1 600 gefallene US-Soldaten im Iraq
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US-Geheimdienste: Mehr Terror durch Irakkrieg (orf)
Der Irakkrieg hat nach Auffassung der US-Geheimdienste eine neue Generation von extremistischen Muslimen heranwachsen lassen.
Die 16 US-Geheimdienste seien bei einer gemeinsamen Analyse zu dem Schluss gekommen, dass seit dem 11. September 2001 weltweit die Terrorgefahr zugenommen habe, berichtete die "New York Times" heute unter Berufung auf den vertraulichen Bericht der Geheimdienste (National Intelligence Estimate).
Laut "Washington Post" entstanden seitdem viele neue und unabhängige Zellen ohne direkte Anbindung an das El-Kaida-Netzwerk von Osama bin Laden. Sie ließen sich von den mehr als 5.000 radikalislamischen Internetseiten und deren Botschaft inspirieren, der Westen habe den Irakkrieg als Beginn seines Kreuzzugs gegen den Islam benutzt.
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Irak: Internet-Video zeigt offenbar Verstümmelung von US-Soldaten
Auf einer Internetseite irakischer Terroristen ist ein Video aufgetaucht, das offenbar die Misshandlung und Verstümmelung der Leichen von zwei US-Soldaten zeigt. Die Leichen der beiden Männer werden von vermummten Männer an einen Lastwagen gebunden und durch die Gegend geschleift. Anschließend wird einem Soldaten der Kopf abgeschlagen. Dann werden beide Leichen in Brand gesteckt. In dem Video werden sie als einige der Vergewaltiger eines irakischen Mädchens bezeichnet. Wegen der Vergewaltigung und Ermordung der 14-Jährigen sowie der Tötung ihrer Schwester und Eltern in der Region Jussifija sind fünf Soldaten angeklagt worden.
But today an Associated Press article seemed to challenge the results and the success of President Bush's alleged campaign to protect the American nation’s freedom and protect the country.
According to AP, the number of U.S. military men killed in the unjustified wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, part of the U.S. President’s so-called “war on terror” has surpassed the number of Americans killed in the devastating attacks that shook New York and Washington five years ago, killing around 3,000 people.
Bush’s campaign to root out terrorism has proved to be counterproductive and has resulted in at least as much death for the country that was first attacked, quite apart from the higher numbers of fighters and civilians killed, an article on The Associated Press stated on Saturday.
Until yesterday, Friday, the number of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq was 2,693 and 278 in and around Afghanistan, making the total number of those killed in President Bush’s "war on terror" 2,971.
56 additional military deaths and one civilian Defense Department death in other parts of the world from Operation Enduring Freedom, (OEF) the official name used by the U.S. government for its military campaign launched in the wake of September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, were reported by the Pentagon.
This makes the total number of Americans who have been killed in Bush’s “anti-terror” campaign since 9/11; 3,028.
On the other hand, the number of civilians killed in Iraq war has reportedly reached record highs in the summer, with 6,599 violent deaths reported in July and August alone, according to a report released earlier this week by the United Nations.
Almost 10 times more Americans have died in Iraq than in Afghanistan.
From the initial stages of Bush’s "War on Terror," the mainstream media reiterated the American President’s avowed connection among the 9/11 perpetrators, weapons of mass destruction (WMD), Iraq and other "axis of evil" countries, with the most popular news outlets efficiently disseminating every administration pronouncement, despite the fact that the most devastating attacks to date had not used WMD, or even involved Iraqis.
The media response and approach since 9/11 attacks and the false claims repeatedly made by the American President have helped validate the White House position.
Americans deserve to know the true meaning, impact and result of Bush’s post 9/11 policy, which included sacrificing the interest of his nation in responding to those attacks through a War on Terror.
The reason why Americans don’t understand the true intentions behind their President’s politically-motivated agenda has a lot to do with how they get their news, it’s because how loyal the U.S. media covers and supports the presidency.
Sunday marked the first day Shiite Muslims began observing the holy month of Ramadan, when they fast from dusk to dawn. Sunnis began their fasting Saturday. Ramadan lasts until October 23.
The U.S. military has warned of a surge of violence that could coincide with the holiday.
On Saturday, an explosion ripped through crowds of shoppers stocking up for Ramadan, killing at least 34 of them, Baghdad police said.
At least 29 others were injured in the blast that ignited a fuel tanker as people were buying supplies in Sadr City, a sprawling Baghdad slum and Shiite stronghold. Crowds of Iraqis are out and about stocking up for the holy month.
The bomb went off as a crowd gathered behind the truck, The Associated Press quoted police as saying.
College student Dhiyaa Ali told AP he found bodies and blood everywhere when he ran to help after hearing the explosion from his home.
"I went into the flames just to get anyone left out of the fire," he told AP. "I saw a mother holding her child, both of them burned and dead." (Watch chaos after bombing as holy month dedicated to compassion begins -- 2:01)
A Sunni extremist group, Jamaat Jund al-Sahaba -- or Soldiers of the Prophet's Companions -- claimed responsibility for the attack, AP reported, although the news agency could not verify the claim is true.
The group said the bombing was in retaliation for Friday's attack on Sunni Arab homes and mosques in a mixed Baghdad neighborhood, AP reported.
The group blamed the Mehdi Army militia of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for the deadly attacks on Sunnis, AP reported. Sadr City is the home of the Mehdi militants.
Meanwhile, the heads of nine policemen were found Saturday evening in the industrial city of Beiji in northern Iraq, Tikrit police said. No further details were available.
Video thought to be terror chief executing hostage
The new leader of al Qaeda in Iraq has surfaced on Islamic Web sites, purportedly appearing in a video as the executioner of a Turkish hostage.
A spokesman for the Turkish Embassy said the embassy had received a video showing the execution almost two months ago.
The hostage has been identified as Murad Bujer of Ankara.
The video shows a masked militant firing three shots. A banner identifies the shooter, who is flanked by two other masked men, as Abu Hamza al-Masri.
Islamist Web sites that have posted the video have introduced it by saying in Arabic that al-Masri implemented God's law.
CNN could not verify the authenticity of the tape.
Before the hostage is shot in the head, he and one of the masked men read statements.
Al-Masri assumed leadership when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a June 7 U.S. airstrike.
Other developments
A leader of the Ansar al-Sunna network -- loosely aligned with al Qaeda in Iraq -- has been arrested with two of his aides near Baquba, an Iraqi official told CNN on Saturday. Muntasser Hmoud al-Jbouri was captured in the town of Muqdadiya, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, Interior Ministry spokesman Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf said.
A U.S. contractor was killed in a rocket attack in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Friday, a U.S. Embassy official reported Saturday. "We extend heartfelt condolences to the family of this American citizen," said U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor, who did not provide other details.
A U.S. soldier was killed Saturday in northern Baghdad when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb, a U.S. military statement said, adding that the soldier's name is being withheld until his family is notified.
Pentagon:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A newspaper report that a U.S. intelligence analysis found that the Iraq war gave rise to a new generation of Islamic radicals and made the overall terrorism problem worse was "not representative of the complete document," the White House said on Sunday.
The New York Times reported that a classified National Intelligence Estimate completed in April said Islamic radicalism had mushroomed worldwide and cited the Iraq war as a reason for the spread of jihadist ideology.
It was the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by U.S. intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began in March 2003 and represents a consensus view of the 16 spy services.
"The New York Times' characterization of the NIE is not representative of the complete document," said White House spokesman Peter Watkins.
He declined to comment on information contained in the classified document.
U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte said news reports on the NIE characterize "only a small handful" of the conclusions from a broad strategic assessment of global terrorism.
"The conclusions of the intelligence community are designed to be comprehensive and viewing them through the narrow prism of a fraction of judgments distorts the broad framework they create," Negroponte said in a statement.
Negroponte said the analysis found that if the U.S. effort to establish a stable government in Iraq succeeded, jihadists would be weakened and "fewer jihadists will leave Iraq determined to carry on the fight elsewhere."
President George W. Bush has steadfastly insisted that his decision to invade Iraq was the right action to take to head off a potential threat. Continued...
Democrats, trying to win control of Congress from the Republicans, have focused on the Iraq war, which is increasingly unpopular with the public.
Rep. Jane Harman of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said she agreed that the Iraq war had caused the spread of jihadist ideology. "Every intelligence analyst I speak to confirms that," she said on CNN's "Late Edition."
"And that is why ... the best military commission proposal in the world and even capturing the remaining top al Qaeda leadership isn't going to prevent copycat cells, and it isn't going to change a failed policy in Iraq," she said. "This administration is trying to change the subject. I don't think voters are going to buy that."
Anwälte boykottieren Saddam-Prozess
In der hermetisch abgeriegelten Grünen Zone von Bagdad ist der Völkermordprozess gegen den früheren irakischen Machthaber Saddam Hussein fortgesetzt worden. Die Anwälte blieben der Verhandlung am irakischen Sondertribunal fern, um auf diese Weise gegen den in der vergangenen Woche erfolgten Austausch des Vorsitzenden Richters zu protestieren. Ihre Stelle nahmen vom Gericht ernannte Pflichtverteidiger ein. Die Verhandlung begann mit der Anhörung eines kurdischen Zeugen. Saddam und sechsweitere ehemalige Regime-Funktionäre müssen sich seit dem 21. August vor dem Sondertribunal für die Verbrechen im Zusammenhang mit einer Militärkampagne verantworten, bei der in den Jahren 1987 und 1988 bis zu 100 000 Kurden getötet wurden.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- For the second time in a week, the chief judge in the Saddam Hussein genocide trial ordered the deposed leader from the courtroom. Hussein was also ejected on Wednesday.
The verbal jousting began about two hours into Monday's court session as chief judge Mohammad Orabi Majeed Al-Khalefa corrected two other defendants in the case, telling them not to refer to each other by their old titles under the former regime.
That is when Hussein interjected and this heated exchange ensued:
Al-Khalefa: "Can you keep quiet. You have to respect the court."
Hussein: "I ask not to be present in this pen, because I do not want to be sitting here with you."
Al-Khalefa: "I would like to explain about the procedure in this court ... (Hussein interrupts)" "Can you keep quiet until I finish? If you have something to say ..."
Hussein: "I have a demand. I am not going to be quiet."
Al-Khalefa: "The court has decided to expel the defendant Saddam Hussein from this court."
Hussein: "I request, I demand not to be present."
Al-Khalefa: "Give him this demand -- take him out ... I decide if you are going to be present or not. That's my decision. Take him out."
Hussein's genocide trial had resumed Monday but without lawyers representing the ex-president or his six co-defendants.
Hussein's nine-member defense team announced Sunday that it would boycott the proceedings, citing the replacement of the chief judge and other alleged violations of legal procedures.
Khalil al-Dulaimi, Hussein's chief lawyer, told The Associated Press that he and other defense lawyers would boycott the trial "indefinitely."
Al-Dulaimi also protested the court's refusal to hear non-Iraqi lawyers and its demand that foreign attorneys seek permission to enter the courtroom.
Among Hussein's nine lawyers are a Jordanian, a Spaniard, a Frenchman and two Americans, including former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
Hussein and six others others have been on trial since August 21 for a crackdown on Kurdish guerrillas in the late 1980s. The prosecution says about 180,000 people, mostly civilians, died in attacks that included the use of poison gas against Kurdish towns and villages in northern Iraq.
Hussein could face execution if convicted of genocide.
The soldiers are from a brigade of the Army's 1st Armored Division, which is based in Germany, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been formally announced.
They will be kept over less than two months past the date when they were scheduled to leave Iraq, one official said.
The soldiers are serving in one of the most dangerous places in Iraq. Ramadi is the capital of Anbar province in western Iraq, heartland of the Sunni Arab insurgency.
This marks the second time in two months that the military has opted to extend a brigade in Iraq beyond its planned departure date in order to deal with unrelenting violence in Iraq 3-1/2 years into the war.
The United States currently has 142,000 troops in Iraq, the Pentagon said.
"I believe that Secretary Rumsfeld and others in the administration did not tell the American people the truth for fear of losing support for the war in Iraq," retired Maj. Gen. John R. S. Batiste said in remarks prepared for a hearing by the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.
A second witness, retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, assessed Rumsfeld as "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically ...."
"Mr. Rumsfeld and his immediate team must be replaced or we will see two more years of extraordinarily bad decision-making," he added in testimony prepared for the hearing, held six weeks before the November 7 midterm elections, in which the war is a central issue.
The conflict, now in its fourth year, has claimed the lives of more than 2,600 American troops and cost more than $300 billion.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota, the committee chairman, told reporters last week that he hoped the hearing would shed light on the planning and conduct of the war. He said majority Republicans had failed to conduct hearings on the issue, adding, "if they won't ... we will."
Since he spoke, a government-produced National Intelligence Estimate became public that concluded the war has helped create a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the attacks of September 11, 2001. (Full story)
Several members of the Senate Democratic leadership were expected to participate in the hearing. Dorgan said Republican lawmakers had been invited.
It is unusual for retired military officers to criticize the Pentagon while military operations are under way, particularly at a public event likely to draw widespread media attention.
But Batiste, Eaton and retired Col. Paul X. Hammes were unsparing in remarks that suggested deep anger at the way the military had been treated. All three served in Iraq, and Batiste also was senior military assistant to then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.
Batiste, who commanded the Army's 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, also blamed Congress for failing to ask "the tough questions."
He said Rumsfeld at one point threatened to fire the next person who mentioned the need for a postwar plan in Iraq.
Batiste said if full consideration had been given to the requirements for war, it's likely the U.S. would have kept its focus on Afghanistan, "not fueled Islamic fundamentalism across the globe, and not created more enemies than there were insurgents."
Hammes said in his prepared remarks that not providing the best equipment was a "serious moral failure on the part of our leadership."
The United States "did not ask our soldiers to invade France in 1944 with the same armor they trained on in 1941. Why are we asking our soldiers and Marines to use the same armor we found was insufficient in 2003," he asked.
Hammes was responsible for establishing bases for the Iraqi armed forces. He served in Iraq in 2004 and is now Marine Senior Military Fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, National Defense University.
Eaton was responsible for training the Iraqi military and later for rebuilding the Iraqi police force.
He said planning for the postwar period was "amateurish at best, incompetent a better descriptor."
Public opinion polls show widespread dissatisfaction with the way the Bush administration has conducted the war in Iraq, but division about how quickly to withdraw U.S. troops. Democrats hope to tap into the anger in November, without being damaged by Republican charges they favor a policy of "cut and run."
By coincidence, the hearing came a day after public disclosure of the National Intelligence Estimate. The report was completed in April and represented a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government, according to an intelligence official.
Der Stabschef des Heeres in den USA, General Peter Schoomaker, beklagt, dass für den Irak-Krieg zu wenig Geld zur Verfügung stehe, meldet die britische Zeitung "The Guardian" (Dienstag-Ausgabe).
Schoomaker, der bisher als Verbündeter von Verteidigungsminister Donald Rumsfeld galt, weigerte sich deshalb, einen Budgetplan für 2008 vorzulegen.
Das Militär könne den Irak-Einsatz und andere Missionen ohne zusätzliche Mittel nicht durchführen. Das Militär sei zunehmend besorgt über die Kosten der Kriege der USA und befürchte negative Auswirkungen auf die US-Militäroperationen weltweit, schreibt der "Guardian".
Rücktritt Rumsfelds gefordert
Drei hochrangige Ex-Militärs forderten unterdessen den Rücktritt von Rumsfeld, darunter Generalmajor Paul Eaton, der für die Ausbildung irakischer Truppen zuständig war. Rumsfeld habe den Irak-Krieg "vermasselt", so die Kritik der Ex-Offiziere sechs Wochen vor den Kongresswahlen.
Eaton: "Rumsfeld und seine engsten Mitarbeiter müssen ersetzt werden, oder wir werden auch in den kommenden zwei Jahren außerordentlich schlechte Entscheidungen sehen." Das Pentagon bringe das Leben der Soldaten durch ungenügende Ausrüstung in Gefahr. "Warum sagen wir unseren Soldaten, sie sollen Ausrüstung verwenden, die wir schon 2003 als unzureichend eingestuft haben?" fragt der pensionierte Oberst der Marines, Thomas Hammes.
Acht Iraker sind am frühen Morgen bei einem US-Bombenangriff auf ein mutmaßliches Aufständischennest in einem Wohnhaus in Bakuba getötet worden. Wie das US-Militärkommando in Bagdad berichtete, sei ein US-Trupp aus dem Wohnhaus in der Stadt 60 Kilometer nördlich von Bagdad heraus beschossen worden. Nach einem Feuergefecht, bei dem zwei mutmaßliche Aufständische getötet wurden, sei das Haus aus der Luft bombardiert worden. Anschließend hätten die US-Soldaten sechs weitere Tote gefunden, darunter zwei mutmaßliche Aufständische und vier Frauen.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An intelligence report showing an upsurge in Islamic militancy put the White House on the defensive on Wednesday in an election-year debate over whether President George W. Bush has made America safer.
In a second blow to the president, a new U.N. report said the Iraq war was providing al Qaeda with a training center and fresh recruits, and was inspiring a Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan hundreds of miles away.
Bush ordered the release of parts of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Tuesday to try to stamp out a political fire after a leaked portion said the Iraq war had increased Islamic extremism.
But a key judgment in the declassified version that could backfire on Bush said intelligence experts believed activists identifying themselves as jihadists "are increasing in both number and geographic dispersion."
The report, prepared in April, also said the Iraq war had become the "cause celebre" for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement."
The U.N. report released on Wednesday jibed with the NEI's conclusions.
"New explosive devices are now used in Afghanistan within a month of their first appearing in Iraq," it said. "And while the Taliban have not been found fighting outside Afghanistan/Pakistan, there have been reports of them training in both Iraq and Somalia."
The U.N. report was prepared by terrorism experts for the Security Council, Continued...
The White House has scrambled to try to explain the intelligence assessment, given Bush's September 7 claim that "America is winning the war on terror."
Spokesman Tony Snow insisted during a combative session with reporters that the United States and allies had made great gains against al Qaeda, including taking out key leaders, taking away a safe haven in Afghanistan and attacking its financial support.
He said even if the United States had not been fighting the Iraq war, the threat from Islamic extremists would still exist, given the attacks attributed to al Qaeda before September 11.
After a high-profile series of speeches by Bush marking the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Republicans had felt better about their chances of holding on to both houses of the U.S. Congress in November 7 elections.
The question now is whether that momentum will be stalled by an intelligence report both sides are battling to use to their advantage.
Democrats tried to raise doubts about Bush's handling of the war on terrorism.
"The president likes to say 'we're winning the war on terror' but now the American people can read for themselves that the intelligence community believes something different: The war in Iraq is increasing the threat of terrorism at home and around the world," said Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.
Republican strategist Scott Reed said a debate over terrorism helps Republicans. "Any day Republicans can keep it on terrorism and taxes is a winner," he said. Continued...
But with Iraq on the verge of civil war three years later, the secretary of defense now admits that no one was well-prepared for what would happen after major combat ended.
"Well, I think that anyone who looks at it with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight has to say that there was not an anticipation that the level of insurgency would be anything approximating what it is," Rumsfeld told CNN for the documentary, "CNN Presents Rumsfeld -- Man of War," which debuts Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.
In a rare one-on-one television interview, Rumsfeld talked with CNN special correspondent Frank Sesno about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the transformation of the U.S. military and his approach to management.
Rumsfeld's style and policies have rankled many, and several former top military officers have called for him to resign. One of those is the man who led the 1st Infantry Division in northwest Iraq in 2004. Former U.S. Army Maj. Gen John Batiste said he asked for more troops and was turned down.
"We're in a real fix right now [in Iraq]," Batiste told CNN. "We're there because Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ignored sound military advice, dismissed it all, went with his plan and his plan alone."
Batiste argued that had he been given more troops the military could have secured Iraq's border with Iran and secured the country's oil facilities. (Watch Batiste describe how Rumsfeld ignored military's advice -- 5:50)
Rumsfeld's plan was to win the war with low troop levels and superior technology, let democracy take root and then have the Iraqis secure the country. That strategy appeared to be working in Afghanistan, where 1,000 troops had ousted the Taliban with the help of the indigenous Northern Alliance.
Make your case
Several retired generals told CNN the 74-year-old secretary is inflexible, especially when he has staked out a position. However allies, including his top aide, disputed that assertion.
"He's tough. He's smart. He's fair. He's focused," Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. "But he's not the guy that most people think he is."(Watch Pace talk about an "incredible patriot" -- 4:22)
Rumsfeld said he welcomes debate and that he tells people to make their case.
"And we've ended up adjusting or changing or calibrating [the plan]," he said.
But retired Army Gen. Paul Eaton told CNN that if you spoke up and the Pentagon disagreed, "Then you're going to have a problem."
Eaton reflects what many critics claim about Rumsfeld's controversial management style and the decisions that stem from it: that Rumsfeld doesn't listen; he doesn't like dissent; and he dismisses ideas that differ from his own.
The secretary shrugged off such criticism.
"Well, you know, I mean it's awfully easy to be on the outside and to opine on this and opine on that and critique that," Rumsfeld said.
His concern with detail left one former general perplexed.
Former Lt. Gen. Mike DeLong said that Rumsfeld corrected his grammar the first time he briefed the secretary.
"He said, 'Stop. ... General, there was no verb in the last sentence," DeLong said.
Assistant Secretary of Defense Stephen Cambone said Rumsfeld once asked him how many words were in a paragraph in a brief. There were 93.
"It was to make a point," Cambone said, adding that he hasn't written a 93-word paragraph since. (Watch deputy talk about what irritates the secretary -- 4:22)
'Perfect historical figure'
Rumsfeld, given a mandate by President Bush to pursue a space-based missile defense program and to modernize the military, said the transformation has had its issues.
"[The Pentagon] is a big place. It's like any big institution. It's resistant to change," he told CNN.
"Change is hard for people, and there've been a lot of squealing and screeching and complaints as, as the change took place in this department. And I would say that it's attitude and culture as much as anything else."
And if change makes people feel uncomfortable?
"Well, it's unfortunate," Rumsfeld said. "But life has to go on and the things have to get done, and the American people have to be protected."
James Carafano, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, called Rumsfeld the "perfect historical figure."
"Historians will reinterpret him over and over," Carafano said. "They will find brilliant, insightful, clear-headed decisions and they will find bone-headed, jarring, dumb mistakes."
When asked how he will define his own success, Rumsfeld answered:
"I don't worry about me. I get up in the morning and [my wife] Joyce rolls over and says, 'If those troops can get out there and do what they're doing, you can do what you're doing. Get out there and do it.' "
Straw -- now the leader of Britain's House of Commons -- blamed "mistakes" made by the U.S. administration in the aftermath of the invasion for the current problems.
"The current situation is dire," he said during an appearance on BBC1's Question Time.
"I think many mistakes were made after the military action -- there is no question about it -- by the United States administration.
"Why? Because they failed to follow the lead of Secretary (of State, Colin) Powell.
"The State Department had put in a huge amount of effort to ensure there was a proper civilian administration."
Although ministers and officials, both in London and Washington, have accepted that mistakes were made, Straw's acknowledgement of the current difficulties was unusually frank.
His comments carry particular significance as he was the member of the government, after Tony Blair, most closely associated with the decision to go to war.
Straw was appointed foreign secretary in 2001, and was demoted earlier this year in a Cabinet shuffle.
Straw's comments came after Blair defended Britain's relationship with the U.S., including over the war in Iraq, at the governing Labour Party's annual conference Tuesday.
Blair warned against backing down in the face of mounting casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, both on the frontline of the US-led "war on terrorism."
Insurgent attacks against U.S.-led forces in Iraq occurred, on average, every 15 minutes, Woodward said in a CBS "60 Minutes" interview taped for broadcast on Sunday.
"It's getting to the point now where there are eight, 900 attacks a week. That's more than a hundred a day. That is four an hour attacking our forces," Woodward said in excerpts of the interview released on Thursday before the release of his book on the administration, called "State of Denial."
"The assessment by intelligence experts is that next year, 2007, is going to get worse and, in public, you have the president and you have the Pentagon (saying) 'Oh, no, things are going to get better,'" Woodward added.
Parts of a National Intelligence Estimate that President George W. Bush ordered released this week showed an upsurge in Islamic militancy, while a new U.N. report said the Iraq war was providing al Qaeda with a training center and fresh recruits.
A senior administration official saw little new in Woodward's charges "except that Bob believes he has a lot of making up to do since the Washington establishment criticized him for being too soft in his first two books (on the Bush administration)."
"We've seen this movie before, and we shouldn't be surprised of another critical book about the Bush administration 40 days before an election," said the official.
Bush's Republican Party faces a strong challenge from Democrats as it seeks to retain control of Congress in the November 7 elections. The unpopular war in Iraq is a major issue in the campaign.
The official added there was nothing revealing in Woodward's account of the daily attack numbers. "You print them all the time."
Woodward said Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney often met with Henry Kissinger as an adviser. Kissinger was President Richard Nixon's national security adviser and then secretary of state during the Vietnam War.
The reporting of Woodward and fellow Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein played an important role in exposing the Watergate scandal that forced Nixon to resign in 1974.
According to Woodward, Bush was absolutely certain he was on the right course on Iraq. The writer said that when Bush invited key Republicans to the White House to discuss Iraq, the president told them, 'I will not withdraw even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me,'" referring to his wife and Scottish terrier.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Gunmen in western Baghdad have shot dead the brother-in-law of the new chief judge in the Saddam Hussein trial, police told CNN.
Kadhim Abdel Hussein, the brother-in-law of Judge Mohammad Orabi Majeed Al-Khalefa, was driving in Ghazaliya on Friday with his son aged 10 and another 10-year-old boy when their car was attacked.
Both boys were wounded. Earlier police said the slain man's son, Karrar, was also killed.
After the incident, the judge called police and told them that the dead man was his brother-in-law.
It was unclear whether Hussein was targeted because of his relationship to Al-Khalefa, who took over as chief judge of the trial last week, or if it was another of the sectarian attacks that have been plaguing Baghdad.
Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and six co-defendants are being tried in connection with war crimes during the 1988 Anfal campaign in the country's Kurdish region.
Meanwhile at least 11 Iraqi civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb detonated in central Baghdad Friday morning, Iraqi emergency police said.
Police also said they found 25 unidentified bodies across the capital during the 24-hour period ending Friday at 6 a.m. Since Sunday, 147 bodies have been recovered in Baghdad.
Al-Khalefa was appointed chief judge only last week after the government sacked his predecessor for telling Hussein the former president was "not a dictator."
One Iraqi lawyer familiar with court procedure told Reuters the tribunal's appeals panel would probably now have to review whether Ureybi could continue to preside and might conclude that he would have to step down on the grounds that the killings of his relatives might prejudice him against the defendants.
Three defense lawyers working for Hussein and his co-accused have been killed over the past year and international legal rights groups have questioned whether he can have a fair trial in a country on the brink of sectarian civil war.
Al-Khalefa is from the majority Shi'ite community now dominant in Iraq after years of oppression under Hussein's mostly Sunni rule. He has taken a firm line with the accused in the month-old trial for genocide against the Kurds and has ejected Hussein from court in each of the three sessions over which he has presided.
Tribunal judges, like leading Iraqi politicians, live under tight security. Militants have frequently targeted the relatives of prominent figures, seeking easier targets because the family members enjoy considerably less -- if any -- protection.
On Thursday a man identified as the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq said on an audiotape that more than 4,000 foreign fighters have died battling the U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi troops.
"We poured so much of our blood in Iraq," said the tape's speaker, purportedly new al Qaeda in Iraq chief Abu Hamza al-Muhajer.
CNN was unable to verify the speaker's identity. The tape, at 20 minutes, 31 seconds long, was posted on several Islamic Web sites Thursday.
The speaker urged other Muslims in Iraq to join the fight, saying he was launching a major military campaign.
"We are calling upon you to take your responsibilities because we are on crossroads, so don't fail us," the voice said, especially calling on Iraqi professionals such as chemists, physicists and nuclear experts to help.
Al-Muhajer, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, is an Egyptian Islamic militant believed to be an expert in producing car bombs.
He succeeded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who died June 7 in a U.S. airstrike north of Baghdad.
The tape's speaker also pushed for the kidnapping of "Christian dogs" who could be exchanged for Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian Muslim cleric imprisoned since 1995 for conspiring to blow up landmarks in New York.
"I remind you of our dear sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who is lying in an American jail undergoing all kinds of abuses -- psychological and physical abuses. I tell him don't be sad. God will bring good news after the hardship," the speaker said.
"I here announce the beginning of a military campaign to uproot the infidels," he said, as Muslims around the world observe the holy month of Ramadan, which continues through late October.
Ramadan, traditionally a time of peace, fasting, soul purification and charity, was called "a month of jihad and martyrdom" on the tape.
The speaker said Sunni Arab tribal leaders who have supported the U.S.-backed government will be granted "amnesty" if they switch over to the insurgency.
"Because Ramadan is the month of forgiveness, we offer the traitor tribal leaders amnesty, on one condition -- that you announce your repenting openly in front of all your people and get the word to us."
In addition, those who repent must cooperate with the mujahedeen to drive the "occupier" out of Iraq, he said.
Earlier this month, al-Muhajer urged each Iraqi Sunni to kill one of the 140,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq by the start of Ramadan.
Other developments
Four young men were slain in Balad, according to an official from the Salaheddin Joint Coordination Center Friday. They were shot and their bodies showed signs of torture. Balad is in Salaheddin province north of Baghdad.
In Thursday's violence, at least four Iraqis -- including two police officers -- were killed and 38 wounded when a pair of bombs exploded on Saadoun Street, Baghdad's main thoroughfare, Iraqi emergency police said.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, a car bomb killed two Iraqi soldiers and wounded eight others in Sha'ab, a mixed Sunni-Shiite, middle-class neighborhood, police said. Four civilians also were injured. Also Thursday, 10 police officers were wounded in four separate bomb attacks in the capital.
Police found 60 bodies -- all showing signs of torture -- dumped around the Iraqi capital in a 24-hour period ending Thursday morning. Most of the bodies had their hands tied and gunshot wounds to the head, Iraqi emergency police said.
British troops and Iraqi security forces have begun a project to reform Basra's police force and the southern city's infrastructure, a British Army spokesman told CNN. UK Royal Military Police teams will be placed in police stations in Basra to weed out officers "unable or unwilling to do their duty," said Maj. Charlie Burbridge. "We have to accept that elements of the police have been infiltrated by elements of armed criminal groups," he added.
Auf dem Band heißt es weiter: "Wir brauchen dringend eure Dienste, denn die amerikanischen Stützpunkte (im Irak) sind ideale Ort, um sie den nicht-konventionellen Erfahrungen des schmutzigen und biologischen Krieges auszusetzen." Die Echtheit des Tonbandes konnte bislang nicht bestätigt werden.
Zudem ruft der Nachfolger des von den US-Truppen im Irak getöteten Abu Mussab el Sarkawi seine Anhänger zur Entführung westlicher Ausländer auf. Diese sollten gegen einen in den USA gefangen gehaltenen ägyptischen Geistlichen ausgetauscht werden, sagte Muhadscher. "Möge uns Allah erlauben, einige dieser christlichen Hunde zu fangen, damit unser Scheich befreit wird". Damit ist Omar Abdel-Rahman gemeint, der in den USA wegen des versuchten Anschlags auf das World Trade Center im Jahr 1993 zu lebenslanger Haft verurteilt wurde.
Laut Muhadscher wurden bislang mehr als 4000 ausländische Kämpfer der Terrorgruppe im Irak getötet. "Wir haben enorm viel Blut im Irak verloren. Mehr als 4000 Einwanderer", sagte Muhadscher.
aktueller Stand 2706 (2695 i.d. Vorwoche)
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two bombings in Iraq killed at least four people and wounded six others Sunday morning, police said.
A car bomb, apparently targeting a U.S. military convoy, exploded along western Baghdad's Anfal al-Shura street at about 10:30 a.m., killing one civilian and wounding four others, Baghdad police said.
The U.S. convoy was not damaged, police said.
Another bomb exploded in a crowded area of central Falluja at 10 a.m., killing three people and wounding two others, Falluja hospital officials said.
Falluja is about 40 miles west of Baghdad in Anbar province -- the Sunni-dominated region that has been a hotspot for insurgent attacks.
The Baghdad attack came just hours after the end of a curfew that brought deserted streets and eerie quiet across the city.
Earlier in the weekend, Iraqi and U.S. troops fanned out across the volatile Iraqi capital, enforcing the curfew in a tightly packed city living with daily insurgent strikes and Shiite-Sunni sectarian killings.
The clampdown was imposed late Friday by the government because of increased attacks over the past two weeks, the U.S. military said. It ended at 6 a.m. Sunday (10 p.m. ET Saturday).
Also Sunday, the U.S. military said a U.S. soldier died from injuries suffered in a Humvee accident near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Saturday.
The Task Force Lightning soldier was assigned to 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, based out of Fort Lewis, Washington, the military said.
The death raised to 2,707 the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. Seven American civilian contractors of the military also have died in the conflict.
As the Baghdad curfew unfolded, other sobering news emerged: the discovery of an alleged bombing plot against Baghdad's seat of power -- the Green Zone, and the arrest of a guard for a prominent Iraqi Sunni Arab leader.
The curfew started as a vehicle and a pedestrian ban, virtually eliminating almost all movement.
But authorities in Iraq on Saturday night announced after 7 p.m. the lifting of the pedestrian ban for a few hours until 11 p.m. Iraqi TV, citing the prime minister's office, said the ban was lifted so people observing Ramadan could go out and pray.
An Iraqi Army spokesman said such a curfew was based on military intelligence and is "a security measure put in place by the Iraqi government and military to thwart any terrorist plans."
A vehicle and pedestrian curfew is fairly unusual. The last such curfew was imposed more than three months ago.
A regular curfew had been in place nightly from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., but because the Muslim holy month, that curfew was pushed back to begin at 11 p.m., because people normally venture out after sunset during the holy month -- mainly to eat after fasting.
Clashes between armed gunmen and Iraqi police and army troops occurred in three Baghdad neighborhoods after sunset Friday, police told CNN.
The bombing plot was discovered Friday as well.
It was in the final stages of planning when coalition forces arrested one of the planners at the home of Adnan al-Dulaimi, the head of the Iraq Accordance Front, the U.S.-led coalition said. But a military statement on the matter did not make it clear if the plot was still under way.
A military statement said "credible intelligence" indicated that the detained person, described as a member of al-Dulaimi's "personal security detachment, and seven members of the detained individual's cell were in the final stages" of embarking on car bomb attacks inside the Green Zone that "possibly" involved "suicide vests."
The detainee was believed to be a member of al Qaeda in Iraq and was linked to a car bomb network operating in southern Baghdad, the military said.
The person was detained "without incident," and coalition troops secured "the area without physically entering the residence of Dr. al Dulaimi at any point. They did search the security trailer and the suspect's vehicle."
Al-Dulaimi told CNN that U.S. troops surrounded his Baghdad residence Friday and conducted a search around the house.
He said when he went outside and introduced himself, the military said they were looking for a suspected terrorist. Al-Dulaimi said he did not recognize the name they gave him.
Al-Dulaimi said the U.S. troops used dogs to search around his house, although they did not go inside. He said they detained one of his guards for interrogation.
Other developments
A disabled Iraqi war veteran running for a U.S. House seat in Illinois on Saturday slammed the Bush administration for its handling of Iraq. In the Democratic Party's weekly radio address, Tammy Duckworth, a Illinois National Guard major who is one of several war veterans to enter political life, urged the White House to change its war policies and be more vigilant in overseeing military spending. (Full story)
In his address, President Bush characterized the war against terror as a "long struggle for civilization" and said "our safety depends on the outcome of the battle in Iraq." He said withdrawing from Iraq "would embolden the terrorists," give them sanctuary in the heart of the Middle East and "would help them find new recruits." (Full story)
In seinem neuen Buch hält Woodward dem US-Präsidenten vor, er habe seinem Volk bis heute das wahre Ausmaß des Desasters im Irak verheimlicht, insbesondere die wachsende Gewalt gegen die rund 140 000 dort stationieren amerikanischen Soldaten. Vielmehr beschreibe er die Lage vor Ort wider besseres Wissen in rosigen Farben und verspreche den Niedergang des Terrorismus, obwohl dieser im Gegenteil zunehme.
„State of Denial“ (Zustand der Verleugnung) heißt Woodwards jüngstes Werk, das am Montag in den USA erscheinen wird. In einem Vorabdruck in der Sonntagausgabe der „Washington Post“ beschreibt der Autor einen Präsidenten, der ebenso wie seine Minister unfähig ist, sich den Konsequenzen der eigenen katastrophalen Irak-Politik zu stellen.
Woodward, der sowohl von Demokraten als auch Republikanern als faire journalistische Instanz respektiert wird, stellt die Vertrauenswürdigkeit der Bush-Regierung erheblich in Frage: Obwohl hochrangige Mitarbeiter und Generäle in internen Reports schwere Fehler bei der Kriegsführung beklagten, hätten Bush und führende Kabinettsmitglieder wie Verteidigungsminister Donald Rumsfeld oder Außenministerin Condoleezza Rice hartnäckig darauf bestanden, dass der US-Einsatz erfolgreich verlaufe.
Zitate aus Geheimgutachten
Als Beispiel dafür zitiert Woodward aus einem Geheimgutachten des US-Generalstabs vom Mai dieses Jahres, das vor einer dramatischen Zunahme der Anschläge im Irak warnt: „Aufständische und Terroristen werden weiterhin sowohl über die Ressourcen als auch Kapazitäten verfügen, um das gegenwärtige Ausmaß der Gewalt innerhalb des nächsten Jahres sogar noch zu verstärken.“
Das Pentagon hielt den vertraulichen Report jedoch unter Verschluss. Stattdessen schickte es noch im selben Monat einen weitaus optimistischeren Bericht an den US-Kongress. Dessen Tenor lautet: „Der Anreiz und die Motivation für anhaltende Gewaltakte werden zu Beginn des Jahres 2007 abnehmen.“
Parallel dazu gab auch der Präsident eine sehr hoffnungsfrohe Prognose ab: „In einigen Jahren werden die Leute die Bildung der Einheitsregierung im Irak als den entscheidenden Augenblick in der Geschichte der Freiheit betrachten“, prophezeite Bush, „als einen Moment, in dem die Freiheit festen Fuß im Nahen Osten fasste und die Kräfte des Terrors ihren langen Rückzug begannen.“
Mehr als 100 Anschläge am Tag
Doch anstatt sich zurückzuziehen, wie der Präsident ankündigte, nahmen die „Kräfte des Terrors“ bisher zu. Heute zähle das US-Militär monatlich rund 3500 Anschläge auf US-Soldaten im Irak, bilanziert Woodward. Das seien mehr als 100 am Tag. Auch die Ölförderung und Stromversorgung würden aufgrund anhaltender Attacken kaum in Gang kommen. Die US-Öffentlichkeit habe von ihrer Regierung davon jedoch kaum etwas zu hören bekommen.
Wie es in dem Buch weiter heißt, wurden Rice und Rumsfeld wiederholt vor der sich unaufhörlich verschlimmernden Lage gewarnt, hätten aber nichts dagegen unternommen. Bushs früherer Stabschef Andrew Card habe dem Präsident sogar zweimal dringend empfohlen, seinen umstrittenen Pentagonchef auszuwechseln – das erste Mal im November 2004 und dann erneut im Herbst 2005. Auch First Lady Laura Bush habe ihren Mann gedrängt, Rumsfeld zu entlassen, da ihm dieser zusehends schade.
Indirektes Fehlereingeständnis
Doch der Präsident hörte lieber auf seinen Vize Dick Cheney und Chefberater Karl Rove. Beide hatten aus strategischen Gründen vor einem Rauswurf Rumsfelds abgeraten. Denn das, so ihre Bedenken, könne vom politischen Gegner als ein indirektes Fehlereingeständnis ausgeschlachtet werden.
Wie das Buch weiter enthüllt, wurde Bush bei seiner Irak-Mission hinter den Kulissen auch von einem außenpolitischen Veteranen beraten: dem früheren US-Außenminister Henry Kissinger. Laut Woodward spielte Kissinger, der bereits während des Vietnamkriegs unter Richard Nixon diente, eine Schlüsselrolle bei der Formulierung von Bushs Irak-Strategie.
Kissingers Credo reflektiert das Vietnamtrauma der Supermacht: Ein vorzeitiger Abzug der US-Truppen aus dem Irak komme nicht in Frage. Diesen Fehler habe Amerika seinerzeit in Vietnam begangen, Bush dürfe ihn jetzt nicht wiederholen: „Die einzig sinnvolle Rückzugsstrategie ist der Sieg über die Aufständischen“, schrieb Kissinger am 12. August 2005 – ein Satz, den der Präsident verinnerlicht hat und an dem er trotz aller Rückschläge bis heute eisern festhält.
Durchhalteparolen
Im Militär dagegen wuchsen schnell Zweifel an Kissingers Durchhalteparolen: „Sie (die Generäle) waren besorgt, dass sich der Irak langsam zu einem Vietnam entwickeln würde“, schreibt Woodward. Auch Bushs damaliger Stabschef Andrew Card, der seinem Chef zweimal erfolglos die Entlassung von Rumsfeld ans Herz gelegt hatte, sei äußerst besorgt gewesen, dass die Irak-Mission von Historikern einmal mit der US-Niederlage in Vietnam verglichen werde.
Im März 2006 nahm Card schließlich seinen Hut – frustriert, wie Woodward feststellt: „Er ging. Doch der Mann, der in erster Linie für die Nachkriegsprobleme im Irak verantwortlich war, jener der eigentlich hätte gehen sollen, Rumsfeld, der blieb im Amt.“
Das irakische Fernsehen hat am Sonntag das erste Mal Video-Aufnahmen des Anführers des irakischen Ablegers des Terrornetzwerks al-Qaida gezeigt. In dem wenige Minuten langen Video erklärt Abu Hamsa al-Muhadschir, wie Sprengsätze hergestellt werden. Der nationale Sicherheitsberater Mowaffak Rubai kommentierte die Ausstrahlung des Videos und sagte, es sei vor kurzem in der Ortschaft Jussufijeh, 25 Kilometer südlich von Bagdad, bei einer Razzia beschlagnahmt worden. Muhadschir, auch bekannt unter dem Namen Abu Ajjub al-Masri, ist der Nachfolger von Abu Mussab el Sarkawi, der im Juni von US-Truppen im Irak getötet wurde.
Im Irak sind am Sonntag und gestern die Leichen von 50 Menschen entdeckt worden. Die Getöteten seien in verschiedenen Bezirken der Hauptstadt Bagdad gefunden worden, teilte das irakische Innenministerium mit. Die meisten von ihnen seien durch Kopfschüsse umgekommen.
Drei US-Soldaten wurden in der westirakischen Unruheprovinz el Anbar getötet, ein britscher Soldaten kam in Basra ums Leben, ein weiterer britischer Soldat wurde verletzt. In Bagdad wurden 14 Menschen eines Computerunternehmens entführt. Das irakische Parlament verlängerte den Ausnahmezustand um einen Monat.
"Zweiter Krieg zwischen Sunniten und Schiiten"
Die 50 Getöteten seien wahrscheinlich Opfer der Kämpfe zwischen Sunniten und Schiiten geworden, sagte ein Vertreter der Polizei. Der US-Botschafter im Irak, Zalmay Khalilzad, warnte vor der zunehmenden interkonfessionellen Gewalt im Irak. In dem Land spiele sich ein zweiter Krieg zwischen Sunniten und Schiiten ab, warnte der Diplomat im US-Nachrichtensender CNN.