A United States soldier patrolled the outskirts of Baquba, the capital of Diyala Province, where there are sectarian tensions. (Marko Drobnjakovic/Associated Press)

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and RIYADH MOHAMMED Published: August 19, 2008 BAGHDAD — Iraq’s prime minister ordered an investigation on Tuesday into a violent government raid in Diyala Province earlier in the day that left one provincial official dead and another under arrest. His rapid response reflected fears that the raid, reminiscent of the sectarian attacks once carried out regularly by Shiite-dominated security forces, could inflame sectarian tensions in the fragile province.

An American soldier was killed by a rocket attack at a base near the southeastern Iraqi city of Amara on Tuesday, the military said in a statement.

In northern Iraq, near the town of Makhmur, American troops killed a father and son in a car when they did not stop as they were approaching an American military vehicle, said a local Iraqi police official.

Iraqi, raid, Diyala, Sunni, Shiite, Muslim, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, special antiterrorism force, Husain al-Zubaidi, Salim Abdullah Jubori, Raad Mulla Jwad al-Tamimi, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Baquba, Abbas al-Tamimi, Hadi Abdullah al-Temami, Ibrahim Bajallam, Ismael Saleh, Mo’ayd, Turkmens, Kirkuk, Staff Sgt. Sam Smith, Amara

++Moqtada as-Sadr released a press statement calling on his followers to put down their weapons and take up intellectual and religious education of Iraqi society to free it from the minds, hearts and souls of Western secularism.  ٍ

Down the road, this could be more of a problem than it seems to be.  Providing social services has proven to be an effective way to gain popularity and get people to support your political agenda (see: HAMAS, Muslim Brotherhood, Hizbullah).  If the al-Maliki government drops the ball on its promised reconstruction projects in southern Iraq,  then it creates an opportunity for JAM to step in with education programs, food banks, etc., assuming they have the capacity to do so.   Things could get tricky in the South; the success of the central government's reconstruction projects will be an important factor in the coming months.

++In connection with ongoing security operations in Diyala province, the al-Maliki government has announced an amnesty plan for any fighters who turn themselves in to the Iraqi authorities between now and next Thursday.  The military also announced the arrests of 16 leaders of the Islamic State of Iraq, who played important roles in the planning and executing of attacks in and around B'aquba.

The current operations will damage the insurgents' capacity, but a long-term strategy for eradicating them needs to be in place.  The central government needs to maintain a heightened security presence in Diyala province to prevent these groups from regaining strength in the coming months.  If the government cannot provide the manpower, then it needs to rely on its local citizens to enforce security laws, which requires their acquiescence.  As in the South, reconstruction projects will be a key factor in defeating the Diyala insurgents/terrorists.

++Iraqi Parliament approved the supplementary budget bill but officially failed to pass the elections law yesterday.  A special committee will be appointed to discuss the issue, in particular the U.N. proposal, while Parliament is in recess.  An inside source claims that Fadhila and Sadr politicians are the ones opposed to the U.N. proposal.  The source also said that if the parties cannot reach an agreement on the U.N. proposal, then they will default back to the original Article 24, which would raise staunch Kurdish objections.

At the same time, al Hayat reports tribal Arab leaders based in Kirkuk threatened to use force to defend the "Arab-ness" of the city.

Finally, Abu Aardvark has an interesting post about the impact of the postponed elections on the Awakenings movements.  These movements and their association with U.S. forces have played an important role in stemming Iraq's violence, and it is important that they continue to do so.

La cuestión de Kirkuk sigue entorpeciendo la normalización de Irak y suponiendo un grave riesgo para la seguridad y la permanencia del país. De nuevo y con ocasión de los debates  en la Asamblea Nacional del proyecto de ley de elecciones provinciales, las posturas  enfrentadas de kurdos, árabes y turcomanos han impedido que se fije la convocatoria. Previstas estas elecciones para el próximo mes de Octubre no es descartable que se  demoren hasta 2009, en un país  al que no le sobra el tiempo para pacificarse, y que tiene en esas elecciones una gran esperanza de estabilización. Pero ni los políticos kurdos han renunciado a la celebración del referéndum sobre el futuro de Kirkuk que prevé la Constitución de 2005, ni árabes y turcomanos renuncian a que la ciudad siga formando parte de un Irak federal como capital de la provincia de Tamin. El retorno de los sunitas a la política activa y el temor del Gobierno Al Maliki a la desmembración y el descontrol del país han contribuido a  ralentizar las exigencias kurdas.

 Que se dejara  para mas adelante el citado referéndum, previsto para finales de 2007, supuso un gran alivio en una cuestión que podría incidir de manera muy negativa en la reintegración del país, generar nuevos brotes de violencia terrorista y complicar las relaciones con Turquía. No convocar ese referéndum dio a entender que era necesario para las diversas  partes iniciar un periodo de reflexión, entre otras cosas para fomentar las medidas de confianza entre las distintas comunidades. No se sabe muy bien si desde entonces  se ha avanzado en el entendimiento entre kurdos, árabes y turcomanos, o si han disminuido las amenazas terroristas en algo que constituye un objetivo valioso para los extremistas de todo tipo y desde luego para los militantes de Al Qaeda. Se trataría de seguir matando y enfrentando a unos contra otros. Lo ocurrido en los recientes debates en la Asamblea, el eventual alejamiento de las elecciones  y el terrible atentado del 28 de Agosto no son precisamente elementos que alimenten el optimismo y el progreso. Ese día una mujer suicida se hizo estallar causando la muerte a 23 personas en un mercado céntrico de Kirkuk. 

Kirkuk concentra prácticamente todos los problemas que  Irak padece; reparto de las rentas de los recursos energéticos de forma equitativa, revisión de la limpieza étnica de Saddam Hussein, reintegración de las comunidades religiosas y étnicas, viabilidad del modelo federal, relaciones con los países vecinos, en especial con Turquía e Irán...Por ello una solución que no salga de la negociación y el consenso, toda respuesta  antagónica, incidiría en  cada una de  estas cuestiones, aceleraría la desintegración nacional y proporcionaría nuevos motivos para el terrorismo yihadista. A fuerza de estudiar el tema de Kirkuk se teme acabe pareciéndose al tema de Cachemira. Por si fuera poco complejo en Kirkuk al irredentismo kurdo se une el hecho no desdeñable  de que en la zona se genera una quinta parte de las rentas de la exportación del petróleo iraquí, lo que hace aún más delicado despejar incógnitas, intensifica ambiciones e incrementa   la desconfianza, sin que  quepa excluir que justamente  por Kirkuk el doloroso proceso de normalización de Irak experimente un retroceso dramático. 

IGNACIO RUPEREZ

Once again I am honored to host another perceptive article on Iraq written by Ambassador Ignacio  Rupérez. He is the author of Daños Colaterales: Un español en el infierno iraqui an important book to read and ponder. 

THE DANGERS OF KIRKUK 

The Kirkuk question continues to delay Iraq's efforts to get itself back to normal, representing a serious risk to the country's security and long term existence. Once again, during the debates in the National Assembly on the forthcoming provincial elections law, the diametrically opposed positions of Kurds, Arabs and Turcomen prevented a date from being set. These elections, planned for this October, may even be delayed to 2009, this in a country that needs to speed up the pacification process, and which places great hopes of stability on this trip to the urns. But, just as Kurdish politicians haven't given up on holding the referendum, provided for in the 2005 Constitution, neither have Arabs nor Turcomen stopped hoping that the city will continue to form part of a federal Iraq as the capital of the province of Tamin. The return of Sunnis to active politics and the fear of Al Maliki's Government lest the country should fragment and spiral out of control have contributed to slowing down Kurdish demands. 

The postponement of said referendum, planned for late 2007, was a great relief, this being on an issue that could impact extremely negatively on the country's recovery, generate new breakouts of terrorist violence and complicate relations with Turkey. Not calling this referendum sent a sign that all the different parties involved had to begin a period of reflection, amongst other things to encourage confidence building between the different communities. It is not clear whether, since then, understanding between Kurds, Arabs and Turcomen has improved, or whether terrorist threats have diminished in an issue that represents a valuable prize for extremists of all kinds, and naturally for Al Qaeda militants. They would aim to carry on killing and setting one side against another. What happened in the Assembly's recent debates, the temporary postponement of elections and the terrible attack of 28^th July are events that do absolutely nothing to encourage optimism or progress. On that day a female suicide bomber blew herself up killing 23 people in a central Kirkuk market. 

Just about all of Iraq's issues are played out in Kirkuk: the fair distribution of energy resources, healing the consequences of Saddam Hussein's ethnic cleansing, re-integrating religious and ethnic communities, the viability of the federal model, and relations with neighbouring countries, particularly with Turkey and Iran ...That is why any solution that is imposed and not the fruit of negotiation and consensus would hit all of those nerves, accelerating national disintegration and providing new reasons for Jihad terrorism. When one studies the Kirkuk situation one fears that it will end up looking all too like that of Kashmir. To make a complex situation more so, in the case of Kirkuk, to Kurdish nationalism one has to add the not inconsequential fact that the area generates a fifth of Iraq's entire oil export income, which makes it even more difficult to unravel unknowns, strengthens ambitions and increases distrust; all of which mean that we cannot exclude the possibility of Kirkuk causing a dramatic move backwards in Iraq's painful inching towards normality. 

IGNACIO RUPEREZ

Iraq's political parties continue to debate the new elections law without reaching an agreement, despite pressure from U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and the U.N.  The law has to do with provincial elections, and the problem is the city of Kirkuk.  The proposed law would divide Kirkuk into four districts and create an even power split between the Kurds, Arabs and Turkomans that live in the area.  The Kurds oppose this because they believe that they deserve more - they currently occupy 26 of the 42 seats in Kirkuk's provincial Parliament.  But the central government wants to distribute political and administrative posts more evenly with regards to ethnicity, and they want to implement this plan in the upcoming provincial elections.  Meanwhile, the Kurds, the U.S. and the U.N. seem to support postponing the elections until further notice.

The reason everyone wants a piece of Kirkuk is because it sits next to some of Iraq's biggest oil fields.  Though the Kirkuk Arabs (mostly Sunni) and Turkomans are not natural allies of the al-Maliki government, al-Maliki probably wants Arabs to hold as much control over the area as possible.  The U.S. and U.N. are probably looking to postpone the elections because they fear that the city could become a flashpoint for new rounds of ethnic violence.  Once it realized the value of Kirkuk's oil, Saddam's regime encouraged Arabs to move to Kirkuk, thereby shifting the demographics of the city.  The city has witnessed ethnic tension ever since (see International Crisis Group's 2007 report for more details).

Unless either side is willing to give way, which does not seem likely, this issue will go unresolved past the Parliament's summer recess, resulting in a postponement of elections in Kirkuk.

The elusive magical success pony in Iraq just got scared away (again):

Iraqi parliamentarians failed on Sunday to pass a law on provincial elections, putting the date of important polls in doubt and leaving unresolved a political standoff that has stoked ethnic tensions.

After struggling for hours to reach a quorum, lawmakers indefinitely postponed a special session they had called to pass the law, which has come unstuck over plans for the disputed northern city of Kirkuk and angered minority Kurds.

The delay may mean the elections, originally planned for October 1, could be put off until next year. Electoral officials have said they need months to plan once the law is passed.

So much for all those defiant assertions about how us dirty fucking hippies simply must admit that teh surge is TOO working!

Related: More from Elizabeth Ferris of The Brookings Institution on Kirkuk, "the next 'powder keg' in Iraq" (PDF).

Recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers

What the lull means, of course, depends on why is has happened. Phil Myers, who comments from time to time on these postings, and I have discussed several possibilities. By way of context, Phil is a history PhD, I am a political scientist, and we were classmates, roommates, and fraternity brothers at the University of Colorado a few years ago, to put it kindly.

I suggested four possible explanations, to which Phil has responded.

1. The surge has worked. That, of course, is what surge apologists argue, using reductions in casualties as their evidence. Viewed this way, the surge was a tactic rather than a strategy, unless one argues it has also contributed to the strategic goal of a stable post-American Iraq. Phil's opinion is that "when we leave the fighting will start all over again." My view is that if it is a tactic aimed at suppressing violence levels, it has succeeded. If it is a strategic element, we have no way to know yet. I also tend to agree with Phil's assessment.

2. Most of the ethnic cleansing, which is what the "civil war" was actually about, has been completed, and there are few people who need killing left. The gist here is that all major groups have carved out their enclaves around which to rally after the war is over by kicking out or killing members of other major groups. The only remaining place where the process is incomplete is in the oil-rich regions around Kirkuk where, non-coincidentally, there is still fighting. Phil's comment is that "there is always someone left to kill." True enough, but what may be left is Afghan-style tribal killing after the war.

3. The Iraqis want us to leave, and have collectively decided the best way to do so is to convince us we are no longer needed by dropping the level of violence. Certainly, a continuing appearance of peace makes it harder for the Bush administration to keep troops there and would strengthen the hand of the Iraqis, who really do want us to leave. Phil doubts that the fractious groups could ever get together to coordinate such an effort. While that may be true, cooperation may be tacit or based on the one thing about which all groups agree: they want the Americans out of their country.

4. We have won! Setting aside what "winning" means, the reduction in violence is evidence that the overall American plan has worked, and that we are on the road to victory. Phil dismisses this argument as "obvious nonsense," arguing that as soon as we leave, they will be back at it.

Another possibility, of course, is that much of this is Iraqification smoke and mirrors, not unlike the arguments the Americans made in 1972 and early 1973 that the South Vietnamese were ready to defend themselves. By the time that assessment proved untrue, we were basically gone and looked back at the consequences with a high level of indifference. The difference between then and now, of course, was that the Vietnamese did not possess the world's fourth largest oil reserves.

Have any reactions to these categories of explanations? Any of your own?

Gunmen killed a Kurdish journalist near the northern city of Kirkuk, a police official said Tuesday.

Soran Mama Hama, a reporter for the Kurdish-language magazine Leven, was shot late Monday in the Rasheed Awa village, where many Kurds were forced to relocate when Saddam Hussein sent thousands of Arabs into the oil-rich Kirkuk area to dilute the presence of Kurds and others.

Kirkuk police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said the motive for the slaying of the 23-year-old journalist was not immediately known.

Reporters Without Borders said Hama had often covered government corruption for the magazine. He had written an article in the latest issue that was about the involvement of Kurdish officials in prostitution rings, according to the Paris-based advocacy organization.

"He wrote hard-hitting articles about local politicians and security officials and had received threats from people telling him to stop his investigative reporting. The authorities should therefore give priority to the theory that he was killed because of his work," the group said.

The magazine said the killing "took place in a Kurdish area that is supposedly away from the reach of the terrorist gunmen." It said it held "the Kurdistan presidency, government and parliament accountable" for the killing and demanded an investigation.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 129 journalists and 50 media support workers have been killed since the U.S. invasion in 2003, not including the most recent death.

Yahoo

 

KCK:s ordförande Murat Karayilan

KCK:s centralrådets ordförande Murat Karayilan framförde till ANF att FN:s rapport berörande den kurdiska staden Kirkuk är partisk. Rapporten som har skapats av FN:s Irak representant Stefan De Mistura är enligt Karayilan baserad på dom globala aktörernas politiska och ekonomiska intressen och inte på dom regionala förhållandena. KCK:s ordförande reagerade starkt mot Stefan De Misturas uttalanden om att Kirkuk frågan inte är aktuell längre.  Enligt honom försöker dom dominerande länderna flytta fram genomförandet av ett referendum i syfte att försvaga kurderna och behålla dom under sina egna kontroller. Enligt Karayilan är Kirkuk frågan inte en fråga som endast berör kurderna från södra Kurdistan eller KRG. Kirkuk frågan är hela det kurdiska folkets och den kurdiska nationens fråga. Vissa härskande länder vill skapa en ledarlös och andra klassens kurdiska folk under sina egna styren.

Dessa vill inte att det kurdiska folket ska få sin nationella frihet eller stärkas som en nation. Därför vill dom inte att Kirkuk blir en del av södra Kurdistan.  Karayilan fortsatte med att säga att dom härskande aktörerna arbetar för att skapa ledarlösa, ekonomiskt och politisk svaga kurder. En politisk realitet som kurder bör vara medvetna om.  Enligt KCK:s ordförande måste ett konkret lösning av Kirkuk frågan läggas fram. Dom dominerande yttre krafterna vill inte se en fri och oberoende kurdisk ledarskap. Frågan är inte bara geografisk och ekonomisk, frågan är främst om det kurdiska folket ska vara oberoende och självstyrande under fria förhållanden. KCK hållning i frågan utgår från slutsatserna ovan.

Enligt den Irakisk regeringens beslut skulle Kirkuk frågan lösas med ett referendum, men FN representantens rapport har inte tagit detta i bejakande och istället försöker ge sken av att det skulle existera en konflikt som han försöker stoppa.  Han har från ingenstans målat upp en sådan bild.  Enligt KCK måste Kirkuk frågan lösas genom ett referendum som sig bör enligt artikel 140 i Iraks konstitution. Västvärlden som ivrigt försvarar referendum och val som förfarande, tycker inte att dessa metoder är lämpliga när det kommer till Kirkuk frågan. Varför det kan man undra? Enligt Karayilan är referendum ett utav demokratins viktigaste pelare och det bör därför vara en självklarhet att det förfarandet används när det kommer till Kirkuk.

05/06/08 "Gulf News" -- 03/06/08 -- Baghdad: A proposed Iraqi-American security agreement will include permanent American bases in the country, and the right for the United States to strike, from within Iraqi territory, any country it considers a threat to its national security, Gulf News has learned.

Senior Iraqi military sources have told Gulf News that the long-term controversial agreement is likely to include three major items.

Under the agreement, Iraqi security institutions such as Defence, Interior and National Security ministries, as well as armament contracts, will be under American supervision for ten years.

The agreement is also likely to give American forces permanent military bases in the country, as well as the right to move against any country considered to be a threat against world stability or acting against Iraqi or American interests.

The military source added, "According to this agreement, the American forces will keep permanent military bases on Iraqi territory, and these will include Al Asad Military base in the Baghdadi area close to the Syrian border, Balad military base in northern Baghdad close to Iran, Habbaniyah base close to the town of Fallujah and the Ali Bin Abi Talib military base in the southern province of Nasiriyah close to the Iranian border."

The sources confirmed that the American army is in the process of completing the building of the military facilities and runways for the permanent bases.

He added that the American air bases in Kirkuk and Mosul will be kept for no longer than three years. However, he said there were efforts by the Americans to include the Kirkuk base in the list of permanent bases.

The sources also said that a British brigade was expected to remain at the international airport in Basra for ten years as long as the American troops stayed in the permanent bases in Iraq.

Iraqi analysts said that the second item of the controversial agreement which permits American forces on Iraqi territories to launch military attacks against any country it considers a threat is addressed primarily to Iran and Syria.

Iran has raised serious concerns in the past few days over the Iraqi-American security agreement and followed it with issuing religious fatwas and called for demonstrations, mainly by the powerful Shiite leader Moqtada Al Sadr movement, who is close to Iran, against the agreement.

* * *

Tariq Aziz on trial, bishop of Kirkuk: "justice, but in respect of man"

The international public face of the dictatorship of the rais, Aziz is accused of executing 42 merchants in 1992, guilty of having speculated on food prices in violation of state controls.  The former foreign minister, a Chaldean Christian, is often cited as proof of the favour that Christians enjoyed under Saddam.  "Nothing could be more false", say some Chaldean Iraqi refugees in Italy.  Born to a Chaldean family near Mosul in 1936, Tariq Aziz always put his religious affiliation in second place, presenting himself first of all as an Iraqi Arab and a member of the Baath party.  He changed his original name, Michael Yohanna, for less compromising one.  He "did not bat an eye" at the nationalisation of the Christian schools, nor at the provision for the obligatory teaching of the Qur'an.

In an interview with AsiaNews in 2003, Jean Benjamin Sleiman, archbishop of Baghdad for the Latin Catholics, explained that "Tariq Aziz was not prime minister because he was Christian, but because he was a great childhood friend of Saddam.  He had participated in several massacres with him in their first years of action, and had contributed to the Baath party's rise to power".  The archbishop also recalled that "as a Christian minority, we often obtained concessions not from Aziz, but from other Muslim ministers".

It is the first time since he surrendered to U.S. forces in April of 2003 that Aziz, aged 72, is responding to the accusations against him.  His lawyer calls the accusations "unfounded".  The trial will be presided over by Kurdish judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel, the same one who pronounced the death sentence against Saddam Hussein.  Also facing charges together with Aziz are seven other top officials of the former regime, including Saddam's stepbrother Watban Ibrahim Al Hassan and "chemical Ali", already condemned to death in June for his role in the Anfal campaign in the 1980's, in which tens of thousands of Kurds were killed.

© AsiaNews.it

Si intensificano, infatti, gli scontri fra esercito turco e i ribelli curdi al confine coll’Iraq.

Il presidente Abdullah Gul ed il premier Tayyip Erdogan parlano di una operazione chirurgica e mirata che non tocca civili, volta a rimuovere i focolai più sediziosi di rivolta sobillata dai combattenti legati al PKK. Non durerà più di 20 giorni: dicono. O sperano.

Robert Gates, segretario USA alla difesa, non sconfessa l’operazione ma sottolinea che deve essere di breve durata. La Turchia è un prezioso alleato USA: che già era stato offeso dalla mozione Democratica del Congresso sul genocidio armeno.

D’altro canto il governo iracheno è indispettito e parla di minaccia alla propria sovranità.

In questa settimana è programmata una visita di Erdogan a Bagdad per trovare un’intesa diplomatica e ricucire i rapporti; ma la situazione è difficile.

Bazhoz Erdal, uno dei leder del PKK, ha richiesto una sorta di resistenza dei Curdi; ed è stato appoggiato da Massud Barzani, presidente della regione autonoma del Curdistan iracheno.

Già; perché la grande minaccia curda alla Turchia proviene proprio dalla dissoluzione del regime di Saddam Hussein. Il Curdistan iracheno, dal 2003, ha potuto finalmente autorganizzarsi come Regione indipendente, con una propria bandiera ed una propria lingua ora riconosciuta e non più perseguitata. Le strategie principali di negazione dell’identità curda e di assimilazione forzata perseguita contro i Curdi, difatti, partivano proprio dal divieto all’utilizzo della lingua. L’obiettivo delle elites curde-irachene è, ovviamente, raggiungere un alto livello di auto amministrazione sulle risorse regionali; notevoli e, come sempre da queste parti, legate a grossi giacimenti di petrolio come quello localizzato a Kirkuk, nel Nord-Iraq.

Sono le Nazioni che alimentano il nazionalismo o, piuttosto, sono le Patrie un’invenzione di una elites interessata, come lasciano supporre eminenti studiosi come Eric Hobsbawm e George Mosse? Di certo, dal 2003 in poi, la crema dell’intellighentzia curda, semmai dispersa dalla diaspora, è tornata nel Curdistan iracheno per elaborare tradizione, cultura, musica e – se non per creare – almeno stabilire la curdità.

I turchi sono molto sensibili a questo tema e molto insensibili nel cercare di risolverlo. In Turchia ci sono circa 17 milioni di Curdi, anche se solo una minima parte ha appoggiato od appoggia partiti secessionisti come il PKK; che è, vale la pena ricordarlo, considerato fuorilegge dalla comunità internazionale.

Il nazionalismo curdo, come tutti i nazionalismi europei, incluso quello turco, si è sviluppato nell’Ottocento. A partire dagli anni 20 del Novecento, i Curdi incominciarono a vibrare una serie impressionante di ribellioni; famosa fu quella di Dersim a cui prese parte su sponda proturca, ovviamente, anche la figlioccia adottiva di Ataturk, Sabiha Gökçen, armena e primo pilota donna di aerei militari della storia.

Le sorti dei Curdi, insieme a quelle degli Armeni e dei Turchi erano, allora, legati agli interessi dei Paesi coloniali. L’autonomia dei Curdi turchi, infatti, fu soppressa proprio dal trattato di Losanna che stabiliva i confini turchi allo smembramento dell’Impero Ottomano. I Turchi, dal canto loro, hanno sempre avuto la sensazione che la questione curda, insieme a quella armena e a quella del Turkestan, regione storica turco fona che dal Mar Caspio arriva alla Cina, sia stata utilizzata anche per impedire ad Ankara di diventare subito una grossa potenza regionale, antagonista degli interessi europei; percezione avallata anche dal fatto che il PKK è stato più volte appoggiato da molti Paesi.

Ecco che l’Iraq democratico è diventata la spina del fianco di Ankara. Ma come giudicare l’operazione mirata di Erdogan? Si tratta, effettivamente, di una missione che viola la sovranità di Bagdad: eppure il PKK è riconosciuto come gruppo terroristico dalla comunità degli Stati e la situazione può richiamare la caccia che il Mossad faceva ai criminali nazisti sparsi per il globo. La Turchia, se vuole mettersi in linea con i principi democratici, è bene che limiti la sua azione solo ed esclusivamente al PKK. Ma, soprattutto, è d’uopo che incominci ad affrontare il problema curdo seriamente, non limitandosi al risibile diritto di avere un’ora di programmazione al giorno sulla tv in lingua curda. Sicuramente continuare a blaterare di non aver sterminato né i Curdi né gli Armeni non giova ad un clima di verità necessario per la pacificazione e la risoluzione democratica di un conflitto. La situazione è ancora più paradossale se si pensa che il genocidio armeno ha alimentato il problema curdo, giacchè i governi turchi dell’epoca autorizzarono proprio i curdi a far mambassa e a popolare quella parte dell’attuale Turchia orientale che gli armeni chiamavano “Armenia occidentale”. I nodi vengono sempre al pettine.

Alessio Postiglione

(pubblicato su Notizie Verdi)

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Warning sirens for bombs blared all day as diplomats and U.S. workers donned flak jackets and ducked for cover from mortars and rockets that poured down throughout Baghdad. Those U.S. government workers brave enough to ignore a lockdown order by their government and venture into nearly empty city streets saw a city under siege.

Thick billows of smoke drifting over the Tigris River after a blast-ignited fire were just one sign the city had turned into a combat zone. Since Sunday, at least two Americans and a dozen Iraqis have been killed in Baghdad. One American died Thursday, and more than a dozen others were injured.

Rockets and bombs appeared to be timed with clockwork precision, landing about every hour, beginning in the morning and continuing into the evening. The fourth day of attacks this week by suspected Shiite militiamen was capped by a government curfew; on Thursday night, unauthorized residents weren't allowed on city streets.

Full story:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080327/iraq_green_080327/20080327?hub=CTVNewsAt11

GOPALA, Iraq — Just northeast of Kirkuk is a factory doing some of the best business in Iraq, but whose workers would be content to see it close down.

It lies between Kirkuk and Sulaimaniya on the safer, Kurdish, side of the checkpoint marking the boundary between the semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government and the rest of Iraq.

Glimpsed through trees from the highway, the storage yard at first seems to be a do-it-yourself medieval fortress: scores of watchtowers, blast walls, sentry posts and barriers are stacked up in a field ready for delivery to whichever home, compound or neighborhood is next to be sealed off from the outside world.

Gray, featureless and crudely built, these blast walls have become the most readily identifiable symbol of the current state of Iraq, replacing the endless lines of cheap, mustard-colored walls emblazoned with eight-point stars that used to surround Saddam Hussein’s military-industrial nerve centers.

Getting them to their destinations is not always easy. One delivery driver, who refused to be named because he feared being killed, said: “We put our lives in danger. We are risking death to make a living. Twice I have faced gunmen who opened fire on me in Tikrit, but God saved me.”

As workers covered in gray powder scrambled atop cranes and molding cages, Younis Abdul Mohsin, the engineer and manager of the privately owned plant, said it produced 50 tons of concrete a day.

Most of it helps fill United States military contracts in Kirkuk and farther afield.

The largest blast walls, more than 18 feet high and weighing more than two tons, take a whole day to manufacture. Less time-consuming are knee-high roadside barriers that weigh 471 pounds and are used at checkpoints and on approach roads to major installations.

“We are still working on old contracts with the multinational forces which will end after four months, but I think they will be renewed,” Mr. Mohsin said last month.

“The security improvement doesn’t affect too much the rate of production of blast walls. The American Army needs them and buys them nonstop to protect their military bases in Iraq.”

He added: “Of course I want the situation to get better. I am an engineer, I don’t want to make blast walls. I want to build things. We all want the situation to be better, and for this factory to close.”

-Compass Direct News

I disagree it will be by pipeline through Saudi occupied Arabia and Jordan. My prediction is through Turkey and shipped south, but the late great Joe Vialls analysis should not be disregarded.

I am on record as saying Turkey will annexe North Iraq. Over the week, Turkey has said it has withdrawn its troops, but it STILL has manned permanent bases in North Iraq. I am still 100% confident that Turkey will still try and annexe it. That it hasn't happened this occasion does not make me believe they won't. Turkey has built a road network in Northern Iraq, quite obviously for major military purposes. It is possible it may try and annexe via a Puppet leader in Northern Iraq, but I suspect it will do so militarily, and this was just a dummy run to test PKK and resistance tactics.

Hoda Abdel Hamid (Al Jazeera English) one of the rare unbiased reporters in the area, reported that Turkey did not attack the area where the PKK are said to have their stronghold. 

The Turkish game still isn't Over.

It was interesting to watch a Sibel Edmonds based documentarty called Kill the Messenger, in which US/Israeli and Turkey military and nuclear technology alliance was discussed as well as Turkey's closeness to the Zionists occupying Palestine. "here’s an embed of a Google video of Kill The Messenger." (thanks to http://wecanchangetheworld.wordpress.com)

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The statement from Robert Gates came as Turkey's
military said its troops killed 77 Kurdish fighters overnight.
Five Turkish soldiers were also killed in northern Iraq.

Gates told reporters in the Indian capital New Delhi on Wednesday that the US wants Ankara to adopt a different method of dealing with fighters from the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK).

Full story:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A6C5A231-CCBD-4272-AB54-25C58CD7A75B.htm

Heavy fighting between the Turkish military and PKK fighters
in northern Iraq has continued despite pleas by the Iraqi
government for Turkey to withdraw.

Turkish troops on Monday fired more than 40 salvos of artillery
shells across the Iraqi border and witnesses said helicopters
continued to target Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bases in Iraq..

Full story
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/35EE0CED-D5BE-428A-839A-00DA141144CC.htm ]]> http://patrioticactivist.wordpress.com/?p=141 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:22:58 +0000 John http://patrioticactivist.wordpress.com/?p=141 ISTANBUL, Turkey - Turkish troops launched a
ground incursion across the border into Iraq in
pursuit of separatist Kurdish rebels, the military
said Friday — a move that dramatically escalates
Turkey's conflict with the militants.

It is the first confirmed ground operation by the Turkish military into Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. It also raised concerns that it could trigger a wider conflict with the U.S.-backed Iraqi Kurds, despite Turkey's assurances that its only target was the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

The ground operation started after Turkish warplanes and artillery bombed suspected rebel targets on Thursday, the military said on its Web site. The incursion was backed by the Air Force, the statement said.

Turkey has conducted air raids against the PKK guerrillas in northern Iraq since December, with the help of U.S. intelligence, and it has periodically carried out so-called "hot pursuits" in which small units sometimes spend only a few hours inside Iraq 

Full story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080222/ap_on_re_mi_ea/turkey_iraq