Iraq Report: October 14/04

Welcome! Many blogs will be discussing the U.S. election debates today - but the war goes on. 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 (Andrew Olmsted of Andrew Olmsted dot com is currently in the field and will return next month).

TOP TOPICS

• Charles Duelfer, special assistant to the Director of Centeral Intelligence, testified before the Senate Select Armed Services Committee regarding the status of Iraq's WMD programs prior to the US led invasion of Iraq. LGF accepted a dare to link to the report and post its key findings, the Claremont Institute looks at the poor quality of media coverage, and Dan Darling adds a quick analysis.

• Major operations targeting specific terrorist and insurgent strongholds are underway in Fallujah and in areas surroundig Mosul. This appears to be a widening of the scope of operations, which recently yielded success in Sammara. Some Fallujah residents are taking things into their own hands and targeting foreign terrorists, there are reports of division among the insurgent groups (which may not be an accident, thanks to the steady collection of intel over the past year), and Iraqi PM Allawi is working to help those trends along.

• Fallujah, of course, is Zarqawi's domain. Is Zarqawi a senior al-Qaeda leader? Dan Darling takes a comprehensive look at the evidence for and against.

• Items related to the production of nuclear material, including dual use items, is disappearing from Iraq, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported to the UN Security Council. According to the IAEA, entire buildings, housing high-precision milling and electron beam welding equipment, have disappeared. This appears to be happening without notice by the Iraqi government or the US.

Other Topics Today Include: 2ID stryker in Samarra photo; Questing Cat blogs an op; rail system restoration; will muslim nations invest?; Sadrists disarm as Muqtada goes political; Japan and Jordan host donor conferences; Egypt to host electoral conference; Al Hillah SWAT team; smuggling network coordinates terror activites; Carnival of the Liberated; Bremer clarifies remarks; Tariq Aziz not dead

REPORTS FROM THE FIELD

• In Ramadi, elements of the 1st Marine Division are pursuing insurgents aggressively - mosques are no longer safe havens for insurgent operations.

• Stryker Brigade News provides something worth 1000 words. 2ID soldiers rolling up on a suspected enemy hideout in Samarra.

• Backcountry Conservative offers an exclusive look at Al Hillah SWAT team. This is a crack unit of Iraqi SWAT operators!

• The Questing Cat walks us through a recent op with a combined ING/US force in an unnamed city. First it hit the fan, then it hit the NCO. Careful, Army language in use.

• British hostage, Kenneth Bigley, was murdered by his captors after excaping into a farming area southwest of Baghdad for approximately 30 minutes. It is reported that his escape was aided by one or more of his captors, after the hostage takers were penetrated by agents of British intelligence.

• JK: New mass graves are being unearthed in Iraq, including skeletons of pregnant women and young children. The victims are believed to have been Kurds.

RECONSTRUCTION & THE ECONOMY

• A multinational effort is underway to restore Iraq's rail system, which would enhance the pace of reconstruction, improve mobility of business, and provide jobs. The Baghdad main terminal is expected to be completely modernized in the next six months.

• Iraq is reaching out to other Muslim nations to invest in Iraqi reconstruction. Businesses from neighboring countries are reluctant to do so until the country has been stabilized and already has a robust economic infrastructure.

IRAQI POLITICS

• The Sadrist "Al Mahdi Army" has agreed to disarm, as Muqtada al-Sadr makes his bid to enter legitimate Iraqi politics. Most of al-Sadr's followers are from the "Sadr City" slums of Baghdad, named after Muqtada's father, and are responding to promises of compensation for property loss and investment to improving living conditions in Sadr City. A commenter at Harry's Place questions whether disarmament is really happening, however.

THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE

• JK: Has diplomatic and military pressure convinced Syria to play ball, and stop serving as a waypoint for foreign terrorists headed into Iraq?

• Japan and Jordan will host Iraq Donor Nations conferences in the coming weeks. The conferences are designed to get countries to commit to their earlier promises of reconstruction aid.

• On November 25th, Egypt will host a multinational electoral conference to assist Iraq in meeting their goals of national elections in January 2005. The conference will also discuss issues, such as timetables for multinational force withdrawals and how to achieve unity between the separate groups in Iraq.

• Remarks made by L. Paul Bremer, former Coalition Provisional Authority head, indicated he wanted more "boots on the ground" after the fall of Saddam's regime. Bremer has "placed his comments into context" in a separate statement. He underscores his support of President Bush's plan in Iraq.

ETCETERA

• Chrenkoff's Good NEws from Iraq vol. 12 went up on Monday.

• In an initiative started by the Department of Defense, a group of Iraqi-Americans are touring military installations to provide military members and their families a first-hand account of how life in Iraq is changing.

• It is believed that Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri and certain of Saddam's cousins are coordinating the terrorist activities in Iraq through a secret Syrian-Iraqi smuggling network. The network was previously used to bypass sanctions an provide a conduit for illegal activity connected to the UN oil-for-food program. Hat tip: Junkyard Blog

• Dean's World serves up the Carnival of the Liberated - a sampler of the work of Iraqi bloggers over the last week. They've read the posts of nearly 100 Iraqi bloggers to give you some idea of what life is like there and what people are thinking in Iraq today.

• Despite news from al-Arabiya that Tariq Aziz had died and by al-Jazeera that the Vatican had confirmed the death, US officials and Aziz's family have confirmed he is alive.

• The troops are still there. So is the Winds of Change.NET consolidated directory of ways you can support the troops: American, Australian, British, Canadian & Polish. Anyone out there with more information, contact us!

• Don't forget Chief Wiggles' Toys for Iraq drive!

Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know.