[centraal] Irak na de oorlog, deel 13

KIRKUK - Amerikaanse militairen hebben maandagavond in de noordelijke stad Kirkuk een Iraakse rechter en diens neef doodgeschoten. Dat heeft de Iraakse politie dinsdag laten weten.

Volgens luitenant Salam Jalal Ahmad, veiligheidschef in Kirkuk, zochten Amerikaanse militairen maandagavond in Kirkuk naar mensen die hen hadden belaagd. Ze openden het vuur op een auto waarin rechter Hussein Ahmad Chebab en zijn neef Attalah Kalaf zaten.

(Telegraaf)

mwah lekker handig weer, laat die gasten hun munitie aan de luitenant geven dan kan hij het uitreiken als hij vind dat het nodig is ... voorkomt dit soort nutteloze schietpartijen

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MADRID Spanje heeft besloten zijn
ambassade in Irak voorlopig te sluiten.
Als reden wordt "de gecompliceerde
situatie" in het land aangegeven.Het
personeel keert terug naar Spanje.

De VS houdt vol dat de situatie in
Irak ondanks incidenten de laatste tijd
verbetert.Niettemin besloten het Rode
Kruis en Artsen zonder Grenzen vorige
week hun stafleden terug te trekken
nadat bij een aanslag op het Rode Kruis
in Bagdad tien doden waren gevallen.
nos.nl

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Blast leaves U.S. soldier dead

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A U.S. soldier with the Army's 1st Armored Division was killed Tuesday morning and another was wounded after an improvised explosive device exploded in the Baghdad area, a coalition official said.

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Op dinsdag 4 november 2003 12:20 schreef schatje het volgende:

[..]

Waar zitten die Spaanse troepen eigenlijk?? Weet jij dat toevallig??

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Al Qadisija and An Najaf areas

Het zuidelijke deel.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55022-2003Nov2.html

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BAGHDAD, Nov. 2 -- Saddam Hussein refused to order a counterattack against U.S. troops when war erupted in March because he misjudged the initial ground thrust as a ruse and had been convinced earlier by Russian and French contacts that he could avoid or survive a land invasion, former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz has told interrogators, according to U.S. officials.

Aziz, who surrendered to U.S. authorities on April 24, has also said Iraq did not possess stocks of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons on the eve of the war, an assertion that echoes the previously reported statements of other detained Iraqi leaders and scientists. Yet Hussein personally ordered several secret programs to build or buy long-range missiles in defiance of international sanctions, according to Aziz's reported statements.

The former deputy prime minister has described an argument he had with Hussein in 1999, in which the Iraqi president insisted that U.N. Resolution 687, enacted to limit Iraq's armaments, prohibited long-range missiles only if they were armed with weapons of mass destruction.

Aziz said he countered, "No, it's a range limit," and all Iraqi missiles able to fly beyond 150 kilometers (about 93 miles) were banned, according to a senior U.S. official familiar with the interrogation reports. Hussein demanded in reply, "No, I want to go ahead," according to the senior official.

[...]

More recently, however, several high-ranking detainees have said they believe that Hussein was afraid to lose face with his Arab neighbors. Hussein concluded, these prisoners explained, that Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and other countries paid him deference because they feared he had weapons of mass destruction. Hussein was unwilling to reveal that his cupboard was essentially bare, these detainees said, according to accounts from officials.

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Explosions rock Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- For a second night, three loud explosions shook central Baghdad on Tuesday after an apparent rocket attack on a coalition compound.

An Iraqi guard told CNN's John Raedler that one projectile exploded on the grounds of the former palace of Saddam Hussein. The palace is being used as the headquarters of the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Witnesses said that smoke could be seen rising from inside the compound.

There have been no reports of casualties, and it is unclear if there was any damage in the compound -- which CNN's Baghdad Bureau Chief Jane Arraf said was the size of a small city.

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Op dinsdag 4 november 2003 11:57 schreef schatje het volgende:

Ik heb het artikel gevonden:

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(ik kan niet in het archief van de GvA helaas).

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VN-topfunctionarissen geschorst

NEW YORK (ANP) - De functionaris van de VN in Irak, Ramiro Lopes da Silva, en de veiligheidscoördinator van de VN, Tun Myat, zijn buiten functie gesteld. De schorsingen volgen op bevindingen van een commissie die stelt dat in Irak slechte veiligheidsmaatregelen zijn getroffen.

De lacunes zouden de zelfmoordaanslag op 19 augustus op het hoofdkantoor van de VN in Bagdad mogelijk hebben gemaakt. Door de aanslag kwamen zeker 23 mensen om het leven onder wie de speciale gezant Sergio Vieira de Mello. De commissie sprak in het vorige maand verschenen rapport van slonzige en slecht functionerende veiligeheidsprocedures in Irak.

Op dit moment onderzoekt een nieuw team de precieze gebeurtenissen rond de bloedige aanval op het VN-kantoor. Ramioro Lopes da Silva en Tun Myat hebben gevraagd van hun post te worden ontheven zolang dit onderzoek loopt. ,,Dienovereenkomstig heeft de secretaris-generaal besloten ze tot half januari met speciaal verlof te sturen'', aldus een zegsvrouw van de VN.

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Zware aanslag op hoofdkwartier VS in Bagdad

Bij zeker drie raketaanvallen op het Amerikaanse hoofdkwartier in Bagdad zijn vier mensen gewond geraakt. Volgens de Iraakse politie zijn er minstens drie mortieren op het complex afgevuurd. Gisteren werden er in dezelfde buurt ook al explosies gehoord. Toen raakte er niemand gewond.

De mortieren sloegen in vlakbij het kantoor van de Amerikaanse bewindsvoerder in Irak, Paul Bremer. Het Britse leger maakte de dood bekend van een marinier. Hij kwam afgelopen vrijdag om het leven.

Vanwege het aanhoudende geweld heeft Spanje, een trouw bondgenoot van de VS, besloten een groot deel van zijn diplomatiek staf uit Bagdad terug te halen. De ambassade blijft wel open. Het personeel is overgebracht naar buurland Jordanië. De afgelopen tijd zijn er aanslagen geweest op de Jordaanse ambassade, het VN-hoofdkwartier en het hoofdkwartier van het Rode Kruis.

Daarnaast meldde <a href=>nyrem</a> ons via de <a href=http://frontpage.fok.nl/submit.fok>newssubmit</a>:

Ook elders in Irak was het zeer onrustig. Vandaag werd bekend dat Amerikaanse militairen in de noordelijke stad Kirkuk een Iraakse rechter en zijn neef hebben doodgeschoten. De Iraakse politie meldde dat dit gisteren gebeurde.

Volgens luitenant Salam Jalal Ahmad, veiligheidschef in Kirkuk, waren de Amerikaanse militairen maandagavond op zoek naar mensen die hen hadden belaagd. Op een gegeven moment openden ze het vuur op een auto, waarin rechter Hussein Ahmad Chebab en zijn neef Attalah Kalaf bleken te zitten.

Ondertussen blijft de kritiek op Bush' beleid aanzwellen. Het NOS journaal meldt dat, één jaar voor de presidentsverkiezingen van 2004, nog slechts 38 procent van de Amerikanen achter Bush staat. Twee maanden geleden was dit nog meer dan de helft. Niet alleen de vele aanslagen spelen hierbij een rol, maar ook het niet vinden van massavernietigingswapens.

_
De gebeurtenissen van de afgelopen acht dagen omtrent Irak:

28 oktober: Verzet tegen Irak-beleid zwelt aan.
29 oktober: Diverse aanslagen in Irak: zeven doden en meerdere gewonden.
30 oktober: Senaatscommissie stel CIA ultimatum: veel cruciale informatie zou worden achtergehouden.
31 oktober: Iraaks gezin klaagt ministerie aan.
1 november: Doden bij Dag van Verzet in Irak
2 november: Zwaarste aanslag op Amerikanen tot nu toe: helikopter wordt neergehaald. Twintig militairen komen om het leven
3 november: Opnieuw diverse aanslagen op Amerikaanse doelen in Irak.
Vandaag: Senaat gaat akkoord met nog eens 87 miljard dollar extra uitgaven voor Irak: voornamelijk bestemd voor militaire operaties.

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Op dinsdag 4 november 2003 21:41 schreef veekeend het volgende:
Ook elders in Irak was het zeer onrustig. Vandaag werd bekend dat Amerikaanse militairen in de noordelijke stad Kirkuk een Iraakse rechter en zijn neef hebben doodgeschoten. De Iraakse politie meldde dat dit gisteren gebeurde.

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Op dinsdag 4 november 2003 21:46 schreef Umm-Qasr het volgende:

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Dit klopt niet echt. De Iraakse rechter werd neergeschoten door een aanhanger van saddam. Die vertelde dat hij dit moest doen in opdracht van saddam. Bij diezelfde actie heeft de dader de tevens aanwezige openbaar aanklager 'bespaard' en hem gewaarschuwd dat hij moest stoppen met het berechten van baath-partij leden!

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Op dinsdag 4 november 2003 21:41 schreef veekeend het volgende:
Zware aanslag op hoofdkwartier VS in Bagdad

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Op dinsdag 4 november 2003 22:05 schreef veekeend het volgende:

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Dit meldt het ANP nota bene, zoals ik het in mijn bericht heb weergegeven.

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Bush team doesn't want people to see human cost of war
Even body bags are now sanitized as `transfer tubes'

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Washington - Charles H. Buehring came home last week.

He arrived at the air force base in Dover, Del., in the middle of the night, in an aluminum shipping case draped in an American flag.

When the military truck drove his remains across the tarmac, workers paused and removed their hats.

He was met by a six-member honour guard acting as pallbearers, to allow a "dignified transfer" to the Charles C. Carson mortuary, where he became one of an estimated 60,000 American casualties of war that have been processed there over almost five decades.

"It reminds us we are at war," says Lt.-Col. Jon Anderson, who describes business at the Dover mortuary as "steady."

But America never saw Lt.-Col. Buehring's arrival, days after a rocket from a homemade launcher ended his life at age 40 in Baghdad's heavily fortified Rasheed Hotel last Monday.

Americans have never seen any of the other 359 bodies returning from Iraq. Nor do they see the wounded cramming the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington or soldiers who say they are being treated inhumanely awaiting medical treatment at Fort Stewart, Ga.

In order to continue to sell an increasingly unpopular Iraqi invasion to the American people, President George W. Bush's administration sweeps the messy parts of war the grieving families, the flag-draped coffins, the soldiers who have lost limbs into a far corner of the nation's attic.

No television cameras are allowed at Dover.

Bush does not attend the funerals of soldiers who gave their lives in his war on terrorism.

Buehring of Winter Springs, Fla., described as "a great American" by his commanding officer, had two sons, 12 and 9, was active in the Boy Scouts and his church and had served his country for 18 years.

No government official has said a word publicly about him.

If stories of wounded soldiers are told, they are told by hometown papers, but there is no national attention given to the recuperating veterans here in the nation's capital.

More than 1,700 Americans have been wounded in Iraq since the March invasion.

"You can call it news control or information control or flat-out propaganda," says Christopher Simpson, a communications professor at Washington's American University.

"Whatever you call it, this is the most extensive effort at spinning a war that the department of defence has ever undertaken in this country."

Simpson notes that photos of the dead returning to American soil have historically been part of the ceremony, part of the picture of conflict and part of the public closure for families until now.

"This White House is the greatest user of propaganda in American history and if they had a shred of honesty, they would admit it. But they can't."

Lynn Cutler, a Democratic strategist and former official in Bill Clinton's White House, says this is the first time in history that bodies have been brought home under cover of secrecy.

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Op woensdag 5 november 2003 00:58 schreef MasterPeace het volgende:
Pentagon keeps dead out of sight

Bush team doesn't want people to see human cost of war
Even body bags are now sanitized as `transfer tubes'
[..]

Bron

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Appeal for draft board volunteers revives memories of Vietnam era

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Wednesday November 5, 2003
The Guardian

The Pentagon has begun recruiting for local draft boards, dredging up painful memories of Vietnam era conscription at a time of deepening misgiving about America's occupation of Iraq.
In a notice posted on the defence department's Defend America website, Americans over the age of 18 and with no criminal record are invited to "serve your community and the nation" by volunteering for the boards, which decide which recruits should be sent to war.

Thirty years have passed since the draft boards last exerted their hold on America, deciding which soldiers would be sent to Vietnam. After Congress ended the draft in 1973, they have become largely dormant.

However, recruitment for the boards suggests that in some parts of the Pentagon all options are being explored in response to concerns that the US military has been stretched too thin in its occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Although Pentagon officials denied any move to reinstitute the draft, the defence department website does not shirk at outlining the potential duties for a new crop of volunteers to the draft boards.

"If a military draft becomes necessary, approximately 2,000 local and appeal boards throughout America would decide which young men who submit a claim receive deferments, postponements or exemptions from military service, based on federal guidelines," it said.

Pentagon officials were adamant that there were no plans to bring back the draft.

"That would require action from Congress and the president and they are not likely to do that unless there was something of the magnitude of the second world war that required it," said Dan Amon, a spokesman for the selective service department.

Bringing back conscription would be catastrophic for George Bush in an election year, and at a time when parallels are increasingly being drawn between Iraq and Vietnam.

However, officials were not immediately able to explain how the advertisement appeared on the site. Mr Amon said the notices were a response to the natural attrition in the ranks of the draft board, where some 80% of 11,000 places are now vacant. "It is the routine cycle of things," he said.

But it was unclear why the Pentagon decided at this time it was necessary to fill staff bodies which had played no function since the early 1980s.

The idea of a draft has never entirely disappeared, and is contemplated by Democrats and some military experts.

In the run-up to the war, the New York congressman Charles Rangel argued for a draft on the grounds that the US military was disproportionately made up of poor and black soldiers, and that it was unfair for America's underclass to go off and die in wars.

In recent weeks, there has been growing concern within the defence department about relying too heavily on members of the National Guard and army reservists.

Some 60,000 of the 130,000 US soldiers in Iraq are members of the National Guard or the reserves. An opinion poll last month in the Pentagon-funded Stars and Stripes newspaper, showed 49% threatening not to re-enlist.

The families of reservists have become increasingly vocal in their complaints after the Pentagon's decision to extend duty tours to up to 15 months.

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men gaat dus blijkbaar dat toch als serieuze optie overwegen

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Op woensdag 5 november 2003 09:36 schreef robh het volgende:
Hoe is het eigenlijk afgelopen met de CIA, het congres en het openbaar maken van alle documenten?

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Op woensdag 5 november 2003 09:36 schreef robh het volgende:
Hoe is het eigenlijk afgelopen met de CIA, het congres en het openbaar maken van alle documenten?

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(AP) Bush administration officials said Friday they were cooperating with a Senate panel's demand for documents and interviews for an inquiry on prewar intelligence on Iraq.

The Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee agreed that some agencies had given "what I believe is a good-faith response," but Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., criticized the White House for ignoring a noon Friday deadline for turning over materials.

"I am hopeful that the White House will recognize the importance of the committee's efforts and comply as soon as possible," Roberts said in a statement. "I look forward to working with the White House in a cooperative manner in hopes of reaching a satisfactory conclusion."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan insisted the administration has been working with the committee and will continue to do so even though the committee has no jurisdiction over the White House. He was noncommittal about the administration's intention to provide specific assistance.

"We are talking with them about their request, and we will continue working with them," he said.

Roberts and Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the committee's top Democrat, had set the Friday deadline for material it had sought from the White House, CIA, State Department and Pentagon. The last three were notified of the deadline only on Thursday.

"The noon deadline was really intended not so much as a precise date in history but to put a shot over their collective bows," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the panel's top Democrat.

In the letters setting the deadline, Rockefeller and Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., complained about the agencies' slow responses to the committee's previous requests for information.

The committee is examining the accuracy of intelligence on former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's weapons programs and his purported contacts with terror groups. That intelligence served as Mr. Bush's main arguments for the war.

Rockefeller said the committee was making strong progress Friday toward getting the requested material. "The CIA has already sent us a substantial amount of material," and more was to come, he said.

Committee staff members were reviewing the responses Friday afternoon.

The State Department said it has provided 11 of 15 documents requested by the committee. Two other documents will be submitted soon, and the two remaining ones will go out "as soon as we can," department spokesman Richard Boucher said. Arrangements also have been made for six interviews and briefings the committee requested, Boucher said.

"We have cooperated," he said.

CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said the agency was working hard to meet the committee's requests.

"We will be providing a significant amount of material today, and more will be forthcoming," he said.

A Pentagon spokesman said the only issues outstanding with the committee were questions from one unidentified senator, "and we are in the process of answering those questions."

Rockefeller said if the committee wasn't satisfied with the responses, he and Roberts might personally contact heads of the agencies. They might also decide to subpoena the information, he said.

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over het algemeen welwillend nu (wat) informatie overhandigd, het Witte Huis is in dit bericht de grootste achterblijver