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News titles, 2-9/7/03 (Wednesday to Wednesday) News, 2-9/7/03 (1) WINNING THE PEACE * Iraqi details harsh treatment as Amnesty criticizes U.S. interrogation methods [There is a general assumption that when the US Army pick up 'terrorists' they are going to obtain information. It takes only thirty seconds thought to realise that that assumption presupposes the use of torture. The methods described here, especially sleep deprivation, are very similar to those described by Menachem Begin and by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in the Gulag (outright physical torture, they say, if I remember them aright, was rare)] * Coalition launches Operation Sidewinder [Giving rather unimpressive figures for the haul of weapons] * U.S. loses soldier in ambush that left 11 Iraqis dead ['near Balad, 55 miles north of Baghdad'. And other events on Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th July. Mortar attack on 'a huge U.S. base near Balad', humvee blown up near Baghdad, soldier in Bradley fighting vehicle near Baghdad museum killed] * US puts $25m bounty on Saddam [Extracts giving further incidents on 3rd and 4th July, in Ramadi and Baghdad, including US troops shooting into a crowd protesting against the imprisonment of a Shi'i cleric 'in Baquba, 60 kilometres northeast of Baghdad'] * Explosion rocks mosque, killing several Iraqis [According to this account, the claim that the mosque had been hit by a US missile came from Al Jazeeera] * International rights group calls on coalition to treat detainees justly [This account emphasises deprivatoion of water and toilet facilities] * Franks to turn the reigns over to Abizaid next week * Iraqis unsure of US 'democratic' designs [Account of how ex-US Army Lt Col P.J. Dermer is teaching Iraqis that respecting the opinions of others is the essence of demcracy: '"OK, here's how democracy works," he told the students. Attention suddenly focused on the lone American authority in the room.'] * British Journalist Killed In Baghdad [Richard Wilde] * Bomb Kills 7 New Iraqi Policemen [in Ramadi, Saturday 5th July] * List of Journalists Who Died in Iraq * Attacks Kill 3 U.S. Soldiers in Baghdad [Sunday/Monday, 6th-7th July, all in Baghdad. [Two separate convoys attacked and a lad waiting to buy a drink in the University] * Juan Cole's commentary for 3rd July [Cole makes the interesting observation that 'the Iraq War was a godsend to Sunni radicals, since it placed 160,000 American troops right in the middle of the Arab world, where they could be gotten at easily. Al-Qaeda likes symbolic targets, and now it has thousands of them.'] * 7 US Soldiers Wounded in Separate Attacks in Iraq [One of the attacks was in Kirkuk] BLASTS FROM THE PAST * US puts $25m bounty on Saddam ['and his sons, among the most evil men the world has known', says Mr Bremer.] * Former Iraqi FM could be in Austria ‹ press [Naji Sabri. Jorg Haider says he doesn't know where he is but he would be very welcome in Carinthia] * UN envoy opens workshop justice in Iraq [Somehow the notion of the UN taking on the job of arranging trials for senior Baath officials reminds me of the Vichy government in France hurrying to introduce anti-Jewish legislation in order to keep the 'Jewish question' out of the hands of the Germans] * Text of audiotape purported to be from Saddam Hussein * Former Iraqi UN, U.S. Ambassador Dies in New York ['In 1984, he opened the first Iraqi Embassy in the United States in 17 years, and by all accounts was extremely popular with the administration of Ronald Reagan during Iraq's war with Iran.'] * Iraqi Who Might Have Met With 9/11 Hijacker Is Captured [Now we're really going to find out how effective sleep deprivation, strobe lights and loud music can be] * Questions Surround Another Hussein Tape * Crisis at Iraqi embassy in Beijing takes new twist AND, IN NEWS, 2-9/7/03 (2) BUILDING THE INFRASTRUCTURE * Lack of Steady Electricity Is Biggest Obstacle to Reconstruction, Officials Say [Detailed account of electricity problems. Worth reading despite the tendentious claim that 'the country's power problems start with a lack of investment in generating capacity and maintenance during the 35 years that the Baath Party government was in power' and that, in response to sanctions, 'spending on the electrical infrastructure -- and the flow of much- needed spare parts -- was further curtailed'. I don't know but am willing to bet that the investment in electricity was enormously increased in the 1970s and maintained at an adequate level throughout the 1980s] * Iraqi museum exhibit ‹ a public relations stunt [Apparently detailed and credible account of what happened in the museum] * Iraqi Ministry of Oil chief addresses oil developments ['The U.S.-appointed head of the Iraqi Oil Ministry, Thamir Abbas al-Ghadhban' conveys the impression that he is a man of substance and intellectual independence] * Electricity Department official killed * The Rat in the Grain: Dan Amstutz and the Looting of Iraqi Agriculture [A horror story: 'There's speculation throughout the country that one intent of the current policy is to force many farmers off their farms and into the cities so that their lands can be taken over by favorites of Ahmed Chalabi and his US protectors. The post-Saddam Iraq will almost certainly witness a land redistribution program: more farmland going into fewer and fewer hands.'] * U.S.civilian authority announces new Iraq banknotes [And, perhaps more importantly, the central bank has been privatised] * Bremer says Iraq should consider oil [and other foreign] investment * Coalition recalls Iraqi interior ministry RESTLESS NATIVES * 'Religious Association' says some 'collaborators' may be killed * Arab League chief presses for reforms [Arab League Secretary-General Amr Musa states the obvious - that the invasion of Iraq shows that the Arab League is seriously in need of reform: "A 'neo-pan-Arabism' is what we need."] * Tehran allegedly makes deal with Muqtada Al-Sadr [according to 'anonymous "Kurdish sources", so it may be mischevous] * U.S. Raids Offend Iraqi Sensibilities [Kicking the door down and pushing the man of the house onto the floor to tie his hands behind his back is considered by Muslims to be impolite] AND, IN NEWS, 2-9/7/03 (3) THE BEST AND THE BRAVEST * Fourth at the fort a blast [Arnold Schwarzenegger flies in and delivers himself of some - I would have thought - rather ambiguous remarks: '"It is really wild driving around here, I mean the poverty, and you see there is no money, it is disastrous financially and there is the leadership vacuum, pretty much like in California right now," he quipped.'] * Troop morale in Iraq hits 'rock bottom' * Urban Combat Frustrates Army KEEPING THE HOMES FIRES BURNING * Credibility of Administration Iraq Policy Substantially Eroded, Polls Find [University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) poll. This gives the 23 per cent believing WMDs have been found, but also 52 per cent believing the US government stretched the truth on the subject] * One stark truth: Blair was wrong and must admit it now [Robin Cook admires the skill with which Alastair Campbell managed to deflect attention from more important matters] * Bush enmeshed in growing controversy over uranium claims * MoD report pours scorn on evidence for Iraqi weapons ['Operations in Iraq 2003: First Reflections'] * Limelight exposes spies' failings [Guardian account of Foreign Affairs Committee report] * Bush Recantation Of Iraq Claim [uranium from Niger] Stirs Calls for Probes AND, IN NEWS, 2-9/7/03 (4) FRIENDS AND ALLIES * Talibani in Damascus: occupation prevents fighting ["I think there is no resistance. These are individual incidents which have connection to the 'Iraqi criminals' who were released (from prisons)."] * Iraq's square pegs in round holes [Summary of what is known (not very much) about the arrest of al-Najaf mayor Abdul Munim Abud] * US building a motley posse to keep peace in Iraq [24 countries so far but only Poland, the Ukraine and possibly Italy look serious] * Halting elections in Iraq [Administrators to be appointed rather than elected to avoid being faced with a host of Baath Party supporters and Muslim fundamentalists] * Coalition tells Turkoman front to disarm * Israel to amend law on exports to Iraq * Iraqis Grapple With Fears Of Israeli Infiltration [Mysterious doings in the Baghdad Hotel] * Delhi having second thoughts: officials: Sending of forces to Iraq [We learn, those of us who didn't know, that the Indian Defense Minister is called George Fernandes] * Kurds 'find Saddam-era mass grave' [near Mosul] * Kurdish woman acquires high position in Iraq [The article tells us that in 1975 (just after a war with the Kurds if I'm not mistaken) 'a hydro-thermal station was founded, feeding for the time being parts of the governorates of al-Suleimaaneyah and Irbil and part of Karkouk with electricity.' Who was in charge in 1975?] * Iraqi Governing Council Taking Shape * U.S. Frees Some of Turkish Special Forces * Shiite holy city battles with US-appointed governors swap [Problem of finding mayor for Najaf] * Iraq to get governing council with "real executive powers" [Sergio Vieira de Mello describes some minor changes to the original plan] * American's Suleymaniyeh operation was broader than just Turkish Special Forces [It was also directed against the Iraqi Turkoman Front who had failed to obey the command to hand in their weapons. Perhaps understandably since the Kurds are keeping theirs] * Iraqi groups agree to interim role [Barzani and Chalabi 'said they were urging United States military commanders in Iraq to allow the creation of an Iraqi national security force to help thwart the increasing number of attacks on allied forces.'] BEYOND IRONY * Iraqis face painful certainty [Brief article on the heroes who have taken up responsibility for the care of the dead] _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk