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Day-by-day stories about the Occupation

  

 

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DECEMBER 2003

 

Day 245: December 31, 2003

 

Hawks tell Bush how to win war on terror
David Rennie, Daily Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/12/31/wcons31.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/12/31/ixportaltop.html
President George W Bush was sent a public manifesto yesterday by Washington's hawks, demanding regime change in Syria and Iran and a Cuba-style military blockade of
North Korea backed by planning for a pre-emptive strike on its nuclear sites.  The manifesto, presented as a "manual for victory" in the war on terror, also calls for Saudi Arabia and
France to be treated not as allies but as rivals and possibly enemies.  The manifesto is contained in a new book by Richard Perle, a Pentagon adviser and "intellectual guru" of the hardline neo-conservative movement, and David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter. They give warning of a faltering of the "will to win" in Washington.  In the battle for the president's ear, the manifesto represents an attempt by hawks to break out of the post-Iraq doldrums and strike back at what they see as a campaign of hostile leaking by their foes in such centres of caution as the State Department or in the military top brass.  Their publication, An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror, coincided with the latest broadside from the hawks' enemy number one, Colin Powell, the secretary of state.  read more

 

Day 244: December 30, 2003

 

Their Photos Tell the Story

Jimmy Breslin, Newsday

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/columnists/ny-nybres303605595dec30,0,1839774.column?coll=ny-ny-columnists

The Army Times, a civilian newspaper that is sold mainly on military bases and thus reaches the prime wartime audience, uses eight pages of its year-end review, out now, to run photos of all those who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, except 35.  I usually don't refer to other publications, for I have enough trouble with my own. But this issue of the Army Times is so extraordinary and gives hope that it will provide some leadership in the news industry.

There were 506 killed by the time the newspaper closed last Friday. Since then, another seven have died. The newspaper has said this is the deadliest year for the U.S. military since 1972, when 640 were killed in Vietnam.  read more

 

Day 243: December 29, 2003

 

US offers $1m each for Iraq's 12 most wanted
Washington throws more cash into the battle against Iraq's increasingly successful resistance fighters
Luke Harding, The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1113503,00.html 
The US sought to regain the initiative in its battle with the increasingly well-organized Iraqi resistance last night by announcing $1m (£560,000) rewards for 12 of Saddam Hussein's closest allies still on the run. Officials of the coalition provisional authority in Baghdad said the money would be paid to anybody who gave information that led to their death or capture.

read more
 

US soldiers killed in Iraq
Baghdad blasts occurred in a busy shopping district

Al Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/13864310-805A-4767-A84F-53D8E878E1DE.htm 

Baghdad blasts occurred in busy shopping district

A roadside bomb explosion in Falluja has killed one US occupation soldier and wounded three others, following twin blasts in Baghdad in which another soldier and three Iraqi children were killed. In a statement, the US occupation forces said the soldier was killed when a roadside bomb was detonated as their convoy drove near the town west of Baghdad.   Earlier, in the town of Arbil, the deputy security chief of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the former rebel faction ruling Arbil, was wounded and his three bodyguards killed in an ambush outside his home, police said on Sunday.

 read more 

 

Army Stops Many Soldiers From Quitting

Orders Extend Enlistments to Curtail Troop Shortages.

Lee Hockstader, The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36979-2003Dec28.html

Chief Warrant Officer Ronald Eagle, an expert on enemy targeting, served 20 years in the military -- 10 years of active duty in the Air Force, another 10 in the West Virginia National Guard. Then he decided enough was enough. He owned a promising new aircraft- maintenance business, and it needed his attention. His retirement date was set for last February.

Staff Sgt. Justin Fontaine, a generator mechanic, enrolled in the Massachusetts National Guard out of high school and served nearly nine years. In preparation for his exit date last March, he turned in his field gear -- his rucksack and web belt, his uniforms and canteen.  Staff Sgt. Peter G. Costas, an interrogator in an intelligence unit, joined the Army Reserve in 1991, extended his enlistment in 1999 and then re- upped for three years in 2000. Costas, a U.S. Border Patrol officer in Texas, was due to retire from the reserves in last May.  read more

 

Day 242: December 28, 2003

 

KARBALA BODYCOUNT CLIMBS TO 19

Al Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6B62D8F8-61F7-46B2-AA09-663CF229901C.htm 

Bulgarian troops serve in the Polish-led division in Karbala

Five Iraqis and a Bulgarian soldier injured in Saturday's wave of attacks in Karbala, have died in hospital, bringing to 19 the number of people killed in the bomb and mortar blitz.  Four Bulgarian and two Thai soldiers, as well as seven Iraqis, were killed instantly. At least 30 occupation troops in the Polish-led force and more than 130 Iraqis were also reportedly wounded in the coordinated attacks in which four car bombs exploded.   read more

 

Violence claims more Iraqi, coalition lives; US said scaling down Iraq plans
AFP

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/031228/1/3gxfh.html 
A bomb blast killed a US soldier and two Iraqi children in Baghdad, a day after a rebel assault left 12 Iraqis and seven coalition soldiers dead and scores wounded in the Shiite holy city of Karbala.  A top Kurdish security official was also wounded in an ambush that killed three bodyguards in a continuing upsurge in violence, coinciding with reports that the United States has scaled down ambitious plans to build a new Iraq.  Two Iraqi children were killed, along with a US soldier, in the bomb blast in the capital Sunday morning, a US military spokesman told AFP.  Five soldiers, one Iraqi interpreter and eight Iraqi Civil Defense Corps members were also wounded.  The latest US fatality raised to 210 the number of American soldiers killed in action since US President George W. Bush declared major hostilities in Iraq over on May 1.  read more

 

Day 241: December 27, 2003

 

U.S. Decisions On Iraq Spending Made in Private
By Jackie Spinner and Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post Staff Writers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33237-2003Dec26.html?referrer=email 
Iraqis spooked by rumors of a fuel shortage were hoarding the precious commodity, inadvertently causing exactly what they feared. Officials in charge of oil for the U.S.-led occupation government in Baghdad were worried that there would be riots if they didn't do something to improve the situation fast. And so on Nov. 29, they went to Saddam Hussein's former presidential palace and sought help. By nightfall, they had received an emergency allotment of $425 million to import fuel from neighboring countries. Although it didn't solve what appears to be a chronic fuel shortage, it did help avert a crisis. read more
 

Resistance takes the offensive
Luke Harding, The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1112951,00.html 
Resistance forces in Iraq have begun their biggest offensive since Saddam Hussein's capture two weeks ago, killing at least four US soldiers by mortar and bomb attacks.
A roadside bomb killed one soldier and injured another early yesterday in a convoy near Baquba, about 40 miles north of Baghdad. A second soldier was killed trying to defuse a bomb outside the town. Two other US soldiers died in a Christmas Day mortar attack on a camp near Baquba. Two Polish soldiers were injured during a guerrilla ambush in southern Iraq yesterday.  The attacks followed a three-day attempt by US troops in Baghdad to wipe out resistance in the city. read more

 

Day 240: December 26, 2003

 

Deaths Mount on Both Sides on Christmas Day in Iraq
by Robert Fisk, the Independent
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1226-02.htm 
How the artillery thundered. How the jets roared. How the machine-gun fire vibrated in the night. If the Americans were playing Santa to children on the streets of Baghdad yesterday, they were playing "Operation Iron Hammer" much more seriously. "We cannot comment on ongoing military operations," an American military spokeswoman said. Even the operation kept changing its name ­ from "Iron Grip" to "Iron Justice", now Iron Hammer. Much more obvious was the insurgents' own little operation in the center of the capital. First they fired rockets into the palace from which the United States proconsul, Paul Bremer, and his officials rule Iraq. Then gunmen fired mortars at the Sheraton hotel, the prestigious, Baathist-constructed pile in which American businessmen, journalists and occupation authorities like to sleep. In the 24 hours up to midday on Christmas Day, four more American soldiers were killed, three by a roadside bomb near Samarra, which US forces hoped they had pacified after a series of aggressive raids last week, and another by a bomb in Baghdad. Four Iraqis, including a 13-year-old girl, were killed by a suicide bomber in his car who detonated explosives outside a Kurdish office in Arbil, while another two civilians were killed in Baghdad by a bomb apparently intended for an American patrol. At the Baghdad city mortuary, the medical director, Dr Faik Amin Bakr, told me that up to 20 dead, all of them Iraqis and most of them victims of violence, had been received on Christmas Day morning. The occupying powers here only keep a daily count of westerners who have been killed. Strangely none of the bodies at the Baghdad morgue yesterday were brought in from the area of Khor Rajab, the Rajab Marshes, which were supposed to have been the center of America's overnight anti-guerrilla raids. A drive through the slums and dirt fields along Highway 8 south of the city showed why. Highway 8 from Baghdad to Hillah is a dangerous dual carriageway, scene of the murder of Spanish intelligence officers, Red Cross personnel and other westerners. It's also been the location of several attacks on US bases south of the capital. But yesterday afternoon, there was little to be seen of the overnight battle save some churned up fields and a fortress where US troops were firing blank shells from heavy artillery pieces. "The Americans were attacked twice from the fields," a tea-vendor said at his shack beside the highway. "They shot the place up later but didn't kill a soul. The men with the mortars had left long before."  read more
 

Antiwar Family's Conflict
Fervent peace activists sort through complex emotions as they mourn a son killed in Iraq. He died a hero, they say -- a parents' contradiction
by Tomas Alex Tizon, Los Angeles Times
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1226-02.htm 
KENT, Wash. — Joe Colgan glances at it almost every time he walks into his bedroom: a cardboard box sitting inconspicuously in a corner. It's a care package he had prepared for his son Ben.  Inside are items Ben requested: a couple of books, pistachios, canned salmon, beef jerky and a big bag of candy from Costco. Ben liked to pass out candy to children in the street. Joe assembled the package on Nov. 1, not knowing that on the same day, 6,800 miles away in Baghdad, Ben, a second lieutenant in the Army, would be killed by a roadside bomb. Ben Colgan holds his daughter Page as his wife, Jill, holds their other daughter, Grace. Jill gave birth to their third daughter on December 19th.More than a month and a half later, Joe still doesn't know what to do with the box. "I know I should give it away," he says, "but I can't seem to let it go yet." The grief is still settling, like a slow sinking to the bottom of the ocean, and somehow, for Joe, the package is something to hold on to. In the midst of their anguish, Joe and Patricia Colgan have clung tightly to one other thing: the idea that their son Ben died a hero. read more
 

US bombs Baghdad for third night
Al Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B29A3C28-4B0F-46DD-9648-D94F8E272BA2.htm 

US Bombs fall in Baghdad on Christmas

Christmas day ended in Baghdad the way it started-with bombs.  US-led occupation forces have bombed Baghdad for the third consecutive night as resistance fighters have lobbed at least three mortar bombs into the vicinity of the US-led occupying administration headquarters.  US forces attacked what they say is a suspected resistance fighter hideout in the outskirts of Baghdad on Thursday night.  Military officials said they launched "offensive operations" involving ground and air units. It was part of Operation Iron Grip, aimed at stamping out resistance fighters in the capital. The resistance in Baghdad is the widest in scale since the 13 December capture of ousted leader Saddam Hussein.  Meanwhile, there was no immediate word of casualties after bombs struck the US headquarters in central Baghdad. Warning sirens blared in the huge facility shortly after the attack.   The night attack came 17 hours after resistance fighters fired more than a dozen rockets and mortar bombs in central Baghdad, hitting the vicinity of the US headquarters, two hotels occupied by Westerners, two embassies and an apartment bloc.

read more 

 

Day 239: December 25, 2003

 

Early morning attacks hit Baghdad Sheraton

Al Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5435FE9D-CE4E-48D2-AF10-0AFF208F8CAF.htm 

The Sheraton was targeted in a 21 November attack

Insurgents have carried out mortar attacks in and around the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. There have been no immediate reports of casualties.  The US military and employees of the Sheraton Hotel, said the building was hit early on Thursday. Five or six mortars or rockets were fired said a military official. The military also announced that a US soldier was killed on Wednesday night in a roadside bombing in Baghdad. Earlier the same day three US troops were killed in a similar attack in the north central town of Samarra and four Iraqi civilians were killed in a suicide bombing in the town of Arbil.  In Baghdad on Thursday AFP reporters heard blasts, which started at 6:20am (03;20 GMT), and lasted for about 10 minutes, laced with a barrage of automatic gunfire. A few more explosions were heard after 07:00, but sounded more like heavy weapons fire. An explosion shook the capital's Sheraton Hotel on Wednesday night, but much confusion surrounded the origin of the blast.  US occupation forces said it was unclear if the blast was part of the ongoing US "military operation" code named "Iron Grip".  It was not known if anyone was injured in the blast.  read more

 

Day 238: December 24, 2003

 

New theory for Iraq's missing WMD: Saddam was fooled into thinking he had them
Richard Norton-Taylor and Julian Borger, The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1112467,00.html 
British officials are circulating a story that Saddam Hussein may have been hoodwinked into believing that Iraq really did possess weapons of mass destruction.
The theory, which is doing the rounds in the upper reaches of Whitehall, is the result of an attempt to find what one official source called a "logical reason" why no chemical and biological weapons had been found in Iraq. According to the theory, Saddam and his senior advisers and commanders were told by lower-ranking Iraqi officers that his forces were equipped with usable chemical and biological weapons. read more

 

Rumsfeld backed Saddam even after chemical attacks
Andrew Buncombe, The Independent

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=475931 

Fresh controversy about

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein greets Donald Rumsfeld on December 20, 1983.

Donald Rumsfeld's personal dealings with Saddam Hussein was provoked yesterday by new documents that reveal he went to Iraq to show America's support for the regime despite its use of chemical weapons.  The formerly secret documents reveal the Defence Secretary travelled to Baghdad 20 years ago to assure Iraq that America's condemnation of its use of chemical weapons was made "strictly" in principle.  The criticism in no way changed Washington's wish to support Iraq in its war against Iran and "to improve bi-lateral relations ... at a pace of Iraq's choosing".  Earlier this year, Mr Rumsfeld and other members of the Bush administration regularly cited Saddam's willingness to use chemical weapons against his own people as evidence of the threat presented to the rest of the world.  Senior officials presented the attacks against the Kurds - particularly the notorious attack in Halabja in 1988 - as a justification for the invasion and the ousting of Saddam.  read more

 

 

Day 237: December 23, 2003

 

U.S. Officials in Iraq Learn to Adapt to Local Rules
Rajiv Chandrasekaran Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22767-2003Dec22.html 

Keith Mines at work in Ramadi

Keith Mines, a 6-foot-5 Colorado native who is responsible for administering western Iraq, faced a choice. He could follow the rules and lose an ally, or make an exception to make a friend in one of Iraq's most hostile Sunni Muslim neighborhoods.  The recent capture of ousted president Saddam Hussein has intensified debate in Baghdad and Washington about how to reach out to Iraq's Sunnis, a minority that dominated Hussein's Baath Party. The answer might be found here.  read more

 

Day 236: December 22, 2003

 

The Two Troublemakers
Kathy Kelly, ElectronicIraq.net

http://electroniciraq.net/news/1278.shtml 
Last evening, in Amman, we met with Fadi Elayyan and Jihad Tahboub, two Palestinian young men who were imprisoned for two months, without charge, by US Occupying forces who seized them, in Baghdad, on April 10, 2003.  They are trying to help four of their companions who are still held by the US military, presumably in a prison compound at Umm Qasr, in southern Iraq. “On April 10, the US Marines kidnapped us,” Jihad began in a matter of fact tone. “We were students, and we stayed in Baghdad during the war because we did not want to give up our studies or leave our friends. The Marines wanted to occupy our building because it is high and gives a good view of the area. ”  read more

 

Occupation forces detain Iraqi scientists
ArabicNews.com

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/031222/2003122216.html

The Iraqi higher education Minister Ziad Abdul Razzaq al-Aswad said that the American occupation forces detained four days ago three Iraqi scientists from the technological university in Baghdad, and they are being subjected to intensive investigations relating to Iraq's mass destruction weapons during the rule of the toppled Iraqi regime.  The minister explained that the three detainees are teachers taken by force from the university, and that the ministry of higher education and scientific researches sent complaints to the Governing Council. The first includes a denunciation from the ministry over violating the sovereignty of the university and detaining its teaching staff, and the second includes adding the subject of protecting teachers in the agenda of the cabinet, and ensuring immunity to them, and preventing their detention.  read more

 

Kurds demand Kirkuk And payback for helping oust Saddam Hussein
Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/146C13BE-A17B-492F-B234-E89C9914EFE2.htm 
 

Kurds Rally on Monday for control of Kirkuk

Thousands of Iraqi Kurds gathered in Kirkuk on Monday to demand inclusion of the northern oil centre in a future autonomous Kurdish region.  "Kirkuk, Kirkuk, heart of Kurdistan," they chanted in the city centre. "We demand federalism for Kurdistan". It was the biggest demonstration in Kirkuk, 300 kilometres north of Baghdad, since the Baath regime fell on 9 April. Kirkuk lies south of the three provinces ruled by Kurdish rebel factions in defiance of Saddam Hussein and is populated with Arabs and Turkmen as well as Kurds.  read more

 

Baghdad attack kills two US soldiers

Al Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/508806E2-71E2-4E84-91F3-B49E6AA7925D.htm 

The number of US forces casualties continues to mount

A roadside bomb has killed two US soldiers in Baghdad hours after troops arrested a former Iraqi general accusing him of recruiting resistance fighters.  The blast that ripped through a military convoy in the late morning also killed an Iraqi interpreter and wounded two other soldiers, the US military said on Monday.  The military deaths, the first in five days, brought to 202 the number of US soldiers killed by hostile fire since Washington declared major combat over in Iraq on 1 May. Earlier, the US military admitted an Iraqi woman had been killed on Sunday as American occupation forces rounded up scores of people in a continuing crackdown in the Sunni heartlands of Iraq. read more

 

Civilian Violence in Iraq Up Sharply Since Hussein's Capture
Tom Lasseter, Knight-Ritter

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1222-01.htm 
Violence against Iraqi civilians worsened in the week following former dictator Saddam Hussein's capture, and many Iraqis and American occupiers are worried about where it's headed.  Although many of those attacked were political and religious leaders or former leaders, it's also unclear who's pulling the triggers or why.  "It is like a civil war between these factions," said Hassan al Ani, a political scientist at Baghdad University. "Iraq now is a case study in transition; to what, we don't know. Maybe to democracy, maybe to chaos."  read more

 

In New Iraq, Sunnis Fear a Grim Future
Once Dominant, Minority Feels Besieged

Anthony Shadid  Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20116-2003Dec21.html

Prayer service in Baghdad

"The future? What's the future?" asked one of the guards, Ammar Abu Nour Quds. "We don't have any future." Of the emotions unleashed by Hussein's arrest, the darkest were those that gripped the country's Sunni minority, of which Hussein was a member. As a new Iraq unfolds, with Hussein's arrest the latest milestone, they are on the inside looking out -- a community besieged, leaderless and relentless in its refusal to accept the eight-month U.S. occupation.   read more
 

Iraqi fuel facilities attacked
Civilians are struggling to obtain fuel and cooking gas

Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/99701C38-4D31-42DB-AFD4-D302B350A507.htm

fuel and cooking gas are in short supply for civilians in iraq

An oil pumping station in northern Iraq and pipelines carrying crude to refineries have come under attack, exacerbating the fuel shortage facing ordinary Iraqis.  Unidentified attackers fired mortar shells on Sunday night at the pumping station 25km west of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk which feeds the internal and export pipeline network to Turkey and Syria, said Abd al-Karim al-Juburi, a security official. Iraqi police also said they arrested four Iraqis who planned to launch a rocket attack against US occupation forces based at Kirkuk airport and to blow up a giant fuel reservoir near Iraq's largest refinery at Baiji, 180km north of Baghdad. read more

 

Day 235: December 21, 2003

 

Iraqi dialogue descends to murder
Philip Smucker, the Scotsman

http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1397292003
SINCE the arrest of Saddam Hussein, pro-Saddam Sunni mobs and celebrating Shia crowds have clashed repeatedly in this city of several hundred thousand, divided almost evenly between the world’s two largest Islamic groupings. read more

 

Day 234: December 20, 2003

Power Outages Generating Anger in Iraq
Mark MacKinnon, Globe and Mail

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1220-06.htm 
Nobody bats an eyelash when the power goes out at 10:30 p.m. at the al-Fanar restaurant in central Baghdad. It's pitch black, but diners continue their conversations uninterrupted. read more

US troops kill pro-Saddam protestors
Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/95ED81B1-8514-4B24-9C0F-5CF20E006BA0.htm 
Ulama groups say troops opened fire indiscriminately on crowd.  Four Iraqis were killed in a Sunni district of Baghdad earlier this week during an exchange of fire with US troops who tried to quell a pro-Saddam demonstration, US and Iraqi sources have said. A number of American soldiers were also wounded in the 15 December incident, a senior US officer said on Saturday without giving an exact figure.  "US troops opened fire indiscriminately on a spontaneous demonstration..."   read more

 

Day 233: December 19, 2003

 

Is the search for weapons over?
After eight months with no discoveries, mission chief quits; Fewer than 40 of the 1,400 inspectors still in the field; As attacks on US military grow, WMD hunt no longer a priority

The Independent

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=474598 
After eight months of fruitless search, George Bush has in effect washed his hands of the hunt for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, in whose name the United States and Britain went to war last March.  David Kay, the CIA adviser who headed the US-led search for WMD, is to quit, before submitting his assessment to the US President in February.  The departure of Mr Kay, a strong believer in the case for toppling Saddam Hussein because of his alleged weapons, comes as a particular embarrassment to Tony Blair. This week he maintained that Mr Kay had uncovered "massive evidence" of a network of WMD laboratories.  read more

 

Baghdad blast hits main Shia group
Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2030F223-DA03-4C39-8350-10D29090D5D6.htm
An explosion has ripped through an office of Iraq's main Shia Muslim political body, killing at least one woman and wounding two men in Baghdad.  An explosive device detonated at about 5:00am (02:00 GMT) on Friday, destroying an information office of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), Aljazeera's correspondent reported.  The dead woman is believed to be the aunt of a security guard, whose family live in the building.  read more

 

Day 232: December 18, 2003

 

US soldier dies in Baghdad, 199th since 'End of Combat'

Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C03620D9-F511-4187-9851-7815675E8C84.htm

Over 2200 US soldiers have been seriously wounded in Iraq

A US soldier was killed in an overnight attack in central Baghdad, the 199th to die since Washington declared major combat over on 1 May.  A military spokesman for the First Armoured Division said the ambush took place in the al-Karrada district at around 22:30 (19:30 GMT) on Wednesday.  A second soldier and an interpreter were also wounded after resistance fighters targeted the Taskforce 1 convoy, bringing the number of US wounded to 2200.  With US-led occupation forces under constant threat, a partner in Japan's coalition government may face problems in finalising plans to send troops to Iraq. read more

 

Day 231: December 17, 2003

 

Iraq resistance attacks continue
Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C2CC8AFB-E4CB-4901-96C1-927E9E7C4A52.htm
One Iraqi civilian has been killed and another injured when US occupation forces opened fire in Samarra City.   The death follows a resistance attack on Tuesday. Medical sources at the city's hospital told Aljazeera they had received the body of one dead person and were treating another person for injuries sustained when occupation troops opened fire.   read more 
 

Day 230: December 16, 2003

 

Annan Wants Quick Creation of Iraq Gov't
EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031216/ap_on_re_mi_ea/un_iraq&cid=540&ncid=716
Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed hope that Saddam

Time for the U.N. to play a role in Iraq?

Hussein's capture will accelerate the establish-ment of a transitional government in Iraq (news - web sites), but he said the United Nations (news - web sites) could not support bringing the former dictator before a tribunal that might sentence him to death.
The capture "is a positive development because Saddam Hussein has cast a rather long shadow over developments and over the transition process," Annan said Monday. "With his capture, that shadow has been removed." Annan stressed that any trial for Saddam must meet international standards and he reiterated the United Nations' longstanding opposition to the death penalty in any U.N.-sanctioned tribunal. read more

 

 

Day 229: December 15, 2003

 

Saddam not heading insurgency
US says there is little evidence Saddam controlled resistance
Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C47A8269-85EA-4EAE-ADCE-9B54AF438B9A.htm
A US official has conceded that the manner and circumstances of Saddam Hussein's arrest makes it unlikely he was directing resistance forces in Iraq.  US forces who captured a

US says there is little evidence Saddam controlled resistance

haggard on Saturday 13 December Saddam found no communi-cations equipment, maps or other evidence of a guerrilla command center at Saddam's hiding place.   "Given the location and circumstances of his capture, it makes it clear that Saddam was not managing the insurgency, and that he had very little control or influence.   "That is significant and disturbing because it means the insurgents are not fighting for Saddam, they're fighting against the United States," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. 

read more

 

 2 Car Bombers Attack Iraqi Police, as Insurgency Continues
 By Ian Fisher, The New York Times

http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/121603A.shtml

Two powerful car bombs exploded at police stations in Baghdad today, killing at least six Iraqi officers and announcing that the insurgency here has not ended with the capture of Saddam Hussein.  "People did this to say, `We can do this even though you caught Saddam,' " said Salem Abed Ali, 40, who was rocked at his breakfast table this morning, along with his wife and two children, when a bomb exploded across the street, at a police station in the Husseiniya neighborhood. "They want to keep battling inside Iraqi lands."  In his national address on Sunday, President Bush cautioned Americans that the "capture of Saddam Hussein does not mean the end of violence in Iraq." His warning appeared to be confirmed in the rubble, shredded cars and bloodied bits of human being at the sites of the two bombings today, one of them at a place where American military investigators work but had not yet shown up for the day.  Against the images of a bedraggled and helpless-looking Mr. Hussein printed in Iraqi newspapers and played endlessly on satellite television, the attacks also confronted Iraqis, as well as the American troops doing the fighting, with the question of just what kind of force is mounting the attacks.  "Saddam does not have the power to do these things," said a police lieutenant in Husseiniya, Ali Ismael, 25, his forehead bandaged and his shirt dotted with bloody specks from the blast there. "His ability is too weak. Last night we saw him in a hole." 

read more

 

 

Blasts outside two Baghdad police stations

Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/05A1FB0C-9BCB-4BAE-8E2E-148640C4A763.htm

Two car bombs have exploded outside police stations in Iraq, leaving at least 10 people killed and shattering any hopes of an end to violence after Saddam Hussein's capture.  One car bomb ripped through the Zuhur police station at al-Husayniah village, 30 km north of Baghdad, killing nine people and injuring more than 20 on Monday, said police.  read more

 

Day 228: December 14, 2003

 

Car Bomb at Iraq Police Station Kills 17
S.N. Yacoub, Associated Press

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63252-2003Dec14.html
KHALDIYAH, Iraq - A suspected suicide bomber detonated explosives in a car outside a police station Sunday morning west of Baghdad, killing at least 17 people and wounding 33 more, the U.S. military said.   The car bombing in Khaldiyah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, killed police officers, city workers and civilian bystanders, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jeff Swisher. "About 8:30 (a.m.), a car bomb was detonated at Khaldiyah police station. We have some indication that it's a suicide bomber.  read more

 

Day 227: December 13, 2003

 

Two US soldiers, one Iraqi killed
Iraqi shot dead under controversial circumstances
Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/50695CBC-E867-4F2F-AC58-155C281A6F0B.htm 

Iraqi shot dead under controversial circumstances

Two US soldiers and an Iraqi have been killed in separate incidents and the fortified headquarters of the occupation forces in Baghdad has been attacked.  In central Tikrit, US troops shot dead an Iraqi who they said had been shooting at them from a speeding car. The driver of the car said they were not shooting at the troops but merely firing an AK-47 rifle in the air after celebrating at a wedding party.   A US soldier was killed and two others injured in a blast near the flashpoint Iraqi town of Ramadi, west of Baghdad. One of the injured soldiers later died of his wounds. read more

 

BUSH SIGNS LAW TARGETING SYRIA

Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4828C82E-00DE-45DF-8C51-36992576C7EC.htm 

Bush began the process of enacting the law in October

US President George Bush has signed a legislation that aims to punish Syria for its alleged ties to "terrorists" and purported efforts to obtain nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.  "Today, I have signed into law HR 1828, the 'Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003,'" Bush said in a statement released by the White House on Friday.  read more

 

Bush Wants Halliburton Unit to Pay the Money Back
Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60978-2003Dec12.html 
President Bush said yesterday that he believes Halliburton Inc. overcharged the Pentagon in Iraq and that the company once led by Vice President Cheney should repay any such overcharge.  read more

 

Day 226: December 12, 2003

 

Allied cluster bombs blamed for 1,000 deaths in Iraq
A. Buncombe, The Independent

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=472442
More than 1,000 civilians were killed or wounded by cluster bombs used by American and British forces in the invasion of Iraq, and Iraqis are still being killed and maimed by the munitions months after they were dropped.  In March and April, cluster bombs used in populated areas were responsible for more civilian casualties than any other weapon, said a report published today. On one day, 31 March, 33 civilians were killed and 109 injured by the bomblets dropped on of Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad.  read more

 

Soldiers in Iraq 'did not have WMD protection'
Kim Sengupta, The Independent

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=472468 
British forces went into battle in the Iraq war without protective equipment against weapons of mass destruction -- the very "threat" used by Tony Blair to justify joining the American-led invasion.  Not one single tank or armoured vehicle was fitted with the required filter to guard against chemical and biological attacks. . read more

 

Halliburton 'overcharged' for fuel
Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F989E6CF-4DD4-4352-A392-DF5239D515DC.htm 
A Pentagon audit of Halliburton, the oil services company once run by US Vice President Dick Cheney, has found it overcharged for fuel it brought into Iraq from Kuwait. read more

 

Day 225: December 11, 2003

 

Almost half of new Iraqi army quits
Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6593B638-01BD-4DE3-8A21-585CB09AEA0B.htm 
Three hundred Iraqi army recruits have resigned from the first battalion set up by US occupation forces.  Only 400 soldiers are left on Thursday, following the mass walkout over terrible pay and conditions.  Salaries in the new army range from $50 a month to $180 for a colonel, a US occupation administration source said.   Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official also confirmed there had been discipline problems – with some recruits refusing to obey instructions before resigning.  read more

 

Day 224: December 10, 2003

 

Over 60 US troops injured in Iraq attacks 

US soldiers in Mosul fired on the vehicle as it entered their base
Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0DF69EDF-BE19-41EF-A834-F16C941140FA.htm 
Over 60 US soldiers have been wounded in separate attacks in Iraq while a helicopter has come down near the restive northern town of Falluja.  At least 58 US troops were injured in an apparent resistance attack on their base in the northern town of Mosul on Tuesday.read more
 

Will the counter-insurgency plan in Iraq repeat the  mistakes of Vietnam? 

Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?031215fa_fact

The Bush Administration has authorized a major escalation of the Special Forces covert war in Iraq. The mission is a policy victory for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who has struggled for two years to get the military leadership to accept the strategy of what he calls 'Manhunts'-a phrase that he has used publicly. read more   

 

Day 223: December 9, 2003

 

Israel trains US assassination squads in Iraq

Julian Borger, the Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1102940,00.html
Israeli advisers are helping train US special forces in aggressive counter-insurgency operations in Iraq, including the use of assassination squads against guerrilla leaders, US intelligence and military sources said yesterday. The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has sent urban warfare specialists to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the home of US special forces, and according to two sources, Israeli military "consultants" have also visited Iraq. US forces in Iraq's Sunni triangle have already begun to use tactics that echo Israeli operations in the occupied territories, sealing off centres of resistance with razor wire and razing buildings from where attacks have been launched against US troops.  read more

 

Day 222: December 8, 2003

 

Anti-war parents of American soldiers brave hostility at home to see the real story in Iraq

Phil Reeves, The Independent

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=471137

It must be strange to be Anthony Lopercio of the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division.  The 23-year-old private has been dispatched to Fallujah to stand in the front line on what is, for any American, one of the most hostile places in the world. Yet, as he gazes across the dreary Iraqi landscape, feeling the sullen resentment of its population towards foreign occupation, he will not only be wondering about the guerrillas out there. He will also be watching for the portly frame of his father.  read more

 

Rumsfeld: Pentagon eager FOR Iraqi police
Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/36C64DDC-8E47-4D88-9064-ACC6E9AA6E4E.htm

Rumsfeld: Admits Security Problems

A policy known as "Iraqification," the US has trained 145,000 Iraqis to serve in security forces. The Pentagon has planned to train a further 220,000 next year, but this number may increase.  read more

 

 

Day 221: December 7, 2003

 

Iraq's Sunni clerics warn of civil war

Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AF26D467-9F24-4822-8BAC-D564399550A8.htm

US plans to deploy Iraqi militia forces from Kurdish or Shia units who fought ousted Iraq president Saddam Hussein's government could spark a civil war and force the break-up of Iraq.
Sunni religious leaders issued the warning on Sunday.  Using militiamen to help restore security to Iraq would be "to ignore a large section of Muslims and push them into the ranks of the opposition," said a statement issued by the Committee of Muslim Ulama in Iraq.   It would be "an attempt to break up Iraq," the statement said, recalling the Lebanese civil war between 1975 and 1990 when rival militias battled for control.  The committee, set up after Hussein’s overthrow in April, represents the Sunni minority in the country which had held power over the Shia majority.  “From a religious point of view it is unacceptable," said the committee, following reports that "US forces intend to set up militias based on several parties termed Shia and Kurds”.   read more

 

60 Minutes Exposes Saddam Loyalists Serving the Occupation

CBS' 60 Minutes Transcript

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/04/60minutes/main586841.shtml

When the U.S. invasion came last spring with promises of democracy and self-rule, people in Karbala were among the first to try and take charge of their own affairs.

Religious and community leaders got together and selected a city council to represent them, and a security force to protect them. They  assumed their experi-ment in de-mocracy would be applauded by the American military. It was not. U.S. troops disarmed the protection force, arrested popular city councilmen and put back into power some of the same people who had served Saddam.  read more

 

Mosul convoy strike kills US soldier
Al-Jazeera
At least one US soldier has been killed in an attack in the north of Iraq. The homemade bomb was detonated as a military convoy passed through the city of Mosul on Sunday.  Sergeant Kelly Tyler of the 101st Airborne Division confirmed the death, adding that two other American soldiers were also injured in the blast.  Elsewhere, a 12-year-old Iraqi was killed by a bomb that had been disguised as a heap of rubbish, southeast of Baghdad, according to occupation forces. read more 

 

Day 220: December 6, 2003

 

MORE LIES? The true story of the battle of Samarra

Phil Reeves, The Independent

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=470599 

Samarra Resident: "It just did not happen. It's impossible."

Nearly a week has elapsed since the American military issued the startling claim - puzzling even some within its own ranks - that its troops killed 54 guerrillas during running gunfights in the Sunni town of Samarra.  Accounts of last week's battle differ, sometimes alarmingly. But on one issue, they have remained adamant: only eight people were killed in Samarra, although 55 were injured as the US army sprayed the place with gunfire.  read more

 

Baghdad Bomb Attack Kills U.S. Soldier, 4 Iraqis
ABC News

http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20031205_139.html
 

Innocent Civilians are paying the price for the conflict

A bomb exploded in the middle of a busy Baghdad road on Friday, killing one American soldier and at least four Iraqis as a military convoy and a packed minibus passed in opposite directions, police and witnesses said.  The attack came ahead of a visit to Iraq by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a key architect of the war that toppled president Saddam Hussein but now under fire over the chaos that has ensued. He is expected to arrive on Saturday.  Police said 16 Iraqis were also wounded in the blast. 

read more

 

James Baker to sort out Iraqi debt

Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1E6B0D76-5114-42FC-A58A-98B47D6E89DC.htm 

US President George Bush has given former Secretary of State James Baker a key assignment in Iraq - sort out the country's foreign debt.  Baker, a longtime family friend, is to be Bush's "personal envoy" to lead efforts to restructure and reduce Iraq's foreign debt.   "In response to a request from the Iraqi Governing Council for assistance, I have appointed James A. Baker III to be my personal envoy on the issue of Iraqi debt," Bush said in a statement read to reporters by spokesman Scott McClellan.  read more

 

Day 219: December 5, 2003

 

US backs down over Nato force for Iraq
The Independent

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=470219
The United States abruptly changed course over Iraq yesterday, urging Nato to prepare for a key role in the country next year, as Washington turned to its European allies to share the burden of the troubled military occupation. With the Bush administration making little secret of its desire for an Iraq exit strategy, General Powell's appeal is another gambit in Washington's efforts to spread responsibility for the operation in Iraq - at the modest price of ceding some control to an organisation of which the US is effectively in charge.  Read More

 

For Iraqis, Sound of Music Is Sweet
Once Tossed Aside, Symphony to Take Stage in D.C.

By Alan Sipress, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36900-2003Dec4.html
BAGHDAD -- Afternoon rehearsal for the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra had begun, but many members of the string section were stuck outside the convention center, shuffling past the sandbags, trying not to snag their soft instrument cases on the razor wire.  read more
 

Day 218: December 4, 2003

 

Iraqi Guerrillas Shell Police Post
Associated Press

http://truthout.org/docs_03/120503D.shtml

Guerrillas injured six people in an attack Thursday on a police station in central Iraq, and a U.S. armored vehicle was destroyed in an ambush at an intersection in Baghdad. The American troops in the vehicle escaped unhurt.    Two rockets struck the Ramadi Police Directorate, 100 miles west of Baghdad, as officers gathered inside to receive their monthly salaries, said Maj. Samir Habib. Two policemen and four civilians were wounded, he said.  read more

 

Samarra: an entire city up in arms
By May Ying , Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B48E91D2-8402-4B5F-B6F0-484599B7FD5D.htm 
As the smoke clears from heavy fighting in downtown Samarra, what emerges is the portrait of a city deeply connected to the Iraqi resistance  Samarra is a town of 200,000 inhabitants. While Baghdad and Falluja have witnessed high-profile bombings, Samarra has been quietly engaged for months in an escalating mini-war with US occupation forces.  Until a few weeks ago, the US military had two camps within the Samarra city limits. But incessant mortar attacks, at all hours of the day and night, forced them to a grain silo in the desert several kilometres out of town.  A visit to the US headquarters brings two hulking plain-clothes officers to the gate, while a sullen soldier leans out of a distant doorway to stare at the unusual spectacle of a visitor. read more

 

DoD ANNOUNCES TWO US SOLDIER DEATHS
Department of Defense

http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2003/nr20031204-0722.html

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.  The soldier died of injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device hit his vehicle.  read more

http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2003/nr20031204-0724.html 

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. The soldier died as a result of a non-combat related injury. read more  

 

Day 217: December 3, 2003

 

US grilled over Samarra claims
Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F649AFE7-B8C2-46B0-9540-8D23E66B1B4A.htm 

Civilians were caught in crossfire at Samarra

Growing doubts have been expressed about US officials' claim that 54 fighters were killed in clashes in the Iraqi town of Samarra, in the light of the insistence of the town's hospital that it received just eight bodies, including a child and at least one elderly Iranian woman who were clearly not fighters.   read more

 

U.S. to Form Iraqi Paramilitary Force

Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29753-2003Dec2.html
The U.S. civilian and military leadership in Iraq has decided to form a paramilitary unit composed of militiamen from the country's five largest political parties to identify and pursue insurgents who have eluded American troops and Iraqi police officers, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Tuesday. The five parties will contribute a total of 750 to 850 militiamen to create a new counter-terrorism battalion within the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps that would initially operate in and around Baghdad. read more

 

The war spreads north
By Scott Taylor, Al-Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7101E976-5BC6-48DD-9435-AF9135765401.htm

$7m per day

The Iraqi resistance movement continues to target remote sections of the Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline. Although the flames and billowing smoke made for an impressive display during the latest attack, the US authorities were quickly able to isolate the damage and repair the destroyed portion of pipeline.  Nevertheless, at an estimated export value of $7 million a day, any interruption of the vital flow of oil proves to be costly, and each new attack illustrates just how vulnerable this 300km long stretch of pipeline remains. read more

 

US To 'Eliminate' the Bad 'Terrorist' Kurds, not the Fluffy Ones

Turkish Daily News

http://www.turkishdailynews.com/FrTDN/latest/for.htm#f6 
A top level U.S. military official is expected to hold talks in Ankara this week to discuss
plans to eliminate the presence of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists in northern Iraq.  Gen. Peter Race, deputy chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, will visit General Staff headqarters in Ankara on Dec. 3, a statement from General Staff said on Monday.  Race's talks are expected to focus on plans to disarm PKK terrorists based in northern Iraq. Deputy Chief of
Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug said in a visit to Washington last month that he expected plans to advance when Pace arrives in Turkey.  read more

 

Day 216: December 2, 2003

 

Iraqis deny US accounts of fierce fight with 'guerrillas'

Phil Reeves, The Independent

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=469253
To Ali Abdullah Amin, the accusations and denials that were yesterday flying about the latest battle between the occupiers and occupied of Iraq were irrelevant.  He was not interested in whether the American military was telling the truth when it said that its troops had killed 54 "attackers." What he cared about was the pain in his bandaged legs, both of which were seeping blood from bullet wounds, and the hole in the left side of his stomach. read more  

 

 

Day 215: December 1, 2003

 

Dozens OF IRAQIS killed in Samarra carnage
Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E56B8E35-2484-40C5-935E-B452A2C74769.htm  

US troops in the Iraqi town of Samarra have admitted to perpetrating a bloodbath, with one occupation spokesman confirming nearly four dozen people were killed.  Lieutenant Colonel Bill MacDonald told journalists on Sunday that all the 46 were killed when troops fought off multiple attacks on military convoys.  But local residents said US troops killed innocent bystanders when they opened fire on anything that moved around midday.

read more

 

U.S. Forces Kill Dozens After Iraq Ambushes - 2 South Koreans, Colombian, Killed In Separate Attacks
By Alan Sipress, Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23170-2003Nov30.html
U.S. forces killed 46 Iraqis in fierce fighting Sunday while repulsing a series of ambushes against two U.S. military convoys in the central Iraqi city of Samarra, military officials said early Monday.   After putting down the attacks with tank and cannon fire, U.S. troops discovered that many of the dead and wounded Iraqis were wearing uniforms of Saddam's Fedayeen, a militia loyal to former president Saddam Hussein, according to Master Sgt. Robert Cargie, a spokesman for the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division. read more
 

NOVEMBER 2003

 

Day 214: November 30, 2003

 

BLOODIEST MONTH: 79 US NOV DEATHS IN IRAQ

Two U.S. Soldiers Killed in Western Iraq

Associated Press

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031130/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq&cid=540&ncid=716 

Guerrillas ambushed a military convoy in western Iraq (news - web sites) near the border with Syria, killing two American soldiers, the military said Sunday.  The deaths brought to 79 the number of U.S. soldiers to die in Iraq during November. It has been the bloodiest month for coalition forces since the war began in March. read more

 

Spanish, Japanese killed in Iraq
Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F9C997C5-B092-4989-86A6-7246327E1D6B.htm

- At least seven Spanish intelligence officers and two Japanese thought to be diplomats have been killed in separate attacks. read more

 

Day 213: November 29, 2003

 

Iraq mortar attack kills U.S. soldier
MSNBC.com

http://www.msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?0cv=CB10#BODY
Four mortar shells hit a U.S. military compound Friday in the northern city of Mosul, killing a soldier from the 101st Airborne Division, the military said. Meanwhile, an explosion slightly damaged a highway overpass in western Baghdad Friday, and a U.S. soldier died on Thanksgiving from a gunshot wound of unknown origin in a base west of Baghdad, the military said. read more

 

Clinton, Reed push for U.N. in Iraq
MSNBC.com

http://www.msnbc.com/news/999006.asp?0sl=-12

Hilary in Baghdad

 A day after President Bush’s surprise visit, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Jack Reed arrived Friday in less-dramatic style, saying it isn’t too late to bring the United Nations back to Iraq. read more

 

Day 212: November 28, 2003

 

Toll on U.S. troops in Iraq APPROACHES 10,000 WOUNDED
The Orlando Sentinel

http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/news/nation/7368173.htm 
Nearly 10,000 U.S. troops have been killed, wounded, injured or become ill enough to require evacuation from Iraq since the war began, the equivalent of almost one Army division, according to the Pentagon.  Unlike the more than 2,800 American fighting men and women logged by the Defense Department as killed and wounded by weapons in Iraq, the numbers of injured and sick have been more difficult to track, leading critics to accuse the military of under-reporting casualty numbers.  Military officials deny they are fudging the numbers. But the latest figures show that 9,675 U.S. troops have been killed, wounded, injured such as in accidents, or become sick enough to require airlifting out of Iraq.  "I don't think even that is the whole story," said Nancy Lessin of Boston, the mother of an Iraq war veteran and co-founder of Military Families Speak Out, a group opposed to the war in Iraq.  "We really think there's an effort to hide the true cost in life, limb and the mental health of our soldiers," Lessin said. "There's a larger picture here of really trying to hide and obfuscate what's going on, and the wounded and injured are part of it."  read more

 

Shia leader calls for immediate elections: Major blow to US plans for Iraq

Dawn.com
http://www.dawn.com/2003/11/29/int1.htm

The religious leader of Iraq's Shias, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, on Thursday called for immediate elections at all levels of the administration , dealing a major blow to the US-led authority's plans for an accelerated handover of power. The top leader rejected Washington's insistence that elections of any sort were impossible before 2005, arguing that the ration-card system in force here for more than a decade gave ample basis for an electoral register. Ayatollah Sistani "wants the Iraqi people to be consulted", the current head of the US-installed interim Governing Council, Jalal Talabani, told reporters after a meeting with the top religious leader in this holy city.   read more
 

U.S. Weighs Elections for Iraq

Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17507-2003Nov27.html

Less than two weeks after overhauling its plans for Iraq's political transition, the Bush administration is considering more major revisions that could include elections for a provisional government in an attempt to appease the country's most powerful Shiite Muslim cleric, senior U.S. officials said.

 

THE TURKEY HAS LANDED Bush secret Iraq trip to US troops
By Mark Ellis, the Mirror UK
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/content_objectid=13670592_method=full_siteid=50143_headline=-THE-TURKEY-HAS-LANDED-name_page.html

Dubya serves up Turkey during 2 hours in Baghdad

US troops in Iraq were served up a real turkey for Thanksgiving Day yesterday - when President George Bush joined them for a surprise visit.  The world only heard about his morale-boosting mission - the first by a US president to Iraq - when Mr Bush was safely on his way home on Air Force One.
read more

 

Bush trip to Baghdad kept top-secret
Associated Press

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1151&slug=Bush%20Secrecy
Secrecy was the vital ingredient in President Bush's surprise trip to Baghdad. "I was fully prepared to turn this baby around, come home," if news of his visit had leaked before he landed in Iraq, Bush said aboard Air Force One. read more 

 

Report: Hesitancy to be called 'occupiers' hurts US in Iraq
Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1128/dailyUpdate.html

A leaked postwar self-evaluation by the Army's 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) showed several serious problems during the invasion of Iraq, and after Baghdad fell. The report shows that American military commanders did not impose curfews, halt looting or order Iraqis back to work after Saddam Hussein's regime fell because US policymakers were reluctant to declare American troops an occupying force. The "After Action" report, marked "For Official Use Only," was obtained by The Associated Press, the Washington security think tank Globalsecurity.Org and other outlets.   "Despite the virtual certainty that the military would accomplish the regime change, there was no plan for oversight and reconstruction, even after the division arrived in Baghdad," the report says. "State, Defense, and other relevant agencies must do a better and timelier job planning occupation governance and standing up a new Iraqi government."  read more
 

Day 211: November 27, 2003

 

LEADING IRAQ ACTIVIST "Hogtied and Abused" IN GEORGIA PROTEST

CommonDreams.org

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1127-01.htm
On Sunday, November 23, I took part in a nonviolent civil disobedience action at Fort Benning, GA, to protest the U.S. Army´s School of the Americas (SOA, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation -- WHISC) Shortly after more than two dozen of us entered Fort Benning and were arrested, US Military Police took us to a warehouse on the base for “processing.” I was directed to a station for an initial search, where a woman soldier began shouting at me to look straight ahead and spread my legs. read more
 

Day 210: November 26, 2003

 

Baghdad rattled by mortar attack

BBC News Online
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3237992.stm
Two mortars have been fired in

Helicopter over Baghdad

the centre of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, sparking a security alert at the US-led administration's compound. They appear to have landed harmlessly at the old information ministry about a kilometre from the com-pound on the west bank of the Tigris. read more

 

 

Day 209: November 25, 2003

 

Bush signs Record $401b defense bill
Bryan Bender, Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/11/25/bush_signs_401b_defense_bill/
President Bush yesterday approved a record $401.3 billion for defense next year, signing a bill that administration officials and lawmakers from both parties contend will help transform the armed forces to meet new security threats, such as global terrorism.  "They are still trying to rip off the taxpayers," Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and a longtime critic of wasteful spending,  "Dwight David Eisenhower must be spinning in his grave."  read more 

 

Iraqi Security Forces Torn Between Loyalties
Work for U.S. Leaves Recruits Uneasy
Anthony Shadid, Washington Post

Uneasy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11809-2003Nov24.html?referrer=email 
BAIJI, Iraq -- At the sprawling Baiji train station, long ago looted of everything but rail cars, the men of the city's Iraqi Civil Defense Corps lamented their first two months as a pillar of the U.S.-trained security forces that will inherit responsibility for keeping order in Iraq. read more

 

Day 208: November 24, 2003

 

wave of suicide attacks on Iraqi police bases kills 14

Phil Reeves, The Independent

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=466392

At least 14 people died when suicide bombers blew up cars packed with explosives yesterday in a renewed bout of attacks on the members of Iraq's American-supported police force.

Read More  

 

Some 11,000 held by the Americans in Iraq, including 307 foreigners

Arabic News

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/031124/2003112415.html

An American military official announced that the coalition forces are holding in Iraq some 307 persons suspected to be foreign fighters, most of them are Syrians and Iranians, in addition to a limited number from Chad, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the West Bank.  The American military official said that the total number of detainees in the Iraqi territories is 11,000.  read more
 

Day 207: November 23, 2003

 

Suicide bombings kill 18 Iraqis
Jordan Times (AFP)
http://www.jordantimes.com/Sun/news/news1.htm 
(BAGHDAD) Violence and bloodshed consumed Iraq Saturday when at least 18 Iraqis were killed and scores wounded in separate suicide bombings north of Baghdad.
A day after two main Baghdad hotels and the oil ministry were attacked, suicide bombings struck the towns of Khan Bani Saad and Baquba, killing at least 18, leaving more than 30 wounded and overwhelming hospitals.  A four-year-old girl was among six police officers and three civilians killed in the first attack.  Read More

 

Day 206: November 22, 2003

 

Car bombs kill 11 in Iraq

Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/30F62831-63A4-4BB8-BEB5-3D18BD42522E.htm

At least 18 Iraqis have been killed and more than 30 wounded by almost simultaneous suicide bombings of two police stations north of Baghdad. Meanwhile, a civilian plane was hit by a missile as it took off from Baghdad International Airport - it managed to land safely - and a leading Shia cleric narrowly missed being killed by a dud rocket.  read more

 

US destroying Iraqi homes

Amnesty International, Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5AB0B5E4-44B6-4939-865B-0D3C2E6C86DC.htm

US forces are destroying houses in Iraq as retribution for attacks on their soldiers, according to Amnesty International, in violation of the Geneva Convention.  read more

   

Army: 100,000 G.I.'s in Iraq Till 2006
Eric Schmitt, New York iImes

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/22/politics/22MILI.html?ex=1070082000&en=5d855fae49eff4c4&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
Army planning for Iraq currently assumes keeping about 100,000 United States troops there through early 2006, a senior Army officer said Friday.   read more

 

Halliburton in Dispute over Iraq Fuel Costs
BBC News Online

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3205105.stm

The price of petrol varies depending on who the seller is Halliburton, the oil services and construction group, has been accused by US lawmakers of charging "inflated prices" when they sell petrol to US troops in Iraq.  Halliburton charges the US government more than $1.59 (£0.95) for a gallon of petrol used by the US Army Corp of Engineers in Iraq, according to US Representatives Henry Waxman and John Dingell. The price charged is much higher than that paid by Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation when it imports petrol from Turkey or other neighbouring countries at 98 cents or less for a gallon. read more

 

Day 205: November 21, 2003

 

Rockets Hit Oil Ministry in Baghdad

CNN.com

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/11/21/sprj.irq.main/index.html

Rocket attacks launched from donkey-pulled carts that hit the Iraqi Oil Ministry and two heavily guarded hotels on Friday were "sensational" but "militarily insignificant," a U.S. military commander said.  Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said the strikes reflect the low-tech ingenuity guerrillas employ in fighting the high-tech might of a coalition struggling for solid grass-roots information about the elusive insurgents.

 

Rockets hit two hotels in Baghdad - U.S. soldier dies in Iraq convoy bombing

CNN.com

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/11/20/sprj.irq.main/index.html
Two adjacent hotels in central Baghdad were rocked by explosions early Friday, apparently the result of rocket attacks.  Witnesses said at least two rockets hit the upper floors of the Palestine Hotel, where CNN is based.  One person was carried from the hotel on a stretcher, soaked in blood, according to video of the scene. At least two other people were also injured.
The nearby Sheraton Hotel also appeared to have been attacked about the same time, also with rockets.

 

Car bomb kills five in Kirkuk

Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B7392D37-1C3C-4C0B-96CA-C0140C04D48D.htm

A car bomb has killed at least four people near the offices of a leading Kurdish party in northern Iraq, hours after two others were killed in a car bombing west of Baghdad.  The bombings near the Kirkuk offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and a local council in Ramadi on Thursday appeared to target the US-led occupation.  A huge explosion threw up a cloud of black smoke, shaking buildings across town. The blast flattened a wall around the green-painted headquarters of the PUK and shattered windows at a nearby primary school, wounding several children.  The dead included a school employee, two children and a man.
 

US Dropping 2,000 lb Bombs in Baquba, Iraq

Jordan Times (Reuters)

http://www.jordantimes.com/Thu/news/news1.htm

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — US Navy fighter jets flew sorties over northern Iraq from an aircraft carrier in the Gulf on Wednesday as American forces pounded suspected resistance hideouts with heavy weapons.   President George W. Bush vowed not to leave Iraq despite the rising death toll inflicted by insurgents, saying the alliance had not paid a high price in casualties and liberated 25 million people "only to retreat before a band of thugs and assassins."   US military spokesmen said the latest offensive formed part of operations Iron Hammer and Ivy Cyclone Two — campaigns launched in the past 10 days to combat the growing number of guerrilla attacks which have killed 179 US soldiers in just over six months.   Jets from the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier dropped 400kg bombs on targets near the northern town of Kirkuk, the US military said.  Other fighter planes dropped 2,000lb bombs around Baquba, a restive town about 65km north of Baghdad. In Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, the 4th Infantry Division pounded targets with mortars, tanks and Hellfire missiles.   read more
 

28 Dead, 450 Injured in Istanbul Blast

Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7899FF90-E380-4006-9281-4575B3B5240F.htm

A Turkish Islamist group has claimed joint responsibility with al-Qaida for twin attacks in Istanbul that has killed at least 28 people and injured 450 others.  Turkey’s state-owned Anatolia news agency received a statement purportedly from the Turkish group, the Islamic Front of Raiders of the Greater East (IBDA-C). It claimed responsibility for the attacks on the British consulate and the Turkish headquarters of HSBC Bank on Thursday.  The statement said that the bombings were a joint operation with al-Qaida.  “The attacks were jointly carried out by IBDA-C and al Qaida. Our attacks against Masonic circles will continue. Muslims are not alone,” Anatolia quoted the statement as saying.  read more

 

Day 204: November 20, 2003
 

The first two floors of the HSBC building were destroyed

British Consul-General Among the Dead in Turkey

Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/281EA346-AE17-4D50-A164-DD1F5B030E88.htm

At least 25 people, including the British consul-general, have been killed and over 300 injured in two explosions that rocked the Turkish city of Istanbul on Thursday morning.  The blasts targeted the British consulate and the Turkish headquarters of the HSBC bank.  The British consul-general Roger Short is among the dead. He is said to have arrived at his office just a minute before the explosion occurred.  read more

 

US Military Claims Anti-US Attacks Down by 70%

Al-Jazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/31CCD57E-733B-4A44-887E-318C5CEE3967.htm 

The US military says attacks against its forces in the Iraqi capital Baghdad have dropped dramatically.  The assessment came on Thursday after the first week of a huge military operation which has seen the heart of Baghdad hit from the sky for the first time since the start of the US-led invasion.   "As of now, attacks have gone down 70 percent," said Brigadier General Martin Dempsey, commander of the US 1st Armoured Division which has been conducting Operation Iron Hammer in and around the capital.  read more

 

Bush Statue Toppled in Trafalgar Square

BUSH TOPPLED

CNN.com

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/11/20/britain.bush/index.html

Antiwar demonstrators protesting Bush's trip to London toppled an effigy of him in Trafalgar Square, mocking the toppling of a statue of Saddam Hussein by U.S. troops after they marched into Baghdad back in April.

 

War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal
Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger  - The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1089158,00.html

International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.

 

Day 203: November 19, 2003

 

"We're in an all-out war"

NBC News Correspondent Jim Maceda

http://www.msnbc.com/m/mw/mw.asp?t=V&id=n_maceda_iraq_031118&sk=&pl=&name=cover&opt=0

Play the Video

Maceda: "We're in an all out war as far as any of us are concerned.  Of course the U.S. Military says they're fighting a low grade insurgency but if you take just the last two or three days as a example there are major operations going on."

U.S. Pounds Tikrit for 3rd night

 MSNBC News

http://www.msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?0cv=CB10#BODY

On Tuesday, U.S. jets and helicopter gunships launched the biggest air operation in central Iraq since active combat ended, blasting suspected ambush sites and hideouts with 500-pound bombs on Tuesday.

 

Day 202: November 18, 2003

U.S.'s 'Iron Hammer' Code Name 1st Used by Nazis 

Reuters

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031118/us_nm/iraq_hammer_dc&cid=1896&ncid=1480 

The U.S. military's code name for a crackdown on resistance in Iraq was also used by the Nazis for an aborted operation to damage the Soviet power grid during World War II.

 

Protestor with US Flag: "He's Not Welcome"

BUSH TO FACE MASSIVE PROTEST IN LONDON

President will be protected by 16,000 police officers
Jason Bennetto, the Independent

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=464815

One in nine police officers in England and Wales will be protecting George Bush on his state visit to Britain, which begins today.

 

Day 201: November 17, 2003

US agrees to international control of its troops in Iraq

Bush faces Tough Questions on Exit Strategy

Leonard Doyle and Stephen Castle, The Independent

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=464488

The United States accepts that to avoid humiliating failure in Iraq it needs to bring its forces quickly under inter-national control and speed the handover of power

 

Day 200: November 16, 2003

Humanitarian WORKERS leaving Iraq in droves

Nyier Abdou, Al Ahram  Weekly (Egypt)

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/664/re4.htm 

Iraqis are again feeling the brunt of conflict as humanitarian groups flee Iraq's worsening security situation, stunting much-needed development efforts.  If the exodus of aid workers continues, Iraq could end up in a worse humanitarian situation than it was in before the war

 

DAY 199: November 15, 2003

More than 20,000 Iraqis dead since war started
IRIN-Asia

http://www.lifeusa.org/news/newsupdates/script/fullnews.php?id=43

Orphans in Iraq

(ANKARA) A new report by in the international health charity Medact estimates that more than 20,000 Iraqi's have died between the start of the war and late last month.  "The statistics were collated from different reports from aid agencies and we spoke to people on the ground," director of Medact, Mike Rowson told IRIN from London on Thursday.

"The number of people affected by the aftermath of the war is still rising as the Iraqi people continue to pay the price in death, injury and mental and physical ill health," the report said.

A report published at the end of October by the US-based research group, Project on Defence Alternatives maintained that some 13,000 Iraqis, including 4,300 non-combatants, were killed during the war.
 

DAY 198: November 14, 2003
The crumbling coalition

Rupert Cornwell in Washington and Phil Reeves in Baghdad, the Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=463564
As Italy mourned its dead, the American-led coalition's failure to secure additional help in policing Iraq was exposed when Japan backed away from sending troops

 

DAY 197: November 13, 2003
'We could lose this situation'

CIA says insurgents now 50,000 strong

Julian Borger & Rory McCarthy The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4796172-103681,00.html

The White House yesterday drew up emergency plans to accelerate the transfer of power in Iraq after being shown a devastating CIA report warning that the guerrilla war was in danger of escalating out of US control. elieve. An intelligence source in Washington familiar with the CIA report described it as a "bleak

DAY 196: November 12, 2003

 

U.S. War Dead in Iraq Exceed Early Vietnam Years

David Morgan, Reuters

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/

nm/20031113/ts_nm/iraq_usa_vietnam_dc&cid=564&ncid=1480

PHILADELPHIA - The U.S. death toll in Iraq has surpassed the number of American soldiers killed during the first three years of the Vietnam War, the brutal Cold War conflict that cast a shadow over U.S. affairs for more than a generation.

 

Suicide Bombing in Nasiriyah Kills at least 25

BBC 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3263087.stm

The entire front of the three-storey building was blown off on an Italian police base. Among the dead: 15 Italian military personnel, 2 Italian civilians and 8 Iraqis.

 

DAY 195: November 11, 2003

Urgent Iraq talks in Washington

BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3262629.stm

The United States administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, has held talks at the White House after arriving in Washington on a surprise visit. 

 

DAY 194: November 10, 2003

U.S.-Appointed Iraqi Council Leader Killed U.S. Soldier Killed in Separate Incident

Anthony Shadid and Fred Barbash, Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20807-2003Nov10?language=printer

 

 

Shocking images: Iraqi children bound by US soldiers in their homes

Iraqi child, watches nervously as US soldier ties her hands

Yvonne Ridley & Lawrence Smallman  - Al Jazeera

http://www.ccmep.org/2003_articles/Iraq/110903shocking_images_shame_us_forces.htm

A series of shocking pictures revealing US soldiers tying up Iraqi women and children in their own home has provoked international outrage.

 

DAY 193: November 9, 2003
NOt ENOUGh Troops for Veterans Day Parades

Coralie Carlson, Associated Press Sunday

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17283-2003Nov8.html

 

DAY 192: November 8, 2003

Woolsey Pushes Constitutional Monarchy for Iraq

Marc Perelman, Forward.com

http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.11.07/news3b.woolseyside.html 

 

DAY 191: November 7, 2003

Albright APOLOGIZES FOR 60 MINUTES COMMENT: “I MUST HAVE BEEN CRAZY”

Sheldon Richman, Ideas on Liberty Magazine
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0311c.asp

 

DAY 190: November 6, 2003

Iraq Said to Have Tried to Reach Last-Minute Deal to Avert War

James Risen, New York Times

http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/110703A.shtml 

 

DAY 189: November 5, 2003

Will U.S. Bring Back the Draft?

Tim Harper, Toronto Star

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1105-01.htm

 

DAY 188: November 4, 2003

Bush wins $87bn for Iraq and Afghanistan

Associated Press

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1077361,00.html

 

OCTOBER 2003

 

DAY 154: October 1, 2003

US Cuts Military Aid to Friendly Nations

Jim Lobe, OneWorld.net

http://www.oneworld.net/article/view/69348/1/

The Bush administration today cut over $89 million in military aid to 32 friendly countries because they refused to exempt U.S. citizens and soldiers from the jurisdiction of the new International Criminal Court...

 

SEPTEMBER 2003 

 

 

 

  ^{MORE ARTICLES COMING; PLEASE  TO KEEP US WORKING}

 

AUGUST 2003

 

^{MORE ARTICLES COMING}

 

JULY 2003

 

DAY 62: July 1, 2003

U.S. cuts funding to 50 nations

Elise Labott, CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/07/01/us.icc.aid/
 WASHINGTON -- The United States has made good on its threat to punish countries that have not signed an agreement exempting American military and other personnel from prosecution in the International Criminal Court, declaring some 50 countries ineligible for U.S. military aid. The countries include Colombia and six nations scheduled to become NATO members next year: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

 

JUNE 2003

 

^{MORE ARTICLES COMING}

 

MAY 2003

 

DAY 19: May 19, 2003

Iraq Nuclear, Oilfield Chaos Confront U.S. Rulers
Reuters

http://www.namibian.com.na/2003/march/world/03D04A1A52.html

Lawlessness in oilfields and a warning of a possible nuclear emergency reared up to confront Iraq's U.S. administration as thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of Baghdad Monday to demand their own government.

 

DAY 18: May 18, 2003

Odyssey of Frustration
The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A4450-2003May17?language=printer

For once the team found a building intact.

The low stucco structure, one of several walled off from the street, was the 17th target of the war for Army Lt. Col. Charles Allison and the special weapons hunters under his command. Heavy crossbars sealed the doors. That, at least, was encouraging. There would not have been much left to lock if looters got here first.

 

Child Drug Abuse, Crime on the Rise in Iraq

Reuters

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/030518/80/e09xr.html

Drug taking was not a major social problem under Saddam's iron rule, but now it is becoming a growing concern.

 

DAY 17: May 17, 2003

In Reversal, Plan for Iraq Self-Rule Has Been Put Off

New York Times

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0517-02.htm

In an abrupt reversal, the United States and Britain have indefinitely put off their plan to allow Iraqi opposition forces to form a national assembly and an interim government by the end of the month.

 

DAY 16: May 16, 2003

Iraqis accuse UK, U.S. troops of torture - Amnesty
Reuters

http://www.inreview.com/archive/topic/3439.html

Iraqi civilians and soldiers have accused British and U.S. troops of torturing them for information during the war in Iraq, human rights lobby group Amnesty International said on Friday.
 

DAY 15: May 15, 2003

Saving Private Lynch story 'flawed'

BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/correspondent/3028585.stm

Private Jessica Lynch became an icon of the war, and the story of her capture by the Iraqis and her rescue by US special forces became one of the great patriotic moments of the conflict. But her story is one of the most stunning pieces of news management ever conceived.
 

Remains of toxic bullets litter Iraq

Associated Press

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3388.htm

At a roadside produce stand on the outskirts of Baghdad, business is brisk for Latifa Khalaf Hamid. Iraqi drivers pull up and snap up fresh bunches of parsley, mint leaves, dill, and onion stalks.

 

DAY 14: May 14, 2003

New Iraqi TV Complains of U.S. Censorship

Reuters

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0514-03.htm

The US-sponsored Iraqi television station began broadcasts yesterday after complaining of American censorship, including efforts to stop it from airing passages from the Koran, the Muslim holy book.

 

DAY 13: May 13, 2003

Saddam and sons still in Iraq, says Chalabi

Associated Press

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/iraqwar/story/0,4395,188797,00.html?

Saddam Hussein and his two sons are still alive and inside Iraq, a prominent Iraqi political figure said in an interview published in a pan-Arab daily on Monday.

 

DAY 12: May 12, 2003

Russia queries US plan for Iraq Moscow wants United Nations to play key role but Washington has an advisory position in mind

Straits Times

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/iraqwar/story/0,4395,188531,00.html

MOSCOW - Russia, saying it will push for a central UN role in Iraq, has begun consulting with other Security Council members over a proposed US plan that relegates the United Nations to a largely advisory position.  Russia and France - two leading opponents of the US-led invasion of Iraq - have said they have questions about Washington's proposal for a UN resolution on ruling post-war Iraq.

 

DAY 11: May 11, 2003

Frustrated, U.S. Arms Team to Leave Iraq -Task Force Unable To Find Any Weapons (WMD)

The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A40212-2003May10&notFound=true

The group directing all known U.S. search efforts for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is winding down operations without finding proof that President Saddam Hussein kept clandestine stocks of outlawed arms, according to participants.

 

DAY 10: May 10, 2003

US Blocks Return of UN Arms Inspectors (WMD)

The Independent

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0511-04.htm

The United States is continuing this weekend to block the return of United Nations weapons inspectors to Iraq, even though its own teams of experts have so far failed to find any definitive evidence of banned biological, chemical or nuclear materials in the country, let alone any actual armaments.

 

Seven Nuclear Sites Looted

The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A36985-2003May9&notFound=true

Seven nuclear facilities in Iraq have been damaged or effectively destroyed by the looting that began in the first days of April, when U.S. ground forces thrust into Baghdad. The Bush administration fears that technical documents, sensitive equipment and possibly radiation sources have been scattered.

 

DAY 9: May 9, 2003

U.S. to Propose Broader Control Of Iraqi Oil, Funds

The Washington Post

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0509-01.htm

The Bush administration circulated a draft resolution among key Security Council members today calling for the elimination of more than a decade of international sanctions on Iraq and granting the United States broad control over the country's oil industry and revenue until a permanent, representative Iraqi government is in place.

 

IRAQ: IAEA Fears over Damage at Nuclear Plant

Inter Press Service News Agency

http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=18084

Officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) say they have been reduced to bystanders in the face of reports of widespread damage to Iraq's nuclear facilities.

 

DAY 8: May 8, 2003

Iraqis Battle Long Lines in Gas Search
Associated Press

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/5815953.htm

Although Iraq has the world's second-largest proven oil reserves after Saudi Arabia, residents of this chaotic capital are spending long, sweaty hours in the hammering sun every day in a frustrating - and often futile - search for fuel.  Damage to the power grid caused by coalition bombing has hobbled the Kirkuk oil field in northern Iraq from which Daura receives most of its crude, as well as some of the pumping stations that get the oil to the refinery. Plants also lost equipment in the looting that followed Saddam Hussein's fall.

 

DAY 7: May 7, 2003

US lifts some sanctions against Iraq

Associated Press

http://iafrica.com/news/worldnews/234725.htm

The United States announced on Wednesday that it was immediately lifting some economic sanctions against Iraq and urged the world to follow suit, as experts examined a truck the Pentagon said could have been used to manufacture biological weapons.

 

DAY 6: May 6, 2003

Iraq is now the biggest construction site in the world.

Translated from: La Tribune (Paris)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3251.htm

Projections of the cost of reconstruction in Iraq range from $300 billion to $600 billion over ten years. Financing remains the principal issue to resolve, but not the only one. The issue of the use of local labor is also on the table.

 

DAY 5: May 5, 2003

Iraqi welcome for US turns to fury

The Age

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/04/1051987604147.html

This is the way the war ends: not with the jubilation of the liberated but with the whimpering of ragged children. "Water! Water!" they cry, running from the roadside towards passing cars, thrusting their fingers towards their mouths in the salute of the thirsty.

 

'Looting' at Iraq nuclear sites
BBC

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lifetoiraq_canada/message/6093

The UN nuclear inspections agency has urged Washington to allow it to investigate nuclear sites in Iraq that have reportedly been looted, the agency said on Monday.

The agency is concerned that radioactive material known to be stored at several Iraqi sites could pose health and environmental risks, and there are also fears they could be used to create a so-called "dirty bomb".

 

DAY 4: May 4, 2003

Soldier who was missing is buried

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

http://www.jsonline.com/news/gen/may03/138358.asp

Brownsville, Texas -Having been listed as missing in action for a month in Iraq, Army Spc. Edward John Anguiano was buried Saturday after a funeral Mass at a church that overflowed with more than 500 people.  San Juanita Anguiano stared stoically at her 24-year-old son's gray casket during the graveside service but began to cry after being given the American flag that had draped the casket.  The soldier's grandfather, Vicente Anguiano Sr., said it was the family's most difficult day. "But at the same time, it's a relief because he has come home after so many days being missing," he said. "He's home."

 

DAY 3: May 3, 2003

Baghdad battle 'killed 2,300'
Associated Press

http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-ap040503.htm

The battle for Baghdad cost the lives of at least 1,101 Iraqi civilians, many of them women and children, according to records at the city's 19 largest hospitals. The civilian death toll was almost certainly higher.

The hospital records say that another 1,255 dead were "probably" civilians, including many women and children.

 

DAY 2: May 2, 2003

Bush calls end to ‘major combat’

CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/05/01/sprj.irq.main/

From the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, President Bush announced in a nationally televised address that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended."

 

War's loose ends - Iraq is not yet as free as Bush claims

The Guardian

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/comment/0,11538,947794,00.html

George Bush last night effectively declared an end to a war in Iraq that most people in the Middle East and the world beyond believe should not have been started in the first place. The full consequences of the conflict begun in earnest on March 19 are as numerous as they are still uncertain, not least for Iraqis.

 

DAY 1: May 1, 2003

Iraqis left baffled as Don drops in for a chat
The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,947145,00.html

After more than two decades of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqis are used to bizarre television and radio broadcasts. But not even that prepared them for yesterday's broadcast by the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to the Iraqi nation.