Remnants of Iraq Air Force Are Found

By ROD NORDLAND New York Times BAGHDAD — Iraqi officials have discovered that they may have a real air force, after all. The Defense Ministry revealed Sunday that it had recently learned that Iraq owns 19 MIG-21 and MIG-23 jet fighters, which are in storage in Serbia. Ministry officials are negotiating with the Serbs to restore and return the aircraft. The Serbian government has tentatively promised to make two of the aircraft available “for immediate use,” according to a news release from the ministry. The rest would be restored on a rush basis, the ministry said. An Iraqi delegation went to Serbia as part of an effort by the government to locate assets stashed abroad by Saddam Hussein to evade sanctions. Serbia had had friendly relations with Mr. Hussein’s government. During that visit, Serbian defense officials told the Iraqis that Mr. Hussein had sent 19 fighter jets to Serbia for repairs in the late 1980s, during the Iran-Iraq war, but was unable to bring them back after sanctions were imposed on his country. Iraq immediately sent a technical delegation, led by the air force chief, Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin. The Web site of the Iraqi Supreme Islamic Council, the leading Shiite political party, quoted the Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari as saying that the aircraft had been sent in 1989 “for maintenance, and everything was paid for by Iraq’s money.” Mr. Askari said the discovery was important because Iraq had no jet aircraft with defensive or offensive capabilities. “Our air force only has helicopters,” he said. “Everyone knows how much we need fighter aircraft,” the ministry statement said. “We have reached a tentative agreement with the Serbian side to rehabilitate the aircraft and deliver them to Iraq in the shortest possible time, in recognition of Iraq’s need for such aircraft.” The Defense Ministry statement was issued as a rebuttal to Iraqi news reports claiming that secret negotiations were under way with Serbia as part of a corrupt arms deal. The rebuttal was at times angry, calling the criticism politically motivated and “a broken record which has become boring and funny.” The American military’s training command has recently arranged for the delivery of Iraq’s first trainer for jet pilots, the propeller-driven T-6, in December. The T-6 is used to train pilots for the F-16 jet, but plans for Iraq to buy F-16s are still in the discussion stage, American officials say. “We are working for the interests of Iraq,” Mr. Askari said about the discovery of the Iraqi MIGs in Serbia. Lt. Col. Gary Kolb, a spokesman for the Multi-National Transition and Security Command-Iraq, or M.N.T. S.C.-I., the American military’s training wing, said the discovery of the Iraqi-owned MIGs would not alter any American plans, at least not immediately. “It’s going to take a while to see what impact it has,” he said. So far, the Iraqi Air Force has only 87 aircraft, mostly transport and reconnaissance planes and helicopters, and only one ground attack aircraft. It has no jets. Mr. Hussein’s government, which in 1990 had the world’s sixth largest air force with 750 aircraft, lost many MIGs and French Mirages when the United States bombed them during the first Persian Gulf war; nearly 100 were flown to Iran to escape destruction, even though Iran was then an enemy of Iraq. Iran has still not returned the aircraft, despite otherwise warm relations between the two countries now, saying they were war reparations for the Iran-Iraq war. The Serbian discovery would potentially give Iraq a jet fighter capability long before it could develop one with American aircraft. American officials cautioned, however, that acquiring the MIGs would just be the beginning of a long process. “It’s more than just getting aircraft; there’s maintenance and support structures, training. It’s not going to change what M.N.T.S.C. -I. does,” Colonel Kolb said. Iraqi officials have been hunting for missing financial and military assets in a number of countries where Mr. Hussein did business, including Egypt, Russia, France and Italy. They have found two naval vessels belonging to Iraq in Egypt and two others in Italy, and other matériel in France and Russia, Mr. Askari, the Defense Ministry spokesman, said in a telephone interview. In Belgrade, the B-92 independent news channel quoted officials as saying that Serbia had reached an arms export deal with Iraq that would result in employment for 6,000 workers in six military factories. Last year, the country exported $235 million worth of arms to Iraq.

Mitsubishi gets 5 percent of Shell Iraq JV gas project

Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Tuesday that Japan’s Mitsubishi will take a 5 percent stake in a planned joint venture it has with Iraq to produce natural gas in the south of the country. Financial terms were not disclosed. Shell and the Iraqi oil ministry’s South Gas Company agreed in September to set up the South Gas Utilization Project joint venture to invest in gas production in the southern oil-rich province of Basra. The deal was Iraq’s second with a foreign company since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Iraq flares about 700 million cubic feet of gas every day from its oil production sites. Projects like the Shell venture aim to capture and commercialize the fuel for domestic use and export. The country estimates it loses about $40 million worth of natural gas each day, partly because of a lack of infrastructure. Iraq has the world’s third-largest known oil reserves with an estimated 115 billion barrels, but its production is far below its potential due to decades of war, U.N. sanctions, lack of foreign investment and insurgent attacks. It also sits on an estimated 112 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, according to the ministry.

Iraqi forces recover stolen Picasso

During raid of house south of Baghdad By Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — Special forces have recovered a stolen Picasso and arrested a man planning to sell the painting during a raid of his house in southern Iraq, Iraqi police said Wednesday. The painting, "The Naked Woman," apparently had been among the artwork looted from Kuwait during Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion, said police spokesman Maj. Muthana Khalid. It was seized Tuesday during a raid on the house belonging to the suspect near the mainly Shiite city of Hillah, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) south of Baghdad. Khalid said the man was trying to sell the painting for $450,000, but some Iraqi experts who saw the painting said it was worth $10 million. The painting, which was signed by Pablo Picasso and bore inscriptions from "The Museum of Kuwait" was being held as evidence while the suspected was interrogated, Khalid said. It appeared to have been folded several times in a picture of the painting that was released. Goods and artwork from the neighboring country's wealthy homes and its national museum were hauled back to Iraq after the invasion, which led to the 1991 Gulf War.

Iraqis Demand Syria Turn Over Suspects

By MARC SANTORA New York Times BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government demanded Tuesday that Syria hand over two men it accused of helping to organize last week’s deadly bomb attacks, heightening tensions between the neighboring countries as Iraqi officials worked to reassure the public that they were in control of the security situation. An atmosphere of unease pervaded Baghdad, where a decree to remove the blast walls that line many of the main thoroughfares was suspended and searches at checkpoints in and out of the capital were stepped up. Trucks bringing fuel into the city were frequently stopped and turned back, leading to long lines at gas stations. Iraqi officials summoned the ambassador to Syria back to Baghdad for consultations, prompting Syria to call its ambassador home. Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman, said that two people who the Iraqis say took part in the attacks, Mohammad Younis al-Ahmed and Sattam Farhan, were free in Syria and that the government demanded they be apprehended and extradited. “We also demand that Syria hand over every person wanted for committing murders and crimes against Iraqis and to kick out all terrorist organizations that use Syria as a base to launch and plan such operations against Iraqi people,” he said in a statement. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki issued a stern statement Tuesday night that was likely to strain ties further. Though he did not mention Syria by name, he said “other countries and governments” were behind the bombings last Wednesday, which left about 100 people dead and hundreds more wounded. “Neighboring countries should behave like good neighbors because it is not hard for us to do the same things they did,” he warned. Syrian officials in Baghdad could not be reached for comment. The American Embassy in Baghdad had no comment on the diplomatic squabbling. The increasingly harsh words coming from Baghdad could complicate efforts by the Obama administration to establish a better relationship with Syria, since a main source of friction has been regional security. Iraq and Syria have longstanding grudges that go back to the foundation of the Baath Party — a branch of which controls Syria — and Saddam Hussein’s government. Diplomatic ties between the countries were severed in 1982; relations were re-established only in 2006. As the Iraqis focused on foreign involvement, an insurgent group linked to Al Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq, posted a statement online claiming responsibility for the attacks. Calling the Iraqi government “an agent of Iran,” the statement seemed intended to stir sectarian tensions. “If all the people of the Islamic State of Iraq die, all of them, that would be better than one wicked Shiite ruling them,” it said. During the height of the violence in Iraq in 2006 and 2007, Iraqi and American security officials believed that Baathists and elements of Al Qaeda worked together at times. Those links, according to Iraqi security officials, have frayed in recent years. Rarely is there any firm evidence of who is responsible for major attacks in Baghdad. The government will routinely play heavily edited video confessions from those they claim took part in attacks, but the statements are impossible to verify. The best indication of who is behind a major attack, according to American and Iraqi officials, is the nature of the attack itself. Last week’s deadly bombings bore the earmarks of a Qaeda attack because they were large, simultaneous explosions, the officials said, and they coincided with the anniversary of the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad six years ago. Yet Iraqi and American officials have repeatedly pointed to neighboring countries, particularly Iran and Syria, as having a role in the violence in Iraq — a charge both countries deny. Also on Tuesday, the convoy used by the mayor of Baghdad was hit by an improvised explosive device. The mayor was unharmed but five others were wounded. A bomb in the center of Baghdad later in the day wounded four civilians.

U.S. Raises Estimate for 10-Year Deficit to $9 Trillion

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, citing an economic downturn that has been deeper than it had first thought, raised its estimate on Tuesday of the government’s deficit over the next decade to $9 trillion from $7.1 trillion. The Office of Management and Budget also said that it expected the economy to contract 2.8 percent this year, substantially more than previously estimated, and that employment would peak at around 10 percent. Despite the budget shortfall, White House officials said they saw no reason to back away from President Obama’s ambitious and costly goal of overhauling the health care system. The new amount includes the cost of the health care overhaul as well as about $600 billion in additional revenue that the administration hopes to raise, two initiatives Congress has yet to approve. “I know there are going to be some who say that this report proves that we can’t afford health reform,” said Peter R. Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget. But he said the opposite was true: the only way to control spiraling Medicare costs, he said, was to get control of overall health care costs by overhauling the system “The size of the fiscal gap is precisely why we must enact fiscally well designed health care reform now,” Mr. Orszag said. Republicans are certain to attack that argument. Indeed, they are already doing so. Analysts at the Congressional Budget Office put their 10-year deficit estimate slightly lower, at $7.14 trillion, though the agency uses a slightly different method to reach its number. The budget office takes into account only policies already in place, while the administration can consider policies and budget decisions that its hopes to install. White House officials predicted that the budget deficit this year will peak at $1.58 trillion, though they said the 2009 shortfall will be about $261 billion lower than they had predicted in May. The main reason is that officials have decided that they will not need another round of bailout money for the nation’s banks. The Congressional Budget Official also estimated a deficit this year of about $1.6 trillion. In the earlier budget forecast, administration officials had created a “placeholder” of $250 billion to cover possible costs of additional bank bailouts. They also assumed higher costs for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s expansion of deposit insurance and debt guarantees. Even so, the administration is projecting that annual deficits will remain above $1 trillion through 2011 and will be bigger than any since World War II, even when measured conservatively as a share of the nation’s economic output. The government’s total debt would roughly triple by 2019 to $17.5 trillion under the new estimate, almost $2 trillion more than the White House estimated in May. Measured as a share of the nation’s economic output, public debt would hit 76.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2019 — by far the highest percentage in the past half-century — from about 56 percent this fiscal year. This year will be the first time the number has exceeded 50 percent since World War II. The previous estimate was about 67 percent. The biggest reason for the additional red ink is the administration’s recognition that the recession has been deeper and unemployment has been much higher than White House forecasters assumed in their first budget estimate in May. The added depth of the downturn is expected to increase payouts for unemployment benefits and other safety-net programs, while reducing tax receipts more than originally expected. The administration had originally assumed that the economy would shrink 1.2 percent and that unemployment would average about 8.1 percent this year. Instead, the economy is expected to shrink 2.8 percent while unemployment is expected to average 9.3 percent in 2009 and 9.8 percent in 2010. For the first time, administration officials officially predicted on Tuesday that unemployment would climb above 10 percent by early next year, from 9.4 percent in July. The costs of the additional unemployment and the slower growth extend beyond the next year or two, not just because the economy will take longer to return to normal but also because the government’s interest expense will be compounding more rapidly. Mr. Orszag estimated that, by 2019, interest expenses would account for more than 80 percent of the projected deficit of $917 billion. Without offering any details, the White House budget director said that President Obama will soon unveil plans to reduce long-term deficits tied to soaring costs of Medicare, Social Security and other entitlement programs.

Iraq Showcases Oil Fields for Next Slate of Auctions

By CHIP CUMMINS and HASSAN HAFIDH Iraqi officials, smarting from a disappointing oil-license auction in June, will showcase a second set of fields this week that they hope will garner more interest from international companies. Oil executives have wanted to enter Iraq's giant and relatively unexplored fields since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, but they mostly passed on the first opportunity earlier this summer. View Full Image European Pressphoto Agency Iraq plans a second round of oil-field auctions after a disappointing first round. Above, a worker at a Baiji oil refinery, north of Baghdad, on Sunday. In late June, Iraqi officials attempted to auction rights to boost output at a number of fields that were already producing. Oil companies complained the terms Iraq's oil ministry demanded were too tough. Only one field was awarded, to a consortium headed by BP PLC and China National Petroleum Co. This time, Iraqi officials are dangling the opportunity to work in undeveloped fields, a potentially more attractive offer. Iraqi officials said Sunday that 45 companies have prequalified to bid on the contracts. Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani and other top oil officials plan to meet executives on Tuesday in Istanbul, for a road show of the fields expected to be part of the auction. Iraqi officials have prepared presentations on the fields and are expected to meet prospective bidders. Mr. Shahristani plans to hold a news conference in Istanbul after the event. Contracts are expected to be structured as 20-year deals, in which companies agree to produce oil from the fields in exchange for a per-barrel fee. Those aren't typically attractive terms for international oil companies, which generally prefer to take ownership of some of the oil they produce. But Iraq's parliament still hasn't passed a petroleum law that would establish the legal groundwork for such deals. In the next auctions, which the oil ministry said will take place before the end of the year, Baghdad is offering a number of potentially giant, untapped fields. A new challenge has emerged for Iraqi oil officials: convincing executives that security has improved, despite a spate of recent bombings, including attacks in Baghdad that left more than 100 dead last week. "The security issue was a major factor in why we demanded a higher compensation threshold for our work" in the first round, said an executive from a large international oil company. "And the ministry was deaf to this." Iraqi officials said Sunday that in addition to providing details of the 10 new groups of fields on offer at their Istanbul road show, they may also shed light on what they plan to do with the fields that weren't awarded in June.

Iraqis find Iranian-made rockets after US attacked

By SAMEER N. YACOUB (AP) – 20 hours ago BAGHDAD — U.S.-backed Iraqi troops seized a launcher loaded with more than a dozen Iranian-made rockets and detained three suspected militants after an attack against the American base outside the southern city of Basra, officials said Tuesday. Col. Karim al-Zaidi said the missiles were found in an eastern section of Iraq's second largest city after rockets targeted the U.S. base Monday evening. The U.S. military confirmed that 16 rockets were found and three suspects detained by Iraqi troops who responded to the attack. It said no casualties were reported. The oil-rich area of Basra has been a Shiite militia stronghold but violence has declined sharply following a U.S.-Iraqi offensive that led to a cease-fire last year. Still, attacks continue. Three American soldiers were killed in a rocket attack against the base in mid-July. American commanders say Iran is continuing to support violence in Iraq. Tehran denies the allegation. The U.S. military statement didn't mention Iran, but al-Zaidi said the rockets were Iranian. Another Basra police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information, said the rockets were inscribed in Farsi. A cease-fire called by anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr after his forces were routed in Basra and Baghdad's Sadr City district has been a key factor in ebbing the rampant sectarian violence that pushed the country to the brink of civil war. But Shiite extremist factions, including a group known as Asaib Ahl al-Haq or League of the Righteous, broke with al-Sadr, raising fears that the bloodshed could resume. The Shiite-led government announced earlier this month that it has entered into talks with Asaib al-Haq and the group promised to renounce violence and lay down its weapons. In return, the government promised to work to free detainees linked to the group, which has been accused of involvement in the killing of five American soldiers in a bold raid south of Baghdad and the kidnapping of five British men two years ago. Salam al-Maliki, a spokesman for the group, said the government has agreed to release all 300-400 detained members in exchange for a truce that includes ending attacks against U.S. forces. "About 100 members have been released so far and we are committed to stick to our promises and to support the political process in Iraq as long as the government continues to honor its promises and the foreign forces continue to withdraw," he told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said the group's members appeared to be respecting the cease-fire and have begun to turn in heavy weapons or at least to consolidate the heavy weapons that they have." Several high-profile Shiite detainees have been released from American custody this summer, including key Asaib al-Haq member Laith al-Khazali in June. He and his still-detained brother, Qais, were accused of organizing a daring attack on a local government headquarters in Karbala that killed five U.S. soldiers on Jan. 20, 2007. Ali al-Lami, who headed a commission responsible for keeping Saddam Hussein loyalists out of government posts but was accused of ties to Shiite militias and detained in August 2008, also was freed last week, officials said. The U.S. command at the time accused al-Lami of being involved in the bombing of a municipal building in Sadr City that killed eight people, including two American soldiers and two State Department employees. The U.S. military has been freeing inmates or transferring them to Iraqi custody as part of a security pact that took effect on Jan. 1. Odierno told reporters Monday that practice would continue, even if those released have been linked to attacks that killed Americans. He insisted that anybody with "blood on their hands" will be tried in Iraqi courts but conceded that the evidence against many suspects was insufficient for prosecution even if the military had strong reason to believe they were guilty. "This is about reconciliation," he said. "We believe Asaib al-Haq has taken initial steps to reconcile with the government of Iraq."

Lockheed Martin to cut 800 jobs in Sunnyvale, Denver

Associated Press Posted: 08/17/2009 11:39:58 AM PDT Updated: 08/17/2009 11:39:59 AM PDT DENVER — Lockheed Martin says it will eliminate 800 jobs across its space systems division, largely in two facilities in Colorado and California. The reductions represent about 4.5 percent of the overall workforce. All job functions will be affected, including technical, managerial and administration positions primarily at its Denver and Sunnyvale facilities. The Bethesda, Md.-based company said Monday that the jobs cuts are aimed at "improving its competitive posture." Lockheed says it will offer a voluntary layoff plan to help minimize the number of necessary layoffs. The latest cuts are separate from the downsizing under way at its Michoud Operations as a result of the planned flyout of the Space Shuttle program in 2010.

Soaring US Deficit May Defy Forecasts

By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — Stagnant unemployment, shrinking tax revenue and a struggling economy threaten to quadruple the size of last year's federal budget deficit, raising more questions about the timing of costly proposals to overhaul health care. As the White House and Congressional Budget Office (CBO) prepare to release new deficit estimates this month, several economists say the news is likely to be as bad as or worse than forecasts. "This is going to be a very depressing outlook," predicts former CBO director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, top adviser to Republican John McCain in last year's presidential election. "They have just a nightmare in terms of these health care bills, which do nothing but make things worse." A fiscal year 2009 deficit of $1.8 trillion was anticipated by the White House, $1.7 trillion by Congress. Reaching that level would produce a deficit four times last year's $459 billion deficit, just as Congress is considering health care overhaul plans that could cost $1 trillion over 10 years. Lawmakers are struggling to pay for a plan with a mix of tax increases on upper-income people and Medicare spending reductions aimed at doctors, hospitals, drugmakers and insurers. Some town-hall forums across the U.S. this month have been disrupted by protests for and against proposals. While revenue continues to decline, government spending is rising as a result of the $787 billion economic stimulus plan passed six months ago. Stimulus spending will increase in the next few months, says Treasury chief economist Alan Krueger. Deficits of $1.8 trillion this year and $1.3 trillion in 2010, as predicted by the White House, would add to the federal debt. The current $11.7 trillion debt already equals about $38,500 for every U.S. resident. The recession, now in its postwar-record 21st month, has dealt a worse blow to the budget than the administration expected: • The economy is set to shrink by 2.6% this year, more than twice what the White House predicted in February and May. • As a result, tax revenue is down by $353 billion over 10 months, which is about what the White House thought it would lose for the entire year. • Unemployment, projected at 8.1% this year by the White House, was 9.4% in July. Spending for jobless benefits, Medicaid and Medicare has soared as people have lost work and health insurance. Jobless benefits are costing more than twice what was spent last year. "The deficit picture is very challenging," White House budget director Peter Orszag wrote on his blog last month. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, says having a deficit at "previously unthinkable levels … shows an incredible lack of fiscal responsibility." Former CBO director Robert Reischauer, president of the non-partisan Urban Institute, an economics and social policy think tank, says administrations tend to believe that "the harder and faster one falls, the more rapid and steep the recovery."

8,800 Sahwa council personnel absorbed into Diala’s security apparatus

August 9, 2009 - 06:25:52 DIALA / Aswat al-Iraq: A total of 8,800 Sahwa council members has been recruited into security and other state departments in Diala, the province’s governor said on Sunday. “On Sunday, a meeting was held at the local administration building in central Baaquba with the participation of the prime minister’s representative for national reconciliation, Zuheir al-Jalaby, and the official in charge of receiving the Sahwa (Awakening) council file from the U.S. army, Maj. Gen. Madhhar al-Moli,” Governor Abdulnasir al-Muntasir Billah said in statements to Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The recruitment of Sahwa personnel will be done by the local administration and Diala’s Operations Command…,” he added. The Sahwa councils are anti-Qaeda fighters working in coordination with the Multi-National Force (MNF) and the Iraqi government. Headed by local chieftains, the councils have been credited with helping reduce violence in many Iraqi provinces, like Anbar, Diala, Ninewa, and Salah al-Din. Baaquba, the capital city of Diala province, lies 57 km northeast of Baghdad.

6 MOU signed with Italian companies to implement projects in Missan

MISSAN / Aswat al-Iraq: A total of six memorandums of Understanding were signed on Tuesday with Italian companies to implement a number of investment projects in Missan, head of the investment commission in Missan said. “The projects include rehabilitating four main factories in Missan; paper, sugar, oil and plastic factories,” Engineer Ali Wared told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The fifth is a residential project, while the sixth is setting up an oil refinery with a daily capacity of 150,000 barrels,” he added. Amara, the capital of Missan, lies 390 km south of Baghdad.

Iraqi Authorities to Remove Capital's Blast Walls

By Ernesto Londoño Washington Post Foreign Service BAGHDAD, Aug. 5 -- Iraq's government announced Wednesday that it intends to take down within 40 days the concrete blast walls erected by the U.S. military along Baghdad's thoroughfares, a move that could backfire on the country's prime minister, who has tied his reelection hopes to keeping violence at a manageable level as American troops withdraw. Removing miles of the blast walls that have turned this capital into a grim, bunkered city would ease traffic and help restore the sense of normalcy that Iraqis yearn for after six years of war. But it also could help insurgents by making bombings deadlier and getaways easier. Many of the walls were erected to block access to areas used by militias to launch rocket attacks on the Green Zone and on U.S. military facilities. Violence has increased slightly in Iraq in recent months, according to U.S. military officials. Two incidents Wednesday highlighted the security challenges that continue to bedevil Iraqi forces. A high-ranking American officer's convoy was struck by a grenade in western Baghdad. No one was hurt, the military said. Late Wednesday, powerful bombs in the capital's western neighborhood of Mansour destroyed one of the main cellphone towers of the Asiacell telecommunications network, Iraqi police officials said. Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for the Baghdad security command, said the blast walls would vanish from highways and secondary roads within 40 days, marking the first time the government has provided a timeline for their removal. Some Western media organizations and embassies based outside the Green Zone have quietly lobbied the Iraqi government to delay the move, which has been widely discussed for months, fearing that their compounds will become more vulnerable. "No exceptions will be made," Moussawi said in a statement. In 2006, the American military began a major campaign to erect the blast walls. In addition to protecting U.S. facilities, they were used to guard commercial and residential neighborhoods from attacks and to tightly regulate access to the capital. U.S. Army engineers erected most of the walls using flatbed trucks and small cranes. Concrete walls surround nearly every neighborhood in Baghdad. Maj. David Shoupe, a U.S. military spokesman, would not say whether the Americans were notified about the Iraqi government's plan in advance or whether U.S. military officials think the Iraqis will be able to disassemble the blast walls without assistance from American troops. "We haven't been tasked to remove barriers, nor have [Iraqi security forces] asked that we assist with their barrier removal assistance at this time," he said in an e-mail. "The Iraqi Security Forces have demonstrated that they are capable of determining the security needs of their city and we remain ready to enable their operations at their request." Omar al-Mashhadani, a spokesman for Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, dismissed the announcement as "election propaganda" by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite. "I don't think they will remove all concrete walls in this period of time because they don't have the ability and the required equipment to do it in 40 days," Mashhadani said. Some Baghdad residents said, however, that they were pleased by the news. "This is a good step by Maliki because it will minimize the traffic jams in Baghdad," said Kadom Aboud, 37. "This will also help Maliki show that he is making progress on security in Baghdad after the withdrawal of U.S. forces."

U.S. Says Sunni Insurgent Leader Was Arrested During Raids in Northern Iraq

New York Times By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS and ROD NORDLAND BAGHDAD — The United States military said Tuesday that a leader of a Sunni insurgent group had been arrested last month during a joint Iraqi-American operation. The man, Fakri Hadi Gari, was among 10 people arrested July 24 during raids in the northern city of Mosul, the United States military said in a statement. Mr. Gari is suspected of organizing attacks carried out by the insurgent group Ansar al-Islam and of being in charge of its recruiting and financing, the statement said. Ansar al-Islam has roots in the country’s Kurdish region and has been blamed for suicide bombings throughout the country. “He is also believed to have facilitated the movement of terrorists across the borders of Iraq,” the statement read. The Iraqi military had no comment about the arrest, even though the statement said the raid had been conducted by units of the Mosul Special Weapons and Tactics team and Iraqi Army soldiers, along with “coalition advisers.” On June 30, United States combat forces departed Iraq’s urban areas as part of the American military’s negotiated drawdown in Iraq. In the weeks since, many Iraqi commanders have interpreted that to mean that all American troop movements, other than logistics and force protection missions, require prior approval from the Iraqi military. That has led to some friction between American and Iraqi units. In Diyala Province, for instance, the provincial police commander ordered police stations closed to American troops, resulting in the cancellation of training visits for several weeks. A recent memo from Col. Timothy R. Reese, the chief American adviser to Iraqi forces in Baghdad, complained that one consequence of the withdrawal was that Iraqi units “are far less likely to want to conduct combined combat operations with U.S. forces, to go after targets the U.S. considers high value.” Despite that, joint patrols and operations continue in many parts of the country, although with much less frequency than before June 30. Also Tuesday, the Iraqi government announced that it had arrested a 25-year-old man in the slaying of an Iraqi television journalist in 2006. The man, Yasser Mohammed Hamad al-Takhi, 25, was shown on Iraqi television in a videotaped confession describing how he and three other men, including one of his brothers, had set up a checkpoint on a road outside the city of Samarra to stop a car carrying the journalist, Atwar Bahjat, and two members of her crew. Mr. Takhi said he had been working for a Sunni armed group with ties to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown insurgent group that American intelligence agencies say has some foreign leadership. Ms. Bahjat, a journalist working for Al Arabiya, a satellite television station based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, had been returning to Baghdad after having covered the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, an event that pushed Iraq into sectarian warfare. Speaking calmly and looking directly into the camera, Mr. Takhi said his gang had stopped Ms. Bahjat’s car and ordered her to get into the gang’s vehicle. He did not say why the gang had made the reporter their target, but at the time, journalists were frequently killed and kidnapped by Sunni and Shiite armed groups in Iraq. The gang drove to a side street, followed by a car driven by another member of the gang. Inside the second car were Adnan Abdallah and Khaled Mohsen, the television station’s other employees. “I got in the car and told Atwar that she was beautiful, that I liked the way she looked and I would like to have fun with her,” Mr. Takhi said. “She answered that it was not her job. I told her it is not up to you.” Mr. Takhi said he raped Ms. Bahjat at gunpoint inside the car. He then shot her in the neck, head and chest. Another member of the gang fatally shot Mr. Abdallah and Mr. Mohsen. The gang filmed the crimes, he said, though it was not clear what happened to the tape. Portions of the televised confession were edited to spare the family details of her rape, said Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, an Iraqi Army spokesman. General Atta said Mr. Takhi’s brother had been arrested earlier, and had admitted to his role in the crime.

Al-Qaida operatives arrested in Mosul

© 2009 The Associated Press Aug. 4, 2009, 5:36AM BAGHDAD — The American military says the deputy commander of an insurgent group linked to al-Qaida was arrested in Mosul during a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation. The military said in a statement released Tuesday that Fakri Hadi Gari, also known as Abu Abbas, was captured July 24 in a raid in Mosul. Nine other suspected members of the Ansar al-Islam group were also detained. The military says Gari is responsible for recruiting and financing attacks as well as moving insurgents across the borders of Iraq. Spanish authorities say a group called Ansar al-Islam was responsible for the Madrid bomb attacks.

Iraqi and Kurdish Leaders Pledge to End Disputes

By Nada Bakri Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, August 3, 2009 BAGHDAD -- In the first such meeting in a year between the two rivals, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Kurdish President Massoud Barzani pledged Sunday to resolve disputes over land and oil that have threatened to spill into fighting. The conflict between the Iraqi government and the Kurdish autonomous region is seen as the most dangerous threat to the nation's stability, and U.S. officials have publicly urged both sides to resolve their disputes before most American combat troops complete their withdrawal from Iraq by August 2010. "The challenges that face the political process require more meetings and cooperation between all Iraqi people," Maliki said Sunday at a news conference with Barzani and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, also a Kurd. "I am very optimistic after this meeting." Barzani said a Kurdish delegation would visit Baghdad "to solve all the problems." Sunday's talks were held in a resort town just outside Sulaymaniyah, the Kurdish region's second-largest city. The dispute between the two sides includes a disagreement over a hydrocarbon law to share oil revenue and manage oil reserves, some of the world's largest; demarcation of the border between the country's Kurdish and the Arab regions; and the fate of Kirkuk, an oil-rich city with mixed Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen ethnicities. The Kurds want to expand their region to include Kirkuk, which produces a fifth of Iraq's oil, and other towns and villages along the border between Iraq's Arab and Kurdish regions, many of them predominantly Kurdish. In the past, Barzani has vowed not to give up Kirkuk and demanded a census and a referendum on the city's fate, as laid out in the Iraqi constitution. But Barham Salih, the Iraqi deputy prime minister, suggested that the meetings might lessen the tension. "It is very important to clear the air and to instill confidence about the situation between Baghdad and the region," Salih, a Kurd, was quoting as saying on the sidelines of the meeting. "Both sides reaffirmed their commitment within the constitution to solve all the problems." Arab lawmakers welcomed the meeting, though there was some criticism in Baghdad. One lawmaker said that Barzani, not Maliki, should have traveled to visit the other. He contended that the trip represented a sign of weakness, hampering the government's negotiating stance. On Sunday, a car bomb exploded in a busy market in Haditha, in the western, majority-Sunni province of Anbar, killing at least six people and wounding 21. On Friday, a string of attacks on Shiite mosques in Baghdad killed 29 people. Haditha residents blamed the attack on U.S. soldiers who, they said, were patrolling in the town two hours before the bombing. U.S. troops withdrew from urban areas before a June 30 deadline and now carry out joint missions with the Iraqi army. "The U.S. Army attracts bombs like garbage attracts rats," said Khalil Ahmad, who owns a store in the market where the bomb blew up. "Every time they enter the town, something bad happens."