CNN:

The U.S. Consulate on Friday urged Americans to take precautions amid rumors of a "day of resistance" this weekend in the Iraqi capital.

Attacks against U.S. forces and Iraqi police have escalated recently, with the most dramatic and bloodiest day coming Monday. More than 30 people were killed then in four suicide bombings in Baghdad, including an assault on the International Committee of the Red Cross headquarters.

................

Acknowledging talk that news organizations have heard in recent days, the U.S. Consulate issued a statement saying that "U.S. citizens are encouraged to continue to maintain a high level of vigilance and continue to take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness."

A number of dates have been mentioned for possible attacks, but the common one is for Saturday.

Full story

First of all, "Boo!"

That said, here's some news ... you decide how frightening it is. From the AP:

American troops clashed with rioters carrying Saddam Hussein's picture Friday in a Baghdad suburb, and a heavy smoke billowed from the mayor's office in a city west of the capital following a strong explosion.

In northern Iraq, American troops sealed off Saddam's birthplace and began issuing identity guards to the villagers to allow them free movement. The New York Times reported Friday that U.S. commanders believe the ousted leader is actively plotting some of the attacks against the coalition.

A grisly videotape showing acts of torture carried out by Iraqi Republican Guard and Saddam Fedayeen militiamen has been declassified and obtained by Fox News.

After the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime in April, an Iraqi in Baghdad gave the tape to the U.S. Army's 308th Civil Affairs Brigade, V Corps. He told the soldiers he had more videos and was directly involved in their taping, having been ordered to do so by the Republican Guard.

The 23-minute long tape contains several scenes of Saddam Fedayeen fighters carrying out corporal punishment and at least one execution, probably of a Saddam Fedayeen member.

Full story and video at Fox

Iraq was hit by a string of explosions Thursday that set a freight train on fire, killed a U.S. soldier in a military convoy and ripped through Baghdad's Old Quarter. Another blast injured two U.S. soldiers on a military police patrol.

The attacks came as international organizations continued their exodus from Iraq and the U.N. secretary-general warned of ``a new phase'' in postwar violence.

A top U.S. diplomat blamed al-Qaida for recent attacks, and in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, U.S. soldiers raided six houses after receiving tips that the inhabitants were helping establish a ``new terrorist network'' there, a military spokesman said.

Full story at NYT

The life of an impoverished Baghdad Family in pictures, from the BBC.

Hat Tip: Reader Max

Also from the BBC, pictures of an awards ceremony:

In Iraq it is medals that are being handed out - 49 Medals of Valour and 124 Medals of Sacrifice are being awarded to Iraqi policemen and their relatives.

Posted By Zoe Brain at 10:19 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from Iraq that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Our "Winds of War" coverage of the global War on Terror is a separate briefing today, and both are brought to you by Dan Darling of Regnum Crucis.

Top Topics

* Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, former Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, may well be leading the Baathist fighters in Iraq. And that's not all he's doing - captured Ansar al-Islam members say that al-Douri is is working with al-Qaeda (probably meaning Zarqawi) to fight the US.

* Another suicide bombing has occurred in Iraq, this time in Fallujah.

* The 4 simultaneous suicide car bombings in Baghdad that killed 40 on Monday are said to be the work of al-Qaeda, possibly with help from neighboring states. Zeyad over at Healing Iraq concurs - and he's pissed.

* Baghdad deputy mayor Faris Abdul al-Assam has been assassinated

Other Topics Today Include: Iraqi police may have had a warning about Monday's attack; Syrian suicide bomber captured; Abu Fares dead; an al-Qaeda company involved in Iraqi reconstruction; Red Cross mulls over pulling out of Iraq; Daniel Drezner on progress in Iraq; Bangladesh and Portugal won't send troops; Calpundit crunches the numbers and wonders why the media can't; Kesher Talk gives a troop round-up; General Clapper on Iraqi WMDs; and Salon on the anti-war movement.

read the rest...

From UPI:

* * *

U.S. intelligence officials Wednesday released an assessment that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction have been transferred to neighboring Syria.

The officials, in the first assessment of its kind, said the transfer occurred during the weeks prior to the U.S.-led war against the Saddam Hussein regime.

* * *

Via the Drudge Report.

From the CPA Website :

Key Findings

• Iraqis in these seven cities divide on whether a democracy, an Islamic state or a mix of the two is best for Iraq’s future. But regardless of their preferences for a political system, large majorities emphasize the importance of free and fair elections, the rule of law, the right to criticize the government and inclusiveness in politics.
• The main difference between those who support a democracy and those who support an Islamic state is their views on the appropriate role of religion in politics.
• Historical experience has sullied the image of political parties, especially outside of Northern Iraq where no more than one third express confidence in parties. In addition, when asked to volunteer the name of a leader they trust most, two-thirds do not name anyone.
• In the new political environment, emerging leaders are still relatively unknown. Majorities have not heard enough to evaluate most members of the Governing Council, and religious leaders have better name recognition and ratings. But Iraqis place greater value on expertise and experience in staffing their government than they do on sectarian or ethnic interests.

The whole report is available as a pdf file.

Strong Consensus on Value of Free Elections and Fair Representation
In all seven cities in the Office of Research poll, large majorities support what are generally considered to be democratic values. Nine in ten think it is very or somewhat important that people vote in free and fair elections (95%), that people abide by the law and criminals are punished (94%), that people can criticize the government (86%), and that major nationality (89%) and religious groups share power (87%). Majorities also value media that are independent of government censorship (78%) and rights for women that are equal to those of men (71%) [...]There is very little, if any, variation among the cities on these components, and there are only minor differences between men and women in their attitudes toward gender equity.

Good luck finding these results in mainstream media. It's almost as if that they don't care what the Iraqis think.

From The Australian :

SevenUkrainian peacekeepers were wounded when militants attacked their patrol in southern Iraq, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said today.

Two armored personnel carriers with 17 Ukrainian peacekeepers were ambushed Tuesday night near As Suwayrah, northwest of their base at Kut in southern Iraq, said Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Kostiantyn Khivrenko. Three mines exploded under the vehicles, and militants then opened fire.

Khivrenko said that the wounded soldiers' condition was stable. Five of them were hospitalized in Baghdad, and the two others suffered only slight injuries.

A Ukrainian peacekeeper died earlier this month when the vehicle he was riding in turned over.

Some 1,650 Ukrainian troops are serving in the Polish-led stabilization force patrolling southern Iraq.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

There have been further attacks in Iraq on US-led coalition forces and on Iraqi police.

At least two civilians are reported to have been killed and others injured when a police station in the northern city of Mosul came under fire.

In Tikrit, witnesses said an American soldier was wounded in an attack on a US military base.

And from The Australian :

Two 4th Infantry Division soldiers were killed and one was wounded when their tank was hit by an undetermined explosive north of Baghdad, the US military said today.

The three crewmembers of the Abrams tank were en route to a guard post when the explosion occurred Tuesday night near Balad, 70 kilometers north of Baghdad, according to the division spokeswoman, Maj. Jossyln Aberle.

The wounded soldier was evacuated to a U.S. military hospital in Germany, she said.

In two unrelated incidents today:

Unknown gunmen assassinated a deputy mayor of Baghdad in an apparent hit-run shooting, the U.S. occupation authority reported Tuesday.

And:

An editor of an Iraqi weekly newspaper was shot and killed Tuesday on the roof of his office's building, police said. His daughter said he had been threatened because of his writings.

Two men followed Ahmed Shawkat, editor of the independent "Without Direction," to the roof -- where he went to make a phone call -- and one of them shot him, police said.

[Both stories from Newsday]

by Armed Liberal

Somehow this has been briefly commented on, but not given a lot of play in the blogs I've seen. This story about the suicide bomber who was foiled yesterday is on page A6 of this morning's L.A. Times (requires registration, use 'laexaminer'/'laexaminer') - which itself is positive news. And if true, suggests that the war in Iraq is in fact a lot more complex than those who suggest that it is the "natural resistance" of the Iraqi population to foreign invaders. Here's why this story matters:

read the rest...

Capt. David Spencer is an officer with the 173rd Airborne, stationed in Northern Iraq. His father wrote the Niagara Falls Reporter and asked them to help his son out by sending him books for the troops.

"Lots of guys here read novels," he wrote his father. "A lot of them spend time sitting in safe houses where they have time to read. I've heard mention of a book exchange, where people could drop off and pick up books. I'm getting a bookcase to put in our front 'lobby,' and now we will need some books.

"I will have room for up to about 200 novels or so, and would like to get a bunch of books to start them. Suppose they don't all have to be novels, as long as it's interesting reading. Classics are fine, as these guys read just about anything they can get their hands on."

Apparently all you have to do is to select a book, put in an envelope, and mail it ("book rate" postage is fine) to:

     CPT David Spencer
     Task Force 1-63 Armor
     c/o 173rd Airborne Brigade
     APO AE 09347

While one might disagree with the Niagra Falls Reporter's editorial stance on the war, it's hard not to agree with the final sentiment of the linked article:

You also might want to include a little note thanking Capt. Spencer and his comrades for their sacrifices.

It seems to me that getting Capt. Spencer 200 books should be no problem at all for bloggers to manage.

Cross-posted at Ipse Dixit

The BBC's security correspondent has some sensible analysis (which is Intel-speak for "guesses backed by evidence").

Who is behind the continuing attacks in Iraq?

We have to distinguish here between the frequent, low-level hit-and-run attacks on US forces on the one hand, and the far more sinister suicide car bombings which have killed so many civilians, on the other.

Those behind the roadside bombings, the snipings and the RPG attacks on coalition troops are thought to be a mixture of Saddam loyalists, untrained Arab volunteers and ordinary Iraqis with a score to settle with the US military which may have killed members of their family during the war.

Those behind the big car bomb attacks are believed to include al-Qaeda affiliates, possibly working in collaboration with members of the former regime.

Worth reading the whole thing.

(Why didn't they use such professional analysts before?)

Hat Tip: Reader Max.

From the AFP via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

At least six people, including school children, have been killed after a car bomb exploded near a police station in the flashpoint town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad in Iraq, an AFP correspondent at the scene has reported.

The blast occurred when a pick up truck, belonging to the Fao construction company, exploded at 1:15pm local time, about 150 metres from the police station in Fallujah, 50 kilometres west of Baghdad, where American soldiers come regularly under attack.

Bodies were severely charred and mutilated.
[...]
Earlier, Reuters had reported that it was a suicide bomber who blew up the car near the police station in Fallujah, killing himself and four civilians, Reuters had quoted as police as saying.

Reuters report police officers said a small car driven by one man exploded 100 metres from the main police station in the town west of Baghdad, outside a boy's secondary school.

"Four civilians were killed," Major Assad Abdul Karim had said.

Meanwhile, a US military spokeswoman in Baghdad said she had no immediate information on the incident.

From AFP via Yahoo:

An explosion boomed across Baghdad just after midday (0900 GMT), AFP correspondents reported.

There was no immediate confirmation on the exact location of the blast which rocked the southwestern sector of the capital a day after five suicide bombers left 43 dead and more than 200 wounded in Baghdad.

Fox has no link yet, but is reporting in their website headline that four people have been killed in what appears to be a suicide bombing.

[UDPATE]: Six people have been killed in this latest bombing that took place in Fallujah:

Witness Hamid Ali said the bomb was located in a Toyota parked in front of the Fallujah power station and about 30 yards from a school and 100 yards from a police station

US military spokesman, Brigadier General Mark Hertling said:

"[A] man shot as he was trying to carry out another attack on a police station was carrying a Syrian passport."

The general stressed that, although co-ordinated, the attacks - on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan - were "not synchronised" and "not very professional".

Which differs from this report from Fox:

Defense officials said they believe loyalists of fallen Iraqi President Saddam Hussein were responsible for the wave of bombings. At the Pentagon, officials described the two days of violence as a significant spike in attacks that showed some level of coordination -- though how much was still unclear.

We report. You decide.

[Thanks to Anton in the comments on the previous post for the heads up on the BBC report]

The death toll has risen above 30 as of 8:30 this morning (EST), the first day of Ramadan. The dead include two American soldiers and an Iraqi policeman.

It appears to have been a series of three or four bombs, with another attempt thwarted.

Throughout the morning, four other vehicles exploded at police stations in the Baghdad area. Ambulances, sirens wailing, crisscrossed the city all morning.
"From what our indications are, none of those bombers got close to the target," U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling said.

Officers stopped a fifth would-be homicide bomber at another police station in central Baghdad before he detonated his Land Cruiser. "He was shouting, 'Death to the Iraqi police! You're collaborators!"' said police Sgt. Ahmed Abdel Sattar.

It's been confirmed that all five bombings were suicide attacks.

UPDATE: U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling said that "foreign fighters" appear to be behind the wave of bombings.

In addition to the amount of deaths already reported, at least 200 people have been injured.

An Update on USAID Reconstruction Activities in Iraq, from Andrew S. Natsios, U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator :

A huge amount has been accomplished in a very short period of time. I've been involved in more than ten reconstruction efforts in the last 14 years. This is the fastest and most massive that's occurred anywhere in the world during that time period. In fact, AID has spent about $2 billion of the $2.5 billion, which was appropriated by the Congress in the first supplemental budget.

We have never spent that much money in one country since the Marshall Plan.

This is a huge undertaking, and that is both for the food that goes into the food distribution system education sector, health sector, electricity and the other sectors. But let me just mention some of the accomplishments.

School just opened on the 4th of October. 1,000 -- more than 1,600 schools have been reconstructed, refurbished. That means that the electrical wiring has been replaced, new fans have been put in, new electrical lights, windows have been repaired, the latrines -- the bathrooms -- have been repaired, the plumbing's been put back on. And there are more than 1,600 of these schools across the country.

We've printed, working with UNICEF and UNESCO-- two UN agencies-- 5.6 million textbooks in math and science, and 76 different textbooks, but it's in the math and science area. They have been purged of propaganda and they were done through the UN mechanisms that are used all over the world for producing textbooks for these areas, but of course, they're in Arabic and they are sensitive to the cultural context in which they're produced. They worked with the Ministry of Education career Iraqi staff.

We also produced a million and a half back-to-schoolbags for every high school student. There are a million and a half high school students going back to school and they have a canvas bag with a calculator in it and a compass and pencils and paper and rulers and that sort of thing.

We've trained over 50,000 teachers in a more Socratic method of questions and answers, of debates in class as opposed to rote learning, which is not the best kind of educational mechanisms to use in our view, particularly in a democratic society. And so school buildings, textbooks, training of teachers -- there's a new direction for school and school now is back up to or exceeds the enrollment levels that had existed prior to the conflict.
[...]
Secondly, in the electricity sector, we're now back up to -- we were as of two weeks ago -- 4400 megawatts was the pre-war production of electrical energy in the country. And we've taken a couple of plants offline in the last week in order to preventative maintenance on them. The peak demand is in the summertime and we're now witnessing lower level temperatures in Baghdad and the central part of the country, so there's less demand.

We've also installed new electrical generators in the water -- the sanitation and water plants around the country in order to take those plants off the power grid, which will make the -- if there are problems with power transmission -- the water and sewer systems will still function because they will not be dependent on the electrical grid for electrical power. They will be -- they would get their power generated locally. This is an added security measure.

We also have initiated a massive reconstruction of the water infrastructure of the country, which is in terrible condition, which is one reason that the child mortality rate is so high in Iraq -- it's mainly because of filthy water. We have begun a whole reconstruction effort for the pumping stations, the water pumping stations, and the treatment plants and then the sewerage treatment plants.
[...]

The piping has been repaired in many of the cities. The last thing I would mention is something that is not widely known, which is that the great bulk of the contracts, sub-contracts, have gone to Iraqi firms. And that was because Ambassador Bremer asked that we employ as many Iraqis as possible. We have about 72 USAID staff in Iraq. There are another 600 contractor staff who are expatriates -- they're from other countries -- working for American contractors or subcontractors. And there are 55,000 Iraqis who are paid a daily wage to work in carrying out the subcontracts on rebuilding the 1600 schools, rebuilding dozens of hospitals, rebuilding 70 health clinics around the country, working on the water and sewerage treatment plants, working on community development projects.

We have also given out more than 800 small grants to these new municipal councils that have been formed. And the councils decide what the priorities are, and how they will spend the money, and then we work with them in developing capacity-building training programs for these new municipal councils on how you write a capital budget, an operating budget, how you develop an accounting system for money, how you prevent money from being stolen in the public sector, how you do proper procurement, so everybody can participate in it.

That training is going on now, but these 800 small grants are also meaning that the city councils and town councils at the local level are beginning their own reconstruction effort on smaller projects at the village and the city level. So anyway, those are some of the things going on. A lot of activity is taking place, and the fact that 55,000 Iraqis are now working on these projects is a testament to how the Iraqi people themselves are engaged in the reconstruction of their own country.

After the update came question time, where the Media had their turn..

QUESTION: Hi, my name is Khaled Abdel Kareem with Middle East News Agency of Egypt, and my question is: You just told us about the goods news, and that's great. But can we get back for a moment to the bad news? What are the aspects when the construction processes are still lagging behind, and why, in your view? That's first.

And second, can you brief us on the extent of Arab contribution to the reconstruction process? Are the Arab companies providing any services over there? Thank you.

MR. NATSIOS: Well, in terms of the -- I could give you the subcontract breakdown from Bechtel. Okay?

There are 109 Iraqi companies that now have subcontracts with Bechtel. There are seven Kuwaiti companies, five Saudi companies. I don't -- there are three other. I don't know what the others are. But the great bulk, the great bulk of the contracts are going to Iraqi companies and other Middle Eastern companies because they're in the region, and we want as many Iraqis employed as possible.

Two, the reconstruction process is not lagging behind. The perception in the media, particularly in the Middle East, is that nothing's happening. That's simply not true. And I spent a week there in June, and my staff is there every day. 72 of them are giving me reports every single day. There's a massive reconstruction effort in the country going on right now. And if you want tours of these facilities with the local governing councils, to show what the facilities looked like before, we have photographs of before and after.

Many of these schools, by the way -- none of this damage we're talking about -- almost none of it, is from the war. It's from a deterioration of infrastructure because money was not put by the Baathist Party into public infrastructure from before the Iran-Iraq War. They put a lot of money in the late 1970s, and the early 1980s, in schools, hospitals, clinics, and once the war with Iran started, all that money got sucked into the military, and they haven't recovered from that. They have not recovered from that since 1983 -- 20 years ago. The port of Um Qasr is now one of the most modern ports in the entire Middle East. It's completely dredged, which has not taken place since 1983.

We've taken out the equivalent of 23 football fields of silt out of it. We've taken out 19 sunken ships and 250 pieces of unexploded ordnance, or bombs, out of the facility. Now, any large ship can go into it without any trouble at all, which was not the case, and hasn't been, again, since the early '80s.
[...]
QUESTION: Michael Backfisch, Germany Business Daily, Handelsblatt. Could you provide us some more key data about the progress which has been made, compared to pre-war level? As I understand, 89 percent of electricity is at pre-war level. What's the equivalent in water supply, health care and other areas? And what's the percentage of the country which is sort of back to normal right now? And in contrast to that, what are your worries in the problem areas?

MR. NATSIOS: Well, electrical power is at 100 percent of pre-war levels as of a week ago. What we did in the last week is there are two plants we had to take offline ourselves. It was not because of sabotage or breakdown, but we had to conduct preventative maintenance that had not been done in a couple years on those plants. And so the important thing is, is there enough power being generated for the requirements of the country? The peak low in Iraq is during the summer months -- July, August -- June, July, August are the top months. Now we're into October and the demand is much lower because the heat has diminished, you know.
[...]
That is beyond us now. That is behind us. And the plan is to increase the number of kilowatts from 4400, which is what it was before the war, to 6,000 by next summer, because we will have another peak next summer and we expect a lot of industries to come back online, because pouring all this money into the economy is having an effect.

We've got factories working just to build desks for the Iraqi ministries that were looted. We've got 2,000 Iraqis working full time building desks and tables for Iraqi government ministries.
[...]
In the area of water, water supply now is above pre-war levels in all the major cities: in Baghdad, in Basra, we could go down the list. The question is not how much water, but the purity of the water. We do not have a really good, accurate indication of what the purity level is of the water, but you can tell from the child mortality rates. They're extremely high. The child death rate in Iraq, according to data that was provided by the UN agencies prior to the conflict, were about 129 - 131 per 1,000 of the kids died before they were five. The comparable rate in India, for example, is 102. Half of Africa is lower than 100. Jordan it's 27. In Western Europe and the United States, it's about 10 kids die before their fifth birthday.

So Iraq has an extraordinarily high rate. Why is that? Because of poor immunizations. We've immunized, now, 3 million Iraqi children under the age of five from the major diseases, which is what they were dying from.
[...]
We've rehabilitated 20 delivery hospitals serving 300,000 residents in Basra. We have about 100,000 pregnant and nursing mothers and malnourished children who are receiving high protein biscuits which will raise their nutrition level, because they had very poor -- a very serious problem with iron deficiencies, anemia. 50 percent of the women who were pregnant had severe anemia and they were not being treated properly.

And so, you can go through the list, and in the health sector, things are improving. We've also distributed, I think, 3 or 4 million doses or oral re-hydration salts, which is what a kid should take if they get diarrhea, severe diarrheal disease from dirty water. There were almost none in the country that were being used before. I was shocked at the low level of usage. Probably the lowest level in the world was in Iraq. And apparently there was a real problem in getting the oral re-hydration salts distributed -- UNICEF had terrible problems with the Iraqi Government in allowing the stuff out of the, out of the warehouses.
[...]
QUESTION: How much of the country would you say is back to normal?

MR. NATSIOS: I would say that at least 70 percent of the country is back to normal. In fact, in many areas, it's substantially improved over what it was before the war: in terms of the markets functioning, in terms of public services being provided, like water and like health services. Health services are far better now than they were before the war. The budget for Iraq for health was $10 million for the whole country before the war. It's now $200 million a year.

Then there was the usual thing we can expect from the Media, as evidenced by this exchange:

QUESTION: Alan Beattie from Financial Times. Mr. Natsios, as you know, there's been quite a lot of criticism of the lack of transparency of the -- of USAID's and the CPA's operations in Iraq --

MR. NATSIOS: I'm not aware of any criticism of AID. I don't know about anybody else.

QUESTION: Okay, about CPA --

MR. NATSIOS: --and everything that we've done has been completely transparent. It's on our website, it's been on our website for eight months. Anybody who wants to see it, just look up the website. All the contracts are there, all the subcontracts are there, all the budgets are there. They've been there all along. Anybody who wanted to could look them up.

QUESTION: Okay. Can I -- if I can broaden this out --

MR. NATSIOS: Sure.

QUESTION: -- to the, you know, the general reconstruction. I mean, in view of, for example, the fact that open tendering for contracts still haven't been introduced and --

MR. NATSIOS: Sir, you say these things, and I read some of the stuff in the Financial Times. It's simply inaccurate. You keep repeating these things, they are not accurate, and I think it's really deceptive to do it. So I would urge you to get your facts straight.

QUESTION: Okay, I'm asking you --

MR. NATSIOS: There is open tendering for all AID contracts, sir. There was open tendering prior to this, okay? Under the Federal Contracting Law, we did do tendering. One, since the war started, there have been full and fair competitions for these contracts. We just awarded an agriculture contract. It was full and fair competition. It was on the website. Anybody could bid on it, and they did. And it was awarded. And we've just bid another one for a major $1.5 billion construction contract. That was also on the Web.

QUESTION: When you say Internet, does that include all international companies or just U.S. companies?

MR. NATSIOS: No. We are following federal law, and that is not a matter of transparency, sir. It's a matter of federal statute. And it's a public statute. And other donor governments like the British Government, and the European Governments and the European Union do exactly the same thing. I've seen no criticism in your articles, sir, about any European countries that do exactly the same thing. The French Government has always done only French companies bidding. But you never mention that in your articles.

QUESTION: Okay. I don't want to get into a back and forth, because it's not true that we've never criticized hired aid and other countries. U.K. Government, by the way, has abolished hired aid. But if I can just -- if we can just, if we can just now push it forward, a large proportion -- I don't think the Administration's yet given the amount, but I think it's --

MR. NATSIOS: Let me just go back to this. It is a function of federal law, so it's irrelevant what -- what you think should be the case. The fact is there are federal laws AID must comply with.

QUESTION: Sure. Can I -- but let me just put this forward.

MR. NATSIOS: Yes.

QUESTION: AID -- I think the Administration said a large part, or much, but haven't given the proportions of the U.S. contribution of $20 billion or so --

MR. NATSIOS: I'm sorry?

QUESTION: -- will be, will be -- the U.S. contribution to reconstruction will be spent bilaterally --

MR. NATSIOS: That's correct.

QUESTION: -- and a small part will be through the trust fund. Can you just say what causes you to give that breakdown? Why not put it all through the trust fund?

MR. NATSIOS: Why would we put any of it through the trust fund? The trust fund is not designed for major donors. We're the largest aid agency in the world. We're larger, by far, than any UN agency.
[...]
...AID spent $14.9 billion last year. I mean, if we put all that money in trust funds, the trust funds would break down because they can't handle that much money.
[...]
A lot of our money directly goes not from trust funds from AID through UN agencies. We put $200 million in cash through the World Food Program that ran the food program, the public distribution system, from the time the conflict began until this November. That was in cash from the U.S. Government, plus 500,000 tons of food.

We've given UNICEF, I think, $50 million. We've given UNESCO $10 million. We've given the World Health Organization $10 million. And so rather than put money in these trust funds, we move it directly into the UN agencies that are operating on the ground, that have high levels of transparency and competence in their programming, and that we've worked with around the world. So there is an integrated international effort that is going on in Iraq, even though it may not be highly visible.

And a lot more.... But the Media has decided that this isn't important enough to mention.

That's OK - it's on the website. You just have to know where to look.

Half of the rockets that hit the Baghdad hotel over the weekend - killing an American colonel, a British citizen, and 17 others - and almost hitting Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz...

... were modern - post-embargo - French munitions.

Via Andrew Sullivan.

The Associated Pressreports::

A series of explosions rocked Baghdad early Monday, including one in front of the international Red Cross building that police said killed at least two people and injured several others. The blasts came a day after after insurgents attacked a heavily guarded hotel, killing an American colonel.

One witness said Monday's bomb at the Red Cross was packed in an ambulance but there was no confirmation from police.

Iraqi police Lt. Sultan Mohammed said the blast was caused by a car bomb. He said the driver and perhaps a passerby were killed. Two cars could be seen burning in front of the building.

A Red Cross staffer, Mahdi Saad, said several people were believed to have been killed or injured inside the building, which appeared to have suffered some damage.

Three other blasts could be heard throughout the city Monday following the Red Cross blast, which occurred after 8:30 a.m. Witnesses said one blast was in the al-Khadra neighborhood, where the relief organization CARE is located. Another was in the al-Shaab district, another witness said.

Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Today's "Winds of War" is brought to you by Andrew Olmsted of Andrew Olmsted dot com.

TOP TOPICS

• Al Qaeda scored a big propaganda victory over the weekend with a rocket attack on the Al Rasheed hotel that succeeded in killing an American Colonel and wounding at least 18, while driving U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary out of the hotel. The attack marked a new facet in terrorism, using a cart loaded with RPGs to launch a barrage of rockets against the hotel. Although minimally effective in terms of damage inflicted, the success in striking such a high-profile target and escaping unharmed will probably help the anti-U.S. groups to recruit additional terrorists to their side.

• JK: Phil Carter has some great stuff on global terrorist financing from the United States to the Middle East.

Other Topic Include: Iraq's missing nuclear program; Report from the 82nd Airborne; Congresswoman's Iraq blog; How the $87 billion may be used; Iraqi crime, thank goodness; Iran in Britain; More stalling; 9/11 inquiry; Rumsfeld's memo; 'Antiwar' mask slips again; Canadian Jihadis; Israel's crippled Left; Arrests in Pakistan; Algeria; Looking away in North Korea; Sudan's disappearing penises.

read the rest...

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

A US Army Black Hawk helicopter was shot down today by ground fire near Tikrit, a centre of Iraq's anti-US insurgency, injuring five soldiers, US officials said.

Two helicopters were flying overhead when the second one in the formation was hit by a projectile, believed to be a rocket propelled grenade, witnesses said.

The stricken chopper circled, swayed then came down in a farming area while the other hovered overhead, they said.

"A helicopter did go down," Captain Jefferson Wolfe, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division, said. "We can confirm it. It was a Black Hawk. We are investigating."

In Baghdad, the US military command said the five people on board were injured but were "safely evacuated". The command did not say why the helicopter went down but added that after it crashed it received ground fire.

Subsequent TV reports stated that an RPG round was responsible.

According to Reuters:

Anti-American guerrillas blasted the Baghdad hotel where U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying with a barrage of rockets on Sunday, but the No. 2 Pentagon official survived unharmed, U.S. officials said.

A defiant Wolfowitz vowed that the United States would not be cowed into abandoning Iraq after the brazen attack that he said may have killed one American.

Up to 15 people were wounded in the strike that is a setback for the Bush administration, undermining its insistence that the United States is winning the guerrilla war in Iraq.

The blast of the rockets hitting the Rashid Hotel at about 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) echoed across the city as a clear, rapid series of explosions. Several guests were thrown from their beds by the impact.

Some people were carried out of the hotel on stretchers and others walked away with blood on them after at least six rockets slammed into the building, destroying rooms a few stories below Wolfowitz's on the 12th floor, witnesses said.

Wolfowitz, a major force behind the United States invading Iraq, was led away by security forces and appeared composed after descending a stairwell past thickening smoke and blood stains, witnesses said.

"These terrorist attacks will not deter us from completing our mission, which is to help the Iraqi people free themselves from the types of criminals who did this and protect the American people from this kind of terrorism," Wolfowitz told reporters hours after the attack.

From Defend America:

* * *

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 23, 2003 — Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division’s Task Force Falcon, one of several brigade combat teams attached to the U.S. Army’s 1st Armored Division, are working to eliminate former regime loyalists and extremists hostile toward coalition forces.

The current mission before the light infantry paratroopers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team’s 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment (AIR) is to conduct offensive operations and defeat hostile forces in the Al Rashid District of Baghdad, said Col. Kurt Fuller, brigade commander.

“We have defeated the (former regime loyalists), and they are really no longer a major threat,” Fuller said. “Now, a new enemy has emerged.”

The brigade combat team, which crossed into Iraq to secure several key cities along Highways 8 and 9, last March, is now facing groups of religious extremists opposing coalition efforts and the Iraqi people, he said.

The brigade, charged since May to maintain a secure environment for coalition forces in south Baghdad, is responsible for an area that is home to approximately 1.5 million people.

The extremists do not support coalition efforts or the will of the Iraqi people, which is to rebuild a country ravaged by nearly 20 years of war, sanctions, and poverty, Fuller said.

Extremists are calling their followers to form their own governments and militias, he said. These unofficial and unrecognized governments reflect one particular community and do not represent the Iraqi people.

Task Force Falcon is working to reduce the extremists’ influence on the people of Iraq by working directly with local leaders, Fuller said.

* * *

Commanders have been working with Iraqi Police, Facility Protection Services, and the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps to search for weapons and weapons-making materials hidden inside Iraqi religious sites, said Capt. Tyson Voelkel, commander of Company A, 3rd Battalion, 325th AIR.

Iraqi Islamic beliefs forbid foreigners and non-believers from entering their sacred places of worship. Without the assistance of Iraqi forces, buildings, such as a mosques or temples, would be inaccessible to coalition forces.

Voelkel, who recently worked with Iraqi Police Service officers in Baghdad Oct. 6 to detain a local religious leader responsible for anti-coalition violence, believes the task force is seeing more hostile activity from religious extremists.

“The guys we’re working against now, they’re better trained,” Voelkel said. He said some extremists may be coming in from neighboring countries. These foreign instigators are “trying to persuade younger Iraqis to turn against the coalition.”

Task Force Falcon remains busy in the face of the enemy, said Capt. Sam Mokhiber, plans officer, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 325th AIR.

Increasing coalition patrols and search and seizure operations, the 82nd is working to engage the unconventional forces operating in south Baghdad.

First Sgt. Michael S. Terry, Company A, 3rd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment searches through the courtyard of the Al Bayaa Mosque as Iraqi Police Service officers look for illegal weapons in the temple located in Al Rashid, a district in south Baghdad. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Brent M. Williams
“Just as the enemy has adapted to us, we have adapted to them,” Mokhiber said. “We are making measured success in each operation.”

Task Force leaders continue to identify the major needs of the Iraqi people and continue to work with local leaders providing stability and progress for the Iraqi people and the new Iraqi government, said Mokhiber.

Their efforts will take time, he explained.

The events surrounding the detainment of an Iraqi religious leader accused of crimes against coalition forces and the people of Iraq are proving to be what Fuller calls a “watershed event.”

“. . . (The extremists) have been able to convince large numbers of followers that the issue is a religious one and not a legal one,” Fuller said. “How this plays out will more than likely determine the future of the conflict and of Iraq.”

Any movement by the brigade combat team against the anti-coalition extremists is carefully planned and handled with sensitivity to prevent a violent response from their followers and to show respect to the Iraqi people, said Fuller.

The threat these extremists pose is extremely difficult to counter, said Fuller, but the majority of the Iraqi people are making tremendous progress towards forming a representative government and setting the conditions for peace and prosperity.

From Marine Corps News:

* * *

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO, Calif.(October 24, 2003) -- Standing up against a hail of bullets and rocket-propelled grenades, one man charged forward against a wall of lead and into an ambush that had his unit pinned down like sitting ducks. The Iraqis probably thought he was crazy, but he was just doing what Marine sergeants do: leading Marines.

Sgt. Rolando A. Ortega, formerly of 3rd Platoon, Company I, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, did what had to be done March 25, 2003. He sprang to his feet, attacked his enemies and, in doing so, inspired his Marines to do the same. When the fighting ended, a dozen Iraqis were dead, five were wounded and 17 were captured; Marines killed in action from Ortega's platoon - 0.

For his courageous actions that day, Ortega received the Bronze Star Medal with Combat 'V.' He was honored Oct. 17 aboard the Depot as Brig. Gen. John M. Paxton Jr., commanding general, Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego and the Western Recruiting Region, presented the medal to Ortega during the Morning Colors ceremony.

"It feels great to receive the medal and be recognized for your accomplishments, but there's also that feeling that digs at your heart, remembering the Marines we lost and the darker moments," said Ortega.

* * *

Ortega recalled the situation he and his Marines were faced with that day as he was serving as a squad leader moving in an armored column along Highway 1 in Iraq.

"Communication in the vehicle went out and the convoy was taken by surprise so I was unable to get a picture of what and where the threat was coming from. Once the ramp came down we dismounted and found ourselves in a hail of rounds from small arms and RPG fire," he said.

Seeing that his squad was not moving and knowing the situation required the squad to move forward out of the kill-zone, Ortega set the example and demonstrated aggressiveness and raw courage.

"We were in the open and vulnerable so we had to move," said Ortega.

Lance Cpl. Michael W. Meyer, one of Ortega's Marines that day, was fresh out of the school of infantry. He remembered being scared and disoriented in his first run in with the enemy.

"During our first encounters with the Iraqis, we were on a berm and Sgt. Ortega gave the order to assault through as the rounds were impacting all around us, and some of us just looked at each other with a look of 'you gotta be kidding'," said Meyer. "Once we saw Sgt. Ortega take off, that motivated the rest of us and we followed."

Upon seeing his valiant example, the Marines in the squad resumed their attack toward the berm.

"I was confident the Marines knew what they had to do, but I was concerned about the new Marines we had just received from the School of Infantry," said Ortega. "I just wanted to get through it all and make sure everyone got through safe."

"The exchange of fire might have lasted 10 to 15 minutes, but it seemed like it went on forever," he added.

Some of Ortega's fellow Marines commended him for his actions and credit him with turning the tables in the battle and giving Company I the advantage.

"Because of what he did, the Iraqis fled into the path of 1st and 2nd Platoon where we handled the situation," said Sgt. Enrique Alaniz III, Platoon Sgt., 1st Platoon, Company I. "He did it because his boys were in danger and he knew (the Iraqis) had mortar capability."

Alaniz, who considers Ortega a good friend and not just a colleague, attested to his character.

"I've known Ortega since he arrived to the Company as a PFC. What he expects of his Marines is what he gives," said Alaniz.

Ortega left the battlefield July 18 with orders to report to Recruiters School here Sept. 3.

"I was disappointed because I had to come back early. Throughout the whole evolution my mind was still on all the guys," said Ortega.

Ortega graduated Recruiters School Thursday and will begin his duties at Recruiting Sub Station Santa Barbara soon.

"Its going to be a new place and a different environment, but I'm looking forward to it," he said.

* * *

From The Australian :

The coalition-backed police chief of the southern Iraqi city of Amarah was shot dead as he left a mosque after prayers, officials said today.

Brigadier Hamid Hadi Hassan al-Abe was leaving the al-Hussein mosque after Friday prayers when he was gunned down by assailants firing from several locations, according to police Major Kathim Mohsen Hamadi.

The assailants escaped, Hamadi said. Several hundred men, many of them armed with rifles and pistols, turned out today for the funeral of al-Abe, whose body will be buried in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf.

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

The overnight curfew that has been in effect in Baghdad for the past six months will be lifted on Sunday, in time for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, authorities announced.

"Coalition authorities have informed the Baghdad City Council that the curfew in Baghdad will be lifted beginning 4am on October 26," council chairman Adnan Abdul Sahib Hassan said.

"Despite some highly publicised attacks by terrorists and supporters of the former regime, the overall security situation in Baghdad has improved," he said.

The official said that lifting the curfew was "a great step forward for the people of Baghdad during the blessed month of Ramadan".

From the BBC (British, no longer Baghdad, Broadcasting Corporation) :

The international community has been disclosing how much money it will provide for Iraqi reconstruction, with donations proving more generous than expected.

Although the total pledged at the donors' conference in Madrid is likely to fall far short of the estimated $56bn needed to rebuild the war-torn country, substantial amounts have already been promised.

Japan became the biggest donor after the United States by pledging $3.5bn in low-interest loans, on top of $1.5bn in grants already announced.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait each pledged $1bn, while the US has already promised $20bn.
[...]
The new fund is designed to lure donors wary of US control, although some aid groups have reportedly questioned whether it will be able to make decisions on the ground.

The BBC's Katya Adler in Madrid says the mood has been more upbeat on the conference's final day, with the outcome less bleak than expected.

Our correspondent says the sums involved will be enough to kick-start Iraqi reconstruction, although they are unlikely to cover all the country's medium-term needs.

The World Bank has said $36bn is needed for rebuilding Iraq, while the US-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority says nearly $20bn more will have to be spent on security and the oil sector.
[...]
Countries such as France, Germany and Russia, which opposed the US-led war with Iraq, have said they will not donate more than they have already pledged.
[...]
Pledges already made include:

$20bn from the United States
$5bn from Japan
$3bn-$5bn from the World Bank
$1bn from Saudi Arabia
$1bn from Kuwait
$835m from Britain
$300m from Spain
$231m from the European Union
$200m from South Korea
$174m from Italy
$150m from Canada
$32.6m from Sweden
$5.9m from Belgium

Hat Tip : reader Max

And from the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

The Australian Government will contribute up to $20 million in additional reconstruction assistance for the people of Iraq.

Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs Chris Gallus made the announcement at the International Donors' Conference in Madrid.

"The $20 million will contribute to Iraqi needs in agriculture, water resources, food security, health and education, and be channelled through a multi-donor trust fund established by the United Nations and the World Bank," she said.

"Our aid is addressing the immediate needs of the Iraqi people and has helped avert a humanitarian crisis."

Ms Gallus said the contribution added to the $100 million Australia has already committed to Iraq.

Now would be a good time to remind our readers that running the Command Post for your edification, education and entertainment costs money. All donations to the Command Post tip jar on the right, or any of the tip jars of the contributors, will be most gratefully received.

And remember, you can always donate Toys to Iraq. FLASH Fedex is now donating FREE SHIPPING from the US to Iraq for at least some of them. All you have to do is get them to the OPERATION GIVE warehouse.

That address:

Operation Give
7155 Columbia Gateway Drive
Columbia, MD 21046

Please see this site for a list of culturally acceptable toys.

A mate of mine (as mentioned in a previous post) is with the 299th Engineering Battalion, 4th Infantry Division. (Considering the record of the Aussie SASR in Iraq, my appreciation in that post was reasonably accurate, given that it had been written over a year before the war began).

A quote from an MSNBC reporter's personal blog detailing what the 299th has been doing recently: namely, blowing things up.

Saturday morning just east of Baji; the combat engineers of Battalion 299 Charlie Company are doing what they like doing best: blowing things up.

Today's cache is a bunch of Russian-made SA2 surface to air missiles strewn across the desert like pixie stix.

The 299's laid-back commanding officer, Lt. Colonel Mark Huron says the mission, though typical, is an important one.

"They contain certain components," he says, "and if they fall into the wrong hands could be fashioned into an I.E.D."

That's Army lingo for improvised explosive device...
[...]
In postwar Iraq these guys are the Hail Mary squad;ready to do what their asked, from treating drinking water, to building bridges, to destroying weapons caches which could be used against coalition forces.
[...]
Taking the lead from their commanding officer and their Sgt. Major, they seem to me the calmest, most even tempered men in the Army.

Good qualities for people involved in ordnance disposal...and as far as possible from the temprament of "Full Metal A.......n", my mate. He's about as stable as Mercury Fulminate, and probably twice as dangerous to the enemy. Maybe more. But I digress...

After all the SA2's are rigged, Charlie Company needs to put in a blast request to Division Command. It's much more than a Fourth of July fireworks show - so airspace has to be cleared along with people, houses, and flocks of sheep. The engineers once detonated dozens of warheads in one shot. The explosio