Iraq Violence

U.S. Forces Bomb Falluja, Release Police

Oct 20, 2004

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces freed the police chief of the rebel-held city of Falluja on Tuesday after warplanes bombed what the military said were houses and arms dumps used by America's top enemy in Iraq.
There was no word on casualties in the overnight raids, the latest in a drive against militants led by declared al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said to be operating from Falluja.
The police chief, Sabar al-Janabi, and his colleagues were detained on Friday with the city's chief negotiator, Khaled al-Jumaili, who was released early on Monday.
The U.S. military gave no reason for the arrests and never confirmed it was holding the four men.
They were seized as they were moving their families away from Falluja for safety. Townspeople called off a demonstration set for Tuesday to demand the policemen's release. Police in Falluja do not answer to the interim government in Baghdad.
The U.S.-backed government, threatening to attack Falluja unless Zarqawi's men are handed over, plans a nationwide arms amnesty to start next week as part of its drive to pacify all of Iraq before parliamentary elections due in January.
The United States is doing all it can to enable Iraqis to conduct the polls, Secretary of State Colin Powell told USA Today newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday.
"It's still possible to have the kind of election we want to have by the end of January. The key is security and building up Iraqi forces to make them competent, fully equipped and able to do the job," he said.
Powell mocked a suggestion by Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry that an international summit would draw more foreign troops to the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq.
"I'm not sure how much broader an international conference others may be talking about," he was quoted as saying. "The suggestion being that if only there was an international conference, the French and Germans would send troops. Really?"

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Firefighters quit jobs to work in Iraq

Four local men - three from the shipyard and one from the airport - will be stationed in Baghdad's Green Zone

20/10/2004

When Alexander Reyes' parents realized he was serious about going to Iraq, they begged him to reconsider.
They even offered him $30,000 to stay put.
But the 41-year-old Reyes told his parents to keep the money because he was determined to go not only for the money, but also for experience and the opportunity.
"My mom is petrified - there's nothing but tears right now," said Reyes, who recently quit his job at the Northrop Grumman Newport News fire station for the one-year gig. "But this will be a different experience in firefighting."
Reyes, who left for Iraq on Monday, is among four local firefighters - three from the Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard and one from Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport - who decided to quit their local jobs and go to Iraq. The other three firefighters plan to leave by early next week.
While in Iraq, they will respond to fires and other rescue calls in Baghdad's Green Zone, which houses American contractors, media, Iraqi government officials and American and coalition troops. They will work for a division of Moyock, N.C.-based Blackwater Security, one of the largest private contractors doing work for the military since the war in Iraq began.
The money is good - $90,000 a year, a marked improvement over their current firefighter salaries of $28,000 to $40,000. They also get free food and housing, and a free plane ticket anywhere in the world for a 10-day rest and relaxation period.
"And there will be no Wal-Marts around, so we won't drop $100 every few days buying things," quipped Shawn Gibson, 35, of Hayes, one of the four who recently decided to quit his job at the shipyard.
Tim Adams, who's leaving his job at the airport, said he would go even if he didn't get a raise from his airport salary.
"We are there for our servicemen who are there," the 37-year-old Adams said. "We are protecting those who are protecting us. Someone has to watch their back."
Adams said he was fishing near Gloucester Point when he and Gibson started talking about going to Iraq. Later, Reyes read in the paper about a group from South Carolina that went to Iraq, and he called that department to learn more.
Adams, Gibson and Reyes decided to go, as did Ron Hall, 42, also a shipyard firefighter. They plan to serve in the same fire-fighting unit.
They all have been told that if they have to travel outside the Green Zone, they should be in a heavily armed convoy. "You can't let fear control you," said Gibson, who often has volunteered to ride an ambulance outside of his normal shipyard fire-fighting duties. He said ambulances are sometimes known as a "rolling drug store," and are often seen as a target for crime, Gibson said.
"We've been spit on; we've been hit; we've been assaulted."
Reyes asserted that he is just as likely to get killed by a drunk driver on the streets of Newport News as he is to be caught in a terrorist attack in Iraq.
"When it's your time, it's your time," Reyes said.
Still, the four have seen footage and read about the rocket fire, the mortar attacks, the suicide bombings and the beheadings, and they know that Blackwater Security was the firm that employed a group of four American contractors whose bodies were burned and mutilated in Fallujah this spring.
Some who have served and come home have said that it's mostly safe, though there are times when you "have to be wired tight" and earn your money.
So the four firefighters have made a pact with one another that if anything should happen to any of them, that one of the other four - not some stranger - would break the news to their family.
None has been promised his job back when he returns, but once the firefighters return they expect the experience to lead to other opportunities.

BDWN

Iraqi president extends cash-for weapons

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

-- Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi announced plans to extend a cash-for-weapons program for Shiite fighters in Baghdad's Sadr City to cities nationwide in an attempt to disarm Iraq.
-- Iraqi government officials and commanders of the U.S.-led military coalition killed a proposal by Saudi Arabia for a Muslim peacekeeping force in Iraq, the White House said, citing concerns over who would be in charge.
-- The U.S. military said no decision had been made on whether to discipline Army reservists who refused a supply mission last week, despite statements from their relatives that the soldiers would be discharged.
-- The city of Fallujah's chief negotiator in peace talks with the government was released from U.S. custody and ruled out any quick resumption of talks. Sheik Khaled al-Jumeili was detained Friday a day after the talks broke down over the government's demand that the city hand over terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who Fallujah's clerics claim isn't there.
-- Allawi said his government was still extending an "olive branch" to Fallujah but added that "we shall not be lenient in regard to the question of maintaining security and granting security to every Iraqi."
-- The British government said it would be failing an important ally if it refused to redeploy British troops closer to Baghdad and free up American soldiers for anti-insurgent operations.
-- Iraq's interior minister said al-Zarqawi is not his government's major concern. He said a more serious problem was a "conspiracy" to undermine the country's unity.
-- In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded late Sunday near a police patrol in the Jadiriyah district, killing six people, including three police officers, and wounding 26 others. The blast hit a cafe near the Australian Embassy, although there were no Australian casualties.
-- In Mosul, a car bomb detonated Sunday morning on a bridge, killing five Iraqis and wounding 15 others, the U.S. military said. Another car bomber Monday hit a civilian convoy, killing one and wounding four others.
-- The U.S. military said a man suspected of being a financier for insurgent operations was detained near Tikrit and was taken in for questioning.
-- A patrol from the 1st Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade discovered a huge weapons cache at a home in Salman Pak, south of Baghdad, and detained six suspects. The cache included 450 anti-tank mines, 300 grenades, 35 rocket-propelled grenades, as well as mortar shells and primers.
-- Al-Jazeera television broadcast a video by a militant group that claimed to kill two Macedonian men it accused of spying for the United States. The videotape, from the Islamic Army in Iraq, said the men were captured outside an American base in Iraq.
-- A headless body was found in the Tigris river, close to Balad north of Baghdad, witnesses said. The body is suspected to be that of an Iraqi driver who carried supplies to an American military base, said witness Abbas Mahmoud said.
A militant group, Ansar al-Sunnah group, claimed responsibility for the ambush and killing of nine Iraqi policemen on Saturday as they returned from a training course in Jordan, according to a Web statement.

BDWN

British troops await Iraq deployment go-ahead

20, October 2004

British troops will be sent to US-controlled areas of Iraq if commanders on the ground advise that it is operationally justified, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw confirmed today.
The US has made a request for British forces to "back fill" in areas close to Baghdad, in order to free its own troops to take part in the planned assault on the insurgents' stronghold of Fallujah.
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon yesterday told the House of Commons that no decision had yet been made on whether to redeploy troops, but told MPs that Britain would be letting down an ally if it failed to respond positively.
He did not challenge assumptions that the main UK element involved would be the Black Watch - currently the reserve force covering the British area of responsibility around Basra.
Mr Straw this morning said that the decisive issue would be the report of a military reconnaissance team currently in Iraq assessing the likely impact of a redeployment.
The Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Michael Walker, is expected to make a final recommendation to the Government within the next few days, after the reconnaissance team reports.
Mr Straw told the BBC: "It is possible to say no. It depends on the advice we receive from the professional soldiers on the ground.
"I think we would be letting down an ally if we were to say no in the face of very clear advice from our own British commanders that we should make this contribution."
The US request sparked concern on all sides of the Commons yesterday, with Liberal Democrats demanding that no British troops be deployed outside the UK-controlled south of Iraq without a vote in Parliament.
Conservative leader Michael Howard today said that important questions remained to be answered on whether redeployment would put other UK troops at risk.
Mr Howard said: "We don't have a reserve force in southern Iraq for fun. It is there for a purpose."
Although the south of Iraq is relatively quiet, British troops in towns such as Al-Amarah have come under heavy attack in recent weeks, he said.
"There is no doubt that the removal of the reserve - and we haven't been told there are any plans to replace it - will expose our troops to greater risk," said Mr Howard.
"If there is a compelling justification for us to accept that greater risk, then we will support that deployment, but we haven't had it yet."

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Bush says US troops won’t be in Iraq as long as in S. Korea

19 October 2004

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE - President George W. Bush says he doesn’t envision a longtime presence of US troops in Iraq similar to post-World War II deployments in Europe and South Korea that continue today.
“I think the Iraqi people want us to leave once we’ve helped them get on the path of stability and democracy and once we have trained their troops to do their own hard work,” Bush said Monday in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press.
Still, Bush said, “It’s very difficult for me to predict what forces will exist although I will tell you that Iraq’s leadership has made it quite clear that they can manage their own affairs at the appropriate time.”
If free and open Iraqi elections lead to the seating of a fundamentalist Islamic government, “I will be disappointed. But democracy is democracy,” Bush said. “If that’s what the people choose, that’s what the people choose.”
Bush steered nearly alls in Iraq, Bush said, “I need to know more about that. I understand this is a very rare incident.”
Bush served in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War but did not go overseas.
The president spent the night in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida, and was campaigning across Florida on Tuesday.
Asked whether he thought another overtime election was possible, like the 2000 contest that led to a recount of Florida ballots and a US Supreme Court decision in Bush’s favor, the president said: “Having gone through one election that didn’t end until mid-December, I certainly hope we don’t have to go through another.
“And so, therefore we will do everything we can to maximize our vote,” he added with a smile.

On other topics, Bush:

- Said Iran and North Korea, both with nuclear ambitions, are dangerous states, but not necessarily more so than when he was elected. He said the strategy he has followed “makes them less likely to take action that would make the world more dangerous.”
- Insisted he would not bring back the military draft, even if there were a crisis with North Korea or Iran. “I believe we’ve got the assets and manpower necessary to be able to deal with another theater should one arise,” the president said.
- Criticized Kerry, as Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, had done, for mentioning during last week’s debate that one of Cheney’s daughters is a lesbian. “I thought it was over the line,” Bush said.
Said government officials remained concerned about the possibility of a terrorist attack before the Nov. 2 election. “We have no specific threat information. Otherwise we would have let everybody know. On the other hand we are on alert,” he said, mentioning the train bombing in Madrid before Spain’s elections.

BDWN

Missouri man one of two killed in helicopter collision

October 18, 2004

WASHINGTON : An Army captain from Excelsior Springs is one of two soldiers who died Saturday when their helicopters collided in Iraq.
The Department of Defense says 29-year-old Captain Christopher Johnson and 36-year-old Chief Warrant Office William Brennan of Connecticut died in the collision.
Both soldiers were assigned to the First Battalion, 25th Aviation, 25th Infantry Division at Wheeler Army Air Field in Hawaii.
Two other soldiers were injured in the crash.

BDWN

Kerry, Bush trade accusations over Iraq war

20/10/2004

WASHINGTON – President Bush and Democratic rival John Kerry traded biting accusations over the war in Iraq on Monday as early Florida voting produced scattered complaints that stirred memories of the state's chaotic 2000 recount.
On a day of strikingly personal campaign rhetoric, Bush said his Democratic challenger stands for "protest and defeatism" in Iraq. He added that Kerry would lead the nation toward "a major defeat in the war on terror."
The four-term Massachusetts senator accused the president of "arrogant boasting" to hide bitter truths about a war waged on his command. He cited a published report saying the top general in Iraq had warned Pentagon officials last winter about a shortage of supplies.
If anything, Democratic running mate John Edwards was harsher. Bush is trying to "con the American people into believing that he is the only one who can fight and win the war on terrorism," said the North Carolina senator.
Little more than two weeks before Election Day, the national polls showed a tight race. The two rivals are tied statistically in some and Bush holds a slender advantage in others. Yet several recent surveys show the president beneath 50 percent support, often a late-campaign sign of difficulty for any incumbent.
Aides to both candidates claimed to possess private polls showing their man ahead in the dozen battleground states that will determine the outcome of the election. Florida was prominent among them. There, the first difficulties surfaced soon after early voting opened in the state whose recount reached the Supreme Court four years ago before propelling Bush to the White House.
"This is not a good start," said Democratic State Rep. Shelley Vana, adding that the paper ballot she received in a Palm Beach County polling place was missing a page.
There were a few computer-related problems elsewhere across the state, but no early reports of difficulties with ATM-like touch-screen voting machines introduced since the troubled 2000 election.
"It tells you exactly what to do. It's idiot-proof," said Robin Punches, voting in Palm Beach County.
In another early-voting state, Bush's parents, former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, cast early ballots for their son in Texas during the day.
Kerry spent his day in Florida, urging supporters to vote early at each stop. Bush had appearances in the state Monday night and Tuesday, part of an effort to motivate his backers to cast early ballots as well.
Bush put the powers of incumbency on display during the day, signing legislation at the White House to finance the Department of Homeland Security before flying off for a speech on terrorism in New Jersey.
Along the way, he accused his rival of "shameless scare tactics." In an Associated Press interview aboard Air Force One, Bush said Kerry is "trying to scare our seniors" with false charges of a secret Republican plan to privatize Social Security.
He also faulted Kerry for telling younger Americans there will be a return to the military draft — an option Bush has repeatedly and emphatically ruled out.
The president's speech in Marlton, N.J., was an indictment of Kerry's position on the war in Iraq, delivered in a state that felt firsthand the loss of life at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and last voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 1988.
"The senator from Massachusetts has now flip-flopped his way to a dangerous position ... a strategy of retreat," Bush said. "He has talked about artificial timetables to pull our troops out of Iraq. He has sent the signal that America's overriding goal in Iraq would be to leave, even if the job is not done."
He added that while "America does the hard work of fighting terror and spreading freedom, he has chosen the easy path of protest and defeatism."
Kerry aide Michael McCurry called Bush's speech "arguably his strongest negative attack to date," and said the Democratic senator was "going to be rebutting that very aggressively" in the next two or three days.
Kerry rebutted by citing Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the former top general of U.S. forces in Iraq. Referring to a report in The Washington Post, Kerry said that the day after Sanchez warned Pentagon superiors about supply problems, "George Bush went out and told the American people our troops were properly equipped."
"Despite the president's arrogant boasting that he has done everything right in Iraq and that he's made no mistakes, the truth is beginning to catch up with him," Kerry said. "And it's a bitter truth, my friends."
Bush and Kerry both buttressed their campaigns with fresh commercials on the issue of the war.
"John Kerry and his liberal allies ... are they a risk we can afford to take?" asks Bush's ad.
Kerry's spot shows images of violence in an attempt to undercut Bush's claims of effective wartime leadership. "In Iraq, American troops are attacked 87 times a day," it says. "At home, the Bush administration has acquired just 530 doses of licensed anthrax vaccine for America's civilian population."
A shortage of flu vaccine also became grist for the campaign during the day.
"The administration was warned about the shortage of flu vaccines three years ago, and they didn't act," Kerry said during a speech that was a broad condemnation of Bush's health care policies.
"We'll crack down on the price-gouging that's putting vaccines out of reach for people who need them today."
Vice President Dick Cheney, campaigning in West Virginia, blamed the threat of lawsuits and limited company profits for the shortage. The Republican also argued that the presidential ticket of Kerry and Edwards — two lawyers — would thwart medical liability reform.
"I'm sorry that this is becoming a political issue. This is a health issue," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control, in an interview on CNN.
British regulators recently shut down shipments from Chiron Corp., cutting the U.S. supply of flu shots almost in half.

BDWN

SCOTS REGIMENT COULD BE ORDERED UP IRAQ'S 'HIGHWAY OF DEATH'

20 October 2004

The Black Watch will learn later this week if they are being ordered up the "Highway of Death" to free American troops to launch an attack on Sunni rebels in Iraq.
On Thursday, the Cabinet is expected to rubber-stamp a recommendation from Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Michael Walker following a reconnaissance by a team on the ground in Iraq today. A statement will be made in parliament later.
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon confirmed in the Commons that British generals received a request from the US military command on October 10 and claimed no decision has been taken yet, but made it clear that the request "does not ask for UK troops to be deployed to Baghdad City or to Fallujah".
Speculation continued that the move would be to the north of the existing British command in Basra.
Mr Hoon would not even confirm in his statement the name of the regiment which could be redeployed to the US sector - though the Black Watch was the only unit mentioned by MPs. He said only that, if the move went ahead the regiment would be responsible for a specific, limited area.
Mr Hoon came close to admitting the decision has been taken when he told MPs that if Britain refused, "we will have failed in our duty as an ally".
Kut and Najaf, the barely pacified Shi'ite city containing holy shrines formerly controlled by the Mahdi army of rebel Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, would be possible destinations.
Local MPs voiced serious alarm that the regiment could be dragged into areas where heavy-handed action by US forces has provoked a hostile population.
Perth SNP MP Annabelle Ewing said people could not understand how it could be militarily necessary to deploy the 600-strong regiment when the US had 130,000 troops available. She asked what Mr Hoon had to say to a unit on their second tour of duty in Iraq in a year while being stabbed in the back at home "by this Government's plans to disband historic regiments". She demanded: "When are the Black Watch coming home?"
Dundee East MP Iain Luke said there could be more US requests for British troops, warning: "Is this not getting us into a quagmire situation, given the mishandling of the war by America which could deteriorate into a Vietnam situation?"
Mr Hoon said this was a specific request for a particular purpose to ensure the terrorist threat in the Sunni Triangle is reduced. He said the battalion had expected their six-month tour might be shortened and so might now be disappointed - but morale remained high.
Angus SNP MP Mike Weir said later: "The decision has clearly already been taken and the Government are operating a fiction. I believe they will be going into the Sunni Triangle. The Black Watch are being treated shabbily."
In the Commons Mr Hoon dismissed claims the deployment is designed to help US President George Bush win the American election in November. He said there would be no difficulties with UK forces operating alongside US colleagues.
He also dismissed fears raised by Tory shadow defence secretary Nicholas Soames and ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith that British soldiers acting under US rules could be subject to prosecution by the International Criminal Court - which the US has refused to join.
He confirmed that would be outside the existing British area of operations, but stressed UK forces had carried out such missions before. He said: "The US request is for a limited number of UK ground forces to be made available to relieve US forces to allow them in turn to participate in further operations elsewhere in Iraq to maintain the continuing pressure on terrorists."
No details such as the timing, length of the operation or which units could be involved had been decided, added Mr Hoon. He said: "I expect the final recommendation from the Chief of Defence Staff by the middle of the week."

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