Iraq

Iraq

Postby winston » Tue Jan 12, 2010 9:32 pm

Tony Blair's communications chief testifies

Tony Blair's communications chief testifies to Iraq Inquiry about war preparations, dossier

Former Prime Minister Tony's Blair's communications chief denied Tuesday that a special dossier was tailored to exaggerate Saddam Hussein's military strength, testifying before a British inquiry that no one ordered him to make the case for the 2003 war.

Alastair Campbell is facing questions about whether he "sexed up" the infamous intelligence dossier that outlined Britain's rationale for war with Iraq — making Saddam Hussein's weapons arsenal seem more dangerous than it was.

Campbell, who was Blair's chief communications strategist from Blair's start in 1997 until August 2003, said he was present at many key meetings, but did not shape the policy that dictated the outcome.

"At no point did anyone from (prime minister) or anyone on down say to the intelligence services, look, you have to tailor this case," he told the panel.

He said Britain's intelligence chiefs were content with the dossier and that the facts were not overstated.

Campbell was among the first major figures from Blair's inner circle to give his version of events to the Iraq Inquiry, the most wide-ranging investigation into the war thus far in Britain.

The committee, chaired by John Chilcot, is expected to focus on precisely when Blair and President George W. Bush made the firm decision to invade Iraq.

The Iraq Inquiry started hearing testimony in late November. Critics of the invasion had long demanded an investigation into whether the war, which has been extremely unpopular in Britain, was illegal. Many were disappointed when it was announced that the inquiry had no power to apportion blame or establish criminal or civil liability.

Blair is expected to testify in late January or early February. He has said many times since leaving office more than two years ago that he is confident his decisions were correct. Until his appearance, observers expect Campbell to provide the most insight into the preparation of the dossier.

Source: AP News
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Re: Iraq

Postby winston » Fri Jan 22, 2010 6:18 am

Up to 10 percent of Iraqis disabled by war, sanctions by Aseel Kami

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Amputee Hamza Hameed is a living reminder of the U.S. "shock and awe" bombardment during the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, one of up to three million Iraqis disabled after years of war, sanctions and economic deprivation.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6 ... pnewsearly
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Re: Iraq

Postby winston » Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:30 pm

Transparency is the core pillar of a good system...


Blair offers justification for Iraq war

Ex-British PM Blair: Backing of Iraq invasion inspired by fears of new terror attack

DAVID STRINGER and JILL LAWLESS
AP News

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged Friday that Saddam Hussein didn't become a bigger threat after Sept. 11, but said his perception of the risk posed by terrorists acquiring weapons of mass destruction was dramatically changed by the attacks.

Blair told Britain's Iraq Inquiry that his contentious decision to back the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was inspired by fears of another, even deadlier, terror attack.

"It wasn't that objectively he (Saddam) had done more, it was that our perception of the risk had shifted," Blair said. "If those people inspired by this religious fanaticism could have killed 30,000, they would have. From that moment Iran, Libya, North Korea, Iraq ... all of this had to be brought to an end.

"The primary consideration for me was to send an absolutely powerful, clear and unremitting message that after Sept. 11 if you were a regime engaged in WMD (weapons of mass destruction), you had to stop."

Clutching a sheath of documents, a tense-looking Blair sat down in a London conference center to answer questions from the Iraq Inquiry, a wide-ranging investigation commissioned by the government to scrutinize the behind-the-scenes machinations from 2001 through Britain's decision to join the costly and unpopular Iraq war.

Blair was questioned about charges that his government was so determined to topple the Iraqi dictator that they exaggerated the content of intelligence reports on Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction. He was pressed on when exactly he offered U.S. President George W. Bush support for an invasion.

The former British ambassador to Washington, Christopher Meyer, has said it appeared that an agreement was "signed in blood" by Bush and Blair at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, in April 2002.

"The only commitment I gave (at Crawford) was a commitment to deal with Saddam," Blair said. He said he told Bush "we will be with them in dealing with this threat."

Blair said other world leaders did not feel the same way he and Bush did.

"Although the American mindset had changed dramatically (after Sept. 11) — and frankly mine had as well — when I talked to other leaders, particularly in Europe, I didn't get the same impression."

An audience gathered in a central London convention center for the session included family members of soldiers and civilians killed or missing in Iraq. Commuters arriving at the Westminster underground station near the hearing center were met by several people gathering signatures for a petition urging that Blair be tried as a war criminal.

Blair had arrived shortly before 0700GMT (0200EST) Friday, dodging demonstrators by entering the conference center through a cordoned-off rear entrance. About 150 protesters clustered outside shouted slogans including "Jail Tony" and "Blair lied — thousands died," as rows of police officers looked on.

As Blair testified, demonstrators outside the convention hall read aloud the names of civilians and military personnel killed in Iraq.

"The Iraqi people are having to live every day with aggression, division, and atrocities," said protester Saba Jaiwad, an Iraqi who opposed the war. "Blair should not be here giving his excuses for the illegal war, he should be taken to The Hague to face criminal charges because he has committed crimes against the Iraqi people."

Blair acknowledged that the decision to join the war — which led to the largest public protests in a generation in London — had met with opposition in the country, and in his own Cabinet.

"The one thing I found throughout this whole matter from a very early stage is that I was never short of people challenging me on it," Blair told the panel.

______

Associated Press Writer Gregory Katz contributed to this report

Source: AP News
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Re: Iraq

Postby winston » Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:50 pm

Am watching Tony Blair being grilled on CNN.

What a great system ! ( as mentioned by kennynah in the Helicopter Ben's thread )

When would they be tried by The Haque for crimes against humanity ?
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Re: Iraq

Postby winston » Thu Feb 11, 2010 1:23 pm

Iraq orders former Blackwater security guards out

Iraq gives hundreds of former Blackwater security guards 7 days to leave country

QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
AP News

Feb 10, 2010 23:45 EST

Iraq has ordered hundreds of private security guards linked to Blackwater Worldwide to leave the country within seven days or face possible arrest on visa violations, the interior minister said Wednesday.

The order comes in the wake of a U.S. judge's dismissal of criminal charges against five Blackwater guards who were accused in the September 2007 shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad.

It applies to about 250 security contractors who worked for Blackwater in Iraq at the time of the incident, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told The Associated Press.

Some of the guards now work for other security firms in Iraq, while others work for a Blackwater subsidiary, al-Bolani said. He said all "concerned parties" were notified of the order three days ago and now have four days left before they must leave. He did not name the companies.

Blackwater security contractors were protecting U.S. diplomats when the guards opened fire in Nisoor Square, a busy Baghdad intersection, on Sept. 16, 2007. Seventeen people were killed, including women and children, in a shooting that inflamed anti-American sentiment in Iraq.

"We want to turn the page," al-Bolani said. "It was a painful experience, and we would like to go forward."

Backlash from the Blackwater shooting has been felt hardest by private security contractors, who typically provide protection for diplomats, journalists and aid workers. Iraqi security forces have routinely stopped security details at checkpoints to conduct searches and question guards.

Security guards will be required within the next 10 days to register their weapons with the Ministry of Interior, al-Bolani said. Failure to do so could result in arrest, he added.

Based in Moyock, North Carolina, Blackwater is now known as Xe Services, a name change that happened after six of the security firm's guards were charged in the Nisoor Square shooting. At the time, Blackwater was the largest of the State Department's three security contractors working in Iraq.

Xe Services said the company had no employees currently in Iraq, including with its subsidiary, Presidential Airways.

"Xe does not have one, single person in Iraq," said Xe spokeswoman Stacy DeLuke.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad declined comment. The State Department in Washington did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.

The Blackwater guards involved in the incident said they were ambushed, but U.S. prosecutors and many Iraqis said they let loose an unprovoked attack on civilians using machine guns and grenades.

One of the accused guards pleaded guilty in the case, but a federal judge in Washington threw out charges against the other five in December, ruling that the Justice Department for mishandling the evidence.

The legal ruling infuriated Iraqis and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki vowed to seek punishment for the guards.

Last month, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden flew to Baghdad to assure Iraqis the Obama administration to appeal the case and bring the guards back to trial.

The shooting further strained relations between the United States and Iraq, leading the parliament in Baghdad to seek new laws that would clear the way for foreign contractors to be prosecuted in Iraqi courts. The U.S. government rejected those demands in the Blackwater case.

In January 2009, the State Department informed Blackwater that it would not renew its contracts to provide security for U.S. diplomats in Iraq because of the Iraqi government's refusal to grant it an operating license.

But last September, the State Department said it temporarily extended a contract with Blackwater subsidiary Presidential Airways to provide air support for U.S. diplomats. The State Department has since ended its contracts with Xe, and DynCorp International has taken over air support.

The Justice Department now is investigating whether Blackwater tried to bribe Iraqi officials with $1 million to allow the company to keep working there after the Baghdad shooting, according to U.S. officials close to the probe.

Elsewhere in Iraq, attackers bombed an oil pipeline north of Baghdad, cutting production in half at a refinery in the capital, the Oil Ministry said Wednesday.

There were no injuries in Tuesday night's bombing in Rashidiya, just north of Baghdad.

Production at the Baghdad refinery was cut from 140,000 barrels per day to 70,000, said Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad.

The pipeline runs from oil fields in northern Kirkuk province to Baghdad. It has been the target of attacks for years, and has been bombed multiple times since 2004.

___

Associated Press Writers Lara Jakes, Mazin Yahya and Chelsea J. Carter in Baghdad; Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina; and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: AP News
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Re: Iraq

Postby winston » Sat Feb 13, 2010 7:18 pm

Suit: Prostitute, strippers part of Blackwater fraud

A Blackwater copter hovers over a Baghdad bomb site in 2005. The firm had 1,000 contractors in Iraq at one point.

* Two ex-Blackwater Worldwide employees sue, allege pattern of fraud, abuse against firm
* Security firm is now called Xe; company says suit's allegations without merit
* Suit alleges firm charged government for prostitution, strippers
* Actions allegedly occurred in Iraq, Afghanistan and Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina

Washington (CNN) -- Two ex-Blackwater Worldwide employees allege the company charged the government for a prostitute and strippers and kept incompetent personnel for financial reasons, part of what they call a systematic pattern to defraud authorities.

The accusations come in a lawsuit filed by Brad and Melan Davis -- who said the fraudulent activity, such as double billing and submitting false invoices, occurred while the security firm, now known as Xe, carried out its work in Iraq, Afghanistan and in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.

Melan Davis, who was involved in record-keeping, said Blackwater billed the government for prostitution services in Afghanistan from a Filipino female, whose name was on Blackwater's payroll roster under a category called "Morale Welfare Recreation."

She said Blackwater billed the woman's plane tickets and monthly salary to the United States.

The lawsuit also said a vendor being paid for "cleaning services" in Louisiana was providing strippers.

Another accusation in the suit was that Melan Davis was wrongfully dismissed after raising the issue of "fraud and abuse."

Xe on Friday responded to the suit.

"The allegations are without merit and the company will vigorously defend against this lawsuit. It is noteworthy that the government has declined to intervene in this action," Xe said in a statement to CNN.

The married couple filed suit in December 2008 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia under the False Claims Act. It was unsealed this month.

Blackwater became the target of widespread Iraqi outrage after its contractors were involved in the September 2007 shooting in Baghdad's Nisoor Square that left 17 civilians dead. That outrage was renewed in December when a U.S. judge dismissed manslaughter charges against five guards involved in the shootings on constitutional grounds.

In the fraud suit, Brad Davis, an ex-Marine who worked as a security guard for Blackwater, said he "personally observed" three instances where personnel "intentionally used excessive and unjustified deadly force" and the suit said Blackwater refused to fire such "unqualified people."

Blackwater would continue to retain "wholly incompetent" personnel so they could pay their tuition bills to the company's private training facility, the suit said.

In Louisiana, where Blackwater was contracted to supply security services after Katrina, employees there "submitted a variety of bogus receipts," the suit said.

"For example, Blackwater employees, when filling up Blackwater vehicles at commercial gas stations, would simply pick up the receipts that were left behind by other customers. They would then submit these receipts and be paid in cash by Blackwater."

At the same time, the suit said, Blackwater failed to provide the services set down under its contract with Louisiana and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It said Blackwater didn't monitor the "deadly weapons" it provided employees and "lost track of countless weapons."

The suit said Blackwater overbilled for travel expenses and "created phone invoices to obscure the fact that Blackwater had failed to keep any of the necessary contemporaneous documentation on travel."

The suit said Melan Davis attempted "to blow the whistle on the fraud and abuse occurring in New Orleans" and was told in 2006 she "needed to back off." The suit said she was fired in 2008 when "she was on leave battling cancer."

Blackwater had about 1,000 contractors working in Iraq at the height of its involvement, guarding diplomatic convoys and supply vehicles after the U.S. invasion in 2003. At least 10 of its employees were killed, including four whose burned and mutilated bodies were dragged through the streets of Falluja after an ambush in 2004.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/12 ... index.html
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Re: Iraq

Postby winston » Sat Apr 10, 2010 3:38 pm

US War Sheet

Iraq
Days 2,579
GIs Killed in Action DoD
Non-Hostile GI Deaths 911 DoD
GIs Severely Wounded 13,951 DoD
Current Troop Deployment 98,000 Brookings , AP
Total Cost (approved through Sept 30, 2010) $791 Bln AP
Cost Per Day (Avg) $288 Mil

Casualty status updated April 5, 2010
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Re: Iraq

Postby winston » Tue Jul 27, 2010 9:58 pm

I'm surprized that the number is so small ...

Audit: US can't account for $8.7B in Iraqi funds

US audit finds weakness in Pentagon controls for Iraq funds; $8.7 billion missing

TAREK EL-TABLAWY and SINAN SALAHEDDIN
AP News

Jul 27, 2010 09:42 EDT

The U.S. Defense Department is unable to properly account for over 95 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraqi oil money tapped by the U.S. for rebuilding the war ravaged nation, according to an audit released Tuesday.

The report by the U.S. Special Investigator for Iraq Reconstruction offers a compelling look at continued laxness in how such funds are being spent in a country where people complain basic services like electricity and clean water are sharply lacking seven years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

The audit found that shoddy record keeping by the Defense Department left the Pentagon unable to fully account for $8.7 billion it withdrew between 2004 and 2007 from a special fund set up by the U.N. Security Council. Of that amount, Pentagon "could not provide documentation to substantiate how it spent $2.6 billion."

The funds are separate from the $53 billion allocated by Congress for rebuilding Iraq.

The report comes at a critical time for Iraq.

Despite security gains made since 2008, bombings remain near a daily occurrence that compound the frustrations and fears of Iraqis increasingly weary of the current political crisis — one many say reflects how the country's politicians are more interested in their own interests than those of the nation.

Politicians have hit an impasse since inconclusive parliamentary elections were held March 7, unable to form a new government as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, appears determined to stay in office when influential Shiite parties want to see him go.

The audit cited a number of factors that contributed to the inability to account for most of the money withdrawn by the Pentagon from the Development Fund for Iraq. It said most of the Defense Department organizations that received DFI money failed to set up Treasury Department accounts, as required.

In addition, it said no Defense Department organization was designated as the main body to oversee how the funds were accounted for or spent.

"The breakdown in controls left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss," the report said.

The audit found that the U.S. continues to hold about $34.3 million of the money even though it was required to return it to the Iraqi government.

The audit did not indicate that investigators believed there were any instances of fraud involved in the spending of these funds.

The DFI includes revenues from Iraq's oil and gas exports, as well as frozen Iraqi assets and surplus funds from the now-defunct, Saddam Hussein-era oil-for-food program. With the establishment of the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq shortly after the start of the U.S. invasion in 2003 until mid-2004, about $20 billion was placed into the account.

The Iraqi government had agreed to allow the U.S. continued access to the funds after the CPA was dissolved in 2004, but it revoked that authority in December 2007.

Source: AP News
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Re: Iraq

Postby winston » Sat Jul 31, 2010 12:48 pm

War Sheet: Iraq

Days 2,691
GIs Killed in Action 3,488 DoD
Non-Hostile GI Deaths 928 DoD
GIs Severely Wounded 13,979 DoD
Current Troop Deployment 92,000 AP
Total Cost (approved through Sept 30, 2010) $791 Bln AP
Cost Per Day (Avg) $288 Mil

* Casualty status updated July 9, 2010
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Re: Iraq

Postby kennynah » Sat Jul 31, 2010 1:14 pm

sacrifice of the lambs... to pay for the oil a few men have acquired
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