*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq imposes petrol rationing to deal with fuel shortage

BAGHDAD (AFX) - Iraq has imposed petrol rationing today as part of it's efforts to deal with a shortage of fuel in the country, despite having the world's second-largest oil reserves, the oil ministry said.

"Each driver can have only 50 litres, not more, at the price of 20 dinars (one cent) each litre," Asem Jihad, the spokesman for Iraq's oil ministry, said.

He added that gas station operators who sell to the black market will face lengthy jail terms under a new law effective from today.

Petrol station queues, some as long as three km, have become increasingly common since the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in late November.

http://www.iii.co.uk/shares/?type=news&articleid=4818208&action=article

 

[Barking_Mad]

US soldier shot dead

An American soldier has been killed in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, when insurgents fired upon troops guarding a petrol station, the US Army said. Another US soldier was wounded in the incident.

"One of the two soldiers has died," said Major Trey Cate, spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division in Mosul.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1007546.htm

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Death to terrorists!

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20031128-084446-3715r.htm

 

[Barking_Mad]

Part of the link to JS2's post said: The demonstrators shouted "death to terrorists" and called for confronting and uprooting "this evil trend which is foreign to Iraqi society."

Maybe someone should tell them that Mr Bush is "...confronting terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan and in other places so our people will not have to confront terrorist violence in New York or Saint Louis or Los Angeles,"

Im sure they will be overjoyed to hear this news.

 

[Barking_Mad]

A good read.

Iraqis impatient with U.S. look toward clerics for leadership

.......in the past week, Muslim leaders have made clear that their patience is wearing thin because of slow progress toward reconstructing Iraq and initiating democratic self-rule. Unless the pace quickens, top Shiite and Sunni Muslim clerics warned in interviews, a massive uprising could develop against the occupation forces, dwarfing the insurgency waged by Saddam's relatively small band of loyalists. Chief among those leaders is Grand Ayatollah Ali Hussein al-Sistani, the most senior cleric among Iraqi Shiites, who form the majority of the nation's 25 million people.

Last week, the Iranian-born cleric, who has until now urged cooperation with coalition forces, took the unusual step of criticizing a U.S. plan to transfer governing authority to Iraqis over the next eight months. He said the transition timetable was too slow and lacked a key element - popular elections - to ensure that Iraq's leadership represents the will of the people.

Left unsaid, but clearly implied, was that Ayatollah al-Sistani would order his followers to turn against the coalition if his wishes are not heeded, Shiite elders said. The U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council immediately scrambled to address his concerns.

"At the moment he orders something, there is a huge number of people who are prepared to obey. If he thinks some kind of confrontation is needed, the people will take up weapons to follow him," said Abdul Mahdi Karbalaiy, a leading Shiite cleric and chief representative of Ayatollah al-Sistani in Karbala.....

.......A major concern is threat of civil war, and another of Washington's biggest fears is that the clerics could use their enormous clout to install an Islamic government similar to the one that has ruled neighboring Iran since 1979.

Non-Shiite Iraqis expressed similar fears. Many say, however, that the ayatollah has promised not to allow Iraq to follow Iran's theocratic path....

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/nation/7467050.htm

 

[Barking_Mad]

Health Ministry call stop to counting Civilian Dead?

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi Health Ministry officials ordered a halt to a count of civilian casualties from the war and told workers not to release figures already compiled, the head of the ministry's statistics department told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The health minister, Dr. Khodeir Abbas, denied that he or the U.S.-led occupation authority had anything to do with the order, and said he didn't even know about the survey of deaths, which number in the thousands.

Dr. Nagham Mohsen, the head of the ministry's statistics department, said the order came from the ministry's director of planning, Dr. Nazar Shabandar, who told her it was on behalf of Abbas. She said the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, which oversees the ministry, didn't like the idea of the count either."We have stopped the collection of this information because our minister didn't agree with it," she said, adding: "The CPA doesn't want this to be done."

Abbas, whose secretary said he was out of the country, sent an e-mail denying the charge. "I have no knowledge of a civilian war casualty survey even being started by the Ministry of Health, much less stopping it," he wrote. "The CPA did not direct me to stop any such survey either."

"Plain and simple, this is false information," he added.

http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/121103/usn_counting.shtml

 

[Barking_Mad]

Cheeky buggers.

Bush asks excluded nations to forgive Iraq's debt

President Bush found himself in the awkward position Wednesday of calling the leaders of France, Germany and Russia to ask them to forgive Iraq's debts, just a day after the Pentagon excluded those countries, and others such as Canada and China, from $18 billion in U.S.-financed Iraqi reconstruction projects.

White House officials were fuming about the timing and the tone of the Pentagon's directive, even while conceding that they had approved the Pentagon policy of limiting contracts to the 63 countries that have given the United States political or military aid in Iraq. Many countries excluded from the list, including close allies such as Canada, reacted angrily Wednesday to the Pentagon action. They were incensed, in part, by the Pentagon's explanation in a memorandum that the restrictions were required "for the protection of the essential security interests of the United States."................

........Those officials apparently did not realize that the memo, signed by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, would appear on a Defense Department Web site hours before Bush was scheduled to ask world leaders to receive James Baker III, the former secretary of state, who is heading up the effort to wipe out Iraq's debt. Baker met with Bush on Wednesday.

Several of Bush's aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they feared that the memo would undercut the White House's efforts to repair relations with traditional allies who had opposed the invasion of Iraq.

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/news/7466074.htm

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqis demand resignation of Kirkuk governor and his deputy

About 100 people demonstrated to demand the resignation of this northern Iraqi province's Kurdish governor Abdul Rahman Mustafa and his deputy Ismail Ahmed al-Hadidi. About 100 people demonstrated to demand the resignation of this northern Iraqi province's Kurdish governor Abdul Rahman Mustafa and his deputy Ismail Ahmed al-Hadidi.

"We demand the resignation of the governor and his deputy," read banners held up by the demonstrators on Thursday. They blamed the two men for not taking into consideration the interests of the majority Kurds in the country's northern oil centre and demanded "the respect of the rights of Arabs and Turkmen," Kirkuk's two minority groups.

"Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and Christians are united in the past, present and future," read another banner. Jalal Johar, a representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, told AFP that Kurdish parties "make no distinction" between ethnic and religious groups.

Sheikh Khassan Mezher al-Assi, a member of the town's council, demanded the council's dissolution and new elections.He also called for the release of prisoners detained by US forces, an end to detentions and confiscation of goods and property in the south and west of the town, and the payment of salaries of former Baathist officers and workers of the ousted regime.

http://www.terra.net.lb/wp/Articles/DesktopArticle.aspx?ArticleID=125558&ChannelId=4

 

[Barking_Mad]

Baghdad bank burglars bag a billion

Baghdad - Robbers stole R3-million from an unguarded bank in northern Baghdad, the Iraqi police chief said on Wednesday.

"Thieves managed to get hold of one billion dinars (about $500 000 or R3-million) on Tuesday from a bank in Kadimiyah because the policemen who are supposed to guard it were not there and left the entrance without protection," Ahmad Ibrahim told Iraqi television.

The robbers held up the staff, took the cash and left without hindrance.

"We will take sanctions against these policemen and we have some information to help find the robbers and bring them to justice."

Ibrahim called for more policemen to be trained to fight crime.

Independent Online, South Africa

 

[Barking_Mad]

On the beat in Basra

Pity the poor officers at al-Ashar, one of the main police stations in Basra.

It's not exactly what you'd expect in a city where there's plenty of crime to combat. About 250 policemen make do with just 10 walkie-talkies, two computers (not connected to each other or the outside world) and a limited supply of handcuffs (mostly, they use string).

In the days of Saddam Hussein, the police enjoyed almost no authority and corruption was the norm. Hardly surprising, then, that the station was looted and burned right after the war.

It has had a lick of paint since, but the absence of furniture and equipment tells its own story. There are now 5,500 policemen in Basra's newly constituted force, each earning $120 a month.

Dozens of them mill about al-Ashar in newly supplied uniforms, but it's not clear what many of them are really doing. In Iraq's second largest city, it doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

"It's very hard," says Lieutenant Colonel Qasem Radhi, a veteran with 21 years of service. "We have to operate with the things we've got." At least they've got some new cars. Fifteen pick-up trucks have just arrived from Kuwait, courtesy of the Coalition Provisional Authority.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3309547.stm

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraqis set up war crimes tribunal

The US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council has announced the formal establishment of a war crimes tribunal. The court will prosecute officials of Saddam Hussein's regime - and could try the ousted leader himself in absentia.

Iraqi judges will preside over the tribunal, with international legal experts acting only as advisers, coalition authorities say. Human rights groups have expressed reservations, saying Iraqi judges are not sufficiently capable.

Among cases that could be investigated are:

The reported killing of 8,000 members of the Kurdish Barzani clan in 1983. The use of chemical weapons on 16 March 1988 against Kurds in the city of Halabja, which left 5,000 dead and 7,000 injured or with long-term illnesses. The reported killing of 300,000 Shia Muslims after the 1991 Gulf War.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3306605.stm

 

[Barking_Mad]

Oil firm 'overcharged' US in Iraq

An oil services firm formerly run by US Vice President Dick Cheney may have overcharged US forces in Iraq by some $61m, a Pentagon audit has found. he firm, Kellogg, Brown and Root - a subsidiary of Halliburton - has denied charging too much for fuel for troops.

Pentagon officials say the firm is not alleged to have profited from the overcharging, but it may have paid a local sub-contractor too much for fuel. They said the Pentagon was working with KBR to resolve the fuel-pricing issue.

One defence official was quoted as saying there was no reason to believe the problems were anything other than "stupid mistakes" by the firm.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3312015.stm

 

[Barking_Mad]

Sunni-Shiite Tensions Rise In Poor Area Of Baghdad In Wake Of Mosque Attack

Baghdad, Iraq — In the poor neighborhood of Hurriyah, there was praise for Osama bin Laden, nostalgia for the days of Saddam Hussein and deep resentment of Shiite Muslims.

Two days after an attack on a Sunni mosque that was blamed on radical Shiites, the western Baghdad district was rife with sectarian tension Thursday — a bad sign for a nation whose ethnic and religious divisions had been kept in check for decades under Saddam.

Eight months after the U.S.-led coalition ousted Saddam from power, the threat of conflict is real. Many Iraqis blame the occupation, citing the lawlessness and chaos that prevail in post-Saddam Iraq.

http://www.theday.com/eng/web/newstand/re.aspx?reIDx=F1CA6ED0-2C02-4678-868E-47D86F5F67A4

 

[Barking_Mad]

Ho ho ho, out with the old, in with the new. The palace was a symbol of Saddams negilgence of his people, but not that bad enough to not use as an embassy.........

Saddam's Palace May Be U.S. Embassy

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. bombs never hit Saddam Hussein's grandiose presidential palace in Baghdad, making its ample meeting rooms and vast conference tables an ideal headquarters for U.S.-led occupation authorities after the war.

Now the building - the physical seat and biggest symbol of Saddam's 23-year dictatorship - is the likely site for the next U.S. Embassy in Iraq, U.S. officials in Washington and Iraq said this week.

A State Department official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the palace is among several locations under consideration for the embassy, where the U.S. government's official representative will be based after power is handed over to an Iraqi government by July 1.

Critics say the move will show the world that the U.S. intends to remain the true power in Iraq.

http://www.military.com/NewsContent?file=FL_embassy_121203

 

[Idris2002]

Car bomb kills 17 in Iraq

And afterwards a crowd of 200 demonstrators chanted "yes, yes to Saddam".

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/031214/325/eh0ny.html

 

[Lock&Light]

Originally posted by Barking_Mad
Ho ho ho, out with the old, in with the new. The palace was a symbol of Saddams negilgence of his people, but not that bad enough to not use as an embassy.........

Are you suggesting that Saddam's extravagent palaces should be demolished?

 

[slaar]

Car bomb just exploded outside a hotel in central Baghdad.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Looks like everybody on this thread forgot about this latest development: Saddam still has a healthy pink tongue!

 

[pbman]

They only like anti-US news.

 

[Gumbert]

Here comes the house of un-(ruling class)american activities...

 

[mears]

More good news for Bush! Germany and France agree to debt reduction.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3731291/

 

[pk]

Jolly good mears. Now where is Osama?

 

[pbman]

Originally posted by Gumbert
Here comes the house of un-(ruling class)american activities...

Boy your stupid.

It not that important to find him now after we took away, his country, and killed most of his storm troopers, and removed most of his logistical support.

 

[pbman]

Originally posted by pk
Jolly good mears. Now where is Osama?

Well i strongly suspect we will get him.

As we will continue to look for a long long time, and we have considerably more resources than him.

No doubt he's also hiding in a rat-hole.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Originally posted by pbman
Well i strongly suspect we will get him.

As we will continue to look for a long long time, and we have considerably more recorses than him.

No doubt he's also hiding in a rat-hole.

And I hear that when they catch him, they're planning to televise his initial rectal exam...

 

[pbman]

Originally posted by Johnny Canuck2
And I hear that when they catch him, they're planning to televise his initial rectal exam...

Of course.

And they'll probably use a post hole digger.

 

[Yossarian]

Meanwhile, in latest news and developments from Iraq, another U.S. soldier has been killed in Baghdad.

Looks like those 'Saddam loyalists' just don't know when to quit.
Or is it possible that he wasn't controlling the entire resistance?

 

[pbman]

Originally posted by Yossarian
Meanwhile, in latest news and developments from Iraq, another U.S. soldier has been killed in Baghdad.

Looks like those 'Saddam loyalists' just don't know when to quit.
Or is it possible that he wasn't controlling the entire resistance?

No one said he was.

And we said they would continue.

 

[Yossarian]

You must be very proud of your correct prediction.

 

[pbman]