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.
REPORTS FROM THE FIELD
* Iraqi police are now acknowledging that they received threats from Islamic extremists prior to Monday's attacks, though I tend to question what kind of Muslim would use the term "Mohammedan" to describe themselves given its offensive connotations for most Muslims.
* One of Monday's attacks was thwarted and the would-be suicide bomber is now in US custody. He carries a Syrian passport, but that isn't proof-positive that he is Syrian because Damascus was handing passports out like Christmas cards to foreign fighters during the run-up to war.
* US forces have killed Abu Fares, a Baathist leader who was said to be plotting against the coalition.
RECONSTRUCTION AND THE ECONOMY
* I don't normally read The Nation, but if this is true then it needs to be explained.
* The suicide bombers who blew up the Red Cross may well have achieved at least one of their objectives, the International Committee of the Red Cross is weighing withdrawl from Iraq altogether.
* Daniel Drezner has has an excellent round-up that gives us an indication of the real progress in Iraq along with some thoughts on the real lesson of the 1968 Tet Offensive.
THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE
* Bangladesh and Portugal have both opted out of sending troops to Iraq, though South Korea and Turkey are still onboard.
* Calpundit has the numbers for how much money was pledged for Iraq in Madrid, though the totals don't seem to add up to the figures being reported in the media.
* Kesher Talk lists all of the countries that are supporting the US with troops and in what amounts.
WMD HUNT
* A lot of people are surprised that WMDs haven't been found in Iraq, but Retired Air Force General James Clapper, the director of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, doesn't appear to be one of them - he believes the weapons were probably moved abroad, possibly to Syria.
ETCETERA
* Salon has a feature up on 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 August 19, 2003]
Iraq WMD's in Syria? That rumor was bounced around prior to the war...and it's coming out NOW in the mainstream press?
Better check the Bekaa Valley first...which, IIRC, isn't too far from the plains of Megiddo....
Re: "Mohammedan"... probably due to the French translation (the story linked is out of Agente-France-Presse). Terming Islam as the "Mohammedan" religion is a peculiarly European linguistic quirk. The letter itself was undoubtedly in Arabic, and I doubt "Mohammedan" means the same thing in Arabic that it does in European languages.
--Catfish N. Cod
The "WMDs to Syria" idea first started in December 2002 in comments by Ariel Sharon based on intel he said came from the CIA. This could be some of that intel. The theory has been bounced around alternative media sources (Debka, World Tribune, ect.) for the last couple of months but now obviously takes on some added emphasis now that a US general agrees with these conclusions.
As far as "Mohammedan" goes, it would seem to be something of an anachronism for AFP to translate it as such since the French word for Muslim is "Musulmans."
I have heard that Turkey has pulled out of supplying troops.
SCIRI Representative Bayati claims that there was a link between Saddam and al Qaeda, and that the Iraqi gov't 'played a part' in 9-11. Now that would be news! Check it out here.
SCIRI Representative Bayati claims that there was a link between Saddam and al Qaeda, and that the Iraqi gov't 'played a part' in 9-11. Check it out *here*!
Followup on the al-Sadr movement...
http://catfishncod.blogspot.com/2003_10_01_catfishncod_archive.html#106761862234738966
Dan wrote:
"Calpundit crunches the numbers and wonders why the media can't"
That one's easy, and since I'm only doing easy things today, I'll answer that.
It's because (most) wordsmiths are bad at math (just recall the hash Andrew Sullivan made out of the Recall vote totals awhile back). It's the flip side of the coin of what I've been blogging about all week (the more scientific-minded not grasping the importance of Humanities subjects. But see Tarek Heggy's post above for why those subjects are important).