Dan's Iraq Briefing: 2003-10-30

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 DC anti-war rally and what was going there.

• 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 August 19, 2003]