Iraq And Its Future

02-23-2007, 06:50 AM

Husky,
Here in US media, they are showing lousy work by Brits regarding controlling Basra. They had shown Basra local beating Brits forces. Some are calling it "The Blair Ditch Project". BBC is showing total different picture. Blair's decision was total political or his own legacy.
US General never understood Middle East before venturing in. I think forces are not well trained and people don't have stomach for war anymore.
Democrats now control both houses and we know their history, how they left Mogadishu and encourage or ignored OBL/AlQueda.

Australians are supporting because they are seeing problem in their own country by Islamist.

Husky · (This post was last modified: 02-23-2007, 01:23 PM by Husky.)

QUOTEAustralians are supporting because they are seeing problem in their own country by Islamist.No kidding. Realistic fears among Australian intelligence of the Indonesian Jemaah Islamiah (connected to AQ) and other islamoterrorists from there is high. Australia has already stopped umpteen islamoterrorist attacks (many not even emanating from nearby islamic pardees Indonesia). And as they say, most of these are barely mentioned in their news because they don't want to alarm the population.

I wonder what the attraction is for islamics in attacking Australia? It has such a small and non-threatening population. Is it merely because of Australian support in the war on terror, though, if I remember correctly, the country was already a target before that? Of course things have got much worse since then.
I think the real reason is global j-hadism and its plans for islamic expansion (dar-ul-islamising). And of course, Christoislamics always just want a showdown: an Apocalypse Now. 'Sharing the world' and 'live and let live' isn't in the christoislamic vocabulary.

QUOTEThe Blair Ditch Project <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /> The reporter who came up with that one probably congratulated himself.

QUOTEDemocrats now control both houses and we know their history, how they left Mogadishu and encourage or ignored OBL/AlQueda.Both sides have encouraged AQ. It's their little friend and helper, turned rebellious. One they can pretend they have nothing to do with, and then can blame: 'bad dog'.

QUOTEDemocrats now control both houses and we know their historyThe Clinton administration did nothing when Rwandans got genocided, though they knew about it. That's representative of the crimes of Democrats when in power. The Republicans have at least as many skeletons in their closet (actually more, possibly because they've been in the White House more often).

But whatever side has been or will be in power in the US, their foreign policy is still the same: destabilise and break up other countries. They're a blot on the founding fathers of their nation. Can't believe this is what the country that Thomas Paine believed in has turned out to be like. Quite depressing.

Husky · (This post was last modified: 02-23-2007, 01:27 PM by Husky.)

Religion famed for being 'Respectful of Women' is attacking its own. Again.
(FOSA and Wienerschnitzel can send their protests denouncing the following news for mentioning islamic treatment of women to Yahoo Australia, not to the California Textbook hearings.)

http://au.news.yahoo.com/070222/15/12ijv.html
QUOTEFriday February 23, 09:26 AM
Iraq Qaeda leader vows revenge over rape: Web
DUBAI (Reuters) - The leader of al Qaeda's wing in Iraq vowed militants would avenge a Sunni woman who said she had been raped by members of Iraq's Shi'ite-dominated police, according to an audio tape posted on the Internet on Thursday.
"More than 300 militants asked to go on martyrdom (suicide) operations in the first 10 hours of hearing the news," said the speaker on the tape identified as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
(Sunnis just need a reason to go kill their Shia co-religionists. They don't really care about the unfortunate Sunni woman. <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/furious.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='furious.gif' /> After all, islamics are known for assaulting their own - even members of their own families - and are especially famed for raping kafir women.)

It was the first recording purported to be from Masri since some Iraqi officials said he had been wounded in a clash last week. The U.S. military said it had no indication he had been hurt.

Charges by a Sunni woman in Baghdad that she had been raped by the policemen have set off a political furor in Iraq and highlighted the growing friction between the two sects. A second woman has accused soldiers of attacking her in her home in northern Iraq.

"(Government leaders) have cheated the nation and committed so much treason that honor is being violated in the name of politics," said the speaker.

The authenticity of the 12-minute recording, entitled "To your rescue, sister" could not be verified but it was posted on a Web site often used by Islamists.

A group called Islamic State in Iraq, which includes Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and several minor insurgent groups, earlier vowed an "earth-shaking response" to the alleged rapes. The group is blamed for some of the worst bombings in Iraq.

The mayor of the northern city of Tal Afar said an army officer and three soldiers had been detained in connection with the second rape case.

Masri, an Egyptian, assumed the leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq after Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. air strike in June 2006.

The U.S. military has described him as a close Zarqawi associate who trained in Afghanistan and formed al Qaeda's first cell in Baghdad. The United States has put a $5 million bounty on Masri's head.Ooh. 5 mill up for grabs, wish I was a bounty hunter.

(Vision in my mind's eye Smile

Shia and Sunni men kill each other off. Islamic women are no longer under threat of rape/other attack. The women and male moderates remaining deconvert, and become free to raise their children in sane humanity. I like.

Husky · (This post was last modified: 02-23-2007, 01:25 PM by Husky.)

Cheney to Australia: 'You guyz rule (unlike some others who are ditching the war effort...)'
http://au.news.yahoo.com/070223/21/12is5.html
QUOTEFriday February 23, 05:23 PM
Cheney thanks Aust for 'standing by mate'
Photo : ABCÂ
US Vice-President Dick Cheney has used the first day of his visit to Australia to urge the nation's leaders not to give up on the war against terrorism.

Mr Cheney has also thanked members of the Australian Defence Force who have fought alongside the US in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He has cited the Australian song 'True Blue' to show US respect for the Australian troops.

"My purpose is simply to thank them and their comrades for extraordinary service in a time of testing," Mr Cheney said.

"Americans know that for this country 'standing by your mate when he's in a fight' are more than words in a song. They signify a way of life.

"Having Australia's friendship makes my country very grateful and very proud."

Mr Cheney warns if the US-led coalition does not stay in Iraq, the violence in Baghdad will spread to the rest of the country.

He says it is vital that the US and its allies do not give up on tackling terrorism.
(Hint, hint, Britain and Denmark)

"The only option for our security and survival is to go on the offensive, face the threat directly, patiently and systematically until the enemy is destroyed."

Talks with Rudd
The US Vice-President has also held a meeting with Labor leader Kevin Rudd, who does not agree with the need to keeps Australian in Iraq.

Mr Rudd's spokesman says the two had a positive and constructive hour-long meeting.

But the Opposition Leader will be making no public statement about how Mr Cheney responded to Labor's plan to bring the troops home.

Mr Rudd supports sending more troops to Afghanistan but he wants a phased withdrawal from Iraq.

Mr Cheney held talks with Defence Minister Brendan Nelson and Defence Force chief, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston earlier today.

Charges
Meanwhile, four people have been charged over demonstrations today against the visit by Mr Cheney.

Chanting protesters marched through Sydney's CBD this morning.

Earlier, there was a scuffle between police and protesters when activists dressed in mock uniforms ran into the crowd near a hotel where Mr Cheney was giving a speech.

A woman hurt in the crush was treated by ambulance officers.

Three women and one man have been charged with a range of offences, including impersonating a police officer and assaulting and hindering police.
Excerpts:
http://au.news.yahoo.com/070219/2/12gvs.html
QUOTEFriday February 23, 05:27 PM
Four arrested over Cheney protest
Four people were arrested as protesters in Sydney clashed with police during a massive security operation to guard visiting US Vice-President Dick Cheney.

More than 100 activists, including former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib, rallied for about two hours on Friday near the inner-city Shangri-La Hotel before Mr Cheney delivered a major speech.

But police far outnumbered protesters and anticipated large protest actions during the visit of Mr Cheney, considered the architect of the Iraq war.

Bomb-sniffer dogs were used to check cars entering a security perimeter around the building. Traffic and pedestrians were directed around closed off streets.

Hundreds of officers have been seconded from stations all over NSW to the operation, code-named Warwick, which has taken more than four weeks to plan.

Senior police say appropriate levels of officers remain at those stations.

More than 60 police, standing shoulder to shoulder, formed a line across the street to prevent protesters, organised by the Stop the War Coalition, from reaching the hotel in The Rocks.

The initial police defence line was backed by at least another 50 mounted police and officers handling dogs.Meanwhile there was also some Love on display for Cheney (cue romantic music):
QUOTEJohn Ruddick, 36, from Sydney's north shore, was one of three people who came out to support Mr Cheney with a $1,200 banner that read: "The world needs more people like Dick Cheney. We love America."Australians ought to realise how serious things are, how big a threat their small population faces. Iraq may have been a mistake, but what's opened up there has to be fixed and completed before they leave, unless they want it to blow up in their faces. Islam and its j-had are no joke, but I'm guessing most people in the world still don't realise that.
For whatever reasons America started this war and is staying on, at least they're staying. Leastways, for now.

02-23-2007, 02:21 PM

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politi...icle2293479.ece
QUOTEIraq: More nations plan pull-out
By Anne Penketh
Published: 22 February 2007

Denmark announced that it would withdraw its ground troops serving under British command in Basra, as other countries review their participation in the coalition force.

Lithuania, which has 53 soldiers in Iraq serving alongside the Danish battalion, also said it was considering a pull-out.

The Romanian Defence Minister said that Bucharest would take a decision on the presence of its 600 soldiers in Iraq, mostly serving under British command, in the next few days. But President Traian Basescu, who is also under pressure to announce a withdrawal timetable, warned that a hasty pull-out of the international coalition forces "would cause chaos and the division of Iraq".

Poland has already announced that it will bring home its 900 troops by the end of the year, and Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Japan and New Zealand have already withdrawn their troops.

South Korea, which has a contingent of 2,300 troops in the northern city of Arbil, intends to withdraw half by April, and its parliament is calling for a complete pull-out by the end of the year.

Australia said yesterday that it would keep 1,400 soldiers in and around Iraq, while the Bulgarian parliament voted to keep its 155 troops beyond the expiry of their current mandate next month.
Post 161:
QUOTEHere in US media, they are showing lousy work by Brits regarding controlling Basra. They had shown Basra local beating Brits forces. Some are calling it "The Blair Ditch Project".So Bush & Blair's love affair finally at an end? No more singing the 'Endless Love' duet together (youtube)? No more picking out sweaters for one another? What a sad end to their windswept romance. Oh well. Who knows how the next US president and next British PM will chummy up. And, more importantly, what their love theme will be <!--emo& Wink

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' />

02-23-2007, 10:13 PM

QUOTESo Bush & Blair's love affair finally at an end? No more singing the 'Endless Love' duet together (youtube)? No more picking out sweaters for one another? What a sad end to their windswept romance. Oh well. Who knows how the next US president and next British PM will chummy up. And, more importantly, what their love theme will be
Blair is worried about his legacy. Now its open, US messed up Iraq war big time. Plus media especially Hollywood is gang-ho on Bush admin. All new TV serials are with agenda. All new Presidential Candidates for 2008 are getting TV time only on anti Bush/anti-war sound bites.
For Blair its good time to make exist before his premature term ends in summer.
For Bush another 22 months to go.

US had decided to give political Asylum to 7000 Iraqies per year.

Husky · (This post was last modified: 02-24-2007, 04:54 AM by Husky.)

QUOTEUS had decided to give political Asylum to 7000 Iraqies per year.If they had properly rebuilt Iraq (made it better than when Hussein was in charge), this would not be required.
In the end, no one actually cares about the Iraqis, it was all merely invade-and-goodbye.

http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,11965-6989320,00.html
QUOTESoldier Gets 100 Years For Rape, Murder
23/02/2007 07:33 PM
Reuters
A US soldier who pleaded guilty to raping and murdering a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her family was sentenced to 100 years in a military prison, the US Army said on Thursday.

Sgt. Paul Cortez, 24, was also given a dishonorable discharge under a plea agreement he reached with prosecutors prior to a court-martial that spanned three days, an Army spokesman said.

Cortez, of Barstow, California, was not eligible for the death penalty under his plea agreement, accepted by the court on Wednesday.

Col. Stephen R. Henley, the military judge, found Cortez guilty of conspiracy to commit rape, four counts of felony murder, rape, housebreaking and violating a general order.

Under terms of his plea agreement, Cortez agreed to testify against the three others still facing prosecution in the case.

During the court-martial, a sometimes emotional Cortez recounted how he and his companions drank whiskey, played cards and plotted to attack the family at Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, in March 2006. The group poured kerosene on the girl's body and lit her on fire in an attempt to cover up the crime.

Cortez testified that Spc. James Barker, who also pleaded guilty in the case, and a since-discharged soldier, Pvt. Steven Green, chose the family to attack because there was only one man in the house and it was an "easy target."

Once at the house, Green, the suspected ringleader, took the girl's mother, father and little sister into a bedroom, Cortez said, while he and Barker took the teenager, Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, to the living room, where they took turns raping her.

He said Green, who has been charged as a civilian and awaits trial in a Kentucky jail, shot the girl's family in another room and then raped the teenager.

The deaths of the girl and her family outraged Iraqis and ratcheted up tension in the war zone.

Barker pleaded guilty in November and was sentenced to 90 years in a military prison. Green was discharged from the Army for a "personality disorder."

Two other soldiers are accused in the case, Pvt. Jesse Spielman and Pvt. Bryan Howard. (Additional reporting by John Sommers at Ft. Campbell)So, one could argue that at least the vile criminal who raped a little girl and then murdered her and her family is getting life imprisonment. But wait, why does he get sentenced for life, when similar crimes by US soldiers in Japan and Vietnam have gone unpunished (see below)?
It's unlikely that it's because the Iraqi girl was christoislamic and so deserves more respect, whilst the Japanese and Vietnamese girls are Shinto and/or Buddhist heathens and don't matter.
I think the reason is merely that US army 'mistakes' in Iraq will have greater repercussions on their troops stationed in the country and on the US (also US military actions in Iraq are more transparent because of some media outlets). So that's possibly why this soldier is punished properly, but not those who committed the same crimes amongst the heathen Asians.

The following is not for sensitive people.
(1) Japan:
Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire by Chalmers Johnson
I think I had saved the following reviews from Amazon several years ago. (Confirmed. These are Amazon reviews, and they're still there.)
QUOTEThis no-holds-barred indictment of what Johnson calls the post-Cold War American "global empire" is not for the faint of heart. Among the opening images is a plastic bag containing three pairs of bloodied men's underwear gathered as evidence from the brutal 1995 gang rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by two American marines and an American sailor, a crime that was officially passed off as an aberration but may qualify more accurately as another move in the endgame of, in Johnson's astringent phrase, "stealth imperialism." In his highly critical appraisal of the global U.S. military presence, Johnson, president of the Japan Policy Research Institute and prolific commentator on Japan and Asia, focuses on the effects of "blowback," a term coined by the CIA to denote the unintended consequences of policies that were in many cases kept secret from the American public. From anti-Chinese pogroms carried out by U.S.-trained soldiers in Indonesia to the viciously suppressed 1980 pro-democracy demonstration in Kwangju, South Korea, Johnson examines the fallout from what he sees as American "economic colonialism." Detailed assessments of American engagement in Japan, Korea and China are coupled with closer-to-home observations on the liquidation of American jobs in places such as Birmingham, Ala., and Pittsburgh, the latter yet another consequence of the massive U.S. trade deficit with the countries of East Asia. Brazenly spending ever-swollen defense budgets, Johnson argues, the Pentagon is fueling an "antiglobalization time bomb" that could blow up at any moment. His chilling conclusion--backed by copious and livid detail--is that a nation reaps precisely what it sows. (Apr.) Another review: QUOTEJohnson explains America's imperialist influence in Japan, in particular, the notorious rape case in Okinawa in 1995. That was the most publicized case. In fact assault and harassment of Okinawans is commonplace. There's a clause in the U.S. forces occupation treaty that gives the U.S. military accused of crimes the right not to hand over guilty soldiers to the local authorities. It's kind of like the diplomatic immunity ambassadors in foreign countries get. (Remember Lethal Weapon 2?)
(2) Vietnam
http://modelminority.com/article74.html
The Nature of G.I. Racism
(VC stands for 'Viet Cong')
QUOTETestimony of Jamie Henry, Third Marine Division, in Detroit, January 31, 1971:
Okay, what I have to say is a direct result of the policy by the United States Army in Vietnam and what I'm going to detail was reported to the United States Army CID [Civilian Irregular Defense]. I made a full statement to them. I gave names, dates, grid coordinates, etc., etc., etc. We have my signing of the statement on film with the two CID agents, who are really--but we have it on film so they can't deny it and it's witnessed, etc., etc., etc. So there's no way that they can deny this. This statement was given to the CID over a year ago, almost exactly a year ago, and I'm sure they'll come out with something to say about it--why they haven't done anything about it. They'll probably say it's a lie, but it has been corroborated. I just want to give a brief account of what happened. On August 8th our company executed a ten year old boy. We shot him in the back with a full magazine M-16. Approximately August 16th to August 20th, I'm not sure of the date, a man was taken out of his hootch sleeping, was put into a cave, and he was used for target practice by a lieutenant, the same lieutenant who had ordered the boy killed. Now they used him for target practice with an M-60, an M-16, and a .45. After they had pretty well shot him up with the 60, they backed off aways to see how good a shot they were with a .45 because it's such a lousy pistol. By this time, he was dead. On February 8th, this was after a fire fight and we had lost eight men, on February 8th, we found a man in a spider hole. He was of military age. He spoke no English, of course. We did not have an interrogator, which was one of the problems in the fields. He was asked if he were VC and, of course, he kept denying it, "No VC, No VC." He was held down under an APC [armored personnel carrier] and he was run over twice--the first time didn't kill him. About an hour later we moved into a small hamlet, this was in I Corps [the northermost military region in South Vietnam] it was in a Marine AO [area of operations], we moved into a small hamlet, 19 women and children were rounded up as VCS--Viet Cong Suspects--and the lieutenant that rounded them up called the captain on the radio and he asked what should be done with them.

The captain simply repeated the order that came down from the colonel that morning. The order that came down from the colonel that morning was to kill anything that moves, which you can take anyway you want to take it. When the captain told the lieutenant this, the lieutenant rang off. I got up and I started walking over to the captain thinking that the lieutenant just might do it because I had served in his platoon for a long time. As I started over there, I think the captain panicked, he thought the lieutenant might do it too, and this was a little more atrocious than the other executions that our company had participated in, only because of the numbers. But the captain tried to call him up, tried to get him back on the horn, and he couldn't get ahold of him. As I was walking over to him, I turned, and I looked in the area. I looked toward where the supposed VCS were, and two men were leading a young girl, approximately 19 years old, very pretty, out of a hootch. She had no clothes on so I assumed she had been raped, which was pretty SOP [standard operating procedure], and she was thrown onto the pile of the 19 women and children, and five men, around the circle, opened up on full automatic with their M-16s. And that was the end of that. Now there was a lieutenant who heard this over the radio in our company--he had stayed back with some mortars--he, when we got back to our night location, he was going half way out of his mind because he had just gotten there, relatively. He was one of these--I don't know, I guess he was naive or something, believed in the old American ideal. He was going nuts. He was going to report it to everybody. After that day he calmed down and the next day he didn't say anything about it. We got in a wretched fire fight the next day and the whole thing was just sort of lost in the intensity of the war. Now when I got out of the Army an article was written about this and we got in contact with the lt. who was mad and he denied even remembering the company commander's name, which is a bunch of _____ because he's a lifer and he doesn't want to jeopardize his chances for getting promoted, etc., etc. I don't want to go into the details of these executions because the executions are the direct result of a policy. It's the policy that is important.

The executions are secondary because the executions are created by the policy that is, I believe, a conscious policy within the military. Number one, the racism in the military is so rampant. Now you have all heard of the military racism. It's institutionalized; it is policy; it is SOP; you are trained to be a racist. When you go into basic training, you are taught they are gooks and all you hear is, "gook, gook, gook, gook." And once you take the Vietnamese people or any of the Asian people, because the Asian serviceman in Vietnam is the brunt of the same racism, because the GIs over there do not distinguish one Asian from another. They are trained so thoroughly that all Asians become the brunt of this racism. You are trained, "gook, gook, gook," and once the military has got the idea implanted in your mind that these people are not humans, they are subhuman, it makes it a little bit easier to kill 'em. One barrier is removed and this is intentional, because obviously, the purpose of the military is to kill people. And if you're not an effective killer, they don't want you. The military doesn't distinguish between North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese, Viet Cong, civilian--all of them are gooks, all of them are considered to be subhuman. None of them are any good, etc. And all of them can be killed and all of them are killed.This institutionalised racism in the American army is still there to a large extent, it's what has conditioned US soldiers to view Arabians ('Arabs') as 'rags' or whatever other terms they have for them nowadays. That's why many American soldiers have been caught mistreating and abusing not just the terrorists they've caught, but also regular Iraqis.

Husky · (This post was last modified: 02-26-2007, 05:24 PM by Husky.)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/26/...D8NH59MO2.shtml
Woman Bomber Kills 41 at Baghdad College
Guess when one becomes an islamic, death and murder for allah are all that matters.

QUOTE(AP) A female suicide bomber triggered a ball bearing-packed charge Sunday, killing at least 41 people at a mostly Shiite college whose main gate was left littered with blood-soaked student notebooks and papers amid the bodies.

Witnesses said a woman carried out the attack at the business school annex to Mustansiriyah University. Interior Ministry officials said they were still investigating those reports. The school's main campus was hit by a string of bombings last month that killed 70 people.

The attack came as the powerful Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr said an ongoing security crackdown in Baghdad was doomed to fail because of U.S. involvement and suggested he was rethinking his cooperation. He bitterly complained that "car bombs continue to explode" in the capital despite the new security push.QUOTEShiite anger at the United States is running high since American soldiers on Friday detained the son of the most powerful Shiite political leader for nearly 12 hours after he crossed from Iran. U.S. officials claim Shiite groups, including the Mahdi Army, receive weapons and aid from Iran. Iran denies the charges.

"To my Shiite and Sunni brothers, I say, `Let us scorn sectarianism and hoist the banner of unity,'" said the statement from al-Sadr, whose militia is blamed for frequent execution-style slayings of Sunni rivals.Read the whole article.

What a world. Everyone's out for blood. It's just a game to them all.

02-27-2007, 12:27 AM

Iraq had become killing field. They are back to tribal days.
Can't predict what end will bring?

02-28-2007, 04:26 AM

AQ blows up little kids and women in Iraq (Iraqi TV and local community leader says several kids are dead, US soldiers only know of an event where several kids were wounded).
AQ's recruitment drive: islamics all over the world will doubtless want to join in this righteous passtime of massacring innocents. It's what they always do, right? After all, this is the Religion of Peace: the kind of complete peace one gets by effecting complete destruction.

http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,11965-7007895,00.html
QUOTEConflicting Reports Over Blast In Iraqi City
28/02/2007 07:35 AM
Reuters
The US military said it was unaware of a bomb attack in the city of Ramadi on Tuesday in which Iraqi officials and a tribal leader said 18 people, mostly children, had been killed.

Iraqiya state TV said all those killed near a soccer field were children while local tribal leader Hamid Farhan al-Hays told the station 12 were children and six were women. Police said 19 people, mostly children, were killed or wounded.

A US military spokesman, Major Jeff Pool, said a controlled blast by US soldiers near a soccer field in Ramadi slightly wounded 30 people, including nine children. He said the wounded had cuts and bruises.

"I can't imagine there would be another attack involving children without our people knowing," said Pool.

Hays blamed the blast on Sunni Arab-led al Qaeda, which is involved in an escalating power struggle with Sunni elders for control of Anbar province, heart of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. Ramadi is the capital of Anbar.

"The groups which did this barbaric crime are al Qaeda," said Hays.

Iraqiya said the blast was caused by a car bomb, while police said it was a roadside bomb.

Police said the soccer field was near a US military base and that US military patrols frequently went past it.

Qaeda
A truck bomb near a Sunni mosque in Ramadi killed 52 people on Saturday, a day after the mosque's imam had made a speech criticising al Qaeda, which is entrenched in the area.

On Monday, a suicide bomber blew up an ambulance at a police station near Ramadi, killing 14 people including women and children.

The attacks signalled an increasing conflict in Anbar between al Qaeda and Sunni tribal leaders, officials have said.

Such attacks also underscore the violence gripping Iraq, as US and Iraqi forces step up a new security crackdown in Baghdad. Washington is also sending extra troops to Anbar.

As part of efforts to stabilise Iraq, officials from regional states including Iran and Syria would join U.S. and British envoys at a meeting in Baghdad next month, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Tuesday.

The White House said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had not announced the conference, but if invited U.S. officials would attend and that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would be a logical choice to participate.

The US embassy in Baghdad confirmed Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad would attend. A British embassy spokeswoman said Britain would also take part but it was unclear at what level.

Zebari said the mid-March meeting would be a chance for Western and regional powers to try to bridge some of their differences over Iraq.

"Our hope is that this will be an ice-breaking attempt for maybe holding other meetings in the future. We want Iraq, instead of being a divisive issue, to be a unifying issue," Zebari said by telephone from Denmark where he is on a visit.

In December, a report by the bipartisan US Iraq Study Group recommended Washington hold direct talks with Damascus and Tehran to try and persuade them to help stem violence in Iraq.

US President George W. Bush reacted coolly. He has not ruled out a regional conference on Iraq involving Iran and Syria but the White House has indicated Iraq would have to set it up.

03-02-2007, 04:15 PM

Follow up to post 163:
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/070302/5/3ut.html
QUOTEFriday March 2, 11:16 PM
14 Iraqi police missing
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Fourteen Iraqi police officers have gone missing and an al Qaeda-linked group on Friday showed pictures of 18 men it said had been kidnapped to avenge the alleged rape of a woman last month.

The al Qaeda-linked group said in an Internet statement it had kidnapped 18 men working for the Interior Ministry in Diyala province, north of Baghdad.

A police source in Diyala said 14 men, including a high ranking officer, left their base in western Baquba around 11 a.m. (0800 GMT) on Thursday to return to their homes in an area called Saadiyet al Shat, north of Baquba.

"Since then nobody has seen them. Their families are calling them, but nobody can reach them," the source said on Friday, adding they were in civilian cars to avoid attention.

Interior Ministry officials in Baghdad said they had no information on the reports of the kidnapping in Diyala.

Diyala is home to Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds and has seen relentless bloodshed, including mass kidnappings and ambushes of police at their bases and in convoys. Sunni Arabs in the province say the police are infiltrated by militias.

The Internet statement included photographs showing 18 men, some in uniform and some in civilian clothing, blindfolded in a room. Some of the men had what appeared to be identity papers pinned to their shirts but it was not possible to read them.

"God enabled a group of lions of the Islamic State in Iraq to detain 18 affiliates of the Interior Ministry in Diyala province," said the statement posted on a Web site often used by radical Islamist groups such as Sunni Arab al Qaeda.

RETALIATION
"This blessed operation came in response to what these apostates are doing in fighting the Sunni folk and the last such act by these treacherous agencies was the rape of our sister ... Sabreen Janabi."
(Wait. Aren't the islamics deviating from the holy laws laid down by allah's mouthpiece mohammed? Isn't it true that in Islam, that great religion famed for its respect of women, the witness of a woman is worth half - or is it quarter - that of a man?
Yet for the unfortunate Sabreen Janabi, they are even willing to lay down mohammed's laws and punish 18 police soldiers - who probably weren't the ones who tormented Ms Janabi?
Is Sabreen Janabi their reason or is she merely their excuse?)

Janabi has said she was raped by police officers from the Shi'ite-dominated police force. The government has denied her claims, saying medical records show she was not raped.
(Three possibilities:
1. Islamic government is carrying out mohammed's laws on the value of a woman's witness
2. Government is afraid of repercussions if they admit to it
3. She might have been planted as a rallying-cause for Iraq's Sunnis)

A major Sunni Arab political party later said she was Shi'ite, not Sunni, and that Janabi was a false name.
(Okay, this is getting too confusing.)

In Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi troops are engaged in a security crackdown to stop bloodshed between Shi'ites and Sunni Arabs.

Sectarian tension was fuelled last month by the reports of rape by the woman in Baghdad and another woman in Tal Afar, in northwest Iraq, who said soldiers raped her.

Sunni Arabs and the United Nations have said the security forces are deeply infiltrated by militias, such as the Mehdi Army, loyal to radical anti-American cleric Moqtada al Sadr.

U.S. and Iraqi military officials said on Thursday troops would soon launch operations to seize weapons and hunt gunmen in the Mehdi Army bastion of Sadr City, signalling resolve to press ahead with the plan even in sensitive areas.

After a relative lull in bombings on Thursday, dozens of loud explosions that sounded like mortar bombs rocked southern Baghdad in quick succession on Thursday evening.

Iraqi military spokesman Brigadier Qassim Moussawi said the blasts were part of the new security offensive, Iraqiya state television reported, without giving details. A U.S. military spokeswoman said she had no information on the explosions.

(Additional reporting by Waleed Ibrahim, Dean Yates and Ibon Villelabeitia)

03-02-2007, 10:37 PM

Large fire engulfs British military base in Iraq QUOTEAn indirect attack caused a "large fire" at a British military base in Basra, southern Iraq, the BBC reported on Friday

Husky · (This post was last modified: 03-03-2007, 10:24 AM by Husky.)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_...383023.stm
BBC - 'Rape case' fuels Iraq sectarian strife

It has a close-up photo of the woman's half-covered face. Looking at it, I can't help believing her.
If true, then I can't believe that there are low-lifes (on both sides) who are so depraved they would use her misery as a political tool.

03-03-2007, 11:47 AM

QUOTEIt has a close-up photo of the woman's half-covered face. Looking at it, I can't help believing her.
Difficult to say. I have seen so many fake, just can't believe even after seeing her face.

These people will comeup with some quote from Quran which allow them for rape, beheading, kidnapping, killing innocent, sucide bombing, beating wife, .....
they have excuse for everything and they love to take revenge for anything.
That's attract Islam.

03-04-2007, 09:06 PM

Rape by those in authority is not something unusual to happen. Even in India and Pakistan, we often hear of such incidence. In India custodial rape at one time had become so frequent that several new measures were taken to prevent such incidents. It must be very difficult to prevent such incidence under war conditions in Iraq. Let us hope that the situation improves and we do not get the news of such incidents in future.

Husky · (This post was last modified: 03-07-2007, 06:14 PM by Husky.)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6423633.stm
QUOTELast Updated: Tuesday, 6 March 2007, 20:37 GMTÂ
Scores of Iraqi pilgrims killedÂ
The pilgrims were heading from Hilla to Karbala
At least 90 Shia pilgrims have been killed and more than 150 wounded in a double suicide bombing in the central Iraqi town of Hilla, police said.Toll is higher now by over 50%:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/attacks-k...3166748729.html
QUOTEAttacks kill 149 Shiite pilgrims in Iraq
March 7, 2007 - 10:53AM
Insurgents have killed 149 Shiite pilgrims heading for the holy Iraqi city of Karbala - 115 of those died when two suicide bombers blew themselves up in one of the deadliest attacks of the four-year war.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6423633.stm again
QUOTEMAJOR ATTACKS
3 Feb 2007: 130 killed in lorry bomb in Baghdad's market in mainly Shia area
2 Dec 2006: More than 50 killed in car bombs in same Baghdad market
23 Nov 2006: 200 killed in wave of car bombings and mortar blasts in Baghdad's Shia Sadr City
7 April 2006: 85 killed in triple suicide bombing at Shia mosque in BaghdadLooks like the Sunnis are doing a 'genocide' on the Shias. Where's Teesta and the Indian psecular media - why aren't they screaming genocide when the numbers are adding up every day (the above are just the major attacks, there are regular mentions of 15, 20, dead on other days). Looks like Teesta will reach her magic 1000/2000 toll and can declare a genocide. That is, if she's interested. No? Thought not. After all, it's one kind of islamic that is trying to ethnic cleanse another (in a country of muslims). It's their thing.

Why are the Shias still not fighting back, why are they willing to roll over and die? Why are they letting AQ and the Wahabbis win this?

Husky · (This post was last modified: 03-08-2007, 11:07 AM by Husky.)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2028663,00.html
30 dead in Iraq cafe bombing

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story....jectid=10427698
QUOTESuicide bomber kills 26 in cafe in Iraq - police
Thursday March 08, 2007
BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber has blown himself up in a cafe in a town northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 26 people, police said.
The blast occurred in the town of Balad Ruz, in the religiously mixed province of Diyala.
Balad Ruz police chief Faris al-Umayri said the bomber killed 26 people and wounded 25 others. Another police source put the death toll at 30.
- REUTERS

Husky · (This post was last modified: 03-30-2007, 10:04 AM by Husky.)

And again, Shia get fatal flak from Sunnis. The holy faith is too holy to be shared with 'brothers' of the faith, it seems.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6507927.stm
QUOTEMultiple bombs target Iraqi Shia

The Baghdad wounded were rushed to a hospital in Sadr City
A series of deadly bomb attacks has killed more than 100 people in Shia areas of Baghdad and the town of Khalis, to the north of the capital.

03-30-2007, 10:22 AM

QUOTEAnd again, Shia get fatal flak from Sunnis. The holy faith is too holy to be shared with 'brothers' of the faith, it seems.
It is now tit for tat. Shia everyday hunts Sunnis. It is civil war or controlling population growth. They not even spare hospitals.
Now Saudis and Jordan are openly supporting Sunnis.

Body count is still low according to this site. I think they list only direct casualty.

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

Husky · (This post was last modified: 03-30-2007, 10:35 AM by Husky.)

Mudy, so far most of the news I've seen on islamoterrorism in Iraq, indicates that these been striking against the Shias. That is, it's mostly Shias that are getting blown up or otherwise killed. See post 176 above, for instance.

QUOTEIt is now tit for tat. Shia everyday hunts Sunnis. It is civil war or controlling population growth. They not even spare hospitals.Then what are the Sunnis, who committed this latest massacre (in post 178), retaliating against? The reports up to this point seem to indicate that the killing is more one-sided. I'm certainly not expecting the western media to favour the Shias, so that makes it seem all the more like it's mostly the Sunnis of Iraq who are carrying out the islamic pastime of murder of the (relative) 'infidel'.

Have there been any major Shia attacks against Sunnis in the recent past to stack up against the number of Shia fatalities mentioned in the news excerpts of post 176?

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