Target Centermass

Category: Middle East

  • U.S. Denies U.N. Claim Iraqis Malnourished

    Though the conditions of the Iraqi populace certainly are a concern, doubly so for the children, the U.S. has reacted to United Nations’ claims of increasing child malnutrition by calling them questionable and political.

    The U.S. human rights delegation Thursday rejected a U.N. monitor’s claim that child malnutrition had risen in Iraq and said, if anything, health conditions have improved since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

    Jean Ziegler, the U.N. Human Right Commission’s expert on the right to food, cited U.S. and European studies Wednesday in telling the commission that acute malnutrition rates among Iraqi children under 5 rose late last year to 7.7 percent from 4 percent after Saddam’s ouster in April 2003. Ziegler blamed the war for the situation.

    “First, he has not been to Iraq, and second, he is wrong,” said Kevin E. Moley, U.S. ambassador to U.N. organizations in Geneva and a member of the American delegation to the 53-nation U.N. Human Rights Commission.

    “He’s taking some information that is in itself difficult to validate and juxtaposing his own views — which are widely known,” Moley said, referring to Ziegler’s opposition to the U.S. military intervention in the country.

    Moley rejected the rate cited by Ziegler and said malnutrition in Iraq was notoriously difficult to gauge. He noted that some estimates had put it at 11 percent in 1996 and 7.8 percent in 2000, while Saddam was still in power.

    “The surveys that have been taken … have indicated that the recent rise in malnutrition rates began between 2002 and 2003 under the regime of Saddam Hussein,” Moley said.

    “If anything, vaccination, food aid … has improved dramatically since the fall of Saddam Hussein,” he added.

    Also taking the UN claims to task is Captain Ed at Captain’s Quarters, who uses the UN’s own figures against them.

    The report obviously aims itself at Washington, as the BBC reports. What the BBC fails to mention is that the report is dishonest, mathematically illiterate, historically inaccurate, and a terrific demonstration why the UN cannot be trusted with money or policy. Its timing appears to have been strategized to take the heat off of Kofi Annan and the massive and grotesque scandals wracking the United Nations.

    Okay, a show of hands if you’re not sick of the UN. Anyone? Anyone?

  • Palestinian Security Reeling into Chaos

    The last two days have seen attacks by Palestinians against their own government and police, underscoring the weak hand that Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas is holding.

    Palestinian gunmen went on a rampage in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, shooting at the office of the Palestinian Authority’s president and setting several restaurants and shops on fire, security officials said.

    The identities of the gunmen were unclear, but several reports indicated they were Palestinian security officers and militants affiliated with the Fatah political movement — the party of the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas — who had been expelled from his headquarters.

    […]

    A spokesman for the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, denied the men were members of the group, saying they were common thugs. Some government officials described the fracas as a street brawl among criminals.

    In another example of the chaotic security situation in the West Bank, a group of angry Palestinians set fire to a Palestinian police checkpoint in the city of Tulkarm early Thursday after officers manning the post opened fire on a suspected stolen car, wounding at least one of its occupants.

    […]

    Some Fatah activists said the clash in Ramallah erupted shortly before midnight when Palestinian security officials ordered about six militants and officials to turn in their weapons or leave the presidential compound, known as the muqata. The men, along with other militants wanted by Israel, had been given shelter there for several years by the former Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, who died in November.

    Abbas, who was elected in January, also granted refuge to the men, but he has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks to make good on a pledge to begin disarming wanted militants.

    Trouble should be expected when thugs are invited to the party.

    As if a little gunplay in his direction wasn’t enough, Abbas now has to deal with an unexpected opening in his government after a key security official resigned in protest.

    A Palestinian security chief has resigned, complaining to President Mahmoud Abbas that too little was being done to halt lawlessness in the West Bank and Gaza, officials say.

    “I cannot work under these conditions,” Tawfik Tirawi, head of Palestinian Intelligence in the West Bank, wrote in a letter of resignation that he gave Abbas on Thursday after a meeting of security commanders at the president’s headquarters, the officials said.

    Tirawi, the most senior security official to resign since Abbas’s election in January, quit a day after half a dozen gunmen from the ruling Fatah faction fired at the presidential Muqata compound in Ramallah and then rampaged through the city.

    There was no immediate word if Abbas, who officials said gets along well with Tirawi, would ask him to reconsider.

    The officials said Tirawi complained that other heads of Palestinian security organisations had not done enough to impose the rule of law Abbas had promised after taking over from the late Yasser Arafat.

    Quagmire, anyone?

  • Looking at U.S. Tanks in Urban Iraq

    Heading to bed, but wanting to point other dumbass tankers (DATs) towards this and this about the M1’s employment in urban Iraq (hat tip to Argghhh!). Check out the graphic on urban upgrades — intriguing stuff. It’s interesting that the external phone is a flashback to WWII and the exhaust barrier is a big duh, but there’s no change that the TC’s Ma Deuce is still externally loaded. Too big a mod for a quick change, I guess.

    Very cool stuff, all considered.

  • Egyptian Stabs Kissing Tourists

    Methinks here is a person that needs to be locked away and fast.

    An Egyptian stabbed a Hungarian man and woman, slightly wounding them, after the couple kissed while pausing for a photograph near a mosque at Cairo’s popular tourist bazaar, police said Tuesday.

    Hesham Mohammed, 36, apparently was upset by the kiss Monday in front of Al-Hussein Mosque, a security official said on customary condition of anonymity. The mosque is adjacent to the Khan el-Khalili market where foreign tourists flock to buy souvenirs and locally made crafts.

    The Hungarians, who were not identified, were treated at a nearby hospital for minor wounds, the official said, and Mohammed was being questioned. He was described as unemployed and suffering from severe depression.

    Tourism is Egypt’s top foreign-currency earner, bringing in more than $7 billion Cdn last year and providing an estimated 2.2 million jobs.

    First off, knifing foreign smoochers is not an economically sound practice for the Egyptians to adopt as a regular practice. Second, it would be quite safe to say the unemployed Mohammed is severely depressed. I would also guess that he’s either a freakin’ loon, bitterly single, or both.

  • Bush to Award First Medal of Honor for Iraq Service

    Sergeant First Class Paul Smith will become the first recipient of our military’s highest award next Monday when President Bush presents the Medal of Honor to SFC Smith’s family.

    The first Medal of Honor awarded for service in Iraq will be presented next Monday in a ceremony at the White House, White House spokesman Scott McClellan announced Tuesday.

    For the family of Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith, the honor, the nation’s highest military award, brings conflicting feelings: pride that he’ll be remembered among America’s bravest soldiers, grief that he died two years ago in Iraq.

    “At least my mind is at rest because with the Medal of Honor, Paul’s name will go on in history,” his wife, Birgit Smith, said Tuesday from her home in Holiday, Fla. “His name will never die. This is very important to me.”

    President Bush will present the medal to Smith’s 11-year-old son, David, during the White House ceremony, Birgit Smith said.

    There’ll be a second ceremony next Tuesday morning at the Pentagon. Then in the afternoon, the family will attend another ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, where Smith’s headstone will be unveiled.

    Smith was nominated for the Medal of Honor by commanders of the 3rd Infantry Division after his death on April 4, 2003.

    Smith, 33, died behind the trigger of a .50-caliber machine gun as he fought off an Iraqi attack near Baghdad’s international airport. He’s credited with saving more than 100 American lives and killing at least 50 Iraqis.

    I missed the news when the award was announced in February, but Blackfive had the story, pointing towards this account.

    What Paul Smith did on April 4, 2003, was climb aboard an armored vehicle and, manning a heavy machine gun, take it upon himself to cover the withdrawal of his men from a suddenly vulnerable position. Smith was fatally wounded by Iraqi fire, the only American to die in the engagement.

    “I’m in bittersweet tears,” said Smith’s mother, Janice Pvirre. “The medal isn’t going to bring him back. … It makes me sad that all these other soldiers have died. They are all heroes.”

    With the medal, Smith joins a most hallowed society.

    Since the Civil War, just 3,439 men (and one woman) have received the Medal of Honor. It recognizes only the most extreme examples of bravery – those “above and beyond the call of duty.”

    That oft-heard phrase has a specific meaning: The medal cannot be given to those who act under orders, no matter how heroic their actions. Indeed, according to Library of Congress defense expert David F. Burrelli, it must be “the type of deed which, if he had not done it, would not subject him to any justified criticism.”

    From World War II on, most of the men who received the medal died in the action that led to their nomination. There are but 129 living recipients.

    Smith is the first soldier from the Iraq war to receive the medal, which had not previously been awarded since 1993. In that year, two Army Special Forces sergeants were killed in Somalia in an action described in the bestselling book Black Hawk Down.

    The officer who called Birgit Smith on Tuesday nominated her husband for the medal.

    Lt. Col. Thomas Smith (no relation) sent in his recommendation in May 2003, beginning a process that involved reviews at 12 levels of the military chain of command before reaching the White House. On Tuesday, Lt. Col. Smith expressed satisfaction that the wait was over, and great admiration for his former subordinate.

    In the Army, he said, you hear about men who won the Medal of Honor. “You think they are myths when you read about them. It’s almost movielike. You just don’t think you’d ever meet someone like that.”

    […]

    Lt. Col. Smith commanded the 11th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, during the American attack on Iraq, which began March 20, 2003. On the morning of April 4, the engineers found themselves manning a roadblock not far from Baghdad International Airport.

    A call went out for a place to put some Iraqi prisoners.

    Sgt. Smith volunteered to create a holding pen inside a walled courtyard. Soon, Iraqi soldiers, numbering perhaps 100, opened fire on Smith’s position. Smith was accompanied by 16 men.

    Smith called for a Bradley, a tank-like vehicle with a rapid fire cannon. It arrived and opened up on the Iraqis. The enemy could not advance so long as the Bradley was in position. But then, in a move that baffled and angered Smith’s men, the Bradley left.

    Smith’s men, some of whom were wounded, were suddenly vulnerable.

    Smith could have justifiably ordered his men to withdraw. Lt. Col. Smith believes Sgt. Smith rejected that option, thinking that abandoning the courtyard would jeopardize about 100 GIs outside – including medics at an aid station.

    Sgt. Smith manned a 50-caliber machine gun atop an abandoned armored personnel carrier and fought off the Iraqis, going through several boxes of ammunition fed to him by 21-year-old Pvt. Michael Seaman. As the battle wound down, Smith was hit in the head. He died before he could be evacuated from the scene. He was 33.

    Thank you, Sergeant First Class Paul Smith.

  • Israeli Militants Warn of Civil War

    Does anybody know how to say “Attack Fort Sumter” in Hebrew?

    Militant settlers warned of violence and civil war after Israel’s parliament cleared away a major obstacle in front of a planned pullout from all 21 Gaza settlements and four in the West Bank this summer, handily defeating a call for a referendum.

    The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, following Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s lead, rejected the plebiscite proposal yesterday by a vote of 72-39. Sharon had denounced the call for a referendum as a last-ditch effort by the settlers and their backers – many in his own Likud party – to scuttle the pullout.

    Polls show about two-thirds of Israelis in favour of the withdrawal, roughly the same proportion as the Knesset vote. But the settlers, far from giving in, are simply redirecting their efforts to demonstrations and possible violence.

    First, it should be pointed out that two-thirds favoring withdrawal does not mean one-third favors the settlements; rather, it only means that a portion of one-third are for the settlements. I’ll wager that the percentage of this portion that actually believes in the idea of an Israeli civil war over the settlement issue is minute. There’s always that little matter of the threat of outsiders surrounding the nation and hoping for its demise that will keep such matters from happening.

    Thousands of settlers, many of them teenagers, demonstrated in front of the Knesset during the debate and vote. When the wide margin was announced, the settlers seemed momentarily deflated. Leaders called off the second day of the planned 36-hour vigil and said they would abandon their efforts to change the parliament’s mind.

    But as their options narrowed, their rhetoric heated up.

    “The Knesset has voted for violence, for civil war, for the next political assassination in Israel,” said Yehuda Glick, once the spokesman for a government ministry, referring to the 1995 murder of then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by an extremist Jew opposed to Rabin’s compromises for peace.

    Civil war? No. Another assassination by an Israeli radical? A legitimate threat.

    Here’s hoping Israel doesn’t stray, just as the entire region is fumbling its way towards popular reform. Self-inflicted bleeding is not a good thing in shark-infested waters.

  • Escape Tunnel Found at Iraqi Prison

    I always loved Hogan’s Heroes. It was so fun to watch Col. Hogan outsmart and manipulate that silly inept German, Col. Klink (skillfully portrayed by the late Werner Klemperer). Oh, the tunnel system those POWs had! They could move about at will, and had a great map attached to a bunk. Poor ol’ Sgt. Schultz — he knew nothing!

    Ahh, but the real world is slightly different.

    U.S. troops believe they have thwarted a massive escape from one of the coalition’s main prison camps in Iraq, Pentagon officials said Friday.

    A 600-foot-long (183-meter) escape tunnel with an exit point outside the prison camp walls was discovered Thursday at Camp Bucca in southeastern Iraq.

    The tunnel is believed to have been dug with improvised tools. Military authorities discovered it after a tip initiated a campwide search.

    The tunnel is about 10 feet below ground and 2 to 3 feet wide.

    Pentagon officials did not know how long the tunnel had been under construction.

    Camp Bucca houses about 5,600 detainees.

    That no one had used it to escape so far was verified by a head count of prisoners, which found all accounted for. But the tunnel appeared to be completed and ready to use, and officials speculate that detainees were waiting to use it when the weather turned poor and visibility on the ground was low.

    The discovery of the tunnel also solved another mystery camp officials were trying to figure out.

    Machinery that pumps sewage out of the prisoners’ toilet system has been getting jammed with sand and dirt. Apparently, it was caused by soil that detainees have been disposing of while digging the tunnel.

    I fault not the prisoners for trying. I do, however, question prison oversight for the attempt coming this close to fruition. Better security procedures have to be considered, as a sizable influx of these prisoners would be a great boost to a terrorist movement that seems to be shaken by events of late.

  • Iraq TV Helps Break Holy Warrior Mystique

    I must say that the headline and leading paragraph had me intrigued.

    Say the word mujahid– or holy warrior – these days and many inhabitants of Baghdad are likely to snigger.

    I had my doubts quickly, however, with the second paragraph.

    An appellation once worn as a badge of pride by anti-American insurgents has now become street slang for homosexuals, after men claiming to be captured Islamist guerrillas confessed that they were holding gay orgies in the popular Iraqi TV programme Terror in the Hands of Justice.

    I think the terrorists are scum, a bunch of cowardly bastards. While this article is worth a read and it’s nice to know that the Iraqis are seeing something besides pro-terrorist propaganda (e.g. al-Jazeera, CNN), I still feel a need to apologize for the worst side effect of the Iraqi campaign — the export of the horror of “reality” TV. It was obviously another shortcoming in the planning of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld axis.

    It started innocently enough.

    When the programme first aired two months ago, it mostly featured non-Iraqi Arabs who claimed to have entered the country to aid the insurgency, reinforcing many Iraqis’ belief that the insurgency is driven by foreign extremists such as al-Qaeda.

    In time, however, the programme began to feature men who said they were petty criminals, killing “collaborators” for a few hundred dollars’ bounty.

    In fact, the US and Iraqi security forces have for some time claimed to have ample evidence that many insurgent attacks were launched by out-of-work soldiers desperate for money. Some well-known insurgent captains had former lives under the old regime as gang leaders.

    In recent weeks, however, the insurgents’ confessions have become increasingly at odds with the movement’s reputation for stringent Islamic austerity.

    One long-bearded preacher known as Abu Tabarek recently confessed that guerrillas had usually held orgies in his mosques, secure in the knowledge that their status as holy warriors would win them forgiveness of their sins.

    Hopefully for the Iraqi people, sanity will soon reign.

    Sabah Khadim, spokesman for Iraq’s interior minister, says that the programme may have run its course, and should be reviewed.

    He denies that the confessions were extracted by torture but has his doubts as to whether those confessing are being truthful or simply saying whatever they think their captors want to hear. He also has reservations over whether the display of prisoners on television violates the Geneva Convention.

    But, Mr Khadem says, the programme has been immensely effective in getting Iraqis to come forward with information about guerrillas, leading to a surge in the number of insurgents captured.

    “If this were not an emergency situation, we would not have run this,” he says. “But it is an emergency situation, and this produces results.”

    Now, if only we could get rid of some of this crap on our own airwaves , I would really believe that civilization is progressing.

  • U.S. Death Rate Down in Iraq Since Elections

    Progress. Slow but steady progress.

    The rate of U.S. deaths in the Iraq war has fallen sharply since the historic January elections as American military leaders tout progress against the insurgency but warn of a long road ahead.

    March is on pace for the lowest monthly U.S. military death toll in 13 months, and the rate of American fatalities has fallen by about 50 percent since the parliamentary elections in which millions of Iraqis defied insurgents to cast ballots.

    Defense analysts noted that while violence aimed at U.S. forces has declined in the 7 1/2 weeks since the election, insurgent attacks on Iraqis have escalated. They added that previous lulls in attacks on U.S. forces in the two-year war have been followed by intense periods of violence.

    “We have seen a downward trend in attacks,” Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said on Thursday, calling the elections a turning point.

    “There’s still a very good chance that they (insurgents) can do some spectacular events. But the situation does get better each day, all the time,” Boylan added.

    At the current pace, the U.S. military death toll in March will reach about 35. That would be the lowest monthly death toll since 20 U.S. troops died in February 2004, the smallest count of the war. But that proved to be a temporary lull followed some of the most bloody months of the war that spring.

    Analyst Charles Pena said gauging the progress of the war against insurgents is months, if not years, away.

    “I think what you get is a mixed picture in Iraq,” said Pena of the Cato Institute. “Whatever progress we’re making in terms of violence against U.S. troops, it is being offset by violence against Iraqis and Iraqi security forces.”

    Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, seemed to agree.

    “The average counter-insurgency in the 20th century was about nine years, so it takes time to snuff out the insurgency. And also, I think you know, most insurgencies are defeated by political means rather than necessarily by military means,” Casey said in Washington earlier this month.

    Since the election, the rate of U.S. military fatalities in Iraq has been about 1.7 per day, compared to about 3.4 per day from November to election day — a 50 percent drop. It is also about one-fifth lower than the rate experienced from the start of the war until the election.

    November through January marked one of the bloodiest periods of the war for U.S. forces, with the Falluja offensive in November and insurgents staging a deadly series of attacks before the election. The 137 U.S. troops killed in November was the highest monthly toll of the war, and the 107 killed in January was the third highest.

    The official Pentagon count released on Thursday listed 1,519 U.S. military deaths since the March 2003 invasion to topple President Saddam Hussein. It said another 11,442 U.S. troops have been wounded.

    Casey said he was not ready to declare the elections a “tipping point” toward victory.

    “We’re in a good position following the elections, but … we have a lot of work ahead to get to our final objective in Iraq,” Casey said.

    Here’s a graphical representation that agrees (current month figures are latest projected), from GlobalSecurity.org. Please note the the two largest spikes (APR 04 and NOV 04) were during American offensives and the third largest (JAN 05) was when the terrorists failed to stop the elections.

    US KIA as of 24-MAR-05

    Note, the mission continues. It is not accomplished, but it is progressing.

    I say again for the dense, the mission continues.

  • Iraqi, U.S. Forces Overrun Terror Base

    I may not be too confident about the body count, as reports have ranged from “dozens” all the way up to 85 dead scumbags, but I am certain which side has momentum in Iraq after government forces crush a terrorist base.

    After a two-hour firefight, Iraqi forces and U.S. helicopters captured an insurgent base north of Baghdad, killing 85 rebels, U.S. and Iraqi military officials said Wednesday.

    “A previous safe haven for planning attacks has been removed,” a U.S. military official said of Tuesday’s battle.

    Although the Iraqi military said it killed 85 insurgents during the firefight, the U.S. military said the number of rebel dead was “undetermined.”

    […]

    After entering the camp, Iraqi commandos found non-Iraqi passports, training publications, propaganda documents, weapons and ammunition, the U.S. military said.

    The U.S. military said the camp is at a remote location about 60 miles northwest of Baghdad, near Lake Tharthar, along the border of Salaheddin and Anbar provinces. But the Iraqi Interior Ministry said the camp was in Samarra, which is east of the lake.

    […]

    The U.S. role in the battle was primarily to provide helicopter support, the U.S. military official said. The battle “is another indication of [the insurgents’] diminished capabilities,” the official said.

    “This in an indication that they have been forced from major population centers and forced to operate in more remote areas,” he said.

    Dr. Rusty Shackleford over at the Jawa Report has a rather colorful post about the engagement.

    It turns out that there were 85 pieces of terrorist shit that were splattered by our Iraqi allies today, not 80. Hey, five more dead mujahidin going to meet their 75 white grapes is a good numerical adjustment in my book.

    Dr. Rusty’s post also includes a nice round-up of others writing on the matter.

    Add to the story this Associated Press summary of the recent success against the Saddamist and radical Islamist terrorists.

    Battles that have killed large numbers of Iraqi insurgents over the past few days:

    SUNDAY: Dozens of insurgents ambush a U.S. convoy near the infamous “Triangle of Death” south of Baghdad, and 26 militants are killed in the resulting gunbattle. Eight others are taken into custody, including seven wounded. Seven soldiers are also injured.

    MONDAY: Militants ambush a convoy of security officials in Mosul, sparking a gunbattle that left 17 dead and 14 injured, according to Iraqi police. No security forces were hurt.

    TUESDAY: Iraqi forces, backed by U.S. troops, raid a suspected insurgent training camp near Lake Tharthar, leaving 85 people dead, according to Iraqi officials. At least seven Iraqi commandos were also killed.

    You can double-check my math, but that looks like a three-day winning streak with a cumulative score of 128-7. And that, folks, is a sweet scoreboard.