Iraq analysis

[Al-khiyal]

Until recently the special police and commando units were 99% Shia, according to a CPATT spokesperson.

Iraq's interior ministry is refusing to deploy thousands of police recruits who have been trained by the US and the UK and is hiring its own men and putting them on the streets, according to western security advisers.
The move is frustrating US and British efforts to build up a non-sectarian Iraqi police force which would not be infiltrated by partisan militias.

The disclosure highlights growing US and British concern about the role of militias in sectarian killings, and their links to senior Iraqi politicians. "You can't have in a democracy various groups with arms - you have to have the state with a monopoly on power," Condoleeza Rice, the US secretary of state, said at the end of her two-day visit to Baghdad yesterday.

"We have sent very, very strong messages repeatedly, and not just on this visit, that one of the first things ... is that there is going to be a reining in of the militias... It's got to be one of the highest priorities."

The interior ministry, which is controlled by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution (SCIRI), has not deployed any graduates of the civilian police assistance training team (CPATT), a joint US/UK unit, for the past three months.....

Iraq's interior ministry refusing to deploy US-trained police

[Al-khiyal]

As-Sadr movement accuses Kurdish Peshmerga of carrying out Mustafa Husayniyah killings

[Al-khiyal]

The possible fragmentation of Iraq is a most unwelcome prospect from the Israeli point of view. Some observers, locked in perceptions of a bygone era, might still think otherwise. In the 1960s and 1970s, when Israel was deeply involved in conflict with core Middle Eastern states - Egypt, Syria and Jordan - it was extremely apprehensive about possible Iraqi wartime military assistance to its Arab enemies. Israel consequently developed a particularly friendly relationship with the non-Arab periphery of the region, particularly Iran, and actively pursued a covert relationship with the Kurds in Iraq in support of their secessionist struggle against the central government in Baghdad. Israel's interests have, however, radically changed since then, as have the concepts of core and periphery in the Middle East......

Disintegration of Iraq would pose multiple problems for Israel

[Al-khiyal]

The prime minister of northern Iraq's Kurdish government pardoned a journalist given an 18-month prison sentence for articles accusing one of the region's top leaders of corruption, a government spokesman said....

Journalist gets 'pardon' in Iraq

[Al-khiyal]

Kuwait City: Kuwaiti columnist Ammar Taqi said here on Monday that Iran has a very transparent stand on Iraq.

Talking to IRNA, he termed what the US and Zionist regime's media called "Iran's interference in Iraq" as "efforts to level accusations against Iran and fan the flames of a religious war in Iraq." Tehran has good relations with most Shia and Sunni Muslims and Kurd parties of Iraq, he said, adding, Iran would benefit from establishment of stability and security in Iraq because any insecurity and instability near Iranian borders would have direct impacts on its own security and stability.

The Kuwaiti columnist rejected the US claims on Iran's interference in Iraqi domestic affairs and said such accusations are leveled by Washington to reduce pressure on occupying forces and justify its repeated failures in Baghdad.

He said the US prepared grounds for presence of Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, in Iraq and added that Mossad agents are conducting divisive measures in different parts of the country.

Taqi noted the US provided tens of infrastructural projects of Iraq to Israeli contractors and companies to materialize political goals of the Zionist regime in Iraq and its neighboring states.

He said [the] political dead-end in Iraq and differences between the country's groups are the results of Washington's divisive plan, adding remarks by the US Ambassador to Baghdad Zalmay Khalilzad and his support for a group against the other complicated [the] political situation in Iraq and caused more differences among political moves.

He stressed that the US can maintain its forces in Iraq just through continuation of insecurity.

Iran stance on Iraq transparent says Kuwaiti columnist

[Al-khiyal]

The Iraq tribunal announced new criminal charges against Saddam Hussein and six others Tuesday, accusing them of genocide and crimes against humanity stemming from a 1980s crackdown against Kurds.

The move, tantamount to an indictment under the Iraqi legal system, paves the way for a second trial of the ousted ruler. Saddam already is being tried in the killings of more than 140 Shiites in a town north of Baghdad.

Under Iraqi law, the second trial could begin anytime after 45 days.....

Saddam Hussein accused of genocide in new charges

[Al-khiyal]

Baghdad bombs kill at least 13, including kids