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The news on Thursday July 2, 2009

al-Sadr seeks full US withdrawal

The ongoing presence of U.S. troops in Iraq "shows that the (Iraqi) government and the occupation are not serious about the withdrawal," a key Shiite cleric in the country said Wednesday.

Muqtada al-Sadr made the statement on his Web site a day after U.S. forces withdrew from Iraqi cities and towns in accordance with the security agreement between the United States and Iraq. About 131,000 American troops remain in the country, on bases and in outposts outside of population centers.

"The withdrawal should include all the occupation forces: army, intelligence, militias, and security companies and others. Otherwise, the withdrawal will be uncompleted and useless," al-Sadr said.

"We want a withdrawal and stopping the interference with Iraqi political, social and economic affairs," the statement said.

CNN, 1/7/09

US starts major offensive in Afghanistan

Thousands of U.S. Marines stormed into an Afghan river valley by helicopter and land early today, launching the biggest military offensive of Barack Obama's presidency with an assault deep into Taliban territory.

Operation River Liberty, which the Marines call simply "the decisive op", is intended to seize virtually the entire lower Helmand River valley, heartland of the Taliban insurgency and the world's biggest heroin producing region.

In swiftly seizing the valley, commanders hope to accomplish within hours what NATO troops had failed to achieve over several years, and by doing so turn the tide of a stale-mated war in time for an Afghan presidential election on August 20.

Addressing Marine commanders days before the assault, Dutch Major-General Mart de Kruif compared it to the D-Day invasion that changed the course of World War Two.

"We have people out there who do not realise that progress is about to come to them," he said.

The Times, 2/7/09

US arms 'strategic partner' Ethiopia

The Obama administration is signaling its intention to keep Ethiopia as a key strategic partner, despite concerns about the country's slide toward authoritarianism. The United States is seeking to expand development assistance to the Ethiopian government.

The United States last week announced it had sent a $10-million shipment of weapons to help shore up the besieged government of Somalia, while accusing neighboring Eritrea of being behind violence aimed at undermining the Somali peace process.

Voice of America, 30/6/09

Call to end UK's military aid to Colombia

MPs from all parties are calling for an end to all UK military aid to Colombia, citing murders and human rights abuses by the country's security forces. Thousands of trade unionists and human rights activists have disappeared or been killed or jailed in Colombia.

The UK Foreign Office said it shared many of the MPs' concerns, but added: "We do not believe that isolating Colombia will help solve its problems."

Campaigners and MPs say they do not want to isolate Colombia, but to divert military aid to humanitarian work.

BBC News, 30/6/09

UK to continue anti-opium strategy

Britain will fund the destruction of opium fields in Afghanistan, despite the US condemning it as a waste of money. The British Government said destroying poppy fields was one of the pillars of its anti-opium strategy in the southern province of Helmand.

The statement was made a day after Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said destroying the crops drove poor farmers to join the Taliban insurgency. In a reversal of policy, he said the US would stop funding poppy eradication.

The Age, Australia, 30/6/09

'Iraq has so much oil'

Iraq is poised to open its coveted oil fields to foreign companies this week for the first time in nearly four decades, a politically risky move in a country eager to shake off the stigma of occupation.

Iraqi politicians and some veteran oil officials have said the deals are unduly beneficial to oil giants, which are viewed warily by many in this deeply nationalistic but cash-strapped country.

Oil executives have been following the matter with apprehension, industry analysts said, but they are eager to get a foothold in Iraq, which has the world's second-largest proven crude reserves and is seen as the only major penetrable market.

"It's something the industry really wants," said Ben Lando, editor of Iraq Oil Report, an Iraq energy news Web site. "The number of reserves around the world that they have access to is declining. And Iraq has so much oil."

Washington Post, 27/6/09

Iraqis party as occupation ends

Tens of thousands of Iraqis partied amid massive security in Baghdad on Monday to mark the imminent pull-out of US troops from urban areas and celebrate the restive nation's reclaimed sovereignty.

"Since 2003, I have never been to a party," Ahmed Ali, 20, told AFP as a large celebration got under way in Zawra Park, the largest in the capital, "but today I am coming to hear the singers I love."

Revellers had to undergo three security checks to enter the park but no one seemed to complain amid a jubilant atmosphere, where an onstage banner declared Baghdad's sovereignty and independence had been recovered.

"Today is the day that we got back our country," said Salim Mohammed, from the sprawling Shi'ite working-class district of Sadr City.

Western Australia Today, 30/6/09

US sounds out Canada on Afghanistan extension

Obama Democrats have quietly sounded out power-brokers in Ottawa looking for advice on how to convince war-weary Canadians to keep military forces in Afghanistan after 2011.

Conscious of the deep political and public opposition to extending the mission further, American officials — political and military — are struggling to understand those concerns and identify the right arguments to make to the Harper government to “keep Canadian boots on the ground,” said defence sources.

The U.S. has not formally — or even informally — requested Ottawa extend the deployment of 2,850 combat troops, trainers and aircrew in volatile and bloody Kandahar, where 120 soldiers and one diplomat have died over seven years. The questions being asked are meant to lay the groundwork for a potential request, which the administration could make late this year or in early 2010, said one source familiar with the process.

The sophisticated, below-the-radar project reflects Washington’s new approach to dealing with allies, and marks a sharp departure from the days when former U.S. president George W. Bush declared: “You’re either with us or against us in the fight against terror.”

Edmonton Sun, 28/6/09

Swat Valley victory an illusion

For the past month and a half, the Pakistani military has claimed success in retaking the Swat Valley from the Taliban, clawing back its own territory from insurgents who only a short time ago were extending their reach toward the heartland of the country.

The reassertion of control over Swat has at least temporarily denied the militants a haven they coveted inside Pakistan proper. The offensive has also won strong support from the United States, which has urged Pakistan to engage the militants. But the Taliban’s decision to scatter leaves the future of Swat, and Pakistan’s overall stability, under continued threat, military analysts and some politicians say.

Signs abound that the military’s campaign in Swat is less than decisive. The military extended its deadline for ending the campaign. Even in the areas where progress has been made, the military controls little more than urban centers and roads, say those who have fled the areas. The military has also failed to kill or capture even one top Taliban commander.

Many Taliban fighters have infiltrated the camps set up for those displaced by the fighting and are likely to return with them to Swat, said Himayatullah Mayar, the mayor of Mardan, the city where many of the refugees are staying.

“Most of the Taliban shaved their beards, and they are living here with their families,” he said.

New York Times, 27/6/09

US shifts Afghanistan drugs policy

The U.S. is shifting its strategy against Afghanistan's drug trade, phasing out funding for opium eradication while boosting efforts to fight trafficking and promote alternate crops, the U.S. envoy for Afghanistan said Saturday. The aim of the new policy: to deprive the Taliban of the tens of millions of dollars in drug revenues that are fueling its insurgency.

The U.S. envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, told the Associated Press that poppy eradication — for years a cornerstone of U.S. and U.N. drug trafficking efforts in the country — was not working and was only driving Afghan farmers into the hands of the Taliban.

The new policy calls for assisting farmers who abandon poppy cultivation. Holbrooke said the international community wasn't trying to target Afghan farmers, just the Taliban militants who buy their crops.

"The farmers are not our enemy, they're just growing a crop to make a living," he said. "It's the drug system. So the U.S. policy was driving people into the hands of the Taliban."

Associated Press, 27/6/09

Britain's lectures on morality mocked worldwide

Britain’s strictures to foreign governments are being mocked from Iran to the Turks and Caicos Islands, as world leaders seize on stories about MPs’ bloated expenses claims as evidence of moral decay in the UK.

Accounts of MPs billing the taxpayer for duck houses and moat cleaning have been lapped up around the world and have posed a problem for British diplomats who have previously been vocal in criticising corruption.

Mark Malloch-Brown, the foreign office minister, deleted sections of a speech he gave in Mozambique this month, fearing that his comments on higher standards of governance might be greeted with scorn. His fears may have been justified, judging by the apparent delight being shown by leaders in recent days over the Westminster expenses scandal.

Financial Times, 27/6/09

Miliband denies British troops have failed

Britain's foreign secretary defended the capability of British troops in Afghanistan on Thursday, saying the fact they are being reinforced by 10,000 U.S. Marines did not mean they had failed.

Britain took over responsibility for Helmand in mid-2006 and started a slow build-up of troops. But in the past three years, the security situation in the vast desert-and-mountain province has changed little, with the Taliban remaining strong and foreign troops unable to hold on to large patches of territory for very long. U.S. and British commanders have acknowledged an effective stalemate.

Partly as a result, the U.S. military, following President Barack Obama's plan to beef up forces in Afghanistan, is now deploying 10,000 Marines to the province. The goal is to reinforce British units and try to tip the balance back in NATO's favour ahead of Afghan presidential elections in August.

Reuters, 25/6/09

Maliki hails victory over the US

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has taken to calling the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq’s cities by next Tuesday a “great victory,” a repulsion of foreign occupiers he compares to the rebellion against British troops in 1920.

And the Americans are going along with it, symbolically and substantively. American commanders have hewed far more closely to the June 30 deadline for withdrawing combat forces from Iraq’s cities than expected only a few weeks ago, according to American and Iraqi officials. They have closed outposts — even in Baghdad and still-troubled Mosul in the north — that they had initially lobbied the Iraqis to keep open, having concluded, the officials said, that pressing the case would be counterproductive given the political significance that Mr. Maliki had given the deadline.

The day itself has been declared a national holiday, though it is not yet clear whether Iraq will hold the “feast and festivals” he recently promised.

New York Times, 25/6/09

Obama: solving splits is big issue in Iraq

Despite continuing violence in Iraq, President Barack Obama says he thinks the bigger challenge there is finding political agreement among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.

Obama says the security situation in Iraq is actually showing improvement, and that the level of violence is not what it once was. A series of attacks this week has claimed more than 200 lives, just days before a deadline for U.S. combat troops to leave Iraqi cities. Obama says the violence will probably continue for "some time."

He told reporters Friday that he hasn't seen the kind of "political progress" that he'd like to see among Iraq's various factions. Obama says if their disputes are resolved, there will be a further improvement in reducing violence.

Las Vegas Sun, 26/6/09

US arms Somali government

The United States said on Thursday it had sent weapons to Somalia's government to help thwart Islamist insurgents.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Washington was providing arms at the government's request to help it "repel the onslaught of extremist forces which are intent on .... spoiling efforts to bring peace and stability to Somalia."

Asked if the United States was afraid the government might collapse or be overwhelmed by insurgent attacks, Kelly replied: "We are concerned."

Washington Post, 25/6/09

Afghan war continues to escalate

NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, boosted by a big influx of U.S. troops, will step up operations in Helmand province and the city of Kandahar soon, the top regional commander said on Thursday.

"We are entering a new stage in the operation," Dutch Army Major General Mart de Kruif told reporters at the Pentagon in a conference call from NATO's base at Kandahar Air Field.

The United States has been pouring thousands of troops this year into southern Afghanistan, the heartland of the Taliban movement and scene of the heaviest fighting, to prepare for an effort to regain the initiative from the insurgents.

Washington Post, 25/6/09

Obama speaks out on Iran

Under growing pressure to speak out more forcefully on Iran, President Barack Obama used his toughest language yet Tuesday to condemn its government's violent suppression of political dissent and to declare the world "appalled and outraged" by the crackdown.

But Obama again stopped short of calling off his diplomatic overture to Iran and refused at a news conference to threaten consequences. "We don't yet know how this is going to play out," he said.

His latest comments showed the president willing to speak more bluntly about principles of human rights and free speech, while working to avoid the appearance of taking sides in Iran's disputed presidential election.

But conservative and Republican critics, including McCain, have pushed the president to go further by rejecting the election results.

Obama argued Tuesday that intervening directly would only serve the interests of the Iranian government, which he said has gone so far as to mistranslate his words to convince Iranians that American meddling is driving the protests.

Obama also took the unusual step of denying CIA involvement in the post-election protests, responding to attempts by the Islamic regime to discredit government critics by portraying them as tools of U.S. spy agencies.

Accusations of U.S. meddling resonate in Iran because of a long and antagonistic history that can be traced to a CIA-backed overthrow of Iran's elected government in 1953, an episode that Obama acknowledged in his recent speech in Cairo.

Chicago Tribune 25/6/09

Iran parliament meets to discuss UK ties

Iranian lawmakers have met to discuss relations with Britain as tensions continue to grow between the two countries following Iran's presidential election.

In a Tuesday meeting, also attended by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, the Parliament's national security and foreign policy commission called for reconsidering ties with Britain.

Iran has expelled two British diplomats from the country in protest to UK officials' remarks on Iran's post-election unrest, which has erupted since the re-election of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the presidential vote last week and resulted in the death of at least 20 people.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Tuesday that UK was also expelling two Iranian diplomats following Tehran's decision to expel the second and third secretaries of the British embassy.

Tehran condemned the British officials' remark as a clear interference in Iran's internal affairs, saying London is supporting 'illegal rallies' in the Iranian capital Tehran.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has rejected the claims, saying turning the dispute among Iranians about the election results into a battle between Iran and other countries - the UK in particular - 'is without foundation'.

Press TV 25/6/09

Pakistan condemns US airstrikes as counterproductive

Pakistan said its battle to defeat terrorism is being harmed by U.S. drone attacks after a strike yesterday near the border with Afghanistan reportedly killed at least 50 people.

Such attacks are “counterproductive” and should be condemned, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan cited Syed Samsam Ali Bukhari, the minister of state for information and broadcasting, as saying. The raids may also affect Pakistan’s relations with the U.S., he said.

Bloomberg.com, 24/6/09

Baghdad bomb kills 70

Nearly 70 people have been killed by a bomb blast in the eastern Sadr City area of Baghdad, Iraqi officials say. Police said the device went off in a market place in the predominantly Shia area of the Iraqi capital. More than 130 people were also reported to have been injured in the blast, one of the worst in Iraq this year.

It comes less than a week before US soldiers pull out of all Iraqi cities, a move the US said would not be affected by a recent surge in violence.

BBC News, 25/6/09

Cashing in on Iraqi oil

With his sale of Addax Petroleum to China's government-controlled oil giant Sinopec, Swiss tycoon Jean Claude Gandur has made the first Iraqi oil mega-fortune of the post-Saddam era. Sinopec's purchase price for Addax, $7.2 billion in cash, is more than double what the company traded for early this year.

Most of Addax's daily output of 150,000 barrels comes from fields off the coast of Nigeria that Gandur acquired for a song nearly a decade ago. Addax also has assets in Gabon and Cameroon.

But Addax' most interesting and potentially valuable asset is its stake in the Taq Taq field in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, which is thought to hold upward of 3 billion barrels. Gandur signed a deal with Kurds to develop that field in 2005, as war raged in southern Iraq and in spite of condemnation by Iraqi and U.S. officials that the contracts were not valid.

Forbes.com, 24/6/09

Israel agrees new settlement

An Israeli rights group has revealed that Tel Aviv has approved plans to "legalise" 60 existing homes at an illegal West Bank settlement and allow the construction of 240 other residences there.

Bimkom reported that Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has given Jewish settlers at the Water Reservoir Hill outpost near Ramallah the green light to expand their colony. This flouts Washington's demand for a settlement freeze and appears to confirm fears that the illegal outposts are intended to permanently seize land that has been earmarked by the international community for a future Palestinian state.

Since 1967, Israel has built 121 West Bank settlements, which are now home to around 300,000 Israeli Jews. An additional 180,000 Israeli Jews live in east Jerusalem, which, like the West Bank, was seized by Israel in the 1967 war.

Palestine Telegraph, 24/6/09

Kyrgyzstan reverses decision on US base

Kyrgyzstan has essentially reversed a decision to close an American air base that is central to the NATO mission in nearby Afghanistan, after the United States acceded to sharply higher rent and to minor restrictions on the site, Kyrgyz and American officials said Tuesday.

The Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan has been used since 2001 as a refueling stop and transit hub for operations in Afghanistan. Thousands of personnel and roughly 500 tons of cargo pass through the base each month.

The Kyrgyz and American governments both said the new arrangement would put limitations on the base. But neither side could point to any significant ones, and it seemed as if the agreement was written to offer the Kyrgyz government a face-saving way to undo its earlier decision.

One major change, though, is the rent. It will rise to $60 million annually from $17.4 million, Kadyrbek Sarbayev, Kyrgyzstan’s foreign minister, told the Kyrgyz Parliament on Tuesday.

New York Times, 23/6/09

US drone kills 60 at funeral

A US drone aircraft killed at least 45 Pakistani Taliban militants in south Waziristan yesterday when it fired missiles at the funeral of an insurgent commander killed earlier in the day, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

One local security official, who could not be identified as he was not authorised to speak to media, said that more than 60 had died of whom "half are civilians". Funerals of Taliban are attended by local villagers, not just militants.

Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan, is part of Pakistan's lawless tribal area, where US forces have mounted about 60 drone attacks against suspected militants since early last year. But bombing a funeral is unusual and may be unprecedented.

Guardian, 24/6/09

US to limit airstrikes in Afghanistan

The new U.S. military commander in Afghanistan will limit the use of airstrikes in order to help cut down on civilian casualties, his chief spokesman said Monday.

In a "tactical directive" to be issued in coming days, Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal has ordered new operational standards, including refraining from firing on structures where insurgents may have taken refuge among civilians unless Western or allied troops are in imminent danger, said spokesman Navy Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith.

Also under revision are ground search and seizure practices and the treatment of detainees, changes officials hope will reduce tensions between U.S. forces and Afghan citizens, and build a "civilian surge" to improve reconstruction and governance.

Los Angeles Times, 23/6/09

Civilians 'bear brunt of conflict'

Civilians bear the brunt of modern conflict, a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross suggests.

The report, called "Our world, views from the field" asked 4,000 civilians from eight countries to relate their personal experiences of war. Of those, 44% said they had witnessed armed conflict first hand and one in three had seen a relative killed.

The countries were Afghanistan, Georgia, Haiti, Liberia, DR Congo, Colombia, Lebanon and the Philippines. More than half - 56% - said they had been forced to leave their homes and almost half had lost contact with a loved one.

BBC News, 23/6/09

Death toll hits 80 in Iraq truck bombing

The death toll from a suicide truck bombing in Taza, Iraq, has reached 80, a police official said Sunday. It was the deadliest single attack in the war-torn nation this year, CNN reported.

The police official said the horrific blast Saturday near a mosque, shops and houses also wounded 211 people and destroyed at least 50 buildings, the U.S. network said.

UPI, 21/6/09

Oil contracts 'will put the Iraq economy in chains'

It is only now, six years after the American invasion, that the battle for the control of Iraqi oil production is moving to the centre of politics in Baghdad. On 29 and 30 June, the Iraqi government will award contracts under which international oil companies will take a central role in producing crude oil from Iraq's six super-giant oilfields over the next 20 to 25 years. By coincidence, 30 June is also the date on which the last American troops will be leaving Iraqi cities. On the very day that Iraq regains greater physical authority over its territory, it is ceding a measure of control over the oilfields on which the future of the country entirely depends.

The contracts have been heavily criticised inside Iraq as a sell-out to the big oil companies, which are desperate to get back into Iraq – oil was nationalised here in 1972, and Iraq and Iran are the only two places in the world where immense quantities of oil might still be discovered. Several of those criticising the contracts work in the Iraqi oil industry. "The service contracts will put the Iraqi economy in chains and shackle its independence for the next 20 years," said Fayad al-Nema, head of the state-owned South Oil Company, which produces 80 per cent of Iraq's crude. "They squander Iraq's reserves."

Independent, 21/6/09

Army officer attacks 'failing' UK policy in Afghanistan

Writing in the British Army Review, an official MoD publication, Major SN Miller, stated: "Lets not kid ourselves. To date Operation Herrick [the British codename for the War in Afghanistan] has been a failure".

He claimed that hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers money had been wasted on a war which had failed to deliver any real reconstruction, governance or security. Rather than "winning hearts and minds", Major Miller, who serves in the Defence Intelligence Staff serving Intelligence Corps, said the British presence had had the opposite effect.

But his most blistering attack was on the UK's counter-narcotics policy, where the illicit sale of drugs has been successfully used by the Taliban to fund the insurgency and kill British troops.

He wrote: "British policy towards the poppy crop has been an unmitigated disaster. The chief "effect" of the British presence in Helmand has been to transform Helmand into the opium centre of the world."

Daily Telegraph, 20/6/09

Blair pushed Brown to hold war inquiry in private...

Tony Blair urged Gordon Brown to hold the independent inquiry into the Iraq war in secret because he feared that he would be subjected to a "show trial" if it were opened to the public, the Observer can reveal.

The revelation that the former prime minister - who led Britain to war in March 2003 - had intervened will fuel the anger of MPs, peers, military leaders and former civil servants, who were appalled by Brown's decision last week to order the investigation to be conducted behind closed doors.

Observer, 21/6/09

...as he worries about top Euro job

A public appearance by Mr Blair before the Chilcot inquiry would also damage his ambitions of becoming EU president, a role that needs the support of European countries that opposed the war.

Independent, 21/6/09

...and memo confirms Bush and Blair conspired to provoke a war

A confidential record of a meeting between President Bush and Tony Blair before the invasion of Iraq, outlining their intention to go to war without a second United Nations resolution, will be an explosive issue for the official inquiry into the UK's role in toppling Saddam Hussein.

The memo, written on 31 January 2003, almost two months before the invasion and seen by the Observer, confirms that as the two men became increasingly aware UN inspectors would fail to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD) they had to contemplate alternative scenarios that might trigger a second resolution legitimising military action.

Bush told Blair the US had drawn up a provocative plan "to fly U2 reconnaissance aircraft painted in UN colours over Iraq with fighter cover". Bush said that if Saddam fired at the planes this would put the Iraqi leader in breach of UN resolutions. The president expressed hopes that an Iraqi defector would be "brought out" to give a public presentation on Saddam's WMD or that someone might assassinate the Iraqi leader.

However, Bush confirmed even without a second resolution, the US was prepared for military action. The memo said Blair told Bush he was "solidly with the president".

Observer, 21/6/09

US joins Human Rights Council

The United States has joined the 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council for the first time. U.S. diplomats Friday pledged to work constructively with other council members on behalf of the word's persecuted and abused people.

The top diplomat at the U.S. mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Mark Storella, said the United States is joining the three-year-old body in the spirit of cooperation. The U.S. was elected to the Geneva-based council last month, after the Obama administration decided to pursue a council seat.

The Bush administration previously had boycotted the organization, saying the U.N. rights body focused too much on criticizing Israel, while ignoring human rights abuses in Sudan and elsewhere.

Voice of America, 19/6/09

Lieberman: Israel's only dispute with the US is over settlements

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told reporters in Washington on Thursday that Israel's only dispute with the United States is over the issue of West Bank settlements.

"There are many issues currently discussed by the United States and ourselves, at least 20 different points, and I think that we agree on 19 of those points," Lieberman said when asked about differences between Israel and the U.S. on settlements.

"So we can disagree on one issue, since both sides want to reach an understanding on that as well. No one is interested in deepening controversy, both sides are interested to find an agreed-upon formula, and we will reach an understanding."

He also repeated Thursday that Israel had refused to stop accommodating for "natural growth" in West Bank settlements, rejecting a demand to do so by United States President Barack Obama.

Haaretz, Israel, 19/6/09

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