Army Force Stretched After War in Iraq: "The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken a toll on the Army, but the soldiers who are due home next spring are fit to return to a war zone if called upon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Tough New Tactics by U.S. Tighten Grip on Iraq Towns: "The new approach appears to be succeeding in diminishing the threat to U.S. soldiers, but at the cost of alienating the people the Americans are trying to win over."
In New York Times: World Special
Rumsfeld, on the Ground in Iraq, Gets a Report on Progress Against the Insurgency: "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, on a visit to Iraq, was told that attacks against occupying troops had dropped because of better intelligence."
In New York Times: World Special
Funds for Iraq Falling Short of Pledges, Figures Show: "Of $3 billion pledged to meet Iraq's immediate needs at a donors conference six weeks ago, only $685 million has been verified."
In New York Times: World Special
Secular Leaders Worry That, Torn by Turmoil, Iraqis Will Elect an Islamic Theocracy: "In Iraq's present chaotic state, Iraqi officials fear the people may vote for the rigorous order that an Iranian-style Shiite theocracy imposes."
In New York Times: World Special
This Battle of the Bands Is Peaceable: "The Iraqi National Symphony, a symbol of perseverance, will visit the Kennedy Center to play alongside the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington."
In New York Times: World Special
US pushes Iraq security handover: "The US defence secretary says there will be a handover of security operations in Iraq to local forces "over time"."
In BBC: Conflict with Iraq (UK Edition)
Rumsfeld Visits Iraq; U.S Touts Progress: "Taking a fresh look at postwar Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld met Saturday with senior American commanders and was assured that a recent switch to more aggressive anti-insurgency tactics has begun to pay off. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
US pushes Iraq security handover: "The US defence secretary says there will be a handover of security operations in Iraq to local forces "over time"."
In BBC: Conflict with Iraq
Egypt library removes anti-Semitic tract: "The Alexandria Library has withdrawn the first Arabic translation of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" from an exhibit after U.N. cultural officials questioned the display of the 19th century anti-Semitic tract."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Saudi Arabia names top 26 terror suspects: "Saudi Arabia issued the names and photos of its 26 most wanted terrorist suspects and increased protection around Western housing compounds in the capital Saturday as the United States upgraded its security warning, restricting its diplomats' movements."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Iraq Mourners Open Fire, Killing Policeman: "Iraqis mourning two men killed in a firefight with U.S. troops clashed Saturday with civil defense forces, killing one officer and setting his pickup truck ablaze. "Long live Saddam!" they chanted as the vehicle smoldered. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Japan Holds Funeral for Slain Diplomats: "His voice faltering, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi offered his condolences to family members at Saturday's state funeral for two Japanese diplomats killed in Iraq, the country's first casualties in the U.S.-led war. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Army Force Stretched After War in Iraq: "Only two of the U.S. Army's 10 active-duty divisions will be at full strength for any new conflict next year as battle-weary soldiers return from Iraq, military officials say. (AP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Rumsfeld urges quick action on Iraqi transfer of sovereignty: "US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged the president of Iraq's governing council to work quickly to resolve outstanding issues on the transfer of sovereignty during a surprise one-day trip to the war-torn country. (AFP)"
In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
97 vials found in Iraqi scientist's home - some contain bio-weapon precursors. Iraqi records and CPU's destroyed prior to war.: "
Vials: A total of 97 vials-including those with labels consistent with the al Hakam cover stories of single-cell protein and biopesticides, as well as strains that could be used to produce BW agents-were recovered from a scientist's residence.
Storage room in basement of Revolutionary Command Council Headquarters. Burned frames of PC workstations visible on shelves. All rooms sharing walls with this storage room were untouched from fire or battle damage.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The basement historical files were systematically selected and destroyed.
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We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002. The discovery of these deliberate concealment efforts have come about both through the admissions of Iraqi scientists and officials concerning information they deliberately withheld and through physical evidence of equipment and activities that ISG has discovered that should have been declared to the UN. Let me just give you a few examples of these concealment efforts, some of which I will elaborate on later:
A clandestine network of laboratories and safehouses within the Iraqi Intelligence Service that contained equipment subject to UN monitoring and suitable for continuing CBW research.
A prison laboratory complex, possibly used in human testing of BW agents, that Iraqi officials working to prepare for UN inspections were explicitly ordered not to declare to the UN.
Reference strains of biological organisms concealed in a scientist's home, one of which can be used to produce biological weapons.
New research on BW-applicable agents, Brucella and Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), and continuing work on ricin and aflatoxin were not declared to the UN.
Documents and equipment, hidden in scientists' homes, that would have been useful in resuming uranium enrichment by centrifuge and electromagnetic isotope separation (EMIS).
A line of UAVs not fully declared at an undeclared production facility and an admission that they had tested one of their declared UAVs out to a range of 500 km, 350 km beyond the permissible limit.
Continuing covert capability to manufacture fuel propellant useful only for prohibited SCUD variant missiles, a capability that was maintained at least until the end of 2001 and that cooperating Iraqi scientists have said they were told to conceal from the UN.
Plans and advanced design work for new long-range missiles with ranges up to at least 1000 km - well beyond the 150 km range limit imposed by the UN. Missiles of a 1000 km range would have allowed Iraq to threaten targets through out the Middle East, including Ankara, Cairo, and Abu Dhabi.
Clandestine attempts between late-1999 and 2002 to obtain from North Korea technology related to 1,300 km range ballistic missiles --probably the No Dong -- 300 km range anti-ship cruise missiles, and other prohibited military equipment.
In addition to the discovery of extensive concealment efforts, we have been faced with a systematic sanitization of documentary and computer evidence in a wide range of offices, laboratories, and companies suspected of WMD work. The pattern of these efforts to erase evidence - hard drives destroyed, specific files burned, equipment cleaned of all traces of use - are ones of deliberate, rather than random, acts. For example,
On 10 July 2003 an ISG team exploited the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) Headquarters in Baghdad. The basement of the main building contained an archive of documents situated on well-organized rows of metal shelving. The basement suffered no fire damage despite the total destruction of the upper floors from coalition air strikes. Upon arrival the exploitation team encountered small piles of ash where individual documents or binders of documents were intentionally destroyed. Computer hard drives had been deliberately destroyed. Computers would have had financial value to a random looter; their destruction, rather than removal for resale or reuse, indicates a targeted effort to prevent Coalition forces from gaining access to their contents.
All IIS laboratories visited by IIS exploitation teams have been clearly sanitized, including removal of much equipment, shredding and burning of documents, and even the removal of nameplates from office doors.
Although much of the deliberate destruction and sanitization of documents and records probably occurred during the height of OIF combat operations, indications of significant continuing destruction efforts have been found after the end of major combat operations, including entry in May 2003 of the locked gated vaults of the Ba'ath party intelligence building in Baghdad and highly selective destruction of computer hard drives and data storage equipment along with the burning of a small number of specific binders that appear to have contained financial and intelligence records, and in July 2003 a site exploitation team at the Abu Ghurayb Prison found one pile of the smoldering ashes from documents that was still warm to the touch.
* * *
The foregoing is from " STATEMENT BY DAVID KAY ON THE INTERIM PROGRESS REPORT ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE IRAQ SURVEY GROUP (ISG) BEFORE THE HOUSE PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE, THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, SUBCOMMITTEE ON DEFENSE, AND THE SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE, October 2, 2003, " posted at Iraq: Special Report at whitehouse.gov .
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In Command Post: Irak
Palestinians divided over cease-fire offer: "Hopes faded for Palestinians to offer a full-scale truce to Israel as the militant Hamas and Syrian-based factions said Saturday that they would accept only a narrow cease-fire halting attacks on civilians inside Israeli territory."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
There were 50 specific Iraq-al Qaeda links acknowledged by the CIA before the war: " A LEADING DEMOCRAT on the Senate Intelligence Committee has reiterated his support for the war in Iraq and encouraged the Bush administration to be more aggressive in its preemptive measures to protect Americans. Evan Bayh, a Democrat from Indiana and a leader of moderates in the Senate, responded to questions last week on the war in Iraq and a memo detailing links between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden sent to the committee in late October by Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith and later excerpted in these pages.
"Even if there's only a 10 percent chance that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden would cooperate, the question is whether that's an acceptable level of risk," Bayh told me. "My answer to that would be an unequivocal 'no.' We need to be much more pro-active on eliminating threats before they're imminent."
Asked about the growing evidence of a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda, Bayh said: "The relationship seemed to have its roots in mutual exploitation. Saddam Hussein used terrorism for his own ends, and Osama bin Laden used a nation-state for the things that only a nation-state can provide. Some of the intelligence is strong, and some of it is murky. But that's the nature of intelligence on a relationship like this--lots of it is going to be speculation and conjecture. Following 9/11, we await certainty at our peril."
* * *
Bayh declined to speak about any of the 50 specific Iraq-al Qaeda links cited in the Feith memo, and said the intelligence community reported before the war that intelligence on the links to "9/11 and al Qaeda" was the weakest part of the justification for war in Iraq.
"Look, there were multiple reasons to remove Saddam Hussein, not the least of which was his butchering of his own people--that's the kind of thing that most progressives used to care about. We were going to have to deal with him militarily at some time in the future. The possibility--even if people thought it unlikely--that he would use weapons of mass death or provide them to terrorists was just too great a risk."
Still, Bayh rejects the conventional wisdom that cooperation between Hussein and bin Laden was implausible because of religious and ideological differences. "They were certainly moving toward the philosophy that 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend.' Both were hostile to us, and while they historically had reasons not to like each other, that historical skepticism is overridden by the enmity and mutual hostility toward us. These are not illogical ties from their perspective."
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Original story reported in The Weekly Standard by Stephen F. Hayes. Via Instapundit .
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In Command Post: Irak
Killings in Ramadi: ""Two days before the end of Ramadan, just as they were about to break their fast, the family was interrupted by two groups of US troops from the 82nd Airborne Division, bursting into the house from opposite sides. ...The next day the military returned to the village bringing papers with them. They were sorry but they had raided the wrong house, acting on false information." Jo Wilding writes from Baghdad."
In Electronic Iraq
Rumsfeld cautious on Iraq attacks: "The US defence secretary cautions against early optimism following a fall in anti-coalition attacks in Iraq."
In BBC: Conflict with Iraq
Rumsfeld visits troops in Iraq in CNN - War in Iraq
Israel kills two suspected Gaza militants: "The Israeli military shot and killed two Palestinians, armed with grenades and an explosive device, crawling toward a security barrier separating the Gaza Strip from Israel, military sources said Saturday."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Funeral for two Iraqis turns violent: "A funeral for two Iraqis killed in a firefight with U.S. troops turned violent Saturday, with mourners killing a security officer and chanting pro-Saddam Hussein slogans over his body."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
South Korea awaits first dead from Iraq: "Kim Young-jin begged her father not to go to Iraq, where he was to lay electric lines."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
Saudis said to arrest American, Briton: "Saudi authorities have detained an American and a Briton for unspecified reasons, diplomats said Saturday. A Saudi newspaper said the American was the brother of two men convicted in the United States of conspiring to aid the al-Qaida terrorist network."
In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq
