Iraq analysis

[Al-khiyal]

A former Middle East specialist of the US Central Intelligence Agency has condemned what he called an organised campaign of manipulation by the Bush administration to justify the Iraq war.

Paul Pillar, a former CIA analyst specialising in counter-terrorism in the Middle East and Asia, said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais that the United States had particularly wanted to prove a link between Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.

"That was not the case," he was quoted as saying. "I suppose by some definitions that could be called a lie."

"There was an organised campaign of manipulation," El Pais also quoted Pillar as saying. "That would be the proper way to define it......."

Ex-CIA analyst condemns Bush 'manipulation campaign' on Iraq

[Al-khiyal]

"Bush manipuló para justificar la decisión ya adoptada de invadir Irak"

[Al-khiyal]

A top Iraqi Kurdish official has warned rebels from the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) against waging a war on Turkey or Iran from Iraqi territory.

The warning comes amid rising tensions between Iraqi Kurds and Iran and Turkey, both of which have Kurdish minorities and have been battling separatist militants from the PKK and its offshoots.

"They (PKK) are in our land. We want them to respect the law and not use our territory to stage attacks" against Iran or Turkey, said Imad Ahmed, deputy prime minister of northern Kurdistan's Sulaimaniyah province.

"We want them to leave our country but in peace, not in war. If they want to stay they have to use politics not weapons."

Ahmed, a member of President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, said the region hoped to have good relations with neighbouring Turkey and Iran.

"We do not want any problems with Iran or Turkey and I condemn any attacks on the two from Iraqi territory," Ahmed told AFP in an interview.

On Wednesday the PKK, an armed separatist group which is fighting for an independent Kurdish homeland in the region, warned Ankara of a "mass war" if its forces entered Iraqi territory to fight PKK guerillas.

"We do not want war, but we will launch a mass war against Turkey if its forces enter Iraqi territory," PKK executive body chief Murad Karialan said.

The Turkish army reserves the right to venture into Iraq to pursue PKK rebels based there, but has denied reports that such operations are already under way.

Turkey has amassed thousands of troops along the border with Iraq for what officials describe as a large-scale effort to prevent increasing infiltrations by PKK rebels based in mountainous hideouts in northern Iraq.

Ankara has long urged Washington and Baghdad to root out the PKK from northern Iraq, but it has been told that violence in other parts of the conflict-torn country is their priority.

The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, has been fighting Ankara since 1984 when it took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey.

On Sunday, Baghdad accused Iranian forces of entering five kilometers (three miles) into Iraq and shelling PKK positions.

For around a year, Iran, which has its own Kurdish minority, has been battling infiltrations by Pejak, a Kurdish group linked to the PKK.

The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed more than 37,000 lives since the PKK launched its separatist campaign in 1984.

Meanwhile, Ahmed also condemned the alleged military incursions by Iranian forces into Iraqi territory to shell PKK positions. Tehran would neither confirm nor deny such actions.

"Their forces attacked some Iraqi vans, but we hope this ends soon and we would like to have good relations with our neighbors," he said.

On Sunday Iraq said Iranian forces were targeting positions nearly 200 kilometers (115 miles) north of Sulaimaniyah province held by the PKK in Iraqi territory.

Iran is bound by treaty with Turkey to fight the outlawed PKK, which has waged a 15-year insurgency against Ankara.

In return, Turkey has pledged to fight the Iranian armed opposition group, the Iraq-based People's Mujahedeen.

Turkey says some 5,000 armed PKK militants have found refuge in northern Iraq since 1999, when the group declared a unilateral ceasefire after the capture of its leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

The truce was called off in June 2004.

Kurds make up the majority in three adjacent areas within Iraq, Iran and Turkey.

Iraqi Kurds warn guerrillas over Turkey, Iran conflict

[Al-khiyal]

Iraqi Kurds caught between rebels, foreign forces

[Al-khiyal]

Denmark will keep its 500 troops in Iraq for another 12 months, a government source told Reuters on Friday.

The mandate for Danish troops to remain in Iraq runs out on July 1. The centre-right government had no plan at present to reduce the number of troops, who are all stationed near Basra in the south of Iraq, the source said.....

Danish troops to stay in Iraq another year: source

[Al-khiyal]

Talabani: U.S. government pressured Kurds to cooperate with Saddam Hussein

[Al-khiyal]

Iraq's president and prime minister-designate have announced separate initiatives in recent weeks aimed at reining in the violence that has plagued the country. Both plans are highly controversial, raising concerns that they might further strain sectarian relations in Iraq.

The first initiative, put forth by Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki, seeks to merge militias into Iraq's security forces. The plan has raised concern among Sunni Arabs, who claim militias are responsible for months of attacks - including arrests and killings by former militiamen working within the Interior Ministry - against members of their community.

The second initiative, announced by President Jalal Talabani on April 30, seeks an agreement with seven armed groups to lay down their arms and join the political process. Shi'ite Arabs have speculated that the armed groups involved in talks with Talabani are linked to terrorists and Ba'athists.

Al-Maliki told reporters at an April 22 press briefing in Baghdad that the incoming government would take steps to integrate Iraqi militias into the armed forces, RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq (RFI) reported. "Law No. 91 will take care of integrating [militias] into the armed forces according to rules that don't downplay the rights of those who struggled against the dictatorship," al-Maliki said, adding that 11 militias affiliated with parties and political forces are named in the law, which was drafted by the Coalition Provisional Authority in June 2004.

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters in Salah Al-Din the following day that he was aware of the plan, RFI reported. "Unauthorized military formations are the infrastructure of a civil war. I have been encouraged again through my conversations with Prime Minister-designate al-Maliki that he will focus on this issue. And that there is a need for a decommissioning, demobilization, and reintegration plan for these unauthorized military formations so that the monopoly of use of force will be in the hands of authorized people in the Iraqi government," Khalilzad said.

This initiative also has the support of Shi'ite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who met with al-Maliki on April 27 in Al-Najaf. A statement issued by the ayatollah's office following the meeting said that only government forces should be allowed to carry weapons in Iraq, alnajafnews.net reported the same day. "His eminence stressed [to al-Maliki] that the main task of this government is to address the security situation and put an end to the criminal operations that target innocent people on a daily basis through torture, displacement, murder, attacks, and the like. Therefore, carrying weapons should be limited to the government forces. These forces should be established on national and sound bases so that their loyalty would only be to the homeland, not to any political party," the statement noted.

Al-Maliki defended the plan, telling reporters in Al-Najaf on April 27: "Our approach, which is supported by the authority and all the Iraqi people, calls for keeping weapons only under the control of the government because it is the only party that protects Iraqis and faces up to those who break the law," he said. "Not only is the government responsible for disarming people, it is also responsible for providing people with security. In conclusion, there is an order to merge the militias [into the army]. This would not belittle their role in resisting the dictatorship, but it is a reward for them and a solution to a problem [that would persist] if weapons do not remain under the control of the government."

Muslim Scholars Association member Muhammad Bashar Amin criticized the announcement, saying al-Maliki intended to "merge militias with the security forces instead of bringing those who committed crimes and atrocities to justice," latimes.com reported on April 24. "Thousands of Iraqis have been killed by those militias."

Sunni leader Salih al-Mutlaq criticized the plan as well. "Militias are plaguing Iraq. They, along with the occupation, are responsible for the current state of Iraq. We feel that retaining the militias within the security services is extremely dangerous," al-Mutlaq said on May 3, Al-Sharqiyah television reported. "We are opposed to retaining them in, or further integrating them into the armed and security forces."

Secular Shi'ite politician and former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has also voiced opposition to al-Maliki's proposal. "We want militias to end. We do not want to have them integrated in the military and similar structures of the state. No integration. The integration would mean creating one regiment Shi'ite, another one Sunni, another one loyal to the [Iraqi National] Accord, another one loyal to the Supreme Council [of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq], another one loyal to someone else -- and what will be the result? There will be fights. We want an army built in a style that is recognized," Allawi told RFI in an exclusive interview on April 26 in Amman, Jordan......

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