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Two Car Bombs in Baghdad as Violence Rises in Iraq
BAGHDAD - Violence is increasing in Iraq, raising questions about whether the security improvements credited to the increase in U.S. troops may be short-lived.Car bombs in Baghdad on Monday killed at least 11 people and injured a prominent leader of one of the country's most influential American-allied tribal militias.
The Ministry of Electricity announced that power to much of the nation, already anemic, is likely to lag in coming days because insurgents had blown up transmission facilities and natural gas pipelines that fuel generators.
CBS News confirmed that two of its journalists are missing in Basra, in Iraq's south.
A leading parliament member warned that budget disputes have paralyzed the legislature.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, finishing a two-day visit to Baghdad, said that he was likely to advocate a pause in troop withdrawals to evaluate the situation after the last of the additional troops sent here under President Bush's so-called surge strategy had left later this year.
Gates made the remark after meeting for two hours with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. Petraeus already has indicated that he wants to slow troop withdrawals to consolidate the past year's security gains.
Gates previously has said that how fast troops are redeployed from Iraq will depend on conditions there. But his statement prompted criticism from Democratic lawmakers. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., and presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., each issued statements that said delaying further withdrawals would leave the American military overstretched.
"While the administration puts our drawdown on permanent pause," Obama said, al Qaida leader Osama "bin Laden is on the loose, Afghanistan is sliding toward chaos and we're spending billions of dollars a week�in Baghdad instead of helping Americans who are struggling here at home."
Other leading presidential contenders made no comment on Gates' remarks. Republican front-runner John McCain has been a leading advocate of the surge.
After months of declining violence, February is certain to be the third straight month to see increases in the numbers of Baghdad residents killed in car bombings and suicide attacks.
According to statistics kept by McClatchy, the low point in such killings came in November, when 76 people died. Thanks to a pair of pet market bombings that killed 99 people Feb. 1, February's tally already is 131.
Petraeus' counsel on troop withdrawals after some surge troops have departed will play a big role in determining what Gates recommends to the president, Pentagon officials said.
Monday marked the second day in a row of suicide attacks. Blasts in Salah ad Din, Anbar and Ninevah provinces killed at least 30 people Sunday.
Monday, a suicide car bomber drove his car into the Baghdad residence of a prominent leader of the Anbar Salvation Council, a U.S.-allied militia that's credited with helping to drive al Qaida in Iraq from that province. Five minutes later, another car bomb exploded at a busy intersection a short distance away.
The blasts killed at least 11 people and injured 30.
Later, Sheik Ali Hathem al Suleiman al Duleimy, who was injured in the attack, went on Iraqi TV and declared war against his enemies. He said that his militia, many of whose members are paid by the United States, no longer would allow the U.S. or Iraqi government to interfere with its work.
His comments came as similar U.S.-allied groups in nearby Diyala province continued to refuse to work with American or Iraqi government forces until the provincial police chief is removed. On Monday, hundreds protested in Diyala to demand the chief's removal.
In an e-mailed statement, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, acknowledged the "frustration on the part of some awakening councils," but said that most remained on the job and committed to defending their neighborhoods.
Iraqi government spokesmen declined comment or couldn't be reached.
In another sign that benefits from the surge could be waning, the Ministry of Electricity said that a car bomb at a power station near Mosul in Ninevah province and attacks on natural gas lines connected to four power stations north of Baghdad had damaged the national power network. While repairs have been started, Iraqis can expect even less electricity in coming days, the ministry said in a statement.
CBS News said little about the two missing journalists in Basra, refusing to identify them or to say what had happened.
Meanwhile, parliament Speaker Mahmoud al Mishhadani said that the legislature was paralyzed over budget disputes involving the Kurdish region and warned that other key pieces of legislation, such as an amnesty for prisoners and more power for provincial governments, could fail in the bickering.
Lannen reports for the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader. McClatchy special correspondent Laith Hammoudi contributed to this report.
© McClatchy Newspapers 2008
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Show AllThis should help people understand why more Iraqis are leaving for Syria than are returning - and why the number returning is getting smaller and smaller.
Another example of the fable that, "The Surge is working". In reality the only reason there was a lull in violence and casualties was America has armed thousands of Sunnis and for the time being, instead of continuing to attack our troops they are focused upon al qaeda, but this will not last, and it is already obvious that casualties are increasing. If America wishes to seek "Victory" in Iraq, we will be there for the 100 years that McCain proposes. This is a war without end, and those who propose we stay until we win are seriously demented. It is definitely time for a change in policy in Washington.
Hey, listen to John McCain! Listen to Joe Lieberman! The war in Iraq is over! We won!
Car bombings, a little known fact:
'An Iraqi who asked not to be identified had disclosed some of the US activities such as assassinations and bombings in markets that aim at sparking sectarian fighting among Iraqis so as to facilitate the partition of the country.
He pointed out that he that he worked with the US occupation troops for about two and a half years and then was able to flee from them to an area outside Baghdad where, he hopes, the Americans will not be able to get to him.
The former Iraqi collaborator recalled: "I was a soldier in the Iraqi army in the war of 1991 and during the withdrawal from Kuwait I decided to seek asylum in Saudi Arabia along with dozens of others like me. That was how began the process whereby I was recruited into the American forces, for there were US military committees that chose a number of Iraqis who were willing to volunteer to join them and be transported to America. I was one of those," he said.
The former collaborator went on: "In 1992 I was taken to America, specifically to an island where most of the establishments were military. I was with a number of other Iraqis, one of them the former governor of an-Najaf, 'Adnan adh-Dharfi. We received military training and intense courses in English and in how to carry out tasks like assassination," he recounted.
...
The former collaborator said that the Americans have a unit for "dirty jobs." That unit is a mix of Iraqis, Americans, and foreigners and of the security detachments that are deployed in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities. This unit doesn't only carry out assassinations, but some of them specialize in planting bombs and car bombs in neighborhoods and markets. This unit carries out operations in which wanted people whom the American army does not want killed are arrested.
The former collaborator said that "operations of planting car bombs and blowing up explosives in markets are carried out in various ways, the best-known and most famous among the US troops is placing a bomb inside cars as they are being searched at checkpoints. Another way is to put bombs in the cars during interrogations. After the desired person is summoned to one of the US bases, a bomb is place in his car and he is asked to drive to a police station or a marked for some purpose and there his car blows up."
The testimony of the former collaborator is consistent with some western reports that have disclosed the involvement of US military personnel in bombings that target Iraqi civilians. The British reporter Robert Fisk, AMSI noted, had recently met with Iraqis in Syria concerning such "black operations" carried out by the Americans.
http://heyetnet.org/en/content/view/490/27/
Another view http://heyetnet.org/en/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
The country, or, Republic of Iraq was literally destroyed during the so-called Gulf War. It was continually bombed; and sanctions were placed against it the 12 years that followed.
So let's be truthful about this and acknowledge the fact that there is no "WAR" in Iraq. At best, the Commander & Chief ordered the crime of the century against a defenseless country; and at worse, he ordered the worst terrorists attack since 1945. And afterward, an illegal invasion to get Saddam Hussein and destroy his WMDs. This admin. is so secret it refused to put the weapons on display.
Now there is the illegal occupation and "we can't leave." "If we leave, they will follow us home," the chief says, referring to Al-Qaida, Islamic Militants, insurgents, the terrorists............
More than enough crimes have been committed to impeach. But congress? All it does is allocate more and more funds to pay for the crimes. Then there is the UN. What is its roll concerning international crimes against humanity? Well, its too busy voting sanctions against Iran, the Palestinian people, and North Korea.
More info on the car bombings can be found by googleing
British SAS Car Bombers Arrested Basra
When I was in the Air Force, 75 - 77, one base I was in in Texas, think Lackland we were training the kid Iranian soldiers, these were boys 15, 16 the Men were always saying they were gay because they were walking around with their arms around one another. These were boys, alone, and arms around one another is a friendly gesture in many ME cultures, although my 2nd husband, 25 lonnnngggg years, almost ex, is Turkish they are like that as teens. Then at Sheppard AFB we trained the pilots there, Iranian pilots, bastads those guys. Shah was still in control, I have no idea what all those Iranians America trained so well to fly our fighter jets are, now. Gotta laugh!
Where are they now?
Still flying/training-others for us...that's where.
We screwed-over 'Iranian democracy/independence' back in the 1950's by 'using' divisive tribal/religious/class/ethnic 'unrest', as stirred-up by Covert CIA/'privatized' operatives -- exactly like the Brit's had done before-us, and exactly like we did again-and-since with these yo-yo's 'in charge' since 1979.
WE (and Israel) run and completely-control the 'Revolutionary Gov' of Iran -- and we use them today mostly to pretend we in the 'wealthy west' have a "powerful enemy".
They ARE kinda 'powerful' in Iran, today (more-so than under our Shaw, at least) -- but that's all 'our power', not belonging or beholden-to the generally-friendly Peoples of Iran. [They are even-friendlier towards the rest of the world than Iraqi's/Syrians/Lebanese/Palestinians were -- ALL innocent-parties we have vilified and ruined because they were born-by-accident either near 'our' Oil (and thought, foolishly, they'd 'benefit'!) or in-the-way of Ersatz-Zionism (which is also a 'tool' of the wealthy-west).
"The testimony of the former collaborator is consistent with some western reports that have disclosed the involvement of US military personnel in bombings that target Iraqi civilians. The British reporter Robert Fisk, AMSI noted, had recently met with Iraqis in Syria concerning such "black operations" carried out by the Americans."
Fisk had better 'watch his ass' -- plenty of the British/American press who have 'poked their noses' into Covert British/US/Israeli Black-Ops in the ME, Asia, Ireland, Africa, Latin-America, the Balkans, and elsewhere (often called, but actually 'made', into "Arc's of Instability") have been 'mysteriously dying'.
Brit special-forces (and ours/others, and our lackey-proxies) covertly Cause 95% of the 'upsetting-incidents', tragedies, bombings, attacks, and all-strife indirectly "helping our Cause and Interests" all over the planet, and since the mid-1800's. If anything, these 'secretive-operations' of Hard&Soft-Power are getting more-common and more-destructive.
Hell, if I were an independent-journalist, I'd not live more than a few-weeks...!
The 'stakes' and money-to-be-made are HUGE and UNIMAGINABLE today, and 'morality and justice' are the very LAST things actually 'considered by Western-Interests' in this 'neo-Age' of 'globalism'.
Woe be unto those who are poor or weak, for they shall enrich the wealthy and powerful beyond even their mad-dreams of avarice...