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paulh50 |
04/14/08 20:12
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I was watching Money Matters on CNBC and they stated that the number one user of oil produced in the Middle East is used by the Airabic Countries in the regfion followed by China, Russia and Japan. The U.S. is listed as 6th.
Here's another report:
British journalist rescued in Basra By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 26 minutes ago
Iraqi troops freed a kidnapped British journalist for CBS News on Monday after finding him hooded and bound in a house during a raid in a Shiite militia stronghold in Basra.
Richard Butler's rescue after two months in captivity was a welcome success story for the Iraqi military, which has been strongly criticized for its effort to impose order on Iraq's second-largest city, an oil hub 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.
It came on a day in which at least 37 people were killed or found dead nationwide — half of them in bombings near or in the northwestern city of Mosul.
Roadside bombings killed two U.S. soldiers, one in Baghdad and the other in the northern Salahuddin province, the military said. At least 4,034 members of the American military have died since the war started in March 2003.
Butler was thin but in good condition and laughing as he was shown on Iraqi state television hugging well-wishers and greeting beaming Iraqi officials.
"Thank you and I'm looking forward to seeing my family and my friends at CBS and thank you again," Butler said.
"I'm pretty weak and I've lost quite a bit of weight," he said later. "I'm looking forward to a decent meal."
Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said the troops were not in fact looking for Butler. He said an army patrol conducting a sweep of the area responded after coming under fire from the house where he was being held in the Jibiliya neighborhood.
One of the gunmen was wounded in an exchange of fire and another was captured while two men escaped, he said.
When asked by al-Askari on Iraqi television if the Iraqi army was good, Butler said it was "brilliant."
"The Iraqi army stormed the house and overcame my guards and they burst through the door," Butler said. "I had my hood on, which I had to have on all the time, and they shouted something at me and I pulled my hood off."
Basra security commander Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji said Butler was sitting on the floor with his head covered by a sack and his hands tied when the troops stumbled upon him.
Butler had been held since Feb. 10, when masked gunmen seized him and his Iraqi interpreter from Basra's Sultan Palace Hotel.
The interpreter was released within days, but Butler remained in captivity despite claims by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's office that it was negotiating with the kidnappers for his release.
Harith al-Edhari, a director of al-Sadr's office in Basra, said the kidnappers had rejected their efforts and threatened him over the issue. "The kidnappers have nothing to do with the Sadrist movement," he said.
In London, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband thanked the Iraqi security forces "for the professionalism of the task they have undertaken" and said Butler was in the care of the British consulate in Basra.
CBS News spokeswoman Sandy Genelius said the network was "incredibly grateful that our colleague ... has been released and is safe."
The gratitude was eagerly accepted by the Iraqi government, which has been embarrassed by the failure of a major offensive that began on March 25 to dislodge militia groups from Basra.
Iraqi security forces were surprised by the ferocious resistance mounted by the outnumbered militiamen, despite artillery and air support provided by U.S. and British forces.
More than 1,000 security troops — including a full infantry battalion — refused to fight or joined the militias, handing them weapons and vehicles. Those troops were later dismissed from their jobs, along with about 300 police officers in the southern city of Kut.
That decision drew an angry response from al-Sadr, who demanded Monday that the security forces be reinstated.
"All the brothers in the army and police who gave up their arms to their brothers (Sadrists) were only obeying their grand religious leaders, and they were driven by their religious duties," the anti-U.S. cleric said.
The fighting, which quickly spread to other cities in the southern Shiite heartland and Baghdad, ebbed after al-Sadr ordered a cease-fire — though sporadic violence continues.
A large section of a market area in eastern Baghdad was set ablaze Monday when a bomb exploded next to a convoy of U.S. military vehicles. No casualties were reported in the 2 a.m. blast.
Another roadside bomb hit a minibus in downtown Baghdad, killing five passengers and wounding nine, police said.
In northern Iraq, meanwhile, a parked car bomb exploded near an Iraqi army convoy west of Mosul, killing 12 Kurdish soldiers and wounding five, police chief Col. Mutlaq al-Shimmari said.
In Tal Afar, south of Mosul, a suicide bomber attacked a funeral for a Shiite family, killing five people and wounding 22, Mayor Najim Abdullah said.
U.S. soldiers unearthed a mass grave Sunday containing as many as 30 badly decomposed bodies near Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad.
___
Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub and Slobodan Lekic in Baghdad, and Abdul-Hussein al-Obeidi in Najaf, contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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paulh50 |
04/14/08 20:15
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quote "daka1" : It's been said that the first casualty of war is the truth.
The first casuality of war is Innoence not truth. Lies may start war but it is the lives of humans that are lost first. |
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paulh50 |
04/22/08 02:13
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If the US troops stay or leave the fighting will continue.
Suicide bomber hits funeral north of Baghdad, killing 50 By LEE KEATH, Associated Press Writer
Thu Apr 17, 5:56 PM ET
A suicide bomber struck the funeral of two Sunni tribesmen who joined forces against al-Qaida in Iraq, killing at least 50 people Thursday and reinforcing fears that insurgents are hitting back after American-led crackdowns.
The sudden spike in bloodshed this week adds to the other worries now piling up in Iraq: violent rivalries among Shiites and persistent cracks in the Iraqi security forces.
Violence across the country has declined since seven months ago, including dramatic suicide bombings like Thursday's funeral attack. American officials credit the change to the U.S. troop buildup and the rise of Sunni tribal groups known as Awakening Councils that have turned against al-Qaida-linked militants. A truce called last year by anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has also helped.
But the new bloodshed highlights how fragile those gains are.
Thursday's attack happened in the town of Albu Mohammad, about 90 miles north of Baghdad. A suicide bomber dressed in traditional Arab robes passed unsearched by guards into a tent of mourners. The occasion was a funeral for two brothers who belonged to the local Awakening Council and who were killed in an attack a day earlier.
The bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body, killing at least 50 people and wounding dozens more, said police in the nearby city of Kirkuk.
"I first heard a thunderous explosion and when I turned my eyes to the tent I saw fire and smoke coming out," said Sheik Omar al-Azawi, an Awakening Council member who arrived at the funeral just before the blast. "Panicked people were jumping and running on all sides."
Insurgents also struck against Awakening Council members in Baghdad on Thursday. Two council members were gunned down in the Sunni district of Azamiyah. Hours later in the same area, five council members and a civilian were killed by a roadside bomb. And the head of the Awakening Council in the southern Baghdad area of Dora was killed by gunmen who sprayed his car with bullets, also wounding his son, police said.
The violence came two days after a string of suicide bombings in four cities of northern and central Iraq killed 60 people — attacks that U.S. officials blamed on al-Qaida in Iraq.
There have been other sporadic bursts of dramatic attacks blamed on al-Qaida or other Sunni insurgents in past several months. It is unknown whether this week's violence signals that al-Qaida in Iraq has been able to reorganize after blows suffered from the U.S. troop surge and the Awakening Councils.
Death rates began declining significantly around September 2007 and reached an average low of 20 Iraqis killed per day in January, according to an Associated Press count. But since then, the levels have steadily climbed to an average of 41 reported killed per day last month.
U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner said such attacks do not detract from a markedly improved overall situation. "We have said all along that there will be variants in which we will see al-Qaida and other groups seek to reassert themselves," Bergner said Wednesday.
The troubles on the Shiite front could be more dangerous. An offensive launched on March 25 in the southern city of Basra by Iraqi forces against Shiite militants — particularly from al-Sadr's Mahdi Army — touched off an uprising by Shiite militias across southern Iraq and in Baghdad's Sadr City.
Though the heaviest fighting of the operation has eased, clashes persist in Sadr City and the south, deeply straining the truce called by al-Sadr.
The Basra offensive also highlighted the continued weaknesses and divided loyalties that plague the Iraqi military, despite intensified U.S. efforts to train its forces.
The Iraqi government has acknowledged that during the Basra fighting, at least 1,000 Iraqi soldiers and police deserted or refused to fight because of intimidation from Shiite militiamen or loyalty to al-Sadr.
But details of the operation from an Iraqi army colonel in the Basra command center suggested the problems were even deeper.
The desertions came in the army's 14th Division, which is mainly composed of troops from Basra, the colonel said. Two brigades of about 600 troops each — about 40 percent of the division's forces involved in the operation — refused to fight, as did most of Basra province's 11,000 police forces.
The colonel, who spoke to the AP on Thursday on condition of anonymity in return for discussing the operation, said the soldiers' loyalties are sectarian and not to the nation.
Beyond the desertions, the offensive was hastily prepared and the Basra troops were poorly trained and badly equipped, the colonel said. "They are not professional enough, so they collapsed."
The troops lacked proper maps and communication equipment and were forced to rely on mobile phones to communicate. In contrast, the Mahdi Army fighters "had good, precise intelligence, better than ours" and more powerful weapons — including anti-tank rockets and rocket-propelled grenades, he said. With only six tanks in all of Basra province, most Iraqi troops had only automatic weapons, he said.
With control of Basra's infrastructure largely divvied up between the city's Shiite factions, the Mahdi Army controlled the city's hospitals, meaning wounded soldiers could not be taken there, he said.
It was only because of the arrival of several military and police brigades from elsewhere in the country — including special forces — several days after the operation began that government forces were able to gain the upper hand in the city, the colonel said.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who ordered the assault, has said it was a success. U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker had praised al-Maliki for his decision to strike at Shiite militias, but he acknowledged the operation ran into "a boatload of problems."
___
AP correspondents Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Yahya Barzanji in Kirkuk contributed to this report, as did the AP News Research Center in New York.
(This version CORRECTS the spelling of a name in the contributors' note at the bottom of the story.)
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paulh50 |
04/22/08 02:17
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Who is going to fight the wars and defend our country? Lions for Lambs makes a good point that is generally the under priviledged and poor who defend our country while the well to do just sit back and complain.
More convicted felons allowed to enlist in Army, Marines By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
Mon Apr 21, 4:19 PM ET
Under pressure to meet combat needs, the Army and Marine Corps brought in significantly more recruits with felony convictions last year than in 2006, including some with manslaughter and sex crime convictions.
Data released by a congressional committee shows the number of soldiers admitted to the Army with felony records jumped from 249 in 2006 to 511 in 2007. And the number of Marines with felonies rose from 208 to 350.
Those numbers represent a fraction of the more than 180,000 recruits brought in by the active duty Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2007. But they highlight a trend that has raised concerns both within the military and on Capitol Hill.
The bulk of the crimes involved were burglaries, other thefts, and drug offenses, but nine involved sex crimes and six involved manslaughter or vehicular homicide convictions. Several dozen Army and Marine recruits had aggravated assault or robbery convictions, including incidents involving weapons.
Both the Army and Marine Corps have been struggling to increase their numbers as part of a broader effort to meet the combat needs of a military fighting wars on two fronts. As a result, the number of recruits needing waivers for crimes or other bad conduct has grown in recent years, as well as those needing medical or aptitude waivers.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, who released the data, noted that there may be valid reasons for granting the waivers and giving individuals a second chance.
But he added, "Concerns have been raised that the significant increase in the recruitment of persons with criminal records is a result of the strain put on the military by the Iraq war and may be undermining military readiness."
The services use a waiver process to let in recruits with felony convictions, and many of the crimes were committed when the service members were juveniles.
For example, in several of the Marine sex crime cases, the offender was a teenager involved in consensual sex with another underage teen. In one Army case, a 13-year-old who threw a match into his school locker was charged with arson and had to receive a felony waiver six years later.
"Waivers are used judiciously and granted only after a thorough review," said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington.
He added that "low unemployment, a protracted war on terror, a decline in propensity to serve," and the growing reluctance of parents, teachers and other adults to recommend young people go into the military, has made recruiting a challenge.
According to the Army, 18 percent of the recruits needed conduct waivers in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2007, compared to 15 percent in the 12-month period ending in Sept. 30, 2006.
"We are growing the Army fast and there are some waivers; we know that," said Army Lt. Gen. James D. Thurman, deputy chief of staff for operations. "It hasn't alarmed us yet."
He added that "the better part of making soldiers is about leadership. Somebody invested in me, you know. That's the beauty of the United States Army. It's about leadership ... You've got to give people an opportunity to serve."
Late last fall, the Pentagon quietly began looking for ways to make it easier for people with minor criminal records to join the military. The goal of that review is to make cumbersome waiver requirements consistent across the services — the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force — and reduce the number of petty crimes that now trigger the process.
According to the data released Monday, a bit more than half of the Army's 511 convictions in 2007 were for various types of thefts, ranging from burglaries to bad checks and stolen cars. Another 130 were for drug offenses.
The remainder, however, included two in 2007 for manslaughter, compared to one in 2006; five for sexual crimes (which can include rape, incest or sexual assaults) compared to two in 2006; and three for negligent or vehicular homicide, compared to two in 2006. Two received waivers for terrorist threats including bomb threats in 2007, compared to one in 2006.
At least 235 of the Marine Corps' 350 waivers were for various types of thefts in 2007, and another 63 were for assaults or robberies that may also have included use of a weapon. The remainder included one for manslaughter in 2007, compared to none in 2006; four for sex crimes, compared to one in 2006; and five for terror threats, including bomb threats, compared to two in 2006.
The total number of sailors who received felony waivers dipped from 48 in 2006 to 42 in 2007. Most were for a variety of thefts or drug and drunk driving convictions. Two in 2007 were for terror or bomb threats compared to three in 2006.
There were no Air Force recruits with waivers for felony convictions in 2007.
Waivers must be approved by an officer who is ranked as a brigadier general or above, and recruits must have written recommendations and endorsements from community leaders showing they would be a good bet for the military.
___
On the Net:
Defense Department: http://www.defenselink.mil
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paulh50 |
04/30/08 00:52
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Here's a new growing problem in Iraq. If you want to see a problem of what happens when troops and support are pulled out of a country watch the movie; "Charlie Wilson's War." It tell the story of the US support to push the Russians out of Afganistan.
Al-Sadr may restart full-scale fight against US in Iraq By HAMZA HENDAWI and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writers
Thu Apr 24, 6:44 PM ET
Muqtada al-Sadr is considering setting aside his political ambitions and restarting a full-scale fight against U.S.-led forces — a worrisome shift that may reflect Iranian influence on the young cleric and could open the way for a shadow state protected by his powerful Mahdi Army.
A possible breakaway path — described to The Associated Press by Shiite lawmakers and politicians — would represent the ultimate backlash to the Iraqi government's pressure on al-Sadr to renounce and disband his Shiite militia.
By snubbing the give-and-take of politics, al-Sadr would have a freer hand to carve out a kind of parallel state with its own militia and social services along the lines of Hezbollah in Lebanon, a Shiite group founded with Iran's help in the 1980s.
It also would carry potentially disastrous security implications as the Pentagon trims its troops strength and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki finally shows progress on national reconciliation.
Last week, the main Sunni political bloc announced provisional plans to rejoin the Shiite-led coalition nine months after quitting the government. The Sunnis are pleased with the squeeze on al-Sadr's movement as well as an amnesty law that could free many detainees.
"Muqtada has shown a great deal of patience not calling for an all-out war yet with so much pressure on him," said Mohan Abedin, director of research at London's Center for the Study of Terrorism and an expert on Shiite affairs. "The Mahdi Army is by far the most powerful Iraqi faction. It can cause damage on a massive scale if it goes to war."
Al-Sadr's next move is still uncertain, but he clearly holds important cards.
The Mahdi Army is estimated to have about 60,000 fighters — with at least 5,000 thought to be highly trained commandos — and is emboldened by its strong resistance to an Iraqi-led crackdown launched last month in the southern city of Basra and elsewhere.
Al-Sadr's movement also holds sway over the densely populated Shiite parts of Baghdad and across the Shiite south by controlling vital needs such as fuel and running social services such as clinics.
A cease-fire declared last summer by al-Sadr has been credited with helping bring a steep drop violence.
But al-Sadr — who has been in the Iranian seminary city of Qom for the past year — is seriously considering tearing up the truce and disassociating himself from his political bloc in parliament, according to loyalists and Shiite politicians interviewed by the AP over the past two weeks.
Then al-Sadr would be free to unleash Mahdi attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces, the political insiders said.
They include members of the 30-seat Sadrist faction in parliament and members of rival Shiite parties, including two who saw al-Sadr recently in Iran. All requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
"The emphasis is now on weapons and fighting, not politics," said one of the lawmakers in the Sadrist bloc. "(Al-Sadr) now only communicates with the Mahdi Army commanders."
Any Mahdi Army offensive could have serious repercussions. Mahdi fighters engaged in fierce battles with U.S. forces in 2004 and then were blamed for waves of roadside bombings that were once the chief killer of American troops.
Mahdi militiamen also fought Iraqi security forces to a virtual standstill last month in Basra before an Iranian-supervised truce.
It's unknown how much al-Sadr's Iranian hosts are shaping his views.
Al-Sadr, who is in his mid-30s, is studying in Qom under the supervision of Ayatollah Kazim al-Haeri, a reclusive Iraqi cleric close to Iranian hard-liners.
Washington accuses Iran of aiding Shiite militias in Iraq, including so-called "special groups" with murky ties to the Mahdi mainstream. Iran denies the allegations.
But Iran has obvious and well known connections to the main Shiite political groups in al-Maliki's government. During the recent battles in Basra, Iran supported al-Maliki's crackdown on so-called "criminals" but did not make a clear statement on the spillover confrontation with the Mahdi Army.
Backing a Mahdi Army uprising would allow Tehran to effectively play both sides in a Shiite showdown.
A flurry of recent statements by al-Sadr has emphasized his first public role: as a firebrand militia leader after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
In a statement posted Saturday on his Web site, al-Sadr gave a "final warning" to the government to halt its crackdown or face an "open war until liberation."
Senior Mahdi Army commanders, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss strategy with media, said they have taken delivery of new Iranian weapons, including sophisticated roadside bombs, Grad rockets and shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles.
The militia's top field commanders, they said, were senior members of the special groups.
One commander, who identified himself by his nickname Abu Dhara al-Sadri, said scores of militia fighters were prepared to carry out suicide bombings against U.S. forces. Suicide bombings are the signature attacks of Sunni militants in Iraq's conflict, but the tactic was introduced against Americans in Lebanon by Shiite militants in the 1980s.
Sadrist lawmakers and aides have sent compromise-seeking proposals to al-Sadr in Qom. The ideas seek to appease al-Maliki enough to forestall his threat: barring al-Sadr's followers from running in this fall's key provincial elections unless al-Sadr disbands the Mahdi Army.
But the proposals have gone unanswered, said al-Sadr's aides.
One offer, they said, would allow for creation of a new political party with no formal links to the Mahdi Army. Another would permit candidates sympathetic to the Sadrists — but with no direct links — to run as independents in the fall election.
One of the authors of the proposals, moderate cleric Riyadh al-Nouri, was gunned down April 11 in Najaf, the spiritual center for Shiites in Iraq. The reason for the slaying was not clear.
Lawmakers and politicians told the AP that al-Sadr's more belligerent tone is motivated, in part, by his wish to secure a place for himself in history as a nationalist leader and anger over the recent arrests of hundreds of supporters despite his unilateral cease-fire.
At talks this month in Qom between al-Sadr and former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the young cleric vowed never to disband the Mahdi Army while U.S. and other foreign forces remain in Iraq, according to Shiite political figures familiar with the meetings.
Al-Jaafari has said he was mediating an accommodation between al-Sadr and al-Maliki's government.
Salah al-Obeidi, al-Sadr's chief spokesman in Iraq, acknowledged that al-Sadr and the Iranians were at present bound by close ties and common goals.
However, he was quick to add that while al-Sadr and the Iranians shared common interests — namely fighting the Americans in Iraq — the cleric was nobody's puppet.
Vali Nasr, an expert on Shiite politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, said the Iranians may want al-Sadr to stay in Qom to keep him in check for the moment.
"Muqtada is forcing everyone's hand right now when they (the Iranians) may not be wanting their hand forced," said Nasr.
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