The Iraq thread 3

[billybob2002 0]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm....ush

Quote[/b] ]

Bush Signs Bill With $25B More for Wars

43 minutes ago Add White House - AP to My Yahoo!

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) signed a $417.5 billion wartime defense bill Thursday providing an additional $25 billion for Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites), body armor for troops and reinforced Humvee vehicles.

"With this legislation America's military will know that their country stands behind them as they fight for our freedom and as they spread the peace," Bush said.

"No enemy or friend can doubt that America has the resources to prevail," he said. "And we will."

Overwhelmingly approved by a Congress eager to show election-year support for the military, the measure includes money for 39 more Army Black Hawk helicopters, a Virginia-class attack submarine, three guided-missile destroyers and a 3.5 percent pay increase for troops. "This money is well-earned, well-deserved and well-spent," he said of the pay increase.

With national security the top issue in his re-election campaign, Bush came off the political trail for the bill-signing ceremony, flanked by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, members of the military and lawmakers. The carefully timed event highlighted Bush's role as commander in chief, offering him a spotlight Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) cannot match.

With the ink on the measure barely dry, Bush was returning to the campaign trail for his 20th trip as president to Ohio.

Bush had originally insisted that no extra funds would be needed for Iraq and Afghanistan until after the elections but under pressure from Congress, he requested $25 billion. He said the two countries were "the front lines in the war on terror."

The bill has nearly $78 billion for weapons purchases, $3 billion more than Bush requested. Included is more money for Air Force unmanned Predator aerial attack vehicles, Stryker combat vehicles for the Army and a DD(X) destroyer.

There is $10 billion for continued work on a national missile defense system. And there is $100 million for the Air Force to modernize its fleet of midair refueling tankers — though House language was dropped requiring 80 of the craft to be purchased from the ailing Boeing Co.

"This bill will help make America a safer place," Bush said.

Bush also said it was in America's interest for Arab militia violence to end in the western Sudan region of Darfur. The defense bill could help, he said, with $95 million in famine relief and humanitarian assistance.

"Recent history has shown that the threats to our shores can emerge from failing states half a world away," Bush said. "By acting early to end a crisis, we can make our world safer."

He issued a new call for peace in Sudan.

"No amount of aid can substitute for true and lasting peace," Bush said. "The government of Sudan must stop the violence of the Janjaweed militias, and all parties must respect the cease-fire and allow the free movement of humanitarian workers and supplies."

[EiZei 0]

Wonder when the US military budget will surpass rest of the world combined..

[DarkLight 0]

Wonder when the US military budget will surpass rest of the world combined..

I bet if they would bother NOT buying a couple tanks and jets, they'd be able to feed every poor human being for a year or something like that.

But who gives a fuck about them, right? It's not like it's MEEEE or my family that is starving, right?

So let's go ahead and spend our money on killing eachother some more!

HOORAY! HOORAY! ITS A JOLLY HOLIDA-AY!

[billybob2002 0]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/08/07/iraq.main/index.html

Quote[/b] ]

Iraq offers limited amnesty to insurgency

Arabic-language TV network office temporarily closed

Saturday, August 7, 2004 Posted: 2:49 PM EDT (1849 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's interim prime minister announced on Saturday a temporary amnesty that would let some of the insurgency's minor players off the hook.

Interim leader Ayad Allawi announced the amnesty for what he called "minor crimes." Among the minor crimes are the possession of light weapons and explosive material, covering for terrorist elements and failing to inform the appropriate authorities about crime.

The amnesty applies to people who have not yet been prosecuted.

Allawi said the amnesty period is 30 days and applies only to crimes during the 15-month insurgency.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/08/07/iraq.al.jazeera/index.html

Quote[/b] ]

Iraq shuts Al-Jazeera's Baghdad office

Qatar-based TV network to close in capital for one month

Saturday, August 7, 2004 Posted: 12:40 PM EDT (1640 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's interim government has closed the Baghdad office of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television network for one month, citing national security concerns.

"This decision was taken to protect the people of Iraq and the interests of Iraq," Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's told a news conference Saturday.

Allawi said the order to close Al-Jazeera, which was to take effect immediately, came after an independent commission monitored the network's reports.

The findings of the commission were "compelling," he said.

"They came up with a concise report on the issues of incitement and the problems Al-Jazeera has been causing."

Al-Jazeera also reported the closing.

Jihad Ballout, the network's spokesman, told The Associated Press that Al-Jazeera was not given a reason for the closure.

"It is a regrettable decision, but Al-Jazeera will endeavor to cover the situation in Iraq as best as we can within the constraints," he said.

Ballout described the government's decision as "unwise" and said it restrains both the freedom of the press and "right of the Arab people around the world to see a comprehensive picture about what's going on in an important region like Iraq."

Government ministers have been critical of the Arab-language network, saying it has been airing dangerous, inciteful images and reports. Among those images are videos of people abducted in the recent wave of kidnappings.

"I got an order from the National Security Committee to close Al-Jazeera starting from today for one month just to give them the chance to readjust their policy against Iraq," said Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib.

When asked why, al-Naqib said "you know exactly" what the network has been doing.

"They have been showing a lot of crime and criminals on TV. They transferred a bad picture about Iraq and about Iraqis. They have encouraged the criminals and the gangsters to increase their activities in the country," al-Naqib said.

In a statement, the Interior Ministry added: "Al-Jazeera has accepted to be the mouthpiece of terrorist and criminal groups thus contributing to attempts to impair security and achieve aims of terrorism in spreading terror in the minds of peaceful Iraqi citizens with activities that have nothing to do with acts of violence.

"In so doing, it has contributed to hindering the Iraq reconstruction process by justifying kidnappings and killing of foreigners working here.

"It has also subjected the security, safety and property of citizens as well as government facilities, security and safety of national armed forces to danger."

ok...

[denoir 0]

Annan appeals for Iraq ceasefire [bBC]

Quote[/b] ]

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for an end to violence between warring Shia militants and US forces, and offered help to broker a ceasefire.

Mr Annan said he was "extremely concerned" about the recent fighting in several Iraqi cities.

But correspondents say neither side appears to have an appetite for peace.

A spokesman for the rebels rejected the interim government's offer of a limited amnesty while Iraqi authorities vowed to crush resistance in Najaf.

Fighting flared in the holy city of Najaf last week after US forces apparently surrounded the home of the Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr - guarded by militants from his Mehdi Army.

It signalled the collapse of a series of truces agreed after Mr Sadr's supporters led uprisings against coalition forces beginning last April.

In recent days revolt has spread to Baghdad and other cities.

Boycott threat

In New York, a spokesman for Mr Annan said: "The United Nations is ready to extend its facilitating role to the current crisis, if this would be helpful...

"[Mr Annan] believes that, in such a situation, force should be a last resort. He calls for every effort to be made, even at this late hour, to work out a ceasefire and peaceful solution."

His plea was echoed by Shia leaders, who threatened to boycott an upcoming political conference if the violence did not end.

But elsewhere, the comments were more belligerent.

On Saturday, Iraq's interim government passed a law that would provide amnesty to minor criminals in what was interpreted as an attempt to persuade those with knowledge of the insurgents to come forward to police.

But the amnesty was quickly ruled out by a spokesman for Mr Sadr, Ahmed al-Shaibany.

"This is a trivial and insignificant statement," he said, according to Associated Press.

"Amnesties are for criminals, but resistance is legitimate and does not need an amnesty."

Iraqi authorities threatened to step up their efforts to crush the rebellion in Najaf.

The Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who has insisted the offer of amnesty does not include "killers", has said "the Iraqi police, National Guard and the army will escalate their operations against the outlaw people", according to AP.

General Ghaleb al-Jazairi of the Iraqi police said his forces had "received reinforcements and we have received new weapons. We will finish with them, control the city and no longer tolerate militias in Najaf".

The US military says five US marines and hundreds of militants have been killed in Najaf, though Mr Sadr's fighters insist the number is much lower.

The violence has sparked the departure of some residents, some of whom complain utilities including water have been cut off.

The stand-off in Najaf is continuing, with the US military saying it had secured a cemetery where insurgents were sheltering, but insurgents appearing to have control of the old town.

Fighting has continued in other cities:

[*]In Baghdad, several people were reported to have died and scores wounded in the battle-scarred slum district of Sadr City, in clashes between Mr Sadr's supporters and US and Iraqi forces.

[*]Explosions rocked central Baghdad on Saturday night - apparently mortar rounds targeting the fortified US Green Zone complex. No casualties were reported.

[*]Police stations were attacked and in some cases overrun by militia forces in the southern British-controlled city of Amara.

[*]Exchanges of fire were reported between police and militants in Basra.

[quicksand 0]

Situation in Iraq deteriorating;Al-Sadr vows to fight to death

Quote[/b] ]

NAJAF, Iraq - A radical cleric whose loyalists battled U.S. troops for the fifth straight day vowed Monday to fight to the death, and a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb northeast of the capital, killing six people and wounding the deputy governor who was the intended target, officials said.

Explosions and gunfire were heard throughout Najaf and U.S. helicopters hovered overhead as U.S. forces tried to drive Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militiamen from a vast cemetery they have repeatedly used as a base. A U.S. tank rolled within 400 yards of Najaf's holiest site, the Imam Ali Shrine, also held by militiamen.

A Najaf hospital spokesman said three were killed, including two policemen, and 19 wounded. The U.S. military says hundreds of militants have been killed in the violence in recent days; the militiamen put the number far lower.

Al-Sadr vowed to keep up the battle.

"I will continue fighting," al-Sadr told reporters. "I will remain in Najaf city until the last drop of my blood has been spilled."

Iraq (news - web sites )'s defense minister, Hazem Shaalan, accused neighboring Iran of helping arm the Shiite militiamen and branded Iran his country's "first enemy."

"There are Iranian-made weapons that have been found in the hands of criminals in Najaf who received these weapons from across the Iranian border," Shaalan said in an interview with the Arab-language television network al-Arabiya.

"From far and near, the facts that we have say that what has happened to the Iraqi people is done by the one who is considered as the first enemy," he said.

Government officials have said many of those involved in the Najaf violence were criminals and implied they were not true followers of the popular Shiite firebrand. But al-Sadr said the militants were his followers and described them as volunteers fighting for an honorable cause.

"These are honest attacks against the occupation," he said, referring to the U.S. troop presence in the country. "They ... are coming to resist the occupation, to liberate our country."

"Resistance will continue and increase day by day," he said. "Our demand is for the American occupation to get out of Iraq. We want an independent, democratic, free country."

Al-Sadr's words were a challenge to interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who visited the war-shattered city Sunday under heavy security and called on the Shiite militants to stop fighting.

"We think that those armed should leave the holy sites and the (Imam Ali Shrine compound) as well as leave their weapons and abide by the law," he said.

Much of the fighting has centered on the vast cemetery near the Imam Ali Shrine. U.S. forces using helicopter gunships launched a renewed offensive Sunday to drive militants out of the cemetery after claiming two days earlier to have secured the area in some of the fiercest fighting.

On Monday, a U.S. tank approached within about 400 yards of the shrine compound, the closest the military has come to it in the fighting.

"We cannot conduct negotiations under shelling," al-Sadr said. "The Americans are shelling the most holy place here in Najaf and they want me to negotiate? This is ridiculous."

Mahdi Army militiamen in Baghdad kidnapped a senior Iraqi policeman, Brig. Raed Mohammed Khudair, who is responsible for all police patrols in eastern Baghdad, said Col. Adnan Abdel Rahman, an Interior Ministry spokesman.

In a video broadcast on Al-Jazeera television, militants demanded the government release all Mahdi Army prisoners in exchange for Khudair, whom they snatched Sunday.

Iraq's Interior Ministry clamped a curfew Monday on Sadr City, a Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad where U.S. troops and al-Sadr militiamen have also been fighting. The curfew, imposed for "security reasons," will run from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m., the ministry announced.

In the southern city of Basra, masked al-Sadr followers patrolled some main streets Monday and set up checkpoints. No Iraqi police or British troops could be seen, witnesses said.

The Mahdi Army threatened Monday to take over local government buildings in Basra if U.S. troops did not leave Najaf, and also said they would target oil pipelines and ports in southern Iraq.

Also Monday, the military reported that a U.S. Marine was killed in action Sunday in the western province of Anbar. Anbar is a Sunni Muslim-dominated area of anti-U.S. resistance that includes Fallujah, Ramadi and Qaim on the Syrian border.

The death brought to at least 927 the number of American servicemembers who have died in Iraq.

The Shiite violence began Thursday in Najaf after the collapse of a series of truces that ended a two-month uprising in early June. A deadline for militants to withdraw from Najaf, the center of the worst violence, expired Saturday.

The car bombing in Balad Ruz, 40 miles northeast of Baghdad, targeted the home of Diyala province's deputy governor, Aqil Hamid al-Adili, who was in stable condition and was being treated at a U.S.-led coalition medical facility, military spokesman Maj. Neal O'Brien said.

Six Iraqi policemen were killed and at least 17 people wounded, including police and passers-by, Police Brig. Daoud Mahmoud said.

A white station wagon laden with explosives blew up outside al-Adili's home, shattering windows and blowing the doors off their hinges. Al-Adili's 9-year-old son was lightly injured, Mahmoud said.

Guerrillas waging a yearlong insurgency in Iraq have repeatedly used car bombs to attack top officials of the interim government, Iraqi security forces and American troops.

Meanwhile, Iran confirmed Monday that Faridoun Jihani, the Iranian consul to the Iraqi city of Karbala, had been kidnapped, and said he was in good health.

"Iran will do its best to secure the release of the kidnapped Iranian diplomat," the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi as saying.

Jihani's kidnappers, in a video released Saturday, accused Iran of meddling in Iraq's affairs. Scores of other foreigners have been kidnapped as leverage to force foreign troops and businesses from the country.

In an video posted on the Internet, militants beheaded a hostage identified only as a Bulgarian. Two Bulgarian truck drivers were kidnapped June 29, and the beheaded body of one of the drivers was found in mid July and a tape was released showing his death.

A second decapitated body was found late last month, prompting fears that the other Bulgarian had been killed, but there was no video of his slaying released at the time.

[Bernadotte 0]

Anyone old enough to remember the saga of Ike and Tina Turner will love this:

Quote[/b] ]<span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'>Ike Turner's Guide to Restoring America's Honor.</span>

BY KEN MCINTYRE

- - - -

OK, America, you done fucked up again. Things got a little out of hand, and you went and blew up another country. Now you got everybody all mad at you, and you don't know what to do. Well, don't worry, America. Ike's been down this road before, and I know exactly how to handle it. You better listen to what I'm telling you, America. Ike knows what he's talking about, and Ike's willing to help you out as long as you do exactly what Ike says and stop being so stubborn. You dig?

Step 1

OK, first things first, America. Stop smacking the bitch. I know sometimes you get caught up in the heat of the moment and you don't know when you've gone too far. Sometimes you just get so mad sometimes. I know you tried to warn Iraq. You told Iraq to stop provoking you. But Iraq wouldn't listen. Iraq was being stubborn and ignorant, and you had to teach Iraq a lesson. Now Iraq's all beaten and bruised and bleeding everywhere, fucking up the good carpet. It's time to chill the fuck out, America. You don't wanna kill Iraq. You just wanna show Iraq how much you love it. It's just sometimes you go a little crazy is all.

Step 2

Give Iraq a Kleenex and tell it to clean itself up. Tell Iraq to hurry, you ain't got all day.

Step 3

Now comes the hard part. You've got to apologize to Iraq, America. Even if you don't really mean it, you've got to swallow your pride and say the words "I'm sorry, baby." Tell Iraq that sometimes America just gets so mad sometimes, and things get out of hand. America doesn't mean to hurt Iraq. America just wants to teach Iraq a lesson, because America loves Iraq so much, baby. America knows what's best for Iraq, and if Iraq would just listen and stop being so stubborn, it could be the best country in the world.

Step 4

Surprise Iraq with a little present. How about ... the gift of democracy! Get all your friends together and make a big celebration out of it. Offer Iraq a little tiny slice of democracy for the cameras. Wait a minute! What's that? Iraq doesn't want your democracy? Tell Iraq it better take a bite of democracy, dammit. C'mon, Iraq, don't disappoint America in front of all these people. C'mon, have some democracy, you low-down dirty ho!

If Iraq asks you to leave it alone, just raise your fist and tell it to stop being all uppity. If Iraq still fights back, well, you're gonna have to teach Iraq a lesson.

Step 5

OK, you did it again. Now you done put Iraq in the hospital. Maybe it's time to do some soul-searching and find out if maybe the problem isn't with you. Promise Iraq that you're gonna try and get some help with your oil addiction and that you'll be a better country from now on. Oil makes you do some crazy things sometimes. Things you tend to regret later. You're gonna have to cut that shit out for good. You dig?

Step 6

Hey, I never said you had to quit cold turkey. Guzzle that shit down and drive over to Iraq's house and start busting up the joint, for old times' sake.

Step 7

OK, by now Iraq's probably threatening to kill your ass if you don't leave it alone. I know it's tough, but at some point you're gonna have to learn how to let go. It's gonna bruise the shit out of your ego, and other countries are probably gonna look down on you for the next few decades, but it has to be done. It'll allow Iraq to blossom into its own beautiful country, and it'll give you a chance to focus on improving yourself for a change. You used to be really great, remember? Think of all the amazing things you've done in the past. You went a little nuts there for a few years, but it's never too late to get back on track. Eventually, the world will learn to respect you again. They'll follow your example and learn from your mistakes.

And if it makes you feel any better, one day Iraq will probably star in a really shitty Mel Gibson movie.

Peace,

Ike

[turms 0]

Quote[/b] ]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Danish forces in Iraq will no longer hand over prisoners to Iraqi authorities after the interim government there reinstated the death penalty, Denmark's defense chief said on Monday.

"We don't hand over anybody before we are sure that they are not met by the death penalty. And we are looking into this business right now," Gade said during an appearance outside the Pentagon after meeting with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"And we are suspending handing over Iraqi prisoners right now," he said.

Interesting... I wonder can the UK return Chalabis(sp?) to Iraq.

[ralphwiggum 6]

Quote[/b] ]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Danish forces in Iraq will no longer hand over prisoners to Iraqi authorities after the interim government there reinstated the death penalty, Denmark's defense chief said on Monday.

"We don't hand over anybody before we are sure that they are not met by the death penalty. And we are looking into this business right now," Gade said during an appearance outside the Pentagon after meeting with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"And we are suspending handing over Iraqi prisoners right now," he said.

Interesting...  I wonder can the UK return Chalabis(sp?) to Iraq.

good to see that Denmark is at least standing by one of principles they take. Even if they went to Iraq they don't give up their dignity completely.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/09/franks.mission.ap/index.html

Quote[/b] ]WASHINGTON (AP) -- Retired Gen. Tommy Franks tried to take the blame Monday for President Bush's much-criticized comments declaring an end to major combat in Iraq more than a year ago.

"That's my fault, that George W. Bush said what he said on the first of May of last year, just because I asked him to," said Franks, former commander of forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Less than two months after the invasion of Iraq, Bush flew to a U.S. aircraft carrier and declared an end to major combat with a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished" in the background.

The event, Bush's words and the banner have been repeatedly criticized and mocked since that first day of May 2003. The Iraq occupation turned more violent, American deaths continued to mount and U.S. forces failed to find weapons of mass destruction, a main rationale for the war.

"I wanted to get the phase of military operation over as quickly as I could, because a lot of countries on this planet had said as soon as that major stuff is over, we'll come in and help with all of the peacekeeping," Franks said.

"On the first of May when Bush did what he did, I was proud of him because he did what I, as the commander, had asked him to do," Franks said in an appearance at the National Press Club. "So if there's a mistake there, it's mine, not a plot. So I thought I'd share that with you. "

Franks noted that the Bush administration has had limited success persuading other nations to participate in Iraq. Of some 160,000 foreign forces there now, about 140,000 are American.

do i smell sacrifice?

[Wilco 944]

-Shall they burn in everlasting hell.

Sgt. Yadir G. Reynoso

Age:27

Wapato, Washington

Killed aug 5, 2004 by enemy fire  in An Najaf Province

Rest in Peace Marine

"When he reaches the gates of Heaven,

to Saint Peter he will tell,

'One more soldier reporting, sir...

I've served my time in hell"

P.S. Everyday I am going to do this, so to recognize those who gave the ultimate sacrafice.

[brgnorway 0]

-Shall they burn in everlasting hell.

Sgt. Yadir G. Reynoso

Age:27

Wapato, Washington

Killed aug 5, 2004 by enemy fire  in An Najaf Province

Rest in Peace Marine

"When he reaches the gates of Heaven,

to Saint Peter he will tell,

'One more soldier reporting, sir...

I've served my time in hell"

P.S. Everyday I am going to do this, so to recognize those who gave the ultimate sacrafice.

I suppose there are quite a few of the iraqi fighters who are justifiably fighting your soldiers. I don't feel any less sorrow for them.

[Bernadotte 0]

Everyday I am going to do this, so to recognize those who gave the ultimate sacrafice.

Why? I mean what was this ultimate sacrifice for?

[brgnorway 0]

Everyday I am going to do this, so to recognize those who gave the ultimate sacrafice.

Why?  I mean what was this ultimate sacrifice for?  

I'd rather say why did he get sacrified in the first place.

Oh, silly me - I suppose he was busy making Iraq a free nation. Or.........is it bush talking again?

[Bernadotte 0]

Well if heaven is for occupiers and hell is for resistance fighters then I guess we all know where George Washington went.

[denoir 0]

I suppose there are quite a few of the iraqi fighters who are justifiably fighting your soldiers. I don't feel any less sorrow for them.

Yeah, but you are Norwegian. It's natural that he feels more for his countrymen than for the other side. You won't find many Americans, Bush supporters or not that will feel equally or more sorry for the resistance fighters.

Objectivity is lost in such matters. And it's perfectly symmetrical. I'm sure that the gentleman holding the helmet is just as convinced that he has sent an enemy occupier to hell. On individual level the moral can be completely decoupled from reality. Most US soldiers don't see themselves as occupiers, but as liberators etc S

When Al Capone wrote his memoirs in jail he blamed the world for everything, saying that "all he wanted to do was to bring entertainment to people".

Point being- nobody thinks of themselves as corrupt or bad. And this doesn't go for individuals, but for members of groups (a country for instance) as well.

Anyway, I prefer such expressions of view over the current media reporting of Iraq (lack of reporting).

Quote[/b] ]Well if heaven is for occupiers and hell is for resistance fighters then I guess we all know where George Washington went.

It's not "Do as I do", it's "Do as I say"

In other news:

Iraqi party told to leave offices [bBC]

Quote[/b] ]

The interim Iraqi government has ordered the party of former exile and anti-Saddam Hussein activist Ahmed Chalabi to leave its Baghdad HQ. The Iraqi National Congress was given 24 hours to vacate its offices, which used to house the intelligence services. A government spokesman said more orders would follow against parties that had seized state property.

The INC said the order was part of a continuing conspiracy against it. A host of other Iraqi parties occupy buildings and property that housed security and government offices before the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Deteriorating relations

In recent days, arrest warrants have been issued accusing Mr Chalabi of counterfeiting and his nephew Salem - head of the tribunal trying Saddam - of murder.

Both men, who are currently abroad, deny the charges. Ahmed Chalabi developed close ties with the Pentagon and Washington hawks during his long years in exile from the Saddam Hussein regime.

Their relationship has since deteriorated.

Privately, senior US officials accuse their former protege of misleading them about the former Iraqi ruler's alleged weapons of mass destruction - intelligence on which Washington based its case for war. Mr Chalabi is also accused of passing sensitive intelligence to neighbouring Iran.

Salem Chalabi, who is head of the tribunal trying Saddam Hussein, says he is the victim of a smear campaign. Speaking in London on Monday, he said he feared for his life and wanted assurances about his safety before returning to Iraq.

"My life is daily threatened because of what I'm doing... there is some element of a smear campaign against me and therefore against the tribunal," Salem Chalabi told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He said he was in talks with Iraq's President Ghazi Yawer and Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to negotiate his return.

You know, I'm starting to think that if the security situation gets under control that Bush will get his ideal country. Iraq - the banana republic. Allawi seems to have a fairly clear agenda and not too much interest in democracy.

It's a delicate balance there. Open war, like today is probably not benificial for the Allawi government - chaos limits their power. Some security problems on the other hand may be very welcome as an excuse of not holding democratic elections. Allawi has already flirted with the idea, saying that the elections might have to be postponed if the security is still a problem in 2005. And if elections are held, he'll lose his power.

As far as America is concerned, Allawi is a good choice - easily controlled and not hindered by annoying elements such as the safeguards in a democracy - making him and Iraq a very good ally in the Mid East.

[brgnorway 0]

Quote[/b] ]Yeah, but you are Norwegian.

Yeah, like it's my fault

Quote[/b] ]It's natural that he feels more for his countrymen than for the other side. You won't find many Americans, Bush supporters or not that will feel equally or more sorry for the resistance fighters.

Objectivity is lost in such matters. And it's perfectly symmetrical. I'm sure that the gentleman holding the helmet is just as convinced that he has sent an enemy occupier to hell. On individual level the moral can be completely decoupled from reality. Most US soldiers don't see themselves as occupiers, but as liberators etc S

Of course, what you are saying goes without saying. My point was that I find the blah blah blah in Wilco's post tiring and misplaced. If he want's to praise and all that I'm sure there's a better place to do it than the Iraq thread (or this forum for that matter) .

[Major Fubar 0]

I think page 300 is as good a point as any to start a fresh thread...continue at link below:

Iraq thread 4