| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"disseminator" |
| Date: |
10 Feb 2005 10:21:30 AM |
| Object: |
Wave of Assassinations Target Iraqi State Officials |
Growing death toll as Iraqi insurgents target state officials
from: The UK Independent 10 February 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=609503
By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad
As the euphoria over the election dies away, the Iraqi resistance is
seeking to eliminate anyone working with the US or the interim
government.
And it is easy to get killed in Baghdad. A small mistake is often
enough. A convoy of Kurdish officials took a wrong turning into Haifa
Street yesterday, a resistance stronghold in the heart of the capital.
A gun battle quickly erupted as insurgents opened fire. Soon, black
smoke was rising from burning vehicles. The sound of shooting echoed
across the centre of the city. By the time the fighting was over,
three officials from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, part of the
present government, were dead.
The insurgents' intelligence is often chillingly accurate. At 7.45am
yesterday, armed men kidnapped an interior ministry colonel called
Riyadh Katei Illawi, dragging him from his car after he left his
house in the al-Dora district of south Baghdad to go to work. As a
middle-ranking official it is surprising he was still living in Dora,
an area partly controlled by the insurgents.
Fifteen minutes later in the port city of Basra, at the other end of
Iraq, an Iraqi television correspondent and his six-year-old son were
shot dead by gunmen. Abdul Hussein Khazaal worked for al-Hura TV, an
American-funded channel set up to compete with al-Jazeera. Muslim
clerics had denounced its output as American propaganda. President
George Bush claimed it was created to "cut through the hateful
propaganda that fills the airwaves in the Muslim world."
Mr Khazaal had just left his house and was standing by his car. He
had two bodyguards. Instead of driving off, he remembered something
he had left in his house and his guards went to get it. It was a
fatal delay. A car filled with gunmen drove up and opened up on him
and his son.
Yesterday evening, police in Baghdad said a director in the ministry
of culture and housing had been assassinated by gunmen who attacked
his car.
The suicide bombs, the attacks on US troops and the set-piece battles
in Najaf and Kerbala are widely publicised abroad. The insurgents
appear crude though bloodthirsty. But another war of assassinations
and kidnappings is proving that the resistance has a well-informed
intelligence service. It can identify the most effective personnel
on the interim government side and eliminate them.
General Mudher, a burly middle-aged man, is the creator of the police
commandos. Wearing camouflage uniform and black ski-masks, the
commandos are a lot more warlike than the ordinary police with their
elderly weapons and fragile blue and white police cars.
A veteran soldier famous in Iraq for bringing his tank safely from
Kuwait back to Baghdad during the 1991 Gulf war, General Mudher
recruited and trained this new force. "He was careful about his own
security and was always changing his address," said a colleague.
It did not do him much good. Somebody in the resistance decided he
posed a real threat. Gunmen attacked his car two months ago and he
was shot twice in the back, the bullets just missing his heart. He
counts himself lucky to be alive - he counted 150 bullet holes in the
remains of his vehicle. Largely recovered from his wounds, he still
walks awkwardly and seems to wince with pain when he moves his arms.
It is not difficult to work out where the insurgents' intelligence
comes from. The most effective members of the resistance belonged to
the old Iraqi army and security services. Many of their former
colleagues now serve in the security ministries of the interim
government. Information leaks.
The American recipe for making the army and security forces more
effective is to embed US training officers in Iraqi units. It is not
a welcome move among Iraqi officers. "They keep saying that they don't
need more training but better weapons," says Sabah Khadim, a senior
adviser in the Interior Ministry. The presence of American soldiers
makes the Iraqi soldiers feel that they will be viewed as traitors
to their own country by other Iraqis.
The lack of equipment and vehicles is still common, almost two years
after the invasion. In the Qadassiya district of Baghdad yesterday
police commandos were driving at great speed to an emergency. Their
vehicles were elderly white pick-ups.
US officers told some Iraqi units that they would receive tanks. When
they arrived, the Iraqi crews were angry to find that they were being
given outdated, Soviet-made T-55s.
"The one thing the Americans seem determined about is to retain
control of the Iraqi army," said a foreign diplomat in Baghdad.
The Americans also fear that one day the weapons they hand over now
will be turned against them by Iraqis or will be sold to the
resistance.
With the Shia victory in the election, the security ministries could
again experience the post-war turmoil largely dealt with by the
former Baathist interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi. Serving
officers fear that the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in
Iraq, formerly based in Iran and controlled by the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard, will want jobs in the Interior and Defence
Ministries. Nobody expects the wave of assassinations to stop soon.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=609503
--
http://www.antiwar.com/
http://www.counterpunch.org/
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/
.
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| User: "Werner Hetzner" |
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| Title: Re: Wave of Assassinations Target Iraqi State Officials |
11 Feb 2005 07:42:56 AM |
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disseminator wrote:
Growing death toll as Iraqi insurgents target state officials
...Nobody expects the wave of assassinations to stop soon.
Shouldn't somebody send the World Court or remind the killers of the
Geneva Convention? There are always the 10 Commandments. Or, maybe we
can ship them 'Love Beads'.
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| User: "disseminator" |
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| Title: Re: Wave of Assassinations Target Iraqi State Officials |
11 Feb 2005 01:16:54 PM |
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Werner Hetzner <whetzner@mac.com> wrote in news:420CB66C.2090602@mac.com:
disseminator wrote:
Growing death toll as Iraqi insurgents target state officials
...Nobody expects the wave of assassinations to stop soon.
Shouldn't somebody send the World Court or remind the killers of the
Geneva Convention? There are always the 10 Commandments. Or, maybe we
can ship them 'Love Beads'.
Werner,
Didn't you just make the case that the UN is a "paper tiger"
and probably wouldn't exist without US support?
I differ from Libertarians in thinking the UN is increasingly
becoming an instrument of US foreign policy. I am more "Green"
in that regard.
--
http://www.antiwar.com/
http://www.counterpunch.org/
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/
.
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| User: "Werner Hetzner" |
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| Title: Re: Wave of Assassinations Target Iraqi State Officials |
11 Feb 2005 08:57:28 PM |
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disseminator wrote:
...
Werner,
Didn't you just make the case that the UN is a "paper tiger"
and probably wouldn't exist without US support?
I differ from Libertarians in thinking the UN is increasingly
becoming an instrument of US foreign policy. I am more "Green"
in that regard.
Who is it becoming an instrument for?
.
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| User: "disseminator" |
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| Title: Re: Wave of Assassinations Target Iraqi State Officials |
11 Feb 2005 09:10:21 PM |
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Werner Hetzner <whetzner@mac.com> wrote in news:420D70A6.6050705@mac.com:
disseminator wrote:
...
Werner,
Didn't you just make the case that the UN is a "paper tiger"
and probably wouldn't exist without US support?
I differ from Libertarians in thinking the UN is increasingly
becoming an instrument of US foreign policy. I am more "Green"
in that regard.
Who is it becoming an instrument for?
If it ever worked out: It would be an instrument for
US "special interests" which, as you know, don't
always concern themselves with the interests of the US.
--
http://www.antiwar.com/
http://www.counterpunch.org/
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/
.
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| User: "Werner Hetzner" |
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| Title: Re: Wave of Assassinations Target Iraqi State Officials |
12 Feb 2005 11:45:53 AM |
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disseminator wrote:
Werner Hetzner <whetzner@mac.com> wrote in news:420D70A6.6050705@mac.com:
disseminator wrote:
...
Werner,
Didn't you just make the case that the UN is a "paper tiger"
and probably wouldn't exist without US support?
I differ from Libertarians in thinking the UN is increasingly
becoming an instrument of US foreign policy. I am more "Green"
in that regard.
Who is it becoming an instrument for?
If it ever worked out: It would be an instrument for
US "special interests" which, as you know, don't
always concern themselves with the interests of the US.
I don't know the interest of the US. What is it?
.
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| User: "disseminator" |
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| Title: Re: Wave of Assassinations Target Iraqi State Officials |
12 Feb 2005 09:29:10 PM |
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Werner Hetzner <whetzner@mac.com> wrote in news:420E40DF.2080500@mac.com:
disseminator wrote:
Werner Hetzner <whetzner@mac.com> wrote in news:420D70A6.6050705
@mac.com:
disseminator wrote:
...
Werner,
Didn't you just make the case that the UN is a "paper tiger"
and probably wouldn't exist without US support?
I differ from Libertarians in thinking the UN is increasingly
becoming an instrument of US foreign policy. I am more "Green"
in that regard.
Who is it becoming an instrument for?
If it ever worked out: It would be an instrument for
US "special interests" which, as you know, don't
always concern themselves with the interests of the US.
I don't know the interest of the US. What is it?
Well I don't see how exporting "democracy" to the
Mideast (apart from being an unconstitutional use
of US military forces by strict interpretation)
is essential to the security of the US despite
neoconservative efforts to paint it that way.
I see it as essential to the security of Mideastern
countries, especially Israel whose supporters of
every ethnic group are foremost in pushing for the
war.
Securing oil recources would be a US interest but
we were not confronted with a threat to those
interests in 2003.
I agree with Wolfowitz and many neoCONs in maintaining
a strong presence in the Pacific Basin region but see
our efforts in the Mideast as a political task rather
than valid interests in defence of the US considering
the lies that were foisted off on the American public
prior to the Iraq invasion.
--
http://www.antiwar.com/
http://www.counterpunch.org/
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/
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