IRAQ-Current Continuing Conflict

[Klaus]

An interesting read: How the social networking concept which inspired Facebook was used by the Us military to capture Saddam Hussein, its a 5 part series replete with pics and diagrams.

http://www.slate.com/id/2245228/

An interesting point that is made is that munh-ki-kitaab (facebook) was founded just 3 months after Saddam's capture, coincidence or collusion?

P.S If this article has been posted before, then esteemed moderators are kindly requested to delete this post.

[svinayak]

It took 10 years for somebody to make a film to expose the Iraq war.
The war was used to divert the attention of the large public from internal political infighting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hurt_Locker

The Hurt Locker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker is a 2008 American war thriller directed by Kathryn Bigelow. It was one of the most acclaimed films of 2009, earning awards and honors from numerous organizations, festivals and groups. The film swept the 2010 BAFTA Awards, winning best film, director, original screenplay, editing, cinematography and sound. It has been nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. The nominations tie the film with Avatar, directed by Bigelow's ex-husband James Cameron. The film follows a United States Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team during the Iraq War. The story was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded with a bomb squad. It stars Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty as members of a U.S. Army EOD unit in Iraq and follows their tour together as they contend with defusing bombs, the threat of insurgency, and the tension that develops among them.[3][4] The title is slang for being injured in an explosion, as in 'they sent him to the hurt locker'.[5][6]
The film was shot in the Middle East, specifically in Jordan, within miles of the Iraq border. It was first released theatrically in Italy in 2008. It was then released in the United States on June 26, 2009, in New York and Los Angeles. Based on the success of its limited run, the independent film received a more widespread theatrical release in the United States on July 24, 2009. The film had initially premiered at the Venice Film Festival in late 2008, then at the Toronto International Film Festival in North America, where it was picked up for distribution in the United States by Summit Entertainment.[7] Because this 2008 film was not originally released in the U.S. (at least in an Oscar-qualifying run in L.A.) until 2009, it did not qualify for the 2008 Academy Awards, and thus was eligible for the following year's Oscars.

Posted before the Oscars

[shyamd]

Elections going on in Iraq. Saudi backing Ayad Allawi. Ayad Allawi claims to be in the lead in some areas. While Nuri Al Maliki claims to be in the lead in Baghdad and the shia dominated South. Prelim results due Wednesday I believe.

[Philip]

Shameful! The US even lied to its closest ally Britain,about torture techniques in vogue at its concentration camps abroad.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... chief.html

US hid waterboarding of 9/11 accused, says former MI5 chief

MI5 had no idea that the architect of the September 11 attacks had been waterboarded when the Americans passed them intelligence from his interrogation, the former head of the Security Service has said.

[A_Gupta]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU ... r_embedded

Context:
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn ... index.html

Wikileaks reveals video of slaughter in Iraq.

[Philip]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 7088548.ec

Excerpt:

The video is graphic, and disturbing. As a group of men amble down a Baghdad street two US Army helicopters open fire, repeatedly shooting the men and gunning one down as he tries to flee.

As the dust clears, the troops survey their handiwork.

“Look at those dead b******s,” one pilot says. “Nice,” another responds.

The video, which has been released on the internet by the whistleblowers' website Wikileaks.org, is authentic, a senior US military official has confirmed. At a press conference, Wikileaks said it had acquired the video from whistleblowers in the military and was able to view it after breaking the encryption code.

Related Links
Special forces 'covered-up' botched raid

The official said the video, which consists of 17 minutes of black-and-white aerial video footage and conversations between pilots in two Apache helicopters as they open fire was of a July 12, 2007, firefight involving army helicopters in the New Baghdad District of eastern Baghdad.

The attack killed 12 people, including two journalists who worked for the Reuters news agency — photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his driver Saeed Chmagh, 40. Two children were also wounded.

[Bhaskar]

The AmeriKKKan army in Action in Iraq.

[Airavat]

The country (government, media, and cold war relics) that is today making excuses for Pakistan's perfidy and paying that terrorist state to get it's own soldiers killed was all gung ho on invading Iraq:

Dr Blix spoke of his disquiet at the US national security strategy published in September 2002, which set out the White House's belief in its right to launch pre-emptive attacks. "The US in 2002, that time you refer to, threw it [the UN process] overboard. I think they were high on military at the time. They said, 'we can do it'."

"The whole military timetable was, as rightly said, not in sync with the diplomatic timetable. The diplomatic timetable would have allowed more inspections. (The) UK wanted more inspections. The military timetable did not permit that."

[Philip]

More missing Iraqi Oil billions.Who said that the war in Iraq was not about OIL! The entire exercise was aimed at looting Iraq of its heritage (priceless archaeological artefacts from its muemums),its oil and the theft of billions of dollars supposedly sent there to bribe native militias,plus the theft of its oil revenues which is still going on.Precious little of Iraq's oil revenues have gone into the country's budget to restore the devastated infrastructure and enrich the population.Instead,the only enrichment has been that of America's oil giants and mega-corporations,especially defence firms, and mercenary outfits like Blackwater,to whom the war was outsourced in large part,especially in the logistic "food chain" scam.Oh! Incidentally, a certain controversial Iraqi leader called Saddam Hussein was captured and hanged in a scandalous show trial and not a single item of his alleged WMDs threatening the globe was ever found!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 36925.html

EXcerpt:

US unable to account for billions of Iraq oil money

By Patrick Cockburn
Wednesday, 28 July 2010

The US defence department is unable to account for almost $9bn taken from Iraqi oil revenues for use in reconstruction, according to an official audit released yesterday.

The report by the US Special Investigator for Iraq Reconstruction says $8.7bn (£5.6bn) out of $9.1bn withdrawn between 2004 and 2007 from a special account set up by the UN Security Council is unaccounted for. This is separate from $53bn set aside by Congress for Iraqi reconstruction.

Though the special investigator found that some of the money was spent properly, Iraqis continually complain that they see little sign of their infrastructure being rebuilt after 30 years of war and sanctions. Electricity, clean water and sewage disposal remain wholly inadequate and seven years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein there are few cranes visible on the Baghdad skyline or any other signs of rebuilding. A total of 95 per cent of the country's federal budget comes from oil revenue.

The scale of the sums unaccounted for are particularly striking given they cover periods well after serious fraud and corruption had been widely publicised in Iraq and abroad. The audit says that no organisation in the defence department was set up to oversee how money from the Development Fund for Iraq was spent. It adds that "the breakdown in controls left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss". Many of the organisations at the Pentagon that received funds failed to establish the accounts required to track the funds.

The report cited poor record-keeping and said most of the organisations at the Pentagon that received DFI funds failed to use required treasury department accounts. And while most of the money was at least partially tracked, the military failed to produce any records whatsoever for $2.6bn.

Corruption in Iraq in general became all pervasive at the height of the violence in 2006-7 because of the difficulty in monitoring what was going on. Money was dissipated by main contractors sub-contracting work which was sub-contracted in turn with each company involved taking a profit.

In a separate development, the General Electric Company has agreed to pay $23.4m to settle bribery charges relating to Iraq, the Security and Exchange Commission said yesterday. GE settled without admitting the charges which relate to a $3.6m kickback scheme to win contracts to supply medical and water purification equipment.

[Philip]

A few years ago I predicted that the US would "slink out" of Iraq not in glory but with a whimper and so it has come to pass! No grand parade with flags flying,but like a disgraced army,they slunk out "at night and in secret" for fear of being attacked by insurgents!

Though the US combatants have slunk out secretly,we do not know how many "contract killers" of mercenary privateer forces still remain in Iraq,like disgraced Balckwater are still around.The privatisation of America's expeditionary wars is the latest US export to the world's hotspots.These privateers,can operate without any need to conform to the Geneva Convention,are inserted under special rules enabling them to operate with impunity and in Iraq one presumes are still protecting the oilfields which are being looted by US companies under most generous concessions to US oil giants.These privateers also belong by networking and complex shareholding patters to companies that have on their board many former western poliitcal,military and financial leaders.War is most profitable.

However,the US failed in one aspect.Their latter-day "Crusaders" were to have been followed by another wave of "Christain Soldiers",meant to convert the Iraqis fered from Saddam's tyranny.The insurgency put paid to that! So bye-bye black-boots,as the Iraqis say "good riddance"!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 57390.html

At night and in secret, the last US combat troops depart
Some head home, others to Afghanistan. But for all, the war in Iraq is over
By Kim Sengupta, Defence Correspondent

Excerpts:

There was no grand farewell. Seven years and five months after the start of one of the most bitterly divisive wars of modern times, the remaining American combat forces left Iraq under the cover of darkness to head home.

The "last patrol" of 362 military vehicles and 1,820 soldiers began pulling out from Baghdad just after midnight, retracing the route they had taken at the time of the invasion. The troops of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, many of them veterans of the country's ferocious insurgency, were on their way out through the Euphrates valley to Kuwait.

The move took place two weeks ahead of schedule, the timing kept confidential in an attempt to avoid insurgent attacks on the vulnerable departing column. A force of around 56,000 will be left behind for training purposes, but these too will leave by the end of next year.

The drawdown, however, began two days after a suicide bomber blew himself up in Baghdad, killing 61 people and injuring 123 others who had queued for hours to join the Iraqi armed forces. July has been the bloodiest month since May 2008, with more than 500 killed. Iraqi figures from the head of the army, General Babaker Shawkat Zebari, to Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minister under Saddam Hussein, have warned that the Americans are pulling out too soon.

There were also glimpses of bleak humour from the soldiers. "That Saddam really hid those WMDs well," said a voice in one of the Strykers, to widespread laughter. The excuse given for the invasion, Iraq's supposed chemical, biological and nuclear arsenal, has long been a matter of mirth for the American forces and their British allies. Sergeant Shawn Sedillo was adamant: "You cannot put me in a bad mood right now, I am going home." Sergeant Dennis Hill was laconic: "I am going to Afghanistan," he said.

The threat of roadside bombs and ambushes remained. The more risky parts of the route had been cleared; Apache helicopter-gunships flew overhead. Phalanxes of Humvees sat at overpasses and soldiers patrolled strategic points.

As they rolled past Baghdad's District 9, the soldiers in one Stryker repeatedly played Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", joining in to the lines: "Mama, just killed a man; put a gun against his head; pulled my trigger, now he's dead; Mama, life had just begun; But now I've gone and thrown it all away."

Approaching the Kuwaiti border, the men in the Stryker demanded a reprise. "Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here," they sang before ending on: "Nothing really matters. Nothing really matters to me."

Stretching out after he finally got out of his armoured vehicle in Kuwait, Specialist Thomas Smith mused: "More sand, more heat. But at least no one's shooting at us here. I wonder what the weather is like in Kandahar?"

Iraq today: What kind of country are they leaving behind?

Security

Iraq in 2010 may not be experiencing the same level of bombings, kidnappings and murders which reached its height between 2006 and 2007, provoked by the orgy of sectarian bloodletting which the invasion unleashed.

But it remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Buoyed by the departure of US combat troops, insurgents have stepped up their attacks, killing at least 250 people through suicide bombs in the past four months alone. Sixty people were killed this week. Overall estimates of the number of Iraqi civilians killed since March 2003 range from 97,196 to 106,071 according to Iraq Body Count.

Politics

The ousting of Saddam Hussein toppled the Ba'ath Party dictatorship and cleared the way for the first democratic elections in the country's history.

Elections were held in 2005 and were trumpeted as a major turning point in Iraq's history by the US-led invasion. Power was swiftly seized by Shia and Kurdish parties, leaving the Sunni minority increasingly isolated and supportive of the insurgency.

The country has been without a government for the past five months following elections in March which produced no clear winner. Attempts to cobble together a coalition have floundered, leaving a dangerous vacuum.

Society

Whether Iraq is a freer and happier place since the invasion in 2003 is difficult to measure.

The country is supposedly ruled by a democratically elected government operating under a constitution that guarantees freedom.

But human rights groups say extra-judicial killings, kidnappings, torture, bribery and corruption are still endemic with little accountability for perpetrators.

More than 5 million Iraqis have been turned into refugees since the invasion, with 2.7 million of those displaced internally. Some live with relatives, others in public buildings.

Economy

The slightly improved security situation is allowing Iraq's economy to improve, particularly in the retail and manufacturing sector. Growth is currently around 5 per cent.

But the country is still overwhelmingly dependent on its vast wealth of natural resources, with the oil and gas industry accounting for 90 per cent of the government's revenues.

With Iraq's oil output expected to quadruple over the next 10 years, foreign companies are flocking to the region. But that is little comfort for ordinary Iraqis. Unemployment runs at close to 40 per cent and GDP per capita remains a paltry $3,200.

Regional stability

The presence of an occupying non-Muslim force in the heart of the Middle East sent Islamist militants flocking to Iraq with devastating consequences for both Iraq and its neighbours.

Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon have all seen al-Qa'ida-inspired militant activity increase with varying levels of success.

Iran, meanwhile, has come out of the invasion as the clear regional winner, with the ability to influence events in the region as never before, thanks to Iraq's Shia population taking the lion's share of political power. Islamist and Sunni militants still remain the major threat to the Iraqi government.

[Philip]

In answer to my own question,media reports now say that the US will have a "permanent" presence in Iraq,with "60,000" US "advisers" in secured military bases-whcih will no doubt be required to continue to steal all Iraq's oil,plus ..."200,000" mercenaries,the so-called "contractors",rather "contract killers" like a mafia in militia unform to rule the country! THese figures show how by employing mercenary murderers,the US plans to dominate the globe in every hotspot,thus avoiding any responsibility for the acts of these killers,who act outside the normal rules of engagement,employing every dirty trick in the book to sujugate the natives.So much for the moral; "high" standards of the US,whose entire foreign policy has never sunk so low since Hiroshima.

[Pratyush]

Philip,

Nations must do whatever it takes to maintain and perpetuate their hold and supremacy in the international affairs. They must not be woolly headed and naive.

If the Khans are doing so then, they are correct. The onus is on other nations to see that the Khans don't succeed.

International relations don't have any scope for moralizing.

[Philip]

Invading a country on false pretexts,stealing all is wealth,leaving it in absolute shambles after killing and being responsible for the deaths of hundeds of thousands of innocent civilians,and then organising gangs of lethal mercenaries in US pay,to squat on the oilfields until they run dry is OK? If that is so then we are back to the dark ages.Hitler,Pol Pot and Stalin...Saddam too, should then be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously! This is not moralising.This is describing how humanity has been raped in Iraq by a nation and its allies who did so all in the name of democracy and the restoration of human rights !
The Wikileaks have revealed just how rapacious and evil was the US's intentions and actions and further exposes will expose it even further.

What did Edmund Burke supposedly say?
"All That is Required For Evil to Flourish in the World is For Good Men to Do Nothing".

We can at least make our small contribution towards stamping out this evil by at least revealing the truth to the world at large.

[svinayak]

Invading a country on false pretexts,stealing all is wealth,leaving it in absolute shambles after killing and being responsible for the deaths of hundeds of thousands of innocent civilians,and then organising gangs of lethal mercenaries in US pay,to squat on the oilfields until they run dry is OK?

It is not OK and that is why they are paying a price. India has to look after its interest first and Indian interest is supreme and cannot be compromized.
India also has to plan long term since these wars can be used for demographic change and geopolitical change which can adversely affect India in the long term. These are the job of experts who have to strategise and make scenarios of the future. India has to create space geo politically now so that in the future it has the advantage

[krisna]

US military presence in Iraq beyond 2011 'almost certain'

Iraq is still very dependent on US for military expertise and equipment amid sectarian tensions; approximately 10,000 troops may remain.

American officials, speaking off the record, said that extension will likely happen as a result of the need to aid Iraq's military amid sectarian tensions.

The fear of political divisions, aggravated by the struggle for control of Iraq's oil potential, is ever present. Some Iraqis worry that without the American soldiers, their country will revert to a dictatorship or split along religious and ethnic fault lines.

The dwindling US military presence has deepened concerns that Iraq will be taken over by its neighbors — namely Iran — who many think is waiting to fill the power vacuum created by the departing Americans.

Will Iraq be one country with separatist tendencies gaining strength with reduction of US forces. . Interesting how Iran will play this game inside Iraq. Turkey will be anxious to prevent any sectarian divisions due to kurdish rebels demanding independence in its southern border bordering Iraq.

[krisna]

US losses in Iraq in 2003-10

[Philip]

Sun sets on US influence in Iraq as the sun rises for Iran!

Sun sets on US influence in Iraq as deal on new government looms

By Patrick Cockburn
Thursday, 11 November 2010

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 30790.html

The United States is facing a decisive political defeat in Iraq over the formation of a new government, as its influence in the country sinks lower than at any time since the invasion of 2003.

The increased power of Iran is expected to be underlined with a vote in parliament today in Baghdad to name the leadership after eight months of political stalemate during which political violence has continued throughout the country.

The US campaign to promote its favoured candidate, Iyad Allawi, as president appears to have failed spectacularly. Mr Allawi's al-Iraqiya party, which won most seats in the election on 7 March, is breaking up as several of its factions join the government.

Dr Mahmoud Othman, a senior Kurdish leader and MP, said by phone from Baghdad yesterday there is "severe American pressure on us until now to give up the presidency", but said so far the Kurds had resisted it.

The US still has 50,000 troops in Iraq, but Mr Obama has made it clear that he intends to withdraw all of them. "American hegemony in Iraq is over," Ghassan al-Attiyah, a commentator and political scientist, said. "US influence is falling by the day."

Iraqi sources say the powerful job of Speaker of parliament is likely to go to Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni member of al-Iraqiya, who, along with his brother, controls the northern city of Mosul. Kamran Karadaghi, a veteran Kurdish journalist and a former chief of staff for President Talabani, said: "I expect Talabani to be President, Maliki to be Prime Minister and Nujaifi Speaker of parliament."

He added that American pressure on the Kurds to give up the presidency to the Sunni had been deeply resented and counter-productive; the Kurds have been closely allied with the US.

Private talks between Mr Maliki and Sunni leaders were happening yesterday afternoon, but the Prime Minister appears certain of re-appointment.

Mr Attiyah said: "It is unbelievable how he has won the support of all those, like the Kurds, Sadrists, Iranians and others who wanted to get rid of him after the election."

His main strength has probably been that there was no obvious candidate on the Shia side able to replace him. Iran has outmanoeuvred the US in shaping the new government to its own liking.

Along with its ally, Syria, Iran has shown flexibility in dropping its earlier opposition to Mr Maliki and persuading the followers of the nationalist Shia cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, who did well in the Iraqi election, to do the same. It thereby reunited the Shia coalition which, with the Kurds, has ruled Iraq since 2005. The only Shia party left out is the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, once seen as an Iranian pawn.

PS:So what has the Iraq War been worth for the US apart from looting Iraq of its treasures of antiquity and vast amounts of oil? Moderate Sunni Saddam has been replaced by a pro-Iranian faction.The US which once supported Saddam to the hilt against Iran have scored one of the most most spectacular own goals in history,virtually handing over rhe country to the nation they oppse the most in the region! In the process,defining the limits of US/Western military power-pointing to another spectacular own goal about to happen in Afghanistan and disgracing the reputation of the US's armed forces thanks to the numerous war crimes so meticulously exposed and documented (Wikileaks and others say that pics and clips of US troops murdering,raping and torturing Iraqis have been destroyed or concealed because of the outrage they would create globally) that rank along with Nazi atrocities and others committed in WW2.In Iraq there was no neccessity to set up secret gas chambers,collateral damage mattered little as the open destruction of Fallujah showed and the festering sore on the US's reputation,Camp Gitmo.Secret concentration camps were set up however in friendly countries,with suspects being taken to them through secret CIA rendition flights.
Obama the latter-day Mess-iah will lead US trops ina glorious retreat from Iraq before he demits office in order to try and get re-elected,as ther man who "ended" the Iraq War much as Nixon "ended" the Vietnam War.Whether he can also escape from AFghanistan is the moot Q.

[Airavat]

Will Iraq become an Iranian satellite?

At immediate issue is whether Iraq’s Shiite-led government will ask Washington to leave behind 10,000 or so soldiers of the 47,000 troops now there, instead of completing a full withdrawal by the end of this year. The larger question is whether Iraq will be forced by a full U.S. pullout to become an Iranian satellite, a development that would undo a huge and painful investment of American blood and treasure and deal a potentially devastating blow to the larger U.S. position in the Middle East.

Iranian-backed militias are already stepping up attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces with sophisticated rockets and roadside bombs; without U.S. help, Iraqi forces cannot easily counter them. Moreover, Iraq’s conventional forces are no match for those of Iran. Alternatively, Iraq could use its burgeoning oil revenue to rush to construct an army and air force capable of countering Tehran. But either development would be regarded as a strategic threat by Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states.

The only Obama administration official who has publicly made the case for a continued U.S. military presence is former defense secretary Robert M. Gates. In a speech in May, he said it would send “a powerful signal to the region that we’re not leaving, that we will continue to play a part.” He added: “I think it would be reassuring to the Gulf states. I think it would not be reassuring to Iran, and that’s a good thing.”

[Philip]

The latest serial blasts aimed at the Shites,literally sends into smithereens the US's great gameplan for that country.It has failed miserably to bring about a peace through its illegal invasion and overthrow and execution of Saddam.All that the US has created in Iraq is a division and war between Sunnis and Shites,sent back Iraq into the stone age by the dstruction of its infrastructure and institutions and the creation of thousands of Islamist extremists and suicide bombers.In addition,it has gvien Iran immense political space in Iraq .What a change in that country's fortunes whose citizens must be wondering whether they were beter off with a repressive dictator like Saddam,who however allowed a liberal ,relatively secular Iraq ,free from Islamist extremism to flourish.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/au ... ast-deaths

Iraq bomb blasts across 13 cities leave dozens dead

Synchronised explosions in mostly Shia Muslim areas kill at least 74 and injure 250, undermining planned US troop withdrawal

The bombs were detonated in largely Shia Muslim areas of the country. Casualties were mostly Shia-led security forces. A Sunni extremist group, the al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq, was blamed.

A jihadist site praised the attacks and said they targeted "Shi'ites, Christians and the apostate awakening councils", in reference to the US-backed Sunni groups who turned on al-Qaida in 2007.

In total, 13 bombs exploded. Many were apparently detonated by suicide bombers. If so, this would further undermine Iraqi and US military claims that al-Qaida and its Iraqi jihadist groups are a spent force after almost a decade of war.

[krishnan]

Didnt known where to post this

http://news.yahoo.com/spy-games-come-yo ... 30927.html

Preparation for these operations can take months. The stakes can be high. And the General Assembly can provide the perfect backdrop for such an operation as journalists and diplomats flood the city.

Prior to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the CIA had been enticing high-level Iraqi officials to defect. One such target was Naji Sabri, Iraq's foreign minister. The White House was hoping he would do it in a dramatic way at the General Assembly.

First, though, the CIA had to feel out Sabri to see whether he truly intended to betray Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The CIA needed a cutout, or middleman, a person who could introduce the CIA to Sabri and then walk away plenty richer for doing the job, according to CIA officers familiar with the operation and previously published accounts.

In September 2002, Sabri flew to New York, where the CIA had arranged a meeting with a former foreign journalist who had since moved to France. The journalist, who had provided information to French intelligence in the past, acted as the middleman for an initial $250,000, the former CIA officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss intelligence matters publicly.

But the CIA also had to see whether it could trust the journalist who had claimed he was friendly with Sabri but who was also looking for a big payday of up to $1 million. The CIA relied upon the FBI for this and its extensive eavesdropping capability. When the journalist called Sabri at the Iraq Mission at the U.N., the FBI was listening.

With the FBI's help, the CIA learned Sabri did, in fact, know the journalist. Sabri was handed a list of carefully crafted questions about Saddam's nuclear weapons program.

Sabri answered each question. He said Saddam had never possessed fissile material. There had been stockpiles of chemical weapons but Saddam had destroyed them. The CIA believed that Sabri's responses indicated he had been truthful. His answers were given to President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

[abhischekcc]

In answer to my own question,media reports now say that the US will have a "permanent" presence in Iraq,with "60,000" US "advisers" in secured military bases-whcih will no doubt be required to continue to steal all Iraq's oil,plus ..."200,000" mercenaries,the so-called "contractors",rather "contract killers" like a mafia in militia unform to rule the country! THese figures show how by employing mercenary murderers,the US plans to dominate the globe in every hotspot,thus avoiding any responsibility for the acts of these killers,who act outside the normal rules of engagement,employing every dirty trick in the book to sujugate the natives.So much for the moral; "high" standards of the US,whose entire foreign policy has never sunk so low since Hiroshima.

Philip, US is not part of the Geneva Convention.

All the countries in the west (except US) are part of the Geneva Convention. So, when they need to rob other countries, they use the hired gun of the west - the US, which is completely free of any legal obligations regarding war. This is trick that the west has played on the rest. They all share the benefits of the robbery, but they pretend that they are law abiding citizens of the world.

[Philip]

So the Yanqus have slunk out of Iraq,tails between their legs,without any grand triumphal march,bands-a-playing,flags-a-fluttering;no "Victory" parade back home in the good old US of A,so what was it all worth,the invasion of Iraq on the pretext of lies about Saddam's WMDs ?

The motive,quite clear now,gaining control of Iraq's oil welath,exterminating Saddam and rendering his huge arsenal of conventional waeapons imptent.The main gainer has been Israel,with one less anti-Israeli Arab dictator to deal with,but who hs actually won?What about all the ype of bringing democracy to Iraq? The country is in the stone age.Services almost zero,they were frankly far better off with Saddam and the country is ow ridden with sectarian strife as this latest orgy of synchronised bomb blasts indicate.Moreover,The Shiites are now in the acsndency and look more so eah day to Iran for support and succour.In remopving a "secular" Saddam,the Yaquis hve given us a Iraq in the future to eb beholden to Shiite Iran! The ery same Iran who tweaked the nose o an American President and blackened his eye.History may yet repeat iself.

The "fireworks" that signalled the end of US occupation in Iraq!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 80773.html

Scores killed in multiple bomb attacks in Baghdad
One day, 16 bomb attacks, as country is torn apart by sectarian strife

Xcpt:

A wave of orchestrated bombings sent plumes of smoke into the air across Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 72 people and injuring more than 200 in the worst violence for months.

There is a growing sense of a sectarian crisis in Iraq as the Shia Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki tries to arrest his own Sunni Vice-President on charges of running death squads. The threat of escalating sectarian warfare is deepened by the fear among the Iraqi Shia elite that the Arab Awakening movement is turning into an anti-Shia crusade led by Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The most deadly of yesterday's bomb attacks came when a suicide bomber driving an ambulance packed with explosives persuaded police to let him through their checkpoint because he was on an emergency call. He blew himself up outside a government anti-corruption agency in the mainly Shia district of Karada, killing at least 35 people and injuring 62.

"We heard the sound of a car driving, then car brakes, then a huge explosion. All our windows and doors are blown out, black smoke filled our apartment," said Maysoun Kamal, a resident.

Fourteen bombings yesterday morning were followed by a further two last night. They were largely directed at Shia civilians, indicating that after eight-and-a-half years of such attacks, government security agencies have failed to break up insurgent cells. An intelligence agency director told The Independent: "The problem is that Iraqi security only reacts to events and has no long-term strategy."

Two of the attacks were roadside bombs in the south-west Amil district, that killed seven people and wounded 21 others. A car bomb in a Shia part of Doura in the south of the city killed three and wounded several more.

Such is the legacy of sectarian hatred in Baghdad that it does not take much to raise fears that "ID card" killings based on religious identity might resume.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the bombings bore all the hallmarks of al-Qa'ida's Sunni insurgents. Most appeared to hit Shia neighbourhoods. In all, 11 districts were hit by cars bombs and roadside blasts.

It is extremely difficult to prevent bombings in a city of five million people when the targets are often Shia street-sellers or children. In recent months the government has reduced the number of checkpoints and taken down some of the concrete blast walls that separate Shia and Sunni neighbourhoods. There are few mixed areas left in the city since the sectarian slaughter of 2006 and 2007 though a few people have gone back to their old districts. Baghdad today is very much a Shia city.

The deadly upsurge in violence comes only days after the withdrawal of the last US troops, who once numbered 170,000 in Iraq. The Americans have provided little in the way of security since since 2009 and were unable to prevent a bloody Sunni-Shia sectarian civil war. But there is no doubt that the US withdrawal has had a serious psychological impact because many Iraqis feel the US helped defuse differences between Shia, Sunni and Kurds.

The violence and political crisis provoked by the arrest warrant for Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi are particularly destabilising because of the escalating Sunni-Shia confrontation across the Muslim world. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Sunni states have backed the ruling Sunni dynasty in Bahrain in crushing pro-democracy protests by the Shia majority. Saudi Arabia and Turkey are both seeking an end to the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, where the Shia heterodox sect, the Alawites, have dominated for more than 40 years.

The Iraqi Prime Minister has a reputation for being paranoid about plots against his government and may have overreacted to an alleged assassination attempt against him late last month. But the Shia leadership in Iraq, which came to power in an election in 2005, is openly worried that triumphant Sunni Islamists in Syria would give aid to the Iraqi Sunni and provoke a fresh insurgency. The arrest of former Baath party members in Iraq and the dismissal of Sunni officers shows the edginess of the Shia leadership. In practice, it is in little danger because the Shia dominate the officer corps and reportedly make up more than 90 per cent of senior officials in the Defence and Interior ministries. Mr Maliki commands 900,000 soldiers and police, and oil revenues will reach an estimated $100bn this year.

His bid to arrest Mr Hashemi, who has taken refuge in Kurdistan, may backfire. "The Kurds have no interest in handing him over," said a local leader. "They know that if either the Shia or the Sunni dominate in Iraq it will be bad for the Kurds."

[brihaspati]

Looking from the "realpolitik" "everything is national interest onlee" viewpoint:
(1) if supposedly USA has managed to flare up a Shia-Sunni fight in Iraq, giving rise to "Islamic extremists" [implying that there are Islamic pacifists - contradicting Khomeini's speech about Islam not being a pacifist religion, and same goes for all the Sufi "pacifists" and their Sunni critiques - like Tayimyia or Gazali - all of whom declared violent jihad to be an integral part of Islam] - then USA has opened up another front inside Islamism whereby the Islamists get engaged in fighting each other in a factional fight.
(2) ensure that oil revenues are not diverted into "development" that settles the fighters down - but goes into reviving the arms industry, as well as keep the fighters engaged on the borders of Iran
(3) Islamists have a new cause to fight for away from the theatres from which USA wants to withdraw - as in AFPak.
(4) provide umpteen future opportunities to spill the fighting over into an Iran-Iraq war.

Win-win onlee!

[Philip]

Very possible.Remember the British secret operatives who got caught in mufti with bombs to be let off in Iraq? The manner in which they were rescued saw that the full details of the seedy and malevolent undercurrents of the US invasions remain hidden.The CIA is a past master at false flag terror ops.Nothing better than seeing a country destroy itself from within.However,eventually,the locals will discover the truth and learn to live with each other...after much bloodletting though.It requires a new strong local leadership that can rise above petty sectarian interests to emerge.In Iraq right now,the main leadership one gets is from the mosque and the mullahs.The Sunni and Shiite religious leaders must work together to prevent the country from being ripped into two warring religious factions,which is what the retreating invaders dearly want to see happen.

[brihaspati]

Philip ji,
somehow, the fight is so old - its almost between two different cultures. Its the persian against the mesopotamian fighting to demarcate their frontiers. They chose different interpretations of the same root faith - simply to maintain their previous distinctions. it will never be solved within the framework of a single country. Especially since the tactic of the region seems to have been to deliberatley orchestrate such depths of atrocities and trauma - that in the future no one from the two sides would be psychologically capable of crossing the bridge.

Its deliberately done. So the two will not be able to meet, unless the very cultural basis of both change to a common one. Perhaps that is the long term goal of the west. But even perhaps the replacement model has suffered from the same disease. Splits and schisms have always been adopted even within the replacement model - to preserve pre-existing claims of distinction.

[Philip]

Bri,therefore the west wants a return to tribalism of yore in the Arab world,with all its internecine bloodletting,squandering its oil wealth on acquiring military hardware,bought from western suppliers of course! As it grows less dependent upon Arab oil (through shale oil production in N.Am),it will be easier to control the states of the region through aggressive eco/mil aid diplomacy ,thna by putting "boots" on the ground.The point about the state of Iraq is true,it was a western invention,but under Baathist rule over decades acquired its own unique identity as a moderate secular Arab state that could hold its own against Iran,and the regions' oil majors.