U.S. forces accompanied by the Iraqi national guard launched a major offensive against insurgents in the northern Iraqi city of Samarra Thursday, CNN reported.

CNN's reporter in Iraq, Jane Arraf, in a live broadcast from the city, said she was accompanying U.S. forces engaged in the attack, which she described as “an entire brigade-size operation into Samarra to root out insurgents.”

She said she had been told there were an estimated 2,000 fighters in the rebel stronghold, including 250 foreigners.

Arraf said the city had previously had been off limits to U.S. forces under an agreement that they would not patrol there.

Read more…

From the Washington Post:

A growing number of career professionals within national security agencies believe that the situation in Iraq is much worse, and the path to success much more tenuous, than is being expressed in public by top Bush administration officials, according to former and current government officials and assessments over the past year by intelligence officials at the CIA and the departments of State and Defense.
While President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others have delivered optimistic public appraisals, officials who fight the Iraqi insurgency and study it at the CIA and the State Department and within the Army officer corps believe the rebellion is deeper and more widespread than is being publicly acknowledged, officials say.
People at the CIA “are mad at the policy in Iraq because it's a disaster, and they're digging the hole deeper and deeper and deeper,” said one former intelligence officer who maintains contact with CIA officials. “There's no obvious way to fix it. The best we can hope for is a semi-failed state hobbling along with terrorists and a succession of weak governments.”
“Things are definitely not improving,” said one U.S. government official who reads the intelligence analyses on Iraq.
“It is getting worse,” agreed an Army staff officer who served in Iraq and stays in touch with comrades in Baghdad through e-mail. “It just seems there is a lot of pessimism flowing out of theater now. There are things going on that are unbelievable to me. They have infiltrators conducting attacks in the Green Zone. That was not the case a year ago.”
This weekend, in a rare departure from the positive talking points used by administration spokesmen, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell acknowledged that the insurgency is strengthening and that anti-Americanism in the Middle East is increasing. “Yes, it's getting worse,” he said of the insurgency on ABC's “This Week.” At the same time, the U.S. commander for the Middle East, Gen. John P. Abizaid, told NBC's “Meet the Press” that “we will fight our way through the elections.” Abizaid said he believes Iraq is still winnable once a new political order and the Iraqi security force is in place.

Continue reading here.

From the AFP and the Washington Post :

U.S. Marines no longer venture into the city, but call in airstrikes on an almost daily basis, usually on houses where informants have indicated that followers of Abu Musab Zarqawi are gathering.

At three minutes before 5 a.m. Thursday, another such strike devastated what a Marine statement called “a known terrorist safe house.” The military noted that “secondary explosions” – blasts following the airstrike – indicated that the home had contained numerous munitions.

Agence France-Press reported that three people were killed and six wounded, quoting Hakim Badani, a doctor at Fallujah's main hospital. It was not clear who the casualties included.

“Multi-National forces take great care to minimize collateral damage and civilian casualties,” the military statement said. “Terrorists' placement of weapons caches in homes, schools, hospitals and mosques continue to put innocent civilians at risk.”

Updating a previous post, from the Washington Post :

The most lethal attack appeared to be directed at troops and security forces near a government-sponsored ceremony marking the reopening of a water treatment plant in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Bayaa.

While the U.S. military said 10 troops were injured in three blasts at the scene, the attack killed mostly children who milled excitedly around the event. A hospital reported 34 of 37 dead were children, according to the Associated Press.

Many were killed by the second car bomber, who witnesses said steered into a crowd gathered around an ambulance that had arrived to carry away those wounded by the first blast just minutes earlier.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

A report by a prominent Washington think tank says the training of new Iraqi forces to replace American troops in Iraq is proceeding too slowly.

The report, by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, says Iraqi forces will not be able to take over the most demanding security tasks until the end of next year at the earliest.

It also warns that it will be a race against time to get enough Iraqi troops ready for January when the Bush administration and the Iraqi interim Government have promised that elections will take place.

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

An Islamist militant group in Iraq has announced it is holding 10 hostages, including two Indonesian women and two Lebanese nationals, Al-Jazeera television reported, airing footage of four of the captives.

”An armed group calling itself 'Islamic Army in Iraq - Western Region Command' has circulated a videotape in which it announced that it is holding 10 hostages,” the news channel said.

They are “two Indonesian women, six Iraqis and two Lebanese” who work for an electrical equipment firm, it said.

Four of the presumed captives, all men, were shown in the footage, with the captors pointing machine guns at them.

From the ABC :

A suicide attacker exploded a car bomb Thursday outside the mayor's office in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad, killing at least one U.S. soldier and two Iraqi policemen and wounding 60 people, Iraqi and coalition officials said.

The bombing targeted a compound that houses the mayor's office, a police station and other buildings, police 1st Lt. Ahmed Jawad said.

A U.S. Bradley fighting vehicle was damaged in the attack, said Lt. Col. Jim Hutton, spokesman for the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division. Three U.S. soldiers were also wounded.

Some 60 wounded, including police and civilians, were treated at Abu Ghraib Hospital, said the facility's director, Dr. Abbas al-Timimi.

“This despicable act killed not only a Multi-National Force soldier, but Iraqis who were merely going about their business of defending this country,” Hutton said in a statement. “The terrorists offer nothing but destruction.”

From The Australian :

Multiple explosions rocked a western neighbourhood of the Iraq capital Baghdad as a US convoy passed tonight, killing at least 41 people and wounding more than 50, hospital and military officials said.

The attack happened around 1pm (5pm AEST) in the al-Amel neighbourhood, said Lieutenant Colonel Jim Hutton, spokesman for the US 1st Cavalry Division.

Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman said two car bombs and a roadside bomb exploded in swift succession as the convoy was passing.

Yarmouk Hospital received 37 bodies and more than 50 wounded in the attack, said Dr Nibras Hamdan.

Resident Samir Abul-Karim said the attack happened during a ceremony marking the opening of a new sewage system in the neighbourhood.

More as it become available.

Kidnappers of two French journalists in Iraq praised France's “positive steps toward the Iraqi people” Tuesday, a sign that the hostage-takers may be softening their position.

In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press in Cairo and also posted on a discussion board of the Islamic Army in Iraq, the group said it hoped “this is a beginning for a new era of understanding our issues and respect of our constants.”

Read more…

British hostage Kenneth Bigley has been shown in a new video screened on the Arab television station Al-Jazeera.

The engineer is seen shackled in a cage wearing an orange jumpsuit and pleading for help from the Prime Minister.

“Tony Blair is lying. He doesn't care about me. I'm just one person,” Mr Bigley says.

In the footage he calls on Mr Blair to meet the demands of his kidnappers to free female prisoners in Iraq and says his captors do not want to kill him.

Mr Bigley's brother, Paul, said it was “absolutely appalling” to see his brother in such a state but was pleased he was still alive.

Read more…

From Reuters via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Thirty per cent of former US soldiers who have been called back to duty involuntarily to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan have failed to report on time, and eight have been declared AWOL, the US Army said.
[…]
So far the Army has mobilised 3,664 people from the IRR [Individual ready reserve] to active duty, but 1,085 have not reported on time to the Army post to which they were assigned, said Julia Collins, a spokeswoman for the Army Human Resources Command.

The Individual Ready Reserve is made up of 111,000 people who have completed their voluntary Army service commitments and have returned to civilian life but remain eligible to be mobilised in a national emergency.

Many have been out of the active military duty for years.

Eight of those recently ordered back to active duty have been listed as absent without leave, or AWOL and could face military criminal charges as deserters, Ms Collins said.
[…]
About 85 per cent of those who did not show up on time have formally requested that the Army exempt them from duty due to health issues or some other hardship, she said.

Most of the others have requested a delay in their reporting date.

Most exemption requests are likely to be rejected, Ms Collins said.

From Reuters via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

One in four Iraqis are dependent on food rations to survive and many of them have to sell what little food they have for basic necessities like medicine and clothes, the UN World Food Program (WFP) said.

In a grim report underscoring troubles in Iraq, the Rome based WFP said support from the state run Public Distribution System was grossly insufficient to prevent chronic malnourishment.

“The political environment before the war made it impossible to analyse the level of poverty and hunger in the country,” said Torben Due, the director of the WFP's program in Iraq.

“For the first time, we are getting an accurate picture of people's access to food,” he said in a statement.

Squarely blaming the situation on years of international sanctions and war, the WFP said that some 6.5 million Iraqis, or about 25 per cent of the population, were “highly dependent on food rations and therefore vulnerable”.

Of those 6.5 million, 2.6 million resell part of their rations to buy other items, like medicine.

The survey on food security, which took place last year and covered 28,500 households in Iraq, also showed that 27 per cent of all children up to the age of five are chronically malnourished.

“Despite receiving food rations from Iraq's Public Distribution System, these people are still struggling to cope,” Mr Due said.

“Once (Iraq) stabilises politically and economically it can take care of this portion of the population. But until that happens, external assistance will be required,” he added.

The WFP receives most of its funding from the United States.

The group said it had launched a one year emergency operation that will cost $84 million and reach 220,000 malnourished children and 350,000 pregnant and lactating women.

The report comes at a time of increased scrutiny into the former UN oil-for-food program, the $94 billion humanitarian aid plan that operated from 1996 and was shut down last year.

It allowed Iraq to sell oil to buy civilian goods to ease the impact of 1991 Gulf War sanctions on ordinary Iraqis.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein documents surfaced that appeared to show the program had been rife with bribery and kickbacks, prompting UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to order an investigation.

The Reuters use of the present tense is a little misleading, so emphasis has been added to clarify what the article actaully says.

Reuters:

the release of two Italian aid workers in Iraq has raised hopes other hostages may soon be freed, but reports that a large ransom was paid may only feed the burgeoning hostage crisis.
….
Gustavo Selva, an Italian lawmaker, told French radio a ransom of around $1 million (550,000 pounds) — a sum already mentioned in Arabic media reports in recent days — had been handed over.

“In principle, we shouldn't give in to blackmail but this time we had to. Although it's a dangerous path to take because, obviously, it could encourage others to take hostages, either for political reasons or for criminal reasons,” Selva told RTL.

“The sum is probably correct,” he added.

And from ABC:

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, who had visited several Middle East capitals as part of efforts to secure the women's release, flatly denied on Italian state radio that ransom had been paid.

But Gustavo Selva, the head of an Italian parliamentary foreign affairs commission, has told reporters that he personally believed the ransom was paid even if the government denies it, said Selva's spokesman, Eugenio Marcucc

From The Australian :

US and Iraqi forces clashed with insurgents on a main Baghdad thoroughfare today, the Interior Ministry said.

At least one explosion could be heard across the Iraqi capital. There was no immediate word on casualties.

The fighting broke out on Haifa street, an insurgent enclave that has been the scene of fierce fighting recently, ministry spokesman Colonel Adnan Abdul-Rahman said.

Separately, a US warplane struck a rocket launcher mounted on the back of a vehicle in the Baghad slum of Sadr city, destroying the vehicle but igniting several secondary explosions, the US military said today.

“The vehicle was fired on and destroyed in an open area away from buildings and other people,” Captain Brian O'Malley of the Army's 1st Brigade Combat Team said.

Maithem Mahmoud of the al-Sadr General Hospital said one man was killed and a woman injured.

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

Six US soldiers and two Iraqis have been wounded in a car bombing in the northern city of Mosul, US military and Iraqi security officers say.

Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Paul Hastings says the car bomb exploded late yesterday as a US convoy drove near the University of Mosul, wounding six US soldiers.

He says five soldiers have returned to duty, while one is still in hospital.

The university's security chief, Lieutenant Colonel Zulikfar Omar Salah, says two Iraqi security guards have also been wounded.

Elsewhere, a car bomb exploded and a second car bomb was defused just outside the central-eastern city of Baquba late yesterday, but no one was injured.

Mucscat, Oman – On behalf of the Command Post, I have been asking for local opinions about the American involvement in Iraq while I am working in Oman. Most residents, and the local press, use the term intervention when discussing the situation. I have only heard a few folks call it the liberation of Iraq and I have yet to hear anyone call it an invasion, but that may be out of politeness to me (I'm obviously from an Anglicized country even if they do not know which one. I would have thought my speech patterns would give it away, but people have incorrectly guessed England, Australia, Canada, and South Africa as my point of origin as well as some correctly guessing America).

I believe my observations are only generalizable for white collar Omanis and possibly just those in the capital city of Oman (Muscat). In terms of population, Oman is a small country with roughly 2 million citizens and 600,000 expatriates (people from other countries that are brought in to work). The expatriates are either treated very well (mostly the white collar and oil professionals) or as common laborers (who do the hard physical labor that the Omanis do not want to do themselves). If you want more details about my personal experiences in Oman, visit my roundtable. Keep in mind that my observations may or may not be generalizable to the greater Arabian culture. I expect that these observations are fairly generalizable to business professionals throughout Arabia, but probably do not represent the opinions of the main population.

Omanis and the local expatriates who have been here a while (most of the expatriates with whom I spoke have been working in various Middle Eastern countries for six to twelve years) think the removal of Saddam was a very good thing. Most of the Arabs have very mixed feelings about it. They are delighted with Saddam's downfall, but not happy that the Americans had to do it. This seems to have its roots in both suspicion of American motives, but also in their native pride. They are embarrassed that the Arabian nations could not do this themselves and that they let the situation get so bad that America finally stepped in, like a mature adult finally putting a stop to squabbling children when things get out of hand. Even those who fully support the coalition's efforts and intellectually know the coalition has good intentions have stated that the presence of the coalition hurts their pride.

As one might expect, there is a wide range of opinion about what should be done next and how things are getting done. However, I have found two fairly universal themes. Virtually all those with whom I spoke, both Omani and white-collar expatriates, see the Iraqi intervention in terms of American strength or weakness and as a looming problem.

First, this is seen as a test of America's strength. The prevailing attitude seems to be that America's command of the skies approaches the supernatural and America's command of the seas is not far behind, but America has nothing special when it comes to holding territory and using ground forces. Should Americans write off Iraq and flee as they are perceived to have done with Vietnam and other local incidents, it will greatly reinforce this negative opinion of American military power. The current uprisings in Iraq are seen as a military problem and they are watching to see if America and its friends are up to the task.

There are various opinions on whether or not America would stay the course. Most thought the US would and others thought the US would not. The forthcoming elections also played a role. Many thought the US would run away if Kerry were elected while others thought Kerry would have no choice but to stay and protect the reputation of the United States. Interesting enough, those who thought that Kerry would run away were pro-Bush. Those who thought Kerry would stay were split on the issue of Bush vs. Kerry. In addition, this latter camp didn't really care – the Omanis are very focused on developing their country and in providing a comfortable living for their families. Their preferences aside, the common expectation is that Bush will win.

The second point of consensus was that the situation in Iraq was getting worse. I pressed for details and this common opinion is not just based on media reports (thus shattering one vain hope of mine). Many people had second- or third-hand knowledge from friends who had visited Iraq and one person had visited Iraq himself multiple times since the fall of Saddam - yet another phrase for the American intervention.

Other Observations

One British expatriate who had been in the region for the last six years was both quite opinionated and informed. As a British citizen, he and his wife have freely traveled through most of the Arabian countries, including two recent trips to Iran. He was critical of Bush, but his complaints were that Bush was not being strong enough with the military. He thinks that Bush should send more troops and use them much more. Strength is appreciated in Arabian culture. After hearing this, I expected my British interviewee to be rooting for Kerry when I asked him if he had a preference in our presidential election. He emphatically said Bush because he thought Kerry would be a disaster for the Middle East if he were elected president.

Interestingly enough, there is more speculation about the Australian election than the American election. While the local consensus is that President Bush will win in the US, the fate of John Howard is less certain. Rightly or wrongly, the locals firmly believe that the terrorists scared the Spanish voters into bringing down their pro-American government. Many believe the Australians are just as cowardly as the Spanish and the terrorists will succeed in toppling John Howard as well. In a similar vein, many expect the British to be the primary terrorist target after the Australian elections in an attempt to topple Tony Blair.

This has been the experience of one visitor to Oman.

JERUSALEM POST: DVD of American's beheading is hot item in Gaza

Video shops in Gaza are selling a new DVD featuring the recent beheading of an American in Iraq. The gruesome video, priced at NIS 15, is apparently selling like hotcakes.

“When I saw the DVD I started to worry about our future,” said Muhammad, a young Gazan father of three who works for the Palestinian Authority. It was so cruel. I couldn't watch. I only looked at the still shots.”

Muhammad bought the DVD “out of curiosity,” he said. “Of course I did not bring it home to my children. I watched it in my office.”

If you have the stomach for it, read on. (Registration Required)

Two female Italian aid workers and two Iraqis kidnapped in Iraq three weeks ago have been released, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has told a delighted parliament.

Berlusconi said the four were handed over to the Red Cross in Iraq.

He said Simona Torretta and Simona Pari, both 29, were expected to return to Italy soon, possibly as early as Tuesday evening.

“Finally a moment of joy,” Berlusconi said. “The two girls are well and will be able to return to their loved ones tonight.”

Torretta and Pari were working for a humanitarian group called Bridge to Baghdad when their office was raided by insurgents September 7 and they were taken hostage, police said.

Berlusconi went before Parliament to give details of the release, with the assembly breaking into applause.

Good news, as there were reports this week that they had been killed.

Ever wanted to buy one of the guys in the Sandbox a Beer? Now you can.

From Stars and Stripes (Pacific Edition) :

CAMP HABBANIYAH, Iraq : To Sgt. Dale Rogers of Company C, 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, the near beer that soldiers sometimes get in Kuwait and Iraq tastes like something drained through a wet sock.

But that's the closest the beer-loving Strike Force (2nd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team) soldier will get to his favorite drink during the next few months of his deployment in Iraq.

The cyber-savvy soldier, though, has plans to make up for the lost consumption during mid-tour leave to Qatar and when he and his mates return to the States next year. And it won't cost him a cent.

Rogers is the creative force behind www.beerforsoldiers.com, a Web site which allows true patriots to buy soldiers a beer online.
[…]
Beerforsoldiers.com allows beer buyers to click on links that charge their credit cards for anything from $2 for a “40-oz. ghetto beer” to $6 for a “tall beer from the bar”, to $7 for a six-pack. Other donation options include $10 for a “pitcher” or $20 for a “keg club.”

One of the neatest projects Spirit of America has done is the 'tools project' in which they provided tool belts to the graduates of the construction training program run by the Seabees.

Well, one of the graduating classes was covered by CNN, and it gives me a lot of pleasure to see that the tools mattered to the Iraqis who received them.

More Iraqi tradesmen are taking the classes, and more tools are needed. It doesn't take much, and at the end of the day it will mean a lot.

Winds of Change.NEt has been involved with Spirit of America for a while now. Click here for more information about them and their projects.

From The Australian :

The two Egyptians were among eight employees of Egyptian telecom firm Orascom kidnapped in Iraq last week, six of them in the Syrian border town of Al-Qaim and two of them in the capital.

”Two hostages … were freed Monday night from Al-Qaim and another two are expected to be today,” an Orascom spokesman said.

The Egyptian government was able to confirm only the release of one of the men immediately.

Two Iraqis among the Orascom employees abducted in Al-Qaim are already believed to have been freed, although this has not been confirmed.

From The Australian :

Gunmen have killed five members of Iraq's intelligence agency as they returned a civilian freed from kidnappers to his family today, an intelligence officer said.

The incident occurred in Basra's northern neighbourhood of Gurna, Major Jasim al-Darraji, a member of the General Security Directorate, the nation's top spy agency, said.

He said the agents were returning an Iraqi citizen kidnapped last week by a gang.

The man was freed by Iraqi authorities yesterday and as the agents approached his family's residence, the gunmen opened fire, killed the five instantly and then fled.

Al-Darraji said that in the past two months, authorities were able to free some 15 hostages in the southern city of Basra and capture about 30 kidnapping gang members.

From Reuters via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

US forces have captured the leader of a suspected militant cell during a raid in the northern Iraqi town of Kirkuk, the US military says.

A statement says US troops captured Hussein Salman Mohammad al-Jabburi during a raid yesterday afternoon.

It says Jabburi is believed to have led a Kirkuk-based militant group with links to Ansar Al Sunna, another militant group which is itself believed to be linked to Ansar al Islam, a northern Iraqi Islamic militant network.

The US says Ansar al Islam, whose mountain bases along the border with Iran were destroyed in the early stages of the US-led invasion of Iraq, had connections with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.

It has also been associated with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant believed to be behind a string of suicide bombings and beheadings of hostages in Iraq.

The US military says Jabburi is being held for questioning.

No injuries have been reported in the raid.

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

The United Nations' former chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, has said the consequences of the war in Iraq were for the most part “terrible and tragic”.

”A murderous dictator was removed but all the other consequences are terrible and tragic,” Dr Blix said.

He was speaking in Stockholm, where he received France's highest award, the Commander of the Legion of Honour, from French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie.

From the AFP via The Australian :

Two British soldiers were killed today during an ambush on a convoy near the southern Iraqi city of Basra, the ministry of defence said.

A ministry spokesman said a convoy of three vehicles was ambushed south-west of Basra, damaging one armored Land Rover.

While trying to evacuate the casualties, they came under fire and the two soldiers were killed, he said.

From Centcom:

MNF-I CONDUCT PRECISION STRIKE ON ZARQAWI SITE
BAGHDAD, Iraq — On September 28, 2004 at 4:04 a.m., Baghdad time, Multi-National Force-Iraq conducted a precision strike on a confirmed Abu Musab Al Zarqawi terrorist site in southern Fallujah. Several credible intelligence sources confirmed that members of the terrorist group were operating at the site at the time of the strike.

Specifically identified at the location were rising AMZ associates. Recent strikes against the AMZ network have changed the leadership structure of the terrorist group causing numerous reorganizations within the group.

The same sources reported that the terrorists at this site were planning attacks using foreign suicide bombers in vehicles rigged with explosives against Iraqi citizens and Multi-National forces in Iraq. At this time, it is unknown how many terrorists were killed by this strike.

Based on detailed intelligence and analysis, Multi-National forces accurately targeted this terrorist location while protecting the surrounding homes. Intelligence indicated that only Zarqawi operatives and associates were at the site at the time of the strike

From the International Herald Tribune :

France said Monday that it would take part in a proposed international conference on Iraq only if the agenda included a possible U.S. troop withdrawal, thus complicating the planning for a meeting that has drawn mixed reactions.

Paris also wants representatives of Iraq's insurgent groups to be invited to a conference in October or November, a call that would seem difficult for the Bush administration to accept.

A senior Iraqi judge said today that he had closed a case brought against Ahmad Chalabi, the former exile once backed by the Pentagon, who had been suspected of involvement in a counterfeiting operation.

The judge, Zuhair al-Maliky, said in a telephone interview that he took the action about a week-and-a-half ago because he had decided “the evidence was not enough to bring the case to trial.” If more evidence emerges, he said, the case will be reopened.

The decision also followed conversations between Mr. Chalabi's lawyers and representatives of the Central Bank of Iraq, Judge Maliky said.

Read more…

Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET 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. This briefing is brought to you by Joel Gaines of No Pundit Intended and Andrew Olmsted of Andrew Olmsted dot com.

TOP TOPICS

• Terrorists detonated a pair of car bombs in Baghdad on Sunday, wounding U.S. and Iraqi forces. Total casualties were not yet known.

• Chrenkoff's Good News From Iraq post, vol.11, is up. See also this related post on Post Totalitarian Stress Disorder. Chrenkoff, who lived in Poland under a communist government, is qualified to comment from first hand experience.

• Colin Powell confirmed that the U.S. will move into parts of Iraq currently controlled by terrorists and insurgents to attempt to clean them up prior to the January elections. If nothing else, this should guarantee that they're ready for us.

Other Topics Today Include: the new focus of terrorist operations; new technology heads to Iraq; al-Sistani threatens January elections; will January elections be nationwide; ROKs hit Iraq; Pakistan takes a stand against Iraq war; the Screaming Eagles prepare to return to Iraq.

Read the Rest…

Part 11 in a series from Arthur Chrenkoff [who also has this OpEd in today's Opinion Journal]. It's lenghty, it's link-filled and it's a must read, as always.

In Part 11, Chrenkoff covers the economy, reconstruction, society, security and so much more.

Read the whole thing. Also available at Winds of Change.

Lynndie England will be court-martialed in January on charges stemming from the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, the Army announced Monday.

AFP Photo
AFP
Slideshow Slideshow: Iraq Prisoner Abuse Investigation

Special Coverages
Latest headlines:
· England to Be Court-Martialed in Jan.
AP - 2 minutes ago
· Bush's New Ads Slam Kerry's Iraq Comments
AP - 4 minutes ago
· Iranian diplomat held hostage in Iraq freed: foreign ministry
AFP - 5 minutes ago
Special Coverage

A motions hearing is scheduled for Dec. 1-3, with the trial scheduled for Jan. 17-28, according to Lt. Gen. John Vines, commander of the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg.

England, a 21-year-old reservist stationed at Fort Bragg who is seen in some of the most notorious photos taken at the prison, was arraigned Friday, and did not enter a plea.

If convicted of all 19 counts, she could receive up to 38 years in jail, a dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of all pay and allowances.

Read more…

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

United States air strikes in Fallujah have left 15 dead…
[…]
The latest air strike targeted what commanders said was a meeting place for militants of suspected Al Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group, which is holding Briton Kenneth Bigley hostage.

Medics in the town, west of Baghdad, said women and children were among the casualties.

Two hospitals in the city reported receiving eight dead and 22 wounded, while residents said many victims remained under the rubble.

“We don't target innocent civilians but there's always a chance the Zarqawi network or other criminal elements use facilities or weapons storage sites that are in close proximity to Iraqi people,” a senior US military official said.

AFP's unique record of reporting women and children, and only women and children, as casualties of any US military action remains unbroken. Past statements by medical authorities in Fallujah have been, at best, unreliable. No reasonable source would put the number of innocents slain in the past weeks at zero though.

From the AFP via The Australian :

In the latest day of violence, four Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded in clashes between US marines and insurgents in the rebel bastion of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, according to medical sources.

The US military said it had no immediate reports of any clashes in the area.

A further 10 people were killed in an attack on a convoy of petrol tankers in Latifiya, another insurgent base immediately south of Baghdad.

Iraqi security sources said a group of attackers sprayed gunfire on the trucks, setting fire to all five and sparking a fierce firefight with national guardsmen escorting the convoy.

In further unrest, one Iraqi was killed when a mortar round ploughed into a busy shopping district in Baghdad, and a farmer was killed in an exchange of fire north of Baghdad.

Mr Powell acknowledged that the poll timetable could be difficult because of what he described as a worsening insurgency.

“And the reason it's getting worse is that they are determined to disrupt the election. They do not want the Iraqi people to vote for their own leaders in a free, democratic elections.

“There will be polling stations that are shot at. There will be insurgents who will still be out there who will try to keep people from voting,” Mr Powell said on CNN.

From The Australian :

Nine people were killed and 26 wounded in an attack yesterday on a convoy of petrol tankers in the flashpoint town of Latifiya south of Baghdad, medical sources said today.

The head of the general hospital in the city of Hilla, 100km south of the capital said he had received three dead and 23 wounded.

Doctor Razzak Jabbar from another hospital in Iskandariya, 50km south of the capital, said six dead bodies and three wounded were brought in following the attack.

Iskandariya police lieutenant Mohammed Masudi said gunmen opened fire on a convoy of petrol tankers, setting all five trucks ablaze and damaging three Iraqi national guard vehicles escorting the convoy.

Security officials said the attack prompted an intense firefight between the insurgents and the Iraqi forces.

They said both sides had sustained casualties, as did the truck drivers, whose nationalities were not immediately known.

Latifiya lies on the main southbound road 40km from the capital.

The lawless Sunni town has been the scene of countless drive-by shooting attacks and kidnappings, and its back roads leading to rebel strongholds in the western Al-Anbar province have earned it the nickname “Fallujah's second head”.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, says it had been a mistake to disband the Iraqi army completely, after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.

The Prime Minister was speaking in Brighton on the eve of the annual conference of his ruling Labour Party.

Mr Blair rejected claims that the US-led coalition was ill-prepared after the war, but says at the time there was enormous pressure to act.

“I do accept that there was probably one, as I've said before, one error that was made, which is that, I think in retrospect, to disband the Iraqi Army in its entirety and to 'de-Baath-ify', in other words to remove all elements of the Baath Party from positions of authority in Iraq was done too quickly,” he said.

“I mean simply at the time, of course, there was enormous pressure to do that.”

The man chosen to lead the Iraqi National Guard in a province in the so-called Sunni triangle has been arrested by U.S. forces on the suspicion that he has ties to insurgent fighters, a U.S. Army spokesman said.

Gen. Talib Abed Ghayib Najm was named to head the National Guard in the Diyala province just two weeks ago, and had not yet been confirmed by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, the spokesman for the U.S. Army's First Infantry Division said told CNN.

Gen. Najm was in U.S. custody Sunday.

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From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :