Sixty-seven people in three cities have died in Iraq today. The deadliest attack came in Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit: 30 people — “mostly day laborers waiting to get picked up for work at construction sites” — were killed and 75 wounded.
The nation’s death toll, in less than two weeks, is over 365.
Along with his bodyguards, the governor of Anbar — where Marines are conducting an Iraq/Syrian border offensive — was kidnapped on a 200-mile journey from Qaim to Ramadi.
Below, how the U.S. is winning hearts and minds, and today’s analysis by Seymour Hersh:
Asked at a Pentagon briefing if the kidnapped governor of Anbar had requested U.S. escorts, Lt. Gen. James T. Conway — who used to command Marine forces in Anbar — said, “Not that I’m aware of.”
“Last August,” reports the New York Times, “a previous American-appointed Anbar governor was forced into a humiliating resignation by insurgents who kidnapped his three sons, then forced the weeping official, on a videotape sold in Anbar marketplaces, to quit his job as the price of saving his sons from beheading.”
Hinting at the underlying reason for the border assault, Gen. Conway told reporters at the Pentgon briefing that “there had been a reported sighting of Mr. Zarqawi ‘within the last three weeks’.”
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Seymour Hersh today on Democracy Now! says that every time there is a series of bombings, the U.S. responds with publicized raids.
The U.S., he says, created an “image” by predicting increased insurgent attacks after Jan. 30’s elections.
How would the U.S. know, Hersh asks. “We have no intelligence. We have no idea what they’re going to do. These are tiny cells — 3-4 man cells.”
Hersh is on for the full hour this morning. Listen or watch. The transcript will be up before noon.
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Hersh accuses the U.S. of a “macabre” plan to make the Sunnis more afraid of the U.S. military than they are of the insurgents. “It’s a desperate game plan. It won’t work.”
About that Sunni intimidation strategy, The Los Angeles Times reports this morning:
Mohammed Dayini of the National Dialogue Council, which favors participation in the government, said 17 people had been detained in a raid on council offices but were released.
In a simultaneous raid a few miles away, he said, soldiers detained Hassan Zaidau Lihabi, a member of the council; his son; and 13 of his guards. Eight of the guards were released, but the others remained in custody, Dayini said.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman denied that Americans were involved.
Instead of alienating more Iraqis — particularly politically active Iraqis — the U.S. should concentrate on a massive training program:
The army “needs collective experience and long training,” new Defense Minister Saadoun Dulaimi told Al Arabiya television in an interview Monday. Though he said those with a bloody past would not be hired for security jobs, he said the experience of some former Baath Party officials could be useful. “I wish the ministry to be the gathering point of all the Iraqis,” he said.
Both photos: New York Times
“training” from the US.
What the US should do depends on its goal.
If there is a will on the part of the American people for their children to enjoy a future, and a nation, the US should cease aggression, disarm, and immediately repatriate its gunmen, torturers, sexual predators and other assets.
If the goal is to continue making money for the companies intended to make money, the present course is quite successful, and I am not aware of any complaints from Halliburton, Raytheon, Dyncorp, et. al.
How come Bush doesn’t go to Iraq while in the neighborhood. If things are going so swimmingly and we are making such great progress wouldn’t it be “safe” for him to visit the troops? Oh, maybe he forgot to bring a fake turkey on this trip.
the hand grenades lobbed at him will be about twenty times as many, and they won’t be fake, like the one in Georgia…
I didn’t read this until after posting a further comment to yesterday’s “An Engine for International Terrorism”, but some of what I said there is applicable here as well:
“It’s hard to understand how anyone can be optimistic about the short-term in Iraq — the spiral is continuing ever-downward, and it’s becoming more likely that the only way to try to stanch the violence will be through even more brutally repressive measures undertaken by the new Iraqi government (or by the U.S. forces), if they have the stomach for it. If they don’t, they’ll lose whatever confidence they currently have from the population, and outright civil war becomes more likely. Neither alternative should be viewed as acceptable.”
This editorial from Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (reprinted in English by Al-Mendhar) would appear to bear this out:
Mr. Ibrahim Al Ja’fari has a unique chance to prove his leadership competence. He is the first elected prime minister in the nation and has wide authorities. He is in charge of the forces of security, the army and the oil. He would not be excused if he neglected performing his work. If the issues of unemployment, improving the living conditions for people, improving services and fighting the financial and administrative corruption are duties that pose themselves on the new prime minister, the top duty is the issue of security, as there is no development without security, no jobs for the unemployed without security, and no foreign investments without security.
We believe that it is not sufficient that the prime minister threatens of applying the martial law. He has to apply them in some regions that are tense.
Also according to this story from Al-Mendhar (originally reported in Al-Hayat), officials in Tikrit now require all cars to have at least one passenger to distinguish them from suicide bombers. This policy doesn’t seem to have worked today, with terrible consequences.
Isn’t this the same kind of thing we tried in Vietnam? Terrorizing the civilian population to undermine support for the Viet Kong? It worked so well there apparently we’re going to try it again. This is so disgusting I have no words to describe how I feel.
Thanks for the tip on Democracy Now too!
I don’t know where else would be a good spot to put this bit of info so I thought it might fit in here with the Iraq story. I just got as an email alert from CNN.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/05/11/afghan.protest.ap/index.html
The Afghan Interior Ministry says four protesters were killed and 71 injured.
Shouting “Death to America,” the demonstrators smashed car and shop windows and stoned a passing convoy of American soldiers in the city of Jalalabad, near the Pakistan border.
Mobs also attacked the Pakistani consulate and the office of a Swedish relief organization. No foreigners were reported hurt.
“They are very angry and are spread over all over the city,” provincial intelligence chief Sardar Shah told The Associated Press. “There are police, army and Americans shooting into the air. … We’ve tried to get control but I think it is impossible.”
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Quote from President Karzai visiting Europe and NATO: “It is a manifestation of Democracy, it is not anti-Americanism”. His country would need international assistance “for many, many years to come”.
BBC reported from Jalalabad: “Anti-Karzai and anti-Bush slogans”.
At least four people have been killed and many injured after police opened fire to break up an anti-US protest in eastern Afghanistan, officials say. Hundreds of students rioted in the city of Jalalabad over reports that the Koran was desecrated at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. President Hamid Karzai has said the violence showed the inability of Afghan authorities to handle such protests.
Buildings burned down
Afghan National Army soldiers, supported by US units, are out on the streets of Jalalabad to try and control the situation. Protests also spread to the south-eastern city of Khost, where hundreds of students took to the streets.
In Jalalabad, UN buildings have been attacked and the offices of two international aid groups have been destroyed. Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan, Rustam Shah Mohmand, told the BBC the Pakistani consul’s house had also been burned down and two cars torched.
One international aid worker in Jalalabad told the BBC that he could see smoke rising from points across the city. He said there were groups of people running along the streets, reportedly looking for foreigners and anyone working for NGOs.
KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. Army Gen. B.B. Bell, Commander, Allied Land Component Command Heidleberg, and ISAF soldiers prepare to film an informational spot for the American Forces Network and Pentagon channel outlets across America in front of the ISAF Headquarters.
The BBC’s Andrew North in Kabul says the violence comes after several months of mounting concern among foreign aid workers in Afghanistan over their security. All UN and other foreign aid workers in the city have been told to move to safe areas.
The protesters chanted “Death to America” and smashed car windows and damaged shops. “Police opened fire in the air to control the mob, and some people were injured,” according to Jalalabad police chief, Abdul Rehman. Jalalabad is 130km (80 miles) east of the Afghan capital, Kabul, close to the Pakistani border.
Reports of abuse
The unrest follows a report in Newsweek, that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had placed copies of the Koran on toilets in order to put pressure on Muslim prisoners.
On Sunday, the Pakistani government said it was “deeply dismayed” over the reports about the Koran. Islamist parties there have called for a nationwide strike on Friday. Insulting the Koran or Islam’s Prophet Mohammed is regarded as blasphemy and punishable by death in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Both countries are close allies of the US in its war against terror.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
Wasn’t this the Nazi’s strategy in occupied Europe?
The Nazi’s made the jews use the torah as toilet paper and used many jewish headstones to create walkways and other means of transportation in and around the relocation centers. Commonly called by the Nazi’s, we all know they were in fact death camps. Wondering how long before the Israeli, American, Pakistani, Afghani and other camps denigriate into the same kind of camps. Anyone doing a dairy on the number of deaths coming out of the US Gulag system being created from our so called War on Terror. Or as I like to call it, Our war that makes sure every Pentagon Contractor makes billion and billions of dollars and social programs get cut to the bone, or the Corporate Welfare War.
I found this in a paper in Norway.
If you look at the clothing and blood splatters, it is clear that it is the same young man as in Susan’s top picture:
Caption: ONLY REACHED 25: Jamil Abdul Husain mourns at the stretcher of his brother Haydar Abdul Husain, who only reached the age of 25.
They are not nameless victims, at least not in Verdens Gang (a couple of more pictures in the article).