil fuels an awful lot of geopolitical moves that political powers may have there. "And it is absolutely essential that we in the United States of America figure out how, in the long run, to lessen our dependency on foreign energy."

U.S. OK's Saddam oil law for today's oil deals

The U.S. State Department says an oil law implemented under Saddam Hussein is good enough for Iraq's national government to sign oil deals, though it would prefer a new national law - mired in controversy and far from approved - to be used instead.

[Please note that the US State Department is making decisions for the Iraqi government! - dancewater]

The new position is a shift for the U.S. government, or at least a nuance in its stance, which has pressed hard for a new hydrocarbons legal regime and condemned deals signed between a regional government and private firms - especially when it's an American company. "We would prefer these laws to be passed before any deals are signed," Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Lawrence Butler told United Press International. "However, in the absence of passage of the hydrocarbon law, Iraq as a sovereign state can continue to use the Saddam-era laws to manage the sector in the meantime." It's not clear what effect the U.S. stance will have on the international oil industry, salivating at the prospect of entering the third-largest oil reserves in the world, as Iraq's Oil Ministry says it will not wait forever for a new law before signing deals. This raises an interesting quandary for Iraq, the United States and oil companies: What's more important, adopting a national oil law that sets the oil policy and strategy - be it the long-term one now disputed or a short-term law - or signing oil deals? [I think I know how they will answer. – dancewater]

Quote of the day: If we let people see that kind of thing, there would never again be any war. ~ Pentagon official explaining why the U.S. military censored graphic footage from the Gulf War