Dan's Iraq Report: 2003-10-23

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. Today's Iraq Report and Winds of War coverage of the global War on Terror are brought to you by Dan Darling of Regnum Crucis.

TOP TOPICS

• As my esteemed colleague Andrew Olmsted noted in his last Iraq Briefing, suicide bombers have struck Baghdad yet again, this time in Sadr City, leaving 8 dead. At the same time, Spanish diplomat Jose Antonio Bernal Gomez was gunned down outside his Baghdad home.

• Sgt. Stryker has a number of interesting thoughts and articles on Iraq that you have to read for yourself.

Other Topics Today Include: Al-Sadr's latest antics; arrests in Tikrit; #3 in Ansar al-Islam captured; thwarted assassination on Iraqi oil minister; new Iraqi blogger; the first Iraqi Burger King; free media in Tikrit; US troops learning the ropes of Iraqi society; Governing Council elections in 2004; $36 billion needed for Iraqi reconstruction; Shi'ite in-fighting in Karbala; 71% of Baghdadis want the US to stay; no timetable on Iraq; US-Turkish cooperation; South Korean to send troops; Iraqi newspaper says Saddam Hussein trained al-Qaeda; and Saddam's slush fund in Syria.

REPORTS FROM THE FIELD

• Iranian-backed Shi'ite leader Muqtada al-Sadr is warning the US to stay out of Sadr City, Baghdad's largest Shi'ite area. Al-Sadr is also calling for a Khomeinist-style theocratic government independent of the United States.

• Al-Sadr's antics aren't going unnoticed either, the US is ready to confront him if he becomes a threat. Den Beste has his own thoughts on the proto-Khomeini.

• In the meantime, it looks like al-Sadr's future Islamic Republic is off to a bad start - US troops have stormed a municipal building in Baghdad that had been taken over by his Mahdi Army.

• A Saddam Fedayeen leader organizing attacks on US troops in Tikrit has been captured, along with two former members of the secret police. And from the looks of things, these might not be the only people in the area, there are reports that Saddam Hussein may be there as well.

• Asad Mohammed Hasan, the third-in-command of Ansar al-Islam, was recently captured by US forces near Mosul. Hasan commanded Ansar al-Islam's Second Souran Unit, a group of 400 jihadis including 50 Arab al-Qaeda members.

• Iraqi Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloom has recently escaped an assassination attempt according to the Iraqi Governing Council.

RECONSTRUCTION AND THE ECONOMY

• There's a new Iraqi blogger with his own interesting perspective on the situation.

• US troops are apparently making ready use of Iraq's first Burger King, even as free media is gradually returning to the old Baathist stronghold of Tikrit.

• Newsday reports how US troops are learning the ropes of Iraqi society in the ongoing reconstruction effort.

• The Iraqi Governing Council will hold elections in 2004.

• The Asia Times reports that UN speculation is that Iraq will require $36 billion in reconstruction costs over the next four years in addition to the $19 billion requested by President Bush for non-military needs.

• Members of Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army clashed in the Shi'ite holy city of Karbala with followers of Grand Ayatollah Ali Hussein al-Sistani, a moderate cleric who supports the US. I suspect that al-Sadr is attempting to establish himself as the ruling Shi'ite power in Iraq by driving out any challenges to his spiritual authority.

• According to Gallup,71% of Baghdad residents want US troops to stay for at least a few more months.

THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE

• The US has rejected a timetable for transferring power to the Iraqis.

• US and Turkish forces are quietly cooperating in Iraq in the form of integrated border patrols.

• South Korea has pledged to send troops to assist the US in Iraq.

• The Iraqi weekly Al-Yawm Al-Aakher has done some digging and reports that yes, Virginia, Saddam Hussein was training al-Qaeda operatives. This squares with what I noted back on October 13.

• The US believes that over $3 billion in Saddam's old slush funds are tied up in Syrian banks that may be funding the Baathist guerrillas.

ETCETERA

• Which "cards" have we captured so far? The CENTCOM list. And the visual version of "Ba'ath Poker."

• The troops are still there. So is the Winds of Change.NET consolidated directory of ways you can support the troops. American, British and Australian. Anyone out there with more information, incl. the Poles and Czechs? [updated April 1, 2003]