Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 16/08/07 - 03/11/07

White House defends progress in Iraq as ex-commander sees 'nightmare'

The White House insisted that progress was being made in Iraq after a former top US commander there assailed its strategy and lamented that the war was "a nightmare with no end in sight."

Retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez delivered a scathing assessment of the management of the war as he denounced US political leaders as "incompetent," "inept" and "derelict in the performance of their duty."

"There is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight," said Sanchez on Friday, addressing a meeting of military correspondents and editors in Arlington, a Virginia suburb of Washington.

He blasted President George W. Bush's "surge" strategy which calls for maintaining more than 160,000 US troops in Iraq until the end of the year in the hope of reducing sectarian violence and bringing political stability.

The strategy has since been adjusted, with the current plan calling for the withdrawal of about 21,500 combat troops by next July to bring the total to the "pre-surge" level of 130,000 servicemen.

But Sanchez said he did not believe these changes would prove effective.
"Continued manipulations and adjustments to our military strategy will not achieve victory," he said. "The best we can do with this flawed approach is stave off defeat."

Reacting to his comments, the White House evoked a September report to Congress by the current US military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker. They painted a difficult situation that they said was nevertheless marked by gradual improvements.

"We appreciate his service to the country," White House spokesman Trey Bohn told AFP, of Sanchez.

"As General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker have said, there is more work to be done, but progress is being made in Iraq. And that's what we are focused on now."

Born into a poor family in southern Texas, Sanchez rose through the ranks of the US military to become the highest-ranking Hispanic in the US Army.

In 1991, he served as a battalion commander during Operation Desert Storm, a US-led allied operation to drive Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait.

He became commander of coalition forces in Iraq in June 2003, after the US-led invasion, and served in that capacity for a year.

Sanchez retired from the military in November 2006, part of the fallout from a scandal over abuse of detainees by US military personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

He now has harsh words about the US war strategy, even suggesting that civilian leaders would have been court-martialed had they been in the military.

"There is nothing going on today in Washington that would give us hope," he said in his speech.

He said US political leaders from both parties have been too often consumed by partisan grandstanding and political struggles that, as he put it, at times have "endangered the lives of our sons and daughters on the battlefield."

"There has been a glaring, unfortunate display of incompetent strategic leadership within our national leaders," Sanchez said. "In my profession, these type of leaders would immediately be relieved or court-martialed."

"The administration, Congress and the entire inter-agency, especially the Department of State, must shoulder the responsibility for this catastrophic failure and the American people must hold them accountable," he added.

For all his criticism, Sanchez essentially agreed with Bush's position that a precipitous US military withdrawal from Iraq would plunge the country and, possibly the whole region, into chaos.

He argued that some level of US military presence in Iraq would be necessary "for the foreseeable future."

White House defends progress in Iraq as ex-commander sees 'nightmare' - Yahoo! News UK

UNAMI denies Crocker put off release of report outlining humanitarian crisis in Iraq

Baghdad, Oct 13, (VOI) – A media spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) rejected a news report published by an American newspaper claiming interference from U.S. Ambassador in Baghdad Ryan Crocker to delay the release of a UN report warning of an "ever-deepening humanitarian crisis" in Iraq.

"News about the U.S. envoy's interference to put off the release of the UNAMI's periodic report is false," Saeed Oraikat told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) by phone, providing no further information, but indicating that a statement will be released later to explain the details.

Citing a senior UN official, the U.S. San Francisco Chronicle said in its Saturday issue that the United Nations delayed releasing the final version of the report for more than a month at Crocker's request. The report outlined a serious humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country, "with thousands of people driven from their homes each month, continuing indiscriminate killings and 'routine torture' in Iraqi prisons," the newspaper explained.

The first draft of the report was wrapped up in August 2007 but Crocker "insisted that Iraq be given time to respond to the allegations," the newspaper indicated.

"The assessment by the U.N. Assistance Mission to Iraq, which covered a three-month period ending June 30, found that civilians were suffering devastating consequences from violence across the country. It documented more than 100 civilians allegedly killed by U.S.-led forces during air strikes or raids."

"The report described Iraq in more dire terms than last month's congressional testimony from top U.S. military and embassy officials, which stressed improvements in the security situation," it added.

"The killings are still taking place, the torture is still being reported, the due process issues are still unresolved," the newspaper quoted a U.N. human rights officer in Baghdad, Ivana Vuco, as saying.

Denying her organization's interest in determining whether the situation in Iraq has improved or deteriorated, Vuco said, "As long as there are human rights violations, there are still concerns," the newspapar said.

Aswat Aliraq

PKK has no intention to leave Iraq

Arbil, Oct 13, (VOI) – A senior official from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on Saturday denied news about the party's intention to leave Iraq's Kurdistan region for Turkey and claimed that PKK militants do not launch any military strike against Turkey from Iraqi territories.

"We have militants in Turkey who carry out the attacks…This is no new to Turks," the official in charge of the PKK's foreign relations, Abdul Rahman Chaderchi, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

Dismissing news about the PKK's intention to move to cross-border regions inside Turkish territories as false, Chaderchi said that Turkey's allegations about the launch of military offensives from inside Iraq are a "pretext" to erode Iraqi Kurds' rights in the region.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that his government is ready to face international criticism should his country decide to attack Kurdish PKK separatists' bases in northern Iraq.

Aswat Aliraq

Rice Appeals for Restraint by Turkey

Acknowledging "a difficult time" in relations with Turkey, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday appealed to the U.S. ally for restraint against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and in reaction to a genocide resolution in the U.S. Congress.

The Bush administration sent two high-ranking officials to Turkey for talks Saturday with government leaders. Eric Edelman is undersecretary of defense for policy and was U.S. ambassador to Turkey from July 2003 to June 2005. Dan Fried is assistant secretary of state for European Affairs.

"It's a difficult time for the relationship," Rice told reporters during her trip to Russia. "We just thought it was a very good idea for two senior officials to go and talk to the Turks and have reassurance to the Turks that we really value this relationship."

U.S. officials said Friday there are about 60,000 Turkish troops along the country's southern border with Iraq. The U.S. military had not seen activity to suggest an imminent offensive against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

But Turkey's parliament was expected to approve a government request to authorize an Iraq campaign as early as next week. The U.S. opposes a possible Turkish incursion into northern Iraq, which is one of the country's few relatively stable areas, and urged a diplomatic solution between Iraq and Turkey to the problem.

U.S. military officials have said they believe they will get some warning if the Turks attack the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. The group has fought the Turkish government since 1984 in a conflict that has killed thousands of people. Turks have been outraged by the killings of more than 15 soldiers by rebels in the past week and an ambush that killed 12 people the week before. The government responded to the deaths by announcing tougher measures against the PKK.

The preparations come amid concern by the U.S. about what effect the genocide resolution that passed the a U.S. House committee this past week could have on supply routes the American military has used to move armored vehicles to troops in Iraq.

At issue in the measure is the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks. Turkey denies that the World War I-era deaths constituted genocide and says the toll has been inflated. Turkey also contends the dead were victims of civil war and unrest that killed Muslims as well as the overwhelmingly Christian Armenians.

Rice said she spoke Friday by telephone with Turkey's president, prime minister and foreign minister about the resolution. "They were dismayed," she said.

In discussing their reaction to the resolution and activities of the PKK in northern Iraq, she said, "I urged restraint."

"The Turkish government, I think, is trying to react responsibly. They recognize how hard we worked to prevent that vote from taking place," the secretary added.

Turkey has recalled its ambassador to Washington for consultations and warned of serious repercussions if Congress passes the resolution.

"We are certainly working to try to minimize any concrete steps that the Turkish government might take and I am hopeful we can prevent that," Rice told reporters.

"We'll continue to try to deal with anti-American sentiment that has been heightened by this vote. It is very difficult and this is not a situation we should have been in," she said.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved the nonbinding measure by a 27-21 vote Wednesday, defying warnings by President Bush. The administration, led by Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, warned lawmakers that passage of the resolution could put U.S. troops in Iraq at risk.

"We'll keep working to try to prevent it from winning on the floor. I can't give you a prediction on it. It will be tough," Rice said Saturday.

PUKmedia :: English - Rice Appeals for Restraint by Turkey

Turkey deploys extra troops to Iraq borders

Duhuk, Oct 13, (VOI)- Kurdish military sources on Saturday said that Turkish forces' concentrations increased near Iraq borders and U.S. troops were watching on the situation, while local residents claimed Turkish soldiers attacked an Iraqi village with machine guns.

The tension on the borders escalated after the Turkish Prime Minster Rajab Tayyeb Erdogan expressed his country's readiness to face criticism on incursion into northern Iraq.

"Turkey deployed additional forces near the Iraq borders, particularly in the areas of Shirnakh, Jazzera and Silopi," a Kurdish military source, who requested anonymity for he was not authorized to release the information, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

Another Kurdish military source told VOI that the U.S. forces kept watching on the Turkish concentrations, but he declined to say how.
On Tuesday, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan gave the green light for a possible military incursion into northern Iraq to chase the PKK's fighters hiding there after a series of deadly attacks on Turkish security forces.

Meanwhile, local residents from the Iraqi Kurdish villages near the borders with Turkey said forces, believed to be Turkish, attacked, Saturday before dawn, an Iraqi village with machine guns sending the population into a panic.

"At 2:00 am on Saturday, Turkish troops attacked with machine guns the Iraqi village of Kani Zawa, sending the villagers into a panic," Khurshid Taher, 27, told VOI.

Another local resident said "there were no human losses but the villagers went in a panic."

Turkey claims 3,000 fighters from the Turkish banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are using the mountainous areas of northern Iraq as base to launch attacks on Turkish targets.

Aswat Aliraq

Cleric urges parties not to meddle in security affairs

Najaf, Oct 13, (VOI) – Top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Ishaq al-Fayyad on Saturday called on the Iraqi government and parliament to prevent political parties from interfering into the affairs of the security apparatus in the country and urged for a greater supply of goods and services to the Iraqi people.

"Political blocs in the government have to set aside their personal interests and take those of the country and people into their consideration," read a statement released by the cleric's office in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, which the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) received a copy of.

The statement called on the government to set up committees of qualified and experienced individuals, which will be entrusted with examining the resumes of security personnel in an attempt to purge the Iraqi police of infiltrators.

"Police and army institutions have to be independent and unaffiliated with any political party," the statement indicated.

The cleric also urged the government to strike with an iron hand against "terrorists" because "Iraqi blood is not cheaper than that of terrorists" and to take advantage of public awareness to bring together all segments of the Iraqi people and engage them in the fight against terrorism.

Describing financial and administrative corruption as the most serious threat to Iraqi interests, al-Fayyad said that the provision of adequate job opportunities will positively affect the security situation in the country.

Najaf is located 160 km southwest of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Aswat Aliraq

Turkey PM undaunted by international pressure against incursion

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday he was ready to "act" against Kurdish bases in northern Iraq de****e international pressure against any such incursion.

"If terrorism is based in a neighbouring country and if that country does very little about it, then it fall upon us to act," Erdogan warned.

"After taking this road, the cost is already calculated. The bill will be paid," Erdogan said, responding to questioning about international reaction should such an operation take place.

Erdogan's warning came against the backdrop of another explosion Friday which killed a Turkish soldier and injured two others in Sirnak province which borders Iraq, Anatolia news agency reported.

According to the Ankara, Iraqi Kurds are arming the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) with guns and explosives.

"When we make a decision, we take into account Turkey's interests," Erdogan said, emphasizing however that Ankara had no territorial ambitions in Iraq.

But he added: "We're going to discuss in full, all the implications of such a decision," referring to a request for authorisation to intervene in Iraq his government is expected to submit to parliament next week.

In a statement to the pro-Kurdish agency Firat on Friday, a PKK commander, Bahoz Erdal, threatened to strike back at Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), at Erdogan himself and at the main opposition Republican People's Party, CHP, accusing them of oppressing the Kurdish community in Turkey.

"The AKP government is a war government", he said, accusing them of using "state terror" in the Kurdish zones of southeast Turkey.

"The attacks will not go unpunished" the rebel commander threatened from the Iraqi mountains, adding that any eventual Turkish military operation would achieve nothing.

Both Baghdad and Washington have warned against any incursion into northern Iraq.

Erdogan was particularly critical of US demands, saying: "Nobody asked our authority before launching an attack on Iraq from tens of thousands of kilometres away."

The PM received a ovation from party chiefs of his AKP party when he added that his country "had no need of advice from anyone on the subject of an operation" against Iraq.

On Thursday, the autonomous region of northern Iraq warned Turkey against making good its threat to mount a cross-border incursion to flush out suspected PPK bases.

Considered a terrorist group by Ankara, the United States and the European Union, the PKK unleashed an independence struggle in Turkey in 1984 that has killed more than 37,000 people.

Turkey and Iraq signed an accord last month to combat the PKK but failed to agree on a clause allowing Turkish troops to engage in "hot pursuit" against rebels fleeing into Iraqi territory, as they did regularly in the 1990s.

Ankara charges the PKK has used bases in northern Iraq to launch a renewed offensive inside Turkey that saw 15 soldiers killed last week.

AFP: Turkey PM undaunted by international pressure against incursion

This is not good.

Turkey shells Iraqi village - witnesses

Turkish artillery fired seven to eight shells into a village in northern Iraq late on Saturday, witnesses in the area said.

The witnesses said the shells landed in Nezdoor village, about 5 km (3 miles) from the Turkish border, in Dahuk province. No casualties or damage was reported.

Turkey routinely shells the mountainous border region, but the latest shelling came before the Turkish government was due to seek approval from parliament next week for a major operation against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants based in the mountains of northern Iraq.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KAR401638.htm

Completely off topic - This is for Americans who wish to visit the UK - Never upset a Brit in the Pub - we're a bit possessive over them.

Pub regulars defend their 'second home'

LONDON, Oct. 13 - Five would-be thieves who tried to rob a London pub might have done better to wait until it closed, since the regular crowd proved to be quite territorial.

David Thompson said when the five men burst into his London bar demanding cash, a group of 30 pub regulars rose up as one and defended their "home away from" with a barrage of whatever was handy, The Times of London said Saturday.

"The regulars told them that this pub was their place and that they were just not having it," Thompson said. "They had come in the front door and left out of it as well -- pretty quickly."

Police have been unable to catch the suspects but one pub customer said they already got what they had coming.

"People were picking up ashtrays, pint glasses, chairs and even a champagne bottle and just throwing them straight at these *****s," said the pub regular who wished to remain anonymous.

Pub regulars defend their 'second home' : US World

US sends top envoys as Turkey gears up for Iraq incursion - Summary

The United States dispatched two top officials to Ankara on Saturday amid a breakdown in relations between the two NATO allies and growing concern that Turkey plans to launch a unilateral military operation into northern Iraq to destroy rebel Kurdish bases. Speaking in Ankara after talks with Turkish Foreign Ministry officials, Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried and Undersecretary of Defence Eric Edelman said they had conveyed Washington's concerns over such an operation but said they understand the Turkish position.

Fried and Edelman also reiterated that the administration of President George W Bush was totally against a US congressional committee resolution passed Wednesday that labelled as genocide the 1915-1923 massacres of Armenians in the then Ottoman Empire.

"The message I will convey (back to Washington) is that the patience of the Turkish public is running out", Edelman told reporters.

Fried and Edelman's visit came after a week of increasingly belligerent comments from Turkish leaders that the government is ready to launch a cross-border operation whether Washington is in favour or not.

The last two weeks have seen more than two dozen Turkish soldiers and civilians killed in attacks by the rebel Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) putting pressure on the government to launch a raid on PKK camps.

The Turkish parliament is expected to vote next week to give permission for a cross-border operation to destroy PKK bases in mountainous northern Iraq. It is not clear though when or if the government would actually order such an incursion.

Washington fears that such an incursion could spark unrest and fighting in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, the one area of Iraq which is relatively calm.

Exactly how much leverage the US has over Turkey is unclear, with Ankara extremely angry the congressional committee passed the genocide resolution.

Turkey denies that the killings constituted genocide and that instead the deaths came about because of an uprising of Armenians against the state.

The Anadolu news agency Saturday reported that Trade Minister Kursad Tuzman had cancelled a planned visit next month to the United States in protest at the passing of the genocide resolution.

US sends top envoys as Turkey gears up for Iraq incursion - Summary : Middle East World