Posted on 12/26/2005 4:09:09 PM PST by Gucho
Much accomplished, but much remains to do
Lt. Col. John Norris, commander of the 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, center, discusses politics with Ibrahim Mohammed, left, through an interpreter in Mosul. While Norris is proud of how much security has improved, he keeps his rifle ready. (Photo by CHRIS TOMLINSON / The Associated Press)
By CHRIS TOMLINSON - The Associated Press
December 26, 2005 at 07:32 AM
MOSUL, Iraq -- Lt. Col. John Norris drives through the southeastern corner of Mosul comfortably standing up in the turret of his Stryker armored vehicle, something he rarely did until a few months ago for fear of being hit by a bomb or a bullet.
Norris, who commands the 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment from Fort Richardson, in Anchorage, is proud of how much security has improved in some neighborhoods, and that President Bush has noticed. But he keeps his rifle ready.
"This city still isn't safe," he warned. "But it's a lot better than it was."
Few Iraqi cities have seen such extreme swings between peace and violence since the U.S. invasion in March 2003. Sunni Arab with a large Kurdish minority, Mosul is where Saddam Hussein's sons hid after the U.S. invasion, and where they died.
In November last year, insurgents took control of much of Mosul, drove car bombs into police stations and fought U.S. troops in the streets. But in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations on Dec. 7, Bush named the city 225 miles northwest of Baghdad as an example of U.S. success in Iraq.
Citing "tremendous gains" in the area, Bush said: "As the Iraqis have grown in strength and ability, they have taken more responsibility for Mosul's security, and coalition forces have moved into a supporting role ... freedom is taking hold in Mosul, and residents are making their voices heard."
Bombings dropped by 48 percent from June to November, according to U.S. figures. For the January election, Mosul's Ninevah province had 88 polling stations. There were 280 for the Dec. 15 vote.
Norris and his 500-soldier unit are responsible for about 450,000 Iraqis living in a 476-square-mile area. His patrols take him past layers of the city's recent history -- police stations wrecked by car bombs, and new ones under construction.
"We need to start a project to clear away that rubble because that's the wrong kind of reminder of the past," said Norris, 43, of Louisville, Ky.
Iraqi and U.S. officials say a mixture of fighting, politicking, training and praying is pacifying Mosul.
Col. Maher al-Zebari, an Iraqi army battalion commander in a southern suburb of Mosul who took charge this year, said he has made friends with the imam of a mosque where he prays.
"The imam told me I didn't need guards anymore; he said he would protect me," he said.
Al-Zebari knows the area well. Norris' headquarters were his when he commanded a military training center in Mosul under Saddam -- a fact the two often joke about.
"I can't emphasize enough how different it is now; 12 months ago this area was owned by terrorists," al-Zebari said.
Norris gives credit to al-Zebari and the other Iraqis who have become army, police or political leaders in the past year. U.S. intelligence officers huddle weekly with their Iraqi army and police counterparts, and Norris holds meetings on security with any civil, religious or security official who shows up.
"It's not as much that we killed people, but that we found the right leaders," Norris said.
The number of police has gone from zero last year to more than 5,000, U.S. officers said. Capt. Bradley Velotta, a company commander from Alexandria, La., also gave credit to U.S. troops, tactics and equipment.
"We came here and we flooded the objective. We were professional, very well equipped and we forced the Iraqi civilians, Iraqi army and Iraqi police and the criminals to do the right thing by denying them the opportunity to do the wrong thing," he said. "We patrolled 24/7."
As Velotta rolls through what was one of the worst neighborhoods, children play soccer in the median of the wide boulevards, no longer fearing roadside bombs.
"They enjoyed the lull," Velotta said. "When someone started to make trouble, they called us in. We get a lot of calls and a lot of people showing up at the meetings now."
A civilian Iraqi-American interpreter with extensive experience in Mosul, who could not be identified for security reasons, said people are disenchanted with the insurgency and more trusting in the U.S. military's promises to withdraw eventually.
U.S. and Iraqi commanders say insurgent leaders pay men several times the average monthly wage to plant roadside bombs but agree that Mosul's biggest problem is violent crime -- kidnapping for ransom and murder for hire.
Unemployment is at 45 percent, and the United States has spent $61.5 million on projects in Mosul. Work is under way to reopen textile, pharmaceutical and sugar factories.
Until these bear fruit, U.S. troops need to stay, Velotta and the others agreed.
"We've invested too much human life not to see this through," he said.
Monday, December 26, 2005
Afghans try ex-intelligence chief
By Jim Garamone - American Forces Press Service
BAGHDAD, Dec. 26, 2005 – It was 11 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and it was raining at an air base in Kuwait. The "moon dust" that overlays everything in the country was now a gooey mire that stuck to everything. Contrary to popular belief, it does get cold in the Middle East, and it was wet and cold.
About 60 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division waited in a tent for a flight to Baghdad. They had been there a while, as previously scheduled flights were diverted or cancelled.
They sat or stretched out on aluminum Army cots, and slept or talked or read. Some were seasoned noncommissioned officers who had been with the division in 1991's Gulf War. Others had made the run "from the berm to Baghdad" in 2003.
But many other soldiers were just out of the advanced individual training that followed their basic training. It wasn't so long ago that they believed in Santa Claus themselves, one NCO observed, and now they were spending Christmas Eve getting ready to go to a war zone.
Finally, everyone boarded a bus to drive to the Air Force C-130 Hercules transport that would take us to Baghdad. On the way to the aircraft, the radio crackled, "Merry Christmas, everyone." It had just struck midnight.
As the bus approached the aircraft, the soldiers could see a flash of color on the open ramp. Some of the C-130's crewmembers had Santa hats on and were crouched next to a box. As the soldiers approached the aircraft from the bus, the crew hauled out Christmas stockings and passed them out.
The soldiers, who had been silent, livened up and joked a bit. "I must have been a better boy than I thought," said one soldier as he examined the stocking. "Isn't this so nice?" said a young sergeant as she opened a packet of chocolate chip cookies. "This is a bit of home."
Amid the chocolate and cookies were a couple of nontraditional stocking stuffers: foot powder, wet-naps, waterless soap and the like. Soldiers began trading the goodies back and forth, and laughter -- which had been noticeably absent -- filled the aircraft, at least until the engines started up.
Where did the stockings come from? "Don't know," said the C-130's crew chief. "They showed up at the ramp and people asked us to pass them out."
"Some guy in a sled dropped them off," said another Air Force NCO.
It may well have been Santa, but a short note in each stocking indicated the jolly elf has a branch workshop in the United States. "Happy holidays!" the note read. "Please know that there are so many people back home that appreciate your service to our country and the daily sacrifices you make while being deployed. Love, A Few Virginians."
The small, heartfelt gesture made all the difference for the soldiers. Many of them were spending their first Christmas away from their families and friends - and all of them were on their way to war.
"I wish I knew who to thank for this," said a young private. "We don't know what we're heading into, but we know that people care."
Troop drawdown in 2006 will depend increasingly on Iraqis.
December 27, 2005
By Mark Sappenfield
WASHINGTON – For more than two years, the progress in Iraq has often appeared to be in a holding pattern - waiting for an election, the training of more Iraqi troops, or a waning of the insurgency.
Yet many of the variables for progress are at last clicking into place, as witnessed by the decision last week to hold back two US Army brigades scheduled to deploy to Iraq. With a new government and a growing domestic army, Iraq has laid the groundwork for its future politics and security. The new year will be its truest test.
"We've had a lot of these statements of progress just around the corner," says Andrew Krepinevich, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. But "2006 is the crucial year."
American officials and experts have talked many times of turning points and crucial months since the fall of Baghdad. Some analysts caution against drawing too many conclusions from the year to come.
But in three crucial areas - politics, military training, and military strategy - the Iraq enterprise is moving from infancy toward maturity.
In recent weeks, there have been positive signs. The Dec. 15 election gave the country its first permanent government since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Last month, Iraqi soldiers began to take a more active role in the country's own defenses, particularly in the offensive against insurgents in Tal Afar. And a clearer strategy of patrolling border regions, clearing insurgents from cities, and holding the territory to prevent their return played a part in a drop in car bombings in November, officials said.
Next milestone: Can Iraqis unite?
Now, in the long exhale after the December elections, the coming year will provide the first sketches of whether Iraq's various factions and sects can work together to run a country and an army.
While military leaders have insisted that American forces will remain in Iraq as long as is needed, they have clearly looked to the months after the election as an important time. Before the war began, the Pentagon had expected to be able to withdraw tens of thousands of troops from Iraq not long after the end of hostilities. When it became clear that the insurgency would make that impossible, eyes turned to 2006.
This past April, Gen. George Casey, the commander of American forces in Iraq, told CNN: "By this time next year - assuming that the political process continues to go positively - and the Iraqi army continues to progress and develop as we think it will, we should be able to take some fairly substantial reductions in the size of our forces."
Last week, he announced that two brigades scheduled to go to Iraq will not go - though one will go to Kuwait as a "hedge against the uncertainty of the next few months," General Casey said. It is far from the wholesale withdrawal that critics have called for, but it is significant. It will bring the total number of US troops in Iraq to about 130,000 - 30,000 less than a month ago, and 8,000 below the base line that the military has maintained as a minimum throughout much of the war.
Moreover, it hints at the gradual drawdown that many analysts expect during 2006, with the military attempting to bring its total presence in Iraq to about 100,000 by year's end.
To some, this is as much about necessity as military strategy.
"If we're still at 140,000 troops in a year, I will be severely worried about the well-being of the all-volunteer force," says Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution here in Washington.
Then again, he acknowledges that he is somewhat surprised that the US military hasn't cracked already. There are obvious signs of strain, such as the drop-off in recruiting earlier this year and a rise in the divorce rate among soldiers. But the commitment of this generation of soldiers to the cause - most obvious in high reenlistment rates - makes it difficult to predict when, or if, the military will break.
"That the Army has held together is a great tribute to the patriotism of the American soldier," says Dr. Krepinevich.
Army shifts from front line to support
For its part, the Army dismisses any claims that it is strained and insists that it can fill deployments to Iraq for the foreseeable future. But the military, too, sees a shift in its role. There is an effort to push Iraqi units into the front lines and increasingly use US forces to help build the Iraqi Army's poor logistics.
The idea is predicated on the expectation that Iraqi soldiers will be ready to take the lead, and it is fundamental to the broader US military strategy in Iraq of "clear and hold." Iraqis will be the ones called on to do most of the holding. Even under the best circumstances, the process of both building the Iraqi Army and defeating the insurgency could take years.
But Krepinevich suggests that now is the time for Iraq to take more of the burden upon itself: "At some point you have to start making progress."
December 26, 2005
By MARIAM FAM
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A German woman freed after being held hostage in Iraq for more than three weeks said in an interview broadcast Monday that she was treated well by her kidnappers.
Susanne Osthoff, an aid worker and archaeologist, told the Arabic-language Al-Jazeera satellite channel that her abductors weren't trying to get a ransom. Rather, they were demanding that schools, hospitals and other humanitarian projects be built in Sunni Arab areas, she said.
"Thank God, I am still alive," Osthoff, 43, said in Arabic, a black scarf wrapped around her head.
Osthoff, the first German to be kidnapped in Iraq, disappeared with her Iraqi driver in northern Iraq on Nov. 25. Her release was announced Dec. 18. The driver is also believed to have been let go.
The German government expressed concern Monday that Osthoff has not ruled out going back to Iraq and appealed to her not to return.
"After the intensive efforts of many who were involved, which in the end led to her release, I would find it hard to understand if Mrs. Osthoff again put herself in a dangerous situation," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement.
Osthoff said in the interview she was always aware of the danger in Iraq and knew she might be killed by a bombing any time she went out. But she said Iraqis are living in misery and need help. The aid money that enters the country does not reach ordinary Iraqis, she argued.
In most of the interview, Osthoff spoke in English, with an Arabic translation voice-over.
According to the translation, she said she tried to resist her kidnappers when they forced her inside a car's trunk. She said she could see a police patrol under a nearby bridge. It wasn't clear if the officers saw her.
Osthoff said the drive to the place where she was held took a long time. Once there, her kidnappers called her by name and told her they knew she was a friend of Iraq, she said.
She described her captivity as comfortable, although there was no power and no stores nearby. She said she drank tea and smoked a lot.
At some point during her captivity, she heard explosions nearby and felt no one could enter the area where she was held.
Osthoff said her captors told her they were trying to contact German authorities. She said she finally was driven to Baghdad and freed, but details of how her release was secured were not clear from the translation.
Relatives in Germany have said Osthoff, a fluent Arabic speaker who was once married to a Jordanian national, has been out of touch with them for years.
Last Updated: Monday, 26 December 2005 - 14:51 GMT
Dozens of people have been treated and some of them taken to hospital after an unidentified gas was released in a shop in the Russian city of St Petersburg.
The emergency situations ministry said the incident happened in an outlet of the Maksidom chain.
Gas capsules with timers were found in three other Maksidom shops in the northern city, officials said.
Security officials said the incidents were most likely caused by criminals, rather than terrorists.
"The security services are inclined to be believe this to be an act of hooliganism because so far there is no information that this could be a terrorist act," a spokesman for the Federal Security Service said.
Criminal attacks on businesses are common in Russia. Twenty people died in an arson attack on a shop in the northern city of Ukhta in July.
No serious cases
A police spokesman told AP news agency that the Maksidom chain, which sells furnishings and hardware, had received letters threatening to disrupt sales during the holiday period.
Officials said 78 people sought medical care as a result of the gas, 66 of whom were taken to hospital. More than 50 were released soon afterwards.
No serious cases have been reported.
Victims of the attack reported an unusual, garlicky smell.
Preliminary reports said the substance used was methyl mercaptan, a compound of carbon, hydrogen and sulphur.
The substance is added to natural gas to give it its odour and is poisonous in large quantities.
December 26 2005 at 12:47PM
Washington - Former secretary of state Colin Powell has defended the US administration arguing there was "nothing wrong" with President George Bush's not seeking warrants before engaging in domestic spying.
"I see absolutely nothing wrong with the president authorising these kinds of actions," Powell told ABC television Sunday after revelations last week that Bush authorised the National Security Agency to intercept communications by Americans with no approval from a special foreign intelligence court.
"The president made a determination that he had sufficient authority from the Congress to do this in the way that he did it, without getting warrants from the courts or reporting to the courts after doing it," Powell said.
"And the Congress will have to make a judgment as to whether or not they think the president was using the law correctly or not."
Though Powell said he was not aware of the operations, he said "my own judgment is that it didn't seem to me, anyway, that it would have been that hard to go get the warrants.
"Even in the case of an emergency, you go and do it. The law provides for that. And then, three days later, you let the court know what you have done and deal with it that way," Powell said.
But "for reasons that the president has discussed and the attorney general has spoken to, they chose not to do it that way."
Asked if such spying should continue, Powell said: "Yes, of course it should continue."
US media also reported that the government runs a secret program to monitor homes, workplaces and mosques of Muslims in six US cities for signs of possible nuclear radiation.
Both programs involve surveillance without search warrants or court orders, and agents who questioned the legality of the practise were allegedly rebuked, according to the news magazine US News and World Report.
The federal government had previously said it had installed radiation-detection equipment at ports, subway stations and other public sites. The reports revealed that surveillance of private property was also under way.
Bush and his top aides have stressed that the order for eavesdropping was limited to those suspected of ties to Al-Qaeda. But the latest reports about vetting vast amounts of data indicate the spying is more far-reaching.
In its effort to track terrorist threats, the Bush administration has secured groundbreaking cooperation from major telecommunications companies, which have passed along information on calling patterns from a large volume of telephone traffic to the NSA, according to US media reports.
Similar revelations about domestic spying led to legislation in the 1970s that allows for wiretapping but requires government agencies to obtain a warrant from a special court.
Sapa-AFP
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At Least 24 Killed In Violence Across Iraq
Written By The Associated Press
Last Updated:12/26/2005 - 7:34:13 PM
Violence increased across Iraq after a lull following the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections, with at least two dozen people including a U.S. soldier killed Monday in shootings and bombings mostly targeting the Shiite-dominated security services.
Officials blamed the surge in violence on insurgent efforts to deepen the political turmoil surrounding the contested vote. Preliminary figures _ including some returns released Monday from ballots cast early by extriate Iraqis and some voters inside Iraq _ have given a big lead to the religious Shiite bloc that controls the current interim government.
The violence came as three opposition groups threatened a wave of protests and civil disobedience if fraud charges are not properly investigated. The warning came from the secular Iraqi National List, headed by former Shiite Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, and two Sunni Arab groups.
Iraq's Electoral Commission said Monday that final results for the 275-seat parliament could be released in about a week.
Sunni Arab and secular Shiite factions are demanding that an international body review more than 1,500 complaints, warning they may boycott the new legislature. They also want new elections in some provinces, including Baghdad. The United Nations has rejected an outside review.
"We will resort to peaceful options, including protests, civil disobedience and a boycott of the political process until our demands are met," Hassan Zaidan al-Lahaibi, of the Sunni-dominated Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, said in neighboring Jordan, where representatives of the groups have met in recent days.
Among the complaints are 35 that the election commission considers serious enough to change some local results. But, said Farid Ayar, a commission official, "I don't think there is a reason to cancel the entire elections."
He also said preliminary results from early votes by soldiers, hospital patients and prisoners and overseas Iraqis showed a coalition of Kurdish parties and the main Shiite religious bloc each taking about a third. Those nearly 500,000 votes were not expected to alter overall results significantly.
Preliminary results previously released gave the United Iraqi Alliance, the religious Shiite coalition dominating the current government, a big lead _ but one unlikely to allow it to govern without forming a coalition with other groups.
Bahaa al-Araji, a member of the Shiite alliance, said the group was preparing to negotiate with other political blocs and had already met with the Sunni Arab Iraqi Islamic Party.
Al-Araji also said likely candidates for prime minister were current Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who heads the Islamic Dawa party, and Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who belongs to the other main Shiite party, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
Every time there has been a defining event in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, there has been a period of calm. They included the June 28, 2004, transfer of power from the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, the Jan. 30 elections, and the Oct. 15 constitution referendum.
The recent lull in violence ended Sunday, with the deaths of 18 people.
On Monday, a suicide car bomber slammed into a police patrol in the capital, leaving three dead, officials said, and a suicide motorcycle bomber rammed into a Shiite funeral ceremony, killing at least two, said Maj. Falah Mohamadawi of the Interior Ministry. A mortar then killed two people in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood.
Four other car bombs killed at least two people and gunmen killed five officers at a police checkpoint 30 miles north of Baghdad, officials said.
A U.S. soldier serving with Task Force Baghdad was killed when a rocket-propelled grenade hit his vehicle while on patrol in the capital, the military said. The name of the soldier was withheld pending notification of next of kin.
In Jordan, a lawyer for Saddam and a Jordanian newspaper claimed Monday that the former ruler's half brother rejected a U.S. offer of a ranking Iraqi government position in exchange for testimony against the deposed leader.
The half brother, Barzan Ibrahim, reportedly made the claim Thursday before the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Court which is hearing the cases against him, Saddam and six other co-defendants for the deaths of more than 140 Shiites after a 1982 attempt on Saddam's life in the town of Dujail.
The lawyer spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give details of the closed session.
Saddam's chief Iraqi lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, made the same allegations in Monday's editions of the independent Jordanian daily Al Arab Al Yawm. Dulaimi and U.S. officials were not immediately available for comment Monday, which was a U.S. holiday.
But chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Mousawi denied that there were attempts to cut a deal with Ibrahim during the closed session. "The defense team should respect the profession and should not make false statements," al-Mousawi said. He refused to divulge what happened during the closed session.
In other developments:
_ Gunmen raided a house in southern Baghdad, killing three people, police Capt. Qassim Hussein said. Gunmen attacked the house again when police arrived to remove the bodies, wounding two officers, police said.
_ A Shiite cleric in the southern city of Najaf and a man in the northern city of Mosul were gunned down. In Baghdad, a civilian driving his children to school and a professor were killed.
_ A car bomb targeted the governor of Diyala province, killing a body guard, and gunmen killed a member of Diyala city council.
_ Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko paid an unannounced visit to his country's troops. His country is pulling out its remaining 867 soldiers this week.
_ Susanne Osthoff, a German freed after being held hostage in Iraq for more than three weeks, said in an interview aired Monday that she was treated well by her kidnappers, who told her they do not hurt women or children.
http://www.wusatv9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=45433
Associated Press
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
BAGHDAD: The US military will not hand over jails or individual detainees to Iraqi authorities until they demonstrate higher standards of care, an American official said, two weeks after the discovery of 120 abused Iraqi prisoners.
Lt Col Barry Johnson said detention facilities in Iraq will be transferred over time to Iraqi officials but they must first show that the rights of detainees are safeguarded and that international law on the treatment of prisoners is being followed. “A specific timeline for doing this is difficult to project at this stage with so many variables,” Johnson, a military spokesman, said Sunday. “The Iraqis are committed to doing this right and will not rush to failure. The transition will be based on meeting standards, not on a timeline.” He was commenting on a New York Times story Sunday that was the first to report prison facilities wouldn’t be handed over until Iraqi officials improved standards.
Prisons have been one of the sore points between the Shiite Muslim majority and Sunni Arabs, a long-dominant minority that saw its power evaporate with Saddam Hussein’s ouster. US officials are pushing to heal the rift as a way to weaken support for the Sunni-led insurgency. US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said earlier this month that at least 120 abused prisoners had been found inside two jails controlled by the Shiite-run Iraqi Interior Ministry.
Sunni Arabs long have complained about abuse and torture by Interior Ministry security forces. Interior Minister Bayan Jabr contends torture allegations have been exaggerated by people who sympathize with insurgents.
Johnson said that in preparation for the eventual handover of prisons, the US Department of Justice is training Iraqi prison guards. About 300 have completed the course, he said. American authorities suffered their own black eye over mistreatment of prisoners when photographs surfaced early last year showing US soldiers abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison on Baghdad’s western outskirts. The scandal led to convictions for nine Army reservists. ap
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
12/27/2005
ISRAELI helicopter gunships hit targets in the Gaza Strip as Israel followed through on a threat to enforce a buffer zone in the northern Gaza Strip to stop militant rocket fire into Israel.
Helicopter gunships slammed missiles into two offices in Gaza which the army said were used by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group in President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, to recruit members and plan attacks. Later, a warplane dropped a bomb on a road in northern Gaza, blasting a massive crater into the ground.
There were no casualties in the Israeli attacks which came after Israeli leaders vowed to intensify air strikes against militant targets in Gaza to halt rocket fire.
Israel had not yet carried out its threat due to bad weather conditions, which kept helicopters and warplanes grounded.
As the weather cleared and following two fresh rocket strikes on farming communities in Israel, helicopters launched the first assault as warplanes broke the sound barrier over Gaza.
"Both buildings (hit in the strikes) are used by the al-Aqsa brigades which is involved both in planning and firing rockets at Israel," an army spokeswoman said.
The makeshift rockets fired by Gaza militants rarely cause casualties, but could cause political fallout as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon campaigns for re-election on the strength of this year's Gaza pullout that he said would boost Israel's security.
Rocket fire has not stopped despite Israel's withdrawal from Gaza after 38 years of occupation. In recent days the crude rockets have landed increasingly closer to the southern coastal city of Ashkelon.
Defiant militants said they would step up the barrages if Israel attempted to curb rocket fire with aerial assaults.
"Any attack on our people on any part of Palestine will be met by a decisive and violent reaction that will not be limited to a time or place," a statement issued by the al-Aqsa brigades, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees said.
Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz's office said last week that after discussion on Thursday: "He has ordered a restriction of movement in those areas from which the Palestinian terrorist organisations fire rockets into Israel."
Cross-border violence following the Gaza pullout has soured hopes that it could lead to a quick resumption of peacemaking.
Sharon has ruled out any talks on statehood in the West Bank and Gaza until Palestinians disarm militants, a process that is meant to start under U.S.-backed peace plan.
The stakes are high for Sharon ahead of a March 28 general election, for which the ex-general is standing on a platform of ending conflict with the Palestinians after quitting his rightist Likud to move towards the political centre.
Opinion polls show Sharon's Kadima party has a big lead.
Ancient Civilization Unearthed in Syria
12/19/2005
Fri Dec 16, 3:37 PM ET - This photo aerial provided by the University of Chicago taken on Oct. 25, 2005, shows the Hamoukar excavation on the upper edges of the Tigris and Euphrates Valleys, near the Iraq border that an archaeological team says may have been settled as long as 8,000 years ago. Researchers from the University of Chicago and the Department of Antiquities in Syria, in a joint announcement Thursday, Dec. 15, 2005, said they had uncovered a sophisticated ancient settlement, suddenly wiped out by invaders 5,500 years ago, which they describe as the oldest known excavated site of large-scale organized warfare.(AP Photo/The University of Chicago)
Reichel, a research associate at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, and al-Quntar, of the Syrian Department of Antiquities, jointly announced their discoveries on Thursday.
They said Hamoukar was a flourishing urban center at a time when cities were thought to be relegated hundreds of miles to the south.
The site is in the upper edges of the Tigris and Euphrates Valleys, near the Iraq border. Reichel said it may have been settled as long as 8,000 years ago.
Scholars had long believed that urbanized societies started and were isolated in Uruk, in southern Mesopotamia. But excavations that started in 1999 at Hamoukar and at other sites in central Syria led to new ideas about the how urban culture spread in the region. Ancient Mesopotamia was a region that includes Iraq and parts of Syria.
This year, the Syrian-American excavations discovered evidence of the battle that toppled and burned Hamoukar's walls and ended the city's independence. Researchers found that invaders likely hurled more than 1,200 sling-fired bullets at Hamoukar and more than 100 heavy, 4-inch clay balls.
"The whole area of our most recent excavation was a war zone," Reichel said.
The ruins have preserved not only local pottery and artifacts, but also vast amounts of Uruk pottery.
"The picture is compelling," Reichel said. "If the Uruk people weren't the ones firing the sling bullets, they certainly benefited from it. They took over this place right after its destruction."
Reichel said if Hamoukar's residents were taken by surprise it will give researchers plenty to study because their possessions likely were buried with them under the debris.
The Associated Press
December 27, 2005 - 12:53 am
There’s just no denying Iraqi citizens long for democracy. In the second major election in that country in the last year, a huge turnout came to the polls.
They came out despite the threats of violence. They came out despite the hard-core will of terrorists who are doing everything they can to disrupt the democratic process in Iraq.
Iraq’s permanent parliamentary elections do signal the birth of democracy in the Middle East. Americans should look on in wonderment at the birth of freedom. We weren’t here to witness our own nation’s birth in democracy, so many of us really don’t appreciate what a dramatic experience it is.
The elections were mostly peaceful; however, there has been some dissent over the process. The early count shows a likely landslide victory for the Shiites, and this has some Iraqi blocs believing there was voter fraud. It’s hard to know at this point if actual fraud has taken place; however, it’s logical the Sunnis will remain in the minority because there aren’t as many of them in the country.
While U.S authorities can tout the initial success of the election, the situation is tenuous. Some Iraqi groups have vowed peaceful “civil disobedience” to protest the elections, but violence — mostly from terrorists opposed to a free Iraq — continues to disrupt the move toward democracy.
It just shows freedom is hard, democracy is difficult. Yet, each day, the situation improves just a little bit, despite the terrorists’ attempts to thwart the process. Americans have to believe freedom will find a way, because our own nation is a testament to that process.
Democracy is not perfect, but it’s a lot better situation than a dictatorship. If freedom actually can take hold in the Middle East, it eventually will win the day. But, Americans need to realize the process won’t take just a matter of months, it will take a matter of years. It will be an evolving process.
The Iraqis want to be able to decide their own leadership, they don’t want to be dictated to by terrorists. This is obvious from the turnout and the will of the Iraqi people.
Our best hope is American troops can begin to withdraw in 2006. The Department of Defense already has announced two units scheduled to go to Iraq will not be going. It’s a positive start that hopefully will lead to limited American military involvement in Iraq.
By Rowan Scarborough - THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 27, 2005
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