Bush lies about surge

Bush's surge is really a major escalation of the war. Bush cannot tell the truth about anything. His war regime and the Iraq puppet government are suppressing reporting in the official state media on the level of violence in Baghdad. The numbers of corpses turning up at the Baghdad morgue is being systemtically underreported according the Lourdis Garcia-Navarro's interview with a morgue worker reported on NPR's "All Things Considered" on Friday 23 March 2007.

In another effort to make it look like Bush's decision to surge troops into Iraq is working, U.S. Generals on the ground in Iraq are claiming that significant numbers of displaced Baghdad residents are returning to their homes. According to Rod Norland of Newsweek, this does not appear to be the case.

Bush is also lying to the American people about the full scale of the escalation of this war and the total number of U.S. troops deployed to the Iraq theater of war according to Rod Nordland of Newsweek. Both Newweeks stories are linked below, and Lourdis Garcia-Navarro's report is availble from the NPR archives.

03/24/07 Newsweek: The Missing Returnees

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The Baghdad Security Plan is going so well that Iraqis displaced by sectarian violence are flocking back to their homes in Baghdad, so a number of officials are telling us. The only problem with that: it's probably not true.

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Deployments: The Real Numbers [Newsweek]

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By Rod Nordland

Baghdad, March 22, 2007: There will soon be more American soldiers in Iraq than at any point in the war so far. The incoming surge of 21,500 troops is only part of that picture; in addition, the U.S. commander, Gen. David Petraeus, has asked for an additional Army aviation brigade, as well as a couple thousand military police. Other support troops will be coming in to Iraq as well, and they weren't all included in the original 21,500 estimate announced by President Bush last month. When all this is complete, sometime in July, the grand total of U.S. troops in Iraq will be 173,000, U.S. military officials here confirmed on background, apparently because of the sensitivity of these details. And it's likely that U.S. troop numbers will stay at that level for months more, perhaps even into 2008. That's only part of the picture, however; the total number of U.S. troops deployed into the war theater, that is, Iraq and neighboring countries, may be as much as 100,000 more than that. Last August, for instance, the Congressional Research Service, quoting the Department of Defense's Contingency Tracking System, put the total deployment at 260,000, while the number actually in Iraq was at 140,000 to 160,000. (Other estimates by government-oversight bodies have put the total deployed in the theater at 202,000 to 207,000.)

~~~cont'd~~~

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Faire l'amour, pas la guerre
Make love not war

Here we go again

Remember Ahmed Chalabi and his dissident exile group the Iraqi Nation Congress? Chalabi's star witness who claimed that Saddam had a nuclear weapons program was code named Curveball. Curveball was a screwball who surfaced in the news recently and now lives in Germany.

Is Alireza Jafarzadeh, an Iranian dissident and president of Strategic Policy Consulting Inc. the next Ahmed Chalabi? Does Jafarzadeh have Iranian defectors waiting to testify before Congress who have any more credibility than Curvball did?

Chalabi and Jafarzadeh seem to members of a growth industry - hucksters who can peddle propaganda to and for American warmongers. Those with more than immediate recall may remember the unsavorory cast of Iranian characters (Manucher Ghorbanifar was one) the U.S. dealt with during the Iran-contra "Enterprise". You can add the names of flakey Americans like Oliver North and John Bolton to that cast of dishonest characters who personally profit or shill for those who profit (such as defense contractors and private security firms) from peddling disinformation to the U.S. government and the American people.

TWO articles linked below:

Dissident: Iran is training Iraqis

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By RICHARD PYLE, Associated Press WriterWed Mar 21, 12:01 AM ET

Iraqi insurgents, guerrilla fighters and death squads are being trained in secret camps in Iran with the blessing of top Tehran leaders and at least three senior Iraqi political figures, an Iranian opposition figure said Tuesday.

Would-be Iraqi fighters are smuggled into Iran, schooled in everything from sniper techniques to explosive devices and sent back to Iraq to wage war on U.S.-led coalition forces, Alireza Jafarzadeh said at a news conference.

"The Iranian regime is secretly engaged in the organization and training of large Iraqi terrorist networks in Iran to heighten insecurity and instability and force the coalition forces to leave Iraq, which would in turn pave the way for establishment of an Islamic republic in Iraq," Jafarzadeh said.

He has worked for the political wing of the Mujahedin Khalq, an Iranian opposition group that Washington and the European Union list as a terrorist organization.

Jafarzadeh, who heads the Washington-based Strategic Policy Consulting think tank, is credited with having aired Iranian military secrets in the past. The group claims to obtain its information from a network of resistance informants inside the country. But U.S. officials considered some of Jafarzadeh's past assertions inaccurate.

There was no independent confirmation of the latest information. The U.S. Mission to the United Nations had no immediate comment.

"His statement today is a public announcement that this group has been the source of allegations which U.S. officials are making about Iranian intervention in Iraq," said Mohammad Mir Ali Mohammadi, a spokesman for Iran's U.N. Mission.

Jafarzadeh said Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, are closely connected to the training. He said Abu Ahmad Al-Ramisi, governor of southern Iraq's Al-Muthanna province, and two members of Iraq's National Assembly are also involved.

He identified one as Hadi Al-Ameri, who he said is chairman of the legislature's security committee and head of the Badr Corps, the Iran-based military wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The other is an assembly member known in Iraq as Abu Mehdi Mohandas, he said.

Jafarzadeh displayed maps and satellite photos showing some of the purported camps' locations, including two near the former shah's palace in Tehran, one south of that city in Jalil Abad and another at the Bahonar base in Karaj.

Other camps, he said, are in Qom, in Isfahan and in Iraq-Iran border areas near Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Ilam and Khuzestan.

The camps are run by several top commanders of the Qods Force, the most highly trained branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, with some Hezbollah members from Lebanon also taking part, he said.

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Bolton: Iran won't give up nuke ambition

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By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
3:36 am EDT Wednesday 21 March 2007

President Bush's former envoy to the United Nations says using military force against Iran would be preferable to allowing the country to acquire nuclear weapons.

John Bolton gained a reputation for speaking out during his 17 months as U.S. ambassador to the world body. But his remarks Tuesday night were some of his boldest yet, especially concerning Tehran.

"I believe that ultimately the only real prospect of getting Iran to give up nuclear weapons is to change the regime," Bolton told reporters after an off-the-record speech to the Hudson Institute, a nonpartisan policy research organization.

How should this be done?

"By the force of the Iranian people themselves," Bolton replied. "But if the alternative is a nuclear Iran, as unpleasant as the use of military force would be, I think the prospect of a nuclear Iran is worse."

~~~cont'd~~~

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Faire l'amour, pas la guerre
Make love not war

Kiss of death for Maliki

This is the latest post in a thread I started on November 29, 2006 on The Augusta Chronicle bulletin board titled Kiss of death for Maliki. I started that thread in response to revelations that Bush's National Security Adviser had written a memo critical of "democratically elected" Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki who heads the once touted national "unity" government of a nominally "sovereign" Iraq. Yeah, right! Now, Saudi Arabia as well a Iyad Allawi and Zalmay Khlilzad seem to be on Maliki's case. Maliki's days in office appear to be numbered.

Juan Cole [Informed Comment] 21 March 2007

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Al-Zaman reports in Arabic that Saudi Arabia and Jordan invited Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, for consultations in hopes of detaching him from his alliance with the fundamentalist Shiite parties. Al-Zaman says that its sources in Riyadh say that the Saudi royal family increasingly sees Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of the Shiite Islamic Call (Da'wa) Party as an obstacle to any movement toward peace and reconciliation. Al-Maliki was prominent in the Debaathification Commission that was punitive toward Sunni Arabs, and has during the past year had a tacit alliance with the Sadr Movement and its Mahdi Army militia, which many Sunnis believe comprises death squads that kill Sunni Arabs in the dark of night.

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Faire l'amour, pas la guerre
Make love not war

Iyad Allawi watch

This will be an ongoing rant against CIA-asset and Iraqi strongman Iyad Allawi. I will document the intrigue surrounding U.S. machinations to bring this dude back to power in Iraq. I commence this thread with an inauspicious post, but I have noticed several previous ominous references about U.S. efforts to reinstall Allawi as our man in Baghdad. Professor Juan Cole cite a Reuters report in the second quote below. Iyad Allawi's status as "an old CIA asset" is alluded to by Juan Cole in the third quote below as well as Allawi being accompanied on a lobbying trip to Kurdistan by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq (and neoconservative) Zalmay Khalilzad.

Juan Cole [Informed Comment] Monday, March 19, 2007

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Al-Zaman reports in Arabic that Iyad Allawi, the ex-Baathist former appointed prime minister of Iraq, conducted talks in Cairo with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on Sunday. He expressed his hope that Arab states would push Iraqi interests at the upcoming Riyadh summit. Allawi said that reconciliation in Iraq would require concessions from all parties and joint action for national interests. Mubarak is said to have emphasized the need for Iraqis to prefer their national interests as citizens to their sectarian interests.

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Juan Cole [Infomed comment] Saturday, March 17, 2007

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Reuters reports that the United Iraqi Alliance, a coalition of Shiite fundamentalist parties, is regrouping after the defection from its ranks of the small Islamic Virtue Party (Fadhila), which has 15 seats in parliament. UIA spokesmen seemed confident that the rest of the party would hold together. It groups the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Islamic Call (Da'wa) Party of PM Nuri al-Maliki, the Sadrists, the Islamic Action Council of Ayatollah Mudarrisi, and some Shiite independents. This article's optimistic tone is strange given that al-Maliki has announced that he will purge his cabinet of 5 of the 6 Sadrist ministers, and that the Sadrist bloc in parliament, 32 members strong, have threatened to withdraw from his coalition if he does so. Al-Maliki stays in power, in the case, only because of Kurdish backing. If the UIA breaks up, and if the Kurds change their minds, Iyad Allawi is waiting in the wings to take over Iraq. An ex-Baathist secularist who criticizes Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and has bad relations with Iran, Allawi is alluring to the Bush administration. But cutting the majority Shiites out of power would certainly accelerate their move toward a provincial confederacy in the south and could cause turmoil and break up the country.

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Allawi Maneuverings Continue [Informed Comment] By Juan Cole - Sunday, March 04, 2007

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Al-Hayat reports that Iyad Allawi, a secular ex-Baathist Shiite who leads the Iraqi National List (25 seats in parliament), visited Kurdistan on Saturday. He is attempting to convince the Kurdistan Alliance to join his new coalition in parliament. Allawi has said that his list will leave the 'national unity government' headed by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Allawi's list is small and he is deeply disliked by most of the religious Shiites that dominate parliament. I can't imagine that he can actually form a government given the present distribution of seats. But al-Hayat reports that Allawi was accompanied on his trip to Kurdistan by none other than US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, which the daily read as a sign of US support for dumping al-Maliki and trying to install Allawi as Prime Minister. (Allawi served as interim prime minister in 2004, having been appointed by the US and UN for this purpose. He is an old CIA asset.)

---

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Faire l'amour, pas la guerre
Make love not war

Iraq 16 March 2007 - 4th report

At 1 pm EDT Guy Raz of NPR News reported that a spokesman for Gen. David Petraeus said the request for more combat aviation troops was made more than a month ago. That begs the question of why our civilian leaders, including the Commander-on-Chief, have not told the American people the full extent of the "surge" in Iraq which clearly is not temporary. This is a major escalation not only of the ground war but also an escalation of the air war which inevitably leads to more civilian casualties from airstrikes.

Pentagon to deploy aviation unit to Iraq

By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer
12:57 pm EDT Friday 16 March 2007

Some 2,600 soldiers from a combat aviation unit will go to Iraq ahead of schedule, part of the support troops the Pentagon has said are needed to back the extra combat units President Bush is sending there.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates approved the deployment of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division combat aviation brigade 45 days earlier than planned, meaning they will go around May, a Defense Department official said Friday.

The approval will mean roughly 30,000 troops eventually will go to Baghdad and Anbar Province in the Bush administration's buildup to crack down on rising sectarian violence and insurgents, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the information.

The new aviation unit will provide transport helicopters and gunships to assist ground brigades already flowing in for the buildup. Officials said that Gen. David Petraeus, the new U.S. commander in Iraq, wanted the buildup to move as quickly as possible.

"This was requested over a month ago as part of the surge," said Col. Steven Boylan, public affairs officer for Petraeus. "These are what we call the enablers."

Two months ago, Bush ordered 21,500 additional American troops to Iraq to help calm the violence. He did not initially mention that support units would also be needed.

Officials later said that the number of support troops needed for the influx could be around 7,000. So far, these have included 2,400 combat support troops and 2,200 military police to help with an anticipated increase in detainees picked up during the crackdown.

Asked what he would say to critics of the steady additions to the original number, the Defense Department official said some of the requests came after Petraeus arrived in Iraq and assessed what he needed. He said Gates wants to give commanders what they believe they need to do the job as long as the requests are justified.

In an AP Radio interview, Canadian Army Major General Peter Devlin, deputy commanding general of coalition forces in Iraq, said of the extra troops, "What was always asked for was, beyond the combat formation, were the typical enablers that go along with combat formations."

Asked whether there are likely to be more such requests, he said, "Yes. It is exactly something that you would expect, is that there is a need for support troops to do what they do."

There are now roughly 142,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. About 60,000 are combat forces, the rest are support troops.

The Boston Globe reported on its Web site Thursday night that Petraeus had asked for an Army combat aviation unit with 2,500 to 3,000 troops, which were likely to come from the Army's 3rd Infantry, citing unidentified senior Pentagon officials.

Iraq 16 March 2007 - 3rd report

This is the first protest in Sadr City since the crackdown by U.S. and Iraqi troops began on February 14. This is somewhat reminiscent of 2004 when Sadr City was similarly tranquil until one day when an incident happened with a U.S. patrol and all hell broke us. That incident and the following bloodbath has been recounted by Martha Radatz of ABC News in a recent book. Radatz appeared on the NRP program "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" on March 1, 2007 and on subsequent NRP shows including on "All Things Considered" yesterday which omenously was The Ides of March. THREE reports below.

Hundreds of Shiites protest US base in Baghdad bastion

AFP Fri Mar 16, 10:07 AM ET

More than a thousand unarmed protesters demanded the removal of a US military base from east Baghdad's Sadr City on Friday, in the first sign of Shiite opposition to a new security plan.

Sadr City is a stronghold of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and there had been fears that US and Iraqi forces would face violent opposition as they tried to gain control of the vast slum district.

Instead, Sadr's black-clad militia fighters melted away as the plan went into effect last month, and last week troops and police taking part in the operation were able to set up a "Joint Security Station" in the area.

On Thursday, however, one of Sadr City's two mayors who negotiated with the Americans and welcomed the creation of the fortified base was shot and wounded by unidentified gunmen, who killed a police colonel travelling with him.

Then, after Friday's weekly prayers, large crowds of Shiite worshippers unfurled banners demanding the base be abandoned and chanted: "No, no to America. No, no to Israel. No, no to Satan."

Armed and uniformed members of the US-trained Iraqi security forces joined in some of the chants, but there was no open display by militia fighters.

A tract distributed among the crowds by Sadr's office denounced what it described as "bases for the occupier on the lands of Sadr City".

Sadr himself was not present -- the US military believes he has gone to ground in Iraq's Shiite neighbour Iran -- but supporters carried his portrait and read out a statement he had apparently sent to them.

"The occupiers wanted to distort the reputation of the city and issued propaganda saying there are talks and cooperation between you and them. I am confident that you regard them as your enemy," he said.

"Don't surrender to them. You are their betters," he added.

The protest and the shooting of Mayor Rakim al-Darraji will be of concern to both the US military and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's beleaguered Shiite-led government, which have been pleased by the lack of violence in Sadr City.

More then 90,000 Iraqi and US troops have been deployed around Baghdad as part of Operation Fardh al-Qanoon (Imposing Law), an ambitious plan to regain control of the city and quell sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites.

Since it was formally launched one month ago there has been little of the anticipated resistance and the city's murder rate is down sharply, although Sunni insurgents have continued to detonate car bombs almost daily.

On Thursday, before he heard of Darraji's shooting, the US commander in Baghdad said he had been pleasantly surprised by the calm in Sadr City.

"We've had a really good response from the people in the area. There's been no push-back at all so far from the Jaish al-Mahdi," General Joseph Fil said, using the Arabic term for Sadr's Mahdi Army.

Sadr's position on the Baghdad security plan has been ambiguous.

While a supporter of Maliki's government, the cleric is also a firm opponent of the US presence in Iraq, and has urged his Shiite supporters and the Iraqi security forces not to cooperate with what he calls "the enemy occupier".

Attack on Sadr official leads to tension

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer
1:32 pm EDT Friday 16 March 2007

An attack against the mayor of Sadr City has created tension in the ranks of Shiite militiamen with some blaming a faction unhappy about cooperation with Americans, a local commander said Friday.

Gunmen opened fire on the convoy carrying Mayor Rahim al-Darraji Thursday in eastern Baghdad, seriously wounding him and killing two of his bodyguards, police and a local official said.

Al-Darraji was the principal negotiator in talks with U.S. officials that led to an agreement to pull Shiite fighters off the streets in Sadr City, a stronghold of the feared Mahdi Army, and a local commander said suspicion fell on a group of disaffected militiamen who are angry about the deal.

"This is a faction that enjoys some weight," the Mahdi Army commander said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

He said the attack has created tension within the ranks of the militia and renewed debate about allowing the Americans to operate in Sadr City without resistance during a security sweep aimed at ending the sectarian violence that has raged since a Feb. 22, 2006, bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra.

Al-Darraji had also lobbied the Americans to bring reconstruction projects to Sadr City that would create jobs in the impoverished neighborhood. U.S. military commanders have said that could help disarm the largely unemployed men in the Mahdi Army.

One of the dead bodyguards was identified as police Lt. Col. Mohammad Mutashar Al-Freji, a friend of al-Darraji who was politically linked to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The success in reining in al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which fought fiercely against U.S. forces in 2004, is widely credited with the drop in execution-style killings, random shootings and rocket attacks during the month-old operation, and the attack against al-Darraji cast a shadow on that strategy.

Al-Sadr supporters also planned a demonstration Friday after traditional weekly prayer services to protest the establishment of a joint U.S.-Iraqi base in Sadr City, a sprawling district in eastern Baghdad.

Four U.S. soldiers, meanwhile, were killed in a roadside bombing Thursday in mainly Shiite eastern Baghdad and the military said it found a sophisticated weapon at the site that was of the type Washington believes is being supplied by Iran to Shiite militias.

Two more American troops were reported killed Friday — a U.S. soldier who died in an explosion Thursday in the volatile Sunni province of Salahuddin, northwest of Baghdad, and a Marine who died in a non-combat incident Thursday in Anbar province, west of the capital. A Marine also died Wednesday in a non-combat incident in Anbar.

At least 74 Americans have been killed in fighting since the U.S.-Iraqi security sweep to stop the sectarian violence in Baghdad began on Feb. 14 — most in Baghdad or volatile areas north of the capital and to the west in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province. At least 3,208 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war began four years ago next week, according to an Associated Press count.

U.S. Maj. Gen. Joseph F. Fil Jr., who is on his second tour of Iraq, acknowledged Thursday that the security crackdown was putting U.S. troops at greater risk in the capital simply because they were in the streets in greater numbers.

Fil also said the United States would have American soldiers in as many as 100 garrisons scattered throughout Baghdad by the time the last of the additional 20,000-plus troops allocated by President Bush arrive at the end of May. There are now 77 such posts, he said.

The bases will be a combination of Joint Security Stations — command and control centers operated jointly with Iraqis — and small combat outposts.

~~~cont'd~~~

Iraq cleric slams occupiers, Shi'ite mayor shot

By Claudia Parsons
Reuters 12:39 pm EDT Friday 16 March 2007

Radical Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr urged his followers on Friday to oppose occupying troops, raising the pressure on U.S.-backed Iraqi forces conducting a security crackdown in Baghdad.

In a possible setback for the crackdown, the mayor of Sadr City, a Shi'ite militia stronghold in the capital, was wounded when gunmen opened fire on his car on Thursday.

Sheikh Raheem al-Darruji has been a key figure in facilitating recent joint operations in Sadr City, long a no-go area for U.S. forces and a bastion of the Mehdi Army, a militia loyal to the fiercely anti-American Sadr.

A statement from Sadr that was read out at prayers in Sadr City on Friday repeated his longheld opposition to the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq, and appeared to respond to recent statements by U.S. military officials who have said people in Sadr City were cooperating with them.

"I'm confident that you consider them (U.S. forces) your enemies," said the statement carrying Sadr's seal which was issued by his office in the holy city of Najaf as well as being read out to thousands of worshippers in Sadr City.

"I call upon you all to raise your voices all together and shout with one voice 'No, No, America'," the statement said.

Sadr City was viewed as a test of the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government's will to deal as firmly with Shi'ite militias as it does with Sunni Arab insurgents. U.S. commanders say they have met little resistance since launching operations 10 days ago.

Sadr's statement denounced U.S. forces as occupiers but did not mention Iraqi security forces. Sadr's political movement has expressed its support for the Baghdad plan as long as operations are conducted by Iraqi forces.

PROTEST AT U.S. FORCES

A Mehdi Army official said thousands of people demonstrated after prayers on Friday to reject the establishment of a joint U.S.-Iraqi security station in Sadr City. Television pictures showed at least hundreds of people.

Major General Joseph Fil, commander of U.S. troops in Baghdad, said on Thursday Sadr did appear to have instructed his followers to work with Iraqi security forces, if not with Americans. "I don't know that we have his support now," he said.

The chief spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, Major General William Caldwell, said this week U.S. forces were keeping a close track on Sadr and they believed he was in Iran. His aides have insisted he is still in Iraq.

Just a few months ago, Washington called Sadr's Mehdi Army militia the greatest threat to security in Iraq.

The radical young cleric headed uprisings against U.S. forces twice in 2004, but his political movement is now an important party in the government of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Thursday's attack on the mayor of Sadr City could complicate efforts to improve security there.

An Iraqi police source said Darruji was driving in a private car with a police colonel on Thursday in a district of Sadr City when gunmen in another car opened fire, killing the policeman and wounding the mayor.

The mayor's driver was also killed, a U.S. military spokesman said, but the mayor was in "good condition" on Friday.

"He has been helpful to the coalition and the efforts to establish the joint security station inside of Sadr City," the spokesman said.

(Additional reporting by Khalid Farhan in Najaf and Waleed Ibrahim in Baghdad)

Pakistan updates

Instability in Pakistan has profound implications for stability in south Asia as well as for the so-called Global War on Terror.

Confrontation in Pakistan deepens

Last Updated: Friday, 16 March 2007, 16:34 GMT - BBC News

Protesters in Pakistan have been defying security forces to rally in support of the suspended top judge in the Supreme Court.

Police in the capital, Islamabad, used tear gas against demonstrators and smashed equipment at a TV station showing the protests.

President Pervez Musharraf suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry last week for abuse of office.

The judge's supporters say the move is aimed at muzzling the judge.

Mr Chaudhry has a reputation for independence and has challenged the government on several cases.

Barbed wire

Friday's violence in Islamabad began shortly before Mr Chaudhry made his second appearance before a tribunal at the Supreme Court.

Hundreds of lawyers rallied on Friday outside the Supreme Court despite sweeping security restrictions. Security forces had blocked traffic and rolled barbed wire across roads leading up to the courthouse.

The lawyers were supported by high-profile opposition figures.

Clashes broke out and police detained a number of protesters. They included Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the leader of the hard-line Islamic coalition, the MMA, who was taken away in a police vehicle.

Also arrested was Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, another senior Islamic politician.

The police also moved in large numbers into the Islamabad offices of the private Geo TV station which, like other media outlets, has been defying government attempts to influence their coverage of the protests.

The police used long batons to smash glass, furniture and broadcast equipment.

Later President Musharraf apologised to Geo TV: "Such an incident should not have happened," he said in a live interview with Geo. "The culprits must be identified and punished today."

In Lahore, a former president, Rafique Tarar, was arrested as he led a demonstration.

On Thursday hundreds of opposition activists were detained in efforts to stop Friday's protest from going ahead.

'Triumphant'

Chief Justice Chaudhry denies charges of misconduct.

The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says he made a triumphal entry into the Supreme Court on Friday.

Supporters surrounded his vehicle, and some rode on top of it through the gate.

They chanted slogans like "justice lead, we will follow". Many of the slogans were also aimed against President Musharraf for his decision to suspend Mr Chaudhry last Friday.

Gen Musharraf has accused protestors of politicising the issue and says he will abide by the decision of the judicial tribunal.

Our correspondent says that Mr Chaudhry's suspension seems to have become a rallying point for all those with grievances against the government.

Suspended

The media is facing further restrictions on its reporting. The broadcasting authority, Pemra, has banned Geo TV from showing one of its current affairs programmes.

Both Geo and another network, Aaj, have had their broadcasts suspended in recent days due to their coverage of the protests.

Mr Chaudhry was suspended a week ago by President Musharraf after he had received "numerous complaints and serious allegations for misconduct, misuse of authority and actions prejudicial to the dignity of office of the chief justice of Pakistan", the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency said.

Details of the charges have not been made public.

Lawyers say the judge's suspension is an assault on judicial independence.

They have been on strike all week over the issue in protest against the suspension.

The chief justice himself has vowed to fight his case, both to clear his name and to defend the independence of the judiciary.

An all too common occurrence

U.S. military "accidents" that kill Iraq and Afghanstan civilians or our own allies are a far too common occurrence although this post is edited to note that the U.S. military denies Afghan police deaths (see third post below). There is a definite pattern that goes beyond "a few bad applies" and indicates that something systemic is wrong with U.S. rules of engagement and the nature of the impossible missions that our troops are given. THREE stories linked below are indicative of this:

US troops kill five Afghan policemen

Agencies
Friday March 16, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

US forces mistakenly killed five Afghan policemen in a clash in the south of the country yesterday, Afghanistan's government said today.

Officials have been sent to investigate the clash, which happened at a police checkpoint in the Gereshk district of Helmand province, an Afghan interior ministry spokesman said.

"Coalition forces mistakenly opened fire on police," the spokesman added. "Unfortunately, five policemen were killed."

He said he was unable to provide any further details of how the incident occurred. US military officials were not available for comment.

The clash came as Nato forces continued their largest operation in Afghanistan so far. The operation is intended to secure a region of Helmand province, a stronghold for Taliban militants.

Helmand is the centre of the Taliban-led insurgency and the country's opium and heroin trade, which is believed to help fund the Taliban but also profits Afghan officials.

Lieutenant Colonel Angela Billings, a spokeswoman for Nato's international security assistance force in Kabul, said Nato troops were not involved in the clash.

In total, 47,000 western forces are currently deployed in Afghanistan, with 36,000 Nato troops and a further 11,000 US troops engaged in "anti-terror" activities.

U.K. Coroner: U.S. 'Friendly Fire' Attack on British Soldier Was Criminal

Friday , March 16, 2007

AP

LONDON —
A coroner conducting an inquest into a U.S. friendly fire attack that killed a British soldier during the Iraq war said Friday that it was unlawful and criminal.

Oxfordshire Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker also criticized the U.S. military for failing to cooperate with his investigation into the incident.

"I believe that the full facts have not yet come to light," said Walker, who has complained that he did not get all the evidence he needed about the U.S. A-10 "Tank-buster" plane that killed Lance Cpl. Matty Hull, 25, in an attack on his armored vehicle convoy.

Four other British soldiers were wounded in the March 28, 2003 attack in southern Iraq.

"The attack on the convoy amounted to an assault," Walker said. "It was unlawful because there was no lawful reason for it, and in that respect it was criminal.

Walker also said "I don't think this was a case of honest mistake. There is no evidence the pilots were acting in self-defense."

The coroner's verdict is not binding on the United States, which is not subject to British law.

~~~cont'd~~~

US denies Afghan police deaths

Last Updated: Friday, 16 March 2007, 17:51 GMT - BBC News

Alastair Leithead
BBC News, Kabul

Five policemen have been killed in Helmand province in the south of Afghanistan in what appears to have been a clash between friendly forces.

Initial reports from the ministry of interior and the deputy police chief for Helmand said American troops had been responsible for the deaths.

The government even went as far as to criticise the US troops.

But the US-led coalition has denied any involvement in the incident and has refused to comment further.

'Not excusable'

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force has also denied reports that American troops working under their command had been at the scene.

The government has demanded a "full explanation" into the attack, which it said was "not excusable".

Afghan men shout anti-American slogans after the killing of civilians.
Protests have been held over US forces allegedly targeting civilians

What appears to have happened, based on information from officials who did not want to be named, is that an Afghan National Army (ANA) unit approached a police check point in the village of Spin Kalay, near Gereshk, and was fired upon.

They then returned fire, and in that shooting some auxiliary police were killed and injured.

An American Embedded Training Team vehicle then arrived on the scene.

~~~cont'd~~~

Iraq 16 March 2007 - 2nd report

As of 8:33 am EDT the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count website had raised its tally of U.S. military fatalities from the war in Iraq to 3210.

Iraq Coalition Casualty Count

U.S.: 2 more soldiers killed in Iraq

AP 6:33 am EDT Friday 16 March 2007

A U.S. soldier was killed by an explosion during fighting northwest of Baghdad, while a Marine died in a non-combat incident, the military said Friday.

The Task Force Lightning soldier died and another was wounded Thursday in an attack while they were conducting combat operations in Salahuddin, a mainly Sunni province, according to a statement.

A Marine assigned to Multinational Force — West died Wednesday in a non-combat related incident in Anbar province, a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of the capital, the military said separately. The incident is currently under investigation.

~~~snip~~~

Iraq 16 March 2007 - 1st report

The Decider's surge is really a major escalation. Now the U.S. air war in Iraq is being escalated.


Report: General requests more troops

Associated Press

Thu Mar 15, 11:59 PM ET

The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq has asked for an additional 2,500 to 3,000 troops to be sent to Iraq as part of the Bush administration's military buildup to crack down on rising sectarian violence and insurgents, The Boston Globe reported.

Gen. David Petraeus wants another Army combat aviation unit — which would be the sixth Army brigade involved in the buildup — deployed to support the more than 26,000 soldiers already on their way to Iraq under the plan opposed by many Democrats in Congress, the Globe said in a report posted on its Web site Thursday night. The report quoted unidentified senior Pentagon officials.

The request has not yet been made public, according to the report, which quoted one official as saying the extra troops, to be backed by dozens of transport helicopters and powerful gunships, were needed to assist those on the ground now and those expected in Iraq shortly.

~~~cont'd~~~

And of course the rush to war with Iran continues:

4 U.S. soldiers die in Baghdad bombing

Associated Press



By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press WriterThu Mar 15, 11:12 PM ET

Four U.S. soldiers were killed Thursday in a roadside bombing in mainly Shiite eastern Baghdad and the military said it found a sophisticated weapon at the site of the type that Washington believes is being supplied by Iran to Shiite militias.

Iraq 15 March 2007

I generally blog on The Augusta Chronicle bulletin board which is called The Forum. The website is down today.

At 4 pm EDT CBS radio news reported that 4 U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad. This will bring the U.S. military death toll for the war in Iraq to at least 3207.

Strykers face barrage of enemy fire, lose 2 vehicles on first day in Diyala

The Associated Press
Thursday, March 15, 2007

BAQOUBA, Iraq: Dozens of U.S. Stryker combat vehicles roared into Baqouba at sunrise. The enemy was ready. As the dawn call-to-prayer fell silent, the streets blazed with insurgent fire.

Within minutes of the start of their first mission in volatile Diyala province Wednesday a voice crackled across the radio: "Catastrophic kill, with casualties."

Inside the rear of one Stryker, soldiers shushed one another and leaned closer to the radio. They all knew what it meant. A U.S. vehicle had been lost to enemy fire.

Nearly 100 Strykers were called north from Baghdad into the province and its capital to try — yet again — to rout Sunni insurgents, many who recently fled the month-old Baghdad security operation.

The fighters have renewed their campaign of bombings and killings just 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of the capital as the war enters its fifth year. Diyala province is quickly becoming as dangerous as Anbar province, the Sunni insurgent bastion west of Baghdad.

Rocket-propelled grenades pounded buildings Wednesday where U.S. soldiers sought cover. Mortars soared overhead and crashed to earth spewing clouds of deadly shrapnel.

Gunfire rattled ceaselessly — the hollow pop of insurgent AK-47s and whoosh of grenade launchers nearly drowned out by shuddering blasts from U.S. 50-caliber machine guns.

Soldiers screamed into their radios for backup. Apache attack helicopters swooped in, firing Hellfire missiles.

By day's end, one soldier was dead, 12 wounded and two Strykers destroyed. The Americans said dozens of insurgents were killed but gave no specific number.

It was a brutal, bloody first-day for the 2nd Infantry Division's 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment — the crack Stryker battalion dispatched from Baghdad's northern suburbs.

"They threw everything at us — RPGs, mortars — and a guy even tossed a grenade just in front of my vehicle," said Capt. Huber Parsons, the 28-year-old commander of the 5-20's Attack company. "But the most devastating was the IEDs," the Coral Gables, Florida, native said. He was talking about improvised explosive devices — roadside bombs.

One Stryker was lost in a particularly sophisticated ambush.

Struck head-on by an IED, the rubber-tired armored vehicle was swallowed up in the bomb crater. Insurgents emerged from hiding, firing RPGs in unison.

The Stryker crew was trapped. One U.S. soldier was killed. All nine other crew members were wounded, though six later returned to duty.

The other Stryker was destroyed when a roadside bomb exploded as the armored fighting vehicle drove over it. The nine-man squad got out alive, three with injuries.

"It was quite an introduction to Diyala," said Sgt. William Rose of the 5-20's 3rd platoon, Alpha company. "That was the most contact we've had in weeks, maybe months," said Rose, a 26-year-old Arlington, Massachusetts, native.

"They always say the next place we're going is the worst — the most violent — and it never turns out to be the case," Rose said. "They really meant it this time."

Violence has risen dramatically in Diyala since the launch of the Baghdad security operation on Feb. 14. Insurgents have slowly been taking control for months, however. Attacks on American forces in the province have shot up 70 percent since last July, according to military figures.

~~~cont'd~~~

Marine Chief: Disbanding Iraqi Army Was Big Mistake (U.S. News & World Report)
U.S. News & World Report - The Marine Corps commandant, Gen. James T. Conway, told reporters this morning the biggest mistake made in Iraq remains the disbanding of the Iraqi Army-and that the effect of the decision still resonates today.

03/15/07 AP: Blast kills 4 U.S. soldiers in Baghdad

A roadside bomb exploded Thursday in eastern Baghdad, killing four U.S. soldiers and wounding two others, the U.S. military said. The attack began when a bomb went off as a U.S. unit was returning from a search operation in the mostly Shiite area

Sowing Chaos

President Bush is said to put a very high emphasis on whether he or the U.S. government looks weak militarily or diplomaticlly. It seems to me that Bush does not adequately value the world's opinion of the U.S. and how that reflects in the success or failure of his policies. Killing civilians in order to liberate a country or to fight "terrorists" does nothing for the U.S. image or our cause. The United States by its unilateral militaristic policies has lost the battle for the hearts and minds of the Arab and Muslim world (as well as much of the rest of the world including China, Russia, and Latin America). We are doing a good job of destroying Iraq in order to save it. That is becoming increasingly evident in Afghanistan as well. The United States military will be eventually forced to withdraw from both Iraq and Afghanistan but not without first causing extensive damage to those countries and to ourselves and our image. Robt Fisk among others argues that sowing chaos in the Muslim world is part of the Bush-Cheney war regime's strategy. There is inceasing evidence of the merits of that supposition.

US troops kill Afghan civilians

quote:

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Last Updated: Sunday, 4 March 2007, 14:26 GMT - BBC News

An incident described by US forces in Afghanistan as a "complex ambush" has left 16 civilians dead.

The incident occurred on the road from the eastern city of Jalalabad to Pakistan when a suicide bomber targeted a convoy, sparking a fire fight.

The killing of the civilians has reportedly sparked a protest by thousands of local people.

Separately, Nato said two British soldiers had been killed in fighting in southern Afghanistan.

~~~cont'd~~~

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How easy it is to put hatred on a map By Robert Fisk 03/03/07 "The Independent"