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LONDON - The retired American general who headed the first occupation government in Iraq (news - web sites) says the decision to disband the Iraqi army was one of several major mistakes Washington has made in Iraq. AP Photo Latest headlines: · Pentagon Sending More Marines to Iraq AP - 51 minutes ago · US readies extra marines for IraqAFP - 56 minutes ago · Iraq's Shiites Oppose U.S. Election Plan AP - 1 hour, 47 minutes ago Special Coverage   The United States should also have put more more troops into Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein (news...

<p>Iraq's American-backed administration failed in its first week to choose a president, abandoning that mission in favor of a weak, three-man rotating leadership. The top U.S. official in Iraq -- who hand-picked the Governing Council -- returned to Washington while an insurgency killed another American soldier Saturday.</p>

BAGHDAD, Iraq Americans can be proud of the role their fighting men and women played in freeing Iraq of Saddam Hussein and his cronies. The people of Iraq are now on the road to political and economic independence.The first official step in this political transition at the national level occurs today, with the convening of the Iraqi Governing Council. This is the latest sign of progress. For the first time in decades, Iraqis are truly free. More than 150 newspapers have been started since liberation. All major cities and 85 percent of towns now have a municipal council where Iraqis...

CAMP BOOM, Iraq - U.S. forces launched a massive operation early Sunday to crush insurgents and capture senior figures from the ousted regime in a show of force designed to stem a wave of deadly attacks on U.S. troops. The operation, dubbed "Desert Sidewinder," is taking place in a huge swath of central Iraq stretching from the Iranian border to the areas north of Baghdad, and is expected to last for several days, military officials said. Americans arrested a man in Khalis, 45 miles north of Baghdad. He is suspected of recruiting young men to launch attacks on Americans, according...

The British military has ordered a suspension of weapons searches in the area of southern Iraq where six soldiers were killed, while a fundamental review takes place of the civilian population's right to carry arms. The Army has agreed to a two-month "cooling-off" period in the town of Majar al-Kabir, near Amara, and this may be extended to other areas in an effort to defuse the rise in anti-British sentiment. There is acknowledgement among defence staff that a lack of understanding of the local people contributed to the fatal confrontation on Tuesday in which six members of the Royal Military...

SAMARRA, Iraq -- U.S. military commanders have ordered a halt to local elections and self-rule in provincial cities and towns across Iraq, choosing instead to install their own handpicked mayors and administrators, many of whom are former Iraqi military leaders. The decision to deny Iraqis a direct role in selecting municipal governments is creating anger and resentment among aspiring leaders and ordinary citizens, who say the U.S.-led occupation forces are not making good on their promise to bring greater freedom and democracy to a country dominated for three decades by Saddam Hussein.

The huge effort to restore Iraq's oil industry begins every day two hours south of the Iraq-Kuwait border, at the lavish Crowne Plaza Hotel in Kuwait City. No sooner does the lobby restaurant open at 5 a.m. than a line of middle-aged men in jumpsuits, golf shirts and identical tan caps forms at the breakfast buffet, eschewing the mezzeh and labneh for French toast, home fries and beef bacon. Outside, a couple of dozen silver S.U.V.'s are lined up, and after a quick breakfast the men are off in a swift northbound convoy, each car marked with the sideways V...

Iraq's 1st Public Poll Backs U.S. June 19, 2003 Attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a U.S. military ambulance in Iraq on Thursday, killing one U.S. soldier and injuring two others, the military said. It was the fourth attack in 24 hours on Americans in Iraq, and the third with deadly results either for Americans or Iraqis. The Pentagon has been playing down the attacks, saying they don't indicate widespread resentment on the part of the Iraqi people. Now, reports CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Palmer, Iraq's first-ever public opinion poll seems to back that up. Sixty-five percent of Iraqis...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq (news - web sites)'s state oil marketing company SOMO on Thursday awarded its first post-war tender to sell 10 million barrels of crude held in storage but only one U.S. company was among the six winners. The tender was won by Spanish refiners Repsol and Cepsa, Turkish Tupras, Italian ENI and French Total while ChevronTexaco was the only U.S. company. Of the 10 million barrels sold from storage in Turkey, 5.5 million will go to the European market and four million to the U.S., the remainder left for "tolerance," SOMO Director-General Mohammed al-Jibouri told reporters. Total...

Saudi Nationals have joined the Sunni insurgency against United States Troops in Iraq. At least one US Soldier daily has been killed over the past few weeks.Meanwhile a US based Saudi opposition organization has reported that two Saudi Nationals have been killed in the sporadic fighting Middle East Newsline reported. Last week, the US Armys Third Division sent its 2nd Brigade to launch an operation in several Sunni cities to quell the insurgency.US Officials confimed that Saudi nationals have financed and participated in the Sunni insurgency. They said elements in Saudi Arabia view the US Military presence in Iraq as...

I'm started to get irked with this nonsense of S*itbird Iraqis killing American soldiers. I'm starting to get irked with this nonsense of not slamdunking anyone shooting at Americans. This touchy feely BS needs to end. Clean out the remaining opposition....not with UN style patrols....clean'em out with CIA payrolled spies and quick strikes carried out by Green Berets, Navy Seals and Recon Marines. Buld a friggin Guantanamo out in the Western Desert and stick every single Arab with a frown on his face in there until the Iraqi Government can be set up. Let them deal with them later. ...and...

Iran warned off 'meddling' in Iraq Bremer admitted he still had a tough task ahead of him The US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, has accused neighbouring Iran of actively attempting to subvert the coalition mission in the country.Mr Bremer said he did not welcome "interference" from Iran while US-led forces in Iraq were engaged in the "process of reconstruction and democratisation." "The message is very clear: the Iranians know they're doing it and they know we're unhappy about it and they ought to stop it," he said. Iran has been critical of the delay in government being put...

CENTCOM:   June 10, 2003Release Number: 03-06-39 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TASK FORCE "IRONHORSE" LAUNCHES OPERATION PENINSULA STRIKE CAMP DOHA, Kuwait -- During the early morning hours of June 9th, Task Force Ironhorse soldiers conducted a series of raids to eradicate Ba’ath Party loyalists, paramilitary groups and other subversive elements located on a peninsula along the Tigris River, northeast of Balad, Iraq. The raids signaled the start of Operation Peninsula Strike. The operation took place in two major stages. The first stage of the operation involved moving soldiers and equipment into strike positions, intelligence gathering, and coordination with local police. During...

Wednesday June 11, 00:36 AM US warns of prolonged Iraqi resistance as violence flares again US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned that coalition forces in Iraq will need many more months to eliminate armed resistance from fighters loyal to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, as hostile fire wounded four more US soldiers.The dangerous disorder still prevailing over two months after the fall of Saddam's regime was further highlighted when three Iraqis were killed in a munitions explosion.Speaking in Lisbon at the start of a four-day tour of Europe, Rumsfeld blamed the attacks that have claimed mounting US casualties on former...

MOSUL, Iraq -- A soldier with 2nd Battalion, 44th Air Defense Artillery, 101st Airborne Division, assembles an AK-47 rifle with a soldier from the Joint Iraqi Security Company, left, and a translator, center, June 5. The 2-44 ADA  is training Kurdish and Iraqi forces to become the first self-sufficient Iraqi military force. Photo by Pfc. James Matise/U.S. Army. 2-44 ADA Trains Joint Iraqi Security CompanyIraq's First Military Security Force is Made Up of Iraqis From Across the Countryby Pfc. James Matise101st Airborne Division writer MOSUL, Iraq (June 6, 2003) – The soldiers gathered inside the dilapidated building were certainly...

BASRA, Iraq - In a significant escalation of political militancy against Iraq's interim authorities, saboteurs appear to be targeting the power grid of one of the country's largest cities with the aim of crippling a key oil refinery, local officials said Saturday. A series of destructive attacks on carefully selected power lines around Basra in recent weeks has played havoc with the energy-hungry Basra Refinery, an important source of gasoline for the domestic market. Looting wasn't a motive because no cables were stolen from the toppled electrical towers, the officials said, suggesting that holdouts from Saddam Hussein's vanquished Baath Party...

New Hampshire On the face of it, Jordan’s election this month would seem to be a lively affair. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve driven the length and breadth of the country. Well, not the length, but the breadth — from the Allenby Bridge across from the ghastly Arafat squat on the West Bank over to the eastern desert and the Iraqi border post at Trebil. And in every town you pass through there are handmade banners strung across the streets proclaiming the merits of a zillion candidates. Nothing fancy, just dense text on white sheets. But lots of...

There's no dysentery or cholera, no sign of a human catastrophe, the roads and medical centres are empty and the countryside charming. Yes, writes Mark Steyn, there's no place like Iraq for a holiday I've spent the past couple of weeks on a motoring tour of western and northern Iraq, and I can't recommend it highly enough. The roads are empty except for the occasional burnt-out tank and abandoned Saddamite limo. You can make excellent time, because it will be several months before a deBa'athified Iraqi highway patrol squad is up and running and even longer before they replace the...

May. 29, 2003 US raids Palestinian mission in Baghdad By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Baghdad US troops raided the Palestinian Authority's mission in Baghdad and arrested 11 members including its top diplomat after ransacking the building, Palestinian officials said Thursday. A top US general said only eight people had been arrested. "They even took all of our water bottles and food cans," said Mohamed Abdul Wahab, a mission official. "They behaved like common thieves." Although US troops have conducted numerous sweeps against suspected criminals and loyalists of Saddam Hussein's regime, Wednesday's raid was the first such action against a foreign diplomatic...

U.S. administrator Paul Bremer Wednesday reported "troubling" Iranian activity in Iraq and said it could result in serious problems if it went too far. "We have seen a rather steady increase in Iranian activity here, which is troubling," Bremer said in the interview with ABC News, excerpts of which were released Wednesday. His comments were the latest in a series of critical U.S. statements about Iran, lumped by President Bush in an "axis of evil" with North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in remarks published Tuesday the United States would not allow Iraq's neighbors to...

<p>BAGHDAD, Iraq — While acknowledging that the situation in Iraq remains far from ideal, the U.S. civilian administrator said Monday that occupying forces have done a great deal to re-establish stability and will be pushing to help the nation rebuild its economy.</p>

By Patrick E. Tyler THE NEW YORK TIMES BAGHDAD - The U.S. occupation authority in Iraq, apparently preserving the prewar distinction between Kurdish-controlled northern areas and the rest of the country, will allow Kurdish fighters to keep their assault rifles and heavy weapons, but require Shiite Muslim and other militias to surrender theirs, according to a draft directive. The plan has engendered intense criticism by Shiite leaders involved in negotiations with American and British officials who have met privately with the heavily armed political groups that have moved into the power vacuum here. "Maybe we didn't fight with the coalition,...

<p>May 25, 2003 -- With 13 years of crippling economic sanctions finally lifted, Iraq is set to resume oil exports next month, an interim government official said yesterday, a major step toward rebuilding the country's economy.</p> <p>"By two to three weeks, Iraq will be back in the market," said Thamir Ghadhban, director of Iraq's oil ministry, at a news conference. "It will take a few weeks but we should be producing 1.3 to 1.5 million barrels per day by the middle of next month."</p>

BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 21, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- A national conference that will pick Iraq's new interim government will probably be held in mid-July, L. Paul Bremer, the country's U.S. civilian administrator said Wednesday. "We are continuing our active dialogue with Iraqi leaders, we are meeting with them every day," Bremer said during a tour of the newly reopened al-Karkh jail on the outskirts of Baghdad. He said his goal was to establish a government "representative of all Iraqis." Copyright 2003 Associated Press, All rights reserved MORE...

Allies to Begin Seizing Weapons From Most Iraqis By MICHAEL R. GORDON AGHDAD, May 20 — Iraqi citizens will be required to turn over automatic weapons and heavy weapons under a proclamation that allied authorities plan to issue this week, allied officials said today. The aim of the proclamation is to help stabilize Iraq by confiscating the huge supply of AK-47's, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons that are used by criminal gangs, paramilitary groups and remnants of the Saddam Hussein government. Iraqis who refuse to comply with the edict will be subject to arrest. Only Iraqis authorized to...

The newest face thrust upon us by America's insatiable appetite for novelty belongs to one Noah Feldman. He's a 32-year-old assistant professor of law at New York University and author of a new book (his first) entitled After Jihad: America and the Struggle for Islamic Democracy. He's also been anointed chief U.S. adviser to Iraq for the writing of its new constitution. This announcement has been greeted by laudatory pieces, in places as varied as the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Israeli daily Ma'ariv. The novelty? It's the combination. Feldman is Jewish (raised in an Orthodox...

BAGHDAD - A squadron of US Army scouts is finding itself drawn into an increasingly complex labyrinth of political and religious intrigue in one of Baghdad's poorest and most volatile neighborhoods. In reaching out to the local community in Thawra, the 2nd Squadron of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment is forging a cooperative relationship with religious and civic leaders. Their mission: to lay the groundwork for a free Iraq governed by Iraqis. But not all religious leaders in this heavily Shiite Muslim enclave want to cooperate with US forces. Second Squadron officers were shocked when - after arranging to provide...

AFP Photo Two key powerbrokers began making their mark on post-war Iraq as Paul Bremer, the top US civilian official, began touring the Gulf a day after a top Shiite Muslim leader returned home in triumph from 23 years of exile.Bremer, a 61-year-old career diplomat and counterterrorism expert arrived in Doha to outline his mission to supervise the rebuilding and democratization of war-torn Iraq.Tapped Tuesday by US President George W. Bush for the post, Bremer was accompanied by General Richard Myers, chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, and was to met retired general Jay Garner, the US...

U.N. fears for Palestinians evicted from Iraq homes GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations expressed concern Friday that Iraqi landlords have forced Palestinian refugees out of previously subsidized homes, raising fears that up to 90,000 people could be put out on the street. In addition to 1,000 Palestinians reportedly evicted in Baghdad, dozens of Iranian refugees have been turned out of homes by local communities in southern Iraq, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement. Palestinians, displaced from their homes when Israel was founded in 1948, enjoyed ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's protection, often being housed in...

<p>UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.S. draft resolution on Iraq would give U.N. approval for the United States and Britain to run the country for at least a year, with the United Nations and other international authorities playing a limited role, council diplomats said Thursday.</p>

WASHINGTON, May 6 — President Bush appointed a new civilian administrator for Iraq today, settling a sharp disagreement between the State and Defense Departments over how best to manage that country during its recovery and reconstruction. The new administrator, L. Paul Bremer, who served as an ambassador at large for counterterrorism in the Reagan administration, will outrank Jay Garner, the retired Army lieutenant general who has been in charge of postwar administration since the government of Saddam Hussein was ousted by American-led military forces last month. The Pentagon had hoped to retain control of the postwar effort, so the decision...

WASHINGTON - Bush names career diplomat to be top U.S. civilian in Iraq. No Info yet. Searching!!

US appoints new Iraqi oil minister The US-led association overseeing Iraq’s reconstruction has appointed former Director of planning at Iraq’s oil ministry, Thamir Ghadhban as new head of the department. Former head of Royal Dutch/Shell Phillip Carroll will head an advisory board to the ministry, revealed US spokesman John Kincannon. According to an Iraqi oil ministry official, Ghadhban's position will be temporary until a future interim government formally selects a minister. Educated in the UK, Ghadhban played a major role in Iraq's Southern Oil Company and was a top adviser to the former Iraqi oil minister. In a bid...

Parties, plunder, and prayer in liberated Baghdad Matthew Gutman May. 5, 2003 In Sadr City, the lawless and impoverished district in east Baghdad formerly known as Saddam City, the US has found a friend. The Shi'ite residents and their powerful clerics have thrown their support behind American troops, grateful that they rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein and hopeful that the US might drag them out of dire poverty. "We were the living dead under Saddam," said Said Fathen al-Yasser, a metal trader who specializes in pillaged Iraqi tank and artillery shells. "Now we are free. For the first time...

Iraq police arrest two over cleric death in Najaf NAJAF, Iraq, May 2 (Reuters) - Iraqi police exchanged fire with gunmen near a holy shrine and cemetery in Najaf early on Friday, detaining two of them suspected of participating in the killing of a senior Shi'ite cleric in the holy city last month. Abdel-Khaliq al-Kaabi, head of a volunteer civilian police force in Najaf, located some 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, told reporters that Mehr al-Baghdadi and a man he identified only as Ihsan were arrested. He said they were among a group of about ten men who...

<p>BAGHDAD — Nawwas, a clerk in the literature department of the University of Baghdad, was feeling more agitation than excitement this week in anticipation of the $20 she would soon receive from the U.S. government.</p> <p>The money, a one-time cash gift, is aimed at helping civil servants tide over until the transitional administration can sort out the salary structure and resume payments.</p>

OMED: Reports began to seep out late in April. There was a new and strange Portland-Iraqi connection. Not the business of the famous (and well watched) local mosque, but something truly bizarre. We ran across it on the famous internet forum, Free Republic, some text of which follows. Iraq Workers Are Promised 1000 Pct. Raise Posted on 04/23/2003 9:12 AM PDT by areafiftyone BAGHDAD, Iraq -Baghdad's self-proclaimed rulers said Wednesday they will use Iraqigovernment funds to pay all state employees their salaries this month - with a 1,000-percentraise - and took credit for advances in getting power, water and hospitals...

America takes on the reconstruction of Iraq and the challenges of a postwar world at a happy time, for it is flooded with advice, all of it good. Unfortunately, all of it is also contradictory. We must have an agenda for Iraq's political future, but we must not behave like occupiers. We should not formally end the regime of sanctions until we have scoured the country for weapons of mass destruction, yet we should restore Iraqi prosperity forthwith. We should be wary of a fundamentalist uprising, without imposing our values. Got that?American efforts in Iraq are proceeding along two...

Reds under the ruinsBy Paul Belden BAGHDAD - He still calls himself Abu Ayad, but that's only because old habits die hard. "It's my secret name," he explains with a smile, wiping his professorial spectacles against the sleeve of his neat, nerdy, button-down yellow shirt. This secret-named, hardened political fighter is, it turns out, a shy man at heart. Shy - but not embarrassed. The name and the reason behind it, may seem to be holdovers of a different era, but they were once the dead-serious necessities of political activism in this land where even the suspicion of such an...

<p>FALLUJAH, Iraq — Attackers lobbed two grenades over a wall and into a compound of U.S. troops in Fallujah (search) on Thursday, wounding seven soldiers just hours after they had opened fire on anti-American protesters, a U.S. intelligence officer reported.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration has chosen L. Paul Bremer, a former head of the State Department's counterterrorism office, to become civilian administrator in Iraq and oversee the country's transition to democratic rule. Bremer's selection, disclosed Wednesday by a senior U.S. official, will put him in charge of a transition team that includes retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner and Zalmay Khalilzad, the special White House envoy in the Persian Gulf region. Bremer left the State Department, where he was an assistant to former secretaries William P. Rogers and Henry Kissinger, to join Kissinger Associates, a consulting firm...

Reuters, reporting on the results of the meeting of approximately 250 prominent Iraqis of various political and ethnic groupings, observed: "In a sign the transition to an interim government will be far from easy, delegates said splits emerged between returned Iraqi exiles and those who had lived through the Saddam years." Based on reports from the anti-war commentators I had been reading, about how the Iraqis were demanding that the Americans "Go Home," I assumed, naturally, that the split occurred because the Iraqi exiles, many of whom have been living in America, wanted more US involvement. It turns out the...

France has diplomat in Iraq once again - Villepin PARIS, April 30 (Reuters) - France, which like many other countries pulled its diplomats out of Iraq before U.S.-led forces attacked last month, again has an envoy in Baghdad, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said on Wednesday. Villepin told a news conference in Paris that a French diplomat, whom he did not name, had been in the Iraqi capital since Monday. "France wishes to be present alongside the Iraqi people," he said. France's charge d'affaires in Iraq, Andre Janier, had left the Iraqi capital on March 18, two days before the...

What we are witnessing in Baghdad is only the beginning of a long period of instability, marked by violence, civil strife, and internal hemorrhaging. STARTING OVER: An Iraqi shop owner speaks to American troops guarding the banking district of Baghdad, as other shopkeepers and residents look on, Sunday April 27, 2003. The people were requesting permission to enter the area to reopen their stores. The soldiers refusedto allow the residents to enter saying that the area was closed for security reasons. ================================================ "These are the model citizens of a future democratic Iraq?" That question must have pounded through the halls...

NEW DELHI APRIL 29. NDTV brings you a world exclusive from Baghdad. Did the people of Iraq welcome the American troops or not? Does the ordinary Iraqi want the Americans to stay or go back now that Saddam Hussein is dethroned? If Saddam Hussein is found do the people of Iraq want to see him punished or not? Is this war all about oil or not? With the embedded Western media being widely accused of bias there appear to be no reliable answers to many of these questions. In order to cut through the cacophony of opinions and views, NDTV...

Tue April 29, 2003 11:26 AM ET By Alan Elsner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some in the U.S. administration are pushing to invoke a controversial financial doctrine to free Iraq from a mountain of debt amassed by Saddam Hussein but if history is any indicator it appears unlikely. With Iraqi debt restructuring or forgiveness now a major issue in the effort to rebuild the country, the idea to declare the hundreds of billions of dollars owed to foreign creditors as "odious debt" is being promoted by some conservatives in the Bush administration. The "odious debt" doctrine holds that obligations incurred by...

QUM, Iran, April 26 — A black-turbaned Iraqi cleric, his belongings packed in a small blue bag sitting at his feet, led about 50 clerics in prayer. Kneeling on red Persian rugs, the men, many of whom who had spent the last two decades in Iran, gathered to catch the train that would take them to Iraq. "I am going first to Kazemein for a pilgrimage and then will go to Baghdad to find a home for my family," said Muhammad Hassani, a 52-year-old mid-ranking cleric, who had lived in Iran since 1980. Mr. Hassani, the father of 10, had...

Iraqi leaders agreed with the US administrator of Iraq yesterday to convene a conference within a month to form an interim administration to succeed Saddam Hussein's dictatorship. The decision was made in a show of hands at the end of a meeting in Baghdad of 250 prominent Iraqis, including members of the majority Shia community who ended their boycott of talks on the future of the country. "All efforts should be made to hold a national conference within four weeks . . . to select a transitional Iraqi government," they said in a statement read out at the end of...

April 28— By Rosalind Russell BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A senior U.S. military commander said on Monday there was no question of releasing Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi, the self-proclaimed Baghdad mayor arrested on Sunday for exercising authority he did not have."He's not going to be released. He's a criminal," Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, told Reuters in the Iraqi capital."He's broken multiple laws, from theft to intimidation," Blount said, giving no details of any charges."Right now he's in a holding center and his movements will be decided in the next few days," the general added.U.S. Central Command...

Iraqi Delegates Gather for Gov't Talks By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent BAGHDAD, Iraq - Stressing unity in a divided land, more than 200 delegates from inside and outside Iraq (news - web sites) haggled Monday over Iraq's future, meeting in Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s elaborate convention hall under the protection of a ring of U.S. tanks. Clear differences among the delegates emerged on the United States' involvement, with exiles generally seeking a diminished role for Washington. Elsewhere, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld visited Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar, thanking U.S. troops for removing Saddam: "You...