Iraq on the Record

[von Clausewitz]

Originariamente inviato da GioFX
aspetto ancora qualcuno che mi spieghi il perchè di tante falsità:

siccome adesso non ho niente da scrivere provo io a dipanare qualche tuo dubbio, Gio

- Iraq come pericolo immediato per la sicurezza degli Stati Uniti, dei suoi "alleati" e dei suoi interessi (GWB)

che l'iraq costituisse un pericolo per la sicurezza degli USA non è stata prerogativa solo dell'amministrazione Bush, tutte le amministrazioni succedutesi sin qui dalla guerra del golfo hanno ritenuto l'iraq di saddam una minaccia, e in questo senso l'amministrazione Clinton non ha fatto eccezione
che poi questa minaccia, questo pericolo sia stato sopravalutato è un altro discorso, solo per dirti che non è solo Bush ad aver avuto un accostamento del genere verso l'iraq

- Iraq in possesso di precise armi di distruzione di massa, chimiche e batteriologiche e armi convenzionali in grado di colpire un altro paese in 45 minuti (Powell, UN)

- Iraq in possesso di agenti chimici e batteriologici come antrace (Powell, UN)

Powell si è sbagliato, lo ha ammesso publicamente, che altro vuoi di più?
e in ciò è stato indotto da alcuni rapporti "esagerati" della Cia
senza dimenticare cmq che quello delle armi di distruzione di massa era più che altro un pretesto

- Iraq in possesso di uranio arricchito aquistato dal Niger (Powell, UN)

errore subito riconosciuto e nel quale c'è stato lo zampino maldestro dei nostri servizi segreti

e poi dovete spiegarmi perchè (fonti: NYT, Reuters, ecc.):

- La "costituzione" irachena è carta straccia, dato che qualsiasi legge può essere bloccata da una qualsiasi delle parti che costituiscono il Governo Provvisorio Iracheno

beh, questo lo dici tu

- L'amministrazione provvisoria americana deterrà per un tempo indeterminato il controllo di tutta la sicurezza nel paese

la cosa è in via d'evoluzione

- Gli Stati Uniti d'America potranno installare fino a 14 basi militari permanenti nel paese

fregnaccia

- Gli Stati Uniti d'America hanno il 94% delle commesse per la ricostruzione e per l'installazione di piattaforme e condutture petrolifere, centrali elettriche e impianti di distribuzione, e altro

non so, non credo che le percentuali siano in queste proporzioni
ma se anche fosse, non vedo perchè i soldi dei contribuenti americani debbano andare a imprese di altri paesi e non a quelle americane (comunque tutti i partecipanti la coalizioni hanno avuto le loro generose commesse, del quale peraltro non hanno sempre aprofittato)

- L'amministrazione Bremer e gli alleati occupanti non controllano e non hanno intenzione di controllare le frontiere irachene

Grazie

[von Clausewitz]

Originariamente inviato da GioFX
l'hanno bannato?

ma te da dove li prendi i numeri, sapientone?

e poi, perchè Straw dovrebbe essere più affidabile? Anzi, non avrebbe tutto l'interesse presentare numeri inferiori?

non so, l'avrò letto nel giornale, non ricordo
cmq basta fare una robusta tara alle cifre che sparate voi per avvicinarsi alla realtà

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da von Clausewitz
Powell si è sbagliato, lo ha ammesso publicamente, che altro vuoi di più?
e in ciò è stato indotto da alcuni rapporti "esagerati" della Cia
senza dimenticare cmq che quello delle armi di distruzione di massa era più che altro un pretesto

ah si, è vero... tutta colpa della CIA, noi non c'entrimao, abbiamo solo scatenato una cazzo di guerra assurda per futili motivi e per scelte legate a precisi interessi politici ed economici, non per necessità. Scusate se vi abbiamo mentito, la prossima volta andiamo io e rummy con il fucile in mano...

beh, questo lo dici tu

no no, l'hanno detto LORO STESSI... membri kurdi e sunniti anyone? e poi se non è così, perchè diavolo ne stanno facendo un altro di governo?

la cosa è in via d'evoluzione

in che modo? "forse" nel 2005 si ritireranno?

non so, non credo che le percentuali siano in queste proporzioni
ma se anche fosse, non vedo perchè i soldi dei contribuenti americani debbano andare a imprese di altri paesi e non a quelle americane (comunque tutti i partecipanti la coalizioni hanno avuto le loro generose commesse, del quale peraltro non hanno sempre aprofittato)

i dati erano della CNN. Clausey, non fare lo gnorri... il punto è che gli americani e i pochi lecchini che hanno dietro (se si escludono una 20a di paesi di microscopica rilevanza) si acaparreranno tutti i proventi della ricostruzione e dello sfruttamento totale o parziale a tempo inditerminato di infrastrutture e risorse, e gli iracheni se ne rimarranno a bocca ascicutta... beh, normale questo...

domanda: il petrolio iracheno che viene esportato dalla caduta di Saddam in poi, da chi viene gestito, i proventi a chi finiscono?

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da von Clausewitz

non so, l'avrò letto nel giornale, non ricordo
cmq basta fare una robusta tara alle cifre che sparate voi per avvicinarsi alla realtà

te pareva...

[von Clausewitz]

Originariamente inviato da GioFX
ah si, è vero... tutta colpa della CIA, noi non c'entrimao, abbiamo solo scatenato una cazzo di guerra assurda per futili motivi e per scelte legate a precisi interessi politici ed economici, non per necessità. Scusate se vi abbiamo mentito, la prossima volta andiamo io e rummy con il fucile in mano...

che si fa, ricominciamo da capo?
guarda che le ragioni della guerra sono state sviscerate per bene anche in questo forum (e pazienza se il 99% erano fregnaccie )

no no, l'hanno detto LORO STESSI... membri kurdi e sunniti anyone? e poi se non è così, perchè diavolo ne stanno facendo un altro di governo?

un conto è la costituzione come legge fondamentale di uno stato
un altro è la costituzione provvisoria, in attesa evidentemente di averne una definitiva
un altro ancora è il governo di un paese
tutte chiare le distinzioni?

in che modo? "forse" nel 2005 si ritireranno?

vorrà dire che per deciderlo sfoglieranno i petali di una margherita o tireranno a testa o croce
abbi pazienza, non avendo la sfera di cristallo, non posso darti altre risposte

i dati erano della CNN. Clausey, non fare lo gnorri... il punto è che gli americani e i pochi lecchini che hanno dietro (se si escludono una 20a di paesi di microscopica rilevanza) si acaparreranno tutti i proventi della ricostruzione e dello sfruttamento totale o parziale a tempo inditerminato di infrastrutture e risorse, e gli iracheni se ne rimarranno a bocca ascicutta... beh, normale questo...

beh, mettiamola così, gli americani dei loro soldi ci fanno quel che vogliono, ti piaccia o no
mi sembra il minimo

domanda: il petrolio iracheno che viene esportato dalla caduta di Saddam in poi, da chi viene gestito, i proventi a chi finiscono?

evidentemente i proventi del petrolio, di quel poco che faticosamente si ricomincia a pompare, viene investito nella ricostruzione
perchè secondo te dove finirebbero?

[sycret_area]

Originariamente inviato da GioFX
Iraq on the Record - The Bush Administration Public Statements on Iraq

Nel sito riportato potete trovare tutte le dichiarazioni sull'Iraq e le motivazioni adotte alla sua invasione dal governo americano. Il report dettagliato di tutte le fonti è curato dal Comitato per la Riforma Governativa (http://www.house.gov/reform/min), una speciale commissione parlamentare della Camera dei Rappresentati americana.

Io mi chiedo ancora dove sono quei fantasmagorici laboratori chimici mobili...

non so se ci siano davvero questi laboratori, ma chi vi dice che necessariamente siano in Iraq?

[GioFX]

The UN must be somewhat trustworthy since Bush wants to let the UN have alot more to do with the transition in Iraq. Which is odd considering how its basically useless according to him since it did not support the Iraq War. Very odd...

[GioFX]

President outlines ideology of war on terror to Air Force graduates



MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, June 2, 2004

(06-02) 11:45 PDT AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP)

President Bush compared the fight against terrorists to the struggle against tyranny that forced World War II, telling new Air Force officers Wednesday that the United States and its allies can win the battle by bringing freedom and reform to the Middle East.

"Our goal, the goal of this generation, is the same" as it was in World War II, Bush said. "We will secure our nation and defend the peace through the forward march of freedom."

Bush told 981 graduates of the Air Force Academy that they will be joining a war whose central front is Iraq and the broader Middle East.

The graduates wore dress uniforms of white pants, blue tunics and gold sashes around their waists. Bush spoke in the academy's football stadium -- at more than 7,000 feet above sea level -- under partly cloudy and breezy skies.

"Just as events in Europe determined the outcome of the Cold War," he said, "events in the Middle East will set the course of our current struggle."

"If that region is abandoned to dictators and terrorists, it will be a constant source of violence and alarm, exporting killers of increasing destructive power to attack America and other free nations," Bush said. "If that region grows in democracy and prosperity and hope, the terrorist movement will lose its sponsors, lose its recruits and lose the festering grievances that keep terrorists in business."

Attorney General John Ashcroft and Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., an Air Force Academy graduate, were among the officials who joined Bush on stage.

Bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq, Bush has argued, will undercut the stagnation and despair that feeds the extremist ideologies of al-Qaida and its terrorist allies.

In Washington, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, proposed a "Middle East 21st-century trust" as an alternative to Bush's Mideast initiative. The trust would use donations from wealthy countries to make grants aimed at economic and political reform in the Mideast. Lugar said the trust would be modeled on programs like the Global Aids Fund, the G-8 Africa Action Plan and the U.S. Millennium Challenge Account.

Lugar said his proposal incorporates many of the principles of Bush's Mideast initiative but emphasizes the participation of many nations, including wealthy Mideast countries like Saudi Arabia. And, the recipient nations themselves would develop specific programs so as to bring about a "restructuring of the region from within," Lugar said.

Defending his focus, Bush said, "Some who call themselves realists question whether the spread of democracy in the Middle East should be any concern of ours. But the realists in this case have lost contact with a fundamental reality: America has always been less secure when freedom is in retreat; America is always more secure when freedom is on the march."

The president's trip to Colorado came after he voiced his support Tuesday for the interim Iraqi government taking shape before the scheduled June 30 transfer of political power from the U.S.-run Coalition Provisional Authority. Bush praised the newly chosen prime minister, Iyad Allawi, and president, Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, as part of democracy's vanguard in Iraq.


--

Our enemies deserve "freedom and democracy" but apparently our friends in the region do not. (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan).

[GioFX]

"Just as events in Europe determined the outcome of the Cold War, events in the Middle East will set the course of our current struggle."

I like this comparison of a series of diplomatic and territorial disputes, that had no major combat operations, and were between the two superpowers of the time, to our invasion and occupation of a 3rd world country. Lots of relevence....

He should be shot for comparing this debacle to WWII. Dumbest analogy ever.

[GioFX]

How dare that spoiled piece of shit disrespect a war my grandfathers spilled blood over to push his bullshit political agenda. My grandpa has holes you can stick your whole fist in on his back from bullet and shrapnel wounds in Africa and Italy, while this peice of shit trounces around like a arrogant fucken cowboy. Amazing that NONE of his children are serving in the military, including his draft dodging ass in Vietnam.

This must be some kind of response to the fact that MANY are calling this 'Nam all over again, another war my uncles served in while his pussy ass was awol.

[737373]

vi abbiamo appena presentato "Le crociate anti americane di GioFX" YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da 737373
vi abbiamo appena presentato "Le crociate anti americane di GioFX" YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

in sfizzera lo insegnano l'inglese?

[GioFX]

alla fine quindi chi vince è proprio l'ONU, e cioè quell'organismo che prima gli americani contribuirono a fondare (e che si trova in america), e che poi è stato definito inutile ed un ferro vecchio proprio dal presidente americano...

una vittoria pariziale, sia chiaro, dato il ciò che dice la risoluzione e il mancato potere pieno al governo e l'assenza di una scadenza per il ritoro degli occupanti dall'Iraq.

[von Clausewitz]

Originariamente inviato da GioFX
alla fine quindi chi vince è proprio l'ONU, e cioè quell'organismo che prima gli americani contribuirono a fondare (e che si trova in america), e che poi è stato definito inutile ed un ferro vecchio proprio dal presidente americano...

una vittoria pariziale, sia chiaro, dato il ciò che dice la risoluzione e il mancato potere pieno al governo e l'assenza di una scadenza per il ritoro degli occupanti dall'Iraq.

L'ONU vince?
ma davvero per te l'ONU esiste a prescindere dai singoli stati che lo compongono?
Gio, cerchiamo di essere una volta tanto realisti, evitando di far passare come vittorie dei semplici accordi fra stati nel consiglio di sicurezza
accordi che comunque, come naturale che siano, salvaguardano l'impostazione americana sul problema irakeno

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da von Clausewitz
L'ONU vince?
ma davvero per te l'ONU esiste a prescindere dai singoli stati che lo compongono?
Gio, cerchiamo di essere una volta tanto realisti, evitando di far passare come vittorie dei semplici accordi fra stati nel consiglio di sicurezza
accordi che comunque, come naturale che siano, salvaguardano l'impostazione americana sul problema irakeno

Non importa cosa rappresentino oggi le Nazioni Unite e l'utilità o meno che tu le attribuisci. Resta il fatto che lo stesso organismo che è stato definito un ferro vecchio inutile da parte dell'amministrazione Bush ora è diventato il paravento fondamentale per condividere e scaricare sugli gli altri i propri fallimenti e sperare così di uscire dalla merda.

Se l'ONU era inutile e la guerra era giusta, non si doveva tornarci promuovendo con tutte le proprie forze una nuova risoluzione e arrivando a supplicare di non porre veti ai francesi, russi e cinesi. Il ritorno alle supremazia delle Nazioni Unite quale luogo di discussione e risoluzione delle controversie geopolitiche internazionali è la dichiarazione ufficiale del fallimento della dottrina della guerra preventiva unilaterale, che l'amministrazione americana assieme ai suoi più fidati lacchè ha intrapreso all'indomani dell'11 settembre, e messo in atto un anno e mezzo fa.

[GioFX]

Da Nytimes.com:

Iraq Government Considers Using Emergency Rule

By DEXTER FILKINS and SOMINI SENGUPTA

Published: June 21, 2004


Prime Minister Iyad Allawi made clear on Sunday that he intended to act against the insurgency in Iraq.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 20 — Faced with violent resistance even before it has assumed power, Iraq's newly appointed government is considering imposing a state of emergency that could involve curfews and a ban on public demonstrations, Iraqi officials said Sunday.

In his first news briefing here, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi offered no details of what emergency rule might include, only that a committee of cabinet members had been appointed to consider the issue.

Dr. Allawi, who worked closely with the Central Intelligence Agency in opposing Saddam Hussein's government in the 1990's, said he would consider "human rights principles and international law," but made clear that he intended to act quickly and forcefully against the insurgency, using extraordinary methods if necessary.

"We will do all we can to strike against enemy forces aiming at harming our country, and we will not stand by with our hands tied," Dr. Allawi said. "The Iraqi people are determined to establish a democratic government that provides freedom and equal rights for all its citizens. We are prepared to fight and, if necessary, die for the cause."

Among the places where such measures could be applied include the city of Falluja, where United States forces have been battling guerrilla fighters for several weeks, and Sadr City, the restive eastern slum in Baghdad, where three Iraqis were killed Sunday in confrontations with the First Infantry Division.

Among the emergency rule provisions being considered are a curfew, a ban on public demonstrations, checkpoints to control public movement and changes to search and seizure laws, two cabinet members said in separate interviews on Sunday evening.

It remains unclear whether such measures would bring significant changes in the lives of ordinary Iraqis. Under the United States-led occupation, occupation and Iraqi soldiers and security forces have been allowed to conduct raids without warrants, make arrests without charges, and hold suspects in detention indefinitely.

If some sort of emergency rule is imposed, it is possible that this situation could persist. Iraq's new leaders have yet to work out the exact nature of their cooperation with the American military in the coming months, particularly on such issues as offensive operations and house-to-house searches.

However, Iraqi officials have often criticized American forces for the way they have conducted themselves here over the past 15 months. A frequent complaint of Iraqi leaders is that the Americans often alienate ordinary Iraqis by searching the wrong homes and detaining the wrong people.

The Iraqi leaders have said they know far better who the insurgents are. The restoration of sovereignty here on June 30 may give those leaders an opportunity to take the counterinsurgency in another direction.

Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, said the potential measures were prompted by a tide of attacks by "global terrorists" as well as Hussein loyalists who, as he put it, "will not let the country go through the transitional process towards democracy peacefully."

"They will try to derail the political process," Mr. Rubaie said. "It is our responsibility to protect our people from these terrorists. If you bear all this in mind, then some sort of exceptional rules, if you like, need to be adopted to deal with the exceptional circumstances."

Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib said he hoped that if emergency rule were imposed, it would happen only in particularly fractious areas and for no more than two to three weeks at a time. He also hinted at the delicate political balance that the interim government must strike, between winning the confidence of ordinary Iraqis and crushing what has already proven to be a powerful armed resistance.

"We have disturbances in the whole country, but many areas could be controlled very easily, and others will be a little more difficult," Mr. Naqib said. "But also we have to work politically with many groups. We don't want to use force very much. If we have to use it with certain terrorists like Al Qaeda or anyone else, then we will not hesitate to use it."

Neither he nor other officials would say when a decision would be made about emergency rule.

The head of the Iraqi bar association, Kamal Hamdoon Mulla Allaw, said he hoped that such measures would be imposed only for a short period. Hamza al-Kafi, of the Iraqi Human Rights Society, said he too hoped that any such measures would be limited in scope and time and that they would not be used for political advantage.

As the transfer of sovereignty approaches, insurgents have stepped up attacks on interim government officials and security forces.

/>On Sunday morning, the interior minister's house in Samarra was attacked and four bodyguards were killed. Last Thursday, a car bomb ripped through an army recruitment center in Baghdad, killing at least 41 people. Dozens of local officials and many senior members of the government in Baghdad have been assassinated.

Prime Minister Allawi also announced a significant expansion of the Iraqi Army and its rededication toward internal threats. The army, which currently has about 3,000 soldiers, would take control of more than 37,500 troops who make up the existing Iraqi Civil Defense Corps as part of a new National Guard.

Together with the new Iraqi antiterrorism force now being trained here, the armed forces available to combat insurgents could total more than 60,000 soldiers.

The decision to use the army against the insurgency represents a change to American policy, which had intended the force to be directed against foreign threats and, most important, to be small. American policy makers had wanted to ensure that the Iraqi Army, which has played a significant role in shaping the country's political history, could be kept out of domestic politics.

Dr. Allawi acknowledged that concern but said the extraordinary circumstances presented by the insurgency demanded a special response. He said that for the "foreseeable future," the army would be fighting insurgents, rather than guarding borders.

"Our army's priority will continue to be national defense," he said. "However, in these difficult times, substantial elements of the army will have to assist in the struggle against internal threats against national security."

The reconstitution of the army amounts to another step away from the American decision of spring 2003 to dissolve the Iraqi Army. That decision has been roundly criticized, by Dr. Allawi and others, as having contributed to the insurgency by pushing thousands of young men with military training into unemployment.

In response to that criticism, American officials announced last month that they would begin rehiring higher-level army officers who had earlier been banned from serving in the armed forces.

"Disbanding the Iraqi Army was a big mistake," Dr. Allawi said. "We are fixing the mistakes of the Americans, aren't we?"

Together, redirecting the army toward internal threats and possibly imposing emergency rule illustrated the grim choices Dr. Allawi and his cabinet feel they have to make in their early days in office.

Dr. Allawi said the United States had agreed "in principle" to transfer custody of Iraqis suspected of involvement in the insurgency and for criminal acts to the Iraqi government after June 30.

He offered a vigorous vision of combating the guerrilla insurgency, which he said was "systematically destroying the country."

"The enemy we are fighting is truly evil," he said. "They have nothing to offer the Iraqi people except death and destruction."

He appealed to foreign countries to help protect the United Nations staff members who would be working in the country to prepare for elections later this year or early next.

Meanwhile, Moktada al-Sadr, the young Shiite cleric who led an uprising against the American occupation, has been invited to attend a national conference that will select a quasi-legislature to advise the interim government, Agence France-Press reported Sunday.

The invitation appears to be part of a broader effort to bring Mr. Sadr into the political mainstream. His insurgent force, the Mahdi Army, took heavy losses from American forces over the past three months, but Mr. Sadr soared in popularity, according to recent opinion polls.

The council that will be selected during the national conference will have a wide array of powers, including authority to approve the national budget and to question ministers.

Copyright 2004, New York Times

[GioFX]

Da Nytimes.com:

Final 9/11 Report Is Said to Dismiss Iraq-Qaeda Alliance

By PHILIP SHENON

Published: July 12, 2004

WASHINGTON, July 11 - The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is nearing completion of a final, probably unanimous report that will stand by the conclusions of the panel's staff and largely dismiss White House theories both about a close working relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda and about possible Iraqi involvement in Sept. 11, commission officials said.

The report, which is expected to be made public several days before the panel's mandated deadline of July 26, will also probably be unwelcome at the White House because it will document management failures at senior levels of the Bush administration that kept the government from acting aggressively on intelligence warnings in the spring and summer of 2001 of an imminent, catastrophic terrorist attack, the officials said.

Campaign advisers to Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, have said they eagerly await the commission's report, believing it will damage President Bush by showing that he and his senior aides were inattentive to dire threats before Sept. 11 and may have misled the nation about the reasons for the war in Iraq.

At the commission's request, the White House in April declassified and made public an intelligence report given to Mr. Bush on Aug. 6, 2001 - 36 days before the attacks - that was titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S."

Commission members said the final report would not single out government officials by name for intelligence or law enforcement blunders before Sept. 11. But they said the report would criticize several agencies for their performance in both the Bush and Clinton administrations, especially the F.B.I. and the C.I.A., and call for an overhaul of the nation's counterterrorism efforts.

The officials declined to detail the report's recommendations but said they would call for a shakeup of the F.B.I.'s domestic counterintelligence program and for equally broad changes at the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies, possibly by adding to the authority of the director of central intelligence to oversee the work of agencies beyond the C.I.A.

The panel's expected call for change at the C.I.A. would be bolstered by the findings of a Senate intelligence committee report that was made public on Friday, which blamed the agency for systematically exaggerating the evidence that Iraq had stockpiled chemical and biological weapons and was pursuing nuclear arms, the central justification for last year's invasion.

"We don't need to point fingers in our report, because people will be able to judge the facts for themselves," said John F. Lehman, a Republican commissioner who was Navy secretary in the Reagan administration.

Mr. Lehman has said that he expects the commission's work to result in "revolutionary" changes in the government's intelligence community. "The editorializing has shrunk and shrunk and shrunk as the facts before us have expanded and expanded and expanded," he said.

Timothy J. Roemer, a Democratic commissioner who is a former House member from Indiana, said he expected the final report to be unanimous and to call for "dynamic and dramatic changes in the intelligence community - changes in tradecraft and also nuts-and-bolts changes."

The panel's staff created controversy last month with an interim report that largely discounted theories about close ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda, another major justification cited by the Bush administration for invading Iraq.

The staff report found that there was "no credible evidence that Iraq and Al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States" and that repeated contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda "do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship."

The staff also said that it did not believe a widely circulated report from Czech intelligence that a ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks met in Prague with an Iraqi intelligence officer in April 2001, suggesting Iraqi involvement in the attacks.

The findings were in marked contrast to statements by President Bush and, more often, Vice President Dick Cheney, who has been the administration's lead spokesman in arguing that an alliance existed between Iraq and Al Qaeda.

Though Mr. Cheney insisted that he had no major differences with the commission and that the debate was being mischaracterized in news reports, the vice president responded to the staff report last month by telling a television interviewer that "there clearly was a relationship" between President Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Al Qaeda and that "the evidence is overwhelming," noting that he "probably" had access to intelligence information not reviewed by the commission. He also insisted that the Czech intelligence report might be credible.

Despite initial suggestions from the commission's leaders that they might rewrite the staff report to limit its conclusions that discounted a possible Iraq-Qaeda tie, commission members and the panel's chief spokesman said last week that the panel had decided to stand by the staff in the final report.

That reasoning was bolstered last week by the findings of the Senate intelligence committee, which cited several classified intelligence reviews prepared by the C.I.A. after Sept. 11 that suggested that evidence of a close relation between Iraq and Al Qaeda was "murky" and at times contradictory. The Senate committee said the C.I.A. had "reasonably concluded" that contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda "did not add up to an established formal relationship" between Mr. Hussein and the terror network.

''We believe we have seen everything now that the vice president has seen and we continue to stand on the staff statements," said Al Felzenberg, a commission spokesman.

He suggested that the commission's final report would go further than interim staff reports in documenting contacts over the years between Iraqi government and military officials and Al Qaeda's leadership. This may placate the White House to some extent by showing extensive communication between Iraq and Qaeda leaders.

"We expect the final report to enumerate on some of the contacts that were made between Iraq and Al Qaeda, and there were a number of points of contacts,'' Mr. Felzenberg said.

Commission members met in Washington last week to decide on the final wording of several chapters of the report. Several said afterward that they were increasingly optimistic that any differences between the five Democratic and five Republican members could be set aside and that they could agree on a unanimous report and on recommendations for overhauling the F.B.I., the C.I.A. and other counterterrorism agencies.

They noted, however, that they had not concluded their deliberations of some of the central policy recommendations, and that those issues were so contentious that they could prove to be a stumbling block to a unanimous report.

''We're still working through final iterations, but I think that on the main points, there seems to be consensus,'' said Richard Ben-Veniste, the former Watergate prosecutor who is a Democratic member of the panel. ''This commission operates on a very collegial basis, and I have found that talking through these issues has produced much more that we find in common than in opposition.'' Mr. Roemer said his "optimism is growing every day" about the possibility of a unanimous report.

The commission is trying to complete its work and publish the final report sometime during the week of July 18, to avoid being overshadowed by news from the Democratic convention, which opens on July 26.

Mr. Felzenberg said that the White House - through the office of Andrew H. Card Jr., President Bush's chief of staff - appeared ready to move quickly to declassify chapters of the report as they are completed by the commission. "I can say it's going smoothly," he said.

Under a procedure established by the commission last year, the White House has reviewed and declassified 17 interim staff reports released by the commission at a series of public hearings since January.

The commission has said that as it completes chapters of its final report, they will be given to the White House for a final security review. Commission officials said that since so much of the final report is built upon information in interim reports that have already been declassified, the final review process would be relatively straightforward.

Mr. Felzenberg said that the commission's staff investigators had essentially finished their work, though they would keep gathering information until shortly before publication of the final report.

The White House said last week that Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, had recently provided the panel with written answers to a final set of questions submitted by the commission. The White House and the commission would not describe the issues raised by the panel in its questions to Ms. Rice.

[GioFX]

3 Billion of Iraqi Reconstruction Money Being Re-Allocated to Oil Production

U.S. shifts Iraq rebuilding funds to security, oil

General defends copter strike that killed journalist, 11 others

Tuesday, September 14, 2004 Posted: 10:40 PM EDT (0240 GMT)


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The United States announced it will shift more than $3 billion earmarked for Iraqi reconstruction to improve security and oil production, the State Department said Tuesday.

The news came the same day that insurgents launched two deadly assaults at Iraqi police targets -- killing 47 people in a car bombing at a police recruit line in Baghdad and 12 police officers in a drive-by shooting in Baquba.

"Without security, there's no possibility, as many power plants as you have, to actually get electricity, water, sewage, power to Iraqis," said Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman. "And so that's why so much of this money and the reallocation that you see is moving toward security."

In order to offset the redirection of money, the United States will reduce spending on water and sewage projects by $1.9 billion and electricity by $1 billion.

Iraq has identified improving water, sewage and electricity as important reconstruction projects. Robin Raphel, a former ambassador who now works on Iraqi reconstruction issues at the State Department, acknowledged that few Iraqis have access to potable water and that most receive electricity for about half the day only.

But Grossman said Iraqis "understand our priorities and certainly understand the issue that if there's no security, nothing else is going to get done."

U.S. officials also plan to divert $450 million into Iraq's oil sector to increase production during the next six to eight months in an effort to create extra income to pay for the shortfall caused by the redirection of funds.

"The specific projects that they will target with this $450 million have an early payoff according to the engineers, according to the analysis that was done," Raphel said.

In October 2003, Congress appropriated $87 billion to help fund the war in Iraq -- $18.7 billion of which was set aside for reconstruction. About $4.08 billion of that was allocated for sewage, water and electricity projects.

The State Department said about $650 million of that $4.08 billion has already been spent.

U.S. officials have said most of the funding earmarked for reconstruction was not being spent because poor security was preventing projects from being completed.

Violence continues

Deadly attacks against police targets have been a constant of the Iraqi insurgency as rebels attempt to intimidate Iraqis and thwart them from joining the fledgling government's security forces, whose growth and power are important to Iraq's future stability.

An Islamist Web site posted claims of responsibility for both of Tuesday's attacks by a group affiliated with Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Claims of responsibility by the group -- Unification and Jihad -- cannot be confirmed independently by CNN. The group has claimed responsibility for kidnappings and other terrorist attacks in Iraq.

The Baghdad bombing took place on a crowded road near Haifa Street, a dangerous stretch through central Baghdad dotted with markets, coffee shops and hair salons. The neighborhood has been plagued by fighting between U.S. troops and insurgents, earning a nickname from residents -- "Little Falluja." Falluja is a rebel stronghold city to the west of Baghdad that has been the scene of intense fighting.

Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman said a Toyota four-door sedan was used in the attack. Saad Alamili with Iraq's Ministry of Health said 47 were killed and 114 were wounded in the attack.

The carnage along the stretch sparked anger at the United States and Iraq for poor security. Upset crowds sifted through debris and cursed Americans.

One man cursed President Bush. Another cursed Americans, saying "it's an American-Israeli conspiracy."

Video outside the Karkh police administrative and recruitment center showed smoldering wreckage of seven or eight cars.

The same police station had come under mortar attack a couple of hours earlier. Of the four mortars fired toward the building, two landed in the courtyard behind it, one landed near the front gate and a fourth did not explode. No injuries were reported.

In Baquba two hours later, gunmen attacked a police minibus in a drive-by shooting, killing 12 officers and wounding three civilians, Iraqi authorities said.

Rahman said the minibus was filled with 18 police officers. The Health Ministry provided the death toll.

Iraq's charge d'affaires at the United Nations said attacks such as those Tuesday won't keep Iraq from staging a vote for a transitional national assembly in January.

"The terrorists are in a frenzy to delay elections," Feisal Amin al-Istrabadi said. "We will not give in to these intimidations."

Under a plan just instituted by interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the families of Iraqi police officers killed in the line of duty will receive death benefits for life.

Capt. Steve Alvarez, a spokesman with the multinational security transition command, said the program, started Saturday, amounts to "direct dependent payment of 1 million Iraqi dinars (just over $700) upon death."

Also, it will "pay families the decedent's full salary until what would have been the officer's 63rd birthday."

The base salary for an unranked police officer is about $230 a month. A ranked police officer gets more, about $316 a month.

The program is retroactive to April 2003, when Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled.

U.S. commander: Gunship attack justified

Maj. Gen. Pete Chiarelli, commander of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, said the helicopter gunship attack that killed several people surrounding the wreckage of a U.S. armored vehicle Sunday was justified and that the helicopter's pilots were coming under fire at the time.

The crippled Bradley fighting vehicle was surrounded by terrorists and looters, Chiarelli said, who were threatening to steal sensitive communications equipment inside the vehicle and were attacking U.S. troops.

More than a dozen people were killed in the rocket attack, including a producer for the Arabic-language news network Al-Arabiya, whose death was captured on videotape.

Witnesses on the ground said there was no gunfire coming from the crowd that was surrounding the flaming vehicle, which had been crippled by a car bomb earlier in the day. But Chiarelli said his troops and helicopter pilots were under a great deal of gunfire.

"There was communications from our ground folks and our air folks that there was small-arms fire -- heavy small-arms fire, very well-aimed small-arms fire," Chiarelli said Tuesday during a briefing on the incident.

CNN's Diana Muriel, Octavia Nasr, Kevin Flower, Arwa Damon, Mohammad Tawfeek and Abbas al-Kazani contributed to this report.

[GioFX]

U.S. Weapons Inspector: Iraq Had No WMD

By KATHERINE PFLEGER SHRADER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Fallen Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) did not have stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, but left signs that he had idle programs he someday hoped to revive, the top U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq (news - web sites) concludes in a draft report due out soon.
According to people familiar with the 1,500-page report, the head of the Iraq Survey Group, Charles Duelfer, will find that Saddam was importing banned materials, working on unmanned aerial vehicles in violation of U.N. agreements and maintaining a dual-use industrial sector that could produce weapons.

Duelfer also says Iraq only had small research and development programs for chemical and biological weapons.

As Duelfer puts the finishing touches on his report, he concludes Saddam had intentions of restarting weapons programs at some point, after suspicion and inspections from the international community waned.

After a year and a half in Iraq, however, the United States has found no weapons of mass destruction — its chief argument for going to war and overthrowing the regime.

An intelligence official said Duelfer could wrap up the report as soon as this month, but noted it may take time to declassify it. Those who discussed the report inside and outside the government did so Thursday on the condition of anonymity because it contains classified material and is not yet completed.

If the report is released publicly before the Nov. 2 elections, Democrats are likely to seize on the document as another opportunity to criticize the Bush administration's leading argument for war in Iraq and the deteriorating security situation there.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) has criticized the president's handling of the war, but also has said he still would have voted to authorize the invasion even if he had known no weapons of mass destruction would be found there.

Duelfer's report is expected to be similar to findings reported by his predecessor, David Kay, who presented an interim report to Congress in October. Kay left the post in January, saying, "We were almost all wrong" about Saddam's weapons programs.

The new analysis, however, is expected to fall between the position of the Bush administration before the war — portraying Saddam as a grave threat — and the declarative statements Kay made after he resigned.

It will also add more evidence and flesh out Kay's October findings. At that time, Kay said the Iraq Survey Group had only uncovered limited evidence of secret chemical and biological weapons programs, but he found substantial evidence of an Iraqi push to boost the range of its ballistic missiles beyond prohibited ranges.

He also said there was almost no sign that a significant nuclear weapons project was under way.

Duelfer's report doesn't reach firm conclusions in all areas. For instance, U.S. officials are still investigating whether Saddam's fallen regime may have sent chemical weapons equipment and several billion dollars over the border to Syria. That has not been confirmed, but remains an area of interest to the U.S. government.

The Duelfer report will come months after the Senate Intelligence Committee released a scathing assessment of the prewar intelligence on Iraq.

After a yearlong inquiry, the Republican-led committee said in July the CIA (news - web sites) kept key information from its own and other agencies' analysts, engaged in "group think" by failing to challenge the assumption that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and allowed President Bush (news - web sites) and Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) to make false statements.

The Iraq Survey Group has been working since the summer of 2003 to find Saddam's weapons and better understand his prohibited programs. More than a thousand civilian and military weapons specialists, translators and other experts have been devoted to the effort.

*

More Than 1,000 Military Deaths in Iraq


By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. military deaths in the Iraq (news - web sites) campaign passed 1,000 Tuesday, an Associated Press tally showed, as a spike in fighting with both Sunni and Shiite insurgents killed seven Americans in scattered clashes in the Baghdad area.

The count includes 998 U.S. troops and three civilian contractors killed while working for the Pentagon (news - web sites). The tally was compiled by the AP based on Pentagon records, AP reporting from Iraq, and reports from soldiers' families.

It includes deaths from hostile and non-hostile causes since President Bush (news - web sites) launched a campaign in March 2003 to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). A few deaths occurred in neighboring Kuwait.

The grim milestone was surpassed after a spike in clashes that has killed 14 American service members in the past two days. Two soldiers died in fighting Tuesday with militiamen loyal to rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Five other Americans died Tuesday in separate attacks, mostly in the Baghdad area.

Earlier Tuesday, during a news conference at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld sought to play down the impact of the milestone, saying the "civilized world" had long passed the 1,000th death at the hands of terrorists.

The Bush administration has long linked the Iraq conflict to the war on terrorism. The Sept. 11 Commission concluded that Iraq and al-Qaida did not have a "collaborative relationship" before the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, and some have questioned to what extent foreign terror groups are involved in the anti-U.S. insurgency in Iraq.

[Lucio Virzì]

[OT] Ma Fabio che fine ha fatto?